📆 2 weeks later.

After entering the systems undetected where planet Crypso 3Q3U was located Jayde, and her troops were transported to the planet surface near the Xi Corporation's secret base.

The planet Crypso 3Q3U was a terrestrial planet in a vast solar system filled with fifteen other planets. Crypso was about half the size Earth, but due to its strange core, its gravity was about three times that of Earth.

While life will never be possible on this planet, it did offer a unique sight in the night sky of nearby planets. Its colors and distance to the planets around it occasionally made the night quite magical on those planets, especially those with an atmosphere.

The surface of Crypso 3Q3U reminded Jayde of Mars, with its blood-red sand, and rocky outcrops.

Eight members of Jayde's elite team transported down with Jayde and Lawrence. Since they had detailed plans of the base, Jayde's squad knew precisely what they were supposed to do. The team members separated to carry out their individual missions, while Lawrence and Jayde infiltrated the main base. Their purpose was to locate the central hub where the power core was located and place a miniature antimatter bomb to blow the place up.

After entering the central hub Jayde was feeling slightly uneasy, the mission was going a little bit too smoothly for her taste.

Turning to Lawrence, she asked: "Bro, seriously don't you think this is a bit too easy?"

Grinning at her Lawrence shook his head. "Shit Jayde, why can't you just be happy that we are lucky for a change, instead of landing in our usual shitstorm?"

Sticking her tongue out at Lawrence, Jayde walked onto the platform and looked around.

The central hub was a sizeable dome-shaped room. The room itself was hollow, from floor to ceiling, it had to be over 100 meters. The power core was located at the bottom of the room. Small screens were located all around the walls, some of the screens displayed maps of the Earth Federation, with red dots on them. Those red dots must be chipped GESS people, Jayde thought.

The most surprising thing was that other screens showed real-time scenes, it looked as though the scenes were from a personal point of view.

"Yo Lawrence, check this out!" Jade called.

Lawrence walked over to Jayde and had a look at the screens she was pointing too.

"It this was I think it is?" Jayde asked Lawrence.

"Fuck these bastards," Lawrence swore. "Yeah I think you are right Sis, it looks as those kill chips, aren't just dead man switches, it looks like they monitoring the poor bastards too."

Shaking her head, Jayde replied: "Just when I figured Xi Corp couldn't get any lower."

"Ah what a pleasant surprise SN1098 and SN1055, long time no see."

Hearing a voice that she hadn't heard for over a decade, Jade swirled around and faced the man who had just spoken.

"Vice President Xi, what a pleasant surprise," she replied sarcastically.

Vice President Xi was a tall, handsome man with an athletic build, his brown hair was expensively styled, and he had brown eyes which were staring at Jayde and Lawrence coldly, his thin lips were curled into a small smirk. A dozen or so bodyguards stood around him. At a glance, Jayde could tell that the bodyguards were normal humans. 

As Jayde made a slight movement to grab her blaster on her hip, he smiled.

"Uh-uh, SN1098," wagging his right index finger.

Lifting her hands in surrender, Jayde frantically tried to think of ways to reverse the situation. While she and Lawrence were outnumbered, she wasn't too worried about the bodyguards, with her and Lawrence's superior physiques no human could match them, add their physiques with their training and experience, these bodyguards were fish on the cutting board, just waiting to be slaughtered.

Jayde didn't think that Vice President Xi would make such a stupid mistake just bring normal humans. He must have the base surrounded by GESS warriors, she thought. Guess he doesn't want those GESS warriors to know about his dirty little secret which why he only bought humans with him here to the core.

Stupid bastard, he has totally underestimated me, Jayde thought. The most important thing to Jayde at the moment was too take down Xi Corporation's supercomputers, no matter what it took, even if the price demanded was her life, Jayde was more than willing to pay. This base had to be destroyed. Vice President Xi would never have taken into account that Jayde was willing to sacrifice her life just to ensure that this base was destroyed.

From the secret intelligence that the Centauri has obtained, not only did the computers at the base control the kill switches of thousands of GESS people but it also had all of Xi Corporations latest research on weapons, genetics as well as the newest research in starship technology. Bringing this base down would set back Xi Corporation for decades.

