Earth

2027

It hadn't been easy to convince Theo to let her out of the car once they made it to an exit for the base. In the end, he knew as well as she did that that no one on this base was safer than her. Vehru had not spent the last twenty years priming her as Witness to let her die on Liberation Day. Besides, she was sure that Jace could see her location and condition. He wouldn't have given her hand mods without such basic functions enabled. If something truly went awry, likely both Jace and Vehru would come to her immediately.

There had been two things that convinced Theo to go, however. One, that they needed to get the dogs to safety. Two, that Rory needed him to start studying whatever files Jace had sent her. If Jace had managed to compile any information about the technologies they were investigating back on Lumiea, such as how the Federation's teleportation system worked, then Theo needed to see it. Besides, the other civilians would be terrified, and Theo had a way of calming people. They would need someone to lead them.

As hard as it had been to get Theo to let her leave, it had been even harder to convince the handful US soldiers helping civilians escape to let her walk away from them. When Rory pointed out that Vehru had said she was now free to go anywhere and that it would not help the evacuation efforts to call the Commander to this exit, the fear in the eyes of the young men had been enough for Rory to take her opportunity to escape.

She wanted to find Jace and the rest of her squad, but there were still people trying to flee the base. Besides, Vehru would not be happy about what she'd done to Trin. Going to the others now would only put them on the Commander's radar while she was angry with Rory. Giving the Commander at least a few minutes to collect herself seemed wise. What she'd done might have been unwise. The stabbing hadn't just been to send a message or even for revenge, though. The Replica using Trin's body had been up to something and this would surely slow her down.

Soon, Rory came upon a family walking down the road without a vehicle. "Do you need help?" she asked.

The father held a toddler in his arms and looked at her nervously without speaking.

"Fine." She stalked past them while shaking her head. "I'm leaving. You don't have to be scared. Just hurry up and get your family out of here."

They all stared as she started to run toward the houses to see if anyone who needed help would actually respond to her. Fires burned now on the far side of the base and the sound of constant gunfire transformed the once peaceful neighborhood into something unrecognizable. Most of the civilians seemed to be escaping just fine, until Rory came upon a teenager carrying a young child out of a house.

"It's okay. We'll find her. I promise." The teenager rocked the sobbing child.

"Mama!" The child wailed.

"You need to evacuate," Rory said, jogging closer.

"I'm trying to find her mom. I'm her babysitter. Her mom went to a friend's house. But they aren't there. I-I can't find them."

"Where are your parents?"

"Out of town."

"The evacuation is mandatory. Soldiers probably made them leave. Here, I see soldiers up the block. Go to them. Okay?"

The teenager nodded, clearly trying to hold back her own sobs while the child cried in her arms.

"Come on." Rory put her arm around the girl and started to lead her to the soldiers.

"What's going to happen?" she whispered to Rory.

It wasn't a question she could bring herself to answer. "You're going to leave and be back with your family soon. That's what will happen. Breathe and stay with people who can help you."

A jet suddenly flew overhead and continued on without crashing. Another followed. Her steps slowed as she watched the duo disappear. Then felt the ground shake. The girl clutched Rory as the roar of an explosion, likely from far across the base, swelled.

Both girls were crying now. Rory guided them over to the soldiers and turned away before anyone could get a good look at her. It was hard to leave them behind, knowing how scared they were, but she didn't need to risk spending time around soldiers right now.

After searching the neighborhoods more, avoiding the blocks surrounding her house, of course, Rory felt satisfied that most of the civilians had been evacuated. Now, she wanted to find a place to hide so she could check out the data Jace had loaded onto her hand mods. She started testing doors on houses to see if any would open.

A bright neon green light flashed in the sky overhead like the dawning of a new, artificial sun.

Her eyes widened as the light flickered twice and then shot out in all directions. A canopy of green unfurled high above the base, racing out toward the perimeter. It took less than a minute for the nearly sheer layer to encompass the entire base in a dome.

"Shit."

Vehru had sealed them off from the rest of the world. The massive shield would protect them from airstrikes, but it would also prevent anyone entering. Or leaving. Not without authorization, at least.

Good thing Theo had made it out.

What would Vehru do with the people left inside? Would she release them?

Rory forced her attention off the shield that had trapped them in the base and ran to the next house. This time, she made it in, and settled down on the floor of the kitchen away from all the windows.

