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Tactical Operations Command, sometimes called TacOps or the TOC, is located in the eastern region of the League compound. Only special ID cards can unlock the heavily sealed door, though Gear is able to open it even without the power engaged.

Inside, the massive meeting table with holographic displays lays dormant, and with all the lights off, Gear's flashlight is the only source of illumination. No controls operate, though the room's soundproofing still is in effect.



Gear enters the room, his flashlight sweeping the corners and ceiling for intruders. No bugs were found in the room, according to his equipment, so he flags the rest of the crew in and locks the door tight. "The only way any of this could have happened is if someone managed to get into the base and hack into our security and power grids. No intruders were seen besides that suspicious mercenary and his friend, but they've been under heavy watch and lock and key since they arrived here." He flopped down in Wielder's chair, not really paying attention to where he was sitting. "Have any of you noticed any suspicious behavior from any of the mercs lately?"

"Someone is," he said, "and there weren't any reports of intruders in the compound recently. It would be hard to sneak past our defenses. We're either dealing with a skilled infiltrator or a turncoat mercenary. Given our track record, I can't help but think that we're more likely to be facing the latter."

Gear scratched his head, yawning. "This is going to be a long night. What we need is a...waitaminute..." Gear said, standing up. He walked over to a panel on the wall and slid it open, which contained the main power generator and mainframe for the entire League. Even with his visor on, Gear's face visibly paled as he stared into that panel in the wall.

It was all destroyed. Someone had gone in, ripped out all the wiring, fired lasers at various points, and had basically done as much damage as they possibly could. However, upon closer inspection, Gear could tell that whoever did this was actually being very specific in his or her destruction. They knew exactly what to destroy, just what to sever and pull out, and what to burn.

Crackles of electricity could be seen and heard as attempts from below to recharge the power cells failed. "Guys, I think we have an even bigger problem than before," he said, stepping back. The small room was so full of electronics, only one person could fit in there at one time. "Someone destroyed everything in this room here, a room that can only be accessed from TacOps."

Don't do it, Gear. Don't suspect them. Wielder, Sagi, K', Kane, none of them would have done such a thing. Chi and Klam are still on leave, and there was no reason to suspect them, either. Someone highly intelligent must have hacked into our systems somehow and gotten past security. Now is NOT the time to give in to baseless accusations. No matter how many times he tried to process this, though, he still couldn't believe that his perfect security system could have possibly had a flaw. He'd worked so hard to make it impenetrable!

Gear flopped back down, this time in his own chair. "That kind of damage is going to take days to repair, and in the mean time, we have no power and no way out. Ideas, anyone?"

"That roof over our heads is going to be worth squat if the Fade attacks us again," Gear said, rubbing his head from the creeping headache that was slowly infiltrating his skull. He stood, walked over to the cooler and opened it. Instead of finding melted ice and drinks floating around in it like he expected, the cooler was completely empty. "Great. Not only did they get in here and wreck our systems, they also drank our stash." He sighed and sat back down, the idea of grabbing a bottle of water to alleviate his headache now dashed upon the rocks. "Alright, what are we going to do from here? We've got no power, no defense, no communication, no light, and no room. If we got attacked, we'd have some serious close-quarters combat to deal with."

"I would suggest getting everyone ready, in case this is indeed an ambush and someone is trying to attack us." K' scratched the top of his head. He didn't know much about magic. His forte was melee combat. The only kind of 'magic' he possessed was his pyrokinesis. Other than that, he didn't understand much about magic or the Fade or anything like that.

Just as he was trying to understand what the Fade was all about, he heard Wielder's comment. At first, he didn't understand what he was trying to say. After all, he saw nothing next to him except for empty space. Then again, this was probably beyond his current knowledge.

"Whoa, what? Where?!" K' jumped back out of instinct. Whatever it was, if it had to do with the Fade, it couldn't be trusted. His curiosity about the Fade didn't go that far. "The last thing I need is more scars." K' added as he carefully kept his distance from the invisible thing that was apparently there.

"You two figure out what you've found. I need to check out this control panel." He entered the small room and illuminated it with Back-Pack's xenon lamps. "Let's see, this conduit's damaged beyond repair. I'll need supplies and..."

The last bit was a little hard to hear. However, it kind of sounded like a swear word. Gear never really swore, so perhaps everyone just misheard? No one had much time to think about it. The control room exploded violently. The shockwave of intense heat and power disabled everyone's hearing, leaving a ringing in their ears as people were strewn about. The TOC was left in ruins, walls blown through, the table and projector destroyed, the main power router was practically vaporized.

Gear was sent flying through multiple walls, being at ground zero of the explosion. He finally landed in the war room, set in a Gear-shaped crater in the wall, passed out. His right arm looked mangled, and was dripping with blood and bone. He had a severe open fracture of the humorous, and possibly multiple fractures in other locations as well.

K' couldn't have anticipated what happened. One moment he was trying to avoid an imaginary enemy, the next he was send flying against a wall by a massive shockwave. He crashed violently, leaving a huge dent on the wall. Before he fell flat on the ground, he was able to see a something fly out of the room heading northbound; around the same size of a human being. He couldn't see more on account that debris fell on top of him and smoke and dust was now clouding his vision.

After a couple of minutes, K' stood up slowly. He tried to rely on his enhanced senses in order to determine if the worst was over. However, he couldn't hear a thing except for a small ringing on his ears and muffled noises. His sight was badly reduced because of all the dust cloud that now surrounded them. And his body was also injured. Flying shards had stabbed him in several places all over his body and a huge boulder had fallen on top of his left arm, probably dislocating it. But since he wasn't tired yet, his smaller wounds started healing immediately. His clothes were slightly burnt off and still smoking in certain places, but the heat from the explosion itself could not harm K'.

"Ugh...I wish I could heal the pain!" K' yelled as he tried to put his arm back into place. He took a deep breath and summoned all his might. With a small pop, his left arm was back where it belonged. K' groaned loudly; he could heal but he could still feel pain as much as any other human. Therefore, he was feeling sore as he tried to walk among the destroyed room. Some of his wounds were still bleeding; it would take him a while for the bleeding to stop.

He couldn't see anyone else in plain sight except for Sagi, who looked just as confused as he was. Just as he was about to start looking for the rest, he remembered something. K' turned around and looked at the north wall. There was a huge hole in the wall that cut through the Chow hall and beyond. If he was right, that was probably Gear who had been launched all the way to who knows where.
K' turned around and looked at his surroundings. He was alright, so to speak. So he could easily assume that the rest would be fine too. He turned around and pushed the debris out of the way and followed the route that Gear had created after being launched off the room.

Gear welded another panel onto the wall, and sprayed it with water to let it cool. It wasn't the prettiest job, but it did the trick. Then, he opened another panel inside the door of the TOC and connected some wiring. Sending out a technopathic signal, power returned to the door, and it slid open quickly. Mentally praising himself, Gear returned the panel onto the wall and screwed it back in, then welded it in place for security purposes.

Once all was said and done, the TOC was secure again. Except for the giant hole in the wall. With a sigh, he turned to look at the damage done to the formerly secure room by the bomb and his body. It was a mess he was not looking forward to cleaning up. Small blessings, though. They had managed to get the power back up and running, so the base was secure once again. At least for the moment. Still, he had no idea how Suicide pulled all this off.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Gear returned to working on the holographic display that was used for demonstrations and briefings in the TacOps room when the crew would gather for discussions.