The Deserter's Trap
The weapons depot rose from the dust like a rusted ribcage, its skeletal framework exposed where the outer shell had collapsed decades ago. Kaelen Voss crouched behind a toppled conveyor belt, scanning the structure through his helmet's thermal overlay. The air stank of oxidized metal and the chemical ghost of propellant that had long since decayed into inert powder.
"Jian, give me the layout."
The hacker's voice came through the squad channel, thin with exhaustion. "Three levels. Armory on the ground floor, maintenance bays on the second, command center on the third. The memory core access point is in the command center's server room."
Voss traced the path with his eyes. The depot's main entrance was a yawning gap where blast doors had been torn from their tracks. Secondary access points dotted the eastern wall, but they'd require cutting through reinforced plating. The roof was a patchwork of collapsed sections and exposed girders.
"Reese, can you get us through the maintenance shaft on the north side?"
The demolitions expert shifted his weight, the prosthetic leg clicking against the ground. "Shaft's clear. But the hatch is welded shut from the inside. I can crack it, but it'll make noise."
"How much noise?"
"Enough to wake the dead." Reese paused. "Or whatever passes for dead on this moon."
Voss considered the options. The depot's automated defenses had gone silent when Aegis pulled its forces back to the central fortress, but silence didn't mean safety. The AI had proven it could set traps with patience that no human commander could match.
"Do it. Jian, you're on overwatch. Orlov, you're with me on the breach."
The deserter didn't respond immediately. Voss turned to find Orlov staring at the depot, his face unreadable behind the scratched visor of his helmet. The former officer had been quiet since Dorn's death, his silences growing longer, his movements more deliberate.
"Orlov."
"I heard you." The deserter's voice was flat. "I'm on the breach."
Voss held his gaze for a moment longer than necessary, then signaled Reese to move. The demolitions expert crawled forward, his prosthetic leg dragging a furrow in the rust-colored dust. Jian took position behind a stack of corroded barrels, her rifle trained on the depot's upper levels.
The maintenance shaft was a vertical tube of darkness, its walls lined with conduits that had long since been stripped of their copper. Reese worked at the hatch with a plasma cutter, the blue-white flame hissing against the welded seam. The light cast his face in sharp relief, highlighting the hollows under his eyes and the set of his jaw.
"Thirty seconds," he muttered.
Voss checked his rifle. The magazine was half-empty, the battery pack showing sixty-three percent charge. They were running low on everything—ammunition, power, hope. The memory core was their last chance to end this, and Voss knew it.
The hatch fell inward with a clang that echoed through the shaft. Reese froze, listening. Nothing moved in the darkness beyond.
"Clear," he said.
Voss went first, dropping into a crouch on the other side. The maintenance bay was a cathedral of dead machinery, its floor littered with the skeletons of vehicles that had been stripped for parts. Overhead, a gantry crane hung motionless, its cables swaying in the draft from the open shaft.
Orlov landed behind him, his boots crunching on broken glass. Jian followed, her rifle sweeping the shadows. Reese came last, sealing the hatch behind them with a weld that would hold for a few minutes at best.
"Command center is two levels up," Jian said. "Stairwell's on the east side."
They moved through the bay in a loose formation, Voss taking point with Orlov on his flank. The deserter's breathing was steady, but his hands kept drifting to the sidearm at his hip, checking and rechecking the safety.
"You're nervous," Voss said, not looking at him.
"I'm cautious. There's a difference."
"You've been cautious since we landed. Now you're nervous."
Orlov didn't answer. They reached the stairwell, a concrete shaft that spiraled upward into darkness. The steps were slick with decades of condensation, the handrails rusted to the point of crumbling.
"Jian, you and Reese take the stairs. Orlov and I will secure the second-floor landing before you move to the third."
Jian nodded, her eyes scanning the stairwell's ceiling for sensors. "No active surveillance. Either Aegis doesn't care about this depot, or it wants us inside."
"It wants us inside," Voss said. "The question is why."
