Chapter 10: In the Shadows
The sky was pitch-black as heavy storm clouds had gathered overhead. Moonlight couldn't pierce the overcast, which allowed for complete darkness to take hold. It was the perfect cover for a black hovercar that made its way towards a large, secured facility. It was a military installation that once belonged to the Repliforce. Its insignia had long since been stripped from the walls and doorways, however. Now, it was used to house top secret, black ops projects and prototype equipment researched by the government.
Reploids and humans patrolled the structure inside and out. They were armed to the teeth with ordnance that would make anyone think twice about approaching the compound without the necessary clearance. The darkness hid most of the facility from sight, while high, steel-reinforced, concrete walls obscured the rest. Atop the walls were various defensive installations, ranging from simple lookout posts, to turret emplacements. All to keep unwanted visitors off the facility's premises.
The lone vehicle approached a checkpoint at the end of the road. It consisted of a small booth that had been placed ahead of one of two large gates that were the only ways in or out of the complex. A Reploid soldier raised his arm to signal the car to halt. The vehicle stopped just beside the small booth, which was dwarfed by the main gate just behind it. the other guards outside the perimeter held their positions, though their attention did turn to the car. They were poised to respond to any suspicious behavior in the blink of an eye, with all the necessary alarms to be raised simultaneously.
The guard that approached the car was a tall Reploid with a green camouflage motif to his color scheme. His body was reinforced with layers of plate armor and his hands calmly gripped a buster rifle that would otherwise be attached to a backpack. That rifle was unlikely to be the only weapon he had available though, with many more probably hidden within his android body. He bent forward enough so he could look through the window on the driver side of the vehicle, which had already been rolled down.
"Please present identification, confirmation code and nature of visit, sir," the Reploid spoke calmly, his disciplined voice hiding the fact that he was already sick and tired of his late night shift. As vital as it was for security, his was still an extremely boring job.
The Reploid behind the wheel was clearly an official of some sort. He had a black frame with white trimmings, a sharp-featured face with hazel eyes and sleek, stylish, synthetic hair. A white hand that was modeled to resemble a glove extended towards the guard. An ID card was trapped between his index and middle finger.
"Specialist Cegas. Code: IA-CE-5543543-beta. Delivering a report to Doctor Stern and performing a bi-yearly inspection," the Reploid recited the requested information with a casual, but respectful voice. The guard accepted the card and tapped his left, lower arm once. A small terminal opened up just over his wrist, which was outfitted with a card reader. The guard's eyes flashed continually from his arm to the driver and the female Reploid that sat beside him, with her legs crossed. The card was inserted into the slot and once everything seemed to check out, he reached out to return it.
"No personal driver this evening, sir?"
"No. None of them can be trusted while transporting the documents in this case. We have eyes and ears on us for protection as we speak," Cegas then shrugged lightly. "Besides, I much rather drive myself, private. Now, can I get to work?"
The guard looked from Cegas back to the woman for a few moments. The female Reploid had quite the pleasing frame, with the same basic style as Cegas'. It resembled a business suit and her silver hair had been raised into a neat bun. Her skin was exceptionally pale, with two lightning strike patterns crossing her eyes vertically. Her face didn't seem to match what anyone would typically expect from an aide, but it wouldn't be the first eccentric arrival the Reploid would have seen on this job. He then released the card that had been resting between his and Cegas' fingertips.
"Yes, of course, I apologize for delays, but we can never be careful enough. Please drive on, the gate will open. Have a pleasant evening, sir," he rose up and backed away from the car, while pressing a few keys on his arm terminal to notify a colleague to allow the vehicle through.
Cegas rolled the window back up as he drove forward and beyond the gate.
"So far, so good," the female's lips curled up in a seductively evil smile.
"Should've given you a mask of sorts. That pattern on your face nearly gave us away," Cegas drove past several structures on his way to the main compound in the center of the facility. To reach it, they had to pass through another checkpoint, though a single ID check was enough to grant them access. The entire base was a maze of tall buildings and parking spaces for the staff of each department. Below the concrete and asphalt they drove on, there were even more floors, which hid the most sensitive material not just from sight, but potential attack.
"Hm. He liked what he saw, as I thought he would. So stop complaining," she glanced over to the driver from the corner of her eyes.
Cegas pulled over when he spotted a parking space close to the gigantic, central structure and locked the car doors after they both got out. "Remember your job?"
The female Reploid bared a few pristine, white teeth when she grinned and gave him a mere nod as her reply.
"Good. We only have one shot at this."
They began walking the rest of the distance to the main lobby of the building. The tower consisted of at least forty floors of R&D and engineering labs. Though, there was no telling from the outside how many more were located below the surface. Underground, though, was where they had to go. Cegas' ID card got them past a third barrier and out onto the many corridors and hallways of the ground floor. Despite the late hour, there were still plenty of patrols, researchers and other members of staff moving from one floor and room to another.
The odd pair made their way towards an elevator in the far back of the structure. It lead to the lower floors of the building and was reserved for staff working there or who had the proper clearances for said express ride. A single guard was keeping an eye on the comings and goings of personnel from behind thick, bulletproof glass. While there was no one else within sight of them and the booth, the two approached it to address the man.
