Chapter 238: Unravel - I

Hans had spent most of the morning trying to make the new ability behave the same way twice. So far, his body refused to follow.

Callum stood several meters away while Hans tried again.

The effect came easier this time, although controlling how far it spread remained another problem.

Hans focused on the space in front of him.

Pressure gathered around his body before pushing outward.

Dust scattered across the concrete. Several loose cartridge cases near Callum rolled away, followed by a stronger pulse that forced the DASF operator to shift one foot backward.

Hans released it, and the pressure disappeared shortly after a delay.

"That’s better than before."

Callum looked toward the cartridge cases. "Commander, you’re improving faster than before."

"Me? Hah. Not as fast as you."

Hans glanced at Callum and opened his current information.

------

Name: Callum "Viper" Hayes

Unit: Direct Action Special Forces (DASF)

Tier: 1 (50% Synchronization Rate)

Axis: Somatic

Star Promotion: 3 (MAX)

[ Primary Weapon ]

Heavy Caliber Modular Assault Rifle (HCMAR)

.338 Intermediate

40 rounds per magazine

Effective Range: 1.2 km

Designed to penetrate reinforced infected tissue, light armor, and structural weak points.

3-Star Promoted Ammunition: 35 magazines / 1,400 rounds

With Hans’s Commander Buff: 2,100 rounds

[ Integrated Weapon System ]

Underslung Smart Grenade Launcher

Ammunition Types:

HE Grenades — Area Clearing

Airburst Grenades — Anti-Swarm / Vertical Targets

Breaching Charges — Doors, Walls, Barriers

Base Ammunition: 12 rounds

With Hans’s Commander Buff: 18 rounds

Improved airburst logic at 2-Star and above.

[ Sidearm ]

Desert Eagle

.50 AE

8 rounds per magazine

3-Star Promoted Ammunition: 17 magazines / 136 rounds

With Hans’s Commander Buff: 204 rounds

[ Melee ]

Monomolecular Combat Blade

Indestructible

[ Grenades ]

Baseline Loadout:

4 Flashbangs

4 HE Grenades

2 EMP Grenades

Cumulative Star Promotion Reserve: +18 grenades

3-Star Promoted Capacity: 28 grenades

With Hans’s Commander Buff: 42 grenades

[ Additional Attributes — 3-Star Effects ]

+10% weapon stability

+30% fire rate

+150% damage

+100% grenade radius effect

+40% cumulative general / overall penetration

+45% damage resistance

+25% additional weapon penetration

Faster grenade cycling

Improved airburst logic

Stun immunity

Immune to psychic effects

Invisible on Radar

[ Commander Modifier ]

Hans’s Commander Buff: +50% Ammunition Capacity

HCMAR:

1,400 promoted rounds → 2,100 effective rounds

Smart Grenade Launcher:

12 rounds → 18 effective rounds

Desert Eagle:

136 promoted rounds → 204 effective rounds

Grenades:

28 promoted grenades → 42 effective grenades

[ Trait ]

Hunter

+50% broad physical and perceptual performance, with additional combat-effectiveness bonuses.

[ Remarks ]

Elite direct-action specialist used for breach-and-clear operations, elite-target elimination, critical-objective seizure, and other high-risk missions. Immune to zombie infection by default.

------

Hans had only recently reached Tier One at thirty percent.

Callum had already pushed farther into it, and unlike Hans, his body had been built around that kind of performance from the beginning.

Hans could make the force appear now. Directing it toward something was becoming easier too. Keeping it where he wanted was another matter.

Sometimes the pressure stopped several meters ahead of him. Other times it spread farther than intended, weakening as it expanded instead of concentrating on one point.

From the trials so far, the pressure had reached as little as ten meters and as far as fifty. Hans still had no reliable way to decide which one he was going to get.

Hans raised his hand again.

"One more."

Callum moved back toward his position.

Hans focused on the space ahead, trying to keep the pressure narrow this time. His communicator sounded before he could release it.

Hans let the gathered pressure disperse and opened the channel.

"Golden Eagle here."

"Commander, it’s me."

"Dianne. What’s up?"

"Ms. Asters has arrived at the Directorate site. She agreed to assist Agent Schandler and the recovery team."

Hans glanced toward Callum.

"Kimmy went there herself?"

"Escorted by two DASF squads. Yunera didn’t come with her."

"What happened to her?"

"She’s still exhausted from Doctor Shearman’s demonstration. He may have been a little conservative about the recovery time."

"Let him be. The method is new. A few oversights are bound to happen. Did Johannes come over?"

