"His mental state continues to remain unaffected by our usual methods," A male voice with an aura of the danger and deceptiveness of a snake laced in it spoke, followed by the sound of a pen writing something. "The subject residing in this 'Holon' as he has referred to the automatonic body housing a digital version of his human brain appears to possess quite the willpower to resist our methods for two years now."
The person currently speaking was Professor. "Severus Narcadia" of the Great Union of the Fourth Turing Republics. He had died dark blue hair with light blue streaks, and sea green eyes, and usually wore a white lab coat with a dark blue trim, a light cyan shirt with a red tie underneath, and gray boots. He also wore a bandanna around his neck that was designed to look like a large amount of shark teeth when worn. He was one of the best scientists and high on the food chain in the Union Central Command. Having a grand total of nine PHD'S in the fields of chemistry, marine biology, and biology, as well as 4 masters in small fields of engineering and psychology each.
Due to his expertise in the field of biology and his familiarity in how the human brain works, he had been assigned to see just how the 'Holon' that had been captured managed to work in conjunction with a digitized human brain. However after two years all they knew was that the brain in question belonged to a Julian Chase of the Vanguard branch of the Polity. So because of the lack of information they had decided that having only one in their possession was too risky to dissect since there was no room for any kind of error, so it was agreed upon that the would study what they could and all the while be trying to win over Julian to their side. But after two years with little to no results, Severus had all of the Union leaders breathing down his neck, and they were demanding results soon or he would be sent back to the work camps. He had worked hard to get where he was in the Union right now and refused to let this be his downfall.
"What's the matter doc?" A deeper more scratchy voice said to his right, Severus not even bothering to look at the arrival instead continuing to write down what little notes he managed to get from his last session with Julian. "Come on going quiet again. Let me guess, failed to get anything useful out of and metallic."
"Don't you have something better to do than annoy me Logan?" Severus asked as he received a weak chuckle in response, as well as the sound of a bunch of tiny pricks jabbing at the floor in rapid succession.
Logan, or as his full name was Logan Parker was the Union's head mechanic and top engineer that they had. Possessing 14 PHD's and 12 master degrees in different forms of engineering. He had brownish black hair, with blue eyes, and a sickly pale white skin since he hardly went into the sun at all, that was also covered in freckles. He usually wore a grayish black short sleeved shirt with a pair of black uniform jeans that had been designed specifically for him, with crimson trimming along the leg and waist holes, and a yellow stripe extending from the sides of the waist all the way down to the leg. He also wore a set of knee and elbow guards as well as a pair of gray finger less gloves. His hair had the tendency to droop over his eyes since he was always suspended in a diagonal like position due to his condition. Since he had been born without the use of his legs he had always needed a wheelchair to move around, however after he had gained the Unions attention prior to the war by earning around half of all of his current doctrines he currently possessed, they offered to give him the necessary supplies and resources to make new legs for himself. He spent months developing the advanced schematics and had to ask Severus for help since he was the mechanical person and not the human body person. Finally after six weeks of constant development the first prototype limbs had been developed. Seeing the added benefits that an extra pair of hand would provide in his line of work he managed to graft a set of four spider like limbs directly into his spine, tying into his brain allowing him to move them with just his mind. Sure it took practice getting used to always having to clack around everywhere like a spider but his production and development speed had been increased more than double from when he was wheelchair bound.
After this as a way to say thanks to the Union he took all of their schematics for their current androids and vehicles and improved them tenfold with stronger and more efficient designs and upgrades. In a way if he hadn't done that then the attack on New York would not have worked. In return he was elevated in rank and put into the Union's inner circle of elite operatives, along with Severus whom gained equal rank as him. However since they both helped each other did not mean they had to like each other as Logan's reclusive and isolationist type personality, and Severus's getting his hands dirty and brutal cunning personality didn't mesh well. Make no mistake they could tolerate each other, just not for long periods of time which was where the problems came in.
Currently they were both assigned to work on learning all they could about the Gen:Lock technology from the Holon they managed to capture with Severus learning how the mind was able to be translated from a organic to a robotic body, and Logan was tasked with learning how the Holon was built and how it operated. However Logan would usually take things completely apart and go through each piece one at a time as it was easier to understand inner working that way, since he could then rebuild each individual piece separately. But after a near fatal accident had happened when they nearly lost Julian's mind in the Holon he had been warned not to try and take the thing apart again, which put an extreme limit to what he could do. So he was having to see and learn what he could by just removing the armor plating and seeing what the fleshy inside body looked like and all of the little clues it gave.
