Nothing is more important than these catalysts. Have them prepared to be moved in case the conflict worsens.
“Your will, Chiyva.”
Jacob gave orders to have all the pallets placed on wheels, then settled in to wait. He could hear the fight far off, the sound of gunfire rattling through the base. If anything, the noise seemed to be getting further away, not closer. Out of boredom, he occupied himself with the monitors, changing channels and searching for the enemy. The Prophus were destroying the cameras they passed, so he was met with static on several views, and most of the ones that were still functioning were either clouded with smoke or quiet. Then he switched over to the command center and saw a phalanx of shielded men batter through the glass walls of the room.
“Glass walls are a poor choice for the heart of the haven. The placement of the command center near the central hub was poorly conceived as well.”
Vinnick must have used the same architect who put New York’s Emergency Command Center in the World Trade Center.
It made for relatively poor television. The Prophus forces took the center easily, which at best was a symbolic victory. Within seconds of the center falling, Enzo had given the order to cut power to the module. Jacob watched through the still-active security camera as the enemy milled around, trying to get any of the systems to work. Then he sat up and ran to the screen. At first, he thought he had hallucinated.
I saw it too. It is him.
Jacob couldn’t believe his luck. He had despaired that he wouldn’t ever be able to find Roen Tan again, especially after his wife and child had escaped Jacob’s grasp, and now the man had decided to come to him. Roen, looking just like Jacob last remembered, was speaking with several of the Prophus. Then something happened off-screen, and he ran out of the room.
It was pretty transparent to Jacob what Enzo was doing, having used the low-standing security forces and non-essential civilians to soak up the initial Prophus attack at the center point of conflict. That would be where the enemy would expend most of their efforts for the entry, and in such cramped quarters, would incur heavy collateral on both sides. If that was the case, the Genjix might as well sacrifice the rabble.
The way Enzo had organized the front lines, he had purposely drawn the enemy out in what seemed like an easy victory. Now, after they had expended energy and resources, it was time for the trap to close. And in the process, Jacob would have his revenge.
“Get me a tablet and patch me through to our security camera system,” he said. “It’s time we play a game.”
Jacob signaled for some of his units to stay with the stockpile and the others to follow. He left the warehouse and made his way down one of the maintenance shafts. They’d have to go up two levels behind the enemy’s line and hunt. The villain and his kin had escaped him long enough. For this fight, Jacob only had one objective. He intended to draw Roen Tan in and finish him off once and for all.
42 The Counter
For the Prophus, it seems there is no longer a path to victory. This is our twilight hour. We cannot defeat the Genjix. We cannot hold off the humans indefinitely. We are destined for extinction unless something drastic saves us. However, it seems we have burned all our bridges.
Baji
Jill felt uneasy combing through the wreckage of what looked like the enemy base’s command center. Their attack had broken through the initial defenses too easily. Jill wasn’t a master tactician, but even she felt like something was off. It could be that they had just been lucky. After all, they had caught the base in a moment of weakness, when the enemy had moved vast numbers away to defend the catalyst facility. Maybe the Prophus had finally caught a break. God knows they were long overdue one.
“Look at this,” Marco said, tossing a book to her. “Loyalty Haven Operating Manual.”
It only took a few seconds of flipping through the pages to figure out what this place was for. She tossed it over to Roen, who did the same. Jill looked down at all the powered-down systems and screens, and watched as one of the engineers tore open a side panel to look for hard drives to salvage. Everything was going according to plan. They had taken this center area, and the Genjix hadn’t tried to mount a counterattack yet.
“Baji, what do you make of this? I am surprised the Genjix are taking such humane steps to ensure their vessels’ survival during Quasiform.”
Same. All the intelligence we have on their leader Enzo runs counter to what we’re seeing with these loyalty havens. Perhaps not all Genjix are on board with Quasiform. It might be something we can exploit in the future.
“Teams two to six, report,” Marco said.
A smattering of coordinates filtered through the short-range comm tablets all the commanders were using. It was the only way they could keep track of each other scattered around the underwater base. Currently, dozens of small squads were navigating the maze-like facility, pushing back the enemy while searching for Rin. Surprisingly, they’d encountered very little resistance. Hopefully, their luck would hold. She prayed it was just as quiet at the extraction point.
“Cameron, how’s it looking topside?” Roen spoke, reading her mind. He held up seven fingers to her. She switched over to channel seven and stayed silent. She was still angry with both of them and knew that Cameron would hesitate to be honest if he knew she was listening in.
“It’s boring up here, Dad. And cold, but mostly just boring.”
“Welcome to the life of a secret agent, son.” Roen grinned. “Hurry up and wait and then get so damn bored you wish something would happen, until something does. Then you can only pray to be bored out of your mind again. I call it being perpetually unhappy.”
“Yeah, yeah. Tao’s already told me. He also told me about the time you fell asleep keeping watch at that grocery store and Mom just left you there.”
“Well, you and Tao were supposed to wake me up.”
“I was four and fell asleep. Tao didn’t want to wake me.”
Jill smiled as she listened to them. Roen and Cameron shared a bond that she could never understand, not that she really wanted to. Baji was more than enough for her, though their relationship was very different from the one Tao had with Roen and Cameron. It was moments like this that reminded her how good her family had had it over the past few years, and how bad things really had been before they had founded the operation at the farmhouse. Were they fated to go back to those dark times? She didn’t know if she could handle it again.
“Well, Cam,” Roen chuckled. “A good soldier always sleeps -”
In the background, Jill heard a smattering of gunfire on the channel. Alarmed, she switched to channel five and pulled up the platform commander. “Gwenda, report in. Gwenda!” There was no response. Jill’s heart began to skip beats. Every fiber in her ordered her to charge up one of those towers and check on Cameron.
Roen appeared next to her. “I’ll check on him.”
“Hurry,” she whispered. He kissed her and sped off.
All the channels lit up and the other leads – Faust, Dylan, Marco – began to bark out orders. She switched back to channel four and heard chaos as all of her teams were suddenly swarmed by Genjix. She checked their locations on her tablet. They were spread too far apart. Some of the teams manning areas already thought secured were under attack as well.
Jill exchanged looks with Dylan and Marco, and they began to flag hand signals while issuing orders in rapid succession on the comm, pulling the over-extended teams back and reinforcing others. However, the trap was sprung, and the Prophus attack force was besieged on all sides.