The Cardinal Directive: Mission Log #13

Back at Copernar, Tala must make a terrible decision

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//Session has timed out due to inactivity
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>> INFORMATION CLASSIFIED. RETINAL SCAN REQUIRED
>> ...
>> ERROR: RETINAL SCAN FAILURE
>> RETINAL SCAN OR PASSWORD REQUIRED TO ACCESS THESE FILES
>> Manual override initiated. Please stand by
>> ...
>> ATTENTION: Another supervisor is attempting to make contact via this network. Answer? (Y/N)
>> ...
>> ERROR: Rejection of communication attempt overridden

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> IF YOU ARE A SUPERVISOR, SUBMIT TO RETINAL SCAN OR FACE CONSEQUENCES

>> Confirmed, communication severed
>> ...
>> ERROR: You no longer have clearance to view logs from the camera registered to HARRIER ALISON KHEELY
>> ERROR: You no longer have clearance to view logs from the camera registered to HARRIER SEBASTIAN TELL
>> ERROR: You no lo--
>> Confirmed. Accessing COPERNAR CAMERA SYSTEM
> Now playing Mission Log #13

Instead of being carried or mounted in a harness, this camera views the world at an angle, staring down from the upper corner of a room at the space below.

There, it finds the floorplan of a small shack — filing cabinets lined against one wall, a desk with a monitor and radio equipment at one end of the room, and a table in the middle where several people have gathered. On the far wall hangs a detailed map of the surrounding Martian desert heavily laden with tacks, pins, and now string.

Of the people gathered around the table, the only familiar face belongs to Copernar Tower’s Tala, sat in her wheelchair across the table from the map. Her fingers drum anxiously against her leg as one of the others, a man somewhere in his thirties, speaks up.

“Hold on. Run me through this again…”

---

Rain pounded against the walls of the radio shack, an ever-present but irregular beat that filled the silence between their words. The building creaked and groaned with the wind’s pressure — it was far from structurally sound, but any complaints she’d registered with the head of resources at Copernar, Adam Pernell (ironically, seated across from her right now), apparently hadn’t made it through yet. She had to hope the ol’ girl had one more storm in her.

By now, it had been a full day since Tala’s last contact with Alison and her team. Dawn till dusk, she’d waited anxiously for any sign of them and received none. The storm had rolled in about an hour after dark.

It was unreal how quickly the situation had devolved out of control, how fast it had all happened.