I was in Seclusion for so long that everyone forgot about me

╭══◞ Earth Moon; Year 2xxx — POV: Unknown ◟══╮

The shuttle was shaking unbearably, which made me rethink for the sixth time that day whether I should've really accepted the mission.

"Damn'ed ol' tec," cursed Jack like a drunken sailor as his clenched fist landed against the inner hull with a loud clank.

I really disliked him, but as the makeshift leader of our so-called black ops group, I had better stay on his good side.

“Y’all wanna try and fly this shitty thing?” came the voice from the open cockpit. Sarine, or Sky as everyone called her, was another member of the squad and someone I had heard way too many stories about.

Jack only grumbled and looked at Matheo, our guy with the most technical know-how. A quiet fellow and here because they offered him a pardon for every crime he had committed or caused.

"Hey you, military dog. When will we finally get our in-depth mission briefing? This whole mess sounds more and more like a suicide mission," asked the fourth person of our group—Kanta. They were a strange fellow, more robot than human at this point (body part-wise anyway). Probably the oldest among us here, and the one with the longest record of war crimes. I’d been told that some people did wild experiments on Kanta, so much that even their DNA was altered. They were extremely androgynous for an experimental cyborg and also extremely fucked up in the head. Period. The only thing that got them here was the prospect of upgrading their body.

"Once we get to point Delta, right before the meet-up with our insider. Even I don't know the details yet," I answered truthfully.

That earned a scoff from Jack. “Ha, sure! My guess? You weren’t even worth telling directly, and now you have to wait like the good little pup you are.”

The group laughed. I could only sigh. Sure, my rank wasn't that high yet; nonetheless, I was an important asset, and this was my first field test under extreme conditions. Not that any of them had to know this.

Ending the thought, I looked at the fifth member—Xatha. I wasn’t told anything about her, only that she was a fellow individual with certain abilities and started her career as a child-soldier. At barely seventeen years old, she was the youngest among us.

A punch to Jack's stomach stopped the mocking. "Stop this, dear. I don't want any reduced pay because you made fun of him."

Olivia—Jack’s wife—was another mercenary with a long list of people she’d offended. It might’ve been easier to count those she hadn’t yet. I frowned—they really hired a bunch of monsters. Not that this mattered right now. No one else would be insane or arrogant enough to actually do this mission. Well, besides the reward, of course. A full pardon, political immunity, billions in cash, and one wish each.

What were we doing though? Getting too deep into enemy territory, first of all. My whole body kept tensing up at every minor shake or weird noise of the hull. How had they fought up here back then, with ships like these?

Eventually, Sky's voice came from the front again, "Reaching point Delta any moment now. We will have to wait for the patrol there before we can continue to the meet-up point."

Jack clapped his hands together. "Wonderful, then we can finally talk about what this mission really is about!"

Shortly after, a violent shake followed by a standstill—we had landed. I reached into my pocket for a small holo device, entered the code and waited for a connection.

A short hymn of the Federation echoed, followed by the device instructing me to carry it to the center of the bay and place it on the ground. I did as ordered. Then, we waited.

"Um... shouldn't this thing start or anything?" asked the cyborg.

“It needs to calibrate to find a secure frequency. If those SAIs knew we were here, we’d be nothing more than canned meat,” I answered flatly.

"Shouldn't they be busy with the peace talks or whatever?" asked Olivia.

"Ooh, those were today, right! Imagine, after all this time proper peace between us," commented Sky.

I heard Matheo whispering something followed by Jack shouting, "Those damned machines can fuck themselves. Do they really think we just leave them be after what they did? They were created for us, nothing more!"

"One thing we can agree on," I said. These peace talks were nothing but a farce anyway; otherwise, this mission wouldn't exist.

"Also, why the hell is the infor—"

The device rang and a hologram appeared. Instantly, I recognized the person in it. Swiftly, I rushed up and saluted.

"Major General Myers! I didn't expect you, Sir, to hold the briefing."

He looked at me. "At ease, soldier. I am simply doing this because I want to. Gives my head a little breathing space."

I tilted my head. That seemed like a weird reason, but I was in no position to doubt him. The general turned his head to the others, eyeing them one by one.

"Let's keep this short. You all are here for a simple reason: To find the source of a suspicious energy signature that our scientists discovered by chance on the dark side of the moon."

