Chapter 169 - Haui's Moon Inflitration (2)

Ceres breathed slowly as he lay at the bottom of the crater, checking the status of his exosuit.

“95% fuel left...” It took them about an hour or so to land onto the asteroid, and they had already used five percent of their fuel.

He immediately scanned his surroundings using the H.T. mode, spotting the emotional outlines of anybody nearby. They weren’t anywhere close to the observation post, so Ceres did not spot anyone.

Ceres tried to look down, but the asteroid prison was far too deep. He could not see any of the prisoners either. He needed to move closer to the observation post. [Tyson, if I can get closer to the observation post I can map out the guards easily.]

[Using your special device that you used to take down the Mirage Gunner?]

[… Yes] Ceres didn’t deny it. He didn’t put it past Tyson to check up on everybody’s record or details. Maybe Tyson even knew his real identity, but it didn’t matter when they were on the mission now.

[Okay, we’ll move out in a while. I need to use the hacked nanosatellites to observe what’s going on the surface.]

The constellation of nanosatellites had a double purpose – monitor incoming starships and desparate idiots coming to save their buddies, and monitor any aberrant activites on the surface of the asteroid.

[There’s a few satellites I didn’t manage to hack on our way here, so we’ll have to wait about five minutes till I get all of them.] Tyson lifted his arm, dialing the pressure before firing a few drones into an elipitcal trajectory, flinging them past a set of satellites logged into their database from previous scans.

[Okay.] Ceres rested in his exosuit, using his nerval jack to pull up the mission plan of the inflitration.

They were now in the middle of nowhere on the asteroid surface. The observation post was fifteen kilometers away from them. The gravity was very low, so it was almost impossible to walk normally. They would have to gradually thrust over the surface.

Once they managed to hack the constellation, there would be no more eyes left to track them, giving them free reign over the surface. Of course, there were still regular patrols of guards roaming, and Tyson was now hijacking the nanosatellites to read it.

[They didn’t store any of the camera logs, so we’ll have to base our pattern prediction on previously collected data and what we can see now.]

The nanosatellites did not have enough memory storage, and it made more sense to store the logs in the observation post, where a post processing A.I could go over it and filter the data for anomalies.

[You think they spotted us when we were coming in?]

[Most likely they caught us on camera, but we were radar invisible so the logs won’t match. I doubt previous prison break attempts had such an stealth shield on hand like we do. Either way, take a look at this.]

Tyson shared a video screen over to Ceres’s helmet, showing two engineer profiles. [There seems to be a regular rotation of engineers between the different sections of the prisons. These two are being transferred to the observation post.]

[So they are our way in.]

[Not in, but to the equipment. If we can masquerade as them, it would be much easier than us sneaking about and planting the devices. Better access too]

Ceres looked at another video, showing the current video stream of a nanosatellite looking at the surface. [They seemed to be moving in that transporter buggy.]

[Yup, we’ll catch them halfway through. Once I hack the satellites they won’t stand a chance. Let’s get ready to move soon.]

Ceres began to shift his body upright, the low gravity making him feel almost weightless. He retrieved his black stealth diamond shield, connecting it to the exosuit.

[Active Visual Camoflauge Mode Engaged.]

He strapped the diamond shield to the back of his exosuit, the panels flickering to show an A.I generated image that ‘looked’ like the asteroid’s surface. It was more of a precaution than anything, seeing as there could be another observer at a much higher orbit which they didn’t spot. Tyson didn’t leave anything to chance if he could help it.

In synchronization, the two of them slowly dialed up their thrusters, moving smoothly out of the crater, before speeding along the surface of the asteroid while staying low.

Ceres’s face was barely fifteen centimeters from the ground, and the exosuit sensors adjusted the course to avoid small mounds of asteroid dusts and rocks. After the initial burst that kicked up a small puff of dust, they maintian a constant velocity, only thrusting every so often to counteract the downward pull of the asteroid’s gravity.

[We’ll hide in two separate craters where the buggy will passby, then we’ll hit them with a drone.] Tyson explained, with Ceres nodding.

