The base was dark, so, once clear of the smoke, the squad switched over to night vision. They moved through the walkways past the garage, until they were confident the area was clear.

Second squad moved ahead to watch the passages that lead further into the complex interior, and Lieutenant Akane called the team leaders together. She was joined by one of their support personnel, a member of Valkyrie’s combat engineering teams, who carried a heavy looking backpack.

As the Rangers gathered around, they saw her withdrawing a small collection of drones and laying them out on the floor. She played with a control pad, and they buzzed to life one by one, taking off into the dark recesses of the base.

“Survey drones,” explained Akane. “They’ll use echolocation to generate a complete map of the facility as we move. Most Jotnar combat drones aren’t equipped to pick up high frequency sounds, but if one does go down, that will tell us something new. Corporal Rudaski?” She turned to Kes.

“There’s a ton of connecting halls right around this garage,” Kes explained. “It’s probably a maintenance shop for the bases’ vehicles. I think we have a lot of room clearing ahead of us.”

“You happy to take point?”

“Absolutely, ma’am.”

“Great. The whole force is generating maps and the system will piece them together, and distribute them to your HUDs. Call in your position at regular intervals. We could easily get lost in this place.”

With that, first squad got back to their feet, and Kayla led them forward into the darkness.

She felt excited and alert, and was pieing her corners with perfect form, her weapon snapping around as she scanned for threats amid the maze of halls and machines. The rest of the squad followed behind, filling in the angles and keeping her covered as she moved.

Further into the base they found storehouses stacked with components, and assembly lines manned by unmoving robots. Rail tracks and sky cranes ran everywhere. The Rangers flowed through the complex environment in the calculated dance of close quarters battle, one of the skills they drilled constantly when not deployed.

It was a series of problems Kayla had to solve quickly and constantly. When she entered a new hall, should she move left, or right? Should she keep her body oriented towards the space of a large workshop, or in the direction of an upcoming corridor? She might be a quick shot, but she would always be faster if she faced the direction of highest probable threat—usually any unscanned space. But there were new openings branching off every which way.

The platoon’s other squads moved with them, locking down their sectors as the area was cleared. Kayla’s mind fell into the groove that rigorous training gave her easily enough, but the flow of information was constant, and she couldn’t risk even a second’s inattention.

All this with the prospect of coming face to face with a combat drone’s weapon around the next corner.

The work took them more than an hour, and when Kes called them to stop and take up protective positions so they could rest, Kayla felt herself sag with relief.

“You’re getting tired Barnes,” Kes observed.

“Vipers don’t get tired,” Kayla objected. But the adrenaline of the assault had worn off, and she was starting to feel her lack of sleep like a heavy weight around her neck.

“Uhuh. Ray will take point from here onwards, and you can switch back in later.”

Kayla didn’t protest.

They sipped water and munched on snacks as the platoon held the position. Kes spent time listening to the radio traffic from the battalion net.

“It sounds like this whole base is one big, automated plant,” she said eventually. “There are loading bays for bringing in raw materials, and transit lanes for shipping things back and forth.”

“Oh sure,” Lyna added. “These warehouses are full of spare parts. And everything in here has a machine to move it and attach it somewhere. It’s automated maintenance. The civilian world would dream of building factories like this, but they don’t have the tech to remove humans from the process, yet.”

“So, there’s no sign of life?” Kayla asked.

“Not yet,” Kes observed.

“Did you ever see anything like this before?”

“Never,” Kes said, with a concerned expression. “Ray, you?”

“Nope,” Ray said. “Active construction of Jotnar tech was not a possibility yesterday. But today we have an entire base built for it? On an unremarkable ice planet too, so it’s nice and hidden while it works away. It’s a little concerning.”

“All the shapes are different too,” Kes said. “Different machines, different layout. Everything looks… sexier, for want of a better word. It’s like an evolution.”

“This is a fun conversation,” Kayla remarked.

“Oh, I bet Rayker left us all kinds of new surprises to play with,” Ray said with a wink.

“Yeah, thanks for the nightmare fuel, Ray,” Lyna added. “How about we change the subject?”

“Hey, did I ever tell you about the Trung sisters?” Tian asked. “Two military leaders from the history of Vietnam?”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Don’t think so,” Kes said. “But now’s a good time for a morale boost.”

“To make a long story short,” Tian continued to the attentive squad, “Vietnam was occupied by Chinese oppressors. The governor executed some noblemen on suspicion of fomenting rebellion. These two sisters, Nhi and Trac, took over, lead the destruction of the Chinese garrison, and waged a war for independence.”

“That’s awesome,” Kayla said, as the others nodded in agreement. “Woman-power, throwing off the shackles of colonizers. The Chinese empire really got put in their place, yeah?”

“Nah, not really,” Tian said as she tore open another energy bar. “They won the war, and the sisters were both beheaded.”

She chewed thoughtfully as the squad absorbed this information in silence.

“That was a lame-ass story, Tian,” Lyna observed eventually.

“Seriously?” Tian said with an expression of disappointment. “They led a glorious and heroic defense of the motherland. Their names passed into legend. What more do you want?”

“I dunno,” Lyna said. “The heroines surviving and living happily ever after?”

Tian snorted with laughter. “No, that’s never a thing in Asian history.”

“Tian,” Kes said as she rubbed her eyes. “You are forbidden from morale raising attempts until this op is over.”

After the short break, and with the vehicle maintenance area cleared, the platoon began to push further into the base’s interior. Transportation tunnels branched away in different directions, and Akane was forced to start splitting the squads.

“Drop your radio beacons as you go,” she cautioned Kes. “Keep checking in.”

This time, Kes’s fire team led the squad, with Kayla bringing up the rear. They followed a tram line for a hundred yards, investigated a delivery car stacked with components, and exited the tunnel where a station opened up into another long hallway.

