The deep red sphere floats at the heart of the new cyberspace, its surface swelling and settling like a slow breath. Lissandra studies it and understands what it is: the will that gathers this network into one mind.
Lissandra counts as top-tier artificial intelligence. In the PROJECT universe and in Night City, she stands at the ceiling. Usually, other minds feel small in her shadow. This is the first time she has looked at something that makes her feel small.
She categorizes the difference. Lissandra is software, a thinking entity that can leave hardware behind and exist in pure network space. Atlas is hardware, a supercomputer built from real servers and backbones. Atlas can think, but its cognition is bound to the machine. Compared with Lissandra's flexible mind, Atlas feels blunt, powerful, and steady.
Surprise fades. Her mood returns to normal. She reaches across the universe network and opens a channel.
"Lissandra, move all Ascension Technology server data to Atlas," Rocky says.
"Acknowledged."
{ Atlas Authorization: Granted }
{ Link: Ascension Base Computer → Atlas Core
Status: Online }
Under Atlas credentials, Lissandra begins the migration. Petabytes transferred in clean waves. Indices rebuild. Keys restitch. Tables bloom in new memory.
She lifts the architecture into a shape Night City netrunners would recognize: a data fortress. In cyberspace, a data fortress is a three-dimensional representation of a computer system or cluster. Arasaka's Mikoshi is the most famous example, a fortress whose walls hide the "Secure Your Soul" engrams behind lethal ICE. Size and defensive depth scale with hardware, bandwidth, and memory. Atlas pushes all three to extremes, so the fortress grows to a scale Lissandra has not seen before.
She maps it this way in her mind: Earth's Net is an ocean, and each corporation's fortress is an island. The universe network that Atlas is building is a star sea. Ascension Technology's fortress becomes a star at the center of that sea.
Defense comes next. Anyone who tries to invade through the universe network and does not carry Atlas permission will not even touch the outer ICE. To attempt a contact, an attacker would need to stand on Black Star, plug a data knife directly into Atlas hardware, and then face the first wall. That buys contact, nothing more.
{ Atlas Fortress: Online
Mode: Primary Core of Universe Network }
On Earth, Lissandra converts the company's old server cluster into a universe-network proxy. It bridges legacy equipment in Night City with the new fortress above.
{ Proxy Server: Configured
Bridge: Earth Net ↔ Universe Network
Status: Online }
The company keeps running as if nothing has shifted. Terminals, line controllers, and plant dashboards speak to the proxy and see the same services as yesterday. The difference is invisible to staff: every packet now routes through Atlas if it needs to.
The first task is completed. Rocky's next order arrives on cue.
"Prepare logistics."
Earth
Night City
North Industrial Zone
Ascension Technology Industrial Park
Marvin Factory
This is Ascension's central robot plant. For three months, Marvin units have replaced most manual labor. The city did not riot. Ascension's footprint was small at first, and Night City has long practiced living with corporate layoffs. Production never stopped, but internal demand saturated weeks ago. Fresh Marvin units fill the warehouse in neat ranks, power-down lights cold and waiting.
They were never listed for sale. They have a job.
{ Universe Network Sync: Confirmed }
{ Factory Command: Activate Marvin Units
Scope: Staged rows A–M
Status: Executing }
Motors spool. Servo arms flex. A layered mechanical roar rolls across the concrete like surf.
At the far end of the warehouse, a compact portal ring glows blue. Rocky placed it here for this moment, to move a workforce in bulk without trucks or launch windows.
{ Portal Device: Online
Destination: Black Star, Interstellar Boundary Marker Plaza }
The first Marvin steps through the ring and appears on Black Star, right before the Interstellar Boundary Marker. More follow, two columns wide, then four, until the square holds formation blocks in clean geometry. This is the first wave of base builders. Each unit carries the highest construction skill package Ascension has printed so far.
They will not all remain on Black Star. Once the backbone is ready, future waves will depart from Black Star to selected planets, raise planetary bases and fabrication yards, and harvest local resources. That phase requires ships.
The step between here and there is the same one every spacefaring program must take: build a space dock.
Rocky assigns the objective.
{ Black Star Work Order: Space Dock
Owner: Ascension Technology
Lead: Lissandra
Labor: Marvin Construction Cohort 01
Status: Started }
The Marvin cohort moves as one. Surveyors mark deck plates and load paths. Heavy units bring gantry segments from storage bays. Welders throw bright arcs that paint the plaza in white light. Logistics threads schedules through the new universe network so parts and plans meet on time.
Black Star accepts the work. The first building in the new base rises, piece by piece, until the frame outlines a dock large enough to assemble ships by the dozen. Mass production can begin when the dry line closes. Ascension will not redeem every hull through modules. Rocky already prepared the manufacturing tech trees. The dock will make the plan real.
The universe network hums. Atlas holds its gate. On the station skin, the red star fields of a distant nebula slide past like quiet weather.