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"All clear, Lieutenant General." The voice came from a soldier at the front of the bridge.

"They have no idea we're here. Launch the hijacking ships at that freighter, now," Felix demanded.

They had just exited their jump, and the rip in space faded behind them. The jump left them floating in space at an awkward angle, but they didn't bother to re-align. They only cloaked immediately. This entire mission was Felix Greyson's idea from the get-go. He was about to attempt something stupid. It was so absurd that only volunteers were on the mission. The government would only support his idea if it were successful. It was a suicide mission. They let Felix run it himself.

"Lieutenant, just don't get yourself killed." A voice patched into Greyson psychically.

The general had been keeping tabs on his lieutenant despite the mission not being fully backed. The communications came through using a quantum comms module installed on the ship by quantum entanglement as they were lightyears away. Greyson was connected to the ship through his tech-modified eye, wired into his brain. It was like an internal futuristic Bluetooth receptor.

"I haven't died yet," Felix responded through his mind.

"Don't get them killed either. They believe in you, kid." His superior and close friend ended the conversation on a serious note.

Twelve muffled, cannon-like blasts were heard echoing through the corridors as packleeches were shot for hijacking by the Flea Bearer. The Amalgafied starship was named after a running joke. It was known for cloaking and then pummeling enemy ships with hijackers (the fleas). They were in a droague, a heavily armored assault freighter that resembled a Viking-like warship. They had assault frigates onboard, but they didn't want to destroy this enemy vessel; they wanted to take it.

Through the smart glass viewport, Greyson and his crew saw the little pill-like objects shoot through space and impact the ship before them. Drones were following behind to assist. Although the Flea was at an awkward angle, their viewport was not because the ship used technology to synchronize its point of view upright in reference to its target in space. Some of the hijacking vessels rocketing through space were larger than others. Now, all they could see were the thrusters' lights. 

Those hijacking ships weren't small close up. They either held dozens of Amalgafied infantry or a mech. All the crew could see after the impacts were the butt-ends of the packleeches sticking from the hull of their opposition's ship. The ship's AI zoomed into the scene through the smart glass, giving the Flea Bearer a better view. Shortly after a few packleeches made it through, drones formed a spinning circle in space, encompassing the front of the opposing ship, stunning it with all sorts of energy streams. The enemy transport ship's lights flickered until it fully powered down.

In anticipation, Felix exited his seat and held onto the rail before him, overlooking the bridge. If he had human nails instead of claws, he'd be gnawing on them, but being an Amalgafied Leogin had its perks. Those drones could shock the ship until they ran out of power. Then, the enemy's comms would be back up, and they'd call in for support. The batteries on the drones only lasted so long when they were being actively drained.

The ship they had just attacked was a small nexporter. It usually had hundreds of people onboard, but it had been serviced in another system at a spaceport and was headed home to the BioCrypt. According to Greyson, there should've only been around 20 CryptSights on board. The invading crew would have to find them. Since their enemy's quantum comms module was shocked and their local network was down, the Crypts on board couldn't communicate with each other temporarily.

The Amalgafied Government believed this mission would fail because the Flea crew would have to seize the enemy nexporter within 15 minutes. Ten minutes is how long the Flea's AI calculated the drones would last in synchrony. The hijacking crew would have another five to figure out how to drive the thing and leave. A few minutes is all it would take for backup to warp in. 

Once the ship started, it was bound to let off a warning ping. It was a long shot, guessing that there were less than 20 on board and stealing the ship in less than 15 minutes. The crew saw an escape pod shoot out from under the nexporter. The hijacking team was too busy to notice and didn't have time to address it.

"Turn and fire the rails," Lieutenant Greyson said coldly. 

A thud was heard, and almost instantly after, a small pop of light lit in space. Nineteen left now, Felix thought. Twelve minutes passed. In another two minutes, the Flea would be forced to leave their hijacking crew, subjecting them to certain death by the Crypts. However, despite all odds, a soldier called into the vessel, and the voice broadcasted over the bridge's speakers.

"Bearer, last one down. Two beams to the chest, and he was in the pilot's seat. I'm already here. My AI is telling me what to do." The soldier updated.

The Flea, now aligned, flew toward its target quickly. When it was a close enough distance away, it deployed its quantum jambler. The nexporter was a sitting duck. If it tried to send an alert, there was only a 50% chance the ping would go through. The Crypts constantly evolved their tech, making it hard for the Amalgafied to keep up. Felix only prayed this would work.

It did. Within fourteen minutes, the hijacking crew swept the nexporter and was able to start it up. It was sending warning signals, but the jambler successfully absorbed the signals. The warp drive wouldn't respond to them, but the Flea had another idea. They both traveled through the same warp rip in space generated by the Flea. The end of their newly acquired ship barely made it through the rip as it faded.

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"Wait, you succeeded?" The general had to re-confirm.

