Exactly as planned

The motorcycle stopped somewhere in the middle of a dark cave, there was an improvised lab and a hangar. Countless exosuits were there, deactivated, and six trucks were carrying the three SHUs which fell into the hole. The driver took off his helmet, was Ulysses and Stewart was waiting for him.
"Sir, you were splendid, I still don't believe you tricked eight ARCs and escaped from the SHUs, well, the latter I helped, but amazing" Stewart was celebrating, really excited "and everything went exactly as you planned, they didn't even saw what hit them"
"Exactly as planned, huh? Then why are only three mechas here? I'm sure there were four" Ulysses calmly asked.
"Uh... one of them was a little more skilled than we expected, bu-"
"You guys are incompetent as predicted" He sighed "But three cores will be enough to power sufficient exosuits. What about the pilots and soldiers?"
"We already killed them and disposed their bodies"
"Good, our victory is close, let's start the preparations of the last phase"

"Why are they taking so long to arrive?" Astrea asked unpaciently.
"I don't know, perhaps a problem on the transport" Ian suggested.
"No problem was reported yet" David replied.
"We don't get notified immediately"
"Whatever, just find out where they are"
"General" Tanya was nervously laughing "I found one of them, a SCU squad who was at a sector nearby containing a riot, reported that they found a SHU, Theo's SHU"
"WHAT?" Astrea shouted.
"It is impossible, I saw them entering the deploy station through the cameras" Ian exclaimed.
"It isn't impossible, but it gets worse though. They once again hacked our servers, but not only disconnected the squad from contacting us, but they compromised our entire communication. They passed as us to them and manipulated all that sector's cameras and sensors"
"You are saying that-" Ian was disbelieved.
"That It was trap all along, and fell right into it"
"You better not be joking" Astrea was nervous.
"I wish I was. I'm trying to find out what happened and how, but right now, our only lead is Theo, who is arriving with the SCU squad"
Astrea got out of the command center hastly, looking really pissed off.

Theo found Astrea when he was halfway to the command center.
"General-"
"Major Kouri, Are you all right?"
"I'm fine"
"What happened?"
"Whoever was the person you sent us after, wasn't a regular hacker or IT professional. He had everything planned, since the begining"
"Give me details" They started to head back to the command center.
"There is nothing much to detail, he played with us, messed with our communication system and drawed us to a crossing where he could take us down"
"And only you got out of there? Or the others managed to escape to somewhere else?"
"Only I escaped, the others fell into the hole"
"Wait?? Hole?"
"They exploded the avenue, creating a crater"

At this moment, they arrived at the command center.
"General, we already restored all the comms system, also already sent several SCUs squad but so far, they didn't found anyone" David said.
"We recovered the footage, it is clear that the SHUs were mislead to a trap, they didn't even went after Stewart" Ian complemented.
"They used video records of past mission to deceive us" Tanya concluded.
"How could they do all that?" Theo asked.
"The same way they did last time, this time, was a private called Lucius Guvard. And before you request, he died last night in combat, his ARC was deactivated and he was killed by our forces as he tried to desert in middle of a mission" Tanya answered.
"How they created a cliff in the street?" Astrea was trying his best to talk calmly, despite being extremely nervous and angry "The whole infrastructure of this city is prepared to resist an warfare, and they simply tore the floor down"
"Considering that we are fighting against miners, they built all the tunnels, they live inside them, so they probably know how to bring them down" Ian replied
"Is that so. Then notify the governor, we will close every single tunnel of this city. In exception of the military transports, Metro, roads, whatever tunnel which allows transport of people or objects will be closed"
"But General, this is insane, the amount of problems that it will cause, the city will enter in a crisis fas-" Before David could finish his complain, Astrea interrupted him.
"Insane is these terrorist doing whatever they want and us not being able to do anything about it, this at least will cut their coordination, buying us time to improve the safety of our servers and to think about a counterattack"
"Well, our enemy won't be able to move since no one in this city will be able to" Theo talked "But is risky, the population will react"
"Just when people were going back to their normal life" Tanya commented sadly.

"HUH?? Where did you get a chocolate?" Anna asked surprised.
"At the officers room" George was enjoying very much a small piece of chocolate.
"Uh? But how did you managed to get there?"
"Connections, Anna, connections"
Both looked at the dining hall, where they were, the room was almost empty.
"It's been like this since they locked the city's underground, a week ago" Anna sighed.
"And now they mobilize us to be basically traffic guards" George joked.
"And we should go before Sargeant gets angry"
"Oh yeah, Sarge just got back to duty and is already complaining with me"
"It is just sad that Rafael does not come with us anymore"
"Well, corporal Kouri is an SCU pilot now, and no Mecha is going out with that traffic"

"Dad, are you all right?" Rafael had just got out of the SCU simulator.
"Why?" Theo was helping him train.
"Like, none of your subordinates were found so far"
"Oh, don't worry" He kept in silence for a while "If they are alive, we will found them, and if they are dead..."
"They are alive and we will fin-"
"You don't know that, don't need to lie to comfort me" Rafael looked down, feeling powerless "Hey, don't be like that, in a way or another, only memories would remain anyway. It is just that we won't be creating any other memory"
"Life shouldn't be like that"
"But it is, unfortunately, this is why you must fight to stay alive, to remember the ones who were gone before us, and to create memories with the ones in the present, so we may be remembered in the future"
"That is it?"
"Yeah, or at least this is how I see life, you need to find out how you see it, otherwise, why are you even alive?" Theo then streched "But now, let's get back to training, we need to take advantage we are not going out"

"Ulysses, everything is ready, but all tunnels were closed, there is no way we can move without being noticed, what will we do??" Stewart was desperated.
"Well, then check all the exosuits again" Ulysses was extremely calm.
"Uh? Why?"
"Because there is nothing else to do"
"WHAT? This mean we lost?? Oh no, what will happen to me? they know my identity, I'm dead, I'M DEAD"
"Oh c'mon, stop it already, you are not that stupid, we will just wait until they reopen the tunnels, they can't keep with this forever"
"But our supplies, energy, food, they will only last more two weeks"
"And you think this lockdown will last more than that? I really overestimated your intelligence"
"And our spy, he was set to act one week later than the second phase, there is no way for us to contact him"
"He will wait until a good opportunity"
"How do you know that?"
"Because he is smarter than you"
"Uhh... can you please stop offending me while you explain things"
"Oh, you have calmed down"
"Hmph, don't you forget that was me who taught him how to hack everything, okay? He is a genius like me. But still, how you have so confidence on him that he will act at the right moment?"
"Because it was me who taught him how to survive in this city, that man is the future of Promise. Until then, make sure the exosuits are ready"
"They are, sir"
"Check them again, you are doing nothing at all, besides, this time, I want everything to go exactly as planned, I don't want any excuse"
As Stewart left, Ulysses stood up from his chair, took photo out of his pocket, it was a family photo, his family.
"Finally, I will avenge you, all of you"