Chapter 64: Field Unit

Vale’s signal came back seventeen minutes after the wall closed. One pulse. Nothing after.

Nate was still outside medical when Tessa saw it. She had the helmet footage paused on the dead creature, the thing’s plated torso filling most of the screen, caught halfway through folding around Darek’s strike.

Then another window appeared over it.

SURVEY BEACON 4

CONNECTION RESTORED

Tessa straightened. "Vale."

Darek came out of Operations before she called him. "Where?"

"Can’t resolve."

"Signal strength?"

"High."

Nate stood. The cold pack slid from his knee.

Tessa looked at the numbers again. "Too high."

Darek stopped beside her. "Meaning?"

"If she’s still behind that wall, we shouldn’t be getting this."

Nate looked toward Western Access. The sealed section sat more than a hundred metres below them and behind enough black paneling to kill most ordinary transmissions.

Tessa switched to the beacon diagnostics. The connection vanished. Four seconds. That was all.

Darek was already reaching for his gear. A man from Field Command blocked him before he reached the gate. "Third Circuit team is eleven minutes out."

"Vale may not have eleven."

"You have one critical extraction already."

Darek’s jaw tightened. The officer didn’t move. For once, Darek didn’t argue.

Nate looked at the gate. Forsaken Claim had gone quiet since they returned. He opened his hidden interface instead.

One Skill integrated. One Node empty. Separate from them:

RESERVED SKILL

SECOND VECTOR

He had taken it from Nella’s rejection but stopped before integration. Twenty minutes earlier, that had felt cautious. During the breach, it had felt irritating.

He could have used it. He still could. All it required was filling the Node.

Nate closed the interface. Not yet.

The Third Circuit team arrived in eight minutes. Three people. Nate recognized the leader.

Captain Sera Dorn. He hadn’t seen her since the train investigation.

She entered Western Access without greeting anyone and came back four minutes later. "Wall isn’t sealed."

Darek frowned. "We watched it close."

"It moved."

"Where?"

"That’s what we’re finding."

Dorn placed a new map on the operations table. The corridor they had escaped through was visible. The room where Vale disappeared was not. Instead, a narrow route now continued thirty metres east of where the wall should have been.

Tessa stared at it. "That’s impossible."

Dorn looked at her. "Try a different word."

Tessa didn’t.

Dorn pointed at the route. "We enter here. Darek with me. Korr for Survey." Her finger moved. "Calder."

Nate looked up.

"You sensed something before the shift?"

"Yes."

"Useful?"

"I don’t know."

"Come find out."

The Field Command officer started to object. Dorn didn’t even turn toward him. "He stays behind me."

That ended it.

They found the new passage where an equipment alcove had been twenty minutes earlier. Nate remembered the alcove. Two dead monitors. A broken storage cabinet. Nothing else.

Now there was a doorway. Same black material as Old Service. No hinges, no frame. Just an opening cut cleanly into the wall.

Dorn entered first. Nate followed behind Darek.

The air changed immediately. Warmer. Dry. The floor descended at an angle shallow enough that Nate almost missed it.

Tessa checked her scanner. "Vale’s beacon."

"Direction?"

She pointed down.

Dorn moved.

The passage ended in a circular room.

Vale was there. Alive. She sat against the wall with one leg extended and both hands wrapped around a Survey light. Her helmet was gone. Blood had dried from her hairline to her jaw.

She raised the light when they entered. "Darek?"

"Yeah."

She lowered it. "About fucking time."

Darek crouched beside her. "Can you walk?"

"Ankle."

He checked it. Swollen badly. "Anything else?"

"Head hurts."

"Remember what happened?"

"The room moved."

"We noticed."

Vale looked past him toward Nate. "Who’s that?"

"Calder."

"Right." Her eyes moved to Graveshare. "Train."

Nate nodded.

Dorn was already checking the room. It was larger than the maintenance chamber they had lost. Black walls. Low ceiling. One sealed door. Three metal cabinets built directly into the far side.

And something sitting in the centre.

