"Access level: BLACK-3"

Contact ended without incident. The Necrocivilization representative left the command post and slowly returned to the tomb ship, which 48 minutes later began its vertical ascent without disturbing the surrounding environment. After the object's departure, the temperature in the landing zone returned to normal - the soil and vegetation were unaffected.

The activity phase began 2 hours and 18 minutes after the charnel ship's departure. The first signals were recorded in the eastern districts of the city: a sharp increase in psychoenergetic background, accompanied by sleep disturbances, brief auditory hallucinations, and a sensation of an "alien presence" among local residents.

Concurrently, in the suburban area, near a former industrial hub, the awakening of a Psychomancer structure was detected. The previously stationary object began to slowly shift, changing the geometry and density of its outer contour. The structure moved unsupported, at a constant speed of 0.7 meters per second, without disturbing the surface. Its trajectory was strictly in the direction of the anomaly's epicenter in the eastern part of the city.

As the structure advanced, the Psychic Entities became more active, projecting indescribable images into people's consciousness: fragments of memories, distorted archetypes, and emotionally charged states. Some witnesses reported "flashes of anxiety," others "wordless pressure." Despite the active psychological influence exerted by the Psychic Entities, not a single fatality was recorded among the population. The influence was displacing: an irresistible urge to leave the zone into which the structure was moving.

Location: 134th Special Forces Brigade Command Post / [TITLE REDACTED] City
Time: +10 Hours Since First Contact

[INTERIOR. Command Post.]

General Kovalev stands at a monitor transmitting an image from outside. In the distance, over the eastern part of the city, the air trembles. Not from the heat. From something else. As if the very fabric of space were vibrating.

COMMUNICATION SESSION, on one of the side screens - a Dr. Jan Lewandowski. The wind blows his lab coat. He is clearly high up (on the roof of the Trade Center, where an observation post has been set up).

SCIENTIST (excitedly):
Arthur Sergeyevich, we have confirmation. The Psychomancer structure is moving. Smoothly, but inexorably. The vector is centered on the eastern part of the city. I transmitted the coordinates.

GENERAL:
What are they doing there?

SCIENTIST:
I don't know. But... (pause) there's something there. A source. We've detected a surge in bioenergetic activity, synchronized with the key. Perhaps it's a resonance. Or... an answer.

The general looks at the main screen, displaying the city. His eyes are filled with anxiety. He can already feel the pressure-not physical, but visceral. As if someone is peering into him from within his own thoughts.

SUBJECT sits, leaning against the wall. He clutches his head. His face is distorted - not from pain, but from sensory overload.

SUBJECT (whispering):
They... sense me.
(pause)
There are many of them. Are they... crying?

He hears whimpering, a blizzard, flashes of images: eyeless faces, stairs leading to nowhere, wet walls behind which a heartbeat.

R'MEL (mentally):
Psychic entities. They've discovered something. They don't understand what. But they're afraid. Or... protective.

SUBJECT:
They're not evil. They just... don't know what to do. They're driving people away. To hide? Or to protect them?

[EXTERIOR. CITY. STREETS. PANIC.]

People are fleeing. But no one knows why. Some hear voices. Some see images. Some bleed from the ears. But no one dies. They just leave. As if the city itself has become uninhabitable.

Signs appear on the walls, like mold made of light: symbols that vanish upon sight, but linger in memory.

[RETURN TO COMMAND ROOM. GENERAL LOOKING AT SCREEN.]

GENERAL:
Activate suppression fields. Immediately.

He presses the panel, but the Agent Raven's hand falls on top.

AGENT (harshly):
Don't do this.

GENERAL:
Did you see what's happening? This isn't just contact. This is an invasion.

AGENT:
No. This is a transition. And it's not necessarily hostile.
(pause)
Psychic entities aren't attacking. They're evacuating. Psychomancers are moving, but not attacking.
(looking toward the city)
Looks like someone else is involved.

GENERAL:
Who?

AGENT:
I don't know. But Psychomancers don't act first. They react. (pause) Which means someone has already done something.

[INTERIOR. SHOPPING CENTER ROOF / OBSERVATION POST. COMMUNICATION ROOM.]

There's a signal surge on the monitor. An unknown transmission. The encoding isn't Earth-based. Not R'melian. Not necrocivilizational. Something else.

The operator calls the Dr. Lewandowski. He looks at the screen. His face turns pale.

SCIENTIST (almost in a whisper):
This isn't from the Psychomancers. And it's not from the Pilgrims.
(pause)
This is... from inside the city.

The camera switches. The frame shows a building in the eastern part of the city. Its walls shimmer. It becomes geometrically impossible. As if it were built outside of reality.