Stratus Bastion and the Side Mission
The squad reached the lower air dock quickly, transitioning from the dark confines of the city into a wide-open space suspended thousands of feet above the chaotic water. Craft of all kinds rested quietly on the black tarmac, punctuated by the neon guides of the hover pads and lighted runways. Hovercraft skimmed on dense cushions of superheated air, while huge helicopter-airplane hybrids rose and moved out.
Jackie looked up, past the swirling traffic, to the two massive plateaus of the Andes above them. Their undersides swarmed with the kinetic glow of maintenance drones. To the right, smaller islands curved around the peak, the turbulent water surging just below their platforms.
The squad encrypted comms hissed. "Let's go people. We are on 'The People's Razor.' It is the large black transport hover on the right."
Squad Vi Somno boarded the massive transport without incident, directed into the ungainly belly of the craft. They sat in the innermost ring, feeling exposed despite the transport being virtually empty. Jackie's eyes ran over the internal contours, her cybernetic optics whirring as she mapped the decks.
Then BDJ spoke, and her 360-degree ocular view immediately snapped open.
BDJ: Operative Kieran detected on upper deck 362, southern-most quadrant.
A schematic appeared in her HUD, and her ocular implant zoomed in. He was there, smiling knowingly, as if he felt her cybernetic gaze upon him. A cold shiver, completely non-cybernetic, ran down her spine.
She was about to look away when her ocular implant detected a burst of data—pure, untagged information. Her eyes widened as she realized it was a direct transmission from Kieran.
"Commander. Kieran is on the transport. He just sent me a message."
"Send it to me," Dax commanded.
"It's pure data, Commander. No text, no audio."
Dax paused, processing the impossible. "Pure data? And you understand it?"
"Yes, Commander. My neural net... my new neural net translates it as command architecture."
"What is he saying?"
"There is a secret server on Stratus Bastion. He wants a download of its contents. Its system call sign is Server Fall within the Bastion's network."
"Understood. Can you reply and tell him it will be done?"
"I can." BDJ created the responsive data stream and routed the reply through the same secure channel Kieran had used. "Done."
Up on Deck 362, Alexander Simms, as Kieran, nodded to himself as his systems confirmed the incoming data stream. "I knew you were special, Asset 4986J—and I knew you were strong. You will finally end this." Kieran then deliberately purged his signature and stepped into the shadows.
Jackie watched the phantom trail of his signature disappear, but her enhanced eye still tracked the physical heat signature. Something about it all—the ease, the knowing smile—made her feel used. She flexed her hands, feeling the yielding flesh of one and hearing the cybernetic hiss of the other. She would handle whatever came her way.
It did not take long to reach the battle dome. It was a massive structure that stole the breath even from cybernetic lungs. Instead of a domed city, Stratus Bastion looked like a colossal ringed planet: a huge black sphere with dozens of docking rings and transit tunnels looping around it. The sun shone on the black surface like crystalline light over still water.
The People's Razor docked to one of the wider rings. A schematic of the battle dome immediately appeared in the HUD of each member of Vi Somno, and they headed into the facility. This time they were truly alone: no liaison, no check-in. They moved quickly, following the flashing blue infiltration trail on their schematics.
They came to their first obstacle—a thick, central security door. Lyra stepped forward and she and Tally began hacking the sequence. The others fanned out, their senses tuned to the unnatural silence of the massive battle dome.