Ted vs. Ambal: 1:0

Ted vs. Ambal: 1:0

Ted took another sip from the glass and placed it back onto the table. He closed his eyes and wondered if what he found out was indeed the truth or just a disinformation like so many other news and tidbits floating on the net around him.
In one day he had three radical revelations and it was hard for his young mind to grasp the depth of it. He believed for so long, his father's corporation was here to help people not to destroy their lives. Oh boy, how wrong he was...
There was that girl, young woman he adored for months; only of course from a distance. He collected every bit of information from her; every news, every mention on any blogs or social networks. He found out a lot about the beautiful girl and gave all the information to his father like he did with every other client. He believed his father's corporation helped to preserve the wealthy client's anonymity in a harsh and unforgivable environment such as Ambal was.

He was wrong.

His job was to destroy data on the internet and sometimes even in digital libraries or courthouses. He dealt with the cyber threat himself and had sent the other requests to cleaners to deal with. He believed he was doing a great thing for society, but he found out this morning that it was all a lie. His father wasn't helping preserving anonymity but just the opposite; blackmailed every one of its clients in order to extract the most amount of wealth, be it property or money.
He found out about it because of that girl...
He decided to make contact with her for this time only. She was cold and before cutting him off she mentioned something about ruining his father's business. At first he was dumbfounded. It took him over one hour to find evidence just how right the girl was. Damage was being done; she would never ever go out with him. He also found out that his father had consistently lied to him and his brothers and sister as well. They all worked for his father in the family business, they all had to know, but hid it from him!
They used him.
It filled him with anger.
He created many worms to crawl over the social networks to sniff out information and every damaging one was marked. He always gave the full report to his father along with the trackers so upon a full payment or partial, those lies, those vulnerabilities would disappear forever.
That never happened.
It was all a lie, designed to misinform him and he did his job very well, excellent, to please his father. He looked only where his father instructed him to look, nowhere else. He worked over three years now, ever since he was out of school and they made him look stupid, a fool! His ego was bruised, undoubtedly.
The whole family, he couldn't believe it!
And just how deep this misinformation had gone he realized that the man he adored, he believed his true friend was, Dave, his bodyguard, assigned to protect him by his father was in on that loop as well! Dave helped him in the university to smooth things over, shadowed him to work every day. He trusted him, just as his own father.
They all let him down.
After the realization of what his father was running behind his back, he hacked into the corporate mainframe. It was easy for him, almost childish...
He was looking for information associated with Dave and his father, but found only payment files. They had to discuss things about him, but there was nothing about it. He thought maybe Dave was a good man and earlier of the day he approached him. He thanked the Emperors he carried a small taser gun with himself. Irony; it was his father who insisted to carry it in case Dave wasn't around.
He confronted the bodyguard who spilled out just how nae Ted was, how he had no clue how the world was really operating...
He got angry and before he could understand what just happened, he aimed and pulled the trigger. Luckily it was just a taser gun, but enough for Dave to collapse on the hallway.
Ted had to get rid of him to get away somehow. He tied the bodyguard's hand and legs and pulled into an unused storage room inside his father's estate. He shot him with a sleeping agent and locked the closet, than instructed his handful of worms to erase the footage from the various cameras.

There was a third issue he had to deal with and that was the hardest one. He knew the major cyber players, knew their work methods and tried to steer away from them, but recently he discovered something else. He was curious about its intended purpose and captured, copied, analyzed and dissected one. He found out there was another player out there. The code was alien, nobody used junction and programming in that way, but he managed to track some of them. He found out that all of them resided for some time in every major ISP's master servers. There were different ones; some were designed to join at a certain time. He was able to see as much that once these programs would converge they would have a payload; something that was encrypted. It could not be good one, he concluded from experience.
It really ticked him off that he missed such an important player in the cyber world and tried to get more information about the malware's purpose. Since he could not decrypt the payload he was looking for similar signatures all over the net. He was beyond shock to discover some of them on military servers! It was one area he was not normally participating, unless it was a special client...
He analyzed the files, and made a prediction what their purpose was and since he knew how military datacenters operated he began to be afraid of the future. Somebody was intended to physically destroy all military datacenters! He wanted to tell to his father, to ask for help, but he couldn't. Not after his betrayal. He was alone and ended up in this locale, owned by another business venture his father was heavily vested in. He occasionally came here to drink, but not normally on a Sunday afternoon.

