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There was a distinct air of anticipation on the Ark, thanks to the knowledge that an important announcement would be made, one involving the entire Council no less. Not exactly an every day occurrence, since usually it would be just the Chancellor and/or whatever Council member held authority over the sphere of responsibility that the announcement involved. What's more, it would be an in-person announcement, which was even more rare. As a general rule, the Council preferred to just use the PA system when they had to do this sort of thing.
Now here they were, gathered together in the main hydroponics bay (which might seem a bit odd to the unaware, but it was the largest continuous and uninterrupted space on the Ark, and the catwalks gave the Council someplace to speak from and be heard), waiting to be told what was going on.
To their surprise, it was Abby Griffin, Head of Medical, that stepped forward to address them, and a susurration flowed through the room. Was it an outbreak of some kind, an illness or public health concern? That would be a disaster, given how limited supplies were and how air was recycled, though at least a physical quarantine wouldn't be too difficult.
But Dr. Griffin's expression wasn't grim enough for a medical emergency. There was something else in her eyes: a calculated restraint that suggested whatever news she carried was complex and significant rather than catastrophic.
"Citizens of the Ark," she began, her voice clear and steady, and the crowd instantly hushed to hear her. "Thank you for gathering today. I know your time is valuable, especially with the recent oxygen recycler maintenance and the newest crop from hydroponics nearly ready for harvest."
Chancellor Jaha stood a few steps behind her, his face tight and his eyes hard, clearly unhappy with what was going on. Beside him, Marcus Kane's arms were crossed tightly across his chest, while Sinclair from maintenance looked both relieved and anxious, which was a hell of a mixture.
"As you know, our mission has always been to safeguard humanity until Earth becomes habitable again, to ensure that our people don't die out until we can return to our homeworld once again." Dr. Griffin continued, and many heads bobbed in subconscious confirmation. "For one hundred years, we've monitored radiation levels, atmospheric composition, and other vital signs from our former home."
The crowd shifted nervously. This was common knowledge, which meant whatever came next would be decidedly uncommon. It had to be, and the vast majority of them were wondering what the 'other shoe' would be.
She took a deep breath and seemed to meet all and none of their eyes at once.
"As of one month ago, we have reason to believe that Earth may, in fact, be survivable once again…and my daughter, Clarke, volunteered to find out one way or the other."
The collective intake of breath was audible throughout the hydroponics bay. A few voices rose in startled exclamation before dying away, leaving only the hum of the ventilation systems and the distant thrum of the Ark's machinery.
"What do you mean, 'volunteered'?" someone called out from the crowd, concerned and angry in equal measure, and murmurs of agreement rippled through the assembled citizens.
"We mean that she proposed to the Council that she would be sent to Earth, fully equipped and well-trained, in order to find out what the status of the planet was. At the time, her launch for reentry was explained away as us jettisoning an old satellite that was stripped for parts, and…" Marshal Kane's elaboration was cut off by an angry rumble from the crowd below, several people shouting their discontent at not just the secrecy, but the lie that was told to maintain it…and the individual that had been sent.
Dr. Griffin raised her hands, trying to calm the growing unrest. "I understand your anger, but please let us explain the full situation before you come to any conclusions."
"Your daughter?" a voice shouted from somewhere in the middle of the crowd. "You sent your own child down there alone? Without even knowing if she would survive?!"
"She wasn't sent, ladies and gentlemen." Chancellor Jaha finally stepped forward, his voice cutting through the noise with practiced authority. "Dr. Griffin is being modest about her daughter's role in this decision. Clarke Griffin didn't just volunteer, she designed the entire mission herself, from start to hopeful finish."
The crowd's anger shifted toward confusion, heads turning to neighbors with questioning looks, but it wasn't the Council that spoke next. It was Raven Reyes, as she and Octavia Blake stepped out of the shadows of the catwalks to address the crowd themselves.
"Clarke wants, more than anything, for our people to be home. She believes we have spent enough time here in space, enough time exiled from our cradle, our world!" Octavia started, leaning on the railing and gripping it tight with both hands. "We've all studied the Last War. Yeah, even me. We all know that the bombs used were pretty damn clean, and she hoped that enough time had passed that we could go back."