"We succeeded, and it didn't even send off one warning. No Crypt will know it's gone." Felix tried not to let his ego get to him.

"Then we need to act out Operation BioFall," the general explained. "We've been sitting on these plans, and now is our opportunity before we get discovered."

"Yes, sir. We'll take the nexporter back to…"

"No." The general cut Felix off. "You're going to dock that nexporter at the BioCrypt ASAP and initiate the operation."

"What? You're supposed to take the lead in that mission. We had a whole plan."

"Plans change, Lieutenant. The old plan had too many gray areas. You seized an enemy ship and can safely dock at the BioCrypt. This is now a government operation. We will advise the Elf to lead you and show you where to go, but you will help hack the BioCrypt so we can infiltrate," the general explained.

By "the Elf," the general referred to Nythaniel, the famous Amalgafied programmer known to crack almost any code. Recently, he claimed he could hack the Nexus OS and, possibly, the BioCrypt. Operation BioFall had been planned weeks prior, but the plan could've been better. The government knew it had the means to hack the Nexus OS with at least a 70% chance of success and the BioCrypt with a 40% chance, but they needed to learn how to infiltrate the BioCrypt. They only had a few weeks to plan and execute the operation before the Crypts caught on and fixed the loophole. Without it, they would have no leads.

Greyson had grown impatient during the planning and devised this alternative plan. It was destined to fail, but the government let him run with it as they were running low on options and time. They succeeded in capturing a nexporter undetected, but only until its scheduled return to BioCrypt before suspicion would arise. Its return was supposed to occur in only a matter of hours.

"Felix. It's nice to speak with you again, bro," a new voice patched in through his head.

The Leogin rolled his eyes. He didn't hate the Elf but thought he was full of himself. Nythaniel never felt the need to be formal. He assumed his proven intelligence would trump his nonchalant comments in pressing situations. It always made Felix want to yell at him.

"I haven't heard from you since our meeting over the Crypts building this thing years ago. How have you been?" Nythaniel continued.

The Elf was referencing the Synthetic Planet named the BioCrypt built by the CryptSights, which he was convinced he could hack along with the AI side of the Crypt citizen's minds. The BioCrypt had to be physically hacked, but the OS could be hacked remotely. The BioCrypt was star-ship-like and relied heavily on physical technology. It was surrounded by a shield called the Biosphere. They could take down the Biosphere if they hacked the BioCrypt.

"Let's just get this over with, Elf. I didn't expect it to go this well so far," Felix confessed truthfully.

"Fine, Lieutenant Greyson. Be that way. Now, set your coordinates for the 'Crypt. We need to make up for lost time."

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A few hours later, they jumped close to the synthetic planet. Again, the nexporter hitched a ride using the Flea's rip in space. The Flea was quick to cloak. Then, the nexporter powered on its quantum fusion thrusters for the rest of the ride. The BioCrypt is an interesting-looking structure. It's not a globe like a typical planet. Its structure resembles an ellipse, with large glass petals that harness energy for its main system. Right above these petals and right before the foundation of the BioCrypt, the planet is bordered by a ring of docking ports separated by thousands of feet.

The nexporter wasted no time sending a docking request, which was immediately accepted. The Flea crew watched, trembling with anxiety as they heard the hissing and thumps of the docking port on the head of their ship making contact with a docking line. Docking lines were flown over by drones and connected to the ship. The glass of the nexporter was fully tinted, so the drones could not identify who was inside.

All members of the crew were suited in armor and geared for battle, rifles at the ready. Most of the Flea crew had been transferred to the nexporter. Above the bridge of this ship was the docking room. Soldiers were being taken up individually using futuristic ladder technology through a holodoor. In the room, they prepared to make a full charge through the airlock door and down the line.

Finally, the airlock door opened within the docking room, and hundreds of Amalgafied soldiers made their way from the Flea toward the docking bay of the BioCrypt down the line. For every ten soldiers, there was an androne, small bots under three feet in height. They served as a network extender from the Flea, which allowed the ground troops to contact the limited number of soldiers left in the nexporter or the Flea. 

Greyson had an androne assigned to him. It was imperative that he had his own to stay in constant communication with Nythaniel through his androne's extended network. He was in a squad of four with three others at his side. One of these men was his right-hand man, Clayton. They were on an imperative mission: find the BioCrypt's control room and hack it with help from the Elf. 

Greyson's AI would relay his point of view through the network to Nythaniel, who would tell the Leogin what to do and where to go. The other three in his squad would serve as backup, covering him through the process. The rest of the Flea crew would be spreading out in formation across the planet, attacking the CryptSights in an attempt to seize much of it before backup arrived. Hopefully, the soldiers and citizens would be completely thrown off as the BioCrypt's shield and docking ports prohibit outsiders.

