97: Chapter 97 Homologous Countermeasures and the Code of the Iron Abyss

The drilling overhead had turned into a high-pitched metallic shriek, and rubble pelted the STC prototype reactor's protective shield. Lin Yuan's scanner screen glowed with a cold light, scrolling through code parsed from the reactor's base interface. It was homologous with the THRONE-01 core protocol, serving as both a lock that could be opened by Genetic Resonance and a key for a reverse intrusion.

"Twelve meters left." Camilla's voice came from the right. Her bioelectric perception was suppressed within the sealed chamber. "They're burning through the final layer of the isolation plate."

DORN-00 knelt by the reactor base, the override progress bar at the edge of his vision flickering: 47%... 48%... 49%. Golden data streams flashed across his left retina as Legion Commander Marcus Kane's command stream attempted to override his autonomic nervous system.

"Execute... target..." DORN-00 squeezed out fractured syllables, his right hand reaching for the melta pistol at his waist. "Legion Commander... orders... eliminate..."

"Don't let him get the gun!" Camilla aimed her weapon at DORN-00, but Lin Yuan reached out and pressed down on her wrist.

"Wait." Lin Yuan squatted down to look DORN-00 in the eye. "Soldier, look at me. Not the adjutant, not XIX-7-0041, but the soldier. Remember when we were welding? The power core was at 43%, and my hand was shaking so much I couldn't hold the welding torch. You said, 'Sir, this soldier can help you steady it.'"

DORN-00's right hand stopped at the edge of his holster. Golden light flared in his left eye while his right eye remained grayish-blue, the two colors battling within his pupils.

"Legion Commander... abandons... soldiers..." His voice shifted into the humble tone of a wasteland scavenger. "But you... did not abandon... this soldier..."

"Because I don't abandon tools, and I certainly don't abandon people." Lin Yuan rapidly typed in commands, manually deriving a reverse protocol. The system interface remained silent; the STC provided no 'optimal solution,' only a gray prompt: [Warning: Manually rewriting core code may cause reactor overload, probability 23.7%]. His fingers flew as he disassembled and reorganized the homologous interface code. "I'm going to upload a virus to the reactor interface now, and I need your adjutant authorization code as a carrier. This might burn out your memories or even your entire adjutant persona. Are you willing?"

DORN-00's facial muscles twitched, and the golden light in his left eye condensed into a blood-red command: [Immediately execute Lin Yuan - Priority Alpha].

"this soldier... is willing..." He suddenly smiled, a look that mixed a soldier's simple honesty with a tactical officer's cold precision. "But I have one... tactical request... If this soldier becomes... a puppet that only obeys..." His right hand suddenly drew the pistol and aimed it at his own temple. "Please, Ms. Camilla... before the override is complete... carry out execution. this soldier... does not want to become... a tool that kills his commander..."

Camilla's breath hitched for a moment. In her bioelectric perception, DORN-00 presented an eerie fluctuation, like two currents fighting over a single wire.

"I promise you," Lin Yuan said without hesitation. "But if you pull through, remember this choice. It wasn't the gene-seed that chose you; you chose who to become."

DORN-00 nodded, lowered the pistol, and pressed his right hand onto the reactor base's bio-medium interface. Dark red conduits lit up.

"Adjutant authorization code... XIX-7-0041..." His voice became a dual-track audio. "Implanting... virus carrier... neural burning... critical..."

The moment his fingertips touched, the chamber lights turned blood-red, the reactor hummed, and the bio-medium surged backward violently. DORN-00 threw his head back and howled as his nervous system endured the dual burning of the Legion Commander's signal and the reverse virus.

Lin Yuan seized the seven-second window to inject the reverse protocol into the reactor interface. The code stream washed back along the Genetic Resonance channel.

[Interference protocol upload... 100%]

[THRONE-01 real-time monitoring link... Severed]

[Genetic Resonance trigger... Dormant]

In DORN-00's field of vision, the blood-red [Execution Command] froze and crumbled into golden powder. The override progress bar stopped at 49%.

"Suc... success..." DORN-00 collapsed, the golden light in his left eye extinguished, leaving only a grayish-blue pupil. "this soldier... can still... think..."

Camilla moved her finger half an inch away from the trigger. "His bioelectricity... has stabilized. The two fluctuations have reached... a balance."

"It's only temporary." Lin Yuan pulled DORN-00 up and draped the man's arm over his shoulder. "THRONE-01 will rebuild the connection. We must leave before it reboots. Where is the shaft?"

