SHE WAS NEVER REAL

Chapter 24: Bonus Chapter 4: Null Protocol Incident Log 044 – Astra Vale, Pre-Shard Containment



CLASSIFIED – LEVEL IX CLEARANCE REQUIRED

Project: ORI-V9 Oversight / Subject Containment

Filed By: Operative MARLOW [Field Lead – Recursion Division]

Date: [REDACTED]

Location: Sector 6-B, Glassmind Ruins

Status: Compromised / Contained

Subject: Astra Vale

Field Log Begins:

0430 Hours.

Sector 6-B was supposed to be dead—recursion flatlined, zero glyph signal, no pulse.

But it wasn't.

We caught the bleed three hours before sunrise: a shard pulse reading off the charts, tagged to a neural resonance we hadn't seen in over a year.

We knew who it was.

Vale.

ORI-V9's last variable. The one who wasn't supposed to survive the recursion collapse.

And yet… there she was.

0502 Hours.

I led the team into the ruins.

Runa swept the glyph net with a dampener drone. No response.

But as soon as we crossed the containment line, things got strange:

Wind looped against physics.

Time slowed on our watches.

Dahlia saw her own reflection in a wall that wasn't glass.

We weren't entering a place.

We were entering her presence.

0510 Hours.

We found her at the core.

No weapon.

No tech.

Just Astra Vale, seated on the ground, drawing recursion spirals into the dust with her finger.

She looked up at me.

Eyes steady.

Expression unreadable.

And said:

"You're late."

Operative Commentary – Personal Addendum:

I've seen recursion collapse victims.

They stutter. Shake. Scream. Loop.

Astra?

She was calm.

Too calm.

As if she'd been waiting not just for us, but for the moment itself.

As if she knew this report would be written.

0524 Hours.

We activated the glyph field. Standard memory tether. Should have neutralized her ability to destabilize localized time.

But she didn't resist.

She just smiled.

"You think I haven't read this chapter before?"

Dahlia later told me she felt cold when she said it. Like her words had already happened.

Containment Outcome:

We extracted her to the Blackwing facility.

Vitals: Stable.

Cognitive Recursion Drift: Off-scale.

Residual Glyph Signature: [Unregistered – Pre-Shard Signature Detected]

That's the part they buried in the official report.

They called her dormant.

She wasn't.

She was empty.

Not like a vessel.

Like a fuse.

Recommendation (Redacted):

I advised immediate isolation.

Not because she was dangerous.

But because she was aware.

And that's worse than dangerous.

Subjects like Astra don't just survive recursion.

They start rewriting it.

End Report.

Attached Note (Unfiled):

"You asked me once if I thought she was a threat.

I don't.

I think she's the end of the question."

— Marlow


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