She pulled her laptop out of her backpack. So much had returned to her after she'd awakened from her last memory that she struggled to hold it all in her mind. While it had started with Jace helping her to plan for how to thwart Vehru's conquest, or to at least help Earth escape the worst of the war, eventually the rest of her squad had joined in. That was until they'd lost Trin. Having Vehru's Replica there to constantly spy on them had made their efforts so much harder. It had often felt impossible. Though Rory wanted to believe that they could help Earth escape the Federation's clutches, she still could not imagine succeeding in this. There had to be a way to change the course of history, though. The same pattern could not continue repeating forever.

After she transferred the data, a window opened on her computer that included a search box and several folders underneath with names like 'research' and 'logistics'. She chose one labeled 'start here'. Folders flooded the screen and she quickly realized that it was basic information about their home planet. One folder had news articles. Another had bioengineering textbooks and articles. So much data. They'd brought all this for her? They must have worried that she wouldn't remember anything. It filled her with hope to see such a treasure trove of information. This would be incredible to share with Theo. Together, they could make progress on the technology that Rory had spent so much time studying before being sent to Earth.

Another file caught her eye. It opened a new window that showed something that she had once looked at daily. The health condition of all her team members popped up on the side of the screen. She touched Jace's picture, relieved to see normal vitals. Then she looked at the information for Nikka, Alix, and Lyon. It took all she had not to start crying. What had they all been through these last ten years while she was on Earth? Rory no longer knew anything about any of their lives. How was it possible that she had missed so much with each of them?

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Rory wiped her eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to keep herself from dwelling on the thoughts. Later. She kept telling herself that. Later, she could give in to the sorrow and hate. For now, she had work to do. Such as figure out if Trin had stabilized. Only, there was no information on Trin. Vehru must have removed that.

When Aeryn toggled the location of the squad members, her heart seized. Only hers showed. Someone had hidden all the other locations. Damn it. Nothing could be easy.

Rory clicked on the search bar, desperate to find information on the one topic of research she could not wait to see. For the final three years she had been on Lumiea, her entire squad had worked to find all the information they could on how the Federation's transportation system worked. That technology would allow them to reach out to other planets conquered by the Federation to see what kind of rebellion existed there. They could grow their knowledge and their forces. Without connecting with other planets like Earth and Lumiea, Rory could not imagine taking on Vehru and Morfrain, much less anyone else the Federation could send.

Dozens of files popped up when she searched. There wasn't time now to thoroughly investigate, but from what she saw, her squad hadn't managed to figure out how to transport themselves. Rory did see research, as well as transcriptions from conversations.

"Good job, team," she whispered. They hadn't stopped working. It couldn't have been easy as they had to prepare for Liberation Day and deal with the losses they'd suffered, all while the Replica lurked around them in Trin's body.

After a few minutes of searching, she was frustrated to find that there wasn't information about Vehru's invasion plan or anything about the operation tonight. Maybe it had been too risky to include that information. Rory needed to learn more, but the base was falling, and her squad was somewhere out there.

She packed up her laptop and left the house. In a battle of this size, Vehru would have several of the best analysts working with the Analysis Director on overseeing the entire battle. They would know where everyone was. Problem was that they certainly wouldn't divulge that information to her. Rory at least had the advantage of being the Witness. Lumieans wouldn't kill her. She'd been one of them. The Americans wouldn't be authorized to kill her either. Sure, any of the soldiers could accidentally kill her, but they would not seek her out as a target. So even if she couldn't get anyone to listen to her, capture was likely the worst purposeful action she faced. Which meant she would not stop looking until she found her team.

What Rory needed to figure out was whether there was something she could do that no one else could. With so little information to go off of, she felt lost and unprepared. Jace had told her not to anger Vehru tonight. Too late for that. So why not ruin more of the Commander's plans? Before she'd tried to distract Jace from whatever important mission Vehru had him on by firing on him. Now she knew he was monitoring her location. Would he try to interfere if he thought she'd gone somewhere dangerous? Could Rory get him to abandon his mission if he thought she was in trouble?

She could even cause her vitals to shift. But Jace may have been using this opportunity to do something to fight against Vehru. It was too risky to distract him further without knowing his plans. Instead, Rory needed to just go after her squad and figure out what the hell was happening. She'd given Vehru a small amount of time to calm down. Though, it was honestly starting to make her nervous that Vehru hadn't come after her yet. There was no way she'd get away with stabbing Trin with nothing more than a glare from the Commander.

Rory just had to take it one step at a time, and right now, those steps carried her toward the battle for the base. As she traveled, she realized that she hadn't heard any explosions for at least five minutes. That didn't seem like good news for the Americans.

