YEAR 2030 - REBEL BASE - WILTSHIRE
It was a spring morning, the sun shining through the cool breeze and the rebel's mansion in daylight was a sight to behold. Following an early breakfast, Lexi had decided to give Jake a brief tour of the grounds before his scheduled meeting with Isaac and Phoenix. They had brought Max and Rosie along for the walk.
The crop fields were being tended by many of the adults and children, harvesting food for the day and week ahead. Others were tending to the livestock in the far fields that had been sectioned off quite deliberately within the acreage of the grounds. A small cluster of children was being taught by a portly man and bespectacled woman in another corner, whilst another group was playing sports with some other men.
Tank and Sam were off on a run with some of the younger generation, who were about Jake's age, training them up for combat. Everywhere they passed Jake could see people working or learning, contributing to the overall running of the place. Everyone appeared to be happy and free, a far cry from the monstrous militants portrayed in the media.
'So do you guys grow all of your own food here?' Jake asked, interested in how they were able to sustain a living here for all these people.
'We grow as much as we can throughout the year which feeds everyone on a daily basis and any extras are stored for the winter' explained Lexi. 'Obviously, we have the farm which helps, but we also have stores of dry and packaged foods'.
'Where do they come from?'
Lexi smirked, throwing a stick ahead for Max and Rosie to chase after. 'Those have been stored up for years before and we add to them from the courier raids that go to the compounds. We have been doing it for years'.
'Haven't the security services grown wise to that and used them to capture your men?' he enquired thinking this was a logical weakness to the dependency on the workings of the Empire.
'They tried that, putting tracking devices on the vehicles, adding additional security and all that stuff, but each time we adapted our approach to combat their threat' she said matter-of-factly.
'So that's it, you attack their convoys and they just let you?' Jake enquired incredulously.
The dogs had returned, Rosie the victor in collecting the stick, though if you had asked Max he would have insisted he had let her win. Lexi threw the stick again and the dogs charged after it a second time.
'It started to cost them more than it was costing us, so they began to just leave stockpiles for us to collect. They didn't lose any of their foot soldiers, had plenty of propaganda for their people about us and stopped losing their transporters and weapons'.
'How do you know they aren't just poisoning the food to kill you all off?' Jake asked still finding this arrangement hard to believe.
'Well no one has died for a start and because they know that resistance is futile, there are far too many of us to just go out and exterminate. If that ever happened we would attack their food compounds and then they would have nothing for their workers. It's clear that whatever they are working towards, we are like irritating rodents to them and either they leave food out in the field or we're going to overrun the house' she said.
They began to make their way back to the house and Jake pondered the conversation further in his head. The arrangement seemed to make sense, but what interested him more was what was so important to the Empire that rendered the rebellion outside of their control so unimportant? They controlled the majority of people who had survived the atrocities of the past and whatever it was they needed them for, was clearly something to fear. Jake had been hell-bent on gaining vengeance for the loved ones that had given their lives so that he could live and it was clear that the rebellion's intent was to restore liberty and freedom to the world. If the Empire's strategies up until now had not been to reign supreme over the world, what was their goal?
Isaac had taken over from Lexi on the role of host, showing him around the rest of the mansion. In many of the expansive rooms that had formerly been bedrooms, they had built bunks and camp beds to house all the people who lived here. The rooms that may have once been dedicated for important guests now housed anything up to thirty people. The mansion was serviced by its own independent water supply with a water well and stream outside. Power was provided by the solar panels on the expanse of the roof, a few homemade wind turbines had been erected to the rear of the property and were attached to generators in the rear garages. It was like Isaac had described, with the range of skills and expertise of the rebels being shared across the respective bases. They had managed to forge a truly sustainable home for themselves.
'The power we try to keep to a minimum and use it to charge the vehicles and support our communication infrastructure' explained Isaac as they now arrived at the large outbuilding beside the garages where the generators whirred with activity. 'Here is our most treasured asset' he said as they approached the door.
As they stepped into the dingy outbuilding, it was as if they had gone through a time warp to another dimension. The open-plan space was littered with countless monitors, machines and contraptions that just seemed totally out of place with the rest of the agricultural and rural ecosystem that they had created here. Computer monitors flickered to life and huge luminescent columns spread to the rear of the outbuilding, flashing intermittently with purpose.
'What is all this stuff?' Jake blurted entirely overwhelmed.
From the back of one of the columns, Phoenix now emerged, her shoulder length hair now pulled back into a ponytail and her brown eyes magnified by a pair of glasses.
'Welcome to the hub' she said as she took up a seat by the monitors and encouraged Jake to sit. 'This is my baby. He might drain the power, but he comes in handy’. She gushed stroking the technology like a pet. ‘We use this place to communicate with the other rebel bases, gather and store intelligence on the activities of the Empire in the data farm back there' she pointed to the large column stacks. 'It's also where we conduct some of our more innovative activities'.
