Chapter 46 - The Synthetic Mind
Inside the nerve center of *The Sovereign*, alarms began blaring in sharp, crimson staccato.
Dr. Cassian Cross whirled around, his brow furrowing as diagnostic screens turned amber across the command bridge. "What is that disturbance? Enforcers, report!"
"Sub-orbital radar anomaly approaching from sector seven-bravo," an automated defense voice droned. "Speed: Mach 6.4. Trajectory intersects our ventral maintenance hangar."
"Deploy point-defense cannons and obliterate it!" Cassian ordered, his composure slipping into agitation.
"Automated weapons offline," the computer responded smoothly. "Auxiliary firewalls have been re-routed by user: SUBJECT 01."
Cassian spun toward the amniotic tank. Inside, Marcos was no longer floating helplessly. His eyes were wide open, blazing with an intense, blinding gold that overpowered the sterile chamber lights. The neural conduits trailing from his spine were glowing red-hot as he forced an unprecedented volume of computational force backward through the dreadnought’s mainframe.
"You arrogant little brat," Cassian snarled, drawing a sleek sidearm from his coat and aiming it at the tank. "You think you can dismantle my life's work from inside a cage?"
"I'm not dismantling it," Marcos’s voice projected directly through the bridge's main audio system, vibrating with chilling resonance. "I'm letting my brother in."
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Before Cassian could pull the trigger, the entire dreadnought violently shuddered.
A thunderous explosion rocked the lower decks as the automated drone slammed directly through the ventral cargo bay doors at hypersonic deceleration, its specialized kinetic crumple-hull punching cleanly into the secondary atmospheric buffer!
