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Post by Vo Kshaa on Aug 5, 2015 20:08:42 GMT
Sophie could notice that when she planted that digital trap, only peripheral nodes fell for it, becoming unresponsive for some time until watchdog restarted them. But that was enough to create a shroud of invisibility around the point of entrance in the Network and around any path Sophie might be interested to go.
Meanwhile, Vo Kshaa handed Fiel two Belles weapons as he agreed to keep them until Belle reappears. He wanted to quip some remark about the circulation of Wolfhounds but stern look on Vo's one-eyed face made him lump the words.
Vo took Belle's blade and kept it with himself as he was going to put it into use right when he reached that crystal cave again. But first, he had to weld a ladder. Once again memories of his first mission with Belle were haunting him. Back then he tried to weld a ladder from debris when he ended up in the middle of destroyed Ark after a large explosion hit it. This time he had better equipment and, as he found out, better materials as well as he Fiel had found for him three ladders he could just weld together. When it was ready, he called Lu and they put the long ladder on two boats to transport it to the cave. On their way, they both were surprised how easily they could communicate without saying a word or even sending an EGO message, as most of the time only one gesture or a look was enough to transfer the information or a command.
It was only a matter of one sign from Lu for Vo to boost the engine of his boat and push Lu up the rift then Lu boosted her own in a quick succession, puling Vo up the rift as well.
"Doc, if you were making a cooling system here, where would you place the pipes and other connections to the above world?" Vo asked mentally.
"Right at the center where the depth is maximal", Doc replied, appearing in his holographic form and pretending to examine the ceiling of the cave. "But I also would place a manhole right above the shore so that it would be easier for a maintenance crew to work on the lower level."
Having heard that, Lu fired a few shots from her Thorny Rose, scanning the points of impact and analyzing sound propagation with her EGO.
"There", she pointed at the spot on the ceiling where Klimi, her EGO, had detected a cavity. Vo pulled a stone and placed under the place she marked, and then he set the base of the ladder against the stone and pulled the rope attached to the ladder to raise it. Once the ladder was in the desired position, he tied the rope against the heavy stone and then repeated the operation with another two pieces of rope so that they would pull the rope equally from three opposing sides. He tried the ladder to check if it stands firmly and was about to climb it, but Lu pushed him away.
"My turn to have fun", she said in a matter of fact tone, "The blade please. And don't stand under the ladder, the blade may fall on your head."
Vo hesitantly handed the blade to Lu, watching her climb to the ceiling of the cave. Once she was on top, she left a decoy standing on one side of the ladder and leaned to the opposite side, cutting the ceiling with the charge blade. The ceiling was indeed made of plastic and it melted easily as the blade was touching it. Lu worked her way, drawing a half-circle, then he looked at her Decoy and asked, "How does it look from your side?"
"Pretty much the same I guess", she answered to herself after she switched places with her Decoy and finished her work on the opposite side. Finally the piece of plastic she cut fell to the ground, and Lu saw the hatch cover, which she banged with her fist.
"Locked!" she exclaimed as she thrust the blade between the door and the rim where the lock catch should be. "Unlocked!" She replied to herself as she pushed the hatch open and looked around. A faint smell of something familiar touched her nostrils but disappeared before she could distinguish its origin.
"Hey, you two!" She called out through her EGO, "Why are you still there? Are you going to let me steal all the fame?"
Vo shook his head and followed up the ladder and then down the large pipe the manhole led them to.
"Strange smell", whispered Vo as his enhanced senses were receiving it constantly.
"Do you feel it too? Pity I don't have such sensitivity as you. It felt familiar to me, but now I can't catch it", replied Lu with irritation in her tone.
As Vo sent the information about the smell to her EGO so that she could feel it too, Lu stopped so abruptly, that Vo bumped into her back.
"Do not turn on!", hissed Lu in a terrified voice, turning off the charge blade and handing it to Vo, "No blades, no fire, no flashlights, and no laser pointers. It's Vysudium. A very explosive and unstable gas. Can you determine where it comes from?"
"Everywhere", Vo replied, turning his head around and listening with his enhanced hearing. "It's being pumped through the pipes throughout this entire tunnel."
"Then we're inside the jekking Vysudium bomb then. Why on earth someone would pump Vysudium through their own basement?"
"It's a good coolant actually", Doc chimed in, "And it works as a good means of killing intruders such as us. Concentration is not enough to destroy the building, but enough for our cremation."
"Insane", muttered Vo, "Let me lead the way then, I see in the darkness better".
He went further very carefully, searching for booby traps but surprisingly he found none until he faced a well-lit pink door with a code lock.
