●　● New San Mateo, Manila, The Philippines

Marian made it back to her outpost after taking a highly convoluted path back to ensure her tail was clear, breathing out an immense sigh of relief as she stepped out of her truck. Walking towards the hidden clearing where she would once more set up the operations table, she reached over to her earpiece to answer an incoming call. “I’m clear.”

“Everyone is in position. Get eyes on the surroundings and start marking,” Isaiah’s voice could be heard over the in-ear speaker with how silent the vicinity was.

“The new recruits work fast,” Marian spoke in a calmer tone as she began to regain her bearings. She then paused to rethink her order of actions. “I need a minute to get everything set back up. Hold the show for two minutes if you could be so kind.”

“I have to disconnect. Two minutes.”

“Bloody hell,” she chuckled with a hint of nervousness. And as she went to the back of her truck to unload her equipment she would need to set back up, she couldn’t help but think: If this doesn’t work, we’ll be outed for sure. Isaiah, I do hope you realize the stakes here. She dragged the table and briefcase from the back and lugged it toward the clearing as she went over in her head what steps remained in the event things went smoothly, which they never did as of late.

I never did care for all these assassination attempts, but seems this is the only hand we have left with such a short clock.

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●　● Infinity Marikina HQ, Manila, The Philippines

After a few minutes of zoning out throughout the barrage of heated flashbacks from the argument, she rolled over and checked her phone to see nothing. After a roll of her eyes, she then started to dial up her father.

“We’re already calling off your squad,” Al quickly spoke to her as if he could read her mind. “You know we had to monitor the mental state of everyone.”

Something in those first words broke the barrier helping her hold back. It was like an unexpected stab right in the back, and she didn’t even know why when normally she’d be relieved to be taken away from such a mess. “Was this some kind of punishment?!” she started speaking through tears. “You knew this would happen- why not ground the team instead of putting us through that if you had no intent on letting them station us?!”

Al sighed and followed with a pause, knowing the conversation would lead to this. “I needed an excuse to move you to another team, and I knew you all didn’t truly get along which would cause more than a problem if you were to be put into action.”

She clutched her fist refusing to fully lose her battle with keeping it together. “But you brought that bastard back! Why, if you knew!?”

“I didn’t make him come back, nor did I offer anything if he did,” he replied as calmly as he could. “I had to repay his efforts. He walked off at first, then came running back- and I asked why, but he couldn’t give a straight answer. So, since he was wasting my time, I pushed him toward to the briefing room as it was all I could do with him in the way.”

But that doesn’t make any sense! “Dad, he hates my guts, clearly! Of all times, this is not a time to lie for whatever reason it is you have!”

She heard a click, and it came within a thread of her losing her sanity. “Are you fucking hanging up on me?!” But as she pulled her mobile into view, she saw it was still connected. The silence that continued over the next few seconds felt horribly uneasy. “… Dad?”

Sniffling and clearing her nose, she sat upright and took a closer glance at her screen. The call then disconnected with a signal error screen. The data transfer signal also became blank. Her heart began to beat out of her chest on top of her already heightened blood pressure as she clicked on her earpiece to connect her to the emergency line. She waited but never heard a single confirmation tone. Shit! We’re being jammed right here in our own fucking building!

Her first thoughts were to make a run for the hangar, but as she hurriedly walked to the door, a pair of terrible, deafening thuds rocked her to the floor as she screamed out in panic. It only took three seconds to realize the explosions had come from both buildings adjacent to the dorm area.

Dad! He was the first to pop into her fear-grappled mind before she could realize her squad mates may have suffered the same fate. Her mind raced for the two additional seconds she spent standing back up, trying to decide to head left or right out of her door as several alarms started blaring and emergency exit lights started flashing.

She got to the door, opening it to the sound of hollers and calls for others amidst the blaring alarms. But as she began to step out, she suddenly felt exposed and afraid, too afraid to keep moving. She paused in fright, at first confused by the sudden grip it had on her, but then realized what her experiences had taught her by this point: She had nothing to arm herself with.

-*Bzzzt bzzzt*-

The sudden vibrating pattern came from her bag behind her. In her heart she somehow immediately knew it had to be that device Tricky gave her. It drew her nearer faster than a blink, and the second she fished it from within, she clicked it to hear the blip of an established connection in her earpiece.

“Wherever the hell you are, take cover!” shouted Devin’s voice from the other side.

Her heart stopped upon hearing that, and without a second’s doubt she threw herself under the bunk right next to her. A third deafening bang ensued, and it was so close this time she felt something completely knock the air out of her. And that was the last thing she would recall.

