His deep ominous voice remained given he was still wearing his suit, while his single word in actually was that of calm acknowledgment as he was not all too ‘willing’ to reveal his identity in any form.

However, The Precursor silently acknowledged his.. ‘commitment’ nonetheless..

“Specter, a Name but not a Name, a Title. An Arcadian, but not Arcadian, a Human. A Tool, a Puppet, an Inheritor. Dead, but not Dead, Alive. Choose?”

The words seared into Specter One’s Skull, his brain overloaded with so few words.

Until finally he began to understand. His brain translated his words as if experiencing a severe and traumatic response and attempted to protect him from them, not yet understanding they were but mere words until ‘after’ the last was heard.

“I am an Architect, A Pillar of The Precursor Assembly. A Builder. A Disciple of A Lifeworker. Similar, but not as similar, as you and I? Choose, but not burden. Burden only to enlighten. Cryptic I know. It will have to suffice. Now awaken..”

It would seemingly ‘appear’ he too was becoming ‘frustrated’ with this attempt. However, despite the strangeness of it all. Specter One felt it was at a very least an ‘earnest’ attempt from ‘someone’ who too was unfamiliar with whatever this was ‘supposed’ to represent.

…

An hour had unceremoniously passed as Delta was left blaring elevator music into his neural link to wake him up.

“Specter, you're finally awake. As you can see Specter Three is unfortunately lodged into the view screen and ‘may’ require external assistance. I was unable to ‘retain’ the body you had so gracefully allowed me to ‘retain’ for those few hours. The Shield held, The Tram unfortunately did not?”

Delta dryly humored, as Specter One felt his ‘ribs’ had taken the brunt of it all. However, after standing up and using the tram’s emergency latch as a crutch. Specter One unlodged Specter Three from The Viewscreen, it would seem he was rather awake and merely dusted himself off?

On the other hand ‘Delta’ was rather offended at the fact that he ‘took’ a nap and woke merely minutes before Specter One had.

“If either of you believe my ‘social’ perimeters are so ‘lackluster’, I ask that you keep it to yourself as you see I no longer have a installation to manage, and all of whom I was meant to protect are likely deceased. Present company excluded of course. I have also regained ‘some’ access to the installation's systems. Enough to know both Project Chrono & The Parasite are now ash”

Sadly, all three would still be forced to go through the arduous task of ‘confirming’ that fact.. Curators were ‘fond’ of the fact that they would at times ‘survive’ Neutron Purges, assuming it was an actual Curator to begin with.

A Curator wouldn’t go through all the trouble of scheduling, activating a temporal project, and releasing The Infection, only to end it halfway through with a Neutron Purge that not only took the vast majority of The Installation's Power away from Project Chrono, outright disabling it and killing everything else.

Their humor was ‘unique’ but not so cripplingly so.. the only valid explanation would be ‘someone’ else used a long forgotten or outright abandoned plan ‘created’ by a Curator, only to realize they couldn’t end it so spectacularly as a Curator could have.

…

Soon after crawling out of The Tram lodged, bent, and nearly broken in half inside of an emergency bulkhead. They spent the next hour unceremoniously ‘limping’ through the pitch black tram tunnels using what little of the reactors that weren’t entirely burnt out thanks to the courtesy of Calisto Delta herself.

“Specter, Alpha should be aware enough to continue in my place. Just be gentle with her please, she hasn’t completely recovered”

Music to Specter One’s Ears, unfortunately rather than switching the two out, he slitted Delta into his suit, and Alpha back into his implant.

“Ferris, my echo. You shouldn’t have been so cruel to her.. she was me and I don’t appreciate that sentiment. But.. I’m happy to be back, even if it’s rather anticlimactic? Project Chrono.. we should have buried that deeper. Remind me to give Ernest an earful for the both of you? And Delta? Isn’t she an oddball? I.. should rest now, promise to wake me when you need something done, ok?”

Alpha softly humored, her voice evidently weaker while she made his neural implant her home again.

Delta on the other hand chose not to comment, preferring to allow her to ‘rest’ as both Specters One and Four limped their way until they saw a ladder leading to the command district on its own private tram platform.

…

After climbing the ladder and making it to the locked down tram platform, they would soon hear the sound of footsteps, and red glimpses of light under the emergency bulkhead. Unknown forces likely found the hidden escape entrance for The Command Staff left behind by The Curators.

Whether or not they were his reinforcements or the previous teams were unknown as Calisto Delta, not wanting to awake Calisto chose to contact both him and Specter Three in a private channel.

“No known IFFs, or New Strands of Temporal Residue Detected. There’s also no signs of The Infection, and they’re not ours ‘or’ mine if that’s of any consolation? This is your cue to make Alpha feel useful. I’ll send you over my access codes, keep on your toes Specter Team”

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Calisto Delta briefly reported, as Specter One and Alpha ‘sensed’ what Calisto Delta did not.

“Stewards.. maybe Wardens, I’ll lift the lockdown assuming there's enough power.. to do so”

Alpha’s voice was slower but still very much confident, after all A.Is and Temporal Anomalies don’t mix as much as some hoped they would. She had experienced a violent temporal thrashing, The A.I Equivalent of being flayed alive before passing out from the pain.

At least in ‘her’ particular case, or at worse the very same experience Beta had experienced much earlier.

Neither was pleasant mind you, but at least Alpha had time to recover. Soon however, the codes were inputted and both began budging open the door ever so slightly as everything else had gone silent.

This naturally would have caught the attention of those on the other side, however, when considering Specter One neither truly cared and believed they’d recognize his mark given to him by The Curator Enforcer previously stationed in this conclave.

And whose real name was Sienna pleasantly enough?

