Harbinger of massacre

"General, we understand your reasons, however, you will need to find out another way to catch these terrorists, the tunnels cannot stay shut anymore" A male voice was talking through the communicator.
"But governor, we need more time to-" Astrea was trying to negotiate.
"After ten days in this lockdown, the insurgencies are no longer our major problem" A female voice spoke "Most of stores doesn't have basic products in stock, and the ones which still have, people are not managing to reach them, the city already did not had a good traffic network, but now it is impossible to move. The overall city's production decreased in more than eighty percent"
"I see..."
"We appreciate your efforts, but we are in no conditions to remain like this" The governor talked again "You have until tomorrow to open everything again"

They disconnected from the call, Astrea sat on her chair, feeling tired.
"Good job General, you held the lockdown for almost two weeks, it was impressive" David tried to lift her spirits.
"And for what? Did you guys accomplish anything?"
"I made sure that they are not connected to our servers anymore" Tanya said proudly "Also disconnected every single terminal which the privates can access, even if there is still an impostor among us, he won't be able to do anything"
"What else?"
"Every conflict we had this meantime was succesfully supressed, weren't many though, the traffic itself helped to avoid large masses to move" Ian said.
"And the terrorists?"
"Well... no sign of them, we don't have their location, their objectives, names, nothing. But looks like they couldn't make progress, perhaps they have ran out of supplies" David replied.
"Ran out of supplies? The guys who planned everything so far? Only by a miracle"

"After two weeks trying to help people move through the city, we now have to stop them of moving. Sometimes I doubt of what the commanders are doing" George was complaining.
"You are so dramatic George, we will not stop them of moving, just arrest a few vandals" Anna said.
"I was almost forgetting you don't kill, Anna" Vladmir commented.
"Legssss"
"It is you guys who go out killing people"
"Don't worry, you chose the hard way, but killing makes our duty easier"
"I don't care if it is harder, I'm proud of my choice. I must not choose who dies or who lives, neither should you"

Their transport arrived at the deploy station and the three got on the platform where two SCUs were waiting, not only them, but others three ARCs were there as well.
"Oh I missed missions with SCUs, they are more exciting" George was animated.
"I thought Lucy wouldn't be able to pilot again" Anna said while hitting George on the head.
"Unfortunately, she won't" Vladmir sighed "And the most impressive is that who is piloting is-"
"Me" The SCU did a peace sign with his hands to them.
"WHAT?" George exclaimed "Rafael? You little rascal"
"Unbelievable" Anna put her hand on her face.
"You better do your job properly this time" Vladmir joked.
"I'm sure he will" The other pilot said "This guy here gave everything he could at the training, almost broke a few records at the simulators"
"Thanks Captain Brickwell" Rafael said.
The platform began to rise.
"Almost broke records? Now I don't buy it" George crossed his arms.
"I'm telling you, the best pilot of the history of the army is rising, and you have the hon-"
"Yeah, yeah rookie" Brickwell gave him a rifle "You will be the one shooting in case of those destroyers appear, keep your eyes opened"
"Fine..." Rafael stared at the rifle through the SCU optics, It looked like a regular rifle, but of a size proportional to the mecha. Originally designed to kill corruptions, so it had an immense firepower.

They reached the surface, their mission was to secure one of the main avenues of the city to avoid stores, offices and other buildings of being broken into by burglars among a peaceful manifestation.
"I didn't remember manifestations like this one existed" George was surprised.
"Neither did I" Vladmir agreed "Remember, we are not here to scatter them, the SCUs will give us targets to take down if necessary, otherwise, we will just stand down"
The ARCs blended in with the crowd while the SCUs were cautiously walking, trying to see anything out of order.
"And he is really just casually moving, doesn't even seem that almost a month ago was his first time in a mecha" Anna commented.
"Some people just born with talent, what to do, right?" Vladmir was quite proud of Rafael.
"I'm more surprised with these people, simply requesting changes to the government in the middle of an avenue" George was thinking he was on a dream, almost.
"Well, this is how civilized people should fight for their rights, it is just unfortunate that there are people does different" Vladmir talked.
"Civilized people, right? It's just a matter of time that the government order us to shoot them all"
"They would never give an order like that" Anna said.
"Oh yeah, I forgot that only violent people they kill like that" George laughed" The peaceful ones they kill with poverty"
"Your jokes have already been better, George" Vladmir told seriously.
"Jeez, it's hard to please you guys these days"

After a few hours, the parade was over, and most of the people went home without creating any confusion. The squads gathered themselves again at the deploy station after they made sure everything was okay.
"Ha, I'm definitely dreaming, Rafael is piloting that well, and nothing happened, it is unbelievable" George was leaned on the foot of Rafael's SCU.
"Nothing happened is quite exaggerated, we arrested eleven people" Anna said.
"We ARRESTED eleven people, I didn't even shoot"
"How bloodthirsty you are, someone should confiscate your weapon"
"Don't worry Anna, he is just jealous that my presence doesn't allow any misbehavior"
"Your presence??" George laughed out loud "Rafael, you did nothing at all"
Vladmir called their attention "Hey, we should be relieved that nothing happened, we all here fight for peaceful times, so let's not complain when it is finally here, right George?"
"Yes sir"
"Keep your excitement for shooting when those destroyers come back, you can kill how many you want of them"
"Oh, don't worry, I will"

In the next few days, there was no sign of the terrorists, this actually was making some people of the army anxious, yet, there was nothing to do, until:
"HA, I got you, suckeeeeerrr" Tanya jumped of her chair in excitement, the rest of the people at the command center just stared at her.
"Uhhh... I mean..." Tanya blushed a little "I have a good news"
"Finally" Astrea stood up, animated "Spit it out"
"I traced a message that was being sent from here to somewhere I couldn't localize just yet."
"I miss the part where it was good news" Astrea wasn't excited any longer.
"It starts now, I caught the hacker, and also how he managed to make fool of all of us. He used other people's IDs to access the terminals, so even after we discover his actions, they would never lead us to the true hacker"
"So it was only one hacker all along, and the others were just decoys" David commented
"Exactly, but this time, he fell into my trap, I assumed he would try to use another terminal, probably one of the officers's terminals, so whenever someone use it to contact somewhere out of base, it would send to me an silently alarm. And well, ladies and gentlemen, we got'em" Tanya's eyes where shinning in her glory.

"But you said you couldn't intercept the message, you at least know what it was?" Ian asked
"Uhhh... it was the entire power grid of Promise, and and a few other things, such as all the defense protocols and codes of the power receptors"
"THE POWER RECEPTORS??" Astrea was shocked "If at least one of them gets compromised, the city would probably black out"
"And this would turn off the force field and the oxygen generators. The venomous atmosphere of this planet would poison the whole city" Ian added.
"And the miners are the most prepared to a situation like that, they live inside tunnels and have quite some contact with the outside, a perfect plan for them" David concluded.
"A perfect plan to a massacre" Astrea corrected "We need to stop them, no matter the cost. Actually, Tanya, who is the spy?"
"Uhh... let me see, because I forgot his name" Tanya went back to the computer "Here, private George Klyman"