Author's Note: DisneyDiva has gratiously allowed me bring to some of her characters and locations into this. Those include Alpha Base, Staff Sergeant Adam Rowan, Sergeant Elle Rowan, Dr. Samantha Cooke and Dr. Abraham Carter. They will be making their appearances beginning with this chapter. Thank you, DD, for giving me the courage to kill off a few characters over the last year or so and stretch my evil gene. I have immensely enjoyed the round robin activity and can't wait to see just how many other ways we can bring Dread down.
With the jumpship once again hidden by the holocam and Locke's camp included within the range, the main cabin became a temporary workstation for Scout and Pilot. Tools and electronics were scattered on the floor as they worked. Their priority was to secure the transit gates, so they moved between Scout's console and sparingly interfacing with Mentor, while modifying the existing program and circuitry for gate access.
Only thirty minutes later, Power looked over Pilot's shoulder as she scrolled through the programming. "Mentor, final review." She ordered the supercomputer to run yet another analysis of the changes they'd made.
"Analysis confirms activation of secondary and tertiary modes for transit gate access."
When Mentor's voice came through the comm, Jon squeezed Jennifer's shoulders. She smiled softly without looking at him, much like she had before the Icarus mission, when he'd kissed her cheek 'for luck'. His heart skipped a beat at her reaction, just like it had then. "Go ahead and explain the changes." Jon almost reluctantly sat down in the command chair and rested his elbows on his knees.
Just inside the hatch, Hawk leaned against the wall of the ship while Tank moved to allow himself to hear what she was saying while still keeping watch over Locke. The springer paced his small camp as if he was electrically charged, though they all knew he was dead on his feet with exhaustion.
Pilot stood and stretched for a moment before speaking. "We've been using the coding sequence to activate the gates, assuming the transmission was secure enough to allow only our ship through. Since we've never had anything else in the region, it's never been an issue. What we didn't anticipate was the lag between our entering the gate and it closing behind us. It's enough to allow another vessel to enter and be pulled through, using the gate's residual draw on us."
Jon blew out a deep breath. He knew the gates would eventually be discovered, but when they'd told him about the lag, he'd been floored that his father hadn't conceived the possibility of it happening. And that it had never occurred to himself over the years that they'd used it.
Rob sat down in his chair and continued. "We made some modifications to the current system, enhancing the security measures for gate access. Specifically, we've added an authentication mode that requires us to send out a signal to the gate when we punch in the coding sequence. The signal changes every time we use it and is specific just to the jumpship. Same modifications will apply to the skybikes, but we haven't installed them yet." He pointed back to Jennifer.
She picked up where he left off. "Once we're through the gate, the jumpship will emit another signal, sealing access to the portal until it closes completely. If there's any unauthorized entry attempt, we've set the gate to trigger a localized EMP to incapacitate the vessel."
"Will that harm the jumpship?" Matt asked warily, suddenly straightening, his eyes piercing into both of them.
Rob was already shaking his head. "The gate's modulation system will keep it from harming the gate itself or coming through with the jumpship. The pulse will stay on the side of the gate it was triggered on."
Jon nodded his approval. This would hold off any potential threat, at least until they could sit down and give it a more thorough analysis. "Nice job, you two."
"We've got a couple more ideas, but it's going to require a few more parts and more in-depth programming than we have time for right now. Soon as we get back to base, we'll make it our top priority." Rob looked over at Jennifer, who gave a thumbs-up in agreement.
Jon sat back in his chair and pulled his console in front of him. "Mindsinger responded to the message we sent out. She had her seekers run sweeps for the signals emitted from the kids' trackers and has them narrowed down to a quarter kilometer radius of these coordinates." He punched in several commands on his keyboard and looked quickly between Masterson and Chase. "Hawk was able to use recent satellite scans pulled from Alex Haley's raid on that data center to find several potential landing spots. You two decide where would be best to set down."
Both Pilot and Hawk nodded.
"We should get to Locke's rendezvous point with the overunits right around the time Cypher was expected to be transferred. We'll be cutting it close though." Jon held up his hand as a message pinged through on his console. Quickly reading it, he sent an acknowledgement before returning his attention to his team. "Angel City resistance is en route and will wait until we send word. Scout, your suit is reading at eighty-four percent. I want it fully charged. The holo program uses more power than I'm comfortable with and we don't need it fading before we can get those kids out."
The young man moved quickly from his station to the hold to use the portable energizer.
"The rest of us are at ninety-four-plus percent. That should get us all through." Power looked at his lieutenant, who stood guard on the stairs of the hatch, ensuring the data springer remained under the holocam's protective range. "Tank, secure Locke in the hold as soon as Scout is charged."
With a nod from Ellis, Jon mentally ran through the mission details. While the youngest two had been focused on securing the jumpgates, the remaining three had worked with Locke and Mindsinger to get a fix on the captured children's transmitters. Locke had uttered a string of profanity when he'd seen the region and finally handed over the last bit of information he'd kept hidden from the team: the coordinates where his children were to be returned to him. They were within the search radius of the transmitters.
Angel City resistance had taken it upon themselves to do recon at the coordinates Locke had originally given them for Cypher's handoff and found two squads of mechs ready to ambush anyone that arrived. With that intel, the colonel had called in two more groups from the surrounding area to bolster his ranks and sent a message to Power that they were going to smash the mechs with whatever they had to keep Dread's focus on that location.
Jon hoped Cypher's diversion would buy them enough time to rescue the kids. They were going in nearly blind, unless Mindsinger could give them more information. Haley's team was pulling whatever they could from the scrounged satellite images, but without more recent updates, they had no idea what the troop dispersion was in that region.