"The atmosphere has been getting monitored pretty much since day one. Obviously, you're all perfectly aware of that. And yeah, parts of it could be better. Those storms are something else, for example, and the seasonal swings seem to be pretty sharp and pretty heavy." Raven added on, joining her companion and placing one of her hands on top of one of Octavia's. "But the fact of the matter is, for all the craziness of the atmosphere, the radiation levels have dropped pretty heavily over the last decade or so. Best guess is, the same gene-mods we received to survive solar radiation will be sufficient to help us live down on the ground." she paused as the murmuring started up again, both to let them get it out of their systems and to let them absorb what she had just said. Then she dropped another bombshell on them. "Only thing is, we need a place to go and confirmation that it was safe. Which is why Clarke has gone down…and why Octavia and I will be leaving today to join her."
The uproar was immediate. Voices collided in a cacophony of shock, anger, and disbelief that echoed off the metal walls of the hydroponics bay. Some people surged forward, only to be held back by guards who had materialized at strategic points throughout the crowd.
"Two more?" someone shouted, a man in his thirties from Factory Station. "You're sending two more people, two kids, to die? What the fuck is wrong with you?!"
Shouts of agreement echoed, only to be stifled when Octavia glared and shouted.
"No one is sending us anywhere! We volunteered, just like Clarke did! The fact of the matter is, we're the best shot at surviving on the ground without help! We're younger, fitter, more athletic, and we're the people closest to Clarke. We'll be able to work together without any difficulty, and that's going to be important for staying alive. So focus on figuring out how to land this damn thing, and let us three figure out where you're going to land it."
A stunned silence fell over the crowd. Someone in the back coughed, and the sound echoed uncomfortably in the vast space.
"Octavia Blake?" A voice called out, incredulous and insulting. "The girl who lived under the floor? You're going to help save us?"
Octavia's jaw tightened visibly, and she looked very much like she was going to say something pointed, but Raven stepped forward and spoke instead, sneering in the general direction of the speaker.
"Yeah, the girl who survived sixteen years without being caught. The girl who knows how to stay hidden, how to move silently, how to make do with minimal resources. The girl who is one of Clarke's closest friends and supporters. You got a better candidate for surviving an unknown environment and backing up our Princess than that?"
"And what about you, Reyes? Why are you going with her?" another voice challenged, sounding more worried than angry. "You're our best zero-g mechanic. We need you up here!"
Raven's smile was as sharp and hard as the steel she so often worked with. "I've already trained my replacement. Besides, who better to establish communications between Earth and the Ark than the person who has helped maintain half of our systems? Clarkie and O are smart, but they aren't gearheads, and we need one down there if we want to manage reliable communications with Alpha Station."
The crowd shifted uneasily, but it was clear from the murmurs that Raven's logic was difficult to refute, and they knew it, no matter how unhappy that made many of them. A young engineer from Tesla Station raised his hand hesitantly.
"When are you leaving? And how?"
Chancellor Jaha stepped forward again, his expression carefully controlled as he responded. "A single two-person Exodus pod has been prepared and meticulously inspected over the past several weeks. Miss Blake and Miss Reyes will be leaving immediately after this meeting is concluded."
The silence that followed was deafening for all of thirty seconds. Then, like a dam bursting, the crowd erupted again, but this time it wasn't just anger or disbelief. There was fear, desperation, and something that might have been hope threading through the chaos of voices.
"What if they don't make it?" a woman from Farm Station called out, her voice cracking. "What if we lose all three of them?"
Dr. Griffin's composure finally showed its first fissure, her hand moving unconsciously to her chest as if in pain. "Then we'll know that Earth isn't ready for us yet. But if they do make it, if they can establish a safe zone and confirm the viability of the surface..." She paused, closing her eyes and smiling softly. "Then we can finally go home."
"And if the Ark starts failing before we know?" The question came from somewhere near the back, barely audible but cutting through the noise like a blade. "We all know there have been problems, we all know that stuff is getting old! Shouldn't we at least have a plan for the rest of us?"
"The Ark is just as safe as it has always been!" Jaha immediately rebuked, glaring vaguely in the direction of the speaker, though the room was too dim, and the crowd to thick, to pick out any one specific person. "We have more than enough time for the girls to set up communications and report back!"
"As for the rest of us, I'm working on a plan that was theorized before Clarke was sent down. I won't speak on it now, but it should see all of us safely to Earth when the time comes." Sinclair stepped in neatly, holding up a hand at the protests that immediately followed. "I haven't had time to work on it in weeks, since I was assisting Raven in preparing the pod. So there really isn't anything to tell you at the moment on that note. You have my word that I will update you as I can."
