"Sera, talk to me," Rian demanded, his voice dropping an octave as his left hand tightened its grip on the saboteur's collar, yanking the struggling man away from the valve with enough force to snap a leather harness. "Is the backup filter bank isolated, or did he clear the seal?" "I’m looking at the analog pressure gauges right now, and if you'd stop shaking him like a ragdoll, I might actually be able to read the needle!" Sera’s voice snapped back through the handheld radio, crackling with a high-pitched frantic static that made Rian’s teeth ache. "The manual gate valve held! It caught ninety percent of the slurry before it hit the primary distribution chamber, but the intake pipe is completely fouled. We have to flush the whole damn system before sundown, or nobody drinks a single drop!" The saboteur spat a mouthful of dark, metallic-tasting foam onto the concrete floor, laughing wetly. "Flush it all you want, you corpor

"Move, move, move!" Vance’s voice cut through the damp subterranean air like a serrated blade, her hand gesturing sharply toward the rusted iron ladder that led straight up into the light of the commercial boulevard. "If Rian’s read on those analog frequency trackers is even half-accurate, the vanguard isn't ten minutes out from the western highway approach. Kael, take the left flank of the upper storefronts. I want every single civilian volunteer behind sandbags before those diesel engines clear the ridge!" Kael hauled the bound saboteur roughly by the shoulder, shoving the gasping captive into the arms of a waiting volunteer before pulling his assault rifle free from his sling with a practiced, fluid motion. "You heard the captain," Kael grunted, spitting a glob of phlegm onto the concrete floor as his eyes locked onto Vance with a hard, unyielding intensity. "If any of those corporate bastards poke their armored noses past the barricades, you don'

"We can't sit here waiting for them to starve us out," Rian said, his voice hard as he slammed a fist onto the oil-stained table, the impact rattling the kerosene lantern and spilling a small circle of yellow light across the tactical map. "If we stay in this basement until our rations hit zero, Vance's ex-enforcers will mutiny, the civilians will panic, and the corporate commanders won't even have to fire a single mortar round to take Sector 4 back." Kael leaned against the damp concrete wall, spinning a hunting knife lazily between his calloused fingers before catching it by the hilt with a sharp, metallic clack. "And what’s your brilliant alternative, tech-boy? March right out the front door and ask nicely for a ceasefire? Their heavy armor is parked twenty yards from every surface exit." "Not every exit," Rian snapped, his flickering red optic casting an eerie, crimson glow across the side of his face as he pointed a trembling cybe

"Cut the chatter, both of you," Kael hissed, his hand clamping down hard over Rian’s shoulder as the dull, rhythmic thud of corporate boots vibrated through the rusted iron rungs above them. The rain-drenched mud of the forward operating base squelched under heavy combat treads just inches from their heads. Through the tiny gaps in the rusted grating, Rian caught the sickly yellow glare of high-intensity tactical flashlights sweeping across the wet ground. His breathing was shallow, his lungs burning from the sulfurous stench of diesel and burnt cordite seeping down from the encampment. Every time he tried to flex his left arm, the deadweight of the unpowered cybernetics sent a nauseating shockwave of phantom pain shooting straight up his collarbone. "They're moving the heavy mortars," one of the ex-enforcers whispered, pressing his back flat against the slimy brick wall of the drainage chute. "I can hear the hydraulic lifts whining. T

"We don't have time to second-guess the telemetry, Sera," Kael growled, his knuckles white as he gripped the battered stock of his scavenged assault rifle in the cramped, damp space beneath the ridge. "If those pneumatic launchers cycle once, Sector 4 is a smoking crater. Vance is already rallying the civilian volunteers at the southern treeline. We move now, or we die in the dirt." "I know the stakes, Kael," Sera snapped back over the static-choked transceiver, her voice tight with a terrifying mix of exhaustion and absolute resolve. "I'm just telling you that the targeting matrix they're uploading to those mortar crews is linked to a localized relay station. If you and Rian don't sever the hardline before they finish calibrating the windage, manual overrides won't save a single person down here." Rian gritted his teeth, a fresh wave of blinding agony rolling through his shoulder as his dead cybernetic arm jerked involuntarily against his t