It was before sunrise - on Old Earth. At Eaton I though, sunrise and sunset were a distant concept. Being at the center of a binary star system and all.

Byron and the triplets were driving through the streets of the Oasis. The vehicle appeared similar in design to the muscle cars from old earth, however, in place of wheels it had a levitation module that lifted the car a fixed distance above the ground. Attached to its rear were the new additions for the mission; a pair of high-performance omnidirectional propulsion engines. The car was painted in an inconspicuous sandy brown and had a retracting roof.

Their destination was an outpost southwest of their home base, in the endless desert. Since the Oasis had an area similar to that of a small country, navigation was a time-consuming task. In fact, the expected duration of travel to the outpost was 5 hours.

The streets in the Oasis were quite narrow given the number of vehicles contained in the country-sized megacity. You would expect traffic jams to be commonplace, and they were. But with advancements in transportation technology, levitation modules were also a run-of-the-mill accessory to vehicles. This provided the 3rd dimension to traffic flow - the vertical axis. By standards, each vertical lane had a fixed clearance, with the maximum number of lanes being limited by a factor indicating the maximum height of the building in that area. Essentially, vehicles never rose above 60% of the maximum building height, and these ordinances were maintained by the building owners that neighbored the streets. Don’t be mistaken though, given how most buildings had a minimum of 50 floors to them, there was a lot of leeway for vertical lanes.

While it was early in the morning, the streets were in no way barren. A myriad of vehicles zoomed back and forth as people traveled to their workplace. Over time the Oasis had restructured itself to form circular bands that constituted a certain hierarchical structure. The corporations with historic roots that extended beyond the confines of the Hartwell system slowly shifted towards the center of the Oasis, while the newer, and less established companies (small start-ups, sole proprietorships, and unlisted partnerships) got eked out towards the periphery.

What was interesting, was that all of this restructuring occurred organically. There was no chaos, no conflict. It just ended up that way. Following Darwinian science, the stronger businesses moved up, while the weaker ones made way and submitted.

As the four navigated the streets, they passed different districts. Although they were already close to the periphery, they were considered residents of a relatively middle-class district. Whatever that meant in a Rank 4 system.

They passed through a generic lifestyle district, a transportation district, and finally an entertainment district. One thing to note is that those words meant completely different things depending on where the districts were located in the Oasis. Near the center, the lifestyle district would be filled with foreign restaurants, malls, and shopping complexes. The transportation district would hold showrooms from transport companies not local to the Hartwell system. The entertainment district would house a myriad of outlets such as theaters, virtual reality complexes, and so on.

But near the periphery, the lifestyle district was littered with street-side vendors with temporary shops, and second-hand item stores. The transportation district housed different chop shops and vehicle disposal sites. And the entertainment district was just a fancy term for a red-light district. Since fancy lighting and catching advertisement weren’t really applicable on an eternally bright planet, these low-class districts all looked like wastelands in a state of abandonment.

It was an hour to midday by the time the group reached the outpost, which was around 15km from the Oasis. It was a modestly sized checkpoint frequented by travelers going through the endless desert. The group split up, with Nathan and Horace taking a Dune Buggy and Bryan and Karina remaining in their vehicle.

Nathan and Horace prepared themselves for the upcoming job. The two arrived at their designated spot following an ass-numbing 30-minute ride. Nathan got off first. He wore tactical cargo trousers with a sandy texture and a brown tank top that accentuated his lean musculature. He has his ashy hair in a crew-cut and brown eyes had a unique sharpness. He pulled out a pair of high-precision binoculars and started to scout the region.

They were currently situated at an elevated position with a solid sandstone footing, overlooking a vast plane of loose sandy desert.

Horace reached into one of the pockets in his own cargo camouflage trousers and pulled out a snack bar. He wore a brown, skin-tight shirt that outlined his bulky body. Like his brother, he also had his ashy hair in a crew-cut but his brown eyes had a stark aloofness to them. As he proceeded to unwrap the snack bar, he commented, “I don’t know what you’re looking for. The whole place is as barren as… well a desert.” He then spread out his arms and waved it dramatically.

