Plan B

A herd of space warships whirred from a distance. Everyone raised their heads as it wasn't everyday that they saw a whole armada of battle hungry ships. They entered the city's perimeter. Some landed on spacious grounds and some stayed afloat while unloading battalions of soldiers in raid suits and laser infused weapons.

A mini ship detached from what appeared as the mothership; that was about half the size of the whole city. The mini ship landed on the Hive's helipad. A moment of silence and confusion filled the air until a familiar voice echoed from the Hive.

"Citizens of this city. Worry not for I am now here. I, Elon Must, shall protect you from the false hero, Joe Madrid. Together, we shall get through this mess he has brought upon this planet. That I promise you."

His speech was broadcast throughout the city and to the world at around noon of November 8, 2031. It garnered positive feedback from netizens. In a span of hours, even the citizens from inside the city were slowly flipping sides in favor of him. He's providing healthcare, money, and food in exchange for personal data not limited to their fingerprints and DNA samples in checkpoints around the hive. He exploited the scarcity of the supplies that his men took from the people by leaving biological trackers in every citizen. He's basically eliminating every possibility of me infiltrating the city and into the hive using a technology he doesn't have yet. So he's doing it the manual way, the process of elimination. He's really a smart guy, I give that to him. I had no time to recalculate my moves. At that rate, he could easily spot me if every person in the city already has their trackers. At the first hour, they already registered 46% of the city's population. Elon's sudden arrival ruined my plans. He replaced guards and soldiers and re-shuffled some of them to other locations destroying every tactic Cass and I prepared. Each of his men had these special trackers that can only be assigned once they pass through a scanner for an authorised person. At that moment, 90% of Elon's men were already registered. We need to find that 10% and hope they're in a blindspot.

"Cass, it's now or never. Plan B."

"Copy that, Joe."

Cass scanned the locations of every soldier in the city and checked if any of them were in a blindspot from security cameras and satellite cameras. We needed a fresh DNA of a soldier that hadn't passed through the scanner yet.

"Oil warehouse. 134m from your location. 15° SouthEast. He's alone."

"Oh, perfect. On it."

Cass is a special AI. Her server is powered by an extraterrestrial stone given to me by an old man who disappeared in thin air. A stone that contains the power of approximately 10,000 Earth Suns. Stronger than any Nuclear cores in the planet thus making her scanning ability incomparable to those of the satellite cameras.

I panted as I reached the Oil warehouse.

"Cass, turn on thermal scan." My vision could then scan heat signatures. It's an oil warehouse. So they regulate temperatures at approximately 26°C. Normal body temperature is 37°C. So it's faster if I use thermal scanning in finding him.

I looked around and I found him on the second floor sitting and asleep.

"Well, he's sleeping. No wonder he's in a blindspot. Smart man. Let's not cut his sweet dreams." I said to myself as I pulled out a tranquilizer.

Aimed to his neck just 10 meters away from the stairs and poof.

His sweet dreams has been extended for another two days.

Safety first, I tied both of his hands on two opposite railings with the thickest cable ties in my bag and taped his mouth. I needed to know his details, too. We need to mirror my DNA to his in the system.

"Cass, it's Lt. Burgos. You know what to do." I touched his shoulder.

Instantly, Cass mirrored my DNA to his DNA in the system and made me look like him physically. I now have official access as a lieutenant.

I breathed deep as I got out of the warehouse. Problem solved. I can now see myself added in their server.

I walked calmly towards the checkpoint. There was a lane where citizens lined up for registration and there was a lane where authorised personnel can only pass. Finally, registered.

Moment of truth.

The DNA scanner alarm didn't go off.

Everyone in the checkpoint stood up and salute towards my direction.

"As you were." I commanded.

They returned to their post and resumed work like nothing happened.

"We did it, Cass." I whispered to myself.

I turned around and finally I'm already in front of the Hive.

"Just a little push further and all these ends" I said and went through the entrance.

[𝚝𝚘 𝚋𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚞𝚎𝚍...]