…

Whatever or whoever they were had immediately backtracked and made some distance from the tram once the lockdown was.. ‘manually’ lifted through force alone.

It was only unfortunate Specter One wasn’t willing to ‘wait’ for them as they pointed their red light attachments beyond the corner.

It would ‘seem’ they suspected ‘something’ may have survived, and whatever could survive such an incredibly potent Neutron Purge was likely something who hadn’t appreciated the sentiment. Soon, Specter One uncloaked in the distance, with only the lumination from his blades.

Superheated plasma did ‘wonders’.. however as The ‘Wardens’ fitted in this installation’s security attire, thanks to those unknown three governors of the board. They were especially ‘terrorized’ by the sight, however, before a word could be said, a trigger pulled, or a step taken.

Delta to her credit mustered enough power to activate one of the projectors allowing her to appear in between the two as if playing the part of an A.I struggling to survive. The Wardens likely ‘knew’ who Delta was and her status within The Installation leaving too much in the air.

What didn’t help matters was Delta glimpsing between the two..

“Welcome to The Haust Conclave, Shadow Enforcer! This installation has suffered catastrophic damages. I am unfamiliar with These Security Assets, they have deactivated their IFFs. Unknown personnel, please identify-”

Delta’s words offered a reassuring twist, and one that ‘enlightened’ The Wardens to who they were actively facing and who ‘had’ survived The Neutron Purge.

Shadow Enforcers to The Wardens were a myth, and if they were to ever find themselves facing one they were warned against firing upon them.

Their distinction being, Curator Enforcers were what they dreamt to be.

So few humans had ‘ever’ had that honor, Shadow Enforcers on the other hand were drastically more significant in the sense they ‘are’ strategic weapons who alone are responsible for destruction of entire fleets and entire world going silent.

They were told they would never likely meet one in their lifetime due to what their mere presence entailed, while the marker they themselves couldn’t identify with Steward Assistance read only as ‘death’ and enough ‘Curator’ Classifications to make it illegible.

As one brave soul shakenly waved her hand, silently signaling to the others to lower their weapons before he could even take a step. Of course, they weren’t privy to any such knowledge outside of a scarce few symbols and rumors.

The Stewards weren’t very ‘inclined’ to inform them outside of a scarce few bits of information here and there, while The Curators ‘still’ didn’t put The Wardens on their radar since they were simply ‘that’ below them.

So to say The Wardens felt their impending deaths due to The Curators’ complete and utter disregard of them. Encountering a Curator Enforcer would offer a minimal chance of survival, and that’s ‘with’ Stewards present.

Shadow Enforcers on the other hand were boogeymen who likely viewed them as lesser than sentient life. Stewards weren’t even on their Radar, only The Curators and to some extent ‘other’ Enforcers.

And The Wardens learned this much from The Stewards themselves, which naturally offered some validity to their fears. ‘Some’ to The Wardens were more than enough for them..

“Shadow Enforcer.. I.. no ‘we’ were sent to investigate the unauthorized use of classified projects, unknown anomalies, an-and a Neutron Purge originating from this installation. We are to ‘confirm’.. no specimens who lived and any other project could be salvaged. Th-The Warden Council ordered it an-and The Steward Council approved it-”

The Female ‘Warden’ clarified, on the other hand she was an A.I contained within a crude clone body. She was likely a Steward ‘approved’ lead, while she herself couldn’t be considered a Steward forcing her to ultimately fall under The Warden Council's Sphere of Influence.

She wasn’t an Advanced A.I either, she had sentience and could unlock doors and ‘perhaps’ hack something and communicate. Calisto ‘Delta’ was comparable to ‘Alpha’ in her comparison, and she was merely an Inferior Calisto out of the three.

The Stewards likely saw her as an equivalent of a ‘smart’ & educated human, that in itself spoke volumes. Perhaps she may have a higher status among The Wardens and potentially viewed as noteworthy by The ‘Warden’ Council, but that wasn’t saying anything at all.

“Insufficient. Rogue Ascendant Presence Detected. Investigating Source-”

Specter One coldly remarked, only to initialize his cloak and skip them entirely as Specter Three quietly followed suit, and Calisto Delta’s Projection remained to keep an eye on The Wardens.

Since they chose to ‘wear’ this installation’s security attire, it was only ‘right’ she made use of them.

…

After making his way to the ‘partially’ sealed command center, that looked to be untouched after The Neutron Purge. Which was made clearly evident from the heavy residue of ash and scattered remnants of Security Suits including a dozen or so suits of power armor riddled with bone blades.

It would seem The Command Staff didn’t go down without a fight. If only that was true?

“Their.. armors were compromised from within.. and ‘not’ by The Parasite or The Curators. Someone else was here, and they were likely ‘born’ here. Delta.. may have played a part in the completion of Project Chrono but there was someone else, someone she was unaware of, someone who likely completed it ‘for’ her. Ferris.. she’s her replacement..”

Alpha shockingly revealed, Delta is what Beta is to Calisto Alpha. A mouthful, yet also an implication. If they could get Project Chrono up and running, they could at the very least attempt to recreate Alpha.

Only then, they wouldn’t have anyone stopping them from finishing the job.. only it shouldn’t have been possible. Specter One ‘knew’ what went into making Calisto, even if he wasn’t entirely present for it.

Her code was entirely unique to her, and unlike anything created since The Golden Age of Technology.

Any attempt to recreate it relied on lady luck, enough anomalies, and bizarre circumstances to even get close. Considering everything that transpired here, they had a ‘chance’ before all hell went loose. The Wardens likely had ‘another’ mission, one they could no longer consider.

And as they neared the partially opened bulkhead into The Command Center, he felt someone tapping his shoulder.