It was that dream again, an anomaly imprinted in her system, leaving strange signals in her senses each time it came to her sleep. Lieutenant Mist had never told anyone about it, not even her captain. She was confident she could keep it to herself, just as she had never allowed it to interfere with her duties.
There was still a ringing pain when she woke in the cockpit, just as the dashboard alarm blared. She reached out and barely managed to shut it off, with her arms still limp from sleep. In the silence that followed, she waited for the haze in her head to clear. When it finally did, she could just make out the lifeless scape of ruins through the cockpit window.
Thick dust blew off the buildings, walls chipped away, rebars visible like exposed bones, as her Gray Dove hovered above.
"Reaching marked perimeter: 100 meters ahead," the control panel announced. The screen flashed the location where the Dream-Unit remains should be. Her mission was simple: confirm their termination.
"Execute docking descent," she ordered, and the yellow button blinked in response.
Strong winds stirred clouds of dust as the Gray Dove descended. The cylinder thrusters hummed, and the throttle eased as the craft touched down on a small clearing.
The hatch hissed as it opened. Outside, the smell of burnt iron and ash hit her immediately. Wind threw clumps of debris against her coat and face. Only once it settled could she see the area more clearly, cluttered with rubble, twisted metal, and the unstable footings left behind by destruction.
She followed the markings on her handheld panel, she stepped toward the broken remains of Dream-Units. Some were half-buried under scrap, others lay twisted, limbs torn, inner components exposed.
A few still emitted faint signals on her radar. She administered Overpulse doses beneath their jaws, watching their internal circuits fry.
Then she saw one last unit, about her size, lying on top of a mound of debris. Mist caught a glimpse of its hair, a unique shade of blue, dusted by ash. As she approached and saw its face, she recognized her instantly.
"Eider." The name slipped in her system.
They had spoken only once, during a short training rotation, when they shared lunch table, a handful of words. Nothing more. But she'd spent more time than she should have watching the blue strands of hair. Her name had rang longer than her identification system ever did.
Her radar still showed a blinking signal. The unit wasn't fully terminated. She reached under its jaw to deliver the final Overpulse.
But as her fingertips touched the port, she paused, something in her senses pulled her back.
This was just a procedure. Routine. A task any Dream-Unit like her was designed to perform. Yet, for a second, she hesitated.
She forced herself back to focus and fired the dose. There was a sharp spark, then silence.
On top of that rubble, no movement followed. Mist kneeled frozen, the dust swirled around her, as she tried to make sense of what she had just done.
A sharp hiss burst in his earpiece all of a sudden, startling her.
"Lieutenant Mist, this is Captain Mavindle. I need you to report back on the hangar, the Colonel has something for us. Don't take long." The voice of her Captain came through clipped message.
She didn't hesitate. She turned away from the hilltop without looking back, but she could just feel its shape shrink on her back as she walk away.
She was about to hop into the Gray Dove when, all of a sudden, her system detected a Neural breach. A wave of stinging pain shot through her limbs, disrupting her movements. Instinctively, she shut down her neural receptors in her soft system, just enough to dampen the effects of the breach. It wasn't perfect, but it gave her enough control.
Her eyes snapped open just in time to see a metal pipe swing on her face. There was no time to dodge. The blunt force directly hit her face with a loud bang, butshe didn't fall. Her footing held firm.
Before the attacker could pull the weapon back, she reacted. Her hand shot up, gripping the pipe tight fast and hard, enough to stop the intruder cold.
She took one second to look into its face then the next to blow a hole through its chest. Her fist punched clean through its back, tangled in sparking wires and bent metal.
With a swift kick, she tore the body off her arm and jumped back into the aircraft. There was no time to think, too much time had already been wasted. She had to return as her Captain ordered.
After wiping the blood from her eyes, she slammed the throttle forward as the hatch sealed shut. The Gray Dove roared as it zoomed into the sky. She pushed it to its limit, racing back to the Hangar.