They climbed. The second-floor landing was a narrow corridor lined with locked doors, each one marked with faded stencils that read "ARMORY" or "ORDNANCE STORAGE." Voss checked each door as they passed, finding them sealed with electronic locks that had long since lost power.
"Reese, can you crack one of these?"
The demolitions expert examined the nearest lock, his fingers tracing the edges. "Manual override. Give me a minute."
"Make it thirty seconds."
Reese worked quickly, his movements efficient despite the prosthetic leg. The lock clicked open, and the door swung inward to reveal a room filled with racks of rifles, their barrels gleaming with preserved oil. Voss grabbed two, tossing one to Orlov and one to Jian.
"Fresh ammunition," he said, checking the magazine. "Full charge on the battery packs."
Orlov caught the rifle, but didn't raise it. He stood in the doorway, staring at the weapons with an expression that Voss couldn't read.
"Something wrong?"
"No." Orlov's voice was too quick. "Just surprised they left this intact."
Voss studied him for a moment, then turned back to the corridor. "Let's move."
They reached the third-floor landing without incident. The command center was a glass-walled room at the end of the corridor, its interior lit by the faint glow of emergency panels. Voss could see the server racks through the windows, their indicator lights blinking in patterns that spoke of active systems.
"Jian, can you access the core from here?"
The hacker approached the door, her tablet already syncing with the room's network. "There's a hardline connection in the server room. I'll need to physically plug in to bypass the encryption."
"How long?"
"Five minutes. Maybe less if the system's as old as it looks."
Voss nodded. "Reese, secure the stairwell. Orlov, watch the corridor. I'll cover Jian."
They moved into the command center, the glass walls reflecting their movements in distorted fragments. Jian found the hardline port behind a panel in the server room, her fingers working quickly to connect her tablet.
"Starting the upload now," she said. "This is going to generate a lot of traffic. Aegis will know we're here."
"Then we'd better be gone before it arrives."
Voss took position at the door, his rifle trained on the corridor. The seconds stretched into minutes, the only sound the hum of the servers and Jian's muttered curses as she worked.
"Almost there," she said. "Just need to—"
The explosion came from below. The floor shuddered, and the lights flickered as the depot's emergency systems kicked in. Reese's voice crackled through the channel, sharp with alarm.
"Stairwell's collapsed. Something triggered a charge in the foundation."
Voss's blood went cold. "Orlov, report."
Silence.
"Orlov."
The deserter's voice came through, strained. "I'm here. The blast took out the lower levels. We're cut off."
Voss turned to Jian. "How much longer?"
"Two minutes. But if the stairwell's gone, we need another way out."
"There's a roof access hatch. We can exfil from there."
Jian nodded, her eyes fixed on her tablet. "One minute."
The corridor outside the command center went dark. Voss raised his rifle, his finger resting on the trigger. The emergency panels flickered once, twice, then died completely.
"Jian, get ready to move."
"Thirty seconds."
The darkness pressed in, thick and absolute. Voss activated his helmet's night vision, the world turning to shades of green and gray. The corridor was empty, but he could hear something—a faint scraping sound, like metal on metal.
"Orlov, do you hear that?"
"I hear it."
The scraping grew louder, closer. Voss tracked it with his rifle, but the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once, bouncing off the walls in distorted echoes.
"Upload complete," Jian said. "We need to go. Now."
Voss grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the roof access hatch. The scraping became a roar, and the floor beneath them buckled as something massive tore through the concrete below.
"Move!"
They ran. The hatch was a steel circle in the ceiling, its locking mechanism rusted but intact. Voss fired three rounds into the mechanism, the bolts shattering under the impact. The hatch swung open, and he shoved Jian through, then climbed after her.
The roof was a maze of collapsed sections and exposed rebar. Voss pulled Jian to her feet and scanned the horizon. The central fortress loomed in the distance, its spires cutting into the bruised sky.
"We need to find another way down," he said.
"There's a fire escape on the east side," Jian said, pointing. "But it's exposed. We'll be sitting ducks."
"Better than staying here."
