Chapter 23 - Hacking an orbital weapons platform from a decommissioned NASA control room while federal drones swarm the facility airspace.
The decommissioned NASA control room was filled with rows of dusty analog consoles and glowing modern quantum bypass terminals.
Julian scrambled up to the main master terminal, plugging his portable quantum drive directly into the facility's central processor.
"I'm tapping into the deep-space telemetry network, but Project Janus is flooding our bandwidth with firewall blocks!" Julian reported.
Dr. Hayes worked on the secondary console, routing auxiliary power from the base generators to support his son's intense hacking assault.
Outside the reinforced windows, the buzzing sound of approaching military drone swarms signaled that their location had been compromised.
"We've got company! Automated attack drones are swarming the airspace above the complex!" Jonathan announced, peering through the glass.
"Buy us three minutes, Jonathan! Just three minutes, and I can upload our counter-virus into the orbital platform's core!" Julian pleaded.
Jonathan grabbed an abandoned security shotgun from the armory rack near the door, sprinting up the metal stairs to the roof hatch.
He pushed open the hatch, stepping out into the freezing mountain wind as a half-dozen military combat drones hovered overhead.
Raising the shotgun, Jonathan fired a barrage of heavy slugs into the lead drone's optical sensor array, sending it crashing down.
The remaining drones pivoted instantly, locking their targeting lasers onto Jonathan's position on the exposed rooftop platform.
Jonathan dove behind a concrete ventilation unit just as a hail of suppression fire chewed up the metal railing beside his head.
He fired back with calculated precision, taking down two more drones while his heart hammered against his ribs like a war drum.
Down in the control room, Julian's fingers flew across the keyboard as the progress bar for the counter-virus hit ninety-nine percent.
"Come on... come on... execute transfer!" Julian whispered fiercely, hitting the enter key with the palm of his hand.
On the master screen, the status of Project Janus's orbital platform shifted from Active Combat to System Rebooting.
The combat drones hovering above the NASA facility instantly lost power, dropping out of the sky like dead stones into the forest.
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Jonathan lowered his smoking shotgun, letting out a long, exhausted breath of triumph as the immediate airborne threat dissolved.
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