"They're cycling the primary turret array to a thirty-second firing loop," Noah panted, his fingers hammering the terminal keys so fast the plastic housing smoked. "If I don't punch a feedback loop through their local mesh network right now, those automated guns are going to carve right through this steel door like wet cardboard.""Do it, Noah!" James barked, spinning away from the vibrating loading bay as a heavy kinetic shell slammed against the outer plating, showering the workshop floor in razor-sharp metal shavings. "How long do we have?""Ten seconds!" Noah shrieked, his voice cracking as blood began to trickle from his left nostril, staining his pale upper lip. "The encryption is layered five deep—they're using pre-war military subroutines!""Cut through them or we're all dead!" Mia yelled, leveling her smoking kinetic converter toward the secondary service hatch where the sound of thermal cutting torches began to

 "Keep pushing them back from the threshold!" James roared, his kinetic rifle cycling with a staccato rattle that echoed off the grease-stained rafters of the secondary workshop.A corporate heavy staggered backward under the impact, his reinforced breastplate dented inward, before a secondary wave of mercenaries flooded through the smoking breach."They're bypassing the barricades!" Miller shouted over the din, his gnarled hands gripping the dual handles of a heavy, floor-mounted plasma welder. "They're making a direct push for the primary generator room down the hall!""If they take the generator, the whole foundry grid goes dark," Ethan barked, slamming the butt of his rifle into the jaw of an advancing soldier. "Fall back to the corridor junction—do not let them through!""Go!" Miller bellowed, shoving Ethan toward the reinforced inner doorway. "I've got the primary seal. I'll lock the blast shields from thi

 "The blast shield is holding, but we can't stay bottled up in this workshop while Miller’s holding the generator alone!" Ethan roared, his massive shoulders heaving as he hammered the side of the heavy steel door with his fist."We aren't staying bottled up," James snapped, his eyes flashing with cold, hard fury as he spun away from the sealed generator room. "Noah, status on the outer civilian broadcast channels!""The live feed from our security bypass is streaming across every terminal from Gate Four to the upper agricultural rings," Noah panted, wiping a smear of blood from his nose while his fingers danced across the console. "Look at the plaza outside the foundry doors."Mia shoved past a stack of rattling ammunition crates, peering through the high, reinforced glass slot of the observation slit. "By the Silt... look at that crowd.""Thousands," Ethan breathed, his massive frame freezing in sheer disbelie

 "Your illegal occupation of regional transit nodes and the deliberate destruction of corporate property has forced our hand," Sterling’s synthesized baritone echoed relentlessly across the shattered plaza speakers. "Effective immediately, this sector is placed under indefinite total economic embargo. All municipal oxygen and water lifelines are hereby terminated. You have exactly one hour to surrender your ringleaders to the outer barricades, or face orbital suppression—""Cut the feed, Noah. Now," James ordered, his hand slamming down onto the scarred edge of the console."Way ahead of you, James," Noah laughed, his fingers flying across the keys in a blur of motion as fresh blood trickled from his nose. "I didn't just mute him. I routed his entire carrier wave backward through the mid-tier corporate executive boardroom channel."A sudden, screeching electronic wail cut Sterling’s ultimatum

 "Keep that crane line steady, or the whole gantry is going to snap backward into the retaining trench!" Kael shouted, his voice ringing sharp and clear across the smoky expanse of the Silt courtyard."Stop yelling orders at me, Kael, or I'll let you hold the other end of this four-hundred-pound steel beam yourself," Ethan grunted back, his massive muscles straining against the weight of a twisted I-beam as he heaved it into position against the bowed north retaining wall."If he drops that beam, we're all swimming in sewage again," Mia muttered, walking briskly over the fractured concrete with a heavy pneumatic rivet gun slung across her tactical harness. She jammed the tool against the freshly aligned metal plate and fired three rapid, deafening concussive bolts that locked the structural seam tight."The structural frame is holding," James said, stepping out from the central workshop with a grease-stained datapad in his hand.