The Marquis and its entire crew is made up by me, as well as certain other characters. The rest of it is the property of their respective owners. So here it is.
MATRIX
ACE
CHAPTER 14
IMPULSE
When the Runner in front of him stopped talking, Agent Grey sat a moment, digesting the information. "An interesting proposal, Mr. Hawke," he said. "Or -- 'Cyclone' as you are also known. May I ask what this ... precedent you referred to would be?"
Cyclone shrugged. "Well, right after the first war ended," he said, "people got a choice about who they worked for. Zion ..."
"... or us," said Agent Grey. "As I said, an interesting proposal. And as a token of your loyalty?"
Cyclone smirked. "I get you the source code to the Agent Repellant," he said. "Maybe even work on a counter to it."
Agent Grey raised his eyebrows, the faintest trace of a smile on his face. "That," he said, "will do nicely."
Cyclone nodded. "Right," he said. "Just a little longer, and we'll get some people from other ships. The Argent's crew is a little bit small ... but we'll have a bigger crew in a little bit."
And then it was a little bit later.
"What the HELL'S going on!?" barked Jaxom into a microphone.
"The Argent just blasted its way out of the docking bay!"
"Shit!"
"Yeah, it's hit the fan!"
A blaring announcement ordered all crew members to return to their ships. Ace and Zephyr immediately ran towards the nearest elecator, where several other people were also crowding.
They made their way to the Marquis, which was already halfway towards getting ready to take off, despite what appeared to be a nasty burn mark across the bow.
"What's going on?" said Zephyr.
"Besides the obvious?" said Fate.
"Apparently, several people who'd been on leave jumped onto the Argent, the crew of which seems to be defecting to the Machines," said Tenshi. "Their captain and first officer was killed by an Agent during their last foray into the Matrix ... in retrospect, we probably should have wondered a bit more about that."
"Why would ANYONE want to defect to the Machines!?" exclaimed Ace.
Tenshi shrugged. "Any number of reasons," he said. "Maybe when they'll retire, they'd rather settle down in the Matrix with no knowledge of reality, with the logic that ignorance is bliss."
"It gets better," said Jaxter, rushing into the room and looking harried. "Styx was with them."
Ace blinked in surprise, feeling a knot in his stomach. "Styx...!?"
He thought he'd known his crewmate and Jaxter's best friend; true, he had sometimes commented on how he'd missed his old life, but Ace never imagined that he'd betray Zion.
"Everyone, fasten your seatbelts," said Pylon over the ship's intercom. "Let's get ready to blow this popsicle stand!"
There was a pause, and then Dr. Coffin's voice said, "The expression is, 'it's time to blow this popsicle stand!"
The Nebuchadnezzar III and the Marquis flew down the tunnels. "Looks like they're headed for broadcast depth," radioed Heracles, the captain of the Neb.
"So they're going into the Matrix," murmured Tenshi.
"Any reason why they'd want to?" said Ace.
"To, uh, consummate their relationship with the Machines," said Napalm wryly. "We gonna blast their asses, or -- oh shit."
As the Argent rounded a bend in the tunnels, a swarm of Sentinels flew towards them from the other direction. There appeared to be dozens of them. Pylon yelped.
"Battle stations!" thundered Tenshi. Ace, who had been given real-world combat training in the intervening time, ran towards the controls to one of the main guns and sat down, strapping himself in.
Okay. It was like every other type of programmed skill: at first glance, the layout of the controls were incomprehensible, but then there was an odd sort of familiarity about them, and then he almost immediately he knew everything he had to do.
He grabbed the controls of the guns and began firing at the Sentinels as they drew near. Quickly, the Marquis and the Nebuchadnezzar III made short work of the swarm --
-- before hundreds of Sentinels flew in from all directions. Pylon began screaming profanities.
"Damn, that's a lot!" said Heracles.
"Indeed," said Tenshi, and switched frequencies to that of the Sentinels. "Okay, you win, the Argent can go if you want!" he said. "So, may we go away without getting destroyed?"
One of the Sentinels radioed back. "No," it said, heavily distorted by the low-quality.
Fate blinked. "That sounded like Agent White," she murmured.
Apparently, the microphone had picked it up. "Yes," said the voice. "It will be very satisfying to destroy you, Miss Trent."
Pylon chimed in, "Will it help if we throw her out the window and let you have her?" And then he yelped as Napalm shoved him over.
"It will not," said the voice.
"EMP charged and ready," said Red.
Tenshi nodded, and switched frequencies back to radio the Neb. A moment later, shields went up over the machinery.
Bugger, thought Agent White, right before his Sentinel -- as far as he was concerned -- ceased to exist.
"Your sentinels have been destroyed?" said Agent Black.
Agent White nodded, grimacing. "Yes. They used the EMP."
"Disappointing," said Agent Black.
"Okay ... so now what?" said Ace, once the ardurous process of retracting the shields had been finished.
"Well, if the Agents get their hands on that Repellant program, we're not exactly screwed, we're merely back to where we were before," said Pylon. "Also, I do not relish the notion of having another ship running around." He shrugged. "Hell, with the resources the Machines have, they might even have it better. Maybe IV tubes or something feeding them, and they have hamburgers in the Construct!"
"Actually, we might have that in another decade," said Red. "I overheard Gitchell and Odgers from the Triant saying something about that ..."
"Shadaaaap!" said Pylon. "You don't need to make my job seem worse than it does already!"
"Um ... the Argent?" said Fate.
"Oh, right," said Pylon.
"Actually, I have an idea for what to do about that," said Norton. "Pylon, you're definitely not going to like this. Neither, probably, are you, Captain, especially given who it involves going into the Matrix. But at the moment, I feel that preventing the Agents from getting that program into their hands should be top priority." And he told them his plan.
There was a pause. Then Pylon said, "Norton? For the record, you suck."