Enjoy!
Cipher's Code Ch38
Where is he? Saire fumbled with the old set of transmitters, trying to pick up signs that Cipher might still be alive. How could I just fail him like that? Saire tightened his fist momentarily in his frustration from being unable to keep his promise.
"It's not your fault, Saire." An eerie voice cut into Saire's thoughts, making him jerk up in surprise.
"So can you read minds as well, now," Saire asked dryly.
The Prophet shrugged, and sat down next to Saire. The Hackers would have occasional disputes from now and then, but each one of them were friends, with a bond inseparable formed by mutual suffering and war. "Rex would understand, I'm sure." He rummaged through the cards again. "It's our job to keep this place whole so we can welcome him when he gets back."
"You've had a vision?"
"No. But I have not had one of his death, so I do not believe that now is the time to give up."
Saire smiled; it was unusual for his pale friend to be this talkative normally. "Just get some rest, okay? You're not suited for what the Resistors have planned; this is a job for Rogue to do. Jade as well, I suppose." Saire added with a slight amount of distaste.
"I will await your safe return as well." The Prophet stood up from the halls, looking his leader one more time in the eye. "Cipher isn't the only one we need to worry about."
Saire understood what he meant. One of them might not return from the mission; Rex's death had been a shock to the Hackers, but without Saire, there would be no more Hackers. Every one of them understood that, including Saire himself. "Got it."
"Report!" Colbur's cry echoed throughout the cavern, a regular command drill recently, ever since the Resistance had found out where the Resistors were.
"What is it this time?" Rogue twisted an energy saber lazily, but with the precision of a master. "Not another border check."
"Not this time," Colbur informed him with an air of seriousness. "We'll strike within the hour."
"On such short notice?"
"It has to be." Cobur looked them in the eye. "We have reason to suspect that the Resistance, that is, the foul beings that control it," he amended, "have eyes in here. I don't know if any of you are the spy, but we have to trust you," he said, looking Rogue and Jade in the eye. "It's your job to get inside the Resistance, cut off all power to the weapons systems, and eliminate the problem."
"What about the Beta team? Weren't they supposed to get the power grid instead?" Spider scratched his head in confusion as he waited for Colbur's answer.
"Beta is gone. We stopped receiving a signal from them after their scouting mission and suspect them to be deceased. It's all in your hands now."
Rogue nodded grimly. "You got it. I'll take control of the mission." He made a sideward glance to make sure that Saire approved, who nodded in assent.
"He's the best man for the situation," Saire assured Colbur. "He's been trained for these operations."
"Alright then." Colbur looked each one of them in the eye in turn, studying their features as if he might not be able to see them again. If you don't get the weapons grid offline, then"-
"We go bye-bye," Spider finished for him cheerily. "No need to boost our confidence, though, Colbur."
"Just do the mission," Colbur said exasperatedly, but all the same, hiding a smile at the Hackers' ability to remain calm even before a mission like this one.
"There it is," Spider said dramatically as the Hacker's were rising to the surface. "That's the target." The Resistance loomed ahead in the distance, smoke trailing off its engines as it tried to escape its sandy prison to no avail.
"Spider, you take Saire into the power grid," Rogue informed them. "You have approximately two minutes until the big guns start kicking in, if those blueprints are correct." Colbur had shown them a brief map of the Resistance's interior, something Rogue had not missed. "Jade and I will take the ulterior route by the right side, where the hole isn't present. They've likely put more security around that area, as it is so open. That'll make your job harder, Saire, but we can cut through with ease. They won't have as many guards in around where we're going."
"What about Desaro and Kero?"
"Remember? Saire said they stepped down on security around their own office. They obviously think of their own people inferior. The only issue is if we catch them when they're both not there. Then we lose all advantages, and they're pulled against us."
Spider nodded. "Gotcha. It all seems so easy when you say it."
Rogue turned on his old comrade. "This may be a joke to you, but for the rest of us, this is serious! Get in the moment already!"
Spider waved his arms in protest. "Hey, I'm just trying to lighten the mood. Remember back when they invented fun? You weren't such a grump then either."
"Times change."
"Apparently." Spider looked outside, to see how far they were. "Almost there, guys. Ready?"
"Ready."
"Then let's do this."
