Chapter 2
Orb's Naval Base……
"This is one lucky submarine," a general said to an officer beside him.
"What do you mean sir?"
"One of the bases where our submarines are built got blown up a few days ago, possibly by terrorists. The reports told that it could be an air attack, but somehow the radars picked nothing up. No one got killed, but all submarines there were destroyed beyond repair except this one," the general told.
As the two men are talking, no one knew that there's something secretly hacking into their database, nor there's a blue light flashing inside the submarine's control room.
PLANT……Government Office……
Ever since Lacus's departure to Orb last week, her office had been locked, yet someone, or something, had managed to slip into it and even turned on the computer. The intruder was small in size, with red optics that glowed brightly in the darkness of the room. It stared at the screen asking for password.
''PATHETIC PRIMITIVE PROTECTION.''
The intruder plugged his finger into one of the USB ports. The screen vanished, allowing total access to whatever that is stored in the computer or the government main database which is connected to Lacus's computer. The intruder pulled out its finger and put a wire that it pulled out from its waist into the port. As the intruder downloaded the data into itself, it skilfully picked all the locks on Lacus's desk drawers and searched through all the items. After finding nothing that's useful to its purpose, it scanned the desk surface to check whether there are secret buttons or switches installed. As it did so, it noticed a photograph of Kira and Lacus holding each other close.
''STUPID EMOTION-EQUIPPED CREATURES……''
Somewhere in the building, a siren sounded within another room. The people inside it quickly returned to their positions.
"Someone is hacking into our main database through the computer from the Chairwoman's office!"
"Block the attempt immediately! Somebody get some men to the office!"
Inside Lacus's office, the intruder experienced an uncomfortable vibration at its head. It frustratingly detached the cable and utter a few swear words. As it shut down the computer and fixed the locks on the drawers, its olfactory sensors detected approaching objects. It swore again.
"FREEZE!" an armed soldier shouted as he and his team forced their entry into the room. To their surprise, they find no one. The team leader ordered the men to search the room. As he turned to a corner, he found a silver mobile phone on the floor. He picked it up carefully and gave it a through inspection. Just an ordinary phone, no explode-upon-switching-on system, no spying devices. Just a normal phone with no numbers or data of any kind stored within it. Feeling a little confused about the situation, the soldier pocketed the phone and went to inspect another corner.
Kira's bedroom at the orphanage……
"Kira, wake up. It's already 12 noon."
Kira immediately sprang up from bed when he heard Lacus informing him the time. But as he looked around, he found that it's only 8.25, and Lacus was not inside his room.
"Tori, did you saw Lacus came in just now?" Kira asked his pet. The mechanical bird shook his head and took off. As Kira scratched his head and wondered why he had been imagining things lately, Tori's processor is thinking of another prank. After experimenting with itself last night, it found that it can also imitate or modify sounds. Tori thought it might as well enjoy its current situation……
Outside Kira's room……
"Cagalli, can you please come in and help me for a while?" Cagalli heard Lacus calling to her from the kitchen.
"Sure," Cagalli replied. However, when she reached there, she saw that Lacus had finished preparing breakfast for the children.
"Lacus, didn't you call me just now?" Cagalli asked.
"Eh? I didn't call for anyone," Lacus replied, slightly surprised.
"Oh, then it must be my imagination," Cagalli told her.
As the children who were playing outside came in for breakfast, one of them was holding the cube Haro and Tori found yesterday.
"What's that?" Athrun asked the boy who was carrying it.
"I don't know. Haro led us to it just now. It was under a coconut tree when we found it," the boy answered as he gave it to Athrun.
Athrun looked closely at the cube. At one glance, the cube looked like it's made of stone. But when he rubbed his hands on the surface, the cube felt metallic. Athrun wondered what material is the cube made of as it felt rather light. He traced the symbols on the cube's surface with his finger but can make nothing out of it.
"What did you got there Athrun?" Kira asked from behind. Athrun showed him the cube and told Kira about where it was found. Kira studied it for a moment, and like his best friend, he didn't understand a thing about the weird object.
"Lacus, last night I saw a star falling into the sea," a young boy said at the dining table. "Do you think there might be aliens on the star, and that the aliens might come here?"
"Kid, you have been watching too much cartoons," Cagalli said with a smile.
There had just begun eating when two phones rang at the same time. Both Cagalli and Lacus looked at their phones and found that the calls were from their respective offices. Kira noticed a look of worry on Lacus's expression and a frown on Cagalli as the two excused themselves and left the table to answer the calls.
EA Headquarters……
The top leaders of EA had gathered for an urgent meeting after receiving the news of the destruction of one of their airbase. At the middle of their meeting table, a projector showed the video clip that they received from the captain of the destroyed airbase. Nobody said anything as they were struck by a sudden fear after seeing the destruction one single machine can do to a heavily guarded military base.
"If this incident is known to the public, who knows how will they take it. We must find out who sent that monster," someone broke the silence.
"So far, we know very few about that thing. For one, its main purpose is not destroying the air base, but the database. A secret troop had been despatched to the site after the survivors were rescued. They managed to salvage something from there. One of them is a computer report that told us that the airbase's computer's defence system were hacked and completely shut down in just matters of seconds." The chairman of the meeting answered
"But that is impossible! Even the Coordinators wouldn't be able to make something with that ability!" another woman said aloud.
"Our scientists had collected some of the ruin to do research on the blast that destroyed the base. Meanwhile, we had sent messages to both Orb and PLANT, asking for their aid."
"But this is none of their concern! Chances are they might be the one responsible for this!"
"You yourself just said that they can't create a monster like what we saw just now. Why do you now suspect them?"
As the meeting went on, a Blackberry slipped off the table. Before it hit the floor, it transformed into a small-sized robot and landed without a sound. It then stealthily climbed up the wall from a dark corner and sneaked into the ceiling. As soon as it adapted itself, it started to send a signal to the outside.
''OPTIMUS! I GOT BAD NEWS. THE DECEPTICONS ARE STARTING TO MOVE INTO THE OPEN. I JUST CONFIRM THAT BLACKOUT HAD TAKEN ACTION AND WAS SEEN BY HUMANS WHO SURVIVED HIS ORDEAL.''