They flew for a short while, covering ten kilometers in a short fifteen minutes, before Ceres reverse thrusted into a crater, laying low again. Tyson was positioned opposite, ready to strike from another angle as the buggy passed.

He released four small spider drones, before ordering them to walk out of the crater onto the path and towards the incoming buggy

[Here they come, get ready, we’ll need to take out the engineers in a single hit.]

Ceres could now see the buggy in the distance through the crater – or more specifically the two engineers strapped in.

The buggy was a simple design – it looked more like a golf kart albeit with simple thrusters and a good amount of Floa to keep it above the surface.

It wasn’t airtight, and the engineers were exposed to the vacuumn, though they wore yellow hazmat overalls over their own exosuits. The hazmat suit was a cheap addition to reduce the radiation they experienced when handling nuclear power sources buried in the asteroid or in certain components.

As the buggy zoomed past over the four spider drones, the drones latched onto the buggy, with one drone crawling into the dashboard under the noses of the bickering engineers and disabling the power supply of the buggy.

The buggy didn’t come to a halt, instead drifting along on it’s original path, though it was beginning to flip. The engineers quickly took out a metal pole attached to the side of the golf kart, before plunging it into the surface and stabilizing the golf kart using their exosuit’s strength.

The engineers immediately pulled out their stun pistols, aware that it was a sneak attack but they weren’t sure where it came from. At the same time, the remaining three spider drones crawled on the exterior of the hazmat suits, before poking a hole into the exosuit frame.

With a single command from Tyson, the spider drones delivered a high voltage tase to the two engineers, causing their muscles to clench up and incapcitate them.

[Let’s move.]

Tyson and Ceres got up from their craters, quickly heading over to the engineers and stripping their hazmat suits off. Tyson patted their exosuits, finding trackers and datachips which he passed to Ceres. [Put them on, it’ll be easier to inflitrate that way.]

They locked the exosuits of the engineers before dumping them in the crater and speeding off in the buggy towards the observation post.

[Why didn’t we kill them?] Ceres asked. He considered them to be a future liability, considering that they may be spotted by a patrol or sorts.

[Where are you going to hide the body? We don’t have time to dig, and we might need them in the future when we take over the prison. We don’t know anything about the internals. Speaking of which…]

Tyson pulled up a few details from the datachips he snatched from them. [From now on you’re Charlie, and I’m Sean, got it? Fresh engineers from the competition, didn’t make it past qualifiers 1st stage.]

Ceres nodded, before noticing they were nearing the observation post now. He could already see a few outlines using his H.T. mode. [Twenty of them in the observation posts or so, two guards patrolling around the other side.]

[Hmm, pretty useful device seeing as my sensors can’t see anything from here.] Tyson complimented. [Let’s check in with the observation post’s boss. Let me do the talking.]

A holoscreen appeared in front of them by the buggy’s dashboard, showing a grungy old man with a white beard in the prison’s grey uniform.

[Thank focking god Fresia finally sent you two. It’s been ages since we had a engineer crew. Don’t come to the base, head to the radar first and fix it, we had a few false alarms about incoming objects just now.]

Tyson looked at Ceres, who was beyond perplexed at how smooth everything was. This prison break was going easier than expected. [Got it, boss. We’re on the case.]

The video call ended, with Tyson redirecting the buggy towards the radar. [They don’t seem very strict on security for a prison.] Ceres noted.

[To be fair, if you were a prisoner and tried to break out, where the hell are you going to go without a ship? I suspect the heavy security is near their docking site and main prison entrance. The observation post might be considered useless for them.] Tyson rationalized as they both came up onto a massive radar dish that was slowly scanning the skies.

Grabbing the engineer’s equipment bag out of the buggy, they moved with purpose, acting as though they were repairing. Tyson released a few more drones, which scattered across the base and traced out the power lines.

Over the next few hours, Tyson and Ceres got to work – Ceres used his H.T. mode to map out the interior of the base, while Tyson attached a small rectangular device to the radar – a random data generator and spliced the radar’s data wires. [Good, we’re all set now. This radar will not be seeing anything for a long time.]

Tyson also hijacked the communications module of the base, ensuring no one could transmit any messages in or out when he decided.