Phoenix was quite animated about the gadgets and gizmos laid out before them and Jake could see that this was where she felt most at home.
'You see Jake, when you asked yesterday how we were going to infiltrate the Empire's stranglehold on the truth it conveys to its citizens, this is kind of what we had in mind' said Isaac inviting Jake another chance to take it all in. 'Back there we have the history of our world going back decades which provides the evidence through the eyes of those we have been able to free of the true atrocities of what the current regime has been doing to humanity for years. The indoctrination of generations from the Baby Boomers post World War Two, through Generation X of the 1980s and then the Millennials. It's all there waiting for a chance to be unveiled, a grand awakening'.
Jake's expression suggested that he might need a lot more convincing. Having noted his scepticism, Phoenix jumped up from her seat and took over the explanation.
'When the compounds came into effect, the Empire discovered that in spite of their efforts that they could not close down the internet without harming their own interests, so they built a system within it closed off from the outside. So, we took all of the satellite communications that they abandoned to build our own network on the outside. It is a vital tool to protect us from them. They have no idea of our capability and advances in innovation' she said.
'And they are what exactly?' Jake challenged.
Phoenix signalled for him to follow her to the other side of the outbuilding which he had yet to explore. Behind a partitioned wall were a series of old barber chairs, ten in total in two parallel rows of five. They were all in a reclined position and were attached by a series of wires to a monitor, but most alarmingly of all eight of them housed a green and black human figure which made Jake jump, startled by the revelation. The figures were fallen foot soldiers from the Empire, laid out and motionless in the barber chairs.
'Don't worry' assured Isaac, 'they are not active, at least not in the sense that they were originally intended'.
Phoenix invited Jake to sit in one of the unoccupied chairs at the end. He passed by the robots which were in a state of sleep, images flashing subliminally at pace on the monitors behind each chair.
'What the hell is this?' Jake blurted, reluctantly taking the seat. He did not like the idea of being so close to one of his arch enemies having spent years trying to evade them.
'This is where the magic happens' said Isaac, his eyes glowing with a fatherly pride as he turned to Phoenix her eyes magnified by her spectacles full of energy and enthusiasm.
'Scientists had been working for many decades on a cure for Alzheimer's disease' explained Phoenix, the excitement evident in her face. 'They figured if they could download people's memories and store them like we would data onto a computer hard drive then as the brain deteriorated, they could reload the memories. It was a meant to be a cure for a terrible disease. The research was ongoing throughout the war and genocide and I was lucky enough to be able to learn from the man who made downloading thoughts possible'.
Jake's mouth was aghast. 'You mean to tell me that you can actually do that?'
'It's called memory mapping’ she continued. 'We take one of these robots and mimic the patterns of your brain and transfer the memories from your mind into it. Then we are able to download the images and data to files on these computers from the robots as these are doing right now' she said pointing at the activity of the eight robotic henchmen beside him.
'The things we have discovered through this interrogation technique have been astounding' added Isaac. ‘These captives we have provided a wealth of visual intelligence we could never have imagined. Evidence of torture, the murder of innocent citizens and directives given by the Empire's leaders' he explained.
'That intelligence was invaluable and helped to bring unity to the rebellion' interjected Phoenix. 'Then we realised that we all had our own experiences and memories stored up here’ she said pointing to her temple. ‘The technology we have at our disposal allows us to bring those memories back to life'.
'Ok I get it' snapped Jake, 'but what use is it all? How will this bunch of memories stop Numen and the Empire?’
'Evidence, intelligence and the key to waking up our imprisoned brothers and sisters' replied Isaac with a steady and assured tone. 'Phoenix can take all of this and create a compelling compilation to convince the sleeping masses that life under the Empire is not what they think it is, and that we are not their enemy. Once we get into their system and take it over we can unveil the truth and set them free'.
It was a lot to take in all at once. Memory mapping sounded absolutely mental, but was it really that hard to believe for a boy who could read and control people's thoughts? The irony of this realisation made Jake laugh out loud. The sight of the eight fallen foot soldiers quelling this from escalating into total hysterics.
'So if you can do all this stuff and have all of that history logged back there' he asked once he had regained his composure, 'what exactly do you need me for?'
Isaac and Phoenix shared a momentary glance that read shall you tell him or should I. Isaac gave a look that pulled rank and turned to Jake who was still a little distracted by the Empire soldiers at his side.
'Whilst we anticipate that you have memories of your own that will support the body of evidence we have collated already' Isaac began to explain. 'We think you may have some memories of others that may be of even greater use'.
