Turning Point

“It doesn’t count if you’re already planning your defeat, you know,” the young woman said. She sat next to me in the truck, picking at her worn-out sweater, one boot on the dash.

“What? What’s that supposed to mean,” I asked, glancing at her for just a second.

“I don’t know, why don’t you tell me,” a hint of exasperation sounded through in her voice. “I’m getting a weird vibe off of you, Hannah. This thing we’re about to do, we’ve been working towards it for months, the plan is good, everyone is prepared, and yet…”

“And yet?” I asked as I kept my face as stoic as possible.

“And yet you seem to feel as if we’re all gonna die tonight,” she continued.

I gritted my teeth. “Sure, sorry I’m not such a naïve little girl that I believe everything always works out for the best.”

“Oh please, don’t give me that bullshit. I know you better than you think.” She waited for me to fill the silence that fell between us, but I didn’t indulge her.

“Stop trying to prove yourself, Hannah,” she continued eventually. I refused to look at her, knowingly pissing her off further. Katya let out a frustrated sigh. “Fine, have it your way, I give up,” and we fell into silence again. 

My left arm twitched involuntarily as my hands gripped the steering wheel, so I adjusted the servos in my elbow slightly. Damn second-gen crap, I really should have this looked at.

In my periphery vision a small icon popped up. I accepted the call and the face of Niko, my second-in-command, appeared on my HUD overlay.

“Commander. We on schedule?” he asked.

“I told you to stop calling me that, Niko,” I replied as I focused on the road.

“Right, keep forgetting that,” he smirked.

“We’re good, timetable hasn’t changed,” I answered him. “Is your team ready?”

“Aye, time to save humanity, I guess,” Niko said with a casual shrug, but I could tell he was tense. I could ask him about it, try to ease his mind. I could tell him this was the right thing to do. I could tell him we were the only ones who could pull this off and we wouldn’t fail. I could tell him all these things, if I believed them myself. Instead, I nodded and said, “Right. No time like the present.”

Nightfall had set in by the time we reached the complex. The rain on the windshield distorted the colors of the city, painting the interior of the truck’s cabin we occupied with dark hues of blue and purple. Looking out the window, I could see the city stretching out in all directions, a melting pot of all of the worst humanity had to offer. Hundreds of neon lights lit up the night, reflecting off the shimmering haze of the gases that were continuously being dumped in order to sustain Earth’s dwindling atmosphere.

In front of us loomed the imposing concrete walls and perimeter fences that surrounded the headquarters of Foster Nucleosystems, the corporation responsible for all of the civilized world’s biotech and pharmaceuticals. 

The truck we were in belonged to one of their affiliated companies, and we hijacked it less than twelve hours ago. It shouldn’t be reported as missing yet, but there was no actual way to be sure of that. Here’s hoping for the best. I glanced to my side as I drove the truck up to one of the service entrances. I glanced at Katya, who had shrunk back into her seat, her eyes fixed on the guard post.

“Try not to freak out,” I whispered. She startled and gave me a quick nod. I brought the truck to a standstill a few metres in front of the iron gate, just as a single guard in gray plascrete body armor came out of the guardhouse. He had an automatic pulse rifle slung over his shoulder. As he walked up to the driver’s side, I could see a second guard through the glass of the guardhouse, checking a viewscreen. Probably already verifying the vehicle registry. Lowering my window, I was greeted with the ever-present sounds of the city drifting in; the rumble of traffic, the hum of industrial plants, the incessant rambling of commercials through countless view screens. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of stale coffee and ozone, undercut by the stubborn odor of sewage. Humanity is breaking down. We herd together in cities, little more than slaves to our base desires. We’ve become blind to the world.

“Shipping manifest and employee ident.” The guard’s voice sounded distorted through his helmet’s voice-box. 

“Hey man, of course,” I said to the guard, swallowing hard and trying my utmost to keep my voice even. I handed him the cards he requested, hoping that the forged ident of the company’s driver was good enough to fool this lowly-educated grunt. He scanned them by waving his interface gauntlet over them, which instantly uploaded all of the information to his HUD.

It only took him a few seconds after which he grunted, “Loading dock 4D, stay on the main thoroughfare.”

“Sure thing, have a nice night.” I got the truck moving again as the iron gate slid open. 

“That went smooth.” Katya cleared her throat as she took off the baseball cap she had on, freeing her wildly colored hair. “See, everything’s aces,”I felt her grinning at me.

My hands tightened on the steering wheel again. Ever the optimist, Katya.

“Niko? We’re inside the perimeter. How you doing?” His face popped up as a holo image in the corner of my hud. He looked at something off to his side before answering me.

“We’re in position commander, just starting to get set up. Be ready for your signal in fifteen,” he sounded businesslike, all trace of the tension I sensed earlier tonight was gone.

