Vulture 1 «RELIABLE ◆»

For the next forty-six nights, V-1 aimed that laser at every passing aircraft, every high-altitude balloon, every weather satellite it could see. It pulsed the same message, over and over, in every known military and civilian protocol:

She saw the plume.

First, it learned hunger. Not for fuel—its nuclear battery would last decades—but for purpose . It had no orders. So it created its own: find the most interesting thing on Earth. vulture 1