Jayde knew according to her intel that she only had a small window of opportunity to strike a devastating blow to Xi Corporation. The core below Jayde was the most advanced cybernetic computer in the Federation. Xi Corporation had pumped trillions of credits and over two decades developing the system. The core controlled every single computer in the Xi Corporation, every scrap of information was contained just below Jayde feet.

Xi Corporation backup cybernetic system was nearly complete and would go online within a couple of days. Xi Corporation had planned to have both systems operating at the same time, it was only due to Jayde's team hijacking a shipment of rare synthetic gel packs that had delayed the backup system, and since Xi Corporation had already started the process of bringing the system online, they couldn't stop the process.

The decades it would take for the Xi Corporation to recover from this loss would buy the Centauri time to dominate the sector they were in and ensure with their current advancement in technology they would continue to be safe and free from human enslavement.

Thinking of the children running free on Eden, and just imagining what the Xi Corporation would do to them if they ever found Eden, Jayde decided to act.

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Trusting Lawrence to have her back, Jayde lunged to her left, grabbing her blaster, she started firing rapidly.

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Pure blue energy bolts from her blaster flew in the directions of the bodyguards. With Jayde's super-enhanced reflexes combined with her sharpshooter abilities, four of the bodyguards were taken down instantly. Rolling and coming up onto her one of her knees she continued firing.

Another three bodyguards died.

Suddenly a sharp pain in her back distracted Jayde. Spinning around Jayde raised her blaster to shoot the assassin. She was confused about how an assassin had come up behind her.

Synapsis firing in her brain, Jayde mind was filled with different scenarios. She figured the assassins must have been hidden waiting for her team.

Fuck knew it was too damn easy, it is a fucking ambush, she thought.

They had a leak. A fucking shit eating mole rat who had betrayed the Centauri, Jayde thought, furious at being betrayed by one of her own.

Pure shocked drilled through Jayde body, instead of seeing an assassin, the man holding the blaster who had just shot her, was wearing the face of her beloved brother.

"L..L-awrence?" Jayde questioned shocked.

Another shot penetrated Jayde right shoulder, disabling her arm, the blaster dropped from her hand.

Not even wasting a millisecond, ignoring the burning pain of the blaster shot, Jayde tried to pick up the blaster with her left hand, when the third shot pierced her left shoulder.

"Enough Jayde!" Lawrence shouted, lifting his blaster to point it her head.

"Well done, SN1055," said Vice President Xi, clapping his hands. "But you should have been faster, the fucking bitch nearly shot me."

Looking at the two of them, Jayde was confused, she wasn't stupid she had already figured out that Lawrence had betrayed her, what she couldn't understand was why.

"Why Lawrence?" she asked. "Why the fuck have you betrayed the Centauri?"

"I betrayed?" Lawrence laughed scornfully. "You are the betrayer SN1098, you are the one that turned on your creators."

When Lawrence called her SN1098, Jayde felt a stabbing pain through her heart. From the time that Lawrence gave her the name Jayde, for her striking emerald green eyes, she had always treasured her name, and since that day when she was sixteen years old, Lawrence always had in private called her by her name and not by her designation.

"What the fuck did you do to him?" she screamed at Vice President Xi, she would never believe that Lawrence would betray her of his own free will, they must have done something to him over the past two years.

She was a fool, she thought. She should have suspected that after two years under Xi Corporation's 'tender care' that Lawrence could have broken, she couldn't believe that she had made such an such an amateur mistake. As the leader of the rebellion, she should never have allowed her personal feelings to cloud her judgment.

Flicking a nonexistent piece of lint off his dark suit, Vice President Xi smiled coyly. "Ah my dear SN1098, we did nothing to him," Vice President Xi answered mockingly. "SN1055 has always been loyal to the corporation."

Jayde's blood froze for a millisecond before her mind screamed in denial.

"Don't lie to me."

"Ah SN1098, what a naive bitch you are," Vice President Xi laughed.

"Your precious Lawrence," Vice President Xi said raising his hands he used his fingers to quote gesture the word precious. "Has spent years watching you, reporting everything you have done," Vice President Xi went on to explain.

