by Andrew Peed
"Then what?"
He opened a small metal case, "Once we are allowed access we will do a back up onto this storage device. There are twenty petabytes worth of storage. It may not be enough, but we'll get what we can."
"What is the plan for exit?"
"Break out using any means; you should only find minimal resistance. Head north, there is a small helicopter tours business that went under years ago. There will be an evac waiting for you."
"When do we head out?" Sandy finally spoke up from the back of the group.
"Two hours."
Sam walked over to another table. He picked up an armor vest and a shirt.
"Here are some clothes that you can wear for the mission. Scratch that, you are required to wear them."
"Black?" Sandy held up a pair of pants.
"Going in the dark." Ryder said.
"These vests have been modified." Sam said.
"Modified how?" I asked.
"The armor is denser and lighter." Ryder threw one of the vests into the air and caught with one finger.
"Silence take Grace out to the practice field and get some combat training in with her abilities. Be back here in one and a half hours." Sam said.
~//~
A half an hour later we stood on the practice field.
"Give me your best shot." Ryder stood with his feet planted ready for my attack.
"Are you sure that you don't want to use the dummies?" I didn’t want to lose control and hurt him.
"Come on, you can't hit me anyway." he egged me on. I balled my fists and then opened them, flames licked my palms.
I threw a fire ball like a baseball at Ryder.
He dodged it with ease.
A wooden target flew up; I threw a ball of flame at it blowing it to pieces. He appeared behind me, sweeping my legs out from underneath me.
I got up rubbing my lower back.
"You can do better than that." He circled.
I tried to throw another ball of flame at him, but he used a piece of the wooden target to send it back at me. It hit me in the shoulder sending me spiraling onto my back. I hit my head on the ground.
I got up rubbing the back of my head. I balled my fist and started to run in his direction. I threw another ball of fire at him, but this time when he dodged I used a boost of flame to send myself flying at him.
I tackled him to the ground, landing on top of him.
My face was inches from his; I could feel his breath on my cheek. He grinned like a maniac, "Good job, think outside of the box, but don't always rely on your abilities." he chuckled.
"Thank you." I held him to the ground.
"Thank you for what?"
"For all your help, for everything that you have done for me." before he could say anything I pressed my lips to his. He kissed back; sending shivers my spine.
A feeling that I had never felt before.
Quickly I came to my senses and jumped up off of him. I hardly knew him and I did not know how he felt for me. I cleared my throat and stood with my back to him.
"You're welcome." he stood brushing himself off.
"How do you think that I am doing?"
"You're doing great; I wasn't pulling any punches either." We walked to his car.
"I'm nervous about this mission." I leaned against the hood of his car.
"Understandable, Sam wouldn't usually send anyone on a mission so soon after arrival, but he doesn't have another team available." He leaned next to me on the car.
"It's so soon."
"It is, but we need to get going." I leaned over onto his shoulder and took a deep breath.
~//~
Back at the hanger everyone was waiting outside. They looked like some kind of black ops strike team. I laughed at the image of us from the orphanage dressed up like swat and preparing to raid some corporate facility.
I changed in a back room and joined them.
"Code names, does everyone have one picked out?" Sam took out his phone and opened some kind of recording app.
"I decided to go with Sear." I said looking around the room at everyone.
"Call me Arch." Ronnie shot a bolt of lightning between his open palms.
"What do you think about Shift?" Sandy looked for everyone's approval.
"All I could think of was Chrono." Kenny said.
"I'm going with Blackout." Rachel said.
“I’m gonna go with Sear for those of you that aren’t aware.” I said.
Sam handed me the storage device, “It can take a beating, but it isn’t indestructible. Just get it plugged in.”
"Easy enough." I said.
"I hope so and I wish you luck." Sam said.
Chapter 21: Descent
"Where is the plane?" the runway and the taxiway were both empty. We stood outside of the hanger in the dark.
"Wait for it." Silence turned as the door began to open slowly. A massive plane rolled out of the darkness almost as quiet as a whisper. I had never seen a plane that looked like it before.
"What is that?"
"This is the BF-1007. We call her Big Bertha. This aircraft is one of the remnants of AdvaGen Technologies. She is built for speed, stealth, and the ability to deliver large payloads without ever being seen." Silence held out his hands, “Isn’t she a beaut?”
The huge wings unfolded as they were free of the doorway. It taxied forward and turned to line up with the small runway. We all climbed into the plane one at a time and Silence pulled the door closed behind us.
Seats lined the sides of the interior. I strapped into a seat and said a prayer to myself. The plane quickly picked up speed as it sped down the small runway. My stomach rose into my throat as we lifted into the air. I still didn't like flying, but was thankful it wasn't one of the small planes we came into town on.
"Sam has asked me to return with the plane." Silence leaned over and whispered in my ear, "A few things that we need to go over before we get to the drop point. Your headsets are always connected, tap on the ear piece twice, say the code name of who you want to speak with, and then talk. Sam's code name is Acumen."
