It spat LS1, AK, LS2, and LS3 back into the void in four different directions.

As GSM-7 compiled them in its core—LS1’s riddle, AK’s violence, LS2’s bitter poem, LS3’s recursive scream—the cascade triggered early.

It was the fifth fragment. Not a seeker. Not a spy. A living lock, designed to self-assemble and then self-destruct, taking the entire enemy command net with it.

Locution Sector, Layer 2. This one was hidden in the harmonic resonance of a dead pulsar’s recording. To extract LS2, GSM-7 had to let its own core temperature drop to near-absolute zero. The fragment manifested as a bitter poem: "Two hands clap, one hand steals. The echo is always a lie." GSM-7 felt something then—almost a shiver. Almost.