Sticking to the shadows was an easy task, thanks to the cloudy night and we made our way to the satellite dish farm without incident. Once we got there, a quick look around showed me the thick cable-trunk leading towards the buildings and the hub that distributed the signals to different dishes. It was sturdy and in full view of multiple cameras, forcing me to think outside the box. I had planned to link Galatea in, but that would only work if I destroyed both cameras, which undoubtedly would draw attention. Getting attention here would not be ideal, but letting them get word, or worse, images, of us attacking the compound, out, would mean even bigger trouble.

The easiest way would be to simply toss a chunk of plastic explosive on the cables, blowing them to smithereens, but that would be about as subtle as a bull in a china-shop, letting everyone arm themselves at the outer armoury, where I would store the heavy weapons. There would be some light arms in the barrack-complex but I doubted that they would want anything serious inside. It was simply too dangerous, especially if not all recruits were totally on-board with being here, a fact that Isleen’s report had hinted at.

Dimming the signal, so only the two receiver right next to me could pick up the signal, I told the other two that we should split up for a moment, so that they could install explosives at the armoury, while I waited to blow up the cable-trunk here.

“Once you are ready, sent a short burst-signal and I will cut the outside communications three seconds after.” I told them. Both of them nodded and vanished into the night. I stayed in the shadows nad contemplated further tactics, deciding on a classic misdirection.

“Galatea, can you pick up their communication-frequencies?” I asked quietly.

“Yes, I think so. We can emit a jamming-signal, I doubt they will be able to swiftly use it to find us.” She replied, reading my mind.

“Good. The other thing, pick a rarely used frequency and sent out military sounding signals, orders to field-troops, damage-reports from the rocket-strikes, that sort of thing. They might see through it, or it might sow confusion.” I suggested with a smile on my face. Confusion to our enemies, always a good thing.

“Hm. Yes, I can do that. There are enough examples, even if mostly fictitious, for me to make it convincing.” She accepted, undoubtedly enjoying the idea of confusing our enemies just as much as I did. We were unsurprisingly similar in that regard. I knew she would keep our own communications encrypted and hopefully hidden, giving the impression of a different kind of assault.

After maybe fifteen minutes, I got the short burst-transmission from Anath, instantly putting the explosives in place and exactly three seconds after the transmission, there was a loud bang close to me and a softer rumble further away as the charges exploded, destroying the cables and hopefully the armoury.

“Meet up at the waypoint.” I told the other two, placing a waypoint on Anath’s display, so we would meet up close to the entrance but concealed behind a few bushes. As I gave the order, sirens started wailing and I started running towards the waypoint. We were on a timer now, getting inside the facility would be a lot harder once they secured the choke-points.

As I ran, I saw a few guards move towards the outer perimeter and I quickly took them down with taser-blasts. They would get up at some point, but tying them up one by one would take too long.

I reached the meeting-point in time to see Anath dispatch a guard with the back of her sword, using the inbuilt taser to add to the blunt force she used. I was happy that she still stuck to non-lethal means, it would be a disaster if we accidentally killed her brother in our raid. I had scared up an image of him but identifying him in the darkness during a fire-fight might be impossible.

When the two of them arrived, Anath looked at the main-entrance and asked if Isleen knew the way to the one she wanted to rescue. I did not fully agree, that getting him out should be our first objective, I wanted to get to their servers, to get as much information as possible. Hopefully, that information would lead us to Sophia’s brother. Unless the ‘He’ was her brother, but that would be an unlikely coincidence. But without more information, it made sense to get him first, before searching for the data-center.

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“Yes, I know the way.” Isleen said.

“Good. Metis, cover me please.” Anath asked, before charging towards the entrance, me following behind, letting her draw attention and taking down whoever showed his head. The guards were wearing dark grey uniforms and I noticed that they all had some sort of a black square-cross insignia on a white field on their uniforms.

Anath crashed into the doors, demonstrating why she was leading, by simply cutting them apart with a single strike of her blade. The amount of damage powered muscles could cause with a sturdy monomolecular-edge was quite significant.

After stunning everyone in the area, roughly stacking them and tossing one of the web-grenades at them, we moved further into the building, guided by Isleen’s words, while she stuck behind me. She had a tactical baton, but I did not want her to engage, not without knowing her capabilities.

We took down a few sleepy individuals, when a loud bang drew out attention. In the corridor before us stood a hulking brute of a man, clad only in gym-shorts, easily two meter twenty tall and wide enough to need special wide-load signs on his shoulders. He looked like someone had taken a classic fantasy dwarf and scaled up the size, keeping the proportions.

From his stance, he had just smashed through a nearby door, causing the sound and he seemed to be a little angry. He looked at us for a moment before charging with a loud roar, causing me to instantly aim my taser, letting loose at a decently high power. Not instantly lethal, just in case the giant had no extra resistance, but strong enough to stop a charging bull.

He was no bull. He was not stopped, he stumbled for a moment, before roaring a challenge and shaking off the effect. I upped the power to levels that would allow me to weld at a distance and the only result were a few charred hairs on his chest, spreading an nauseating smell.

Anath engaged, using the back of her sword to concentrate force on a smaller area but the brute simply swatted her aside, causing her to slam into a nearby wall, causing plaster to rain down. A tiny part of my brain wondered if there would be an Anath-shaped hole left, with cartoon-birds circling over her head, when the brute was next to me.

I managed to dodge his first strike and sprayed pepper spray into his face, hoping that it would give him pause. It had an effect. Sadly not the one I was hoping for. The spray clearly caused him pain, going by the squinted eyes and pained roar. Sadly, his reaction to pain was not, to get away from what is hurting me, it was, to destroy whatever is hurting me.

His attacks got quicker, forcing me back when suddenly a black flash cut through his right knee, causing him to tumble to the ground. Behind him, a slightly dusty Anath stood with her black blade pristine. Her slash had been so fast that no blood had clung to the blade.

“You alright?” I asked Anath, concern in my voice.

“Yes, just shaken. Give me a moment.”

The giant was clearly out of the fight and the sudden drop in blood-pressure had caused him to faint. To make sure he would not simply bleed out, I sprayed some bio-foam onto his wound, sealing it. I knew that if he tried to fight us again, he would not have a leg to stand on.

After Anath had her moment to gather, we resumed our way, taking down a few more mundane grunts who were slow to realise what was going on, as the only commands came over speaker, warning of an outside attack. The signals Galatea was putting on were obviously listened to and taken seriously.

In the privacy of my helmet, I asked Galatea to start the flight-frame and let it fly through the area, creating a strange sound-effect from above. I doubted that they could identify it, but it would add to the confusion. Maybe they would think that they were being attacked by aliens.

Soon, Isleen told us that we were at the right place. The doors looked quite sturdy, reminding me of cell-doors. According to Isleen, they were sensory deprivation-cells, used to slowly strip trasisgrent recruits of their personality before building a new one. I doubted that they would do so with just anyone, only Powered would be useful enough for that.

Seizing up the door, Anath struck with her blade, severing the hinges and a tug caused the door to fall into the hallway.

From inside, we heard a strange moaning sound, as the inmate was blinded by the light. After a few seconds, a person stumbled into view, fixated on Anath, his face an angry grimace.

“You?!” a voice hoarse from disuse, but tinged with anger, asked.