Battle Engagement

The first assault came exactly when their opponents predicted. Which was precisely why Marcus had his team somewhere else entirely.

"Cross's forces are hitting our decoy facility in force," Bobby reported from their mobile command post. "Full tactical deployment, multiple strike teams. They're executing textbook containment protocols."

"Let them," Marcus replied, watching through carefully regulated enhancement as their real operation unfolded. "Maya, status?"

"Strike Team Alpha is in position." Her voice carried professional satisfaction. "They're so focused on containing our 'dangerous research' that they haven't noticed us infiltrating their actual control center."

The command post's tactical displays showed multiple operations running simultaneously. While Cross's forces secured an empty facility filled with carefully crafted disinformation, Marcus's teams struck at the infrastructure their hidden opponents had spent decades building.

"Martinez, how's our viral counterattack progressing?"

"Beautiful chaos," the virologist reported, genuine excitement in her voice. "We're not just containing their engineered strains – we're introducing random elements they can't predict. Natural mutations that don't follow their models."

"Their systems are trying to adapt," Morgan added. "But they can't process variations that don't fit their projected patterns."

Bobby's surveillance feeds showed increasing disruption across enemy networks. "They're starting to realize something's wrong. Multiple command centers going to high alert."

"Too late," Maya commented. "Chen?"

Their logistics chief's smile was audible. "Supply chains are thoroughly scrambled. Every time they try to shift resources according to their models, they find our irregular distribution patterns have already been there."

Marcus felt his precognition stir, showing fragments of possibility. The enemy's carefully orchestrated plans were unraveling – not through direct confrontation, but through carefully crafted chaos.

"Contact front!" Maya's warning overlapped with sudden tactical activity. "They've spotted Strike Team Alpha. Engaging."

The command post's displays shifted to combat footage. Maya's team moved like liquid shadow through the enemy facility, using Bobby's parkour-inspired routes to approach from impossible angles. Standard security protocols proved useless against operators who deliberately defied normal tactical doctrine.

"They're adapting," Bobby warned. "Shifting forces to counter our unconventional approach."

"Good." Marcus let his tactical enhancement process the battlefield. "That's their weakness – they can only adapt to what they understand. Martinez, initiate Protocol Omega."

In research facilities across their network, viral containment teams released Marcus's master stroke: a containment protocol that deliberately introduced controlled chaos into the enemy's engineered strains. Not trying to stop the virus, but making it too unpredictable for their opponents to control.

"It's working," Martinez reported with professional awe. "Their viral coordination is breaking down. The strains are mutating randomly instead of following their designed patterns."

"Because they built their weapon on predictability," Morgan realized. "Take that away..."

"And their perfect orchestration becomes perfect chaos," Maya finished. "Marcus, we've breached their primary control center. You're not going to believe what we're finding."

The tactical displays filled with data as Maya's team transmitted their discoveries. Decades of planning laid bare – the organizations, the protocols, the carefully crafted models designed to control humanity's response to engineered catastrophe.

"Server farms running predictive algorithms," Bobby analyzed. "They've been gathering behavioral data for years. Building models to calculate exactly how people would react to their manufactured apocalypse."

"And using those predictions to control the response," Chen added. "Positioning resources, establishing power structures, creating the perfect conditions for their new world order."

Marcus watched through enhanced senses as their unconventional assault threw precisely calculated plans into beautiful disarray. Maya's teams struck from impossible angles while Martinez's viral chaos corrupted carefully engineered weapons. Chen's irregular supply lines disrupted resource control while Bobby's intelligence warfare shattered communication networks.

"Multiple hostile forces converging," Bobby reported. "Cross's teams, corporate security, black ops units... they're all responding to the disruption."

"Let them come," Marcus ordered. "Maya, initiate Strike Protocol Delta."

Her laugh carried pure warrior joy. "Time to show them why you don't put all your predictable eggs in one tactical basket?"

The battle shifted as Marcus's forces implemented their most chaotic strategy yet. Teams switched objectives randomly, attack patterns transformed mid-operation, and carefully planned responses dissolved into inspired improvisation.

"Their command structure is fragmenting," Bobby reported with satisfaction. "They can't coordinate responses to actions they can't predict."

"Because they built their entire operation on controlling human behavior," Maya added. "On thinking they could calculate every possible response."

Marcus smiled as his precognition showed him fragments of glorious chaos unfolding across their enemies' perfect plan. "Time to remind them why humanity survived every catastrophe history threw at us. Not through perfect prediction..."

"But through perfect adaptation," Maya finished.

The command post hummed with coordinated activity as their teams struck from every unpredictable angle. Maya's forces dancing through enemy defenses like deadly ghosts. Martinez's viral chaos spreading beautiful randomness through engineered weapons. Chen's logistics teams scattering resources in patterns that defied calculation.

Time to show their hidden opponents why decades of prediction meant nothing against humanity's capacity for inspired improvisation.

Sometimes the best way to win wasn't to play the game better.

It was to change the game entirely.