* September 21st, 2063. Region 6 of the American desert, New Mexico, North American Province, 1:35 am local time.*

“We’re sitting ducks,” Becker growled. “The rebels can blow us up whenever they want. We shouldn’t have gotten this close to the border.”

“I doubt they’ll do that,” Jade replied, walking to the back of the pod to double-check if the door was properly locked. “It would be too costly for them to harm us. The global army would retaliate.”

“We’d blow up everything they ever built,” Becker said, her tone intense.

Jade looked at Becker. She was surprised the commander was this tense. An officer this high up the ranks surely had survived worse situations than this one. Why was Becker panicking?

“We don’t even know if it’s the rebels we’re dealing with,” Jade said, intending to sound reassuring.

Becker shook her head, visibly annoyed. “Who else would it be?”

“Multiple unidentified vehicles approaching,” the pod repeated.

“Yes, I knoooow,” Jade said and rolled her eyes. “Pod, turn off alerts, please.”

Becker’s eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Jade shrugged. “It’s not like we’re getting new information.”

The alarm stopped.

Jade blew out a breath. “Much better. I need to think.”

“I think they’re slowing down,” Becker said, pointing at the terminal.

Jade joined her and looked at the dots on the screen. “Yeah, they stopped.”

“That’s good,” Becker said.

“We should probably reach out to them,” Jade suggested.

“Reach out to them?” Becker asked, baffled.

“Yes, find out who they are,” Jade said. “The terminal isn’t telling us much and I can’t get a visual. They’re hiding behind those rocks.”

“Shouldn’t we be able to get more data if these were normal vehicles?” Becker asked, looking out of the window.

“Yeah, unless they’re able to mask that information somehow,” Jade said, thinking.

“The rebels drive old-fashioned cars,” the commander said. “No need for masking. It has to be them.”

“Do they?” Jade replied, her interest piqued.

Becker’s eyes cooled as she said, “Don’t underestimate them. They’re probably heavily armed and brought state-of-the-art technology.”

“Really?” Jade asked, unable to hide her surprise.

Her heart was racing, but not because she was scared. No, Jade was excited. If it was indeed the rebels out there, she could learn much more about their technology.

On a whim, she said, “Why would they even be out here? Do they have infrastructure around here too?”

Becker’s mouth opened, then shut again. “That is a good question.”