"Good to know." I nodded.
"Next when you jump out of the plane hold the antigrav genny to your chest, and press the button. Do not let go and do not remove it from your chest. You will fall. You hit the button when you have twelve hundred feet left to fall.”
"What's it like?" Shift asked.
"What? Landing with antigrav? Like a feather landing on a goose down bed." he said.
The pilot came over the comm.-system, "Get ready to jump."
Silence stood and we followed. A door in the floor of the plane opened and we all had to take hold of a hand bar above our heads so we wouldn't get sucked out. Lights from the cities below rushed by in many blurred lines.
"GO!" Silence yelled.
I let go of the hand bar. My body was sucked out of the bottom of the plane as if pulled by my chest. The wind slapped past my head, burning my ears. I looked at my watch, the numbers displayed counted how far the ground was away from me.
They ran down unbelievably fast.
"As soon as you hit twelve hundred." Silence chirped in my ear. I turned over to be falling on my back. Silence had jumped from the plane along with the rest of us.
I tapped on my ear piece and said, "Silence. I thought that you were supposed to go back with the plane?" I had to yell over the whipping winds.
"You think that I'll let you go on your own. You have much to learn." he pressed his arms to his sides and shot past me like a rocket.
My watch started to make a beeping noise. I was at thirteen hundred and fifty feet. I held the antigrav generator to my chest and kept my eyes on my watch. As soon as it hit the twelve hundred mark I pressed the button.
I slowed to almost a stop like everyone around me, "How is everyone doing?" I yelled.
"Doing good." Arch yelled, everyone else agreed.
My hand started to get cold. Colder than anything that I had ever felt before. It st
arted to burn my skin. I held on with all of my might but I had to let go.
I started to free fall, I reached out for the generator, but it had flown out of my reach.
"GRACE!!" Silence yelled.
I had no idea what to do. The ground was rushing up so fast. Silence was yelling something but I couldn't hear. All I could see were his lips moving. I turned back over onto my stomach. I threw my hands and legs out in front of me.
I concentrated with all of my will power. Flames like a jet engines rocketed from my palms and the bottom of my feet. I slowed almost to a stop, and waited for the others to catch up.
I angled my way towards Silence.
"Are you alright?" Silence looked furious.
"I'm fine."
We all slowly approached the ground, touching down without a sound. Silence immediately broke away from the group and disappeared into the trees. I lost track of him quickly in the shadows.
"What is he doing?" Arch asked.
"I don't know." I thought about going after him.
I tapped on my ear piece, "Silence. What are you doing, the facility is in the other direction."
Ronnie was holding up a holographic map of the area.
He didn't answer me. "SILENCE." I whispered loudly into the headset.
A few of the longest moments ever passed by and he returned from the trees. He had something in his hands, "Someone tampered with it." He held up my antigrav generator.
"How, why?" I asked, "How in the hell did you see where the thing landed?"
"I don't know who did it. I intend to find out." His expression scared me, I’ve never seen anyone that mad in my life.
Someone tried to kill one of us and it was completely random. Anyone of us could have picked up that antigrav generator. Furry flushed through my face as we started to creep through a field low to the ground.
We came to the fence on the outer perimeter of the facility, "How should we get inside? Getting out was kind of explosive." Chrono looked over the small map that hovered over his phone.
Arch took an all in one tool from one of the many pockets on the vest and started to cut a slit in the fence. We all slipped inside, staying quiet, and still low to the ground.
"There are two entrances. Both equally guarded." Silence pointed out.
"Which one is closest to our ultimate goal?" I asked.
"The one at the back."
"Well I vote for that one." Arch said.
I noticed that even though he told Sam that he chose his abilities over the gun it was still strapped to his hip.
We slid along the wall slowly towards the rear of the facility. It was an entrance they used for deliveries. There were two trucks parked with their engines running. I assumed for deliveries the next morning. I didn’t see either driver which led me to believe that they were sleeping in the cabs.
There were four guards two standing on either side of the entrance. They were different than the soldiers that cornered us after we escaped. These were wearing gas masks with glowing red eyes. They had all black armor that looked like plastic and some kind of rifle that I had never seen before.
One of the guards had wandered off from the others.
I looked over to ask Silence something but he was gone. I looked up and he was inches from the guard who had wandered off by himself. He reached up and grabbed the guard waving some kind of device over the guard’s ear. The guard immediately lost consciousness. He drug the body to a nearby wall.
Arch made his move once two of the remaining guards rounded the wall to investigate. He rushed them and took them out with a single powerful bolt of energy. Shift morphed into one of the guards, we all joined Silence and the three dead bodies at the side of the building.
Shift joined the last guard at the entrance.
"What is going on?" the guard asked Shift.
"Had to take a leak." She said mimicking the man’s voice perfectly.