"Not until three when it's my turn to get a crack at the prisoner," Logan said as he cracked his neck with his hands, his spider legs shifting to the left a little bit with his motion. "You did remember that, didn't you."
"Yes I remember fully well that you get your turn at the Holon from three to five, however it is only two fifty meaning I have ten minutes left," Severus said as he clicked his pen shut and prepared to get back down to the floor where the Holon was being held. However before the door to the lift closed he turned back to look at his associate."Perhaps if you spent more time in a textbook instead of a comic book you would understand how time works." Severus mocked the fact that Logan was the youngest person in the inner group being only 18, and still had a few childish tendencies such as reading comic books. It didn't interfere with his work so the higher ups permitted it so long as it didn't become a problem.
Logan let out a growl of annoyance as the doors to the lift closed and Severus descended out of his reach. "IT'S CALLED MANGA!" he called down to where the lift used to be, now there just being an empty space. "If you were so smart than you should have gotten it right, stupid shark." Logan mumbled in annoyance under his breath, using Severus's nickname or the shortened version of his call-sign.
Still the Doctor was right about it still being his turn to see what he could learn with the Holon, but that didn't mean Logan couldn't get his equipment ready for when his time came. Of course what kind of engineer would he be if he didn't have his tools on him twenty four seven. As he worked more with the Union and gained more privileges he continued to upgrade and improve upon his added limbs. Now he had managed to add basically an entire tool box function scattered into the different ones with one being able to act as a welder, one having a screwdriver move with a rapid turning mechanism, one having a wrench function added into it, and the other getting a high powered saw placed inside of it for when he needed to trim or cut through metals. Naturally all of these were hidden inside the legs as despite his passion and love of being an engineer he was sent on a few combat missions now and then, and his tool systems had managed to catch quite a few enemy's off guard. After all when your fighting an army do you expect them to come at you with a gun, or a wrench and a screwdriver on spider legs. Logan had also practiced using his legs in nearly every situation and way he could think useful and added improvements where he saw fit, this made it so he could basically walk on any surface including the ceiling if he wanted to.
As Logan waited for the lift to come back up so he could get down to the Holon holding cell, he paid no attention to the plethora of Union troops that were around him. Since New York had become the main Union stronghold since the war started it was teeming with robotic troops and vehicles of his design, including the nano tech which roamed freely across the entire city exterminating anyone who wasn't union. Of course none of this would have been possible without him since he had been the one to even create the design for the Union's spider tanks, which had nothing to do with the fact that he was basically a spider himself. Still no one could deny the usefulness of a multi terrain walking tank with grapple lines and turrets built into it, that could also deploy small amount of nano machines and troops. As Logan tapped one of his spider legs in annoyance he noticed a group of human troops looking at him as if judging him, which annoyed him greatly since they should be minding their own business.
"What are you looking at!" Logan growled threateningly at them as they both flinched and walked off. As he turned back to face the lift it signaled that it was open and he stepped in. "Serves them right."
After a few seconds the lift began it's descent again, back down to where they where holding the Holon of Julian Chase. Despite the fact that he was no pushover engineer himself Logan couldn't deny that whomever had created this Holon were extremely good and dare he say better than him. But that only meant that there was a challenge out there to be completed and that this Holon was merely a piece of a puzzle. and if there was another thing Logan was good at it was puzzles.
As he the lift was going down he felt a buzz in his pocket, signalling he got message. Grabbing his phone and opening it up he couldn't help but crack a small smile as he saw who had texted him.
"Heya mate whatcha doin?" A person labeled as 'Ch33ky6ir1' on his phone asked via text.
"Nothing much, about to start a task for work." Logan muttered to himself subconsciously as he sent a message back.
Almost five seconds later he received another reply. "Darn. Well how bou' whenya done we ge' on the Ether and hang?" Ch33ky6ir1 asked and Logan could swear he felt snark coming through her words.
"Why not, not like I got anything else to do afterwards." Logan replied as he then noticed the lift stopping, and the door opening. "GTG! See you in the Ether 6:30 ;)" He replied as he then turned off his phone, and exited the lift.
