Earth

2027

Jace had retrieved the solid state drive loaded with the Replica and then sprinted the entire way to where his squad should be prepared for him, primarily sticking to rooftops to keep out of the warzone in the streets. When he arrived at the four story building they'd targeted, the squad was all there. Seeing all of them together loosened his shoulders some. Tonight wasn't the most dangerous mission, but it was hard telling what could go wrong in a battle like this. Jace was relieved to see Alix, Lyon, and Nikka together without any apparent injuries.

A division had already taken the perimeter around the building they'd started infiltrating. While the north side needed more reinforcements, the south where Jace met with his people was well-controlled by Lumiean soldiers. Toggling his map, he could see the live view of how much of the base they'd conquered and the areas where they still battled for ground. The Americans were rapidly losing much of the base. Several temporary medical bays had been erected where incapacitated American soldiers were taken and monitored. In the coming days, they would release them, but Vehru wanted this base because she would use it as an icon to say her Witness had been held captive here. So they would remain in control of Fort Freedom at all costs.

"Is everything set up?" Jace asked. Extra troops filled the area to keep enemy lines from encroaching upon the building. All that remained was to clear the inside out. The resistance other squads had met inside testified to the American's determination to protect their assets and secrets housed within. It was only a matter of time before it fell into Vehru hands, however.

"The other squads are clearing the way now," Alix said. "We're cleared to enter."

"You saw her, didn't you?" Nikka asked. Although Jace couldn't see Nikka's expression behind her helmet, the tone of her voice easily painted a picture of her pinched brows in his mind.

Apparently Nikka didn't need to see his face either to know how he was feeling. They all knew each other too well for him to get away with hiding anymore. Inconvenient and infuriating, even if he wouldn't dream of changing it. It hurt him to think that Aeryn had been without her squad as well as her family when Jace knew just what a terrible loss that was. He checked his equipment to distract himself and nodded without saying anything.

"How did she seem?" Nikka spoke faster than normal, clearly worried. "Do you think she'll be safe?"

"Well, she shot me a few times." The slight ache in his chest when he twisted made him think about seeing her raising that gun at him. He hadn't been able to move a muscle when he first spotted her, just like in the hallway. "I'd say she's in the mood to get herself in trouble."

"She shot you?"

"Wanted to slow me down."

Nikka snorted. "Oh, Aeryn. At least we can see her on here." She tapped her cuff. "So far, she's good. Look, she's even sitting still right now."

"Not for long. She's got that look in her eye. I set an alert for if any of her stats drop. I'm gone if they do, no matter what's happening. Aeryn hasn't been in combat for ten years and has no idea what's happening."

"I know. It's okay. We'll figure it out. I'll be there too if I can."

He sighed. "I wish she'd just get out of here for the night until we can catch her up and work out a plan. She's so stubborn."

"Like you'd sit this out in her position. You're a hypocrite, you know."

"I don't care when it comes to my family." His muscles tightened at the thought of Aeryn putting herself in danger after he'd finally found her. "I only care about Aeryn and Levi having each other again."

Nikka's voice softened. "Don't break her heart, Jace. You can't go into this thinking like that. You need to matter too."

"That's the only way I can think. You know what we're up against." The desperation only fueled his anger and set an edge to his voice. "Where the fuck is Trin? We need to leave."

"There's only thirty seconds left in her expected window." Lyon adjusted his pack and turned to look for her. "Very weird. She's always early."

Jace smirked, voice dripping with bitterness. "Maybe something went wrong with Vehru's precious Replica."

"Yeah," Nikka said. "Well, somethings going to go wrong for us too without our analyst."

"We don't need her," Jace said.

"We do, actually. We'll have to get support remotely. It's not nearly as good. You doing the camera, Alix?"

"Got it," he said. "No message about her still. Vehru must be aware she's about to be late."

"Let's just go." Jace walked forward, letting the others set up the remote support. In many missions, a bioengineer also filled in for their squad. They didn't want to replace Aeryn and they had done fine over the years using specialists who had lost their own squads. Tonight, their forces were stretched too thin with the attacks happening at other bases which Vehru had accused of holding captives. In this case, they felt they'd make it just fine without one. But being down Trin and a bioengineer certainly wasn't ideal. Jace didn't care. They would be fine and he'd rather deal with the challenges that came than have to work with Vehru's Replica.

