Aris felt trapped inside the GORC Land Rover. The suspension made the ride rough, like the car was about to fall apart. All he could do was sit there, grumpy and silent. He stared out the window, watching the Scottish Highlands turn flatter as they drove south into England. Each mile they covered felt less like progress and more like returning to a disaster.
When they got to the Containment Perimeter, everything changed. The quiet country road was now packed with armored vehicles and generators. They had to go through three checkpoints, each one a show of control. Barriers made of dirt and wire stood tall, and the soldiers looked tense, trying to act like everything was normal even though it wasn't.
Then he saw it.
The New Forest Obelisk wasn't just there; it loomed. At first, it looked like something was wrong, a straight line that didn't belong. But as they got closer, it was so big it messed with your sense of size. It was five kilometers tall, silent, and made of metal, so perfect it seemed to bend the sky. It was just like the one in Jakarta. Aris couldn't breathe. He reached under his shirt and touched the piece of volcanic rock he kept there, trying to hold on to what felt real.
The mobile command center was a bunch of white buildings and satellite dishes, like a temporary city. Inside, screens showed data and maps, turning something impossible to understand into simple numbers.
Commander Eva Rostova stood in front of the main screen, looking serious. She turned when Aris came in, checking him out like he was broken equipment.
"Dr. Thorne. You're late", she said. Her voice was all business, no friendliness.
"Traffic was awful", Aris said, but nobody laughed.
She didn't care. "This is Kaito Tanaka." She pointed to a young guy who seemed too excited for the situation. His gear looked brand-new, like the end of the world was just a practice drill. He's our lead materials engineer. He'll help you out.
"It's an honor, Dr. Thorne", Kaito said, his eyes shining. "Your quantum-siphoning idea from Jakarta… it was amazing."
"It was a shot in the dark", Aris said, turning away from Kaito to face Rostova. "What's it doing?"
"Nothing", she said, her voice cold. "That's the problem. It's been forty-eight hours since we buried the spheres. No energy, no heat, no response to anything we try. It's like a rock."
"A five-kilometer rock that shouldn't exist", Kaito added, almost happily. "We can't even scan the surface. It's perfect."
Aris looked at the screen, focusing on where the Obelisk touched the ground. It was all one piece, unnatural. There were no signs of how it was built, no clues about what it did. Just a perfect line where something alien met the earth.
"It's not a rock", Aris said quietly. "It's a machine. And it's waiting."
Rostova frowned. "For what?"
"For the harvest. In Jakarta, it took seventy-two days. Exactly."
"We can't assume it'll be the same this time", she said. "And we don't know if it depends on how many people or how much life is here. The people in charge want answers, not guesses. I'm here to contain it, not to be curious."
"It's all I've got to go on", Aris said, sounding tired. "Jakarta taught us it watches, records, and then takes. There's no talking to it. It just does what it does."
A sound came from one of the consoles, a quiet beep that made everyone tense. "Commander", a technician said. "The underground sensors are picking up a low pulse from the spheres. It's a pattern, not electromagnetic, and we don't know what it is."
Aris felt a shiver go down his spine. "A resonant frequency", he said. "It's taking inventory. Mapping everything."
Kaito's face lit up. "A cataloging algorithm! It's not just destroying things randomly... It's choosing what to take. It's incredibly efficient."
"It's counting the lives it's about to end", Aris snapped, his anger breaking through. "Don't think it's smart just because it's killing selectively."
Rostova held up her hand, looking calm. The screens reflected in her eyes. The command center felt heavy, the silence from outside pressing down on them.
"It's not quiet", she said, her voice low. "It's patient. And a patient killer is much more dangerous than a panicked one." She turned away from the screen. "You two, figure out that pulse. I want to know when the harvest will happen in twenty-four hours. No crazy ideas. Just give me the data."
Aris stayed where he was, staring at the Obelisk on the screen. The silence outside wasn't peaceful anymore; it was waiting. The old trees of the forest were standing guard without knowing it. And under the ground, a terrible clock had started ticking in a way only he could hear, a faint echo of the sound that never left his head.