Blackout

She reached the base of the access stairs and looked for the access panel. Her role in the operation was simple compared to most of the others. After the halo drop, she had made her way to the main power station, where she would wait for Thrasher’s program to let her disable power to the entire complex. Once both Thrasher and Whydah had secured the data they were here for, she would plunge the base into darkness and the team would escape without casualties.

The panel opened easy enough, but before starting her role she used her night vision glasses to find the main maintenance door. One twisted pipe later, the door was braced from any sudden intrusion.

She set down her pack and pulled out one of the pistols and her tablet. The tablet lit up as soon as the wires were connected. Thrasher’ program was already consuming the system. She started keying in the shutdown sequence. Everything was going according to the plan.

She saw a few random codes go out. Most she recognized as encrypted orders, something the hackers would have a field day with. Others were simple commands. One caught her attention: Stardust.

Interesting name.

“Cardinal to Tanager, status.”

Tanager put a hand to her earpiece. “In the vault, awaiting confirmation on data retrieval.”

“Understood, Tanager.” That was Bunting, the XO for the operation and Tanager’s former mentor. That he had replied to the open comm was another reassurance that everything was according to plan. He would soon switch to receiving only to listen for any last-second hiccups.

“How’s Whydah doing?” she asked quickly before he signed off.

“Using his sharp eye.” Bunting replied. “He found a second data server that he’s trying to access.”

“Understood.” Tanager smiled. Though he was the newest member of the team, Whydah had fit in quickly. While he wasn’t up to Thrasher’s skill in hacking, the young man was the likely candidate for tackling a target of opportunity.

At least if he were caught, he’d have little to say. He hadn’t even seen Eden Base yet. Or Syreen.

She’d promised she would show him her home when the war ended.

Not now. “Cardinal, make sure he knows that we are t-minus four minutes to blackout.”

“Copy.” Only Cardinal had full comms access during an operation. That way if anyone got caught, it would only trace to him. No one ever knew where Cardinal was during an operation. Fitting for a former member of the Spectre Corp.

Tanager turned to her tablet and looked over the sequences. Thrasher’s program had reached 92% of the grid. Once she triggered the shutdown, power would be lost to nearly the entire facility. Only a few facilities were untouched by the code. Concerningly, these included the north auto turret command center.

Right along our primary escape route. Her eyes dropped to the extraction diagram. A helo was marked for extraction and Bunting would already be joining the heavy units inside. They would escape to the south once the lights turned off. She, Thrasher, and Whydah would make their way north or west with hard copies of the intel. Satellite downloading had been difficult to send securely as of late.

The number refused to rise and she checked the watch again. T-minus three minutes. When she looked back, the percentage had decreased. The western auto turrets were now coming back online!

“Cardinal, western turrets are back online.” She tried to report calmly. “Someone’s combating Thrasher’s program.”

“Understood, Tanager. Stand by.” Her heart beat loudly several times. No one had caught Thrasher yet. His skills were infallible.

Still, there was a way to reach the western extraction point. If she were to follow -

A message took over her screen. “GOODBYE, TANAGER.”

Tanager stared at the message for a moment. It felt like an eternity. Not only had they been discovered, but whoever it was knew her signal. That could only mean one thing: a traitor!

She frantically started the shutdown sequence. “Cardinal, Code Black! We’ve been had!”

It was only a moment before she heard Cardinal on the open frequency. “All units: exfil now!”

Tanager turned back to her screen, then her ears heard the sound of boots on metal. They’re close. “Preparing to drop the grid.” She called over the open comms. “Good luck.”

Voice called out behind the maintenance door as she keyed in the final code. The door moved a crack before the brace caught it. The metal rattled each time guards tried to force it open. A worthless glance told her that the brace was failing, but she’d lost that moment to finish the sequence.

The brace failed. The door swung open.

She disconnected, grabbed her pack, and leapt to the side.

The already dark accessway went completely black for a moment, but then it came alive in a flashing storm of bullets. Many missed her by slim margins, but she had survived unscathed. She pulled down her night vision glasses from the cover of a beam and took a worried glance. At least a dozen shapes were moving towards her. The guards didn’t have vision glasses, but they didn’t turn on their flashlights either. Instead, they stared down their sights and scanned the room.

Thermal or night vision sights. Tanager sorely hoped for the latter and pulled out her pistol. She was the only thermal signature in the enclosure. Still…

She reached into her pack, feeling for the right cylinder. Once she found it, she quickly pulled the pin and tossed it into the midst of the guards. Then she closed her eyes and covered her ears.

The moment the flashbang went off, she sprang into action. She fired three times, downing a man with each shot. Then she threw the pistol past the guards as her hand caught the ladder. The pistol clattered out the door, and even in their haze the guard heard the noise and fired towards it.

She continued to climb silently as the guards started to chase her phantom. By the time they had discovered her ruse and were shooting at the ladder, she was closing the hatch.

Taking her spare pistol from the pack, she made a quick scan of the scene. Vehicles and men were hurrying around, and several helos were already airborne. She checked if Bunting’s had taken off. 