There really wasn't time to waste. Rory picked her way through the neighborhood, sticking to the cover of darkness in case anyone might try to interfere. As she climbed over a chain-link fence, she saw someone walking along the back of a house.

Her jaw dropped. "What…"

Theo waved her down and then ran to her.

"No." Rory caught his arms. "Why are you here?"

"You actually thought I'd leave you? I got the dogs to the Daniel's and came back in."

"But you said you'd go."

"So we didn't waste time fighting. Where are you going?"

Rory looked up at the dome trapping them here. "The soldiers didn't stop you?"

"It's chaos Rory. I still have my security clearance. I said General Price needed me and their coms are down."

"Damn it, Theo. This isn't safe for you."

He pulled Rory's hands into his and gave her a stern look. "You're my wife and this is my planet. It's my fight, Rory. Stop pushing me out."

"You're not a soldier."

"It looks like we all have to be soldiers now."

She wrapped her arms around him, relieved to have him close, even though she was horrified that he was no longer safe.

"I need to find my squad," she said. "You need to look through the data. Hide out here and I'll meet you when I'm done."

"I'm staying with you."

"Theo, you don't have the training. We all have to focus on our skills. I know I'm not an analyst or a combat soldier. So I'm not going to do everything they do."

He took her face in his hands. "If you get into trouble, I won't be able to help you."

"I need you to do this. Okay? This data is everything. Start studying."

Theo settled his forehead against hers. "I can see your location because of what you put on my laptop. That's how I found you. If you aren't back in thirty minutes, I'm coming for you."

"Okay." Rory nodded. "Deal. Just hide."

It didn't seem possible to part again, but they had no choice. Rory kissed him goodbye and left, hoping he would keep himself safe.

Once she reached the outskirts of the residential zone, she watched for signs of any Lumieans, and finally found a lone soldier. Strange. What had happened for her to get separated from her squad? She looked like a combat soldier too.

Rory approached, speaking quickly so the soldier would be able to identify her. "You recognize me?"

The soldier turned and pulled her helmet off. Staring, she nodded, looking dumbfounded. She was just a young private who looked like hardly more than a kid. That had been her once, hadn't it?

"I want to know where my squad is," Rory said.

"You need to talk to Commander Vehru."

"You know who my husband is?"

The girl stared for a moment and then nodded again.

"Is he someone who you like disappointing?"

She swallowed loud enough for Rory to hear. "Commander Vehru gave us clear orders to defer to her about anything having to do with you."

"Yeah, whatever." It had been a hopeless attempt. "What happened to your squad?"

"We were too close to a bomb and we had too many enemy soldiers to deal with to defend properly. We had to move fast. I was about to reunite."

"You should have moved together."

"I made a mistake and took a wrong turn. There was no time to go back. I just had to get to safety. I really need to get going."

Rory reached her hand out. "You can go after you give me your helmet. Vehru will be mad if I die out here. I need one"

"Commander Vehru said–"

Rory dragged the girl closer. "Don't say it one more time. I outrank you. You realize that? Give me a fucking helmet. Then, get back to your squad. It's not acceptable to get separated during such an important mission. There's no room for mistakes. You better get yourself together before your commanding officer comes after you."

"Just take it." She passed the helmet to Rory.

"Get another one on your way to your squad. Don't wait. It's not safe. Do you know how to access extra supplies?"

"Of course, I do." The girl furrowed her brows. "It's not going to be synced up with your squad, you know. That helmet is useless to you."

"Shut up and go. What are you waiting for?"

Rory put the helmet on and touched her hand mods to the sensors on the side to pair them with the helmet.

"Alright…" Quickly, she pulled up mission data, disappointed by just how limited that private's information was. After studying the map, though, she noticed several locations that were blacked out. Jace was leading a special mission. He likely would have been going to one of the classified locations. Based on the path he was taking when she saw him, then she could narrow down the options to two places.

One housed the server that the military built here that was supposed to be secure from Vehru and the Replica. At least, based on traffic she'd seen around that building, she was pretty sure. Rory wasn't supposed to know that, but she'd lived here long enough and dealt with the military for long enough that she knew how to figure out more than they wanted her to.

She was willing to bet that Jace and possibly the rest of the squad were in that building, trying to take control of a server that Vehru had not been able to access. Which meant that the Americans had managed to do something right by preventing efforts to hack it. Maybe they would be able to keep some networks secure, after all.

Rory kept the helmet on and ran for the building, refusing to wait any longer to reunite with her squad, and to restart the fight she'd sworn herself to almost twenty years ago.