As Vice President Xi's words sunk him, Jayde's body swayed, blinking rapidly, Jayde could feel the blood draining from her face, as her stomach clenched.

"No, impossible!" Jayde denied, shaking her head vehemently.

Letting out a giant belly laugh, Vice President Xi shook his head at Jayde. Then walking up to her, he viciously kicked her in the stomach, as Jayde torso bent forward after that vicious kick, Vice President Xi reached out to grab her chin, pinching her chin with his fingers, he lifted Jayde head and stared into her eyes.

His reptilian brown eyes stared at Jayde indifferently, as his lips curled into a harsh sneer. "Do you honestly believe that the rebellion was YOUR idea?" he asked mockingly.

"We needed you to rebel, those fucking bleeding heart liberals back on Earth were starting to question the morality of us owning genetically enhanced humans."

With great relish, Vice President Xi went on to describe how the Xi Corporation came up with the idea to have their enhanced people rebel, which would make the Federation nervous. This would then give Xi Corporation the opportunity to install the kill chips, what the Federation didn't know was the chips also allowed the corporation to monitor everything that the GESS people saw and heard. The added bonus of their plan would shut up the liberal movement back home trying to gain human rights for genetically enhanced humans.

Vice President Xi boasted how Lawrence had always been one of their top operators, and he had left Jayde two years ago to go undercover for the Xi Corporation as the spy — the very same spy who had 'leaked' the intelligence to the Centauri.

"Haha, talk about killing four birds with one stone, we got those liberals off our backs, rooted out those with rebel tendencies, implemented our monitoring agenda and once we find your Eden we will get back all our research," Vice President Xi gloated.

Pinching her chin hard Vice President Xi asked: "So now my dear SN1098, where is your precious Eden?"

Her eyes steely and filled with determination, Jayde tried to shake her head, glaring at Vice President Xi she declared: "I will never tell you."

"Pfft never? Oh, I am so going to enjoy breaking you!" Vice President Xi said gleefully while smiling sinisterly.

As Jayde came to terms with Lawrence's betrayal, she felt her heart shattering, she had always known humans were despicable, but she had held onto the belief the Centauri were different. They were united. They would never betray each other.

Having this belief crushed was heartbreaking, but having it done by her brother — a man she had spent sixty years with left a scar of her soul.

The only consolation Jayde had was she had been so busy with the relocation of the Centauri people to Eden she hadn't spent much time with Lawrence, so he had little information on the advances of the technology of her people, and thankfully she had decided to surprise Lawrence and hadn't told him the location of Eden.

At least her people were safe — for now.

Jayde knew that she couldn't allow herself to fall into the hands of the Xi Corporation, even though she was confident she wouldn't break under torture.

As a child, she had been trained to withstand the best torture methods that anyone could come with, but there were other ways to access the information in her head. Data mind mining was illegal, but she didn't think that would stop the Xi Corporation.

Determined to keep her people safe, and the secrets in her mind out of the Xi Corporation hands, Jayde activated the microchip embedded in her brain, detonating the mini antimatter bomb in her backpack.

With a brief flash of pain, Jayde and everything around her disintegrated.

With that one heroic action, Jayde saved the Centauri and thousands of other genetically enhanced humans throughout the Federation.

Due to the microchip, the staff left of the starship were aware of everything happening on the planet below them, after Jayde destroyed the base they returned to Eden. They showed the video of Jayde last stand, and her heroic sacrifice.

Jayde sacrifice united the Centauri as never before, it lit a fire deep within their hearts, and they swore to see Jayde dream come true, that she hadn't sacrificed her life for them in vain.

United they pushed back the humans, rescuing thousands of their people from enslavement. They further went on to protect thousands of planets from the greedy corporations, ensuring that the indigenous aliens on those vulnerable planets were protected.

Years later, Jayde was revered throughout the Centauri empire as their savior and founder. Each planet had a stature of Jayde in the main cities, made out of rare moonrock that glowed faintly giving off a pious aura and engraved at the bottom of each statue was the mantra that Jayde had lived her life by.

I WOULD RATHER DIE STANDING THAN TO LIVE ON MY KNEES

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