Ceres sent Tyson a map he created based on the paths of the people he saw.

[Pretty incomplete, but at least you’ve marked out where the most frequent areas are. Hmm let’s see…]

They were close enough now that Tyson could see the thermal outlines of the people inside the base. [It’s about time for their meal break, we’ll hit them in five minutes when they are all in the mess hall.]

Ceres nodded, tracking the movements of the people too. He could see the guards moving between the armoury, operations center, medbay, recreation room. They just had to find the right timing to deactivate the power in the base.

[Okay, right about….. now.]

With a simple order, Tyson disabled the power supply to the base, causing the base to cease functioning. The air filters and electronics stopped working, with the doors locked. [Let’s move in now, while the guards are separated from the armoury!]

Tyson and Ceres split up, heading to two separate airlocks in order to flush out as many guards as possible. [We need to gain access to the overall A.I of the base and there’s two possible locations. I’ll head to the data servers, you head to the operations center. Just slap my drone onto the command port.]

Ceres nodded, thrusting towards the exterior airlock before using a mechanical latch to disengage the door, forcibly opening it. With a loud blast the air rushed out into the open vacuum, with Ceres gripping onto the door tightly.

Entering the intermediate room, he kept his hazmat suit on, closing the exterior airlock and opening the interior airlock. However, he could already see two guards on the other side, aiming their stun pistols at him. “Shit, what do I do?”

Ceres decided to open the airlock slowly and carefully, allowing the air to flood the intermediate room before lifting his hands. “Hey, don’t shoot! I’m here to help!”

“Who the hell are you? We don’t have any engineers on duty near the observation post. How did you get that hazmat suit?”

“Wh.. I just got transferred over. Ask your boss!”

“No way, you’re coming with me to the brig right now.” One of the guards reached forward to try and grab Ceres but he suddenly paused.

“Actually, maybe we should ask our boss first.” The guard retracted his outstreched hand, scratching the back of his neck. “Sorry pal, we’re all a bit jittery after the power went out.”

“Yea, please help us restore the power.” The other guard nodded.

“I’m on it, but I need to know where the A.I command port is. I think it’s a malfunction with one of it’s sequences.” Ceres asked nicely.

“Of course, buddy, it’s right next to the big guy’s chair in the operations center, you can’t miss it. Want me to bring you there?” The guard motioned with his arm, pointing to one of the directional signs on the corridor.

“No, no need. You should go check the err, med bay. If the power is out, then anyone injured there would be in trouble”

“Oh shit, Andrew is in trouble! Quick move!” The two guards ran off.

Ceres walked normally towards the operations center. As soon as he turned the corner he broke out in cold sweat, huffing and panting. He had invoked emotions in the two guards, and it was an extreme effort to cancel out the hostility and wariness the guards were feeling.

Ceres felt like he had just ran a marathon, but he kept going towards the operations center. There was a hard deadline for timing, as the Corym was about to come by again soon and drop off the other pairs. If they didn’t get the observation post under control by then it would be a disaster.

The observation post’s operations center door was tightly locked, and Ceres could see through the window that there was a young-faced guard in there, who was desparately banging on the door.

A muffled voice barely made it out through the door. “Hey, are you here to fix the power outage?”

“Yea, can you open the door from the inside?”

“I can’t, seems like the mechanical system is jammed.”

The panic from the guard seemed to fuel Ceres slightly. “Don’t worry I got this. Step away from the door.”

“Wha.. what are you going to do? You can’t possibly break down the door, the door is reinforced against.. SHIT!” The guard yelp as he jumped out of the way, a portion of the door being blasted into the operations center and slamming into a few monitors, cracking them.

Another kick from Ceres relieved the door from its captive frame. “Where’s the A.I command port?”

The guard didn’t question the engineer anymore, pointing towards a desk at the center of the room. Ceres marched up and slapped Tyson’s drone onto the command port. [Tyson, I’m in.]

[Okay, I’m at the servers. Ready?]

Ceres ripped off his hazmat suit, revealing his Swift Storm exosuit and drawing his energy rifle from his back, aiming it at the young guard who froze on the spot.

[Ready.]