Secluded from urban civilization for miles far in one of the few remote patches of the highly sophisticated Earth was the mountain behind the humble village, all below the black night sky with glimmering stars among the full moon. The village buildings were not so complex, they didn’t have sleek metal bodies nor were built on specialized roads. They were built with shabby stone and each building was potentially large enough to house one nuclear family but nothing too great beyond that. There were no people outside, which could be interpreted as them being asleep as it was late at night, for the village was dead silent. It was magnitudes less impressive in an architectural sense when placed on an Earth known for its technological superiority, as every world needed their few preserved lands which could sometimes be so drastically different from what the rest of the world had to offer.

Still, it was another home of people, innocent civilians who could be made tragic victims of this plague if it was able to roam freely. No matter what size homes they had, the people were still valuable all the same, and they needed protection from this incursion. Especially knowing that one of the team member’s origins was of this world, it made the operation all the more impactful, and its success all the more paramount.

High up at the peak of the mountain that resided in the backdrop of the village, up on the green grass by the cliffs of the great tower that loomed the land, stood the man in the blue suit. He cautiously surveyed his surroundings through parallelogram lenses, his cape waving from the winds of the high altitude as well as the nighty breeze as he studied the landscape and region.

He was alone for this operation in the cold bitter night, but no matter, he understood the threat and was prepared to deal with it swiftly. He was fully equipped to take on the stronghold, but first he needed to locate it.

While the man knew full well that he was in the right area after having followed the source of the threatening announcement earlier in the day, it was hard to detect the actual entrance to the site, especially when he knew he had to be weary of any use of internet-based tools seeing how he was against a threat that likely could catch them.

Thus, the man had to work more intelligently against the artificial intelligence, and he began by holding his right arm out, and producing a flame that narrowly extended past his hand a few feet. The flame then morphed into a black rod with an odd ring at the bottom with a smaller ring within, hovering in place with a gentle blue tint signifying that there was some energy holding the rings together, as he had made another device.

He held the rod by the other end firmly, and lowered the bottom rings close to the grass surface. As he brought it closer, the rings began to hum and the blue tint became brighter, indicating that a mechanism was being activated. Then from the rod projected a flat holographic screen with a diagram of what started as a short downward tube towards the top but developed in downward angles, forming the shape of land that reached further down with brown material at the top but gray filling the further down the model was generated.

To the sides of the developing model were several numbers, pie charts, a compass, and logs being autonomously written by the device which was shaped similarly to a metal detector, and seeming to serve a similar purpose.

Finally, deep in the gray trenches of the growing mountain model was a blue horizontal line, and it then evolved into a blue tunnel that extended in both directions before branching off into more tunnels that moved both horizontally and vertically. The model continued to evolve while following the blue tunnel which became a vastly complex network with larger tunnels more akin to rooms being marked.

Eventually, one of the blue tunnels reached an end, hitting the right edge of the model, which didn’t have any gray nor brown layers covering it from the model’s side. It was instead seemingly an aperture, a ticket in.

Meditat rose his head and tilted it to the right as the compass was spun until he faced a particular direction where the compass pointed directly forwards. He then allowed the detecting machine to inflame and vanish, having no need for it anymore.

He started walking in the direction he faced, feeling the breeze push against his body as he was starting to make progress already. He approached a distant rocky cliff, the sole being on the top of the mountain under the black sky. It was a quiet mountain, strikingly quiet, which only meant he had to be more on guard.

He eventually reached the edge, moving cautiously to avoid falling into any traps out of carelessness, which got him to the cliff. He peered over down at the far surface below, the steep drop fatal to any ordinary person yet to him there was no need to concern.

He instead just gazed down to try gauging where the opening may be, knowing that there was only one that he discovered when inspecting the mountain’s internal structure, and that one was off the ground meaning it might call for precise maneuvering.

Without hesitation, Meditat leaped off of the cliff’s edge with a spin, throwing his body to face the mountain as he started to plummet. A blue cable fired out of the center of his belt, and its anchor clung onto the very edge of the cliff.

He started to drop down the mountain, however the blue cable kept him attached to the top, functioning similar to a rock climbing harness. Without any tension in the cable however, he allowed himself to undergo freefall, using the fact that the cliff had a pretty open side and that he technically was able to fall all the way to the ground if he so desired to, making the drop perfect for analyzing the side of the mountain.

