CHAPTER II - The Command Without Protocol

Beneath the dying city, the last memories of a civilization were still moving.

ELE–480 descended through the inner depths of NEX in silence.

The corridor wound downward through layers of architecture older than most surviving records. Once, these passages had carried maintenance swarms, continuity engineers, synchronization specialists, and countless streams of information flowing between the upper sectors and the deep-core systems beneath the planet.

Now they carried only echoes.

Motion sensors still recognized her presence.