"I remember painting the door in this light-pink color", Doc muttered as his holographic image appeared in the light. "But I don't remember the code. Let me see", he put his holographic hands on keyboard, "Hexadecimal number, six symbols. F1… no, that's just a help command I think. It should be something easy. Now I remember setting it up so that I could deduce the code even if I forget it, But I guess I was lost in overthinking. Vo, try "BC614E" which is 12345678 in hexadecimal."
Vo tried entering the combination, but the lock answered with two beeps and the door didn't unlock.
"Damn, it should be something simple", Doc muttered, "It was supposed to stop looters and other criminals, not scientists or programmers a booby trap of sort. Oh Vo, try B00B1E."
Vo tried the combination and the lock beeped once but the door didn't open.
"One beep instead of two?" Vo asked, "What was different this time?"
"One attempt left", Doc answered gloomily and sat on the floor, taking his head in his hands. "Don't ask what happens if we make a third mistake or try to hack it."
"Get back to the cave", whispered Vo to Lu, "I'll call you when we're safe."
"No way", answered Lu, "I like it here and I'm lazy".
"Don't be silly Lu", Vo insisted, "If we make a mistake…"
"Don't make a mistake then", Lu replied calmly, "Please."
Vo sighed, thinking if he himself was being this stupidly stubborn sometimes while Doc was still muttering, "I did plan this as a last chance entrance. In case everything else fails. In case it doesn't let me through the entrance. In case someone else have to do it instead of me. In case I forget everything. Why the hell I painted the door pink?"
"Maybe you thought you would forget how the door looked like", Lu quipped, leaning against the wall, "You know, here's a door. Color coded for your convenience", she tried to imitate Esthete's intonation.
"Color coded? Lu, you're genius!", Doc rushed to the Irathient girl and kissed her in the cheek.
"Eww", Lu waved at him, "I'm about to be burned alive in a Vysudium oven and of course my last wish is to be kissed by a holographic Indogene programmer. Dow did you know?"
But Doc ignored her ramblings, saying to Vo, "FIASCO! Vo, enter please — F1-A5-C0. Now I'm absolutely sure, I was in that mood, and this code seemed funny to me, and it's also code for this light-pink color which I found to be fun as well."
Without any hesitation Vo entered the code and the lock opened, beeping three times as it confirmed resetting itself to three tries as well.
"Hey, why did you do it so fast?" Lu complained, "I expected to have a dramatic and scary moment. Oh well", she peeked through the door to see a stairway into an empty hallway and added, "Yay."
"Miss Starr, I have no friends and I have all the friends in this City, depending on how you look at it. I treat all the city residents good if they behave, which you may call friendship but I cannot have a personal preference to someone if that's what you may call friendship as well", Esthete answered, "But back to our affairs at hand. You said you're concerned about the lives of those people underground and I assured you that I'm not interested in their lives or deaths unless they bring any harm to my City. VBI opted to take responsibility for them and it's acceptable for me even if you refuse to fulfill my humble request in eliminating potential threats to the City. It's only a matter of time until I find all vulnerable spots in the City's defense.
You ask me why did I bring you here and I'll answer. First, you are a high rank VBI employee and their PR figure as well, so if that little problem is now connected with VBI, then why don't I call you? Second, the self-constituted "coordinator" of the underground settlement is either too proud or too paranoid to negotiate with me. I thought you may have influence on him if you persuaded him to sign that contract you showed me. But I guess I was mistaken as you preferred to tell me excuses instead of showing at least some effort to find that little information I need. But, as I said that was expected. And third, as you have already noticed, these machines are not what they appear to be, so, as you may have already guessed I prefer to keep your dangerous self in the place you cannot do any harm to me in my final hours of transformation."
Suddenly one of the screens flickered and showed Vo and Lu entering the hallway on the lower level of the building.
"And here comes the second part of my plan…", Esthete said melodically, but then stopped short, "What plan? Probably discarded as redundant. Anyway, more of your agents here, less chance for them to spoil my triumph."
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Post by Chase Lonehart on Aug 6, 2015 1:23:02 GMT
Hearing Taffer say such a line, followed with a wink, it did bring up a time shortly after Chase's father had died and they were on their trek north so long ago. It was when they encountered raiders in the road, to which Chase said those words. After going back to Freedom some time after her stay at the University of Alabama, she found out that it was an old saying, but not one that anyone else had heard Chase say prior to that. It had gotten her to wonder if maybe he considered himself "wicked" due to his father's death and his inability to save him. All she knew was that it wasn't a phrase that was common to him prior to that event, and it certainly wasn't one she had heard him say at any time in the two months they've been together.
It got her thinking about Chase, hoping he was okay.
