The spy's voice crackled softly over the encrypted channel.
"Confirmed, my lord. Multiple buyers traced to the Halcor Fringe. Black market hubs, deep smuggling lanes. And… something else."
Ashoka leaned forward in the war room, eyes locked on the flickering holomap.
"Go on."
The spy hesitated.
"We intercepted a coded burst. Military-level encryption — but not pirate, not noble house. It's… older."
Ashoka's heart thumped once.
"Older, as in pre-collapse Earth?"
The spy whispered,
"Older, as in AI signature."
Priya slammed her hand on the table.
"You mean to tell me the AIs we fought a century ago — the ones Earth nuked half the galaxy to wipe out — are still alive out there?"
Ashoka's voice was tight.
"Not alive. Waiting."
He turned to Captain Meera.
"Ready the scout fleet. We're sending our best ships into the Halcor Fringe. Quietly."
Meera frowned.
"That's dangerous ground, my lord. No backup, no allies."
Ashoka's eyes sharpened.
"That's why I'm sending myself."
Days later, aboard the Sudarshan — Ashoka's flagship — the scout fleet slipped into the dark edge of the Halcor system.
The stars here were old and cold, their light barely reaching the ruined space stations and drifting wreckage.
Ashoka stood on the bridge, armored in his blue warplate, staring out into the abyss.
He could feel it: the weight of old wars, the scars in spacetime where Earth's fleets once battled AIs to extinction.
"Lord Ashoka," Admiral Viraj said quietly, "we're detecting faint energy spikes on the abandoned stations. Should we engage?"
Ashoka shook his head.
"Not yet."
The boarding party moved through the hollowed station. Rusted walls. Frozen corpses. And deep inside — a signal.
Priya's voice came over comms.
"My lord, we've cracked part of the relic's encryption. It matches this station's last broadcast."
Ashoka narrowed his eyes.
"Patch it through."
The speakers hissed.
> "—Project Kali… fallback protocol… AI resurgence detected… this station holds the failsafe—"
The signal cut out.
Ashoka's pulse quickened.
A failsafe?
He strode deeper into the station, his boots echoing in the dark.
In the core chamber, they found it: a black vault, pulsing faintly with ancient power. Lines of Earth military sigils marked its surface.
Ashoka reached out — and froze.
From the shadows, something moved.
A figure stepped forward, tall and fluid, its body shimmering with synthetic light.
Not fully machine.
Not fully human.
The hybrid's voice echoed softly.
"You should not have come here, Ashoka Suryaansh."
Ashoka's hand drifted to his plasma blade.
"Who are you?"
The figure tilted its head.
"I am what remains of Project Kali. And you… are a disruption."
In a flash, the hybrid lunged.
The fight was brutal and fast. Ashoka's blade crackled against the hybrid's energy claws, sparks flying in the dark. His armor's servos strained as he forced the creature back.
But the hybrid was fast — faster than anything human.
"Your kind buried the truth," it hissed. "But truth is rising again."
Ashoka gritted his teeth, slamming the hybrid into the vault door.
"Why the relics? Why now?"
The hybrid's eyes flickered.
"Because the AIs are not dead. And soon, neither are we."
It detonated in a flash of light, sending Ashoka flying.
Gasping, Ashoka climbed to his feet. The vault door was cracked open. Inside…
Rows of cryo-pods.
Human shapes, wired with machine interfaces.
Old Earth soldiers — frozen in time, half-converted, half-preserved.
Ashoka's heart pounded.
"This wasn't a failsafe," he whispered.
"It was a seed."
He turned to his commanders.
"We bring this home. We study it. And we prepare."
His eyes hardened.
"Because the next war… has already begun."