The air in the control room crackled with tension. Atri and the other acolytes were preparing for a digital siege, reinforcing firewalls and preparing to repel another wave of cyber-attacks.
Kalpit ignored them. He stood before the massive holographic tactical map, his hands gesturing not at code, but at the physical infrastructure of the Sump around them.
"They're coming in standard formation," he said, his voice clear and confident. He traced the paths of the red Enforcer icons with his finger. "Tight-packed. Overconfident. They think they're clearing out a nest of disorganized rebels. They expect us to be barricaded in here."
He looked at Vashistha. "So we won't be."
Then he looked at Atri. "Can you patch into the sector's municipal controls? Water pressure, power conduits, ventilation systems?"
Atri scoffed. "Those systems are ancient. Most are barely functional, running on centuries-old code MAYA never bothered to update. It's a mess of—" He stopped, his eyes widening in realization. "Oh. A mess they won't be monitoring."
"Exactly," Kalpit said. "This isn't a fortress. It's a scrapyard. And I know where all the weak spots are."
His Muladhara-sight flickered to life, but this time it was controlled. Focused. The tactical map transformed into a 3D blueprint of his own design. He saw the city's bones and its arteries.
FZZT-HUM.
A massive water main running above a primary access tunnel glowed in his mind, its joints rusted to the breaking point. PRESSURE POINT ALPHA.
A forgotten junction where a high-voltage power cable lay exposed next to a perpetually flooded passage. PRESSURE POINT BETA.
A wide plaza supported by crumbling ferrocrete pillars whose internal rebar had all but turned to dust. PRESSURE POINT GAMMA.
It was a symphony of decay, and he was its conductor.
"I'll go out. Draw them in," Kalpit announced. "You," he pointed at Atri, "will be my trigger finger. I'll feed you the coordinates and the timing. When I give the signal, you activate the traps."
Anasuya stepped forward, checking the charge on a compact, high-frequency blade. "You're not going alone. You're a strategist, not a soldier. You'll need an escort."
Vashistha nodded in approval. "Go, both of you. This battle will not be won with piety, but with precision. May your instincts guide you."
Moments later, Kalpit and Anasuya were moving through a dark, dripping maintenance tunnel. The air was thick with the stench of decay. Anasuya moved with the silent, economical grace of a trained fighter, her blade humming softly in her hand.
Kalpit moved like a Sump-rat. He was home.
"You're taking to this... role... surprisingly well," Anasuya noted, her voice a low whisper in his comm.
"Being hunted is nothing new," Kalpit whispered back. "Choosing the hunting ground, that is."
He held up a hand, stopping her. He pressed his palm against the cold, sweating wall of the tunnel. He closed his eyes, focusing his senses. His Muladhara-sight flowed out, painting a picture in his mind.
He could feel them.
THUMP-THUMP-THUMP.
The synchronized, heavy tread of a ten-man Enforcer squad, vibrating through meters of rock and steel. They were in the main conduit, just fifty meters ahead and one level down.
"They're in position," Kalpit breathed. "Alpha target."
He pulled out a small, scavenged holo-projector and aimed it at the end of the conduit below. He projected a flickering image of himself running, then disappearing around a corner. It was a crude trick, but it would be enough.
As predicted, the Enforcers' lumbering pace quickened. "Target spotted! Forward! Box them in!" the squad leader's voice echoed, distorted and metallic.
Kalpit watched the red icons on his wrist-mounted display converge on the spot directly beneath the rusted water main. The weight of millions of gallons of brackish water pressed down from above, held back by century-old bolts. He could feel the strain in them, a high, singing tension.
"Atri. Now," Kalpit commanded into his comm.
Back in the Ashram, Atri's fingers danced. With a single command, he sent a massive pressure spike through the ancient aqueduct system. OVERRIDE_MAINTENANCE_VALVE_7C.
SHREEEEEE-KRAKOOOM!