Nathan coolly lowered the binoculars and spoke offhandedly, “Force of habit.”

Nathan returned the binoculars and lifted a case latched onto the back of the Dune Buggy. He opened it to reveal a dismantled, and neatly organised sniper rifle.

“I really hate taking Tonya out in the desert. The sand literally gets in everywhere. Takes me ages to clean her out.”

“Ugh! That sounded so wrong…”

Nathan smirked at Horace and started to systematically assemble the rifle.

Once Horace finished his snack bar, he opened his backpack and pulled out a roll of tarp, and laid it on the ground, fastening the ends into the sandstone so that it was taut and fixed.

Nathan went down on his belly and lay prone on the tarp. He then adjusted Tonya’s tripod along ‘her’ barrel.

Horace then brought out a handheld device stored at the side of his backpack and raised it above his head. “11km/hr at a bearing of 020 degrees,” he spoke audibly.

Nathan started to mumble, “Currently facing 305 degrees … convoy moving at an average 193km/hr with a bearing 101 degrees … wind speed at 11km/hr at 020 degrees … gravitational acceleration at the current position is 9.72 meters per second-squared … muzzle velocity at 1076 m/s…”

A disembodied voice spoke up in Nathan and Horace’s ears. “Do you have eyes on the target?”

Nathan swiveled his Tonya and found the approaching convoy. He then traced its trajectory and stabilised her, “Target acquired.”

He took a deep breath.

And then exhaled.

Mentally, he started to count down.

5

4

3

2

And then an ear-shattering bang echoed into the horizon.

The bullet zipped through the air; a pressure wave enveloped it as it shattered the sound barrier. Right as it approached the convoy, it scattered and a payload hidden within the bullet decelerated and smoothly slid through the air inlet vents at the sides of the carriage leading the automated convoy. Once inside, the payload opened up to form a small arachnid-like microbot that scuttled towards one of the access ports on the vehicle’s control center.

-10 minutes before the shot-

“Ohhh… Can you hear her purr? My girl’s ready for some action.”

Across from Nathan’s elevated position, a distance away, Byron and Karina were situated in the modified muscle car, oriented in the direction the convoy was expected to travel.

Karina interrupted Byron as he was fawning over his ‘Girl’. He wore an outfit matching Horace’s and had his long blonde hair tied up into a neat bun. He wore a pair of shades that enveloped his grey eyes.

“Byron… I don’t think you’ve ever told us how you met Simon. I remember that you two were already working together way before Simon let us join in.”

Byron turned towards Karina, who was wearing a streamlined skin-tight full bodysuit that perfectly emphasised her tight and fit body. Her ashy shoulder-length hair was tightly wrapped within a hood that was a part of the bodysuit, and her face was covered by a mask made of a breathable fabric that was unidirectionally transparent. Byron forced himself to avoid looking at her shapely body.

“It’s not an interesting story anyway. My father used to run a chop shop down at the automotive district. One day a bunch of goons turned in a sick ride. Three days later another bunch of goons came looking for their boss’s car and caught my father just as he finished pulling out the car’s engine. Well, you can guess what happened after that. Luckily I managed to escape. Lived on the streets for a year. Simon found me digging through the garbage and brought me in. I owe him quite a bit you know.”

Karina hung her head, “I’m sorry. Sometimes I forget that the past is taboo for people like us. I can’t imagine what would have happened to us without Grandpa.”

Karina then perked up and turned towards Byron with another question.

“Hey Byron, has Simon ever gotten mad at you?”

Byron looked at Karina quizzically, “Not that I can remember. Oh wait there was that time when ….”

Byron quickly shut his mouth and turned away from Karina. Karina quickly caught on and started to inch closer. Byron shuffled in his seat and incrementally distanced himself.

“When? When? Come on Byyroooon.” she pouted in a cute way.

Byron took a huge gulp, sweat started to trickle down his forehead.

Karina grabbed onto Byron’s elbows and gazed at him coquettishly, hoping to break him down.

“Do you remember the day we first met?”

“Yea, like way back?”

