Download
The cool evening breeze hung light and gentle as the sleek black Robinson R44 helicopter barrelled through the air, its blades slapping relentlessly. Lights of the city glinted in the distance and below the chopper, glistening in illuminated waves as the nightlife slowly woke up.
From the sky, the capital of Noxus looked like any other major Runeterra city; if you squinted hard enough, it even bore some resemblance to Piltover. Towering skyscrapers from the financial districts reached up into the air like giant hands clawing to the clouds, each floor illuminated in at least one office by workers burning the midnight oil. On the streets below, cars honked and battled against each other on the roads, and the first batches of bar-hoppers had begun making their way through the various restaurants and pubs lining the streets.
For a nation at war, Noxus had never seemed more alive. Thriving, even. It was sickening.
“Look at this piece of shit,” Vi grumbled as she looked across at the instrument panel in front of her from the pilot’s seat. “No flares, no weapons, no nothing.”
Caitlyn rolled her eyes, sat across from her in the passenger seat, eyes peeking at the life below. “Sorry we’re not taking your war machine on a covert mission,” she muttered back into her headset.
“Whatever.” Vi shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “This fucker feels like it’d go down if you sneezed too hard.”
Caitlyn didn’t respond to the sarcastic retort, instead steadying her focus on their target gradually growing into view in front of them. The Black Rose was a marvel of modern businesses, the building dwarfing all others around in, illuminated bright and obnoxiously against the dark night sky. Flashing bulbs lined the exterior walls, leading up to the main logo, lettering alongside a graphic of a dark rose displayed proudly against the side of the building.
“Remember, we’re just contracted network engineers, okay?” Caitlyn said cautiously as the pilot circled around the top of the casino searching for a helipad.
“Aye-aye, Captain,” Vi responded enthusiastically. She located the landing zone and began lowering the bird carefully. “I did pay attention to your brief, don’t worry.”
Caitlyn had been shitting bricks for the entire twenty minutes it took to brief her new squad. They’d all watched and listened carefully, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, as the captain recited the objective and their individual responsibilities. Whenever she found herself stumbling over her words, or getting caught up in a train of thought, she’d simply glanced over at Vi, who had provided a nod of encouragement each time.
The execution was simple enough; Vi and Caitlyn were to plant surveillance and remote monitoring equipment into the Black Rose’s server rooms, posing as network engineers, whilst Jayce and Ekko were wealthy businessmen challenging the big-shots of the Noxian Army at the various games in the floors below.
For Cait and Vi to get out safely, they needed a big distraction, something to get the guards’ attention so they could get back to their chopper and peel off into the night air before anyone could realise they’d been compromised.
The chopper landed atop the casino with a jolting thud, and Vi killed the engine, breathing a heavy sigh of relief. “Never doing civvie piloting in my life,” she grunted before sliding off her headset and hopping out of the cab.
Caitlyn exited the helicopter on her side and did a once-over of her gear before slamming the door shut. Both wore identical black boiler suits with fabricated ID tags attached to the breast pocket, displaying their aliases’ names and a skeleton company Heimerdinger had put together a couple nights before.
Vi reached into the back of the chopper and pulled out a small navy blue duffel bag containing their gear. She unzipped the bag and handed a silenced pistol to Caitlyn, before taking one herself and sliding it in her inside pocket. “Last resort,” she said, nodding to the gun, and threw the bag over her shoulder. Fishing in her pocket, the pilot produced a small earpiece, which she inserted and held down to speak. “Ekko, Jayce, radio check, over.”
There was a moment of silence before Ekko’s crackled voice appeared on the other end. “Vi, loud and clear, over.”
“Same here, over,” Jayce contributed.
“Alright, what’s your stat?” Vi asked as she made her way over to the nearest stairwell. Caitlyn followed promptly, putting her own earpiece in to listen to the comms.
“Jayce is at the bar, chatting up some lieutenant,” Ekko mumbled back. “I’m making my way around the floor. Lotta people here, Vi.”
“Yeah, no surprises.” Shoving the door to the stairs open with her shoulder, Vi nodded for Caitlyn to go through, and checked the roof before shutting the door. “Going radio silent now. Stay frosty. Out.”
The line cut off, and the sound of sturdy boots scuffing against steps echoed down the stairwell, the pair making their way down promptly.
After a couple of floors a paper map appeared on the wall next to the floor number, stuck up haphazardly and peeling off at the corner. Caitlyn scanned the material meticulously, running her finger along the surface before jabbing it at a scribbled label of the control room. “There. Second door on the right,” she muttered quietly over to Vi.
Vi nodded and, without hesitation, barged out onto the floor. Her demeanour shifted suddenly: shoulders pushed back, chin held high, eyes straight ahead as she walked down the hallway with an air of confidence. Caitlyn jogged to catch up, avoiding eye contact with the other workers scurrying around them on the floor.
