Clova suggested I do this, personally I don’t see why this is necessary considering the fact that you will be debriefed upon your return. Either way, you are a part of the team now, and as such perhaps a written account of what just happened may serve beneficial to you in the future. It’s been a few hours since both you and Locke left HQ. During this time Caine and myself got word from Enigma that a gang was using a warehouse in Solai to move contraband. The mission was simple, scout the area in order to gather information on the gang's activities without causing suspicion. I told Caine that we needed Locke in order to increase our chances of safety, more feet on the ground should the situation take a bad turn. Caine was persistent, though, against my better judgement he wanted to carry out the mission stating “intel jobs are paper rounds, don’t sweat”.
Enigma presented us with a 3d projected model of the warehouse, a large steel framed building situated near one of six shipping yards in Solai. The building was secured by electric fencing that wrapped around the entire area, as well as CCTV. There was a small office space that overlooked all operations within the warehouse. It was highly possible that any intel worth gathering would be inside this room. The entry and exit points were clear, and easily accessible for someone of Caines abilities. He was to enter and exit via a ventilation duct on the roof, this duct connected directly to the office inside the building. By Caines standards this didn’t look intimidating at all, and I’d agree that typically a mission like this should be relatively simple with a very low margin for error. Enigma made it clear there was a high possibility of large amounts of gang members being present. Potentially 25 - 35 people, depending on the shipping schedule for that night. Based on this information we knew it was a get in - get out mission, whereby any detection should be strictly prohibited unless unavoidable. The risk increased, I mentioned the idea of waiting this one out until both Locke and yourself returned. Enigma pressed with a sense of urgency, stating that the contraband inside the containers appears to be Arketeq manufactured weaponry. She suspected, as did we, that the Red Dogs were behind this, and that the weaponry was most likely being exported and sold to petty gangs in the dark district. With this in mind, we prepped for the operation. The plan was simple: I'd use a surveillance drone to scout the area, highlighting the position of potential threats and giving Caine the all clear to enter the building via the ventilation duct. We knew the ins and outs of the place, our drone scout gave us plenty of intel that the premises had just as many members of the Red Dogs as expected. Typically on these missions I won't stray far from HQ unless I absolutely need to. Reasons being, as Caine likes to point out, I’m a scrawny sack of skin and bone. He’s not wrong either, I don’t have an ounce of fighting prowess, my abilities lie in the functionality of the technology we develop and build here at HQ. Drones in particular are my specialty as they allow me to get close to the scene without putting myself in danger. Their range spans most of Prospect 7, and so I pilot them from a safe distance away, typically here at HQ.
Caine travelled on foot to the mission location with me guiding him from the sky above whilst piloting the drone. We used a standard model 3 surveillance drone for this mission, with no on-board weapons systems or other tech. It’s fast and it’s light, so it was perfect for the task at hand. The model 3 is fitted with a handle onto the underside, allowing Caine to carry out more complex maneuvers by hanging underneath the Drone. As we approached the shipping yard we saw what we expected, plenty of Red Dog members scattered around the premises, with video surveillance and intruder alarms positioned around the area. Caine and I met on an apartment block rooftop a few hundred yards from the Shipping yard, it was here that we surveyed the area using the drone. As it stood, Caines point of entry remained unsupervised, presumably due to its lack of accessibility with it being on the roof of the building. The plan was for Caine to hold onto the drone, and use that to transport him to the roof. It looked safe, another relatively standard mission, nothing we haven’t simulated and successfully carried out multiple times. We had to do this before light, so time was of the essence. Caine knew this and anticipated what was coming, “slingshot?” he asked as I positioned the drone a few hundred yards behind us. Caine began rubbing his hands together in anticipation as I flew the drone at top speed towards us. Caine made the jump, gripping onto the handle beneath the drone with his mechanical arm. The drone over us as I piloted it towards the roof on the shipping yard building. I set Caine down slowly before resuming drone surveillance of the surrounding area.
