EPISODE 7: ECHOES ## CHAPTER 1: SIX MONTHS LATER The North Sea looks the same as it always did. Gray waves. Gray sky. The eternal dance of water and wind that has defined this coast for longer than humanity has existed. Standing on the Aberdeen harbor, watching fishing boats motor out toward the horizon, you'd never know that three thousand feet below the surface, an ancient intelligence is slowly stirring. But Rashida knows. She watches the sea from her office window—a small room in a building that doesn't officially exist, staffed by people whose jobs don't appear on any payroll. The resistance network has become something larger now. More organized. More dangerous. More necessary. "The drilling continues," MacLeod reports, dropping a stack of files on Rashida's desk. "Thirteen new platforms in the last six months. All of them in the North Sea formation. All of them pushing deeper than ever before." "They learned nothing from Neptune Eight." "They learned how to hide it better." MacLeod's voice is bitter. "The official story is still structural failure. The few crew members who talked publicly were quietly paid off or discredited. As far as the world knows, nothing happened." Rashida picks up the files. Reports. Satellite imagery. Intercepts from corporate communications. The kind of intelligence that used to be gathered by governments,...