Location: Skies over Tavara, Dominion Pursuit Zone Delta-9
The night sky trembled beneath the roar of twin stealth choppers slicing through low-altitude clouds. Inside, Damien, Nora, Victor, Echo, and Zina were strapped into reinforced seats as turbulence jostled the aircraft.
"We're approaching Dominion radar," Echo warned, typing rapidly on her wrist console. "They've scrambled interceptors. ETA: three minutes."
Victor sat across from Nora, eyes intense. "You read the letter?"
She hesitated, then nodded. "You knew my mother."
"I did more than that," Victor said. "She was Dominion's highest-ranking defector. She planted you in the Wycliffe family to keep you alive. They never knew."
Damien's eyes narrowed. "So you're saying Nora is..."
"She's the original override key to the Atlas system," Victor interrupted. "She carries the last pure sequence of the Aegis gene—something even Dominion lost decades ago."
Nora swallowed hard, her world shifting again. "And you knew this all along?"
Victor didn't flinch. "I kept you alive because the world wasn't ready. Now… it has no choice."
Suddenly, Echo's screen flashed red.
"Incoming!" she yelled.
The chopper veered as tracer fire lit up the sky. A Dominion drone squadron descended like a black swarm.
"Zina!" Damien barked.
"Already on it," she replied, swinging open the side door and letting loose a barrage of EMP grenades.
The night sky exploded in electric blue arcs. Half the drones spiraled and crashed into the forest below.
But one sleek interceptor made it through—an advanced Valkyrie-class Dominion ship.
"Hold on!" the pilot screamed as the chopper dove between cliffs.
---
Location: Atlas Black Site – Outer Perimeter
Commander Stratos stared at the countdown timer on his interface.
00:64:21:39
The Nexus Protocol was nearing activation.
He turned to the shadowed figure at the back of the room.
"They're coming," he said.
From the shadows, a figure stepped forward—tall, cloaked, with eyes that glowed faint crimson. "Then let them. The last gates are already locked. Not even the Wycliffe girl can change fate now."
Stratos hesitated. "Unless the Omega failsafe—"
"There is no Omega," the figure said coldly. "Only silence, or submission."
---
Location: Tavara Mountains – Crash Site Bravo
The chopper hit the trees hard. Metal twisted, rotors snapped, and flames licked up from torn steel.
Damien groaned, pushing a beam off his leg. Blood stained his jacket, but his eyes stayed sharp. "Everyone alive?"
"Here," Nora coughed, crawling free from the wreckage.
Zina staggered out, bleeding from the temple. Echo's arm was broken, but she held onto her tech bag like a lifeline.
Victor emerged last, pulling a scorched satchel from the wreckage. Inside: the biometric key and the encrypted schematics of the Atlas facility.
"We're close," he said, coughing. "Four clicks from Atlas. Underground entrance is buried beneath the Ironwood Caves."
Nora steadied herself. "Then we walk."
And so they moved—five shadows in the forest, bruised but unbroken.
Above them, Dominion eyes watched.
And deep within Atlas, the systems whispered:
"Override pending… Aegis Signature Detected…"