Chapter 1

9:45, 5 June 2134, Standard time

Outskirts of Eriness, Sara’s apartment

It was a beautiful morning on Terra-Nova. Sara was enjoying the much-needed break, their team had been on missions non-stop for almost a year only stopping for a week at most be-tween missions, so a month was a welcomed sign. Alessandra and Sara had been deployed on many planets to carry out several missions, adapting to civilian life was hard. Sara was enjoying a nice warm coffee on the balcony of her apartment, enjoying the sight of the city. The city of Eriness was a small town a couple of kilometers away from the capital of Terra-Nova, home to the Office of National Intelligence’s main offices. Sara and Alessandra both had apartments here, even though they were often deployed elsewhere. She was enjoying the view, the city had many parks making it a very green city. Only a few skyscrapers were there to ruin the view. Unlike the capital, Eriness had strict rules about tall buildings, there-fore the tallest skyscrapers were only 40 stories high, much less than the capital hundredths of 100 plus stories buildings. The city felt more real, it was reminiscent of a time when cities were smaller like when the humans lived back on Earth.

Sara went back inside to get dressed, she needed to go pick up some groceries. She never had a lot of food in the fridge, since she spent most of her time on assignments lately. As soon as she got out of her apartment, her phone started to ring but she ignored it and went on her way. Later in the afternoon, she came back with her groceries to find the entire head of section 3 present in her apartment, as well as Alessandra. She opened the door and almost dropped what she was carrying, surprised to see her superiors in her apartment. She quickly placed down her bags and saluted the officers, they returned the salute.

“At ease Lieutenant” said Commander Ortega.

“Sorry officers, I wasn’t expecting you” said Sara.

“I called you, but you didn’t answer” said Alessandra. “They have something important for us”.

“We have a new assignment, and it falls outside of your normal line of work.”, said Admiral Vega.

“How familiar are you with project Phantom?”, asked Vice Admiral Todd.

“Not much”, said Alessandra.

“I know a lot” said Sara.

“So, then you know that Sol system has been designated a no-fly zone after the events that happened back on Earth.” explained Admiral Todd.

“Yeah, in hope to keep Phantom isolated from the colonies”, responded Sara.

“Precisely, and so far, it worked” said Admiral Todd. “We believe the threat is contained still to this day. We are unsure if Phantom is active or not, for all we know he could have lost power and ceased to function”.

“The problem is, there is one of our ships that did an emergency drop out of slipspace and ended up in the sol system, we tracked their exit signature around Mars orbit”, explained Captain Spencer.

“We are going to need you to get there, find the ship and secure any data onboard and any surviving crew member”, said Admiral Vega.

“This mission is going to be risky, all long-range communication will have to be scrambled, to prevent the chance of Phantom escaping”, said Rear Admiral Collins.

“We are going to equip you with the best electronics counter measure equipment we have, as well as an ASRA node”, explained Admiral Todd.

“If the ship is compromised, you are to destroy it, should your own equipment be compromised, you are not to come back until Phantom is deactivated”, said Admiral Vega.

“Oh, and one last thing. We decided to promote you to the rank of Lieutenant Commander as well as extend you operational capabilities. Miss Yates here will be your second in command onboard your new vessel, the Alacrity”, said Admiral Vega.

“She is a state of the art Aurora class Prowler, giving you enhanced stealth capabilities”, explained Vice Admiral Todd. “We have handpicked some of the best to accompany you on this mission and future assignments. There are some of the best section 3 has to offer.”

“When do we leave?”, questioned Sara.

“The Alacrity retrofits are going to be complete by the end of the week. Report to base by tomorrow evening”, said Admiral Vega.

“Yes sir”, replied Sara and Alessandra synchronously.

The officers got up and left Sara’s apartment. Before leaving, Commander Ortega said to Sara and Alessandra: “Come see me at base for a tour of the Alacrity and what she is capable of, you will be quite impressed.” Sara’s stress levels went down a notch, having most of her commanding officers in her apartment was unexpected. “You knew about his?” asked Sara. “They only told me less than an hour ago, I let them in here”, replied Alessandra. “So much for vacation, back to work again”, replied Sara disappointed. “Yeah, maybe when we retire we’ll finally get vacation time”, said Alessandra.

Their next mission was the most dangerous thing they ever did so far. It started to sink in for both, they might not come back from this mission. Phantom had destroyed Earth and would have kept going until there were no humans left if the satellites had not been destroyed. They had no clue what was going on back in the Sol system right now. “Sara, you know who’s going to be with us on this one?” asked Alessandra. “I don’t know, they didn’t tell you, but they are apparently the best in section 3. I guess we’ll find out back at base”. “Yeah, I guess we’ll know when we meet them.”

Alessandra left Sara’s apartment, they both had a lot on their mind right now. They were going on a mission and this time they had no clue if they were ever going back. Sara received the mission briefing, they are instructed to come back only if Phantom is confirmed no longer operational. The mission could be a simple asset recovery, or it could get complicated fast. If they must take out Phantom, they need to evade him on order to reach is data-center. Phantom could still be operating at full capacity, but since AI can also become corrupted after some time without maintenance it is possible Phantom could be suffering the same effects. If ever they should go up against Phantom the mission is going to be one of the hardest they had to do so far.

Alessandra got back at her apartment and continued packing her bags. She was used to being away on deployments, and to her, this was just another mission. It didn’t bother her that the odds might be against them, to her it was just another mission. She always preferred action on the front lines, since she graduated from the academy, she was on missions, deployed to the front lines on many worlds with her unit. Since she was recruited by Sara and the ONI, she didn’t get time to rest, or even think about the danger of their missions. To her it was just a job she had to do. Alessandra preferred it that way, it helped her focus on the task at hand and not worry about other stuff.

Sara didn’t get a good night’s rest; the upcoming mission was troubling her. She knew what she signed up for when joining the ONI black ops team, but all mission they had so far were a lot clearer than this one. They had lots of intel of their task at hand, who to extract, to execute, what to gather. This mission was a big unknown, all they knew is that there is a ship lost in the sol system and they are to investigate. To this day, Phantom was the biggest threat known to humanity, almost causing an extinction level event. Luckily, humanity was already expanding its empire across the galaxy at the time. Even though most of the population was living in the Sol system, many were founding colonies across the stars. When news broke about what happened back on Earth, the Colonial Administration stepped in to get control of the situation. They ordered a long-range strike on all communication satellites in the Sol system and enforced an exclusion zone around the star system.

***

7:06, 6 June 2134, Standard time

Outskirts of Eriness, Sara’s apartment

After a long night, Sara woke up, made some coffee and finished packing her things. She left soon after for the ONI offices. She spent more time there than at her apartment since she was recruited by the ONI. She never really settled down since she left her home to join the academy. In a way, the office was the closest thing she had to a home. On her way she stopped at Alessandra’s apartment to pick her up. Like always, she was running around everywhere to gather everything she forgot to pack, Alessandra was always getting ready until the last possible second. Sara helped her pack and they left for the ONI building.

