Chapter One- Friendly Gathering
As Luke pulled the car to a slow stop he looked around at the large crowd that had gathered at the Café and gave slight chuckle. "Damn.Xero wasn't kidding. This place is filled to the brim. Guess we'll have to park in that car garage over there." Luke slowly engaged the throttle of the car and pulled in to the dark garage. He cut the engine after parking the car as close to the front as possible and the two jumped out of the car.
The two briskly made their way across the street and in to the Café "Goodbye Yesterday" where a local star was performing on stage. The two stopped after they walked through the revolving door and into the vaguely lit room. Luke began looking around for his allies until Ariel nudged him to gather his attention, as he looked at her, she pointed to Ghost who was sitting alone at the moment. Luke looked over at Ghost and slightly smiled.
The two made their way over to his table slowly, adjusting to the jazzy mood of the complex. As the two neared the table Ariel leaned over to Luke and began to whisper to him, "Something must be wrong; Ghost has a really grim look on his face."
"Ghost always has a grim look on his face.what do you expect?" Luke whispered back. "No, this time it's worse than usual, something is really wrong!" Ariel replied back to Luke, still whispering.
Luke shook his head as they reached the table and pulled out a chair for Ariel, then one for himself. Luke sat down and concentrated on Ghost as he welcomed them.
"Luke, Ariel.it's good to see you two. Congratulations on your own ship being added to the fleet. But congratulations will have to wait until later. I would like to tell you what's going on, but Niobe knows more than I do about the whole situation. She should be back in a little bit, but I can fill you in on a couple of other details."
Ariel quickly replied, "Go ahead and fill us in then."
"Ok.we've been receiving some weird signals the past couple of days on the Logos. Our connection with the Matrix has also been slightly.fuzzy to say the least. We've been receiving word from Zion that the crew over on the Neb has also been seeing a lot of the same problems, only worse. Yesterday, no one could even jack in to the Matrix due to a possible crash of the system, also due to that, we almost lost Neo and Trinity. They was about to jack in when the crash was emanate. We're not sure what the hell is going on." Ghost sighed slightly after he finished. His tone was serious, but also worried.
Luke looked over at Ariel then back at Ghost with a puzzled look on his face. "What kind of weird signals? What exactly has been going on? Like are you receiving odd radio receptions, messages, or all of the above?"
"All of the above. Today when I woke up, Sparks let me listen to something he had recorded from the radio." Ghost replied.
Ariel chimed in with a question of her own. "What did it sound like? If describable that is."
"Hardly describable, all I can say is that it's ear piercing and quite disturbing. But what irritates the situation even worse, when the squeals occur, the coding in the Matrix goes haywire. Almost as if a virus had attacked an operating system, its actions are completely berserk." Ghost stated calmly.
"Could it be the machines? It is possible isn't it? The machines could have developed something to send the Matrix in to a crash, or at least in to a sleep mode. Like something that temporarily stalls our systems and jacks long enough to attack us from the outside and inside." Luke commented logically.
"No, it's not entirely logical. They would be threatening their own men by crashing the system and sending everything in to lockdown, in other words, let's say it's the biggest E.M.P inside the Matrix. Every Agent would be erased, every data file, every last building, human, animal, and even insect. Just like shutting a computer off improperly. If you just hit the button instead of going through out the entire log out process, you lose data, but this would be on a mass scale." Ghost replied to Luke's comment.
The three sat silent for a minute as the jazz music in the background played; still serenading everyone in the room to relaxation, but Luke, Ariel, and Ghost was still too worried to even think about relaxation.
"So what are we to do?" Luke spoke slowly as he looked at the candle's flame dance its exotic dance.
"Right now, we carry though with the mission at hand, so we can at least see if we can gain some kind of idea what's going on" Niobe slowly walked past Luke and Ariel and sat in her chair next to Ghost. "If we don't succeed with this mission, we'll be stuck and have no where to go with anything. We'll be sitting in the dark, exactly like we are now." Niobe finished her comment off slowly.
Luke looked at Niobe as if she was going to say something else, but decided she wasn't and asked, "So what's the mission, if you're in the mood to tell us."
Luke and Niobe never really got along that great. They had respect for each other, but nothing else. They we're always strictly business nothing else.
"If you would have waited I would have told you." Niobe replied with a smart tone in her voice.
Luke came back with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "If I would have waited we would still be sitting here staring at each other in silence just as we we're a moment ago."
Before anything too lengthy started, Ghost jumped in, "Now children, honestly, let's not start this, this isn't the time or place for any of this."
Niobe looked at Ghost hard then back to Luke with a raised eyebrow and a frown. "Of course.Ok it's simple. About two hours ago we received Intel from a couple of other rebels who had been on a reconnaissance mission and found out where some of our mystery signals may be coming from. A couple of blocks from here, a large multi-story complex building used for technological purposes called Ener-Tek had odd signals coming from it, supposedly it's the awful squealing noises that had been interrupting the Matrix's programming. But it can't be promised, we were told to inform you of this and send you two in to find out what's going on in that building."
"Why aren't you two being sent in? This is our third time being jacked in, and this is what your first? Never mind. What's our main objective?" Luke spoke in an irritated and ill tone.
