BOOM!
"What was that?" Tronnie shouted as she hopelessly tried to keep piles of equipment from tumbling over. She tried to scramble over to a workstation, but Joules was ahead of her.
"An explosion in the main power relay room for the ports."
"How? Those relays are protected with dozens of fail safes! Nothing was wrong with them either!" Tronnie opened a vid window and binary scrolled.
"My fault." Andraia and Rom had entered Engineering through a rift." The port codes were hacked so the ports would remain open to allow web creatures to come in. I overloaded Eagle and put it into the power conduits."
Andraia quickly sent out a message to Mainframe. She needed Dot now. When she was done, the game sprite turned to Tronnie.
"Stop everything and just make sure everyone is armed. I'll be in Command Central."
"Get me a list of every abandoned system on the Net. How are the viral, web and internal security teams doing? Are they back yet? Make sure Operation: Fish in a Barrel is ready to go in all of the systems that agreed to help. Megabyte thinks those web creatures are those bad file commands he had in Mainframe? Ones that follow him above everything, well, he'll have to process that idea again."
Andraia had briefed Dot Matrix when Dot was still in her home system. But by the time she had arrived in the Super Computer, Dot had already drawn up plans.
Turbo and most of the head Guardians were still dealing with the stray web creatures that were still in the Super Computer, and the other Guardians easily took to following Dot's order. They recognized her skill and experience in dealing with viruses as Dot was the Command.com of the last system to withstand Daemon.
"You're sure they will be attracted to the Net?" Dot asked Lore.
"Yes, the web life will be lured away from Megabyte by openings leading to the systems."
"That's what I'm counting on." Dot put on her glasses and looked down at her planner. The teams dealing with the web-invaded systems had moved surprisingly quickly with the addition of Mainframe's home forces. The majority of Guardians were back in the Super Computer, and this in turn hastened the extermination of web creatures in the Super Computer. Dot estimated the Guardian forces would be freed up completely by the next cycle. Dot removed her glasses and turned to Andraia.
"Do you have any news for me?"
"He's injured. I told Harvey to make it to the port before I destroyed it. He saw Megabyte go through after him right before the port collapsed. Megabyte was hurt by the automated security systems of the Super Computer and also by the tail end of the port explosion. I think he's sleeping now. Either way, Harvey is watching him."
"Good, that'll buy us some time." Dot tapped on the Super Computer consoles. She loved it here, everything moved so fast.
"That time we have to grow stronger now also means he is growing in strength." Lore said in a low voice behind Dot.
"Noted. That means I have to start now." Dot looked Lore and narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. " If you were to go to a system and open a rift to the Web, the web creatures would go through it? Like they would go through a portal?"
Lore nodded.
"But we cannot raise arms against them."
"I don't need that, just open a rift and wait till the empty system is as full as possible with web creatures. Close the rift to the Web and come back here. Take some hidden file commands to mask your presence."
"I understand. The other Codemasters will be pleased to hear of this way to subdue the web life without harming it."
Dot handed him a data pad full with the coordinates of abandoned systems and waited for him and the other masters to leave.
"Ma'am?" A Guardian said behind her. "The Web viral's forces are far too large even with all of those empty systems full. Guardians will still have a very hard time."
"I know. I want the Codemasters to go ahead with this plan while we started with Fish in the Barrel." Dot frowned, she had told Lore of her second plan and he had advised her to keep the knowledge of this plan from the rest of the masters. He feared that they wouldn't agree in this method and would then refuse to help with the first plan. "Specky? Are those other systems ready to go?"
Specky, the little binome from Mainframe jumped at the sound of his name and nervously shuffled his feet.
"Yes, Sir, Ma'am. Firewall traps set and ready. The systems only need to have the Guardians create the portals and Fish and a Barrel will be on a roll." He turned back to his work screen. Specky was the only binome ever to be in the Super Computer and had to stand on a chair to reach the consoles.
Jarrel came up beside Dot and handed her a data pad.
"I've assigned the returned key tooled Guardians to the systems. I sent a memo to them informing them on the plan. They are ready at your command."
Dot smiled. She loved it when sprites or binomes were organized.
"Jarrel, if you would like to do the honor."
Jarrel nodded and opened a communication link over his own key tool.
"Jarrel to participating systems: Begin."
Specky cleared his throat to attract attention.