Nate stared at it. At first he thought it was another Survey case. Roughly the same size. Rectangular. Handles on both ends.

But Survey didn’t build equipment like this. The casing was dark metal underneath decades of grime. Thick cables had been wound around one side. A harness folded beneath it suggested someone had once carried the thing on their back.

Tessa saw it. "That ours?"

Vale shook her head. "It was here."

"Did you touch it?"

"No." Vale hesitated. "Not exactly."

Darek looked at her. "What does not exactly mean?"

"The floor hit it."

Everyone looked at the device. One corner of the casing was cracked.

Vale pointed with the Survey light. "It turned on."

Nate’s attention sharpened. "What happened?"

"A light. Then it made a sound."

"That’s it?"

"I was more concerned with the thing trying to eat me."

Dorn turned. "What thing?"

Vale pointed toward the sealed door. Three deep scratches crossed it. The lowest had cut into the black material.

Darek stood. "The same creature?"

"Bigger."

Nate looked at the door. "Where is it?"

Vale laughed once. "I was hoping you knew."

Something hit the other side. The entire door moved.

Dorn lifted one hand. Everyone stopped.

Another impact. Harder. The black panel buckled inward.

Dorn looked at Darek. "Get Vale moving." Then at Nate. "Behind me means behind me."

Nate drew Graveshare.

Dorn noticed. "Can you use that without getting clever?"

"Usually."

"Wonderful."

The door broke. The creature came through headfirst.

Vale had been right. Bigger. Its front limbs unfolded until the tips scraped both sides of the entrance. Pale armor covered almost its entire body, but sections had grown over one another incorrectly, producing thick ridges along its shoulders.

The vertical mouth opened. Threads burst from inside.

Dorn moved. Nate barely saw how. One instant she stood between him and the door. The next her hand was around one of the creature’s front limbs.

Her Circuit opened. The room shook.

She pulled. The creature left the floor, its entire body crossing the doorway and hitting the wall hard enough to deform the black panels.

Nate stared. Third Circuit. There was still too much distance.

The creature folded around the impact and snapped back. One thread reached Dorn’s arm. She tore it away. "Don’t let those attach."

The thing lunged again. Dorn caught the head. This time the creature’s rear limbs anchored against the floor. It didn’t move.

Dorn did. Half a step. Enough to surprise her.

Darek struck the exposed joint. The armor split. Dark fluid sprayed. Then started pulling backward. Same as before. The wound closed.

"Again," Dorn said.

Darek hit it.

Nate circled. The creature tracked Dorn. Good.

Killing Step didn’t require a Skill Node. Neither did Rovan.

Nate entered when the creature committed. Its rear limb changed angle. He saw it. His body wanted Second Vector. The reserve sat uselessly beyond reach.

Nate used the cruder thing he’d actually learned. Current entered midway through his step. His direction changed only slightly. Enough. The limb missed.

His knee complained.

Mourning Edge formed. Nate cut into the same wound Darek had opened. The armor tried to close around the blade. Nate left Graveshare inside it.

Dorn understood immediately. She drove both hands into the creature’s torso. "Darek."

He struck. The body folded. Graveshare prevented one section from returning correctly. A crack ran through the plate. Dorn tore it open.

The creature screamed.

Something beneath the armor pulsed. Not an organ Nate recognized. A knot of pale strands wrapped around a dark centre.

Forsaken Claim reacted. Hard. Nate staggered.

REJECTED RESONANCE DETECTED

The creature twisted. Dorn forced it down. "Nate!"

He moved. Mourning Edge entered the dark centre.

For a fraction of a second, the hidden message changed. Not enough for Nate to read.

Then the centre split. The creature collapsed. Every strand inside it went slack.

Silence followed.

Dorn kept one hand on the body. "Stay down."

It did.

Nate withdrew Graveshare. The reserve had dropped from the Mourning Edge use, but not enough to matter now. Forsaken Claim had gone quiet again.

Dorn looked at the corpse. Then Nate. "What happened to you?"

"Nothing."

"Bad answer."

