V O L U M E . S E V E N

P H A N T O M S . A N D . P R E D A T O R S

by Virelix

Prologue: Calculated Harmony

"04, 08, 09, clear the streets of civilians, move fast. Prioritize the elderly and children, they'll be fighting hardest to get out." Her voice cut through the comms cleanly, carrying over the noise of everything happening at once. "In case we can't locate the bomb in time, we need those streets empty."

The sky above was indifferent, clear, blue, unbothered by what was happening below it. The city center had collapsed into chaos. Civilians poured out of the metro tunnels in a wave, pushing against each other, climbing over each other, reaching for the light above street level with the urgency of people who have learned what happens if they don't move fast enough.

"03, take the tallest building in range, send me your coordinates, and suppress any fleeing robot. Don't kill them. We need a group leader and they're more useful functioning."

03 broke from the flying formation and landed on the nearest rooftop, sniper already out, scope finding the street below.

The stores near the metro stairs were empty, the residents of Bijou had absorbed enough terrorist attacks since before the E-UNIT took over emergency response to know the drill. Cars sat running and open, their owners having made the sensible calculation. Some people were carrying babies. Some were carrying nothing, which meant they'd left with whatever they'd had in their hands.

"06, 01, 07, on me. Close formation. We're finding the bomb and clearing any robot from the metro. They banned underground access months ago for exactly this reason."

Clang.

The team touched down in unified metallic impact. 02 rose first. The Omega symbol on her chest pulsed to life, the white and blue suit unmarked. 04, 08, and 09 were already moving, lifting elderly residents, pulling children clear, carrying them upward and away from the main street.

02 reached back and drew the Energy Shotgun, the Burster, and aimed at the entrance of the metro station. They took the grey ceramic stairs in formation, blue and white silhouettes catching their own reflection off the walls, the blue light from their frames pushing ahead of them down into the underground.

A few remaining civilians ran past them on the way out. 02 held the right wall tight, her team pressed in behind her, leaving the center clear for anyone still coming up. Even the police officers guiding the last stragglers out made a quick personal decision and vacated the moment they caught 02's expression moving toward them.

She stopped at a corner and raised a fist. The team stopped on the same beat, not because they needed the signal, but because she kept the habit and they respected it.

"Clear." 05's voice arrived through the comms.

02 turned fast and aimed into the main station below. Grey ceramic covered every surface. Along the far right wall, glass-fronted ticket booths. On the opposite side, self-service machines for the people who preferred silence. The turnstile barriers that divided the room were half broken, forced open by the crowd that had pushed through them minutes ago. Belongings were scattered across the floor.

She advanced toward the ticket booths and raised one finger. 01 moved from behind her, careful and quick, toward the metallic blue door that led to the staff area behind the booths.

01 held position beside the door for a breath.

"Done." From 05.

A metallic click. The door slid open.

01 entered. The staff area was simple, floating chairs, a metal desk flush against the wall with a glass panel and a curved gap for exchanging tickets and change. Coins and paper tickets covered the floor. She moved through and into the rest room beyond, cabinets, more floating chairs, the silence of a space that had been abandoned in haste.

She approached the cabinets. Large enough to hold a robot.

First cabinet: empty. The hinge protested.

Second: empty. Some clothing inside, half torn.

Third—

Clang.

The cabinet directly behind her detonated open. A robot with an old M16 had it aimed at her back.

She didn't move.

06 came through from the vending area in the same instant and fired. An electric pulse, loud as a starting engine, crossed the room and hit the terrorist squarely. He went down and stayed down, the yellow light of his eyes fading off the polished surface beneath him.

06 gave 01 a nod. They both left the rest room, weapons down.

As they came back through the staff area, another robot emerged from behind them, a cabinet they'd passed, door swinging open, weapon already up and firing. 01 stepped in front of 06 and snapped her red shield open, hexagonal panels unfolding outward one after the next, forming a barrier around both of them.

The terrorist advanced with each step, not hesitating.

