Code Lyoko: Revolutions and Evolutions

Chapter 64

AN: This chapter took some time, as I wasn't sure what I wanted to use in terms of pacing. But after more than a few prayers and God's help in overcoming some significant issues, I'm glad to say that this chapter is finished to a standard I am proud of.

I will say as a bit of a warning, I've been a bit under the weather lately, and no, it's not the Rona, no it's just a nasty influenza case, and so if my chapter is late by a couple of days next week, please know this is why. I thank all of you who continue to read, and I look forward to seeing you next chapter.

Pagliacci-11

Sylvia sat patiently at her command console as the readouts came from her sources first from Monolith's in-flight systems and then from the crew on the ground. The operation against the facility had bought precious time; time enough to calibrate for another precision strike. Sylvia knew the grand scheme of Decay. The relays and antennas had been scouted out, and she knew the sources of Decay's lifeblood.

This had been a very prolonged process from the moment Jean-Pierre had been initiated into North-Gate protocol. Like any good employee after self-benefit, he had given all manner of reconnaissance to her. Thanks to his natural integration into the civilian sector, his contributions to the cause were one of the very many reasons she lamented letting Jean-Pierre go. In all honesty, she could have reprocessed him; Sylvia knew that well enough. However, to have done so would have been an immense wound and blow to Sissi. For this effect alone and out of principle, she couldn't bring herself to make full use of a once treasured source.

Soon the report came in, and Sylvia read the following: Too High Command from Monolith Squad, our operation has been a success. The mecha have been extracted and on their way to you. Force has successfully made it to the civilian sector evac point. Awaiting further orders."

Sylvia sent her reply, "Well done. Sending evac vehicle in ten minutes. Hold fast."

Sylvia smiled as she saw the results of her plans. Not all her plans had been nearly this smooth in this scenario. And the fact this operation went off without too much of a hitch, she was beyond grateful. Her soldiers were immensely precious to her, and from their growing skills in the field, in several cases, North-Gate had truly elite soldiers in this regard.

Sylvia reflected fondly on her soldiers' carefully handpicked specialties, those who had been fortunate enough to survive the hells of the raw battlefield. Through the dedicated schools of thought and battles she had implemented, Sylvia had those soldiers who she would personally sacrifice herself for due to how powerful they were in their respects. Yolanda, despite their interchange of hostility over the years, was one such unit.

Yolanda was a master of close-quarters combat, a genuine mistress of swordplay and stealth, earning her nickname, The Spider to the troops under her. To the medical specialists, she was termed Mengele due to her willingness to experiment with medicines to preserve those in her care and interrogation methods for those proving highly resilient to traditional, experimental, and even prolonged interrogation of the two variations.

Additionally, and perhaps, her most valuable trait was her willingness and almost joyful predisposition to analyze the bodies of Decay's enhanced soldiers. It was Yolanda's willingness to do the macabre acts, her joy therein due to the discoveries that North-Gate had perfected many elements of medicine. That when the proper momentum was established, make their elite soldiers seem genuinely unstoppable and of the heavier units, insurmountable.

The years since they had last faced Decay, North-Gate's masterminds had dreamed up and proven those dreams to be immensely fruitful. The counselor's real strength, the conscience of 'the twins of progress,' had adapted to a merciless enemy. In this regard, North-Gate acknowledged the enemy as it was and was in this knowledge willing to put Decay down like the rabid dog it could quickly become. The tools and soldiers that were to come to bear resulted from the past's grievous tolls: the lessons of fallen soldiers; devastating losses in which there were no survivors; the disastrous pain caused by egotistical choices instead of common sense. All these factors and more served as the engine, spurning her soldiers of the old guard, the tried and true, ever onward.