Chapter 15: Unwilling to Fade Away
Mt. Songak was arid and almost devoid of trees. The landscape below the AV didn't look like it was inhabited by anyone or anything. In fact, it didn't look like anyone had been here in decades. Horus began its descent at the top of the large mountainous plateau just in front of the second dormant volcanic crater. Aside from a small concrete pad, there was nothing of interest in this place.
"Land here! The entrance is underground.", Jericho noted as the AV came to a stop, the rear hatch opening. "Hildegarde! Scans!"
"Nothing. No traps, no souls... Absolutely nothing.", Hildegarde added scanning the surrounding area.
"Good.", Jericho noted leaving the AV and heading over to the wall of the crater. He fumbled around for a moment before finding a small alcove behind some overgrown brush. A door had opened leading to stairs that headed downwards.
"Ooh! A volcano base!", Asher exclaimed. "Just like in the movies!"
"Don't get excited, Asher. This place has been abandoned for eons.", Hildegarde chided.
Hildegarde took point, scanning the long hallway at the bottom of the staircase. There was an acrid odor of rust and rot. A few desiccated corpses lay in the hallway nearly mummified from the coastal air, they wore Militech uniforms and all of them had been killed by a blow to the chest, a piercing blow from something extremely sharp. The metallic walkway clanked underfoot and some moisture dripped from the ceiling in places. Hildegarde passed a coat rack with a few moldy garments on it, a few raincoats and some clean-room gear hung idly with dust and mold layering them in a thick coating. Nobody had been here for a very long time.
Hildegarde continued on, motioning to the others to follow her. A few large metal doors sat open and rusting on their hinges. The rooms inside were diagnostic chambers for electronics, the clean-rooms lying in disarray with more mummified bodies inside, these ones killed by gunfire and wearing decaying lab gear. Someone had come through here on a raid. The computer equipment inside the rooms was smashed and destroyed leaving nothing of importance to them.
"Are you sure, Jericho? This place is a tomb.", Hildegarde noted.
"I'm sure. It's further down.", Jericho reassured. Hildegarde just kept following the walkway as it descended lower into the decaying structure.
As the group headed farther downwards, the electric lighting began to flicker illuminating the hallway. The power was still on, somehow. Perhaps at the lowest level there was something hidden? Hildegarde kept going, the smell of rust and rot getting more intense as the radiation levels began to climb. There was either a nuclear reactor down here or this was where Jericho had awoken an innumerable amount of years earlier. She wasn't sure on Jericho's actual age, but he had to be in his 40's. Maybe. He didn't look that old, but then again Asian genetics were a bit weird and the entire race didn't seem to age quite the same way as others. Saburo Arasaka was nearly 120 years old when he died so she couldn't be 100% sure either way.
Hildegarde stopped for a moment and scanned the area. The radiation was the highest just beyond this doorway. A doorway that had been sundered from within with an unimaginable amount of power. The large bank-vault like doors having been blow out from the inside from something. Sooty black stains in front of the door and partially melted weapons and armor lay in a few spots at the end of the hallway, the remains of people that had been disintegrated.
"High radiation in here. Off the charts. Take a double-dose of Anti-Rad.", the outlaw noted.
"This is the place.", Jericho noted. "My tomb."
"Y- You did this?", V asked.
"I did."
"How?"
"My core."
V just stopped talking. The doors must've weigh over a ton each and they were bent outwards and sundered. The lights in the hallway glowed the brightest down here. As the group crept into the room, he realized why. There was a fission-fusion reactor down here, inside the room. It was encased in a water-jacket and glowed with Cherenkov radiation. A set of control rods pulsed up and down as the endless cycle of fission-fusion generated power for the lowest levels of the facility. A computer sat on a bloodied desk with a noticeable blood trail leading to a large hole in the ground. As V looked into the hole, he saw a sarcophagus. A vaguely humanoid chamber where one body was laid to rest. He just stared at Jericho.
