Jax finally arrived at Thov Rapra. He had purchased a sleek silver, solar-powered, two-seater roadster, with the option to convert the wheels to hover engines so he could take it in the tunnels of the Pyrἰnas. While the Pillars had roads and tunnels, Lux Orbis didn’t waste time, resources, or manpower on building roadways outside of the Pillars. Hovercar was the only way to get to his destination.
His intelligence reports had given him the supposed location of Thov Rapra, but he saw nothing for miles but Saharan desert and solar panels. He wouldn’t give up so easily though. It must be in this wasteland somewhere.
He left his car and searched the area on foot for two hours, sweating and reaching exhaustion. He returned to his hovercar and ran the air conditioner while he drank water, smoked a cigarette, and thought about where to search next. He saw mountains in the distance and decided to head that way. He drove there in under an hour and set his solar panels up while there was still sunlight so the cars batteries could recharge and he wouldn’t be stranded in the Saharan, especially if he needed a quick escape.
Less than a kilometer away he could see what looked like a cave entrance. He had approximately four hours of sunlight left—enough to charge the vehicle adequately to make it back to Lagos or get far from here if necessary. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. He would wait for darkness to descend, and then make his way to the cave entrance; in the meantime, he slept.
When Jax awoke five hours later, he packed his water, emergency protein and carbohydrate food bars, and an expandable computer—which was disguised as a cigarette pack—in his sling-pack, slung a HULC—High-frequency Uldman Laser Cannon, the standard issue weapon for all military units on Earth and one that he had stolen from an armory—over his right shoulder, glasses over his eyes that could switch between infrared, thermal, and night vision, then set out in the direction of the cave mouth.
He reached his destination in less than ten minutes. He took his time looking around for any traps, alarms, or anything else that could give him away. He entered the cave and walked cautiously to what looked like a steel door at the end of a tunnel. There was an iris-scanner on the wall next to the door.
Jax had come prepared for such a problem. He pulled out the expandable computer, pushed a button on its surface, and waited. The cigarette-pack-sized object enlarged to a three-screened computer the size of Jax’s torso; he smiled about the ingenuity of Sector 8.
He waited momentarily for the computer to initialize, then he activated a program to 3-D print a replica of Marston Kane’s eye. The whole process took five minutes.
Jax took the 3-D printed eye, pushed another button on the computer, and watched it shrink back to the size of a cigarette pack. When it was finished, he put it back in his sling-pack, held his proto-rifle at the ready, and put Kane’s 3-D printed eye in front of the iris-scanner.
The steel door opened and Jax looked inside, ready for anything.
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It was another tunnel but lined in silver permacrete and well-lit. Jax disabled his glasses and moved forward. He knew he didn’t have much time now.
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Mars was waiting impatiently for his tech team in Chicago Pyrἰnas to finish tracking the replica-iris that had been placed over his eyes. He needed this to hurry up. He had spent the evening giving his expectations and training regiments to his PSXV squad leaders, and he was impressed with their abilities; though he was recently promoted to Thegn, he knew how important the squad leader’s role was and he would make sure that every one of them were well taken care of.
With that duty completed, he was able to concentrate on his investigation into Ella’s attempted assassination. And it all started with finding the individual who had targeted him.
Mars received an alert on his forearm computer; his iris was used to access the Thov Rapra spaceport. He had set the alert for just such a reason. Mars thought for a moment. “Fuck it,” he said aloud, and removed the replica-irises from his eyes. He couldn’t wait on the trace any longer; he had to get to Thov Rapra now.
He grabbed his emergency go-bag, wrote a note, sent it to Ella, and headed to the secret subterranean hyper-speed train that Ella told him went directly from the Lux Orbis HQ in Lagos Pyrἰnas to Thov Rapra.
He would get to the Spaceport in fifteen minutes.
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Jax had to hurry. He made his way through the permacrete tunnel, which continued down and down for 2.5 kilometers; he was surprised that he hadn’t encountered any personnel yet—no alarms, no guard yelling “intruder!”, no dogs set on his path. It was just him in an endless tunnel of white and gray. He continued on and finally got to the end of the tunnel. He stopped and looked around him in awe at the site that met him.
The Thov Rapra spaceport was complete. It looked like it had been complete for some time. “Damnit,” Jax whispered to himself. He stared down into the complex taking in as many details as he could, imprinting them to his photographic memory; it looked to be the size of an underground Pyrἰnas and he could see twelve huge, polished-black shuttles, easily able to carry tens of thousands of personnel each; he looked up and saw that the roof of the complex was retractable, powered by huge winches. Jax made his way to the winches, determined to sabotage them. The ships wouldn’t be of any use if they couldn’t get out.
“Stop there!” came a voice from behind him.
Jax rolled to his left, came up in a prone position and pointed his HULC in the direction of the voice. But there was nobody in his line-of-sight. Then Jax felt a knife at his neck.
“Don’t fucking move,” said the voice again. It took Jax a second, but he recognized Mars’ voice. What the hell, Jax thought, trying to calm himself and evaluate the situation. How did he get here so fast?
Mars had a knee in Jax’s back and a knife at his throat. “Who are you, and why did you target me that night at the bar?” The tone of Mars’ voice indicated that Jax didn’t have long to respond.
“I’m the one trying to take out the greatest threat in the known galaxy.”
Mars laughed. “You think humanity is the greatest threat in the galaxy? Fucking clones. We created you. You were supposed to be the next step of evolution, and you betrayed us, destroying billions of lives over five thousand years along with the hope and future of humanity. Your kind is the greatest threat to the galaxy.”
Jax scoffed. “You humans don’t know shit. You are riddled with so much hubris that you think I’m talking about you and your kind? No! The traitor Odina is the greatest threat to the galaxy you stupid fool!”
Mars was taken aback, but he refused to move the knife from this clone’s throat. “Explain yourself, now.”