Chapter Text
Seven years ago the world turned to a war ground. Countries turned against each other, and government systems went to war with each other within the same country. The remaining population, which is somewhat unknown, is divided by two companies; Sentinel and Atlas.
Atlas is mostly made of the corrupt officials, ex military, and what's left of the American government. Their system is cruel and unfair, but people still continue to work for them.
The Sentinels are mostly a group of rebels fighting back against Atlas. They fight back when they can, going on covert missions to find their data, destroy their plans, and take down their leaders.
Currently, Tobin is on her way to the Golden Gate Bridge where an extraction team will recover stolen data and any supplies from an abandoned base. Atlas has been known to scout around the area, so her nerves are on edge about the mission. She doesn't really have a reason to be nervous, she's been doing this for four years now and she has the best team in the entire Sentinel company. Her best friend, Kelley, is sitting next to her on the helicopter as she habitually cleans the arms of her Exo Suit.
"Are you nervous?" Tobin asks Kelley as she stares out at the open water. Things seem almost normal, though Tobin doesn't really know what normal feels like anymore.
"As always", Kelley laughs coldly.
"Kelley", across from Tobin, Hope is giving Kelley a scolding look, being Kelleys girlfriend means dealing with her negative attitude about the war. Tobin knows Hope doesn't mind, and her positive outlook on things has helped Kelley in a lot of ways.
"I just don't understand why it's only us on this mission"
"The less people we have the quicker we'll be out. Plus, with a smaller team there's less of a chance we'll get shot", she tells them.
"Wonderful way of looking at it Tobs", Hope says sarcastically to her.
The helicopter jerks around for a second before Ashlyn's voice comes through the speakers, "The landing zone is a little hot but I haven't seen anything on the radar for a while so you should be good for a quick in and out. Carli said to get the data, search any of the remaining rooms for supplies and then get out. There's a storm brewing somewhere along the coast and I would appreciate it if we didn't have to go back home in it"
"You got it, let's get this thing done", Kelley stands up and unlocks the door, jumping down before the copter even hits the concrete.
"I really hope she doesn't get herself killed", Hope mumbles.
"We'll be fine, just get in and get out", Tobin pulls her rifle from her back and checks her Exo Suit readings.
"You ready?" Kelley asks.
"Yeah", with a press of a button all of their Exo Suits shifts into battle mode and their helmets twist and pull down over their faces.
////
"This place is a literal shithole. There's barely anything working, how did they even manage to store our data here?"
They had been searching for a good ten minutes, only coming up with minimal supplies and no luck with the trashed computers. Everything was mostly rubble, holes in the tall ceiling and thick walls proved it. There had been a few dead bodies laying around, all of them had been Atlas so Tobin took the chance to go through their Exo Suits for data. She had come up with nothing but maps upon maps, which were useful but not as useful as their missing data.
"It has to be somewhere, it's not like they could keep it floating in mid air"
Tobin's head flings up from looking at the trashed screens, "Kelley you're a genius"
She turns around from her spot in the rubble, "You don't think they actually-"
"It's the only way they could've hid it from us. They know we're smart enough to check the computers, or what's left of them, and to check any of the stuff they left behind. But I'm telling you, they think they're above everyone so they don't expect us to find it when it's literally hanging over our heads", she scrambles around the panels trying to find a button, or anything really that looks like it would do something different.
Tobin hears Hope mumble something but the distortion of her helmet keeps her from hearing it, "Did you say something Hope?"
She sighs, "I found something but I don't know if it will show us something or blow us to pieces"
Tobin walks over to her and moves to look under the panels like she is. A large, red, but somehow discreet button, is placed just above one of the panels. There isn't any instructions or writing next to it, so pressing is would be dangerous. The probability of it just blowing up was slim though.
"Alright, Hope get behind something. I'll press it with my foot and if it blows you get out of here. If it doesn't, then we have our data", Hope gets up from under the screen and stands next to Kelley on the other side of the room.
"On my mark", Tobin moves so her foot is just barely touching the button, "Three, two, one-"
She smashes her foot against the button, immediately covering her head but no explosion goes off, and the air is filled with silence.
"Tobin, you should look at this", she lifts her head up from under her arms and is struck by excitement.
The empty air is now filled with holograms of streaming data, maps, and files. Tobin stands up and walks to the middle of the data cube, watching as it trails over her skin. The room is darker around the edges now, the projection of the data glowing brightly at the three soldiers.
"Woah", is all they can say.
"How do you think we can get the data?"
"I have no idea Kelley", Tobin continues spinning in the middle as an endless amount of data streams in the air.
"Welcome, how may I assist you?" A voice sounds through the air, causing the three soldiers to pull their rifles from their backs.
"What the hell was that?" Hope whispers.
"My name is CONCAF, the AI of this program. How may I assist you?" The voice echoes through the air again.
"An AI? Since when did Atlas start using AI's?" Kelley asks to no one in particular.
"Two years ago when the Atlas program created the first one and used it as a commanding unit", CONCAF replies.
"That is not good, that is not good at all", Hope whispers.
