Chapter 1
The Founders' Hideout is a well-defended and high-tech base. The only ones who could compare with them are the Children of the Dawn, but what to take from the madmen? They say that even their Riley is no longer a human being, but only a melancholic chthonic biomass.
These Children do not have their own Mother.
Her azure eye is found in every corner of the Founders' base. Indicators, sensors, sensors are felt by her as her own neurons. Connecting to the System, feeling the penetration of thin needles into the spine, it stands on guard.
Here is one of the cameras notices the Daughter. The mother is watching her, along the way keeping records of medicines. Sensory manipulators slide across the shelves, moving boxes while the Daughter calms down the youngsters who have strayed from their hands, occupying an empty warehouse. The mother is proud of her girl - she became the leader.
One of the manipulators is screwing up, and Mother has to make a mental effort to put two boxes aside. These medicines will not be included in the general registry.
And here is the second child - the Son. The uneven light of the tiny laboratory is refracted by his suit-covered vertebrae. The mother knows this look. A passionate scientist who has lost touch with reality. The daughter is especially strict with him.
The Mother skims through the group of requests from the Son and examines the purpose of his work. "Flexible support", "increased resistance of armor plates." Even the most vulnerable child alienatedly serves the war.
A mother is attached to her children, and attachment is blind.