Chapter 236: Into the Directorate

The reinforced entrance remained closed when Johannes arrived.

Two DASF squads secured the surrounding underground corridors while Engineers worked around the exposed frame. Most of the remaining rubble had already been removed, leaving the entire entrance visible beneath the Core.

One of the Engineers stood back from it.

"This thing is ridiculous."

Marcus looked over.

"What happened?"

"We tried sampling the frame. Outer layers are normal enough. Steel, ceramics, composites. Then we hit the inside and this happened."

The Engineer held up one of the cutting heads. Its edge had been visibly worn down.

Johannes approached the entrance and subconsciously placed his left thumb on one part of the door frame.

When he realized what he had done, he stepped back and scratched his head.

"Sorry. Muscle memory."

The Engineers ignored his attempt. One of them crouched beside the lower frame, clearing dirt from a narrow section exposed beneath the wall.

"Hold on."

Everyone nearby looked toward him.

He brushed the surface again.

A small stamped mark appeared beneath the grime.

Marcus moved closer.

The lettering was barely larger than his thumb.

------

PROJECT DAEDALUS - Advanced Materials Engineering

------

Johannes frowned.

"What is that?"

Evelyn and Marcus shook their heads. The Engineer glanced between the three of them.

"You’ve never heard of DAEDALUS?"

"No," Johannes answered. "HELIX, we know of it. Is this another kind of thing?"

Marcus inspected the mark again.

"This is part of the door?"

"Looks like it. Maybe the frame assembly."

Johannes looked toward the sealed entrance. A Directorate facility hidden beneath Grefort’s financial district was already unusual enough. Finding another classified project attached to it made the situation stranger.

One of the Engineers talked through the communicator.

"Command, this is Recovery Four."

Dianne answered shortly afterward.

"Come in, Recovery Four."

"We’ve encountered DAEDALUS elements in our mysterious door frame. Entry has been slow for a while now. Would be great if we have Overseer Kordula watch over."

"Sending your request to the Commander."

The channel closed. Moments later, it reopened.

"Recovery Four, request approved. Overseer Weissenberg is on her way."

"Copy."

...

Kordula arrived less than an hour later with two Engineers from the Nuclear Power Station. She barely acknowledged the DASF squads before walking straight toward the entrance.

"Where is it?"

The Engineer pointed toward the exposed section.

Kordula crouched. Her expression changed as soon as she saw the marking.

"Advanced Materials."

Johannes watched her.

"You know what this is?"

"Yeah. Ever wondered why earthquakes or typhoons don’t matter much lately? You can thank these guys for that."

Marcus and Evelyn whispered to each other.

"Was that really the case?"

"Evelyn, have you been watching the news before?"

Kordula stood and looked over the entire entrance. "If you want to cut through this, you’ll need something considerably nastier than what your Engineers brought."

The Engineers exchanged glances. That phrase was a little too familiar.

One of them clicked their tongue. "There has to be another way?"

"VULCAN’s weaponry. It can tear through the framework and save you time, but it’s not possible without the correct setup."

Another Engineer stepped forward. "Do we need to save the doorframe or is it a priority to gain access inside?"

Everyone remained silent. The lead Engineer opened his communicator once more.

"Command, this is Recovery Four."

"What is it now, Recovery Four?"

"We got a special situation here—"

...

Half an hour later, a Vanguard MBT rolled down the partially reconstructed street.

Johannes watched it approach.

"You called a tank?"

"If that door is super reinforced, we can punch through it on the other side."

The Vanguard slowed near the exposed entrance and turned slightly toward the damaged structure beside it.

Kordula remained near the frame.

"You know you’ll waste ammunition doing this, right?"

"We’ve got ammunition to spare. You don’t have to worry about this one." The Engineer replied confidently.

"You can’t be serious. What if the sides are super reinforced as well?"

"Then we’ll keep punching until it opens."

The DASF squads moved farther back while the Engineers marked a section of wall away from the frame. The wall beside the entrance had survived the collapse considerably better than most of the surrounding underground level, but it was still reinforced concrete.

"Target marked!" The Engineer spoke through the channel. "Rhino One, you’re set to go!"

The Vanguard stopped. Its main gun adjusted toward the wall.

Johannes covered one ear.

The shot struck moments later.

Concrete burst inward.

The entire section around the impact collapsed far deeper than Johannes expected, throwing dust and fragments through the underground approach.

Marcus stared through the haze.

"That was one shot?"

Johannes said nothing. He had seen tanks fire before. That was not how much damage one normally did.

"This... is stronger than some Valerian equivalent."

The Engineer looked through the opening.

"Still another layer."

"Again."

The Vanguard fired a second round. More concrete disappeared. This time, darkness appeared beyond the fractured wall.

Evelyn glanced toward the tank before following the others toward the breach.

"I’m starting to understand why they don’t seem worried about ammunition."

One of the DASF operators moved toward the opening once the debris stopped falling.