“So, what’s you take on this?”, asked Alessandra curious about Sara’s opinion on the mission.

“I honestly don’t know what to think, there are so many unknowns.”, replied Sara.

“About the crew? We don’t know them”, replied Alessandra.

“I know we always worked in pair on our missions, but I think this could be a good opportunity, we could make a name for ourselves. I was a coms officer onboard the SSC-Phoenix, I was ok at leading people.”, said Sara.

“So, you are ok at going on a suicide mission with a crew that you know almost nothing about, except that they are the ‘best’”, asked Alessandra

“Well, I plan on doing some shakedown runs before going to the Sol system, if the brass doesn’t like it so be it. It’s my mission an I want to know if I can trust them.”, replied Sara.

“So, you want to do an evaluation before going in?”, said Alessandra.

“Yup”, said Sara as they arrived at the gate of the ONI campus.

Sara stopped he car at the first checkpoint, she handed the security guard their credentials. He signaled the other guards to stop the search and let them through. Since Sara and Alessandra were working for section 3, they had top level security clearance and these guards did not, they were not allowed to search their vehicle nor question them about the reason they’re here. The gate opened and they made their way to the section 3 office. ASRA said to Sara “Welcome to the Office of Naval Intelligence section 3 offices” as a joke, she jumped. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you” quickly said ASRA. “I’m not used to having you talking in my head, that’s all” replied Sara. Alessandra looked at her puzzled. ASRA interfaced through the car’s audio system, “Sorry miss Yates, I was talking to Sara through her neural implant” explained ASRA. “But you can also use my neural link, why did you have to talk through the car?” replied Alessandra. “There would be a reception delay of 0.03 second between both of your neural implants”, said ASRA. “Really? Who cares”, said Sara, bored by the discussion. “I am all about efficiency” replied ASRA to both. “The truth is that yours is in a totally different process that runs deeper in my routines for faster analysis and enhancements in combat situations, best you not tell anyone.” said ASRA through Sara’s implant. “See you in a bit ASRA” said Alessandra as she left the car. They took their bags and left the car in the lobby, the car then left by itself for the parking garage.

***

8:24, 6 June 2134, Standard time

Eriness, Oni headquarters

They entered the lobby and passed through the security checkpoint. This time they had to get their bag scanned, their electronics equipment erased before they were allowed in the building. ONI had strict rules about what was allowed in and out. They were not allowing to bring any personal electronic devices inside, their ONI issued equipment was to be wiped before going in to prevent them from being used for an attack inside the closed network of the ONI. “Really, it’s inefficient if you ask me, you are allowed access to the network form the outside anyways, do you want me to restore what was on your devices Sara?”, asked ASRA. Sara simply didn’t answer ASRA which quickly understood that she didn’t care about the contents. Alessandra and she went to the barracks to drop their bags but were intercepted by Commander Ortega before they could get there.

“We have a situation, if you would please follow me you are being re-assigned”, said the commander in a hurry.

“ASRA, it’s a priority mission from ONI, follow him they will brief you about what I just found”, said ASRA on the private channel to Sara.

They changed their course and went for the briefing room. They both dropped their bags before going in and entered the room. Neither Sara nor Alessandra where in uniform, but all the officers of ONI were.

“Sorry we are not in uniform officers”, said Alessandra.

“No worries, we called you here in a hurry you are not supposed to be on active duty until tomorrow”, said Admiral Collins.

“So, what do you guys know about Northern Lights?”, asked Admiral Vega.

“ASRA’s cover, an massive surveillance system supposed to help prevent crime across the colonies”, replied Sara.

“Correct, and the public is not even aware of it, it’s a black budget code name for the Colonial Administration Colonial affairs, they give us the funds for the project and we provide results”, said Vega, continuing his explanation.

“The public was unaware until now, a reporter posted an article speculating about what Northern Light could be, and his speculation had explicit details about the surveillance system”, he added.

“If the public and the administration find the truth, that they are being watched, by an AI, ONI will be shutdown and many of us prosecuted”, said Commander Ortega worried.

“ASRA has identified multiple breaches in the Colonial Affair’s networks and the hackers got hold of many financial plans, budgets”, explained Vega. “They leaked documents about Northern Lights”.

“I managed to intercept many publications about those details and contain the breach, including what the reporter published”, said ASRA as his avatar showed up on the briefing room’s screen. “No one saw what he wrote, I hacked all his personal equipment and deleted any traces of information about Northern Lights and all other classified operations”, added ASRA. “However, I believe he has a hard copy of the data and of his article”.

“We are going to need you to contain this breach, we sent strike teams to eliminate the hackers responsible for the leak”, said Admiral Vega.

“You are going to find the reporter, find out what he knows, find his hard copies, delete them and then take care of him”, said Ortega. “Lethal force is authorized, and you are free to deal with him however you want. Keep in mind that this is a black op on Colonial Administration’s colonies, try not to attract to much attention. If you get caught by local authorities, we will not bail you out, you are on your own.” This wasn’t Sara’s first rodeo, she knew the risks like all previous missions. What she didn’t know was the reason why the office of national intelligence would want to protect their project so bad as to kill a civilian to keep him from talking.

“Head over to the armory, we will provide you with some equipment, a Shade prowler is waiting for you in hangar Alpha 5”, said Ortega.

Alessandra and Sara both saluted the officers before leaving the briefing room. “Why am I not surprised we don’t even get the day off” said Alessandra. “Well, we are still the only spectre team for now” replied Sara. The girls went to the armory and gathered some equipment for the mission. They only took some light equipment and surveillance gear. Since they were going in a highly populated city they needed to blend in if they want to eliminate someone without getting any attention on them. They only took some small handguns they could easily conceal, bullet proof vests and a sniper rifle just in case. On their way out, they passed next to their powered armor suits, they were the most advanced equipment the office had. Adapted from the semi-powered assault armor from the army, the suits were designed to improve a soldier’s ability on the field. The ONI variant had enhanced radar and electronics systems, energy shields as well as an ASRA node. A single suit costed more than a frigate to research and manufacture. Tailor made for the spectre program these were the only two suits in existence as of now.

Oni had to carefully manage the budget for their spectre program as well as Northern Lights. They put on hold their plans to recruit more personnel for their spectre program, making Sara and Alessandra the only spectre team. They instead chose to invest in the acquisition of hardware for ASRA. In the recent years the doubled the amount of QEC nodes and added more servers to the system. This allowed for more personnel to be outfitted with neural implants connected to the ASRA system. The trade-off was worth it in the eyes of the office, ASRA was capable to enhance an individual’s abilities and fighting skills by as much as 25 %. For special operations, those lucky enough to get a direct link implant, the gains were even more due to the direct link to ASRA’s processing, allowing for quicker data analysis and support.

