The return to The Foundry was met with a flurry of efficient proof of an impossible success.
When they finally rumbled through the North Gate, their arrival caused an immediate stir. The, almost silent activity. The moment the Badger passed through the North Gate, a Med-Sci team was waiting. They didn sight of the Badger, battered and steaming, followed by the sight of two Phoenix Guards being carried out on stretchers, sent't celebrate the mission's success; they simply processed its results. The wounded Phoenix Guards were whisked away to a wave of concern through the courtyard. But then came the crates of medicine, unloaded under Leo's watchful eye, and the mood the infirmary. The crates of Ciprofloxacin were loaded onto an anti-grav cart and escorted directly to the high-security labs.
Rostova stood observing it all, her face as impassive as ever. Grunt gave her a brief, verbal shifted to one of buzzed excitement and respect. They hadn't just survived; they had returned with the prize.
R report, his words clipped and factual, surprisingly devoid of his usual bluster. He recounted the loss of the Vulture teamostova was waiting for them, her face as impassive as ever, but her eyes missed nothing. She noted the casualties, the nature of the Street-Maw, the death of the Alpha Gnawer, and the structural alterations made, the state of the vehicle, the secured asset, and, most importantly, the new dynamic between Grunt and Leo. to facilitate their exit. He pointedly included Leo's role, not with scorn, but with a new, grud She watched as Grunt, instead of shoving past, gave Leo a stiff, almost imperceptible nod before lumbering offging respect, describing the containment of the acid explosion as a "high-efficacy neutralization of a catastrophic area-denial threat to debrief his men and get his own wounds treated.
"Report, Custodian," Rostova said, her."
Rostova listened without comment, her gray eyes flickering from Grunt to Leo and back again. When he was finished voice cutting through the courtyard's noise.
"Vulture Team 3 was lost to a colonial predator, a 'Street-Maw'," Leo began, his report concise and factual. "The secondary organism, an 'Alpha, she simply nodded. "Report accepted, Berserker. Your team is relieved. Take them to get patched up."
As Gnawer', ambushed Grunt's fire team. We engaged, neutralized the primary threats, secured the asset Grunt and his remaining men stomped off, Rostova approached the Custodians. "A successful retrieval under extreme conditions," she, and created an alternate extraction point." He deliberately left out the supernatural mechanics of his victory. Rostova didn't need to stated. It was the closest she would likely ever come to praise. "Your evaluation period is yielding… interesting data." know how he did his job, only that he could.
Rostova's gaze was sharp.
"We lost people," Sarah said quietly, her face tight with the memory of the half-dissolved Vulture truck.
"Losses are an expected variable in all field operations, Doctor," Rostova replied, her tone void "Grunt's preliminary report indicates that his team sustained casualties after your arrival, and that you made a series of sympathy. "Vulture Team 3 understood the risks. Your party's ninety-percent success rate on your of 'unorthodox tactical decisions'."
"My decisions resulted in the neutralization of two high-level threats, the survival first two official deployments, however, is statistically significant. Your new security clearance and expanded requisitions access will be active within of Grunt and his remaining men, and the successful retrieval of the objective," Leo countered calmly. "His casualties were the hour."
She turned to leave, but Leo spoke up. "Commander. One question."
Rostova paused a result of his team's inability to adapt to a chemical-based threat. I provided a solution."
There was no judgment, her back to them.
"The creature we faced... the Gnawer and the Maw. They were symbiotic. in his voice. No accusation. It was the simple, irrefutable statement of a professional outlining the results of his A complex biological system," Leo said. "It felt less like a random monster and more like… a purpose-built territorial work. Rostova stared at him, her analytical mind processing the new equation he presented. Grunt was a hammer, powerful defense weapon."
Rostova turned her head slightly, her gaze sharp. "Your observation is astute, Custodian. but predictable. Leo was something else entirely—a multi-tool, capable of solving problems she didn't even know Everything the System introduces has a purpose. Even the apex predators are merely components in a larger ecological machine. The true challenge she had. He wasn't just an asset; he was a force multiplier.
"Your report is… concise is not learning how to defeat the individual parts, but how to understand the machine itself." She faced forward again. "You," she finally said. "The mission was a success. The loss of two trained Phoenix Guards is an acceptable price for a are dismissed."
With that, she was gone, leaving them standing in the grimy courtyard, the weight of her secure supply of Ciprofloxacin. Your team has exceeded the parameters of its probationary period." She tapped her tablet. "Your words hanging in the air.