"Here. This is where I awoke.", The cyborg added pointing to the sarcophagus. "Asher? The computer... Crack it."
Asher didn't hesitate, she connected her Cyberdeck to the ancient computer and began to punch buttons on its chiclet-sized keypad.
"Jericho, I've never seen code like this in my life. Wha- What is this?", the tiny NetRunner asked in confusion. Jericho didn't respond verbally, but simply handed Asher a data-shard. She simply inserted it into her deck and the code began to make sense. "Biometric data? Cool, easy... Got it. Can I have an icecream cone when we're done?"
Jericho just stared at Asher, his glowing blue eyes seemingly staring into her soul as he contemplated whether to strangle the girl or reward her, he soon had an answer. "Of course, Asher. This is why I recruited you. Anything you want, anything at all..."
"Cool beans! Okay, I'm through the ecryption! Uhhhmmm... Okay, I got it... no alarms... I'm in the database... I've got cams...", Asher noted as she worked her old-school magic on the computer systems. "Jericho, these logs are from the 2040's. Ancient history. Are you sure this is right?"
"I'm sure. Play the most recent one."
"Okay... Here we go..."
Asher began to play the most recent set of cam-logs. A viewer appeared on screen and seemed to show a conversation, in Korean, between two scientists. One sat at the computer and the other paced behind the first from one end of the room to the other.
"You're sure? It's complete?", the one scientist asked, standing behind the other that was seated at the computer.
"I am. It's done. The core, the project. It's all complete. I've done it. When the next Corporate War comes, we'll have a defense against it. And when that world lies in ruin, we'll be the only ones left.", the seated scientist stated, turning towards the other.
"You've done the impossible, Jin-suu. You've found a way to control CyberPsychosis. This is too dangerous to use. I don't care about what you've done to make it safe, it should never be used... ever."
"You dream too much, Myung-suu. This is our future, a perfect weapon. You've seen that the core works, an endless cycle of fission-fusion. Unlimited power potential. We could run the heaviest cyberware without any loss of power. Even a fully cybernetic body!"
"And who would consent to that? Does the AI even work?"
"It does. Think of it as a co-pilot. It'll make the harder decisions for you. To kill or not, that's the problem with soldiers... There's too much empathy for their targets, what if you could turn that off?"
"You'd have a CyberPsycho... But are you sure the AI can even control that?"
"It can and will. I know it."
"Have you found anyone willing to even experiment with this?"
"No. But I have done extensive testing on myself. We need to find a compatible host, with a similar bio-signature and brainwave... someone strong in body, but also in willpower. Once this is ready, no civilians will die because of war again. The wars of the future will be non-existent, lasting only a few hours before a victor is declared."
"Jin-suu...", Myung-suu sighed, "The world isn't ready for this. You need to stop."
"I'll stop when I'm dead. This is my life. I'm doing it for them.", Jin-suu noted before turning back to the computer and glancing at a small picture frame, he continued typing onto the keyboard more commands that weren't visible to the camera.
The other scientist seemed to back away for a moment, standing aside and staring at the doors that led out of the chamber. He turned back to his partner and stared at the back of his head without saying anything.
"I'm sorry..."
Myung-suu, the other scientist pulled a small pistol and aimed it at the other scientist's back before pulling the trigger, the seated scientist going limp fro the shot and slumping over the computer. He seemed to walk around for a bit contemplating his decision before leaving the room and starting a lock-down procedure on the facility, the large metal doors closing automatically.
The camera cut for a moment, resuming after a few minutes of dead-static. The cameras were motion-activated. The seated scientist, Jin-suu began to straighten up, bleeding from the mouth. He stumbled out of his chair and dragged himself to a control panel and feebly slammed a button on it.
"Forgive me. This is the... only way... I must... finish... what I've... started... Show... Them... Show... Them... This...", the dying scientist gasped.
Jin-suu dragged himself upwards as a chamber in the floor opened, a humanoid chamber revealing itself in the floor. He fell into it limp and out of strength to continue on.
