The Time from Before

Uncertainty

Allen made his way back to the bunker in the morning, encountering Harper and Sasha in the Control Room. They were both asleep on the ground, with only a thin blanket underneath them.

"Hey, girls, you have to get up. It's almost noon." Allen called out, setting his PDA on a console.

She and Harper stirred awake, but Harper gathered her bearings faster.

As they woke up, Allen sat down and got to work, looking at the contacts he mentioned the day before.

Those contacts were whatever was shiny enough for the fairly weak telescopic array to pick up on. That array was nothing more than two cameras, one equipped with a 2x zoom lens.

So, the 'telescopic' part wasn't something to be proud of. However, given the cameras were designed to see much more than the visible light spectrum, they were still useful. So, that's what he was looking through.

Cv-7 designated a few contacts of its own and displayed them on the console in front of him. Most of the contacts in the pictures were either birds or interesting clouds. Yep, clouds.

However, one thing caught his interest. A shining piece of metal high up above in the sky. The image was taken at night, and the stars were bright, but the metal object looked too close to be a satellite. Allen couldn't tell what it was, but he marked the object as a higher priority and turned his attention to the others.

"C'mon, the sun's up and you all aren't. And Harper, how's the PT?" Allen asked.

"Oh. Uh. Right." Harper, embarrassed, coughed as she got up and grabbed her gear. "I'll be right back, sir."

As Harper left, Sasha finally got up and stumbled over to Allen.

"Whatcha doin'?" She yawned as she finished her sentence, rubbing her eyes.

"Adult stuff. Did you stay up late last night?" Allen turned his attention to the young girl.

"I think." She yawned again. "I'm hungry."

"Here, take this." Allen handed her a small rectangular object wrapped in plastic. In other words, a granola bar. "This one should still be good."

"It's not like the icky MREs, right?" She hesitated before she grabbed it, looking up at Allen.

"It's chocolate." He spoke.

"Ooh!" Her spirits lifted and she tore it open, practically wolfing it down.

...

"Did you even taste that?" Allen chuckled, turning back to the console.

"Uh-huh. What's that?" She pointed to the screen, directly at the image Allen was interested in. The object in the sky among the stars. "That looks like the Nixus Drop Pods, doesn't it?"

"It... I had my suspicions. Where did you hear of the Nixus?" He zoomed in on the image, getting a closer look.

"Grandpa told me aaaaallllll about them!" She giggled, looking back at the image. "Oh, look at that! It has that red strip on the edge!"

...

"I'm trying to be hopeful here. Alright, why don't you go with Harper, yeah? You're bumming me out." Allen spoke with sarcasm lining his voice. "Oh, and get those teeth brushed. You'll be surprised by what good hygiene can get you."

Sasha nodded and gave a long 'oookaaay...' as she left the Control Room.

Turning his attention back to the monitor, he definitely noticed that red stripe Sasha was talking about.

"How did I miss that..." He mumbled, staring more closely at the image.

"Oh." He sat back, crossing his arms. "They are the Nixus. With over two-thirds of their forces automated, well, I guess they're still functioning."