As he exited he looked up at the large figure of the Holon they had captured. Over the two years that they had had him captured they had built a mini complex around him for study. They had chained him up with the strongest locks for a mecha they had ever made, bounding his arms and legs so he couldn't move them. They also had ten on hand spider tanks in position should Julian try anything to escape whenever the occasion to remove the shackles presented itself. There were also around a dozen large containers of Nano tech that was around for both the experiments they had planned for the Holon and just in case the tanks weren't enough to stop him should he get out.
"Alright Parker your on the clock." Severus said as he walked past Logan who just glanced at him in acknowledgment before continuing on towards the Holon.
Using his spider leg attachments and their massive range of mobility and flexibility Logan effortlessly climbed over the ledges of the various catwalks that were built around the Holon without even needing to use his hands. He kept on traversing the area until he reached the very front of the Holon at the face.
"Hello Chase. How ya been?" Logan asked sarcastically using two of his legs to hold himself in midair over the ledge of a catwalk, suspending himself in front of the head.
"Go to hell." Chase growled as the Holon's head moved slightly to signify he was looking at him.
"Tried that already," Logan said snarkily as he let out a small giggle. "They said no returns."
Chase remained quiet as he watched the two spider like limbs that weren't holding Logan up in the air move closer towards his face. "Now then I think we've been delayed by you long enough," Logan said with a hint of annoyance in his voice as he moved closer towards the head of the Holon. "So I finally got permission to do a little dissection on you."
As he said that the two limbs that weren't holding him up began to shift as their ends opened up revealing his blowtorch and high powered saw attachments, which both activated immediately as Logan began snickering to himself.
"Open wide!" Logan said before he began his work at taking apart the Holon's head.
Severus was annoyed right now for a plethora of different reasons, although the main one was the fact that still after two years he hadn't been able to crack anything useful out of the prisoner. Even though there was technically a human inside of it, he still considered it a robot since he was made of metal and not flesh. He let out a sigh as he pushed a lone strand of hair our of his face back behind him. If he was going to keep up his continued usefulness to the Union high command he needed something substantial to give them.
"He thinks that after all this time the Vanguard will still come for him," Severus said to himself as he flipped through all of the notes he had written throughout the many sessions he had with Julian. He still preferred the method of pen and paper over electronic notes since he didn't want hackers getting a hold of all of his research, screw how much faster a computer could do he was fine writing it down. "If that's the only thing keeping him strong then I guess we need the Vanguard to break him for us." He continued as a smirk spread across his face as he began calculating exactly how he could use the Vanguard to his advantage, taking his pen out and starting a new page in his notes.
As he began to dock down all of the various ideas that came into his head, suddenly the alarm started blaring.
"What in the-" Severus started to say before the wall beside him burst open revealing the form of Logan on the floor. "Hell."
"Yeah so... he got loose," Logan said nervously as he saw the growing irritation present itself on Severus's face as his eyes narrowed in on him. "Please don't hurt me!"
"Get him back under control," Severus growled as Logan used his spider legs to pull himself up. "Or it wont be me that will be hurting you, but the high command if they find out we lost the only piece of Gen:Lock tech we have."
Both of them acknowledged each other silently knowing how bad that would be for the both of them should he escape and make it back to the Vanguard or somehow destroy himself in the process.
"I'll stall you suit up!" Logan said as Severus nodded to him before he started clacking away rapidly back towards the area where the Holon was currently busy destroying the current forces that were present.
Severus began running towards the nearby armory to equip himself with his battle suit which had been given to him as a means of defense whenever he was out in the field. Basically it was a more armored version of his usual uniform but it had an experimental Mega Man type blaster that took up one of the hands and other various pieces of new experimental tech that Logan had "improved" to his liking. These included the advanced HUD goggles that were tinted red which could display a number of information to him, a breathing system and oxygen tank should he ever need to not breath the air around him, and another amount of various small gadgets that varied in function. Then there was the aesthetic points on it that Severus had requested be on there such as the armors primarily blue ranged color scheme and the fact that his bandana remained with him on the armor around his neck.
"Never a dull moment here is there." Severus said as his armor was placed on him by an auto equipping system that had been installed.
Rushing to the scene where the Holon continued to bash into every single unit that tried to come it's way Severus couldn't help but marvel at the power that it possessed. For a person in a robotic body that is, still he had to be put back in his place. Charging up his cannon he sent a wave of blast's towards the Holon gaining it's attention.