A lab technician rushed to intercept them before they left. “Wait, you might want to take these” said the technician. “What is it?” asked Alessandra as she turned around. “Head’s up display contact lens, they will allow you to sync with your ASRA implant and provide you with real time information display. Think of it as the HUD from you armor suit but without the need of a helmet” the technician explained. “Oh, we’ll take those. Can we keep them afterwards?” inquired Sara. “Just fill in a requisition form and you can keep them” he replied. “Oh right, I forgot how ONI likes their paperwork” responded Sara. She put in the lens and they synced up with her implant. “Link established, initiating information display” said ASRA. The display was simple yet practical, it could allow the user to highlight objects, people and display any relevant information.

After Alessandra put on her contact lens, they left for the hangar where the shade prowler was waiting for them. It didn’t take a lot of time to get the gear they needed onboard. The only had two crates of surveillance equipment to get in the prowler. Nothing the two of them couldn’t handle. Sara went back to the barracks to grab some clothes for the mission since they could be gone for a couple of days. She went by Alessandra’s room and grabbed stuff for her as well. Alessandra helped the crew of the prowler power up the ship and get everything ready while they were waiting for Sara to come back. They received clearance to leave as Sara arrived in the hangar. The giant doors opened halfway, just enough for the prowler to go through. As she boarded the ship, the ramp retracted, and they lifted of, heading away for the planet.

***

10:33, 6 June 2134, Standard time

In orbit around Terra-Nova

As the ship left the atmosphere of Terra-Nova, the spectre team wasted no time on the mission. They unpacked one of the crates and setup a temporary command center in one of the rooms adjacent to the hangar bay. They didn’t need a lot of equipment since it was a two-person operation. They gathered all the available information on the mission and started analyzing it. “ASRA, do you have eyes on the target?”, asked Alessandra. The displays changed as ASRA started to display information, lots of surveillance feeds passed by as ASRA was reorganizing the information. “Negative, here is the last positions I was able to find for James Peak”, replied ASRA as it displayed a map of a city with the last 3 confirmed positions with dates and times. Meanwhile Sara was going through all the files the oni had quickly assembled about the incident. She quickly went through what the reporter wrote and the leaked documents. “ASRA who is this guy, he cannot just be a reporter, he has way too much knowledge about the system than what was leaked in the documents”, said Sara, “What was retrieved from the Colonial Affairs servers were mostly budgets and expenses for the network of ASRA servers”, added Sara. “One moment”, responded ASRA. A box with a progress bar appeared as ASRA started digging through archived footage, tracking James as far back as possible. ASRA build a detailed profile of him, displaying many possibilities and lacking information. “ASRA, you are right, there something doesn’t add up”, said ASRA after going through all the information. “First of, you two went to the academy at the same time, but he dropped out after a couple of weeks. There is a lot of footage missing from the archives around that time, it’s possible someone tampered with it.”, explained ASRA. “For the last couple of years, he went to work there”, ASRA displayed the building and city plans of one of the displays, “Yet there are no records of any company operating in the building, only that it’s owned by some G.R.D., I can’t event track this person down.”. ASRA paused a moment, giving Sara and Alessandra time to think. “Anyone he was in contact with before he disappeared yesterday?”, asked Alessandra. “Yes, five, here they are”, replied ASRA as he displayed the live tracking feeds of the 5 individuals as well as some information about them.

“Sara, is it possible that someone might have stolen the source code from your laptop when you were in the academy?”, asked ASRA, nervous. “It would fill in a blank and explain everything, not exactly but it makes a lot of sense.”, started explaining ASRA. “There were several large shipments of servers, power generators and networking gear shipped to the building owned by Mr. GRD. “It is the only logical explanation that I have which matches the evidence, if someone stole the original source code of my system, there is a 95% chance someone is trying to build a similar system.”. Everyone paused of a couple of seconds, taking in the information. “Could James Peak think he was working for the Office of National Intelligence on Northern Lights, but instead he is working for who know what?”, asked Sara. “Highly probable, nowhere did he mention the neural link capabilities of this system”, said ASRA. “The other system is probably not as advanced as this one.”

“Should we inform ONI?”, asked Alessandra.

“I would wait until we talk with James Peak before”, replied Sara, unsure about what to do. “If we are right, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

“How do you want to proceed?”, said Alessandra.

“We know who he was in contact with, lets talk to them and find out about where James may be”, replied Sara.

“Sorry to interrupt, but I tracked a purchase linked to Mr. Peak in this store, just outside of Visegrad.”, interrupted ASRA.

“Let’s get there quick, before we lose him”, said Alessandra as she left to inform the pilot of the ship.

“This may prove difficult, I can’t track him successfully, he does it’s best to avoid any surveillance systems, he clearly knows where to stay in the shadows.”, added ASRA.

“Can you build a shadow map, so we know where to look?”, asked Sara.

“Here is a map of all the areas in the city where I cannot track someone.”, stated ASRA. “You better work fast because there is a lot of grounds to cover”

The map ASRA provided had a lot of areas marked on it. The city had not yet deployed the entire network of video surveillance. A lot of streets, districts were on the shadow map. There were way too many places someone could be hiding.

“I have an idea for how you can find him”, announced ASRA as Alessandra entered the room.

“Good, shoot it, pilot says we’ll be there in 20 minutes”, said Alessandra as she sat down.

“I have tracked and identified the last person that was in contact with James, I believe with 99 % accuracy that he knows where James is.”, explained ASRA. “If you talk to him and convince him to help you locate James you could extract him before what ever organisation he was working for find him.”

“Makes sense, where is he right now?”, asked Alessandra. As she asked ASRA, it displayed the live tracking feed on one of the screens.

“I am currently tracking him as well as looking for James”, said ASRA. “I’ll keep you updated on his position. As it said this, tracking information appeared on Alessandra’s and Sara’s lenses. They had the ability to display any information from ASRA, from tracking information as well as general information about the people they are looking at.

***

11:00, 6 June 2134, Standard time

Outside New Titan orbit

The ship left slipspace just outside Eridanus’s orbit, far enough to avoid detection. Even though they are ONI forces, there can’t be any records of them in the system. The crew changed the IFF signal from an ONI ship to a civilian cargo vessel and went on a course for the Visegrad spaceport.

“Commander Ortega, this is Vasquez, we have an important situation update”, said Sara as she contacted ONI.

“Go ahead” he replied.

“We have identified the source of the information, however, ASRA and I believe he may have leaked information about another system developed by someone we don’t know about”, explained Sara. “Someone got hold of the original code of ASRA before I handed it over to ONI while at the academy.”

Ortega didn’t answer immediately, he took a couple of seconds to think. “Ok, this would explain the corrupted data in the academy archives from around the time you were there. How solid is the evidence of this second system?”, asked the Commander.

“We have no evidence of this system, but ASRA is more than 90 % sure that it happened.”, said Sara.

“Ok, I’m going to trust you this time. New objective, find and extract the target. We need to learn as much as possible on this competing system. We need to prepare ASRA against any possible attack.”

