I pushed the door to my quarters open, leaving it the way I found it. The dryly lit corridor pulsed into existence as my HUD adjusted light in my cybernetic eye.

I didn’t want to admit it, but it was good to have Nova back, the world seemed brighter, despite how flustered I felt by her return. It made me feel used, but worst of all…like a fucking pawn, again.

The Antillean Federation had its way with me already. No, it didn’t I thought, correcting myself. I signed up for the AFA. I signed the papers to get my cybernetics enhancement to continue down the road that led me here.

It wasn’t an easy road, but it was a road that could’ve been a lot smoother. Without the bumps in the roads, you wouldn’t have your family Cypher…be thankful.

I was despite my thought, but for Christ’s sake, I didn’t want a part of this fight between the Oculin and the Antillean Federation. “Nova, How is the Oculin going to take over the Federation?”

“They purchased General Sybias’ services.”

“General Sybias? What fuckery are you on Nova.”

“None Sir, General Sybias has been selected as the Military Dictator once the coup-de-etat is successful. He will run the Federation whilst the Oculin excise their financial freedom.”

“General Sybias is dead Nova.”

“That’s affirmative Sir, but not in actuality. General Sybias has been placed in an undisclosed location. Mr Black has been tasked with his retrieval, so once you return with the Hedgehog he will be running the operation to take over The Antillean Federation.”

“Are you shitting me…you’ve got to be SHITTING ME!”

General Sybias is a fucking psychopath. The man killed two Colonels within the AFA because they didn’t follow his orders. Hell, because of his crackshit actions we almost went into the Second Continent War.

I chuckled hysterically, thinking of shin-Lee and Hannah. How am I to get them out of the Federation? The walls are closing in on us. No…Cypher, deal with the Hedgehog first, we’ll sort out the rest later.

As the Furtiven Suit hugged my waist, my right side felt as though it wanted to scream. Thankfully, the anaesthesia patches didn’t allow it to do as it pleased, but that’s for now. God knows what I'd have to expect when diving into the Salent Pool.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Some people believed taking a deep breath was an exaggeration to relax oneself, usually. I’m one of those people, but in a case like this, right now. It helped tremendously, especially with how nervous I felt after I encroached upon the trailer to which Nova was stapled, with a console.

“Insert me the Usin cable into the console, I will unlock the mechanism, Sir,” Nova said.

I unclipped my cybernetic arm and then freed the Usin Cable which was beneath the EMP plate shielding. I then slotted the Usin into the console, watching as the lights turned white, then red again before stabilising into green.

A loud snap groaned to my right a small latch opened at the side of the trailer. White vapour wafted from inside and poured into the corridor as if I’d just opened an old crypt with a mummy buried inside.

“Any more surprises Nova?” I asked the AI, feeling the hair on my neck rise from cold vapour. “No sir, you are free to enter.”

“…right.”

I pulled the Usin cable from the console, slotting it back into the compartment within my cybernetic arm. Then stepped on the console and looked inside the trailer.

Inside the trailer was black as the night sky. It didn’t help with the white vapour emanating from the stars but didn’t provide any form of luminescence as the stars did.

My hand slid across the inside of the side latch and I pulled myself up, then stuffed myself inside the trailer. I hit the ground with a thud which felt like ice and crashed into at least three boulders of ice on my way down. “Fuck” I grunted.

The latch above me snapped shut with a clank, forcing me to look back up. I didn’t see shit, but that was a natural reaction to a sudden noise in the dark.

Night Vision kicked in, and the room pulsed into existence. I look around, noticing everything within the trailer had a gleam to it as if it iced. I stroked my hands against the ground, realising it was smooth.

In the corner of my left eye, the temperature of the room pulsed into existence, showing me 23° Celsius. Holy shit, I thought. “The entrance to the Salent Coolant System is in the middle of the trailer sir,” Nova said.

“Right.”

I calmly pushed myself up, holding onto what seemed to be a frozen barrel and ensured my pistol slipped out from its holster.

Once I was satisfied with not losing anything, I stalked my way to the middle of the trailer, feeling the coldness of the trailer penetrate my Furtiven Suit.

In the middle of the trailer was a manhole cover, which for some reason didn’t cold, as the edges of it had space. I knelt, touching the surface and feeling the battle between heat and cold. “Is this it?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Good.”

I drilled my hand into the side of the manhole cover, making an opening for myself. Once my hand had sunk into the ground I squeezed enough metal to crumple a flower in one squeeze.

