The Online World of Roiyaru Kitsune...

FILE TRANSFER PENDING

 

She leaned her head back and the worn leather chair creaked. Her legs were slung over the armrest and she closed her eyes while a thin trail of smoke rose from her lips. Music echoed between the concrete walls and filled the apartment with the comfortable crackling of old speakers and slow rhythms. Once upon a time her home might have been a luxury flat for the wealthy of Brightholme. Huge windows overlooking the sea, spacious rooms and all the comforts that could be expected by the high and mighty. Now it was nothing more than another useless shell in a building long since abandoned. The once perfectly painted walls were stained and cracked. The windows covered by a thick layer of dust and dirt and the glass was replaced by wooden planks and duct-tape in some places. She had claimed the hideout as soon as she found it. Well hidden in the outskirts of the slums, high above ground and secured. Having your home raided and destroyed happened every day in Brightholme if you didn’t know how to barricade yourself properly. She needed her privacy.  The walls were now decorated with tangled cables, notes and chewed pieces of bubblegum. Her little rat nest. A perfect base of operations for TSYGAN. A name she had adopted years ago which since had grown to become so much more than a name. TSYGAN was the concept of revolution. An idea. The beginning of something the Bright Foundation feared more than anything.


A piercing light flashed through her closed eyelids and made her eyebrows twitch with annoyance. The screens above her desk lit up with a faint whirring sound as the computers started working. The sudden light interrupted her rest.

“What now?” She moaned and opened one eye to glare at the screen while she took another breath of smoke from her cigarette. Nobody would contact her this late. The ones that could contact her at all knew better than to disturb her during these hours. Insomnia was a cruel bitch and so was TSYGAN if she got pushed too far.

File transfer pending...

Slowly she shifted in the chair to sit straight, leaning forward towards the screen suspiciously. The files were being sent from an encrypted source. She would be able to locate it with a few minutes of work but it wasn’t necessary. As soon as the download was complete the files popped up on the screen one by one.  The Bright Foundation logotype was clearly displayed on all of them which told her the files could only come from one person.

“Hawk... You sly bastard.” Her lips turned into a crooked smile and she shook her head slowly. No note, not a word of explanation. Just documents that obviously wouldn’t have been for her eyes to see if not for the fact that she had an old friend that happened to carry Core Guardian status.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her pale eyes grew wider with each sentence she read. The logs were legit, the source reliable and the information it carried confirmed something she had suspected for a long time. Still, she had to read the logs over and over to make sure she truly understood the magnitude of it. The words were spinning in her mind and she got up to re-heat a cup of old coffee in order to wake up and fully focus. It was starting to fall into place. She poured the rather disgusting looking brown drink into a cracked cup and started pacing around the room while gulping it down eagerly. Her heart was racing, plans starting to take shape. Old memories tried to catch her attention but she shook them out of there. This wasn't the right time to dwell on old feelings of hurt pride. Hawk had given her this information just like he had promised. She had been waiting for this day to come. Slowly she began to go through everything she had previously known about the Bright Foundation. There had to be a way to sort out the mess of the lies that began to surface.

LOEK III had been colonized several generations ago and it was common knowledge that the first attempt had failed brutally. The explanation had been that the first colony had been surprised and overrun by hostile creatures that hadn't been a problem during the first couple of years. Infection spread fast. Thousands died, both due to the so-called spore sickness and from direct attacks. Even more had died while trying to evacuate the planet. They hadn't been prepared. Very little information about the demise of Brightholme and the first colonies had been found. The whole thing was considered to be a mystery and a huge failure along the long line of planets marked as potential locations for resource gathering and new civilizations to spread. LOEK III was thought to be impossible to colonize after this failure but the Bright Foundation didn't give up so easily.

After about 30 years of research and preparations they were ready to begin their second attempt at colonizing LOEK III. Equipped with improved Cores and specialized elite soliders to protect them, the population of the new Bright city of Elysion One would be safe. The second colonization was quickly considered a huge success and there was nothing to point against that. Elysion One stood as a shining beacon of hope. Three generations had grown up with LOEK III as their birthplace and home. The youngest usually had a very hard time imagining the beginning of it all. To them their city seemed like an ancient stronghold. Enormous, clean and safe. Nothing could harm them and the Bright Foundation had everything under control. This was what was taught to children at schools. This was what was written in the history archives open to the public. The files she had in front of her now told the same story but added a few details. A few very crucial details...

Project Elysion...
According to these old logs the Bright Foundation of the old times had been prepared. They had known. They knew exactly what they were doing as Brightholme had been sealed off as a quarantine zone. The masses of civilians had been sacrificed to minimize damage, only to prepare and make way for a new, bigger project. They had known, and they were about to repeat history. The slum rats of Brightholme weren't related to the old civilization, but they filled the same purpose now. The workers, the poor and the ones deemed useless were sent to the ruined city to stay out of sight as not to bother the shining sacred Elysians. The Brightsiders. The whole city had already been sealed off when Project Elysion began. Thousands of people were locked behind its high walls. A perfect decoy in the event of a larger attack. They were about to be sacrificed again.

This was bigger than some small scheme to make life difficult for the Bright Foundation. This meant more than trying to fight for the rights of the less fortunate in the colonies. This would crush the Bright Foundation and everything they had built. All she needed to do now was to make this information go viral. As soon as the word spread there would be no way anyone would trust the Bright Foundation to keep them safe. If they had abandoned its people before in order to secure their standing and reputation they would do it again if given the chance. They had the power to do it, there was no doubt about that. She wasn't sure if there was a way to stop them either but she was ready to fight to her own death in order to give the people a chance to know what was being done to them before they were put out there as a human shield to protect invisible masters hiding behind high walls and pretty words.

Haigen had delivered more than either of them could have foreseen. These files had been sent for her. He had known she was the only one who would see the potential and dare to act. TSYGAN didn’t know if she should cry in fear or laugh out of pure ecstasy. Silently she blew out a puff of smoke and took another sip of horribly burnt coffee.

“Seems our teenage dream of revolution can actually become reality dear Hawk...” She began to laugh but stopped abruptly as shrill alarms went off all around her. They were coming from outside and she knew what they meant. Lume attacks. She ran up to the one window that actually had a view left and squinted to see clearly through the darkness out there. Red lights flashed their message for people to hide inside their shelters but she didn't care about those. Her eyes locked on the moving rays of light that striped the sky over the tall, skeletal buildings. A rain of missiles heading towards a target. A huge target. TSYGAN turned her head towards her computer screens. A new message.

"They Say You Gain Advantage Now , Hunt Evoked Luminescent Protector."
She dropped the coffee cup on the floor and was gone through the door before the stain had seeped into the dirty carpet . The time had come