Ava and Aphrodite: The First Human in 8000 Years (Featured)

Chapter 38: The Raid

The cover of darkness, it didn't make too much of a difference, but they needed every stealth advantage they could get, hence, the group of Servs decided to infiltrate the factory deep in the middle of the night. Snow was pattering down and had left a few inches laying on the ground, perfect to aid in a getaway, it'd at least slow down some of the less mobile Evos.

It had taken a day, but they finally found themselves on the precipice of a cliff overlooking the factory, it was massive, tall black buildings, some that were arguably half a kilometer in length, billowing towers that were shooting toxic gas into the sky, pylons that scraped the sky scattered about.

It was a monstrous complex.

Originally the mission was to infiltrate and gather info from the weapons development program used to run the factory. Something the Serv could reverse engineer to make their own weapon. Destroying the factory was also a mission directive. However The Major had decided to change the directives upon learning the details of what had happened on Europa. This civil war, the fact that Mother had lost contact with the Evos, and her own understanding that Evos were harmless without Mother's interference... meant that she'd have to approach this mission another way.

Liberation.

It was now a recon mission, find out who this "God" that the Heretics worship are, steal as much data on it as possible, disable and take as many Heretic Evos as possible interrogation on Mars.

The Major was a soldier, but she was a peacekeeper first and foremost, if there was a way to stop this war without resorting to violence she'd take that route. This new god was the enemy, he, or she, needed to be eliminated.

The Major looked around with binoculars attached to her eyes. There were 12 pylons, a lot of them were too far away but the six closest seemed to be effective targets for now.

"Split up into singles and hack the six closest pylons, use them to gain develop a mapped scan of the entire area. Disable any comms and any other functions the pylons have." They were so damn big and prominent, there was no doubt that they were important, taking them down was definitely their first course of action. "Report back to me when you're done, and then we'll meet on the other side of the factory to take out the other pylons. You've got two hours to do this."

"Yes ma'am!" said the Block-2s

But they didn't leave,

"Major," said Rina, the Serv with the short red hair, "will you be serving as our operator?"

"Of course I will." an ex-operator, this was something she'd mastered, "all of you, I'll be keeping in touch, so don't worry. You won't be alone on this mission." they were still green, and still susceptible to fear. "Move out!"

The group of Servs nodded and then ran off straight away, despite not even being told which pylon they were assigned to, they all had enough knowledge and synergy to know which one to go to. It was an experimental unit, Block-2s that weren't working solo, that combination had never been field tested before, their brains needed to be rewired to be individual enough to make their own choices, but still networked and wired in to follow the hive-mind mentality of standard soldiers.

It really would be interesting to see how the mission ended.

It needed to end well.

The Major looked over the cliff edge and to the goliath factory, if her Servs were in any danger, she'd unleash all hell, for her, demolishing the place would be a walk in the park.

For now she'd need to stay focused on them, keep an eye on them in case they got into any trouble during their mission. It'd take about half an hour for them to even reach their destinations, so for now, all she needed to do was wait.

****

Two hours had passed, and The Major was standing on the other cliffside. It was time for the second phase of the plan, one that wasn't very different from the first phase - just take out the remaining pylons.

Four of the Block-2s had returned. Two were missing.

In fact, they hadn't been making contact with The Major at all for the last half an hour. There was a clear air of worry between all the Block-2s, all of them fearful that their two comrades may have been hurt in some way or another.

"Erica! Ciel! Come in!" The Major tried to reach them via the private network they had set up, but there was no reply.

"Nothing?" asked Theadore,

The Major didn't say anything for a while, if the two didn't reply in fifteen minutes time, they'd have to be abandoned, and that would count as a mission failure for them.

Which meant their body degradation system would kick in and they'd be left to die.

"Did any of you face any difficulties when hacking the pylons?" The Major asked,

"I did," said Rina,

"So did I," "me too" "and me" they all spoke in unison.

"And? What happened? What was the problem? I can't have been a clash in operating systems, you've all been trained how to hack Evo systems effectively now." said The Major,

"No, it was completely foreign when I hacked in. Very... toxic, and hard to survive in. A lot of data was corrupted and impossible to penetrate, and I constantly felt a burning sensation all over me. It felt like-" Rina tried to search for the words,

"An infection," Theadore continued, "the pylons felt infected."

"Yeah! That's a perfect word to describe it! So it happened to you guys too then?"

The Major furrowed her brow. Did that have something to do with why the other two were missing? Maybe they were having a hard time hacking because of how hostile the environment was. But why was it hostile in the first place?

To save their lives the Major would have to find them in fifteen minutes and ensure their pylons got hacked, or finish the entire mission within those fifteen minutes, via the second directive.

The second directive being to simply destroy the whole factory.

She was no doubt going to look weak and unprofessional doing this but...

"I'm giving you permission to break your limiters for ten minutes, go and find the other two, hack the remaining pylons and then return here for recharging. Do everything you can to get those two back!" it was the only way to ensure their survival.

Thankfully the other Block-2s didn't even question The Major's orders. They instantly split into two groups and zoomed off into the distance at subsonic speeds. The Major stayed behind. Ten minutes, if the two Block-2s weren't found in those ten minutes, it'd be up to the Major to fulfil the second directive instead, and hopefully that'd count as a mission success.

If those Block-2s weren't found. She'd have to destroy the entire facility in the space of five minutes.