●　● Akkadia One, Eden Space Territories

Things were fairly quiet in the executive’s meeting room with only maintenance staff cleaning up after what looked to have been another board meeting. A mobile remained on the table amongst several forgotten papers, sticking out as its screen lit up with a soft oscillating glow.

“There it is, damn it,” Al grumbled as he entered the room from the main hallway, huffing as he moved to pick up his forgotten things. He quickly reached for it, noting the incoming call from Amelie. Before picking up, he also noted it was the fourth call within the last minute, causing his eyes to widen and his heart rate to pick up. Shit! What did I miss?! “Amelie, what’s going on?” he spoke in a hushed voice as he quietly but quickly rushed back into the hall, heading for his office. “Sorry I left my phone in the- what?!” His pace hastened even further, putting the device between his left shoulder and ear as he pulled back his sleeve to check something on his watch. “Wait, let me look… when was this again? Actually, hold on.” He finally entered his office, closing the door and taking a seat to catch his breath and bring up his PC monitor from the active holographic display top of his desk.

He brought up the main browser screen as he typed in ‘Manila News’, scrolling through a list of current events, leading up to one that caught his eye. “This one, I see it. Shit…”

“Al, it’s isolated blanket jamming just like last time. It’s who I think it is,” her voice could be just barely heard through his earpiece due to the near-absolute silence in the room. “And I think you know it, too.”

“Hey, we can’t afford to rush to any conclusions here, and right now we should be worried about Sam and Sam alone, alright?” he spoke back as he continued scanning through the article he pulled up.

“Al, no, I’m taking this one myself. Watch Sam for me.”

“Amelie, damn it hold on-”

“-You’re right. You need to worry about controlling what you can and Sam’s situation is exactly that. Now that you are aware of that, I will trust you know what to do next. So, with that all said, I am going to take care of this other one.

Al’s focus fell off quickly from the screen and into the call with a heightened sense of distress in his voice. “Amelie, damn it, don’t go off and do this to us again.”

“I’ll be back in about a month.”

*~click~*

Al closed his eyes, letting out a troubled sigh. He remained there for a brief moment in silence, shaken back into reality by the changing glow of the screen’s lower half that contained an ad that switched into its next rotation. He reached over and swiped over to a different screen as he switched his communication link to his PC. “Connect me to Singapore CCC on the double.” He waited for a response, using the time to bring up queues for live satellite feeds across several portions of the screen.

“Yes, Mr. Knight. This is Singapore,” a female operator’s voice spoke up.

“This is code Blue. Establish visual contact between Manila airspace and orb-sat.”

“Yes, sir. Right away. Connecting now.”

Al waited as the queued windows began to slowly populate. Once the closest satellite imaging came up, he zoomed in over downtown Manila to see all lights across town still working, making things one useless, blurry mess as far as he could tell. “Last known location for Samantha Knight.”

…

“She is currently still checked in at the Occala Resort and Casino.”

Casino?! What the ever-living… “Last known location for Kerry Melancon.”

…

“Same Casino, sir.”

Are you kidding me?! “Damn it, what about Andre Nguyen?”

…

“Last confirmed location was on Quezon Memorial Circle North, on duty with Unit 1.”

Bingo. He scrolled up and zoomed in more to the spelled-out location. He waited a moment more for adjusted clarity, now seeing the circle drive she mentioned. Corner of Visayas, there… there it is. And… He then noted a peculiar sparkle flickering amongst steadily glowing street lights and buildings. Hold on… is that what I think it is? “Singapore, I am sending coordinates to something suspicious. Run a double-check- wait. Sorry, hold on.” His voice had quickly changed from monotone to unsettled and disconcerted. That looks like Morse Code…

“Yes, sir, we are checking those coordinates now.”

Al had already opened up a translation scanner over the screen with settings on Morse Code. “Wait! Eye in the sky! Damn it, they’re requesting that same- ugh! Get Vrey connected with Manila Central about this on the double! Haste is of an absolute priority now!”

“On it now, sir!” the operator energetically replied as she disconnected the call.

Al promptly reached over to his mobile once more, dialing up Sam. Even though I realize she STILL hasn’t responded to my message to call me. Now she REALLY needs to pick up! The other end never answered, leading him to her voice mail and a frustrated winding up of his arm as if to send it sailing through the office wall. “Wait,” he thought as he let the tension out of his grip. Got to be smart about this. This is Sam we’re dealing with. He dialed up Sebastian instead, calming himself down.

“Yes, Mr. Knight?”