The bar was almost empty and those whom were in stayed at a distance from him. They knew whom his father was... They always knew it....
It wasn't respect as he was led to believe, it was fear...
He felt bitter...
His dream world collapsed on him in less than twenty four hours.
He let out a hollow smile: "I did my homework, father!" He mumbled under his breath, taking another sip from the glass.
He sent a false communication to one of his favorite cleaner, an oriental, almost anorexically skinny woman, named Tilly, to meet him here. The instructions told her to be battle ready and that it would be long term.
He heard as the doors opened and a quiet person entered into the bar. He looked up to the bartender, whom chuckled and smiled again. It had to be Tilly. He knew her as a devoted cleaner, killed many before and wasn't afraid of crazy stunts. Perhaps the reason his father disliked her. Perhaps the reason Ted liked her...
"I'm reporting to duty!" Tilly dropped her delicate body beside Ted.
"Good girl, how about going to a long term mission? Are you ready to be independent?" Ted flashed a smile.
"Whatever the work requires!" Tilly scrutinized Ted's face. The young man had never asked such a personal question and she never allowed herself to dream that far. After all while her life was on the line, her sister and her father remained free citizen, thanks to Ted's father.
"I am hiring for independent contractors. Today only!" Ted played with his glass.
"You know I am a loyal worker!" Tilly replied. Something was off with Ted today. He was less dreamy, more realistic.
So unlike of him...
"The brothers are already in it. I am waiting for them to get back with all the gears!" Ted referred to his chauffeur and his secondary bodyguard. After all big Dave couldn't be with Ted at all time...
"Rick and K'cir are in this game too?"
Ted slammed the glass on the bar and turned to face the assassin.
"Don't play the stupid girl here; I know you are killing for a living! You are working for me and I free you from all that my father kept on you or on your family!" He hissed toward the scared female.
Ted not supposed to know any of this, she frowned. Something was very wrong here...
"I am leaving tonight. If you want to live you should come with me!" Ted admitted it gulping from a new glass. The bartender thought the previous slamming was a signal; he had not done enough for the precious patron.
"I am coming!" She nodded and asked for a drink. Maybe she can report back to his father or if Ted was telling the truth maybe she can be free. However that prospect was unlikely. Ted's father was a harsh, heartless man when it came to business...

Ted knew in order to escape he needed allies. Now they not necessary had to know everything, for example that if the military defense net is brought down the whole planet was vulnerable and Ambal had plenty of enemies on any given days. There was the Sect or its radical allies and he wouldn't put it past the UNHL Emperor to pull something sneaky... Not to mention of the rumors of that vast and hostile alien fleet... He wanted to gather his thoughts to make one final decision to leave this planet behind and go to the stars. He had some ideas, but mostly just based on hearsay and theories. He suspected he needed more than that, hence his modifications of the original plan as to escape alone...
"How much I owe you?" He turned to the bartender, who shook his head: "No money, sir!"
"Fuck you!" He unleashed his anger for a second, than grabbed his coat and walked out to the pale, setting sun on a Sunday July 9 of 28779.

Rick was waiting by the car, a bit confused when he spotted Tilly behind Ted. He was hoping this would turn out to be nothing more but an exercise, but now he wasn't so sure.
Ted looked down to his secured padd and read the freshest news stories that just came in. He stopped for a moment to let the news sink in. The Planetary News Network just reported that both military and civilian sub space network relay stations were blown couple minutes ago. They suspected Sect involvement but Ted remained skeptical. The Sect wanted no fight with either the King of Ambal the UNHL or AOCP the two major players of the galaxy. All along they wanted to be left alone and nobody would let it happen. Some called them terrorists... He wasn't a member, never wanted to be, but he would use the upcoming chaos to his own advantage!
The local reports also noted that the four way talks formally ended about two hours ago and every party involved seemed satisfied.
Ted knew about the rumors of the upcoming alien invasion, he regularly read eye witness reports and hearsays about their armada that would one day reach Ambal, but even the most pessimistic reports gave about two years to figure it all out. Naturally the government vehemently denied all of the rumors, but Ted felt the pressure descending on all citizens, he himself became paranoid about it some time ago. It just gave what he needed: a cause for escape along with everything else that happened this morning...