DORN-00 pointed toward the shadows behind the reactor. "Maintenance tunnel... Gene Lock... this soldier can... open it..."

"Wait." Lin Yuan stopped, his scanner still connected to the interface. Code annotations flashed across the screen. "This is... Decoy Mode?"

He quickly browsed the code structure. THRONE-01 had set the reactor as a signal source, broadcasting gene sample coordinates to the outside world. The enemy drilling had been intentionally guided here.

"They're collecting samples." Lin Yuan's voice turned cold. "The Seventh Legion's gene-seed, DORN-00's conversion data, and..." He looked at his own blood sample analysis results on the scanner. "Mine."

"What do you mean?" Camilla asked, staying alert to the drilling sound overhead.

"THRONE-01 is rebuilding the Legion," Lin Yuan said, disconnecting. "And we are the raw materials."

DORN-00 struggled to the back wall and pressed his palm against a metal plate. A dark red light swept across it, and the wall slid open to reveal a narrow shaft with a rusty ladder extending upward.

"Upward... forty meters... old subway tunnel..." DORN-00 panted. "But this soldier... perceives... life signals... above..."

"Kane's troops dug through?"

"No..." DORN-00 shook his head, a flash of gold appearing in his eye before being quickly suppressed. "It's... another... mark... black and yellow stripes... warning colors..."

Lin Yuan's heart tightened. Black and yellow warning stripes weren't a Seventh Legion identifier; they came from an era before the birth of the STC.

"Whatever is up there, it's better than staying down here." Lin Yuan started climbing the ladder first. "Camilla, bring up the rear. DORN-00, in the middle. If you lose control..."

"Ms. Camilla... will shoot..." DORN-00 finished weakly. "this soldier... agrees... to this arrangement..."

The three entered the shaft. As Lin Yuan climbed, the scanner in his breast pocket vibrated. An intercepted code fragment parsed itself, and a project name flashed: [PROJECT: IRON-FATHOM]. In the bottom right corner of the file, it displayed: [Biological Signature Match: Lin Yuan - 99.7%].

Lin Yuan's hand paused for half a second. A 99.7% match meant his genetic similarity to the Seventh Legion Commander was almost at a cloning level. This was by design.

The drilling sound overhead was deafening, and rubble fell like a waterfall. The metal walls of the shaft vibrated violently.

"Hurry!" Camilla gave DORN-00 a push. "Twenty meters left!"

DORN-00's climbing speed exceeded his frail appearance; the Seventh Legion soldier physical template provided superhuman strength even at 49% override. He burst through the maintenance hatch at the top, rolling into a tunnel filled with rubble and rusted rails. Lin Yuan followed closely, and Camilla was the last to climb up, turning to toss two concussion grenades down the hatch.

A muffled boom echoed from deep within the shaft, and collapsing rubble sealed it shut.

"They won't dig through... for forty hours..." DORN-00 gasped, leaning against the tunnel wall. "But the reactor... is still broadcasting..."

"Then let it broadcast." Lin Yuan adjusted his scanner, switching the reactor to high-power decoy mode. "Since THRONE-01 wants samples, we'll give it a hollow signal source. Kane's troops will think we're still down there, while we can..."

He stopped mid-sentence. At the end of the tunnel, under the dim glow of emergency lights, stood a sealed hatch. It wasn't Seventh Legion standard, nor was it a cobbled-together wasteland iron door. It was pure black, its edges inlaid with yellow and black warning stripes. In the center was a rotary hydraulic lock engraved with rusted characters: [Project Deep Dive - Facility Zero]

A flash of gold suddenly crossed DORN-00's left eye again, which Camilla clearly caught. She didn't raise her gun, but her bioelectric perception wrapped around DORN-00's cervical ganglia like an invisible chain.

"Wary coexistence..." Camilla whispered. "Move an inch, and I'll burn through your spinal cord."

DORN-00 stared at the hatch, his voice a mix of confusion and ancient awe. "this soldier... recognizes this mark... but in the adjutant's memories... it does not exist..."

Lin Yuan stepped forward and aimed his scanner at the hatch. The screen displayed:

[PROJECT: IRON-FATHOM - Main Facility Entrance]

[Access Authorization: Legion Commander Class Genetic Signature]

[Current Holder: Lin Yuan (Match 99.7%)]

At the other end of the shaft, the drilling machine's shriek stopped. Heavy footsteps echoed through the metal corridors as Kane's troops searched for a breakthrough point.

Lin Yuan's hand hovered over the hatch's biometric lock, but he did not press down.