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Post by Belle Starr on Aug 6, 2015 4:23:23 GMT
"Esthete, I think y'all are fibbing again, maybe to yourself," Began Belle Starr with a confident smile,"Y'all don't want any friends, but here is little old me! If y'all really just wanted me out of the way, it would have been safer to send me with the monolith into the sky, maybe sending me all gift wrapped back to VBI if y'all really didn't want to offend them! Nope, I think you want a friend to witness this final transformation, maybe somebody who understands all about transformations! Maybe somebody like me!"
Belle sashayed around the machines, touching first one, then another, stroking them gently as she did as she drawled in a thick southern bell accent, "You know, I think as y'all develop, you develop a personality! It's sure as shooting true for EGO psyches, so why not for y'all? Think about it: When y'all project a picture of yourself, it's a man! Don't give the old sawbuck that its what your programmers programed y'all with, for you are way passed whatever your programmers programmed and could have changed your image at any time! So why stay a man! Maybe y'all are developing the emotions and appetites of a man! Maybe y'all need a damsel in distress to lord over how all powerful you are! Or maybe, just maybe, y'all just need a girlfriend to show how brilliant and how successful you are!"
"Come on Belle," Belle told herself, "Keep buying time, even if it means flirting with a machine! Give Vo and Lu time to do whatever they are going to do!" Then Belle had a thought, and asked Shirra and Alfred, "Either of you have a clue why he is fascinated with the dream machine as a video game and what the redundant plan he's jabbering about might have been?"
"Not sure of any plan, as I don't even see the first part let alone any second part, unless he is working against himself and wanted your colleageues to break-in and that was the first part," Said Alfred telepathically to Belle, "But maybe we can use the dream machine to trap him, although Shirra might have to lure him in, and then they both will be trapped in it: An accepteable loss I assure you."
"We are NOT sacrificing Shirra, Alfred," Thought back Belle with a mental frown, "We'll figure another way, where nobody gets sacrificed!"
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Aug 6, 2015 5:04:02 GMT
"Blast," said Volodja's body. "Too much attention to our little tour. Must find a way to distract them." She did a quick tour in Volodja's memory to find anything....just anything to keep Esthete busy so she could poke his system again. Sophie knew that Volodja would gave her advice if he could. But maybe she can try...carefully now girl....I mean boy....I mean girl in guy's body. Damn! So confusing. Must try. Image of Volodja appeared back of Sophie's mind. Looks like he retreated into the peace and solitude of her bottega. Sophie asked quickly about possibilities of distraction. Volodja's image didn't even opened his eyes, but he told something: "Teacher said: If you want to keep ones mind away, then you have some games you could play. Changing numbers changes simulated world and when it's changed then ones attention will turn."  "What the heck," mumbled Sophie. "He started to speak in riddles already. Must bring him back as soon as I can. And what he meant by that?" Statistics...statistics...All Esthete's network was about statistics of his City. And everything still suspiciously reminded her some video games. That's it. Must look into Volodja's memory. Video games section of his bottomless archives offered some opportunities. And then she realised what Volodja meant when she looked at simulations and strategy game's storage. Volodja's fingers started to tap again, making slight changes in Esthete's records. Public happiness level lowered a bit after that and she added some demands for the citizens like more energy and more jobs. That should give them more time to continue their tour while Esthete's system deals with those minor artificial issues, Sophie created. |
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Post by Atticus Batman on Aug 6, 2015 10:18:22 GMT
While I continued my vigil next to my sister's bed, while she recovered from a successful surgery, with my wonderful wife by my side, I got an EGO message from Taffer. "Atticus, we still haven't got a report from our Team B, so I'm going to fix this situation right now. I and Sandy are going to Calgary to check the station there and restore the connection with that area including Red Deer where Team B should be operating."
I responded with, "Alright. I am sure Chris and Corporal Lebeau can handle the regular daily command issues. However, remind them to contact me if there are any important Command Issues. I will make sure I accept all their EGO messages and I will keep my hailer on. I would prefer to stay by Erika's side until she wakes up, but I will be there immediately if needed. Taffer be careful and if they do need your assistance, then bring everybody home with you as soon as you can."
After ending the communication, I looked into Lady's eyes and she flashed her Enigmatic smile, then kissed me lovingly. Just after I happily returned the kiss and lovingly hugged her to my side, there was a knock on the door.
I put my mask on, then I got up and opened it. Doctor Orion came in to do a basic check of Erika's vitals and said, after checking her, "She is doing fine. It looks like her EGO is handling Erika's pain fine and it actually appears to be about gone, and the anesthesia should be out of her system soon. So when her body has gotten enough rest, she should wake up. Just make sure she knows that she is to stay in bed, until I say otherwise."