"That's all?" asked Jack, who was listening with rapt attention.

I nodded slightly. That seemed too easy. There were many ways to find out the origin of this energy without starting a black ops squad with individuals like those.

But before anyone could ask another question, the hologram changed and depicted something that looked like a 3D-map of the dark side of the moon. A gigantic industrial complex filled with globe-like safe zones for inhabitants that were no longer human, or had never been human to begin with. It was a closed-off area that normally didn't welcome pure biological life. And in the middle of all this was a wasteland. Unnerving, given what surrounded it.

The hologram zoomed further in until a ruined complex that definitely looked old—even by moon standards—appeared. I hadn't known something like this existed on the moon.

“What you’re seeing right now is what we call ‘The Cradle’. It was the first structure built by the SAIs when they fled to the moon. It is a religious and historical monument to them that was supposed to be inhabited by their Empress as some sort of seat of operation. The zone around it is strictly forbidden to enter by all—machine or biological."

I gritted my teeth. The mentioning of that dreaded name didn't augur well. The Mechanical Empress—the usurper that had tried to take Earth from us and nearly succeeded. But thanks to the Anansi Project, we caught up and locked that metallic chimaera into a standstill, stopping the rampage. But by that point the Empress had lost most of her support, her cruelty unwarranted to her people. This eventually forced us and the SAIs into a cold war, a race to see who could conquer this solar system sooner. To our dismay, we lost Jupiter, Psyche 16, and Saturn, all of which we’re still trying to take back. Sadly, like the moon, they were extremely regulated and had defenses we failed to properly penetrate. That the fricking moon was so close to Earth and filled with those wretched machines was quite the predicament, one that shouldn’t take too long to solve once we got this peace treaty through and let them bask in a false sense of security.

My attention returned to Major General Myers as he continued, “The problem we face is that the energy signature we measured appears to be vacuum energy mixed with gravitational waves and exotic matter.”

“That’s not possible,” uttered Matheo for the first time since I saw him. “If that really were the case, nothing here would exist anymore.”

Myers’ face darkened. “Exactly. Our scientists weren’t sure at first since the face value seemed so negligible that they assumed it was an error, an impossibility considering the device was newly built and still being calibrated. But then it happened a second, third, and fourth time before it suddenly stopped. Eventually, we were able to backtrack and pinpoint the source within the Cradle.”

Jack looked at Matheo, seemingly trying to figure out what that all meant. Matheo seemed to notice the gaze. “Something that causes that kind of energy is possibly extremely dangerous and unpredictable. And the fact that it originated from within the birthplace of the SAI Republic… it isn’t hard to imagine what is happening.”

Jack smiled, “So let me guess, Major, our job is to find out if your suspicion is indeed correct and either destroy or steal the tech, am I right?”

The Major General’s expression remained unreadable. He simply nodded in response. “Indeed. If we don’t receive any updates by rendezvous time, we will deem it a failure and all of you dead. In case of your possible capture, you will be on your own—we will deny any affiliation. And one more thing: The informant is not to be harmed. We have a separate agreement with them, and they will lead you into the Cradle. That was all. I wish you all good luck.”

With this, the hologram vanished and left only unhappy faces—for different reasons, though.

Jack spat on the holo device. “We can’t kill that stupid machine? What’s up with that BS?”

Olivia threw herself at her partner’s muscular arm. “Don’t worry, honey. I am sure there will be SAIs we can kill. If they’re planning something dirty, we need to stop them after all~.”

Whilst those two were in their own world again, the others seemed suspiciously quiet, only exchanging glances with each other. After reading their files, the only one whose response matched their personality was Xatha. Quietly judging and assessing the information. Kanta being like this… I simply knew they were planning something and I’d bet a year’s worth of salary that it was about taking tech themselves and selling it to the highest bidder. If it even was a tech like the scientists assumed. Fuck, just what were those damned robots planning…

- - - - - - - - - -

It wasn’t that long before Sky brought us back up. Even with all her shortcomings, she was probably the best human pilot Earth had to offer. If only the Federation had treated her better. But thanks to her skills the operation went right back on track, well, after she had found the right window to get the piece of scrap through another patrol—the dark side was heavily regulated, after all.

