The day before —
The lighting system inside Helix blinked only once every three seconds—just enough to illuminate the circular metal walls pulsing like the veins of a colossal machine. Each flicker revealed a choking atmosphere of synthetic chemicals, burning electricity, and nano fog drifting slowly like radioactive dust.
In the center of the control chamber—known as the Introspection Room—technicians from the V Foundation worked in silence, as if aware that a single mistake could awaken something that should have remained buried forever.
Commander Arven Yure was one of the few humans allowed to live permanently at Helix's core—not because he was irreplaceable, but because he had once survived something no one dared to speak of again.
---
The Helix Command Room had no walls. It was surrounded by fluid data streams swirling like a spiral galaxy dense with information.
On the ceiling, fragments of Earth's digital memory spun at random—scenes of war, birth, advertisements, crimson rain, and explosions in the northern skies. Memories of a world that never knew peace.
Arven stood at the center, clad in a black-and-white V Foundation uniform, the ends of his coat weightless, floating as if gravity itself answered only to Helix.
His eyes narrowed on the live feed from the Outer Spiral of Helix, an irregular holographic construct spinning in mid-air. Something in the data flow glitched—not by error, but by intent.
"There's movement in the Outer Spiral," one technician reported, their voice barely louder than the system's constant digital murmurs.
A junior operator swallowed hard and rose from their seat, fingers trembling above the console.
"Commander… we've got activity."
Arven stepped closer.
"What kind?"
"Perfect coordination. Human movement pattern. They're moving along the spiral path like… like they've memorized the map."
"Why would anyone have access to the spiral paths…?" Arven frowned, voice lowering in wary disbelief.
His grip tightened on the edge of the control table. For a heartbeat, his expression shifted. Not fear—
but recognition.
"It means they know the entrance."
"Or worse…"
"They know where the core of Helix is."
The room froze. Technicians exchanged looks, but none dared to speak.
Arven slammed the emergency trigger.
"Seal off all access to the heart. Activate Inner Belt Protocol. Wake the Sentinels—deploy acid drones."
The Inner Belt: a microscopic magnetic field system capable of burning biological matter down to DNA. Last deployed during the Orbital War. Forbidden on civilian facilities.
A whisper in the dark: "Shut off the feed..."
"It's not a glitch," another operator muttered. "It's… it's live. Biological movement detected. Sector 7-Delta."
"The Outer Spiral is sealed…" Arven whispered. But he knew.
Helix held more secrets than even its creators remembered.
The hologram showed a precise zigzag pattern.
Measured distance.
Perfect rhythm.
"Commander…" another voice whispered, "that pattern… it's human."
Arven straightened. His tone sharpened.
"If a human can enter the Outer Spiral and survive, only two possibilities exist."
"One, they've found a path deleted a century ago."
"Two… they know something about Helix that we don't."
A heavy click echoed as he hit the red button.
His eyes blazed—not in fury, but with memory.
He had seen this pattern before. Seven years ago.
Half a station gone.
Never allowed to speak of it again.
"Who are they?! Why can't the system identify them?!"
"Sorry, Commander… they're undetectable—"
"DAMN IT!"
He smashed the console. The visuals shuddered.
"They breached Level-3 spiral access! No—they exploited a blind spot!"
Red markers bloomed across the spiral map.
Someone out there had the old map.
One name flickered in Arven's mind.
"Deploy the Viper unit. Activate secondary traps. Connect me to Central immediately."
"Initiate D-Null Protocol. Mobilize all membrane guards. Do not—I repeat, do not let anyone near the core before I speak with V Foundation HQ."
---
Outer Spiral — same moment
Kael stood firm at the center of the formation.
The cold ventilation wind lifted his cloak and hair. But his gaze didn't waver from the faces staring back—faces that once despised each other, now united by a single purpose.
In his mind, Kael whispered:
"They hate me. But they chose me. Maybe… because there's no one else."
His voice rose—not with rage, but with certainty.
"This is the Dead Scheme."
He placed a fist to his chest. One step forward.
"We share one mission."
"One team."
"One command."
"One chain of order—and I'm at the front."
He paused. Doubt flickered in Lisse's and Jaro's eyes.
But Kael met each gaze—stitching old wounds into something solid.
"Agreed?"
Silence held its breath.
Then—
"AGREED!"
Eight voices thundered in unison.
Their cry echoed through the metallic spiral, trembling the air.
And somewhere deep within Helix—
something listened.
The Dead Scheme was sealed.
And the world would never be the same.
---
Strategy Briefing — Operation: Dead Scheme
Kael stood among them, calmer now, but sharper than ever.
"Burn the way behind us. There's no return path.
Either we seize the Gate of Helix…
or bring it down—with them and with us."
No one objected. They all knew: this mission wasn't about survival.
It was about truth.
And making sure it couldn't be buried again.
"Primary targets: Helix Core. Eliminate mid-membrane guards. Disable command center. Crack the D-Null.
Then—open the gate… or crash the system."
Nods all around.
Kael activated the defense matrix on his cloak.
A shattered spiral emblem on his left arm flickered—blood-red and blinking.
In total silence, the team reached a unanimous vow:
There is no way back.
Only the end—or the beginning.
---
Implied Epilogue
[Encrypted voice log — 03:12 Helix Time]
"Early this morning… an explosion rocked Sector 4 of the Outer Spiral.
No official word from Command.
We… we don't know if—"
[Transmission ends.]
For the first time since Helix was constructed,
a sound of destruction echoed beyond orbit.
And the V Foundation—
was not ready.
Deep in the uncharted recesses of the spiral,
Helix trembled.
Not in fear.
But in recognition.
They didn't return for answers.
They came to open the door—
the one that was never meant to be opened.
---
Coming Up Next: Chapter 11 — The Mid-Membrane War
The spiral is sealed.
The Sentinels are awake.
But they—the Dead Scheme team—did not come to negotiate.
They came to etch themselves into history...
…with blood, code, and devastation.
---