"Start...ah... hah... Start... JERICHO... PROJECT..."
Inside the floor chamber, a set of mechanical straps began to bind the hapless scientist into place, bindings strapping over his arms and legs. A set of mechanical arms with cutting tools extended from panels and began to cut into the man, severing limbs, severing his spine, cutting into his skull and extracting his damaged brain. Another set of arms reached forwards onto the man and began to graft cybernetics. The floor began to close again, entombing the dying scientist within his own project. The camera feed cut out, leading only to static.
Jericho stood silently watching the video feed. He didn't move, just watched in curiosity and contemplation. He just stared at the bloodied face of the dying scientist as he crawled into the sarcophagus and as the sarcophagus closed. He stared at the bloodied picture frame on the computer desk near Asher, a photo of a woman and a small child.
"My name was Jin-suu. That's me. I was the herald of this project, the one that bears my name.", Jericho sighed. "Search the database for Jin-suu!"
Asher complied, shocked as well. She found the data quickly and loaded it onto the screen. It read: Jin-Suu Jung, Overseer of the JERICHO Project and key programmer of JANUS. He has built Ouroboros from the ground up as a leading micro-corporation focused on Cybernetic Superiority. He is a widower, with his wife and children dying in the Corporate Wars. He was born in Seoul Korea in 1989 and lived through the 4th Corporate War, unwilling to let anyone else die, he devoted his life to the growth of Korean Cybernetics.
"Jericho? Are you okay?", Asher asked heistantly.
"I know. I understand... I understand everything... Database search of Myung-Suu!"
Asher comlied again, this time pulling up Myung-suu's information. It read: Myung-Suu Jung, the younger brother of Jin-Suu Jung. Head Architect of the prototype Sefirot Core system. He has helped Ouroboros grow beyond expectations from a basic home-garage setup to a micro-corp capable of taking on the best in the market. Born in 1994 he has also seen the destruction of the Corporate Wars and strives for a better future.
"I... There's another log, Jericho. This one is dated almost 20 years after the last one...", Asher noted.
"Play. It.", Jericho noted.
The camera feed began abruptly, older cameras in the facility detecting motion for the first time in decades and starting a recording. A squadron of Militech soldiers walked down a decaying hallway, the same hallway that the group had come through moments earlier.
"I don't know! The old man said he'd gotten a signal from here. It was garbled, electronic static and what sounded like screams. Anyways... There was some kind of experiment down here, cybernetics...", a soldier stated, gesticulating to another soldier with a rifle.
"Looks like whatever it was, it didn't work. Anyways, let's just get this over with. This place is a dump.", the rifleman added.
The two Militech soldiers continued, the feed cutting to different cameras as they walked towards the laboratory.
"What's up wit the doors?", the one soldier asked.
"No clue. The old man said there was a reactor down here, maybe it's for radiation protection? I'm getting a weak level of radiation on my dosimeter.", the rifleman noted as he reached for the door panel.
The large metal doors began to swing inwards, opening Jericho's lab for the first time. The soldiers scanned around the room hesitantly, taking note of the fission-fusion reactor against the wall before noticing the blood trail that led into the floor.
"Someone was here...", the one soldier noted.
"Strange... This place was wiped out. Sovietek made sure of that after the Old Man resigned from the Project. There's a panel over here...", the rifleman noted, looking at the control panel in the corner, a single button stained with blood. He cautiously pressed the button.
The floor began to open, a noticeable static causing the camera feed to begin to glitch out. A soft whine of something spinning up began to whine. The soldiers in the feed stepped back from the floor panel as it began to open up.
"What the hell? Is that a man?", the one soldier asked.
"I'm getting high radiation levels... It's not the reactor... We need to get out of here!", the rifleman shouted, backing away from the floor panel and towards the exit of the room. He stood just beyond the doorway, still partially visible. "Get out!"
Holy... fuck... What the hell were they doing in here?", the one soldier asked, still staring as the now recognizable Jericho was unearthed from his tomb. Jericho lay on his back in a T-pose inside the chamber.