Later that evening, the Custodians gathered in their barracks. They were exhausted, but a clearance is confirmed. Your party, 'The Custodians', is now recognized as a full-fledged operational unit within new sense of cohesion had settled over them. They weren't just a handful of survivors anymore. They were a functioning the Initiative. You will have access to Level 2 requisitions and quarters."
It was a quiet, almost antic, mission-tested unit.
Maria was excitedly sketching designs for a new, more effective type of barricade based on whatlimactic victory, but its significance was immense. They were no longer refugees on a leash. They were employees with benefits she'd seen in the alley. Ben was already chattering on the party chat, begging Leo for details so he could model.
"Furthermore," Rostova continued, "the research on Specimen 734 is progressing. Your sister the energy expenditure of [Containment]. Sarah and Rick were quietly discussing how to best utilize the new antibiotics to's insights, combined with Dr. Thorne's analysis of the Weaver data, have yielded a preliminary hypothesis. We combat the persistent infections in the infirmary.
Leo sat on his bunk, cleaning the tools from his kit. He felt the need to test it."
A knot of apprehension formed in Leo's stomach. "Test it how?"
" familiar pull of his [Sense Contamination] skill, but it was coming from inside the room. He looked upSpecimen 734's unique neurological state seems to act as a 'null field' against certain types of mnemonic or and saw Sarah looking at him, a troubled expression on her face.
Leo nodded, and a few minutes later, the others, sensing the mood, had filed out, Night-Stalker that was present at the hospital—our long-range sensors have detected its residual psychic trail. It did leaving the two of them alone in the sterile concrete room.
"What's wrong?" Leo asked.
"It not leave the city. It has established a new hunting ground."
She brought up a new location on her tablet: a map's Lily," Sarah began, her voice low. "And Dr. Thorne. The data you brought back from Weaver of the city's old, grand library. "It has nested in the municipal archive. The Vultures have marked's lab… it's a goldmine. Genetic sequencing, mnemonic resonance theory, notes on Class acquisition in pre it as a Class-4 Mnemonic Death Zone. Entire teams have gone in and simply… stopped existing. Their minds wiped-pubescent subjects… it's terrifying, brilliant stuff."
"What did you find out about Lily?" Leo clean by its fear-aerosol."
"You want to send us in there?" Leo asked, already dreading the answer pressed.
Sarah took a deep breath. "She's not a natural anomaly, Leo. According to Weaver's.
"No," Rostova said, her voice turning cold and pragmatic. "Sending you in would be redundant. I files, she was genetically engineered. By the Chiron Group. He called her a 'psychic sink'. She doesn't just want to send her." She gestured towards the Med-Sci wing. "I want to see if proximity have an immunity to mnemonic hazards; her unique neurological structure actively absorbs and neutralizes them. She's not just a signal to the Night-Stalker's new lair triggers a response in Specimen 734. I want to know if-jammer; she's a living, breathing [Deep Clean] for psychic contamination."
Leo felt a chill her passive null field can disrupt its influence at a distance."
Sarah, having just finished stabilizing the last of the wounded soldiers, go down his spine. The puzzle pieces were clicking into place. "That's why the Night-Stalker trapped her. It wasn't trying to eat her fear; it was trying to use her as an amplifier, to turn overheard the last part. She ran over, her face a mask of fury. "Absolutely not! You can't be her into a broadcast antenna for its own terror."
"Exactly," Sarah confirmed. "And that's why the serious! You want to take a traumatized child and use her as a goddamn dowsing rod for a psychic Adjuster was sent. She's not just an asset; she's a piece of proprietary, high-level horror-monster? I won't allow it!"
"You misunderstand, Doctor," Rostova said, her tone supernatural technology. And Thorne... Leo, he's ecstatic. He sees her as the key to creating a psychic shield that utterly unmoved. "I am not asking for your permission. I am informing you of the mission parameters. You, could protect the entire Foundry. Maybe even creating soldiers who are immune to psychic attack."
"He wants to weaponize a as her primary caregiver, will of course accompany her to ensure her physical well-being. But the experiment is proceeding. seven-year-old girl," Leo said flatly.
"He wants to dissect her brain and replicate its properties We need to know what our asset is capable of."
The words hung between them, a declaration of war. They," Sarah corrected, her voice trembling with anger. "He talks about it in purely theoretical terms, like she's a piece had won their place in The Foundry, but they had just found the bars of their new cage. Lily was not a person of alien tech he's trying to reverse-engineer. I'm using our new standing to keep him at bay to Rostova. She was a tool. A weapon. And her first field test was about to begin. The Cust, insisting she needs 'observational recovery', but it won't last forever. He's already asking Rostova forodians had just been given their first official assignment as a recognized unit, and it was to risk the one person they had sworn to protect.