The voice from the terminal announced, “Location: KZN Wastelands, abandoned regions, SEKT HQ. Recognized: Operative 0001, Sigvald Salacron, leader of SEKT.”

Sigvald emerged drenched in blood from the teleporter. After disposing of Marksman’s body, he had taken a teleporter to the KZN Wastelands. It was a dead forest. Not many trees were left. Over time, only the stumps and burned bark rotted. Far away, in a clearing, sat a miniature shed that was barely standing. Had there been a strong wind, it may have even fallen apart.

Sigvald paced slowly through the dead forest. The blood seeped from his clothes. He wiped it off his forehead and cleaned his eyebrows. To avoid any suspicion, he did not intend to enter the headquarters all bloodied up.

When Sigvald reached the clearing he extended his hand. A protective field enclosing the shed prevented it from advancing. The field pulsed a mixture of blue and white before beeping briefly.

Access granted. Welcome!

A small doorway was formed by Sigvald’s hand sinking into the field and pushing his body through. Beyond the force field lay a fortress. It was easily the height of a three-story building and heavily fortified. The barren nature of the Wastelands made it almost impossible for any army to find cover should they attack the headquarters. An automated double door swung open as Sigvald approached it. The base wasn’t as spacious as the Alliance’s underground base. After all, SEKT was a defecting group and initially did not have much support.

Sigvald entered the enormous fortress. The doors opened into the main command center. It was guarded by automated turrets hung from the ceiling like chandeliers that targeted anyone who had entered the building without scanning themselves first. A cold welcome for the trespasser.

Right, and left elevators led to the second and third floors. From a high ceiling above the command center hung a bright light that illuminated the entire ground floor. The walls were made from bricks that were fortified with a thick layer of charcoal-gray metal, the strongest known alloy on Earth.

Sigvald gripped his chest as he felt it contract. He buckled to his knees and winced from the pain. Damn this wretched disease. It’s getting more painful by the month, he cursed.

“Lord Sigvald!” shouted one of the operatives as she rushed over to him.

“Get...me...a...Pump...”

Whipping out her pump, she handed it to Sigvald. Activating the pump with his quivering hands, he let a blast of fresh air into his lungs, clearing them of the toxins. The men and women in the room fell silent in response. In spite of the fact that their leader had never proven to be weak, here he was seemingly dying of a heart attack.

“I don’t recall ordering you to stare at me. Get back to work!”

He swiftly rose to his feet and glided to the east wing. Sigvald made his way to the East Wing of the fortress. He passed through the wide hallway. His heavy footsteps were audible from a distance when the room was quiet.

While the headquarters had been revamped to be more stable, the East and West wings were not fully reinforced. The visible cracks in the ceiling and walls gave away the age of the original structure.

Sigvald entered the East wing and strode over to a room. Every space he entered would silence any chatter occurring in that room. He hesitated for a moment, noticing a few drops of blood at the neck of a trench coat. He scraped it off with his nails to ensure there was no trace of blood on him. The door opened.

“Commander Storm!,” Sigvald announced as he entered a dimly lit room with only two wooden chairs and a table. Sigvald cast a shadow over Asher as he walked around to the other end of the table.

With the mention of his name, Asher’s heart skipped a beat. Sigvald’s shadow enveloped Asher as he stood in front of the light. He didn’t dare to make eye contact with him. All he could muster in his nervous state was a meek ‘Yes, sir’. The creaking of the wooden floor with every step Sigvald took echoed throughout the room.

Asher’s heart leaped into his mouth as he felt the air leave. As his superior passed him, a familiar stench filled his nostrils. Blood. While there was no visual evidence of it, the stench of death was too strong for Asher’s sense of smell to miss.

Where did he disappear? What did he do now? asked Asher.

Sigvald opened a hologram to reveal a report on the latest mission, “This report was written up by our reconnaissance team after we assaulted the space station. There seems to be a failsafe system in place. An old system that erases all data should it detect any intrusion. That’s why I destroyed the terminal. Without the codes, it’s pointless trying to hack into it.“′

Asher flicked through the screen, “that doesn’t help our case. Didn’t you want to erase all the data they had on us; anything that could compromise the plan... A plan that I am still unaware of...”

