Caleb sat in the back of Transport 7. The metal bench vibrated against his boots. The truck hit a pothole, rattling the armor plates stacked in the cabin. Assault Squad Three did not speak.

Jaxson checked the battery on his plasma rifle. He glared at the steel floor, hating the assignment.

Rina sat across from Caleb, her kinetic rifle resting across her knees as she studied him.

The truck frame shook. Cold air blew through the canvas flaps. Caleb closed his eyes. The chalky protein block sat like lead in his stomach. The thing under his sternum burned through the calories fast to keep him from freezing. He focused on the engine noise to block the dull throb in his shoulder.

"The containment strategy," Rina said over the engine rumble. "Freezing the ground."

Caleb opened his eyes. "Ice limits traction. It won’t backpedal onto a slick surface when it needs leverage to carry that armor."

"We dictate the footing," Rina confirmed, testing his logic.

Jaxson checked his weapon sights. "Stay out of my firing lane, scrubber. I am not losing my execution angles because you misread dirt."

Caleb checked the seals on his canvas jacket, letting the engine noise drown out the veteran. He just needed the truck to reach the cave.

The truck slammed its brakes. The deceleration threw them forward against their restraints as tires skidded over broken asphalt.

Iris threw back the canvas flaps. "We march the rest of the way. The ground won’t hold the vehicles."

Caleb unlatched his harness and stepped out of the truck.

The paved road ended where a sinkhole had swallowed the avenue. Jagged ravines cut through the manufacturing plants, dropping at steep angles into the earth. The city noise faded, replaced by the groaning of settling dirt.

Caleb felt a vibration through the soles of his boots. The air smelled of old sewer gas and burnt coolant.

They climbed down into the sinkhole. Broken slabs of asphalt gave way to a spongy gray growth coating the steep incline.

Caleb moved with deliberate steps. Tali’s custom ballistic weave pulled tight, gripping his muscle groups to support his joints as he braced against the drop.

Rina studied his footing, noting how the gray fabric distributed his weight without catching or bunching like standard canvas.

"Your gear lacks quartermaster tags," Rina noted.

"Rush job," Caleb replied, keeping his focus on the floor.

Rina nodded once, accepting the evasion.

Jaxson walked ahead of them. His custom armor cast a faint glow in the cavern. He tapped his wrist console.

"My primary drone is struggling with the exposure," Jaxson complained over the local squad link. "The backers can’t see the weapon decals."

Distracted by his screen, Jaxson stepped toward a patch of black moss near a crushed car chassis.

Caleb grabbed a piece of asphalt and tossed it hard. The rock hit the black patch. The moss reacted instantly, smoking as concealed acid melted the stone into slag.

Jaxson stopped mid-step, looking from the smoking rock back to Caleb.

"Step on the gray growth," Caleb told him. "The black patches are digestive acid. You step in it, you lose your boots."

Jaxson adjusted his path, keeping a wide berth from the black moss.

The cavern widened before bottlenecking into a narrow subterranean ravine. Sheer walls of solid bedrock rose on either side, slick with condensation.

Caleb stopped at the threshold. Stepping up to the right wall, he pulled his glove back and pressed his bare hand flat against the stone. He felt the density, then walked the width of the bottleneck to measure the distance with his strides.

He turned back to the squad.

"This is the box," Caleb said. "The bedrock is too dense. It can’t burrow through the walls to flank us here. We lock it in this lane." 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

He pointed to the far end of the ravine.

"Hiro, set up at the rear and freeze the retreat path. Iharu, seed the lateral flanks with micro-shrapnel charges to force it forward."

Jaxson stepped into the center of the ravine. "I am taking the front line. My stream needs the initial engagement shot."

"You stand in the center, it crushes you before your drone focuses," Rina said.

Caleb pointed to an outcropping of stone overlooking the bottleneck. "Take the left ridge. The angle guarantees plasma penetration through its top plates. You get a clean execution shot without the ground debris blocking your lens."

Jaxson considered the broadcast angle, then engaged his suit thrusters and vaulted onto the rock shelf. Caleb climbed the incline right behind him, taking the forward corner of the ridge to maintain a line of sight on the trap.

The squad locked into position.

The damp cold seeped through Caleb’s gear, but the burning in his chest fought the chill.

Up on the ridge, a spark popped from Jaxson’s priority camera drone.

The small machine shuddered as its tracking spotlight died. The drone dropped three feet before stabilizing into a blind hover.

"What is going on with the signal?" Jaxson cursed over the comms, slapping his wrist console.

Caleb held his breath.

Purple code overrode his military interface.

[??? : His drone was ruining your shadow. I shut it down.]

Caleb locked his jaw. The hacker bypassed the secure mission perimeter just to cut power to a veteran’s equipment.

The green viewer count in the corner of his cracked visor ticked upward, holding steady at exactly one hundred thousand. She had locked the ceiling on his feed.

[??? : This is your stage. Make them look at you.]

He swiped the text away with a manual command.

A scrape of rock echoed from the cavern floor.

"Help me. Please, my leg is pinned. I can’t move."

The voice echoed from the far end of the ravine. It sounded real enough to make people move, carrying the exact pitch of one of the missing recruits from the advance team.

On the ridge, Jaxson flinched.

The voice came again from the shadows. Closer this time.

Jaxson’s boot shifted toward the edge as he leaned over the rock to find the survivor.

Caleb caught the back of his armor and drove him down against the stone.

At the far end of the ravine, something huge lowered itself into the mud. Massive legs planted. Weight settled. The trap had worked.

Caleb drew his combat knife.