As they entered the side of the building already secured by other squads, he cast a glance about at the unconscious soldiers on the ground. "I'll take the front," he said and no one argued with him. If anyone took a hit, it was better that he did.

The other three in Jace's squad had been able to undergo some of the enhancements he had, such as the surgery to his eyes to implant the cybernetic optical nerve that increased their response times. They also had the optical sensors that could work in tandem with their other devices to provide early detection of threats or offer hand mod assistance, such as refining their aim. When Aeryn had turned her weapon on Jace, the first thing he'd noticed was the flash of light from her gun when his sensors identified the threat and visually warned him of the danger. He could have evaded if he hadn't completely frozen at the sight of her.

That kind of failure really wasn't acceptable. Twice now Jace had been surprised to see her and both times it had distracted him. He couldn't let his emotions best him.

Especially with all they had to accomplish. It would be dangerous for his squad. Even though Nikka, Lyon, and Alix had better modifications than most other combat soldiers, they still did not have access to everything that Jace and the other generals did. The mesh beneath his skin, for example, was an incredibly expensive investment, not only because of the cost of the materials but because of the complicated and time-consuming procedure of implanting it. It wasn't impenetrable, but it provided a great deal of protection that his teammates didn't have. Even though he'd made the case for the others to get it, they weren't terribly disappointed when the request was denied. Lyon had told him that they weren't so eager to torture themselves with horrendously painful surgeries like Jace was.

There wasn't anything he wasn't willing to do if it increased his odds of victory, and especially if it could get him any closer to being able to damage Vehru or Morfrain. Jace knew they would never allow any flesh-and-blood humans to rise close to their level, but he also appreciated the dangerous combination of his own borderline insane dedication to enhancement and their arrogant dismissiveness of biological humans as weak.

Maybe Jace's body could not compare to theirs. If he could get himself close enough, though, his obstinance and the eternally burning wrath within him might just give him the chance to sink his teeth into the bastards at the right moment. It was dangerous to take too much from a person. Vehru might have believed she'd gotten it down to a science–how far to push someone–but Jace believed it would one day be her downfall.

His squad wound down a flight of stairs, pushing for the lower levels of the building where their intel indicated they would find the new server that so far remained inaccessible to them. The Americans had wisened up so the Replica's previously successful attempts to physically access secured servers were no longer successful. Vehru would not have sent Jace and his squad on this mission if she had been able to break into this network.

The camera Alix had released hovered close so that an analyst could help them remotely. Soon, they'd be facing gunfire and possibly explosions within confined halls and rooms. It would have been more precise with Trin present, despite that Jace wanted nothing to do with her. There was no substitute for an in-person analyst who they had trained with extensively, even if that analyst happened to be a murderous imposter. With remote support, though, Jace felt confident that his team could calibrate their shields to deflect the bullets without sending them hurtling into the Earthlings or themselves. Their bulletproof suits were fantastic but they could only take so many hits from a high-powered weapon, or worse, explosives, at close range. Same for enhanced bones or his mesh. While shields did risk causing bullets to stray erratically from their targets, his squad had long ago grown comfortable with such exercises.

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The remote analyst warned them that they were coming upon territory in the building that a squad had not yet cleared. Thanks to the Replica, they had accurate maps of most of the base. This building, however, remained unknown to them. They quieted their footsteps as they slid down a hallway that appeared empty. The analyst instructed Nikka to switch to infrared and transmitted what she'd picked up to the rest of them.

Down a corridor to the right, dozens of soldiers waited, clearly defending a section of the building.

Alix detached two small drones from his hip and sent them ahead while the squad positioned themselves to quickly be able to approach. Bursts of electricity fired from the drones, followed by the Americans returning fire.

"Now," the analyst said.

Jace pushed forward to the front of the group and bounded down the hallway. Nikka and Lyon both combined their efforts to set up a shield that cut the air in front of Jace in the shape of a triangle. Bullets bounced off the translucent blue shield, caught a soft stream of flowing energy that Alix created, and scattered throughout the hall behind the squad. Jace jumped off the ground and flew straight for the soldiers, skimming the air above their heads, leaving a trail of electrical shocks like a sparking, unseen blanket that draped the soldiers. He landed, both stun guns already drawn, and fired at the two closest enemies.

