Adventure of Apollo 2

Smoke curls around Apollo's boots as he closes on the jammed server room door. Inside, cold air spills out over shattered plaster and burned dust.

The nearest rack wall blinks in neat rows, alive and untouched. This room is the prize, and it is still exposed.

A figure slips back into view at the far end of the lobby, half-hidden by the wrecked cover. The Third Operator raises his weapon, then hesitates when he sees Apollo at the threshold.

The server room hums louder in the pause, the open doorway framing everything Apollo needs. If he holds this entrance, Bloodhounds keeps the data and the territory.

Apollo snaps the M4 onto the retreating operator and fires. The shot slams him sideways out from cover, and his rifle clatters across the lobby floor.

Smoke swallows the movement for a heartbeat, then the Third Operator goes still against the wreckage, no longer a threat.

The panel man jerks harder at the doorway noise, fingers flying over his gear as the server-room glow pulses through the cracked opening.

The lead operator stays down, the lobby goes quieter except for the alarm stutter and the server racks humming behind the jammed door.

Apollo has the entrance, but the bypass is still live, and the panel man is still reaching for it.

Apollo’s burst catches the panel man before he can finish the wipe. He folds backward into the doorway, gear spilling from his hands, and the glow from the server room flickers across him once, then steadies.

The laptop or tablet he was working from skids over the threshold, screen still lit with a half-finished progress bar and a cable yanked free.

Inside the cracked opening, the servers keep humming. The jammed door shudders once, then holds, smoke drifting through the gap in thin gray ribbons.

A small access keycard slips from the man’s vest and lands near Apollo’s boots, spinning to a stop face up.

The lead operator stays down, and the third man does not move. For the first time, nothing is reaching for the panel.

On the dead screen, the wipe freezes before it can complete.