Along the wall of the mountain was mostly rocks and dirt, as the side he was falling from was curved inwards rather than being sloped in a fashion that could be climbed on foot. It was an appropriate side to place an entrance to that didn’t want to be entered, as it would require precise movements to enter the mountain from this side, and he hadn’t even seen the size of the gate yet to know if he could fit or not.

The cable stretched longer the further Meditat dropped as he observed the mountainside, passing rocks that jutted out and slippery dirt slopes that would lead to an abrupt demise. While he regarded to the gradient, he nearly passed a seemingly natural cave entrance baked into the mountain wall, but before passing it he suspended the cable tightly, instantly stopping himself midair on the same altitude of the entrance.

Nearly missing the entrance, Meditat looked straight through the opening, which typical of a cave entrance was fairly large, at least enough for him to walk through although not too large to the point of being attention seeking.

From Meditat’s perspective there was only darkness inside the cave entrance, for it was hard to discern what was inside the tunnel due to the obstruction of rocks and the lack of light being given from either inside or outside. The result was a sinister sight, one that felt repelling out of fear, doomy doors clearly labeled to not be entered.

It wasn’t the shadiness of the entrance however that held Meditat back from entering what was a very potential opening, but almost the mere opposite, instead the complete natural appearance that didn’t indicate any lethal traps. It was just an open cave entrance that allowed anything with normal human proportions to step right into what was potentially a highly dangerous base housing the equipment for an army that could bring down a hundred worlds full of their own militaries.

Something felt wrong, it was too unguarded, or at least that’s what it seemed.

Hanging in front of the entrance, Meditat softly whispered to himself, “Make sure I’m completely electronically cloaked, as long as I can’t be registered by a computer I should be fine. Well, I doubt there’d be humans working here if their philosophy is against them, and trying to cloak myself visibly might just leave a trace.”

He then waited a few more seconds, still pondering while facing the entrance, wondering what could potentially happen if he were to throw himself in. For all he knew, a massive door could shut midway through his entrance and cut him in half. There could be lasers ready to activate and slice him into a hundred small pieces of meat. There could be bombs waiting to rupture his body from the outside in. There could be an Express Pad waiting to transport him into the sun and cook him alive.

Waiting and doing nothing in fear of the unknown would in turn put the rest of Meditat’s team at risk, who were depending on him to put an end to the attack that they had to put their lives on the line against to hold off.

Needing to act to hold his end of the operation, Meditat boosted backwards, and began to swing back, still connected to the harness grapple. After swinging backwards enough, he stopped boosting, and allowed himself to then swing forwards naturally like a pendulum before detaching the cable, and throwing his body straight through into the cave hole.

Meditat flew in through the opening, and landed on his feet in a landing pose with his hand gripping the floor. His landing did not make a sound as he needed to stay silent, and he stood back up straight now inside the tunnel.

To his surprise however, the inside of the cave was not natural and rocky like it appeared to be from the outside, but instead now he found himself standing on a dark metal flat floor. He looked up to find that instead of the rocks that were obstructing the view of the cave, he was inside a perfectly clear square hall with the same metal walls and ceiling, inferring that the natural interior of the cave was nothing more than an illusion.

In fact, upon turning around to face the exit, he noticed that there was a faint gray hologram behind him, which sealed the exit and likely was what projected the illusive sight of the natural tunnel.

What was a bit more anxiety-inducing however was that right behind the illusion, there were holes all along the walls like barrels, facing directly where he had flown into. On the floor was also an odd black pad that he would have landed on, and wasn’t sure exactly what it would do, but its distinct appearance made it still feel dangerous. On the ceiling was a large circular ring that jutted out and a hole inside it with several smaller rings that emitted a red light, seeming to be some sort of cannon, as Meditat wasn’t too far off as to the potential traps lying right by the entrance. Luckily for him however, he managed to pass through undetected.

Instead of dwelling on the gruesome fate that could’ve caught him, Meditat instead turned around to face down the metal tunnel, having successfully entered the stronghold. The walls were rather claustrophobic, as he was just barely able to fit in, but it was good enough for what he needed to do.

He started to silently walk down the hallway, lowering his body slightly and growing distant from the entrance. There was no visible end to the tunnel, nor were there any lights, as the only light was the one coming off of Meditat’s body. Still, he marched deeper into the darkness without hesitation, knowing he needed to be strong to help his team win.