"Private."
"Sir!" The human guard saluted.
"At ease. Is this the elevator down to level B9?"
The guard relaxed from the salute before nodding. "Yes, sir. Among others. Hold your executive ID card over the card reader next to the door."
"Executive?" Cegas repeated as he looked over to his associate, who gave him a slight shake of her head.
"Yes, sir; highest clearance level or top security personnel only. If you do not have it with you, I'm afraid I cannot let you through," the guard had been seated at a console displaying video feed from several cameras throughout the corridor, though none of them had an angle that had the booth and the two visitors in frame.
"Shame."
Before the guard had even responded to the odd statement from the male Reploid on the other side of the glass panel, his eyes widened in surprise. The gloved hand of the female Reploid had wrapped its fingers tightly around his throat, having past right through the solid material between them, as if she were ethereal. He attempted to struggle, but additional force applied to his neck crushed it and instantly killed the man. His body went limp in her grasp and she reached out with her other hand to snatch a security key card from his desk.
"Top security clearance," she handed it over to Cegas before releasing the dead guard, who fell down by his desk. One would have to enter the booth to see him lying there, which appeared to be good enough for the two of them. There were no signs of a struggle, after all, so most would assume he'd simply gone to the bathroom for a moment. The strange blue glow that had enveloped her body faded away completely once her last fingertip reappeared from behind the glass.
The card granted them access to the elevator and called for the lift after the guard's instructions were followed. Moments later, the pair continued through the hallways of their target floor. Cegas greeted any guard with a nod and retained an air of superiority he knew the guards were used to from the military scientists that would frequent the installation.
"This is it," the two stopped in front of a glass window that overlooked a large, spherical hall. In its center was a column with a bright, glowing core. Terminals had been installed all around the column on multiple levels that were connected via balconies and spiraling staircases. The monitors of the computer systems displayed a wealth of technical read-outs, research results and ongoing measurements. A small sign above the window simply read: 'Supra Force Metal'.
Cegas nodded for his partner to proceed with the plan while he remained outside. Her body once again started glowing and she passed through the window effortlessly. Two researchers were still working on what could potentially be a volatile piece of Force Metal, which was why the room was closed off to even those with the level of access they'd stolen from the guard. She floated in mid-air while passing through any material on her way in. She then descended to be below the walkway that was suspended above the floor of the dome and extended out towards the center from the main entrance. She circled around the edge of the room unseen, before going up towards a single camera that overlooked the room, with a small device in hand.
Once she reached it, her hand phased through its protective casing and the device latched on inside. Before long, it started feeding false information to whomever was watching the corresponding viewscreen by looping the footage of the past few minutes. They didn't need more than that, despite a slight hiccup in the movement of the researchers.
Still, time was of the essence, so she landed on the main walkway and reverted to her solid state. She began walking elegantly towards the researchers. Both men quickly spotted her unstealthy approach and looked up from their work.
"How did you get in? Excuse me, ma'am, but you are not allowed to approach the column. We are conducting very delicate and even dangerous simulations here," one of the researchers raised a single hand as he began approaching her. "Please wait outside if you wish to speak to us."
The scientist did not make it very far along the walkway though, when a shot from the woman's buster pistol drilled a hole right between his eyes. She had hidden the weapon in a special compartment in her right thigh. It wasn't a very powerful sidearm, but it had been modified to be easily concealable from scanners and visual scrutiny. Before he hit the ground, she slapped him aside, letting the body drop to the floor of the room as he was knocked over the railings. The other scientist wasn't even able to call out for help before meeting a fate similar to his associate's.
Once she reached one of the terminals, she immediately got to work. Nimble fingers skimmed over the keyboard and she terminated all the tests and simulations they had been running. After deactivating the safety mechanisms, she opened the hatch that lead into the core of the column. The Force Metal inside had stopped glowing and rested serenely on its pedestal. Retrieving the valuable material was as easy as reaching out and grabbing it. With the Metal in hand, she simply walked back out through the main entrance and handed it over to Cegas.
The energy resonating from the powerful mineral seemed to cause disruptions across Cegas' body. Parts of it transformed into those of a black framed Reploid, before changing back to the visitor's. Spectrum's red eyes flashed as he stored it in the briefcase they had brought in with them. Their employer had supplied them with all the information and equipment they needed to pass back out through security, with detectors being none the wiser.
It wasn't until they were long gone that alarms started to sound and the bodies of the two dead researches and a single guard had been found. There would be hell to pay for those responsible for letting one of the most valuable items in the entire facility be stolen right from under their noses...
A few days had past since the fiasco at the prison and Vile had recovered from the damage he had sustained. Nana had covered their tracks expertly so the Maverick Hunters didn't appear to have a clue where to start searching. As far as the operator could tell, the Hunters had equally bad luck in their attempts at locating Spectrum, who had vanished without a trace.
The renegade sat in one of the chairs in the kitchen. He'd taken to throwing a set of knives he'd found in one of the drawers – likely a carry-over from a previous owner – at a chopping board he'd hung on the wall opposite him. His chair was tilting back while his boots rested up on the table. His posture made it all too obvious just how bored he had gotten with the period of inactivity he'd been forced to suffer through.
