Age of Redemption, page 12
part #2 of Titan Code Series
Finn brought up images from space. “I thought so too. So, I hacked a couple satellites.” Tessa witnessed a large space station orbiting the Earth. “They have set up a space station and colonies further out.” Finn showed images of a massive station large enough to accommodate several hundred people. An artificial planet. But from the images, Tessa could tell the project was incomplete.
“We’ll take it from them,” Tessa replied, cold and angry.
“How are we going to do that?” Finn attempted to appeal to her logical side. They were already behind H.I.V.E on development.
“I don’t know, but I will take it from them. They will not be the survivors of Earth. I won’t allow it.”
“Tessa, we need to look at other options. Our own options.”
Before Tessa responded, a loud explosion rocked the terminal and part of the control room wall blasted into the room. Concrete and rebar debris struck Tessa hard, sending her across the room and slamming into the wall on the other side. The wind exited her lungs on impact, and the side of her head smashed into the wall from the concussive force of the explosion.
Tessa fell to the ground in a daze as she struggled to maintain consciousness. She heard the sounds of screaming, but it sounded like she was in a bubble. The world moved in slow motion. She tasted blood and sensed pain in her side and looked down to find a piece of glass protruding from her right side.
Finn struggled to reach Tessa as he climbed over debris. His face covered in blood and dirt. The sprinkler system activated spraying water down on them, and the alarms sounded accompanied by flashing lights. Finn inspected the wound in her side and looked around for help. There was no one around, so Finn secured the piece of glass and pulled it from Tessa’s body, sending a surge of pain through her body.
Finn pulled off his shirt and tied it around Tessa’s midsection. The wound poured blood, but the shirt would have to do until they found a medic kit or Arica. Finn helped Tessa back to her feet, and together they limped out of the control room.
The rest of the terminal was in chaos with blast debris and wounded people everywhere. Those that weren’t critically injured dashed around trying to help those that needed assistance. Finn led Tessa to a medic kit in the wall. He pulled the kit down and dug through the contents finding a large gauze bandage and some tape and removed the shirt to attempt a proper dressing.
Arica saw them and ran to assist. She helped Finn get Tessa into a seat and inspected the wound. Arica began cleaning and bandaging as Finn started firing off questions. “What the hell happened?”
Arica answered as best she could, “I have no clue. What I know is this wasn’t the only explosion. I’m not sure what all they hit.”
Tessa tried to sit up, “The arc.”
Arica pushed her back down, “Hold still. You’re in no condition to do anything at the moment.”
“Did they hit the arc?” Tessa inquired.
“I don’t know.”
Finn observed the chaos as he thought, “No warning. So it wasn’t an air raid. Probably an inside job.”
Tessa shook her head, “When I find out who is responsible, there will be a new breed of punishment.”
Arica steadied Tessa as she finished up, “For right now. Let me patch you. Then you’re free to hunt down and murder whomever you wish.”
Arica finished bandaging Tessa’s side and moved to the gash over her left eye. She wiped away the blood, which helped Tessa see more clearly. The blood had dried over her eyelid and made the eye less functional. Tessa hadn’t noticed the impediment since her mind remained focused on the pain and turmoil swirling around her.
She heard another loud boom from outside the terminal, prompting screams from the survivors inside. She tried to stand and rush to the site of the explosion, but Arica pushed her back down. “I’m almost done. Just let me get a butterfly on there, and we can worry about stitches later.”
It aggravated Tessa, “I should be out there helping. Innocent people are dying. I’m supposed to protect them.”
“You can’t protect them if you’re dead.”
Finn attempted to calm her, “You’ll get out there, but let Arica patch you up, so you are well enough to help.”
Tessa swallowed her pride and let Arica finish bandaging her eye. From across the terminal hallway, a commotion caught her eye. Cyclone’s wife, Natalie, fought to get up from the ground as a fellow Evo attempted to treat her injuries. She seemed frantic to get up, and when she failed, she turned to her side, still fighting against her ally. She screamed at Tessa, “Stop him! Stop him before he kills us all!”
