Ch 75: The Hidden Facility
Kael had expected something unusual at Substation 7, but this? This was something else entirely.
His EMP tracker had already confirmed a hollow space below, one that didn't exist in Gron's official schematics. But it wasn't just an empty void—it was drawing enough energy to power a small city.
Someone had built something down there, something hidden, and they had gone to great lengths to keep it that way.
He returned after midnight, when the industrial district was silent except for the occasional hum of cooling fans and distant factory drones.
Finding the access hatch had been tricky. The floor panels were seamlessly integrated, designed to blend in completely. But Kael was patient. A thermal scanner had revealed minute heat variances, where the metal was thinner than the surrounding material.
A careful inspection later, and he had found it—a retractable panel, covered in a layer of industrial dust and grime.
With a quiet hiss, the hatch unlocked.
The ladder leading downward was made of a composite alloy, one resistant to corrosion and high temperatures. Whoever built this facility was thinking long-term.
Kael climbed down, his boots landing silently on the metal flooring below.
The tunnel was old, built with reinforced concrete, but it had clearly been retrofitted with modern industrial plating and structural reinforcement.
The deeper he moved, the more advanced the infrastructure became.
Heat-resistant plating lined the walls—suggesting something that involved plasma-level energy transfers or industrial-scale cooling systems. The air smelled of ionized metal, a clear sign of high-voltage electricity flowing through hidden conduits. Fiber-optic cables ran along the ceiling, bundled together in a custom configuration Kael didn't recognize.
There were no cameras. That didn't mean he wasn't being watched—it just meant that whoever owned this place was confident it wouldn't be found.
Then, he reached his first major obstacle.
The First Security Checkpoint
A blast door.
Not just any door—Consortium-grade.
Kael pressed a hand against the cold metal. Composite steel-titanium alloy. Reinforced seams.
The locking mechanism was a layered security system—biometric scan, encrypted keypad, and a power-linked fail-safe.
Whoever had installed this had serious resources.
Kael smiled. Time to break in.
From his pack, he pulled out a Quantum Key Injector—a device capable of brute-forcing most encrypted locks by exploiting quantum tunneling effects in high-speed computational cycles.
He plugged it into the data port.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then—click.
The blast door unlocked with a heavy groan, hydraulics hissing as the thick plates slid apart.
A rush of sterile, cold air hit him.
Kael frowned and pulled a respirator from his belt, fixing it over his face. If whoever ran this facility needed controlled air circulation, then he wasn't about to breathe whatever was inside.
He stepped in.
The moment he entered, Kael froze.
The room was immense, far larger than he had anticipated.
Dim blue lighting illuminated the space, casting eerie shadows over walls lined with computer screens, pulsing data streams, and thick insulated pipes.
But the centerpiece of the facility—the thing that made Kael's breath catch—was the row upon row of massive glass containment tubes.
Each one was filled with liquid, strange chemical suspensions that pulsed with an occasional bioluminescent glow.
Inside the tubes?
People.
Kael stepped closer.
The containment tanks weren't randomly placed—they were meticulously arranged in a circular formation, linked by a network of medical-grade tubing and reinforced cables.
Each person inside wore a respirator, with several IV lines and neural interface cables embedded in their skin.
They weren't dead.
But they weren't awake, either.
Kael tapped a control panel near one of the tanks. A holographic diagnostic readout flickered to life, displaying a stream of medical data—brainwave patterns, oxygen saturation levels, neuromuscular response charts.
This wasn't just stasis.
This was something else.
Kael didn't understand the full scope of what was happening here, but he could piece together enough.
This was medical experimentation.
And it was being powered directly from Gron's hidden energy grid.
The Data Heist
Kael quickly moved to the nearest data terminal, bypassing the low-level security protocols with practiced ease.
He didn't have time to decrypt the logs right now, but he could copy everything for later.
Sliding a data chip into the terminal, he initiated a full system transfer.
The progress bar ticked upward. 12%... 34%... 68%...
His respirator fogged slightly as he exhaled slowly.
Whoever ran this place was into something big—something they didn't want anyone knowing about.
And now?
Kael had their data.
With a final glance at the rows of suspended test subjects, he pulled the chip, shut down the terminal, and turned to leave.
Whatever this was, he wasn't going to find out alone.
This version adds deeper tech details, explores Kael's problem-solving skills, and gives a richer atmosphere to the hidden lab. Let me know if you want anything adjusted!