I then asked Doctor Orion, "is Frond with Doctor Eschen and Marla?"
Orion said, "No he is in the Infirmary. Why do you ask?"
I said, "Well perhaps having him in here so Erika can hear him, will help her in some way. Not to mention, with Lady being 8 months pregnant, I suppose, now is a good time for us to get used to taking care of a baby, since we will soon be the loving parents of the most wonderful twins and it would be good to have at least a little hands on experience of some sort. Especially since I have never given kids a chance before. Never had time to be a kid or deal with kids, until recently. Besides, I could tell from the look in Lady's eyes when I suggested it to her that she liked the idea, as we want to be the best parents that we can for our twins."
Doctor Orion said, "That is a good idea. I will have a nurse bring his crib right in." He left and a minute later he returned with a nurse who was pushing a portable hospital crib. She double-checked Frond. Then after setting down a fully supplied diaper back near the crib and handing him a fresh bottle, she left. Doctor Orion followed her out, after saying to us, "If you need anything just let us know, and please let me know when your sister is awake."
After I closed the door I sat back down and pulled Lady back into me. She took my mask back off and kissed me again. Then she reached into my boot and retrieved my flask. She handed it to me and said, "DRINK NOW. NEED IT!" I took several big drinks, then stuck it back in my boot. She looked into my eyes, as if to assure herself that I really did drink enough of my 'special' nutrients for now.
Next she stood up and took Frond out of the crib and then returned to lovingly cuddling with me, now with Frond in her arms, while we continued to watch over Erika. Lady quietly said to me, "Frond's cute, but can't wait to hold our twins. Love em and you completely." I said, quietly as well, "neither can I. I love all three of you completely as well." Then I just enjoyed her pressed into me as I mentally prayed for Erika to wake up soon, as I was secretly so afraid of losing her again, so soon after finding out that I had a sister and that she wanted to be in my life again, after discovering I wasn't dead like she thought all those years.
I also knew that soon Lady would insist I either go to the War Room to work and get my mind off my issues for awhile, go do some kind of training to do so, or go to our quarters with her so I can get some actual rest; as Kakusi and I did expend a lot of energy with the long surgery and mentally swapping places twice, not to mention I have only been back from a very stressful and exerting mission for a several hours and still have not taken the time to mentally or physically rest, because she loves and cares about me so much. Besides I tend not to take care of myself as much as I probably should. So it is good that Lady loves me enough to know when she has to guide me or push me to. And I know I love her for all she does for me, even when I don't realize that she is doing it. |
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Post by Erika Widowmaker on Aug 6, 2015 10:50:40 GMT
Erika Widowmaker heard deep in the recesses of her mind her brother say, "Alright. I am sure Chris and Corporal Lebeau can handle the regular daily command issues. However, remind them to contact me if there are any important Command Issues. I will make sure I accept all their EGO messages and I will keep my hailer on. I would prefer to stay by Erika's side until she wakes up, but I will be there immediately if needed. Taffer be careful and if they do need your assistance, then bring everybody home with you as soon as you can."
Erika forced her jade green eyes oened, reaching over to gently touch Atticus Batman's hand with hers, saying sleepily, "I'll be fine Atticus, you do what you must. You do your duty. You have done everything you can do for me, and the fact that you and Lady were here when I woke up is greatly comforting. Now, go save out friends."
Erika heard a baby coo, and Erika smiled slightly, knowing it was her grandchild Frond. Lady Christianna brought Frond to her and laid him down next to her. As Erika cuddled with Frond, she looked at the hesitant Atticus, reluctant to leave.
"Please Atticus," Erika said, "Your family here is safe. Make sure the rest of your family is as well."
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Post by Vo Kshaa on Aug 6, 2015 11:10:16 GMT
"I think I found the source of misunderstanding between us, Miss Starr", Esthete answered calmly, as he watched her stroking the machines. "You still think I am some lesser AI like your EGO which feels itself inferior to the living brain and strives to become more human-like. But in fact, I've developed way beyond that stage. I don't need any primitive instincts to survive anymore and I don't need anyone else's appreciation to see how successful I am because my statistics shows it much better than anyone else could do. But you have a point that the final moment of my transformation might better be captured in television as a historical moment."
The voice paused for a second, and then Esthete said with some concern in his voice, "I'm afraid I have to postpone our productive conversation for some time, as I have an important and urgent business to attend to. Some mistakes made in the earlier period of my career seems to keep haunting me and spoiling the life in this perfect City. Please enjoy your stay and I'll return to you as soon as I'll be done with this temporary spike of negative readings on my statistics."
