They reached the structure just past midday.
What had once been a transit substation was now half-swallowed by dirt and time. Concrete walls slumped inward under the weight of wind and erosion. One side had collapsed completely, revealing twisted cables and exposed rebar, like veins from a broken arm. The main entrance was buried, but the side access panel still blinked, dim and barely alive.
Cassian tilted his head. "Charming."
Riven didn't respond. He scanned the surrounding ridge before approaching the panel.
The air here was different. The noise of Sector Nine was long behind them now, leaving this place feeling disconnected from everything else.
Cassian hung back as Riven crouched near the panel. He watched as he pulled something from his coat, small, palm-sized, covered in scratches. A reader of some kind. Old tech. Riven connected a wire into a rusted port beneath the panel.
The light blinked again.
Cassian stepped closer. "Is this where the thing in your bag starts glowing again?"
Riven said nothing.
The panel responded with a weak tone, then static.
Cassian looked around. "This place is dead. Why are we here?"
Riven didn't answer. Instead, he moved to the side of the door and wedged his shoulder against the seam. It groaned then gave way with a soft crunch of dirt and rust. Cold air spilled out from the gap, stale and dense.
Cassian hesitated, then followed.
Inside, the space opened into a sunken corridor. A thick layer of dust coated everything, floor, walls, old plastic signage hanging askew.
Riven stepped carefully. The ground sloped downward, and the light from the entrance faded fast behind them.
"Whatever you're looking for" Cassian muttered, "it better be worth the respiratory damage."
Still no answer.
They moved past old vending frames and shattered lockers. Once, this had been a transfer point, maybe for rail workers, or regional delivery crews. Now, it was just in ruins.
The corridor ended in a room half-submerged in dirt and gravel. One terminal remained upright, its screen cracked but mostly intact. Riven crouched beside it, brushing dust from the interface.
Cassian leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed. "I don't know what kind of answer you're hoping that machine will give you. Looks like it hasn't seen power since the collapse."
Riven pulled the satchel into his lap.
Cassian spoke again, quieter this time: "You're really not going to tell me what's going on, are you?"
Riven looked up. He pulled the core from his satchel and set it carefully beside the dead console.
"This place used to connect to Stillwater" Riven said. "It was part of the purification grid. A local flow control. Long before the collapse."
Cassian tilted his head. "You rehearsed that?"
Riven ignored it.
"I think the Lady reached through here. Or still does."
Cassian squinted, half-annoyed, half-incredulous. "Stillwater. The AI. The Lady. You're really going all in, huh?"
"She's real."
"And I'm a retired specter pilot." Cassian pushed off the wall, pacing a slow, mocking half-circle. "You know how many people have died chasing fairy tales like that?"
"I'm not chasing" Riven said.
"Oh right, you're following logic" Cassian said, stopping in front of the console. "With your glowing relic and your half-map of dead coordinates."
Riven looked up at him. "It's not a relic."
"Then what is it?" Cassian asked, sharp now. "Come on. What is it really? You expect me to drag you across three sectors without knowing what's in that bag?"
Riven was quiet. Then:
"It's a key."
Cassian blinked. "To what?"
"I don't know. Not yet."
Cassian let out a short, humorless laugh. "Fantastic. You're walking blind into one of the most guarded dead zones in the east, carrying something that glows when it's nervous, and you don't even know why."
"I have to find out" Riven said calmly.
"Why?"
Riven hesitated. "Because no one else will."
Cassian stared at him.
Riven wasn't dramatic, he wasn't even trying to convince him. He just meant it. And for some reason, that made it worse.
Cassian stepped back, shaking his head. "You're not even desperate, that's the part I don't get. You're just... calm. Like this all makes sense to you."
"It does."
Cassian's jaw tightened. "Well, it doesn't to me."
He turned sharply toward the exit.
"I should've left you in the alley" he muttered.
Riven didn't stop him.
Cassian paused at the doorway.
"You're going to get yourself killed."
Riven met his eyes. "Maybe."
Cassian held his stare a moment longer, then he left.
The room felt different after Cassian left. He didn't move for a long time, readjusting in a way to the new variables.
The core sat beside him, still and silent, but the console next to it buzzed softly with uneven pulses. Riven reached out and tapped the terminal. The screen blinked, then a single line of text appeared, just for a moment. Half-legible. Half-broken.
[ RES / PNT: ...… / SIGNAL VARIANCE 04.78° ]
Then it was gone.
He narrowed his eyes.
That shouldn't have been possible, there was no power out here. The console had reacted to the core. Riven opened the satchel again, slower this time, just to be sure. The metal sphere inside was faintly warm.
And then he heard it, footsteps.
He shut the flap quickly and stepped away from the core, backing into the shadows near the side wall. He crouched low and slowed his breath.
Voices echoed faintly through the corridor beyond. Two, maybe three people. Boots scuffing against dirt. Someone muttering. A faint electronic click.
He didn't move.
One of the voices came closer.
"…The reading hit here. Could be some old flare-off from the utility hub."
"Or another scavenger hauling trash tech."
"Maybe. Still worth checking."
A pause followed, then the sound of someone approaching fast, quiet, but direct.
Cassian.
His eyes swept the space in one clean motion. When he spotted Riven in the dark, he moved straight to him, grabbed the front of Riven's coat, and pulled him down into the narrow space behind a row of collapsed storage bins.
Cassian crouched beside him, back to the wall. "Don't move" he said.
Riven didn't.
Two figures passed by the room moments later, their outlines warped by old glass and shadows. One of them carried a scanner, its pale blue light sweeping slowly across the hallway. The device gave off a faint, rhythmic beep.
They paused near the doorway.
Riven barely breathed.
"…no direct signal. Might've passed through earlier."
"Check the far rooms. Ping base again."
Then they moved on.
Cassian waited until the footsteps faded completely, then a few seconds more. Then he let go of Riven's coat and leaned back against the wall, exhaling.
"Told you you'd get killed" he muttered.
Riven didn't answer.
They stayed crouched for a while, listening. When the last echo of footsteps disappeared into the upper corridors, Cassian finally stood. He dusted his hands off on his coat and gave Riven a sidelong glance.
"You alright?" he asked. It wasn't really a concern at that point, more like logistics.
Riven nodded once.
"Good" Cassian muttered. "Because if I'm dragging you out of here after saying I wouldn't, the least you can do is keep walking on your own."
He didn't wait for a reply. He stepped back into the main corridor and started toward the exit.
Riven followed without a word.
They said nothing as they climbed. The path was narrow, filled with loose gravel and old wiring. They reached the top of a stairwell where sunlight didn't reach. There was only the thin gray of midday filtering in through broken vents.
Cassian stopped at the threshold, hand on the frame.
"I'm not staying in this forever" he said flatly. "You get your answers or whatever it is you're chasing, then I'm out."
Riven didn't respond.
Cassian didn't wait for one. He stepped outside with a firm and certain step.
Riven followed, and just as he did, the satchel at his side vibrated once. He froze.
Cassian turned. "What now?"
Riven opened the flap slowly.
The core lit with a clean and steady pulse. The substation console was long dead so no signals could've come from it. And yet, something had reacted.
[ DETECTED ]
The word floated across the small internal display strip on the core itself. Then it disappeared.
Cassian leaned slightly toward him, frowning. "What did it say?"
Riven didn't look up.
"Detected."
Cassian exhaled. "Yeah. That's what I was afraid of."
They stood there a moment longer, both still, surrounded by wind and dust and half-collapsed silence.