After walking for what felt like a few minutes in a straight line cautiously, Meditat came to an abrupt halt, dragging his feet backwards and peering in front of himself. For in front of him was a random square hole in the ground, one he was nearly about to fall into with no telling what was below it. There was only pure darkness below from what Meditat could see, further intimidating inside this hidden stronghold.

However, without any time to lose, Meditat took it upon himself to let himself step into the hole and plummet, needing to know where it led without being led back by angst. He vanished in a second after falling, letting the hallway he was previously on fall completely pitch black as the light from his suit faded the further he dropped into the hole.

Like a torch being dropped in a dark hole to function as a flare and illuminate the contents beneath, Meditat landed down in another hallway after slipping through the hole that ended in a ceiling, placing him back into another metal hallway.

After standing up to survey the new area he was dropped into, he noticed that the hall was noticeably larger by about half more, giving him more room to move. He stretched his arms, glad to not be in such a claustrophobic space, although there still were no light sources but himself. It wasn’t too much of a problem since he didn’t require light to see, and he was able to perfectly glance behind himself and ahead to judge navigation. He then faced ahead, and noticed that in the distance was a wall, seemingly a dead end.

Yet something suspicious about the wall was how far it extended with apparently no purpose before ending, an outwardly waste of space when the wall could have easily been brought farther up to optimize the network.

Lead on by the strange anomaly, Meditat approached the seemingly dead end with a cautious stance, his hands balled in fists ahead of him, ready to strike at any moment. His blue eyes blazed through the hall as the light moved in the dark. He still didn’t hear any sounds, as part of him even contemplated if perhaps the facility he was in had been abandoned or perhaps he had accidentally captured the wrong signal.

There was a chance this entire operation was pointless and not at all leading him to the servers, as the concerns that Calypso had mentioned prior were getting to his head.

Still, if he turned around now before marking the entire network, he would truly cement the mission as a failure without even giving it a chance to have meaning. He had to pursue forward even if it was potentially fruitless, because if he didn’t, then it would be a guaranteed loss. He was playing on bets, a gamble with his friends’ lives as the chips, a dangerous game but one he had no choice but to keep playing.

Meditat’s bodily light reached the deadend wall, but as Meditat walked closer to it as though intending to throw his body into the metal barrier, he noticed that the light coming off his body was also seeping into an area to the right of the wall. He turned to the right to see that there was another hallway, proving his hunch.

Furthermore, down the hallway was another hole, which was noticeable even without altered vision as it was highlighted by a red light that came from within.

A trace of use, proof that it was not abandoned. Even more so, the exact shade of the light was recognizable to the one in the stream. Of course there was no law that two organizations could use the same shades of lights, but it was a correlation that instilled some hope in him.

Meditat started down the new hallway, approaching the illuminated hole with greater caution, slowing down as while the light was a pointer to the right direction, it also meant there could potentially be activity below, which he had to be on guard for.

Once he reached the hole, he stopped and squatted to get a better look before hopping in bluntly like earlier, not wanting to take his chances so carelessly.

Down the hole the source of light seemed to come from part of the room not in view, but what was discernible was that the room appeared far larger and open. For one, the chute ended a great distance from the metal floor, meaning there was a high ceiling, and it could then be inferred that the entire room was larger.

At the same time, since he couldn’t make out the entire room from his angle, that meant there could be a trap waiting right below. While he was able to sneak past sensors, simply walking past androids was still a danger, especially because he wasn’t truly certain of the capabilities this army had. He had to be ready for anything.

Meditat stood up straight, and took a deep breath. He then, using the little space he had in the hall, dove headfirst down the chute, his cape following behind as his blue eyes stuck to what was in front of him, the approaching metal floor.

Plummeting inside the larger room, Meditat landed low to the floor, his entire body covered by his black cape and hood, seeming to land in a particular fashion that his whole body could be protected by it like it was some kind of shield.

He remained in position for a couple seconds, but after hearing nothing of threat, he gradually stood back up and glanced around the room he dropped into.

Surrounding him all along the walls were innumerable holographic red racks with back support that seemed proportionate enough to hold a human, as if it was some kind of storage for people. The holograms were the source of the light that drenched the room in red, and there were countless chambers for people to fit in, with there even being multiple layers of racks as chambers were behind one another. Every chamber was hexagonal in shape to put spacing between any possible stored humans, although all of them were entirely empty.