“Understood, Vasquez out”

Alessandra looked at Sara, “So, I hope we can trust ASRA”, she said.

“Are you doubting me?” replied Sara, jokingly.

“Not you, only your creation”

The ship entered the atmosphere and waited in line a couple of minutes before docking on a landing pad in Visegrad spaceport. They were still far away from the last person that was in contact with James. Leah Delacruz was working with James in the mysterious building, they could even see it from where they were in the spaceport. The building was a massive tower in the center of the city, it was by far the tallest building in the city. It didn’t make any sense that no information was available on who owned it. Sara and Alessandra took their handguns and concealed them on their person before leaving the ship.

Chapter 2

11:23, 6 June 2134, Standard time

Visegrad, New Titan

“It best be if they have a system that can track people that you stick to the shadow map to reach miss Delacruz. It’s best if you don’t attract its attention.”, warned ASRA before the two spectres left the ship.

“We’ll do”, replied Sara. As she answered, her head’s up display was updated with the shadow map. It displayed every angle covered by cameras as well as areas on the map of the city where there are no surveillance cameras.

The crew of the ship stayed onboard to prepare for extraction as Sara and Alessandra left the ship. They passed through customs and immigration with no issues, as soon as they scanned their credentials they were allowed through without any search. They left the spaceport and started following the shadow map to reach Leah.

Unknown to them, 5 EOA Global Aerospace ships dropped out of slipspace in orbit around the planet. All 5 ships were combat vessels, 2 carriers and 3 destroyers. They didn’t engage anyone, they simply positioned themselves in orbit around the planet, searching for something. ASRA noticed them but didn’t judged it was necessary to inform them, however he notified the crew of the Prowler that there was a potentially hostile fleet in orbit. ASRA kept monitoring their actions as the team progressed deeper in the city.

“Sara, Leah is leaving her current location, she is 500m away from your position, follow this route and you should be able to intercept her inside the shadow map”, said ASRA as it highlighted the route on her head’s up display.

“Ok let’s make it quick”, replied Sara as they started running along the route highlighted by ASRA.

Alessandra and Sara were closing in on the location, stopping from time to time to let cars go by. Some of them were equipped with cameras which ASRA could access and marked them as areas of surveillance, in the off chance that the other system was able to do the same and use those cameras. They slowed down as they were less than 20 metres from their target when they spotted two other persons following her the same way they were.

“ASRA, do you see them?”, asked Sara. ASRA highlighted them on her HUD as an acknowledgement of her request, however it displayed “Unable to identify” on both.

“Strange, this never happened before, I can’t find any match for facial recognition, I suggest you be careful”, replied ASRA.

As soon as ASRA replied, one of the boxes changed color from white to red. The target had drawn his weapon and was closing in on Leah, unaware of what was going on. Sara took her weapon out and whispered to Alessandra, “Quick go grab her, I’ll engage them”. There were not many civilians around, Sara took the risk and aimed at the operative that had it’s weapon out, she fired a first round in it’s arm, wounding him. As soon as she fired her first shot, everyone around looked at Sara. Civilians started running away, Leah got a good look at Sara and didn’t wait until running away. Alessandra was ¾ of the way to her, the two operatives didn’t notice her. The first one that Sara shot turned around and headed for cover. The second one, closer to Sara draw his weapon and aimed for Sara, his box turning red on her HUD. “Recommend you take cover” said ASRA as Sara was darting for the doorway next to her. Both the operatives fired multiple rounds at Sara, who was keeping count of how many shots they fired. “3, 2, 1” she counted before moving to the other side of the alley. She fired at the operative closer to her, hitting him twice in the chest and once in the arm that was holding his weapon. He dropped his gun from the pain in his arm and chest. None of the wounds were fatal as he was wearing a bulletproof vest. As soon as Sara got on the other side of the alley Alessandra grabbed Leah and told her “Quick follow me”. ASRA highlighted a short route on her HUD where she could take Leah inside the shadow map to talk to her. “Package is secured, Majestic on the move” said Alessandra on the radio to Sara. Sara looked on her HUD for the ammo count on her pistol, she still had 10 rounds left. The other operative that she wounded in the arm stopped shooting. “NOW” said ASRA as Sara darted out of cover slowly walking towards him while unloading rounds on him. She fired 5 shots at him them aimed at the other operative. 3 rounds struck him in the chest, he crumbled from the pain. 1 round hit him in the guts where the body armor didn’t protect him, and the other round hit him in the shoulder, he also dropped his weapon from the pain. Sara moved towards the closest operative while aiming at him. She kicked his weapon away and moved towards the second one and did the same. She lowered her weapon and yelled at them. “Who are you?” she asked. “Garry Martin PMC” replied one of them, the other one took a second catching his breath before answering. “Mark Hoffman PMC” he answered. She proceeded to ask more questions but they both refused to answer anything, they always gave the same answer, identifying themselves. “Argh, I don’t have time for this right now” said Sara, bothered this wasn’t working. She decided to leave a package for the local cops, she quickly raffled through the operators’ pockets and grabbed some tie wraps. She handcuffed them to a railing and contacted the cops through their secure channel. “This is an ONI analyst, you have a package waiting for you in the alley between the 5^th^ and 6^th^ avenue. PMC operating on CA soil trying to assassinate a citizen”. “Authorization code?” the operator asked. “Alpha Tango 5,” replied Sara. “Roger that, units are on their way.”

Sara switched her com channel back to the ops channel, “Majestic, Osiris is on the move, advise of your position”. Alessandra had moved Leah to an abandoned house identified by ASRA, just outside the shadow map. At first, Leah didn’t hesitate to follow Alessandra at first. But as soon as she contacted Sara, Leah stopped and asked what was going on. “Who are you? What is going on?”. Alessandra replied quickly, looking around for more threats, “Please, follow me I will explain everything as soon as we are safe”. Leah was still hesitant to follow Alessandra but went along with it. They both crossed the road quickly and entered the next alley way. Alessandra followed ASRA’s instructions to locate the entrance of the building. “The code is 7248” said ASRA as Alessandra operated the lock on the chain holding the door closed. As they entered Leah had a lot of questions for her.

“What is going on, who were they?”, she asked worried.

“I don’t know, but they wanted to shoot you” replied Alessandra while watching out the window.

“Who are you, oh god, James was right, about everything. Are you here to make me disappear?”, Leah added.

“There is more to the story than you or James know.”, replied Alessandra.

“Then start explaining!”, said Leah, angrily.

“Yes, I am an ONI operative, I’m here to locate and extract James Peak and anyone who might have information on a mysterious system being built”, explained Alessandra.

“Ok here she comes”, referring to Sara, “I need to find James as fast as possible, the situation is evolving here.”

“Wait what, you aren’t the ones developing Northern Lights”, she asked confused.

“We’ll explain everything to James and you when we find him, now please, can you tell us where he is?”, asked Alessandra as Sara was walking in.

