Hello, everyone!
This is release of Immorality Effect. I hope you enjoy it. Please tell me if it is good, bad or meh.
I give credits to Ghost in the Shell: Ascendance by either nickbana1989 or Sevoris for being an inspiration/template for this work. Some parts are also based or altered for my story.
Chapter Two "Researcher Elimination"
Despite it being the night, downtown Moon Cell City was glittering with all sorts of lights. All sorts of goods and services were being offered from ones that had always existed since the dawn of human civilization to ones that only existed in the 31st century.
In one particular high-raising building – not the tallest one or obvious one, but one that would be overlooked by many whilst still providing a great vintage point – was a prone Ashley laying on her stomach overlooking a particular building.
"Overwatch, this is Overlord. Status report." Shepard asked over the encrypted TeamComms (Team Communications).
The prone Ashley swept through the target building and its surroundings before replying, "No change. Nothing has caught my eyes in the last few hours."
"This is Overlord to everyone else. Anything unusual that anyone has to report?"
"Heavy reporting in. Nothing on my end." Vega replied.
"Caster here, I find no strange magical activities." Kaiden added.
"This is… Who the hell came up my callsign? We really need to change it! It's no longer funny." Jerkins snapped, almost seeming ready to explode in rage.
"Bait…" Shepard said with great difficult in straight voice. "This is Overlord. Please refrain from any distracting behavior while on the mission."
Ashley chuckled as the encrypted team communication channel started to erupt in unprofessional manner not fitting a highly trained, skilled and experienced Black Ops teams as theirs, but it was one of the many charms of the team. She was all in for letting the bantering go on when something caught her eyes.
"Overlord, this is Overwatch. I spotted a large truck that is not scheduled to be heading to the AO." Ashley reported as her augmented eyes zoomed in at the suspicious truck. "My predictive modelling programs suggest that the truck is a transformable tank disguised as a civilian vehicle."
"Caster! What sort of magecraft is disguising the true nature of the truck?" Shepard asked.
"Caster here, Overlord, we likely looking at material transmutation instead of any illusion-based magecraft at work here." Kaiden replied.
"Shit!" Vega cursed. "Overlord, if the data that Overwatch is sending through TeamComms is correct then we don't have the firepower to take out that tank with our current loadout."
Shepard quickly said,"Heavy will being down parts of the building be enough to take out the disguised tank?"
The watching Ashley searched through her internal database for all the information that she had regarding armored vehicles for anything that matched the disguised tank they were looking at. She was alarmed by the data she had just found and the match the new data had come from her predictive modelling software, Ashley was running while analyzing the disguised tank.
"I got a partial match, 89% match with a Dragon-Doppelganger Tank." Ashley reported.
"Fuck! Overlord we need to act now. If we allow the new party the initiative then whatever data that Immortal Department researcher has will end up in the System Alliance's enemies' hands." Vega shouted urgently.
"Overwatch, this is Overlord. Ignore the tank. Take the researcher out now!" Shepard ordered calmly.
"This is Overwatch. Solid copy, Overlord." Ashley replied as she pointed her sniper rifle from the disguised tank and back at nervously pacing Immortal Department researcher. "Eyes on the target. Firing!"
Her fingers rested on the trigger as her eyes and sniper rifle become one as data from Ashley's eyes and the sniper rifle synchronized. She performed three separate calculations to make sure that she had all the correct data to make sure the shot flew true. It was when Ashley was confident that she relied on both the sniping program and her own training to pull the trigger.
The trigger sent electricity through the magnetic coils of Ashley sniper rifle. A bullet of 10mm radius and 200mm long raced down a three meter long barrel. By the time, the bullet left the barrel it hit the speed of MACH 10.
Ashley had taken great care to avoid any civilians and property in attempt to eliminate any collateral damage. The bullet avoided hitting any civilians or their property while heading towards its target.
A flash of bright light activated in front of the window leading to the target. The mass and acceleration of the bullet fought against the energy shield. It was a battle of pushing. At first, the energy shield seemed to be winning as bullet stubbornly bled speed. The battle quickly changed in the bullet's favor as microscopic runes inscribed on the surface and internal structure of the bullet kicked into gear.
The energy shield – far more powerful than allowed by civilian-grade energy shielding meant for preventing damage to buildings and harm to the building inhabitants – started to quickly loss the battle. It was not powerful enough to completely stop the bullet, but with one last ditch efforted as programmed alter the bullet's trajectory.
