We called in a few mercenaries from the city and got to work clearing out the foxholes. We did eight of them over three days, watching the city degrade from afar. When the dome went down, we thought the city was gone. Silver got called into some suicide run to try to take control of the dome. They never talked about that mission, but they succeeded.

  “C-1 was watching from the shadows the whole time. I could tell you what happened.” I offer, and drop a request to share it onto Silver’s computer. A moment ter I get a response back saying they don’t care. “Silver is ok with it.”

  “Well alright. I won’t compin about taking a break.” Vince leans back in his chair.

  I don’t mean to make you feel bad, Vince, but Silver learned about the pn to try to take back the tower from one of the foxholes you recovered. The AI in there weren’t infected, they were scared and trying to make it to Vegas. A few of the foxholes were like that, two of the eight you cleared out among them.

  “It’s alright Little Blue. I’d rather know about my mistakes than not.”

  Silver had a habit of shredding the servers they dove into. But from the fractured remains, they pieced together pns to take back control of the dome. Although I’m not actually sure what happened between them discovering the info and going to meet the group trying to actually put the pn in motion.

  “I can fill that in.” Vince says.

  They popped the lid off a networking box built into the wall and started pulling cords. If C-1 stopped watching, I imagine they got the network cable. Only after they did that and nodded did any of us dare to speak.

  “I’ll be back.” Silver was pissed and headed to their car. I guess they must have known we just sughtered innocents.

  “Where the hell are you going?” Mara asked.

  “To save this hellhole, even if it kills me.” They threw open the door and hopped in. “If I’m not back after the dome comes back online and the storm clears, you can have my stuff for all I care.”

  They pulled out and headed back to the city.

  “Let’s get another hole done before the storm.” Mara said.

  “Thank you.” I take over the story once again.

  C-1’s cameras watched Silver circle around the city, well out of effective rifle range. Clover’s tablet was airgapped from C-1, and I doubt either of them are willing to share their conversations from that day.

  Silver eventually found a pce to leave their car and rushed into the nearest building. They did the same thing they did to get you out, silently working their way through floor after floor, taking tunnels between buildings. It took them hours, but they found their way to one of the center skyscrapers, close to the tower. It became a sort of center of operations for the survivors. Silver stopped just before turning into their killbox.

  “You going to shoot a human?” They called.

  “How human?” A guard called back.

  Silver cracked a smile, I can only imagine sharing a joke with Clover.

  “Not really sure the exact percentage anymore. I’m a diver with a quantum and you need me.”

  “Leave the AI! I’m not going to risk it going mad and ruining our pns.”

  “Quantums are safe, and you’re going to need all the processing power you can get to take back the dome. She’s got a whole server elsewhere and a conduit through me. All data both ways gets filtered through my brain. Ask Solivagant, he’ll vouch for her and me.”

  The compound was very well protected from C-1. He was entirely cut off, at least for the moment. He ripped the memories of what happened in there out of an AI that took part in the raid afterwards.

  There were a few AI on guard, and it only took a moment for them to verify and allow in Silver.

  “Fine!” The guard yelled out. “Move slowly!”

  Silver stepped confidently around the corner.

  “See? Organic where it matters.” Silver walked straight through their security checkpoint.

  One of the AI pulled back some of the barricades to let them in.

  “You showed up right on time, the operation is beginning soon. I’ll show you the way.”

  Silver nodded and followed. Inside was chaotic. AI and anchors trying to comfort and protect each other. Those who lost their families trying to find comfort in each other.

  “Do you have experience fighting in teams?” They asked.

  “Just a team of two.”

  “Ok. Well, you and Clover are going to be added to an existing group of three. I’ll let them do the introductions.”

  Just one floor down was a mess of wires, servers, and as much cooling they could manage to squeeze in. Small groups were standing around, talking nervously. The AI lead Silver to a group of three, two humans, and one AI peering out of a monitor, their camera sweeping from side to side. The AI was the first to call out excitedly.

  “That’s them! Hi!” She called out, her digital self bouncing excitedly. “It’s ever so nice to meet you! I’m Alexandri! And this is Hummingbird!” She gestured beside her.

  “I trust you can hold your own?” She asked.

  “Guess you’ll see.” Silver answered.

  “And I’m Drew.” The man added with an awkward wave and a forced smile. His skull was metal with electronics id into it, all hidden by a lumpy cap.

  “That’s how Silver met Drew?” Cassie asks.

  “Apparently. He never told me anything beyond meeting them during a crapshoot of a mission.” Vince answers. “And Hummingbird never even hinted to me how they met Silver.”

  “What’s your experience, all three of you?” Silver asked.

  “I was plugged in when things went to shit.” Hummingbird shrugged.

  “All on her own too!” Alexandri yelled, only to shrink back and regain control of her voice. Hummingbird just smiled and shook her head. “She’s really strong! Just as strong as me!”

  “Alright.” Silver nodded to Drew.

  “I was an early trial for full dive cybernetics.” Drew reached up to rub the back of his neck. “I survived that with my mind intact. I think that means something.”

  “It does. I’m a second gen, with a few experimental, custom modifications. What’s the pn?”

  “We don’t know!” Alexandri said happily.

  “It’s by ear.” Hummingbird added. “Ground teams are getting us a high speed connection. After that? We don’t know what to expect in the Digital. We move in groups and move quickly. We hit the server, take control of the dome, and hold.”

  “Easy enough. I-”

  A call rung through the room.

  “Connection is live! Dive!”

  Silver didn’t hesitate to grab the nearest cord and plug themselves in.

  The server at that time was simir to today, although without C-1’s beating heart chained to the top of the tower.

