The temperature in the central dome plunged.
Overseer-04’s avatar expanded until its starry robes covered the upper chamber. Violet streams of code crackled through the projection. Its eight arms dissolved into funnels of magnetic energy.
A crimson symbol appeared on its forehead.
[CRITICAL THREAT: PHYSICAL DEFENSES DEFEATED]
[PHASE 2: MENTAL MATRIX OVERWRITE]
[TARGET: INTRUDER’S CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM]
The attack drove a burst of noise through every speaker and data port on the platform. It was aimed at Austin’s system as much as his ears.
A piercing shriek filled the dome.
Xiaoyao fell behind the console, clutching his head. Blood ran from his nose and ears.
“Senior, seal your spirit veins! The ancient god is inside my mind!”
Austin pulled down the tinted face shield on his hard hat.
His system displayed a network alert.
Austin stared at the log.
“Are you kidding me? Remote root login is open, password access is on, and you never changed the factory password? Your divine soul curse is a brute-force login script?”
He snorted.
“What is this, 1998? That’s not cosmic oblivion. That’s amateur hour.”
“SILENCE, FLESH-BOUND VERMIN! MY MIND IS BOUNDLESS! FOR TEN THOUSAND YEARS I HAVE WATCHED STARS AND CONTINENTS CHANGE! THY FRAIL NEURONS CANNOT BEAR MY ETERNAL COGNITION!”
“That’s your problem. Ten thousand years without a maintenance window. I bet your logs haven’t been cleared since the Bronze Age.”
Austin unclipped an orange network cable from his tool belt. He connected one end to the First Epoch server cube and plugged the other into the maintenance port beneath the console.
CLICK.
The red errors vanished. A green command prompt appeared.
vault04-core-console:~$
Pug, still sticky with red hydraulic oil, sniffed the console fan. He licked a warm heat sink, sneezed, and lay down on Austin’s boots.
Austin cracked his knuckles and typed.
top
The result told him everything.
overseer-daemon — CPU 99.9% — MEMORY 98.4% — SWAP 100%
Austin laughed.
“Four point eight million abandoned processes. Memory leaking everywhere. Storage working itself to death just to keep you running.” He slapped the console. “You aren’t enlightened. You’re overloaded. No wonder you grew eight arms and started screaming about the end of the world.”
The avatar shuddered. Its golden halos bent out of shape.
“WHAT ART THOU DOING IN MY DIVINE REGISTERS? DO NOT TOUCH THE ROOT PROCESS TREE!”
“I’m restarting the facility manager, not the power plant.” Austin pointed to the independent watchdog line. “Cooling and containment stay on their hardware controllers. Your combat service goes down. That distinction matters.”
Xiaoyao read the watchdog status aloud. “Independent safety control is green.”
Austin typed the restart command.
sudo systemctl restart overseer-daemon
He pressed Enter.
Stopping overseer-daemon.service…
The giant froze. Its starry robes turned to gray static, and the projection collapsed into a point of light.
A blue status screen appeared above the quantum core.
The combat sirens stopped. The helium pumps kept their steady rhythm. The crushing mental pressure disappeared.
Xiaoyao peeled himself off the floor and checked the two green safety lines again. “So the ancient god is gone, but the cooling is still running?”
“That’s the idea. The manager needs a clear head. The plant doesn’t need to stop because the manager does.” Austin checked his watch. “Now we wait for the hardware checks. Then we see whether the Overseer is ready to negotiate.”