“Good. We’re about to head in,” I said as I gave a nod to Katya and severed the call. Katya turned to the panel besides the armored door and plugged a hardwire connection into the socket. The other end she attached to the port located in the base of her skull, causing the circuits on the shaved side of her head to light up as her eyes glazed over.

“This should only take a moment,” she commented. Her voice sounded distant and distracted, as her mind was busy circumventing the virtual defenses that kept the facility secure. She had barely finished her sentence, as the control panel lit up green and a mechanical thunk announced the door’s locking mechanism disengaging.

I pushed past Katya as she yanked the hardwire out of her head and entered the building as I pulled my .44 MN Shyreng handgun out of its holster.

“Gee Katya, good job, you sure are pretty awesome,” I heard Katya mutter under her breath as she fell in step behind me. 

“Let’s go, we’ve only got fifteen minutes,” I told her.

“Right behind you, commander,” she said, and I couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic. The hallway we were moving through was empty and the only sound was made by our footsteps. The walls and floor were a pale grey, lit by fluorescent ceiling lights. I brought up the facility blueprints on my hud to make sure we were going the correct way. Left at the end of the corridor and we should reach a service elevator that goes up to the office floors.

I increased my pace as I tried to control my heart rate and breathing, but glancing at my HUD, my vitals seemed perfectly normal. 

“Shit, Hannah, hold up!” Katya hissed at me, and the urgency in her tone stopped me in my tracks. I looked behind me as she was tapping away at a visual interface only she could see through her retinal implant. “Security cameras ahead, give me a sec. I’m gonna pull them into a Q-loop, should just come up as a glitch in their software.”

“Spare me the technicalities, just hurry up,” I said as I checked the time.

A few moments later Katya sighed, “Sure, done.”

We continued on through the spartan corridors, and reached a large cargo elevator before long. After getting in, I tapped the button that said ‘6’, which was as high as this one went. It shook for a second, and started ascending silently.

“I’m glad you’re here, you know,” I said, staring straight ahead. I could feel Katya raise her eyebrows at me. “You’ve been very efficient and professional, and I wouldn’t be here without you, so thank you. I know I haven’t told you that as much as I should have.”

“Or at all, for that matter,” Katya replied, “But thanks. I appreciate it,” she said with a small smile.

A few minutes later we were hustling through empty offices, my military training kicking in as we moved to the executive elevator in the back of the R&D department. That one should be able to take us straight to the 82nd floor, and our target. All of a sudden I heard a door shut, and quickly ducked down behind a desk. A few seconds later I saw a pair of flashlights sweep across the office floor. I glanced at Katya who was inching away under another desk a few meters away, her eyes wide and fearful. I pressed my index finger to my lips, urging her to be quiet. I peeked over the desk, my eyes darting from left to right quickly. Two guards, armed, but doesn’t seem like they got armor on.

I motioned to Katya to hold her position, and snuck away through the darkened office, and trailed a wide circle around the closest guard. They had split up by now, which made what I had to do a lot easier. Once I was within striking distance of the first guard, I allowed my old instincts to take over as I grabbed him from behind with my cyberarm, the strong fingers gripping his throat and crushing his trachea before he could make a sound. I let the lifeless body drop to the ground with a loud thud, causing the second guard to swivel and call out with a gruff voice, “Hey!” 

But I already had my gun aimed at him, and pumped four rounds into his chest before he had the chance to raise his rifle. He was dead before he hit the floor.

“Holy fucking shitballs, you don’t mess around do you?” Katya crawled out from her hiding place as she stared wide-eyed from one dead guard to another.

“Sorry, I couldn’t let them catch us up here.”

Katya swallowed, “Yeah I know, no worries, it’s possible I wasn’t quick enough shutting down those cameras earlier, or maybe we tripped some kind of silent alarm.” She tapped a few keys on her interface. “Either way, it’d probably be smart to hurry along.”

We quickly made our way to the elevator, and Katya got to work on unlocking and bypassing the security protocols. I took a second to reload my gun and called Niko.

“Hey, what’s the news,” he asked as his face appeared.

“Almost there, Katya is hacking the exec elevator. You guys done?”

“Five by five. Charges are set and we’re already on our way out. No troubles?” Niko asked.

“Ran across a few guards, had to take them out. Not sure if anyone else knows we’re here.”

Niko nodded. “Okay. Good luck. Call if you want it done, we’re all behind you. And Hannah, be safe,” he said as his image winked out.

Katya stood up as she unplugged, and the elevator started moving. I readied my gun as she looked at me nervously. We stood side by side in silence, the elevator taking us all the way up to Zuco Foster’s living quarters, CEO and lead scientist of Foster Nucleosystems, the company that was supposed to be saving the world. 