"Where to?" Rick inquired after thoroughly looking around on the street, noting that nobody seemed suspicious of them. Tilly seemed to follow his gaze while Ted gave him instructions to go to the edge of the business district, practically to the other side of ToxiCity.
"We'll be low on fuel!" Rick replied.
"Don't worry about that!" Ted dismissed him and while K'cir opened the door he slipped in.
He pointed to the seat opposite of him for Tilly who got in and Ted noted that even shoulder bent forward the female's chest remained closed to be flat. He had fascination about the woman before and earlier he checked her medical file to learn she was really a she. Somehow it would be the biggest embarrassment if she would turn out to be a he...
"Drive!" Ted laid back in the comfortable back seat and placed his padd on an inductive charger for a while. Later he picked it up to check on his worms but his father remained unsuspicious for the moment. He calculated Dave would regain consciousness by eight or nine at the latest so he had not had much time left to go postal if he wanted to do it.
Still, he resisted the urge and was partially undecided. After all if he does, it will be hard to get out of it... There will be consequences so he tried to think hard and weigh the reasons. He also made sure that the current occupiers of the limousine aren't sending messages to others and noted mentally that Rick, the driver sent one as soon as they got in. He appraised himself to conceal their true destination from everybody. He opened his briefcase and took out an immensely small package. He carefully opened and affixed the contact lenses over his eyes. He activated them and made sure the wireless connection was working with his padd. He will have to rely on it more than ever...
Tilly showed some interest toward his work, but otherwise remained quiet. She realized whatever the kid was up to it will be serious so she double checked her guns and her ammo. What could be so important on a Sunday afternoon she wondered? Ted's father implied nothing so she was even more curious...

"There is someone in this car right now who isn't as loyal as I thought to be..." Ted said it aloud so even the driver and the bodyguard can hear it. He was horrified that his quest would end before it began and at that moment he realized he wouldn't want to live here no more. He wouldn't listen to his father and he would become a casualty just how his mother became or at least he suspected it. Just like mother just like her son he let out a hollow smile. At that moment he decided his fate.
         He knew there were hidden compartments of the limousine and opened one underneath the seat. He pulled out the dull metal gun and made sure it was fully charged. Its outer coating made the scanners to pass it as a harmless toy. He put it into his briefcase and pulled out another one from the same place. He checked that one too, than deactivated it and tucked into his pants.
Tilly watched him with wide eyes. She thought he knew nothing of guns. Seems he does now... She decided to inquire just a little bit: "Are we going to face real people?"
"Yeah. You know, my father always the good shepherd! And he wants this to go smooth!" Ted replied.
He checked the news and learned that there was some sporadic communications outages reported through the planet. He checked his worms that reported that the encrypted files he was secretly observing were evolving and causing the relay failures among other things. Even his sophisticated worms were being knocked out by them! He clenched his teeth and wished to be at the opera house faster!
It was immensely easy to disable the security devices; all he had to do is bring the whole network down by telling the software that it was a scheduled maintenance.
"Stupid opera house!" He uttered as he worked his way in with Tilly behind him and the brothers closing the doors.

Ted went silent and only used hand signals. He thought it made him look professional. Now on he will be called as the Professional he decided, like a real gangster.
They worked themselves down to the basement and for a moment even Ted was worried that it might not exist, but there it was...
"End of the corridor, what is this about?" K'cir grabbed the side of the old filing cabinet at the corner to take a deep breath.
"Relax! Tilly, secure us from behind!" Ted pulled out a military grade code breaker and affixed to the side of the filing cabinet.
Rick frowned: "How did you managed to get a hand on that thing?"
"I am of many talent!" Ted winked and the unsuspicious doors opened with a loud thud.
"Whoa!" K'cir frowned seeing a terminal tucked inside the cabinet.
"Military terminal, here?" Tilly turned around for a second to see what the commotion was all about.
"Yeah..." Ted replied under his breath and typed in the codes he was able to get this morning. He used one of his father's recovery funds to bribe a military official. The codes supposed to be good for a day and having to break it was impossible task even for Ted in such a short time.
The codes were authentic and the next moment the holo wall projection dissolved revealing a sparsely lit tunnel going deep, forward. Ted had to disable the security devices, after all they didn't want to end up with holes in their bodies or be boiled alive not to mention of the nerve gases and the electric shocks.
"Five minutes to go quarter miles, can we all do this?" Ted looked behind and before he could get an answer he turned toward the corridor and ran.