She continued to scream, and Tessa started scanning the terminal for suspicious persons. As an empath, she sensed someone nearby who intended to harm the victims recovering in the terminal. Tessa’s eyes fell on a young man who seemed to wander the hallway without purpose. He wore a dark coat, which seemed too bulky. He rubbed his hands together nervously, and Tessa noticed he held an object in his hands.
It only took Tessa a few moments to figure out this man was a suicide bomber. She pushed Arica aside and seized the opportunity to subdue their attacker before they detonated the bomb. Tessa focused her energy around the man to form a sphere. She had used the same concept around herself as a protective barrier to prevent bullets from striking her. This time she focused on securing a force field around the bomber to contain the bomb on the inside of the force field.
The young man looked at her in surprise once he realized the force field surrounded him and Tessa now aware of his plot. She wasn’t sure this sphere of protection would work in the way she hoped, but there was no time for another option. The man pressed the button, and the bomb exploded. Tessa focused on her power, holding the explosion within the sphere. She struggled to maintain control, and the sphere grew with smoke and fire swirling inside the sphere of purplish pink.
The victims in the terminal screamed and many with only minor injuries ran. The wounded huddled in fear behind any cover they found. Emergency personal remained behind to care for those in need. Everyone prayed that Tessa could contain the explosion.
She felt the concussive force inside the force field push against her power. She held the explosion trapped for what seemed like an eternity and sensed herself losing control. Tessa needed another option. She would not stop the explosion.
She looked up to the ceiling at the skylight above and decided the bomb would escape no matter what she did, but she could control where. Tessa pushed against the sphere with her power, lifting it into the air as she positioned herself underneath. With a surge of energy, she shoved the sphere up and crashing through the ceiling glass. The shattered glass poured down around the sphere to the terminal hall below. Survivors shielded themselves from the shards. Tessa worried the glass might injure someone, but the collateral damage was far less than if the bomb went off.
Tessa continued to push the protective bubble into the air as high as she could and then let it loose. The explosion radiated from the sphere, sending fire in all directions. Tessa luckily got the blast up high enough that it injured no one. She looked up into the sky as ash slowing fell back into the terminal. She closed her eyes, letting the soft flakes touch her face grateful she prevented further loss of life.
She looked back toward her friends. Arica motioned for her to return and finish bandaging the injury above her left eye. Tessa had no intention of sitting back down. The base was under attack, and as the strongest Evo on base it was her job to protect all of those she sheltered.
Tessa blinked to a terminal exit, leaving Finn and Arica behind. She needed to assess the damage and start guiding people toward a rebuild. Once she saw the destruction outside, she wasn’t sure rebuilding would be an option. H.I.V.E destroyed many of the storage hangars or they were on fire. She saw Sam directing a team with a water hose to douse the flames engulfing their weapons hangar. Other people tried to extinguish flames devouring vehicle storage. Most of the base’s primary assets were gone.
Tessa blinked toward the engineering hangar, which was still intact. She was curious why they spared this location. She moved closer to hear a drill boring through metal inside the building. Tessa concealed herself and crept around the hangar to peek inside a side window. She peered around a corner to see a man drilling the lock on their safe room. Tessa had Sam fortify the place to prevent anyone from obtaining the battery core she created.
Tessa realized she was right and H.I.V.E was responsible for the attack. They must have planted suicide bombers as a diversion while they stole the core. At least she answered whether or not H.I.V.E created their core. The answer being no. They could not make a core without her power, so they were here to steal hers. How did they know she succeeded? There had to be a mole.
All she had to do was make sure her core didn’t fall into their hands. She wanted to dash out and stop him before he breached the lock, but there were a lot of assets in this hangar she didn’t want to destroy. She waited until he had the core in his possession and outside the hangar.
Tessa repositioned herself outside to intercept the H.I.V.E thief. As he exited, Tessa stepped out from her cover behind the hangar, “Nice try, but you’re not leaving here with that core or your life.”