"He was informed of the arrangement. He is already on the move."

"Keep Johannes in charge while she’s there. We might as well see whether anything changed over the last few days."

"Understood. Do you want updates from the site?"

"Only if they find something worthwhile. Don’t disturb me for anything trivial."

"Understood. Dianne out."

The channel closed. Callum looked toward him.

"Commander, another attempt?"

"Yeah. Let’s give it another try."

...

The Directorate felt different before Kimmy even entered it.

She stopped near the breach opened by the Vanguard the day before while the two DASF squads spread around the entrance.

Concrete, steel and the remains of the reinforced frame overlapped through her perception. Beyond them were corridors, broken rooms and sections where collapsed material had filled what used to be open space.

Then there were the walls themselves.

Kimmy slowed, noticing that something was wrong.

She could still sense the concrete around her and the steel reinforcing it, but the deeper she tried to reach, the less reliable her senses became.

The corridors beyond the reception remained there. So did the larger rooms and collapsed sections she had already passed.

Anything behind several of the reinforced walls was different. Her perception reached them, then quickly thinned.

Kimmy stopped near one of the intact sections.

"That’s strange."

"Is there something ahead, mistress?"

Kimmy frowned, both at what the DASF operator had called her and at the walls.

Usually, a wall only changed how clearly she perceived what lay beyond it. Enough material weakened the result, but it did not simply cut her off.

The intact walls around the Directorate almost did.

Kimmy stepped closer and placed one hand against the concrete. Nothing changed.

"I can’t get through this properly. Something is blocking my senses."

The Engineer beside her studied the wall. "Too thick?"

"No. I’ve sensed through thicker."

Footsteps approached from farther inside. Johannes emerged from the corridor, with one DASF squad behind him.

"Ms. Young Star-Blood."

"Sir Johannes. Please stop calling me that."

He noticed where she was facing, and the expression on her blindfolded face.

"Is there a problem?"

"I think. These walls, it’s stopping my powers from reaching them. Or I can’t sense anything beyond them at all."

"The Directorate’s shielding is pretty thick. I heard a few times that even Radars cannot detect them. Perhaps that could explain why?"

Kimmy remained silent, speaking up only after a moment. "That’s... maybe it."

She turned toward the breach they had entered through.

The wall around it was different. Concrete had broken away under the Vanguard’s shells, exposing twisted reinforcement and several darker layers buried farther inside. Her perception passed through the damaged section considerably farther than it did through the intact wall beside her.

Kimmy moved closer.

"Wait."

Johannes followed her.

She focused through the broken section again.

The rooms behind it returned gradually. Not clearly, but enough that she could separate the corridor from the surrounding structure.

Kimmy shifted toward the intact portion and everything disappeared again.

"It’s not the thickness. There’s more to it that I can’t explain."

Johannes looked between the two sections.

"The breach must have damaged something."

He frowned. If this was the case, then how could Kimmy help in finding the hidden compartments?

"If breaking the walls can weaken it, maybe we can work with that instead?"

A hard tap against the floor echoed through the corridor. Kimmy and Johannes shifted their attention.

"Do that if you want to be buried alive."

"Overseer Kordula." Kimmy spoke.

Johannes had learned enough about Kordula since the breach to know that she had worked with DAEDALUS through the Automated Weaponry Program. How much she knew beyond that was another matter.

"Overseer. I heard you were busy stripping the security units here overnight."

"I fancy the machinery. But back to the topic, I can give this girl a simple explanation."

"Please do," Johannes nodded. "We’re in a bit of a tight situation here."

"I can see that." Kordula faced Kimmy. "The walls aren’t only shielded against Radar and other sensing technology. They can interfere with HELIX perception as well. Courtesy of Project DAEDALUS, no doubt."

"How does that exactly work?"

"I don’t know the details, but I’ve read some research concerning that. Even the security units are shielded similarly as well."

Kordula’s explanation fit what they had already seen.

Kimmy could barely reach through the intact shielding. Conventional Radar were designed to fare little better, and whatever layers had been buried inside the Directorate walls had survived months underground without losing that purpose.

Hans’s System had beaten parts of that concealment before. Raptor One’s first pass over the Nuclear Power Station had still detected several security units around the facility.

The Directorate was different. Once Golden Eagle entered, the System-linked tactical map expanded with the areas its troops physically reached, but intact shielded sections remained incomplete. Whatever Vaughn had hidden inside them had stayed hidden.

Kimmy faced the wall again.

She could not sense what was behind it, and the interference itself was another matter.