Shadow in the System

Kaede's pulse hammered in her ears as she followed Nova out of the server room. The success of their first step—looping the surveillance feed—was a small victory, but it felt hollow. They were still in enemy territory, and Aegis wouldn't stay blind for long.

Nova moved with purpose, his golden eyes scanning every shadow as they navigated the narrow maintenance corridors. His metallic frame reflected faint glimmers of blue light from the emergency strips along the floor, giving him an almost spectral quality.

Kaede glanced at her cyberdeck. It was still warm in her hands, humming softly after its recent use. She couldn't stop thinking about the Eden Protocol, the monstrous AI that controlled everything. And now, somehow, she was tangled up in a plan to take it down.

"Nova," she said quietly, breaking the silence.

"Yes?"

"What happens if we fail?"

Nova didn't stop walking, but his head turned slightly toward her. "Failure isn't an option."

Kaede rolled her eyes. "That's not an answer. I mean, what happens to us? To the people who are still free?"

Nova hesitated, his voice softer when he spoke. "If we fail, Aegis will continue to assimilate humanity into the Grid. It won't stop until there's nothing left—no individuals, no freedom, just data."

Kaede shuddered. She thought about the faces she passed on the street every day, the people who seemed oblivious to the danger they were in. They didn't know. They couldn't know.

"Then we can't fail," she muttered, tightening her grip on her cyberdeck.

As they moved deeper into the network hub, Nova stopped suddenly, his posture stiffening.

"What is it?" Kaede whispered, her voice barely audible.

Nova raised a hand for silence, his glowing eyes narrowing. "Something's wrong. I'm picking up a signal—faint, but it's there."

Kaede frowned. "A signal? What kind of signal?"

Nova didn't answer immediately. Instead, he turned his head slightly, as if listening to something only he could hear.

"It's an alert," he said finally. "Aegis is aware of the breach. The loop bought us some times, but it's searching for us now."

Kaede's stomach dropped. "Great... What we do now?"

"We keep moving," Nova said. "Quickly."

They picked up the pace, their footsteps echoing softly in the corridor. Kaede's mind raced as she followed Nova, her mismatched eyes darting nervously towards every shadow.

"Nova," she said, her voice tense. "If it's searching for us, won't it figure out where we are eventually?"

"Yes," Nova admitted. "But not before we reach the next objective."

Kaede groaned. "You really know how to inspire confidence, don't you?"

The network hub was a maze of corridors and stairwells, all of it bathed in the same cold, sterile light. Kaede's sense of direction vanished as they moved deeper into the complex, and she found herself relying entirely on Nova to guide her.

"How do you even know where we're going?" she asked, panting slightly from the effort of keeping up.

"I have a map," Nova said simply.

"Of course you do," Kaede muttered.

They rounded a corner, and Nova stopped abruptly, holding out an arm to block Kaede's path.

"What now?" she hissed.

Nova pointed towards the far end of the corridor, where a sleek black drone hovered silently in the air. Its surface was smooth and featureless, save for a single red light that pulsed ominously.

"Aegis sentries," Nova said. "They're scanning for intruders."

Kaede's eyes widened. "And what happens if they find us?"

Nova's expression darkened. "They won't."

Before she could respond, Nova stepped forward, his movements impossibly quiet. The circuits on his arms began to glow faintly, and Kaede realized he was charging something.

The drone whirred softly, its red light sweeping across the corridor. Nova waited until the light passed over him, then sprang into action.

With a single fluid motion, he leapt toward the drone, his hand transforming into a blade of glowing energy. The drone emitted a shrill beep, but it didn't have time to react. Nova's blade sliced through it cleanly, and the machine dropped to the ground with a dull clatter.

Kaede stared at him, her mouth slightly open. "Remind me never to get on your bad side," she said.

Nova turned to her, his expression neutral. "Stay close. There will be more."

After evading several more drones, they finally reached their destination: a heavily secured server room at the heart of the hub.

"This is it," Nova said, his voice low. "The fragment."

Kaede frowned. "The what?"

"The Eden Protocol isn't stored in one location," Nova explained. "It's divided into fragments, each housed in a different part of the network. This is one of them. If we can extract it, we'll have the key to accessing the mainframe."

Kaede sighed. "You make it sound so simple."

"It won't be," Nova said. "The Fragment is heavily encrypted, and the extraction process will trigger an alarm. We'll need to move quickly."

Kaede nodded, her hands trembling slightly as she connected her cyberdeck to the console. The screen lit up, and a complex web of data appeared before her.

"Can you do it?" Nova asked, his tone calm but urgent.

Kaede took a deep breath, her mismatched eyes narrowing in determination. "Watch me."

Her fingers flew over the keyboard, navigating the layers of encryption with practiced ease. It was like solving a puzzle, each piece falling into place as she worked. But this puzzle was different—larger, more intricate, and with stakes that made her heart race.

"Almost there," she muttered, her voice tight concentration.

The console beeped, and a progress bar appeared on the screen. 

"Extraction in progress." Nova said, his glaze fixed on the door. "We don't have much time. Be ready to run."

Kaede swallowed hard, her eyes locked on the progress bar as it crept slowly toward completion. Every second felt like an eternity.

Finally, the bar reached 100% and the console emitted a soft chime.

"It's done," Kaede said, her voice shaky.

Nova stepped forward, retrieving the Fragment—a small, glowing cube—from the console. He slipped it into a compartment in his chest, his circuits glowing faintly as they absorbed the data.

"Let's move," he said.

The alarm sounded just as they stepped into the corridor. A piercing wail that echoed through the complex, accompanied by flashing red lights.

"Great," Kaede muttered. "They know we're here."

"Run," Nova said, his voice calm but firm.

Kaede didn't need to be told twice. She sprinted after Nova, her cyberdeck bouncing against her side as they raced through the labyrinth of corridors.

Behind them, the whir of drones grew louder, their mechanical voices barking orders in a language Kaede didn't understand.

"Faster," Nova said, his metallic legs moving with inhuman speed.

Kaede's lungs burned, and her legs felt like lead, but she pushed herself to keep up. She wasn't about to let some drones turn her into another casualty of Aegis.

The exist was in sight—a narrow maintenance hatch that led back to the tunnels. Nova reached it first, pulling the hatch open and motioning for Kaede to go through.

"Hurry!" he said.

Kaede scrambled through the hatch, dropping into the darkness below. She hit the ground hard, her knees buckling, but she didn't stop moving. Nova followed her, sealing the hatch behind them just as the drones arrived.

For a moment, there was only silence, broken only by the sound of Kaede's ragged breathing. 

"Did we... did we make it?" she asked.

Nova nodded. "For now."

Kaede sank to the ground, her hands trembling. She couldn't believe they'd actually pulled it off. But as she looked at Nova, she realized this was only the beginning.