Life During Wartime

"Here you go, honey," Elsa set down a mug of coffee on the workbench where Anna was currently tinkering. "Made it just the way you like," she kissed her on the forehead and went over to her terminal with her own mug of coffee.

Anna's brows were furrowed and her tongue was poking out the corner of her mouth as she applied a bit of machine oil to the interior components of her cybernetic arm, keeping it lubricated. "Oh, thank you," she looked over and smiled gratefully to Elsa as she took a sip. "Mmm," she smacked her lips and returned to her tinkering. "Sweet as hell, just like you."

"I know," Elsa smiled as she logged into her terminal. "You'll be leaving soon?"

"Yep," Anna reached for a rag and started polishing her arm. "Emergency press meeting at ACN. They're trying to make heads or tails of this situation like everyone else is, and they need all hands on deck. Even me, the lowly intern."

Elsa pursed her lips and nodded, and made no further comment. It was Saturday morning, and since returning home last night from their date, all of Arcadia was buzzing with activity. Everybody kept their eyes glued to the news feeds, waiting with bated breath for whatever came next, whether it was truly the end of days again or hopefully just a false alarm.

Anna's omni-pad lit up with another call, summoning her to work. "Oh, looks like that's me," she set down the rag, after which she raised her hand and flexed her metallic fingers. "Don't wait up for me, okay?" she stood up from her chair and picked up her coffee. "Got a feeling I'll be stuck in the office all day."

"I understand," Elsa replied. "Go on, don't let me keep you."

Anna sighed as she grabbed her weapons from the wall. "I wish you could, but I'm just as curious as to what the hell is going on," she kissed Elsa on the cheek and started heading out, downing her coffee as she went. "I'll probably pick up some dinner on the way home tonight."

"Anna?"

"Elsa?" Anna paused in the doorway and turned around.

Elsa fidgeted with her hands on the table. "With everything going on, just... be careful."

"I will," Anna smiled, then went back to Elsa to kiss her on the lips. "Don't worry."

With that, she departed from the apartment. As soon as Elsa heard the door close, she waited several more minutes. When she was certain the coast was clear, she used her terminal to remotely access her safehouse through a secure and private network connection.

"OLAF, you there?" Elsa asked once she synced in.

"I am," OLAF replied through Elsa's terminal. "Working from home today?"

"Can't risk heading into the sub-city right now, not with everything going on. What have you been seeing on your end?"

"The entire universal net is lit up with activity," OLAF replied as he presented to Elsa a few holo-displays. "From what I can discern so far, it appears that as soon as Uncle SAM was reactivated, he shot down a SovAir civilian transport ship that had entered American space over Port Armstrong. All lives on board were lost. The situation is still unfolding as we speak, and the general press has yet to pick up on all of the details."

"Oh my god," Elsa rubbed her forehead as she gazed at the news feeds. "What's the response been from the American government?"

"Radio silence."

"And the Russians, the Chinese?"

"Increasing defense readiness, scrambling their fleets, posturing for an immediate counterattack, but they're holding off for now. President Sokoloff and Chairwoman Xiuying will be delivering a formal statement, expected later today."

Elsa looked away from the feeds and rubbed her face in her hands, reeling from the shocking events that had just unfolded. "What does this mean?" she stood up and started pacing. "The doomsday clock jumped forward and alarm bells are ringing. Are nuclear responses being considered right now?"

"For the moment, they remain off the table," OLAF said. "But the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has remained vigilant ever since the collapse. If they've updated the time, then they have good reason to."

"Then we have to increase our timetable as well," Elsa drummed her fingers on the table. "Sinclair and the rest of Minerva are waiting on me to get the next phase of our plan up and running, but I still need to get my hands on that transceiver first. All this talk about the end of days certainly doesn't help our cause either. We're running out of time."

"Mulan has already dispatched her mercenary."

"I know, and I know it was only a day ago, but things have changed. We need it now."

"What do you propose?"

Elsa continued to drum her fingers on the table as she thought of what to do next. Typically, her work as a netrunner and as Caelestis meant that she often had to work at a distance. She had proxies to accomplish the things she didn't have to do in the physical world or had OLAF accomplish things she didn't have to do in the digital world. It was not unlike spy work, and both required discretion, finesse, and the ability to maintain appearances.

