Chapter 21: Classified
The next day as I sat in the navigation room I had been called down to the broadcast zone.
“What is it Parker?” I asked as I walked over to the operator’s station.
“Commander Locke just called, he needs us to pick up a broadcast drop and then drop if off to Niobe and the Logos. He says it’s a level 8 classification so we won’t even be able to look at it,” explained Parker.
“Where did he say it was?” Parker hit a few buttons on the keyboard and brought up the location. A computer center in downtown of the city, the drop was located on a certain computer and we would need to upload it from the system.
“How long do we have to get a hold of this thing Parker?”
“Deadbolt gave us two days, but the police force has already started to search through the building. They know its there they just don’t know that it is on a computer.”
“Great, I’ll call a meeting.” I walked out of the broadcast zone and went to the ships conference room, from which I called the meeting over the headsets.
Dan sat the ship in a cubbyhole or the tunnels and Isaiah set the scanners to auto. Tarra, Dan and Isaiah walked down to the meeting room and Brandan was sitting in the chair at the head of the table. Parker stayed in the operator’s station to monitor the activity inside the matrix.
“What’s with the sudden gathering, I take it the call was something pretty important,” said Tarra.
“To say the least,” I said, “It’s a level 8 security clearance. I don’t even have access to this.”
“What is it?” asked Dan getting straight to the point.
“We have been ordered to pick up a broadcast drop and relay it to Captain Niobe, of the Logos. We have about two days to get it and relay it to her.”
“That’s not a lot of time when do we leave?” asked Colin, as he stepped into the doorway and leaned his shoulder against the wall.
“It’s going to take a lot of careful planning to get through this one. The building is already heavily secure and the police force is patrolling it frequently,” I explained, “Parker is formulating a plan of attack for us right now. For now return to your stations and await further instructions guys.” They each pulled away from the table and stepped out the door except for Isaiah.
“This will be our first real mission as a crew other than freeing people it’s gonna be hard. I’m a little worried,” said Isaiah.
“Isaiah you can’t doubt yourself inside the matrix you won’t be able to focus at your best.” Isaiah nodded agreeing with me.
“I will try to pull myself together.”
Tarra and Dan had just stepped up on the navigation deck and sat down.
“How do you think this is gonna go?” asked Tarra.
“I don’t know, but personally,” said Dan, “I don’t think we should have to do this alone either though if its for Captain Niobe then why didn’t they send her the message of where it was? Why do we have to get it?”
“They probably couldn’t get the communication to her they might be out of Zion’s comm. range.” Tarra sat down at the holographic scanner.
“I hope we can do it, I guess its almost a military building that we’re going into, at least that’s what it sounds like to me.”
Isaiah had made his way down to the broadcast zone and Brandan went back to the Captain’s chambers. Isaiah walked in and Parker was sitting at his station peering into the code screen and hitting buttons on the keyboard. Isaiah walked over to him un-noticed and starred into the screen, he was looking at a schematic of the building structure; all the possible entry points, where guards were posted, when shifts changed, when they did there rounds, the access to the stair wells and even possible escape routes. This was the type of operation that made Isaiah glad he was not the operator, and also glad that they had one as good as Parker.
“Isaiah start getting the broadcast equipment ready, do the check list on them to make sure they are running properly,” he said not taking his eyes off the screen.
“Ok,” said Isaiah moving to do the list on each one. He went to the first of them and began the routine check of the terminals, he started by checking the jacks on the terminals for bugs, then going over the computer system input and output lines. He repeated this process for all the terminals taking him about a half hour to complete. “They are all good to go Parker. Should I go get the others?” he asked.
“No its gonna take me a bit more to do this, go get Colin and practice with him inside the training program for a bit.” Isaiah nodded at the strange order and left to go find Colin.
Colin sat in his quarters on the bed and was looking at the dark décor of the ship. It was a brand new hovercraft but it still looked like it was about twenty years old. The floors in spots were rusted and in other places the metal was almost molded. He sat in a meditation state concentrating on himself inside the matrix and how he would perform. Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
“Hey can I come in?” he heard Isaiah from the other side of the door.
“Sure man come on in,” Colin invited. Isaiah walked in and looked at him.
“Parker wants you to come train with me in the training program before the mission,” said Isaiah, “he said we have about an hour, so let’s go ok.” Colin stood up.
“I’m ready when you are.” Isaiah shrugged his shoulders and the two of them walked out of the room and back down to the broadcast zone.
They walked into the room and got ready to enter the program.
“Alright lay down,” said Isaiah as he guided Colin over to one of the terminals. Colin laid down and Isaiah hooked him in then did himself in the next one.
“Parker load the fighting and speed simulator for me please.” Parker loaded the program silently and Isaiah and Colin entered the construct program.
Isaiah waited as the battle program loaded and they were standing in an arena.
“Alright Colin,” Isaiah took up a fighting stance, “Let’s practice.” Colin smiled.
“Man cool outfit,” Colin took his own fighting stance,
“Ready when you are and you better not hold back.”
“Bring it!” Colin jumped at Isaiah with a fist in the air, Isaiah jumped back and dodged as Colin smashed the ground causing a shock wave. He then jumped forward again and began to attack him using a variety of kung fu moves. Colin successfully blocked Isaiah’s speedy attacks and attempted a few of his own. Inside the matrix, Isaiah new that Colin would be a challenge for almost anyone, his confidence and belief in himself was a powerful weapon. Isaiah jumped into the air and kicked him in the chest several times as fast as he could then returning to the ground and taking back to his normal attacks. Colin began to speed up he knew that Isaiah was known for his speed and he would have to be quicker to beat him as he knew his physical power inside the matrix was higher. Colin hit Isaiah into the air and punched him mid air sending him flying a few feet away and to the ground. Isaiah quickly got to his feet and jumped into the air, time seemed to slow down as his foot connected with Colin’s face. Colin grabbed him by the foot and threw him into the air. Isaiah stood up quickly and raised his hand.
“That’s enough of that, you’re obviously a skilled fighter already. But let’s see if you can catch me.” The roof-tops of the city quickly loaded and they were standing on a large building. Isaiah raised his hand, there was a red flag in it, he showed Colin. “If you can get this from me, the game ends.” Isaiah took off, jumping from the building to the next. Quickly Colin followed close behind, Isaiah started to gain leeway on him. They were getting close to the edge of the building and Isaiah didn’t look like he was going to jump.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Colin yelled. Isaiah kept running and ran right over the edge Colin stopped and looked down.
“Holy shit!” Isaiah was running down the building. “Well here goes.” Colin jumped off the building but wasn’t falling as fast as Isaiah was running. Isaiah made it to the ground and was looking up as Colin fell. Colin landed right beside him and Isaiah jumped off of his shoulders and kept running along the streets. Isaiah looked back over his shoulder and Colin was no where to be found, he turned to face forward and Colin had somehow gotten right in front of him. Isaiah bounded into the air and jumped off of Colin’s chest and did a Moon sault in mid air. In mid air the program changed back to that of the construct program. Isaiah landed on the ground and looked around waiting for someone to speak.
“Playtime’s over guys its time for the real thing,” they heard Parker’s voice all around them.
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