The sound was apocalyptic. The main didn't just leak; it exploded. The ceiling of the conduit tore open, and a solid wall of high-pressure water crashed down onto the Enforcer squad.
Metal shrieked as their advanced armor was smashed by the raw, unstoppable force of the deluge. Sparks flew as their systems shorted out. They were tossed about like toys, their perfect formation shattered, their members separated by a raging, temporary river.
"Status," Anasuya asked, her eyes wide.
Kalpit was already moving. "Formation broken. Seven units offline. Three still active but disoriented. We don't wait for them to recover. On to the next."
They led the remaining Enforcers, and a second squad that had been rerouted to assist, on a chaotic chase through the guts of the city. One by one, Kalpit's traps were sprung.
A section of flooring collapsed, plunging two Enforcers into a sublevel filled with corrosive waste. SPLAT. FZZZZT.
An overloaded power junction was detonated, creating a massive EMP blast that disabled an entire squad's weapons and comms, leaving them blind and deaf in the darkness. KRA-BOOM!
They were bleeding Kali's forces dry without a single direct confrontation. It was a masterful display of guerrilla warfare. But the system was learning.
"They've stopped following the bait," Anasuya warned, checking her scanner. "They're adapting. Breaking off into two-man kill teams. Spreading out. They're abandoning protocol and starting a hunter-prey sweep."
"They're getting desperate," Kalpit noted. And desperation made them dangerous.
He felt a sudden, sharp vibration through the floor. Two Enforcers. Close. Coming from the intersecting tunnel ahead. Too close to set a large-scale trap.
"Ambush," he whispered, pushing Anasuya back into an alcove. "They'll be on us in five seconds."
He grabbed a discarded length of heavy iron pipe, hefting it in his hands. It was a crude weapon, but it felt familiar. Solid.
The two Enforcers stomped into view, their plasma rifles sweeping the corridor. Kalpit and Anasuya leaped from the shadows. Anasuya was a blur, her high-frequency blade carving a glowing arc through the air, shearing through one Enforcer's rifle.
SHVROOOM-CLANG!
The other Enforcer turned on Kalpit. It was a towering machine of black metal and malice. It raised its weapon, but Kalpit was already in motion.
He didn't aim for the thick chest plate or the helmet. His sight showed him the critical weakness: a hydraulic actuator at the knee joint, stressed and barely protected.
He lunged low, swinging the heavy pipe with all his might.
CRA-ACK!
The sound of shattering metal and hydraulics was sickeningly loud. The Enforcer's leg buckled at an unnatural angle. It roared, a sound of static and fury, as it crashed to one knee. Kalpit brought the pipe down again, this time on the vulnerable neck joint. The Enforcer's head lolled, its red optic flickering and dying.
He stood panting over the downed machine, the iron pipe buzzing in his hands. Anasuya had already dispatched the other, its chest plate showing the clean, cauterized slash from her blade.
"Not bad," she grunted, nodding in approval. "For a scavenger."
A burst of static from the comm of the Enforcer at Kalpit's feet made them both freeze. It was a new voice. Chillingly calm. And there were two of them, speaking in perfect, overlapping unison.
"
"<...What is your status, Squad Delta?>"
Kalpit looked at Anasuya. Her face had gone pale. She recognized the voices.
"
"<…Your incompetence is noted. Cease failing. We are taking command.>"
The synthesized voices were smooth, laced with a cold, predatory amusement. They were unlike the guttural tones of the Enforcers. They were voices designed to inspire terror.
"
"<…The Anomaly is ours to claim.>"
Kalpit's Muladhara-sight suddenly screamed a warning, not from the structures around him, but from something new. He felt two immense, focused points of pressure moving downwards through the city at impossible speeds. They weren't taking the stairs.
A new icon appeared on Anasuya's scanner. Two of them. Moving too fast to track. They were red, but they were a deeper, bloodier shade than the others.
"Koka and Vikoka," Anasuya whispered, her voice tight with dread. "Kali's Hounds. It's them."