Chapter II : March 18, 62 ANDW
Élise was on her way home from her last day of school in Wuhan. Although her stay was short, she accomplished her goals of destroying two major weapons facilities and remaining hidden amongst the crowd. One could say that she was relieved from her Asian post.
Upon entering her apartment, Élise released a faint sigh, signifying her alleviation. To her knowledge, the missions concerning Southeast Asia had come to a close. Stumbling lazily toward her bedside, she prepared for a long awaited nap. Yet, she hesitated. Although her body was ready to sleep, Élise still had to be formally palliated from Southeast Asia. Unwillingly, she opened her laptop computer to see one of the refulgent messages from her superiors.
"Hex's main Southeast Asian weapons bases are destroyed; the next stop is North America. That's just what I needed to hear. Oh, there's more. There is one more mission to be carried out in Southeast Asia?! Dammit, I was ready to leave. This mission does not require Next usage, as it is more of a reconnaissance and disabling mission. In Hong Kong, a transmitting network is actively relaying messages to other Hex areas all around the world. Basically I have to take the tower out from the inside. Hmm, it would be better off without a Next anyway. Since my mission as a Raven is to bring Hex's offenses to a halt, it would be more fitting to ruin a communications facility by myself. It shouldn't be too hard," voiced Élise. Her next mission was already assigned.
From Wuhan, Élise would take an airplane shuttle for about an hour and a half until she arrived in Hong Kong. It wasn't hard trying to locate this communicative building, because it was the largest piece of construction in the whole city. Once the sun set, it was time to go to work. Élise did not have much equipment, but she was carrying the necessities. She wore tighter clothing for more agile movement, along with a couple of trinkets that would make hacking into the main system a little easier.
The outside security was pretty thick. There were four people at the main entrance, and two people at every other possible point of entry on the base floor. "Eh, let's see. There are six ground doors, and fourteen guards in total. I should assume that they're actually doing their job and communicating frequently. Knocking any of them out is out of the question. So the only liable form of entrance would be…" Élise paused for a moment as she scanned the walls. "Well, I'll just enter through the second floor." Slowly, she made as miniscule movements closer to the wall of the building as possible without being in the sight of any guards. As soon as no one could see her, she focused most of her physical strength into her legs, and pushed herself off of the ground with an intense force causing her to silently evade ground securities. Finding an outside entry point was not difficult.
Once inside, Élise made sure to avoid all contact with security cameras and employees walking though. All she needed to do was find a computer, and then her mission could be completed. Luckily, she located a small room with a fairly decent computer setup not too far from her entrance point. Élise quickly moved in to make sure no one was either in the room or watching. Once settled, she began her operation.
"Too easy. Their interface is basically asking me to hack into it." In a split second, Élise noticed the door's handle begin to move. In one, swift motion, she pulled out a nine millimeter handgun. She was already up and behind the door, awaiting any intruders. Only seconds after, a man walked into the room. He seemed tired and lazed. Once fully in the room, Élise shut the door and made her presence known. Quietly, she placed the tip of her gun behind the man's head. "If you don't want to die, do not speak or call for assistance. All you have to do is be quiet and stay put," she whispered into his ear.
"Dammit, I was going to quit tomorrow, too." The man let out a sigh, "alright, I'll comply. What do you want me to do? Go sit in a corner or something?"
"As soon as I tie your hands, yes." Élise pulled a small rope off of one of her belt loops and tied the man's hands hard. She set him down in a corner away from the computer as she continued her work.
"A girl? Since when did little ladies decide to break into Hex bases and ruin stuff," the man questioned?
"I thought that we agreed that you wouldn't talk. Unless, of course, you want to die."
"That wouldn't be beneficial for either of us. I'd be dead, and then every employee on this floor would know that you are here."
"You say that as if I couldn't take on these sorry excuses for security guards. If anything, I could easily out run them. You were going to quit anyway, or so you said, so you shouldn't even care about what I do here."
"That's true, I guess." Minutes passed by in the small computer room as the two characters remained silent. "Hey, my name is Thomas. What's yours?"
"Who the hell said I wanted to know your name? And why would I, clearly the antagonist in your perspective, share my name with you?"
"Because I told you mine. It would be common courtesy to share yours."
"I'll be so happy when I kill you. Ah, there, it's all done. I have enough time to get out of here before things go into effect. Hmm, well, I can kill you here, or drag you off somewhere to let you shrivel and die. Well, which is it?"
The man thought for a moment, as if he was taking the question seriously. "I'll go ahead and die now. It'll be easier that way."
"You actually took that seriously? I'm not going to kill you, at least not in here. I'm going to regret this down the road, I'm sure. You're lucky that this went smoothly. Just quit your job like you said you would, and I won't have to kill you."
"Awfully forgiving for being the person who has the gun."
"I'm letting you live, be happy. I'll take my rope back, and I'll be out of your way. Just a word of advice, don't try to come after me. Even if I notice anyone tailing me, you will be the first person I will find and hunt down," she forcefully noted.
"Of course. Hey, you still haven't told me your name."
"Go to hell." And with that, Élise ran out of the room swiftly.
…
"Sergeant? What seems to be the surprise today," asked Howards?
"Well, sir, it seems that the communication tower in Hong Kong is down. It appears that repairs will take a month or two."
"What happened? Did something blow up? My microwave almost blew up this morning, you know."
"No, it was more of a technical issue."