"Shit!" Tilly cursed and ran behind him. K'cir shrugged his shoulder: "I guess it's time to run!" and left his brother to regain his sanity: "Wait for me!"
On the other side Ted stopped, typed something onto his padd and loaded a military uniform to his intelligent clothing processor. It wasn't an authentic one, but it will have to do he mustered his spotless black dress. He pointed his padd toward the approaching brothers and changed their uniform as well, than toward Tilly who suspiciously asked: "What are we doing in the military garrison?"
"We are here to take what it is here!" Ted replied cryptically than looked around. He found an unlocked office door and walked inside. There was one lonely robot that turned its head around, just to be deactivated by Ted's padd.
"Pull him out!" Ted said to K'cir, who done it promptly. The robot landed on the wall across.
Ted sat down and hacked his way into the database. He was looking for something formidable, but unused. Something that was here for repairs or a refit. The military Spaceport was a vast complex. There were training facilities landing pads and building simulating all kinds of terrains. He was interested in only one thing; space vessels.
He wanted to hack in earlier in the day, but refrained himself doing that. He wasn't so sure; after all it was the military. He didn't want to spook them or make them suspicious, that he was coming. VL-531. He decided it will have to do. Fully automated military destroyer, with long term deployment capabilities. She was empty according to her manifest. No food or salvo ammo, but the reactors were loaded and hot and as a bonus the laser guns were also loaded. She was scheduled to be deployed late next week for a shake off.
"Oh well, sometimes the plan changes!" He shrugged and deactivated the landing pad's security than located and downloaded the authentication codes to enter to the vessel.

"Payday is coming!" He grinned and got up. From the corner of his eyes he caught Rick fiddling with his personal communicator. He got angry for a moment, pulled out his gun, activated it and pulled the trigger, hoping to get a warning shot toward the traitor.
The next moment Rick screamed from the pain and looked down to his bleeding fingers. The communicator or what's left of it fell out of his hand and landed on the floor.
"You shot me!" He turned toward Ted, eyes wide open, not allowing his senses to believe what just happened.
"I told you to stop sending status updates to my father in the car!" Ted waved the gun and tucked it away. He was truly impressed by his abilities. Playing on the consoles every night, aiming at the enemy really played off...
"How did you know...?" Tilly turned around. Ted was outmost strange today.
"I am smarter that people give me credit for!" He replied with anger.
There was something warning in his voice Tilly determined and decided not to cross his path in the present time.
"Ha-ha! I told you one day you going to get caught!" K'cir laughed at his brother's unfortunate luck. The next moment he ducked, barely avoiding Rick's left fist.
He was hissing loudly, grabbing a local anesthetics needle and shooting himself to ease the pain: "I'll need surgery to fix this!" He shook his head.
"Time to go!" Ted stood up and glanced at his padd for directions.

They just moved to topside when the alarms went off in the empty corridors.
Tilly looked around scared, as military people ran across the hallway, shouting at each other to get out of the way.
K'cir and Rick tried to duck, but there were nowhere to run. K'cir was lifting his hand to show he is ready to surrender, but Ted grabbed his arms and pulled them down while shouting into his ear: "Relax! They are busy with their own problems!"
"What are their problems?" Tilly felt most unsecured.
Ted took a peek to his padd, saw the alert messages thru the public networks and said coldly: "You don't want to know!" Than he began to walk determined toward the landing pads.
Once outside they understood the scope of the chaos. There were fighters taking off from one of the airfields, he could see the missiles under their wings. From another corner a space vessel took off rising slowly upward.
"What the hell did you do?" Rick shouted while they were flying with an anti gravitational transport vehicle toward one of the domed shaped landing pad.
"I didn't do anything, but they are!" Ted pointed straight up to the sky.
They all looked up just in time to see one huge explosion after another.
"The Sect!" Rick screamed in realization.
"No, far worse!" Ted shook his head quietly.
Tilly tilted her head. He knew something. "Is it that bad?" She asked.
Ted turned toward her, than decided to say nothing.
Tilly bit her lips. She had doubts of this mission's authenticity. As they arrived to the building she asked: "Your father knows nothing of this mission, does he?"
"I think my father is busy saving himself right about now! He doesn't have time to worry about us!" He replied coldly.