Before Jake could ask Isaac what he was going on about, Phoenix took him by the hand. 'You have had contact with key figures who have the code to the mainframe. For the all the help we can get to storm the compounds, unveil the truth of the past and begin the real fight, we need to bring their system down. The passcode is the only way'.
‘And you think I have it?’ Jake replied incredulously. Isaac shook his head. ‘Then who does?’
'The president, his Head of Personal Security and the director of Security and Intelligence for the UCCA' replied Isaac. 'They all have a piece of the puzzle and you have had contact with them all. Somewhere in your head, you have all the intelligence we could ever need'.
So between Van Duyn, Numen and Frank lay the key to accessing the mainframe.
‘What makes you so sure that I have all of this information in my head' he said still unconvinced.
'Frank is already on board, we have a bug tracking through Numen's head as we speak, although it is equally plausible he passed it on to you and you are the only one who has had any contact with Van Duyn' said Isaac. 'There's no certainty, but it's our best chance'.
Jake remembered the night at Desire when he had connected with the president. Could he have inadvertently picked up this information, he certainly had not been looking for it at the time?
'How exactly have you gotten into Numen's head' asked Jake, having found the president's lead henchman incredibly tough and near impossible to read.
'Lexi put it in him' said Phoenix, fondling her ponytail excitedly, a smirk forming on her soft lips. ‘When they came for you, she stuck it to him, so to speak'.
‘So I assume you want to that memory map thing on me?’ Jake queried nervously.
His question was met with a brief nod from the rebel leader he had only come to meet the previous day. This was a moment of trust, a leap of faith. Jake interrogated both Isaac and Phoenix’s faces and after a brief moment of heightened anxiety, he was satisfied that they meant him no harm.
'Right let's go for it then' agreed Jake.
For the next few minutes, Phoenix and Isaac fixed him in place, securing him like a mental patient to the chair and wiring him up to the monitor. They brought in another robot foot soldier and connecting him up to Jake and ran some tests to check that the system was working. Jake had to wear a mouth guard to ensure he did not bite off his own tongue during the procedure, which began to ramp up his anxiety levels. Phoenix then gave him a sedative to relax him and put his mind at rest to ensure the success of the extraction. The next stage involved being injected with a solution that contained magnetic particles so that his neural pathways could be replicated in the surrogate before the downloading began.
When they were ready, Isaac came and took Jake's hand, gripping it tightly as the sedative began to take full effect. His voice echoed in Jake's subconscious in a similar manner to how Max's did whenever they communicated.
'At first, it will go very bright and then you'll feel like you’re on a rollercoaster' explained Isaac unaware that Jake never had the experience of riding a roller coaster. 'Then you'll experience a weird sensation that you are falling and bright images will then fly past you like you're in outer space and then after a while, it'll be just like a dream' said Isaac his voice trailing away.
A glaring bright light engulfed Jake's gaze, with Phoenix and Isaac disappearing from view. He felt himself slip gently backwards, drifting gently and carefully back even further. It was as if he was sinking deep into the floor. Just as the sensation began to get comfortable and Jake could feel himself slipping into the most relaxing coma, he was catapulted forwards at high velocity, spinning and spiralling out of control. His heavily sedated body now convulsed awkwardly within the chair as he delved deep into his own subconscious mind. The juddering and jerking quickly gave way to a weightlessness that he had never experienced before like he was flying or floating among the stars. Soon, he could see bolts of colour flying towards him and he was powerless to evade them. They passed through him with the speed of a speeding train until finally, his mind faded into black.
When Jake awoke he was met with the emerald stare of Lexi looking down upon him. She smiled as his eyes opened and he tried to lift himself into a seated position, his head groggy and heavy from the memory mapping procedure. It had felt like just a few moments that had lost consciousness.
After a moment or two, he came to realise that it was no longer bright and sunny outside, he and Lexi were alone in the outbuilding and she was sat beside him holding his hand. Of course, no sooner had this realisation dawned upon him, Lexi then pulled her hand from his.
'What time is it?' he enquired still feeling the effects of the sedative.
'It's late' she replied. 'You've been out for the count for about eight hours or so'.
The implausibility of her statement was etched upon Jake’s face, but given how tired he was feeling, he was not about to argue with the validity of her statement.
'Where is everybody?' he asked barely able to ask more than a few words at a time.
'They went to get some dinner and before you ask I have been here with you for most of the day. I remember when they did this on me' she said.
It took him a while to be able to open his eyes fully, his head aching with a dull thump trying to acclimatise to the conditions of the real world. He could barely remember anything after everything went black and was curious as to how successful the process has been.
'They find anything?'
Lexi became a little uneasy in her chair and began to play nervously with her hair, which made her demeanour even more noticeable given that there was not a great deal of the cropped red hair to play with. 'Yeah they found plenty of stuff in there' she said curtly.
