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(The Dropship Camp)
The silence that had fallen over the camp upon Mike's arrival remained. The 100 had stopped their hammering, their digging, and their chatter. They stood frozen, tools hanging loosely in their hands, eyes wide and fixed on the three riders.
It wasn't just the Strat-Heda that held their attention. It was the two figures behind him.
Murphy sat tall in his saddle, the leather of his Trikru armor creaking slightly as he shifted his weight. He looked nothing like the ragged, desperate boy they had almost hanged. His face was clean, his hair cropped short in a warrior's cut, and his expression was one of cold, practiced indifference. Charlotte, the girl who had been broken by nightmares, looked like a statue, her hand resting casually on the pommel of her sword.
The staring went on for too long.
Mike dismounted, his boots hitting the packed earth with a heavy thud.
He looked around the camp, satisfied with the fortifications, and waved a hand dismissively.
"As you were," Mike said, his voice calm. "Get back to work."
A few people moved, but most remained rooted to the spot, their gaze still locked on Murphy and Charlotte. The transformation was too jarring, too impossible to ignore. They were staring at ghosts who had come back as wolves.
Murphy's patience snapped.
"What is wrong with you people?" Murphy yelled, his voice cracking like a whip across the clearing. "Are you all deaf? The Commander said get back to work!"
The sudden aggression made the front row jump. It broke the spell. The 100 scrambled back to their tasks, the sound of saws and hammers resuming with a frantic, nervous energy.
Murphy smirked, a flash of his old arrogance surfacing, but tempered now by discipline. He looked at Charlotte, who offered a nod, as if saying, 'Good stuff'.
Mike ignored the drama. He walked straight toward the dropship, his stride eating up the distance. He foundRaven Reyes standing near the open hatch, leaning against the metal hull, her arms crossed. She had been watching the entire scene with a mix of wariness and curiosity.
"Nice entrance," Raven said, her tone dry. "You really know how to make an impression."
"It keeps people focused," Mike replied, stopping in front of her.
"So," Raven asked, tilting her head. "To what do we owe the pleasure? You didn't ride all the way out here just to show off your new recruits."
"I need a specialist," Mike said, getting straight to the point. "I need someone who understands technology. Someone who can navigate a complex server network without frying the system."
Raven raised an eyebrow. She looked at him, then over his shoulder at Murphy and Charlotte, who were sitting on their horses.
"You have an army," Raven pointed out. "You're the Commander, dude. You don't have tech support?"
"I have warriors," Mike corrected. "I have killers. I have politicians. What I don't have is an engineer who can work on machines." He looked her in the eye. "I need the best mechanic on the ground."
Raven held his gaze. Part of her wanted to tell him to get lost. He was the reason they were vassals. He was the reason they had no guns.
But another part of her — the part that was bored out of her mind fixing radios, the part that was desperate to get away from the sad, puppy-dog eyes of Finn Collins — was screaming to say yes.
She sighed, pushing herself off the dropship wall. "Fine. I'm the one. What do you need?"
"Sweet," Mike said, a genuine smile touching his lips. "That makes things easier."
He turned back to the horses. "Murphy! Charlotte! We're leaving!"
The two recruits nodded instantly, turning their mounts around with practiced ease.
Mike turned back to Raven. "We need to go to Mount Weather for this. The terminal I need is in the sub-level mainframe. You're coming with me."
Raven blinked. The place where he had killed nearly four hundred people a week ago. It was the last place on Earth she wanted to go, but it was also the only place where she wouldn't have to deal with the suffocating drama of the camp.
"Okay," Raven said, wiping grease from her hands onto her pants. "Let's go. I've got nothing better to do anyway. Plus, the company here sucks."
"Perfect," Mike said. "Follow me."
He walked back to his massive black warhorse. He checked the cinch on the saddle, then swung himself up. He sat high above her, looking down.
Then, he extended a hand.
Raven stood there, confused. She looked at his hand, then at the space behind the horse. "What?"
"You plan on walking all the way there?" Mike said.
"Oh," Raven said, her brain finally catching up. "Right. Yeah."
She felt a flush of heat rise in her cheeks. She took his hand. He pulled her up effortlessly, swinging her onto the saddle in front of him.
It was a tight fit. The saddle was designed for one large man, not two people. Raven found herself pressed against his chest, her legs dangling over the horse's shoulders.
"Hold on," Mike murmured, his arms encircling her to grab the reins.
"I know how to ride," Raven muttered, though she grabbed the pommel tight.
"Yeah, sure, like you have horses in space," Mike added.
Making Raven pause again.
"Let's go!"
He kicked the horse into a gallop.
The world blurred.
For Raven, the ride was a revelation. On the Ark, everything was confined. Everything was recycled air and metal walls.
This was different. Wind whipped past her face; the power of the animal beneath her was raw and alive. She leaned into the speed, feeling the rhythmic thundering of hooves on the earth. For the first time in days, the heavy weight in her chest lifted. She laughed, a short, surprised sound that was snatched away by the wind.