Niobe also speaking in an irritated tone, due to Luke's attitude, explained the objectives clearly. "Your mission is to infiltrate the building as discreetly as possible, if spotted; make the witnesses forget what they saw. In order to get and actual truth on the Intel, you'll have to make it to the top floor, which is the fortieth floor, or the Central Logistics Command Room, that's where they store all of the data, and Ariel, since you have some hacking abilities and skills, you'll have to hack the main server line to actually find anything."
Ariel looked over at Luke and sighed also giving a small nod. Luke sat still with an emotionless face; he thought for a moment then stood up and stretched. He stuck his hand out in front of Niobe. Niobe stood also and looked at his hand then into his eyes. She took his in hers and shook his hand.
"Good luck.you're going to need it." Niobe said calmly to Luke.
"Thanks.but you know I don't believe in luck." Luke replied calmly to Niobe.
As the two broke off their handshake, Luke shook Ghost's as Ariel shook Niobe's. They all bid each other farewell and went their separate ways, Niobe and Ghost to their exit, and Luke and Ariel to their car.
As Luke and Ariel walked across the crowded street, he looked up at the clouded, artificial skies. A short time after he looked over at Ariel and slightly smiled. She looked at him at the exact same time and smiled also. His short brown hair and her long auburn hair blowing in the wind, defying gravity even if only for a moment, made them miss the real wind they long to feel in the real world.
Luke softly spoke to Ariel and took her hand in his. "Let us be safe one more time, so we can go home and rest. Let us be safe lord, oh allow us to be safe."
Ariel smiled even brighter and nodded to what Luke was saying. Right before they got into the car and Luke opened Ariel's door for her he grabbed her gently and hugged her.
"I love you." Those were the words that came from Luke's mouth, and Ariel simply spoke, "I love you too." They kissed and he opened her car door, she sat down smiling.
Luke slowly walked over to his side and jumped in. He sat in his seat for a moment before cranking the car. He looked over to Ariel and spoke to her in a worried tone. "I really wish I knew what the deal with this whole "emanate crash" thing was, or what was causing it. Hopefully when we get to this place Niobe was talking about, we can find out the truth."
Ariel nodded and took Luke's hand. "Don't worry, we will. Everything will be ok. We'll find the truth, if not now, then later." She spoke to him in such a soft and loving reassuring voice.
Luke cranked the car and put the top up, noticing how it was raining outside. They backed out of their parking space and made their way to the complex known as Ener-Tek. The mission now had begun and they drove off in to the rainy afternoon.
As Luke pulled the car to a slow stop he looked around at the large crowd that had gathered at the Café and gave slight chuckle. "Damn.Xero wasn't kidding. This place is filled to the brim. Guess we'll have to park in that car garage over there." Luke slowly engaged the throttle of the car and pulled in to the dark garage. He cut the engine after parking the car as close to the front as possible and the two jumped out of the car.
The two briskly made their way across the street and in to the Café "Goodbye Yesterday" where a local star was performing on stage. The two stopped after they walked through the revolving door and into the vaguely lit room. Luke began looking around for his allies until Ariel nudged him to gather his attention, as he looked at her, she pointed to Ghost who was sitting alone at the moment. Luke looked over at Ghost and slightly smiled.
The two made their way over to his table slowly, adjusting to the jazzy mood of the complex. As the two neared the table Ariel leaned over to Luke and began to whisper to him, "Something must be wrong; Ghost has a really grim look on his face."
"Ghost always has a grim look on his face.what do you expect?" Luke whispered back. "No, this time it's worse than usual, something is really wrong!" Ariel replied back to Luke, still whispering.
Luke shook his head as they reached the table and pulled out a chair for Ariel, then one for himself. Luke sat down and concentrated on Ghost as he welcomed them.
"Luke, Ariel.it's good to see you two. Congratulations on your own ship being added to the fleet. But congratulations will have to wait until later. I would like to tell you what's going on, but Niobe knows more than I do about the whole situation. She should be back in a little bit, but I can fill you in on a couple of other details."
Ariel quickly replied, "Go ahead and fill us in then."
"Ok.we've been receiving some weird signals the past couple of days on the Logos. Our connection with the Matrix has also been slightly.fuzzy to say the least. We've been receiving word from Zion that the crew over on the Neb has also been seeing a lot of the same problems, only worse. Yesterday, no one could even jack in to the Matrix due to a possible crash of the system, also due to that, we almost lost Neo and Trinity. They was about to jack in when the crash was emanate. We're not sure what the hell is going on." Ghost sighed slightly after he finished. His tone was serious, but also worried.
Luke looked over at Ariel then back at Ghost with a puzzled look on his face. "What kind of weird signals? What exactly has been going on? Like are you receiving odd radio receptions, messages, or all of the above?"
"All of the above. Today when I woke up, Sparks let me listen to something he had recorded from the radio." Ghost replied.
Ariel chimed in with a question of her own. "What did it sound like? If describable that is."