"How can we get this data?" Tobin finally asks the AI.
"Please specify"
"The data streaming right here in front of us, in the middle of the air"
"How did you get access to this data?"
"I pressed a stupid red button under one of data screens. How can I download it to my software and destroy it here?" Tobin grows agitated.
"One moment please", silence, "Data streaming in process. Seven minutes remaining. Self destruct will take place in one hour"
"Well that was easy", Kelley finally relaxes and places her gun back on her suit.
"Hate to be a party pooper here guys, but there's four enemies headed towards the base, and fast", Ashlyn's voice cracks through Tobin's helmet.
"Atlas?"
"No, definitely scavengers or another rebel group. The cameras around the area are showing four females, one of them looks really young. I wouldn't try to kill them"
"How long until they're on the outer perimeter?"
"Two minutes tops"
"Dammit", Tobin runs a hand over her smooth helmet, "The data streaming has six minutes left"
"Looks like you're gonna have to fight then"
"CONCAF, can you hide the data projection and continue streaming while we look around?"
"Of course, moving projection now"
The room grows dark as the data flashes away, but a glowing from Tobin's Exo Suit tells her the data is still streaming.
"We can go ahead and set up behind those crates and take them out quickly or we can take stealth positions and take them out one by one", Tobin whispers to her teammates.
"Why don't we try to take them in?" Kelley asks.
"What if they're Atlas spies? They could have just sent them out here to trick us just so they can get into our base", Hope snarls back.
"Ash said they weren't Atlas, the cameras around the area prove it. I say taking them in is a good idea, the more people we have the better we'll get"
"Fine, but if this goes to shit I'm blaming you two"
////
"Come on Mal we're almost there"
"You said that ten minutes ago Alex, when are we actually gonna be there?"
"Just quit complaining and keep running, I promise you we're almost there", Alex picks up her pace a little, which seems impossible since her group has been running for the past hour now. Their trucks broke down outside the San Diego city border, and now they were on foot. She knows she saw a building on the other side of the bridge, but getting there without someone complaining seemed pretty unlikely. Her team trusted her though, so they started running on the highway a couple miles back. Lucky for them, the building was now in sight and they just had to climb over a fence to get inside.
"Thank god", Christen bends over her knees to catch her breath as the group comes to a stop.
"Mal, you go first", Alex brings her hands down so Mal can jump over.
"Make Abby go first, I need to catch my breath", Mal bends down next to Christen as Abby walks past her and jumps over the fence.
When all four of them are over the fence, they pull their rifles out and start searching the area. Abby manages to find ammo and parts under the rubble near the building, but it's not enough for the long journey Alex has planned.
They stop just at the edge of the destroyed building, Alex scans her eyes over the many outlet buildings on the outside, managing to find a good vantage point from the one in the middle. When the team reaches the top they can see the water lapping onto the shore.
"What do you think the building used to be?" Mallory cuts the silence.
Alex continues looking around until her eyes land on a crest at the entrance door, "Atlas"
She jumps down quickly, running to the entrance door and kicking it in.
"Alex what the hell are you doing?" Abby yells back at her.
"Just follow me and stay close"
"This could be a trap for all we know", Christen manages to catch up to Alex and pulls her back behind some crates.
"We just need to find some supplies and leave, if this is a trap we'll deal with it but so far there's been nothing to tell us that it is"
The other three girls are quiet, so Alex nods and continues walking into the large circular room. To the right of the room is another door that leads outside, and another one straight ahead. The room is trashed with rubble and broken computers, only one console seems to be working but the screen is cracked beyond repair.
"Hey I found some first aid over here", Alex heard Mallory yell from another room.
Her eyes travel up to the roof of the building, scanning over all the possible places a camera could be. The roof has tons of holes but the light barely travels into the dark room.
"Am I the only one that feels like we're being watched?" Abby asks the group.
"You say that everywhere we go", Christen snarls and pushes a piece of rubble off of a pile.
"Christen", Alex warns but a large crash from a different room stops her.
"What was that?"
"Where's Mallory?" The three pull their rifles out and start walking towards the room Mallory was in.
The room is just more rubble and more broken consoles, but Mallory is no where in sight. Alex feels like she's being watched also, which isn't helping her anxiety about Mal.
"Mallory?" Alex whispers.
As soon as she takes another step a bullet flies past her and the three women drop to the floor and crawl behind piles of rubble.
"Atlas!", Abby yells and jumps up to start shooting.
"Why does everyone think we're god damn Atlas?" Alex hears a voice say from the other side of the room.
She still can't see where Mallory is, if she's even on the other side of the room. Alex and Christen set up their rifles and start shooting also, catching glimpses of armor running around behind the rubble. Alex waits until she gets another glimpse and pulls her trigger, but she doesn't hit anything. Bullets continue flying everywhere, Alex is sure she's gonna have some hearing damage after this little battle, if she lives.
"Cover me, I'm gonna reload and move farther up", Alex whispers to Christen.
