Vick says: chapter 10, the Sentinels are destroying more ships while Shiva is working to complete the Firewall but the crew of the Mordecai are starting to doubt about Sonic's choice
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Disclaimer. Agent Smith, the Matrix and other characters related are property of other very creative persons and not mine, a fan who wants to write an entertaining and interesting Sci Fi piece based in this outstanding saga.
THE MATRIX
Firewalls
By Vick
Vickpena@yahoo.com.mx
The Agent and the Hacker.
Chapter 10
Sonic's Legacy
Inspired in Matrix Reloaded OST track 10 'Dread Rock' performed by Oakenfold
One hour later
Joyce and Abraham were connected to the Matrix in their way to get Sonic's files while Shiva was next to Jung in the control isle.
"Any sign of an Agent?" she asked, nervously
"No " Jung said, keeping an eye in the monitor in front of her " the operation is progressing normally. Abraham and Joyce will be back any moment "
"you don't trust me, do you Jung?"
"To be honest, no, I don't " the operator said " but I will help you ...all of our lives depend on you concluding Sonic's work...Zion, Shiva is bigger than my trust in you or the people in this ship...we have to forget the selfishness of our emotions and concentrate in our collective goal ...even if that means killing those near us" The woman looked at her with her deep blue eyes, the threat palpable " do not misunderstand me, Shiva , I am just doing my job "
Shiva regretted asking that question knowing how true the words from Jung were.
"Alright..."
"Ready to start?" Jung asked, always in her neutral voice " The Construct is loaded "
" Sure "
"I'll assist you " Freud said from the door
"Ok " she sat in the nearest chair, Freud was preparing her monitoring devices with a strange look in his eyes "is something wrong?"
He shook his head "Nothing is wrong..."
"you're a lousy liar "Shiva thought the moment before the jack was introduced in the outlet.
"Now that you're up, tell me, what do you need?"
Shiva sighed "I need a place to work"
"here you go" said the voice of Jung
The Construct changed and Shiva found herself in a copy of her old office in the FBI Building.
"what about this?" the operator asked
"Perfect "
Abraham opened the door and walked in; Joyce remained outside.
"This is Sonic's legacy, Shiva, " he said, placing a CD/R in her hands " now is up to you"
"I won't leave here unless the firewall program is complete " she assured "now go...I work better on my own"
Abraham nodded and left.
Shiva inserted the CD in the CD ROM unit of the main computer and sat, ready to work.
The flight of the Archangel
While Shiva worked in the Construct of the undetectable Mordecai, battles of life and death were fought in the caves, ships were hunted down with mechanical accuracy
But none of the ships tried to escape...their crews fought back to buy precious time for Jeremy and his crew...they couldn't simply return to Zion, it would give the machines the control of the sewer systems and a clear path to the human city.
The hovercrafts, survivors of a lost war, wouldn't seen the end of their fighting days until the last Sentinel were destroyed.
The explosion sent all who were not ready to the ground inside the Archangel, the pilot barked some orders in the intercom and continued dodging the incoming fire as best as he could while his companion, a Latin looking man tried very hard to find the way out of that labyrinth ...they were flying in a narrow cave that left them not much space to maneuver and the Sentinels were fast and small...the perfect combination to fight in those caves
The man clenched his teeth, the nearest exit to a bigger cave was three and a half miles ahead and, according to the scanner, Sentinels were waiting, a dozen of them
The pilot knew his companion very well that's why he understood the signs written in his face.
"we're busted, aren't we Vazquez? "
A explosion to his right collapsed some pillars in front of them, the pilot grabbed the controls tight and darted toward the falling rocks prying they would have the chance to pass, they did but one of the Anti G generators in the tail was hit, exploding and taking a Sentinel with him...
The alert lights began blinking in his panel
"Stabilize that, dammit!" he yelled when the hovercraft began sliding left
Vazquez typed some commands in a small keyboard , soon, the ship was in control again
"we have an exit to a bigger cave " Vazquez said " three and a half miles ahead, but it is guarded "
"how many of them?" the pilot asked
"twelve "
"what is in the cave?"
Vazquez searched the requested info.
"according to our sensors...."
"cut the damn speech Mr. Spock!"
"it seems they destroyed two hovercrafts there "
The pilot smiled fiercely. " perfect"
"what?!"
A series of explosions created such turbulence the pilot screamed in terror completely sure that was the end of the Archangel but he kept the ship in control and continued in one piece
In the back part of the hovercraft, the rest of the crew used the 50 mm machine guns to defend the ship against the sentinels.
Kuffler locked on and fired, the sentinel received a direct hit and exploded when it was crawling on the hull...two of them landed on the hull but the other machine gun nest destroyed them...but there was more...
Six Sentinels landed in the hull of the ship and fired their lasers to open a path inside the ship. Kuffler fired and destroyed two of them but the others continued working... the woman yelled a warning to those in the main deck and continued her job, firing against the enemy
An explosion to her left indicated the machine gun operated by Hector was destroyed, Kuffler moved her weapon and turned the Sentinel in mechanic useless junk that slid down the hull and fell
It was like fighting ants...they were everywhere but the woman wouldn't give up...if she was about to die she'd take as many machines as possible ..
A Sentinel appeared in front of her machine gun and was promptly reduced to pieces.
