Fire at Will [Mech Sci-Fi Military]

KNOW THY ENEMY

Will scrolled through the incoming readings and found a multitude of entries, ranging from psiongraphs to radio signatures.

Beside him, Damian flipped through the same information until his eyes rested on the seismograph readings.

"I see it. Any points of interest?"

"We've got a rough map from the seismic readings," Yacob reported.

Will glanced at the crude 3D model now hovering on his slate. Blurry and patchy, it showed the outline of the fabrication plant—lumpy blocks connected by grainy corridors. Several sections were completely blank, the sensors unable to penetrate.

"The resolution's pretty rough," Will muttered.

"We skipping the GPR?" asked Damian.

"Only passive methods," Yacob replied. "High chance they've got sensors screening for active pulses."

"We can still make out the layout," Trapper chimed in. "More or less."

Damian rotated the 3D projection with a flick of his fingers, slowly analyzing the full structure while Yacob continued narrating in the background.

"The fortification's significant. What we see above is just the tip of the iceberg. Anterior walls—about a meter thick. But it's the inner chamber that's interesting. That's where most of the work was probably done."

"Only one path in," Damian noted, narrowing his eyes. "Compared to the open floor plan of the workshop, the access route to the underground chamber is tight. Constricted."

"Tough," Natalia said simply.

"There's one thing missing," Trapper said after a beat. "All I'm seeing is concrete and rebar. Where's the radiation shielding?"

"None that I can detect," Yacob answered. "No lead lining. No water barriers. Nothing."

"No titanium either," Damian added. "Looks like they didn't bother with passive shielding at all."

"Just rock and earth…" Trapper murmured. "Isn't that interesting."

A long silence followed as the team processed what they'd just learned.

"Thoughts?" Damian finally asked.

"Breaching this will be a nightmare," Yacob sighed.

"Then it's fortunate," Trapper said calmly, "that we don't have to."

He paused, then added, "The nukes aren't here."

Confused chatter broke out across the comm channel at Trapper's proclamation.

"What do you mean they're not here?" Yacob asked, puzzled.

"We did suspect that the Revenant managed to get their hands on an old warhead near the end of the October Collapse. Not every nuke went off during the war. Some were duds—failed launches, mid-air interceptions, malfunctions. Information is sparse from back then, but I managed to scrape fragments from old archives. Two warheads were officially recorded as 'inconclusive'—never recovered."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Wait—two?" Natalia asked, surprised.

"Yes, two. Code name: Lead Zeplin and Drunk Cat. From everything we've seen, it's far more likely the Revenant are refurbishing those old devices than building anything from scratch. And you can tell just by looking at the facility itself.

"No passive shielding, almost nothing on the psion signature readings. I doubt they ever intended the base to hide the nukes here long-term. If they did, the air, ground—everything—would be suffused with radiation. The signature would be unmistakable."

"So…" Yacob prompted.

"So, they did the next best thing. Decontamination. After decades in hiding, those warheads have degraded—shielding, plating, internal regulators, all of it. They'd be unstable, maybe even leaking. This facility is being used to clean and stabilize the uranium cores. Bit by bit."

"And this place is perfect for it," he went on. "First, there's the Tower. Constant, unrestricted energy—ideal for slow, careful extraction and purification. They've probably been siphoning off power for years, just under the threshold where anyone would notice."

"Makes sense," Natalia muttered, thinking aloud. "I don't see the Revenant powering this out of Tower dump hydrazine."

"And second," Trapper continued, "the industrial sector is ideal for sourcing materials. All kinds of components, shielding, chemical treatments—easy to acquire, easy to hide. Try doing that outside the Tower, and you'd have three agencies knocking at your door."

"The radiation signature would also be easier to mask," Damian said thoughtfully. "If they're only storing the cores here temporarily, in small amounts... it's manageable."

"Exactly," Trapper said. "From what we can tell, the Revenant were here every week, making the deliveries. Moving parts in, moving processed material out. All under the radar."

A quiet beat followed.

"That explains the Bishop," Will muttered.

Damian gave him a sidelong glance.

Will tapped his mic and muted it. "The psiongraph data," he said quietly. "She was monitoring the radiation spill while transporting the core samples. She had to block its signature actively. Overlap it—clean it up by layering her own over it."

In the background, Trapper kept talking, his voice steady through the comm. But Damian's attention was locked entirely on Will.

"What?" Will asked, sensing the shift.

"I don't think that was the full extent of it."

Will frowned. "What do you mean?"

Damian leaned closer. "Why did she keep the data after the job was done?"

"Um... in case she missed something?" Will guessed.

"No. She was looking for you."

Will's brow furrowed. "For me?"

"She wasn't just masking the radiation signature," Damian said. "She was recording everything. Including how your psionic signature reacted with the shard. Monitoring it in real time. If she was already monitoring signatures, why not pull double duty?"

Will's mouth went dry.

"She wasn't just cleaning the trail," Damian said. "She was studying you. Trying to isolate your pattern, profile it—and trying to find a way in."

A chill ran down Will's spine.

Damian chuckled softly. "Cheer up. In a few days, all of this will be over."

Will exhaled slowly. Damian smiled, gave him a quick clap on the back, and turned away—unmuting his mic as he rejoined the rest of the team.

Trapper was winding down his explanation as Will tuned back in.

"—while the decontamination happens here," continued Trapper, "the final assembly won't. They'll finish that outside the Tower. Still, they'll need to bring the warhead back here before the General Assembly."

"So we intercept it en route," suggested Yacob. "Hit them before it reaches the plant."

"Hold on," Damian cut in. "I've got Lawson on the line. She'll want to weigh in."

A soft buzz followed, and a new voice joined the channel.

"This is Lawson," she announced.

Damian brought her up to speed quickly. Once he finished, Lawson responded without missing a beat.

"Good. The Revenant have been sticking to their schedule. They're still making regular deliveries."

"They haven't finished with the decontamination?" Yacob asked.

"No," Lawson replied. "I suspect they're transporting other munitions. Their transport trucks are too small for anything else. The warhead is probably already assembled and waiting outside the Tower."

"Right," Yacob agreed.

"But still, what are the chances they've got the nuke already stored in the plant?" asked Lawson.

"No shot," said Trapper. "The signature spill would be significant if they did."

"Alright. That makes this easier. I've had Faris track the movement patterns of their trucks. We know the route. We know the direction. And as for when... like I said, they're keeping to schedule."

Trapper let out a low chuckle—this one dark and eager. "Praise be. So we know when they're coming."

"Friday," Lawson said.

"And we'll be there," Trapper finished.

Will felt a surge of adrenaline, his chest tightening with purpose. This was it. No more speculation, no more watching from rooftops.

They were doing this.