"V-05 just initiated the Extinction Protocol."
The words from the Southern Warlord echoed through the secure analog comms, freezing the blood in Nikki's veins. The sky above them was clearing, the emerald and bronze plasma of the loyalist grids physically chasing the dark purple swarm back toward Sector 5. They had won the intersection. They had won the sky.
But machines did not surrender; they recalculated.
"Get into the bunker! Move!" Silas roared, his voice tearing through the ruined street as he waved the surviving human fighters toward the subterranean hub.
Adonis did not wait. He kept one massive arm wrapped securely around Nikki's waist and surged forward, crossing the distance to the heavy steel blast doors in a blur of cracked white armor. They crossed the threshold into the damp, echoing cavern of the underground communications hub. Silas and his men piled in right behind them, slamming their hands onto the manual override levers.
