Morning came quicker than Hans expected.
The sky brightened beyond the industrial sector, but the command room that Hans temporarily setup remained buried under reports, maps, and unanswered questions.
Hans stood before the projected Radar map, arms crossed. To his left, near the window, Callum observed the outside.
On the table were several marked points.
Transmission Tower A.
Transmission Tower B.
Road Signage A.
...
Cell 7 Observation Post.
RFT-3 Passage A (River).
RFT-3 Passage B (Sewer).
None of them made him feel better. Rather, these revelations spooked Hans. The city became larger, deeper, and far less empty than before.
He picked up one of the papers containing Matilda's reports. Though short, every sentence made Cell 7 harder to understand.
Two routes, Hans thought. One to the river. Another to the sewer network.
What baffled not only him, but Matilda as well, was that both sides were covered in mystery.
A collapsed section of earth that perfectly hid the descending passage.
And an intact wall where on the other side, corpses of sewer monsters sprawled coldly.
This Cell 7 is by no means ordinary. I should ask Johannes about this. He ought to know more.
The thought barely went through his mind when his comms suddenly buzzed.
"Watcher Four to Golden Eagle."
"Come in, Watcher Four."
"Two Guardian APCs spotted from the southwestern approach."
"ID?"
"Bastion Three and Four."
Took them a while to settle those civilians, Hans sighed. I wonder how's the colony these days.
"Let them in," he replied after a brief silence. "If Johannes is there, tell him to come and meet me in the Command Room."
"Roger that. Watcher Four, out."
Hans's eyes lifted from the report. On the Radar map, two friendly markers approached from the southwestern road.
He folded the report once, stood outside, and enjoyed the warm sunlight.
Several minutes later, Bastion Three's engine could be heard rumbling beyond the broken compound gate.
It rolled into the industrial post; its armor stained with mud from the recent journey. The rear ramp lowered with a hydraulic hiss.
Johannes stepped out first.
He looked more tired than wounded, but his eyes were sharp as he saw Hans waiting outside the command room.
A young woman with ember-colored hair stepped down after him. Evelyn, one of Johannes's subordinates, scanned the industrial post with open curiosity.
Hans remembered her from the group, but he did not call her over yet.
This conversation needed Johannes first.
At that moment, Johannes' vision moved past the commander. For a moment, whatever greeting he had prepared disappeared.
This industrial sector had changed. Very.
It wasn't only cleaner, nor merely better defended. The entire area has become alive—livelier than the colony itself.
Floodlights stood across the perimeter. Cables didn't run between them, yet for some reason, they lit up as if connected to a stable grid.
Where did the energy come from?
Johannes stared at the two newly built Power Plants. However, his attention quickly shifted to somewhere deeper in the compound—near the center of the area: the Construction Yard.
Even without knowing what its purpose was, Johannes could tell it did not belong to any construction company he knew. Its doors were closed, but the faint whirring behind them never stopped.
Just what unit is Commander Hans part of? Something greater than Project HELIX? An experimental rapid-deployment battle group?
He looked at Hans and wondered if he knew this guy, or if it was a different person at all.
"Commander."
Hans raised the folder in his hand. "Good timing."
Johannes's brows shot. "That... looks interesting."
"Let's talk inside."
Behind Johannes, Bastion Three's crew began unloading several crates.
In it were supplies—food, clothing, and other tools that Hans and his soldier may need.
Bastion Four rolled deeper into the yard for inspection. One of the Engineers waved them toward an open section near the captured depot.
Johannes glanced back once, gave a short instruction to Evelyn, then followed Hans into the command room.
"How's the colony?" Hans spoke first.
"Never been better," Johannes replied, all smiles. "The population has surpassed a thousand. Food supply is normal. Everybody looks happy. And security... your tank and APC are doing quite the work."
"That's good to hear then."
Johannes' eyes drifted toward the glowing lights outside the window.
"Though I should say, Commander, it looks like you have built yourself a fortress here."
Hans glanced outside. "Things moved quickly. I didn't expect this development too."
As if, Johannes cursed internally, but let out a smile.
"That is one way to say it. You have electricity, new buildings, and what seems to be a construction complex."
"They're all experimental," Hans replied, knowing what Johannes was up to. "You'll know more soon."
The moment they entered, the morning warmth disappeared.
Reports covered the table. The projected Radar map hovered over the center, marked with routes, towers, and several points.
Kimmy and Yunera were seated near the wall. Kimmy's blindfolded face turned slightly toward Johannes as he entered, while Yunera watched him with clear suspicion.
