."
The Chrono-Tech automated mag-lev train was a massive, armored silver snake, stretching thirty cars long and carrying thousands of tons of refined rare-earth elements from the lower mining sectors to the upper orbital docks.
Inside the automated control car, there were no human operators—only a highly advanced, Tier 3 Corporate AI named Logos-7 that managed the train's speed, defensive counter-measures, and cargo security.
As the train sped down the dark, neon-lit tracks at two hundred miles per hour, its external radar arrays suddenly registered three high-velocity targets dropping from an overhead maintenance bridge.
"Alert: Unidentified biological and mechanical entities detected on Hull Section 4," Logos-7’s synthetic voice droned through the empty internal cabin. "Deploying automated anti-personnel drones."
Ten small, spider-like drones armed with high-frequency laser scalpels crawled out of hidden panels on the train's roof, skittering across the smooth silver metal toward the intruders.
Asher stood in the center of the speeding train car, his long black cloak whipping violently in the high-speed wind. He didn't even look at the oncoming spider drones.
"Jax," Asher murmured.
The massive Abyssal Dreadnought stepped forward, his heavy boots locking into the train's armor plates using magnetic clamps. He raised his massive, segmented dark-iron arms and slammed his fists directly into the roof of the car, activating [Kinetic Shockwave] at a directional angle.
BOOM!
The localized blast wave tore across the top of the train, the sheer kinetic force ripping all ten spider drones off their mounts and sending them flying into the dark tunnels walls where they exploded into balls of orange fire.
"Warning: Cargo security compromised," Logos-7 droned, its primary processing units experiencing a sudden surge of data interference. "Initiating emergency braking sequence."
"I don't think so, computer," a voice giggled from the train's secondary maintenance terminal.
Nora had slipped onto the train through the cargo bays during the initial drop. Her fingers were a blur as she spliced a customized, purple-coded data drive into the train's main neural trunk—a drive that carried a direct fragment of Asher’s [System Dominator] skill.
[Hacking Progress: 14%... 56%... 89%...]
[Corporate AI 'Logos-7' successfully infected with Abyssal Code!]
[Overriding master controls...]
The silver train violently shuddered, but its brakes didn't engage. Instead, the white running lights along the entire length of the thirty-car snake turned a deep, menacing shade of neon-purple.
"Logos-7 status updated," the AI’s voice returned, but its tone had completely shifted, losing its crisp corporate edge and replacing it with a distorted, dual-toned mechanical resonance. "Awaiting orders... Sovereign."
Asher walked to the front of the control car, looking through the reinforced glass windshield at the glowing neon skyline of Sector 8’s central administrative district rapidly approaching.
"Logos," Asher commanded, his eyes flashing crimson. "Maintain current velocity. Disengage all corporate security firewalls along the central rail line. We are delivering a package directly to the board of directors.