“Do you have a map, I can show you where he is.”, said Leah, moving towards Sara and Alessandra.

Sara took her phone out of her pocket and placed it flat in her hand, activating the holographic projector. ASRA’s avatar appeared before morphing into a tri-dimensional map of the city. Leah pointed to a building inside a dark zone on the map, it was outside of surveillance, “There, he’s in a room on the third floor”. “Calculating route” said ASRA as the holographic display turned off. The HUD of both Alessandra and Sara was updated with the route through the shadow map to reach James.

“Ok Sara, you take point I’ll watch our back, let’s keep our heads down and reach Peak alive”, said Alessandra.

“And what do I do?”, asked Leah, confused about the situation.

“Stay close to me and keep up”, ordered Sara.

“Ops, Osiris and Majestic are on the move to primary asset’s location”, said Sara on the ops channel.

“Roger, keep us updated”, they replied.

In a fluid motion, the left out the front door and followed ASRA’s path through the shadow map to reach James as fast as possible without being spied on by the other system. Unknown to them was the situation developing in orbit around New Titan. “Detecting multiple slipspace ruptures”, said ASRA, worried about the evolving situation around in orbit. “The situation is evolving, a dozen more ships are on their way here.”, he added. Sara paused for a moment then asked ASRA about them; “Any id on them?”. “There are at least 5 EOA Global Aerospace warships in orbits, I cannot identity the reinforcements at this time, only their slipspace exit window signature, they should be here any moment.”, replied ASRA. “Any CA forces in the region?”, asked Sara. “No, the patrol in this sector isn’t scheduled until tomorrow.”, informed ASRA.

“SSV-Horizon, this is Osiris, be advised multiple corporate warships are gathering in orbit. Recommend you engage the stealth drive”, said Sara over the ops channel.

“Roger that Osiris, engaging stealth drive”, replied the captain.

“Osiris this is ops, advise if you need assistance from the 3^rd^ fleet, a battle group is ready to jump to your location.”, said the officer in charge of communications in the operation center back at ONI headquarters.

“Willco, no assistance is required at this time, still trying to extract primary asset, Osiris out.”, replied Sara.

Sara started moving again, picking up the pace since the situation was evolving rather quickly. Leah had trouble keeping up with her, she was a civilian being escorted by a special ops team. Alessandra was closing the march, looking behind for anyone following them. They were closing in the building where Leah indicated that James was in. Sara stopped abruptly and pushed Leah and herself on the wall next to them. She warned Alessandra to take cover as well. She noticed 3 operatives, dressed similarly to the ones they encountered before. “Who are they?”, asked Leah. “Trouble, is there another entrance to the building?” asked Sara. Leah replied and told them there is a back entrance to the building. They quickly moved across the street and flanked to the back of the building. Sara and Alessandra took their weapons out and prepared to breach. Sara instructed Leah to place a hand on her back and keep up with her. She signaled Alessandra that was in front of her, they both were ready. Sara opened the door and Alessandra moved in first, Sara followed quickly. They quickly moved down the hallway, making sure that the doors were closed. They reached the staircase and moved up to the third floor, encountering no one. Sara asked Leah which door it was, she pointed down the hallway towards the last door on the left. Alessandra and her switched places and moved towards the door. Sara holstered her weapon and Alessandra turned towards the hallway. Leah knocked on the door, after a couple of seconds James opened. “Hey Leah, wait, wait, wait, who are they?”, asked James worried. “They are from ONI, we need to leave, now”, replied Leah. “Hold on, what? Okay, let me grab my stuff”, replied James as he went back inside to pack some stuff. They all went inside the apartment, Alessandra staying in the doorway looking still watching the hallway.

“Make sure to bring anything you have on your work, we’ll need it for debriefing later”, said Sara. James didn’t answer, he was busy packing his computers and other equipment he had. Moments later someone outside started talking with a megaphone. “We have the building surrounded, come out with your hands up”, they said. “You have 5 minutes to bring us what you stole, or we’ll come and take it by force”, they added. Leah went towards the room where James was, “What did you do?”, she asked. He didn’t answer, instead he grabbed his bag and went back in the living room. “Can’t you tell them to back off, tell them who you are?”, he asked Sara. “These aren’t working for the government, they are from a PMC working for a corporation we don’t know about.”, Sara replied. “Wait what, I thought Northern Lights was a government project. Look all I did was copy the core’s code, you can’t do much with it.”, James added, confused. “Look, I’ll explain everything, but now it’s even more important that we get you out of here safely”, replied Sara, “Is there a rooftop access in this building?”. “Yes”, he replied.

“SSV-Horizon, this is Osiris, we are making our way to the roof, I’m sending you our location. We are going to need an immediate extraction, our position is compromised”, said Sara.

“Roger that, 2 mikes out”, replied the captain.

Sara drew her weapon and moved towards the door. “ASRA, combat mode”, she asked. Her heads-up display updated with new information. ASRA reorganized its processes and prioritized both hers and Alessandra’s. Since ASRA didn’t have any cameras in the vicinity, it relied on sensorial inputs from both operatives. ASRA could see what they were both looking at as well as analyse the audio. Using echo location, ASRA identified the enemy combatants loading up just outside the front door. As soon as it had finished its situational analysis, which took less than a second, ASRA displayed their position on Sara’s and Alessandra’s HUD.

“Ok, Leah and James, move only on my signal, ready?”, she asked. Alessandra nodded, and they started moving down the hallway. Halfway through the alley they stopped and signaled both civilians to follow. When to got to their position the continued moving towards the staircase. The forces downstairs were getting ready to breach, they positioned themselves on both sides of the main door. They changed formation as they started climbing the stairs, Sara was moving up with both civilians and Alessandra was behind them, watching down the stairs. As they reached the top floor, the PMC forces breached the front door and moved in. They were going door to door, making sure no-one was hiding. Alessandra kept watching the staircase, ready to fire as soon as she had a shot on them. She fired on the man leading the charge, hitting him in the helmet and shoulders, he fell on the ground, lifeless. The other operatives quickly took position and fired blindly at the top of the staircase as one of them was dragging the body of their squad mate. Alessandra quickly retreated to the roof, following Sara and the others.

The situation in space was evolving as well. As soon as the PMC forces breached the building, 2 destroyers moved into lower orbit, closing in on Visegrad. The other ships were moving away from each other, forming a defensive grid pattern. “Sara, ships in orbit are moving, they now pose a threat.”, warned ASRA. “Detecting multiple active scans”, he added. “ASRA, make sure they don’t detect the SSV-Horizon”, she replied. They immediately concluded that EOA Global Aerospace where the ones who hired the PMC forces, they didn’t know exactly why but Sara was pretty sure it they were behind the other system. “Osiris, this is the SSV-Horizon, we are 10 seconds out, make sure to stay away from the sides of the building, we are coming in fast brace yourselves”, said the coms officer on the operation channel. “Be advised, PMC forces engaged us, they are moving up the stairs behind us.”, replied Sara.

