Chapitre 155: Chapter 20: Blaze
Charlie has fought in many conflicts before she retired from the space force, and the last major one that the galactic government was involved in was the battle against the space pirates throughout the entire settled regions. Back then, the network of communication, transportation and monitoring wasn't set up as fully as it is now, so there were still plenty of room for the pirates to hide after hijacking, robbing and stealing.
There were lives lost, blood spewed and betrayals had, but those were the part of her memories that she left behind. In a sense, she was eager to face combat again, and yet nobody wanted it to come through a betrayal.
She was the one leading a third of the security forces which involved three other security personnel from Stevens and a small squadron of security droids on top of it. They set up an ambush at the location of choice as instructed by Cellica and waited for the invaders.
Despite the seeming catastrophic failure of Charlie's initial defensive plans, she still managed to put up enough defensive constructs all throughout the station in order to slow down the invaders. Repurposed spin magnetic fields can very easily mess up the settings of the magnetic boots, interference fields that are amplified in small corridors can mess up communication channels and personal interfaces, and some high pressure water cannons coupled up with some electrocution makes for a very simply set up two set trap.
All of those mechanisms were activated, but it does nothing except slowing and exhausting those invading forces from the space force. When they finally showed themselves around the corner, they were greeted with rained fire.
The interference fields had already shorted out their shield generators for a short period of time, and before they can be refreshed and restarted, the security forces lead by Charlie made sure to put all of them down in one swift action.
To her surprise, there were only ten of those invading soldiers that were in front of her. The sound of a small explosion came from behind her, and the shock wave threw her body forward. Charlie landed into a forward roll over her shoulder instinctively before turning around quickly to see Toso, the unassuming Aquarian standing over the motionless bodies of the security guards.
'What the hell are you doing?!' Charlie shouted out angrily, as she drew a gun towards her former unit member.
'I am sorry, Charlie.' Toso said without acknowledging further, and immediately before Charlie pulls the trigger, Toso through a flying blade that hit right on the forehead of Charlie. Her legs went limp as she collapsed onto the ground and blood flooded out as it drowned her bubbly hair.
Toso turned around and walked back into the airway system that allowed him to move swiftly behind the scenes, though he felt nothing but disgust about himself.
What is this feeling...is it regret? Is it rage? He wondered, but Aquarians don't feel, unlike humans.
Claudia was leading the other groups of security personnel, and thanks to the traps specially designed for this occasion, all they had to do is to cuff up all of the invaders against the wall and sedating all of them so that they won't be causing any further problems for the station. With that part taken care of, Claudia began to lead her group back when they walked over a trap laid down by Toso just before he went ahead to take down Charlie.
'Shit!' Claudia was able to react in time, but her legs were still blown off by the explosion that shook the entire station once again. She dropped onto the ground and struggled for a moment to reach for the communications.
'Claudia!' Cellica was keeping an eye on the three forces, and she realized that there is absolute nothing she could have done beyond the point of providing intelligence. Without prior knowledge of where Toso is, he completely slipped past her, and the same goes for the traps set by him.
'Boss...' She lets out a final grunt before the sleepiness catches on, and the bloodied personal interface in her head was the last thing she ever saw.
Another major weakness for her eyes is finally revealed to Cellica at a heavy price. If you are not looking for certain things, there is not way you can find them. This is a critical weakness that Cellica will have to address as soon as she gets out of here. Thanks to that...everyone in her unit is dead.
Slamming her fist into the wall next to her, Cellica focused her entire attention and poured everything in her power into locating Toso through the airways of the station. The airway system shapes like a spider's web as it encompasses all of the research station. However, this innate complexity also makes it really difficult to sort through for Cellica's eyes.
No...she needed to rethink her approach. Instead of starting from one corner and working her way through all of the airway network, she needed a more targeted search. Think, Cellica! Think about where Toso would be at this moment in time! Cellica commanded, as she turned and forced herself to look back at the body of Charlie. From there, she backtracked the parts of the airway network that will directly lead Toso here.
And there he is! On the lower floor about fifty meters to the west wing of the building! Cellica had her eyes locked onto Toso who's quickly maneuvering through the tiny gaps with his Aquarian arms. Looking back at the invading forces, there is a time gap between how much faster Toso was moving compared to those soldiers.
Knowing that, Cellica ordered the scholars to stay hidden from out of sight as well as behind the shields before leaving the room and locking it up. Then, she tried to keep a normal walking pace towards Toso.
As he crawled through the airways, Cellica is also rapidly approaching him. However, it is incredibly diffiuclt for her to keep a somewhat normal composure as not to startle Toso as she is getting closer and closer. After turning a final corner after the stairs, she knew that Toso is right in front of her overhead.