Darek almost smiled. Dorn looked at him. He stopped.

"Later," she said.

Vale could walk with Darek supporting her. They should have left. Dorn clearly wanted to.

Then the old device in the centre of the room turned on.

A sound came from inside it. Three rising tones.

Everyone looked at it.

Vale pointed. "That."

A thin strip along the casing glowed. Letters appeared beneath decades of dirt. Tessa wiped the surface with one sleeve. Most of the label had been damaged. Enough remained.

IMPERIAL RECLAMATION PROGRAM

Below it:

FIELD UNIT 03

Tessa read it twice. "I’ve never seen that designation."

Dorn had. Nate saw it in her face.

"Captain?"

"Don’t touch it."

"What is it?"

"I said don’t touch it."

The light changed. A metal section on top released with a click.

Dorn swore. Nobody had touched anything.

The casing opened by itself. Inside sat six narrow slots. Five were empty. The sixth contained something no larger than Nate’s thumb. Black glass. Or crystal. It gave off no light.

A small display activated beside it. The text was old Imperial notation.

Tessa stepped closer without touching the device. "Can you read that?"

Dorn didn’t answer.

Nate could. Not all of it. Enough.

RESIDUAL PATTERN

RECONSTRUCTION READY

Then another line.

HOST REQUIRED

Nate’s third Node reacted. Not Forsaken Claim. The Node itself. Empty. Waiting.

He moved closer.

Dorn caught his chest with one arm. "I said don’t."

"I’m not touching it."

"You’re leaning like you want to."

The device beeped. A scanning light crossed Dorn first. Nothing. Darek. Nothing. Tessa. Nothing.

Then Nate.

The display changed.

HOST STRUCTURE DETECTED

Dorn’s arm tightened.

The machine continued.

AVAILABLE NODE: 1

Everyone looked at Nate. He stopped breathing for a moment. Publicly, they shouldn’t know that.

Tessa turned from the display. "You have an empty Node?"

Nate found an answer. "Apparently."

Darek looked at him. He knew that was garbage. There wasn’t time.

More text appeared.

RECONSTRUCTION COMPATIBILITY: PARTIAL

Then:

WARNING

The screen paused.

FORCED PROPOSAL MAY CAUSE PERMANENT SELECTION FAILURE

Tessa frowned. "Selection failure?"

Dorn read farther. Her expression changed. "Turn it off."

"How?"

"Power cell."

Tessa searched the casing. The machine continued before she found it.

POST-RECLAMATION NATURAL SKILL PROPOSALS NOT GUARANTEED

Another line loaded. Then the old wording became brutally clear.

DOCUMENTED OUTCOME FOLLOWING SUCCESSFUL USE:

FUTURE NATURAL SKILL SELECTIONS: NONE

Nobody spoke.

Vale broke the silence. "So it gives you one Skill and kills every choice after it?"

Tessa looked at the black capsule. "Maybe."

"That’s terrible."

Dorn found the power release. Her hand stopped before pressing it.

Nate was still reading. A normal Awakened could gain one reconstructed Skill. Then every future Node might open empty. No more natural selections. No more future offers from their Class.

A career traded for one choice.

Darek looked at Nate. He knew Nate well enough now to notice when Nate had stopped reacting like everyone else. "Calder."

Nate looked away from the display. "What?"

"Whatever you’re thinking, stop."

Nate opened his mouth. The field unit changed screens again before anything came out.

The capsule inside had finally been identified.

RESIDUAL SKILL PATTERN

Most of the name was corrupted. Only the final word remained.

...FRAME

Classification:

COMBAT

Tessa reached for the power release. The display flickered once. A directory appeared for less than a second. Dozens of entries. Most corrupted. Some destroyed. A few marked recoverable.

Nate caught only one before the screen went black.

WB-17

Dorn had killed the power. The room fell silent again.

Nate looked at the dead field unit.

His third Node remained empty. Second Vector waited safely in reserve.

For anyone else, the warning on that machine could destroy their future.

Nate wasn’t sure it could destroy his.