right, from here the plot begins. I will respond to all reviews, but currently everybody is replying ANON. so i can't. I rely quite heavily on dialogue as you can all probably tell but i try to make it engaging. I advise for all the people who've read right from the beggining to go back and read the new introduction Red Pill through to Deja Vu
Enjoy reading
Tharagon
Abandon selective targeting. Shoot everything. Targets are now free. We've lost control.
Deathwatch Field Commander Brenner addressing his troops during the infection of Hong Kong (May, 2039)
It caught Diego across the chest, shattering several of the ceramic plates that made up his armour. It held, just, he could feel several of his ribs give way under the force of the blow, which sent him sliding across the floor. One of the unclamped Tachikomas caught him as he slid by lifting him from the floor,
"ORGANIC,ORGANIC!!," He yelled as the claws dug in a little too tightly,
"Sorry Mr Watchman," The grip released slightly, as the small blue tank set him down gently on the floor. The whole room was filled with noise and chaos, the Deathwatch were ducking for cover as the infected Tachikoma opened fire, causing the room to echo with cannon fire. Batou was yelling loudly, shielding Aramaki, as several of the uninfected robots pulled them away, trying to block the infected Tachikoma's rampage.
The bastard had sharpened it's claws, like all infected. They now were warped and twisted, hideous looking things,
How the hell did we miss that!!
There was blood in his spittle, Damn!, Diego pulled himself forward. There was great deal of activity down the end of the hall as the burly form of Section 9's sniper, Saito, was setting up a large tripod to allow him to bring his sniper rifle to bear. And struggling by all appearances as one of the rookies helping him, screamed loudly as the infected whipped around in their direction pulling the large mounted Vulcan cannon to bear on the party. A chess board bounced of the armoured hull of the tank, scattering several plastic pieces across the floor. This gave chance for Togusa to pull the ducking Saito out of reach of the flailing claws.
With horrific slowness the tank span around, as Trooper Fredricks pulled his rifle from below his upturned stool and brought it to bear. The roar of the rifle echoed across the room as Fredrick's managed to get of a few shots, only denting the blue juggernaut roaring toward him, before he was lifted up into the air by the flailing claws. There was horrendous sound of tearing sinew at that point and Fredrick's began to yell in pain, his face going completely white.
"Mr Watchman,"
Diego thumbed the stud on his electrolysis rifle, hearing the reassuring whine as the device charged, and checked the targeting matrix.
"Mr Watchman," the Tachikoma that spoke repeated itself,
He signalled to the pinned down troops as the infected dropped the prone trooper, there was a lot of blood and a lot of noise as Fredricks hit the floor,
"MR WATCHMAN!!,"
"WHAT!,"
"May I point out…" the Tachikoma raised an arm, "….That we'd be more help if you removed the clamps,"
"Oh right, sorry,"
Diego ran his hand across the LCD display which adorned the side of the large yellow clamps which blocked the Tachikoma from using its primary weapon. With a loud clunk the clamp dropped from the gun barrel.
"Right, listen here punk," the Tachikoma began to recite a very recognisable diatribe, raising the large cannon up to eye level, "I know what you're thinking. 'Did he fire 3000 shots or only 2500?' Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .30 Gatling Cannon, one of the most powerful mounted rifles in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
The infected span round, the blank ball eyes spinning in its sockets. It was still screeching, the single large antennae on its roof rocking back and forth, the warped, scythe like claws grasping at the air. It pulled it self forward raising its arms to swot the human and tank beside it. With a roar of fire the Tachikoma emptied the remaining rounds in its magazine into the infected's exposed under-belly. With a final screech, sounding more like a dead animal as it's speech centres burned out, the Tachikoma stopped.
There was silence, the only noise the rattle of spent rounds hitting the floor from the smoking gun. Within the dust clogged space, the holes in the wall were leaking some kind of unknown fluid, the scorched floor. Diego wasted no time, wrenching himself up level with the roof of the tank and pulling aside the central hatch to get the central processor and the tank's A.I.
"Thank god you guys re-implanted the chips back into the tanks," With a look of great distaste he pulled a sparking and melted chip from the exposed brain,
"Fredricks, I hope you're still alive,"
There was a great deal of movement across the hall as a bloodied Private Fredricks pulled himself into view,
"By the Gods, his arm," another trooper breathed loudly across the comm-link. A bloodied stump emerged from the hole in his armour, and sickening great deal of exposed bone. It was causing him great discomfort obviously, as, with great difficulty, he pulled himself forward.
"Medic, deal with him, I've got our own little mystery to solve,"
"Where's this one's cell?," Batou had gone increasingly pale by this point, "Mr Batou , I don't want to repeat my self again, where did it live?,"
"Over….over there,"
"Thank you," Diego glanced across to where Batou was pointing, the cells which surrounded room, were large, dark, blue holes. There was small console on a large metal pole before each entrance, where a neon display reflected off the metal surface.