The 'Hull breach' legend blinked in the bottom left corner of her view screen, Kuffler didn't seem to notice, she just continued fighting but in the bottom of her mind she knew she wouldn't resist much more time, not when she was running low of ammo.
But she wouldn't allow a machine to kill her...the knife she always carried with her would be her passport to the other world. Those bastards would only find her body...
Kuffler saw how the Sentinels destroyed an Anti G device near her, she tried to hunt them down but the turbulence generated by the explosion moved the sight
Three Sentinels headed their way and jumped over her machine gun.
She screamed in fury and charged against them when her last rounds.
"Damn, this is bad!"
Vazquez was beginning to see how impossible was to control the ship...the Anti G generators were being ripped apart and that meant the ship would fall like a heavy rock in a matter of minutes...
But the pilot had a plan
"how far are we from the cave?"
"two minutes "
"good..." the pilot looked at him " go charge the EMP"
"are you crazy?" Vazquez asked, dumbfounded " we can't do that !"
"Of course we can" the pilot stated " it is our only chance!"
"but we would be defenseless! "
"yeah....but alive..." the pilot replied " if we can destroy these bastards with the EMP the others won't get closer and if they do they will only see three wrecked ships...we can hide until a rescue ship come to pick us up"
Vazquez nodded " I'll do it "
"I'll send the distress signal now , that way the Sentinels will think they have us..."
"they do" Vazquez said and ran out of the bridge heading to the main deck.
It was practically impossible to run in a ship that moved from one side to another like that but he had to do it. So he grabbed from wherever he could and headed to use Archangel's last chance to
survive.
He heard the screams of a crew member and the sound of the machine guns,
Vazquez got to the main deck and stopped, horrified
Parson and Nek where dead, their bodies still in the suspensor chairs, both of them with their heads hanging in strange and impossible angles
There was a small fire crackling somewhere but Vazquez didn't care, he had to get to the main isle to arm the device...the whereabouts of Jonah , the operator of the Archangel were unknown although, all he had to do was to look up, to the hole opened in the hull to an upper level and where the Sentinel waited for another prey still holding the dead operator in one of his metallic appendix.
Vazquez entered the code for EMP activation
The Sentinel fell over him
The pilot asked the computer how many machine guns were left.
Two
An explosion swayed the ship and the count changed...one machine gun left
In front of him, barrier of Sentinels were waiting,
The pilot activated the intercom when the barricade of Sentinels charged against the ship. " Now Vazquez!"
The scream of pain echoed in the ship
The Sentinel grabbed the human again and ripped apart one of his legs, the man screamed at the verge of hysteria but the machine, deaf to those sounds of pain, send the man flying directly to the main isle.
Like toying with his victim
Vazquez crawled to the EMP console, slowly, knowing he had not much time...the Sentinel loomed over him...the man crawled a few more inches...he was too close...
The Sentinel decided it was time to end his game...so he fired his laser, aiming to the head of that human
The hand of Vazquez was over the button when he died....his last action was to press it.
The pilot of the ship closed his eyes when he heard the increasing hum of the Electro Magnetic Pulse
The controls froze in his hands while the explosion of light flooded the cave, expanding fast through the walls and into the tunnels
The Sentinels died at the touch of the EMP, their electronic devices destroyed by the pulse but so did the Archangel which began falling, directly to where the other two ships were.
The ship made contact with the ground and began bumping wildly and without control, leaving a destruction path while it slowed down to a stop
To any casual witness of that tragedy, in case it could be any in that desolated lands, the first thought would be that no one could survive
They would be wrong.
The pilot of the ship opened his eyes and tried to move...his body hurt but he was not injured; he was beaten but fine...
He rose from his chair and grabbed for support, he was dizzy and has a terrible headache.
Was he the only one alive?
He walked inside the ship willing to find life in there...in the main deck he found four dead ...Vazquez still holding the EMP trigger...
The machine gun operated by Hector was gone
The pilot moved to the other side of the ship, where the other machine gun was and found Kuffler hanging head down in the stairs, inside the machine gun nest he saw a big hole in the walls and some metallic appendixes hanging like dead snakes...
A low groan coming from the woman startled him.
She was alive
The pilot pulled her down and put her, carefully, on the floor
"Kuffler?" he called, softly " can you hear me?"
She opened her eyes slowly. At first, she only saw a fuzzy image and then the worried face of the pilot
" Apoc " she said
"we made it..." he replied " how do you feel?"
"terrible..." she coughed " you're an awful driver..."
That was a good sign.
"we have to move..." Apoc said helping her up " we need to look for a shelter and wait for the rescue ship"
Little they knew they'd have to wait three weeks to be rescued
***
Freud curled his mouth in anger; another one gone.
Jeremy , dejected, shook his head
"How is she doing?"
"progressing... " Freud informed " she will need more time"
"Do you believe in miracles?" Jeremy asked, looking out to the sinister landscape outside the ship " I mean, do you really believe we will make it?"
Freud sighed "No"
"Me neither, Freud...." Jeremy admitted, admiring the swarms of Sentinels flying over the Mordecai with their electronic sensors blind to Zion's only hope.
Blind, yes but that left a question ...for how long?...
The only person who could answer that question was dead.