"Hardly describable, all I can say is that it's ear piercing and quite disturbing. But what irritates the situation even worse, when the squeals occur, the coding in the Matrix goes haywire. Almost as if a virus had attacked an operating system, its actions are completely berserk." Ghost stated calmly.
"Could it be the machines? It is possible isn't it? The machines could have developed something to send the Matrix in to a crash, or at least in to a sleep mode. Like something that temporarily stalls our systems and jacks long enough to attack us from the outside and inside." Luke commented logically.
"No, it's not entirely logical. They would be threatening their own men by crashing the system and sending everything in to lockdown, in other words, let's say it's the biggest E.M.P inside the Matrix. Every Agent would be erased, every data file, every last building, human, animal, and even insect. Just like shutting a computer off improperly. If you just hit the button instead of going through out the entire log out process, you lose data, but this would be on a mass scale." Ghost replied to Luke's comment.
The three sat silent for a minute as the jazz music in the background played; still serenading everyone in the room to relaxation, but Luke, Ariel, and Ghost was still too worried to even think about relaxation.
"So what are we to do?" Luke spoke slowly as he looked at the candle's flame dance its exotic dance.
"Right now, we carry though with the mission at hand, so we can at least see if we can gain some kind of idea what's going on" Niobe slowly walked past Luke and Ariel and sat in her chair next to Ghost. "If we don't succeed with this mission, we'll be stuck and have no where to go with anything. We'll be sitting in the dark, exactly like we are now." Niobe finished her comment off slowly.
Luke looked at Niobe as if she was going to say something else, but decided she wasn't and asked, "So what's the mission, if you're in the mood to tell us."
Luke and Niobe never really got along that great. They had respect for each other, but nothing else. They we're always strictly business nothing else.
"If you would have waited I would have told you." Niobe replied with a smart tone in her voice.
Luke came back with a hint of annoyance in his voice. "If I would have waited we would still be sitting here staring at each other in silence just as we we're a moment ago."
Before anything too lengthy started, Ghost jumped in, "Now children, honestly, let's not start this, this isn't the time or place for any of this."
Niobe looked at Ghost hard then back to Luke with a raised eyebrow and a frown. "Of course.Ok it's simple. About two hours ago we received Intel from a couple of other rebels who had been on a reconnaissance mission and found out where some of our mystery signals may be coming from. A couple of blocks from here, a large multi-story complex building used for technological purposes called Ener-Tek had odd signals coming from it, supposedly it's the awful squealing noises that had been interrupting the Matrix's programming. But it can't be promised, we were told to inform you of this and send you two in to find out what's going on in that building."
"Why aren't you two being sent in? This is our third time being jacked in, and this is what your first? Never mind. What's our main objective?" Luke spoke in an irritated and ill tone.
Niobe also speaking in an irritated tone, due to Luke's attitude, explained the objectives clearly. "Your mission is to infiltrate the building as discreetly as possible, if spotted; make the witnesses forget what they saw. In order to get and actual truth on the Intel, you'll have to make it to the top floor, which is the fortieth floor, or the Central Logistics Command Room, that's where they store all of the data, and Ariel, since you have some hacking abilities and skills, you'll have to hack the main server line to actually find anything."
Ariel looked over at Luke and sighed also giving a small nod. Luke sat still with an emotionless face; he thought for a moment then stood up and stretched. He stuck his hand out in front of Niobe. Niobe stood also and looked at his hand then into his eyes. She took his in hers and shook his hand.
"Good luck.you're going to need it." Niobe said calmly to Luke.
"Thanks.but you know I don't believe in luck." Luke replied calmly to Niobe.
As the two broke off their handshake, Luke shook Ghost's as Ariel shook Niobe's. They all bid each other farewell and went their separate ways, Niobe and Ghost to their exit, and Luke and Ariel to their car.
As Luke and Ariel walked across the crowded street, he looked up at the clouded, artificial skies. A short time after he looked over at Ariel and slightly smiled. She looked at him at the exact same time and smiled also. His short brown hair and her long auburn hair blowing in the wind, defying gravity even if only for a moment, made them miss the real wind they long to feel in the real world.
Luke softly spoke to Ariel and took her hand in his. "Let us be safe one more time, so we can go home and rest. Let us be safe lord, oh allow us to be safe."
Ariel smiled even brighter and nodded to what Luke was saying. Right before they got into the car and Luke opened Ariel's door for her he grabbed her gently and hugged her.
"I love you." Those were the words that came from Luke's mouth, and Ariel simply spoke, "I love you too." They kissed and he opened her car door, she sat down smiling.
Luke slowly walked over to his side and jumped in. He sat in his seat for a moment before cranking the car. He looked over to Ariel and spoke to her in a worried tone. "I really wish I knew what the deal with this whole "emanate crash" thing was, or what was causing it. Hopefully when we get to this place Niobe was talking about, we can find out the truth."
Ariel nodded and took Luke's hand. "Don't worry, we will. Everything will be ok. We'll find the truth, if not now, then later." She spoke to him in such a soft and loving reassuring voice.
Luke cranked the car and put the top up, noticing how it was raining outside. They backed out of their parking space and made their way to the complex known as Ener-Tek. The mission now had begun and they drove off in to the rainy afternoon.