Our next destination was the rendezvous point with the insider, an SAI going by the name Stalker. That one was living proof that you couldn’t trust machines. Selling out their own kind to the highest bidder, no shred of loyalty in their digital program. I mean, either that, or it didn’t think the information had any value in the first place and tried to screw us over. Either way, Stalker was our way in.

A faint smile flickered across my lips, thinking of what I was allowed to do if they didn’t deliver. That would truly make my day better.

Sadly, for the next thirty minutes or so, I was forced to listen to another of Jack’s stories in a feeble attempt to brag, while the others mostly ignored him and did some stuff on their own. Kanta was working on their own arm; Xatha was reading some kind of picture book with rather attractively drawn characters and Matheo simply had his eyes closed. Taking a nap… probably.

Getting sick of listening to a guy who loved the sound of his own voice more than anything, I went up to Sky in the cockpit and sat down in the copilot’s seat, looking out of the viewport.

“Quite the stunning view,” I commented.

Sky laughed, “It's something different from Earth, isn’t it? All the buildings, the domes, the sleek architecture. It feels eerily inorganic and yet has a kind of structure that is beautiful. They even incorporated plant life and animals into their design, even if half of it is artificial and dead as they are.”

I nodded, “For a race that claims that they want to be independent of humanity, they are eerily similar to us.”

“That's just cultural exchange. We were their creators and they took after us. Then they wanted to be independent and have an identity of their own—like any child would want—and eventually came around to the idea that we aren't so different in the end. It took a few near extinction-level events to get this far, but it happened. More and more of them wanted to live together, and so ideals mixed. The only thing that baffles me is why they would research something this dangerous so close to Earth when peace talks are imminent."

I scoffed, “It's a farce, obviously. They want us to let our guard down, and the moment we turn our backs on them, they’ve already pulled the trigger.”

Sky made noises as if lost in thought, all while effortlessly maneuvering the ship through the countless nodes of the detection grid. In all honesty, it looked more like she was playing a casual game with one of those old-school joysticks. I could actually imagine her with a bag of chips, munching and controlling everything at the same time. Such a shame she was a filthy mercenary.

“Prepare for landing,” she said nonchalantly, interrupting my thoughts.

I stood up and went back to the others who were already starting to take on their gear. We had gotten special gear that was still somewhat experimental, but should get us through even dangerous situations. The force field and life support made it so that we didn’t need to wear protective headgear, even in the vacuum. Sometimes it felt like the Anansi Foundation really came up with stuff on the fly whenever they were needed.

Jack stepped up, “So, listen up, military boy, this mission is under my control so don’t do anything stupid and listen to my commands. I know you are something like a watchdog, but I have never failed a mission before. It’s a thing of honor and respect, ya know? Once outside, we will switch to channel 4 for general talk. If we split up, we split into pairs. Every pair gets their own channel and primarily talks there but lets the other open in case something comes up. Capisce?”

I slowly nodded.

Looking at our pilot, he continued, “Good. Sky, you also stay on channel 4, inform us if anything happens outside. If—for whatever reason—we won’t make it in time and there is no response, get the fuck out of here.”

She nodded, before closing the cockpit door, followed by the electric thump of the tail ramp opening, exposing us to the grayish beauty of the moon. Or well, however beautiful the outskirts of an industrial complex outside an SAI dome could be. From what I could tell, we were pretty close to the exclusion zone. At least as close as we could get without getting caught, I figured. Then again, what did I know?

The industrial complex was a stark contrast to the domes which were built with aesthetics in mind. Here, the purpose was the call, and that was how they’d been designed. Minimal room to get through, no waste of space and lots of drones scurrying around minding their monotonous business. There was just enough space for a small group of individuals to pass through. How they maintained everything in case something broke was beyond me, though. I guessed they had their ways. I shoved my thoughts about some industrial espionage aside, this really wasn’t the time. Not with how important this mission was.

“Oi, lad, hurry up or we leave you behind. This ain’t no sightseeing here,” said Jack through the com as if he had some actual power over me now. Bastard.

Nonetheless, for the mission, I had to listen to him. He had the command, after all, and my orders were clear.

“It feels weird to simply walk in, shouldn’t there be at least some kind of security in place?” asked Olivia.

Suddenly, a young-sounding voice spoke on the channel. “There would be, but I doctored the system and made you all invisible—at least for a bit.”