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▽　▽　▽

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Isaiah peered out from his truck’s window through his set of oculars, watching over a smaller freighter port as the area buzzed along as it normally would. He then zoomed in to the seas beyond, spotting a pair of container ships on the approach. “Tomorrow looks like a guarantee, now,” he mumbled to himself. He zoomed back out, panning the area as he looked for anything unusual. He reached over to his earpiece and tapped it before speaking: “Inside, scramble code once you reach five hundred meters out. Outside, make sure you re-flash the system once we flip the switch on the grid.” He tapped it once more, leaning back as he let out a tired sigh.

“Isaiah,” the other channel woke up with Marian’s voice. He reached over to his jacket pocket to click on the small device.

“Keep this channel silent until you can confirm kills, Marian, just in case.”

“Listen,” she insisted, though keeping her voice down. “I just now got word from up top. Moles got us intel on that job Forerunning Labs did on the other pieces to Excalibur, and they’re already done and are about to be Earthside way ahead of schedule- they ship out in a few hours.”

“That doesn’t change anything,” he started his rebuttal, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“It does when none of our targets were hit over there at Marakina, mind you,” she curtly responded, ending with a sharper tone. “And your sister and the Colombiano are tagged as the pilots for them.” And she cut back in quickly the second Isaiah attempted to make a retort: “And! There are some Akkadian codes thrown for allowing a non-military transport into the Singapore entry space.” There was a small, heavy silence following that last statement. “Isaiah, Excalibur is moving a bit unlike you predicted, don’t you think? What do you think that transport means if it’s not picking up those Excalibur pieces which are clearly going to change the tide for our entire operation already as it is?”

Isaiah couldn’t help but take a few moments to collect his thoughts as Marian impatiently awaited a response. “Look,” he started with a huff. “I get it, Sam has become more of a threat that even I predicted, and even with their supposed squabbles within the team they still pose an even greater one. But even if our detonations were off by a second, we still have a wave of men on the ground that can at worst buy us enough time. All we need is time to unload and set up the perimeter. Once we get moving full speed, Hexa can’t send their prized possessions into the middle of a hotbed with no receiving party intact.”

“The transport ship-”

“-There’s no possibility for that, not this day and age, Marian,” Isaiah cut her off sharply, hinting he understood what she was implying. “If anything, that transport is attempting to move the pieces to Excalibur under our noses but that won’t matter. It’s too late for them timetable-wise.”

“If this goes to hell, this falls on your shoulders and you know Rex is lying in waiting, waiting just for that- and I really hate saying that myself, but think about this before you pull the trigger on the next phase while we still have time to regroup and rethink our strategy.”

Before Isaiah could respond, she ended the communication link. He put his head against the headrest, closing his eyes as he took in a slow, deep breath before slipping back into thought. Am I overstepping my own limits? he pondered as he crossed his arms. But it shouldn’t matter. The election is soon enough, and nothing will change as long as worst-case the Marakina Base gets flattened. I have too many people within their parliament secured for anything else to go wrong. We just need that convoy to land.

He then opened his eyes, feeling nervous for the first time in a long while, zooming in back over the now-closer freighters, measuring their approaching speed and distance.

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▽　▽　▽

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“Sam!!”

She could’ve sworn she heard someone scream her name. Was it Sebastian? Was it Devin on the line, still? Either way, she couldn’t shake herself fully awake as her ears continued its horrible ringing. Her sense of balance was thrown off as well, unable to focus on pushing away the bunk support that fell just inches short of crushing her, blocking her from rolling back out into the room. Coughing from the dust still flying around her, she now realized how badly her head hurt.

Not this again, she thought to herself as she paused to catch her breath, hoping some semblance of strength would muster itself before trying again to push herself free of the blockage. But once she felt she could see straight enough to focus on finding a spot to get a good push going, she noticed light at her feet. Ah, I can just scootch out of here, hopefully!

It took some time to work herself out of the tight squeeze, and once she was free and able to slowly stand herself up, the sounds of ringing alarms and shouting became more apparent. Were those bombs that went off?! The smell of fire and smoke drew out more coughing as she instinctively put her arm over her mouth, looking to the exit to see the glow of distant fires. She looked up to see smoldering ceiling panels from the floor above, bringing her to the realization the bomb was placed on the floor above, perhaps.

She then thought to approach the hallway slowly, knowing she had to do something. She assumed both her father and her squad mates, if still alive, would be the first to find safety, but she couldn’t leave without seeing that for herself, regardless of the agreement she made earlier. No one said we had to follow protocol while we were on foot. But the second she got to the door, she froze up in fear.

I don’t have a sidearm… nothing… not a single damn thing…