The maintenance interior of the casino starkly contrasted the colourful and boastful exterior. Inside, the walls were painted a monotone dull grey, with bright fluorescent strip lights running up and down each hallway. Each room was labelled liberally with a single simple blue sign with white lettering, and the map they’d seen before seemed to be the only decoration in sight. It reminded Vi painfully of the office buildings in the compound back at base, or of the interior of a dismal hospital.
They quickly came to a door labelled “Control Room”, and Caitlyn scanned up and down the corridor in her peripheral before entering. Vi followed suit and shut the door behind them.
There was a mechanical creaking sound from a desk chair as the single employee in the room tilted around, chomping lazily on an apple. He was a plump, middle-aged gentleman, already balding, with sunken cheekbones and a bulging midriff. His eyes scanned the pair lethargically. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded, chunks of half-chewed fruit flying about between his teeth.
“Maintenance,” Caitlyn said calmly. She promptly removed her silenced pistol from her boiler suit as she spoke, finishing off her sentence by putting a bullet directly in his chest. There was a soft thwip as the projectile entered and the man groaned softly before going still, his apple core dropping from his hand and landing on the floor.
“So much for going in quiet.” Vi worked as she spoke, unzipping the duffel bag and pulling out a few items of electrical equipment. Caitlyn strode over to the desk and began tapping at the computer keyboard while Vi prepared the remote monitoring toggle to insert into the server block.
Before Caitlyn could log on, she sighed with frustration as she noticed a small oval-shaped rivet sticking out of the side of the keyboard. “Shit, it’s a fingerprint,” she said to Vi.
Without thinking twice, Vi pulled her ballistic knife from the duffel bag, and Cait grimaced and looked away as she realised what the pilot was going to do. There was a wet crunching sound from the lifeless body of the employee and seconds later, the pilot shoved an object into Cait’s hand, wiping the blade of her knife on the corpse’s trousers.
Caitlyn nearly threw up as she looked down. A single detached thumb sat in the palm of her hand, blood already seeping out of the severing wound, staining her porcelain skin. The flesh had already begun to go cold.
“Could you not have just dragged him over?” Cait flustered as she pressed the appendage to the thumbprint scanner. Miraculously, it worked, and the terminal flashed up on screen.
“So you’ll shoot the guy, but draw the line at cutting off bits of him?” Vi scoffed. She’d already cracked open the server cupboard and was scanning each labelled node individually, searching for the main connector.
“Not the point.” Caitlyn huffed before tapping a few more keys. From the duffel bag, she produced a sleek silver magnetic hard drive, and shoved the male connector into the PC. With a few more taps she begun the download transfer between what was on their cloud and the drive they’d brought along.
Finally locating the main switch, Vi slid the component out carefully, making sure none of the cables snaking out of the back were disrupted. She found an empty port and inserted the remote monitoring dongle carefully. It slid in place with a satisfying click and the officer returned the switch to its place, grinning to herself.
“What’s the point in that, if we’re already downloading everything?” Caitlyn asked curiously. The data download was taking its time, sitting at 10% as they spoke.
“That,” Vi responded, gesturing to the hard drive, “is just a data cut of what’s on their system at the present. Tomorrow they could send in their entire war itinerary and we wouldn’t see because we were here at the wrong time. The remote monitor lets us see everything that comes in and out from here on.”
“Huh.” Caitlyn nodded and folded her arms, leaning back on the desk. “For someone who’s not in Comms, you know a lot about computers.”
“Yeah, I played a lot of video games when I was younger,” Vi replied sheepishly. A light red tinge grew on her face and Caitlyn couldn’t help but smile. “And if we’re talking about what jobs we should’ve taken, then you definitely belong on the game floor below.”
“And why’s that?” The other officer cocked an eyebrow.
“Because I bet you’ve got a mean poker face, Captain,” Vi retorted with a smirk.
Caitlyn just chuckled and shook her head at the comment. “I’m gonna check on the boys, keep an eye on the download for me?”
Vi nodded and slid down into an empty computer chair, dragging it over to the PC whilst Caitlyn radioed in to Ekko and Jayce. “We’ll need that distraction soon, Lieutenants, any update on what you’ll give us?” Vi heard the captain ask her men.
Jayce’s voice crackled over the comms line. “I’m thinking of starting a fight with Ekko, how do you think he’ll react if I punch him in the face?” he drawled sarcastically.
“Fuck around and find out, Pretty Boy,” Ekko’s voice responded. Vi could hear the shit-eating grin spreading across his lips through his tone alone.
On the second monitor, Vi dragged up the security feed from the floors below, and homed in on Ekko and Jayce. Her wingman sat at a poker table, examining his cards carefully, whilst Jayce strutted around the floor with a crystal glass in his hands.