The man turned to raise his arms with the core in submission. “Do you think you’re stopping anything? H.I.V.E always gets what they want.”
“Not today they don’t. They can’t have that core. Of that much I’m certain.” Tessa preferred to get the core back intact, but she would destroy it there was no other choice.
He moved to let his coat fall open in front to reveal a bomb strapped to his chest. “If I go up, there’s another bomb planted here that explodes. I promise you I put it somewhere really good. Maximum casualties.”
“I just stopped one of your other bombers. I can stop you too.” Another explosion echoed from the other side of the tarmac. Tessa jumped and looked behind her. The helicopter hangar went up in smoke.
The man took the moment of opportunity to run, but Tessa blinked after him. She seized the core and attempted to wrestle it from his grip, but he resisted her attempt. He reached for his pocket, and she assumed he would trigger the bomb.
With her arms still around the core, she did the only thing she could think of and opened her power to absorb the energy back. She wasn’t sure it was even possible, but she wasn’t willing to let go of the core, nor was she ready to see what happened if the core exploded with a suicide bomb. With the condensed energy in the core, it might trigger an explosion far more powerful than any C-4 bomb H.I.V.E could cook up.
Tessa re-absorbed the energy in the core, but the H.I.V.E agent still triggered the bomb. The force of the blast sent Tessa flying across the tarmac and rolling across the asphalt. When she came to a stop, she was unscathed but had new problems.
The absorption of extra energy saved her like a cocoon. Her body glowed with the purplish-pink hue of her power. The energy protected her, but she struggled to keep that surge of power in check. Tessa felt disoriented as the energy pulsed through her body. She was supercharged.
Tessa reassessed the damages to the base, noticing that after the newest suicide bomb, another part of the terminal destroyed. H.I.V.E targeted survivors. They meant to inflict maximum damage to human and Evo life.
The sight of all the death and destruction shook Tessa to her core. How could she be so naïve? Why did she ever think she could protect these people from H.I.V.E? She was a failure.
Hate seethed up to a boiling point, and Tessa regained her composure. But she wasn’t entirely herself. Tessa was ready for redemption. Justice needed to be served, and she was the only one powerful enough to serve it. H.I.V.E needed punishment for their crimes here. The disregard for life was disgusting. Tessa couldn’t allow these monsters to live. She couldn’t even call them human anymore.
18
Tessa didn’t need to contemplate her next action. She already decided to retaliate against H.I.V.E for attacking her base. Most of the people who sought refuge were kind-hearted souls looking for a peaceful future. H.I.V.E would never stand for a truce between humans and Evos. They preferred to keep people divided and scared. The innocent deserved retribution.
Terror and fear drove people to place blind trust in H.I.V.E. People were willing to give up individual freedoms and privileges if offered protection in return. H.I.V.E betrayed the trust of the people. They wanted to use people to further their agenda and save their hides. H.I.V.E had no regard for life; human or Evo.
For so long, H.I.V.E painted a picture of Evo monsters, but Tessa learned that was never the case. Sure, there were a few bad apples, but most Evos just wanted a chance to live a full life, not locked in a cage as a science experiment; or worst-case scenario, executed. Evos just wanted to live like everyone else. It was time for someone to take a stand for all those who couldn’t stand to resist the tyranny of their oppressors.
Tessa didn’t wait for her team to regroup and formulate a planned counterstrike. She was ready to take matters into her own hands. Tessa already absorbed the core energy, and now with the surplus, she was more powerful than before. She was an Alpha with the ability to alter the course of this conflict. There was no need to risk any further loss of life. She would take care of business on her own.
She took to the sky before any of her friends managed reach her. Tessa wasn’t interested in arguing with them. This moment wasn’t the time for debate; it was time for action. She heard static in her ear as Finn’s voice cut in and out over comms. He was trying to bring essential systems back online, but his communication connection wasn’t operational yet. It was a window of opportunity she could exploit.