My boy. “Listen, Sebastian, this might be a serious emergency! Call Sam and get her to call me as soon as humanly possible!” he spat out with speeds that left the other end in some confusion.

“I, wait, I- Mister Knight, I have tried to talk to her but she does not respond to me. What is happening down there? Can I help?”

You have GOT to be kidding me! His hand ran down from the top of his head, pulling his forehead down with it. “Sebastian- never mind. Just please-please keep calling her until you reach her. And tell her to call me, alright? She’ll be more likely to answer for you.”

Sebastian could sense the direness of the situation that would lead him to plead as such. “Yes, sir, I will try.”

.

.

Across the other side of the Space Nation, Sebastian was seated at the desk situated at the foot of the bed, a TV display running a broader SEA newscast station while he remained staring blankly at the call screen which showed the attempted dialing of Sam’s mobile. [I can’t believe she has to be ignoring me of all possible times. I knew something bad was happening. I just knew it.]

The news program airing behind him was muted, but the captioning below the newscaster’s face detailed the latest behind the sudden loss of wireless communication of all types just next to a small map depicting the area affected. The unevenly shaped blob fell just over Quezon City, out and away from the area where Sam was located.

He adjusted his automated call settings to autodial her until she picked up, swiping tabs over to her social media post he just noticed being uploaded earlier. The picture she took with Kerry was with the nightclub’s name in clear view, prompting him to check the location just after the news broke out. [But if she’s way over there and out of the mess, I wonder what that means for Mr. Knight to be that frantic? Sam, pick up, damn it!]

.

.

●　● Manila, The Philippines

“Are you going to pick the damn phone up or what?!” Kerry scolded, thoroughly irritated by the mobile lighting up and dancing around across the table, all the while Sam stared at it while her second prepared drink sat to her right, already partly finished. “We all know it’s Sebastian!”

“But it’s RIGHT after my dad called! He’s just being ordered around! I mean, it’s not like he WANTS to call me!” she fussed back, finally giving in to the urge to drink the thoughts away. She grabbed her glass and downed a good portion of it with a few big gulps.

“Well, OK, then! Forget the guy! Let’s go dance, huh?! That’s what we came here for!”

“I wish I had a boyfriend as dedicated as yours!” she dejectedly added in melodramatic fashion, slow to get up. Even though I haven’t even met the man. Hah, does Devin even exist?! Right, I bet not! her already buzz-induced mind haphazardly put thoughts together as she started forward for the dance floor.

.

.

The music’s bass escaped the walls fairly easily from where several security guards walked by as they made their rounds near the backside of the Casino. After passing by a large set of doors, three figures approached from behind them quietly, making their way back up the hall from which the guards emerged. Slipping back through one more connecting hallway and into the lights revealed one of the three to be Tamaz. Each of them was dressed similarly to the Casino’s security outfit, fake ID tags included. After a brisk walk took them through several more hallways and past a handful of guards, they finally reached a maintenance shaft where one of the men used his ID tag to gain entry.

“Reap’, come in,” Tamaz whispered over his communicator after the door was closed and locked.

“Quick as expected,” Isaiah’s voice responded. “We’ve finished confirming Samantha’s location along with Kerry Melancon’s as well. They are going to be together somewhere near the table location provided to you.”

“Alright, then, here goes the veil,” he continued in his hushed voice, fishing a small device from his pocket. He eyed the wall of circuit breaker panels in front of him, holding up his watch to check the levels of electrical noise. Eyeing the breaker box near the strongest point of condensation, he placed the small device up top where it was just out of view. He turned to accept a separate device which was fairly larger, mounting it to the same breaker box. He then took a set of cables from the other. “Veil going up in about ten seconds.”

.

.

Sam and Kerry were in the middle of a larger crowd of clubgoers up and dancing when something had distracted Sam for the last time, causing her to back away and look at her watch which continued to vibrate from the incessant incoming calls from Sebastian. “Damn it! Why won’t he take a clue that I’m busy!?” she fussed aloud, removing it from her wrist and sloppily shoving it into the only pocket on the blazer half of her dress, promptly returning to her activities.

She didn’t notice, however, that once her watch hit the bottom of the pocket, the vibrating began to stop. Slowly but steadily, one by one, people began to catch notice their live recordings, casting, and other cell service rendering functions had come to a halt.

On her phone locked away at her table, the screen showed a message that had just arrived seconds before the loss of data connectivity, reading: “Emergency Report – Man on Duty Down – Devin Yanga, Unit 1 – Last reported at the San Juan Bridge on Visayas Avenue.”