The crowd's tension remained palpable, but Sinclair's calm competence seemed to soothe some of the immediate panic and demands. He had always been one of the most trusted voices on the Ark—practical, honest, and without political ambition. Not to mention the fact that he was the protege of Jake Griffin, just as Raven was his own.
"How long will it take to know if they've survived?" asked a woman from Arrow Station, her voice steady despite the worry etched across her face, and several faces darkened slightly in response.
"We're not sure. Our first priority will be to meet up with Clarke and get the lay of the land, and there are plenty of things that could slow us down." Octavia answered bluntly. "Earth's a big place. Maybe we land off-target. Maybe we need to find higher ground for transmission. Maybe we need to scavenge parts or wait out a storm. Fact of the matter is, it could be a couple of months before you hear from us."
"I know being told to be patient isn't something that any of you want to hear right now, but it's true. No matter how good the plan is and how smart us girls are, this will not be something that happens instantly the minute that we hit the ground." Raven added, before Jaha stepped in again, practically pushing himself in between the girls to take center stage.
"Further discussion is just going to go in circles." he declared firmly, ignoring the protests as the gathered population realized what he was doing. "As such, I'm ending this meeting now." he gestured for a pair of security men to come up, and the two girls glanced at them for a long, hard moment before turning away from the crowd and starting to follow them. "I'm sure you will all join me in wishing all three of these young women the very best in their efforts to save our people."
Many voices rose in protest as Raven and Octavia were escorted away, but the crowd's reaction was mixed. Some called out encouragement and well-wishes, others shouted questions that would remain unanswered, and still others simply watched in stunned silence, trying to process what they'd just learned.
"This meeting is adjourned." Jaha announced with finality, already turning away as the two girls had before him. The other Council members followed suit, with Dr. Griffin being the last to leave, her eyes lingering on one particular citizen. The man that was just under six feet tall, with reddish brown hair, a mustache, and a beard. A rugged looking man. The same man that had called Jaha out for sacrificing children. Then she, too, turned and walked away, leaving much of the Ark wondering what would happen next…and some of the Ark smiling subtly in satisfaction.
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"Well, that wasn't as much of a shit-show as it could have been." Raven remarked dryly to her companion as she and Octavia allowed themselves to be escorted through the corridors of the Ark towards their transport.
Octavia snorted softly. "Yeah, only because Jaha cut it short before people could really start asking the hard questions." She glanced sideways at one of their escorts, a guard she recognized but didn't particularly like. Not that she cared if he took issue with what she had to said, not least because she was about to be almost 300 miles away from him and his boss. "Pretty convenient timing on his part."
"Convenient for him, maybe. Not so much for the people who actually deserve answers." Raven's voice carried an edge that made the guard in question shift uncomfortably. "Did you see the doc's face when that guy called them out? She looked like she was about to fall apart."
"Can't blame her. Sending your own kid down first, then watching two more follow..." Octavia shook her head. "I'd be a wreck too, whether it was my kid's idea or not."
"I'm just glad we're finally doing this, honestly." Raven sighed after a minute or two of silent walking. "The tension was killing me, the waiting and wondering. But now we're going down. We're going to find someplace for the Ark to land, and we'll be home."
"And Clarke," Octavia added softly, warmly. "We're going to find Clarke. Wonder what it's been like for her?" she grinned. "Wonder what she'll say when she sees us."
"Ten bucks says that the first she does is hug us, then as us what the hell we think we're doing."
They rounded the final corner, giggling softly, the corridor opening into the vast launch bay where their pod waited. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, and the modifications and patchworks Raven and Sinclair had been forced to make use of were painfully obvious, but it was functional, and ultimately that is what mattered. Off to the side, the Council was watching and waiting, a variety of expressions on their faces. Jaha looked like he had encountered something spectacularly foul, for example. He likely wasn't a fan of how the announcement had gone.
Too bad for him.
But it wasn't the Council that was most prominently holding Octavia's attention. Standing slightly apart from the officials, dressed not in his janitor's overalls but in the best 'formal' clothes that he owned -a collared shirt and a pair of khaki pants that had once been his father's- was her elder brother.
"Bell?" Octavia's pace quickened, confusion and surprise washing over her face, until she was only a few feet away from him. "What are you doing here?"
Bellamy's face was unreadable as he stepped forward, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. "You think I'd let my little sister go to Earth without saying goodbye?"