The final airlock opened, exposing the interior of the BioCrypt to the Amalgafied's armed forces. The soldiers stormed in and eliminated two CryptSight docking patrol guards. The crew spread out and formed a barrier around the main squad as Squad Alpha (the name given to this squad) made a break for it. Nythaniel told Felix exactly where he needed to go.

The squad ran into the main streets flooded with citizens. Citizens instantly panicked and started running in all directions. The Amalgafied were bioengineered beasts and were much bigger than the Crypts. As most fled, Squad Alpha pushed their way through the streets with little resistance. Soldiers didn't heavily guard the area. None were in sight besides the ones they already disposed of at the gate. That was about to change.

They ran pretty far while completely exposed. Finally, they entered a small government building that was the size of a small trailer. It had a single door, and a dimly lit stairwell that led down behind it. Without hesitation, they took the stairs as silently as they could.

The stairs ended in a room with an automatic, solid sliding door. It was kept locked by a biometric pad to the side of it. A CryptSight soldier was fast asleep, sitting down with his head on a hovering table. The squad swiftly gagged him and tied him up. They forced his hand to the scanner and made it to the next room.

As soon as the door slid open, enemy heads turned and saw the squad. There were at least five soldiers and two scientists in the room. Luckily, the Flea Squad was prepared, and they were not, which caught them by surprise. A firefight was had, and the Squadron won, but at a loss as two of their members died.

The room they were currently in was meant for storing cylinders of energy generated by the petals. There were glass doors to corridors that led deeper into the inner sub-levels of the BioCrypt. Nythaniel informed them which one to take. The two remaining of the squad pressed on. There was only the lieutenant, and Clayton left.

"What is taking you so long with the remote hacking, Elf? My men are now getting shot at," Felix yelled at Nythaniel through his head as he heard chaos coming over the comms.

"The hack was supposed to deploy the second your ship made contact with the docking line, but there was a slight hiccup," the Elf explained.

"A hiccup?"

"I didn't have the code exactly right, okay. But I just covered the gap now, I think… I hope… Well, let's see…" Nythaniel trailed off.

"What?" Felix yelled out loud. "The hacking didn't work?" He continued that part of the conversation in his head.

"Oh… Oh. Wow... Now, it did," Nythaniel added.

The immediate chaos from the comms stopped and turned into more distant-sounding chaos. The squad was updated that the Crypts were anxiously complaining of going blind in an eye and losing comms. Oh, it worked. Thank God, the Leogin thought.

As the thought crossed his mind, they had made it to the central room, and two laser beams tore through the chest of Clayton in front of him. Shots rang as Greyson stepped over his partner and finished the fight. During certain situations, his AI had to control his motor skills to prevent his death. Then, he returned to his fallen comrade too late. Felix forced his partner's eye lids to close as he pressed on, saving the morning for later.

In the center of this room was a giant blue, energetic ball of energy. It was the root ball of the energy petals. Above it, a section of the ceiling turned into a cylindrical vortex that pulled the energy up slowly thousands of feet. The floor below the ball also dropped thousands of feet, pulling the lower energy from the ball down. The energy ball was encompassed by a floating bridge. This vortex structure was the BioCrypt's "stem" which fed it energy. The stem and root ball made up the BioCrypt's stem root, which was the heart of the structure.

A giant spherical computer hung hundreds of feet high on the room's shallow part of the ceiling to the side of the root ball. An entire wall that I managed not to shoot during the firefight was the BioCrypt's control system. No one was left in the room but Felix, who now approached the controls.

"We've made it," Felix's AI spoke to him through his head. "Now, listen to the Elf. This part is imperative. I know you hate him, but listen."

The old stubborn Leogin did listen. He listened perfectly as his entire crew depended on it, and so did this mission. If successful, this Elf and himself would be how the Amalgafied took control of the BioCrypt. He was halfway through the process when Nythaniel stopped for a moment.

"Oh. My. God. Yes! Dude, we're going to be legends," Nythaniel announced.

"What? It's not done yet, we're-"

"The operation has also affected the Crypts on Mars, and the Mars Coalition of Amalgafied are moving in." The Elf sounded giddy.

"Oh. Oh, sh-," the general stopped himself. "We need to continue."

Finally, the computer wall indicated that it was recalibrating the Biosphere. As the operation progressed, Nythaniel found a way to change the sphere's acceptance protocol to keep the Crypts out and only allow Amalgafied in. The original plan had just been to drop the shield, but this worked out in their favor. 

"It's done," Greyson's AI cut in again. "Backup has been notified and they are jumping in."

"Thank you, Source," Felix breathed a sigh of relief and referenced his god as he slid his back down against the computer wall.

He sat, listening to the background noise for a while, hugging his rifle. The Crypts would be down there soon. He felt the ground shake as the BioCrypt was pummeled by laser beams and railgun darts from allied ships above.

"Nythaniel, if I don't make it out of here, just know that I think you're an annoying little sh-" Greyson was interrupted as a door of the room was kicked open.

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