“Well… after you three left, and I was alone with Simon. I asked him if you were single or if you were seeing someone… Man, he looked at me as if I had killed his family. I nearly shat myself!”

Karina laughed out loud while grabbing onto her stomach. Byron started to sweat again as he mumbled to himself, “That bastard’s probably sharpening his knife right about now.”

Almost on queue, a familiar voice, emanating a cold pressure, reverberated in their ears causing Byron to jolt in his seat.

“Initiate pursuit. Breach expected within 5 minutes.”

That was then immediately followed by a crack echoing in the horizon.

The levitating vehicle hummed louder and zoomed across the desert expanse, towards the train of vehicles forming the convoy.

Without diverting his attention, Byron asked “Are you ready?”

Karina reached up and pressed a button to lower the roof of the vehicle. She grumbled in a sugary voice while she stood up seductively, “Good thing I’m wearing a skinsuit. I hate mission’s in the desert. The sand gets in everywhere. I have to do a deep cleanse after every job.”

Byron coughed audibly.

Shooting him a mischievous grin, she stood up in her seat and moved over to the hood of the car.

Slowly, their car reached the last vehicle in the convoy train. Once the two leveled up, Karina leaped off of the hood of the car and landed on the side of the convoy vehicle. Just as she left the car, she pressed a button hidden in her hand, activating the cilia that layered the surface of her suit. Once she landed on the side of the vehicle, she stuck on like a lizard to a wall.

She shuffled along the side of the vehicle, weathering the high wind speeds, towards a door flushed into the vehicle’s smooth surface.

She screamed into the communicator in her ears over the howling wind, “I’M IN PLACE!”

The door then slid inwards and sideways, letting her enter the carriage. Within the carriage, containers were lined in a grid-like fashion with two columns along the carriage’s length. Without missing a beat, she then started to count off the rows in front of her.

She moved towards the contained at the second column on the penultimate row.

“AH HA! It’s a ProTech 14 digit alphanumeric lock. My ‘SafeCracker’ patent-pending will make quick work of this one” She exclaimed to herself jokingly.

She reached into her bag and carefully pulled out a device that looked like a hollow box cover. She then placed it over the container’s keypad and turned it on. The SafeCracker lit up, illuminating the keypad, and numbers started to flash onto the box’s screen. After a quick two minutes, the container unlocked itself.

Karina stashed her SafeCracker safely into her bag and pulled out a box the size of her palm from the sides. She opened the box to reveal a data chip.

The containers within the convoy, belonging to Arc E&B, housed a variety of items ranging from weapon prototypes, ammunition test samples, materials for further research and testing, and archived data. This particular container was for a storage deck that held archived information. Regularly, the company archived the data from their industrial plant deep in the desert by moving it to a secure facility within the megacity. Most companies preferred to physically move the data rather than transfer it through the QNet as it reduced the possibility of it being intercepted by third parties.

Their client had asked to obtain the data from Arc E&B’s most recent archive. Simon was faced with three options. Extract the data at the origin point which was the plant, at the destination point, or during transit. Of the three, intercepting the data while in transition from origin to the destination was found to be the path of least resistance.

Since the Hartwell system was considered a Rank 4 system, the lowest possible rank awarded to a star system, the corporations were much laxer in their regulations. While most foreign corporations originally from Rank 1 or 2 star systems had stricter security, they tended to use downgraded or in some cases last-gen software in their branches in lower-ranked systems because the equipment available to them could not handle the increased computational power.

When those corporations in Rank 1 and Rank 2 systems transferred their archives physically, they usually bolstered them with fortress-like security. Nova Corp. would even tack on a Meka company with their convoys. Fortunately for Simon, Arc E&B still followed the protocols established in their head office. But since this branch was in a Rank 4 system, the security suite was incongruously brittle.

Karina scanned the data tower in front of her for a chip port. She then proceeded to plug the data chip into a port at the side. The chip lit up to show a completion bar, indicating the status of the data transfer.