Octavia smiled, bright and warm, and stepped forward to throw her arms around her brother and holding him tight. Despite all of the tension and conflict that had been between them since the Unity Day Dance, despite everything that had happened because of her 'first day free', despite how devoted Octavia now was to Clarke. Before she could do anything further, however, Raven gasped behind her.
"What the hell…Finn?" Raven pushed past the guards, her eyes locked on a lanky figure standing partially hidden behind Bellamy. "What are you doing here?"
Finn Collins stepped forward, his trademark floppy hair falling across his forehead as he gave her a lopsided smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Same as Blake. Saying goodbye to someone I care about."
Unlike Octavia, she didn't throw herself into his arms. Instead, she settled for narrowing her eyes, folding her arms across her chest, and settling back on her heels. "I appreciate the thought, Finn, and the gesture. Try to make sure that you don't do anything dumb while I'm gone, okay? I won't be here to make sure that you behave yourself."
Finn's smile faltered slightly as he reached for her hand, becoming a bit more genuine in the face of her restraint. "Come on, Raven. I know things have been... complicated between us lately, but I'm still your family. Always have been, always will be."
Raven allowed him to take her hand, but her expression remained guarded. "Yeah, well. Family's complicated too." She squeezed his fingers briefly before letting go. "I'll be fine down there. Better than fine. I'll have Clarke and O with me, and the next thing you know we'll all be down there together. So keep your stupid ass out of lock up, or I'll put you in traction the next time that I see you."
"I know you will, Ray." Finn said softly, verbally responding to her reassurance even as he flashed a grin at her threats. "You're the smartest person on this whole damn station."
Meanwhile, Bellamy had pulled back from embracing his sister, his hands now gripping her shoulders as he searched her face. "O, are you absolutely sure about this? There's no coming back once that pod launches. It's all or nothing."
"I've never been more sure of anything." Octavia replied, her voice steady and clear. "This is what I was born to do, I know it. I'm going to help Clarke bring us all home, Bell. And we're going to have a house for ourselves, and it's going to be…"
"A little log cabin beside a stream, where we're going to go fishing." he finished the old, childhood dream along with her, before kissing her on the forehead. "Fine. Just be careful, alright? No one up here is worth getting killed over, myself included. So focus on protecting yourself and staying safe, because that's the most important thing in the world."
"I'll be careful, Bell. Promise." Octavia's voice softened as she reached up to touch her brother's face. "But I need to do this. Not just for everyone else, but for me. For Clarke and what she did for me, for mom who never got to see us go home. But most of all, for me. So I can stop being 'the girl who hid in the floor' and become 'the girl who helped bring us home.'"
Bellamy nodded, his jaw tight with emotion he wouldn't show in front of the Council, his eyes darkening dangerously -as they always did, and likely always would- at the mention of their mother. "I know, O." he murmured, then pulled something from his pocket. A small metal object glinted in his palm. "Take this with you."
Octavia's eyes widened as she recognized their mother's wedding ring, hanging on a thin chain. The only thing that they had left of her, besides their memories and their looks. "Bell, I can't—"
"Mom would want you to have it, O." he insisted, placing it in her hand and closing her fingers around it, firm in his decision. "Something to remember where you came from, when you're finding out where we're all going."
Nearby, Dr. Griffin checked her watch with visible anxiety. "It's time, girls." she announced, looking at the farewelling foursome with more than a little bit of regret. "I'm sorry to cut this short, but we have to launch if we want to hit the right window."
Octavia nodded, quickly fastening the chain around her neck and tucking the ring beneath her shirt. The metal was warm against her skin, a tangible connection to everything she was leaving behind, and beyond that a reminder of why she had to succeed. She turned to Raven and found she was already moving toward the pod, her embrace with Finn -awkward, but genuine- over almost as quickly as it had started.
"Ready?" Raven asked, though her voice carried the slightest tremor, as she looked over her shoulder.
"As I'll ever be." Octavia replied, following her friend up the narrow steps to the pod's entrance and taking a look through the door. It was cramped, as one might expect for a one-person pod that had been modified to handle two, and she could tell just from looking at it that the ride down would be uncomfortable for several reasons.
"Alright girls, in you go. We'll add in your cargo once you're strapped in." Sinclair voiced, stepping out from amongst the Council, and Octavia took a deep breath before following Raven inside and settling into her seat, right beside her mechanically-minded friend.