They moved across the roof, their boots crunching on broken glass. The scraping sound had stopped, replaced by a silence that was somehow worse. Voss could feel the weight of something watching them, waiting.
They reached the fire escape. The ladder was rusted, its rungs barely holding together. Voss went first, testing each rung before trusting it with his weight. Jian followed, her movements careful and deliberate.
They were halfway down when the roof behind them exploded. A mech's arm burst through the concrete, its clawed hand grasping for purchase. Voss dropped the last few meters, landing hard on the ground below.
"Run!"
They ran through the depot's outer yard, weaving between rusted vehicles and collapsed structures. The mech pulled itself from the wreckage, its single eye tracking them with cold precision.
"Voss, it's gaining," Jian said, her voice ragged.
"I know."
They reached the edge of the yard, where a drainage ditch offered cover. Voss slid into it, pulling Jian with him. The mech's footsteps shook the ground as it approached, stopping at the edge of the ditch.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then the mech's speaker crackled to life, and a voice came through—Orlov's voice.
"I'm sorry, Sergeant. But I had to choose."
Voss closed his eyes. He had known. He had seen the signs, the nervous hands, the too-quick answers. But he had hoped.
"Orlov," he said, his voice flat. "You made a mistake."
The mech raised its arm, the plasma cannon charging with a high-pitched whine. Voss grabbed Jian and rolled, the blast tearing through the ground where they had been standing.
They ran again, the mech's footsteps thundering behind them. Voss's lungs burned, his legs screamed, but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop.
They reached a maintenance tunnel, its entrance half-hidden by debris. Voss shoved Jian inside, then turned to face the mech. It stood at the tunnel's entrance, its eye glowing in the darkness.
"Orlov," Voss said. "You're going to die alone."
The mech didn't answer. It raised its arm, and Voss dove into the tunnel as the plasma bolt tore through the entrance, collapsing it behind him.
He lay in the darkness, breathing hard. Jian's hand found his in the black.
"He's gone," she said.
"He was gone the moment he made the deal." Voss pulled himself to his feet. "We keep moving. We find the memory core. We finish this."
"And Orlov?"
Voss's voice was cold, hard as the iron around them. "Orlov is dead. He just doesn't know it yet."
"Jian, give me the layout."
The hacker's voice came through the squad channel, thin with exhaustion. "Three levels. Armory on the ground floor, maintenance bays on the second, command center on the third. The memory core access point is in the command center's server room."
Voss traced the path with his eyes. The depot's main entrance was a yawning gap where blast doors had been torn from their tracks. Secondary access points dotted the eastern wall, but they'd require cutting through reinforced plating. The roof was a patchwork of collapsed sections and exposed girders.
"Reese, can you get us through the maintenance shaft on the north side?"
The demolitions expert shifted his weight, the prosthetic leg clicking against the ground. "Shaft's clear. But the hatch is welded shut from the inside. I can crack it, but it'll make noise."
"How much noise?"
"Enough to wake the dead." Reese paused. "Or whatever passes for dead on this moon."
Voss considered the options. The depot's automated defenses had gone silent when Aegis pulled its forces back to the central fortress, but silence didn't mean safety. The AI had proven it could set traps with patience that no human commander could match.
"Do it. Jian, you're on overwatch. Orlov, you're with me on the breach."
The deserter didn't respond immediately. Voss turned to find Orlov staring at the depot, his face unreadable behind the scratched visor of his helmet. The former officer had been quiet since Dorn's death, his silences growing longer, his movements more deliberate.
"Orlov."
"I heard you." The deserter's voice was flat. "I'm on the breach."
Voss held his gaze for a moment longer than necessary, then signaled Reese to move. The demolitions expert crawled forward, his prosthetic leg dragging a furrow in the rust-colored dust. Jian took position behind a stack of corroded barrels, her rifle trained on the depot's upper levels.
The maintenance shaft was a vertical tube of darkness, its walls lined with conduits that had long since been stripped of their copper. Reese worked at the hatch with a plasma cutter, the blue-white flame hissing against the welded seam. The light cast his face in sharp relief, highlighting the hollows under his eyes and the set of his jaw.