As the bullet went slightly off course, it smashed into the window before the target. Another safety mechanism that was in not allowed by local regulation took effect. Special adamantium disguised to look like regular glass met the bullet face on. The deceptive window was not made out one layer of adamantium, but several layers. Each layer being an armor plating to itself.
The bullet at first drilled through the outer most layers with ease, but as the acceleration was bled dry after several more layers of micro-thin adamantium it came to a complete stop. That didn't mean the bullet was out of tricks anymore. More enchantments of the bullet kicked as it started to gain speed again like a drill. The surviving adamantium micro-thin layers didn't matter anymore as the bullet drilled through the last layers.
Another series of enchantments activated as the bullet trajectory had been altered to avoid hitting the target. The bullet like a rocket with its thrusters active to change direction sped towards the target.
A scream echoed through the room as the target was hit. His body sending pain signals to the Immortal Department researcher's mind faster than the destruction of the brain could happen. The specially altered biomechanical brain unique to the Immortal Department kicked in as the researcher's soul was freed from the confines of his physical body.
"Who dares to kill me, an Immortal Department researcher?!" The man roared as the brain and Soul chip housing his soul was destroyed. His soul soon left what left of his physical body. "Haha! I am alive thanks to the special knowledge of the…"
Parts of the bullet had been destroyed when it hit its targets, but there was still a specially designed proportion left. The last enchantment kicked into high gear as special blend of hydrogen gas fused at an atomic scale. Plasma reaching the tens of thousands of degrees Celsius burned everything within a hundred meters down to its atoms, including matter consisting of the soul such as Spiritrons.
- O -
"What in the blazes!?"
"That can't be right! When were we in possession of the Anti-Divine Round?!"
"Are we killing a god here?!"
Shepard tuned out the confused mess that her shocked teammates were sprouting. Her own emotional state while not as extreme as her comrades was still shocked at the notion that for her mission an Anti-Divinity Round had been provided to eliminate the target. Afterall, the bullet used had a legendary reputation of having killed deities of both Earth-origin and aliens ones in the past. Sure only minor gods had been killed so far, and the more powerful ones wounded to various degrees, but a god-killer was still a god-killer.
She quickly shook of her shock as her training as a SpecOps kicked in.
"Overlord to all callsigns, snap out of it! We have a Dragon-Doppelganger Tank to take out." Shepard shouted on the TeamComm.
"Do we may any chance have another Anti-Divine Round?"
The urge to laugh was narrowly suppressed by Shepard. An Anti-Divine Bullet costs in billions of Credits in material cost alone and if the numerous specialists needed to make it brought the price of a single Anti-Divine Bullet in the trillions of Credits. Enough for the light-tonnage warship like frigate or destroyer. A hundred Dragon-Doppelganger Tank wouldn't make up for a single fragment of an Anti-Divine Bullet.
"I take that as no," Vega muttered on the TeamComms in disappointed tone.
Shepard didn't bother as she focused on role as team leader. In her mind, she become one with everyone in her team. She could feel the same data that was going into their brains sent from their five senses. Although, she couldn't receive other data that her teammates had going into their brains not coming from their fives senses or she wouldn't have any more mental computation power left to execute her other role as the team's cyberwarfare specialist.
Her mind extended into the Cyberverse. Access codes given to her by Waver for the mission allowing her to gain access to most of the electronics of the surrounding area around with ease. Those remaining electronic that she didn't have the access codes fell under her control thanks to her top-of-the-line hacking programs and skills.
She felt a sense of power grow inside her as more electronic becoming a part of her body to control, but Shepard didn't fell under the illusion some many had made in the past when in her shoes. There was only so much her mental computation powers, coming from her Shell hardware and software that was her soul, could handle before her Shell and soul burned out from the strain.
"All callsigns, are you prepared to engage?" Shepard asked as insurance if the data she was receiving from the sensors of her team's Shells hadn't been tampered with.
Promptly Shepard received a verbal confirmation before Shepard decided to proceed with her plan.
Her team moved in synchronization as they brought their weapons to bear down onto the truck that was a disguised Dragon-Doppelganger Tank.
Vega with his heavy machine gun peppered the truck in attempt to damage or destroy any external components. His shoulder mounted grenade and rocket launcher also joining in the fray.