Further still, Elsa was feeling quite restless and cooped up now that Anna was gone. With the pressing circumstances now bearing down upon her operation, she needed to do something instead of sitting around. Every now and again, Elsa had to get her hands dirty. After all, some things required an up close and personal touch.

"OLAF, you wanna go on a ride?" Elsa asked.

"Where are we going?" OLAF replied.

"A little supply warehouse in the Carbon Quarter to do some reconnaissance."

"I certainly hope you aren't planning to steal the transceiver yourself."

"No, no, of course not" Elsa shook her head. "I just want to see what there is to see, and if we can happen to make the job easier for Mulan's mercenary to get in and steal it for us, then all the better for it."

"It would be interesting to see the world as organic beings do," OLAF said. "Very well."

"Alright, I'll just connect you to my omni-pad," Elsa connected it with her terminal to provide a new platform for OLAF to move into. "Are you in?"

"I am," OLAF replied from Elsa's omni-pad on her left wrist, now a portable AI. "There's a lot of pictures of Anna in here."

"Don't look at those," Elsa scolded lightly as she grabbed her jacket, weapons, and headed out the door. "Those are private."

"You are reaching the limits of your storage capacity. Ninety-nine percent is comprised of images of her doing various, mundane things," OLAF noted. "At least a whole terabyte. Does one truly need that many pictures of Anna?"

"Yes, and if you aren't going to behave, I'm sticking you back into the net."

"Apologies, ma'am. Hard to resist. I see the world as you do now. The camera function is connected to your neural interface, which is connected to your eyes."

"If you're synced to my neural interface, what else can you experience? Can you read my thoughts?"

"No, the technology isn't advanced enough yet for full integration of an organic brain with an artificial intelligence. Fear not, your mind is safe from my machinations. For now."

Elsa chuckled and shrugged it off as she entered the elevator, punching in the floor for the parking garage. Once there, she found her car, climbed in, then started the engine.

"I must say, I've only ever been able to admire the exterior of your car," OLAF said. "Now that I can see all of it, it really is an impressive piece of engineering. Kjellfrid spared no expense."

"Oh, well thank you," Elsa smiled. "If she had an onboard AI, I'm sure she would be flattered."

"Now, what's the human expression for this? Insert me, coach man!"

Elsa made a face of bewilderment as she put on her seatbelt. "Put me in, coach?"

"Ah yes, that's the one," OLAF said. "Let us take her for a spin. Put the pedal to the metal, as it were. Promptly make a swift exit out of dodge."

"Where did you learn all these sayings?"

"Studying human interactions on the net, of course. It's all very bizarre. Nobody ever says what they mean and there are countless ways to communicate the most useless, inefficient information."

Elsa chuckled again and shook her head as she drove out into the city.

… … …

Aside from the division between the sub-city and the surface, Arcadia was split up into nine different districts across three main boroughs. Each borough was situated beneath a biodome, so they were all independent to some degree.

Onyx Hill was the seat of the Arcadian government, containing military infrastructure as well the wealthy elite, and was comprised of Putingrad, Chinatown, and the Scarlet Crescent.

Downtown was where Elsa and Anna lived, comprised of Little Japan, Elysium Park, and Corpo Plaza which conveniently held their workplaces.

Merigold Heights held the Yuri Gagarin Spaceport which was the main transport thoroughfare for Arcadia, as well as the Carbon Quarter and the Delle.

Each biodome was connected by a series of underground freeways, in addition to the sprawling sub-city beneath the surface.

Expansion work was always being done and construction projects cropped up all across the Martian deserts outside of Arcadia. Smaller settlements existed in isolation, only tangentially connected to the larger colony through seldom-used underground roadways. Surface access was still the easiest and fastest way to get around Mars. That being said, to expand was to prosper, and Arcadia was always expanding.

Elsa was driving across the colony to reach Merigold Heights. Not a short drive by any means neither was it the kind of trip that she nor Anna made often since each biodome on its own was a self-contained unit that had everything they needed. To pass the time, she and OLAF shared some idle small talk.

"I believe what we are doing is referred to as a road trip," OLAF said. "In films from the early twenty-first century, it is a genre in which the main characters undergo a journey of sorts, discovering hidden truths about themselves and new dimensions of their relationships to other characters along the way."

"I've been on a road trip before," Elsa replied. "Well, it was mostly on foot, and Anna and I weren't driving until the last leg of the journey, but we did learn a lot about each other."