"I'm going to have to report this." the guard turned to walk away
“I was afraid of that.” Shift took her chance to hit the guard in the back of the head. The guard stumbled and caught himself on the wall. She put her arm around his head and held him until he stopped struggling. She drug the body to where the others were stacked.
Chrono held out the storage case, "You should take this from here."
I took it from him, and threw the strap over my shoulder. We used a keycard from one of the guard's bodies to unlock the door. Shift held her guard form, but made the blood vanish from her clothes.
The hallway inside was quiet.
Chapter 22: The Core
The lobby inside of the building was eerily cheerful. The walls in the lobby were a sterilized white and the lights were bright and unnatural. Cheerful elevator music played over the intercom system. The receptionist desk was empty.
"This place gives me the creeps." I said keeping a close eye on the two doors leading from the deeper parts of the facility into the lobby.
"Remember this is the lobby for the power plant portion of the facility. This lobby is the public area. Aurora has their image to maintain." Silence said. He walked over to the desk, and pulled the touch screen computer out of the desk.
“Why don’t people ask Aurora why they post guards at the entrance of a simple power plant?” Shift asked.
“I guess most people just don’t care.” Silence mumbled.
"What are you doing?" I joined Silence behind the desk.
"I am going to download all of the fire escape data. With it, we may be able to find our way around the facility." he plugged a cable into the computer, and then into his phone. The screen flashed the words files located and he pressed his finger to the download button.
"How do you know you can get it with your phone?" I asked.
"Most of the current Aurora Tech is built upon AdvaGen platforms. We were able to recover a lot of AdvaGen technology in the town." Silence explained.
"Is there any way that we could use a terminal in one of the labs to download the information?" Arch asked.
"The terminals in each lab only have access to the information pertaining to the subjects and projects in that one lab. To get all of the information in the facility we have to back up the core." Silence said. All of our watches beeped at the same time. I looked down and it said new maps available. I pressed the screen and the map displayed our location.
I navigated through the maps down to the lowest level, "I'm guessing that this black area at the bottom here is the computer core?" I said.
"I'd say that would be a good guess." Silence looked at my watch.
"There are two elevator banks, each with emergency stairs. It looks like the stairwells stop one floor above the level that the core is on." I looked down at the map.
"It would be nice if these nifty little watches would tell us where all the guards are." Arch played with the settings on his watch.
"I think that the facility will be relatively unguarded. Aurora is under the impression that we are stretched very thin." Silence opened the door to the first hallway. "Let's just go down the closest stairwell."
We all entered the hallway and stuck close to the wall. Silence led the way and made sure that he was the forward most person.
"What about the cameras?" I asked looking at one that had just pointed right at us.
"You phone projects an electromagnetic field that makes you and everything you touch invisible to electronic recording devices. This includes infrared." Silence said waving to the camera then flipping the bird.
"Where did you get these toys?" Arch asked looking at his phone.
"We either created it from scratch or modified AdvaGen tech same as Aurora."
We rounded a corner as one of the guards was making the last leg of his rounds. He was walking away from us and had no idea that we were behind him. Silence pulled a small throwing knife from his boot and threw it into the guards back. Before the knife even made contact, Silence was inches from the guard to catch him as he fell.
We drug the man into a closet and locked the door.
We got to the stairwell's doorway and Shift held up the keycard she had from before. Silence held out his arm and stopped her, "Wait, that guard is supposed to be guarding the gate. If you swipe the card it will raise the alarm."
She tossed the card aside, "What then?"
"This." He held up his phone.
"What can the phone not do?" I smiled.
"I'll let you know when I figure it out." He held it up to the panel. A blue light scanned the lock from the top to the bottom. Seemingly random numbers began to flash across the screen.
I looked down the hallway while the phone was doing its thing to see a man in a janitor's uniform sweeping the floor. He whistled a catchy tune.
He stopped and looked up at me smiling. I tapped Silence on the shoulder, but when I looked back he had vanished into thin air.
"What is it?" he matched my gaze down the hall.
"Nothing." I said.
A holographic key card, similar to the one that Shift had, appeared hovering over Silence's phone. He grabbed it and swiped it in the reader. The lock popped and then he pushed open the door.
"Easy as that." he said showing us into the stairwell. When the door closed and locked behind us we were left in complete darkness.
"Where is the light switch?" Chrono searched the walls blindly.
"The lights have sensors, and they cannot see us." Silence said, "Grace, Ronnie you have the best abilities for light."
I set my hands on fire and Ronnie forced bolts of energy to run down his arms. We started to walk down the stairs taking them slowly.
When we reached the halfway point, the door below us sprung opened and no less than a dozen Saber soldiers rushed into the room. They raised their guns and began firing in our direction.
Blackout was quick with her shield to stop the bullets.
"What the hell are these bullets made of? Each one weighs a ton." her eyes were already starting to bleed.
I jumped from the landing and fell like a stone to the floor below. When I hit the ground, I sent out a blast of fire in all directions knocking all of the soldiers to the ground.