Tessa pulled up her music playlist on her wrist screen while she flew toward Cheyenne Mountain at full speed. She searched the titles for a good song to get her pumped for her solo assault. It needed to be something intense and angry. She found songs from a group called Rage Against the Machine, and the name seemed to resonate with her. She allowed her device to choose a random song, Killing in the Name seemed appropriate.
The loud music fit her mood as she headed toward revenge. If she were lucky, H.I.V.E wouldn’t suspect a thing. Tessa wasn’t aircraft, so she might be small enough to fly in under their radar and get close before they noticed. She didn’t take much time to plan her assault but had a few ideas. Her main goal was to take out and cripple their facility. She wanted to send a clear message to H.I.V.E; they might have numbers, but Tessa only needed herself to deal insurmountable amounts of damage. She wanted them to realize how much of a threat she posed for their operation.
It didn’t take long before Tessa saw the mountains in the distance. She deployed her scout drone to search ahead and relay images back to her goggles. All looked quiet outside the mountain, but Tessa knew what lay beneath; a labyrinth of H.I.V.E laboratories and personnel.
Tessa continued course straight for the base knowing full well they would notice her on approach. Once she got close enough, her drone picked up movement outside and the sound of alarms. They noticed she was coming, but were they prepared for the storm she was about the rain down on them?
H.I.V.E responded to the hostile approach by opening the weapon bays in the mountain's side and locking missiles. They fired only one missile at their single target. A mistake they would soon regret. Tessa stopped the missile mid-flight. She reached out with her energy powers and halted the missiles advance, then flew up to the hovering projectile and used her strength to turn the missile around to point back at its origin. She lined it up so it would hit the missile bay and destroy the other weapons ready for launch.
Tessa let go of the missile, and it screeched back toward its new target. The weapon struck the bay, and a massive explosion radiated from the side of the mountain. Fire erupted from the opening, and ash rained down on the mountainside, causing part of the mountainside to give way, triggering a cascade of rock tumbled down the mountain.
Scout notified her that three more missile bays were opening. “How many weapons per bay?” Scout sent her a count of three projectiles per bay. “Run trajectory.” Scout analyzed the direction of the missiles and the precise path they would take on route to destroy her. “Optimal point of impact.” Scout made the calculations to determine the exact position for her to be in to intercept all nine new missiles.
H.I.V.E let their payload loose, and Tessa positioned herself as directed by Scout. She repeated what she did the last time. It seemed like H.I.V.E didn’t learn their lesson from before. Tessa halted all nine missiles midair and turned each back on the mountain. She sent three back toward each remaining missile bay so that no more projectiles could be loaded and fired against her. The other six she spread out over the surface of the mountain. She wanted the occupants to realize something terrible was happening on the surface. She sent one hurling toward the main door to crumble rock and block the exit.
Tessa recognized she didn’t have much time before they scrambled aircraft at the nearby Denver Airport. She landed on the top of Cheyenne Mountain and focused on executing her plan. When she charged the energy core, Tessa harnessed the raw power within the earth, which resulted in power produced earth tremors. Tessa wanted to replicate that power but take it all one step further. Last time Tessa vibrated in sync with the earth, she sensed all that raw untapped power. She believed she could manipulate the earth’s aether and harness the energy to create an earthquake. She was counting on the disaster to cause significant structural damage inside Cheyenne Mountain. With any luck, it would render the facility useless.
Tessa acknowledged there would be casualties, but she already accepted the inevitable collateral damage. The attack on her base targeted vulnerable refugees, and H.I.V.E counted on mass casualties in their attack. That was their intended point; to scare people. She could use the same tactic against them.
Tessa felt the raw energy of the earth beneath her feet. She crouched down to touch the ground with her hands, sensing the strength of the aether within. Like she did before, Tessa focused on the resonance of the earth and matched that frequency. Once she locked on to the power, she pushed and pulled it to her will. The earth trembled faint at first, but Tessa focused further, and the intensity increased. Tessa generated a massive earthquake, and sirens from inside the mountain base blared.
