From Human to Skeleton: Revived with Infinite System Crystals

Vey stopped the maintenance tram with its rear wheel hanging above the rail.

The driver held the brake while two West Four soldiers wedged rifle stocks beneath the axle. Jade sat inside the open car with one hand over her damaged eye. Ty stood in the track bed, and every dead sleeve behind him had stopped at the same joint.

Under the tram, the second pull ran toward the fourth desk.

"Keep the east transfer line moving and send no one across this switch until I identify the load."

The orbital coordinator answered through Vey's molar. "Thirty brewery evacuees remain on the west platform, and their car leaves in eleven minutes."

"Hold them behind the cage posts and keep their baggage on the ground."

Vey stepped between the rails. White scoring appeared on the inside of the lifted wheel, fresh enough to leave filings on his glove. The pull was not lifting the tram. It was dragging the axle sideways toward a seam that had formed between both tracks.

Palla's voice came from the intersection. "The safety catch has folded around the empty cup, and the lower teeth are turning against its broken end."

"Can the catch survive until my platform clears?"

"It can survive one more tooth because Fenn has a keg hook through the spring."

The seam opened before the next question reached Vey's mouth.

Both rails spread by the width of his boot. Black packing grease pushed through first, followed by a corner of gray cloth washed pale at its fold. A wooden crate struck the underside of the tram and knocked one rifle stock from beneath the axle.

The rear wheel dropped. The crate kept coming.

Vey caught its iron handle and let the tram roll over his shoulder rather than take the full load in his arms. Davi reached him from the roof ladder and braced both boots against a tie before helping turn the crate into the drainage channel.

The lid carried the mark from under the desk, one line stretched above six cuts.

"Leave the owner mark visible and keep every hand away from the latch."

Davi jammed his rifle through the handle. "The door appears ready to deliver the rest without waiting for signatures."

A second crate pushed the first along the drain. Coils of washed gray cloth followed, and their wrapping concealed several metal shapes.

One bundle split when it struck the first crate. Three pulse cage shoulder hinges spilled across the drainage stones. Their serial faces had been ground away, but the undersides retained the double punch used by West Four maintenance.

Vey kicked one hinge behind Davi's rifle. "Bag that piece separately because somebody is packing Meren hardware on the other side."

Davi trapped it beneath his boot. "Then the route has been supplying itself from our losses longer than today's breach."

From the intersection came the scream of salvage mesh sliding over pavement.

The three field fingers pulled the crawler toward the seam. Its brake claws tore parallel lines through the street. The black knuckle stayed beneath the rear half of the mesh and moved only because the crawler carried it.

Palla ran beside the front wheel with Sorn's drawer rail across the mesh. Fenn and Davi's replacement held the keg hook behind her, fighting to keep Nessa's safety catch inside the desk.

"The outgoing freight and the fingers are using opposite teeth," Palla called. "Blocking either load makes the other one turn harder."

Vey saw the platform before he saw the problem reach it.

The thirty evacuees had obeyed the cage post order. Their baggage remained on the ground. When the third crate came through the seam, every bag with a metal clasp slid toward the tram while the people clipped to the posts were pulled backward by their emergency cage handles.

The platform sat between outward freight and cage handles pulling people the other way.

"Roof teams cut every baggage strap crossing the yellow line, while platform crews lower people beneath the cage rail."

The orbital coordinator caught the first moving suitcase with her boot. "Cutting those straps destroys the pressure tags required for shelter intake."

"Then write the owners on their sleeves and keep the owners attached to the platform."

West Four fired downward in single shots. Each round broke a strap or handle without entering the crowd. Bags crossed the yellow line and slammed beneath the tram. People dropped below the rail, still clipped by cage handles that now pulled over their shoulders instead of through their backs.

Ty's dead armor trail began moving again.

The gray strips followed him toward the seam, but Jade's white hand rose when he took his first step. Jade called borrowed through the freight impacts. Ty released her forearm and moved sideways. Jade chose the next contact by taking the back of his belt with her living hand.

Their new procedure held for one pull.

Vey gave them a lane along the drainage curb. "Draw your armor behind the outgoing freight and keep it below the platform edge."

Ty turned his ribs away from the evacuees. The dead sleeves followed him around the tram rather than climbing the cage posts.

The salvage crawler reached the switch.

All three field fingers hooked through its mesh and pulled themselves toward the open seam. The black knuckle remained at the rear, trapped under a bent crossbar. Palla drove the drawer rail between the fingers and lost half its metal length when the cargo teeth cut through it.

Fenn's hook snapped.

At the intersection, Nessa's safety catch folded flat inside the empty cup. The cargo opening widened to the length of the tram axle.

Through it, Vey saw a stone loading floor, gray washing lines, and seven hooks hanging above an empty track. No person stood close enough to claim the freight. Something beyond the hooks kept pulling.

The rifle team on the north roof found a clear angle into the cargo teeth.

"Commander, one synchronized volley can break the lower jaw before the crawler crosses."

Palla shoved her damaged hand beneath the remaining mesh and caught one field wrist. "Breaking this jaw blind transfers its turn into whichever plate has the least resistance, and nine positions remain behind the desk."

At the intersection, the plate carrying Sorn's torn seal jumped against its stop. A second plate struck the desk from below and shook brewery flour from its rim. The north team's charged rifles had not fired, yet their prepared pulse already traveled through the lower carriage.

Vey saw the choice leave Palla's warning and enter his firing lane. A destruction volley aimed at one door had begun loading two others.

The roof leader kept his sight. "Holding fire gives the unknown side a route into Meren."

Vey counted the people still above the platform rail. Eleven. He counted the crawler wheels between the seam and the intersection. One remained on Meren stone.

Destroying the jaw would close this opening or throw it into another human city. Holding it would cost the orbital car and leave his district connected to whoever owned seven.

He opened the transfer channel. "Release the orbital car without the west platform and move those thirty evacuees to Shelter Ring Two."

The coordinator looked at the departure clock above her. "The next protected car reaches this district after second watch."

"Record West Four as the cause and move every family before the freight changes direction."

Vey lowered the north roof's firing hand. "Hold the destruction volley and cover Palla's withdrawal from the crawler."

Palla released the field wrist. The three fingers tore their mesh open and crossed the cargo seam one after another. Each landed on the stone floor beyond and crawled toward the seven hooks.

The black knuckle struck the switch and stayed on Meren's side.

Vey had preserved the route and lost the recovered pieces.

He looked toward the brewery clinic. Nessa came down its rear ramp with her right hand wrapped, two finger sections missing, and a compact pulse cutter strapped along her forearm. Iven's safety catch box supplied the brass lock under its handle.

"Captain Cord, the field pieces crossed into an active supply route, and the owner has already delivered freight into my evacuation line."

Nessa tested the cutter with her thumb, index finger, and shortened ring finger. "Then stop calling this contamination hold and write the recovery order you need."

Vey marked the route open under West Four authority and placed the delayed platform beneath Davi's command.

Beyond the seam, the first field finger climbed onto the lowest of the seven hooks. Nessa tightened the cutter against her shortened hand while the other two disappeared between the washing lines.

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