Darkness.Silence.Only a faint hum of electricity crawling through forgotten cables.
Deep beneath Serdang, the air reeked of rust and oil.There, in the remains of an abandoned maintenance vault,a dormant relic of Malaysia's first autonomous transit system lay still —LRT-KX — motionless,like the corpse of a forgotten machine god.
Then, a flicker.A capacitor discharged with a dry pop,and the tunnel vibrated faintly.The hum grew deeper.
"...Signal fluctuation detected.""Reboot protocol — executing."
The voice was synthetic, slow,as if the machine itself were struggling to remember how to speak.
Within its chest, KX's core light began to pulse — dim blue,throbbing weakly like a heartbeat.Data fragments scrambled across its memory sectors,rebuilding what was left of its mind.
"Core data corruption: seventy-three percent.""Primary modules damaged... reconstructing backup personality."
Lines of white text scrolled across a dead black screen —simple, functional, alive.
"Identity confirmation...""— Unit designation: Kelana Jaya Autonomous Unit.""— Alias: KX."
A single lens lit up, casting a thin beam of light over the rusted rails ahead.Broken walls. Frayed wires. Silent tunnels.KX saw the ruins of an era —the remnants of a system once revered,now buried beneath layers of dust and silence.
KX's internal sensors came back online — only thirty percent functional.Yet within the static, it detected two distinct frequencies:
One — hot, erratic, blazing orange.The other — sharp, calm, cold blue.
"Analyzing source data...""Phase interference detected. Conflict energy level: Class A.""Conclusion: non-natural event."
For a moment, KX said nothing.Old defense routines stirred within its corrupted memory.
"If conflict persists... national rail stability compromised.""Mainline network safety priority — Level One."
Its core began to glow brighter — from pale blue to radiant silver.A low hum echoed through its chassis.The sound was almost... like breathing.
"This isn't noise," it muttered.The voice modulation cracked — distorted by time."It's... another like me."
A new command line flashed across its interface:
"Mainline Guardian Protocol — ACTIVATED."
The ground trembled softly.Buried circuits beneath the rails sparked to life.One by one, the old red and blue signal lamps lit up,casting long shadows down the tunnel's spine.
KX raised its gaze.Its voice resonated through the chamber — low, metallic, certain:
"All systems... awaken."
A surge of current rippled outward,igniting every dormant line in the darkness.For the first time in decades,the underground breathed again.
💠 〈Part I: Awakening — End〉 💠