South sat quietly near the entrance to the compound, her breath slow but anything but steady. “Just have to get in. Get the files. Get out.” She muttered to herself as she looked at the door. Everything would get tricky once she went in there. The girl could practically hear North’s voice in her head as she went over the checklist again, trying to remember if she’d forgotten anything important. [i]Set your motion trackers. Check your weapons, ammunition and equipment. Remember the mission. Keep calm.[/i] Turning once she was sure everything was in order she was easily able to hack into the entry lock and was in.

Her motion tracker was revealing that there were only a few guards and they were moving in very predictable patterns. Using this she found it was almost easy to remain out of their line of sight. The compound was nothing special, very well lit and very cold. She quickly set her Adaptive Camouflage to replicate the steely texture of the wall, making her more difficult to see. Up ahead South spotted a control console, the one that had been marked out for her in the mission briefing.

Moving to it quickly she changed her amour’s camouflage to match that of the guards patrolling the complex. It would help to buy her a lot of time if anything went wrong. Plugging in the information drive she quickly set about hacking into the system. It was a little more difficult than she was used to, but that only slowed her down a few seconds and within a couple of minutes the data was downloading onto her drive. Taking a few breaths to try and calm herself South stood back, not able to believe her luck. This was all so easy. Whilst she waited she checked her motion trackers again, which displayed no guards in her immediate vicinity.

The data was almost finished downloading when she heard a sound that made her stomach drop. A guard entered the room with the console she was standing by. “Hey… what are you doing?” Checking her motion tracker again South saw nothing. There was no sign on him on the equipment. A second later red letters began flashing on her helmet display. [i][B]MOTION TRACKER MALFUNCTION.[/i][/B] 

[i]Now you tell me.[/i] The girl thought to herself. However her camouflage seemed to be fooling him for now. “Just some system updates need to be done. We’re just backing up all of the data to external sources to ensure nothing is lost.” She quickly lied. Surprisingly the guy seemed fine with that and he was about to turn to leave when he stopped and just stared at her.

“What the?” South looked down at her hands and saw the amour fluctuating, the camouflage making it change to many different colours before turning off completely. [i][B]ADAPTIVE CAMOUFLAGE MALFUNCTION.[/i][/B]

“Are you serious?!” The guy raised his rifle at her and South slowly raised her hands, glancing to the side as the data disk read that the transfer was complete. “Disengage audio and visual sensors.” She said quietly as everything went dark and silent. She then released the small object in her hand and dove out of the way, which was difficult when she couldn’t see where she was going. Quickly reengaging the sensors she grabbed the drive and ran off before the guard had a chance to recover from the flash bang. Now most other agents would have killed the guy, this she was aware of.

But South had never killed a person before. She wasn’t sure if she was even capable of it. Alarms began blaring loudly all around her and the lights went from white to dark and red as they began flashing. All around her people were running around in an angry flurry. South reached a locked door and began working on the lock. However it just wasn’t budging. It made no sense. This was a simple lock. What she was doing should be working but it just wasn’t, it was like every time she cracked the lock it changed itself. “Hey there she is!” She heard someone shout and bullets began flying, forcing her to abandon the door and try for another.

If she could just get to the evac point she would be fine, she knew. Skidding to a halt as she came to another door South attempted to hack this one. To her surprise it opened like it should and she ran through, the door slamming behind her and the girl coming to a grinding halt as she was faced with dozens of armed guards all aiming their weapons at her. Despite trying to hold herself together the girl whimpered, her body starting to shake as tears began spilling down her face.

The one who looked like they were in charge began approaching her, walking very slowly and calmly before holding out their hand. “Hand over the disk, little girl.”

South looked up sharply and shook her head slightly. “I won’t…” She moved to take a step backwards when a gun went off and a bullet struck right behind her foot, causing her to jump back into her original position.

“You’re going to die unless you hand over that disk. So why don’t you just make it easy on yourself.” However South shook her head again but couldn’t bring herself to utter any words this time. The commander shrugged slightly. “Have it your way then.” She raised her hand and the sounds of guns filled the air before everything went white.

South awoke with a start, sitting up quickly and feeling all over her body, expecting to be in excruciating point. But she was fine. Was she dead? [i]Simulation Terminated.[/i] She knew that voice. Sitting up slowly the girl slid out of the chair and stumbled towards the exit. It had all been fake. A holographic simulation.

As the door opened North looked up worriedly. Everyone who had left that room had the same defeated look to their body. No one was passing. His anxiety kept growing as he worried about South’s outcome. When he finally saw her he rose worriedly, seeing her swaying slightly where she stood he rushed over to her, taking her gently by the shoulders to support her. “Hey, you alright? What happened?” He moved to take off her helmet and saw she had tears in her eyes.

“I… I think I died…” South said softly as North pulled her into a tight hug.

“It’s okay, none of it was real. You’re safe now. Come on, let’s get you something to eat okay. You’ll feel better.”

For a long time the pair sat in the mess hall, both with full palates in front of them but not saying anything as they barely picked at it. “It was a set up.” South said finally, her voice still soft and empty as she looked up at her brother. “It was a test designed to make you fail. The more I think about it the more I’m convinced. There was no way any of us were ever going to pass. They wanted to see how we reacted to failure.” She went quiet for a while, letting the information sink in.

“I think Carolina was right.” South finally spoke again. Maybe not about too much, it’s too early to say for certain. But you asked me last night what I thought about him and I think he’s right. If, or when, things go to shit here, he is a guy we want to have on our side. I know you don’t like him. But the bottom line is he’s an incredibly powerful asset to have. And despite all his words I don’t think his intentions are malicious. I think he can be a very powerful ally. I’ve got a few others in my mind too, but only time will tell if it was all necessary or not.”