Capital city was the most civilized sector of the world as they knew it. The world’s population had exploded, resources depleted drastically and the need for a secondary survival had sprung up. The elites pumped gazillions into research and development, world leaders spent hours behind heavily guarded rooms in conference and scientists worked their brains out until Phase I was birthed—in the moon. The elites, world leaders and a quarter of the world’s population were transported to Phase I.

With the assistance of Phase I citizens, several parts of earth was rehabilitated for habitation, but assistance soon was cut off and most part of the world remained yet to be revived. Places like Bathfog Ruins, one of the most unstable parts of earth-now referred to as Phase II.

Systems: Check. Upgrade: 25%. Synchronization: Good. Compatibility: Good.

Bishop’s eye snapped open and for the next few seconds that followed, everything remained blurred in his sight. His vision swam into focus and he realized he was on the floor of his cabin, on his way to Bathfog Ruins. He could hear his heart pound against the walls of his chest and beads of cold sweat moistened the back of the white vest he had on. His heart slammed against his chest in shock when heavy thuds landed on the door of the cabin.

“Wh-who’s there?” he asked feebly, forcing himself from the floor. His body was stung with unusual weakness while he stepped up to unlock the door.

“Woah, you’re good?” Meghan asked immediately the door slid open. Bishop could only nod in response, wiping off beads of cold sweat from his temple. “You sure would want to see this view, hurry.”

Bishop shook off the feeling and grabbed his jacket before following Meghan into main deck.

“What time’s it?” Bishop asked.

“Seven hours since we left Capital,” Meghan answered, leading the way.

“Seven what!” Bishop found it hard to believe that he’d been asleep for the past seven hours. “What about the rest?”

“Haven’t seen Ramon, he’s probably with his ‘friend’. Jo’s been in and out a few times.” Meghan turned and shrugged at Bishop, “so much for being crew leader.”

They stepped into the main deck and Bishop’s jaw dropped in awe at the view outside the window. The Ark had descended low enough for the large insignia of Star City to be seen. The insignia dispersed, like a threatened swarm of flies and fluttered about before reforming to create the logo once more in a varying mix of colors.

“That is so cool,” Bishop exclaimed, drawing closer to the large tinted window which ran in an arc. “Where’s that?”

“Star City,” Meghan replied simply, a smile crossed his lips as he watched the logo disperse again.

Bishop looked closer in amazement as an arc of neon light came into view; it flickered amongst the clouds as they drifted towards it. Soon, they were well above the source of the insignia and a full large circle could be seen beneath them.

“That’s Center 1 spread out beneath us,” Meghan pointed. “If you look closer, you’d notice the blinking lights up ahead. Those are Centers 2, 3 and 4.”

“These are relatively large settlements compared to what I’d imagined,” Bishop replied, turning to Meghan.

“Yip, they’re only for temporary residency. With the increasing influx into Cloud 6, this might as well become our new tourist center.”

“You bet,” Bishop said, glancing at the city below them encircled in neon light to mark its boundaries.

“Next stop’s Center 4 and that’s 3 hours away.”

Bishop fell into the closest seat, a sharp pain pierced through his head like a nail had broken through his skull.

“Sure you’re okay? You don’t look so good.” Meghan passed a can of drink to Bishop who closed his eye as though trying to shut back the pain.

“What do you mean?” He answered and then popped in a soluble lemonade flavored bar into the drink to alter its taste. A cold sweat trickled down his chin as he took a gulp. “Truth is, I feel weird.”

“Must be the usual DREs,” Meghan started as he dropped his almost empty can. “TSRs are often worse.”

“TSRs, I guess you’d know since you’ve had those a couple of time, hmm?” Bishop teased.

“I’m dying slowly man,” he muttered.

“What was that?” Bishop asked, almost choking on the last gulp of his drink.

“My brain can’t adapt to a Matrix for long, they just start getting too complicated for it,” Meghan paused; air escaped his lips in a sigh. “My brain’s wearing out, technically. I already volunteered for the Synthesis program.”

“Explains why y’talk a lot.” Ramon’s heavy footsteps could be heard as he joined them at the main deck alongside Kindra. “You’re probably scared of being hunted by all the things you never got to say.”