"Sir, Ma'am. I've estimated that if all plans go well, sixty five percent of Megabyte's web forces will be destroyed or out of commission in two cycles."
"Good, lets all hope that Megabyte's little nap will last that long." Dot said smugly. "Are our sensors back online?"
"Fully functioning." A tech replied from under a broken workstation.
"Give me a visual of the Web. All sectors."
An array of vid windows opened and Dot saw her plan working. Swarms of web creatures were rushing through the rifts caused by the masters to be trapped in the empty systems. Operation: Fish in a Barrel was working at peak levels as well. Dot didn't particularly like her plan of luring web creatures into portals that opened to sections of systems isolated by firewalls. Once there, the Guardians closed the portal and the home military forces shot down the trapped creatures until none were left. This process was repeated over and over with brutal efficiency.
Dot frowned. This was too easy.
"Why is this so easy? C'mon Megabreath, where's your edge? What are you hiding from me?" She asked herself quietly before turning to speak with her brother's ex. "Andraia? Anything new?"
The game sprite rubbed her temples. She had been monitoring the Web through Harvey's senses for the past cycle.
"Let me ask." She closed her eyes and her brow tightened.
Dot watched the younger sprite concentrate. She looked so old now. Andraia had not had any down time in a few cycles. And who was Harvey? She wondered.
Andraia jolted up and ran for the closest workstation. She tapped in coordinates and a vidwindow popped open.
"What is that?" Specky asked.
"The Edge of Beyond." Answered Andraia.
"Then what are those?" Dot asked, pointing on things on the screen.
"Birthing fields. That is where the eggs of the web creatures are laid. Away from the turbulence of the Web, the eggs develop and when the web creature hatch, it flies into the Web." Andraia answered again with the information given to her by Harvey.
"There are so many!" Dot said incredulously. "Zoom out."
The screen blinked backwards, but still the edges of the vast tracks of eggs were not seen.
"Again." Dot said, but still the edges were not on screen. "Keep going."
The magnification went back another three times before the screen captured the size of the birthing fields.
"There must be millions!" Specky trembled and moved behind Jarrel's leg.
"Patch me through to Lore." Dot said, and a window popped open.
"The process goes well Ms. Matrix. Guardians sent by Guardian Jarrel are helping us divert more weblife faster."
"Good to hear. I'm sending you a picture from the Edge of Beyond. What do you make of it?"
The Codemaster's jaw dropped.
"Egg sacs. Vast tracks. More than I have ever seen. They are the spawn of the infected weblife. What is borne is a hybrid, an abomination of web and viral. The last attempt we made to regain the Web, we came upon a cluster that had recently hatched. The monsters are vicious beyond comprehension. Thankfully, their code was so warped that we could attack them, but still we suffered grievous losses."
"How close are they to hatching?" Dot said. She needed to come up with a new plan... or two.
"By the look of it, one or two seconds.
It was Dot's turn for her jaw to drop.
"That's not enough time! And Megabyte might wake!"
Lore clicked the vid window closed on his end and rifted back into the Super Computer.
"I doubt the virus will attack without the bulk of his full force."
"Maybe, or he could attack with what he has now and overwhelm us with a wave of those." Dot bit the bottom of her lip in distress, but soon composed herself. She opened a communication link to all Codemasters and Guardians.
"All forces. New plan. Head towards these new coordinates ASAP. You'll know what to do."
Dot turned back to talking to Lore.
"Get in contact with the Codemasters of the Net and try to get them to help. If they refuse, let me talk to them."
Dot closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose briefly.
"Andraia? Megabyte's status?"
"Still sleeping. Harvey's pumping knockout toxins into him now to keep him under." Andraia was sitting on the stairs now. She couldn't handle the senses of a web creature much longer.
Dot knelt in front of her.
"How? Can web creatures produce toxins? Can they use it against us?"
Andraia shook her head.
"My code. He gained the ability to produce toxins like I can." She raised her hand and her aquamarine nails extended and then retracted.
Dot patted the game sprite's hand. She didn't like how pale Andraia looked.
"Get some rest." When Andraia shook her head again, Dot pushed on. "If he wakes, he wakes. I'll deal with it. go offline. I'll wake you in one cycle." She looked up at Lore, and the Codemaster stepped forward to gently pull Andraia to her feet before opening a rift to a quieter area of the Super Computer.