Not having held humans, but instead humanoid entities.

Standing in the center of the storage room below the exit tunnels, it dawned on Meditat that he was inside some android storage room, and that the emptiness of the racks signified that they had already been deployed. He could only surmise that there were battalions full of androids that could fit in the one room alone, all of their stations creepily surrounding him.

From viewing the storage room to find that there were no beings present, he spotted an opening into another hall among the chambers, although this hall was far wider than the previous tunnels, being over double their size and thus far more spacious.

With only one direction to go, Meditat approached the hallway extending out of the storage room, walking through the wider tunnel more on edge. As he walked down the hallway, he looked up to see red strips along the upper corner of the walls, exactly like the ones from the footage, although longer and not on computers.

He walked down the center of the hall, making sure to trace his steps so he wouldn’t get lost in what felt like a labyrinth that could easily devour him. The dim red lights were menacingly enough, and the fortress was oddly stylized for machines that he figured wouldn’t care about such human pleasures like aesthetics.

While walking down the hollow hall, Meditat pondered when the droids had deployed, for he believed that The Shield mobilized earlier than the attack was meant to take place. Then again, it was highly possible that the machines left early to wait for longer, especially because there was a good chance that if they were using individual propulsion systems they wouldn’t be anywhere as fast as a pod designed to travel in space.

Meditat was only able to move at the speeds he could because of the lack of energy conservation, his suit was designed to carry as few limitations as possible to let him output as much as he wanted. But even then, he struggled to reach the top speeds of other pods.

Interrupting his contemplation, Meditat reached an intersection with another hallway, and he glanced down both ends as the enigma fell on him of what direction to take. He stopped in the center of the intersection upon being struck by this conundrum, glimpsing at all four sides around himself, not knowing where three of them led.

Any three of the halls could take him to his destination, and yet any three of them could lead him astray down a path that’d waste time and hinder him enough to let his team down without his aid. He needed to know where to go, and he couldn’t keep making guesses.

He let out a quiet sigh, and lowered his head. He took a deep breath, knowing that with so many directions and so little visibility of what followed deeper into the halls, he couldn’t keep looking with just his eyes alone.

Originating from Meditat, waves of high frequency pitches began to pulse out in all four directions, given a specific tune unregistrable to speaker technology. He emitted the pulses several times, standing still as he sought for navigation with a different method.

He then waited for several seconds in silence, patient, with his head still low. He stood in the center of the red hallway, hoping this tactic would be more fruitful.

Subsequently, similar pitches returned from all four hallways, and clashed back into him. He immediately then raised his head, and held his left arm up to his chest level, his forearm normal to his gaze. He then watched as a hologram projected off the black component of his gauntlet, and displayed a three dimensional model of a building’s layout fitted with a network of narrow tunnels at the top, connecting down to larger rooms and halls below. Down the hall past the first larger room was an intersection, and past all three lanes were a series of other rooms which continued to descend into lower levels.

Through a method inspired by echolocation, he had succeeded in mapping out the facility without needing to access any servers online but instead using his own local technology. Now, he was able to zoom in on the lower rooms, tracing the halls to seek out a particular construct. There were larger spacious rooms the size of hangars, and closet spaces, but leading towards the bottom of the base, he noticed several stories of far larger rooms interconnected with tunnels that intersected in a complex maze. The larger rooms were circular and seemed to connect multiple stories with rings by the border acting as a bridge, and those rooms were then joined by a network of hallways.

Inside the circular rooms were multiple rings of what in scale appeared to be a wardrobe. Also in the hallways between rooms, along both walls were rows of the same wardrobe constructs, just like what was seen in the stream, for he had found the match.

After the destination was noted, a huge portion of the holographic map vanished, leaving only a single network without any intersections until the bottom level, and all the rooms visible connected to each other. Now, only the path to the specific rooms with the boxes was left, and the rest was isolated to clear navigation. Down the hallway past the first larger room was a turn to the right, the first direction.

Meditat then grabbed the hologram model and pulled it into his face, causing it to vanish as if it was absorbed into his mask. He then lowered his left arm and turned to face the right hallway in the intersection, and started to silently sprint down it, having his destination set.

Finally he was on the move, knowing where to go with confidence, and prepared to settle the matter swiftly. He was going to bring down the robotic uprising, and he was going to do it with his team.