THE ARCHITECT OF STARS: SEASON 1
ARYO PURNOMO SAGA
CHAPTER 11: THE SHADOW COUNCIL
Geneva, Switzerland. The "Obsidian" Secret Bunker.
The room was frigid, its walls composed of massive digital screens encircling a round table made of black granite. There were no windows. Only five people sat there—the five most powerful individuals in the world, whose faces never appeared in Forbes magazine, yet who dictated oil prices and decided which presidents rose or fell.
On the main screen, a video recording played on a loop.
It was footage from the helmet camera of Commander Kraven—the most expensive mercenary they had hired last week.
On screen, chaos reigned. A walking battle tank worth twenty million dollars exploded into a fireball. Hundreds of small drones moved like a cloud of death, shredding attack helicopters like paper. Then, a black silhouette wearing a geometric demon mask emerged from the smoke, slicing the tank's neck with an energy blade.
Static. No Signal.
"Kraven died in four minutes and thirty-two seconds," the voice of an elderly man in a grey suit broke the silence. He was Mr. V, the chairman of the council. "And we paid his team fifty million dollars."
A four-star General from a superpower nation slammed his fist on the table in frustration. "This is absurd! Last month we sent Black Mamba, the desert elite. Gone! Last week we sent Cyber-Ninjas from Japan. They were returned in small boxes! Now Kraven?"
"That boy... Aryo Purnomo..." hissed a middle-aged woman with a thick Russian accent. "He is no longer human. The technology he uses... that 'Blue Horizon' chip... it surpasses anything any military possesses by at least fifty years."
Mr. V stared at his colleagues coldly. "We made a fatal mistake. We sent soldiers to fight a God of Technology. We sent bullets to fight a ghost."
"So what is the plan?" asked the General. "Nuke his location? That would destroy the chip. We need the data inside to control the global market!"
"No," Mr. V cut in. "If Satria Purnomo's technology represents absolute defense... then we need its antithesis. We need absolute chaos."
Mr. V pressed a button on his desk. The wall screen changed, displaying a direct link to an underground laboratory that was grim and filthy, a stark contrast to the luxury of the council room.
***
Laboratory Sector 9 - Location Unknown.
A gaunt man with messy white hair and thick, cracked glasses appeared on the screen. His lab coat was stained with oil and... blood.
It was Dr. Aris Thorne. A genius scientist expelled from the international scientific community for experiments deemed "violations of human ethics." He was the eternal rival of Aryo's father.
"Ah... distinguished Council," Dr. Thorne greeted with a high-pitched, manic voice. He was holding a surgical bone saw in his right hand. "Finished watching your toy soldiers fail?"
"Shut your mouth, Thorne," growled the General. "You said you could build something that could kill Aryo. Where is the proof? We have poured trillions into your insane research!"
Dr. Thorne chuckled. He walked away from the camera, bringing the lens closer to a giant glass tube ten meters high in the center of his laboratory.
Inside the tube, a creature floated.
It was not a robot. It was not a human.
Its form was terrifying. Standing three meters tall, it possessed biological muscles pumped with glowing green serum, yet its bones had been replaced with black Adamantium. It had no face, only a single red visor implanted directly into its skull. Its back was riddled with tubes supplying synthetic adrenaline.
"You see the problem?" Dr. Thorne tapped the glass. "Aryo and his robotic whore, Alia, rely on networks. They hack. They predict."
Thorne grinned wide, revealing yellow teeth.
"But this... Project NEMESIS. He has no digital brain to hack. He has no network to intercept. He is pure Killer Instinct combined with the speed of a machine."
Thorne pressed a button on his console.
Inside the tube, the creature moved. Just slightly. Its giant hand, equipped with thirty-centimeter claws, clenched. The fluid inside the tube churned violently.
The red visor eye lit up.
GRRRRRRR...
A low growl resonated, audible even through the speakers in the council room, making the hair on the necks of the world's rulers stand on end.
"I used primal predator DNA, mixed with forbidden cybernetics," Thorne explained proudly. "Alia won't be able to predict his movements because Nemesis doesn't think. He only feeds."
"When will it be ready?" Mr. V asked flatly.
Thorne checked the indicators on the tube. "The fusion of flesh and machine is only at 70%. If I force it now, he will die in an hour. Give me one more month. I need to perfect his Neuro-Inhibitor so he doesn't turn around and kill us all."
Mr. V nodded. "You have three weeks, Doctor. Or we will feed you to your own creation."
The screen went black.
Back in the council room, the General looked worried. "Three weeks? Aryo gets stronger every day. In three weeks, he might track us down."
Mr. V stood up, walking to a virtual window displaying the world map.
"In that case, we keep him busy. We don't need to win now. We just need to make him tired."
Mr. V smiled cruelly.
"Send every mercenary from Class C, D, and E. Thousands of them. Flood his location with that trash every hour, day and night. Don't let him sleep. Don't let him rest. Make him waste his ammunition killing flies."
"And when he is exhausted, when his energy is drained..." Mr. V looked at the empty seat at the table. "We unleash Nemesis to snap his neck."