There was a sudden flash that caused the camera feed to white-out for a second. When the picture returned it was even grainier and two glowing eyes were suddenly visible. Jericho stood upright in front of the soldier and held the poor man aloft by his throat. There was no emotion on his cyborg face. The rifleman outside the doors just hammered the door panel and forced the doors shut, sealing Jericho and the soldier inside. There was another flash of radiation, whiting out the camera feed and Jericho now stood in a different position, the body of the soldier cut into quarters and spread across the floor. Jericho seemed to look at his hands and body for a moment before seemingly conversing with someone not in the room.
"Why can't I remember?", he asked.
"Your mind was damaged. Your body broken.", a voice rang out in the present-day Jericho's skull. "This was the only way. Sacrifices were made."
"Where am I? Who are you?", past-Jericho asked.
"I am Janus. Your guardian angel. You are in your grave. It's time to wake up and finish what we've started.", the voice stated to present-Jericho.
"Finish what?", Past-Jericho asked.
"A revolution. They took what you loved from you. It's time to take everything from them. The ones who stole your designs, the ones who killed your family. Everyone will pay.", Janus noted to Present-Jericho.
"How? Am I to wander this world alone?", Past-Jericho asked again.
"No. Not alone. You have the Chipset a wonderful gift. Take the prototypes from the diagnostic lab. Find like-minded individuals and show them the gift. A Human Revolution will follow.", Janus noted to Present-Jericho.
"Where am I going?", Past-Jericho asked.
"Siberia. You've slept for a long time. It's time to wake up and smell the ashes of resurrection.". Janus confirmed to Present-Jericho.
"I'll go... But... I need to know why... Who... I am..."
"You'll know eventually. You no longer have the bio-signature to access the mainframe here. You will need a skilled NetRunner. We will find one on our way to our destiny.", Janus whispered to Present-Jericho.
"I'm going...", Past-Jericho concluded before staring at the set of blast doors that blocked his path.
"Just a taste of our power. We have become death, destroyer of worlds. Herald of a new age. A fallen angel cursed to walk this world in atonement when we need none.", Janus added, as he helped Past-Jericho and whispered to Present-Jericho.
The camera feed began to cut out again as radiation levels spiked, Jericho's left arm splitting down the middle, his left hand folding backwards and a large cannon emerging from the center of his arm. He aimed it at the doors and began to charge it up, a ball of raw energy swirling at the barrel for a moment before being let go. The camera whited-out again before resuming and showing the two heavy blast doors ripped asunder, bent backwards with the smoldering remains of the rifleman scattered behind it. Past-Jericho just shot through the doorway faster than the cameras could follow, a blur of blue Cherenkov radiation shot through the hallway. The squadron of soldiers stood still for a moment before suddenly lying dead and bisected where they previously stood. The camera feed focused on the bleeding corpses for a few minutes before they shut off automatically.
Old questions had been answered, as Janus had foretold. Jericho knew who he was now and why he was doing this. His family had died during the 4th Corporate War and he had committed his entire life to finding a way of stopping another. He had been betrayed by the only person he trusted. His transformation into what he had become springing from his own brow in a moment of desperation. His reactor began to spike, his cooling vents opening and blasting radiation into the room.
Jericho just stood up and brought his fist down on the terminal, smashing it into oblivion. Asher hadn't seen this anger before and she jumped backwards in surprise pulling her Cyberdeck out of the wrecked terminal.
"My own brother... Betrayed me... How biblical... To know what I sacrificed to become what I am now... Dear brother, I am coming for you. I need to show you that those that fed on carrion smell your decaying bones and condemn you to an eternity of suffering. You've walked the world in agony and those that fed on carrion shall guide you to the end.", Jericho mused, cryptic as always, but a hatred grew in his eyes. "You did this to me. You made me. You need to see what I've become."
"Jericho or should I say Jin-suu? Wha- What are you thinking?", Hildegarde asked, having never before seen his eyes glow with such intensity, the radiation levels growing stronger by the moment.