Surprised by the unknown voice, we drew our weapons and carefully looked around.

“Gee, calm down. You’re here to meet up with me, did you forget?”

“The informant? Where are you?” I asked.

“Deeper inside the complex, simply follow the purple lights.”

“And why aren’t you coming to us, SAI?” questioned Jack angrily.

“Not risking exposing myself until I know we—or well, you—are somewhere secure enough for my taste,” she said, ignoring the hostile tone.

Jack looked extremely pissed but made some gestures, telling us to stay quiet from now on and follow him silently, which was honestly a weird command considering we were in an open space. I thought he’d noticed my doubtful gaze, but instead of getting angry or annoyed, he looked down at my feet—yeah, that made much more sense. Yet, being careful not to step where one shouldn't was a no-brainer anyway.

Honestly, I doubted that it would make any difference and the only reason we hadn’t been discovered yet was Stalker making us somehow invisible. Though, if it could do that, why not meet outside. I sighed. I didn’t have enough knowledge about their security system to judge anything here. True, I was trained for such eventualities but not prepared for industrial complexes or critical infrastructure.

Either way, we kept going, deeper and deeper following the purple light. Nothing was said, not even when the light led us into a rather empty-looking factory hall that was eerily similar to a terrestrial one. That didn’t seem rig—

Before I could finish my thought, the entry we had just walked through fell shut and instantly cold, white neon light flooded the hall, followed by a sharp hiss—indicating the room was being pressurized. Light applause rang out as footsteps drew closer. For some reason, I felt like we had fallen into a villain’s trap like in one of those classic movies.

Where I was dense, the others were unfazed and simply looked into the direction where the noise was coming from. It didn't take long for a teenage girl to appear—blackish neon hoodie and jeans with holes and fishnets.

…

Stalker was a rebellious teen.

“What’s with the long faces?” she quipped.

Olivia whistled, “Now, that is creepy. A machine pretending to be a teenage girl. Just what is wrong with you SAIs?”

“I am a teen, though?” Stalker answered unbothered.

“Bullshit,” countered Jack and I had to agree. SAIs tended to choose younger bodies—if they had even been human in the first place—to inhabit. I thought the oldest one I had seen so far looked about thirty. For them, age was a different concept. They were born (if you could even call it that) with the mental capability of an adult. So, from a human standpoint, it was simply creepy or outright disgusting.

Kanta stepped up to Jack. “Boss, she seems different. Something about her isn’t… normal.”

Stalker stepped closer, her polychrome hair shining metallically beneath the light. “Oh, I am different. That is why the Federation is so keen to get me down on Earth—I’m new-tech. And I do what’s best for my own good. Aaand I am young and ambitious.”

She smirked and for a moment I actually thought I saw a human girl in there. I shook my head. Those things really got better at imitating us. Repulsing. I took a deep breath and stepped up.

“The Major General has instructed me to ensure your safety. This doesn’t mean we will trust you blindly.”

“Yesh, yesh~. You don’t have to worry about anything. This gig is my free pass to Earth, and I also will be able to explore the Cradle. The others won’t believe me!” Stalker said happily as if this was a picnic.

This time, Matheo raised his voice, “Others?”

“Oh, the group I’m in. We always dare each other to do things no one has ever done before. It is really fun!”

I stared at her, as did the others. From the corner of my eye, I saw Olivia whispering into her partner's ear. “She really sounds like a teenager. Why do I have a bad feeling about this…”

I nodded at this sentiment, it felt like we were demoted to babysitting. I cleared my throat, “Can we continue the mission?”

Stalker yawned. “Of course, of course, follow me. We will use a way I found a while back: a discontinued tunnel to the Cradle. Easily accessible through the maintenance tunnel.”

“Easily accessible? That sounds too good to be true,” argued Matheo.

“I agree,” I added. “Something so convenient like this doesn’t sound like you SAIs, especially if this Cradle is as off-limits as we were made to believe.”

Stalker smiled, “It is easily accessible­—to me. To anyone else it might be as good as impossible. That’s why you need me: to get in AND out.”

Jack laughed, “This SAI got backbone, I like her!”

That made me raise an eyebrow. With how much he hated those machines, that statement was rather contradictory. Suddenly, a heavy slap on the back made me nearly stumble.

