Chapter 235: Tyrus’s Results

Tyrus kept his word the following morning.

Hans was still inside the Command Center when Dianne forwarded the message.

"Doctor Shearman says he’s ready."

"Finally."

The first batches from yesterday’s expansion were already moving through the production network, while the newly trained Commanders were being distributed among the officers who had requested them.

Hans had no reason to supervise any of that personally.

"Anything urgent?"

"Nothing that requires you before you return."

"I’ll be going then."

Hans left for the Nuclear Power Station.

...

Yunera was already inside Tyrus’s laboratory when he arrived. Kimmy remained outside the room, holding the hem of her clothes with her head lowered.

A red light warning flashed on top of the door. When Hans saw it, he knew that the test was already ongoing.

"And he said he was going to demonstrate it to me."

"Hans."

"Kimmy. How long have you been here?"

"Around twenty minutes? Will sister be alright?"

"It’s Tyrus," Hans smiled. "You have faith in him, don’t you?"

"Yes..." She answered, though Hans could feel the doubt in it.

"Don’t worry," he patted her head. "It will be alright."

A blush escaped her face. "Okay."

The two spent the next hour talking to each other.

The red warning light above the laboratory door eventually disappeared.

Kimmy stopped in the middle of a sentence. The door opened shortly afterward.

Yunera came out first.

"Sister."

"I’m fine."

Kimmy immediately went to her anyway.

Yunera looked slightly tired, but nothing about her suggested the experiment had gone badly.

Tyrus followed behind her with a tablet in one hand.

Hans looked at him.

"Well?"

"Tada!" Tyrus turned the tablet toward him. "Better tolerance, faster recovery and greater stability under exposure. Nothing dramatic."

"No new ability?"

"No."

"Tier advancement?"

Tyrus gave him an annoyed look.

"No."

Hans smiled. "Just making sure."

"Commander, I’m not a miracle god. I’m just a scientist who wants to watch my subjects improve under my methodologies."

"Let’s hope it doesn’t derail from your noble path."

Tyrus glanced at Yunera.

"Her response is still weaker than the others we tested at Ironford. What changed is that I can now reproduce the adaptation without losing most of it after the subject recovers."

"So what now?"

"More subjects eventually. More repetitions. Then I find out where the limit is, or how to further improve the reaction."

"Don’t push anybody past it just because you’re curious."

Tyrus looked offended.

"Commander, I have standards."

The important part was already settled.

Ironford had shown that psychic exposure could influence HELIX-enhanced humans.

Tyrus had now turned that observation into something he could reproduce without relying on another infection, injection or near-death breakthrough.

"Why not use the original HELIX methods?"

"They’re boring, and I don’t have the materials to reproduce most of them properly."

"Where did you usually get them?"

"Sandtrup for biological feedstock. Teutonia for precision machinery. Saicine or Anchorage for some of the specialized materials. Ashbourne for bureaucratic approvals."

"Sandtrup..." Hans frowned at the city.

His parents had still been there when everything collapsed. Alexa and John as well.

Months had passed without anything telling him what happened to them.

Silverpeak still came first. He had known that for a long time, and the road south did not become safer simply because Tyrus happened to mention the city.

But Sandtrup no longer felt as impossibly far away as it once had.

"Hans..."

Kimmy’s voice reached him, pulling him out of his trance.

"Hans, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I’m okay. I just remembered something back in base."

Tyrus gave him a knowing smile, though didn’t bother to comment on it.

"Commander, now that I’m done with the demonstration, may I—"

"Get samples from the Tree if you want. A small dispatch will be sent to guide you into its corpse."

"I was about to ask how you killed that Tier Two organism."

"I’m busy. If you want to ask someone, ask my soldiers."

Just as Hans turned around, Tyrus asked again. "What about the giant?!"

"Oh that? It became nourishment for the Tree."

Hans left the Nuclear Power Station not long afterward.

The thought of Sandtrup stayed with him for most of the trip back. It disappeared once he returned to Main Base.

"Commander, Adjutant Dianne here."

"Come in."

"The SAS agents are waiting for you inside."

"I’ll be there in a while."

