I Choose the Skills Everyone Else Rejects

The road ended four kilometres from Relay C-19.

Dax parked beside an abandoned maintenance barrier and killed the engine.

Beyond it, the old supply route continued through the forest as two strips of cracked concrete almost hidden beneath moss.

Cade checked the mission clock.

"From here, radios stay on squad channel. Nobody enters a room alone."

Varek adjusted the loaned cutter on his back.

"Anything else?"

"Yeah. Try bringing this one home."

Varek looked at him but said nothing.

Nate stepped over the barrier.

The Anchor Resin was back at the depot. His Circuit felt normal again, though the medic’s warning remained fresh enough that he had no intention of testing its limits unless he had to.

Kellan walked beside him with the C-19 plans open on his wrist.

The two missing rooms were still visible on the old scan.

"You going to tell me where you saw another relay?" Nate asked.

"No."

"You brought it up."

"You asked how I knew."

"That usually leads to an explanation."

"Not always."

Nate let it go.

The relay appeared through the trees twenty minutes later.

Most of the structure had been built into the side of a low ridge. Only the upper level remained visible: stained concrete, narrow windows and the remains of an antenna mast leaning over the roof.

A maintenance vehicle stood outside.

Cade raised a fist.

The squad stopped.

Nobody moved around the building.

One rear door of the vehicle had been left open.

Dax approached first.

"Kingdom maintenance."

He checked the registration.

"Second team."

Nate looked inside.

Tool cases were still stacked against the wall. Two packs sat near the front seats. A half-empty bottle of water remained in one of the cup holders.

"They didn’t unload everything."

Cade checked the ground.

Several sets of boot prints led from the vehicle toward the relay entrance.

None returned.

Kellan crouched beside the tracks.

"What?" Nate asked.

Kellan pointed to a fainter print beneath the others.

A narrower boot with a different tread.

Cade came over.

"From the team?"

Dax checked the maintenance manifest.

"Four technicians. Standard issue boots."

Kellan touched the edge of the print.

"This isn’t standard."

"Could be older."

"Could."

Cade looked toward the entrance.

"Assume it isn’t."

The outer door stood open by a few centimetres.

There was no damage around the lock.

Cade moved to one side while Varek took the other. Dax pushed the door with the end of his rifle.

Nothing happened.

The air inside smelled stale.

Emergency lights should have activated during a power loss, but the corridor was completely dark.

Cade switched on his weapon light.

"Rook."

Kellan entered.

Nate followed.

The first corridor matched the current plans closely. Concrete walls, service pipes, a small control room to the right and the main staircase farther ahead.

Several doors were missing their identification plates. Clean rectangular patches remained where the metal had been removed.

Nate ran his thumb across one.

"Recent?"

"Looks like it," Dax said.

Cade pointed toward the control room.

They entered together.

The main console was dead.

Dax opened the lower cabinet and leaned closer.

"Power bus is disconnected."

"Failure?" Cade asked.

"No."

Dax reached inside and pulled out a thick cable.

The connector was intact.

"Someone unplugged it."

Varek stood near the door.

"Maintenance teams do that."

"They usually plug it back in."

Kellan was looking at the wall beside the cabinet.

Nate followed his gaze.

A faded three-line mark had been stamped into the metal.

The same shape they had seen in the mission photographs.

"You were right," Nate said.

Cade turned.

"About what?"

"Old Imperial procurement mark."

Cade looked at Kellan.

"You knew this site was Imperial?"

"Parts of it. The building is old enough that half of it has probably been rebuilt."

"And you waited until now?"

"I didn’t know what was still here."

Cade accepted that for the moment.

"Anything useful?"

Kellan pointed toward the staircase.

"If the original layout survived, there should be another power junction below."

"The official plan shows one."

"The official plan is also missing two rooms."

Cade looked at Nate.

"You knew that?"

"We compared the scans before departure."

A short silence followed.

"Next time," Cade said, "tell me before we walk inside."

"Fair."

They reached the first underground level.

The temperature dropped quickly.

Nate felt something faint through the soles of his boots.

He stopped.

Cade noticed.

"What?"

"Something’s running below us."

"Machine?"

"Probably."

Kellan turned off his light.

The others followed.

In the darkness, a quiet metallic pulse travelled through the structure every few seconds.

Dax listened.

"Backup system?"

"Not with the main bus disconnected."

Cade switched his light back on.

They continued.

The maintenance team’s equipment began appearing near the lower relay.

An open tool case.

A diagnostic slate lying face down.

One glove.

Then a dark smear of blood beside a door frame.

Varek crouched beside it.

"Dry."

Dax picked up the slate.

"Second team."

Cade looked down the corridor.

Four technicians had entered.

They had yet to find one.

The lower relay door stood closed.

Kellan stopped several steps away.

"Don’t touch that."

Varek looked at him.

"Why?"

Kellan pointed toward the frame.

A thin metal strip ran between the door and the wall.

Nate almost missed it.

Dax crouched without approaching.

"Pressure contact."

"Explosive?" Cade asked.

"No."

Dax followed a wire with his light.

"It runs into the wall."

Kellan looked toward the ceiling.

"Alarm, probably."

Varek frowned.

"Who puts an alarm inside an abandoned relay?"

The fittings were much newer than the surrounding structure.

Someone had installed them deliberately.

Cade backed the squad away.

