The night was thick with mist as Reo adjusted the black tactical gloves on his hands, his breath slow and steady.
Around him, the others moved like ghosts — Arisa, Takashi, Yuna, and a dozen new faces they had carefully recruited over the last few weeks.
They stood on the edge of a new world.
And tonight, they would set it on fire.
---
Target: Sun Coil Relay Node 7
The objective was simple on paper.
In practice, it was madness.
Sun Coil Relay Node 7 was more than just a data center.
It was one of the neural hubs that linked the corporation's surveillance networks across the continent.
Destroy it — and the Coil's all-seeing eyes would go blind, even if just for a few critical hours.
Enough time to ignite a full-scale rebellion.
Enough time to show the world that Sun Coil wasn't invincible.
Reo crouched beside Arisa behind an abandoned service truck, watching the Relay's towering spire rise into the mist, pulsing with eerie blue light.
"Guards rotation confirmed," Arisa whispered, scanning a hacked tablet. "Twenty operatives, drones, automated turrets. Entrance secured with four-level biometric lock."
Reo's lips quirked upward in a cold smile.
"Child's play," he murmured.
Because they had an advantage the Coil didn't expect:
Doraemon.
---
Ghost in the System
Hidden inside a battered, ordinary-looking backpack slung over Reo's shoulder, Doraemon stirred.
"Are you sure you want to use it now?" Doraemon asked through the concealed earpiece Reo wore.
"We won't get another shot at this," Reo answered. "Do it."
A soft hum vibrated through the air.
Doraemon activated the Network Phantasm, a gadget designed to hijack and mimic surveillance feeds, replacing real footage with carefully looped empty frames.
In seconds, every camera around the Relay showed nothing but still, empty corridors.
The guards wouldn't even know they were under attack until it was too late.
Reo rose smoothly, his voice low but sharp.
"Move."
---
Breach
They struck with surgical precision.
Takashi and Yuna neutralized the outer guards with electric stun rounds, bodies crumpling silently to the wet pavement.
Arisa jammed the drones mid-patrol, their systems crashing into frozen confusion.
Reo reached the main entrance.
He placed a thin disc — another gift from Doraemon's secret arsenal — against the biometric scanner.
The disc flickered.
Projected a perfect, false signature.
The door slid open with a sigh.
Inside, cold artificial light glared down sterile metal corridors.
Reo motioned to the others.
No mercy.
---
Blood and Sparks
The battle inside was a blur of motion.
Reo ducked a hail of plasma rounds, rolling behind a server pillar.
He returned fire with brutal efficiency, two guards dropping before they even saw him move.
Explosions rocked the facility as Arisa and Yuna planted shaped charges along critical server nodes.
Takashi wrestled control of the security systems, locking down blast doors behind them to prevent reinforcements.
The Coil's operatives fought like cornered animals — fierce, desperate.
But they were reacting.
Reo and his team were dictating the fight.
For once, the monsters in the dark were afraid of them.
---
Revelation
They reached the central core — a monolithic column of data servers stretching high into the dark.
As Reo prepared to plant the final charge, a voice crackled through the facility's speakers.
"You think you've won?" the voice sneered. "You have no idea what's coming."
Reo froze.
That voice…
Kaito.
But it wasn't just a recording.
A holographic image flickered to life above the core — Kaito's smiling, bloodied face.
"You think this is just a Relay?" he mocked. "This was a beacon."
The walls around them shuddered.
Hidden panels slid open, revealing sleek black drones armed with high-velocity rounds.
A trap.
A damn trap.
---
Fall or Fight
"AMBUSH!" Arisa screamed, diving for cover as bullets shredded the server racks.
Chaos erupted.
Sparks and fire rained from the ceiling as Reo and his team fought to stay alive, outnumbered and outgunned.
But Reo didn't hesitate.
He ripped the final detonator from his belt.
Even if they died here — the Relay would still fall.
"Cover me!" he roared.
Takashi and Yuna threw smoke grenades, thick plumes swallowing the room.
Through the confusion, Reo sprinted forward, slamming the detonator into the server core.
A harsh, shrill beep began to count down.
10…
9…
"GO!" Reo bellowed.
The team sprinted for the exit, weaving through gunfire and falling debris.
---
Exodus
They burst into the night air as the world behind them exploded in a towering inferno.
The ground shook.
A shockwave hurled them to the wet concrete.
Reo staggered to his feet, coughing.
Behind him, the Relay spire crumpled, its blue lights flickering out.
For the first time in decades, the Sun Coil's surveillance grid shuddered into darkness.
They had done it.
They had struck the first blow.
But as Reo looked up, he saw distant lights filling the sky — black dots swarming toward them like angry wasps.
The Coil's reinforcements.
And they were out for blood.
---