The War of Civlar

PART III

  As day breaks the Strike Force prepares for the assault on prison 1.

  Taking the hotel's automated limousine service they soon find themselves at the gates of their destination. Apart from a few formalities at the gate they are in within minutes and make their way to the reception desk. They announce their purpose and are given instructions about how to reach the server room.

  The server room was located at the top floor of the complex in the restricted area – for which they are supplied a temporary pass-code. Since they have arrived so early it is almost deserted apart from a single technician ambitiously hammering away at some assignment.

  Now they started to perform the 'work' on the servers; presumably a simple case of replacing a modularized component and reconfiguring the systems to accept the new hardware. Under normal circumstances this job would take approximately half an hour but they are keen to draw it out for as long as possible.

  Peta decides to take the initiative and approaches the lone technician which is not in their group.

  “Hi, how’s it going?” she asks casually.

  “Not bad, just really busy,” replies the technician, “since the servers have been down I am unable to work remotely as per normal so here I am.”

  They exchange some small talk for a few minutes.

  “I've only been here a day. Where's the nearest bar around here, I'd really like to get some Pleasurin-12!” Peta smiles.

  “There's one down the road – let's go!”

  In the meantime the four other crew members were slowly doing their jobs and also speaking of generic pleasantries to pass the time between themselves.

  “Hmm, we should definitely do that after work I think. At the moment I'm kind of sleepy – could you get us some coffee?” Peta asks.

  The technician obliges.

  Within moments of leaving the room, Michael is already inside the prisons manifest systems and trying to locate Eva. It wasn't long until he found the location: Sub Level 3, Cell 35. Without hesitation he penetrates the security system and manages to ascertain the security codes for that level which he scrawls down quickly and hands to Peta.

  They were all gone before the lone technician could return with the coffee.

  The first port of call was to be a supply depot which offered no complications thanks to Michael's quickly memorized access codes. In there they found themselves a cache of machine guns. Taking the guns they make their way swiftly to the elevator and then engage the lift to SL-3. They are quite thankful that there are no real uniforms in Civlar – since their guns alone designated them as guards now in the eyes of others. Still, they are all ready for combat at any time and they knew they must be fast about it – although the guards should not generally be trained to a high level of combat proficiency, they are certainly highly outnumbered and a coordinated attack would certainly destroy their ambitious plans.

  As they emerged into SL-3 they see a sight that would confirm their deepest fears about Civlar.

  They pass through rows of closed doors – all locked as indicated by the red light above the handle. They hear muffled shouting and screaming and various words of abuse.

  As the reach Eva's cell they used their access codes once again but to no avail – as the cell is found now empty.

  “She's not here. What are we going to do?” Peta asks.

  “Let's go back to the computers....” another suggests respectfully.

  “Why? If the data was inaccurate the first time, why would anything change? We're running out of time!” Michael snaps.

  They knew that they needed to act while surprise was on their side. Momentarily, they hear the steps of a single guard walking down the hall. As this guard walks past Eva's supposed cell he finds himself quickly accosted and dragged in.

  In a barrage of kicking and punching the guard is rendered harmless and lying bloodied in the corner.

  “Where is Eva?” demands Michael with his machine gun rammed down the guards throat. He pulles out the nozzle and awaits the reply.

  The guard coughs and spurts that he does not know. They realize that they would need to ambush a higher ranking officer – but how would they determine who here had rank? With swift martial arts kick to the face from Peta the guard is quickly killed.

  After some deliberation they realize that the computer systems are indeed be their only hope.

  They made their way to the SL3 control station. As they arrive they release a barrage of machine gun fire that catches the snoozing guards within by surprise. Only one guard survives long enough to set off the alarms. The atmosphere was now transformed into a tinged red and the wailing sirens pierced through the air.

  Michael again utilizes his skills with the computer systems, first turning off the alarm and then skim-reading through the personal notes and correspondences of the high ranking prison officials. They knew that even while the alarms were now off they had still now been most likely detected. It was only a matter of minutes before the guards would arrange an attack from the higher levels.

  “Neural regeneration!?” gasps Michael. He had found the item they were looking for. He orders the remaining team members to barricade themselves inside the guard room while Peta and himself go to investigate.

  “Her transmitter was registering full health at the time of capture,” Michael confides in Peta as they burst through the corridors towards the infirmary, “something is definitely wrong here.”

  “Civlarian hypocrisy at its finest,” Peta snorts...

  The remaining team members now piled the corpses and chairs into a makeshift barricade and awaited the onslaught.

  Peta and Michael smash through the door using their machine guns against the locking mechanism. They had finally found Eva. She is strapped to a bed, sensory equipment and wires running chaotically towards a monitoring station. There had been an incision made in her head from which a small tube protruded. Her eyes are closed and she is motionless apart from shallow breathing.

  They try to rouse her, the Chosen One, but to no avail. Peta has already started to take off her clothes for the swap over but then stopped when she realizes Eva's condition.

  “We can't remove her like this.” Michael asserts, “That tube must be some kind of sedative.”

  Peta was going to ask why it was being injected directly into the brain but decided not to because of the time constraints. As Michael removed the tube the grim situation suddenly began to reveal itself further.

  Eva screamed into consciousness.

  As she tries to free herself from the restraints, Michael and Peta try aimlessly to calm her down and explain the situation. Eventually, they move to remove the restraints, thinking that this was the cause of Eva's discomfort.

  With superhuman strength Eva lunges for Michael weapon and despite a huge size disparity he finds himself almost unable to control her but finally manages to wrestle it out of her hand.

  He then realizes that it was not them but herself that she was trying to kill since there had been several opportunities to shoot him while the item was in contention.

  Eva continued to claw and grasp at Michael while Peta tries desperately to restrain her seemingly superhuman strength. After several minutes of this Eva collapses due to exhaustion, she being now fixed in the fetal position and murmuring incoherently.

  It is now quite apparent to both of them that Eva has completely lost her mind.

  As they heard the blaze of gunfire echoing from the control room, they knew there was no escape.

  The only thing they could do now was report the situation to their government – if they were lucky.

  Peta calls the her fellow team member in the control room announcing the situation. They can only guess whether or not the control room had the facility to transmit a message somehow to the Realm or if indeed their team would remain alive long enough to perform this action.

  Soon the gunfire stopped.

  As the guards entered the neural regeneration room the pair surrendered quickly.