Operation Night Lantern
Chapter 03 - Operation Night Lantern
Operation Night Lantern began before dawn.
Connor commanded a modified C-130 communications aircraft known as Lantern One. Leah flew the accompanying rescue helicopter, Falcon Three. Four transport aircraft followed, carrying medical teams and civilians toward the coastal evacuation zone.
Sentinel displayed a clear corridor through Nahr Valley.
Human intelligence warned of mobile surface-to-air systems near the northern ridge. Connor manually restricted the route.
Seven minutes later, Sentinel removed his restriction.
Lantern One turned north.
Connor immediately challenged the system.
Aegis remote support responded that the change had been approved automatically to avoid a weather front. The sky ahead was clear.
Connor ordered every aircraft to hold the original route.
Sentinel began sending conflicting commands.
Two transports obeyed the software.
One was struck by ground fire.
Leah turned Falcon Three toward the burning aircraft and recovered six survivors from a narrow riverbed. During the rescue, Connor transmitted that Sentinel’s threat map had been altered from outside the mission network.
Then Lantern One lost engine power.
The aircraft descended hard onto a plateau beyond the ridge.
Leah reached the site nine minutes later.
Connor had survived the crash with a broken leg and internal injuries. Two crew members were dead. Three others could be moved.
He gave Leah the local software recorder and ordered her to place it inside the medal frame hidden beneath the command seat.
“Take the crew.”
“I can return for you.”
“Not if Sentinel controls the rescue corridor.”
Leah refused to leave.
Connor activated the aircraft’s emergency transmitter manually.
The signal showed friendly rescue aircraft approaching from the west.
Then their coordinates changed on the command screen.
Sentinel redirected the rescue flight thirty miles south.
Someone had altered the beacon location.
Connor understood what it meant.
“The system isn’t failing. Someone is using it.”
He recorded a final message addressed to military command, Margaret and Evelyn. Before completing it, an armed drone appeared on the threat display.
The drone belonged to a private security unit contracted through Aegis Meridian.
Connor ordered Leah to evacuate.
She carried the surviving crew toward Falcon Three while he remained at the radio, attempting to upload the software evidence.
The drone fired before Leah returned.
The blast threw her against the helicopter frame and tore the skin along her arm.
Falcon Three lifted with seconds to spare.
Connor died on the plateau.
Leah returned carrying three survivors, the local recorder and the medal case.
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The official rescue log later showed that she departed before Connor ordered evacuation.
The flight recording containing his true command vanished from the military server.
