Time: 7:00 a.m. February 28, 2071.
Location: Tunnels. Tisaia
Obi sat in the cold, damp tunnel, trying to keep his feet out of the murky water below him. His orange goggles glowed brightly in the darkness. He felt safe, surrounded by his trusted team. Creo, Ajax, and Nathar had just returned with the explosives. His plan was now in its final stages. Ran and Nordica were waiting for them a few tunnels away.
“What of the four new recruits?” Obi asked.
“Looks like they bailed, boss. Ran and Nordica said they disappeared a few minutes ago,” Ajax replied.
“What do you mean, bailed?”
Ajax took out his knife and began to sharpen the blade on the bayonets attached to his rifle. “Abandoned ship, like a bunch of cowards,” he said softly.
“Shit. Maybe they were compromised and we’re walking into a trap,” Nathar whispered.
“No, they bailed.” Ajax replied, running his knife along the edge of his bayonet again.
“How do you know that? What if the Tin Cans got to them?” Nathar asked, his voice raised.
Ajax slid his knife down the length of the bayonet one more time before pausing. “I know because I could see it in their eyes. They were just kids. A waste of money if you ask me.”
Obi thought of the young man to whom he had given the energy bar to earlier. “Maybe it’s for the best,” he said, knowing their lack of training could pose more danger to the mission.
Spurious watched the soldiers chat and stirred nervously. He wasn’t close enough to hear what they were discussing, but he knew whatever it was, it wasn’t good.
“We proceed without them,” Obi whispered to his men. He hesitated, “We have to presume they deserted us. Besides, if they had been caught, we would have heard at least one shot fired.”
The soldiers sat huddled on the concrete platform, Obi’s flashlight illuminating an old map on the cold floor. It was one of the only maps Spurious recognized back at the silo.
“Nathar and Creo, you’ll enter the CRK tunnel from a decommissioned air duct that runs above it. You’ll drop in and take out any guards,” Obi said, pointing at the different locations on the map.
“Nordica, Ran and I will drop in after all targets have been neutralized. Ajax, you and Spurious will follow us once we’ve been given the all clear.”
“Where’s the card reader at?” Creo asked
“I was just about to get to that,” Obi replied.
“The card reader is located on the eastern wall of this final tunnel,” he said, pointing. “Once Spurious gets us inside, Ajax and I will plant the charges. We suspect there will be light resistance, and hopefully they will never see us coming.”
“Should we expect any turrets or machine gun nests?” Nathar inquired.
“Spurious, you answer that one,” Obi ordered.
Spurious cleared his throat before he spoke. “This is the back way into the CRK headquarters. As far as I can tell from the blueprints I’ve looked at there won’t be any machine gun nests and guards will be at a minimum. The tunnel is directly under the eastern half of the headquarters so the explosives should bring the entire structure down. I don’t think they would see an attack coming from this direction,” Spurious said, as reassuringly as possible.
“Good. Nathar, have you reprogrammed his card?” Obi asked.
“I did when we took five a few hours ago. Should work like a charm,” he said with a smile.
“Men, you all know what to do. We’ve been waiting for this moment for years. Once we get into the secured CRK tunnel, we have to assume we’ll be facing some resistance. We just need to buy Spurious enough time to get to the card reader. He has assured me that once inside the final tunnel, we can place the bombs and escape with enough time to make it out before the entire CRK headquarters collapses,” Obi said, gritting his teeth.
He watched his men, scanning their faces to gauge their reactions. He wasn’t surprised to see their tense jaws tightly shut. The tunnel was relatively dark, but the men’s infrared goggles easily allowed them to pick up the skeptical looks on one another’s faces.
Obi picked up on this quickly, realizing it would take more than a pep talk to reassure them he wasn’t leading them on a suicide mission. There was a reason the new recruits had left, and it wasn’t because they were cowards — they knew the chance of survival was low. There was no time for any more speeches though. Every moment they wasted was one second closer to their plan being discovered. And Obi knew he couldn’t count on any more lucky breaks.
Time: 9:05 a.m. February 28, 2071.
Location: Tunnels. Lunia, Tisaia
The vent was pitch black, making it difficult for Spurious to even make out the shape of his hands in front of him. For what seemed like an hour, he squirmed through the tight air duct. He knew in advance it was going to be tight, but he had no idea it would be this bad. Ajax barely managed to fit inside, and was forced to remove his chest armor before entering.
As Spurious crawled further he began to feel his heart racing inside his chest. It was finally happening; he was going to have his chance at shaping the future of Tisaia.
His thoughts drifted to Lana, trying to forget her betrayal. He had to stay strong now; avenging the deaths of Lana, Paulo and his parents was all that mattered.
He pushed through the darkness, sweat dripping down his bruised and wind burnt face, seeping into his pores. With every struggling move, he began to feel like his arms and legs were moving on their own accord. His heart continued to beat faster and faster. And just when he thought he was going to vomit, Ajax stopped in front of him. “We’re here,” he grumbled back at Spurious.
Spurious flattened his body against the smooth metal of the air duct, listening to Nathar work on removing the barely visible cover to the tunnel below.
For minutes he lay there, listening to the faint sound of Nathar working in the distance. He strained his ears, listening to the sound of boots hitting a concrete floor below, the echo muffled by the metal ventilation.
They must be in.
Gunshots immediately erupted below, rattling the metal duct. His excitement quickly turned to horror. It was really happening. He was really going into battle against the CRK.
Spurious placed his hands over his ears, trying to shield them from the deafening noise that was amplified by the tight metal vent. The gunfire stopped as soon as it had started and a nervous silence washed over the soldiers in the air duct.
“All clear!” a voice finally shouted from below.
Spurious sucked in a deep breath of stale air, attempting to get back in a crawling position. A wave of dizziness washed over him and he dropped back to his stomach. The ringing from the gunfire was pounding in his head.
“Let’s move,” Ajax growled in front of him.
Spurious forced himself onto his belly and squirmed through the final length of the air duct, trying to keep up with Ajax. He could make out the halogen light bleeding into the duct from the open hole in the center of the vent. He closed his eyes slowly and took a deep breath, just like he did before jumping into the pool as a kid, and dropped through the opening.
The brightness of the tunnel instantly washed over him. He blinked, trying to regain his vision and focus on the tunnel. Spurious felt naked, exposed in the open, not knowing exactly where he was. He rubbed his eyes as his vision slowly returned to normal.
At the end of the tunnel he could make out a large metal door and two Knights lying on the concrete ground. There were warm red puddles of blood pooled around their corpses.