Cascade

6 - Correction

6 - Correction

“You see?” Claire asked. Melissa had pushed past nurses and doctors, running beyond the waiting room and out into a courtyard. She had finally stopped at a fountain, bent over for breath, adding her tears to the pool.

“But I am the cure.” Melissa said.

“I thought so too.” Claire responded. She placed a hand on Melissa’s shoulder.

“It can’t be stopped. There’s nothing we can do.” Melissa sobbed. Claire thought for a moment, then squeezed Melissa’s shoulder in comfort.

“Where the impoverished have faded, we shall redeem. Where the outcast have fallen, we shall resurrect. Where the guilty have hidden-“

“We shall bring reckoning.” Melissa finished.

“There is another way, but it will be difficult.” Claire said.

“More difficult than coming to grips with one’s own genocide?”

Melissa wiped tears from her eyes and faced Claire.

“Whatever.” She said. “I’ve spent my entire life undergoing brutally painful procedures, extreme conditions, and relentless training to become part of the most devastating event in human history. Not like my day can get any worse.”

“Great.” Claire said. “Now let’s go break into one of the most secure and bio-hazardous locations in the system.”

Melissa smiled.

“What do you have in mind?”

They walked from the courtyard to a nearby shuttle terminal and boarded a tram headed toward The Network research facilities.

“As always when planning an op, we start at step one.”

“Intel.” Melissa responded.

“Correct. So let’s assess what we already know. The current state of the system.”

“Cloudy with a chance of Armageddon, with temperatures reaching into the high millions.” Melissa replied.

Claire looked around at the others in the tram and decided not to discuss her involvement with the end of the world so openly. She lowered her voice.

“Let’s start with Vertex.” Claire said.

“Capitol of the system. Death by slipping into the sun. No hope of recovery there.” Melissa replied.

“True. Even if there was anything left of the planet, too much would be destroyed to slip it back into place. Now its absence affects the other five in The Ring.”

“Right, but that won’t become an issue for a couple years.” Melissa said.

“So now we go on to Mercuth.”

“Communications and trade center, second highest in population. Death by nukes. Amelia had to disable their automated defenses and time it with the launches from Imperium. A ping came through indicating she successfully made it out. I don’t know if you got that.”

“No. My proximity to the sun at that point would have disrupted just about anything. But all the same, Amelia’s job was to ensure that at least 95% of the planet was rendered uninhabitable.”

“So Mercuth has no reconstructive value.”

“Not necessarily.” Said Claire. It still needs to be removed from orbit in order to help balance the rest of the planets in The Ring, but we will come to that later.”

“Ok, so we move on to Imperium.” Melissa said.

“Military capitol, pivotal weapon used against Mercuth. Marcus was to render planetary defenses inert and lock down all response resources, leaving calls for Nexus support to go unanswered.”