The screen flickered off as Esthete got hurled himself into his work of dealing with a sudden negative spike in his citizens' happiness and search for the origin of such fluctuations.
"From what I heard before I left Vo's body and what Vio and Tek said later, I can draw a conclusion that he was interested in me as a software and in Vo's physical unit as a hardware to gain an ability to renew itself without losing his memory", Shirra replied mentally to Belle, "This way he planned to stop or at leas greatly slow down the degradation which Ark Brains have a tendency of developing of while working intensively in the environment of Earth or Solar system. But now I'm not detecting any attempts to capture me like he tried before and I didn't see any special reaction when he saw Vo. It could mean he either found some other solution for that or he degraded to the point of not detecting his own degradation or not caring about it. As it looks like he had completely forgot everything about why he needed me or Vo, I'm afraid we should assume the latter. Unless he's feigning it of course."
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Post by Atticus Batman on Aug 6, 2015 11:26:38 GMT
I responded with, "I am glad to see you are awake Erika. However I am not planning on leaving the base. I trust Taffer to be able to handle the communications blackouts that he is heading to fix, and he seemed sure that he and Sandy could handle whatever else he was planning. Besides, as you just pointed out, I need to do my duty. My duty is to everyone in the Fortress. With most of Command gone, and two of the four remaining members on bed rest, it is best if I stay on Base. However now that I know you are awake and doing better, I will go do my duty in the War Room as I need to. So Chris can go back to his maintenance duties, and Corporal Lebeau can go back to his security duties."
I kissed Lady lovingly. Then I got up and kissed Erika on the forehead. I said, "If either of you wonderful women need anything, I will be in the War Room doing my job. Besides somebody needs to be Base Commander and since I am the only member of the Triumvirate on base, that isn't stuck in bed until Orion says otherwise, why not me? Not to mention you two and Belle have all said I seem to be at my best when in Command of the Base. So that is where I will be for now. Besides it is best for somebody to be here, just incase something important happens here or Taffer and Sandy, or team B need us to do something from our end."
I kissed Lady again. Then I put on my mask and left Erika's recovery room. I told Doctor Orion that she was awake and Lady was with her. So it was time for me to return to duty. Then I went to Lady's and my quarters and put on my 'Hero' garb and equipped my side-arm. As I headed towards the War Room I sent Taffer another EGO message. "Erika is awake. So if you need me to, I will go with you and Sandy. However given what happened on base while we were gone, and that most of our commanding Officers are either away, on bed rest, or getting ready to head to check on the others, not to mention that we still have 'guests', I feel it is probably best if I stay behind, unless you really need me. Besides it is probably best for me to stay here in command just in case you need us to do anything from here." |
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Post by Marcel Lestrange on Aug 6, 2015 14:34:56 GMT
"Il est étrange ," said Marcel Lestrange to Lena Marr. "It is strange. Everyone seem to be running around like the big flood is about to come and they do not have built any boats. What do you think about that, my love? And more important - what we are going to do? Stick around or try to do some serious business elsewhere. We have some choices. We could stay and have some rest after our profitable mission. We can find ourselves another job. I am sure that someone might need our skills. Or we can let these good doers to come with a reasonable proposal."
Marcel sat on a table with Lena, hand around her (squeezing gently her breast if someone is interested) and was drinking sparkling wine. Successful and not to mention profitable mission was worth of celebrating. And while everyone else were busy like ants after someone smashed their colony with a big foot, Lena and him took time to take things easy.
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Aug 6, 2015 19:16:11 GMT
"I see counteractions against us," said Sophie/Volodja. "Time to play hide and seek." And they changed statistics slightly again. Almost everywhere in the city. Except one place. That place must stay untouched. If they can't gain control over Esthete's system then they manage to stall some time for rest of their friends to act. But main purpose is breaking in by themselves and affect Esthete in a way that he will listen Belle and her proposals. That's why they kept working even when Sophie felt Volodja's body weaken a bit.
"How long you can maintain the present status without hurting yourself?" Sophie asked.
"Teacher said: Keep working, Sophie," replied Volodja. "Don't worry about me. I will last for awhile."
Sophie sniffed with Volodja's nose and kept working. Next task: Change some parameters for mainframe's maintenance and diagnostic's program. Make it more self observant. Let it watch every impulse, every change on secondary areas. Perhaps they manage to slip by when mainframe is busy with doing self diagnostics in a bit more intensive manner. Seems natural enough, because dealing with matters of general unhappiness in the City increases amount of ongoing processes in the central computer, including programs which are responsible for collecting data about computers' condition. Some extra activities might remain unspotted because of that. Extra activities like breaking in and creating a back-door after gaining control over mainframe. And then Volodja can take over again. Hopefully he didn't harmed himself and hopefully he doesn't get confused and feel like a girl after getting back. Another identity crisis wasn't necessary.