Nana, on the other hand, had had her hands full keeping the Hunters off their scent. Once the heat had died down a little, though, she had turned her full attention to finding some kind of lead. She'd gone over the transmission from Giga City she had previously found a dozen times by that point, and hadn't learned anything they didn't already know. The data they'd gathered from West City didn't yield much either. She felt like they were running out of time. All of it wasn't a simple cover-up. There was more going on. Actively going on. And the more time they wasted sitting around, the more time those responsible had to put their plans into motion.
It was strange how sometimes the greatest breakthroughs came unexpectedly, or even completely by accident. She'd been going over classified information via Giga City's connections with Hunter HQ – to which she still had a modicum of access – when she spotted something interesting. One of the last remaining fragments of the Supra Force Metal had been stolen from a government facility. There were no clues, no traces and no security leaks. It was a complete mystery how the perpetrators had gotten away with it. Of course, Nana knew something the investigators likely didn't. There was a Reploid with a Copy Chip on the loose, with a knack for infiltration.
The mystery employer of the Revenants most likely had full access to the information and equipment Spectrum and his comrades needed to pull something like that off. There wasn't a doubt in her mind that their enemy was behind this. And now, she knew they were after Supra Force Metal. Despite how grave that news was, they had a lead again and she almost felt like smiling.
"Vile! Get up and get over here! I've found something!" She called out, only slightly tilting her head in the direction of the room occupied by her partner. She'd quickly done some research and had already determined their next course of action.
"About damn time. I was starting to think you were just slacking off," she could hear Vile mutter a few other things under his breath as he got up, all the while tossing the last knife in his hands into the chopping board.
"Yeah, I'm the slacker," she narrowed her eyes at the renegade as he approached. Before he could fire back, though, she began to guide him through her reasoning. "A couple of days ago, a fragment of Supra Force Metal was stolen from a government controlled facility out in the Rubora Desert."
"Supra Force Metal?"
"You've heard of Force Metal right? It's an extraterrestrial mineral that was discovered in the Pacific Ocean years ago. This very city was founded around the impact site of the meteor."
"That's what the Rebellion was about, right?" Vile crossed his arms, silently hoping she'd get to her point soon.
"Well, Force Metal was the Rebellion's means to an end. Supra Force Metal is a hyper-condensed form of Force Metal. A single piece, properly processed and installed, can make a Reploid virtually invincible. Even fragments contain tremendous power. This is what colonel Redips had been after and what he'd used the Maverick Hunters for," Nana occasionally brought up data files and photos to add to her explanation. "The way the theft was executed, or rather the fact that no one can figure out how it happened, makes me believe it was a job executed by someone with inside connections."
"So you think Spectrum and his misfits did the job, and their employer has enough pull to get the information and clearance they'd need to get close?" Vile shook his head. "That's definitely possible for a high-ranking Hunter officer. Nowadays, they can politic their way up the ranks and they garner a lot of friends in high places that way."
"Exactly," Nana brought up a bird's eye view of a large installation built into the face of a mountain somewhere in a snow-covered landscape. "This is the Nordren Research Facility. They're currently researching another fragment of Supra Force Metal that was recovered from the site of Redips' death. This one, together with the one that was stolen, are the last known, usable fragments. Needless to say, this makes it extremely valuable."
"And they're going to go after this one too?"
"Maybe. But one fragment of the condensed mineral already contains enough power to fuel just about anything you could imagine and do some serious damage. More is – I guess – better, but I'm skeptical they'd stick their neck out twice in short succession. This isn't like robbing a bank. They stole it from one of the world's most powerful governments and the amount of attention and heat that metal carries with it is immense."
"So it's less a lead and more of a hunch then?" Vile couldn't help but scoff.
"No, it is a lead. This facility is property of an international research corporation, meaning our friendly neighborhood Maverick Hunter traitor won't be able to help Spectrum out like they did the first time around. What I was thinking was paying the place a visit and maybe learn more about the possible ways the metal could be used. If we can somehow narrow down what use they'd have for it, we could have our next lead."
"You want me to break in there then?" Vile hummed softly. "It's doable, but I'm gonna to need more to go on than just a fancy aerial picture."
"Not necessary. The Reploid scientist currently heading the research into Supra Force Metal at the facility is an old friend of mine. We've always gotten along well, so I hope my connection to Giga City and our friendship is enough to net me a tour of the place. That'd be the perfect opportunity to get the information we need."
"Still gonna tag along. My face is plastered over every wall of the known world, so I doubt I'd get inside the legal way. But, I'll observe the place from the outside. Not like the cold'll bother me."
"You worried about me?" Nana shot Vile a slight, taunting smile.
"Don't flatter yourself. If Spectrum does show up, I wanna have another crack at him. We won't need all this sneaking around anymore if I can beat the answers out of the coward."
"Alright than. We've got a plan. I'll contact him and make the arrangements. With any luck, we'll be in the cold north by tomorrow." There was a smile on her lips. Seeing her old friend again would cheer her up a little, even should they not learn as much from him as she hoped.