When the download hit 50%, Vi sat up from her relaxed, spread-out position on the reclined chair, hesitating before opening up the file explorer in the terminal and flicking through some of the already downloaded items.
“What are you doing?” Caitlyn asked, a hint of disproval in her voice.
“Just browsing,” Vi replied casually, not taking her eyes away from the computer screen as she clicked through. It was mainly business and military documentation, lines and lines of text, some blacked out on some documents, some not. There were a few satellite images of Piltover bases and troop repositories here and there as well, but nothing too alarming.
Caitlyn furrowed her eyebrows. “That wasn’t part of the brief,” she huffed.
“C’mon, Cap. Live a little.” The pilot flashed her a cheeky smile over her shoulder before continuing her search, eventually landing on a file which differed from the rest. Her face squinted with confusion. “Cait, come and look at this.”
Caitlyn strode over, getting ready to scold Vi for whatever she’d found in her short search time, but her gaze hardened as she peered down at the screen. “What the fuck?” she trailed off, leaning over Vi’s shoulder to get a better look.
On the screen in front of them was a blueprint of sorts, a simple white background with black sketching and labelling. The schematic labelled a cylindrical object with curved edges and spikes sticking out of it, hand-drawn arrows and scribbled writing going into and out of the main central drawing.
“Looks like an old sea mine,” Vi muttered quietly.
Caitlyn didn’t respond. She was too focused on the biggest arrow on the page, pointing to the hollow centre of the object, labelled in block letters: “S-03 REPOSITORY”.
The captain felt her chest grow tight and her stomach drop heavily as she read the other words on the page slowly, carefully, trying not to believe what she was seeing.
These weren’t any old blueprints. They were weapon schematics.
Caitlyn’s voice hung heavy in the air as she spoke her next words, anxiety gnawing at the deep pits of her gut like a caged animal. “It’s for a bomb. They’re building a bomb.”
***
“All security units be advised, a fight has broken out on the main games floor, please send all available back-up.”
Caitlyn and Vi’s getaway call boomed through the tinny speaker of the portable radio attached to the deceased worker’s belt behind them. Thankfully, the download had completed fully just moments before Jayce and Ekko had orchestrated their distraction, and the pair wordlessly exited the control room and headed back to the roof, dozens of armed guards swarming past them as they went.
There was a thick, nervous tension between them as Vi fired up the chopper engine, slotting the duffel bag in the back storage compartment before climbing and peeling off into the night sky.
Vi stared dead ahead as she steered them home, lost in her own train of thought, strategically keeping her gaze away from Caitlyn’s. Her worries and fears raced through her cerebral at a million miles an hour. How far along were those blueprints? Is the weapon ready? What was S-03?
And most importantly, should she tell her family to get the Hell out of Zaun?
Fighting her internal monologue, Vi shifted her thoughts elsewhere, desperately trying to distract herself. “How are Jayce and Ekko getting out?” she asked.
“Same way they came in. Some burner cars, they’ll swap the plates once they’re at the border,” Caitlyn replied nonchalantly. Then, to Vi’s discomfort, she addressed the elephant in the room. “We shouldn’t have seen those plans today. It wasn’t our place to look at the downloaded data.”
The pilot laughed humourlessly. “Yeah, no shit.”
Ignoring the sarcastic quip, Caitlyn continued. “Medarda knows those types of weapons are banned. She was the one that forwarded the initial proposal.” She sighed with frustration. “What in the world is she playing at?”
“Maybe she just wanted a headstart, you know?” Vi suggested.
Caitlyn spun around in her seat to face Vi, who still had her eyes trained with discipline on the horizon. “Is everything a joke to you?” she spat, tone laced with venom.
“Give me a damn break,” Vi snarled back, frowning. “My family live in Zaun, Cait. If that’s the target, they’ll be right in the blast zone. I don’t know how I can just sit on that information.”
Cait’s tone and facial expression softened. “I didn’t know that Vi, I’m sorry. You’ve never told me that.”
“Yeah.” The pilot sniffed and wiped her nose with the sleeve of her boiler suit. “Anyway, I wasn’t being sarcastic. Maybe this was her endgame all along.” Vi took a few moments to glance over at Caitlyn. “Get every other nation to swear off weaponry like that, then build your own. No mutually assured destruction, no regulatory requirements, just you playing judge, jury and executioner.”
Cait settled back into her seat, arms folding over one another, eyebrows knitted in deep thought. “I never thought of it that way,” she said quietly.
“Well, whatever it is,” Vi muttered, shaking her head, “I’ve got a feeling everything’s gonna go FUBAR real soon.”
“What’s FUBAR?”
“Fucked up beyond all recognition.” The pilot flashed her a weak smile. The humour didn't go up to her eyes.