"Other route?"

Kellan checked the old scan.

"There should be a maintenance passage on the western side."

"There isn’t one on the current plan."

"I know."

They returned to the previous junction.

The western wall looked solid.

Kellan counted the doorways, checked the scan again, then stopped beside a row of storage lockers.

"Help me."

Varek moved over.

Together they dragged the lockers away from the wall.

A door had been concealed behind them and painted the same grey as the concrete.

There was no number or handle, only a recessed maintenance latch near the floor.

Dax stared at Kellan.

"You’ve definitely never been here?"

"No."

"You’re getting less convincing."

Kellan ignored him.

The latch still worked.

The hidden passage beyond was narrow enough that Varek had to turn sideways to enter with the cutter on his back.

It descended another level.

The metallic vibration grew stronger as they went.

Cade raised a hand.

Everyone slowed.

The passage ended behind a service panel.

Light showed around its edges, coming from the room beyond.

Kellan and Cade exchanged a look.

Dax whispered, "Main power is disconnected."

Cade pointed at Nate.

"Can you tell if someone’s moving in there?"

Nate put his palm against the wall.

The portable machinery on the other side produced a steady vibration. He concentrated until he could separate it from a second, irregular rhythm.

Footsteps.

One person moved close to the panel.

A second rhythm appeared farther away, too faint for Nate to be certain.

"At least one. Maybe another farther back."

Cade nodded.

He opened the panel a few centimetres.

The room beyond had once been used for storage.

It was not empty now.

Modern batteries were stacked against one wall. Kingdom medical crates sat beside sealed Conductive cases, several with their military inventory numbers scratched away.

A portable power unit ran in the centre of the room.

That was the vibration Nate had been feeling.

A man in maintenance clothing lay near the far wall with his wrists tied behind him.

Another body rested beside him.

Cade opened the panel farther.

The living technician saw the movement.

His eyes widened.

He shook his head violently.

Cade froze.

The technician glanced toward the other side of the room.

Nate could not see beyond the battery stack.

A voice came from outside their view.

"You hear something?"

Another man answered.

"No."

Cade held up two fingers.

Two confirmed.

He pointed Varek toward the right side of the panel.

Kellan took the left.

Nate stayed behind Cade.

The first man stepped into view.

He was not maintenance.

There was no uniform or identifying mark on his clothing. He carried a compact rifle with the serial plate removed.

He walked toward the prisoner.

"Stop kicking."

The technician went still.

The second man remained behind the batteries.

Cade waited until the rifle turned away.

Then he moved.

The panel slammed open.

"Drop it!"

The armed man turned.

Kellan fired first.

His round struck the rifle near the receiver and knocked it from the man’s hands.

Varek entered immediately.

The second attacker appeared from behind the battery stack.

Nate saw the pistol rise.

He opened his Circuit.

The man shifted toward Cade.

Nate started forward.

Then stopped half a step early.

Kellan had spent the last three days punishing him for openings exactly like this.

The attacker saw Nate hesitate and redirected the pistol toward him.

This time the movement carried his weight with it.

Nate stepped inside the arm.

His shoulder struck the man’s chest.

The shot hit the ceiling.

Nate caught the wrist and twisted until the weapon fell.

Varek reached them a second later and pressed the inactive edge of his cutter against the man’s throat.

"Move and I turn it on."

The man stopped.

Cade had the first attacker on the ground.

"Clear."

Kellan checked behind the crates.

"Clear."

Dax went to the prisoner.

The technician was shaking.

"Second maintenance team?"

The man nodded.

"Where are the others?"

His mouth opened, but no sound came out at first.

Nate crouched beside him.

"Take your time."

The technician looked toward the closed door at the other end of the room.

"Below."

Cade followed his gaze.

"Alive?"

"I don’t know."

"What happened?"

"They were already here."

He looked toward the two captured men.

"We came in. Power was down. They took us when we reached the lower level."

"What about the first maintenance team?"

"I saw one of them."

"Where?"

"Below."

His breathing quickened.

"He told us not to open the relay."

Cade looked toward the far door.

"Why?"

The technician shook his head.

"He kept saying they’d found something."

"What?"

"I don’t know."

The portable generator clicked.

The lights dimmed for a moment.

Nate felt something move beneath the floor.

It was too heavy and too slow to be footsteps.

The technician went pale.

"That."

A second impact travelled through the structure.

Kellan looked toward the far door.

The captive beneath Cade suddenly laughed.

Cade tightened his grip.

"What’s funny?"

The man turned his head enough to look at Nate.

"You came for the maintenance crew?"

"Who are you?"

The prisoner ignored Cade.

"You should have stayed upstairs."

Nate noticed something beneath the man’s collar.

A narrow strip of Conductive material ran along the side of his neck and disappeared beneath his clothing.

Its surface was built from thin overlapping layers.

Nate had seen that texture before.

Under the academy training grid.

He crouched closer.

A tiny mark had been pressed near the edge of the strip.

Three lines around an empty centre.

Nate reached toward it.

The prisoner jerked away.

"Don’t."

Kellan had seen it too.

His expression changed.

"Cade."

The portable generator died.

Darkness filled the room.

Somewhere beneath them, a heavy bolt withdrew.

Then another.

A third followed farther down.

The technician stopped breathing for a second.

When he spoke, his voice was barely audible.

"They opened it."

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