The screen went black. The broadcasts died. The flags were folded. But systems don't die when they're seen—they die when the people who built them forget how to feel.
Scene: Archive Hub – 04:33 a.m.
Rook paced the corridor outside the central memory banks.
Ava stood near the south console, arms folded.
Aya was crouched at the corner server rack, rewiring the last uplink node with surgical focus.
Then: static crackled across the outer channel.
A signal buried in noise.
Encrypted. Primitive.
"FILE 090 – AUTH SIGMA–RED–VOID"
Aya looked up sharply.
"That's Concord's blackout signal."
Ava frowned.
"No traceable origin?"
Aya shook her head.
"It's not a signal from them. It's a signal within them."
Rook turned to the screen.
"Open it."
Scene: The Last Log – Concord's Shadow Orders
A broken file appeared.
Half-deleted.
No visuals.
Just audio.
A man's voice—mechanical, sterilized:
"Phase 4 authorized.Reformat failed clone batches.Deploy test iteration: Operation Scythe."
"No documentation.No salvage.All surviving memory units: mark for purge."
Then silence.
Then one name:
"Target Primary: Echo."
Scene: Aya's Analysis
"They're not recovering the system," she muttered.
"They're scrubbing it. Erasing loose data, witnesses, fragments—anything that remembers."
Rook's eyes narrowed.
"They're going to kill every clone that woke up."
Ava spoke coldly.
"Then they'll come for the people who helped us remember."
Scene: Echo Realizes the Scope
Later, Echo stood in the Archive gardens, Aster beside her.
She watched the sky.
Silent.
Then finally:
"They don't want a war."
Aster looked up. "What do they want?"
Echo didn't blink.
"They want to be forgotten."
"That's why they're killing us."
Scene: Operation Scythe – Field Preview
In a border town outside Eastern Zone 9, a Concord depot went dark.
When local Resistance units investigated…
There was no explosion. No fire. No drones.
Just silence.
And inside?
Bodies.
Slumped. Expressionless. Burned from the inside out.
No scorch marks. No injuries.
Just memory-dead corpses.
And one phrase etched into the wall with a gloved fingertip:
"SCYTHE PASSED HERE."
Scene: Coalition Emergency Meet – Underground Briefing Room
Rook stood at the center table.
No map this time.
Just a list of dead sectors.
One by one, Concord was shutting its own power.
Not surrendering.
Shedding skin.
"They're not dying," Tessa whispered."They're changing."
Aya added:
"And what comes next… won't wear a face."
Final Scene: Rook and Ava
He stood in the shadows of the generator hall, watching the last working screen.
Echo sat nearby, sharpening a knife.
Ava approached.
"We can't keep reacting."
Rook nodded.
"So we do what they're doing."
"We go quiet."
"We go cold."
"And we build the system that survives what's coming."