Chapter 288: Empty Stations

There was still more of the facility to clear.

Engineer Three left the articulated frame behind and followed the DASF squad farther into the underground complex.

By now, the broader picture was coming together. The sections behind them pointed toward advanced materials, impulse engineering, pilot fabrication and VULCAN qualification work.

The next area added another familiar name.

The first clue was the doors.

They were heavier than the laboratory entrances behind them and divided the corridor into several separate compartments. Cameras watched both sides of each access point, while recessed sensors covered the ceiling and walls.

Engineer Three noticed the markings before they reached the first room—AWP.

"Took long enough for that to show up."

One of the DASF operators looked toward the next doorway while Engineer Three continued toward it.

There wasn’t anything unusual about DAEDALUS using automated security. The Golden Eagle Army had already seen a much larger example at the Northern Nuclear Power Plant, where ASS-116 controlled access, coordinated the automated defenses and continued protecting the station long after normal command collapsed.

This facility was different. Everything they found so far pointed toward materials research, fabrication and testing, with AWP supporting the restricted sections rather than dominating the entire complex.

Even then, Engineer Three expected to find some of its hardware.

"Now the question is where everything went."

The room beyond looked less like a laboratory and more like a service area.

Several large maintenance cradles occupied the floor in two rows. Power connections ran beside them, along with diagnostic ports and recessed equipment cabinets built directly into the walls.

Every cradle was empty.

Engineer Three walked toward the nearest one.

The mounting system was far too large for an ordinary drone, and the connections around it suggested something with its own onboard power, sensors and weapons systems.

Another Engineer moved toward the opposite row.

"Six over here."

"Four on this side."

Engineer Three crouched beside the nearest cradle and inspected the locking points.

"Mobile platforms."

Engineer Three ran the scanner over the nearest locking points.

Whatever used these cradles wasn’t lightweight equipment. The power connections, diagnostic interfaces and servicing clearances all pointed toward self-contained machines large enough to carry their own sensors, power systems and whatever mission equipment had been fitted to them.

Nothing suggested these were temporary parking positions either, yet every cradle was vacant.

Engineer Three straightened.

"Where the hell did all of them go?"

The DASF squad cleared another connecting room where smaller docking points lined one wall and heavier servicing stations occupied the other, their overhead maintenance arms still folded above the cradles.

Engineer Three glanced around.

"No wreckage either."

Another Engineer was already checking one of the stations.

"Nothing tore these out. Connections are intact."

The floor carried months of dust and neglect, but the service positions showed no blast damage, torn cables or other signs that disabled machines had been dragged away.

They continued deeper.

The AWP markings became more common as they continued through the secured section. Access-control systems and surveillance equipment remained fixed in place, followed by hardware meant for something more direct.

One DASF operator stopped beside a recessed section of wall—a weapon mount.

Engineer Three examined it. The mounting ring remained, along with its power and control connections, but the weapon that belonged there was gone.

Another position farther down the corridor looked exactly the same, and the next one after that.

The Engineer beside him followed his gaze.

"That’s a lot of missing hardware."

"Did they evacuate in a rush?"

Engineer Three looked back toward the intact mount.

"If they did, they took the weapons with them."

...

The human side of the facility wasn’t any more helpful.

The DASF squad eventually reached a personnel section connected to the laboratories through another security checkpoint.

Offices occupied one side of the personnel section while changing rooms and lockers took up the other. Farther inside were a break area, several small meeting rooms and a medical station.

Nothing in the personnel section looked damaged either, but nobody was there.

Engineer Three opened one of the office doors after the DASF cleared it.

Several desks remained inside.

Monitors sat where their users left them. Paperwork remained inside drawers and cabinets, while several shelves still carried technical manuals and binders.

Dust covered most of it, but nothing suggested a fight took place there. No bodies or blood appeared in the next office either, or in the rooms beyond it.

One Engineer opened a locker.

Clothes still hung inside.

"Someone forgot their jacket."

Engineer Three glanced over.

"Maybe they didn’t think they’d need it."

"Or they didn’t get the chance."

"Check the locker. There might be a name."

The Engineer searched around the inside and found an identification card wedged beside one of the shelves.

Engineer Three took it.

"Phillip Jackson. Senior Materials Engineer."

He looked toward the jacket again.

"At least we know who owned this one."

One of the desks nearby carried the same name on a small identification strip.

Engineer Three walked over.

"Might as well check his workstation."

It was an ordinary engineering computer connected to the laboratory network. After checking the machine first, the Engineer powered it on.

The system took some time to start, but most of the local files were still there.

It mostly contained material reports, a few test results, some equipment requests, and several unfinished engineering notes.

"Got anything useful?"

"About the materials? Yeah. About the guy? No."

There were no evacuation instructions, emergency messages or records explaining why everyone disappeared. The last activity on the computer was ordinary: test files being opened, reports being edited and equipment being accessed as part of normal work.

After that, the activity stopped. Engineer Three leaned back from the monitor.

"There’s your log files."

The workstation could tell them what Jackson had been working on, but it couldn’t tell them where Jackson went.

The medical room still contained sealed supplies, while the break area still had chairs pushed beneath some of the tables.

A few personal items remained scattered around the offices and lockers.

Engineer Three opened the channel.

"Southern Command."

Brandon answered from the BACV.

"You found anything else?"

"AWP infrastructure."

"Active?"

"That’s the strange part. The infrastructure is here, but the platforms aren’t."

"Destroyed?"

"No wreckage. The service bays are intact, and we’ve found empty weapon mounts all through the section."

Engineer Three moved toward the next corridor while the DASF squad continued clearing ahead.

"And there’s something else."

"What?"

"The personnel are missing too."

"Nothing at all?"

"No bodies or signs of fighting. We’re still checking the computers and archives, but nothing we’ve found explains it."

He glanced through another empty office as he passed.

"This place is getting stranger the farther we go."

"Any evidence of evacuation?"

Engineer Three shook his head even though Brandon couldn’t see him.

"There’s nothing here that proves it."

"Send the AWP identifiers and everything else you’ve collected to High Command. Have the Tech Center compare them with the recovered archives."

"Already preparing it."

The channel closed.

Engineer Three looked farther down the corridor.

Another set of empty security stations waited ahead. Nothing they found explained where the personnel or the automated weapons had gone.