"...I've got approximately sixty hostiles."
The words settled over Dock Three like ice. Every eye inside the command center had shifted to the tactical display.
A blue circle.
Seven convoy markers. Nearly sixty hostile contacts surrounding them.
James broke the silence first.
"Sixty..."
He looked at Ava.
"That's what we can confirm."
She shook her head.
"Those are only the ones exposing themselves."
Leah looked between them.
"You think there are more?"
Neither answered.
They didn't need to.
Kael stepped closer to the holotable. His silver eyes studied the terrain. Collapsed bridge. Burning to the west.
Only one road remained Blocked.
His fingers swept across the display.
"James."
"Already on it."
The map expanded. Old maintenance tunnels. Abandoned sewer systems.
Every possible route appeared. Ended in red.
"No alternate roads."
James looked frustrated.
"They knew exactly where to trap him."
Kael nodded once.
"They studied it."
The radio crackled.
Jace again.
"They're not advancing."
Leah frowned.
"What?"
Static hissed before his voice returned.
"They're just standing there."
James blinked.
"Standing?"
The helmet camera flickered back. Smoke drifted through the ruined street. The convoy sat motionless behind a wall of collapsed steel.
Rows of black-armored soldiers. Weapons lowered. Not firing. Waiting.
Leah felt the hairs rise along the back of her neck.
"What are they doing?"
No one answered.
One of the figures stepped forward. Unlike the others, he wore no helmet. Dark hair. A scar crossing one cheek. He stopped twenty meters from Jace.
Even through the grainy feed, Leah could see he wasn't nervous.
He raised one empty hand. Inviting conversation.
Jace didn't lower his rifle.
The stranger smiled faintly as his voice carried through an external speaker.
"You've had a difficult morning."
James frowned.
"He's trying to negotiate?"
Kael's expression remained unreadable.
"No."
The stranger continued.
"I don't want your men."
"I don't even want Ark Zero."
Leah's eyes narrowed.
"I want what's inside Truck Three."
James looked up sharply. Pulling the log it was an reactor assembly one that was very specific to the arks.
Jace's answer came immediately.
"No."
The stranger almost looked amused.
"You answered too quickly for a deadman."
"I didn't need time."
"You should have taken some."
The black-clad soldiers behind him spread out slightly. Methodically.
Leah whispered, "They're professionals."
James nodded.
Kael's voice was quieter. "No."
An order from one commander to another.
Jace smiled bitterly.
"I wasn't hired to."
A few Legion soldiers chuckled nervously.
Even James smirked.
The stranger didn't.
"It isn't yours."
Jace shrugged.
The first shot came from nowhere. A sniper round slammed into the concrete inches from Jace's boot.
A warning.
Jace looked toward the rooftops.
"There."
His rifle snapped upward.
Three shots. One figure disappeared from the roofline.
Leah blinked.
"You saw him?"
James laughed once.
"I didn't."
Everything exploded.
Both sides opened fire simultaneously. Legion machine guns hammered from the convoy.
The black-armored force answered with frightening precision. Single shots. Every round placed deliberately.
One Legion soldier leaned around a transport. A bullet struck his shoulder.
He collapsed behind cover.
Another tried to flank the attackers. Three shots drove him back before he made five steps.
"They're controlling space," Ava said quietly.
"They're not trying to kill everyone."
"They're shaping the battlefield."
Jace moved.
Unlike everyone else, he never stayed behind one piece of cover. He sprinted between vehicles. Issuing orders as he moved.
"Truck Four!"
"Rotate left!"
"Use the trailer as a shield!"
The enormous cargo carrier lurched sideways, forming a wall between the convoy and the enemy fire.
Immediately another truck accelerated behind it.
Then another.
Leah stared.
"He's moving the convoy while fighting."
James nodded proudly.
"That's why Kael gave him the job."
Inside Dock Three, Kael turned toward one of his officers.
"Captain Rourke."
The Alpha stepped forward instantly.
"Sir."
"Take Second Legion."
"Thirty operators."
"Fast vehicles only."
"No armor."
The captain frowned.
"No armor?"
"They'll never reach him in time."
Kael enlarged the city map.
"Motorcycles."
The captain's eyes lit.
"They can cut through the maintenance roads."
Kael nodded.
"You have twelve minutes."
"Yes, General."
He was already running before Kael finished speaking.
Another explosion erupted from Jace's feed.
Truck Seven lurched violently.
One of its wheels disappeared beneath a cloud of dust.
"Mine!"
someone shouted.
"No," Jace answered immediately.
He knelt briefly beside the crater.
"Directional charge."
He looked toward the rooftops.
"They planted them after we entered."
James quietly muttered,
"They knew his route before he did."
Leah folded her arms tightly.
"They've predicted every move."
Kael didn't deny it.
His gaze remained fixed.
"They're forcing him into smaller and smaller decisions."
James looked over.
"What does that mean?"
Kael answered without taking his eyes off the screen.
"They're not fighting the convoy."
"They're fighting Jace."
The stranger appeared again through the drifting smoke.
Untouched.
Calm.
He pressed a finger against the communicator at his collar.
Almost casually.
Seconds later—
Another explosion.
Not near Jace.
Not near the convoy.
Inside the tower.
Dock Three shook violently.
The lights flickered.
A cargo lift slammed to a halt halfway between decks.
Workers stumbled as alarms screamed through the bay.
James stared at the diagnostics.
"No..."
Leah turned.
"What happened?"
He swallowed.
"They've hit another substation."
Ava's hands flew across her console.
"They're attacking both locations at once."
Leah looked from the burning convoy on the screen...
...to the frantic workers still loading Ark 0.
Food.
Medicine.
Water.
Seeds.
Reactor components waiting for assembly.
Everything depended on time.
And whoever these people were...
They understood that better than anyone.
Kael finally spoke, his voice low enough that only those nearest heard it.
"This isn't an assault."
Leah looked at him.
He watched another cargo crane grind to a stop as engineers rushed toward it.
Then his silver eyes returned to Jace's battlefield.
"It's synchronization."
The realization settled over the room.
Every hacked system.
Every attack.
They weren't separate operations.
They were all parts of the same clock.
And that clock was counting down to something far worse than the loss of Ark 0.
"It's synchronization."
The words lingered in the command center.
No one challenged them.
Because the evidence was everywhere.
A cargo lift failed.
Communications flickered.
The front gate remained under attack.
Jace was trapped five kilometers away.
And somewhere inside Ark 0...
Someone was still rewriting their systems.