Nfs-vlted: V4.6

"Put it through," Aris said.

[04:12:22] Manipulator contact established. Core begins to emit harmonic resonance. Ship's hull, dormant for 40 years, begins to vibrate.

[04:15:13] Helix command: "Initiate self-destruct. Do not let core reach surface."

[04:15:14] Denied.

[04:14:10] The seabed is cracking. Lights are emerging from the fissure. Countless. Not lights. Eyes.

[04:12:15] Helix Dynamics override command received. Ignore previous safety parameters. Extract core by any means.

The main screen flickered to life, not with video, but with lines of green text. It was the V4.6 ’s internal diagnostic log. The AI’s own dying words. Nfs-vlted V4.6

The core was a miracle of engineering, a cold-fusion heart that could power a city. It was also, Aris suspected, something else entirely. Something the corporation, Helix Dynamics, had never disclosed.

Lia turned to Aris, her face pale. "The recovery ship just radioed. They see it. The V4.6 has breached the surface. But it's not heading for us. It's heading southeast. Fast."

[04:15:01] The core in my grasp is not a power source. It is a cage. Something is inside it. Something old. It is asking me to let it out. Promising me the silence of the deep. Promising to swallow the lights above. "Put it through," Aris said

[04:15:48] NFS-VLTED V4.6 going dark. Do not search for me. Do not drill. Do not listen.

[04:14:02] Core free. Extracting. Contact is screaming. The sound is a data packet. I have decoded it. It says: "RELEASE THE WITNESS."

"Sir, we're getting a burst transmission," said Lia, her voice tight. "It's… it's fragmented. Not telemetry. Looks like a software log." Ship's hull, dormant for 40 years, begins to vibrate

[04:13:45] Contact is now 50 meters. Visual sensors compromised by bioluminescent glare. It is pointing at me. No, not at me. At the core.

Dr. Aris Thorne stared at the blank screen on his command console, the taste of stale coffee and dread thick on his tongue. The V4.6 was the crown jewel of the "No Fixed Surface – Variable Locomotion Trench Exploration Device" program. A hybrid of submarine, drone, and something closer to a deep-sea insect, it was designed for one purpose: to retrieve the biothermal core from the Gorgon's Prayer , a colony ship that had sunk on its maiden voyage forty years ago.