Ted walked in with big smile, but it froze on his face when he spotted a lone soldier chewing a gum.
"Who are you people?" He frowned.
"Shoot him!" Ted replied all of a sudden and alert. This isn't how he imagined.
Rick wanted to shoot, but his gun fell to the ground, he forgot the earlier incident and bent down to pick it up with his other hand, while cursing.
"Oh boy!" K'cir rolled his small eyes on his rather big and bald head.
Tilly grabbed one of her guns and shot the soldier on his leg.
"What are you doing?" Ted screamed.
The soldier abandoned his earlier impulse to grab his gun and went down as he lost his balance.
"You said to shoot?!" Tilly replied alarmed.
"Permanently!" Ted pulled out his gun and pulled the trigger at point blank.

"What a mess!" K'cir took out a small towel and wiped the blood off of his face.
"Here, a neutralizer pack!" Rick just managed to tuck his gun away and he had to reach to another pocket to reach for the small spray can. He threw toward his brother who grabbed it and sprayed on his face.
Rick's gun fell out of his pants and landed on the floor again.
"Ha-ha, you idiot!" K'cir laughed pointing at the gun on the floor and his cursing brother who bent down again to pick it up.
"You killed a soldier of Ambal!" Tilly was shocked still, pointed to the dead man.
"One down many to go!" Ted hopped behind the counter desk and began to deactivate the dock and type in the control codes for releasing the space vessel.
"They are going to execute us for this!" The girl was still holding her head.

"No! They are not! Are they?" K'cir stopped laughing and began to think.
Ted rolled his eyes and finished working the console.
"Are they?" K'cir grabbed Ted's coat.
"No they are not!" Ted looked straight into his eyes and began to walk toward the corridor.
"See, Ted said so!" K'cir turned to Tilly.
"He lied!" Tilly shook her head while shadowing the young man.
"Did you lie?" K'cir pressed on the subject.
"No. They don't have time to worry about us because they all going to be fucking dead!" Ted replied with unmasked anger now. He had to worry more once they going to get onboard...
"See, Ted knows!" K'cir nodded relieved, than added while frowning: "Something in his answer makes me worry, however..."
"You fucking idiot!" Rick whacked him on the head with his gun, jumping up in the air to reach his brother's towering head.

Ted reached the black metal of the hull and punched in some codes. With a distant thud it moved aside, revealing a clean air and a sparkling environment.
While the brothers still arguing Ted moved to the terminal on the wall and began to browse for things like security and deactivated the ones he thought he would trip. He asked for directions to the CIC (Combat Information Center) from the computer and transferred all pertinent information to his padd, than swiftly took off toward one of the corridors.
"Where is he going?" K'cir walked after Ted.
Rick was about to reply something when the vessel shook.
"Quakes?" K'cir frowned and touched the walls.
"We are under attack, you whack job!" Tilly shook her head and jogged past the brothers, after Ted.
"Her long hair is so cute!" K'cir smiled after the girl.
"Let's go Mr. Suitcase!" Rick tapped his big brother's shoulder.

They found Ted in the CIC on the top section of the vessel, loading multiple streams of programs into the Core. It was the mainframe, the controlling computer of the ship. Ted had zero clue how to operate a vessel, but modified a simulator program, so he could fly anything. He installed on top of the existing system in haste, than jumped into the pilot's seat and tried to figure out how to take off.
"I'll just sit in here in the mean time!" K'cir pointed to the seat in the middle of the room.
"Oh great, Mr. Captain of clueless!" Tilly tried to figure out what seats controlled what. She decided to take over the sparsely populated combat operator's seat.
"Who command the army of brainless!" Rick doubled up on the fun they were having on the expense of K'cir who slammed his fist on the control buttons.
The vessel shook and slowly began to rise from its berth.
"Who is clueless now?" K'cir smiled wild, revealing a mouth occasionally populated by teeth.
"Great job, brother!" Rick acknowledged, than turned pale as Ted turned on most of the displays in the room, revealing the depths of the chaos going on around them.
Burning objects, burning buildings everywhere, the bubble of the dome covering ToxiCity was compromised and space fighters were burning up in the sky like meteors, igniting more fires below them.
"Big mess, I wonder how long it will take to get back to normal?" K'cir wondered aloud.
Tilly and Ted looked at each other, than Ted shook his head. Worthless to explain him the problems...

