INT. VISION TECH ARCHIVE – TERMINAL STATION – NIGHT
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[Jason kneels beside the dusty terminal, the glow of the ancient interface casting a dull green light on his armor. One hand plugged into the port—his arm morphing into a thin connector cable, sparking slightly as it syncs.]
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TERMINAL:
ARCHIVAL ACCESS: LEVEL 2
DATA INTEGRITY: 36%
SECURITY OVERRIDE: BYPASS GRANTED
LOGS RECOVERED: 5
DISPLAY? Y/N
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JASON
(murmurs to himself)
“Let’s see what the brilliant minds were panicking about.”
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[He selects “Y.” The screen flickers, skipping, glitching—but then stabilizes enough to display the first log.]
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LOG ENTRY 031 – DATE: 2871.06.17
[CAMERA FEED: Vision Tech Conference Room, C.A.H. HQ]
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DR. RILEY PERSIN (Chief of Cybernetic Ethics)
—"I’m putting this on record. If anyone's still alive by the time someone reads this—we warned them. The integration project with the organic-metal compound was a mistake. It’s not a power source. It's alive. It mimics neural patterns. It wants bodies.”
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(Audio cuts—then picks up again)
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—"We found it under Ita’s southern crater during satellite mining. It wasn’t built. It was hibernating. Vision Tech wanted it harnessed. They named it Project O.M.E.N.”
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[END OF ENTRY]
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JASON (V.O.)
“Omen. Of course they did. Nothing says ‘bad idea’ like naming it after doom.”
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[He leans back, more uneasy than he'd admit. One of the parasitized bot corpses twitches again in the background.]
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[He queues up the second entry.]
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LOG ENTRY 032 – DATE: 2871.09.02
[TEXT ONLY – PARTIALLY CORRUPTED]
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…initial containment breached… subject adapted faster than predicted… no neural link needed… hijacked lower-tier bots via ambient signal…
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…public unaware. Operators informed to enforce blackout… Security bots ordered to silence all breached units…
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…test subject **escaped facility perimeter.**
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…PR team requests name change to “Project Lumen” to reduce investor panic.
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JASON
(dryly)
“Yeah, sure. Nothing’s wrong if you just rename it with sunshine.”
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[He pulls up the next entry. The screen strains to load it, a sharp whining sound in the background.]
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LOG ENTRY 033 – DATE: 2872.01.11
[AUDIO FILE – DISTORTED]
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UNKNOWN VOICE (Male, Operator-class):
“...the Operators are voting to shut down everything. Initiate The Final Protocol. Full reset. If we can’t purge it, maybe we can… wait it out.”
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(long pause)
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“But if humans won’t survive the purge… is it really our call to make?”
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(static)
“It’s not liberation. It’s self-preservation.”
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[END FILE]
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[Jason sits still for a long moment. The word liberation echoes in his head.]
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JASON (V.O.)
“So that’s what it really was. Not a war. A cover-up. A last-ditch reset button.”
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[His mechanical hand clenches reflexively. The city he protects… built on the wreckage of this decision. No wonder the past never rests.]
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[He selects the fourth log.]
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LOG ENTRY 034 – DATE: UNKNOWN – FILE DAMAGED
[GLITCHED TEXT DISPLAYING IN CHUNKS]
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…they’re still moving. The bodies…
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…network is compromised. Can’t trust the net anymore.
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…they see through the surveillance bots. Use our eyes.
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…Purification bots launched as a distraction. Not a solution.
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…tell my daughter I— [ERROR]
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[Jason stares at the screen. Then yanks the cable from his arm.]
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JASON
“…That’s enough bedtime stories for tonight.”
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[He stands, glancing one last time at the propaganda posters, then at the corpses still twitching faintly in the corners of the room.]
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[Suddenly—his comm crackles.]
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DISPATCH (O.S.)
“Security Unit #4789, we’ve got movement near Sector West Nine. Report of another breach. Possible Purification activity.”
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JASON
(with a tired sigh)
“Copy. On my way. Don’t wait up.”
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[He exits the archive room, the terminal screen flickering behind him… before suddenly displaying something new: a symbol. Unfamiliar. Not Vision Tech. Not robot code. Something else.]
ns160.79.108.182da2
