Aurora Over a Dead World

"...Okay... so what’s this emergency mission about?" I ask Cecilia as soon as I get back. Not even a day had passed since my encounter with Zenith, and out of absolutely nowhere, something popped up.

It’s not uncommon, but normally every emergency involves something beneath the island. It’s rare for an emergency to be on top of the island. That’s because commanders handle things down below, and another team with a different type of commander handles things up here.

"By the way, Cecilia, couldn’t there be someone else? My job isn’t dealing with emergencies up here." Cecilia stares at me for a few seconds.

"You’re right, Commander Nadir. Normally this wouldn’t be your problem, but look at this... two teams have vanished. The commanders and the team that normally handle this are weaker than the teams that deal with matters down below."

"So, since two teams went missing, instead of pushing the issue, they decided to send someone stronger and more capable of controlling the situation. The emergency in question is that something in a vector equipment factory near the west sector was ’sabotaged’ by something."

"Was the sabotage some kind of hacker attack?" I question, looking at the computer where she’s showing the data.

"No, it was far more crude. Something literally bit through the cables and pulled them several hundred meters until they burst."

"And it did this while receiving a massive shock load and gunfire from the defense drones. Strangely, there wasn’t a single drop of blood or any bullets on the ground, and all the cameras in the area weren’t working at the time — not even the drones’."

"That’s bizarrely strange, don’t you think? The drones rely on seven forms of vision, whether it be normal vision, thermal, infrared, violet light, etc."

"The fact that the drones were functioning, even without recording capability, means that..."

"The sabotage looks internal. Someone actually manipulated all the recordings to make it seem like they weren’t working, when in truth they were... which means there may not have even been real gunfire or a chase... although whatever burst the cables really was something pulling on them, according to the records I’m seeing here..." I say to her, and she nods in agreement.

"Some of the camera data has basic corrupted logs and code alterations. It seems whoever did this didn’t know how the camera logs maintain their data, since they only modified four out of the ten log types."

"Does anyone else know about this?" I ask, knowing I have to solve this as soon as possible, because these factories are the ones that produce vector weapons. From the intelligence gathered, it was probably criminals. The problem is that criminals should never have access to anything vector-related.

Even if it’s not the chips and cores — since those are only produced in the island’s underground, in extremely complex, protected, and restricted facilities.

Still, these factories produce weapons, highly defensive metal plates, and even armor structures that can stop weaker vector attacks. In the hands of criminals, it would make them a dangerous problem.

’I can’t let Zenith be put at risk... Criminals with dangerous vector weapons would be a problem that affects Zenith’s daily life...’ The possibility of her being affected immediately irritates me.

Normally, I’m quite composed, and criminals are something I try to hand over to the law to deal with. But if it’s a threat to Zenith, I wouldn’t mind turning them to ash and heat-fused flesh.

"Commander, you have a frightening look."

"...Sorry, go on and give me the answer I asked for."

"I’ve already sent a report to the command center. I also sent my personal observations. Whoever did this was likely a worker with at least two to three years of experience."

"Because they grabbed the only three-minute window that was mandatory for equipment replacement, and used all the quick-access corridors to cover a seven-minute distance in two minutes to deactivate the alarm. Not to mention, the weapon swap is something that only happens once a month."

"So it could only be someone who lived in that place and learned the specific routine and its only weak point." Cecilia informs me, and I can only nod.

’How I despise traitors...’ Humanity is already in a bad situation that is slowly improving. We don’t need traitors helping criminals to hinder humanity’s progress.

These factories’ defenses aren’t bad. In fact, they’re among the most protected locations precisely to prevent theft. And with the system damaged, all workers and guards have to evacuate in case everything explodes. That leaves the factory empty, with only external teams and drones roaming around searching for intruders.

"If they’ve already managed to affect the drone cameras, then the only risk to the intruders is the external teams... which is why two teams vanished... Leave it to me. I’ll go alone. You stay here giving me support and trying to hack the security system to take control and block any further modifications to the system." I tell her, rushing to grab appropriate clothing.

"Okay, Commander Nadir!! Be careful!!!"

"I’m off!!" I give her a farewell wave, knowing every second counts and that we have no time to waste. From what I saw on the computer, this has all been going on for about forty minutes, with each team vanishing in a ten-minute interval, so the criminals had a twenty-minute head start.

