“You saw those two men earlier, I assume?” she was quick to respond in confidence. “We have three more ready to move.”

“Well, that was quick.”

“It was hard finding motivated men, but we did, and now we are back in business.”

“Last question for me,” Tamaz spoke up, leaning forward as he stared back at Isaiah as if to read his response before asking. “And I only want a yes or no. Tyrus doesn’t have a single word on this move, yet, and I have freedom to use lethal force if I see any of those four pilots you mentioned, especially your little unfortunate sister of yours.”

Isaiah felt the steadily chilling tone from his partner. This is, in the end, what I have brought about, and what she herself has brought on her own. But with my failure to reclaim any meaning to Elias’s death that day, Tamaz, it is only you who I would not despise if you do what I had failed to do. With that thought, he offered a nod in response, free of any hesitation or shifting of his eyes.

“Well, then,” Marian chimed back in. “Let’s begin explaining what you are to do.”

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Kerry’s car had pulled up late that evening to what was the first major casino resort that Sam had laid eyes on. The lights alone already had her mesmerized, and the surrounding high-rises each had matching colored markings and advertisements of the same scheme, making it apparent how ritzy that specific area was. But everything else paled in comparison to the casino complex’s monstrous central building, and it was in such stark contrast already to the area which she had left, leaving her to question in her mind if they were still in the same city. After pulling around to their eventual stop inside the parking garage where they met a valet stand, the two stepped out, revealing matching one-sleeve dresses in half piano-black, half sequined-silver layouts along with matching bags branded by a major internationally recognized fashion designer.

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After passing through several gated entrances, all with her following close behind Kerry, they finally reached the entrance to the club where they found their place in line.

“I haven’t been to anything this big of a deal since… I don’t even think I have!” Sam shouted from behind her, still unable to catch her breath from the excitement and awe.

“You don’t get exclusive places of this size or name over in those tin cans up in Space,” Kerry joked back as she started looking around. “Hold on, one second!” Wide-eyed, she snatched her mobile from her purse and began motioning it towards the couple standing next to them in line. “Excuse me! Can you please take our picture!?” As the young man nodded with a smile, he took the unlocked device which already had the camera function opened as he started to aim it.

I just realized that this is the first person on Earth wanting to take a picture with me, Sam incidentally thought as Kerry backed up, standing right next to her as she held up a hand. I don’t even know what to… The mobile then flashed, cutting off her thoughts as she pulled off what awkward pose she could in the limited time available.

“Thank you so much!!” Kerry shouted with glee, quickly returning to her side, standing up against her as she held her mobile close. “Let me send this to you! Look at how good we look! You gonna post this, right?!”

She had been doing well, she thought, staying away from most of her social media all this time. But the split second she heard that, combined with the excitement from the air and the sounds coming from the club, old memories and vibes came back too strong to fight it off. A wide grin broke out as she stuck her hand out giddily. “Wait, you’ve got to play around with it, first! You don’t realize I haven’t posted a night out with a girl friend in so~o long so it has to look perfect!”

“You right!” Kerry beamed back, leaning further into her as she watched Sam fly through the filter settings and other adjustments.

As they slowly shuffled towards the entrance, Sam, too, could feel Kerry must have been in the same boat.

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Back near Quezon Memorial Circle, the chants and megaphones had gotten much louder as the evening burned on. Andre, who had by now began to grow bored, must have seen the same pickets and the same banners circling around him more than a dozen times. His arms were folded across his chest, he was fully leaned into his seat-back, and his helmet straps were unbuckled.

“Units 1 and 2,” a soft voice called out over their radio, lightly shaking him from his zoned-out state. “Relocate to sector C northeast to join Unit 4. Reports of approaching explosives markers on foot. Alert level 2.”

Oh boy. Andre didn’t seem too alarmed by the smaller scale alert, gladly accepting the status as looking out for an RPG at worst. His hands reached for his helmet buckle to fasten them, eyeing his radar screen in the meantime. “Huh, I guess they must be aiming for the ringleader up top of the circle. Easy pickings,” he mumbled to himself, now with both hands on the controls. He could now see the others beginning to move around him, watching his whole crew of six taking an almost leisurely pace up the circle as they kept between the waves of traffic, caution lights atop their right shoulder armor flashing brightly.

He cleared his throat to break the silence that ensued the order. “Hey, Yanga.”