Behind him, his squad advanced, but he temporarily faced a dozen more troops. Directives flowed to them from the analyst in a constant stream. Jace unleashed a concussive blast that threw a volley of bullets to the side. Lyon took care of the next part, catching the ones that bounced off the walls in a wave of energy that smacked them back into the concrete, shaking the entire hall.

Jace darted forward, twisted at the glint of hand grenades his sensors detected, and easily evaded them, trusting the others to deal with containing the explosion. Feigning a leap to the right, he shifted to roll left, while he beamed a holographic projection from the attachment covering the back of his right hand. It lasted for only a few seconds, but fooled enough soldiers that half followed his decoy, opening them up for a clean shot with the stun gun. Nikka and Alix flanked him now and each fired on the soldiers. Lyon quickly threw up a shield in front of them.

In less than two minutes, they'd left thirty-two Americans unconscious on the ground. His mind calculated this number without him needing to count while the distant pangs of pity hit his chest. They would all survive unless they had underlying heart conditions or some other ailment that made them especially vulnerable to being stunned. Still, the battle was too easy. What honor was there in fighting someone who couldn't properly defend themselves? They must have felt terrified.

As they continued forward, an update from the Strategy Director informed them of the success of the other squads in neutralizing their targets within the building, that all so far had gone according to plan. A significant portion of the building was now under their control. A squad had also located the server and the specialists were attempting to gain entrance. They followed the directions to the location, able to clear out all the areas they encountered too easily.

At one point, Jace and the rest of the squad stopped in unison, as their optical sensors detected explosives ahead. Light flashed from three spots on the floor, a sign that it was likely a threat, but not a certainty. He focused on the spot, increasing the magnification of his vision until he made out the bombs.

"Lyon," Jace said.

"Got it."

While Lyon was not an explosives expert, he was the person on their squad who trained the most extensively and took the lead in situations like this. They hung back while Lyon sent the camera ahead and then worked to disarm the explosives.

The Analysis Director updated them on the drones that the Americans had successfully deployed as well as chemicals they had attempted to release. Other squads had managed to defend against these and together the Lumiean forces had already secured sixty-five percent of the building. But the threat level remained high as the server was still in American hands and they still had some private network access.

The perimeter remained entirely secured, however, including the aerial space due to the shielding dome over the base.

Soon, they would have the rest of the building.

By the time his squad reached the lowest level in the underground portion of the building, the specialist squad sent ahead of them had already taken out the soldiers defending the bunker where the server was stored.

"Thirty seconds," the analyst of the specialist squad said without looking up from the computer she used to hack the lock.

Jace waited behind her, not questioning whether her approach would work, or if they needed to destroy the door. She'd sounded confident. Perfectly on time, the lock disengaged, and she pushed into the room that surely the Americans had been desperate to keep them from.

Eight armed soldiers. They dutifully fired immediately, but with an actual analyst present, it was even easier to disarm these soldiers than it had been before. Jace watched her squad incapacitate them in seconds, leaving incredibly frightened looking unarmed people behind. Six sets of bloodshot eyes stared at them.

A man in a business suit raised his hands in the air. "These two are scientists and these three are technicians who work on the server. I'm–"

"Don't worry. None of you will die." The analyst shot him in the chest with her stun gun. The whites of his eyes showed as he fell flat on his back.

The others shrieked. Jace cut a glare to her as her squad stunned the rest. He caught one of the scientists before his head could slam on the table on the way down.

"You don't need to stun civilians or non-combat personnel." Jace pointed at the man in the suit she'd shot. "Carry them to medical and get the hell out."

"My apologies, General."

He sighed and looked back at his squad. "Any injuries?"

They all shook their heads as they moved in.

Jace clasped the table in the middle of the room while his team started to install the AI. His finger slipped over the small tear in his vest from the one bullet that damaged his suit and he thought about Aeryn. What would she do if she saw soldiers hurt any of the civilians? He just knew that before the night ended she'd really piss Vehru off and tonight was not the night for it. The Commander had seemed intense before the battle.