Saire and Spider jumped off the sand-speeder into the skeletal side of the Resistance, leaving a trail of electromagnetically charged bombs. Essentially like electromagnetic pulses, they were set to go off at the nearest sign of machinery, ergo, unsuspecting reploids. It was only for a few minutes, as they wanted to avoid permanent damage in case their victims were on their side.
Rogue sped off in the opposite direction, intentionally springing alarms that would make the people go on a wild goose chase, Jade close behind, checking for signs and of bombs as she went.
"This isn't right," she said after about a minute of running. "Why haven't we encountered anyone yet?"
"Let's not jinx it now," was Rogue's hurried response, but followed Jade as she stopped behind a well secluded pillar for reconnaissance.
"What now?"
Jade gave him a brief smile. "We make our own pathway." Taking out her Electra blades, she quickly cut a fine, efficient hole inside the pipe ways of the Resistance.
"Reminds you of old times, doesn't it?" Rogue jogged through the murky liquid cumbersomely, while Jade cut through with apparent ease.
"What, when we went jogging through a pipe? I don't recall that," Jade called back, circling to help her friend out.
"No, back when I was being hunted." Rogue stopped momentarily to rest his lungs.
Jade grimaced slightly. "I try not to remember. Now, hurry up, they're waiting on us!"
Rogue nodded, breathing heavily. "Where to?" Jade, he knew, was an expert in the art of improvisational decisions, in otherwise, lucky.
"I say we go right." Jade changed her course abruptly through the tunnels, occasionally putting her ear to the wall for any signs of vibrations.
"There it is," Rogue said as they pulled out of the tunnels. "Now all we need is something less conspicuous."
"Let me just get the dry cleaners then," Rogue laughed, surprising himself. It was good to laugh again, he decided. It had been a while.
Jade lifted the corners of her mouth in an effort to smile. "Do you think you can fight well with this much excess weight on?"
Rogue shrugged, sloughing excess dirt that had caked itself on his shoulders off. "I guess not."
"Then put these on," Jade tossed him an old battle suit. "By the looks of it, Saire and Spider have succeeded; not it's time to worry about our own skins."
Jade and Rogue made their entry through the walls again, "for traditions sake," Jade had called it, to get to Desaro and Kero, formerly Ciel's office, just in front of the desk.
"Hello," Desaro said, shutting the door behind him, "I've been expecting you."
Jade's blades spun quickly as she tried to catch her opponent off guard, but Desaro merely flicked one of his spiked whips lazily, flinging the Electra blade to the other side of the room, where it clanged, then, useless.
"We were too late." Jade eyed the whip warily, knowing that, if she tried another attack, her second katana was likely to be flung aside uselessly as well.
"Where's the other?" Rogue noticed that Kero was missing.
"Over here," Kero said, bringing Saire into view, with a blaster tightly pressed to his face. "We've known about the invasion for some time- it's amazing what a communicator chip under the skin can do."
"It is, isn't it?" Saire seemed to explode, causing Kero to snap back in surprise just before the pulse hit his memory chip, and fell to the floor, silent.
The real Saire filed inside the room with Colbur, Allouette, and about seven Advents along with him.
"It's over," Spider said quietly. There was no jubilance in his voice, simply an odd sort of relief.
"No!" Desaro lashed at them with his whip, but it only scratched Saire's unflinching face. "Why won't you give in?"
Saire smiled at his enemy. "Fear. That's what gets you, isn't it, Desaro? Rex didn't fear you either."
Desaro sneered at Saire with hatred, unable to move now that the electric pulse had hit his left side. "That's what you think. That big brute was cowering in front of me, remember?"
"He was scared," Saire said simply, "but not for his own life. Even though you didn't know Rex, you could see that. Did that confuse you? Why a human would put his life on the line for another? Now there are more of us, as there will always be. Friends will help each other to strand up, to fight again, and you couldn't understand why. We don't fear you, Desaro. Rex didn't, and we won't either."
Spider stepped up to lift Desaro's limp body against the wall. "It's time for you to go."
"We've had enough of you messing things up," Spider said, louder, this time.
"It is too late for you," the Prophet's voice echoed as even he took his place inside the crowded office. "You saw the shadows, but even you could not stall the lightning."
"Good-bye," was Jade's response as she retrieved her blades slowly. By then though, the pulse had spread so completely that there was no hope of Desaro ever returning to consciousness.
A wind let loose through the room, ruffling Rogue's hair as it went by, as if an old spirit was sighing in relief at last.
"I know Rex," Rogue said quietly. "I miss them too."