The fine Guardian got around the two men, the dark green inscription of his name upon his outfit stood out boldly, Ramon ‘Legacy’ Gelim. The chair creaked at the weight of his body falling in. Meghan eyed him, flashes of their first assignment together crossed his mind. They’d been ambushed in Dale Town and the only thing they had was a broken cargo ship full of decrypted pods of synergists, a dead Med. Guard and a kidnapped Porter. It took a lot of cooperation-and disagreement- to have survived the ordeal before backup arrived.

“How long before we touch down?” Kindra asked in an attempt to shift the subject away from the sensual discussion of his health. Although Meghan never showed any form of depression about his diagnosis, Kindra knew that in one way or the other, it affected him psychologically, even if Ramon saw it as a joke.

“Pro’lly a few more days.” The sarcasm in Ramon’s response was obvious.

“On the contrary, we got just a couple more hours,” Meghan sprang up. “I figured that this ship operates with a Benet Sensor. That means we don’t have to follow any alternate routes and that saves us ‘a few more days’.”

“So y’mean we’re right above exposed ground.” Ramon sat up and joined Meghan at the control panel which had lots of technical holographic displays.

The world as they knew it had been altered badly that several air routes and sectors had been labelled ‘exposed grounds’ with a great deal of instability in those areas which made them deathtraps for any airship which ventured into such areas. Alternate routes had been created later on to allow for safer navigation although commuting through these routes took a longer time to get to their destination.

With a few hours to spare and a full house on deck, they had nothing else to do than to discuss endlessly, from the economic importance of Cloud 6 which was the border line between Phase 1 and the rest of humanity to how development was slow in certain sectors of what was remaining of the world and the emergence of the infamous sect, Cerberus Corp, a resistance to the governance of Phase II who from all indications were responsible for most cases of missing synergist cargo ships, or raids, and the most recent of all, the heist back at Capital.It was hard to place what their motives were, a sort of Robin Hood? Or just another bad egg who capitalized on the black market in Cloud 6.

Bishop listened in a lost state, hardly getting a hold of what their discussion was about. After all, he was only a Porter whose job had him commuting around Phase I often, unlike the rest of the crew, Guardians with specialties.

Joleen and Ramon were Spec Op Guards of different classes; their primary job was safeguarding the lives of the crew. Meghan was a Tech Guard, that meant making sure the all systems in the ship were working fine was his job and Kindra was handy for any casualties that may arise as a Med Guard.

Hours later, they touched down at Star City’s Center 4 terminal. As soon as the Astro Ark reached within landing range, a remote override took over and transported it to a landing deck. The crew took the moment to change into something more ordinary that would fit in with their civilian environment without people raising an eyebrow at their Sentry gears.

At a first instance, it wasn’t so hard for Bishop to notice the heavy security around. Although Star City wasn’t as technologically advanced as Capital, it clearly had a more socially friendly environment-little wonder why Meghan had placed it as Phase II’s new tourist center over Capital. The terminals were more spacious than those at Capital and it’s only logical since it was almost always busy with multiple ships either taking off or landing at the same time.

With Jo’ and Ramon leading the way and Bishop trying to keep up with Meghan’s continuous talking, they all made for the residential quarters for guests of their kind. Kindra on the other hand trailed behind them, her connectiva active as though connected with someone on the other side.

“What’s it going to be ladies, the pub or the restaurant?” Jo’ asked as they stepped into the residential complex for Sentry officials.

“Restaurant?” Ramon scoffed, “who you taking on a date?”

“Well stay low on fluid; we have to be up real early tomorrow.”

“Yes ma’am,” Meghan replied.

They entered the pub which as usual was in no means calm, typical of where you’d find a gathering of Guardians. The crew made their way around the open room in search of a free spot to stay. All the while, Ramon’s loud greeting could be heard as he hollered at acquaintances in the hall.

“How do you know much people?” Jo’ asked with a smirk on her face. For one who didn’t know her, it’ll be seen as jealousy on her side but Ramon knew better, she was only teasing him.

“If you grew up in that shit hole called Dale Town, you won’t want to trade spots with me. Knowing all sort of folks was one key to survival.”

“I heard most people there are dragged into service,” Kindra chimed in. “Isn’t that against Phase I’s ‘consensus of populace’?”

“Well me lady, there are no such things as consensus of populace,” he replied, pulling out a seat for her. She rolled her eyes and pulled out another for herself.