Johannes was waiting inside one of the Command Center’s intelligence rooms with Evelyn and Marcus.

Several records occupied the display behind them.

Hans recognized the Highcross material. It occupied only one part of the display.

Records recovered from the three other SAS cells filled the rest, although none were as complete. Some had little more than partial reports, account references, route markings and whatever survived after their positions were abandoned.

Cell Twelve’s own investigation ran beside them.

Marcus changed the display.

Several companies and properties remained highlighted across Grefort.

Johannes pointed toward them.

"Several of these were linked to foreign incursions. Not just the people we were watching around Pandora."

Hans studied the names.

"Why does that still matter?"

"Because some of them were also dealing with classified projects."

Johannes changed the display again.

"If foreign groups managed to get hold of equipment, research or personnel before the Event, we might encounter whatever they took later."

That was considerably more useful.

Hans had already seen what one hidden laboratory could contain.

"How much did they get?"

"We don’t know."

"Then find out what you can."

Marcus brought up another group of locations. Unlike the first set, most had very little attached to them.

Johannes continued.

"Two of the cells kept watching these areas even though nothing high-risk ever happened."

Warehouses. Small clinics. Even mansions that had nothing out of the ordinary.

"Why keep watching them?"

"Personnel movement. Deliveries. Restricted access. Things that were suspicious enough to watch, but not enough for the field cells to act on."

Evelyn pointed toward several more.

"Some may have been supporting classified laboratories. Others could be nothing."

Hans looked across the city.

"I’ll send squads to check them. Do you need to go with each one?"

"It would be best to involve us in the operations, Commander."

"That’s settled then. I will have my adjutant update you about these matters."

Marcus moved to the last set. Routes spread across Grefort before continuing beyond the city.

"These are the smuggling routes we managed to reconstruct."

Hans recognized several from earlier SAS material, but others were new.

"Foreign?"

"Some of them probably were. Others may have been ordinary smuggling."

"I want those checked too. That will give us an idea how deep foreign groups were operating inside Ashington before the collapse. If they were moving people and equipment through the country, I don’t want to find out after we run into them somewhere else."

"They could give us useful intelligence too, Commander," Marcus added.

"Exactly. Is there anything else?"

Johannes exchanged glances with Evelyn. After a short nod, he spoke.

"Commander, how far into the Core have your troops gone?"

"Deep enough. Why? Is there some secret you’re about to tell me?"

"There was a Directorate facility somewhere around the financial district."

Johannes pointed toward the Core.

"It stored secured records from the individual Cells, along with material passing between Grefort and the Central Directorate."

"And you know where it is?"

"Not exactly. The access points change regularly."

"Well that’s very convenient."

Hans gestured toward Dianne. The reinforced entrance Engineering uncovered beneath the western Core appeared on the display.

The three SAS agents shifted toward the screen and observed the images.

"Recognize it?"

"The door frame is familiar," Johannes replied. "Was this already opened?"

"Not yet. Had to secure the surroundings first before opening that. Is there a problem if it remains closed?"

"It’s better if it’s closed. Opening that by force will trigger an alarm. Nothing your troops can’t handle, but the data inside could be wiped."

"That strict?"

"Yes. Higher command didn’t want any intelligence to be leaked."

"Power’s been cut off for months now. Will that alarm still trigger?"

"I’m not certain. They usually run on some backup power."

"Surely it won’t last as long as several months?"

Johannes could only nod in acceptance.

Hans looked toward Dianne.

"Send this to Engineering. The entrance will be your top priority for now. Leave the other task behind."

"Understood, Commander."

"If there’s nothing else, you may leave."

The three SAS agents saluted and left the Command Center shortly afterward.

Hans remained seated inside, observing the images of the tightly sealed door frame once more.

If the facility still held its records, it could connect pieces the individual SAS Cells had never been allowed to see together.

It might also contain records connected to HELIX, DAEDALUS, VULCAN, or whoever had been moving around them before the Event.

"Dianne, prepare two DASF squads. The agents will go with them once Engineering reaches the entrance."

"Understood, Commander."

Hans looked back at the sealed door.

"Tell them not to break anything."