The platform was empty. The control station, made of stone, with two wooden stools behind it, was empty.

The only thing to accompany the Xerxes and the soldiers of Unit One was… silence. Neither sound nor even a slight breeze could be detected.

“Where is everybody?” Xerxes said.

“Good question,” Stratos said. Raising his voice, he said, “Clear the landing area then fan out. Unit Two comes through in two minutes. Check the corridor but don’t go too far.”

Under normal circumstances, the landing platform of a Gateway was manned by at least five people. Two people were responsible for operating the passageway itself, and there were three guards, one overseeing the platform and two at the door. That was just in the immediate vicinity. Other personnel occupied other positions within the complex. Where was everyone?

Xerxes had been through many Gateways, and though there was a variety in terms of things like the layout, interior decoration, uniforms of the staff, one thing was a constant; there were always people present.

Not here, though.

As the soldiers of Unit One spread out, Xerxes walked over to the control station.

Something like a table of stone had a wooden contraption atop it with a host of dials, levers, and buttons. The entire thing was a complex spell formation, and it looked exactly like the one he’d studied back on Sin-Amuhhu.

He immediately checked the switch that controlled the receiving connections. It was flipped to the ‘receive’ option, which was expected considering the staff on the Humusi end had forced the connection. He looked at some of the other switches and dials, wondering if the receive option had been toggled off to allow for outgoing tunnels to Jehannemid’s lower starisles.

He saw no evidence of that. All the control options seemed to be in their default state. It was as if the connection switch had been flipped, but nothing else.

Looking away from the controls, he examined the surroundings. The stools the operators would sit on had been pushed slightly away from the table.

There was nothing to indicate why the place had been abandoned.

He saw no blood. No hint that there had been any sort of struggle or other dramatic events.

“Corridor’s empty,” said Vadamerca, who had stepped out of the tunnel entrance platform.

“Noted,” said Stratos. He looked at Xerxes. “First Lieutenant, why don’t you stay in ‘ere? We’ll start looking through the complex.”

“Sure.”

“Unit One, ‘ave weapons out and shields up. Let’s clear the area.”

As they filtered out of the platform area, Xerxes looked more closely at the area, hoping to find any clue that would give a hint about the situation. Nothing jumped out.

Unit Two arrived shortly thereafter, with Kashtiliash and his assigned Sergeant, a man named Arda.

“What’s going on?” Kashtiliash said as soon as he saw Xerxes alone behind the control station.

“We’re trying to figure that out. The place seems abandoned. Sergeant Stratos and Unit One are out there looking around.”

“Unit Two, let’s go join them,” Arda said.

Kashtiliash joined Xerxes.

Over the course of the next hour, the rest of the Units arrived. Then the pack animals and carts. By the time Gandash came through, they had secured the complex and confirmed that the entire place was abandoned.

Gandash didn’t look happy when he found out about the situation. “First Lieutenants, come with me,” he said.

They followed Gandash through the Gateway complex until they found a small conference room with a round table in the middle. As soon as he was inside, Gandash produced a leather map tube. Unbuttoning the top, he pulled out a roll of maps and began flipping through them.

Meanwhile, olive-skinned Kishar was the last in. After she closed the door, Gandash put one of the maps on the table and said, “Tell me what we know.”

Since Xerxes had arrived first, he said, “The place is abandoned. The stable’s empty. They locked everything up, but it seems obvious they left in a hurry. The controls for the Gateway were in the default setting, except for the connection switch, which was set to the ‘lock’ option. There are some tracks going down the mountain that look like they’re a few days old. Other than that… we don’t know much.”

Gandash looked at the map, which depicted the mountainous region that the Gateway complex was in, as well as the surrounding area. “The next local holiday is months away, so that couldn’t be the explanation. Right, First Lieutenant Jad?”

Jad nodded. “Right.”

“Can you think of any other explanation for why they might have abandoned this place?”

“Not really….”

Gandash tapped the map. “There’s no evidence of an attack, whether by human forces or Abhorrent. The nearest city other than the capital is—” he traced his finger along the map “—here to the northeast. Too far to be relevant.”

“Captain,” Jad said, the word sounding a bit awkward on his tongue, “there’s a watchtower attached to this Gateway complex….”

Gandash looked up. “You’re right. I forgot about that.”

“I remember hearing people say you can see the capital from here. If that’s true, the watchtower would be the best view.”

Gandash smiled. “Good thinking, Jad. You and Sergeant Vasilios go up there and see what you can see.”

For the next few minutes, Gandash asked the opinions of the First Lieutenants. Xerxes felt strange interacting with his friend in this capacity, but he did everything possible to make it professional.

In the end, there was very little information to go on yet.

“Despite the strange circumstances,” Gandash said, “there’s not much we can do other than proceed with the operation.”

Dasi, fingering one of her many piercings, asked, “Should we send a message back?”

Gandash scratched his black eye softly. “No. To be honest, this isn’t entirely beyond what I expected.” Looking around the table, he said, “We came because of local unrest. Although we don’t know the exact reason why the facility was abandoned, we do know that the situation on Jehannemid is unstable.”

The door opened and Jad returned.

“Something happened,” he said.