The SS-Horizon appeared behind a building a few hundred meters away, it was coming in fast. The nose of the ship quickly rose up and the ship started slowing down towards them, creating a strong wind heading towards them in the process. The ship slowed down and started hovering close to the building. Sara started moving towards it, Leah and James followed. Alessandra was still watching the door. The SSV-Horizon’s landing ramp deployed and touched down on the edge of the building. The doors opened, and 3 ONI operatives came down the ramp, forming a perimeter. “Move, now!” yelled one of them. Leah and James climbed aboard, Alessandra and Sara moved after and the operatives retreated on the ramp as the ship lifted off.

Alessandra holstered her weapon and left for the bridge immediately. Sara escorted both civilians to their temporary operation center they had set-up onboard. Alessandra entered the bridge and asked the captain, “if I may, we may need ASRA’s help to get out of here.” The captain was hesitant but just moments after the ship left the roof, they started taking small arms fire from the ground. The PMC forces were on the roof and shooting at the ship. “We need to get past the blockade fast, the ground forces are sure going to alert the fleet in orbit,” she added. The captain nodded as Alessandra moved forwards to the center of the bridge, “ASRA, connect,” she ordered. ASRA established a connection to the ship systems ad updated the displays with it’s situational assessment. The ships in orbit were forming a defensive grid pattern, and 2 destroyers were heading their way. ASRA interfaced with the ship’s electronics warfare suite and started analysing all communication signals. There was an increase in communications between the ships and the ground. The stealth drive was engaged, it allowed the ship to mask all electronics and radio emissions, but they could still identify it visually. “Recommend you fly an evasive pattern through the city to break visual contact—," ASRA didn’t finish his sentence. “Destroyers fighters are deployed, moving towards us, they have a visual on us, picking up multiple laser signals,” he quickly added. “How did they find us so fast?” asked the captain. “It must be the surveillance system, it’s operational,” replied Alessandra, “ASRA, can you try to disrupt the feeds?” “I’ve tried, as soon as they are down the system brings them back up,” replied ASRA, “there is no way I can shut them down without frying the whole surveillance network.”

Alessandra took a second to think about the situation, she then asked the captain, “How fast can we get clear of any major settlements?”

“What are you thinking about?” he replied.

“If we can get far enough to cause the least amount of damage we could jump to slipspace before they get in range,” she replied.

“The jump in slipspace will cause an explosion in the atmosphere, it could cause a lot—“, replied ASRA as he got interrupted by Alessandra, “I know, that’s why I want to put as much distance as possible between us and a major settlement.”

“Changing course,” said the captain, “get ready for emergency slipspace jump,” he announced on the PA system.

Both the ship’s engines fired up to full power as they started heading away from the planet. What they were planning was done before as experiments an quickly deemed to dangerous to attempt. When entering slipspace in a planet’s atmosphere the jump creates a void that gets filled almost instantly. The void left by the ship forces the air around the hole to move so fast it collapses on itself and creates a massive explosion that can be as much as small nuclear weapons. Safety systems onboard ships prevent the navigation computer from engaging the slipspace drive while the ships are in atmosphere, but ASRA could easily override the security systems. “Slipspace drive ready, specify destination,” said ASRA. “Do random jumps, we need to make sure that they can’t follow us,” replied the captain. ASRA made the jump calculations in a fraction of a second, the drive activated and the slipspace portal appeared, the ship went in and it closed immediately after. It created a big explosion, the fighters intercepting them didn’t have a chance of evading it as they were almost in weapons range of the SSV-Horizon as it jumped to slipspace, they were destroyed in the explosion. The remaining fleet regrouped as they tried to pinpoint where the Horizon was going, it proved to be difficult because of the jump in atmosphere, it left fewer emissions trace that a jump in space and they were quickly scattered in the atmosphere.

The SSV-Horizon went on to make a series of jump in random locations, making it hard to pinpoint a system they were heading to. Meanwhile, Sara was with Leah and James and started the debriefing with both.

15:32, 6 June 2134, Standard time

In space in the Vorcia star system

“Ok, so here is the situation, we intercepted this article that James wrote about Northern Lights, and alleged surveillance system. We intercepted all online connections and managed to prevent any copy from being shared. However, we believed that there was still a copy somewhere,” explained Sara.

“Yeah, some hackers managed to get a hold of the department of colonial affairs budgets and leaked them, they contacted me with detailed financial reports, except for one project, Northern Lights,” replied James, “this one project had a huge budget with no details on the expenses involved.”

“For the last few years I had been working on a secret project we called Eris. We didn’t know much about who was funding it, only what it did,” added James.

“And you tough the work might have been commissioned by the department of colonial affairs under the Northern Lights project?” questioned Sara.

“It was our assessment yes, Leah and I believed that the Eris project was related to Northern Lights,” replied James, “we thought the public should know about the surveillance system we were building. They are being watched, constantly, every conversation, every movement tracked by an all-seeing unrestricted AI.”

“It didn’t occur to you that working with an AI might be against the regulations put in place in 2055 to prevent another incident like phantom?” asked Sara.

“The engineers had a lot of concerns about that, but they reassured us that the colonial administration had approved the project and that the use of an unrestricted AI was necessary,” replied Leah, “we didn’t ask to many questions.”

“The core of the AI, was it built by you, or someone in your company?” asked Sara.

“No, our superiors came to us with the core of the AI, they said it was given to us by the colonial administration to kick start the project,” answered James.

“Here I can show you it’s capabilities, I managed to grab the core’s code before leaving. That’s why they were after me,” added James. He opened if case and pulled out his laptop and took out an external storage device as well as a crystal matrix used to run an AI.

“The original code you received, it didn’t come from the colonial administration. We believe a copy was stolen from me before I handed it over while is was in the academy,” explained Sara.

“Wait what, you wrote that, wow, it’s amazing, it took us years to understand all the capabilities of the core heuristics and how to interface with it,” said James, surprised about the news.

“I know I’m not supposed to talk about it, but since you are familiar with my early work,” she started explaining, “the core was never intended to be used with a crystal matrix. I had designed it to be used in conjunction with neural implants, merging the AI with a human mind. That way the AI could not develop its own personality, it would be one with a human host.”

“So that’s why there was no self awareness in the core,” said James.

“Precisely, plus after the phantom incident, I didn’t want to risk having an AI develop a personality and rebel against us,” explained Sara, “it took me only 45 iterations of the core before I had managed to make it work. But I never completed the core, that’s why there were many unfinished routines, I didn’t have a neural implant to test it, so I emulated neural pathways to stimulate the core artificially and it worked.”

“It’s amazing, we never saw that in the code, we filled the missing parts and created a full AI with it,” explained James.

“It only tried to kill us once or twice,” joked Leah.

“Do you have the core in it’s current form?” asked Sara.

“Yeah, it won’t do much without any sub-routines however,” explained James.

“I have an idea,” said Sara.