No word. “Bunting, what’s your status?”

Nothing. Not even static. “Cardinal, status?”

Still nothing. She looked down to her receiver, and her heart sank. At least one bullet had wrecked the receiver. By its angle, the bullet would have drilled her hip had the receiver not been there. She was alive, but she was deaf.

Tanager got off the roof as quickly as she could, then she hurried to the back of a moving jeep and jumped onto its bumper. Several others were also hanging off the back with her. “Where are the other intruders?” she asked them.

“Sounds like most of the remaining ones are in the lab.” the nearest guard said. “Some made for the airfield, but we got their leader pinned by the north wall.”

Cardinal’s been sighted? If it were true, then the traitor had to be someone on the team itself.

“You guys got the birds in the station?” the guard asked her.

She shook her head. “They slipped onto the roof. I couldn’t get a shot off.”

“Fine by me.” another replied. “That Tanager is supposed to be quite the looker. I’d like to be one of the ones interrogating her before the Bureau comes for her.”

“I’m sure you would.” Tanager replied. Not the first time she’d heard that sentiment, but never in the middle of an active area of operation.

An explosion roared overhead. “LOOK OUT!”

Tanager looked up to see a ball of fiery metal falling towards them. She leapt from the back and rolled. The guards hanging on beside her jumped as well, but those in the jeep were crushed before they could escape the crashing helo.

The impact rang in her ears, but she got to her feet quickly and gazed at the inferno. One body had been thrown clear. Though their face was charred beyond recognition, she saw the patch of Eden on the agent’s shoulder.

“Where’d that come from?” one of the guards asked. Tanager turned to see three rising from their tumble, and she could hear footsteps behind her.

“That guy’s a Mornovian! See his patch.”

Tanager then caught the look in one of the guards eyes, the look of one connecting the dots. She heard someone else yell, “Tanager!”, before she fired. All three guards fell without a shot.

She turned to fire at the guards behind her, shots coming from her left as she did. There was only one guard left, slumping to his knees. The others were dead on the floor.

Tanager looked in the direction of the shots. She recognized Whydah at once, his black coat stylized with the shin-length tails reminiscent of his codename. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“They got the others in the lab.” Whydah replied sternly as he hurriedly holstered his pistol and grabbed two of the assault rifles, tossing the first one to her. “Thrasher isn’t responding to my calls. I was worried when you weren’t either and went to find you.”

“A stray bullet hit my receiver.” Tanager said. Whydah wasn’t normally so serious, even in such a circumstance. “Any word from Cardinal?”

“He made it out, though he’s drawing them to the south. An ARCAPES wing is nearby and will provide cover if we get to our extraction point in the north.”

She felt a glimmer of hope. “Which recon squad is in the ARCAPES?”

Whydah finished his own inspection and put a hand to his ear. “Cardinal, this is Whydah. I’ve located Tanager and we are exfiltrating. Which squads are we looking for?” He waited for the reply. “Understood.” He turned to her with a slight grin. “You knew the Five-Tenth was nearby, didn’t you?”

“I’d heard they were in the area.” She replied.

“From Peregrine, right?” Whydah’s grin widened as he mentioned the ARC flier. “We might just get out of this after all.” He handed her a flashdrive. “I made two hard copies of the data. Best that we each take one.”

“Anything useful?”

“Blue Streaks with nuclear warheads are ready to launch from Sarahela.” Whydah replied, his voice deathly serious. “I wasn’t able to verify the targets though.”

Oh my God! “Then let’s hurry.” Tanager replied with false calm as she took the lead. She went west, using the dry drainage bed that she had seen before the message had appeared. The two hurried as quickly and unassumingly as they could.

She thought about Whydah’s discovery. There was little wonder why his jovial nature had vanished. If ever there was a missile to be feared, the Blue Streak was Etreia’s candidate. Few things were faster in the sky, and only a railgun or a top rate ARC flier could pose a real threat to shooting one down. To add a nuke, though? Etreia must be getting desperate.

She could think of a half dozen coalition cities that they could strike with ease from Sarahela; beautiful Katlov in Mornovia, her home city of Syreen in far Atlanae, the feisty city-state of Midia, even Eden Base. All of them could be destroyed if the defense networks failed to stop the missiles.

They reached the west wall without further incident. An electric grate had dropped to guard the drainage exit, but with the power dead they made quick work of it. Then they were in the clear.

They were about to lose sight of the west wall when a bullet struck Whydah and he fell. Tanager turned and fired a burst at the perpetrator. He fell from view with at least two shots to the chest. She hit all four of his friends when they tried to return fire.

Tanager turned to Whydah. He wasn’t moving and a pool of blood was forming under his head.

“Amare!” She cried his name as she hurried beside him. He couldn’t die yet. Not when they were so close.

She gently lifted his head. Her fingers felt the wound. It was long and gushing bloody as any head wound, but the bullet hadn’t breached his skull.