Toso immediately froze in place upon seeing his former unit leader, and his brain quickly went into overdrive about what the hell Cellica could possibly be here. There is absolute no way that she could have known his location to this degree of accuracy, and why would she leave the precious targets to come all the way out here?
Counting down the steps, Cellica walked towards a water distributor and poured herself a glass of water. Her heart is beating so fast that it hurts, and her arms and legs are stiff as steel as she suppressed down the raging fire from within. The water tasted bitter, and she knew that Toso is looking directly at her, and hoping that all of this is nothing but a coincidence.
Turning around, Cellica tossed the paper cup into a rubbish can installed into the wall as she stretched out her arm and walked directly underneath Toso. Then, she leaped up into the air with so much power that her right arm punctured through the thin layer of metal that separated the airways from the ceiling, Grabbing onto Toso's long thin body, she yanked him down and slammed him onto the ground hard.
The Aquarian's arms flailed helplessly but Cellica instead grabbed onto the heck of Toso.
'How...how?!' Toso yelled out, as he tried to get out of the position, but Cellica instead turned toso around and kneeled onto the insertion points of his shoulders and sitting back onto the exoskeleton.
'Why?!' Cellica asked as she yelled out into Toso's Aquarian, 'who are you?! Who are you working for?'
'I am Toso. But I don't work for you, Boss...' Toso said with a lower voice than Cellica is expecting, 'I am sorry...but my mission had to come first...'
'Your mission?!' Cellica slammed down onto his shoulders, 'WE had a mission!'
'The public cannot know the truth.' Toso insisted, 'regardless of how misguided the general is, he is right about the fact that the government needing to maintain a certain image! There would be conflicts when the people know the truth!'
'How can you say such a thing!'
'You should know better, boss!' Toso said with a weak voice, 'you have secrets too! And you keep your secrets away from the others. We must protect the people from the truth! Do you want panic, desperation and chaos? Is that what you swore to provide when entering the agency?!'
'I came into the agency to serve and help!' Cellica said firmly, 'not to deceive or hurt!'
'That's what I liked about you, boss...' Toso said before letting out a breath of air, 'but this time...things are different. There is nothing we can do...not anymore...'
'The people cannot know...' Toso said, before one of his arms broke free. Cellica looked and immediately reacted towards it, waiting for an attack, but instead, Toso released the protections of his exoskeleton, and Cellica's weight completely crushed Toso right underneath her, 'I am sorry...boss...But they cannot know.....'
'They cannot know about what...' Cellica immediately jumped up from Toso's squashed body, her minding racing and tears came down the side of her cheek without her even realizing it. However, there is no time for tears or sadness....she must move, and move now!
Toso was working with the space force not because he believed that the Falling Star theory is a haux and conspiracy, instead, he is working for them because of how real he realized everything is. He didn't want the public to fall into despair knowing that the full evacuation of the planet is way too late, and he didn't want to see the galaxy that will fall into despair and then chaos.
However, the public must know, and history must know.
There is a duty and a responsibility for the truth to be known, no matter how much it hurts. This is how civilizations move forward. You learn from your mistakes, and you don't let the same ones happen again. That's when Cellica realized that Toso was talking about the news that Olympus B is accelerating towards Olympus A and deviating from the model's predictions!
Before, perhaps a large portion of the planet could have been saved, and now...it is most likely only those with an access to a ship in the next few days that can be saved.
Reaching down and taking out the communications earpiece from Toso's body, Cellica heard a chatter from the Space Force.
'Agent, have you confirmed the existence of such material on the station?'
They must be talking about the updates of Olympus B's trajectory! But Toso definitely know about the update since its discovery....has he not told them about it?
But why? Cellica held the earpiece in her hand, and she extended her vision to outside the station into the local regions of space all around her. Shuttles carrying reinforcements from the neighboring stations are approaching Stevens, but it is unlikely this is where the source of the communications is.
She needed to look further and wider. Taking a deep breath in once more, Cellica poured more of her concentration into her eyes, as the local region of space is now within her range of view, and as she spun around in the middle of the corridor, she is also scanning quickly all of the ships, the floating cargoes, the asteroids and other things that filled up the void of space. She has been frequently performing the local region scans just so she would be able to tell if anything is off, such as a ship being somewhere it shouldn't be.
Looking beyond the clusters of asteroids orbiting far and away from the research stations, the outlines of an unknown ship was obscured by one of the bigger asteroid bodies. That's the ship that shouldn't have been there, and that's likely where Toso is receiving his orders from.
