"Remind me to yell at the boss for sending us in here without backup." Kira shot at one of the security guards barring her path.

"No one was supposed to be here," Nia said while squeezing off two quick shots at another opponent.

They were trying to incapacitate rather than kill, but the enemy was being a pain in the ass about it. After a few more carefully placed shots, Kira's team was able to force the enemy into a side hall so they could go around them to access the exit.

It was time to run for their lives.

A plasma beam streaked past, two centimeters from Ari's head. "Play nice!" he spun around and landed a precision shot in the offending pursuer's leg.

Kira brushed her left hand over the drive tucked away in her armor. Whatever we have here, MTech doesn't want us to leave with it.

Too bad.

They reached the secondary entrance that they'd flagged as an emergency egress point while planning the op. Fortunately, the facility didn't seem to be fully staffed with security or they would have been trapped.

Kira ushered her team through the outer door. Ari hung back to lay down a barrage of suppressive fire to buy seconds for the run to their landing shuttle on the surface of the barely habitable moon.

The team piled into the shuttle through the back hatch, and Kira took the controls. "Come on, Ari!" she urged.

Gunshots sounded from the direction of the facility exit.

"On my way."

Kira powered up the shuttle, waiting for her final team member to run on board.

"I'm in. Go!" Ari hit the controls to close the back hatch.

Even before the shuttle's door had sealed, Kira lifted the craft from the ground. The craft launched on a steep, upward trajectory at a dizzying speed. They slipped off their helmets once the interior had pressurized.

"That was close." Kyle released a slow breath.

Nia slumped back in her seat as the artificial gravity kicked in. "Didn't they run any thermal scans of the facility before we went in? It should have been obvious it wasn't abandoned."

"Yeah, someone certainly knew it wasn't," Kira replied. "Whatever information we have, someone wants it very badly."

"Don't accidentally drop the drive and smash it to bits," Ari jested.

"No worries. It's right up against my boobs—I protect that region at any cost." She patted her chest.

Ari cast her a sidelong glance.

Kira narrowed her eyes with playful challenge. "Yes, soldier, that's closer than you'll ever get to them."

He shrugged. "I will continue my admiration from a respectful distance in the shower."

Nia smacked him upside the head.

"What? Yours are nice, too," Ari added.

Nia exchanged an exasperated eye-roll with Kira and left it at that. It's not like the ladies hadn't done their own comparisons of their male counterparts—they were just more discreet with their conversations.

Kira activated the auto-pilot. "When we get to the Raven, how about—"

A violent jolt rocked the shuttle.

"The fok?" Nia checked the scan. "Shite, they just fired a missile at us!"

"Where'd that come from?" Kira instinctively activated the stealth mode and then took over manual control to alter course, hopefully enough to throw off any other weapons locks. When she'd completed the evasive maneuver, she consulted the scan data on the holodisplay. Sure enough, a hidden defensive launch array on the surface was aimed at them.

"They're nuts to shoot at a Guard ship!" Kyle exclaimed.

Ari frowned. "Or desperate."

Their shuttle wasn't large, but it was packed with the Guard's best tech. Even with a direct hit, it was unlikely anything the weapons array could send in their direction would do any significant damage—and with the stealth systems activated, the ship would be invisible. But, that was beside the point.

"How in the stars did MTech get these kind of armaments?" Kira murmured.

"This might explain it." Kyle added a holographic overlay over the front viewport.

Their interstellar Guard ship, the Raven, was in orbit at the spinward horizon line from their present position, but there was also a new ship, which hadn't been there at the time they headed down to the moon for the op. ID tags marked it as Mysaran military.

"Shuttle 1, proceed to berth immediately," a familiar voice broke in over their shuttle's comm.

"Major Sandren, what—" Kira started to ask.

"You were never on the surface of that moon and this Mysaran cruiser never saw us," her commander replied.

Checking the scan again, Kira realized that the Raven's stealth was also active.

"Yes, sir," she acknowledged. "On our way." She ended the comm link.

Nia's brow pinched with concern. "What kind of shitestorm did we just stumble into?"

Kira shook her head. "I don't know, but I want answers."

Operating on auto-pilot for the rest of the short voyage, the shuttle looped a quarter of the way around the moon before meeting up with the Raven. At two hundred meters long, it was just large enough for a small crew to not go crazy if they were cooped up for more than a week or two. A cargo hold underneath the matte black vessel provided berthing for two pods.

The shuttle directed itself into an open bay door protected by a force field. As soon as the shuttle was on the deck in its usual slot, the outer hatch slid closed over the hold's opening.

Kira rose from her seat at the controls. "I'll hand over the loot and see what Sandren knows."

Ari's eyes gleamed, his spirits already recovered from their recent firefight. "While you do that, I have to, uh, file my report with the combat data."

Kira sighed; true to form, Ari could shrug off any amount of combat if he had a new video project to obsess over. "Shite, that's right..."

"What now?" Nia asked.

"You'll see soon enough," Kira grumbled, shooing her team from the shuttle.

She parted ways from them when they headed for the showers so she could debrief with their commanding officer. She'd been under Major Lucas Sandren's command for the past two years, and he was her favorite CO to date in her nine years with the Guard. Though he'd been rough on her at times, he was fair and had never sent her into a mission without a thorough, accurate briefing. Until today.