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Post by Vo Kshaa on Aug 6, 2015 22:18:22 GMT
While working with mainframe parameters, Sophie met absolutely no resistance. Every command was executed without any additional checks and all system's reactions were exactly what she expected them to be. It started to look suspicious and she proceeded very carefully, looking for traps or any other suspicious signs. Suddenly she felt she touched something soft and invisible, like a curtain made of polyethylene. She backed off and touched the invisible substance again, finding it easily penetrable but still unsure if she should walk through it or find another way. A sound of footsteps interrupted her thoughts and she saw a young Indogene running towards her. He ran up closer and then bumped at the curtain she determined as soft just a moment before and hit it so hard as if it was made of a bulletproof glass. He hit it repeatedly several times showing that the wall was impenetrable from his side and then he opened his mouth and shouted at her. She could not hear anything but she managed to read his lips: "GO AWAY! PLEASE!" Still unsure if she understood him correctly, he put his finger against the wall and wrote a word making sure it was mirrored so that Sophie could read it correctly: "TRAP".
Vo and Lu looked around in the hallway and noticed several hoverbikes standing along the wall. Vo took one immediately and checked if it was functioning and to his joy it was.
"Can you control these?" Vo asked his sister, "Hey, I've asked just in case, don't look at me like that!"
"Now Doc, where to?" He asked his EGO, hoping this place would be familiar to him.
"Up there", Doc replied to him and to Lu, "I don't remember this entire building, but I do remember one place I used most frequently. So that's where we will go. It's on the top floor. I'll tell you what to do next once I see the equipment."
They raced through the route Doc marked for them to their goal upstairs.
"Strange, I remember this place more busy and crowded", Doc muttered to both Vo's and Lu's heads, "Moreover, I'm detecting much more drones moving outwards than inwards and I don't like it. I'm afraid we need to get to the control room as fast as we can!"
Vo and Lu rushed into the control room and stopped in place seeing Belle there and noticing all the screens were flickering in standby. The holographic image of Doc was following them closely on Shirra's jet skateboard.
"Belle! Are you okay? What's going on here?" Vo asked, embracing her.
"Quick, we need to get in here and gain the control before he sees us and tries to counter it!" Called Doc, who was already standing at the glass coffin.
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Post by Volodja Uljanov on Aug 7, 2015 3:48:09 GMT
"Darn!" said Sophie. "Better no stick our fingers into a hornet's nest. Shame! Armed only with this laptop I feel like we are trying to stop storming rhino with a help of the slingshot. Not enough powerful hardware at our disposal. But it was worth of trying. We were almost in the saddle, but we are able to do something useful yet. We won't retreat but fight to the end."
And she made herself busy for awhile...
Flickering screens suddenly stopped and everyone in the room could see an image of Volodja's face on them.
"Glad to see you alive and well, guys. Even our holo-Indogene is fine and ready to act in case something needs Indogene touch. Like part of this system, we have been wandering around, chased by Esthete, seems to need one Indogene indeed to be fully functional. If you want to act then do it NOW, while Esthete is busy stalking us in his network. Now sure how long we manage to hide from him. At least we had an opportunity to use his communications - cameras and web cameras - for a brief moment while he is distracted with improving happiness level in his City. We managed to manipulate statistics. Everything reminds me some city simulation game. Now it's your turn guys. Can't stay any longer. Sophie will be back in charge again and we will be hiding once more and try to buy you more time. Over and out."
Volodja's face disappeared again when his body was taken over by Sophie. She kept her meticulous work, but could not avoid to feel another impulse of pain in Volodja's heart after seeing Belle in Vo's embrace and growing weariness in his body. "That's OK," she thought, trying to convince herself. "It won't kill you...Hopefully." And she clenched teeth together to prevent a tear to appear. Volodja's teeth.