The questions is what orders he is working with, and it is likely that his mission is to verify the new developments and....Cellica thought back to the last words of Toso, and everything became clearer. The space force is going for a full on clampdown of information for the sake of stability and security...
That means eliminating all that who would pose a threat, and there is none other than the researchers at Stevens that will pose a bigger threat. Toso's mission was to validate the truthfulness of the models, and if true, the station will likely be destroyed. That means they don't have much time.
Cellica found herself sprinting back towards the room where the remaining scholars are located, and as she turned around a sharp corner, she saw the last group of invading soldiers approaching the locked doors. With all of her power from her enhancements, Cellica completely plowed through the crews of soldiers, knocking all of them cleanly out one by one from behind, and as the first three fell onto the ground, the rest turned around and pointed their guns at Cellica, only to catch a body to the face as Cellica shoved one soldier so hard that he flew like a cannon ball and rammed into the others. Then, she took another long step before taking off and kicking the last soldier into the door behind her, smashing it open.
The scholars were visibly shocked by the opening of the doors, but they relaxed after seeing Cellica's entrance.
'We need to get out of here! Go to my ship!' Cellica ordered, before sending a message to all of the registered personal interfaces on the station, 'head to my ship right now! We are leaving.'
As the crowds of scholar ran towards Cellica's ship, she was instead knocking each of the remaining soldiers out, just so none of them would be able to send out any messages back to the ship, though this is nothing but for the peace of mind, as surely there would be someone who's going to be left out.
All of the remaining scholars took only a handful of minutes to all cramp onto Cellica ship, and during all of that time, Cellica has been looking over at the ship hidden behind the asteroids extremely carefully. She sent out a message to the other research stations and warned them about a coming strike towards Stevens Research Station, as she turned on the shields around her own shuttle.
Then, the weapons shaft of the hidden Space Force ship opened, and flurries of missiles was fired from it's hauls. They aren't even trying to be subtle with this attack by shoving an asteroid over or something...how stupid can they get? Cellica wondered, as all of the shuttles nearby turned on their shields and her shuttle undocking from Stevens.
The scholars are all left devastated as the station that they have called home for years were struck on all fronts by the missiles, though every nearby station has immediately turned on their shields thanks to Cellica's warning, and video evidence are already held and uploaded by all of the nearby forces.
The Space Force has struck first, and it's time for their revenge now.
'Stevens is not a place, but a people.' Professor Tisha opened up, as she stood up from the packed main room of the shuttle and looked around at the faces of the scholars around her, 'we uphold the values of truth, courage, honesty and communications. This is what Stevens is about! Don't let the destruction of the Stevens go to waste, let's use our platform to save as many people as we can.'
'The article is complete.' Dr Ahun said, as he pressed his finger and sent off the article about the alteration in trajectory of Olympus B and all of the implications for the evacuation efforts, 'now, the galaxy will know the truth.'
Cellica said in the cockpit and listened on as the surviving scholars cheered for Professor Tisha and Dr Ahun, and wondered about the things that Toso has said, whether there will come a time that the price of truth is greater than the price of deception. Only history will be able to know the answer after all of this is over. Right now, all Cellica can do is to take one step at a time.
The article by Dr Ahun sent yet another seismic wave throughout the entire Olympus system, and the follow up evidence of the Space Force's forceful take down of Stevens send everyone into a frenzy, as people went onto the streets and asked for the defunding and dismantling of the space force, as those that were once prominent figures within the space force publicly denounced the appalling behaviors of the general.
There was a statement that came out initially to deny the claims, but all Cellica had to do is to reveal more footage, and soon the Space Force general has gone into hiding, as Dr Dorry May called for an arrest that caught absolutely no one.
The angry people continued to march on the streets of Olympus Prime as the planet shook due to their anger. However, there are slightly more pressing issues than the punishment of the guilty, the saving of the innocents. As the deviated trajectories of the suns and the planets threw the already ineffective staged evacuation plans into the ditch, it became immediately clear that the resources on Olympus 1 alone isn't going to be enough. The ships from the entire Olympus system will need to be mobilized to get as many people out from Olympus 1 as possible, and yet where can they go?
With the impending doom approaching the planet, the great refugee crisis of the post-modern era officially begun.
Just as all hopes seemed lost, the New Rocky government has made themselves known to the entire galaxy.
Now that everything is moving according to his plans, Brakagi will enter the stage again! The Galactic government has had their chances, and they have thoroughly revealed their incompetence. It's time for the galaxy to see how the Rockies handles their crisis.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone