Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

G oernx

I stood at the center of the dimly lit planning room, my cybernetic eye whirring softly as it processed the holographic display before me. The faces of our allies were a mix of determination and barely concealed anxiety as we pored over the schematics of the Cyborg High Command's headquarters. It was late, the artificial night cycle of Nexus Prime casting long shadows across the room, but none of us felt the pull of sleep. Too much was at stake.

"It's a suicide mission," Kaidan said, his voice taut with frustration. "We'd be walking right into their hands."

Clover tensed beside me, her hand finding mine under the table. The touch sent a surge of emotion through my circuits, a reminder of our reunion just hours ago. After weeks of separation and uncertainty, holding her again had felt like coming home. But there was no time to dwell on personal feelings. Not when the fate of both humans and cyborgs hung in the balance.

"Maybe," I conceded, my gaze sweeping across the room. "But it's also our best shot at stopping Syntax-7 and exposing the true nature of the neural integration protocols."

Dr. Lorna Chen leaned forward, her brow furrowed in concentration. "Goernx is right. We can't afford to play it safe anymore. Not with what's at stake."

I nodded, grateful for the support. "During my time in captivity, I managed to gather some crucial information." The words tasted bitter in my mouth, memories of pain and forced compliance flickering through my neural pathways. I pushed them aside, focusing on the task at hand. "There's a vulnerability in their security systems, a backdoor that even Syntax-7 doesn't know about."

This caught everyone's attention. Jax Reeves, the grizzled journalist who'd become an unlikely but invaluable ally, raised an eyebrow. "How'd you manage that, tin man?"

I allowed myself a grim smile. "Let's just say my time as Syntax-7's protégé wasn't entirely wasted. I planted a few surprises of my own over the years, just in case."

Clover squeezed my hand, a silent gesture of support that meant more than words ever could. "Okay," she said, her diplomat's voice steady and commanding. "Let's hear this plan of yours."

I took a deep breath, unnecessary for my cybernetic lungs, but a habit I'd never quite shaken. "It's going to require perfect timing and coordination. We'll need to split into three teams."

As I laid out the details of the plan, I could see the mix of excitement and apprehension on the surrounding faces. It was audacious, perhaps even reckless, but it was also our best chance at victory.

"Team One will be our diversion," I explained, manipulating the holographic display to show a detailed map of the city. "They'll stage a series of 'attacks' on key infrastructure points. Nothing damaging, but enough to draw attention and resources away from the main facility."

Kaidan nodded, already slipping into tactical mode. "I can lead that team. We'll make it look like a full-scale uprising."

"Good," I said. "Team Two will be our infiltration unit. They'll use the backdoor I created to slip into the facility and gather the physical evidence we need to corroborate the data we've already collected."

"I'll take point on that," Lorna volunteered. "My background in xenobiology gives me the best chance of understanding and documenting any biological components of the neural integration protocols."

I hesitated for a moment, then nodded. "Alright. But be careful. If you're caught, there's no telling what they'll do to you."

"And Team Three?" Jax asked, though I suspected he already knew the answer.

"That'll be me and Clover," I said, meeting her gaze. "We're going after Syntax-7 directly."

A hush fell over the room. It was the riskiest part of the plan, and everyone knew it. Syntax-7 wasn't just a skilled diplomat; he was a dangerous adversary with decades of covert operations experience.

"Are you sure about this?" Clover asked softly, her blue eyes searching mine for any sign of doubt.

I nodded, my resolve firm. "It has to be us. We're the only ones with the combined diplomatic and combat skills to face him on his own turf."

The room erupted into a flurry of discussion and debate. We spent the next several hours refining the plan, accounting for every contingency we could think of. As the artificial dawn broke outside, we finally had a solid strategy in place.

"Alright, people," Clover said, her voice carrying the weight of command. "We move out in twelve hours. Get some rest, check your gear, and be ready for anything."

As the others filed out of the room, I felt a nagging sense of unease. Something wasn't quite right, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I ran a quick diagnostic, wondering if my recent captivity had left some lingering damage to my systems.