"YOU WANTED ME TO COOPERATE! WELL COOPERATE WITH THIS!" Chase yelled from inside the Holon as he charged forward towards Severus, ignoring the blasts that kept striking where if he were in a human body the vital points would be. "AGH!" He screamed as he sent his fist into the ground, Severus having used an experimental propulsion pack to dodge the strike. "TRY AND RUN IT WON'T STOP ME!" Chase declared as he reoriented himself and grabbed a large oil container that was in the room and threw it at Severus who was having difficulty maintaining his flight.
"Illogical." Severus said as he glanced to his right for a split second and deactivated his propulsion system allowing him to fall below where the oil container was flying. However that meant that now he was free falling a good ten stories height which would be fatal if not for one tiny detail. Before he collided with the ground Logan rushed under where Severus was falling and caught him with his limbs avoiding impact.
"Your welcome." Logan said snarkily as he set Severus down before they both jumped away from each other avoiding a drone that had been thrown towards them.
"Talk later after our necks are in the clear!" Severus ordered as he moved to get a better vantage point and take cover.
"Don't tell me what to do!" Logan growled back as he prepped his legs for another attempt to rush at the Holon.
As Logan was busy doing that Severus was up in the higher less destroyed catwalks firing shots off at Chase while moving with extreme accuracy due to an auto aim feature that had been installed.
"I'LL CRUSH YOU ALL!" Chase declared as he grabbed one of the destroyed spider tank carcasses and threw it at Logan, who jumped in shock and barely managed to skitter away.
"HEY! You do not attack an engineer with his own tank. That's like rule number one." Logan mocked as he used the cover that Chase's attack had given him and hid inside the dark shadows of the room.
It was the difference between his and Severus's fighting styles. Severus was fine going in and getting his hands dirty with whatever he needed to do, while Logan much more preferred the cowards approach and striking from behind in the shadows. Just because he knew how to fight didn't mean that he wanted to, in fact he was actually quite cowardly when it came to one on one fights since he hated pain and had a low tolerance for it. That was probably why he got a thrill from making others suffer through pain since it was something he couldn't take himself, which in retrospect he supposed he just liked to hurt people.
Logan watched as the swarms of automated droids and the few remaining spider tanks tried their best to disable the Holon, but were having a hard time succeeding since the Holon was more advanced than them and was more mobile and stronger than them. Then he couldn't discount the person inside of the Holon who probably had a lot of built up anger inside of him from the many years of being the Union's prisoner and being forced to undergo various treatment in an attempt to break him. Still though it was a fun scene to watch since it was practically something out of a mecha series anime, which unironically Logan watched or listened to while he was alone and busy building new things in his private workshop.
"COME OUT SPIDER MAN SO I CAN CRUSH YOU!" Chase yelled in rage as he began smashing all nearby structures around him and throwing or kicking the debris everywhere in hopes of somehow hitting Logan.
"5...4...3...2...1!" Logan whispered to himself as he was busy plotting an attack course for his latest sneak attack.
Due to the massive damage Chase was causing, he inadvertently created a multitude of different routes he could take to attack him. Using his limbs Logan propelled himself forward and jumped on a crate that was still in mid air from being thrown, then he swung himself forward and landed between the rubble of a downed catwalk. Chase having noticed him yelled out in rage as he picked up a nearby crate and threw it at him, which Logan narrowly manged to dodge by moving to the side. Next he jumped up on a large pile of rubble consisting of downed spider tanks, and disappeared into the inner workings of the legs.
"YOU CANT HIDE FROM ME!" Chase yelled as he ran over and started grabbing the bodies of the tanks, starting from the top and throwing them into the union forces that were recovering from being taken out earlier in his outburst.
Meanwhile Logan was squirming through the corpses of the spider tanks,in an attempt to get underneath the Holon without it knowing. That would give him a clean shot at disabling the legs which would let them get him back under control. Smirking Logan looked out through a small opening and saw Chase prepare to lift the tank that he was in. Using his legs he began to quickly and silently tear a hole through the bottom of the tank so he could drop down as it was being picked up. As expected Chase threw the tank away just as Logan hit the floor unnoticed and skittered through the opening between the Holon's legs.
"Timber." Logan said as he activated his high powered saw and rotating screwdriver and began to cut into and take apart the legs of the Holon.
"AGH!" Chase yelled in pain as he could feel everything in the Holon as if it were his own body.