The harness system was a maze of straps and buckles that had clearly been jury-rigged, probably scavenged or manufactured from scratch outright, and she just hoped that they would actually do their job and keep her from being turned into human salsa.
Raven, predictably, had hers sorted out in seconds while Octavia fumbled with what appeared to be an upside-down 'female' buckle from an entirely different object than the 'male' buckle that was supposed to plug into it. Not the best start, if you asked her.
"Here, let me." Raven reached over, fingers deftly laying out the straps, snapping the buckles into place, and tightening everything down just so.
"Cozy, really cozy." Octavia muttered to herself, grimacing faintly at the pressure and the feeling of being trapped that the harness gave her, a feeling that she was sadly entirely too familiar with, and entirely hated experiencing again.
"Yeah, well, just wait until we hit atmosphere, babe." Raven replied grimly, turning away and double-checking her own harness, as well as the diagnostic tools arrayed on the wall in front of her, intended to send data back to the Ark as they made their reentry attempt. "The original shock absorption was designed for one person mounted dead center in the pod. Neither of those things are going to apply to us. The ride could get a little bit rough."
"I can live with rough, if it means we pull this off." Octavia muttered, watching Sinclair carefully load supplies into bolted-down containers scattered around what little 'free space' that pod contained.
Sinclair gave them both a brief nod as he secured the final container. "Medical supplies, rations for three weeks, water purification tablets, and a basic tool kit," he recited, his voice taking on the professional tone he used during technical briefings, though his eyes showed the concern, the pride and hope, that his voice didn't offer. "Plus the radio equipment Raven requested and some emergency shelter materials."
"What about weapons?" Octavia asked, though she already suspected the answer from Sinclair's expression.
"That request was... voted down by the Council, I'm afraid." he replied carefully, not meeting her eyes. "The official reasoning is that you're going down as explorers and engineers, not soldiers, and you lack the special training that Clarke received."
Raven snorted and rolled her eyes. "Right. Because it's not like Clarke taught us everything that she got taught too, and it's not like we might end up finding some sort of radioactive cannibal-worm or something."
"I may have included a few items that could serve dual purposes," Sinclair said quietly, tapping one of the containers meaningfully. "Cutting tools, mostly. For clearing brush or skinning any form of animal you might encounter. A little bit more durable than one might expect for such mundane uses, but with Earth being such an unknown environment, it's better to be prepared, right?"
"…thanks, boss." Raven murmured, smiling fleetingly at him, and he hesitated for a moment before leaning forward and kissing the top of her head.
"Stay safe, little bird."
With that, he stepped out and shut the hatch. Metal screeched and ground as he locked it into place, and Octavia reached out to take Raven's hand as they watched everyone step through the airlock. Watched it seal behind them, heard the warning tone and the grind of the external doors…and then they were falling. Falling towards their homeworld, falling towards the unknown, falling towards their futures.
Falling towards Clarke.
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"Orbital Launch Detected."
The words resonated through the Mount Weather Control Center, and Shift Commander Paul Wade snapped upright in his chair and tossed his book aside. All around him, the normally lazy, sleepy section dedicated to Orbital Tracking and Monitoring turned into a hive of activity as a dozen people snapped to full awareness and started following the orders that they had been given nearly two months prior.
"Tracking one object, dropping from high orbit. Velocity is high hypersonic, approximately seventeen-thousand miles-per-hour." he reeled off mechanically, tapping at his keyboard. "Kayla, I need a predicted impact area. Micah, full-spectrum sweep on all frequencies, try to find the the guidance signal."
Confirmations flowed back to him smoothly, and he grunted in satisfaction as his own screens began updating rapidly as his subordinates started to shunt the results of their efforts into his system.
"Got it, Wade." Kayla called out from her station, her fingers dancing across multiple keyboards as orbital mechanics calculations streamed across her monitors. God, that girl was such a braniac. Pity she was enough of a bitch that her intelligence and her body couldn't make up for it. "Current trajectory puts impact somewhere in the old capitol, roughly forty miles south-east of our position. Confidence interval is plus or minus fifteen miles due to atmospheric variables."
"And I'm picking up intermittent telemetry bursts, sir." Micah added, adjusting his headset as static-filled transmissions crackled through the speakers. "Definitely artificial, definitely structured. Someone's riding that thing down, and they're transmitting data back to wherever they came from."