Tank-busting rounds left Ashley's anti-material sniper rifle as every round hit the same precise spot to hammer away at the armor.
Magical energy came out of Kaiden's body like tsunami waves as magic spells of all sorts, designed for anti-vehicle purposes, rained down causing physical damage to the armor and components hidden underneath the thick armored plating.
Shepard also joined in, but instead of attacking the physical matter of the tank, she attacked the soul of the tank, the program that allowed the tank to operate. She unleashed the full arsenal of every attack program she possessed.
Any ordinary tank would have been disabled or destroyed by the sheer amount of firepower pumped out by Shepard's team, but the Dragon-Doppelganger Tank's legendary reputation as one of the best tanks in modern times wouldn't exist if it was taken down a small Special Forces team.
The attacked tank could a beating that would have destroyed a standard tank employed by most militaries several times over as if it was nothing. In fact, it managed to react with its own weapons. The main gun, a laser weapon, was able to adjust its power level depending on the target, but the tank's program determined to eliminate the target in one single decisive strike.
"Kaiden!" Shepard screamed on the TeamComms as her connection to Kaiden abruptly ended, not before she saw beam of laser enough to take out a tank shooting at him.
Thing only got worse as the main gun, alongside many more secondary weapons of the Dragon-Doppelganger tank were brought to bear against Shepard's comrades. The sudden change of battle broke the flawless coordination of Shepard's team as they moved out of the harm's way in search of cover that might protect them.
Got to focus on those that are still alive, Shepard repeated to herself as she pushed Kaiden's possible death out of her mind and she focused on keeping those that were definitely alive.
Shepard screamed as she become overwhelmed by the pain. The last thing her mind comprehended was alarms going off before everything stopped.
[Systems Rebooting. Running diagnostics…]
She groaned as consciousness returned to her and data flowed into her mind regarding her Shell.
Her Shell hadn't taken any damage caused by external sources. It had been caused by computer virus launched by the Dragon-Doppelganger tank and had managed to either overwhelm or bypass her cyber defenses. Most of the damage was minor, which were already being repaired by her Shell's automatic self-repair capabilities, but the worst didn't been caused by the computer virus itself. The worst of the damage had come from her Shell's hardware overclocking itself to the extremes to combat the virus, preventing the computer virus from doing even more damage that might have led to severe injuries or death.
Shepard's mind multitasked handling many things, which wouldn't have been possible without her Shell's hardware or heavy alterations to her soul, but the thing that her attention was focused on the most was the time. Thankfully, only several seconds had passed since she blackened out. The last thing that she would have wanted was to wake up several hours after blacking out.
My team might have all died if that had happened. Shepard thought darkly as she shivered. "Is everyone still alive? If you are please Resyn with me."
She sighed in relief when data from her team's Shell came to her. Her team was fighting to stay alive, but at least they were still alive. Disappointingly, there was no response from Kaiden, whom Shepard presumed was knocked out cold or dead.
"Overlord, our options to take out the tank is limited without Caster out of the picture!" Vega shouted.
Her mind searched all the information contained in her Shell's internal database regarding the Dragon-Doppelganger tank. What Shepard recalled and the data she found didn't paint a good picture. She let out a sigh as she and her internal analytical programs came to the same conclusion.
"The best solution I can figure out right now is very risky," said Shepard as she stood up. "Our encryption programs might be top of the line, but there is a high chance the Dragon-Doppelganger tank might be able to decode our communication. So just do your best to stay alive and keep the pressure on."
"Understood," Her team replied in unison.
[Releasing limiters… Running diagnostics… No abnormalities detected…]
Shepard felt a wave of great power flow into her body and soul. It felt restraints placed on what she was capable of disappeared as limits placed on her Shell's biological and mechanical components were lifted. She wished that limiters didn't exist because able to unleash her true potential, but limiters existed for a reason.
Sadly, limiters that placed a restraint on her abilities for a reason. The reason all came down to was cost and benefit. It was why you didn't use a nuclear bomb to kill a baseline/unaugmented human and used something that was cheaper such as a gun. Everything came with a cost be it manpower, resources or time.
Her own Shell was a good example of cost and benefits issue. It might was on a level far beyond what even other Special Forces operatives in the System Alliance gave. Out of the millions that served some level of the System Alliance Special Forces Command, less than a ten thousand human SpecOps likely had equal or greater capable Shells. Without her limiters active, Shepard could perform Servant-level abilities with ease, but such power came at the cost of wearing her Shell out extremely quickly that required a lot of maintenance and expensive replacement parts.