.

.

The late evening traffic had thinned down considerably, somewhat easing the tension felt by Andre and his two remaining teammates, still standing by, waiting for anything to give them a sign. A stout breeze then began to pick up from the northeast, all but canceling what looked to be a clearer outlook for the night after the rain had held off for the most part.

Andre watched a string of pedestrians walk by nervously, but understandably so as the three’s LTACs weren’t the most welcome sight there in the open alley at the edge of the main street. “Maybe this isn’t what I thought it was,” he mumbled to the group. “But then again, you never know wh-…”

*BEE-BEE-BEEP*

Rang the L-Tracker in tandem with flickering caution and directional arrow signals in bright yellow.

Andre’s attention snapped to the screen in the bottom left of his visor, noting the wind had brought in wafts of nitrogen oxides but at a low concentration, hinting LTAC activity if any was happening at quite the distance up the street. “Welp, spoke too soon! That wind is giving us a huge hint, guys. Follow me,” he spoke up with a gulp, initiating their steady pace northbound with nervous confidence.

“We’ve never been blind on L-Tracking before. What does that signal mean?” one worriedly asked, sticking close behind with his shield up, covering their left flank just in case.

“Unless it’s close enough, all it does is say yes or no to any presence, right, Nguyen?” the other attempted to answer, switching hands to hold his shield in his right hand, covering that flank as well.

“Right, we need to get closer to figure out what all the hell is going on. And with no update from the Eye, it might mean we aren’t going to get cleared for one.” Which means we might be fucked if things end up like what I keep fearing it will.

It would be a tense few minutes making their way up the street at their now heightened pace of 40 km per hour so as to not hold up traffic, attracting unnecessary attention and honking horns, which was what Andre wanted to avoid the most. It was then that after approaching close enough to a small bridge they could spot what looked to be a rather large gathering of people in an area where a building had long been demolished. Andre’s heart started beating as if he knew what he was about to encounter upon closer investigation, hearing the L-Tracker monitor slowly picking up in intensity.

“Jamming still has us blind, Nguyen, do you see anything?!”

“I can’t see shit with all those people in the way!”

Andre couldn’t make sense of anything just yet, either, but fought the urge to make use of his crowd dispersal gas. “Hold on, don’t do anything just yet,” he ordered as he switched to the loudspeaker. It’s either this or the gas because damn it there is something really wrong about this and I REALLY don’t want to see pissed-off locals. Before clicking the button on his hat switch, he scanned the crowd, estimating over fifty were present in the tight gathering. “This is Infinity Security! Clear the area! There is a safety threat reported here! Please allow us to investigate without obstruction!” Phew, I hope I said that right!

And it was like Moses had parted the sea, much to his surprise at how cooperative the crowd was. This wasn’t like Dhaka, and it sure wasn’t like any other stops he made before. But the first thing he saw once enough had moved away was the foot of an Ai20 lying sideways on the ground. His heart dropped into his stomach that instant, locking up momentarily.

“Uhh… Nguyen?!” a trembling voice from next to him spoke up, remaining on LOS comms. “That’s… That’s Yanga’s unit! What the hell happened here?!”

A dozen burn marks and smoldering pits ran all up the side of the torso, signifying an attack had taken place.

“Form a circle around it! Popping flares- someone up top HAS to see this!” Andre frantically commanded, knowing he had no time to figure out anything else. Shit! Why did I take up duty when I didn’t have to!? Today of all days! His mind raced as he set up a flare by the street-side, knowing this might expose them to the enemy that took down his unit captain, but for all he knew, they might be vastly outnumbered as it was. “Hold your spot, switch rounds to live but keep that safety on! Let’s hope someone can see this before it’s too late for us!”

A few seconds passed before someone else checked what Andre forgot to think of in the midst of the slight chaos. “Hey, wait, guys! The cockpit door is wide open!”

Andre wasn’t quite ready to contemplate leaving the safety of his own cockpit, much less to examine the condition of another. I don’t even know if I want to know what’s down there waiting for us. He then remembered to turn the sensors around behind him to run a life scan. “Hold on… no… negative on that,” he spoke back as he caught no sign of anyone inside. “No blood, either. All we can think now is he either A, got away on foot with no radio to tell us anything, or B, he’s been taken.”

“And the fact he ain’t shown up already? I’d say it’s B.”

“Yeah… that’s what I’m afraid of,” Andre worriedly concurred.