“If the consensus of populace were really enacted, then Dale Town should’ve been evacuated by now. I’m damn certain its inhabitants live there under subjection—not consensus.” Jo punched in a few commands on the display on the table while she spoke. She wants one to speak much but when she did, it was always insightful. It made it hard to know where she belonged, optimist or pessimist-or realist.

“But if everyone moved out of Dale Town, there would be an over population of other cities which means insufficient resources and then increased crime rate,” Kindra said, turning off her connectiva.

“That’s a point there,” Meghan said, “but even as it is now, I don’t see any differences. The top dogs over at Capital still complain about restraints and limited resources and crime’s still there.”

“That’s because of the increased illegal entries, especially from Dale Town,” Bishop chimmed in.

“Folks from D.T are humans too and should not be neglected. They gotta survive, it don’t matter the means.” Ramon’s reply was a defensive one for the city where he had spent almost all his life.

“Ladies, no arguments now,” Jo started, her light chuckle escaped her lips, “let’s just believe the government’s got plans.”

Hell yeah, they got plans. A messenger bot pulled up at their table with 5 large sized cans of drinks and barley flavored bars.

“Drink’s on me ladies,” Jo cheered, popping a bar into the can. Bubbles rose as the bar disintegrated, changing its color into a golden yellow. Bishop awkwardly looked around before dropping the bar into the can. As soon as he took his first sip, he spewed out the drink through his mouth and nostrils at the awful taste of beer.

“He’s such a girl,” Kindra remarked amidst the laughter of the other crew mates while Jo passed him a towel. Bishop’s glance met Kindra’s as he tried dabbing his body and catching his breath. For some reason, he didn’t quite feel comfortable around Kindra, she hardly ever showed emotions and he’d wonder what had motivated her to get into the military as a Med Guard since apparently they were expected to be care givers.

Systems: Stabilizing. Upgrade: … Synchronization: … Compatibility: Checking.

“To every member of Phase II.”

Everyone froze when the computerized masculine voice echoed from every active digital device in the room from display screens to connectivas and communication systems. The ERX-as Phase II referred to the computerized voice- was only used when there was a class 1 update which the entire Phase II had to know about in real time.

“There have been two confirmed heist of synergist loaders. One of which belongs to sentry company, Solaris whose Sol Controller (SC-163) which is currently supposed to be on transit hasn’t been able to be reached in the past 17 hours. The other case has been reported by sentry powerhouse; Tri Tech. Reports also have it that the Tri Tech heist left several casualties amongst which included renown Human Analyst, Jamal Fig.”

Bishop’s adrenaline level shot up upon hearing the news. His heart skipped a beat and his entire body turned feeble in an instant. Meghan let out a curse, palming his forehead. The death of Doc. Jamal came with a crushing weight which threw everyone off their emotional balance, leaving them visibly shaken by the news.

“…while there’s yet to be confirmation as to Cerberus Corp’s involvement in both incidence, all stations are instructed to double load on inspection of all arriving and departing ships.”

“Someone please tell me it’s all a big joke,” Meghan broke the silence, there was a thin line of confusion and disbelief in the way he sounded.

“Cerberus couldn’t have stormed Tri Tech and waltz out with crates of synergist pods just like that,” Bishop said, “not with all that security.”

“It could’ve been a planned strike involving an inside man,” Kindra said. “We can’t trust anyone.”

“You’re saying Doc could’ve been an inside man and his deal with them had backfired?” Jo asked inquisitively.

“I-”

Ramon stood from where he sat, his jaws clenched tight as though trying to hold back himself from saying what he had in mind. Without another word, he left the rest of the crew for their shared room for the night. One by one, they all left the pub, their expression showed how devastated they were at the news. A heist alone would’ve been understandable but with Doc’s life (and several others) been affected, taking it all in was difficult.

Maybe Bishop really was a ‘girly-girl’, his emotions were all over the place as he remained numb, staring into empty space while he sipped from the soda-flavored drink in his hand. His mind still couldn’t fathom what was really happening. Something still didn’t sound right about the whole idea of Doc being a double and aiding the heist.

“Get some rest now boy,” Jo said to him, closing the connectiva’s activity and rising from where she’d been seated opposite Bishop. “We leave early tomorrow.”

Bishop only sighed and nodded in response, swirling the content of the can in his hand as he watched Jo greet a few other Guards in the pub before retiring for the night.