’I even understand them having manipulated the drone cameras... but how did they rip out the cables?’ Everything in the factories uses a cable system to transmit the vector energy that will be fused into the machines.

In less technical terms, it’s like putting magma into a pipe and transporting it to a giant cauldron to smelt iron. The difference is that the energy in the cables is worse than radiation. Being exposed to it is enough to turn your body into nothing more than subatomic dust.

That’s why the cables are super reinforced, and the energy is contained so that if a failure occurs, the energy only has a limited range of ten meters around it. But that means everything within ten meters of the cable was destroyed, and bullets don’t work against those super-resistant cables.

"Even Zenith wouldn’t be able to burst those cables with her hands and would need her powers... was a vector weapon used? But the cables were pulled... even if it’s probably a lie that something pulled them with its mouth, the cables still had to be pulled for it to be registered as such on the camera log." I arrive at the uniform room, grabbing a full suit except for the helmet.

"Well, I’ll only know when I get there... if it’s something bigger than I can handle, I’ll send a warning to Cecilia and keep an eye out while waiting for support." I still don’t have my own weapon, so I just grab the basic set of two knives and a submachine gun to fight, hoping it’ll be enough.

...

...

...

"W-Waah... Hurry up!!" In the outer complex of the factories, a black-haired girl yells at some men in frustration. Her clothes full of teeth and the half-destroyed state of her jaw don’t stop her from complaining about the men’s slowness.

"I didn’t destroy half my face for all this dawdling." She kicks one of the masked men who’s carrying various items.

"...Miss Nightmare, please be patient. All of this is very heavy for mere humans like us." A man with a mask different from the others speaks to the girl. His overall thin physique and his "calmer" tone give off a far more manipulative air.

"Whatever. You all are so weak. I didn’t agree to lend my help for all this stalling. It wasn’t easy biting and pulling those things, you know? Didn’t you say it would start destroying my body? Look how long it’s taking me to regenerate."

"If this isn’t worth it, you and your idiot little group will be my next meal." She says, poking the man while the many eyes on her dress stare at his mask.

The man in question shivers a little but tries to remain calm. Even though he didn’t want to be here, their boss sent him to take care of everything.

"Miss Nightmare, your work here is already done. Why not leave... wouldn’t that be better than wasting your precious time with us?"

"No! The last idiots I helped ended up dead the very same day I left. That trash from [Cobra] not only lost my animal but also died and lost everything I delivered to them!!!"

"THE SAME DAY!! I was in that shitty place and had only been gone for two hours at most! When I found out the next day that the entire place was flattened, like stepping on a rat until it turned into crushed mush on the ground."

"If I leave, I’m sure weak worms like you humans will fail again. I hate wasting time. What’s the point of helping you feeble humans if you fail the moment I walk away?"

"So it’s better I stay here until this is finished. That way I make sure you don’t end up on tomorrow morning’s warning notices." Many insults are directed at the man, but they don’t irritate him.

Because the one saying them can destroy him in less than a second if displeased. So he just motions with his hand, trying to speed up his companions. But humans have limits. Each metal plate of just twenty-five centimeters weighs eighty kilos.

Without heavy machinery, it takes at least two people to lift one off the ground, or one relatively strong person to move it without proper support to hold the weight.

"Hey, does it look weird?" Nightmare asks a man passing by carrying some reinforced vector pipes, showing him her new face, which she’d finally finished regenerating.

"Th-The teeth are a bit crooked."

"...I figured. That garbage energy destroyed the structure of my jaw. It’s hard to get the right proportion." She crushes the man who answered with a giant, grotesque hand of flesh and then devours his entire body with a tooth-filled mouth on the giant hand.

She uses the fresh flesh to regenerate more properly, and when she achieves something slightly better, the extra eyes on her dress hide themselves underneath, and the teeth on the clothing become less visible. To the masked man overseeing everything, it’s merely grotesque.

He’d rather have no help at all than be near this thing that could kill him on a whim. But he remains calm as he gives orders to the people loading the plates onto the trucks.

Everyone around trembles and falls silent as one of the men nearly drops a plate to the ground, barely catching it. They all know she’s dangerous and try to avoid getting too close or even speaking to her.

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