She quickly dismissed her mental analysis of why Limiters existed as the combat program started to run, enhancing her already formidable combat skills.
Shepard flexed her legs, then catapulted into the air with a powerful jump. The concrete, which had been designed to resist the already formidable physiology of the modern 31st century enhanced human, cracked under the physical force that a Servant could generate.
As Shepard soared through the air, camouflage stealth systems kicked in and she quickly became a hard to spot blur until she became invisible. She carefully manipulated the air around her so that she could arrive at destination and also be hard to detect via sensors like radar or LADAR.
Several shots whizzed close to the invisible and floating Shepard. She cursed as she felt intense heat/cold temperature, lights and projectiles brushed narrowly near her body. Shepard made special note to make her comrades back later as Shepard landed on the distracted tank.
"Watch your fire! I am on the tank." Shepard shouted on the TeamComms as several attacks on the tank came way to close to comfort.
If the Dragon-Doppelganger tank had been able to tap into the TeamComms as Shepard as feared, it was too late for tank's AI to respond. Shepard brought down her fist with all the force her Shell was able to produce. A Servant-level strength was nothing to laugh at, especially when such being could take on entire armies alone.
The several centimeter thick armor plating broke under Shepard's fist and she started to probe around until she found what she was looking for. She pulled the cable and shoved into the port hidden underneath the nape of her neck.
Much of what was happening in the real world didn't matter to Shepard as she entered the Dragon-Doppelganger tank's computer systems. Shepard was not surprised by that she found a very formidable digital fortress. The cyber-defenses of Dragon-Doppelganger tank certainly lived up to its reputation as one of the best tanks currently available. Her preconception on the tank was further enhanced as the cyber defenses become more durable as no doubt that in the real world, parts of the tank's physical systems were changing better increase its cyberwarfare capabilities to fight off its digital attacker.
Like as if I am going to wait and let you have more time to prepare yourself! Shepard shouted as she started her cyber-assault on the tank.
The cyber-fortress was formidable, but not the best that Shepard had encountered in her life. She attacked with every trick she knew and her arsenal of cyber-attack programs. Shepard's assault was quick and furious. If someone was to describe it would be akin to the Blitzkrieg of the Germany's attack on much of Europe during the WWII.
As Shepard attacked the digital fortress, she couldn't help but moan at lost opportunity before her. She knew for a fact that Dragon-Doppelganger tank's cyberwarfare capabilities would have been excellent opponent to test her cyberwarfare skills against a formidable challenge. In fact, the lack of any counterattacks by the tank and it defensive posture was because back in the real world her teammates were distracting it by constant attacks on its physical body.
While most of her attention was focused on the cyber assault in the Cyberverse that didn't mean Shepard was completely unaware of what was going in the real world and not react to it accordingly. In fact, the Dragon-Doppelganger tank was trying to buck her off like an angry bull trying to ride it.
She would have continued to assault the resisting tank trying to throw her off its physical body for several seconds with ease, but that all changed when instead of firing upon Shepard's team the tank's guns turned to fire at her. Shepard jumped backwards and completed the flip as her feet landed on the ground. She quickly started to move as several of the tank's guns followed and fired upon her.
"Overlord, what is the status of your cyberattack?" Ashley asked while she kept pumping anti-tank rounds into the Dragon-Doppelganger tank.
"Keep the pressure on, all callsigns. The tank is unable to retaliate against me and is forced on a passive state." Shepard replied as she used her Servant-like capabilities to dodge of harm's way.
"Understood, Overlord." Her team replied and soon the firepower brought on the tank become fiercer.
Shepard resisted the urge to clutch her head as she focused on both attacking the tank's cyber-self and dodging out of harm's way. The strain of her mind was too great, but she had to keep going despite how much it hurt. If she loosened up in her cyber-assault there was a good chance that her comrades or she might get killed as it had taken only a single moment for Kaiden to be taken out.
As Shepard prepared to curse after dodging several shots that came to close to comfort, her eyes lit up in delight as in the cyberverse she had finally made some progress after several minutes of none.
The tank's first layer of cyber-defenses were finally breached at one point and the battle begun to shift as Shepard's attack programs, akin to infantry in the real world, started to run into the newly created breach in the tank's cyber-defenses. The battle at breach started with only light infantry-equivalent programs fighting each other, but no side at a decisive advantage and only casualties began to mount of each side. Reinforcements were soon called in on both sides.
