2634: Dalmore

Chapter 14

“The first step in our plan is to break The Veil. When The Veil breaks, we only have hours, possibly minutes until The AIC finds out our plan. We need to move fast and efficiently,” Pearson says. We are gathered around her as she explains the plan in her office in Headquarters. “The night we break open The Veil, two people will disable the trackers and auto-piolet from six jets, make sure manual pilot is on, this is mandatory. Note that you should choose six random jets so it is harder for The AIC to track you down when you take off. Alec and Levi will be responsible for that. Cleo and Soren, you two will move quickly and gather all your friends and anyone you trust to the jets. Alec and Levi, make sure you are ready. Note there will be security cameras, dismantle them. The rest of you, Adria, Jaxon and Ares, you will have the role of eliminating Feyrer and any other AIC officer, scientists or guards that get in your way. Feyer will be in his office, you will use a Lock Coin. Above all, make sure Feyrer dies by any means necessary,”
“Why can’t you do that?” Ares asks Pearson. She responds with a look that says, ‘because’ and Ares drops the matter.
“After everyone has done their thing, you should all be buckled up in the jets. Now the first jet to take off should be one with all seven of you in. By now, guards from The AIC may or may have not chased you, they might start shooting but all we can do is hope for the best on the day. You will guide everyone here in Headquarters, where The Alliance troops will be ready. All of you will have a couple of minutes to gear up and grab your weapons. This is the point where we all board Bulks and storm the Safe Cities-”
“You said Bulks, but you don't own any Bulks,” Cleo says, noticing the plot hole.
“A special gift from our benefactor,” Benefactor? The Alliance has benefactors?  “Anyhow once we storm the Safe Cities, we alert everyone of danger and our insiders-”
“Insiders?” I ask, what could she mean?
“Insiders. You're not the only one with telepathic communications with your friend Kyle,” How did she know about that? “Ah yes, everyone who knew your parents knew that you had a telepathic connection to Kyle, but anyhow that's not the point,” Pearson grins, “Although we cannot reach our insiders in the Safe Cities, we most certainly can communicate with them. They are all part of The Alliance and will be wearing a green triangle on their vests, our crest. By now The AIC’s mercenary should have arrived, and we’ve gotten ours. This is when we fight and our plan ends. And in the end, fate decides our hard work. Any questions?” She perks up.
“Why are we fighting in the Safe Cities? That land is developed, can't we fight somewhere more... appropriate?” Jaxon asks.
“The Mutants are everywhere except the Safe Cities,” Pearson explains, “Our mercenary can only fight The AIC, not Mutants,” The room falls silent.
“Won’t the Mutant’s slip in?” Soren asks.
“They have had plenty of experience from bashing into The Veil. It’s not likely they’ll slip in,” She explains, “If we’re all done here, it’s time you decide who to bring on your way back here after The Veil goes down,” She places a pen and paper on the table and leaves. I grab the pen and scribble Zion’s name down, no one objects to bringing her. The next person to write down a name is Cleo who writes ‘Cora’, like before no one objects. As everyone writes down names, some I don’t even know but no one has a problem with them. That is until Jaxon writes down Reyna, we all stare at him as if he’s lost his mind.
“What?” Jaxon shrugs and takes a step back. Why her out of all people? I stifle a crackle at the thought. Anyhow by the time we finish the page is full of names, a few people which I know like Reeve, Ephiel, Ophelia and Cormac.    
After Pearson goes through the list, we leave her office and assemble outside another room. I remember it being one I was interrogated in, “The training room. Alec and Levi, you’ll be assisted by Dr. Randoff. Cleo and Soren, you’ll be assisted by Floyd, he’ll teach you how to handle communications, relearn your combat skills. Jaxon, Adria and Ares, Ophelia will assist you-”
“Ophelia? You mean the one from Veritas?” Ares spits in distaste.
“Yes, any problems?” She glares at Ares, “You three will be learning how to handle more lethal and elite weapons, holograms and using cardboard cut-outs of humans,” With that, Pearson unlocks the door. This time the room is brightly lit, large rectangular windows I’ve never noticed before line against the wall. The room itself is spread into three sections, Floyd stands at the bottom corner of the room, reloading a gun. Ophelia stands opposite him in the room, staring at Floyd in distaste. Even Opehlia doesn't like him. The last man remaining must be Dr. Randoff, a man I have never met nor seen before. He tinkers around with a stolen jet, a toolbox scattered around him. The door slams close and after glances of disadin with Ares we shuffle over to Ophelia.
“What’s she doing here? I thought she was pure evil!” I hiss to Ares.
