A fury of bullets try to break apart a crumbling stone wall, behind which an excited girl jumps up and down with joy- “ I ‘stunned’ one with my fist and scared another with some kicks to the face. But now I’m under fire from several enemies.” Melina transmitted, panting and screaming, over the radio.

  Syna- “ Congrats…but I still need a few more minutes before accessing this terminal. These asholes tampered with my code and broke my clear, crispy program.” A gatling gun fired above her, covering parts of her screamed words, sending only bits of the message. Overjoyed, the bodyguard clenches her teeth and takes the opportunity to act without impunity.

  Melina-” Fine! I’ll..distract them”, she replies, unsure of how she’ll do it though. Her neck hastily turns to the left and right until she sees a light bulb dimming - “Aha! by running further into the mines.”

  Syna- “ What? No, then we won’t be able to communicate.”

  -“Oh no, what a shame. I mean, copy- going radio silence then!” Melina rolled her eyes and ran as fast as she could further into the lion’s den.

  Half a day earlier

  The back ache and the normal stretch didn’t help relax the back muscles. Melina’s eyes felt heavy, even though she despite her sleep felt more like a coma. In the other room, the morning finger frying and cable mixing was finished earlier. The bodyguard checked on her rest of the convoy, in the hopes of getting the ok to return back to her new normal. Something about being so far away for so long from Savan and the rest made her a bit antsy.

  Sovereign- “ Not yet. Syna and I checked on the trap set up in the network…and someone fell for it. “

  Syna- “ Some idiots have been trying to isolate parts of it to create a hidden chat room. We have request forms for that! Hopefully it’s not another teen with attitude problems-” The hacker groaned and pouted her lips as if she was already seeing the next five years passing by.

  Sovereign- “ We still have spots in the gray hacker team made up out of younglings. Though, Savan has been sending complaints about them not paying attention during ethics classes.”

  Syna- “ Yap, that’s why I don’t wanna add another one to that pile”, she commented without lifting her eyes from the screen. The tapping on the old keyboards clicked loudly and hastily, and the second it stopped, they knew she found something. “ Aha. It’s…underground? The hell? There are no caves or mines in that area.”

  Sovereign- “ Either the map isn't updated, error…or that information was deleted. In any case, we should call for backup-”

  ….

  To their non-surprise, only one person was available to help out; and besides her technical skills, neither knew if Priya had actual combat experience, something they envisioned might be necessary in this mission.

  - “ Well, besides shooting you with a stun gun during the raid”, Syna joked, reminiscing of hers, Priya and Melina’s first encounter as a group. “If only Savan was here and we’d have a reunion.”

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  The former officer’ hyena snickering took Syna by surprise, though, who expected to be ignored at best-

  Melina- “ Yeah, you guys gave me muscle spasms for days. Oh, fun times.”

  Syna- “ Really now?”, she replied with a smile. “ I guess all that hair is conductible. Woo, I wonder if mine works the same?

  Melina giggles. She feels a bit lighter now. All that talk about the past brought back a piece she always wondered about- “By the way, still can’t believe you took down Fabius with an exploding battery from a gun.”

  Syna- “ To be honest, us neither. The explosion must have hit something important that day to knock him out.” She stood up, heavy bag on back and beeping goggles on forehead-”Well, I’m ready. Should we head out?”

  …

  Just as the map showed, an empty lot awaited them in the marked area. Nothing but a few trees, some farming tools and plowed land, and wild grass all over the place. But neither were fooled by the mirage, and decided to comb the area for any secret entrances, caves or hidden corridors.

  A few hours passed without a hatch in sight or puzzle to open a sliding rock, which was enough time for the former CEO to join them; First thing she did was to make fun of Syna’s overstocked backpack and then quickly jump to her side to tease the newcomer. The only one she showed any sign of respect for was to Sovereign.

  Priya- “ They’re kinda imposing, you know? You’re quiet and stoic, Reign but somehow still managed to become very popular with the rest of the clopies. Reminds me of Doc in a few ways.” She’s been using the radio as her personal chatting channel, but the rest didn’t object to it.

  After hearing the name, an event-like trigger reminded Syna of the news she heard recently from Chitani-” Oh yeah, congrats by the way. Heard you guys made your pairing official.”

  It happened very rarely, but one of the few things the former CEO didn’t gain control over was her blushes. “Yeah, it’s been on my mind for a while now. Thanks though, appreciate the support.”

  - “ Wait, you’re in a relationship with a clopy?” Melina asked, bewildered by the mere concept though. Nothing, at least in the open, of the kind happened in the Commune.

  The former CEO nodded.

  Melina- “ As in, romantically?”

  Priya- “ Yup. I’ve been less squinted at than when I was an overlord…but I’m surprisingly not stressed out by the whole situation.”

  ……

  Thanks to their massive weight and a timely stroll on the field, the C.T.D discovered something hidden in the small lanes between the furrowed earth. “ A metal hatch. Wielded recently, from what I can ascertain. Coated in something that masks it on the scanners.”

  Melina-” Well, that definitely means that it's a hideout. I’m guessing hostiles are a given, so me and Sov’ should check it on our own-”

  Syna- “ First of all- Sov'? Second- I asked Priya to bring a drone. Thought we might need it. Third- Sov'?” She then turned toward her C.T.D. partner, trying to pry open a confession with her glares. “You two are getting too chummy for my liking.”

  The silent flying plastic critter perused the dimly lit entrance and hallway, before arriving at a crossroad, splitting deeper down the tunnels. It took them a lot of deliberations, but agreed to separate into two teams: Melina on her own, while Sovereign was in charge with keeping the two techwizes safe.

  Melina- “ And I’m much faster on my own”, she explained, to the exasperation of the rest.

  It didn’t take the groups too long to find signs of people, and to Priya’s shock, crates with a weird logo on: three Ts united in the middle. “ Speculation for now, but I’m guessing these guys are getting help from the Commune…this isn’t good Syna.”

  Syna, whispering -” Ugh, great, we already have to deal with an insurgent force?...I hoped it would have taken longer.”

  Sovereign- “ Like we feared, there probably were a lot of infiltrators among the crowds that wanted to join us.” Keeping themselves in the shadow, the C.T.D. started a scan of the chamber, in the hopes of getting at least some numbers or clues about the group.

  Sovereign- “ I detect large amounts of blasting powder and batteries. Weapons, more than likely.”

  Just then, Melina radioed-in while the distinct noise of fire shots and belching goons came in the background.

  Melina- “ Hostiles. Beware at your location.”

  Syna- “ Same here, but we weren’t found out. We’re coming back to-”

  Melina- “ What? No. I’ve called in to warn you, that’s all. I can take care of this. Continue your sweep-”

  Syna, getting more and more frustrated- “ No? You crazy, do you think I’ll let you on you-”

  Melina, becoming equally higher in tone- “ For fucks sake, can put your distrust aside for a second and let me do my thing?”

  Sovereign intervened before their belligerence grew even more- “ We copy that. Keep in touch every 10 minutes. Got it?”

  Melina- “ Acknowledged.”