(Anti-Entropy point of view — Tesla, Einstein, and their tech crew)
The Salt Lake Base thrummed like a heartbeat. Deep below the snow-crusted hangars, the data center pulsed with light from half-awake monitors. Lines of code rippled down the walls, tracing the world's remaining Honkai activity.
"Someone's piggy-backing on our network," Tesla said flatly. She spun her chair, red hair tied in a messy bun, energy drink halfway gone.
Einstein looked up from a terminal. "Define 'someone.'"
"The kind of someone who shouldn't exist on a closed system." Tesla brought up a projection. "Encrypted signal riding our relay bandwidth. Bounces between Rhodes Island relief hubs, then vanishes."
"Interception attempt?"
"Not clumsy enough for that." Tesla zoomed in. "Their encryption pattern's… elegant. Like they're making sure we can see them—just not trace them."
Einstein frowned. "You think Schicksal?"
"Could be, but the signature doesn't match their junk. Cleaner. Quieter. Whoever it is, they've got serious tech."
A nearby operator looked up. "Should we block it?"
"No," Einstein said. "We observe. If they're this good, they'll notice interference."
Two hours later, the signal reappeared—brief, deliberate. It carried no metadata, no coordinates, just a compressed burst of binary shaped like a heartbeat.
Einstein leaned closer. "Translation?"
Tesla typed fast. "If I didn't know better, I'd say it's a set of orders. Logistics pattern—reroutes, timestamps… humanitarian routes."
"Rhodes Island," Einstein murmured. "Relief convoys from their Asian branch left this morning."
"So our mystery hacker's coordinating medical supply runs?"
"Or covering something that looks like them."
Tesla grinned, all caffeine and curiosity. "Either way, they're good. I almost like them."
Einstein gave her a side-glance. "You like anyone who can code faster than you."
"Exactly."
Elsewhere…
The same signal fluttered once more through the dark—caught, examined, unreadable.
In a dim command cell, Oracle monitored the transmission trails through mirrored displays. Their gloved hands hovered over the console.
"Anti-Entropy has detected us," they said quietly, the distortion hiding tone and gender alike.
Fen's reply came over comms. "They haven't traced origin."
"Maintain that," Oracle ordered. "Do not engage. Adjust routing intervals by eight seconds and switch encryption to Omega-Nine."
A pause, then: "Understood."
The holo-map pulsed once, showing dots of Rhodes Island convoys fanning across continents. Oracle's head tilted slightly.
"Anti-Entropy watches," the voice continued, calm and measured. "Good. Observation is safer than war."
The channel fell silent again.
Back at Salt Lake Base
Tesla yawned, tapping a new trace script. "Whoever they are, they don't want a fight."
Einstein's eyes didn't leave the data stream. "That doesn't mean they're harmless."
Tesla smirked. "You're no fun."
"Someone needs to be."
The signal faded. The hum of servers filled the silence.
For now, the unknown voice in the wires had disappeared—but neither scientist believed it was gone.