They were going to have to wing it and use their long-range sensors to pick up whatever was in the area as they flew in. Wasn't the first time they'd done that and he doubted it would be the last. He simply hated running like this when children's lives were on the line.
When Locke was secured in his seat in the hold, Power addressed his team.
"Tank, we're running cloaked. I want you monitoring the jumpship's power to make sure it doesn't put a strain on our systems." Jon turned from Tank to Scout. "Set sensors to long-range and sweep all frequencies we know Dread uses, including the ones he's abandoned. Now is the time to use those decryption codes Freedom Two sent through a few days ago."
As Scout got to work, Power nodded to his pilot and copilot. "Let's move out." In less than a minute, the jumpship was underway.
Jon blew out a slow, deep breath. His attention turned, as it almost always did these days, to the blond with the ponytail at the front of the ship. She was quietly talking with Matt and when he caught her rolling her eyes at him and shaking her head, Jon wondered if they were back to the mating conversation from earlier.
Deep inside, Jon had known Jennifer was against 'having a family' of her own.
When she'd deserted the Dread Youth and eventually surrendered to his team, they'd taken her to a well-hidden base tucked in the southwestern mountains of the US. The founders of the base, Adam and Elle Rowan, had found success not only with the Cowboys, their air unit of the UTO, but with war-hardened souls who needed more than just a place to rest.
It had taken nearly a year of tough love and unconditional support to break her of the feelings of worthlessness and anger that threatened to consume her as everything she'd once believed in crumbled down.
But that time with the Rowans and the rest of Alpha's residents had shown her what a family was. What love was. Before she'd even been asked to join Power's team, the Rowans had asked her to be part of their family – they officially adopted her as their daughter.
To Jennifer, 'family' had nothing to do with biology or blood relations. 'Family' was the group that took care of each other, through whatever life threw at them.
So, when Jon had told her earlier that she might someday want a family of her own, he knew how she felt without her saying a word. She already had one. But the fact that she'd questioned him about it, about his desire to 'mate' to have a family of his own, made him curious if her views might be shifting.
He'd heard her talking with Rob about it several times; her upbringing was a significant concern for her. Even though she'd worked through so much of Dread's brainwashing with the Rowans after she'd left Volcania, she still felt uncomfortable with the idea of raising offspring of her own. So much so that she couldn't even refer to them as children, instead choosing 'offspring' as a more appropriate reference.
Jon wasn't going to push the subject with her, but he wanted her to know that she could choose whatever she wanted. Whenever she wanted it. And he hoped she would want him at her side.
Dread watched the vid screens in his throne room, silently assessing each site through the feeds being sent from the surveillance mechs. Power's ship had yet to be found. The coordinates the data springer had given Power remained deserted, save two squadrons of mechs that held their positions in abandoned buildings, awaiting further orders. The location for the springer's offspring to be returned also showed no activity.
Time was passing quickly and his patience was wearing thin.
"Lord Dread."
The gravelly voice of Overmind echoed slightly in the room and he responded immediately, forcing himself to keep the annoyance he felt from entering his words. "Yes, Overmind."
"Power has eluded us."
He wanted to wave off the supercomputer but refrained. "If we are to succeed, we must wait until the right moment to strike. Jonathan Power has shown us time and again that he executes every move with precision. We will be ready for him, and when he does show himself, we will crush him. The resistance will be finished, once and for all."
Power would be flushed from wherever he was hiding and brought to his knees. There was no doubt in Dread's mind.
The machine would not fail.
Tank and Scout moved out of the ship first, followed by Locke and Power.
Scout handed a headset to the springer and indicated buttons on one of the earpieces. "You can increase or decrease the volume with these. Stay on the frequency I've set. I'll be amplifying the signals, so you should hear everything as clearly as if you were right there. Feed me any information they ask for and I will relay it."
Jon crossed his arms over his chest. "We don't need to remind you that lying will likely get your kids killed."
Locke nodded as Pilot and Hawk emerged from the ship. "You have my word. I will do whatever I have to do to bring them back to me."
After a long pause and a hard stare, Jon nodded in return. "Power up."
The entire team activated their suits, leaving Locke standing in awe. It was the first real sign of hope they'd seen from him.
Power quickly evaluated each of their suits, noting power levels and vital signs. Their heart rates and blood pressures were all elevated, but it was normal following the energy rush of the armor's appearance. Just like always, they fell back to their baseline parameters and he turned to his sergeant. "Let's get this show on the road."
Scout pressed several buttons on his wrist and his suit flickered for several moments before another visage shimmered into existence.
Locke found himself staring into his own face, complete with glasses and identical clothing. He pulled off his own glasses and gave a low whistle. "I want a piece of that tech."
"Entry logged into voice adapter." Scout's voice came through the image generated by the suit's holofield, leaving Locke baffled. A moment later, he heard his own voice come through. "Ready to go, Captain."
Jon acknowledged and opened a channel on his communicator. "Power to Cypher, come in."
"Reading you, Captain. We're in position." The colonel's voice indicated he was ready to kick some metal into the ground.
They'd located the children's transmitters a short distance from the rendezvous point, in what they could only determine to be a small dwelling. Thermal signals in the immediate vicinity indicated a half dozen humans in total. Their long-range sensors had shown only a handful of mechs in the area, but there were at least three vehicles nearby. All were cold, indicating they were either non-functional or had been there for days.
Dread didn't expect much trouble here.
They'd all been surprised by it, but that didn't mean they were going to let their guard down. Until the mission was over, they were taking nothing for granted.
"We're moving in. Commence on my signal." With a final look at his team, Power nodded. "You know what to do. Let's bring those kids home."