Clipped Wings
A Clover fanfiction written by: RinoaDestiny
Chapter 11
"Yu, Daro and Kin need you to assist with the technical troubleshooting of the equipment," Teru said, approaching him as he finished weapons maintenance in the main room. "They're in the back."
284 nodded, placing his rifle in its case and locking it. Around the Shrikes, his more obvious Clover abilities needed to remain hidden. He'd learned from the first operation that even the most subtle unsettled them. Since then, he'd been careful. Technical issues weren't a problem – that just needed tried-and-true solutions with a bit of ingenuity. Rising from his chair, he passed Teru and headed towards the back where the work van was.
Huang raised a hand in greeting and then returned to a conversation also involving Alten and Mirke. Although he'd only been through three operations with this outfit – the last two minor – there was a place for him now, however slim. Even Kin, after Teru handled things, regarded him with less suspicion. 284 had done his best to lessen those feelings and held nothing against the other man.
Behind the high walls of the compound, he was secure from spying eyes. The Shrikes took no chances with lives, equipment, and supplies.
"What's the problem?" he asked upon entering the van. Daro glanced from the control panel towards him and gave Kin a nudge.
"Monitors aren't turning on and there's static interference. Usually, it's an easy fix, but we aren't finding it today."
"Wires are okay and nothing seems broken," Kin added, his tone matter-of-fact. The tattoos on his face, already colorful, seemed lively. "See if you can find anything we couldn't."
Kneeling, 284 removed the loosened panel, exposing the inner workings of the van's electronics system. Beside him, Kin handed him a small flashlight. Shining the focused beam upon the connections inside, 284 studied each wire, the marked labels, and fastenings. Nothing was wrong insofar as he could see; perhaps, there had been a power outage or short-circuiting? Even an enclosed system such as this was prone to failures.
"Any electrical issues last night or within the past few hours?"
"No," Daro said. "That's why we're confused."
He briefly closed his eyes, knowing only his abilities could help here. "Let me work, Daro. It might appear like I'm doing nothing, but I'll be seeking out the possible cause. Kin?"
The man waved a hand at him. "Long as you don't spook me."
Given the go-ahead, 284 placed both palms flat against the sides of the open panel door and concentrated. Within each connection, he traced its activity backwards. Daro had mentioned static interference, which was strange if the system was thoroughly encrypted and self-contained. Had someone tried hacking in? Who? The Azaiean black ops? Feeling cold weight in his stomach, he pushed that thought aside and continued, until he got a sense of what had occurred.
The connections themselves were fine, yet there were traces of an intrusion. The electronic artifacts left behind didn't reveal any identities, but did point to an outside source. The Shrikes did have enemies – which mercenary unit didn't? – but were any of them capable of this kind of action? A fully funded and backed black ops unit, on the other hand…
"What is it, Yu?" Kin asked, sounding worried and not accusatory.
"Outside interference. Someone hacked the system."
"What?" Daro said, coming over and staring down at the controls near him. "Why?"
"I don't know." He didn't and his suspicions had to remain unvoiced around these two. "Teru needs to know."
"I'll stay watch." Kin took the seat across from the controls, crossed his arms, and leaned back. "You two go report."
Exiting the van, he and Daro quickly entered the building and found Teru in his office going over paperwork. Due to the urgency of their entrance, the mercenary leader put his work aside and looked first at Daro and then at him. "What is it, Yu?"
"Someone from outside breached the system."
"They did?" Teru's expression sharpened, his voice doing the same in alarm. "Daro, report."
"Monitors are down and there's static interference." The support staff head delivered the facts, voice clear yet troubled. "We're not sure if they were able to get any information or if this was simply by chance or a trial run. Maybe Yu can further investigate and see what he can find."
"I need to speak to Yu alone. Daro, you may return. Any changes, report immediately."
"Yes, Teru."