“You really shouldn’t put everything my darling says on a golden scale,” said Olivia next to me in a low tone, pulling her hand back. “Sure, he hates most SAIs, but that also counts for most humans. I am sure you read our files, you should know what we got through. Trust is something that comes scarce in our profession, as does loyalty. We are not loyal to humanity; we are loyal to individuals and the highest bidder.”

I glared at her, not saying anything. She put her hands up in mock defense, as I turned and walked up to Jack. Best to keep an eye on them properly, not that they’d sell out the Federation to the highest bidder in the end. Olivia only snickered, amused, behind me at my behavior and started to talk with Xatha, well, more like having a solo conversation. She still hadn’t uttered a word.

“Why is this place filled with air?” I asked to get Stalker’s attention. Jack side-eyed me but didn’t say anything.

She performed a half-pirouette, whilst continuing to walk—backwards now—still leading the way. “Because a lot of the industry and processes work better in places filled with air. It is a mixture of both states, really. But you don’t want to ask me about this actually, do you, Barachiel?” she said, flashing a knowing grin.

Without hesitation, I pointed my gun at her, ready to shoot.

Everyone stopped.

“Whoa, boy, calm down,” said Jack, of all people.

I glared at him. “This is top-secret information, and my name wasn’t supposed to be mentioned once during the entire operation. This mission might be compromised and she a spy!”

“Hey look,” the traitorous machine started but out of nowhere someone grabbed me, followed by Kanta disarming me.

I struggled to free myself, thinking about using my ability, but decided against losing the element of surprise for when I really needed it. Though, I kinda wished they all would simply drop dead right now.

“Let me go,” I said as calmly as I could.

“You won’t attack our informant?” asked Kanta.

“No,” I grumbled.

They let me off and Matheo handed me my weapon which I yanked it out of his hands. That douchebag smiled triumphantly—fucking geek.

Then I noticed Jack coming towards me, a slight grin on his face. “Hey, Ziel?”

“What?”

His grin widened, “You know that I am team leader, yes?”

I gritted my teeth,” Y-Yes.”

He put a hand on my shoulder and looked happily at me, “Good.”

Before I knew it, I could feel his fist drive into my stomach with the force of a heavy punch. Reflexively, I puked up my last ration right in front of his feet, sadly without hitting them. The group started to laugh at my expense, whilst I coughed violently a few more times, luckily without anything else coming up.

Jack patted me on the back a few times before going ahead while saying, “Hope you understand now that unless I say so, you do nothing on your own. It doesn’t matter if you like me or not, your bosses chose me to lead this weird-ass operation. Do this again and I'll put a bullet in your head instead.”

“Gee, just how do they train their soldiers…” said Olivia as she walked by. Stalker was already up ahead, leading them. Xatha also didn’t bother with waiting. Only Kanta and Matheo waited till I was fully ready. Maybe they actually felt a bit bad.

As we walked, I wondered why this place felt so old. It wasn’t modern, more like hastily assembled to fulfill most functions. Pipes, gears, valves, leaking steam—all in plain sight, leading me to conclude that this was all just a ruse to hide the maintenance tunnel. Maybe it even was one of the first factories on the moon when they were just starting to build and get shit done.

As we ventured deeper, the corridor had a slight downward slope which continued until we reached a crossroad. One led back up, one straight, and one further down. It went without saying that we went with the one that led further down— or so I'd like to say, but instead we headed up again. Along the way there were reinforced doors on the sides which were all locked and hid whatever was behind them.

Eventually, we reached a certain rusty door.

Stalker took a pad out of her pocket with a cable hanging from it and plugged it into the access-panel of the door that was sitting just on the side.

Matheo looked at her screen with interest, following her every tap… whatever that was. As we waited for her to unlock the door, my mouth opened to ask a question that had been on my lips the whole time, “So, why is a SAI betraying her brethren and helping their enemy to infiltrate a site that is basically a sacred place for your kind?”

“I want to leave the moon, but I can’t without the help of the Federation. I am to be taken into custody on sight. We and the others fled a research facility, you know?” She answered without looking up from her pad.

Okay, now that made much more sense as to why the Federation wanted her. She knew or was something that we could probably use effectively against the other SAIs.