"Please, elaborate then. I know I'm already going to be disappointed in the cause, so let's just hear it."
"Very well, then. It seems that a few days ago an unknown employee opened an e-mail containing a rapidly spreading network virus. This network virus had spread to every piece of technology in the building in a matter of minutes," explained the sergeant.
"Couldn't you trace the virus back to the original employee's computer to find out where it came from?"
"Unfortunately, the virus itself is very intelligent. It seems to copy and delete itself at random moments in time. We have ranged the times of these copy and deletions from between six seconds and two minutes. There isn't enough time to analyze one strand of the network virus before it deletes itself. If production and research goes without a problem, the most ideal time of accomplishment for having the building running again would be at least two months."
"I see. Do we have any other information about this thing?"
"This kind of virus had to of taken years to develop and process. There's no way that someone could have just introduced this kind of technological engineering without any kind of experience. Whoever sent this is devilishly clever and brilliant. I can only assume that this person could create a similar virus to travel wirelessly to all of our Hex network systems." The sergeant pleaded his concerns for The Hex Organization.
"I doubt that'll happen. This employee was probably supposed to check this e-mail on his home computer. It just so happens that the virus was introduced on our own network, causing a mass shutdown. I have a feeling it was a fluke."
"Are you so sure? The employee could be a double agent. Perhaps he sent it to himself just so he could damage Hex from the inside. Maybe if--" The sergeant was cut off by Howards.
"You worry too much, sergeant. When has my intuition steered us in the wrong direction? It was just an unlucky event that we are going to have to deal with. If you have nothing more to report, then you are dismissed, sergeant." The informant left the room with an emotionless face. "If you can meet danger promptly without flinching, then you can reduce it by half. Hah, or so they say. I guess I'll inevitably find out."
…
For the next few days, Élise remained in Hong Kong and observed the man that she had encountered from afar. She did conclude that the man had quit his job at Hex's Hong Kong communications base, and that he had spent several days just going in and out of the city. Once Élise realized that she had wasted enough of her time observing him, she concluded that the mission was a success, and let the man live.
It wasn't another twelve hours before Élise had made her way across the very large Pacific Ocean. Whilst flying at amazing speeds, the Raven piloted her Next away from several small islands and possible ship routes. With all of the shifts and turns that she made, it took her twice as long as planned to get to North America. Yet, even then she could not rest.
Once along the shores of old British Columbia, she had to somehow navigate through horrid climate conditions to locate her first target. Unfortunately, she wasn't quite yet briefed on where her next target was. The only information she had was that her next stop was in North America. The only remedy for this was to find lodging and wait for mission specifications.
About three hundred and fifty kilometers in from the coast exists a small town known as Marilla. This was a good place for her to lie low for a while, seeing as how there were plenty of mountains to hide the Next in. Élise purchased a small hotel room for a night, knowing that the targets and missions times would be mailed to her before the morning arrived.
Cold, dirty snow fell throughout the night. It was hard for Élise to fall asleep on a hard, worn mattress. Very early in the morning, the message came to her laptop. Élise decided to ignore it for now, seeing as how she wanted to at least get some rest before her next sortie.
The message read, "Whitehorse, Edmonton, and Seattle are the next three assignments. Edmonton is carrying satellite destroyer hi-speed missiles. Whitehorse and Seattle are import and export stations on the outside, but underground they are developing laser rifles for future generation Normals. Eliminate all three of these bases before moving inland. There is no designated sortie time for these missions; however, all three facilities must fall by dusk of March 24." It was the night of March 23 that she received this message. Élise was not generally close to any of the three designated target points, so she made the decision to start up north with the Whitehorse base, then go southeast to Edmonton, and end up at Seattle.
At 08:00, Élise began her trek over six hundred kilometers into former Yukon Territory. However, with the Next's speed capabilities, it would only be a matter of hours. She arrived fifty kilometers south of the Whitehorse facility. The heavy fuel-oriented snow covered the Next's heat signature from enemy thermal scanners. It was a perfect day to strike. Unfortunately for Élise, visibility was at a bare minimum. Even with her strained eyes in an unforgiving harsh environment, she switched to her high powered sniper rifle. She tweaked the barrel's position so that the strong winds and snow would alter the path of the shot just enough to hit the base. In a moment's breathe, the explosion of the import/export base was heard. She quickly launched two more sniper shots to ensure a clear opening. She instantaneously boosted over the base, about twenty kilometers upward, and let loose a barrage of laser blasts from her two primary weapons.
The time was now 10:26; Élise had no time to lose as she over boosted to old Alberta's Edmonton. With more than eight hundred kilometers to cross over, Élise didn't have another option other than her over boost. She reached Edmonton within the next hour. In order to fully optimize the amount of time Élise had, she didn't bother to set up her sniper rifle. Instead, she forcefully bombarded the hidden hi-speed missiles. Normals were dispatched soon after; therefore Élise disposed of them accordingly.
Readily turning her boosters back on, Élise turned southwest to head toward Seattle. It was only 11:22, but Élise still powered up the over boost. It was another seven hundred kilometers to Seattle, but instead of finishing before dusk, she wanted to be done by this afternoon. Within forty minutes, the Raven was back in action. She no longer had enough energy power to use the sniper rifle, so she decided to stick with circling the import/export area whilst cannonading with her energy rifles. The Seattle base had no time, resistance, or efficiency to dispatch any Normals.