Hans ignored the atmosphere and placed the folder on the table.
"Cell 7," Hans started. "Ever heard of it?"
"I know of them," Johannes replied. "Professionally. Not personally."
Hans narrowed his eyes. "Care to share more?"
"SAS cells are compartmentalized. We know enough to avoid interfering with each other, and not enough to expose the others if captured."
"They had an observation post near the North Industrial Corridor. They were watching HELIX material transfers."
Johannes's expression sharpened. "How did that happen?"
"Hmm?" Hans was confused.
"I apologize," Johannes cleared his throat. "I didn't make myself clear. Did you... meet up with Cell 7? Or captured them?"
"Observation post was empty," Hans replied. "Not even a ghost could be found."
"But you found this..." Johannes was at a loss. "That's... supposedly not what should have happened."
He scratched his chin and gazed at the reports. "SAS has the Square One protocol—leave no trace behind. If Cell 7 abandoned their observation post, you should not have found anything useful."
Hans tapped the folder. "Then the reasoning for this?"
"They either left in a hurry, were interrupted, or wanted someone to find it."
"Which one?"
Johannes looked at the map.
"That depends on what you found."
Hans paused. His finger moved toward the western side of the projected map.
"Before that, there's another issue. A large horde came from this general direction during the last battle."
Johannes followed his gesture.
"Through the observation post?"
"Close enough that it should have been... visited."
"And the post?"
"Clean," Hans replied. "No bodies. Nothing broken. Even the receiver looked partially dismantled, not destroyed."
Johannes's expression slowly changed. "Did you bring that receiver?"
"Does it matter?"
"A lot. SAS agents use receivers like that for fallback communication. If we can fix it, we might reach their fallback channel. Not Cell 7 directly, but at least whoever's listening on the other side."
"Receiver should still be in the post," Hans recalled. "I'll let Matilda bring it over in a while."
Johannes nodded.
"But are you not afraid someone can decode it?" Hans knew how crafty people can be.
"SAS already got that covered," Johannes let out a faint smile. "The receiver does not carry plain speech. It only listens to encoded burst transmissions. Even we cannot decode it by hand."
"Heh," Hans chuckled. Must be another alien technology embedded in that.
His eyes glanced toward Kimmy for a moment before returning to the map.
"Receiver or not, this observation post is still a mystery."
Johannes agreed. The horde ignoring that area was mysterious enough.
His current knowledge couldn't explain any possible idea of how that even happened.
"What was the nature of their operation?"
"Tracking smuggled HELIX materials around this area," Hans answered. "Aside from that, we have RFT-3. Two passages. One toward a drainage channel. One toward a sewer wall."
"RFT," Johannes muttered. "Relay Fallback Terminal."
Hans didn't say anything. He let Johannes continue.
"An RFT normally has one primary passage. One node, one route, one exit. Or perhaps Command changed protocols without us knowing in time. Regardless, if you found two separate routes, one of them may not belong to RFT-3."
"Another RFT?"
"Or a relay path to another cell."
Hans tapped the two marked lines on the map.
"Matilda's team found evidence on both routes. River side had crossing marks. Faint, but they're there. Sewer side had an intact wall."
Johannes was confused about Hans's pause. "What's on the other side?"
"Dead sewer infected."
Johannes froze slightly.
"Intact?"
"Cleaner than your usual hotel room."
"And the corpses behind it?"
"Five at least. No human bodies. No spent casings. No weapon fragments."
Johannes went quiet. Hans watched him as he contemplated.
"That is not standard SAS?"
"Killing quietly is standard SAS," Johannes shook his head. "But why stop the passage in an intact wall?"
"They're probably playing with their pursuers."
"Possibly," Johannes furrowed his brows. "But it still does not make sense."
"The intact wall?" Hans asked.
"The entire scene," Johannes replied. "If there was a fight on the other side, then the area should have marks. Bullet impacts on the wall or the floor. Blade cuts anywhere. Broken concrete. Cracks from impact."
"The corpses are not a problem?"
"No," Johannes read through the report. "Five sewer infected dead. With no human bodies, no casings, no weapon fragments—that tells me one thing."
Hans narrowed his eyes. "Superhuman SAS."
"Most likely," Johannes said. "A normal squad could kill a few, but not that cleanly. Not in a sewer passage, and especially without leaving any trace of damage or spent ammunition."
"But if they passed through, why bother with such a long passage?"
"That is what the evidence wants us to believe."
Hans leaned forward. "But?"
Johannes looked at the marked sewer route again.
"But if they passed through that wall, then it shouldn't be that intact."
Silence fell over the command room.