The metal groaned between my palm and yanked it free throwing it in front of me. The manhole cover bellowed a loud groan that made the trailer reverberate inward, forcing me to cover my ears. Well, that was stupid. I thought sourly.

Yellow light poured in from the manhole and the sound of water splashing filtered into the trailer. Heat then poured that stole what little frost had ground around my nose, making me feel as though I was about to get charred if I dropped into that fucking liquid. “Nova, it’s too hot down there.”

“It is Sir, but it’s your only way into the bunker.”

“Nova, it feels as though trying to kill me!” I hissed, flustered.

“Negative Sir.”

I ground my teeth ignoring her answer and made my first step down the manhole ladder. A wave of heat smothered me whole but ignored making my way down to the bottom of the ladder.

My eyes drifted left and right, tracing my surroundings hoping that there was some ledge that I could worm my way across but as my life had a little reprieve, there weren’t any ledges. “Do I have to swim in this shit?”

“Yes Sir, It’s not as hot as you would think. The steam you’re feeling is the chemicals within the Salent compound. To slow the evaporating process it steams.”

“…and what of this heat?”

“A natural reaction, I don’t believe Salent coolant can burn you.”

“You’re an A.I. Nova, of course, you’d say that, you’re not the one swimming in Salent.”

“That indeed is correct Sir.”

I wanted to punch, the living shit outta my Nova, she hadn’t been back, and she was already getting on my nerves. “Duly noted,” I huffed.

I released the ladder, crossing my hands and keeping my legs together as I hit the water burrowing my foot under before I came back up for air.

You have to swim to the bottom of the Coolant System sir, you need to manual dislodge the fans before they start up.

“Right, they switch on every thirty minutes, which means I have thirty minutes to turn off all fans.”

I began kicking my feet as I turned, diving toward the bottom of the Salent Coolant System. My ears popped the moment I reached the halfway point. The yellow liquid was so thick, that I was unable to use anything to see where I was going, which forced me to use my X-Ray sight.

After two minutes of second-guessing, I finally made it to the bottom of the lake and began scraping my hand against the bottom of the pool whilst simultaneously trying to keep myself down.

The bottom of the Salent coolant System was as rough as sand. I kept sweeping my hand across the surface, hoping to find the manual switch Nova had told me about and barely found it a few inches from one of the blade’s fans.

The manual switch was a long pole, etched into the bottom of the pool, with a swirling pattern making it easy to grab. I pulled myself toward it, then knelt and began pulling it up.

My arms strained as I did so, realising that the thing wouldn’t move. My heart began to race even faster realising that I was losing air fast because of exertion. Try pushing it, then pulling it Sir Nova spelling out in my cybernetic eye.

I pushed down on the crank and air bubbles popped up from an opening. I pushed the crank, hoping it would move, and it didn’t. So I began pulling it towards me.

Hundreds of air bubbles began rushing from beneath the crank. Once I forced it back 180°. The bubbles stopped, the fan blade to my left began moving and my heart jumped to the bottom of my throat.

I kicked off the ground and began peddling water with my feet hoping to get to the top before I ran out of air. As I swim up, I looked left, keeping my eye on the fan, which now I could see all of the blades which happened to be four.

Air filled my mouth like a vacuum, providing relief to my lungs. I began coughing immediately and began massaging my chest for a second, then began swimming towards the ladder.

The fan is locked Sir, there is no need for you to worry, when the fan is locked, the fan rotates into a delaying slot, and you can move on to the three remaining fans. “I’m starting to believe you are trying to kill me, Nova.” I coughed, hitting my chest. Nova didn’t answer, and I was fine with that.

I grabbed the ladder and pulled myself up the ladder. It was slippery, especially with my cybernetic hand but I made it work. Water rushed off me like a waterfall as I slowly made my way up the latch.

Once I reached the top of the latch. I slid my hand into the locking wheel and began twisting it slowly. The rusted look of it didn’t give me confidence, it only made me feel as though I was about to break it.

After my eighth try, it finally loosened and the hatch snapped open. I switched to X-Ray Vision and realised that I couldn’t beyond the hatch. Fuck, guess I don’t have a choice.

I pulled my pistol free from my zip lock bag. I counted to three then pushed the hatch open aiming my gun on the other side. “I guess your luck changing Sir, no one’s here,” Nova said.

“For now,” I said softly. “Let's find a console so you can retrieve the layout of this place. I want to get the fuck out of here and fast.”