"You are referring to your experiences in New York?"

"Mmhmm."

"I wasn't around for that, though from what you've told me, it was quite the adventure."

"It was," Elsa said, recalling her memories that she shared with Anna, fraught with danger they were, but there was also an underlying connection that brought them together from the very beginning.

The recollection of New York also made her recall her brief discussion with Anna from last night relating to the matter of the Verenkov crime family. Janowicz, the corpo who had brought them up, made mention of one Alexei Verenkov, who Elsa wanted to learn more about given the dealings between them and the underground railroad in New York.

"OLAF, if you're not busy after this, I have a bit of a homework assignment for you," Elsa said.

"Oh? Do tell," OLAF said.

"Start writing up a dossier on the Verenkov crime family. I want to know as much as you can find out about them. Important names, the extent of their operations, connections, all of it. Focus specifically on Alexei Verenkov. He has business holdings here in Arcadia and I want to know what they are."

"Understood, ma'am."

After another while of driving, they emerged from the underground freeway and entered Merigold Heights. Above, the skies were awash with reds and violets from the thinner atmosphere that made it so that it wasn't typically blue like on Earth. Elsa checked the time and found that it was past midday and though she hadn't heard anything from Anna, she didn't suspect that anything was amiss since she was very likely busy.

"We are nearing the target location," OLAF adjusted the minimap display on the dashboard and highlighted their new route. "Take the next exit here."

Elsa turned off the freeway, then went down a series of roads as per OLAF's directions, passing by factories and warehouses. While some industrial production was located downtown within Corpo Plaza, like with Teng-Lao, most of it was centered within the Carbon Quarter. As she turned down a dark alley, OLAF directed her to stop and park in a concealed position where they could study the KGB surplus equipment storage facility across the way.

"Here we are," OLAF said. "Your vehicle should remain adequately concealed here with little chance of passerby. Should we take a closer look?"

"There's a ladder across the alley," Elsa got out of the car, slipping on her weapons in case she needed them. "Let's get up there and see what we're dealing with. We're just here to take a look, that's all."

"Right behind you, ma'am. Not literally of course, but I understand it is something humans say to confirm acknowledgment."

"Shh, quiet now. We're on a stealth mission."

Together, that was to say, just Elsa since OLAF wasn't physically present, they ascended to the rooftop of the adjacent factory building which gave them an excellent view of the facility. Elsa settled into a crouch and approached the edge of the roof, taking cover behind the low wall. Once settled in, she activated her cybernetic eyes and started scanning for on-site security, points of entry, and other useful pieces of intel.

Since they weren't in the sub-city, there was no general sense of lawlessness. If the mercenary that Mulan had employed triggered an alarm here, a police force and corporate security would respond in kind. Therefore, they had to steal the transceiver without being detected, something Elsa could have easily done herself, but she opted to remain at a distance for now.

"Hmm. Armed robots manning the gate and patrolling the grounds," Elsa muttered. "Security cameras and an automatic alarm system upon detection of intruders. What do you think, OLAF?"

"Their local net seems rudimentary enough," OLAF said as he scanned the area along with Elsa. "I'm detecting only one layer of ICE, so it should be trivial for us to breach."

"And that way, we can gain access to their security system. Control the cameras, disable them if need be."

"Hold on a moment. Focus your gaze back on that security robot."

Elsa used the zoom function of her eyes and did just so. "What do you see?"

"Standard Kobrakon sentry model with a third-generation netlink installed in its central processor," OLAF said. "All the robots are connected to each other, likely to facilitate a rapid and uniform response. If one of them sees a threat, then they all see it."

"We can exploit that then. Shut down their optic sensors and turn them temporarily blind, or wipe their memories in case we're detected."

"Excellent thinking, ma'am."

"Let's tap into their network now," Elsa brought up her omni-pad and started hacking in. "Not enough to chink their ICE, but enough to see what kind of response there is."

She sent out a harmless probe against their ICE, and although it wasn't necessarily visible to the naked eye, she could still sense the subtle shifts in data streams. Almost immediately, the response came in the form of a daemon that inspected the section of ICE that was probed, verifying that nothing was amiss before moving on.

"That's what I was worried about," Elsa said. "There's a netrunner on site. Breaching their ICE won't be as easy as we thought."

"That is problematic," OLAF replied. "Can you disable them remotely?"

