Rats and Residue

The sewers beneath West Vire didn't run with water. They ran with secrets.

Elias dropped into the shaft one rung at a time, boots scraping rusted metal, eyes sharp. The South Stack meeting hadn't just shaken his trust in the city — it had made him paranoid. Good. Paranoia kept people alive.

Behind him, Dizzy grumbled as he followed down the ladder.

"Bro, this place smells like every dead thing ever had a reunion down here."

"Keep your voice down," Elias muttered.

The tunnel stank of wet concrete and rot, but the HUD overlay pulsed with a soft orange glow — the system had tagged this stretch as a "Potential Resource Node: Unregistered Storage Cache." Vague. But anything tagged "unregistered" was worth the risk.

They reached a dry ledge. Elias tapped into the tactical scanner — newly upgraded and sharper than before — and fed it a small energy charge from his toolkit.

******

**[Scanner Activated – Short Range Tunnel Mapping: 40 meters]**

Detection: 3 Heat Signatures – Humanoid

Status: Armed | Unmoving | Rough Cover

Unknown Affiliation

******

"Three up ahead," he whispered.

"Scavs?" Dizzy asked.

"No. Too quiet. Probably tunnel rats. Freelancers, smugglers, ex-gangers. If they're camping down here, they're guarding something."

Dizzy cocked his pistol. "We go loud?"

Elias shook his head. "We go fast."

He moved like smoke — no wasted movement, no chatter. Just hard steps and steel. The corridor opened up into a circular access vault, and the moment his foot hit metal, the first shot rang out.

Ricochet. Concrete spark.

Elias dropped, rolled, and let off two return shots. Dizzy flanked wide, laying suppressive fire.

The third man — hidden near a power conduit — moved late. Elias caught him trying to retreat and put a round through his calf. The man screamed, crumpling. The others bled out quick.

"Still want to shoot?" Elias asked, stepping over the twitching body.

"N-no, man," the guy gasped. "We—we just hold this stash. Don't even know who owns it!"

"What stash?"

The man nodded to a water-stained panel. Elias pried it open.

Inside: two crates of sealed packages, wrapped tight with syndicate tags burned off. One crate held pills and powdered stimulants. The other?

Weapons. Makeshift rifles. Collapsible SMGs. And a familiar emblem scorched on the stock of one: a spider made of static.

Static Syndicate.

******

**[System Alert: Resource Node Secured – Hidden Armory]**

Territory Expansion: +1 Node Secured (2/2)

Bonus: +6 Crime Points | +1 Skill Point | +Intel: Syndicate Stockpile ID #7F13

Current CP: 15

******

"Static's arming nobodies," Dizzy muttered. "Why burn the tags?"

"To hide distribution trails. They're seeding chaos — letting gangs shoot each other with ghost guns, then sweeping up the ashes."

"Like you said," Dizzy added. "They don't want turf. They want what runs under it."

Elias looked at the wounded smuggler. "Where's your contact?"

"Don't know his name," the guy wheezed. "Tall. Hoodie. Calls himself 'Relay.' Pays cash, brings crates, asks no questions."

Relay. Another piece of the puzzle.

Elias turned, rifled through the crates, and pocketed a burner phone buried beneath the pistols. No contacts. No data. Just one locked folder.

******

**[System Prompt: Encrypted Device Detected – Decryption Available]**

Cost: 6 Crime Points

Decryption Level: Moderate (Estimated time: 6 hours)

Proceed?

******

"Do it," Elias said without hesitation.

******

**[Crime Points Spent: -6]

[Decryption In Progress – Results Available in 6 Hours]

Current CP: 9**

******

He stood, letting the system confirm the secure node and watching as the map updated.

West Vire was turning green. Stable. Controlled. His first sector. His real power base.

And still, something churned in the dark.

Back at the lab, Dizzy unloaded the armory haul while Elias stared at the map's new edge — South Stack bleeding into the Underground Grid. Static's domain.

He wasn't chasing scraps anymore.

He was headed straight for the wire.

And whatever was waiting on the other end of it.