Sandren was in his office behind his compact desk. He leaned forward in his chair. "Captain, I—"

Kira slammed her hand on the interior control panel to close the door. "With all respect, sir, what the fok?"

"I didn't know. I wouldn't have sent you in there alone if my intel had been accurate." Sandren looked genuinely contrite.

Kira's shoulders slumped. "We weren't properly equipped for a firefight like that. We almost..."

"But you made it out."

"And then they kept shooting at us! What's a Mysaran cruiser—"

"That was an unexpected wrinkle, yes." Sandren fixed his brown eyes on her. "Were you successful?"

"Yeah, barely." She retrieved the portable drive from the pocket on her chest and tapped it against the open palm of her left hand. "What is this?"

"The higher-ups have been tight-lipped about the whole thing. You did your part."

Something about his tone indicated he might know more than he was letting on, but Kira was too tired to argue. "The MTech guy I spoke to said this wasn't just about a potential civil war with Mysar. Whatever it is, there's some foked up shite going on down there."

"The presence of the Mysaran military made that much clear." Sandren took the drive from her and stared at it in his hands. "Right before you docked, word came down that they've increased the security clearance on the op."

"Retroactively? That—"

"I know." Sandren nodded solemnly. "We'll debrief back at base."

— — —

Monica Waylon braced for the worst. "How much did they get?"

"Enough," her assistant, Tim, replied. "Phase One and Two trial reports, expression models, the analysis of—"

Monica held up her hand to stop him; ultimately, the details didn't matter. Her research with MTech had been exposed. The bomaxed Taran authorities were threatening to ruin everything, as usual. Years of effort would be for naught if she couldn't keep the project moving forward.

"At least the test subjects had already been relocated," Tim offered.

It was small consolation, but Monica needed to embrace any good news at her disposal. "Yes, there is that."

Even though she was the project's director, she still had superiors watching her every move. They'd been berating her for months about the expense of her new research lab on Valta, but she now felt vindicated—having anticipated that they'd need a facility with better security. Her proactive preparations meant that their work in the new Valtan lab could continue without drawing additional unwanted attention, whereas the raid would have spelled disaster if they had still been operating solely out of the moon lab. However, if the Tararian Guard was intent to intervene, she'd be forced to take drastic action.

Monica smoothed her shoulder-length brown hair. "I'll update our benefactors about our status. Check on the Phase Two subjects."

Tim eagerly rose from his workstation. "Right away."

She watched him go. He'd been spending too much time with the subjects recently—getting attached. Their work demanded complete loyalty to the cause, and they couldn't afford such distractions. She made a mental note to look into how Tim had been spending his visits to the holding cells; he was just as disposable as the Phase One subjects.

For now, though, her collaborators were awaiting her call.

As soon as Tim had entered the cellblock, Monica logged into the secure platform she used to communicate with her associates. Her digital avatar—a gray, androgynous figure—appeared in the holoconference on her behalf. She was soon joined by the representations of two of her associates, Nox and Reya—blue and green figures, respectively.

"The situation isn't good, but it's salvageable," Monica stated.

"What was the Tararian Guard doing at the moon?" Reya demanded.

"The better question is, why was that lab still inhabited?" Nox countered. "We were assured that it would be empty."

"There were delays in transferring the rest of the weapons cache," admitted Monica. "Unfortunately, that retrieval team hadn't wiped the local servers yet. If I'd had warning, I would have tried to make other arrangements."

Reya's green avatar shook its head. "Two hours later and the Guard wouldn't have found anything meaningful."

"These are the risks of operating in the shadows," Nox said. "Once the Empire's prying eyes are no longer on the Elvar Trinary, we can operate freely."

Monica's eyes narrowed. "But the Empire is involved now. And they're persistent."

"We do have contingency plans in place," Reya offered. "Is it time?"

Nox's blue avatar nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, I may have a solution that will solve all of our problems."

— — —

President Elton Joris of the Elusian Alliance was certain his Mysaran neighbors were up to something devious. He was no stranger to their political posturing, but unusual fleet activity coupled with rumors about MTech's research over the past several months had put him on high alert. At least his contacts would soon be able to tell him just how much danger Elusia was really in.

Maybe we should have invested more in our military, but how were we to know Mysar would move against us? He prayed that it wouldn't come to that. The Elvar Trinary had been settled by their ancestors to escape war; he hated to think a civil dispute might rip them apart.

A knock sounded on his door.

"Enter," Joris stated.

Nico cracked opened the door and slipped inside. "Sir, I verified that the new draft of the reunification agreement includes those language modifications you requested."

"Good. Thank you for coordinating that review," Joris acknowledged. Nico was young, but he'd proven to be a capable and dedicated assistant. Given what Elusia might be facing in the near-term, he'd need members of his administration he could trust.

"Sir, I was wondering..." Nico began tentatively.

Joris waved him the rest of the way into the office.

Nico closed the door and approached Joris' desk. "Sir, about those changes regarding the defense assurances... Are you concerned about Mysar?"

Capable, dedicated, and astute. Joris folded his hands on his desktop. "I began these discussions with the Taran Empire because it is my belief that we should mend ties with our Taran brethren. I hope Mysar sees fit to follow our lead."

"And if they don't?"

"Then we won't be alone."

*   *   *

Thank you for reading this preview of Mindspace: Infiltration!

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