The moment they crested the ridge, the Dawnbreakers saw it.
Aldermaw Pass.
A jagged valley, where dark metal ruins pierced the sky like shattered teeth. Ghosts of old battles clung to the cliffs—collapsed walkers, melted barricades, rusted exo-suits half-buried in ash. The wind here didn't howl. It whispered.
And it whispered in a language born of war.
Aera stepped out first, her boots crunching against scorched earth. Syrix's warning echoed in her datapad:
"ENCRYPTED NODE DETECTED. ACTIVITY LEVELS: HIGH. TACTICAL RECOMMENDATION: EXTREME CAUTION."
Elian stood beside her, rifle slung over his shoulder, eyes scanning the skyline. "This place is a grave."
"Then we walk carefully," she replied.
They moved in silence through the pass, formation tight. The squad was different now—more precise, more aware. Weeks of training, battle, and survival had changed them. Even their silence had weight.
Aera tapped her datapad again. "Still no signal leak. But I don't trust this."
They passed a destroyed outpost embedded in the cliffs. The banners—what was left of them—belonged to the Lucent Alliance. But the bodies had no uniforms.
Just bones in charred exo-suits.
That night, the Dawnbreakers camped beneath an overhang in the canyon wall. Varra and Dain took watch while Aera sat near the fire with Elian.
She broke the silence. "Do you think this was a trap?"
Elian shrugged. "Could've been. Or it's just a remnant of a war nobody bothered to clean up."
"But someone's still using it," she said, holding up the datapad. "Encrypted signals. Power readings. Something's here."
Syrix chimed in through her earpiece. "CONFIRMED. ENERGY SPIKES MATCH PATTERN: OLD IMPERIAL FORGE-COMMAND RELAYS. FUNCTIONALITY: UNKNOWN."
Aera's fingers tightened around the device. "If this thing's still active… it could be a backdoor. Into their strategy systems."
Elian blinked. "You're thinking we hijack it?"
"I'm thinking we see what's inside before the Empire comes to claim it."
They moved at dawn.
Through broken tunnels and forgotten bunkers, into the heart of the pass. At the center of it all was a collapsed control tower, its base half-buried in slag.
Syrix pinged again.
"NODE LOCATION CONFIRMED. LOCKING IN COORDINATES."
The doors were sealed shut, fused by heat and age. But behind them… something hummed.
Like it was waiting.
Aera stepped forward and placed her hand on the console. "Alright. Let's see what secrets the Empire left behind."