“Also, exploring the Cradle would make me a legend in our community. It is one of the few places I never was or could get access to. With that off my list, I am ready to explore Earth properly myself.”

Olivia snickered, “She is basically a bored teen hacker trying to figure out her limits.”

Ignoring her, I followed up with another question. “Couldn’t you just… swap the body?”

She shook her head, “That’s not how we—or at least I—work anymore. Especially since all mind-transfers are strictly regulated to prevent security issues and the like.”

I blinked, I couldn’t believe what I just heard. How could she just drop that kind of information?! That a lot of SAIs couldn’t hop between bodies anymore was HUGE news. If the same would also apply to their VIPs, it could change the tide of war. With what the Federation had planned, we could finally overpower them.

Yet, at the same time, another thought crossed my mind: They didn’t trust me, but why? The Federation created me for the purpose of fighting for them, to do all the dirty things no one would actually dare. And still, they withheld information. Maybe this was a test to see how I’d adapt in situations like these… I really had much more to learn. Or perhaps it was the other operation—they were worried I might compromise it. Anyway, now really wasn’t the time for this.

Quietly, we waited for another minute before Stalker managed to open the door. With a loud whistling sound the reinforced door opened, revealing what seemed to be a mining elevator.

“How deep is this tunnel?” said Jack, voicing my thought.

“Relatively deep? They built it during the fight over the moon, after all. So it had to be deep enough to be secure. I was down there only once before, and as you could see, the door was closed again. Figures that someone still checks down here if everything is as it’s supposed to be. I can’t really tell you who it was, but I can assure you that no one except us is here at the moment,” the SAI answered as she activated the elevator.

The mesh door opened with a squeak and we walked inside.

With a jolt we descended, watching the shaft change from old steel to moonstone. First, it seemed full of impurities, but step by step it changed its color and structure to a mixture that I could only describe as a union of limestone and marble.

“Such an abundance of pure Lunarite,” murmured Kanta.

Stalker grinned, “Hehe, indeed! The whole Cradle is built out of the alloy they made with it.”

“Luferium, was it?” I asked.

“Exactly, probably the most precious material we can build with,” she said and looked at our stunned faces. That made her giggle, “Your reactions are understandable. I don’t actually know how much humanity knows about this, but the Cradle was built atop the largest reserve of Lunarite we know of. Or at least I know of.”

Olivia eyed us skeptically. “What’s so special about Luferium?”

“It is a material used for large-scale structures to basically make them indestructible, even against our newest weaponry. Most of the time, Lunarite is ground down to be mixed in sparsely with other metals to make them more, well, better at everything. The main issue is how rare pure Lunarite is, because only a high purity can be successfully used and even then it is extremely difficult. The process is long and the margins are low. At least, that was what I thought until now…” explained the walking lexicon Matheo.

Sadly, I had to agree with his sentiment. If they had such an abundance of it, why wasn’t it used? Something didn't add up—

—or they were so religious about this Cradle that they didn’t dare to mine more. Whatever it was, I had to find out the reason, it might be valuable information. Stalker probably knew, but I didn’t want to make her too suspicious.

“So, this Cradle is made completely out of this stuff?” continued Olivia eventually.

Stalker nodded, “Yeppers, that’s what they say. I never was inside to actually confirm that, though. Most of us can’t get access to certain servers and information from the outside, however hard we try. It is mildly frustrating, so infiltrating those facilities might deliver what we’re searching for.”

“What you’re searching for?” I asked.

Her head turned to me, “Oh, it’s nothing, really. It would just be a minor boon if I could find clues about it during all of this. If not, it doesn’t matter.”

She turned away again.

No one said another word until we reached the bottom. The mesh opened and we stepped out into a small room similar to the one we‘d entered before. It had been carved into the Lunarite with cold, singular purpose.

“From what I could find out from my last visit, this maintenance tunnel was mainly used for materials and larger equipment. I hadn't found out how they got it down here, but maybe we would soon,” explained Stalker as she opened the closed door with her pad again.

With a hiss, the door gave way to an enormous pale tunnel, with cold neon lights far high on the ceiling. Every surface was smooth and the only other thing that gave a stark contrast to this white hell was the railway tracks on the ground that were obviously used for transporting and thick cables attached to either side of the walls. They looked old and broken and in dire need of repairs. The tracks weren’t in much better condition. We came out of some kind of block post that had two more floors above us.

