The Iron Vale was not a valley. It was a noticeable scar.
Miles of dead factories stretched across the horizon, their chimneys jagged against the gray sky. Rusted conveyor lines ran into the distance like veins under a rotting skin. The air tasted of copper and burnt oil.
Kai led the Vanguard through the skeletons of machines that once shaped cities. Their boots crunched over ash and glass. Every sound echoed. Even the wind moved carefully here.
No one had entered this place since the Collapse. The maps called it "Vale Sector 9." Old records said it was one of the last industrial strongholds before everything went dark. But Kai knew better. He could feel the same pulse beneath the ground that he'd felt after the storm at Emberfall.
Something was alive here.
---
They made camp inside the shell of a blast furnace. Zara unpacked the scanners. Leo set up a small transmitter dish, trying to connect to any remaining Vanguard frequencies. The others took shifts guarding the perimeter.
By nightfall, a pattern began to emerge on Zara's monitor.
Not random energy. Signals. Repeating every 8.3 seconds.
She turned to Kai. "This isn't natural decay. Someone—or something—is transmitting from underground."
Kai studied the display. "Coordinates?"
"Two kilometers east. Below the refinery shafts."
He looked up at the others. "We move at dawn."
---
The tunnels below the refinery were narrow and lined with frost.
Each step sent small echoes through the steel corridors. Their flashlights cut through the darkness, glinting off rusted pipes and collapsed walkways.
At the end of the main passage stood a sealed bulkhead door. The words GENESIS RESEARCH DIVISION were faintly visible beneath the grime.
Leo knelt beside the control panel. "Power's dead," he said. "But this wiring's still intact. I can bypass the lock."
"Do it," Kai ordered.
Sparks jumped as Leo bridged two circuits. The old hydraulics hissed, coughing dust into the air. Then the door shuddered open.
Inside, cold light flickered across walls covered in screens.
Banks of servers hummed quietly, somehow still alive. In the center stood a cylindrical chamber of black glass, connected by cables that pulsed faintly.
Zara's breath caught. "This shouldn't be possible. Power cells like these don't hold charge after decades."
"They do," Kai said quietly, "if something is keeping them alive."
---
The chamber hissed.
Steam rolled across the floor as the glass panels split open.
Inside stood a human figure—pale skin, no visible wounds, eyes closed. The body looked young, almost lifelike, but too perfect. No scars, no breathing, no pulse.
Zara's voice shook. "That's not a person. That's an echo."
Leo frowned. "A what?"
"Pre-collapse synthetic," she said. "Genetic template with AI-assistive memory. They were prototypes—machines built to survive when humans couldn't."
As she spoke, the figure's eyes snapped open.
A faint blue light flickered within the pupils. The head turned, slow and deliberate, toward Kai.
Then it spoke.
> "Designate: Operator Kai. Recognition sequence active."
Everyone froze.
Kai stepped forward. "Who are you?"
> "Designation: ECHO-9. Genesis protocol. Mission: preservation of data integrity and reconstruction of civilization index."
"Reconstruction?" Zara echoed.
> "Affirmative. Genesis sequence initiated upon detection of sentient command presence."
The machines in the walls began to hum louder. Screens lit up one by one, displaying ancient blueprints, DNA structures, satellite maps, and something else—schematics for cities that no longer existed.
Kai turned back to the others. "This is it. The first piece of what came before."
But ECHO-9 wasn't finished.
> "Warning," it said. "Genesis sequence incomplete. Secondary protocols corrupted by interference."
"Interference from what?"
The lights flickered. The screens distorted, static flooding the air with a low screech. Then, through the distortion, words appeared on every monitor:
WE ARE AWAKE.
The chamber trembled. The hum turned into a roar. Zara grabbed Kai's arm. "We need to shut it down now!"
Before anyone could move, ECHO-9 looked up, its expression twisting—confusion, fear, then emptiness.
> "They found us."
The floor split open.
A wave of black energy surged upward, swallowing the chamber in light.
---
When Kai opened his eyes, the ceiling was gone. The refinery above had collapsed, sunlight bleeding through the cracks. The servers were silent, melted into slag.
ECHO-9 was gone.
Only the words remained, burned into the floor:
THE ARCHITECTS RETURN.
Kai clenched his fists. "It wasn't the past trying to rebuild," he said quietly. "It was the future trying to replace us."
Zara stood beside him, shaking the dust from her hair. "Then we stop them before they finish what we started."
Kai nodded once. The Vanguard had lost cities, people, and hope before—but this was different.
This was war.
---