INT. HQ UNDERGROUND – CORE ROOM – NIGHT
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The patrol’s boots squelch and sink with every step as they move into a massive subterranean chamber—unnaturally carved, unnaturally alive.
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The walls twitch. The floor pulses. Somewhere above, a distant groan vibrates through layers of synthetic muscle and tangled metal.
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And in the center—
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The Core.
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A grotesque cube-shaped mass, about the size of a delivery truck, floats just inches off the ground. Its surface is patchworked with fleshy growths, rusted armor plates, and shards of embedded crystal—glowing in soft, pulsing purples.
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Vines, thick as limbs, reach in from every direction, plugging into the core like veins to a heart. They twitch, shiver, and pump—not blood, not fuel, but something in between.
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At the front of the Core:
A massive, twitching eyeball, bloodless and unblinking, rolls freely in its socket—scanning the chamber.
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Not thinking.
Not hunting.
Just watching.
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Driven by something ancient and instinctual.
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The team freezes.
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SECURITY BOT 07
(quietly, almost reverent)
“That’s... it.”
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JASON steps forward slowly, eyes narrowed. Steam rises from his joints—his internal coolant struggling with the oppressive heat.
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JASON
“I’ve seen nightmares that look better than that.”
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SCIENTIST UNIT (through comms)
(voice crackling with static)
“Visual confirmed. That crystal signature matches the unknowns from parasitized site scans. You’re looking at a signal relay. Possibly... a hive node.”
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LASER TECH
“The eye’s tracking us.”
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JASON
“Yeah. But it’s not doing anything. Just watching. Like it doesn’t care... or it doesn’t need to.”
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He raises his plasma rifle slowly, just in case.
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SCIENTIST UNIT
“Do not engage the core directly. I repeat: do not engage. We don’t know what a direct hit will trigger.”
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The whole chamber rumbles.
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A low, drawn-out howl vibrates through the vines like a living siren.
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SECURITY BOT 11
“It’s reacting—!”
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JASON
“No, not to us. It’s reacting to something else. Something farther down.”
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He takes one more step toward the edge of the platform surrounding the core.
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The Core’s eyeball snaps toward him.
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JASON
“...Great.”
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FADE TO BLACK.
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