Mike heard it. He didn't say anything, but he urged the horse faster, letting the mechanic have her moment of freedom.
(Mount Weather - Main Entrance)
They arrived at the massive blast doors of the mountain within the hour. The area was quiet.
Mike reined in the horse and slid out of the saddle. He reached up and helped Raven down. Her legs felt a little wobbly, but her eyes were bright.
He turned to his two recruits.
"Murphy, Charlotte," Mike addressed them. "This is as far as you go."
"Sir?" Murphy asked, confused. "We can secure the perimeter."
"No need," Mike said. "The mountain is sealed. Nothing gets in or out without my code. I need you two to head back to Tonas. Report to Anya that the asset is secured, and then continue your training with Indra until I return."
Charlotte nodded sharply. "Understood."
"We're on it," Murphy added, saluting with his spear.
They turned their horses and rode west, toward the capital, leaving Mike and Raven alone in the shadow of the massive steel doors.
"Asset?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow. "Is that me?"
"You're the asset," Mike confirmed, walking to the keypad on the blast door. He punched in a long, complex code. "Follow me."
The gears groaned, and the door hissed open.
Entering Mount Weather was like walking into a mausoleum. The air was still and cool.
Raven shivered. She knew what had happened here. She knew that just a week ago, these halls had been filled with people. Now, it was just silence and the hum of ventilation fans.
"Don't touch anything," Mike warned, his voice echoing. "I had the place cleaned out, but security protocols are still active in some sectors."
They walked deep into the mountain, taking a service elevator down past the residential levels, past the dormitories, down into the bedrock of the facility.
They reached Level 10. The Server Core.
Mike opened the door to the main server room. It was a massive, circular chamber filled with towers of blinking lights and humming cooling units. In the center was a primary console with a large, curved screen.
"This is it," Mike said, gesturing to the chair. "Have a seat."
Raven sat down, her fingers itching to touch the keyboard. This was pre-war tech. This was the holy grail of engineering. "What am I looking for?"
"I need you to find someone," Mike said, leaning over her shoulder. "I need you to find the last traces of an Artificial Intelligence called A.L.I.E."
Raven froze. "An AI? Like... a computer program?"
"A program that destroyed the world," Mike corrected grimly. "I need to know where she was built. I need to know where her main server farm is located. Not the local nodes. The source."
Raven didn't ask questions. She typed.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard. The operating system was archaic compared to the Ark's code, but the architecture was similar. She bypassed the firewalls, digging into the archived history of the mountain's databanks.
"This system is massive," Raven muttered, her eyes scanning lines of code. "They were monitoring everything. Satellites, drones... okay, here we go. Accessing external comms logs from 2052."
She worked for thirty minutes, the silence of the room broken only by the clacking of keys. Mike stood behind her, a silent sentinel, watching the data streams.
"Got it," Raven said suddenly. "Encrypted transmission. Origin point... wow. It's an island."
She pulled up a map on the main screen. It showed a large island mansion, isolated in the middle of a vast body of water.
"Coordinates match a private estate," Raven read. "Zone 4. It looks like a mansion. There's a solar farm, a lighthouse... and a massive underground power draw. That has to be it."
Mike looked at the location. It matched his knowledge.
"Good," Mike said, nodding. "That's where we're going."
Raven spun the chair around. "We? You mean you."
"I mean us," Mike said. "I can fight. I can kill. But I can't hack a cognitive AI if things go sideways. You're coming with me."
Raven opened her mouth to argue, but Mike cut her off with a question that stopped her cold.
"So," Mike asked casually, "when are your other people coming down?"
Raven went rigid. "What?"
"Your people," Mike repeated. "When do they land?"
Raven stared at him, her heart skipping a beat. "How... how do you know about that? We haven't told anyone."
Mike laughed. "Raven, look at me. Do you really want me to believe that a hundred teenagers just spawned out of thin air? That you have no parents? No government? No support structure?"
He leaned against the console, crossing his arms. "Come on, Raven. You really think I'm that stupid? You came from the sky. You have radios. Of course, the rest of them are coming. The only question is when."
Raven sat there, mouth slightly open. She felt like an idiot. Of course, he knew. It was obvious.
"Duh," she muttered, hitting her own forehead with the palm of her hand. "Never mind. Yeah. Okay."
She sighed, looking up at him. "They're coming down in a week. Maybe six days now."
Mike nodded.
"That gives us a window," Mike said. "If the Ark lands while we're gone, the politics get messy. I need to secure the AI threat before the mess starts."
He stood up straight, his demeanor shifting back to command mode.
"Pack up your gear," Mike ordered. "We leave for the island tomorrow morning at first light."
Raven looked at the map, then at Mike. A road trip with the most dangerous man on the planet to hunt down a world-ending AI.
That did sound like a cool adventure.
"Aye aye, Captain," Raven said, turning back to the screen to download the coordinates.
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