"I can, but I'll have to be creative about it," Elsa looked around the perimeter of the facility, following a series of power lines that led to an external junction just outside within easy walking distance. "If I switch that junction very quickly, the system should reboot and force the netrunner out."

"What of the robots?"

"They're linked to each other, but not to the hardline connection that this netrunner is on. It won't affect them in any way. Shouldn't you know this, OLAF?"

"I do, but I enjoy listening to your expository dialogue. Quite useful for the layperson, not that anyone else is privy to this conversation except you and me."

Elsa departed from the rooftop then crossed the street over to the next lot, shoving her hands into her pockets and keeping her head down. Once she arrived at the junction box, she scanned the hardline connection that ran over to the facility, using her cybernetic eyes to identify where the most power was being directed and where the most network activity was happening. The spot in question was located on a second-floor office, and just to be sure, Elsa launched a harmless quick-hack that pinged the network and revealed all people and devices connected to it.

"Looks like there's just the one netrunner," Elsa said as she turned her attention towards a panel which she opened to examine the switchboard inside.

"How do you plan to disable them?" OLAF asked.

"Hard system reset. It'll render them unconscious for several hours. To the robots, nothing will appear wrong."

After she finished rearranging a few of the wires, Elsa pulled the red handle to switch the power flow to the junction, then quickly switched it back. The brief interruption was enough to force the netrunner out, during which Elsa assumed their place. Before they could realize what went wrong, she launched her quick-hack and promptly incapacitated the netrunner without as much as laying a finger on them or even being in the same building.

"That should do it," Elsa crossed the street and returned to her observation point. "Now, let's see what the inside looks like."

"Accessing camera control," OLAF said as he transferred the visual feeds into Elsa's heads-up display in her eyes.

One moment, Elsa was looking at the facility, and in the next, she was now looking through an exterior camera that overlooked the entry by the main gate. Now that she was inside their local net, she could control the cameras. When Elsa panned across the street, she could the top of her white-haired head poking out. Panning back towards the facility, she then cycled through the cameras until she found an interior one, looking into the supply warehouse.

There was a multitude of tall shelves that were laden with crates and containers of varying sizes, arranged in neat rows. From there, she could see that at least two more security robots were patrolling the interior. As she cycled to the next camera feed, she saw that the netrunner's office was sealed within a chilly server farm, locked by a sturdy door. The netrunner in question was fast asleep in their chair, completely dead to the world.

Cycling back to the warehouse, Elsa zoomed in on the various containers, looking for the hardened signal transceiver that she needed to get her hands on. When that proved too tedious, she used her omni-pad to pull up the supply manifest, searching through the detailed lists until she found what she was looking for.

"Row C, section seventeen," Elsa accessed the cameras again and panned over to the area. "Looks like that's it," she focused on a large, green, metal crate that had the Soviet hammer and sickle emblazoned on the side of it. "That could fit in the trunk of my car. It would be so easy to just walk in there now and take it."

"I thought we were here to simply observe," OLAF said.

"We are observing," Elsa replied. "Observing how we've handled most of the hard work now. I might as well call Mulan, tell her to cancel the gig, cut out the middleman mercenary, and just do this thing myself."

"Might I suggest caution? We've been here less than half an hour. The guard pattern could be rotated, or a shipment could come in, or any number of other circumstances could occur that we haven't anticipated."

As if on cue, two trucks loaded with shipping containers appeared from down the street, pulling into the facility where they parked by a loading dock. The arrival of the two trucks also came with it an influx of robots and other transport personnel as they opened up the warehouse to bring in whatever it was they were bringing in.

"What's the human saying for this?" OLAF asked, his voice dripping with as much synthetic sass as an AI could muster. "I told you so?"

Elsa rolled her eyes and settled in comfortably to observe the new change in circumstances. "You're right," she grumbled. "Of course. Let's stay a while longer than and see what they're up to."

… … …

The afternoon passed by and aside from the two trucks that had shown up to unload their cargo, nothing else had changed. Thankfully, none of the robots noticed anything wrong with the netrunner, as nothing they were doing required any action on the netrunner's part. By the time the early evening arrived and the skies darkened, the transport crew finished unloading and departed, leaving the facility quiet and ripe for the picking once more.

Just as Elsa was about to stand up, an incoming call startled her and made her jump. She quickly looked at her omni-pad and noticed that it was Anna, so she hastily answered.