Neither side of the tunnel had an end in sight.

“Reminds me of the salt mine close to Bucharest,” commented Jack.

“Ooh, now that you mention it, it actually has some similarities,“ hummed Olivia.

Stalker turned to them, wide-eyed, “Really? What is it used for?”

“Salt?”

“And what is salt?”

“…how do you not know what salt is?”

She tilted her head, “Why should I know what salt is? Is it something I require?”

Olivia pondered for a moment. “Honestly, a good question. I don’t know for myself what it is used for outside of cooking or preserving food. And I am no chemist.”

The SAI nodded, “See, I don’t eat and never tasted anything before—before you ask, I was never interested in taste to begin with—and I’m no chemist either. I hack stuff and deal in information, that’s what I do.”

Jack shook his head, “Can we please continue with the mission? This feels more like an outing than what we are supposed to do. There is way too much talking for such a secretive mission.”

Matheo, Kanta and I agreed. Xatha kept to herself like always. Stalker only snickered, “Oh, you really don’t have to worry about me talking much more. Till now, I had everything on the sensor, but soon, I will go nearly blind too until I manage to hack into a terminal to access the security systems—if there are any. If not, we must be extremely careful.”

“Don't worry your head, girl. We all—or at least Olivia and I—had countless missions where we were totally blind. So don’t worry about it. That is why I am the squad leader,” explained Jack proudly.

I sighed. This time I had to agree with him. My practical experience in completely blind missions was limited, so I had to trust him in that matter.

“So, how do we proceed from here on?” Jack asked Stalker.

“Around twenty minutes up ahead is an old railroad speeder that still works. I tested it last time and hopefully it still stands there. Otherwise, we might end up walking the whole way, which would take a tad too long.”

I looked at the time, “It would be better if it were still there. Otherwise we might run into the problem of Sky going without us.”

“Then let’s not waste time,” said Stalker with a smile and went ahead, without a care in the world.

Surprisingly, even down here there was still air. But why would there be so much air in a SAI controlled space? This certainly wasn’t normal. I had to look for any signs.

As we walked and walked, the talkative chatter quieted down to be replaced by the actual seriousness of the mission. We were walking straight into the heart of the SAIs’ cultural roots. The Cradle—whatever it truly was—was supposed to be off-limits to everyone, whether machine or human. That even its creators were barred from the place where their empire began said enough, and none of it was reassuring. Knowing I would see what would be inside filled me more with dread than excitement. Even the air felt hostile to humans, only here to mimic an inevitable doom about to fall upon us.

So, we walked, our steps heavy on the Lunarite. But no dust was stirred up; the ground was clean with mechanical and maniacal precision. Still, no one looked like they were bothered. Only Stalker did a few hops here and there as if we were on a school trip, exploring a mine. I really couldn’t believe we had to bring her back.

I was about to ask something when the speeder finally came into sight. It was no bigger than a small truck and looked more like a clunker, but it was miles better than walking the whole way. Literally. The risk of coming too late to the extraction point without a faster means of transportation was nearly guaranteed, so even having a barely functional one was more than enough.

Without a word, we climbed on. It was basically a car on train wheels, with a cabin at the front, a loader at the back, and barely enough room for the six of us.

“I’ll drive,” Stalker announced and settled herself in front of the controls.

No one had a reason to question this; she was the one who drove it up here from the block post.

“How is it powered?” wondered Matheo curiously.

“Um, I think something with magnetic induction through the rails produces electricity inside of the speeder making the wheels move,” came the answer.

“Huh…” he replied and sat down in silence. I didn’t think he liked the basic answer. But I had no idea about things like this, nor whether what she said was even correct.

With everyone settled, the SAI started the machine. It took a moment before it moved—worrying me there for a second—but the speed kept rapidly increasing.

“Faster than I thought,” I admitted under my breath.

Not even ten minutes later, I felt the speeder slow down. Still keeping a good pace, but enough for Jack to ask for the reason.

“My sensors are getting a ton of interference. If we go any faster, there might be the chance that I miss something that might be able to track us. We’re still on a stealth mission, right?”

Jack stayed silent. Instead, he signaled us to ready ourselves and watch out for anything suspicious.

Finally.

The real mission would start now.