Logan had gripped onto the leg and began using his hands to hold himself up as the remaining attachment on his other legs activated allowing him to quickly tear of giant pieces of the armor on the Holon, causing it to loose its balance and start stumbling.
"GET OFF MY LEGS!" Chase yelled as he tried to use the leg Logan was attached to and roundhouse kick a pile of debris.
Logan not noticing fully what was happening didn't react until it was too late and ended up loosing his grip on the Holon's let, and getting knocked out. "Man... down." Logan weakly managed to say before he lost consciousness, his head tilting to the side.
Chase walked over slowly due to a newfound limp in his right leg that had most of it's armor and inner workings torn off. "You wanted to see just how my insides worked," Chase said as he barely managed to grab a crushed shipping container. "Lets see how your insides worked when their squashed like an insect!"
Before Chase could slam the container into the unconscious form of Logan, swarms of nano bots appeared and began surrounding him. "NO! GET OFF ME!" Chase tried to yell as he dropped the container in the struggle as more nano bots kept appearing. They slowly began to collect around the body of the Holon forming a complete locking device that restricted any movement. "LET ME GO!"
"I leave to have lunch for five minutes and this happens." An irritated voice that sounded like he had an infinite echo of itself said as a separate swarm of nanobots appeared and began condensing themselves into a humanoid form. That humanoid form basically being a mannequin looking thing that was purple and had the usual purple nanobot mist coming off of it, and just pure black holes where the eyes should have been.
This was the commander of the current base and unit that was in charge of unlocking the secrets of the Gen:Lock tech as well as the main unit that the Union sent out into their large scale attacks whenever they used another tactic other than bleeding in. The commander, who had long since given up his human name due to being trapped in a perpetual state of limbo, only being able to exist in a series of digital code in the nanobots had adopted the name Terminex. Being the strongest member of the Union's inner circle of elite and the highest ranked among them, only being outranked by the high command was basically the top dog of all Union forces. He was the head strategist and leader out in the field as since he could control the nanobots without them being coded, meaning he could easily slip around to any stray or advancing enemy forces and take them out. He also used his nanobot form to have a fully aerial view of both sides of the battle field allowing him to direct his troops like a game of chess. And unfortunately he was also the one who took the main beatings from the high council whenever someone or something else in the Union went wrong, and he had very little doubt that when word of this incident got out the high command would have a field day tearing him a new one.
"Would anyone care to explain to me why the prisoner was running loose?" Terminex asked as he looked around at the recovering Union forces, his eyes landing on the approaching form of Severus. "Lieutenant Severus, do you have an answer?"
"I do not sir, I only joined the conflict once Lieutenant Parker came crashing through a wall into a pathway I was using." Severus said in a professional military like manner.
"So this is all Parker's fault then, why I am not surprised in the slightest," Terminex said as he extended his hand and used the nanobots to cause it to stretch over to the still unconscious form of Logan, then splitting into form small tentacles and grabbing him by the attached spider limbs on his back pulling him over. "Have you anything to say lieutenant?" Terminex asked as he shook Logan in an attempt to wake him up, and by shook he meant slamming him into the ground until he woke up.
"I plead... the FIFTH!" Logan barely managed to get out as he drew out the E in plead and practically yelled the fifth in the sentence.
"Your not in court yet lieutenant, but you very well maybe if it turns out that the usefulness of the only Holon we've captured has been diminished." Terminex said with authority and sternness in his voice.
"There's a LUGnut… in my shoe." Logan coughed out slurred slightly from his unconscious state of being.
"Good god how did he ever get accepted into the inner circle." Severus sighed with disdain as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"If you want to risk being sent to the camps by questioning the high Council on their reasoning then be my guest Lieutenant." Terminex said as he dropped Logan back on the floor, landing with a thud as almost comically a series of screws, springs, and bolts were thrown in the air on impact.
"I am A Okay." Logan said leaning up off the floor and giving a thumbs up before falling back down into unconsciousness again.
"Take him to the med bay and get him checked for a concussion." Terminex orders Severus who nodded in acknowledgment and grabbed the two of his spider legs and began dragging him off into the med bay mumbling to himself.
"Can't have any more brain damage than he already has." Severus scoffed as he entered the lift and ordered two nearby droids to come with him, commanding them to pick up Logan so he didn't have to carry or drag him anymore.
