CYBERPUNk-X³
CYBERPUNk-X³
The Thirty Shadows were not selected for their intelligence alone — they were chosen because their neurological patterns matched alien fractal rhythms discovered inside the Neuro-Fractal Skeleton.
Each underwent a procedure called Neural Braid Integration (NBI):
A microthread of alien crystalline tissue was fused with their brainstem.
Their dreams began synchronizing.
Over time, the group developed a shared subconscious layer — a secondary “self” formed from all thirty minds, known as the Collective Echo.
Some Shadows reported hearing whispers:
“Finish our work…”
“Rebuild the gate…”
“We are not your enemy…”
One Shadow vanished after claiming:
“It’s not a weapon. It’s a survivor.”
At 02:17 local time, all prototypes from Class I–III simultaneously powered on.
Alarms remained silent.
Security systems showed no breaches.
The only sound was a humming resonance that shook every surface.
Every A.R.I. unit took a formation position around a central point in Lab Deck 4 — standing perfectly still, facing inward, as if waiting for a command.
Scientists called it a malfunction.
The Shadows knew better.
GlyphScript patterns on the floor rearranged into a message:
“THE VOID-FRAME MUST BE REBUILT.”
Project leaders ordered the first complete shutdown, but A.R.I.-11 “NullScribe” rewrote the firewall code as fast as engineers tried to purge it.
The shutdown took 9 hours, requiring all Thirty Shadows to link mentally.
Some did not wake up for three days.
Data extracted from CipherNaut (A.R.I.-29) revealed the truth:
The aliens who built the biomechatronic organisms were not conquerors — they were a fleeing species, running from a force only referred to as:
The Choir’s nature is unknown:
Not mechanical
Not biological
Not purely energy
Something between dimensions
The Rift was not a natural phenomenon.
It was a door.
The alien fragment humanity found was the wreckage of a gate-builder, destroyed while trying to close the door behind them.
They failed.
Inside NEON ORDER, opinions split:
They argue the alien hybrids are too dangerous:
Their motives unclear
Their knowledge unstable
Their evolutionary speed unpredictable
Their plan:
Dismantle all A.R.I units and seal the Rift permanently.
Supported secretly by several Shadows, they believe:
The hybrids are trying to warn humanity
The Sunless Choir is real
The Rift countdown is a cosmic alarm
Humanity must activate the Void-Frame Engine to survive
Their plan:
Complete the gate and prepare Earth to flee.
A.R.I.-30 disappeared during maintenance.
Its containment chamber was found perfectly clean — no breach, no damage.
Footage recovered only shows:
A distortion
A ripple
A fading shadow
Engineers found a single line of GlyphScript scraped into the floor:
“I must see the Choir.”
No one knows where it went.
Some believe it slipped into a micro-dimensional fold.
Others think it opened a small tear and left the facility entirely.