Christen nods so she reloads and takes a deep breath before springing out of cover and closer to her new enemies. Someone comes out of the cover in front of Alex and she's about to pull the trigger but she looks at their face and she can't shoot. The girl in front of her is gorgeous beyond belief, long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail, perfectly chiseled jawline, glowing brown eyes, and lips that Alex probably wouldn't mind being on her own.
'Focus Morgan!'
Alex quickly shakes her head and pulls her rifle up to shoot but the girl already has hers up.
"Wait!" She yells.
The room grows silent as bullets stop flying.
"Where is my sister", Alex growls behind clenched teeth.
"We didn't hurt her, I promise. We just want to talk", Alex laughs coldly at the girls request.
"Give me Mallory and maybe we will"
"Kelley", she yells behind her without taking her eyes off of Alex.
Alex watches another girl come out of cover with Mallory next to her.
"Alex, it's okay. They're Sentinels, they can help us", Mallory jogs up next to Alex, pushing down on her rifle until it's no longer pointing at the other soldier.
"I don't care who they are Mal, we're fine on our own"
"But they can protect us from Atlas, you know how much other rebel groups talk about them"
"Yeah and they talked about Atlas too and you see how that went", Alex snaps, pulling her rifle back up to aim at the girl.
"Alex", Mallory steps in front of the barrel of Alex's gun, "Sentinel isn't like Atlas and you know it"
It was true. Ever since they escaped Atlas they'd heard nothing but good things about Sentinel. Other rebel groups lost members to them because of how good their military program was rumored to be, but people talked about Atlas the same way. Alex took a look at the girl behind Mal, seeing nothing but sincereness behind her eyes. Her eyes traveled to the other two girls, the tinier one had slight puppy eyes, but the taller one was glaring at Alex with her eyebrow raised.
Alex looked back to the girl behind Mal, who she seemed drawn to, and lowered her gun once more, "Fine, what's this deal of yours?"
"Well we're not exactly supplied with the information to uh, keep you safe per say but the people back at our base can fill you in on all of it"
Alex scoffs, "So you want us to go to your base so you can fill us in"
"If you think we're gonna do anything to hurt you-", the shorter girl in the back starts but Alex just laughs.
"Oh I do"
"Tell you what, you come with us and I can promise we won't hurt you. If you don't believe us we'll lock up all of our weapons. After you go through our interview process and hear our deal and you still don't trust us, you can pack your bags up again and head out", jawline girl, who Alex has now named, explains.
Alex considers the possibilities. They were pretty nice, considering they were just shooting at each other a couple minutes ago. Mallory was giving Alex her puppy eyes, which just made Alex cave even more.
"Fine", Mallory cheers up but Alex cuts her off, "But if I get the slightest feeling that you're tricking us we're leaving"
"You got it", jawline smiles largely.
"Shouldn't we get going-"
"Warning. Tsunami approaching. Move to higher ground", a robotic voice echoes through the room.
Alex and her team pull their guns put, but jawline girl and her team stay still with wide eyes.
"Shit"
"What the hell is that?" Christen asks.
"CONCAF, the AI in this station", the tall girl answers.
"It still works?"
"Apparently so"
////
"Uh Tobin, you might wanna hurry to the chopper. Those waves are rolling fast and this platform is only a couple yards off the ground", Ashlyn's voice cracks through Tobin's ear piece.
"We need to get going, follow us", she takes off down the hall and through a set of double doors.
A window near the exit shows Tobin how close the waves are so she picks up her pace and takes a sharp left in the cylinder room. The ceiling becomes low again, water is starting to trickle inside the building by the exit. All of the girls feet echo through the building, making Tobin run even faster as waves start lapping at her feet.
"Ashlyn open the doors!" Tobin yells as the group finally gets out of the building.
They travel up the hill a bit before swinging around another smaller building and heading down towards the chopper. The doors begin opening as the chopper slowly lifts off the ground. The waves have reached the beach on the lower ground, lapping up intensely against the sides of the buildings. Tobin reaches the chopper and jumps in quickly, followed by Kelley and Mallory.
"Start lifting Ash", Tobin yells through the small door to the cockpit, "Hope lets go!"
Hope quickly jumps up and grabs onto the ledge of the chopper, Kelley pulling her up as Tobin and Mallory help the other girls up. The older girl almost misses the edge of the chopper but Tobin helps pull her up. Alex and the other girl are still running towards the chopper, the waves now crashing against their ankles. The darker haired girl reaches the chopper first, she has to jump directly up to catch Mallorys grip and Tobin doesn't think Alex is going to make it if she doesn't hurry. Alex seems to pick up her speed and jumps to grab the ledge, but Tobin can tell she's off by a couple inches. Tobin quickly slides across the metal floor and reaches out to Alex as she realizes she missed the ledge. When the two girls grab onto each other Alex's legs are hanging off the ground but the waves are crashing against her. Tobin uses all of her strength to pull Alex up, almost losing her grip but quickly recovering. By the time the two collapse on the floor the choppers doors are closing and they're flying off to the base.
"Thanks", Alex huffs out, causing Tobin to smile.