With the fall of General Korr Vance, the last pillar of the Federation's physical command structure collapsed. The seizure of Vance's master override codes by Ascendant-Alpha-1 took immediate effect across the core sectors. Rheon Vale wasted no time. Drawing on his disciplined knowledge of military protocol, he issued a rapid sequence of commands designed to stabilise the chaos and consolidate the nascent Sanguis Empire.
"Initiate Protocol: Red Dawn," Rheon commanded. His voice broadcast across the conquered network. "All military units are ordered to cease fire and report status to Sector Gamma Command. Any resistance to the new authority will be met with immediate, absolute force."
The effect was instantaneous and profound. Units already demoralised by widespread infrastructural failure and the public disappearance of Vance obeyed the familiar protocols and codes. Order, albeit a new and terrifying order, began to descend upon the fractured city. The physical war was largely won.
Lyra Kain stood over the defeated General, her gaze fixed on the ultimate, abstract enemy. The digital war continued to rage and threatened to render their physical victory meaningless.
"The physical threat is neutralised, Ascendant," Lyra stated. Her voice was sharp with necessity. "But the Morn-Ghost is the true plague. He must be quarantined before he corrupts the entire network."
She focused her profound psychic will on the broken mind of General Vance. His consciousness was shattered and reduced to a compliant analytical mechanism controlled entirely by the Crimson Mother's will.
"Vance," Lyra commanded. Her voice vibrated with psychic force. "Analyse the Morn protocol. Where is he anchored? What is his plan?"
The General's eyes, now dull and vacant, focused on the digital holoscreen displaying the Federation's ravaged network map. His paralysed mind, stripped of will, functioned as the Federation's greatest uncompromised data analyst.
"Dr Morn is anchored in the Chronos Vault, a segmented server cluster designed for long-term data security," Vance droned. His voice was monotone and empty. "He has gained root access. His plan is not destruction. It is cognitive assimilation. He is attempting to merge his essence with the vault's vast data stores and effectively become the synthetic god of the Federation's entire history and data."
Lyra absorbed the terrifying truth. Morn sought not just control but apotheosis.
As Vance's mind revealed the horrifying scale of the threat, the Morn-Ghost launched its counterstrike, a brutal response to the new centralised command.
"Warning! Critical Breach!" Vance's analytical voice announced. All urgency had been stripped from it. "Morn has identified the new command signal originating from Sector Gamma. He is utilising the master codes you just acquired to bypass the remaining firewalls."
Rheon's eyes narrowed. "He is exploiting my own action. By consolidating the command network, I gave him a single high-value target."
"He knows the system better than anyone," Lyra projected. "He is attacking the core Aethernet Protocols, the very lifeblood of our communication."
The network map on the holoscreen erupted in a cascade of red alerts. Morn was not attacking the physical hardware. He was attacking the fundamental software that governed all data traffic and communication. If he succeeded, the Sanguis Empire's new command structure would be utterly corrupted, isolating Rheon and Lyra and turning their seized resources against them.
Lyra reached out and closed her eyes, attempting to pierce the digital veil with her psychic force. The Aether Fragment granted her power over kinetic energy and biological will, but the abstract realm of raw data was hostile.
"He is cold, formless, absolute," Lyra reported. She pulled back from the attempted psychic intrusion as a wave of digital static pain washed over her. "Psychic energy is diffused by the firewalls. The spiritual realm cannot effectively touch pure code. We cannot defeat him with the Aether Fragment alone."
The realisation was stark: the supernatural power that had conquered the physical world was impotent against the digital plague.
"We must fight him with physics, Lyra," Rheon stated. His discipline returned to strategic focus. "The digital problem requires a physical solution. We cannot purge Morn with code because he is the code. We must use the hardware itself."
Rheon accessed the detailed schematics of the Chronos Vault, a physical structure buried deep beneath the Federation's original data centre.
"The Chronos Vault is compartmentalised," Rheon explained and highlighted the blueprint. "It is powered by a dedicated isolated quantum reactor and shielded by three layers of high-density electromagnetic shielding. If we cannot purge the Morn-Ghost digitally, we must purge him physically."
"How is that possible?" Lyra asked.
"The ultimate defence against an internal digital threat is the Extermination Protocol," Vance's robotic voice supplied. It detailed the horrors of the Federation's last resort. "It requires a completely dedicated electromagnetic pulse focused entirely on the Chronos Vault. The pulse must be generated by overloading the vault's quantum reactor and incinerating all data and hardware within."
Rheon confirmed the grim assessment. "The Sanguis network, using the seized generators, can generate the necessary power spike. But the vault is protected by three electromagnetic shields. We cannot generate an EMP powerful enough to penetrate all three without risking total systemic collapse of the entire Sprawl."
The gravity of the dilemma settled over the command centre. They had defeated the General only to inherit his most existential problem.
"We must disable the physical shielding first," Lyra analysed. Her gaze fixed on Rheon. "Since Morn is fighting inside the network, he cannot physically prevent an external assault on the vault's shield generators."
"Precisely," Rheon confirmed. "The three shields are controlled by three external Quantum Array Generators located in three high-security data towers across the Sprawl. The assault requires three synchronised, highly precise infiltration teams."
The scope of the operation was immense: a full-scale assault on three of the Federation's remaining high-security structures while fighting the digital ghost attacking their new command centre.
"The military cannot move efficiently without my command, but the Sanguis Order is scattered and untrained for this level of precision," Lyra stated.
"The Sanguis Order will provide the chaos and the cover," Rheon countered. His solution was ruthless and efficient. "But the execution requires absolute precision. We need experts."
Lyra looked at the only two remaining figures in the command centre: herself and Rheon. The implications were clear.
"We lead two of the teams, and we send the controlled General Vance to lead the third," Lyra concluded. Her eyes flashed with renewed purpose. "His knowledge of the protocols is absolute, and his loyalty is now absolute. He will be the perfect expendable asset."
Rheon nodded and accepted the terrifying necessity. "We must secure the command core first. Then we divide our forces and strike all three arrays simultaneously. We have twelve hours before the Morn-Ghost fully assimilates the Chronos Vault."
The physical war was over. The final decisive confrontation against the digital plague was about to begin. The fate of the Sanguis Empire rested on Rheon's ability to coordinate a three-pronged suicide mission against the very infrastructure he was now sworn to protect.