Chapter 26 - THE BREACH"They're through!" Miller screamed, her submachine gun rattling continuously as she fired down the walkway before scrambling backward onto our platform, dragging a bleeding shoulder behind her.
Two heavy tactical operatives charged through the smoke, their automatic weapons spitting lead as they advanced across the grated walkway with terrifying, mechanical precision.
I shoved Miller behind a heavy server rack, raised my carbine, and squeezed the trigger, catching the lead operator in the throat and dropping him instantly. The second operative dove to the side, returning a devastating burst of fire that chewed through the metal railing inches from my face.
"Dad! How much longer?" I shouted, firing blind round-bursts down the catwalk to keep our attacker pinned.
"Ten seconds!" my father yelled back, his fingers hammering frantically against the obsidian terminal keyboard as the countdown timer on the screen hit single digits. [ 9... 8... 7... ]
The remaining tactical operator rose from cover, leveling his rifle directly at my father’s chest.
I didn't hesitate. I dropped my empty carbine, drew my sidearm, and snapped off a rapid double-tap that caught the operator squarely in the visor, sending him tumbling backward off the edge of the catwalk into the dark abyss below.
[ 3... 2... 1... UPLOAD COMPLETE. OMEGA GRID DEACTIVATED. ]
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The entire server room went instantly, unnervingly silent. The thousands of blinking blue server racks flickered once, twice, and then faded completely into total darkness, save for the pale emergency strips casting a weak, amber hue across the room.
Across the globe—from Washington D.C. to London, Berlin, and Tokyo—thousands of hidden surveillance feeds, automated financial clearinghouses, and rogue intelligence nodes went permanently offline in the span of a single heartbeat.
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