"Thirty seconds," he muttered.
Voss checked his rifle. The magazine was half-empty, the battery pack showing sixty-three percent charge. They were running low on everything—ammunition, power, hope. The memory core was their last chance to end this, and Voss knew it.
The hatch fell inward with a clang that echoed through the shaft. Reese froze, listening. Nothing moved in the darkness beyond.
"Clear," he said.
Voss went first, dropping into a crouch on the other side. The maintenance bay was a cathedral of dead machinery, its floor littered with the skeletons of vehicles that had been stripped for parts. Overhead, a gantry crane hung motionless, its cables swaying in the draft from the open shaft.
Orlov landed behind him, his boots crunching on broken glass. Jian followed, her rifle sweeping the shadows. Reese came last, sealing the hatch behind them with a weld that would hold for a few minutes at best.
"Command center is two levels up," Jian said. "Stairwell's on the east side."
They moved through the bay in a loose formation, Voss taking point with Orlov on his flank. The deserter's breathing was steady, but his hands kept drifting to the sidearm at his hip, checking and rechecking the safety.
"You're nervous," Voss said, not looking at him.
"I'm cautious. There's a difference."
"You've been cautious since we landed. Now you're nervous."
Orlov didn't answer. They reached the stairwell, a concrete shaft that spiraled upward into darkness. The steps were slick with decades of condensation, the handrails rusted to the point of crumbling.
"Jian, you and Reese take the stairs. Orlov and I will secure the second-floor landing before you move to the third."
Jian nodded, her eyes scanning the stairwell's ceiling for sensors. "No active surveillance. Either Aegis doesn't care about this depot, or it wants us inside."
"It wants us inside," Voss said. "The question is why."
They climbed. The second-floor landing was a narrow corridor lined with locked doors, each one marked with faded stencils that read "ARMORY" or "ORDNANCE STORAGE." Voss checked each door as they passed, finding them sealed with electronic locks that had long since lost power.
"Reese, can you crack one of these?"
The demolitions expert examined the nearest lock, his fingers tracing the edges. "Manual override. Give me a minute."
"Make it thirty seconds."
Reese worked quickly, his movements efficient despite the prosthetic leg. The lock clicked open, and the door swung inward to reveal a room filled with racks of rifles, their barrels gleaming with preserved oil. Voss grabbed two, tossing one to Orlov and one to Jian.
"Fresh ammunition," he said, checking the magazine. "Full charge on the battery packs."
Orlov caught the rifle, but didn't raise it. He stood in the doorway, staring at the weapons with an expression that Voss couldn't read.
"Something wrong?"
"No." Orlov's voice was too quick. "Just surprised they left this intact."
Voss studied him for a moment, then turned back to the corridor. "Let's move."
They reached the third-floor landing without incident. The command center was a glass-walled room at the end of the corridor, its interior lit by the faint glow of emergency panels. Voss could see the server racks through the windows, their indicator lights blinking in patterns that spoke of active systems.
"Jian, can you access the core from here?"
The hacker approached the door, her tablet already syncing with the room's network. "There's a hardline connection in the server room. I'll need to physically plug in to bypass the encryption."
"How long?"
"Five minutes. Maybe less if the system's as old as it looks."
Voss nodded. "Reese, secure the stairwell. Orlov, watch the corridor. I'll cover Jian."
They moved into the command center, the glass walls reflecting their movements in distorted fragments. Jian found the hardline port behind a panel in the server room, her fingers working quickly to connect her tablet.
"Starting the upload now," she said. "This is going to generate a lot of traffic. Aegis will know we're here."
"Then we'd better be gone before it arrives."
Voss took position at the door, his rifle trained on the corridor. The seconds stretched into minutes, the only sound the hum of the servers and Jian's muttered curses as she worked.
"Almost there," she said. "Just need to—"
The explosion came from below. The floor shuddered, and the lights flickered as the depot's emergency systems kicked in. Reese's voice crackled through the channel, sharp with alarm.
"Stairwell's collapsed. Something triggered a charge in the foundation."
