The storm didn't arrive from the skies. It rose from the streets.
Thousands gathered outside the shining walls of Vishkar Tower: citizens, ex-workers, displaced families, and fighters in salvaged gear. They chanted. Shouted. Raised crude signs and broadcast hacked feeds. The city's slums had grown tired of being a shadow beneath the neon glow of progress.
And at the front?
Colonel Ravi Malek, disgraced former military commander turned insurgent leader, one of the men Kastur had contacted in secret before ever setting foot in Vishkar Tower. Now, with Kastur captured but not forgotten, Malek held the torch.
"Kastur showed us the truth!" he bellowed through the loudspeakers. "The towers run on our blood! Their peace is built on our bones! And today, we take it back!"
Behind him, slum banners flew alongside Vishkar tech modified for combat. EMP launchers. Omnic exo-frames turned riot suits. Small arms repurposed with hard light accelerators.
And hidden among the insurgents were guards who had turned, loyal to Kastur's vision, still embedded inside the tower, waiting for Malek's signal.
It came with the first explosive. A car, wired with a plasma charge, detonated against the south entrance.
The revolution had begun.
Vishkar Tower – Medical Bay
Shawn was already halfway into his armor when the first alarm sounded.
"Emergency breach detected – South Wall. Unidentified combatants storming gate sectors."
S3bastian stormed into the room. "Looks like our friend Kastur planted more than just sleeper agents." Virginia and Spencer arrived next alongside Sonya and Dwanye. Leslie and the others were already en route to secure the upper levels.
"They're not just looters," Virginia said, throwing a rifle sling over her shoulder. "They're coordinated. Armed with Vishkar-grade hardware."
"They're after the vault," Shawn said quietly.
S3bastian's optics dimmed. "Of course they are."
Amrita Nadari barked orders over a secured comms line as the building shook beneath her.
"Seal the core levels. All primary elevators are to be rerouted to hold pattern. Activate the internal drones and lock down all substations. This is not a protest, it's a siege."
One of her aides stumbled in, clutching a datapad.
"Ma'am, security footage confirms it. Several guards in the lower levels turned. They're guiding the insurgents from the inside."
Amrita's face turned to stone. She hadn't really gotten a chance to weed out the rest of her guards who had turned the moment Kastur defected. The exact number of her personnel that also defected was a mystery.
"They're going for the vault," she muttered. "They're going to try to finish Kastur's plan."
She activated a secure line to Shawn.
"Specialist Rose. Vault protection is now your mission. If the insurgents access the failsafe... we lose more than Mumbai."
Shawn's voice was already moving. "We're en route."
Shawn and the Thorns raced through a shattered security gate toward the vault lift. Gunfire rang behind them, Vishkar's internal defenses clashing with insurgents already inside. In the distance, automated drones were being overwhelmed, repurposed to obey the resistance's hacked signals.
Spencer ducked beneath a plasma bolt and shouted, "They've got root access to sublevel systems! I thought the backups were isolated?"
"They were," Shawn growled. "Which means someone up top gave them override clearance."
Virginia cursed. "Another traitor?"
"Or a sleeper." Shawn's blade snapped free. "Doesn't matter. We stop them here."
The Vault – Core Depths
Colonel Malek stepped into the inner vault corridor, dragging two injured Vishkar guards behind him. The walls were smooth black metal laced with faint golden patterns. Glowing runes pulsed along the floor, reacting to proximity. Malek held up Kastur's old datapad and pressed it against the terminal.
The UI responded.
"Kastur Iyer biometrics confirmed. Clearance fragment acknowledged."
Kastur knew of Shawn's prowess, therefore created a way for Malek to achieve success should he fail. Using Amrita's assess, he re-enabled his own, mere moments before Shawn intercepted him from entering the vault. A huge gamble that paid off for Malek.
"You hear that, brothers?" Malek turned to his lieutenants, grinning. "He knew we'd be here. This system was waiting for us."
The doors opened slowly revealing a chamber not of wealth, but of design.
Floating cores. Spinning projectors. The original hard light failsafe. The tech that could reshape the world.
Malek approached the console, Kastur's notes scrolling on a vertical screen.
"Phase Two: Autonomous Genesis," he read aloud. "Input blood sequence. Activate the device. Make the light obey."
His fingers hovered over the command.
"Don't." Shawn's voice echoed from behind. The Thorns stood in formation in the corridor. Guns ready for anything that the insurgents in black might do. The vault door hissed closed behind them.
"What you're holding," Shawn said, stepping forward, "isn't liberation. It's a weapon you don't understand."
"Kastur understood," Malek spat. "He saw what you were too cowardly to do. He knew your blood held the path forward. He gave us the bridge. We just had to walk across it."
"You think taking Amrita's key and mixing it with me will make you a god?"
Malek smiled. "Not a god. A correction. This tower made itself immortal on our suffering. Now we give it new life. And you, your blood, makes it possible."
He pressed the activation. The vault pulsed. A blue-gold storm surged upward from the floor as the failsafe core roared to life. The hard-light gathered, forming a sphere in the middle of the room in front of Malek.
His men stared wide-eyed as he raised his hands in reverence. "Hear me, and obey. Come to me and form an armor and a weapon that we might strike down those that defy my command."
But it didn't obey Malek. It went wild.
S3bastian shouted over the roar. "The system's rejecting him! The bridge sequence isn't stable!"
Virginia grabbed Spencer and dove behind a pillar as the light twisted, forming shapes, half-formed constructs, wings, claws, faces.
What no one knew was, the failsafe's programming wasn't complete yet. It was set to respond to the users emotions. But while in development, they had the idea that the failsafe should remember the emotions to make it easier for repeat users to operate. However, the failsafe was filtering out the positive emotions and only keeping the negative emotions to memory as there was more of a response from these feelings. From all the negative feelings there was only one the failsafe remembered most.
Pure rage
With the vault doors sealed shut, there was no escape for anyone. Fearing for the safety of his team, Shawn stepped into the heart of it, wincing as it recognized him.
The light bent toward him. Flowed around his skin. Sought his pulse. He reached forward, placed his hand on the console.
And said, "No."
The light shuddered. Then obeyed.
The failsafe light rushed forward, listening to Shawn's whims. It reached the vault door, seeping through it like smog before continuing throughout the building. The hard light zoomed through the halls, branching off at each turn. Any insurgent or rogue guard it encountered, the light pierced through their heart, leaving their faces contoured in agony before killing them. The protesting civilians witnessed this in horror, falling to their knees with their hands up in surrender, hoping they wouldn't also suffer the same fate. When the last insurgent was dead, the hard light returned to the vault in an instant.
The core shut down with a silent whimper.
Malek collapsed, stunned.
"No… that was supposed to…"
"It was never yours to control," Shawn said quietly. "It never was."
Aftermath – Vishkar Tower Exterior, Dusk
The rebellion was crushed.
The insurgents outside were either scattered or captured. Many surrendered after the vault incident after witnessing Malek brought out, bound, broken, and speechless. The city simmered under lockdown.
But the world had changed. Whispers of autonomous hard light spread. So did murmurs of a man who could command it without machines.
Blackline remained secret. But for how long?