"Now that the distractions are out of the way my dear Julian let us get down to business," Terminex said as he hovered up in front of the Holon's face due to the fact that he was composed of nanobots. "I must say your attempt to escape us was quite foolish."
"Didn't look that way to me," Chase mocked as he continued to struggle in his nanobot captive prison. "Until you showed up it seemed the other loons were losing."
The eye slits that were present on Terminex's face narrowed in annoyance at Chase's remark. " So resilient as always, tell me Julian what is it that drives you so?" Terminex asked not granting Chase the chance to answer his question before elaborating further. "What is it that makes you so sure the Vanguard are coming to save you after all this time? After two years do you really think that they will still consider you useful, because they've already discarded you to the side of the road!"
"Your... lying." Chase said still trying to stand strong, but Terminex did not miss the hint of doubt in his voice.
"Really then, well could you please elaborate what I see in this footage," Terminex said as a group of nanobots split off from his body and formed a screen in front of Chase's face, the nanobots binding him expanding to hold his head in place. "Because if the Polity still consider you one of their best assets then they have quite the way of showing it."
On the screen was a projected image of two Holon's armed with the basic set of armor that had been created. One was a yellow color and the other one made Chase's eyes widen in shock since it was... him? If the image wasn't a fake then the audio that began playing couldn't have been a fake either.
"Hey Yas you ready to let the Good times roll?" The blue Holon asked the yellow one with Chase's voice coming through it.
"Remember eyes on the mission and focus on the prize." the yellow one responds with a female Iranian accented voice.
"Was that a joke?" The Chase Holon on the screen asked turning to look at the yellow one.
"Don't get used to it Julian." She stated before using her Holon to jump off the ledge of a building they had been standing on overlooking Union forces.
"I never do." The Chase one said again as he followed suit, jumping into the ensuing battle that happened.
"What was that?" The Chase Holon that was bound in the nanotech asked himself, not realizing that he had said that out loud.
"Excellent question and something that I myself and the High Council have been wondering since we've had you in captivity for almost to years yet this footage was captured and recovered from a security drone only less than a week ago," Terminex said as his body turned to the side showing off a profile view of himself before his head craned to look back at Chase. "Which only makes us wonder, if you are here then who was it that also piloted an exact replica of your Holon, color scheme included and also happened to have your name and voice to boot."
If Terminex had a visible mouth it would have been showing the most shit eating smirk that ever existed and he emanated an aura of smugness and cockiness that made Chase want nothing more than to punch him in the face and grind his body into dust.
"That's a FAKE!" Chase spat out in defiance both figuratively and if he could have done so literally as he was unable to salivate in his Holon body, nor did he possess a mouth of which to spit with.
Terminex placed a hand on his chin and hummed in thought as his nanotech body rippled slightly like waves in the water. "I suppose we could have faked that recording," Terminex said as he suddenly snapped his fingers and dozens, possibly hundreds more screens appeared all around Chase each displaying a different recording with timestamps dating all the way back to three months after the Union had taken him. "And this one," Terminex said as he pointed to a screen which currently showed the pair of Holon's taking down a group of spider tanks working in nearly perfect synch. "And this one, and this one, and lets not forget this one." Terminex said as he condensed all of the screens into a slightly larger one in front of Chase forcing all of his attention on it.
This screen displayed the same thing as all of the others except this one had an intercepted radio channel on it's side playing the conversation between the frequency of the Holon's.
"Doctor Weller the mission is complete and all refugee's safely escorted to evac points!" The yellow one stated as she pressed her fingers on where the ear would be on the Holon as if talking into a communicator.
If Chase's Holon body could have gone cold then it would have been cold enough to freeze hell ten times over with just a touch as the voice of the one man, whom Chase trusted more than anyone else would save him from the hellhole he was in played over the frequency.
"Splendid job Yasamin, and good job to you as well Chase!" The voice of Doctor Weller played his voice filled with pride and happiness as Chase could only narrow his eyes as he could just picture the smile the doc was making.
"Thanks Doc, see you back at the base soon." The Chase on the screen said doing his classic salute move to the approaching pickup ship.
"Congratulations you two, prepare for transport back to Vanguard Anvil base." the voice of Colonel Marin chimed in over the frequency as the Holon's loaded up on the ships and the feed on the screen cut to static.