"Trooper Brent," Diego called, pocketing the melted chip, "Check the digital read out, Batou would you mind accompanying me please?,"
Batou looked up from where he was helping Aramaki up,
"Alright,"
The cell stunk of motor oil and burnt plastic, several shards of metal were grouped in the corner. Along the back walls several scratches were gouged out of the metal. And above, scratched into the metal were the words:
ODIN WATCHES
"What the hell!?," Batou glanced up at the ominous message, "Why did it write that?,"
"it's a trend we noticed amongst most of the infected," Diego said, folding his arms, "Very poetic, the writing on the wall, stuff like: HERE BE MONSTERS cropped up a few times: WHY at points and more recently, that," He signalled to the silvery words set amongst the tortured metal.
"I mean, during the war the words : REPENT THE END IS EXTREMELY FUCKING NIGH were daubed on several walls around London for the more pessimistic people among us, but that was different. That was humour, this kind of thing is warning or a prediction"
"We are been watched and our next actions will judged from an intelligence greater then our own," Brent intoned from the diagnostic station.
"Yeah, something like that," Diego covered his nose as the rank smell which emerged from the side chamber. "Have you found anything?,"
"Nothing, no energy spikes, the whole room was cold by the time the virus took hold. I've got no unknown files, no frag and the hard drive isn't picking up anything,"
"tell me Batou, is there a chance the machine could of broken out? In fact any of these machines have a chance of getting out?," Batou's face went completely blank by this point, "Mr Batou, is there something your not telling us, I'm sure you might remember the incident where one of your hardware's," he signalled to the other watching tanks, "escaped and went for a small trip around the city, it brought something back to, hmm," he stared at Batou expectantly.
Brent stepped passed him, black combat boots sliding on the oil slicked floor. A while later he emerged into the light bearing a large black box.
"A brain case?!,"
"It's empty, Adjudicator,"
Diego took the object between both hands and inspected the pitted and dirtied surface.
"Not quite," he said, quickly checking the occupancy light on the side of the box. A single, but dim, light was shining through the oil coated surface. "There's something here,"
With one arm he pulled a USB thread from the collar of his suit and plugged it into the side, getting some warning looks from the others. The was a fizz and through all the comm-links, a voice began to whisper.
"ODIN?,"
Diego looked up at Batou, his face reflected in his glass eyes,
"No, it doesn't sound right,"
They paused for a minute, the eerie, inaudible voice whispering on in their ears.
"But, lets just say it is ODIN,"
"How is it here!?,"
"What do you mean," Another Deathwatch approached the group bearing a large quarantine case over her shoulder
Diego twisted the box in his hands,
"The box is dated, before the cyber-spheres were introduced, before the war it appears, 2029,"
"What ever occupied the box before the Tachikoma found it must have been infected,"
"Adjudicator, I don't think so,"
Diego looked up questionably to Brent who, face hidden behind his visor pointed to a single name inscribed onto the side of the box. Batou couldn't quite read the text, the troopers weren't remaining still enough to allow the large Cy-Borg a clear view, though the serious expressions on all the troopers were enough to give Batou an inkling something was wrong.
"it couldn't be,"
"She was cyberised a that point,"
"She had external memories, she mentioned them a while back,"
The was another sudden pause amongst the conversing troopers,
"It couldn't be,"
"it might, she's always been a little temperamental,"
"That could be because she's a woman though,"
This gained several nasty looks from few of the female squad members. The trooper who made the last comment raised his arms appealingly.
"look, I'm just saying we can't rule out that this might not be ODIN, but something else, not her,"
Diego nodded, "the usual symptoms aren't present, but then the Virus could be laying dormant. It has done that before, remember Cellerfield,"
The group collectively shuddered
"Yeah, but Mira hasn't brought anything up,"
"Good point,"
"Hey, has Ryeman told her about Her yet?,"
"Her with a capital H, very serious," a female trooper murmured.
The quarantine box carrying trooper shook her head, "No, she'll find out in time,"
"But if ODIN wasn't here, then how did the machine become infected?,"
They all glanced across the remains of the Tachikoma.
"That perspective is truly astounding. How can external memories affect it?"
"you remember the jeri incident, you know those Androids,"
There was murmur of agreement,
"that kid didn't know what hit him when he got back to Canada, Ryeman was waiting for him,"
"Ouch, poor kid,"
"Anyway that could have had an effect. It acted out the film, a memory,"
"No that was something completely different, that was virus"
Batou finally got a look at the name plate on the side of the box as Diego raised it up to the light and inspected the underneath.There in large letters, etched into the metal surface was the name,
MOTOKO KUSANAGI
"That can't be good,"
Cellerfield is nuclear Powerstation by the way. Cue First Plot twist! :o