'What the hell does that mean?' he responded grumpily, regaining some of his strength.
'Phoe has got to filter through it all, but she has managed to pull one file together that she thinks you are probably going to want to see' she replied, doing her best to not make eye contact.
Even though he was still not fully in full charge of all of his faculties, Jake could sense the trepidation in her tone and manner. What had they found?
Jake now reached across and grabbed her hand, drawing her gaze back to him. He did not need to utter a sentence.
'It actually came from Numen' she confessed with a solemn tone. 'It involves your father'.
Like a dose of caffeine infusing an electrical charge into his system, Jake was now fully upright and alert, albeit with a heavy head. Jake could barely remember what his dad, Jack, looked like. If there was a memory that would remind him of this lost image, he wanted to see it.
'Show it to me' he demanded. ‘Now, right now. I want to see it’.
Lexi tried to argue with him that he should wait until after he had fully recovered, to rest and ready himself for such a revelation, but each time she started to speak he just made the same demand raising his voice with each attempted protestation.
'Fine. I'll do it. You know, I think I liked you better when you were out of it!' She said angrily getting to her feet to display the archive file on the monitor. 'But I don't want to watch it again, you can watch it on your own' she snapped back at him.
Jake deflated back into his chair. 'So you have seen it already?'
She realised just how insensitive she had been and tried now to backtrack. 'It was just there, we couldn't help but see it' she explained uncomfortably.
'Who else saw it?'
'It was just me, Phoenix and Isaac' she replied hanging her head in shame.
Jake was not certain whether he was angry that they had seen it before him or whether he was just scared of what he was about to see given the significance that had been attached to it in this tense interplay with the girl whom he had started to establish a trusting bond with. He was not about to start an argument, though, he was far too tired and drained.
'Watch it with me' he said finally.
'Are you sure?'
He nodded and took a deep breath. Lexi then initiated the play function on the video file and took her place beside him. As the video flashed into action, she took his hand again, assuring him that in spite of what he was about to witness he was not alone.
YEAR 2020 - BERLIN, GERMANY - EUROPA FORMATION DAY
Numen had been running through the streets of the German Capital for nearly ten minutes now. He quickly checked his watch, the countdown showing less than twenty-eight minutes, before glancing over his shoulder at his pursuer.
A physically fit man in his early thirties was giving chase. From the badge on his waistband, it was clear that he was an officer of the United Crime Control Authority. He was a Counter Terrorism Agent, Jack Harding, father of Jake, best friend of Frank and widower of Marie. His mousy hair matched his sharp, hazel eyes which at this moment flared with intent as he pursued his target.
The streets around the city centre were littered with citizens waving small flags depicting the new symbol of the united territory of Europa. Following the past decade of decline and misery for the masses, today was a day of celebration, the day that their new President would be announced. Banners were emblazoned upon every visible facade across the city with effigies and placards of the two rival candidates being waved amidst much fanfare. It was Election Day and the dawn of a new frontier.
Numen charged through the waves of the crowd desperately trying to shake Jack off of his tail, but his pursuer was gaining on him. The athletic, ebony figure began to knock people over, creating small ripples of disturbance among the crowded streets whilst all eyes looked towards the Reichstag government building where the leaders of former democratic republics had gathered to acknowledge this momentous day. Never in history had such an important day blessed this country since the fall of the wall that had divided them for over 38 years had been torn down in 1990. Germany would cease to exist as a separate country after today and would rise to prominence as the Capital of Europa. With such a great number of people present to witness this historic occasion and the number of VIPs in attendance, there was a massive security operation taking place, but the sheer magnitude of what was going on was beyond anyone's control.
Numen continued to charge through the packs of revellers, doing everything he could to slow the progression of Jack behind him. His watch continued to countdown and he knew he needed to get out the main stretch near to the Brandenburg Gate where the crowds were particularly heavily populated. He headed down a side road off the main strip and continued to run as fast as he could, checking very occasionally the counter on his watch and the man chasing him over his shoulder, his white braids swinging wildly.
He was full of running and now and continued East back onto the main road which had been closed due to the ceremonial event, passing by the crowds of people who were inching ever closer to the City Centre. Ahead of him, he could make out the spire of the television tower, like a lance in the distance some ten minutes or so away and continued headlong towards the beacon.
Jack continued to give chase behind screaming for Numen to stop or for anyone to block his path, but the noise of the crowd and their pre-occupation with the event meant that Numen continued ahead without intervention.
KABOOM! An almighty explosion in the distance sent a fiery mushroom cloud into the sky having decimated the Reichstag and the surrounding area. The screams that could be heard were brief, as several follow-up explosions tore through the heart of Berlin leaving an image for those that witnessed it, about the day