…

His Ai20 was rolling steadily along behind Devin’s Ai20 at a pace of 15 km/hr. but as the seconds passed, he never did get his answer. “Yanga,” he called out again; perhaps he wasn’t saying it loud enough earlier. “Hey man, you hearing me?” A cold shiver ran down his spine. The night Dhaka’s Tejgaon base fell was the first and only experience he had where every radio fell silent, and it was an unforgettable one.

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●　● Akkadia One, Eden Space Territories

[Something’s not right here,] Sebastian pondered, eyes closed, sprawled out on his bed. His right hand still loosely held onto his mobile which was left on the message history between him and Sam. The last message read “Hey, can we talk sometime tonight?”, and it remained “unread” for the past 55 minutes. His mind wandered through several possibilities he dreamed up in his head, ranging from her being angry with him and giving him the silent treatment to wilder ones like her being engaged in combat against foes too tough or too numerous. Head shaking after each thought popped up, moving from one to another, he finally grew tired of it all, sitting back upright, mobile back to its home screen.

[But I don’t even care to read the news much anymore. Something’s just not right…]

He continued to blankly stare at the soft glow of the home screen, his mind wandering off once more.

[I need someone to talk to.]

His thumb then flicked up the contact list as he pulled up Danielle’s number.

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●　● Manila, The Philippines

As the pack of Ai20’s lumbered through traffic, Andre caught sight of a woman waving her mobile in confusion to someone down the sidewalk from her. Looking to who she was waving it at, he saw more doing the same. Cell phones are out. That’s what I thought.

He knew what to do now, and through his stomach-gripping nervousness that set on rapidly, he toggled through his communication settings to switch his radio to LOS (line of sight) direct communications. Devin’s Ai20 lit up yellow as he cleared his throat once more before speaking: “Yanga!”

Devin was tuned into something going through his head when he heard “Yanga!” shouted unexpectedly, accompanied by a flashing yellow LOS marker on-screen. The shout startled him as he jumped in his seat, feeling a cold rush up his spine. Words were oddly difficult to come by for someone who spoke so easily before. “Nguyen, w-what’s going on? Why are you on an LOS line?”

“Dude! Fucking jammers are up, can’t you tell!?” Andre fussed back as he shook his head in disbelief. Are you serious? Do these guys not know the protocol- I mean, shit! Radar… the explosives and L-trackers are all offline, AND the updates show a stoppage in connection! He opened up lines with the rest of the crew nearby as he took in another breath, feeling the added weight of having to potentially take charge over what seemed to be an entirely unacceptable level of unawareness. “Keep moving, let me in front, and stick to LOS comms for now! All tracking is down! Switch to live rounds and use manual aiming- only shoot if I give the command!”

“Nguyen, right?” one voice came in from a younger male in the Ai20 just behind him. “Please, take the lead! We didn’t sign up for whatever this is! Except for cameras we got nothing working!!”

Andre heard the heavy uneasiness in the young man’s voice, feeling even more as if he had no choice but to continue his push. “Yanga, you OK with the change in plans?”

…

“Yanga!” he continued in frustration. “Don’t do this to me, man! You leavin’ me no choice!” He sped up just a touch more to squeeze in between a small freight truck and Devin’s Ai20, taking physical lead of the pack. I fucking swear! Was he really this group’s leader this whole half a year?! Seems no better off than a rookie – blind leading the blind!

His fingers then toggled through more settings with increased haste and irritation. Come on, I know you’re in here somewhere he thought as he furiously dug around for alternative L-tracker settings, scared to lose the only eyes left he might have with radar down. His mind also carried back the memory of Gabriel’s drone that provided life-saving real-time data, realizing this is what doesn’t come to such low priority duty posts.

Damn… at this rate, let’s hope one of these guys knows more what they’re doing. “Hey, one of you work out some way to get a hold of base while I figure out a way to get our tracking back up!”

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“Woah!” Sam shouted through the blaring music in awe of the scene in front of her as they entered the main area of the club. “I remember hearing about places kind of like this being on Earth! Crazy seeing it in person- this sort of setup is impossible in Space!”

“Come on, let’s get sat and our drinks ordered!” Kerry shouted back as she led the two of them through the crowd and the lights. As soon as they found their first empty table, Kerry wasted no time tossing her purse down as she swiped open the drink menu. “Let me get us the first round!”