Caine began unbolting the vent cover slowly using the strength of his fingers on his left hand. The vent led to the office directly below it, a single room positioned in the center of the shipping yard. We scouted the office before entry, it was empty, due to the darkness of the night and Caines dark clothing we knew that visibility would be minimal. Caine descended into the vent, a narrow vertical shaft leading to the room below as the gang members continued their perimeter checks below. Caine entered the office as I continued to survey the area, “what are we looking for again?” he asked. I told him that we were looking for anything that might highlight what the gang's planned activities are, who their buyers are, how they are accessing their supplies etc. Caine came across a chart on the wall, it highlighted specific ‘shipping dates’ for the next couple of weeks. I flew my drone towards the office window and took pictures of the document whilst Caine continued searching the room. Without a moment's notice, the drone was shot by a handgun round courtesy of the Red Dogs. The bullet damaged one of the four sets of propellers and sent the drone hurtling towards the street below. The drone was designed to be light, fast and agile, given the nature of the mission we didn’t see the need to send in an armoured drone. The drone needed to be rebooted before I could reroute the propeller power to the remaining propellers and get it back online. I issued the reboot command via my drone controller and began re-routing the power. At this point Caine was on his own until I figured out a way to repair the drone, “I guess the drone is gone then?” Caine asked as he laughed to himself. On high alert, Caine had limited time to find as many sources of information as he could, meanwhile I struggled to see what was happening from the rooftop without the drone. Suddenly I heard what sounded like Caine and someone else having an altercation inside the office. As you’re aware by now, Caine is no stranger to fistfights, and certainly no stranger to winning them against the likes of people such as the Red Dogs. This was different, however, with what sounded like blows being exchanged between the two for a few minutes. From a distance, I saw an arm punched a clean hole through the office wall, before retracting back into the room. At this point I was more concerned than usual for Caine’s safety, I urgently asked him for a sit-rep, but got no response as the pair of them fought in that small room. Still fighting and gasping for air, Caine cuts through on comms, “Any update on this drone man? Fuck...”
I told him the power was re-routing and it was going to take at least another three minutes before the drone was operational again. “I need an extraction now! There’s a human Biomech tech in here!” At this point I was worried, Enigma urged us to evacuate immediately, easier said than done with no drone and no means of escape. The remaining gang members flooded the ground beneath the office as Caine continued to brawl in the room above them.
The Biomech human threw Caine out of the window, he hurtled towards the ground roughly 30 feet below. Caine’s arm broke the fall as he held onto his side in pain, struggling to breathe, he muttered “Data, I can’t fight...my arm is damaged. I can’t man“. I urged him to hold on as the drone was almost back online. Holding crowbars and other blunt force weapons, roughly 25 men were now surrounding him, it was clear to both of us that we’d run out of time. Caine had no choice but to hold them off until I could pilot the drone to fly over and pick him up. Two gang members approached him first, both wielding crowbars, Caine blocked the heavy swing of the first crowbar with his left arm, before disarming the man and using the weapon to break both his legs with a hard strike to the shins. The remaining gang members stormed forward with zero hesitation whilst the Biomech remained in the office overlooking the chaos through the broken window. He held his biomechanical arm and began wiggling his fingers, it was clear that Caine had managed to damage his arm in their earlier altercation too. With zero interest in continuing to fight, he watched as the rest of the Red Dogs swarmed Caine.
Flurries of punches, kicks, and weapons strikes ensued as Caine was barely able to hold his own against them. Enigma came through on our comms “20 seconds, Caine. Overhead.”. I looked down at the drone, it had righted itself and began initiating its flight systems. I needed to pilot this thing in a path that flew directly over Caine's head, giving him a chance to grab onto the handle on the underside of the drone. The problem lay in the fact that Caine was on the ground, barely conscious and gasping for air. I wasn’t sure what to do until I heard Clovas voice on comms. “Prepare for pick-up. Get that drone ready, now!”, the faint whirring of a drone emanated from above my position. It was Clova, she’d been listening to our comms and took it upon herself to pilot a surveillance drone of her own. “I have an idea but you have to go in, now!” she shouted whilst flying the drone towards the brawl. My drone was ready, I flew it at top speed towards Caine from the east side of the yard, Clova approached with equal speed from the west. She continued, “I’m dropping smoke, get ready for extraction!”