“Choose your words carefully, Commander. It’s imperative I keep this plan solely to myself. I can’t have it leaked by you or by anyone. I am not foolish enough to entrust my plan to you,” Sigvald warned. “Unless you take me as a fool?”

He immediately retreated to a hunched position, “No! Of course not, Sir! I apologize for overstepping my bounds.”

Sigvald, entirely dismissing Asher’s apology without so much as batting an eyelid said, “As for sifting through the data at the intel stations, we’ll just have to settle for erasing all of it. If I can’t have that information, then nobody will.”

“We could look for an alternative,” Asher suggested. “The data in those stations stores tactics, schematics, plans, and current data on us that could prove useful.”

“No. It would take up too much time. Phase one is coming to a close and preparations for Phase two are currently underway. We have to destroy the remaining database,” Sigvald said.

“And you want me to sniff out the beacon and raid the last facility?”

“That will come later,” Sigvald said as he pushed a file across the table. “For now, I need you to train a few operatives here.”

Asher examined the trainees. They had already been trained well and even excelled at it. “These are all the commanders; the best of the best. Why do they need training?”

Sigvald opened a live feed recorded from one of the SEKT operatives at a recon outpost. The SEKT forces were brutally killed by a handful of Alliance soldiers. The Exo suits they wore allowed them to zip through the forest. They were untouchable. Every shot either missed them or was deflected. One, in particular, ravaged his way through a line of SEKT soldiers as if he was cutting through butter. The only sound any of them heard was three taps on the ground every few seconds.

“These are the infiltrators,” Sigvald said. “They’re a squad of elite soldiers equipped with Exo suits. This footage is all we have of them fighting in action. One of them, I estimate, could take out anywhere between five and twenty of our soldiers without sustaining injury. I am choosing the four commanders with you being the most skilled of them, as a squad to help combat these infiltrators. The one with the gun blade, Johnathan, is...dangerous.”

“How on Earth am I supposed to combat the-”

“Do not give me excuses, Storm. I want results. Do what you have to do to get them,” interrupted Sigvald as he promptly stood up from his seat and left the room. Asher browsed through the file.

After skimming through its contents, He closed the file and picked up the hologram. He walked out of the room, closing the metal-framed door softly behind him. Another job for another day, he thought. Right now, I could use some sleep.

Asher left the SEKT fortress and walked through the barren forest to reach the teleporter terminal. He activated the terminal and appeared at the station. The heavens had opened the floodgates, as heavy rain fell from the sky. All other sounds were drowned out by the sound of falling raindrops hitting the glass panels on the roof of the station.

He stepped outside the building and was instantly drenched in rain. Unbothered by the cold rain and miserable weather, Asher walked slowly in silence to his house. His mind was only focused on the mission. His hair drooped and stuck to his forehead as it dripped with water. His clothes turned a shade darker from the wetness. The water had penetrated the soles of his shoes as he stepped into a deep puddle. They squished as they walked to his apartment.

SEKT paid decently; enough for Asher to get a comfortable apartment. The apartment had one bedroom, one kitchen, and one bathroom. The back part of the kitchen served as the living room, which opened into a poorly maintained, overgrown garden.

A lonely silence settled into the house. It truly felt like it was deserted for years. Asher fell flat onto his bed and stared at the ceiling. He hated doing Sigvald’s bidding but he couldn’t afford to disobey him. For the time being, SEKT needed to stay off the radar until the initiation of Phase two. Despite the fact that his apartment was meant to house one person, it felt empty somehow. Asher picked up his link and dialed a number. The line rang for less than a minute before someone picked it up.

“Hello, Emily speaking.”

Asher smiled. Something he rarely did. Even with all the nonsense in my life, she never fails to make me smile every day, he thought.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” she asked.

“Hey, mom. It’s Asher,” he finally said. “How’ve you been?”