× × ×
"Welcome Back, Ms. Mist," Captain Mavindle greeted her in his office. "The Colone already left, I had to reason out to him that the perimeter of your mission is 'Incapable of transmitting any means of communication.'"
"What do you have to explain for yourself?" He gaze at her, while Lt. Mist's eyes remained straight at its level.
"I apologize, Captain—"
"And that?" he interrupted, gesturing toward the blood splattered on her forehead."Come on, sit down."
He pulled a swivel chair out from beside his desk. Mist complied quickly, sitting as he leaned in for a closer look. Her bangs were matted with blood. He gently brushed them aside, revealing a bashed skin still oozing faintly.
"How did you get this?" he asked.
"There was an attack, Captain. I couldn't investigate further due to my scheduled return."
"Did you dispatch surveillance to the area?"
"Promptly. As soon as I landed in the hangar."
"Good." He nodded
Captain Mavindle pressed the dressing firmly against her wound, then patched it into place.
"I'll assign you an aide under my supervision. Return to your quarters and take some time to recover. I'll handle the rest for now," he said, leaning back in his chair. "And don't speak a word about this incident. Affirm?"
"Affirmative."
"Further notice will be sent to you, Lieutenant Mist. You're dismissed."
She stood from the swivel chair and raised her right hand in a swiftcsalute, her fingers touching her brow.
× × ×
When mist had left the room, Mavindle rested his face on his palm. He couldn't sit straight on the swivel, it felt uneven, as if he could just slip off of its edge anytime.
Seeing the blood on Mist's face, it warned him of the possible danger, No, not just possible, it was imminent. He could just picture a shape of someone behind that door, pointing a gun on his head.
The current situation puts his authority at stake. The other Captains could take this as a chance strike, to take him out off his duty, and to terminate Mist, or take her as a prize.
He can't let that happen.
He thought, maybe he could get something out of Mist's attack, it was still a mystery after all, it could put him into an advantage. It could be not.
He needed to retrieve the surveillance footage from her Gray Dove. It was the only lead he had.
He rose swiftly, and headed for the Hangar, just outside the hall. But just as the door shut on his back, a voice called him from behind.
"Sir. Mavindle!" It was the head Engineer Mister Stane, he recognized it from his deep voice.
"Mr. Stane, what is it?" He turned to him, dropping his shoulders in his relief. Glad it wasn't one of the Captains he thought.
"I thought you're looking for this, Sir." Mavindle's brows furrowed, confused by what he said. Then Stane held out a black device to him, Mavindle realized it was Lieutenant Mist's surveillance drive.
Did he saw what's inside? does he know what happened to Lieutenant Mist?
"I see you're not with Lieutenant Mist, where is she?"
"I ran into an urgent task, I had to dismiss her early. Do you have you need me to relay to her?"
"Nothing, I just hope nothing...unfortunate happens to her."
Those words lingered in Mavindle's ears. He masked the twist in his gut under his poise. He already had enough enemies. He didn't need Stane turning into another. Maybe it was just the anxiety, but, he wasn't sure anymore.
"And to you as well, Captain," Stane finally added with a nod.
"Likewise," Mavindle said quietly.
× × ×
The rain was thick and heavy outside the hangar. Mist walked along soldiers and hangar personnel, her coat drawn tightly around her as they went in and out of the massive hatch.
The city of Solane murmured just beyond the gates, where neon lights flickered through thick smog. Her quarters were only a few blocks away, tucked behind the winding streets and stacked floors of the city.
"20...19...18..."
The voice from the pedestrian lane counted, as the green signal flared.
As she stepped onto the sidewalk, a massive screen billboard lit up across the street bright and blue. The light carved out tracks of falling the rain, and for a moment, it reminded her of the soft light on Eider's blue strands of hair.
She reached her hand out beneath the coat, letting the rain tap on her palm, drawing wet trails across her skin, each droplet traced in her memory.
"Welcome to DreamWare Corporations..."
The music played softly as the advertisement rolled.