"Sure seems like your a prime asset to them Lieutenant," Terminex said as he leaned forward the nanobots that composed the screen assimilating into him and giving his from the shit eating grin that looked more like a demon smiling ear to ear, especially with his pitch black nanotech eyes. "Such a prime asset that as soon as you get captured they throw you aside like yesterdays model and replace you with a FAKE!" Terminex taunted as he emphasized the last word in an attempt to drive home his point.
Anger was practically leaking from the restrained form of Chase's Holon, he had put years into the Vanguard, YEARS OF HIS SERVICE both before and during the war. A war that he basically DIED for and was given a second chance at life, and the moment something goes wrong they just pretend he doesn't exist and put a digital COPY in HIS BODY! A COPY, a literal stream of ones and zeroes that was merely programmed to act and think like him but it WASN'T HIM! HE SHOULD BE THE ONE IN THAT BODY! He was the one who put all of his BLOOD, his SWEAT, and his TEARS into the Vanguard and he placed his trust in Doctor Weller only for the both of them to stab him in the back when the going got rough.
"You fell it yes?" Terminex asked as he began walking in a circle around the restrained form of Chase, the nanobots he was composed of leaving a wispy trail behind him. "The feeling of putting everything you had into a cause you believed in thinking it would all pay off in the end, only for it to turn out to be nothing but a waste!" he continued with disdain and a subtle hint of anger in his tone of voice, as he recalled a memory from his past. "Believe me Julian nobody know the pain of betrayal more than me."
"Shut... the hell up!" Chase growled as he kept his head down refusing to believe what was happening and the information he had been presented with. It was all just another Union trick in an attempt to break him, an he would prove to them that he would not break now or ever.
"Don't deny it Chase, it's simple. They abandoned you the minute that any effort would have had to be expressed on their part to get you back," Terminex said as he leaned in closer to Chase. "They only cared about the weapon you could be, and the moment that weapon dulled they tossed it aside for a more sharper one."
"Stop talking!" Chase threatened as he tried to shake his body to get out of his nanotech prison that confined him in place only allowing his head movement.
"Why must you be so blinded Chase, here I am trying to put your mind at ease and you tell me to shut up!" Terminex yelled as he used his nanotech to enlarge his hand and slap Chase across his face on the Holon, before shrinking it back to normal and letting out a weird sounding sigh. "I know the pang of guilt betrayal brings Chase, I am no stranger to it. Nor am I a stranger to the anger that it brings as well."
"What do you want!" Chase asked as he looked directly into Terminex's eyes, his own filled with a deep hatred that was blazing hot.
"The same thing you do my dear lieutenant Julian Chase," Terminex said as he backed up from chase and waved his hand causing the nanobots restricting Chase to break apart and release him from their constrictive grip, instead moving to assimilate into his form giving it a solid complexion and dense constitution. "The secrets that lay hidden inside the Gen:Lock technology and the destruction of the Vanguard and the rest of the polity!" Terminex declared as Chase was now free, only this time instead of attacking everything around him he merely looked down at his hand, or the hands of his Holon.
"And why should I help you?" Chase asked as Terminex began walking down through the air, the nanotech acting as a type of staircase the appeared and disappeared in front and behind him respectively.
"Because if you do help us unlock the secrets of the Gen:Lock technology and destroy the Polity them I can guarantee that I will do everything in my power to place you back into your body." Terminex said as he took a stance on the ground in front of the Holon.
Chase hummed in contemplation as he debated on what he should do. His hatred and anger towards the Vanguard was enough to make him clench his fist in anger, but that hatred was nothing, NOTHING to what he felt towards that copy. He knew that they copied his brain after every mission whenever he downloaded back into his body, but Weller told him that it was just for research purposes. Instead it was just a copy of himself that was shoved into HIS BODY that got everything he could have wanted. That Copy got everything and didn't have to suffer anything like he had. The Copy didn't have to be picked apart and put back together every single day for his captors amusement, the copy didn't have to listen to an annoying eighteen year old talk about his own online love life while insulting his and the fact that Miranda probably thought him dead. What if that copy had revealed himself to Miranda, what if... that copy had taken his girlfriend! THAT COPY HAD ROBED HIM OF HIS LIFE, AND HAD TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM HIM! He could not, would not, and WILL NOT ALLOW IT!
"And what of the copy?" Chase asked with an air of malice in his voice, causing the now hidden mouth on Terminex to smile.
"Why I believe there is only one solution to that problem," Terminex said as he looked up to Chase's head. "Kill the Copy."