. Caine mumbled in response, barely conscious at this point. Clova flew overhead, dropping a smoke grenade that dispersed a thick grey cloud of smoke, filling the area quickly. The gang panicked, “where the fuck did he go?” they exclaimed as I flew the drone directly into the thick cloud of smoke. We had one shot at this, “Caine grab on!” I shouted urgently, hoping that Caine was conscious enough to reach out his hand and grab on. Caine didn’t respond. The propeller blades from the drone began to clear the smoke beneath it, and In doing so, gave me vision of the handle Caine needed to grab on to. Without warning, a metal hand emerged upwards from the smoke, extending out, gripping the handle on the drone. What followed was a pained “go” from Caine as Clova confirmed via comms that he was holding on. Caine changed the form of his arm to create a solid bond to the handle, melding his fingers together before passing out. I flew the drone out of the area quickly, ascending towards the rooftop where I was positioned. Unconscious, Caine hung from the drone-like a rag doll, swaying side to side as I tried my best to fly him safely back to HQ. Clova followed him with her drone, measuring his vitals along the way. I flew Caine onto the roof of the HQ, laying him on the training grounds where Clova met him. I then made my way back to HQ slowly, being sure to avoid as many people as possible. Clova carried out all the necessary checks before transporting Caine below to the medibay, where he remains now. He has suffered extensive injuries as a result of our mission. After further inspection, Clova discovered multiple injuries, in total she found three fractured ribs, a broken collar bone, and some intense swelling along the side of his face. His biomechanical arm also suffered some heavy damage, presumably as a result of his fight with the other Biomech human at the scene. Clova says she can repair that and has already begun the process of doing so. With this being said, Caine is as stubborn as he is resilient, I have no doubt he’ll bounce back stronger than before. We expected the area to have a heavy enemy presence and we were right, which is why we had prepared for a possible altercation. However, Biomech threats were something we were not expecting, more specifically, gang members with body modifications similar to Caine’s arm. This is extremely significant, and frankly quite worrying.
Before I sign off, let me give you some context, it’s time you learned more about Clovas past. Clova worked at Arkteq, she was responsible for building and running the H.A.T.I research and development project. H.A.T.I stands for ‘Human & Technology Integration’, a division of Arketeq built by Clova. The aim of the division was to develop ways humans could integrate with technology on a biomechanical level, far beyond basic prostheses. Her research was successful, and over the course of time, Arketeq increased the project's funding, giving Clova and her team a chance to develop advanced biomechanical prosthetics. Regular prosthesis is nothing new in Solai, but it’s extremely expensive and has many limitations for the user. Connected to Arketeqs network via an identity chip, regular prosthetics are powered wirelessly by Arketeq. These prosthetics can not be purchased outright, instead, they are paid for monthly by the registered user. The prosthetic will cease all functionality if the user can’t afford to keep up the payments, three missed payments, and the prosthetic will be removed and returned to Arketeq by law. What made Clovas' work so remarkable was that it broke the mold of conventional technology. It did not require an identity chip to work and was not powered wirelessly by Arketeq, no charging required, no uplink or data sharing with Arketeq, total freedom. It was self-sufficient, drawing kinetic energy from the host and amplifying it, before converting it into its own energy source. This energy source allowed for a range of unique attributes, including the ability for a prosthetic to change its physical form based on the user's needs. The energy could also be used to enhance prosthetics’ strength attributes. Over time Arketeq became more and more involved in her research, although no longer interested in Clovas intended purpose for the prosthetics. Arketeq was trying to push the boundaries of the technology, steering it in a direction far from what Clova had envisioned. Clova feared what may happen should Arketeq continue pushing the technology, as pieces of her research found their way into other divisions and talks about ‘military contracts’ began circulating within the company.
As a result, she transferred her research from digital to paper, and erased all of the data she’d collected on Arketeqs servers since the inception of H.A.T.I. She was called in, and demanded she hand over her documentation, she agreed and handed over fakes that she had prepared in advance. I’ll hand it to her, my sister had her head screwed on. Immediately after this meeting, Clova gathered her actual research and left without saying a thing. Arketeq spent some time trying to replicate what Clova had created during her time at the company, but none of the results were close thanks to the false research. It didn’t take long before the H.A.T.I division was shut down. With this being said, the results of Clovas previous research have up until now only existed in two forms; The original research documentation, and the physical form of that, Caines arm. So how do we explain the fact that Caine came face to face with someone else who possessed the same technology as him? His arm should be the only physical embodiment of Clovas work, yet somehow another human has an advanced Biomech limb too. Now that we know the technology is being used by the Red Dogs, we need to take extra precautions moving forward. Neither of you are responding to our comms, and I get that, you have shit to figure out. It’s why I didn’t try to stop you from leaving, I felt we owed you that much. Given the recent developments, it’s clear that we can’t manage on our own. I trust you’ll both return soon.
- Data