  “What?” Cassie asks bnkly.

  “Oh, I never told you? A lot of AI, especially biological and mind rips, like to mold their servers into a representation of the physical world. It also makes it far easier for most humans to interact with. C-1 formed his server and everything connected to it into a copy of the physical city. Although at some point, he grew too big, and his digital self became a beating heart chained to the top of the tower.”

  “More AI bullshit then, alright.” Cassie shrugs.

  Clover and their small group found themselves surrounded. Connecting just a few seconds after the AI meant the fighting had already begun. The Digital took more damage than the Physical during the war. The streets were ruined, barely able to be traversed. Entire buildings had been disconnected, leaving only voids where they once stood.

  The streets were flooded with people in three groups. People adapted differently to C-1’s madness. Most couldn’t handle it, and started attacking indiscriminately anything they could reach, AI, human, electronics, it didn’t matter. The second group saw truth in his madness, whatever that meant to them. They banded together, trying to bring his truth to all others, no matter how they had to do it. The third were those uninfected, and the humans that still stood beside them, trying desperately to get things under control.

  The ones who saw truth held the Bastion, and were pnning on burying the city. It’d kill all humans, all anchors, and somehow they thought it’d free the AI who would survive. The attack group trying to take the tower back added themselves to the fray, desperately trying to overwhelm those holding C-1’s madness.

  Alexandri and Hummingbird joined a moment ter, two halves of the same body. Alexandri was the legs of a mech, and Hummingbird everything above the hips. They fit together perfectly, always in sync.

  Drew stood alone. Thick braids of wires ran from his head, over his shoulders, and flowed down his back. Circuit boards clung tightly to his skin, and he held a tangled, warped staff of stiff wires in his hands.

  Both halves of Silver’s mind nodded to the small group and took them in.

  “Let’s see if we can hit them where they least expect it.” That Clover was different to the Clover I know. Whereas the one I know is splotches of color spread randomly across a humanoid body, that Clover had the same colors, just woven together into a tight tapestry. She reached out into the empty air, plucking single strings of reality, only to move on to the next one with a frown.

  “What’s wrong?” Silver asked.

  “There’s a lot of interference.” Clover answered, her fingers still testing the fabric of reality. “I just need to find…” She lightly plucked another string, and it snapped. Reality unraveled around it, creating a doorway. It had just enough bandwidth for the five of them, but creating a bigger tear wasn’t possible. “A blindspot.” She and Silver stepped through, side by side. Hummingbird and Drew gnced at each other before following.

  The door led deep into the portion of C-1’s server he allowed the public to take control of. They were near the access point for the dome, but were far from alone. Numerous AI were left on guard.

  A nce of burning psma rocketed towards Silver’s head. They reached out before it arrived and pulled, shredding a portion of the server. The nce hit the void left behind and vanished from reality.

  Clover plucked another string, creating a much smaller tunnel with an angle on their attackers. Silver unched the fragment of the server they took through it. The tunnel closed before anyone could return fire.

  Drew smmed his staff into the ground and began to shape the server around him. Electric pnts grew slowly from the ground, starting as small saplings and growing into towering trees. He constructed a forest of electronic scrap, yers and yers of defenses, protecting everyone.

  Alexandri and Hummingbird moved quickly as one, darting from tree to tree, from void to void. Great gouts of steam erupted from Hummingbird, intercepting attacks and doing damage where possible.

  The five of them couldn’t win this fight. Reinforcements were nearly limitless. What it did do, however, was force attention onto them, and away from the rest of the attack group. It let everyone else slowly gain ground.

  The five of them fought for days without rest, without sleep. Silver at least could rest half their brain during the slowest hours. Hummingbird and Drew though? They fought through exhaustion, with everything they had.

  On day two, an AI got the drop on Hummingbird and Alexandri. Hummingbird thought she saw an opportunity to take control of the dome. She convinced Alexandri to move out of cover.

  It was a trap. An obvious one. If it wasn’t for her exhaustion she would have seen it.

  Alexandri paid for Hummingbird’s mistake. She took hit after hit, each one carrying away chunks of her. She got Hummingbird back to the safety of the forest before falling, far too fractured to ever be recovered.

  She died.

  Hummingbird didn’t take it well. The two of them were companions for years, together at every moment.

  Hummingbird flew away.

  She retreated through the portal Clover still held open, clutching the remnants of Alexandri close to her chest. She never returned to the fight.

  That just meant Drew, Silver, and Clover just had to push themselves harder.

  It wasn’t until the fourth day that another group finally fought their way to the core. After one final push, they took control, reactivating the dome just a few hours before the storm hit.

  Drew colpsed from exhaustion. Silver unplugged themself only to find him convulsing on the floor. Silver cradled him in their p, knowing there was nothing that could be done. If he lived, it would only be by luck.

  They stayed with him until he finally settled, and his eyes weakly opened.

  “Hey, look at me.” Silver ordered, and one of Drew’s eyes rolled towards them, unable to focus. “Do you know where you are? Who you are?”

  Drew tried to speak, only for garbled gibberish to come out.

  “Shit.” Silver gnced around and called out to one of the guards. “Who’s in charge here?”

  “That’d be me.” A human answered from the other side of the room.

  Silver marched towards him, pulled out a wad of arcs out of their backpack, and shoved it into his hands. Nearly a hundred thousand by C-1’s best guess.

  “Kids a fucking hero. Make damn sure he gets better.” Silver marched back to Drew and plugged themself back in. Half their brain took the Physical, trying to help Drew. The other half took the Digital, where they and Clover would fight until the next storm passed.

  JanePtinum