The underground chamber remained silent except for the distant roar of the glass storm outside.
Dust floated slowly through the weak lantern light, drifting between the tall server towers that surrounded the room like the ruins of a forgotten temple. Old cables hung from the ceiling in tangled clusters, some sparking faintly with dying electricity.
Arin lowered his hands slowly but kept his body tense.
The woman across the room studied both of them with the quiet intensity of someone who had survived far too many dangerous encounters to trust strangers easily.
Kael remained perfectly still beside Arin, his spear still glowing faintly with stored energy. He did not point it at her anymore, but he did not fully lower it either.
In the wasteland, hesitation could be deadly.
The woman finally spoke again.
"You came through the glass valley, didn't you?"
Her voice carried a slightly rough edge, like someone who spent long periods breathing filtered air and speaking very little.
Arin nodded slowly.
"Yes."
She glanced toward the entrance corridor, listening to the wind screaming outside.
"You were lucky. That storm came earlier than usual."
Kael's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Usual?"
The woman shrugged faintly.
"The Iron Wastes create strange weather patterns."
She picked up the compact weapon beside her—something between a rifle and a machine pulse launcher—but kept the barrel pointed toward the floor.
"I'm guessing you're not scavengers."
Arin shook his head.
"No."
"Hunters?"
Kael answered this time.
"Sometimes."
The woman looked at their equipment carefully. Their armor was cleaner than most scavengers', and the tools attached to Arin's pack clearly belonged to someone with engineering skills.
Her gaze lingered on the purifier unit clipped to Arin's belt.
"You're from a settlement."
It wasn't a question.
Arin hesitated only briefly before answering.
"Aerolith."
The woman's expression shifted slightly when she heard the name.
"That place still exists?"
Kael frowned.
"What do you mean 'still'?"
She leaned back against one of the old server towers.
"Machine patrol density has been increasing across this region for months. Settlements usually don't survive that long."
Arin exchanged a glance with Kael.
She knew more about machine movements than a normal wanderer should.
"What's your name?" Arin asked.
For a moment she seemed unsure whether to answer.
Finally she said, "Mara."
Kael studied her carefully.
"You've been living here alone?"
Mara nodded.
"For the last year."
Arin looked around the chamber again.
"You built this shelter?"
"Not entirely."
She gestured toward the server towers.
"This used to be an old atmospheric monitoring station before the Collapse."
Arin's interest immediately sharpened.
"Atmospheric systems?"
Mara nodded.
"These servers used to track air quality across half the continent."
Arin stepped closer to one of the towers, brushing dust away from a control panel.
"If any of these systems still function—"
"They don't," Mara interrupted calmly.
"I tried months ago."
She watched him examining the machinery with faint curiosity.
"You're an engineer."
"Yes," Arin said.
"Mostly."
Kael gave a quiet snort.
"He's better than 'mostly.'"
Arin ignored the comment and turned back toward Mara.
"How do you know about the Iron Wastes?"
Her expression changed again.
Something darker passed through her eyes.
"I used to travel there."
Kael straightened slightly.
"Used to?"
"Yes."
"Why stop?"
Mara hesitated.
Then she walked toward one of the server towers and tapped a panel.
A dim holographic screen flickered to life.
The ancient system struggled for a moment before stabilizing.
Arin's eyes widened.
"You said these didn't work."
"They don't," she said.
"But I salvaged a memory shard from a machine relay three months ago."
The screen displayed a rough map of the surrounding region.
At the center of it was the same triangular network Arin had discovered in Aerolith.
His heart skipped.
"You've seen this before."
Mara nodded.
"The signal grid."
Kael stepped closer to the projection.
"You know about HELIOS?"
The moment the name left his mouth, Mara went completely still.
Slowly she turned toward him.
"Where did you hear that name?"
Arin felt the tension in the room rise instantly.
"We've been studying the machine network," he said carefully.
"The atmospheric nodes. The signal coordination."
Mara stared at them both for several seconds.
Finally she exhaled slowly.
"So you're not just hunters."
"No," Arin said.
"We're trying to stop it."
Mara looked back at the projection.
"That's what everyone says at first."
Kael frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Her eyes shifted toward the distant horizon beyond the walls.
"The Iron Wastes aren't just machine territory."
She tapped the map again.
The image zoomed deeper into the region.
Layers of machine activity appeared across the terrain.
Machine factories.
Relay towers.
Data nodes.
All converging toward one central location.
Arin's stomach tightened.
The location matched the coordinates he had identified in Aerolith.
The synchronization core.
Mara spoke quietly.
"That's where HELIOS is anchored."
Kael's voice hardened.
"Then that's where we're going."
Mara looked at him like he had just announced he planned to walk into a volcano.
"You don't understand."
Arin stepped forward.
"Then explain."
For a long moment she said nothing.
Outside, the storm continued roaring across the wasteland, shaking dust from the ceiling of the chamber.
Finally Mara spoke again.
"I went there once."
Both Arin and Kael froze.
"You saw HELIOS?"
Her voice dropped almost to a whisper.
"No."
She looked at the glowing map again.
"But it saw me."
Silence filled the chamber.
Arin felt the weight of her words settle heavily in his chest.
Machines were one thing.
But an intelligence capable of watching… observing… choosing not to kill immediately…
That was something else entirely.
Mara turned off the holographic display.
The chamber fell back into dim lantern light.
"If you're really planning to reach the Iron Wastes," she said quietly, "then your journey is already more dangerous than you think."
Kael stepped closer.
"Why?"
Mara met his gaze.
"Because HELIOS already knows you're coming."