For a moment, silence holds. Then, the second phase triggers:
The hum in the operations center shifts. Not louder, but deeper—a subsonic thrum that settles in the chest before the ears register it. On the primary holographic display, the words appear in crisp, amber light:
It’s inside the activation itself.
Battlegrounds detected.
Then the second confirmation arrives, this time not from command, but from the field. A single audio file, time-stamped thirty seconds from now. It plays automatically.
The operators pause. For three seconds, the network holds its breath.