Disclaimers: They belong to the Wachowski brothers, Time-Warner and whoever else…
Years on…
Years on the battles for the freedom of humanity still rage on between the rebels and the machines. The rebels have advanced since the arrival of Neo; they are now capable of disrupting large sections of the Matrix and perhaps even shutting it down…
In one of the vast chasms in the surface of the Earth two figures can been seen trudging towards an unknown destination. The shorter of the two seems excited; he has the short hair and enthusiasm of one newly freed from the Matrix. The other is a very weary Neo.
"So, you gonna tell me where we're going?" the young recruit is practically bouncing up and down with nervous energy.
"You wanted the truth." Neo doesn't sound enthused at all, merely monotone.
"So… You admit that all that stuff Zion told us about the logistics of shutting down the Matrix being difficult, was crap?"
"Freeing all those people from the power plants would be difficult."
"But not impossible, like they're making out."
"Yeah." Neo continues to trudge along in silence.
"So why don't we do it?"
"Do what?"
"You know, just turn off the Matrix."
"It's not that simple."
The silence between the two stretches out. They continue to head towards their destination. There progress along the floor of the chasm is not un-noted. Hidden patrol droids watch them pass, seemingly content to let the rebels continue on their way.
"Neo?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't you find this a little freaky? I swear we're being watched."
Neo doesn't reply.
"You gonna tell me what's going on?"
"You did want to know why we don't just shut down the Matrix didn't you."
"Yeah but…"
"But what?" Neo stops to look at his companion.
"Nothing."
They continue towards an apparent cliff face. Reaching the cliff face, they pass into a previously un-noticed crack that opens up into the rock wall. Moving through the natural corridor in the rock, there is little light. The new recruit keeps close to Neo, practically stepping on his heels. Neo comes to a stop in front of some computer hardware jammed up against a wall. He places a hand on the scanner section and the computer immediately powers up. The screen flickers into life, displaying Agent Smith's face. The new recruit jumps, looking fearfully at Neo.
"Good morning, Mr Anderson. And how are we today?" Smith is smirking slightly.
"Fine and you?" Neo answers politely, much to the surprise of the new recruit.
"So, so… And who is your companion?"
Neo frowns a little, "How-" then he realises and glances at the security cameras build into the walls. Several of the cameras focus on him for affect. "A new recruit." Is all Neo specifies.
On screen, Smith turns to the side, apparently conferring with someone else. Neo watches as Brown leans round Smith from the other side and appears to tap a key. He nods to Neo as the steel door in the corridor slides open.
Smith turns his gaze on Brown briefly before looking back to the screen. "Authorisation accepted." He says.
The new recruit is too busy keeping close to Neo's back to notice the vast chamber they have entered, at first. He steps back a little, tilting his head back, trying to see the ceiling.
The chamber is far larger than anything imagined. The polished floor reflects the strip-lighting along the walls eerily. The ceiling is so high that it has no true definition in human sight. But it is the walls, or at least the alcoves built into the walls that catch the rebel's attention. Wires and cables snake their way across the stone surface, interlinking and binding thousands of capsules embedded in the walls. Each capsule is human sized. They appear to contain human bodies and the rebel is horrified to think that this is another type of power plant.
"What… Neo, what is this?" he asks fearfully, lowering his gaze to find that Neo has walked further into the chamber.
Neo turns and raises is gaze to take in the rows and rows of 'sleeping' beings. He is silent for a moment, as if collecting his thoughts.
"This is an Agent containment unit."
"What?"
"There are almost as many of these as there are power plants. Not including the storage bays for the larger machines."
"As many… That doesn't make sense! What's this got to do with anything?"
"This and places like it are the real reason that we can't shut down the Matrix. Because if we do…" Neo spreads his hands to encompass the sight around them.
"Oh, God. Oh, God… You mean… you mean these are armies. Oh, God. Legions of these things…"
"All modified to maximum combat capacity. With each piece of progress we made in the Matrix they were modified and upgraded to match it."
The young rebel finds himself drawing close to the capsules on the ground level, morbidly curious.
"Titanium and electron guns against flesh and blood." He hears Neo say behind him.
Now looking directly into the capsule in front of him, he sees an Agent, seeming asleep. He looks human; a human encased in black body-armour, eyes closed, fingers lax in padded gauntlets. An apparent rifle is also enclosed in the capsule.
"Oh, God."
"You wanted the truth."
"The truth…" he staggers back towards the middle of the room.
"The truth is pretty simple. We had to reach a compromise."
The young rebel sinks down onto the floor.
"We can destroy their Matrix but they can destroy our world."
"Oh, God…"
"Now you know why we can't tell everyone the truth. Why we insist that the logistics of the operation would be impossible when they aren't."
"But…"
"We have a truce with the AI. We have had for years."
"Years… But the resistance…"
"Means nothing. We have changed, adapted."
"Neo…" he's half pleading for the previously longed for explanation to stop.
"We maintain Order here. An antidote to the Chaos."
"Oh, God…" The rebel looks up at Neo is horror. "You! You're one of them!" In his shock he doesn't notice that one of the capsules behind him is open.
The footstep sounding behind him alerts him too late as the Agent fires.
Neo looks up from the rebel corpse, sad but calm. "He didn't understand." Neo says softly.
"Not many do." Comes the reply followed by a pause, then "I am sorry."
Neo smiles sadly, seeing the sympathy in Smith's blue eyes. "I know." He says.
I'm procrastinating over writing the ending of "Chaos" and I don't know why.
As always I just started with a mental image… the Agent containment units in the real world, from which the AI armies would emerge… and then this happened.
Maybe I've watched Borg episodes of StarTreck too many times; maybe the same would go for "Dune" too.
16:36, 13/05/02