As Daro left, closing the office door behind him, 284 waited for Teru's obvious question. It itched within him, a worry that had no proof but only conjecture. He hoped he was wrong – he needed the breathing room, not the sudden fear that Azaiea was onto him.
"Who was it? Do you know?"
"Does anyone else know about the Shrikes's electronics system? Or do you have enemies that have resources and specialists specifically tasked to do this kind of job?"
"The Shrikes have many enemies, but our system is shielded. It shouldn't even be known. I ask again, Yu – do you know who it was?"
He swallowed. "I have no evidence, but I think the Azaiean black ops have this capability. The Special Forces Hisoku did, back when I served with them."
"To hack a system that's not on the grid?" Teru sounded and looked incredulous.
"The Azaiean army invented a device years ago to track the radiation coming from our weapons modules." It was how Barus had found Ryuu during the General Kou mission involving Suu – technology that required a countermeasure. "So yes, I believe they might be able to."
The expression on Teru's face changed from disbelieving to stony. "Yu, get back to the van and continue investigating. I'll send out scouts to see if any Azaiean soldiers are within distance of the compound. Be careful."
He didn't need to be told twice about that warning; already, his hackles had risen. If this was Azaiean black ops work and they had managed to retrieve information from the Shrikes's electronics system… Although he'd used a different name – Yu instead of Gingetsu and no mention of 284 – could they still glean from the recent recruits that he might be one of them?
The thought gave him shivers, made him afraid.
Upon returning to Daro, Kin, and the van with its opened panel, he committed himself to tracking down every last bit of information. The connections were fine, the artifacts gave no additional clues…how had the hacker known this system existed? Unless they prodded around, looking for electrical signals from…did it leave a trace behind somewhere?
"Daro," he said, turning to the man whose expression mirrored his, "when the system goes on, does it connect to anything within the vicinity? I know it's encrypted, but –"
"Only our electrical grid, which siphons off the city's power sources."
"Maybe our grid is compromised." A chilling thought with his pursuers so close. "How can I get access to it?"
"I'll take him, Daro. Come on, you." Swinging his legs off the seat, Kin stood. "Inside again, but we gotta go to the basement. Teru's okay with this?"
"Yes."
"Let's not waste time, then. Out you go."
The walk to the basement didn't take long, considering their rushed strides, though it alerted those in the building that something was amiss. Kin, being his guide, hurried down the steps and 284 closely followed. The basement was decently large for storing supplies and access to the grid was in a secured side room. Getting to the grid itself required removing a heavy floor panel, which they lifted and laid aside.
As Kin stood watch by the door, 284 dove deep into the grid's internal workings, mind and senses attuned to any peculiarities. The first place he sought was the origin of its connection to the city's power sources, which might've been how the Shrikes were discovered. Despite being cloaked, a well-trained black ops specialist could root out a differing electrical signature and backtrack from there. The question was if this was a targeted search or if the Shrikes simply got caught up in a general sweep.
He hoped it was the latter. The former meant…
284 shuddered.
Running his Clover-attuned senses across the connection, treating it as a thorough scan, he closed his eyes and ignored everything else. The grid became data, alphanumerics in a mental list and so, too, did the city's power sources. If something was strange where the sources and connection crossed, it'd show as anomalies. He'd seen Ran at work before, years ago, and with the Three-Leaf, it was as natural as breathing.
He missed Ran. He missed Ryuu.
He wasn't sure if he'd ever see the former again.
The list in his mind grew and grew, data accumulating in a staggering flood. Overlapping each dataset like sheets of glass, 284 glimpsed in his mind how some numbers and letters faded out, while others glowed or darkened. Just like how Ran had visualizations for his secret transport, one of his abilities allowed data interaction and the innate sense of how to read the messages that came from that.
He was looking for something specific. Something that shouldn't belong.
Bringing the dataset from the closest connection upwards in the compiled stack, 284 overlaid it with the Shrikes's grid. Numbers disappeared, letters darkened and then…a cluster of red appeared in the corner, an ominous glowing. It wasn't a large cluster – a square of no more than three by three inches – but it wasn't normal. It shouldn't be here.
