"Employee!" Malvis beckoned, startling a short man with eye-glasses. "What is your name?"

The engineer fumbled, coughed, and gargled, "Azeem!"

"Azeem! Is it customary to let non-personnel wander this floor?"

Azeem looked to where Malvis gestured and saw Jessica's colorful figure by the terminal. "Umm..."

"Just sustenance delivery," said Jessica. "Cuz you know, I'm standing right here..."

Malvis turned his mysterious expression to Jessica, with a stoic aura that nearly knocked her down. As she stared, he stared right back, presumably. "What is your affiliation?" he told her.

Jessica rolled her eyes, certain the name Tacquizza was spelled on her hat. To be 110% sure, she checked. Her gaze then found Azeem. "Thank you for ordering from Tacquizza, where your satisfaction is our satisfaction!"

"What's going on?" Hamill's impersonator appeared between Azeem and Malvis, a befuddled David not far behind. His question had been somewhat garbled by the sound of meat and tortilla in his mouth. "Taco?" he asked Azeem.

"I love tacos," said Azeem.

The alien ended his death stare when he turned around and met David, who winced. Jess had spoken with him several times, under the guise of Lynx, so felt weird but not surprised when he did not recognize her.

"Please, see that she finds the exit," Malvis softly commanded. The Spearhead security guard nodded and pointed Jessica to the elevator, making her writhe with inner disappointment. Without a choice, she begrudgingly gathered her belongings and made her way to the platform. The Azarean's ominous stride accompanied her from behind.

She hadn't finished what she came here to do. Anxious, relentless, Jessica thought on her feet and boldly turned to make Malvis stop in his tracks. "Almost forgot!" she started. "I need my evaluation done." She reached and retrieved her Vit from her backpack. "It'd really help me out if someone like you filled out this questionnaire. It's super-duper quick."

"You have not provided me with any service," Malvis said robotically.

"I served your corporation." Jessica's smile was as fake as it was wide. "And when we get right down to it, aren't corporations people, too?" Though she could not read the space elf's face, his silence ticked like a clock.

Examining every inch of the Tacquizza girl, Malvis mechanically gripped the Vit. He swiftly swiped left, again and again, then returned the device. The lens on his face never even changed direction.

"Fantastic!" said Jessica, scrolling through fail grade after fail grade.

Malvis looked at the guard. "See that she finds the exit."

Goggles on. "Capture," she whispered as Malvis pulled up his holo-brace. A bead of sweat rubbed her temple as soon the elevator doors shut. Within her employee evaluation sheet, she found the signature. Malvis it read; he was a variable with a creepy disposition, and the moment his white figure disappeared behind the double doors, a beep resounded from her watch. It was a message from Helios.

"What?" she stammered under her breath.

The security guard eyed her but only saw her pale grin and gleaming eye. He loomed after the elevator, all the way down the stairs, to watch her exit Goliath HQ.

A mix of whiplash and relief followed Jessica outside. How the hell do actors do it? She ogled the USB in her hand—thought of Ghost Wire, David, Helios, and slammed into a wall of questions. There was data to examine, but she also needed to reflect. Her gaze wandered across the urban expanse of New Sumer, breathing in, pondering the future beyond its elevated highways and blocks of pedestrians.

"McFly." First Tacquizza then some remote research at home. "Maybe I'll visit Beth again," she mused, right before red light showered the street. Another city-wide broadcast. Thus, she patiently rolled her eyes, next to several pedestrians, waiting. But the message never came. Holograms commandeered the scene as every board across the city flickered. Everyone seemed equally befuddled at, what looked like, an avenue of electronics gone haywire.

"Weird..."

The city's cyberspace had hit a snag, apparently. The people stared in awe while traffic slowed to a crawl, murmuring as every hologram digitized into unreadable pixels. Airborne vehicles descended into the cityscape, making use of the emergency landing stations. A symphony of sirens sounded for the reception of airborne cars, which made Jessica's head spin.

"What is this?"

Finally, the labyrinth of bright neon stabilized into a uniform image across all buildings and sidewalks. Traffic had stopped; citizens looked up, to, and around every corner.

"Citizens of the deceitful sovereign!" The voiced resonated clearer than the feed, at first. After the bombardment of an echo, a face materialized on every screen, a face with a skull tattoo. He had devilish black hair, pale eyes, and an accent that chillingly bounced back and forth. He stared directly at the camera, total blackness the backdrop. And because of an unstable connection, his movements glitched. One instant, his eyes met the camera; the next, he stared into the distance. "This is your equal sss-speaking."

Someone had managed to hack the city's media infrastructure. The Terran News Network had been hijacked, which was never too simple a task. Nevertheless, there it was, a black hat staring at the masses. Nothing of the like ever happened in New Sumer.

"Misguided family of the planet Earth," the broadcast continued, "we have, all of us, become fawning sheep under the will of the Xeno! The Azarean seeds, so-called Edens, are merely the precursor to cultural genocide."

A montage of footage accompanied the broadcast. The skits were generic, at first, freeze-frames of bustling locations across every continent. The stranger narrated every sequence as they transitioned from mobs to destroyed cities to ghost towns.

But, the defining piece came from a phone camera. Old footage. Very old. It recorded the backdrop of a small rural town, accompanying several Russian voices – Beyond that, no more clues until it zoomed to the sky.

A cascade of screams deafened New Sumer, drowned out by explosions, and there were many explosions. Despite its terrible shaking, the camera focused on several aircraft bolting across the sky. Underneath them, the landscape succumbed to mega bursts of light, followed by clouds that billowed into the stratosphere. Sonic booms, meanwhile, overtook the audio like erratic thunder.

Pinnacle to the chaos, jets smashed and shattered into the ground. People sprinted across the countryside, trapped by fiery rain. Inaudible dialogue persisted, the crowd under the phone frightened. As an unidentified flying object flew into close proximity, the camera distinguished its crescent shape as an Azarean ship. Suddenly, much to the disquiet of New Sumer, the footage died.

When all was said and done, after all the terror, Jessica couldn't shake a strange suspicion. Something about the situation did not feel real. Still, New Sumer's silence was more deafening than the last cry. Soon after, the man reappeared on the torrential feed.

"We have invited the invader inside and made a home of their victory. But those of us in Sub Terra know their hidden histories, their lies, their cruel intentions, and shall fight the oppressor on every battleground. Earth will be free before it becomes a farm. And it begins with Eden, those towering deceits, fake shelters of betrayers." The orating rebel stepped back from the camera and looked down. "Clock is ticking."

A citywide countdown began, starting at 30:00...

29.59...

29.58...