“Awesome, you do that! I need to post that picture real quick while you do that!” Sam finally took out her mobile for the first time since arriving, noting the transferred picture file from Kerry’s phone but only just before noticing three other notifications. Messages from Daja, Dad, … and Sebastian? Hesitation kicked in the second she saw his name, but it only lasted a few seconds before hearing Kerry’s excitement upon hearing one of her favorite songs starting up. Right! Let me post this, first! Not ruining my mood just yet! She attempted to bury the notion he was sending something more along the lines of breakup material, fears that had started to crop up the longer their message silence dragged on. Once she had her caption typed in for the picture and hit the upload button, that was the end of it; the mobile hit the tabletop face down. “You got us something good, right?!” she shouted out with a returning smile, albeit pulling traces of guilt along with it.

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Andre finally spotted the intersection that would lead them off of Memorial Circle and onto a path that, according to their maps, would lead them to the last located presence of the approaching threat. As he took a right onto Visayas Avenue, something had him pause his progress, sidestepping to get out of the way of traffic. He stared down a long stretch of road that was barely visible through the tree cover and lower than usual hanging power lines. “Uh, I got our L-Trackers up, but no one with any luck with the comms?” If we can’t move safely forward AND we got no eyes…

“Working on it!” the younger pilot from earlier quickly responded.

At least he’s trying. Why the hell isn’t Yanga saying anything during all this?! “Alright, let’s hold up here while I get the explosives detection settings fixed up as well. We can’t just walk into an obvious trap like this.”

“Hey, Nguyen,” he heard Devin finally speak up, drawing an eye roll as his impatience continued to mount up. “Uh, pretty sure the bigger trap is just sitting here like ducks. Team, let’s keep moving.”

“Wait, hold on!” “Are you sure?” the younger pilots both spoke up in evident doubt, almost as if to show favoritism already for Andre on his first rotation out.

Andre shook his head, feeling the ambushes and traps given and received over the past months back in Dhaka. He normally was fine taking a seat back to Kerry during that time, and even for Sebastian during their last full sortie, but this time something was building up rapidly deep down. It might be stupid of me for doing this, and I might pay for this big time later on, but damn it something just reeks real bad right now, and NO way I let some wishy-washy motherfucker lead us into something. He took in a deep breath, regaining focus back on his current task of reconfiguring the explosives detection. “Knock yourself out, bro.” He left his mic on as he pushed the remaining breath in him out as a sigh. A petty move, he was very aware, but he had no other choice in his mind.

Devin’s Ai20 had already begun its cautious advance, ducking the tree cover as traffic drove around him. “I was wrong about you,” he spoke back with apparent disdain. “You should’ve stayed at base, but whatever. You do what suits you because we won’t be held responsible.”

Some time passed before he too stopped in his tracks momentarily, noticing he didn’t hear the footsteps of the other two’s LTACs. “Timbol, Bautista, let’s move!”

“We aren’t getting anywhere blind, Yanga! Sorry!” one had replied as Andre couldn’t help but notice both of their LTACs remained parked to either side of him.

Devin held in a stronger response, taking in a breath before replying more calmly: “When I join up with the other units, sweep up, and get back to base later on, I am filing for your misconduct. All three of you.” He then started back his pace up the street with no one following.

The comment hurt Andre, even on the surface it was clear, but something in his conscience continued to dig away, preventing him from further commenting. So much for trying to make new friends on the new job… I hope I’m not blowing this, but man…

“-I got it!” the man next to him interrupted his thoughts. “I don’t know what jamming this is but it isn’t disrupting visuals, right?”

The proverbial light went off inside Andre’s head the instant he heard his remark, wasting no time utilizing their efforts. “Morse code! Sounds insane enough to work! More the reason to hold tight- wait!” I forgot about possible threats approaching. Nothing on the L-Trackers within the immediate vicinity… “Timbol, set your lights for an S.O.S. call ‘EYE IN THE SKY’ for me, will ya? I will keep my eyes on the tracker.”

“Eye in the sky?” he questioned back, clearly never having heard or used such terminology before.

“That’s a code word for our… um… ‘special’ surveillance satellite ops.” Though I need to watch how I speak sometimes. If it wasn’t for Sebastian and Sam talking about that incident, I wouldn’t have a freaking clue. He thought up the best, shortest explanation while keeping an eye on the silent L-Tracker screen. “I don’t have any experience with them necessarily, but if we get one up for us, we can use laser communication lines to basically open up everything possible even with all this jamming.”

“Is that allowed? Sounds like something for the military only.”

“You’re right, but, seems like we get clearance when crazy shit like this goes down because, you know, jamming not just ours but civilian wireless signals is already highly, highly illegal.” He then noticed the lights on his teammate’s shoulder flashing Morse code. “Thanks, man, I see you got it. Let’s all back up out of the tree cover and let’s just pray it reaches Space.”