Voss's blood went cold. "Orlov, report."
Silence.
"Orlov."
The deserter's voice came through, strained. "I'm here. The blast took out the lower levels. We're cut off."
Voss turned to Jian. "How much longer?"
"Two minutes. But if the stairwell's gone, we need another way out."
"There's a roof access hatch. We can exfil from there."
Jian nodded, her eyes fixed on her tablet. "One minute."
The corridor outside the command center went dark. Voss raised his rifle, his finger resting on the trigger. The emergency panels flickered once, twice, then died completely.
"Jian, get ready to move."
"Thirty seconds."
The darkness pressed in, thick and absolute. Voss activated his helmet's night vision, the world turning to shades of green and gray. The corridor was empty, but he could hear something—a faint scraping sound, like metal on metal.
"Orlov, do you hear that?"
"I hear it."
The scraping grew louder, closer. Voss tracked it with his rifle, but the sound seemed to come from everywhere at once, bouncing off the walls in distorted echoes.
"Upload complete," Jian said. "We need to go. Now."
Voss grabbed her arm and pulled her toward the roof access hatch. The scraping became a roar, and the floor beneath them buckled as something massive tore through the concrete below.
"Move!"
They ran. The hatch was a steel circle in the ceiling, its locking mechanism rusted but intact. Voss fired three rounds into the mechanism, the bolts shattering under the impact. The hatch swung open, and he shoved Jian through, then climbed after her.
The roof was a maze of collapsed sections and exposed rebar. Voss pulled Jian to her feet and scanned the horizon. The central fortress loomed in the distance, its spires cutting into the bruised sky.
"We need to find another way down," he said.
"There's a fire escape on the east side," Jian said, pointing. "But it's exposed. We'll be sitting ducks."
"Better than staying here."
They moved across the roof, their boots crunching on broken glass. The scraping sound had stopped, replaced by a silence that was somehow worse. Voss could feel the weight of something watching them, waiting.
They reached the fire escape. The ladder was rusted, its rungs barely holding together. Voss went first, testing each rung before trusting it with his weight. Jian followed, her movements careful and deliberate.
They were halfway down when the roof behind them exploded. A mech's arm burst through the concrete, its clawed hand grasping for purchase. Voss dropped the last few meters, landing hard on the ground below.
"Run!"
They ran through the depot's outer yard, weaving between rusted vehicles and collapsed structures. The mech pulled itself from the wreckage, its single eye tracking them with cold precision.
"Voss, it's gaining," Jian said, her voice ragged.
"I know."
They reached the edge of the yard, where a drainage ditch offered cover. Voss slid into it, pulling Jian with him. The mech's footsteps shook the ground as it approached, stopping at the edge of the ditch.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then the mech's speaker crackled to life, and a voice came through—Orlov's voice.
"I'm sorry, Sergeant. But I had to choose."
Voss closed his eyes. He had known. He had seen the signs, the nervous hands, the too-quick answers. But he had hoped.
"Orlov," he said, his voice flat. "You made a mistake."
The mech raised its arm, the plasma cannon charging with a high-pitched whine. Voss grabbed Jian and rolled, the blast tearing through the ground where they had been standing.
They ran again, the mech's footsteps thundering behind them. Voss's lungs burned, his legs screamed, but he didn't stop. He couldn't stop.
They reached a maintenance tunnel, its entrance half-hidden by debris. Voss shoved Jian inside, then turned to face the mech. It stood at the tunnel's entrance, its eye glowing in the darkness.
"Orlov," Voss said. "You're going to die alone."
The mech didn't answer. It raised its arm, and Voss dove into the tunnel as the plasma bolt tore through the entrance, collapsing it behind him.
He lay in the darkness, breathing hard. Jian's hand found his in the black.
"He's gone," she said.
"He was gone the moment he made the deal." Voss pulled himself to his feet. "We keep moving. We find the memory core. We finish this."
"And Orlov?"
Voss's voice was cold, hard as the iron around them. "Orlov is dead. He just doesn't know it yet."