Shock and Awe Pt. 1

The city of New Olympos spreads far and wide, separated into five floating major districts. There are very few blackout sectors left unnoticed by the watchful gaze of the High Order, but these sectors do exist nonetheless.

One is a sector that was once a beautiful shopping district amongst locals of the Undercity. Another is a sector that was a sprawling residential area ravaged by civil war between the High Order and a now-disbanded gang of defects. There is no shortage of these dead zones, and they could serve as hiding grounds for those who undermine the law.

At the lobby of an abandoned hotel, the infamous Calypso squad made camp.

Astrid was off in her own little office, isolated with her personal supercomputer. A rapid succession of keyboard clicks could be heard every so often.

Minerva was prancing around in her makeshift workshop, experimenting with different weapon combinations and crafts.

Loki was resting on a hammock near the walls, swinging back and forth while whistling a familiar tune.

Zephyr was sitting on a carpet next to a small table, drinking tea from a teapot while meditating.

Holiday was at the center of it all, standing with her arms resting on a war table.

"Take a break, Holly," Loki yawned. "You've been at it for hours."

"No time," she replied.

"You're gonna start graying. Wouldn't wanna mess up that beautiful pink hair of yours, eh?"

"...Is that something I'm supposed to care about?"

"Just saying."

"Leave the Captain be, Loki," Zephyr said. "We might be using our free time to relax now, but she is right. The High Order won't rest until they find us. As such, we can not afford to rest either."

Loki crossed her arms with a brow raised. "Awfully funny coming from you, Zeph. Look at you, sitting over there, sipping tea like a proper lady."

"I didn't say that I wouldn't take advantage of this time to rest."

"You just said we couldn't afford to."

"Doesn't mean I won't do it anyway."

"Hah! Goddam hypocrite."

"Quiet, please," Holiday muttered.

Zephyr's eyes widened. "Apologies, Captain..."

Loki, on the other hand, rolled her eyes. "My bad, Holly."

"No need to apologize."

Suddenly, Holiday let out an exhausted groan as she lifted her hands to her eyes and rubbed them. At first, it seemed like a simple action unworthy of notice, but it sparked an exchange between the other two, who were still watching her.

"Actually, Captain... I think Loki might be right," Zephyr said. "You haven't been getting much sleep."

"It's not like we do either, but we get more than you, that's for sure," Loki concurred. "Especially since you're our captain. Can't have you falling asleep during missions, now can we?"

"I'd never," Holiday sighed.

"Just hit the hay, Holly. I'll keep watch."

Loki slid off the hammock, grabbed her sword that was leaning against the wall, and walked outside.

"I'll make sure she doesn't run off her own, Captain," Zephyr said as she picked up her scabbard. "Please. If anything, just rest your eyes."

As the captain of Calypso, Holiday took it upon herself to protect her squad at all costs. Her relentless determination made it impossible for the others to stand by and let her shoulder that burden alone. Yet, she continued her selfless ways, slowly deteriorating under the weight of war.

Holiday let out a weary sigh as she finally dropped into a swivel chair, sliding back until she hit the receptionist's desk. Her shoulders sagged, and the fatigue that plagued her mind began to ease. Resting her head in her arms, she closed her eyes, surrendering to the exhaustion.

From the hotel entrance, Loki peeked in, spotting Holiday dozing off. She threw her arms up for a stretch and squatted on the ground while Zephyr leaned against the outer wall, watching quietly.

"She's asleep," Loki said.

"Good."

"Don't you think Holly's been pushing herself too hard lately?"

"She has to. After all, she decided to reveal our presence to the entire city. It can't get any worse than that."

"Hah. Damn right. Did she ever say why?"

"She did, but you were too busy stuffing your face with egg tarts."

"Ehehe~ What can I say? They were freaking delicious. So, what was the reason?"

Zephyr sighed as she crossed her arms, her scabbard hanging in between. "Remember the communication log we intercepted a couple of weeks ago?

"Between General Mars and the Hypnos Squad?"

"Yeah. Supposedly, they're cranking up the efforts in searching for a missing item, a first-grade code nucleus, one that once belonged to codename: Nyx."

"Hey... Not to interrupt you, but... didn't Captain Nemesis steal something like that a while back?"

Zephyr locked eyes with Loki, giving her all the answers she needed.

"Okay... Got it," Loki mumbled. "So what does that have to do with anything?"

"You knew Captain Nemesis just as well as I. She was extremely intelligent, so sharp that even Astrid had to admit it. However, there were times when she was forced to make a choice. That nucleus... She left it where she thought no one would ever think to look."

"...Fuck. Her kid brother. That's why Holly decided to make such a rash decision. To put the spotlight back on us and divert their attention away from the search. She probably had no other choice."

"Yeah... Right now, borrowed time is all we have. We need to find him before the High Order does. Otherwise... He's a goner."

"Tch... Goddammit. Bring me back to the days when life was easy."

Inside the office next to the lobby, Astrid opened up her minifridge and popped a can of soda. Like always, she sat down at her desk and immersed herself in the ten monitors, one above or next to the other. From a small drawer, she pulled out a small box and tore it open, taking out a chocolate-covered biscuit stick. She twiddled the treat in her mouth while mercilessly clacking her keyboard.

"Strider, huh...?" she muttered to herself. "Nyx... There's no doubt about it. That was the code nucleus that Captain Nemesis stole. And If you have it... Ah, shit."

Astrid dug a little more into the High Order's network, particularly records of the army and their soldiers. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of entries rolled up in rows and columns. Each individual soldier had their information displayed, from their code names to their real names, their ages to their heights—nothing was left out.

She pulled up a search bar and typed in the name, 'Strider.' Immediately, all entries were filtered out except for one.

"Strider, field operator, age: irrelevant, blah-blah-blah... Oho, no fucking way."

Her eyes widened with shock.

"Solas De Leux. Haha... Out of the millions of people in this goddam city, I happened to run into you... working for the High Order, no less. And would you look at that? No mentions of codename: Regulus anywhere. They really did wipe his info from the network."

Suddenly, a red dot appeared on the left of the screen. Astrid clicked on it, pulling up camera footage of a seemingly abandoned refinery. However, soldiers of the High Order could be seen patrolling the perimeters.

She then clicked around and opened another video—a much more disturbing one. It was of a doctor sawing off a man's arm without anesthetics, his screams wailing so loud that Astrid had to turn the volume down.

"If only you had listened," the doctor said. "We could've avoided making such a mess."

"F-fuck you!" the man shouted back.

"Gosh... Seems you haven't learned your lesson. What should we do? Hm... How about the other arm?"

While the man was begging him to stop, Astrid closed out the video player. Her heart dropped, a lump forming in her throat, as she tightly clenched her chest for the sinking feeling to go away.

"Good find, Solas," she muttered. "We'll get 'em."