"I have the radars on and the automatic defense system!" Tilly announced after a while.
"It will take at least one hour to reach the outer edge of space!" Ted was reading the displays.
"What are your plans?" Tilly didn't even look up.
"We need ammo for the salvage guns and food and whatever we can get our hands on, but we have to leave!" Ted watched with horror as another Ambal Heavy Cruiser blew up almost above of them. The debris hit the hull, setting off alarms.
"When are we going to come back?" K'cir looked around.
Silence fell to the CIC, than Rick slowly answered: "I don't think we ever coming back here, brother..."
"Look, my father is looking for me!" Ted lit up and activated the padd to accept the incoming message.
The footage was grainy, it showed the grand hall of his father's estate. Servants were running around, hoarding boxes and suitcases.
"Where are you, my son?" His father asked with a mild temper.
"I am taking a lifelong vacation!" Ted replied.
"Look. I don't know where are you, but you have to come to the estate. I am trying to leave with most I've got! There is something very wrong happening here, I mean on the planet."
"You are under attack..." Ted nodded and spoke slowly.
"You know...?" The elderly man frowned.
"I kind of see it from another vantage point..." Ted said, his gaze wondering over the endless feedbacks from news networks and the vessel's own external camera feeds.
"Look I know what you've done to Dave, he is okay by the way, no harm done. You can come back, nothing will happen to you. These are critical times to bring the family together, but the space yacht is ready to take off, you have to come back!"
"Father, let me give you a hint. You and all my family is a liar. You lied to me about the purpose of my work..." Ted couldn't finish, because his father cut in: "I know I screwed up, but I was just trying to protect you, you were so innocent, like your mother" - he slipped.
"I knew it!" Ted grimaced: "You got rid of her..."
"No, you've got it all wrong! It was a protective measure, but if we stay together we can be strong family again...!"
"Father I have to go now..." Ted shook his head, he felt pain somehow, but he had to investigate later as of why...
"Son..."
"Father, your enterprise is a cancer on the society and now is your judgment day! I wish you and your family good luck but only because I have to. No. Actually I don't!" Ted cut off the communications. Enough of the past, he needs to concentrate to the future.
"Odd..." Tilly found something.
"What is it?"
"The Sect's ships are leaving..."
"That's not possible, they would've been blown!" Ted shook his head, remembering the publicized agreement. In case the Sect would try to leave, their space vessel's engines would be blown by a self-destructive device, installed by Ambal Defense Forces.
"Well, they are moving away, and there is a loose fleet that protects them!" Tilly added.
"Show me!" Ted wanted to see, than once he saw, he sent an identifying query to the protecting vessel nearby.
Once the return signal arrived, he frowned.
"What is it?" Tilly asked.
"The UNHL (United Nations of Humanlike Lifeforms) has only thirty two independent fleets, right?"
"Yes, why?" Rick replied.
"They are identifying themselves as Thirty fourth..."
"Not possible!" Rick shook his head.

The shiver ran up in Ted's spine. Maybe they were the ones whom brought down the defense net and cut off Ambal from the rest of the galaxy... Maybe they don't want anyone to know...
"All the Sect ships jumped away!" Tilly looked up from her terminal, in disbelief.
"Even the smallest vessels?" Ted felt he was hallucinating.
"Yes, but they have teleported, according the tracers..." Tilly replied.
"That's physically impossible!" Ted assimilated the information, but it was just not possible by the rules of physics...
He glanced on the identifying codes the 34th UNHL fleet sent and noted that the hard coded information said they were Victory III. Planet Destroyers. The newest line he heard about was Victory I. All others were still Freedom class, deployed by mainly AOCP or UNHL through the galaxy.
"Boy, there are so many of them!" K'cir pointed to the main view screen, showing the deep green sometimes black vessels clouding the sea of stars.
Ted looked up in horror to note that they were Klon cruisers. Hundreds, no thousands of them...
"We should leave!" Rick's voice was shaking.
"You... are correct for this once!" Ted's jaw dropped as he told the mainframe to jump behind the outer moon of the solar system, where a military depot was in low orbit.
The VL-531 lit up and made a small faster than light jump within the solar system.