The Crown in the Dust

The team found a broken circular structure half-buried in dust at the centre of an empty intersection. It was not a crown, but every person who approached it began issuing directions in a voice that did not feel like their own.

The Uncrowned coordinator ordered the crew to step back and then removed their own command seal from the active channel. The voices stopped.

MOTHER recorded the object as a damaged civic interface. The coordinator's report calls it a reminder that authority can survive its institution and continue searching for a body.