11 KILOMETRES UNDER THE SEA
(Safe House, Marina Trench, July 2134)
"Docking," said Sean into the radio. Once he got the authorisation after the AI checked his identification signal, he steered the midget submarine he is in towards the docking port.
A concealed door hidden among the rock formation opened, Sean parked the midget submarine in, the hangar has 2 other midget submarines resting on stands, magnetically locked onto them.
The door closed shut behind them, the thick enforced steel doors testamental to the immense water pressure they are subject to at this depth, 11 kilometres from the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
The hangar is thrown into darkness. Sean looked out of the periscope, seeing the lights turn red as the hangar's drainage systems drain out the water and the marine life caught in them.
Once the water are drained out and the lights turned green, Sean opened the hatch on the top, looking at the robots below him scurrying over, their Mecanum wheels making squeaky sounds on the wet concrete surface.
A platform on a ramp is then extended to the bridge of the midget submarine, allowing the robots to climb up. Sean and Xiao Tian, who was in the passenger seat behind him got to work, unloading the crates of supplies from the cargo area, handling them to the robots who then carried them away to the storage rooms, where more robots are waiting to sort them and notify their comrades to take them.
The 2 then stepped onto the platform, walking down to the wet floor, stretching.
They walked into the living room, walking by Phineas and Ariel who are carrying baskets of fresh vegetables grown in the facility's hydroponic garden.
This safe house is where they relocated to following the events in the Palestine region. Unlike the previous safe house they temporarily stayed in, this safe house is not Spades International property. Xiao Tian did not tell his comrades where he sourced this from, thus, its origins remain a secret to them.
Nonetheless, this facility is extremely impressive, even for the members of the former Squad Artemis: Frederica, Nanami and Sean who grew up among the finest technology mankind has to offer. It is constructed deep in the Marina Trench, the deepest part of Earth, 11 kilometres under sea level, so deep that not even Litas can swim there without being crushed by the immense pressure.
The safe house is huge, it's area is akin to a 5-storey apartment block, not counting the midget submarine hanger. The layers of reinforced steel walls and inertia dampeners protected the occupants from the monstrous water pressure outside, artificially adjusting the environment to match that of the pressure on the water surface. It is also self-sustainable, with a hydroponic garden and seed vault enough to feed 20 people effortlessly for decades, automated life-sustaining systems that diffuse breathable air from the sea water outside, as well as desalinating sea water to provide drinkable water. As for power, it taps into the near-infinite supply of the Earth's geothermal energy, coupled with 4 emergency use fusion reactors.
Sean and Xiao Tian walked past the equipment room, where Santos and Jay are checking the ammunition supplies. The safe house also have enough equipment to arm 2 platoons and keep them maintained for 3 years, more then enough for their needs.
The location of the safe house is also unknown to all except the operators of Team Zero, making it near impossible for anyone else to find the place. Besides, the Marina Trench is also one of the last places UNSSD would expect, not just for its precarious conditions, but also the fact that it is just to the south of Japan, the home base of Task Force Prime. UNSSD certainly would not expect their "wanted fugitives" to be hiding right in their face.
Nonetheless, due to the fact that the safe house is not self-sustainable in everything, the need to leave to buy supplies still constitute a major risk. Xiao Tian resolved that by tapping into the infamous "Dragon Palace bazaar", an area in the international waters with a couple of defunct oil rigs wedged between China, Japan and the Philippines, where smugglers converge to trade, one of the most unlawful places in the planet.
None of the 3 nations are motivated to completely cleanse the region, for it is in international waters, and that the smugglers themselves are also careful to tote around the red lines and not do anything too much. Hence, the governments simply chose to quarantine the area out of their territorial waters using patrols and the occasional raids.
"How was the sale today?" asked Louis, finding them.
Sean sighed. "The price today for canned meat is plain robbery."
Xiao Tian concurred, "though medicine and parts were cheaper than usual, so not too bad I guess?"
"You say," rolled Sean's eyes. "We got bagged by 3 dudes high on heroin," he said.
"Well, we beat their ass and knocked them into the sewage," laughed Xiao Tian. The 3 laughed
"How about the fish?" asked Louis, referring to the automated fishing trap they had released into the waters 3 days back.
"The usual, can last for 2 days," said Xiao Tian.
(An hour later)
The 11 members of Team Zero finished eating their simple lunch, and Xiao Tian gathered them for a meeting in an office.
"It's been 1 week since the events at Palestine, everyone has recovered from injuries and stress, let's discuss what to do next," he said. "We first recap everything that had happened, all the way from the UK, our lead from the intel recovered in Spain and Netherlands lead us to the Archangel facilities in UK, where we were then further directed to London."
"Afterwards we found the Becketts, but then that lead got cut," said Jay. "Then very eerily after that happened we got intercepted by Vanguard and then is whisked away to the fusion reactors, well, you all know the rest."
"Exactly," said Santos, "From the events of London, we know 2 things for certain:
1. There is something seriously off about Archangel, and we were close to finding it, hence they set us up to throw us off.
2. The UK government has been compromised. "
"No," said Sean, frowning. "There is a third thing. UNSSD has also been compromised."
Everyone turned to him, surprised, with the exception of Xiao Tian, who is smiling.
"OF COURSE!" exclaimed Ariel. "Those Vanguard terrorists know WAY too much about our private information to be taken as a simple information security breach, this is something beyond their known capabilities."
Xiao Tian nodded. "The events of Palestine further proves this, such as the SAM missiles." His expression then turned serious. "But what's more worrying are these events:
1. The framing of General Yashar and us, and how Ismail didn't make it from complications in surgery. With him dead no one can prove our innocence.
2. How the death of the High Commissioner was blamed on us, solidifying the accusation that we are "traitors". The evidence was that they found a bullet fired from Ariel's gun on the body, and the body was devoid of weapons, no guns, no suicide vest."
Nanami's eyes widened, understanding what Xiao Tian is implying.
"Our combat footage in our Exo-suits should have been able to prove all of these accusations false, but it didn't. So this means only one thing, they were deleted from the cloud system," she analysed.
"That also explains why we were blamed for the destruction of the fusion reactor," added Phineas. "Vanguard removed the material evidence, while someone deleted the combat footage."
"This means that the turncoat is someone extremely high ranked in the military commission or the UNSSD administration, he or she is at least at the level of General Ling," concluded Sean. "Only someone of that level has the authority to delete stuff from the cloud."
Xiao Tian commended them for their analysis. "The framing happened almost concurrently after we uploaded Dr Sterling's files into the network, so it must be important."
"Hence, our mission is now to use Dr Sterling's files and the lead on Archangel to uncover the enemy's plot, find the true traitor(s) in UNSSD, and clear our names," he said.
"But how are we going to access the files?" asked Xu Qing. "We are locked out of the UNSSD network, hacking in is too difficult, and they are probably deleted anyways. The turncoat won't leave a silver bullet like that hanging around for fun."
Xiao Tian chuckled, pulling out Dr Sterling's phone and battery from a locked drawer, surprising everyone.
"Always good to save the physical copy," he grinned.