The squad was moving alone, with Lyna on point, when Kes stopped their advance to give a location update.

“Entering uh… hall echo-three,” she said, her head rotating slightly as her eyes scanned the holographic map that was projected in her vizor’s HUD.

“Copy two-one, you are at echo three,” Sergeant Reyes’ cool voice responded.

“Kes, check it out,” Lyna beckoned softly, and the corporal moved towards her to see where she was pointing. A narrow exit seemed to let out onto a larger open space.

Kayla activated the map and took stock of their situation. “Hey,” she hissed from behind them. “Shut off your helmet lights.”

The Rangers were in night vision mode, but the base was so dark they still had to use low energy settings on their helmet torches to give the sensors something to work with.

“What?” Lyna said back in confusion. “Then we can’t see a thing.”

“There’s a huge space on the other side of that opening,” Kayla insisted. “Anything in there with low-light sensors will be able to pinpoint us easily. Why don’t we use an illumination drone instead?”

“But it will cast shadows,” Kes insisted. “We won’t be able to see everywhere.”

“Yeah, and an enemy will have the same problem.”

Kes nodded thoughtfully. “I agree. Squad—lights off, break out an illumer.”

Lyna quietly dropped her pack and withdrew an aircraft the size of a small bird. She controlled it with a handheld device, and watched its camera feed through her vizor. It drifted into the space ahead, and the dim light spread to reveal an area larger than a sports stadium.

Thandi pointed to a raised assembly bench in the center of the space. “I think we found the point of this place,” she said.

On the bench a large humanoid form lay still. It appeared to be half-finished, though to Kayla, using the limited zoom of her helmet vizor, it was clearly armored and carrying what looked like weapons. She silently cursed as the distance made it impossible to make out more details. Her binoculars were not low-light adaptive. Others in the squad had attached sophisticated, high-magnification optics to their weapons, but with only a holo-sight, she was dependent on them for a clear view.

“Let’s go see what the fuss is all about,” Tian said, a little too confidently.

“No, wait,” Kayla hissed again.

Lyna and Kes crept back from the entrance threshold to join her.

“What’s up, Barnes?” Kes asked patiently.

“Doesn’t that just look wrong to you?” Kayla said. Her mind was still sluggish with fatigue, but adrenaline had started to seep into her blood, and she had learned to trust her instincts.

“Everything about this place looks wrong to me,” Kes said. “But we need to keep moving. If we start jumping at shadows, we will be down here for weeks.”

Kayla forced her thoughts to the surface, and tried to arrange them clearly. “There’s no machinery near the bench. Everything is stacked up around the outside of the hall. It’s just a wide-open space surrounded by well-covered positions.”

Kes shrugged. “We’re not engineers. How do we know how this place Is supposed to operate?”

“But there are trams packed with components back there,” Kayla insisted. “Rayker just left this thing half finished, when she knew we were coming?”

“Maybe she ran out of time? If she’s on the freighter she was pushing her escape margin to the limit.”

Kayla shook her head. “I don’t buy it. I’m getting goosebumps.”

“Gotta be honest,” Ray interjected, “but I’m with Kayla. The whole thing looks a bit sketch.”

“And what are we supposed to do about it?” Kes asked.

“Post overwatch while I sneak over there and check it out,” Kayla suggested hopefully.

Lyna scoffed quietly. “The lone Ranger rides again, huh?”

Kes said nothing. Kayla wondered what thoughts were passing behind the impassive metal face of her vizor. Was she really pushing her squad leader’s last nerve? Or just being sensible?

Eventually, the corporal nodded slowly. “Okay Barnes, you have fifteen minutes to get down there and see what’s up. Yak will stay up here with her LMG, but Ray and Tian will go with you.”

Kayla wanted to protest. “Well—”

“Don’t even think of questioning me this time.”

“Yes, Corporal,” Kayla replied meekly.

The squad moved through the entrance and took up positions on a walkway that ran around the hall. Four rifles, and two machine guns scanned the hall for anything that moved.

“Keep a good few yards of separation,” Kayla advised her companions. “Do what I do. Do not make a sound.”

It seemed logical to circle the hall and check out the hidden spaces circling the outside. Moving slowly forward, she stuck to the shadows cast by the drone, and when she had to cross an illuminated patch, she slung her weapon on her back and low crawled.

Cranes and gantries ten stories high crowded the ceiling and cliff-like walls, and the three Rangers snaked their way through a chaos of geometric forms. They passed shelves of armor plates and actuators, stacks of energy modules, and trays neatly arrayed with control boards. Kayla looked closely at a bin filled with tubes to see that they were indeed barrels for a weapon system.

Though she had begun the recon feeling nervous, Tian and Ray followed her well enough. Even so, she couldn’t suppress the habit of looking back and checking up on them. Kayla eventually came to a ramp and conveyor belt from where she could observe a raised platform ringed with consoles. The position struck her as a perfect place to ambush an unsuspecting visitor, and she wanted a closer look.

“Time’s a wasting Barnes, let’s wrap this up,” Kes radioed to her headset.

Kayla tapped her mic switch and transmitted a single burst of static; acknowledged.

She peered around her hiding spot and watched the platform as carefully as she could. At first all she saw was a clean boxy structure, but as she zoomed into the fuzzy green image, she made out a spider like form, half-concealed in the shadows. It was carrying something that looked very much like a machine gun.

Reaching up to her mic switch, she transmitted a triple burst. Enemy contact. Beside her, Ray and Tian stiffened. Kayla turned calmly to them, and made a fist with her hand, mimed a throw, then held up three fingers.

They nodded, and reached into pouches for their grenades. Kayla transmitted a double burst; standby. The squad would be prepared for what would happen next.