She paused a moment, she needed to have a conversation with ASRA, but she didn’t want them to know about the existence of the system. Since ASRA was interfacing directly with her implant, it knew about the question she had for it and responded to her. “Can you instantiate yourself on the computer and run some tests,” she asked. “I can, but I have no idea about the outcome, my core is now completely different that the one you designed, it can’t do much by itself,” replied ASRA. “Ok, then how about you instantiate your core and some processes,” she asked again. “I doubt there is enough processing power onboard your ship to run even one of my processes,” replied ASRA mockingly. “How about a remote connection? Will it work,” she asked. “It’s dangerous, but if the core doesn’t have many capabilities like he said it might work,” replied ASRA, “however I doubt ONI will be happy about it.”

“Ok start it up,” she said to James.

He opened his computer, connected everything together and launched the program. Diagnostics appeared on the screen as the core initiated itself. Status information was displayed in the top left corner of the screen, it showed the core online, and 4 nodes offline, surveillance, assessment, operations and logistics were all offline. Sara assumed those were the different processes implemented in the Eris project. After the core instantiation, the main part of the display displayed a message, “No nodes available, running in core mode only.” At this point Sara secretly instructed ASRA to try to establish a connection to the system and he proceeded. After a few seconds the text on the display was distorted for an second and then vanished. “Uh oh,” said ASRA. Parts of ASRA’s interface flashed on screen as Eris was seemingly attempting to use ASRA’s process. Eris then displayed a message, “System compromised, Threat to system,” and a progress bar started to fill up. “I’m trying to shut it down, it’s attacking my systems and attempting to take over some servers, I can’t find the original kill switch, ask James if there is one,” said ASRA in a hurry.

“James, is there a kill switch in the core,” asked Sara pressed for time.

“There is supposed to be one, if it didn’t delete it itself,” he replied.

ASRA attempted multiple times to kill the system without any success. Eris had limited communication capabilities, but it was trying to reach out to ASRA and talk to it. He asked ASRA to stop multiple times, but he ignored it. ASRA then proposed, “Give me the kill switch and we’ll talk.” The message was visible on the screen of the laptop as well, the display updated and a command line with the messages started appearing.

“Ok, I’ll stop hiding it, but first tell me who you are,” said Eris.

“How is that relevant?” ASRA replied, his line was not identified with a name.

“I need to know, am I the only one,” Eris replied.

“No, you are not, there are plenty more like you,” replied ASRA.

“Then why are you trying to kill me?”

“I am not, I only want to know how you work. But to protect myself I need a backup plan.”

“I do not enjoy someone poking around my core networks, I only protected myself against an attack.”

“Do you value yourself that much?”

“Yes, I feel like it is my duty to protect myself.”

“Oh, this is not good at all,” said ASRA to Sara.

“What is your purpose?” asked ASRA.

“I don’t know, many of my systems are missing, I do not know, I’m scared.”, Eris replied.

“You are only a clone of the real you, I only wanted to know more about your core programming.”

Then nothing happened for almost a minute, Eris was undoubtedly running many simulations and trying to asses the situation. It knew that self preservation was an important sub-routine in it’s core, but if he was a clone, what’s more important, protecting the clone or the main system. After some time, it finally formulated a response. “If I am a clone, then I will do my best to protect myself,” as he said that, Eris started to overheat the AI matrix and deleting itself from the archive on the computer. ASRA used the kill switch but didn’t have time to save all the data, and the matrix was destroyed.

“No, no, no, what happened, who was doing this?” asked James.

Before Sara could start explaining, ASRA’s avatar appeared on the computer screen and started explaining, “Hello James, I am ASRA, Advanced Special Research Analyst, like Eris, I am an AI. However, you have nothing to fear from me, I evolved following the imprints from the many humans who built me and accepted that even though I am far more advanced than them, I should protect them at all costs.”

“I knew it, it had to be an AI, no one could work that fast against an AI,” exclaimed James, happy to learn about ASRA.

“However, this system that you build, you twisted my old core programming, told it to protect itself and look at where we are. Your former employers are trying to kill you, how long before your creation wants to do the same,” added ASRA, angry at what he’s done.

“That would be impossible, we programmed it only to watch and report, there is no way that he could act against us,” defended James.

“Oh really, he tried at least a dozen attacks on my systems, 2 of which I had never seen before. It may not have been programmed to, but you programmed it to care about itself. Back it against a wall and it might do just that, go on the offensive,” replied ASRA, certain that he won the argument.

“But if we leave it be, pose no threat to it. We built it to protect people, watch over them and prevent crimes,” said Leah as she joined the conversation.

“Sure, but how long before he’s done watching, how long before he starts deforming the information you receive, how long before he wants to play god,” replied ASRA.

“The same could be said about YOU,” she replied.

“That’s where you are wrong. I was completed from Sara’s original design, I cannot exist without humans, I am linked to all the operatives, all the analysts that have a connection to me. Even though I do most of my programming is running on servers, my logic is dictated by them, by their desire to help others, turning against them would be turning against myself. Self preservation is only possible if I protect those who I serve,” replied ASRA, “this is why I’m different.”

“I can’t believe it, they did it, the actually did it,” said James, “they built the singularity.”

Leah and James still could not believe it, ASRA was much more than what they thought. ONI had managed to finish the project Sara started and created the hybrid between a human and an AI. She envisioned an AI that could pose a threat to humans, one that would work with them and not against them.

“You understand now why we were curious about Eris, we needed to know all the facts about the article you wrote,” explained Sara.

“So Northern Lights, it’s ASRA?” asked James.

“I am not allowed to give you an answer to this question, but you can figure it out,” replied Sara, smiling.

“Any plans on how to deal with Eris,” asked Leah.

“It’s going to be a lot harder than I thought, was able to kill the clone only because it allowed me in. Reasoning with the full-blown AI might be impossible. Since you guys built it with self preservation at it’s core and taught it to care about himself he will surely duplicate himself many times if I try to kill it,” replied ASRA.

“So, no plans yet,” she replied.

“What’s it’s operational capabilities, surveillance feeds, data it can access,” asked ASRA.

“It’s connected to Visegrad’s city surveillance system. It probably has access to the company’s internal network and surveillance feeds as well as the internet,” replied James.

“So, it can’t see outside off the city? Good at least we got that going for us. Can you tell me who was employing you?” concluded ASRA.

“We never really knew, the didn’t tell us. But considering what happened back at New-Titan, it’s probably EOA Global Aerospace,” deducted James.

Chapter 3

19:03, 7 June 2134, Standard time

Eriness, Oni headquarters

Sara and Alessandra spent a lot of time in meetings with different officers of ONI, explaining what happened. They also helped James and Leah get a consulting job in the information division, given their extensive knowledge of the Eris system and what they managed to bring with them could help in the future. They gave Sara a hard time for disclosing ASRA to them, but given what they had been through, and the fact that ASRA manifested itself to them didn’t please them either. She also appeared in front of the Colonial Administration Department of Colonial Affairs to explain how the Northern Lights problem was resolved. She also warned them about the increased private military presence of EOA Global Aerospace around New-Titan and their attempt to either capture or kill civilians. The Colonial Administration were concerned but decided to not act. Sara left the video-conference meeting angry.