Approaching it carefully, he dismantled the cluster with an explosives expert's precision. There was a hint of cloaking, which he overrode and peeled away. Layer by layer, he removed the traces left behind until he arrived at the core. Stripped the last away, discarding it as a frisson of fear hit him like a winter's chill.
A stylized leopard, jaws open in mid-pounce, lay at the center.
He froze, mentally staring at Barus's mark. Barus's unit – his specialists – had been behind this. Did they know? Was it already too late?
Surfacing from the datasets, 284 mentally collapsed everything and looked at Kin; whatever his face showed, the other man evinced concern. Without breaking stride, he headed for the stairs. "I need to speak again to Teru. Can you continue watch here?"
"Yeah," Kin said, gaze following him. "Trouble?"
"Yes." The rest was for Teru's ears, as was the suggestion he had in light of this disturbing development. Hastily climbing the stairs, he quickly reached the ground floor, exchanged glances with the men gathered there and hurried towards the mercenary leader's office. The door was slightly ajar; murmured conversation audible from inside and 284 waited. Perhaps they were the scouts Teru sent.
If so, he wondered what they found.
Within a minute or two, the door fully opened and three men exited. Teru, upon seeing him, gestured for him to enter. Doing so, he secured the door and then remained standing to report. The situation was too urgent and his stomach tied in knots at both his discovery and what the scouts might've seen.
"You're pale. What did you find?"
"Our grid's been compromised. Barus found entry via the connection to the closest city power source and hacked his way in from there." His voice, thankfully, didn't waver. "He left his mark behind, but I don't think there's any built-in trigger to alert him should it be found." This much, he had to hope or else it was over moments ago. Then again, he had worked indirectly with the sources, thereby covering his tracks from prying Azaieans.
"And this was uncovered through forensic work?"
"My own capabilities. It won't tip off the Azaieans."
The other man's expression believed otherwise, yet Teru didn't gainsay him. Instead, the mercenary leader leaned forward, hands intertwined. "There are two Azaiean black ops units situated not far from here. One south and one to the west."
"Are they observing us?" he asked, feeling trapped and prickly with the knowledge. "Do they know they've been observed?"
"Yes and yes." Teru didn't dither, giving the responses straight. "Would keep them aware that we're not fools, either, and have an eye on them."
The Azaiean black ops units were here because of him, because of his involvement with the Shrikes. When he'd joined, he'd given Teru his word that he would leave the moment a threat became obvious. This was that time now and 284 wasn't about to break his word despite feeling unprepared. Better to go and let the Azaieans hound him than to put the Shrikes in their sights and become the catalyst of an unnecessary bloody conflict.
"I can leave. Once I'm gone, the Azaieans will lose interest here."
"With those units monitoring this area? You won't make it far, Yu." Teru leaned back in his seat, watching him. "Unless your goal is to get captured, but I don't believe that's your objective."
"No." He suppressed a shudder, knowing exactly what would happen in that scenario. "But the longer I stay here, the more danger I put the Shrikes in."
"Stay put, Yu. This requires some thought and I do not need your blood spilled due to haste. Whatever the Azaieans are planning, we can counter. As for our compromised grid, we need to disconnect it and run on generators. Tell Daro to come here and you and Kin get the van hooked up."
He nodded, surprised at Teru's decision, but didn't protest. The Shrikes were going to protect him – find ways around this Azaiean stranglehold – even if he wasn't privy to the methods. The most he could do in return was make himself useful, such as finding Daro and getting the van operational again. Excusing himself, 284 left to take care of those matters.
He could leave at any time, if he wished. But as Teru pointed out, the risks were too high, the distance still too far, and his personal resources tight. To depart now would be delivering himself straight into Barus's hands and the consequences that'd follow.
An alternative so dreadful 284 closed his mind against it.
He was safe here…for now.