"Get Doctor Tsing and Mister Wallace up here immediately. Tell then that we have someone or something deorbiting from PROJECT: Ark, and…"
"We're already here, Paul." Cage Wallace cut in as he led Lorelei Tsing into their section, looking slightly out of breath. They must have been fairly close by, and someone must have sent them a message as soon as the launch had been detected as well. Leaning on the desk beside Paul, he continued. "Activate the special program and shunt it through the same frequency the telemetry bursts are travelling on. Try to shift it's trajectory as instructed."
"Yessir." Paul obeyed immediately, rapidly clicking and tapping away at his controls, bringing up the complex, and powerful, program that the best minds that the United States had to offer had slaved away at for weeks. It worked quickly and successfully, the far more powerful machines that Control Center boasted easily overwhelming the tiny on-board computer that was guiding the pod's retro-rockets. "I have control, sir. I'm attempting to shift their course now."
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The pod shuddered violently, throwing both girls against their restraints as their transport shifted course abruptly and without warning.
"What the hell was that?!" Octavia shouted over the screaming of tortured metal and the roar of atmosphere against their hull, grimacing as the pod bounced again.
Raven's fingers flew over the limited control panel, her face pale in the red emergency lighting that had suddenly bathed their cramped compartment. "We're off course! Something's interfering with our guidance system!"
The pod lurched yet again, harder this time, and Octavia felt her stomach drop as they began spinning. Through the tiny porthole, she caught glimpses of green and brown rushing up to meet them far faster than she had imagined when she pictured this moment.
"Can you override it?" Octavia demanded, fighting against the g-forces that were trying to crush her into her seat.
"If I knew what the problem was, maybe, but I don't! Just shut up and let me work!" was the snarled reply, and Octavia screamed as the pod lurched back towards it's original course, before jigging back and forth. God, was the planet playing tug of war with them or what?!
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"Sir, I seem to be having some sort of trouble. The pod is rejecting some of my commands and trying to return to it's original course." Paul reported absently, leaning forward in his seat and tapping away at his keyboard with increasing force and speed.
"Sir, I'm detecting another signal on the same sub-frequency that we're using to gain access. It's powerful, whatever it is, and it's starting to drown out our own."
"Get control of things, Paul!" Cage growled, and Paul shook his head as he redoubled his efforts.
"Sir, I'm trying, but whoever is on the other end is adapting to my code faster than I can adapt to theirs, which is like nothing I've ever seen before!" came the sharp reply, before he swore as his screen started to glitch, and his hand slammed down on the master power switch for his work station. "Micah, pull the plug! Get out of the system before they can…!"
All the screens in the room flickered, once, twice, three times before they all displayed the same symbol: a strange A sort of shape, with the crossbar replaced by the symbol of the all-seeing eye. Then the entire room went dark, and a haunting feminine voice spoke through the speakers:
"Three things cannot hide for long: the Moon, the Sun, and the Truth."
The emergency power kicked in a moment later, bathing the control room in an eerie red glow. Paul's hands shook as he stared at his blank monitors, while around him his team sat in stunned silence.
"What the hell just happened?" Cage demanded, his voice tight with fury and something that might have been fear.
"Someone followed our attack on the pod system back into ours, comprehensively crushed my attempts to stop them, and were starting to breach our network when I shut down. Whoever it was slipped that message in right before Micah could do the same thing." Wade responded, scrubbing at his face before looking up at his future President. "I'm sorry, sir. But whoever that was? They're better than us, and their equipment is better to. Someone besides the Ark and the degenerates must be out there…and it looks to me like they don't like us."
Cage just stood there, the muscles in his jaw working visibly beneath his skin, rage and fear warring in his eyes.
"Sir," Kayla called out, her voice small in the darkness. "I'm still tracking the pod on backup systems. It's... it's back on its original trajectory. They've regained full control. They should make landfall somewhere just north of Alexandria now, near the old Reagan airport."
"Figure out how to secure our systems, Mister Wade." Wallace finally ground out, and Paul flinched as those fulminating orbs met his own. "Or I will find someone that can."
He stormed from the room, Tsing following in his wake, and Paul Wade felt nothing but despair, because he already knew what the end result of that demand would be.
Failure.
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[1] https://www.patreon.com/c/astandupphilosopher
[2] https://subscribestar.adult/a-standup-philosopher
[3] https://discord.com/invite/3VKjmXBYY8
[4] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fanfic/NothingIsTrue