Tanager sighed in relief, then called in as she tore off a sleeve to wrap the wound. “Cardinal, Whydah’s hit. I need extraction on my location ASAP.”

“They’re on their way. Command needs that data. Hold tight.”

“Understood.” She lifted Whydah and carried him behind a fallen tree that might provide some cover. For a few tense minutes she watched for any more guards, hoping that Peregrine and the Five-Tenth would rescue them quickly.

Then she heard a noise from behind them. She turned her gun towards the sound, then lowered it when she saw the familiar face.

“Thrasher, -” Tanager exclaimed, until she saw the hacker lift the gun towards them. It all clicked. “You?”

“I must say that I’m impressed that you still got the power off in time.” Thrasher said as he slowly walked to her. “The Kingdom could have used you.”

“Why?” she pleaded. “Why would you betray us when Etreia is about to-”

“Because I am Etreian. That orphan story was a pleasant fantasy to play your emotions.”

“But you’ve killed thousands of your own people!”

“And over twenty times that of yours. Now it all will end with the destruction of your ‘great’ coalition and her cities.”

“What about the defense networks?”

“What about ‘em? You saw the signal of my masterpiece, yes? Stardust? It shut down the defense grids. Everything lost power. Even if your home countries tried to surrender, they wouldn’t be able to send the signal.”

“You’re a madman!” Tanager exclaimed. “All those people will die!”

“It will save far more in the end.” Thrasher said matter of factly. “I can assure you of that. No one will have the stomach to fight us after that slaughter. As for you, there are no units near enough to save you, and no one near enough to stop the launch, so I’ll give you one chance to save Whydah’s life. Surrender.”

“Never.” Whydah’s faint voice croaked. Tanager looked down to him as he slowly tried to rise. For a moment, she could only sense the joy that he was alive.

“A pity.” Thrasher said, and as Tanager turned back to him, she saw the barrel level on Whydah.

“NO!”

It was a booming voice, one projected from wingsuit’s crowd control speaker. As they all turned up to it, a flash of wings zoomed out of the darkness and struck the ground. Thrasher cried out as he was crushed by an ARC suit, and before he could say anything coherent a plasma bolt fired.

The ARC turned around as more wingsuits landed, others flying south to hopefully find Cardinal. “You alright, Beth?” Peregrine asked.

She nodded. “Just in time, Felix.”

“Keep the formalities, you two.” Highwire commanded as his Jaeger heavy combat suit landed.

“Those are some nasty wounds.” Cloudstreak said as she knelt beside them. The ARC then extended her plasma caster and held it to Tanager’s arm. Tanager gritted her teeth as the searing heat sealed the wound. “That should work until we return to base.”

“There’s no time!” Whydah said as another Jaeger treated his head wound more gently. “Etreia is preparing to launch nuclear-tipped Blue Streaks.”

“Where?” Peregrine replied quickly, his wingsuit already humming.

“Cardinal said you have the launch data.” Jaeger said.

They both handed him their drives. “These have all that we were able to collect.”

“It’ll have to be enough.” Highwire inserted the drives into his suit and began uploading the data to Command.

Tanager turned to Peregrine. “I’m glad you were in the area.”

She heard his brief laugh. He was trying to stay calm while they waited for orders. “I’m glad you caught on to the turncoat’s scheme when you did.”

“I wish I’d caught him sooner.”

“I know.” Peregrine replied somberly. “At least you’re safe.”

“Any word on the Blue Streaks?” Whydah interjected.

“Command has a preliminary on it.” Highwire stated. His suit started to hum. “They want us to scramble now.”

“No support, I take it?” Peregrine asked as though he was certain there would be none.

“Correct. The Five-Tenth and the Hundred-n-Third will destroy the missile silos while the Four-Fifteenth extracts the agents.”

“Then let’s scramble.” Peregrine said as he launched into the air. Falcon was quick behind him, as were the others from their squads.

Highwire turned to Whydah’s medic. “You have command, Redfin.”

“Understood. We’ll get the survivors home.” he said, then he took Whydah in his arms and flew off with his Jaegers.

“Tanager.”

She turned to see Highwire and Cloudstreak lifting their visors. “Anything you want us to tell Felix?”

She paused as another Jaeger came to carry her off. “Tell him to stop the Blue Streaks.”

The two shared a look. “Anything else?” Cloudstreak asked.

“If you fail, there may not be anything else. I’ll talk with him once you’ve succeeded.”

Cloudstreak started to press her further, but Highwire cut her off. “I’m sure he’ll understand that. You did well to get the intel for us. We’ll see that it isn’t wasted.” The two then took off in pursuit of their commands.

Tanager turned to the remaining Jaeger. “Ready when you are, Flashback.”

Flashback laughed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I hope this is the last time I have to carry you out of an active AO.”

She smiled, put her arms around his neck, and then they took off. The support helo for the Four-Fifteenth had ventured close enough for a fairly quick dropoff, but the entire flight she noticed neither the chill of the air nor the chatter between the Jaeger team. Her mind was on the ARC going after the missiles.

Godspeed, Peregrine.