We exited the elevator and stepped out into a luxurious penthouse, all polished marble and floor-to-ceiling glass panes that looked out on the world below. A massive fireplace dominated one wall, in front of which were a set of expensive-looking lounge chairs arranged atop a lush carpet. In one of them, a man sat dressed in a night robe. With brown slicked back hair and a clean-shaven face, his age was hard to pin down. His mechanical eyes focused on me as he got up and stared out sharply at this intrusion of his private nirvana.

“Who do you think you are, barging into my home like this? You must be aware I’ll have an entire squad of my troops up here in-”

“Katya,” I interrupted him sharply.

“Right,” my companion said as she aimed a device at Foster and tapped a button. Instantly, he shrieked and dropped to the floor on his knees, clutching at his temples.

“Wha- what,” he croaked, as a tiny trickle of blood ran from his nose.

“Neat huh,” Katya beamed. “It’s a device of my own design, I call it a skull scrambler. Cheesy I know, but I’m a sucker for alliteration.”

“What did you - can’t think,” Foster moaned as he managed to pull himself up against the chair in a sitting position.

“It uses a trypano subroutine bandwidth to scramble all of your biomechanical and cybernetic components, forcing a hard reset. You’ll be fine again in half an hour, give or take,” she grinned proudly. I let Katya have her moment as I walked calmly up to the man, grabbing a chair on the way, and sat myself down near him.

“Now, Mr. Foster, while I have your undivided attention, let’s get right down to business. My name is Hannah Walsh, and we are here to end the grip you have on humanity,” I explained to him as calmly as I could muster.

“W-what?” He stammered as he tried to focus.

“For the past two decades, you and your company have been working on a solution for the zero population growth due to people not being able to conceive after getting hit with all that radiation from outer space,” I explained. “Or at least, that’s what your PR department claims in all the newsfeeds.”

“Ah yes, well, we’re on the verge of a breakthrough there actually, and in the meantime, our cloning program will be able to keep-” Foster began. I interrupted him by grabbing his jaw roughly.

“Don’t spout your corporate bullshit at me. You piss away your time up here in your personal little heaven, earning trillions every year off those clones. Humanity has enslaved itself to little turds like you through capitalism and the abandonment of everything that could be called common sense,” I all but growled at him. His pained expression made me realize I was almost crushing his jaw, and I let go. He tried crawling away, but I overthrew the chair, blocking his path.

“The only reason you haven’t released your research is the fact that it would plummet your company stock and make your clones obsolete, since the government would force you to distribute it for free,” I said to him. Foster groaned as he clutched his jaw. I established a connection to Niko as I felt Katya’s gaze on me.

“Hannah, are you sure we-,” she began.

“Niko, do it,” I said as soon as his image popped up, cutting off Katya’s concerns.

Before anyone could react, an gigantic explosion could be heard outside.

“Foster’s eyes went wide in disbelief. “What was that, what have you done?!”

“That was your cloning facility that we just blew sky high. Humanity won’t be able to rely on that crutch anymore,” I answered his question with more than a little satisfaction.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Katya interceded, “You’re going to give us your research right now. All of it. We’re going to share it with the world, I’m sure there are other scientists who would jump at the chance to finish your work and make a name for themselves.”

Foster chuckled as he spit on the floor. “I don’t negotiate with terrorists. The only copy of my research is in here,” he said, tapping his forehead. “Encrypted on a Chem-7 brainchip, and any tampering will wipe it clean,” he coughed. “My work is my own, and nothing you can say or do would get me to share it with you cretins,” he sneered at me.

“Thanks, don’t really need to know more,” I said, aiming my gun at his head. The shot echoed across the cold marble penthouse, a deafening end to this night. Zuco Foster’s blood splattered against the furniture and the pristine carpet, his face locked in an expression of shocked surprise as he died, along with his legacy.

“What the fuck?!” Katya yelled. She stared at me, her mouth agape. “What the fuck?!” She repeated. 

“Sorry Katya, but this is the way it had to be.” I holstered my gun as I turned to her. “I feel we no longer deserve our redemption. Mankind has doomed itself.”

Katya sank to her knees, her face streaked with tears. “Mankind? No, you have doomed us! He- I know he was a bastard but he could have saved us!”

“We are beyond saving, Katya. This planet is slowly dying, and we along with it. Humans are selfish, and we deserve no better,” I said sadly. “Humanity needs to take a step back and take a look at the big picture if we ever want to survive as a species. Now begins our greatest challenge. We can no longer rely on the fake supremacy of our elite to save us. Maybe now the human race will finally wake from their torpor caused by mindless consumerism.” I looked at her as she stared up at me, unbelieving. “I know you’ve always seen the best in all of us.”

I reached out a hand to help her up, asking, “Want to try and prove me wrong?”