The air inside the secluded component storage bay was freezing, thick with the heavy scent of industrial grease, oxidized copper, and stale, cold moisture. Low beams of dim amber light filtered through the gaps of towering metal shelves, illuminating decades of discarded generator parts, rusted structural pistons, and forgotten turbine segments. It was an isolated corner of the domestic sector where the active hum of the resistance base felt distant, reduced to a faint, rhythmic vibration beneath the concrete floor plates. Delon leaned heavily against a stack of cold iron casing blocks, his knuckles white as he held a diagnostics tablet with trembling fingers, though his eyes were fixed on the entry portal.
The metallic screech of a sliding steel door shattered the quiet, followed by th
