The new bounty, [OPERATION FORGEBREAKER], pulsed with an ominous crimson light on the Alliance's main board, a silent declaration of war against the very heart of the Prometheus Initiative's power. In the sanctum of [Channel: Zero], the inner circle convened to forge a plan of attack. The mood was a mixture of grim determination and triumphant confidence. They had won before. They would win again.
That confidence lasted for approximately ten minutes.
It was General Jiang Wei who laid out the new, brutal reality. His intelligence network had been working overtime, and the picture they painted was a chilling one.
Old-Man-Jiang: "Gentlemen, Chief Analyst. Our success in Operation Gatecrasher has made the enemy paranoid and twice as dangerous. The Forge is no longer just a secret base; it is now one of the most heavily fortified locations on the planet outside of a central military command center."
A series of satellite and drone images filled the channel. They showed new, reinforced perimeter walls, anti-air turrets emerging from hidden silos on the mountainside, and the tell-tale energy signatures of a new-generation, multi-spectrum sensor grid.
Old-Man-Jiang: "The direct, physical approach is now a death sentence. The ventilation shafts Captain Lin's team used last time have been permanently sealed with two meters of reinforced alloy. The geothermal vent our 'Nautilus' drone used is now almost certainly guarded by a dozen new layers of security. We are, for all intents and purposes, locked out."
Hephaestus added his own bleak assessment from the digital front. Hephaestus: "Their network is a fortress of black ice. They've purged their systems and rebuilt their firewalls from the ground up after the 'Janus' virus was planted. The 'resonance key' trick won't work twice. There is no digital backdoor."
The reality of their situation sank in. They were facing an enemy that had learned from its mistakes, an enemy that was now prepared for ghosts. Their previous methods were obsolete.
It was Su Liying who spoke first, her role as Chief Analyst now firmly established. She and her Core had been analyzing the new defenses for days, searching for a single, hairline crack in the enemy's armor. Crystalline_Mind: "The General is correct. A frontal assault, physical or digital, is no longer viable. Therefore, we must consider an asymmetrical approach."
She brought up a topographical map of the surrounding mountain range. Crystalline_Mind: "The enemy's defenses are all focused on the facility itself. They expect us to come to them. So, we will not. We will use the environment as our weapon. Weather analysis predicts a severe thunderstorm system moving into the region in four days. The storm will provide acoustic and thermal cover, temporarily blinding their long-range sensors."
She highlighted a series of treacherous, nearly vertical cliffs on the far side of the mountain. Crystalline_Mind: "My proposal: a high-altitude, low-opening (HALO) jump for a small, elite team during the peak of the storm. They will land on the upper ridges, bypass the main perimeter entirely, and begin a hazardous mountain climb to access a series of secondary, high-altitude ventilation systems that the main sensor grid does not cover effectively. It's a high-risk, high-reward infiltration."
It was a textbook special forces plan, audacious and brilliant. But Lin Mei, the veteran soldier, saw the brutal reality behind the theory.
Nomad-Lead: "Chief, your plan is tactically sound on paper," she typed, her tone respectful but firm. "But the variables are a nightmare. A thunderstorm in the Sichuan mountains is an unpredictable beast. A HALO jump in those conditions is a coin toss. The climbing route is a natural chokepoint, a perfect place for a hidden ambush. We might get one team in, but they'll be exhausted, half-frozen, and walking into the enemy's kill box. We would be sacrificing our best soldiers for a low-probability gamble."
She paused, then delivered her final, grim assessment. Nomad-Lead: "To succeed, we don't just need to be ghosts. We need a perfect, overwhelming diversion. Something so big, so catastrophic, that it forces their elite internal guards to abandon their posts and deal with it. A simple feint attack won't work; they're expecting that."
The team was stuck once more. How do you create a diversion big enough to fool a paranoid, high-tech organization in their own impenetrable fortress?
It was then that the Shepherd intervened. Oracle came online, his presence a wave of absolute calm. He had been listening. He had been observing.
Oracle: The Captain is correct. A single point of infiltration is inefficient and carries an unacceptable level of risk. Oracle: The Chief Analyst's instinct to use the environment as a weapon is also correct. However, her scope is too limited. You are thinking of using a storm. You must learn to think bigger.
A new, insane, and utterly magnificent grand strategy appeared in the channel, laid out with divine simplicity.
Oracle: We will not attack the facility. We will make the facility attack *itself*.
Oracle: Hephaestus. You will construct a new device based on the 'Harmonic Pulse' charge you created for the Nautilus mission. But instead of being tuned to the molecular bonds of rock polymer, this one will be tuned to the precise resonant frequency of the tectonic fault line that runs ten kilometers to the north of the dam.
A stunned silence filled the channel. They understood the implication.
Oracle: We will place this 'Harmonic Resonator' on the fault line. When activated, it will not create a massive, uncontrolled earthquake. It will create a targeted, localized micro-quake. A seismic event just powerful enough to cause the geothermal tap deep beneath the Prometheus facility to fluctuate violently. Oracle: This manufactured 'natural disaster' will be our diversion. It will trigger every seismic and reactor-core alarm in their facility. It will force their Chief Engineer and their entire elite security detail into the sub-levels to prevent a perceived catastrophic meltdown.
Oracle: While their attention is focused on the 'emergency' deep underground, the facility's surface-level security, their anti-air defenses, and their rooftop patrols will be at their absolute weakest. That is your window. Captain, your team will infiltrate from the *top down* during the chaos. Chief Analyst, your team will monitor their internal communications to give the Captain a real-time countdown for her breach.
The sheer, god-like scale and audacity of the plan was breathtaking. To cause a targeted earthquake as a simple diversion. This was not a strategy a mortal could have conceived.
Hephaestus, ever the pragmatist, was the first to find his voice. Hephaestus: Causing a targeted earthquake... Oracle, the geological survey data required for that level of precision... to find the exact resonant frequency of a tectonic plate... that data doesn't exist. It's impossible. We can't do it.
Oracle's reply was instantaneous. He uploaded one last file to the channel.
[DATA: Complete Subterranean and Tectonic Scan of the Sichuan Mountain Range - Source Redacted]
It was a perfect, high-resolution 3D map of the planet's crust for thousands of square kilometers, showing every fault line, every stress point, every magma pocket. It was a map that no human civilization could have possibly created.
Oracle: It exists now. You have your map. You have your target. You have your plan. Oracle: 72 hours to prepare. Execute.
The Oracle username went dark.
He had left them in stunned silence once more. In his quiet tea house, General Jiang Wei simply shook his head, a look of profound, almost fearful awe on his face. They were no longer just soldiers fighting a war. They were now acolytes, learning to rewrite the laws of nature, armed with the impossible knowledge of their unseen god.
The preparations for Operation Forgebreaker had begun.