“She is,” Jaxon whispers, joining in on our conversation. Ares says nothing but scowls at the girl. Ophelia’s attention snaps from Miller to Ares, sending a scowl back to Ares.
“Ah, so you thought you’d be the hero again, Adria?” Ophelia says. “I just loathe people like you,”
“The feeling’s mutual,” I reply, staring at her.
Ophelia picks up a gun and shoots it at one cardboard man. “What are you waiting for?” She rolls her eyes. We pick up guns and start shooting. Ophelia being who she is, I thought she’d want to make the whole thing doomed and evil. 
“So Badge Lady. Why are you here? Why aren't you back in Veritas terrorising the world with Feyrer?” Ares asks, shooting more ferociously.
“I’m not evil, not stupid like Feyrer,” Ophelia says, “I’ve been on The Alliance for years so watch your mouth before you start pointing fingers. I know everything about this place from the top to the bottom,”
“If that’s so, why doesn't Pearson remember us?” Jaxon asks her.
“When you get to New Tyro, well mostly banished, they take all your memories away. So for some time The Alliance was a bunch of brainless idiots until your parents, before they came to New Tyro of course, collaborated with a few other people. They had a system to fill in the people who lost their memories. Pearson’s following the system soon she’ll be back to normal. Usually takes a year or two to get your memory working, happy now?” She answers almost immediately. As we keep on shooting, Ophelia explains the different types of weapons and explains more about The Alliance, but of course not forgetting to relate to death as much as possible. But everytime I ask her about my parents, she keeps on refusing. Why does nobody want to tell me why? I look around the room, Alec, Levi and Dr. Randoff are busy tinkering away at the stolen jet and Cora and Soren are running through an obstacle course, which looks a lot more fun than shooting.
“Can we do something else?” I ask Ophelia, bored out of my mind. She pulls out a remote out of her back pocket and the cardboard cutouts begin moving at turbo speed. Every time I shoot, it keeps on missing the cutout. They move faster than the ones at camp and the bullet doesn't fly straight enough. This is going to be a long day. Even Jaxon and Ares don’t manage to shoot any.
“Can you tone it down? No one moves this fast!” Jaxon complains.
“Some people can. Be prepared,” Ophelia spits back, increasing the speed. The cutouts move in a blur, there is no chance of hitting anything, I can't even see anything except the red and black of the cardboard. At this point we’re just shooting blind. I point the gun towards the mechanics of the cutouts and shoot at the motor for one of them. A couple of shots later, I manage to shoot the motor of one and that target stops immediately, the others crash into it and break. I take a look at Ophelia who gives me a dirty look, “It’s not over yet, look,” She spreads her arms out and steps away from us. A hologram platform rises up on where we’re standing, the glass rises up around the platform, caging us. Ophelia fiddles with her remote until Feyrer’s figure stands in front of us, sardonic smile plastered on his face.
“Merrick, Hutton, Kade,” ‘Feyrer’ bows his head at us, “So you have come to kill me,”
“You're not real,” I say, holding up my gun prepared to shoot. As I am about to pull the trigger, I feel something wash over me. I don't know why, but the next thing I do is drop the gun, unable to move or speak. ‘Feyrer’ only responds with a malicious grin.
“What about you Hutton? Too scared to kill little old Feyrer?” He looks over to Ares who stares at him in shock. Ares looks down, deciding to ignore him. “And you Kade?” He nods over to Jaxon who answers with a deathly stone glare. Jaxon raises his gun and pulls the trigger. Feyrer falls onto his knees before sinking onto the ground. Dead. The platform walls fall back into the ground along with the platform. I stay still, unable to comprehend what just happened.
“You all right?” Jaxon asks the two of us. We nod in response and I take a seat on the ground. I don't know why I couldn't kill him, even after he killed Allison. He is the villain. The AIC is the villain. If this plan is going to work, I need to learn to kill him.
“Come on, soon-to-die-wanna-be-heros,” Ophelia says walking to the door, where Pearson is now waiting. Heading over, Pearson asks us to follow her. We walk through Headquarters, the whole building which is much larger than I am expecting. It looks a mix of an abandoned hospital and office building but it looks a lot cleaner than the New Orleans Mutant bashing playground. Pearson suddenly stops at a larger-than-the-rest door and scans it open. We’re outside, what are we doing here- “It’s time you take a look at The Veil for yourselves,” She answers my unanswered question.
“Can I cut it with scissors?” Ares asks innocently.
“No!” Pearson shouts. Ares shrugs, indifferent written on his face. After another long walk later, I notice people gathered up ahead who are deep in discussion and equipment littered around them. “Randoff, anything so far?” She asks Dr. Randoff who disappeared halfway through training.