The data chip contained a daemon that created copies of files within the target system and siphoned them towards one designated access point. The chip then broadcasted the data through encrypted channels to a remote point. In this case, the data would be channeled through to a storage deck affixed in Byron’s car trunk. The daemon was tailored specifically for Arc E&B’s operating system, and so once it finished its task it would leave no trace of its existence. As soon as the chip’s bar showed 100% completion, Karina pulled it out and stored it back into its box. She then closed the container, locked it, and pulled out a handheld vacuuming device from her bag. She retraced her steps backward while clearing any residuals that might have fallen off from her clothes and shoes.

Outside the open door, Byron was ready with the car in place. Karina took another look inside the carriage and compared it with its appearance in her impeccable memory before she breached it. Once she ascertained that everything was in place, she crouched and leaped off of the carriage and landed at the back seat of the car. The car started to decelerate as the carriage door closed by itself.

Karina looked at Byron who had now turned to see if she was alright.

“That was fun!”

Deep inside the carriage leading the convoy, an arachnid-like microbot dislodged itself from the port and scuttled over to the air evacuation vent. A few seconds later, the robot lit up and started to quickly disintegrate. The residual ash was pulled into the evacuation vent and was summarily exfiltrated, leaving no trace of any intrusion.

It started off as an urge. A huge reservoir of pent-up energy within Simon frantically searched for an avenue to escape. At the age of 10, he tied a length of rope into a noose and slowly tried to choke himself. He went right up to the point just before losing consciousness. The rush he got at the tipping point finally calmed his pent-up frustration. But at the age of 12, the self-asphyxiation session just didn’t cut it. He needed more. But as a cripple, he was unable to enjoy the benefits afforded by regular folk.

That’s when he met Byron. The two picked up odd jobs around the megacity. Grand theft auto, intimidation, arson, theft, they did everything short of murder. The rush Simon got from intricately planning the job, and seeing it to its fruition was immensely satisfying. Byron did it for the money. Simon? Simon did it for that kick. He lived for that feeling of seeing everything fall perfectly into place. To the virgin Simon, it was even better than sex.

It then came as an unpleasant surprise when the triplets started to show similar signs, even though they weren’t in any way biologically related. When the triplets turned 10, Simon accidentally walked, or rather glided, in on Karina who was attempting auto-erotic asphyxiation. She nearly jumped out of her skin and that, on top of her already oxygen-deprived brain, caused her to faint naked on the floor with a rope around her neck. She later vehemently denied the fact that such an event occurred, but Simon would never forget the horrifying face Karina made just before she noticed his presence in the room.

He didn’t want to walk in on his other siblings pleasuring themselves in such a manner, so Simon took preemptive action. He started grooming the triplets. Horace was inherently more athletic and excelled at physical activities. Karina was flexible and agile and veered towards gymnastics and similar hobbies. Nathan was special. He was the more introverted of the three and showed excellent aptitude in marksmanship and spotting. Simon started to train the triplets to boost their skill and capacity in their area of interest. Through online videos, immersive VR tutorials, and even live demonstrations through observation, Simon taught the triplets everything. What surprised him was that they were just as perceptive as he was, and were quick to pick up and assimilate these skills.

When they turned 12, Simon brought them into the fold. And slowly, the group of 5 scaled up their operation and moved towards more ‘legitimate’ jobs.

Along the way, they picked up a pair of twins, Rhona and Rhys, who lost their family to an industrial explosion publicly written off as an ‘unforeseen work-related accident’. Rhona was outgoing and displayed aptitude in management and networking, while Rhys was the silent but mischievous type, with excellent spatial awareness and high-skill in free-running.

Their most recent addition was a 14-year-old boy, Colin, who lost his parents in a gang-related incident. He was abandoned by his elder siblings who left the planet with his share of the insurance payout. The boy was quiet, introverted, and showed excellent aptitude in programming and hacking.

The eight were orphans. Although Simon and his siblings had a guardian. They never forgot that they were originally abandoned, children. Since none of them had a biological family to call their own, the eight chose to detach their family name and referred to themselves only by their first names. While the rest took it as a sign of solidarity, for Simon it was simply a means to an end.