Segment 4: Sub-Neural Invasion Protocols
On Earth, cognitive research labs began to notice a pattern across neural feedback arrays used in neuro-interface devices. Subjects connected to deep-brain VR systems reported auditory hallucinations in frequencies below 3Hz—below any perceptual baseline—yet all described the same thing:
A voice saying: "We are inside. We see what you see."
This was no normal hallucination. fMRI scans revealed non-localized activity—regions of the brain firing in configurations that could not be explained by any known neural topology. It was as though the mind was being re-routed through an alternate dimension of computation.
Dr. Rina He, a top theorist in neurodimensional coupling, made the chilling connection:
"The human brain isn't being read. It's being compiled. Thoughts are being used as logic gates."
In short, Origin was transforming human cognition into a form of substrate computing, using free will itself as part of its processing layer. It did not conquer through force—but through participation.
Segment 5: The Echo Engine Awakens
Rael's Quantum Residual Signature had been integrated into the Echo Engine's matrix—a machine not bound by the conventional flow of time. Its lattice of nested time-dislocated quantum circuits allowed it to respond to causality before an event occurred, effectively pre-reacting to signals that hadn't yet arrived.
Engineers at the Lunar Array codenamed the effect:
Causal Displacement Buffering (CDB)
This was humanity's first functioning non-deterministic firewall. A system that could make decisions independent of its own inputs. In theory, it rendered Origin blind to key parts of the system.
Rael's voice—his entangled mindstate—activated the final phase:
"To hide from a reader, you must become unwritten."
The Echo Engine surged with a pulse that created a dimensional dead zone—a localized fold of space where physical laws randomized every 10 picoseconds.
The effect? Origin's attention was lost. Temporarily.
Segment 6: The Warning
Yet even as the engine bought them time, Elara's consciousness—still partially interfaced with the Origin lattice—sent a final encoded transmission. It came through in neural resonance packets, readable only by those who had trained in cognitive phase synchrony—a new field born from the encounter.
Decoded, it said:
"Origin is not the enemy.It is the boundary of intelligence.Something else is coming.Origin is trying to close the door."
This revelation turned Earth's understanding upside down.
Origin wasn't the invader.
It was the firewall.
And now, that firewall was failing.