Space Defence Centre Perimeter Road

The perimeter road encircles the Space Defence Centre’s outer buildings, a broad asphalt ribbon worn smooth by maintenance vehicles and security patrols. Streetlamps cast pools of sickly yellow light across cracked pavement where puddles reflect the centre’s floodlights. The air hums with the background thrum of distant generators and the occasional crackle of a handheld radio, punctuated by urgent voices barking commands through the security cordon. Knowing fugitives move somewhere inside, Sullivan’s mobile troop sets up overlapping checkpoints while two-man patrols sweep the area with handheld scanners, their boots crunching on scattered gravel dislodged from the tarmac. The road itself is mostly empty save for strategically parked jeeps and the occasional android sentinel standing motionless under the lights, mimicking the stillness of the surrounding industrial zone.