A gasping sound caught his attention. Kneeling down, he rolled one of the technicians they'd knocked out onto his side to make sure he could breathe well. The Federation wanted to harvest the energy of consciousness. Every person who died was a loss of that power. But Jace was thankful for the excuse to promote non-lethal war techniques, so they didn't have to kill innocent people who merely wanted to live their lives.

Jace knew all too well how it felt to have a life stolen. He had no interest in stealing this planet from the Earthlings.

"Is it done yet?" He sighed and looked up at the monitors.

Earth didn't understand the threat it faced. No planet ever did. In fact, this show tonight would only encourage them to underestimate Vehru's abilities. Even if Aeryn warned the world about what they could really do, people struggled to believe what they couldn't see. Vehru purposefully held back in the first phase of the Liberation plan so that once Earth became more successful in their attempts to defend their planet, Vehru could hit them hard with the real capabilities. She'd use Earth's previous feelings of victory to make them feel even more defeated when they realized how outmatched they still were.

Jace had hated many things he had to do in his life, but this was up there. Soon, he hoped that they could turn the tables on Vehru and the Federation.

He glanced at his cuff to check on Aeryn again. She'd moved from her previous location, but her vitals looked normal. Wait. His shoulders straightened as he watched her blip across the small map. "Fucking hell." Was she headed in this direction?

"Nikka." He narrowed his eyes, watching as Aeryn continued. "I have to check on something."

"We're fine. Go. Trin isn't here to tattle on you."

Lyon turned toward him. "Be careful."

"You too."

What was Aeryn thinking? She didn't have a suit. She could get herself killed. Fine, she'd waited a decade with no answers and didn't want to wait while the base fell to Vehru. He understood. It was just incredibly inconvenient considering he knew for a fact there was nothing she could accomplish tonight when she was unprepared and had just regained her memories.

Maybe what made him the most angry was that he desperately wanted to see her and this was not how he wanted to do it. They needed time and right now they had none.

Another look at his wrist and Jace was certain that Aeryn was, in fact, on her way here. The damn woman was too clever for her own good. How had she found him?

It wasn't ideal to leave his squad, but they would be fine, and they were almost finished with their objective. Jace jogged down the hall, taking what he thought should be a shorter route to ground level.

"This part of the building has not been secured." The Analysis Director spoke into his earpiece. "Where are you going?"

"Why haven't you taken the entire building yet?" Jace asked. "You should be finished based on the previous pace."

"Unexpected resistance. There's something here we weren't expecting. We just don't know what it is yet. Where are you going without your squad?"

Jace continued onward. "You know not to question me when I have objectives you know nothing about."

"I can't do my job if I don't know where everyone is and where they're going."

"I'm dealing with our Witness. She's my primary objective."

"Of course. I understand. I'll just track her."

Jace did not like that they knew where Aeryn was. Even without her hand mods, Vehru would have still been watching her location. She was an important and unique member of their force. Navigating the situation with her would be a challenge for everyone, but Jace had wide authority to do what he needed to do. Obviously, he had to answer to Commander Vehru, but as one of the top Special-Ops Generals, and the only one involved in the Witness Program, Jace often operated outside the normal boundaries of duty.

Now that he knew they'd fallen behind schedule on commandeering the entire building, he switched modes on his helmet to search for heat signatures, shocked to find a warning appeared on the edge of his vision. All of the rooms in this hall had some kind of thermal insulation affecting his infrared sensors.

What were they hiding down here? This would not prove to be a shortcut to Aeryn. In fact, the worst battle of the night was likely to take place nearby very soon. He glanced at his cuff to see Aeryn had almost made it to the building.

Jace wanted to investigate further, but he needed to check on his wife first. He turned when he caught the movement of a door handle.

Quickly, he kicked open the door with his stun gun aimed. Pulled the trigger immediately when he saw the soldier's uniform. Thanks to his optical implant he counted the seven soldiers inside and took in their location and the aim of their weapons instantly.

The room was small and the short hallway wasn't any better. Deflecting bullets by himself with no analyst would be too risky. Vehru would accept the loss of life given the circumstance, but Jace wouldn't. He could easily misjudge and send a bullet hurtling into a soldier.

No, he wouldn't kill any of them, even if it drastically limited his options.

The first shots missed him entirely as he rammed through the doorway, into a soldier, and rushed to the middle of the room too quickly for their aim to keep up.

They all fired on him at once.