"Interior space confirmed."

Johannes stared through it. A familiar corridor sat on the other side.

Marcus noticed his expression.

"You know where we are?"

"Yes."

Johannes looked toward the untouched entrance several meters away.

"We’re behind the reception corridor."

Evelyn glanced toward the massive hole beside it.

"That’s one way to enter."

Kordula looked at the still-intact DAEDALUS frame. "Better than wasting the rest of the day fighting a door."

The DASF squads moved first. Johannes, Marcus, Evelyn and Kordula followed them through the breach.

The corridor beyond had no power.

Emergency lights remained dark, and dust covered most of the floor. Parts of the ceiling had collapsed farther down, although the reception corridor itself remained recognizable.

The wall opposite the reception area had suffered far worse damage.

Dead roots filled a section where the concrete had been broken apart from the other side. Most had been burned black or torn into pieces before they could spread much farther.

Several ruined weapon mounts remained around the breach.

Kordula stopped beside one and cleared debris from its casing. Although no DAEDALUS markings could be seen, she knew where the source came from.

"An automated security system."

"Was that DAEDALUS all along?"

"Now you know."

Johannes looked across the corridor.

Bodies surrounded the defensive positions. Some still carried Directorate weapons, while others showed the familiar physical changes of HELIX enhancement.

Whatever happened here, the Tree had not entered without resistance.

Judging from where the dead roots ended, the people inside had managed to stop the incursion.

Johannes moved past the damaged counter without slowing.

The first DASF squad split at the next intersection.

More of the nearby layout had appeared on their shared map after the breach, although the deeper sections remained obscured.

The DASF operators spread into the newly exposed corridors.

One operator shifted his rifle toward an open office.

"Bodies."

Johannes stopped.

Three corpses remained inside, being there for months.

One lay beside an overturned desk. Another had collapsed against the wall near the door. The third remained farther inside with an old sidearm beside his hand.

Evelyn looked over them briefly before continuing.

More bodies appeared as they moved deeper into the facility. Some had clearly died during the fighting near reception. Others had survived long enough to retreat farther inside.

Johannes recognized one face and stopped for a moment.

Marcus saw him, but said nothing.

Johannes continued walking.

They reached another intersection.

The local map showed several nearby corridors now, although the facility continued beyond its current coverage.

One passage had been partially blocked by collapsed concrete. Another led toward several enclosed rooms behind the reception area.

Johannes pointed toward the latter.

"Records."

They moved on.

The archive section looked worse.

Dark stains covered part of one wall, while dead roots had pushed through cracks near the ceiling before drying in place. Several doors remained shut.

Johannes approached the nearest one.

There was no response from the reader beside it. He did not bother trying again.

"Power’s gone."

Marcus moved toward another access point and inspected it.

"Same here."

One of the Engineers entered behind them.

"We can restore local power if you need it."

Johannes looked toward the dead roots. "No need for that."

If the Directorate systems had detected what happened, restoring power before they knew what state the facility had entered was an unnecessary gamble.

Worse, they might just restart the alarm system and force an entire data wipe.

They continued farther inside instead. Another body rested near the records corridor.

This one had died beside an open wall compartment. Several storage modules were missing from their slots.

Marcus crouched beside the body.

The man’s Directorate identification remained clipped beneath his jacket.

A senior officer.

His body rested between the archive compartment and an opened service panel along the wall. Several cables had been disconnected by hand.

One of the Engineers inspected the open compartment without touching anything.

"These were removed manually."

"Can the rest be removed?"

"If it’s removable. The data inside is not a guarantee, however."

Johannes looked farther down the archive corridor.

More bodies rested between the archive doors.

Spent magazines and bullet casings remained around several makeshift barricades. A few dead roots had reached this far through cracks in the walls, but nothing resembled the destruction near reception.

The Directorate personnel had fallen back toward the archives after the first breach.

Some died holding those positions. Others had survived long enough for the fighting to end.

The local map expanded slightly as they reached another intersection, revealing several nearby rooms and another corridor before the deeper structure disappeared beyond its coverage.

Johannes continued forward.

The next rooms told a different story. Several people remained on cots pushed against the walls. Empty water containers and torn food packaging covered the floor around them.

Others were wrapped in blankets.

They may have survived the attack, but not being trapped afterward.

Another room looked worse. Through the doorway, Johannes saw the aftermath.

Evelyn looked inside once before turning away. Marcus did not dare enter.

Hunger had eventually forced some of the survivors into things none of them wanted to examine any closer.

Johannes stepped back into the corridor.

"That’s enough."

They returned to the archive compartment. Marcus looked again at the empty slots.

"Some of the data is missing."

Johannes studied the mounting points. Nothing around them suggested the modules had been destroyed.

"Must have been placed somewhere safe."

Where they had taken the missing records was another problem.

Johannes looked toward the surviving modules.

"Recover what we have first."

The Engineers moved in.