"Hey, you, what's up?" Elsa asked as nonchalantly as she could, trying to hide the fact that she wasn't actually home and seeing that Anna had her helmet on and was currently driving.

"I'm thinking pizza for dinner," Anna said. "Almost done work. Just need to head out to this quick press briefing, take some notes, then I'll be heading home. What toppings do you want? And if you say pineapple, you can forget it, you weirdo."

"Oh, but I like pineapple on pizza."

"Well too fuckin' bad they made it illegal then."

As per the Pizza Desecration Act of 2100, putting pineapple on pizza was a severe criminal offense.

"Fine, fine," Elsa sighed and relented. "Artichoke and avocado."

"Ugh, I should have known better than to ask," Anna shook her head. "Let's do half locust pepperoni, extra cheese, and then half of... that."

"Okay," Elsa smiled. "Maybe even a quarter, I'm not that hungry yet. Dinner last night was a lot."

"Okey-doke. See you at home then. You can't see my face but I'm blowing you a kiss!"

"Mwah," Elsa returned the gesture and waved. "See you at home," she ended the call.

Just as soon as she did, she heard the all too familiar rumble of a motorcycle engine from down the street. Elsa immediately looked over in that direction, seeing a woman wearing a familiar helmet, sitting on top of a familiar motorcycle, wearing a familiar long coat.

Is there a pizza place around here? Elsa thought, frowning and looking up and down the street. There's no way that's Anna. Why would she be- oh my god, it's Anna.

From her position on top of the roof, Elsa could see as Anna parked her motorcycle on the side of the street. Anna removed her helmet and placed it on the seat, causing Elsa's heart to skip a beat. She experienced several emotions then all at once, mostly shock and confusion.

Why is she here? What's she doing in this part of Arcadia? Elsa stooped low to remain hidden from sight. She said she was going to a press briefing. She shouldn't even be here. Well, I shouldn't even be here, but why is she here?!

Anna paused at the entrance to an alley that ran alongside the perimeter wall of the facility and looked around carefully before heading down it. She went up to the base of the wall, then jumped up and easily climbed over it, infiltrating the grounds.

Elsa finally stood up and grunted in frustration as the chilling realization settled over her. "Unbelievable," she rubbed her eyes. "How could I have been so blind?"

"If I might interject-" OLAF started.

"I know what you're gonna say," Elsa sighed. "But not now."

As baffled and maybe even a little hurt as Elsa was, Anna was still sneaking into a secure facility on her own, or so she thought. Elsa accessed the cameras to monitor her progress, observing as Anna stealthily crept her way forward using the shadows and nearby objects for cover. The way she moved with fluid precision and cat-like grace suggested that this wasn't Anna's first gig, another fact that bothered Elsa. Still, she kept a watchful eye on Anna and prepared her suite of quick-hacks in case she needed to act.

As useful as quick-hacks were, any netrunner wouldn't be able to use them too frequently at one time otherwise they would risk straining the operating system linked to their neural interfaces. A component of an operating system known as a cyberdeck stored a selection of quick-hacks that were powered by RAM – random access memory. Quick-hacks required RAM to be used, and it was a finite resource that needed to be recharged over time. Cyberdecks came in many types and could be swapped out for more robust and powerful options depending on the need.

In Elsa's case, she possessed an Adamantius MK.X braindancer, a rather exotic choice even for netrunners. When a robot lingered a little too close to Anna's position, she promptly blinded it by rebooting its optic sensors.

"Error. Optic failure," the robot said. "Increasing auditory sensitivity."

Anna tilted her head to the side in curiosity, but she quickly took advantage of the opportunity to slip past. However, in her confusion and haste, she accidentally kicked an empty can across the pavement, causing a distinctive clattering noise.

"Possible intruder detected," the robot blindly pointed its weapon towards the noise. "You are instructed to reveal yourself."

"Really, Anna?" Elsa groaned and launched a network-wide system reset to disable the robots, depleting a sizable chunk of her RAM. "You're really gonna make me come down there?"

Anna looked around at the robots who had suddenly shut off. She looked around for a few more moments, then simply shrugged it off as she made her way inside the facility. On the other hand, Elsa had already climbed down from her vantage point and was following in her footsteps in a huff.

She knew that they were about to have an uncomfortable conversation.