"Fallback! Fallback now!" James’s voice cracked over the local comms channel, sharp and absolute. "Do not try to hold the rubble! Get the wounded through the side trench!"Ethan didn't hesitate, diving into the choking cloud of brick dust and grabbing Kael by the back of his tactical vest. He hauled the younger mechanic up like a sack of damp grain, the younger man’s boots dragging uselessly across the frozen, sludge-coated asphalt."I've got him," Mia shouted, appearing through the gray haze with her kinetic converter smoking from continuous discharge. She jammed a fresh power cell into the weapon's housing with a vicious click and threw three rapid suppressive rounds down the choked alleyway.The glowing blue projectiles ricocheted wildly off the corporate hauler’s wedge-shaped scrap armor, showering the narrow corridor with white-hot sparks and buying them precious seconds."Keep moving,

 "Water's down to three liters per head for the week, and that's if we cut the ration to a single warm cup a day," Miller said, slamming a heavy grease-stained ledger onto the cold metal table. The iron surface rang out like a struck anvil in the dim, flickering amber light of the foundry's back room.James leaned forward, resting his calloused palms flat against the scarred steel. "What about the secondary cisterns beneath the old washing floor?""Dry," Miller spat, crossing his thick arms over his chest as his face hardened into a grim mask of exhaustion. "Aegis Prime's combat engineers didn't just cut our municipal lines; they dropped concrete-filled pilings right down the main intake shafts three hundred yards up-valley. Not a single drop is coming through."Mia lowered a damp rag from her fingers, her eyes narrowing as she looked around the circle of battered faces. "They aren't trying to storm us again. They know our ammo

 "That drainage pipe doesn't just run beneath their camp; it exits right inside their central command perimeter," Noah whispered, his manic grin flashing in the dim, flickering light of the war room. "Right beneath their primary communications trailer.""How much clearance do we have above the sludge line?" James asked, his eyes locked on the faded blueprints."About two feet of breathing room if you don't mind crawling through knee-deep industrial runoff," Miller replied dryly. "And if your boots don't get stuck in the sediment.""Two feet is a palace," Ethan grunted, cracking his knuckles with a sound like pistol shots. "When do we drop into the filth?""Right now," James ordered, pivoting toward the armory lockers with absolute finality. "Noah, check that EMP capacitor one more time. If it misfires down in the damp, we’re walking right into a machine-gun nest with pocket knives.""It won't misfire,

 "Keep your boots dragging in the sludge, or the echo bounces straight up through the drainage grates," James whispered over the encrypted comm-channel, his hand brushing against the cold, condensation-slicked wall of the pipe.Ethan let out a low grunt behind him, his massive shoulders scraping against the rusted rivets overhead. "Easy for you to say, James. My chest plate is acting like a sounding board for every heartbeat I've got.""Then stop your heart," Mia murmured sharply, her voice barely a hiss above the steady, sickening drip of chemical rot from the pipe's ceiling. "We're fifty yards from the perimeter marker. One loud breath and Aegis Prime’s sentries will drop a mortar shell right through this concrete shell."Kael stumbled forward, his left hand spasming violently against his diagnostic harness before he caught himself on the slimy shoulder of Ethan’s tactical vest. "I can't feel my fingers," he choked

 "Keep those harnesses low and your comms muted," James murmured, flattening his back against the rusted iron grating of the central drainage junction.Above them, the rhythmic, heavy thud of military-grade boots vibrated directly through the metal bars, sending a fine shower of dry rust flakes down onto James’s shoulders."They're pacing right over the main exhaust housing," Mia whispered, her eyes locked on the ceiling as the low murmur of voices drifted down from the upper camp."Cut the Chatter," James warned, his fingers curling around the cold grip of his kinetic sidearm as the corporate officers overhead came to a sudden, deliberate halt."If the supply haulers don't clear Gate Three by the morning rotation, Director Sterling is going to have our entire battalion reassigned to the radiation scrubber lines," an arrogant, crisp voice snapped from directly above the grating."Let him try," a secon