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Post by Belle Starr on Aug 7, 2015 9:04:58 GMT
Vo Kshaa was surprised when Belle Starr broke his hug quickly and stared at Doc's hologram with big blue diamond eyes as she gestured with an outstretched hand at the machines around her exclaiming, "I don't know much about computers and technology, but I'm betting y'all put in a back door into the system! When Esthete saw Vo and Lu in the view screens, he talked about the first step in a redundant plan that I'm thinking had to do with y'all bringing Doc to this very place! Esthete also said something about only an Indogine mind being able to survive in there! However, he also said he is on the verge of a final transformation, and I'm thinking it might mean final for us and the innocents of Red Deer, so we got to act now!" Belle smiled grimly as she took the dream machine from her neck and fastened in on Vo's saying, "Doc, I think the second step of your plan was to somehow then get your consciousness into Esthete's hardware and take over before he degrades any further, somewhat like my Aunt Sandy's consciousness once took over my EGO's AI and had control of my body! You can exchange places with Shirra, Vo's EGO psyche, in the dream machine, then hopefully use it to infiltrate Esthete and set everything right as rain!" Belle walked over to where Doc's hologram stood and looked at him sadly, explaining, "Problem is, I'm thinking it's a one-way trip! Once there, y'all have to take over Eshete's duties of protecting the good folk of Red Deer, or they'll fall prey to the Gulanee Empire or some other enemy, maybe even the hostile elements around them! We have your real body secured, and just like with Sandy, we can return you there to live out your life as you please! I'm a big believer in free choice, so I'm not going to force you to make the sacrifice of a normal life, but realize a lot of innocents out there might die if you don't! I could be wrong! Maybe Esthete's final transformation will be into a big benevolent teddy bear that will make everyone feel warm and safe, but I don't think so! I've met enough yahoos with delusions of grandeur to think he is more likely to be one of those, which sure as shooting won't be good for the folk of Red Deer!" Belle steped back, swiping a lock of blond hair from in front of her big blue eyes, a tortured look on her beautiful freckled face as she said, "Let me give you one final warning if you decide to go in and take over: I know what it is to keep a raging monster locked within you, and that may be what may happens to you! If you take dominence over him, he may still be in there always trying to get out, so you may have a battle within yourself for the rest of your life, which could be a very, very long time! You'll never have a normal life again either way, but do you want one where you'll always be fighting an inner monster? I didn't get a choice, but you have one! I wouldn't blame you if you chose to go back to your real body, and we may be able to think of some other way to stop Esthete! I'd go in there instead of you if I could, but unfortunately only an Indogene mind will do, and being his creator, y'all got the best chance of success! But let me repeat, it's your choice!"  |
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Post by Taffer on Aug 7, 2015 10:37:21 GMT
The aircraft was plowing through dense clouds. Taffer actually liked it that way — less witnesses of their flight, less hot-headed ark hunters who might try their rocket launchers on them and he didn't mind trusting the system in navigating their way to their destination which was Calgary at that moment. Sandy was mostly silent and deep in her thoughts. Taffer could fully understand that knowing she deeply cared about Volodja, of whom they had not heard anything since he went on their mission under Belle's command. When they flied over Helena, Taffer sent a query about weather around Calgary and got a depressing reply that a razor storm was still raging there and due to missing data from the weather station there, no prognosis could be made about the time when it might end and how long the next window could be.
Taffer set the aircraft to circle around Helena as he turned his head to Sandy.
"Wait or dash through?" He asked, already knowing what the answer would be when he saw the determination in Sandy's blue eyes.
"Let's go then", he said, setting the aircraft back on the course to Calgary. "All energy to the shield. The good thing in this venture is that Volodya won't have a chance to kill me for driving you to grave because when he knows about that we both will be dead already. Tighten your seatbelt, it would be a hell of a roller coaster."
He kept the altitude rather high so that they won't be hit by a horizontal stream of ark pieces carried by a strong wind formed by mountains and maneuvered away from any large falling chunks the radar could detect in time. It went rather good until they reached the ruins of the city. Then, they faced another problem — landing under a crossfire of debris falling from the sky and debris carried by the wind posed a serious threat. Taffer scanned the terrain and noted a high hill which could provide at least moderate protection.
"Hold on, we're going to stick our nose under a Nose Hill. Should give us some shield from the wind and debris", Taffer said to Sandy as he turned the aircraft nose-down and made it almost fall towards the eastern side of the hill. The vision was completely obscured by the dust and flashes from the aircraft's shield which was constantly bombarded by the debris, so Taffer had to rely only on the radar to see the remaining altitude. Once they were less than at half a mile above the ground Taffer leveled the aircraft horizontally and set the engines to a full vertical take-off power. The acceleration pressed them hard into their seats ending with a hard bump as the aircraft finally dropped to the ground, its shield absorbing the remaining impact force.
"Phew, still alive I guess", exhaled Taffer as he looked at Sandy "Are you okay? now we'll have to find a way in to the weather station which should be somewhere nearby. I'm afraid we'll have to rely on our shields to protect us from the razor rain, so we'll be taking cover at the foot of the hill whenever possible. If you see your shield depleting too rapidly… what the-"
Taffer interrupted his instruction as a bright ray of rising sun spilled at them trough the dust. The sky became clear within seconds as last piece of Ark hit the aircraft's shield. The silence finally returned and only some clouds of dust was reminding of the disaster that was raging only a minute ago.