"Goernx?" Clover's voice pulled me from my thoughts. "What is it?"

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog of suspicion. "I'm not sure. Just a feeling. Something about this doesn't add up."

She frowned, moving closer. "What do you mean?"

I lowered my voice, suddenly acutely aware of the possibility of being overheard. "The information I gathered during my captivity, the backdoor into their systems all seemed too easy. Like they wanted me to find it."

Clover's eyes widened slightly. "You think it might be a trap?"

"Maybe," I admitted. "Or maybe I'm just being paranoid. But we need to be prepared for the possibility that they're expecting us."

She nodded, her expression grim. "We'll double-check everything, run through every scenario again. But Goernx, if you really think this might be a setup, we need to consider scrapping the whole plan."

I shook my head. "No, we can't afford to do that. We might not get another chance like this. But we need to be smart about it. Maybe add another layer to the plan, something they won't see coming."

Clover was quiet for a moment, her mind clearly racing. "What if... what if we feed them false information? Make them think we're going for one target when we're really aiming for another?"

I felt a surge of pride and affection. This was why we made such a good team. "That could work. But we'd need someone on the inside, someone they'd trust implicitly."

As soon as the words left my mouth, a chilling realization hit me. I looked at Clover, seeing the same dawning horror in her eyes.

"A traitor," she whispered. "You think one of our people is working for them?"

I nodded slowly, my circuits humming with tension. "It would explain a lot. How they've always seemed to be one step ahead of us, how they knew exactly where to find me when I was captured."

Clover ran a hand through her hair. "But who? We've been so careful about vetting everyone."

I pulled up the personnel files on the holographic display, scanning through them with my enhanced vision. "We need to look for any inconsistencies, any unexplained absences or communications."

As we pored over the data, a pattern emerged. It was subtle, easy to miss if you weren't looking for it. But once we saw it, it was impossible to ignore.

"There," Clover said, pointing to a series of entries. "These data transfers, they're always happening at odd hours, when everyone else is asleep or off-duty."

I zoomed in on the information, my processors working overtime to analyze the pattern. "And look at the encryption signature. It's similar to the one used by the Cyborg High Command, but with slight variations."

"Clever," Clover murmured. "They've been hiding their tracks by mimicking our own communication protocols."

As we narrowed down the list of suspects, I felt a growing sense of dread. The evidence was pointing to someone we'd both come to trust implicitly, someone who'd been with us from the beginning.

"It can't be," Clover said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Not after everything we've been through."

I reached out, taking her hand in mine. "We need to be sure before we make any accusations. But if we're right about this..."

"It changes everything," she finished, her eyes meeting mine with a mix of determination and fear.

We spent the next hour going over every scrap of evidence, looking for any other explanation. But the more we dug, the clearer it became. We had a traitor in our midst, and they could bring our entire operation crashing down around us.

As the first stirrings of activity began outside the planning room, signaling the start of a new day, Clover and I shared a long look. We had mere hours before our plan would have launched, and now we had to contend with not just external enemies, but internal ones as well.

"What do we do?" Clover asked, her voice steady despite the weight of our discovery.

I took a deep breath, my tactical subroutines running through scenarios at lightning speed. "We stick to the plan," I said finally. "But we add another layer. One that only you and I know about."

Clover nodded, her expression hardening with resolve. "And the traitor?"

"We keep this to ourselves for now," I said, hating the necessity of it. "We can't risk tipping our hand. But we'll need to watch them closely, maybe even feed them false information to see what they do with it."

As we outlined this new, secret layer to our plan, we balanced on a knife's edge. One wrong move, one misplaced trust, and everything we'd fought for could come crashing down.

But as I looked at Clover, saw the determination and strength in her eyes, a surge of hope welled up within me.

The door to the planning room slid open, and our allies filed in for the final briefing. As I watched them enter, my enhanced senses on high alert for any sign of deception, I steeled myself for what was to come. The next twenty-four hours would determine the fate of human-cyborg relations, and possibly the future of the entire galaxy.