More powerful infantry programs were called into the fray, but each side only went back and forth in the ground they captured. The stalemate called forth for more powerful programs and soon armored vehicles joined the fray until a battle involving infantry, armored vehicles and aircraft equivalent attack/defense programs.
Defense of the other sections soon weakened as resources were redirected to blocking the breach. Any reason to protect the first layer of firewall would cease to exist if Shepard's attack programs used the breach to bypass the first wall and attack the firewall's second layer. As a result, the weakened defenses of the other parts of the first wall broke finally as more breaches formed until the defending programs protecting the first wall were surrounded and destroyed.
"Overlord, the situation has changed!" Ashley shouted.
A bit of her mental computing was rerouted from directing the cyber-assault and Shepard looked at the data that Ashley sent to her. She was shocked to find dozens of objects shooting out of the Dragon-Doppelganger tank. Her cyber-assault greatly weakened as Shepard rediverted a majority of her mental computing power in calculating the trajectory of those objects.
Shepard's team cursed and dropped everything they were doing when they received the data on the objects' trajectory as they recalled a famous behavior of the Dragon-Doppelganger tank when it was on its last legs. They used Shepard's data to calculate which was the safest place to be to avoid as much damage of the impeding explosions as possible.
I hope everyone survives! Shepard prayed as awaited the inevitable explosions.
"Are we dead yet?" Vega asked in half-serious tone.
"No, shit we are still alive!" Ashley shouted in snarky tone as if the close brush with death had caused her usual emotional control to slip.
Why is there no explosions? She thought confusingly and some clarity came to her when she received several drones to survey the mission area. Where those duds?
Shepard quickly remembered it was unlikely the bombs had been duds. There was no way someone that could buy a Dragon-Doppelganger tank and its expensive maintenance costs would not be able to afford proper explosives. Another reason for the bombs not exploding had to exist.
The answer soon came to her when Shepard received additional data from the surveillance drones. The situation had completely changed. It was no longer just a Dragon-Doppelganger tank that they were dealing with.
"Fuck! Who the hell are we dealing with?" Vega cursed.
"Agreed. No regular organization has the resources or expertise to get past the anti-teleporting jammers that prevent all unauthorized teleportation in Moon Cell City." Ashley added.
"Cerberus is the first organization that comes to mind right now that has the motive and resources to go against the System Alliance so blatantly." Shepard remarked as she saw the data collected by the drones that reported an entire mechanized infantry battalion, a company of tanks and wing of gunships had appeared of out nowhere."All callsigns, retreat! We completed our primary objective of eliminating the target."
Codex Entries
Anti-Divine Round
An Anti-Divine Round is one of the most feared weapons in the world next to some of the most powerful weapons such as nuclear and anti-matter bombs. In its field, Anti-Divine Rounds are king when it comes to killing a single individual. A weapon designed to kill incredible difficult to kill being such as gods, demigods and those with divinity. Numerous gods have fallen to these rounds, but only minor gods or those with divine blood to record.
Cyberverse
Cyberverse, or short for Cyber Universe, is the term used to describe the world that connects all electronics and machines to a single entity such as the Internet.
Dragon-Doppelganger Tank
One of the most dangerous tanks in the galaxy. Its fame doesn't come from it being carrying the great tank gun, the most durable armor or any other category that any other tank may be unsurpassed in. Just as its namesake, the Dragon-Doppelganger Tank is capable of transforming on the go to meet the tactical requirements of the moment. So if it needs firepower, it gets a more powerful gun, need to endure punishment then better armor and so forth.
Limiter
Software/Hardware Limiters have existed as long as the concept tools have been around, but the importance of Limiters became more apparent especially after the Moon Cell Revelation. Humanity's tools would become more capable then any before it. Yet, this came at a cost. Tools may have become more powerful they required more components and placed on great strain on the tools resulting in greater maintenance costs. Modern tools, especially powerful and complex Shells capable of Servant-level abilities require so much maintenance costs if they run at full capacity that individuals going bankrupt due to maintenance fees are not unheard and to get around this issue Limiters are used to cap what tools are capable of, only working at full capacity when needed.
Was this good, bad or meh? Please tell me what you think. I accept all criticism as long as it is no flaming.