Location: Northern Geneva, Switzerland – Vale Industries HQ
Six months had passed since the Orion Project was dismantled, but Aria still woke with the ghost of gunfire in her ears.
The sprawling Vale Tower glittered under the alpine sky. Clean glass. Ethical policies. Open-source tech for good. A symbol of renewal.
But peace was a mask, and Aria was starting to feel its cracks.
At her desk, she flipped through encrypted reports from K-0X, now head of cyber-security.
Untraceable drone attacks. Disappearances of ex-Orion scientists. A murdered UN tech advisor.
They all had one thing in common:
A black insignia burned into the scene.
A geometric wing — shaped like a labyrinth.
> Project DAEDALUS.
Lucien entered without knocking, his dark hair tousled from sleep, his shirt halfway buttoned.
"You didn't sleep again," he murmured.
She looked up, eyes fierce.
"I think someone's rebuilding Orion. Only smarter. More global."
Lucien leaned against her desk. "You think it's Lina?"
Aria shook her head. "No. She warned us. This… this is someone else."
She stood, pacing.
"They're using tech no one should have access to. Bio-mimetic bots. Neuroweapons. Ghost encryption. If they keep moving like this—governments won't even see the threat coming."
Lucien frowned.
"I'll activate the old shadows division," he said. "And call in K-0X. This smells like war."
Aria looked out over the city, heart heavy.
"Not war," she said softly. "A reckoning."
---
Elsewhere… in Cairo, Egypt
A man in a white coat knelt beside a pile of burning bodies — experiments gone wrong.
His assistant held up a photo.
A girl. Seventeen. Brown eyes. Pendant around her neck.
Aria Vale.
The man took the photo and smiled.
She thinks she ended the game," he whispered.
"She was only the first queen. Now the board resets."
He pressed a finger to his temple — triggering a data transmission across six global servers.
"Initiate Phase One: Lazarus Protocol."