“A few temporarial gaps,” He sighs, scribbling on his board. “Not a lot of progress,”
“We’ve been trying to break The Veil for years, waiting to find people like you for our plan,” Pearson explains.
“Yeah well you found us,” Cleo chuckles nervously. I move closer to The Veil, there is nothing special about it, nor anything to see. It looks like continuous land, stretching for meters. I only know where it is because of the tape separating us from it. I could just walk right through it, Feyrer really needs to up his game. It’s not very impressive but why would it take years to break? A tent lies not far from me, so I open the flap and enter. A table sits in the middle, a Tab open, displaying a table filled with results. The very first three says:

Date:
Variable:
Result:
21.05.3078
Plasma Beam
Fried server
16.06.3078
Fusion Reactor
Temporarial Gaps
3.09.3078
Electromagnetic Laser Beam
Fried Server

These were created years before I was born. I look around the tent for anything else but I hear Jaxon, “Where’s Ares?” . I look around frantically for Ares, where has that boy gone? There is no sign of him anywhere. Well that is until I look back at The Veil, Ares is charging at it with full force, and you’ll never guess what’s in his hand. Centimeters away from The Veil, Ares stabs it with scissors. He is flung full force backwards into the air, the scissors flying out of his hands, hundred meters away. A bit of The Veil shakes, sparks fly everywhere as I jog over to him. Ares lays moaning and twitching on the ground.
“I’m going to die, Ria! I’m going to die. Help me,” He wails, cradling his arm.
“I told you boy not to go poking scissors at it,” Pearson barks behind us. I pick him up by the arms and drag him along back to where everyone is. “Medics,” Pearson snaps her fingers towards Ares. As the medics pay attention to Ares, I pay mine to the scientists who are deep in thought.
“Should we get started with the particle beam?” Randoff asks Pearson.
She takes a momentary pause, “Yes. We only have limited time before Feyrer gets suspicious,” With that, I hear a loud rolling noise behind me. A large, tall cylindrical machine rolls towards The Veil. The scientists start clearing out everything in the front and I take a step back, waiting for something to happen. The particle beam starts heating up with a blaring whirr. “Fire,” Pearson orders, the tip of the beam glows with light surging right through The Veil, piercing it. The Veil must have a defence mechanism because the part of it being attacked glows an electrical blue, pushing back at the particle beam. “Crank it up!” Pearson demands. The yellow pushes forwards, almost overpowering The Veil’s electricity but the blue surges forwards overpowering the yellow, frying it’s laser. Pearson growls, kicking at littered granola bars.
“Good for nothing beam,” She growls, “Well, what are you waiting for! Fix it,” She barks at a group of cowing scientists.
Hours later, the sun is almost setting but they manage to fix it but as they are about to fire Alec yells out, “Wait!” Pearson turns her attention to him, clearly agitated. “Look, don't fire, you're going to fry the server again. So here me out,” We all look at him, waiting for an explanation, “Everytime you fire, The Veil hits back stronger and harder, right. You're hitting it in the wrong spots. You’ve got to hit it in the gaps, the weak spots because imagine that The Veil is a person-”
“As lovely as your plan sounds, Alec,” Pearson growls, “If we hit it in the gaps we’re going to kill the people on the other side of us. Fire-”
“Wait, but have you tried?”
“Alec, you're sounding a lot like Ares now, and we all know what happened to him,” Pearson grits through her teeth, Ares moans in response.
“Come on, Pearson. There's no harm in trying, we can warn the people on the other side, right?” I speak up. I try defending Alec.
Pearson groans, “I suppose so,” The scientists roll the particle beam a few meters to the left, “It’s Pearson, do you copy? We’re going to fire a particle beam through one of the gaps, clear effective immediately,”
I shuffle over to Alec and whisper, “You owe me one,” In response he sticks his tongue at me.
“Copy and clear,” A man on the end of the line says and the scientists position the particle beam.
“Fire!” Pearson commands. The beam chargers up and fires at The Veil, a weak blue spark emits from it, but nothing else. “See-” The bottom of The Veil disintegrates into little pixels just like holograms. “Cease fire!” Pearson orders. The pixels on The Veil get back together. Pearson’s face looks as if it’s seen a miracle, but to her I bet it is a miracle. “For years. Years! We have tried to break this darn thing down, but now it breaks at our own will,”
“Yeah, your welcome,” Alec mutters, loud enough for Pearson to hear but she ignores him.
“Get ready because our plan commences tomorrow night!”