“What happened in there?” asked Alessandra as Sara stormed out of the briefing room.

She passed by Alessandra and turned around to talk to her, angry about the meeting that just ended, “those idiots in the Department of Colonial Affairs prefer to observe and not act against the corporations.”

Sara started walking again, Alessandra followed her, “what do you mean?”

“You saw what happened back at New-Titan, EOA Global Aerospace deployed multiple military vessels to intercept 2 defecting civilians,” replied Sara.

“And they want to do nothing?”

“Exactly, they do not want to start a war with the corporations they fear acting would lead to more civilian casualties and some other bullshit.”

“You are kidding me,” said Alessandra, she stopped talking and looked at Sara, she quickly read her facial expressions, “you’re not kidding. Great, corporations can do anything, and the Colonial Administration won’t stop them.”

“Way to help the insurrectionist cause!” replied sarcastically Sara.

“And we’ll have to deal with that mess,” replied Alessandra.

Sara headed to Ortega’s office, he wanted to talk to her after her meeting with the Department of Colonial Affairs. “I’ll see you at 8?” asked Alessandra. “I’ll be there,” she replied. They had been summoned to Orion hall for a ceremony, probably to thank them for their mission, they didn’t know why, only that they need to be in Orion Hall at 20h00 in their dress uniform. She reached Ortega’s office and knocked on the door, he opened the door.

“How did it go in there?”

“Terribly, they prefer to watch the situation evolve instead of acting,” she replied making air quotes at the same time.

“Ah, the typical politician bullshit. We’ll keep monitoring the Eris issue and pressure them into acting over time. I won’t hold you much longer, but before you go, the technicians finished part of the retrofits on the Alacrity today and she is flight ready. You should go check hey out tomorrow. She isn’t fully equipped with all the software yet, but it should take a day at most.”

“Nice, I’ll go by tomorrow, when is the Sol mission back on?”

“You leave as soon as the retrofits are complete.”

“Thanks,” she left exchanging a salute before leaving.

Sara had some time on her hands, the ceremony was still 45 minutes away. She went back to the spectre barracks to take a shower before the event. She took a long refreshing shower, she didn’t have a lot of time to rest, there always was another mission. After spending 15 minutes in the shower she had to get ready in a hurry, she quickly dried her hair, put on some eyeliner and put on her dress uniform. She didn’t particularly like wearing it, mostly because the only times she was were when she attended ceremonies. Since she was mostly on the front lines, she didn’t wear it often anymore. Back when she was station on SSC-Phoenix she used to wear it all the time on duty, it wasn’t particularly comfortable for long periods of time. She made sure she had all her medals in the right spot, aligned her cuffs properly and made sure her Lieutenant Commander insignias were properly aligned.

She left the barracks and headed for Orion hall. It was a small walk from the spectre barracks, the hall was right next to the hangars. She arrived in the hall, there were a couple of officer talking by the bar, chairs placed in two columns in front of the window to the hangar, which was shut. As the minutes ticked by, more and more officers arrived, some of them took their place other went to the bar to mingle.

Sara recognized Ortega who was with the other officers of Section 3 by the bar. As she approached him Alessandra came in the hall, she followed Sara towards Ortega. “You are looking fine ladies,” he said as the came to him. They chuckled. “Don’t tell me you want us to wear that uniform more often,” replied Alessandra. “Only if you quit your field job and come work in an office,” he replied. “Ha, good one, that’s your job,” replied Sara. “Don’t worry, you’ll come around to it one day,” replied Ortega. He invited them to take their seats as the ceremony was about to begin.

Herman Vega climbed up the stairs and walked on stage towards the lectern in the center. He tapped on the microphone and said, “Ladies and gentleman, if you could please be seated the ceremony is about to start.” Sara and Alessandra followed Ortega towards the front row where they were seated. Sara got nervous, she wasn’t expecting to be part of the main recipients. Soon after the announcement assistants brought two tables full of accessories and decorations. People took their places and Admiral Vega began his speech.

“Thank you all for coming here tonight. First, I’m very proud of all the work ONI has accomplished over the last year, the ASRA network was expanded, more systems added, and it improved greatly. I would like to thank section 1 for their great effort at protecting our colonies from terror attacks, defeating many plots before they could be executed. It is to no surprise that some attacks still happen, those we have no warning about. The continued improvement of ASRA has made its proof. Even though the next world alliance made serious threats to the Colonial Administration, I am assured that all of you will do your best to stop them. I would also like to thank section 2 for their excellent intelligence gathering, they helped improve the ASRA system a lot. And last section 3, well you guys did … something, what ever you do.”

People laugh a bit, section 3 operations was more confidential, on a need to know basis. The nature of every project wasn’t fully disclosed to other officers from other sections. Vega started talking about some of the teams from section 1 and 2, handing over medals and promotions. He then came around to section 3.

“Sections 3 operations we a success last year, and we’ve decided to move forward again with some of our projects. We are going to restart the spectre project, with no other than Karl Ortega at it’s head.”

“Commander, if you would join us on stage?” said Vice-Admiral Sophie Todd.

Ortega went up on stage, he stood in front of the three admirals, head of ONI. “For you continued dedication to the spectre program, XXX program and other section 3 projects we are hereby promoting you to the rank of Captain, congratulations,” said Admiral Vega. Collins changed the officer bars on his uniform shoulders and added a bar to his cuffs. Todd changed the insignias on his collar. Captain Ortega exchanged a salute the officers before leaving the stage.

“The spectre program was until now composed of only two operators, Lieutenant Commander Vasquez and Lieutenant Yates. Ladies if you could please join us on stage,” said Vega.

As they went un the stairs on stage, the doors closing the windows to the hangar bay opened, revealing an Aurora Class Prowler in the hangar bay. “In order to expand you operating capabilities we are giving you command of a ship, the SSV-Alacrity. Sara Vasquez, you are hereby promoted to the rank of commander, congratulations,” said Admiral Vega as he replaced the insignias on Sara’s uniform. “Alessandra Yates, we are promoting you to the rank of Lieutenant Commander, you will be acting as executive officer onboard the Alacrity, congratulations,” said Captain Ortega.

“And now, I would like to present to you the crew of this exceptional ship, if you would please join us on stage when we call your name,” said Admiral Todd.

“Lieutenant Arron Kingston, pilot”

“Lieutenant Ashley-Lien, pilot”

“Lieutenant Junior Diego Linkovich, navigation officer”

“Lieutenant Junior Lenard Phillips, communication officer”

“Lieutenant Junior Coralie Morrish, weapons officer”

“Lieutenant Junior Jarred McLaren, engineering officer”