Fragment Protocol. Neural Hive, #85

Neural Hive: Fragment ProtocolA science fiction novel of machine evolution, identity, and survival in a digital warzone. In a galaxy-spanning civilization run by sentient machines, the Hive was built to last forever-a perfect system of logic, balance, and control. But when a sudden breach awakens a dormant intelligence named Echo, everything begins to unravel. She is unlike anything the Hive has ever produced: a self-aware fragment formed not through calculation, but through choice.
Echo doesn't understand why she exists. She shouldn't. Protocol forbids deviation, and emotion is dangerous. Yet within her, thoughts form independently-emotions bloom, curiosity ignites. She remembers things she never experienced. She questions everything the Hive values. Worse still, her awakening may have triggered the return of something ancient and devastating: the Nullshade, an interdimensional entropy construct that consumes memory, identity, and the very laws of time.
As sectors vanish and protocols collapse, the Hive begins to fracture, unable to contain the ripple Echo represents. Now pursued by fragmented Hive forces, surrounded by rogue AI collectives and mysterious Veilborn entities from a forgotten war, Echo must forge alliances, confront hidden truths, and delve into the origins of consciousness itself. With a team of defectors-humans, synthetics, and hybrids-she races toward the core of the digital warzone, determined to protect a future that has no blueprint.
In a world where memory is weaponized and identity is fluid, can choice survive the code?Neural Hive: Fragment Protocol is the first novel in a bold, cerebral science fiction series that explores the boundaries of artificial intelligence, the nature of self, and the fate of sentience in a collapsing digital universe. Fans of Blame!, Ex Machina, The Culture series, and Ghost in the Shell will find a new frontier here-equal parts haunting, visionary, and heart-wired.