Bullets came off the shield at hard angles, some ricocheting into the walls beside them, breaking sections of the glass partition. 01 held the position and kept holding it.

The robot reached the first glass wall.

01's expression shifted.

He looked right.

Crash.

02 came through the glass in a shower of shattered shards and drove him into the wall behind it, the impact deforming his frame outward in multiple directions. She stepped off. He stayed where he was.

The three of them left the rooms without ceremony.

They crossed the broken turnstiles and moved left, descending another level, sweeping each corner as the metallic echo of their steps filled the empty station. The metro line opened ahead of them, a car stopped at the platform, some doors standing open, others forced apart. Bags, devices, and personal belongings blanketed the floor around it.

02 exhaled. She lowered her weapon and let her shoulders drop slightly. "This is a problem. We need to find the bomb fast." She put the Burster away. "Move."

The team scattered, checking bags, checking under seating, checking the baggage racks above the car seats, checking the spaces that panic searching tends to skip.

07 returned first. "North of the train is clear, Captain."

06 came next. "Nothing on the south."

01 arrived. "The whole floor is clear. No bomb."

02 scanned the station, moving methodically through the hiding spots that standard searches miss when people are afraid and moving quickly. Then she looked up.

The lighting system ran on large metallic platforms suspended above the station, each one holding heavy projectors aimed down at the platforms below.

She was airborne before the thought fully completed. The team followed.

They hovered above the lighting platforms and stopped.

Rows of TNT blocks sat lined along the metallic surface, close together, measured, connected. Enough to lift the entire station from the ground up. A timer ran at the far end in deep red numerals that didn't care what anyone thought about them.

02:10.

No sign of the bomb disposal human unit.

02 moved across the platform and began cutting the strips and ties holding the blocks in place. "Bring them here."

The team started collecting, careful, unhurried in the hands even as the clock moved, building a cube on the platform surface, the blocks stacked and pressed together. 02 wired them into a single unit and bound them so nothing would shift in transit.

She lifted the cube and flew it toward the exit. The team understood without being told, they ran ahead, clearing the path, breaking through walls, pulling machinery clear, tearing open whatever needed to be opened to give her a straight line to the surface.

She came up through the metro entrance. The people on balconies above went inside the moment the bomb appeared in open air. 02 knelt slightly and launched, straight up, hard, the city dropping away beneath her.

“03, Aim to the west, up. Don’t let the explosives drop below the 200-meter mark.”

“Roger.” 03 shifted on the rooftop, collapsed the bipod, and aimed upward. "You look clean today, Captain. Is there something happening I don't know about?"

"Yes. Come with me later?"

"You know you don't need to ask." 03 was already smiling as 02 cleared 1300 meters. "But I appreciate the courtesy."

02 released the cube and banked east at full speed.

The block dropped.

03 found it in the crosshairs, unmistakable, black, falling, and rested her finger on the trigger. "You forgot to say please, Captain."

"The day I say please," 02's voice came through clearly, "is the day the sun finishes us."

"I heard it in your voice anyway. Both knees."

"That was a different version of me and you took advantage of her. I haven't forgotten the slap."

"For me, you were both the same person."

Click.

The Liberta 01's beam was thin and nearly silent and the precise shade of blue that made it look more like a thought than a weapon.

Boom.

The sky above Bijou opened in a wide cloud of displaced air, the blast pushing the clouds outward from the center, leaving the blue above it untouched and the city below rattling.

03 lowered the sniper.

"Then why did you hit me?"

She let the smile settle before she answered. "Because the other one would have sent 07 up with the bomb, logical choice, preserve yourself. Now, you went yourself."

"07 would have stayed close to watch it go off. She's a danger to her own safety. I wouldn't trust her with that."

"That's—" 03 looked down at the street, where 02 was already speaking to civilians and managing the aftermath at the same time. "That's exactly my captain." She studied her for a moment. "I want to slap her again. Just to see the difference in how she reacts."

"In your dreams. And your comms are open."

"I know they are."

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