Lahmi steps down from the back of a massive giant-class monster onto the clay of a dried up riverbed. "Dig." He orders, and all at once, the thousands of monsters around him behind to tear the earth beneath them up, digging straight down. He unfolds a map of the lands, and marks off one of the grids with an X using a piece of charcoal. He looks at the new grid, thinking about how much longer this will take. He can't be sure that what he is searching for even exists, but if it does, then finding it will win him this war, and give him everything he has ever wanted.
Later, in his tent, he receives word from one of his followers. "Sire, our supplies are running low. We need to get more."
"How long?" Lahmi asks, laying in the bed of fur pelts he had made from various monsters.
"We only have two days more until we run out."
"Then make the preparations to leave at once. We will set out and rest when night falls."
"Yes, Lord Lahmi." The man bows, because he saw what happened to the last of Lahmi's followers when he didn't. Or more accurately, he'd seen the aftermath and heard what happened. Lahmi rises from his bed and walks to the table that has the full schematics for the reactor. With that, he leaves the tent to attend to various duties before they start moving.
After a while of traveling, they stop at another point, further along the dried up riverbed, for the night. But it isn't long before the sounds of chaos begin to echo out from around the camp. Lahmi and several powerful monsters arrive, but find nothing. Lahmi however, sees that the flap to his tent is open. He walks inside, several monsters surrounding him, and sees that all of his storage containers are open, and the schematics are missing.
"Search everywhere!" He roars, and the hordes of monsters in the surrounding area spring into action.
Suddenly, a woman in scrap armor runs up, and bows before Lahmi. "Sire, we've received word from one of the other hordes."
"Do you not see that we are busy?!" Lahmi shouted, and one of the nearby monsters began to growl.
"Sire, they found it." The woman says. "The reactor is near an oasis."
Lahmi is shocked, then smiles wickedly. "Then forget the intruder. We will retrieve our supplies, and make way for reactor. Send its location to my generals at once." He muses for a moment on the intruder, and then adds one more order. "And send a horde to the city, we'll need a distraction."
Elsewhere, after the entirety of Marcel's scouting team has arrived back at the city, they and several of the city's highest ranking officials are discussing what the team found. Several of the highest ranking representatives are holding the various documents recovered form the horde's encampment. Their faces are grim, clearly shaken by something.
"We need to set an ambush as quickly as possible." One of them says, an elderly man with grey hair only in the sides and back of his head.
"If they find the reactor, the city won't be able to function. We'll lose power, our ability to fix the walls will be cut in half. Communication, managing food, purifying water, everything is tied to it." Natile, the hero Prophet, commander of the city's heroes, says.
"Ast least they haven't found it yet." The third representative says. She is a middle-aged woman with acid scars over her left eye from her days as a hero.
"So, these are plans for the city's reactor, then? Is this where they plan to strike next? Could be why they breached the walls." Marcel guesses.
"No. We thank your team for the help, and for the thorough debriefing, but that will be all. You are dismissed." The woman with the scared eye says.
"Stop, Marcel. Representative Tekoa, I appreciate your dedication to secrecy. But our city has not faced a threat like this in any of our lifetimes. And I trust Marcel. I want him to stay." Natile says.
"Are you sure, Prophet?" The balding man asked.
"I am." Natile says, and nods to Marcel. He, after standing up ready to leave, sits back down at the table with everyone else.
"Head back to the base. I'll make my way there later." Marcel says to Benny, Abishai, and Nameless. They leave without a word. "Thank you." He says to Natile. "So, this reactor. What has you all so upset? Would losing only one reactor really be so devastating? We have three, don't we?"
"No, and we never have." Natile explains. "We've only ever had a single reactor."
"What? So, two of them are fake?" Marcel asks.
"No, all three are." Tekoa says, shaking her head.
"The three reactors in the city are fakes, meant to draw the attention of monsters, gangs, and the general public. None of them even work."
"But I've seen smoke and steam come from them." Marcel denies.
"Don't get it wrong, they all serve a purpose for the city. The one that billows steam is actually used to disinfect underground water before it's distributed. The ones that billow smoke are used to get rid of any materials that cannot be reused, or are too dangerous to keep, like monster corpses from the ones that make it into the city. If we just pile them up outside the walls, other will just come and eat them, and that'll just attract more and prove to be a vicious cycle."
"So, they city only ever built one reactor?" Marcel asks.
"We didn't build it. The reactor was already here when the walls were erected. Stop smiling, grow up." Natile chastises.
"Sorry." Marcel says. The balding man chuckles to himself.
"The city's founders stumbled across it, and then plugged the power grid into it afterward."
"Let me guess, the hordes are digging because the reactor isn't inside the city?"
"It's located under an oasis outside the walls. Only a mile." Tekoa says.
"Why was it never brought into the walls?" Marcel asks.
"It's never been a real problem before since no one knew about it. Additionally, it's very difficult to move." The balding man, named Barzilla, says. "The process is slow, and the reactor, while small, is very temperamental."
"Temperamental?" Marcel asks.
"No one really understands it. We can only maintain it, not reproduce it. It's pre-wall tech. Its official title is the Apotheosis Reactor mark K. As far as we know, only one was ever made successfully. Our specialized engineers go in, do their work, and leave. For some reason, not everyone can enter it. Even if they study the schematics we have down to the last detail, and could work on the machine… it won't let them."
"You make it sound like it's alive, Prophet." Barzilla scoffs.
"There's something in there no one could hope to understand. It chooses who it lets in. If anyone else tries… then they have to be dragged out."
"It's killed people in the past. Even sometimes those who it previously let in." Tekoa says.
"Plus, it requires daily maintenance. So it can only be moved afterward. Which doesn't leave a lot of time." Natile says.
"Very temperamental then." Marcel agrees.
"We've gotten off topic. About the hordes. A trap must be set as soon as possible." Barzilla says.
Just then, alarms blare throughout the city, and a man rushes into the room. He is carrying a hand-radio. "Word from outside the walls ma'am. It's Mountain-Slider." He hands the radio to Natile.
"Ma'am, we have a huge horde on route to the collapse." The collapse referring to the section of the wall that was knocked down and is still being repaired.
"How many?"
"Several thousand, ma'am."
"Any giant-class?" Natile asks.
"None that we can see." The hero on the other end replies. Natile sighs in relief.
"Good job, Mountain-Slider. We'll handle it. Return to your duties." She ended the radio call and handed it back to the man. "Marcel, get some of your teams mobilized." She says, looking to where Marcel had been sitting through the whole meeting. But he wasn't there. As soon as he'd heard that a massive horde was on the way, he'd left and called all of his squad leaders to get their teams moving. He was already running at full speed, nearly one-hundred miles per hour, while coordinating with Sara, Jackson, and Kevin.