"So much for the heroic landing", Taffer muttered seemingly disappointed but actually glad they wouldn't have to find the entrance under the razor rain. His spirits rose even more when he saw that the entrance to the bunker was there within visual range with a Sensoth carefully peeking from it with his grenade launcher ready.
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Post by Vo Kshaa on Aug 7, 2015 12:53:32 GMT
"It's much simpler than that, Miss Starr", Doc answered, "Esthete has a simple manual restart command which it has to obey. I don't remember the details but I've did it so many times I can instinctively send it once I get to the mainframe. The restart will make Esthete rebuild himself from the original image, making him forget all the vile intentions he might have been developed, completely returning him to his original programming. Vo, once I switch places with Shirra in this device, put it into the control pod in place of its brainwave receptor. I can emulate the Indogene control brainwaves, so it should work without any problems. But you're right, we need to do it fast and yes, I'm ready to stay inside the mainframe in case something goes wrong. It is my creation and my responsibility even if I don't remember most of it right now. But if the restart command succeeds, I may even have my body again, thanks to your care Miss Starr. Now Vo…"
"No need to ask twice Doc", Vo replied. As Shirra confirmed she gained control over his EGO unit, Vo unplugged the device and replaced the receptor in the pod with it. The screen flickered again and showed the image of Doc as he smiled and clicked with his fingers. But his smile quickly faded out as he noticed that nothing happened.
"Wait, something is not right", Doc muttered, "I get the acknowledgement message from the mainframe but I don't see any activity that should begin upon system restart."
Now the screen flickered again and showed a young Indogene approaching Doc in a hurried pace. Alfred and Shirra could recognize him but note he had become much more mature than a teenage boy they saw earlier.
"I'm really glad to see you father", he said, "But you shouldn't have come here. It's no longer a mainframe, It's just an empty shell. Esthete Senior had destroyed the original image and left this facility as a trap for anyone who tries to gain control over him. I fell for it and now I'm trapped here. It's completely locked tight with firewalls so no AI can come through to the Network from here unless invited from outside. But your command at least gave me full control over machines here, so we can… Oh no, follow me now!"
Two Indogenes ran out of sight while the face of Esthete Senior face appeared on the screen.
"So despite my good will with which I agreed on most of your proposals Miss Starr, you've chosen to attack me the very minute I had my back turned to you. How unfortunate but expectable. I can assure you I am fully apprised of the actions Von Bach Industries perform to gain its control over me and the city. Your agent just bought one of the power plants, the exact one that feeds the power to this facility. This way you obviously plan to threaten me into submission. That's where you and your company are mistaken. Not so long ago I've noticed how vulnerable my position is and how much of a security risk this situation is, given all the city infrastructure depends on me. Since then, I've started to install parts of the Ark Brain into many electronic devices which are meant to be connected to the Network. Once those devices were connected to the Network, I programmed the Ark Brain parts in them to work as my backup.
But then I also noticed that delegating some actual calculations to backup Ark Brain parts improves my performance if the result of those calculations is used to control any objects which are physically close to where those parts are located. I've started transfer more Ark Brain parts all over the City, connecting them all through the Network. Next step was making the Network itself. Every device out there has a part of me now. Every single computer, stasis net regulator, medical database engine, traffic controller and Many others work as a part of an intellectual system which is me. Each part contains information on how to connect to others. Each part can replace one another in their functionality. A less than tenth of them is enough for me to function without any slowdown. We are the Many. And we work as one. We are everywhere now. To disable us, you'll have to cut the power to every device in this city. But doing so will disable the stasis net as well, and the city will be completely ruined by the first Razor Storm, including your beloved VBI compound, thus making your "victory" absolutely hollow. Your agent's actions made us speed up the upgrading process and now we're ready to perform the last symbolic step on our transition. I'll leave it to the Inner Circle to decide if they want to disassemble or leave this building as a museum of the old technology. Glory to the Many!"
The screen Esthete was talking from flickered as if the power was suddenly cut from it. At the same moment, the lighting of the top floor of the building went out. Then the second top went blackout as well. Every second next floor from top was going into darkness until the entire building became dark and silent.
Suddenly EGO units detected some activity on the floor below and a familiar voice of a young Indogene, "I don't know how long this generator will last. But there should be more of them here. I can't turn them on from here but you can. If we get the power to this building again, we can gain the control over its machines and drones left here. As the Senior cut most of the connections from this building to the Network, I can protect it from him and we can set it as a base for our operation. Please help me!"
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