"Jin-suu is dead. He died when I was born. I am Jericho. I am the curse brought upon those that betrayed me. A long time ago, I swore to avenge my family and I must finish what I've started. We're going to finish what we've started. There will be no more Corporate Wars when there are no more Mega-Corporations to start them. The strong will feed the weak. As it was always meant to be.", Jericho noted, his eyes glowing a hot radiant blue, but his tone cold and enraged.
"Of course, Jericho... Till death do we part...", Hildegarde added, patting the cyborg on the back.
"I'm in too! Let's take the all down!", Asher exclaimed.
"V? And you?", Jericho asked.
"I- I'll follow you for now. I know why you do what you do now and if I was in the same situation, I'd go and kill those bastards for doing what they did to your loved ones!"
"Do you think Myung-suu should die?"
"I- I'm not the one to say... This is your choice, Jericho. Your problem and the future you have to live with if you kill him."
"Very well... You are quite a bit more than I expected. I am glad to call you a brother.", Jericho concluded. He turned and began to walk slow and methodically out of the room. "There is still much to do before the City of Shadows falls and the Revolution begins..."
The walk out of the ancient laboratory was silent, Jericho leading the group out and back towards the AV that awaited them. He walked several meters in front of everyone else seemingly in a trance, probably taking in all that he had seen. He didn't bother to step over the mummified bodies and instead trampled them into dust on his way out. V, Hildegarde and Asher stayed farther behind him, they could see his cooling vents burning white-hot and they knew his reactor was critical.
"D-Do you even think Myung-Suu is even still alive? Jericho is almost 90 years old...", Asher asked.
"His brother was a bit younger. It's possible. Although I can't imagine what kind of reaction he'll have after seeing his presumed long-dead brother show up on his doorstep...", Hildegarde added. Despite being a decade away from being a centurion, Jericho still looked as if he was in his mid 30's. This was probably due to him being a near-fully cybernetic being at this point. Only parts of his mind remained human. "Maybe he'll just die of shock?"
"Agh! Shit!", V exclaimed as he slammed another Anti-Rad hypo into his own chest. Jericho was burning them alive with radiation. "I kinda wish I had one of those reactors right now..."
"V! You'll be okay. Just take your meds and it'll be a nice tingly dance to the AV!", Asher reassured, also taking another Anti-Rad hypo.
"You're all together because of this. You're just like him...", V noted.
"Yep! We're one big happy family!", Asher noted.
"Hmmm. Not so sure about that, V... I'm not... I don't share his trauma.", Hildegarde added.
"Well then, maybe he just likes you!"
"I can only hope.", Hildegarde sighed. "If not, then my lifespan is officially being measured in minutes."
"I don't think he's going to kill you.", V added.
"Well, at least one of us doesn't think that."
"I don't think so either! I think it's because you also have a power core and you've got the second Chipset!", Asher added reassuringly.
Hildegarde sighed and kept following Jericho, only stopping because the cyborg had stopped at the top of the stairs that led downwards. His left arm split again, his cooling vents blasting burning hot fire towards her. He was charging up again for some reason. Maybe he was just mad? A focused blast of bluish-toned energy fired from his arm-cannon streaking outwards and arcing upwards towards something above them. Something far above was struck by the blast and began to tumble downwards before recovering from the shot. A bright-red AV slid into view for a moment.
"Holy shit! What the hell was that!?", a younger black-haired girl asked as she gripped the controls of the AV, pulling it backwards and restabilizing it.
"No idea. Never seen anything like it. Intel said Hildegarde was here.", Jean Starhawk stuttered as he stumbled into the cockpit of the Proscrita Estrella. The AV had taken a broadsiding blow to its armor, the hull had been breached.
"That's not fucking Hildegarde!", another crewmate shouted, a larger Animals ganger steadied herself as the AV banked hard.
"I can see that!", James added, the younger man scanning the ground for the infamous outlaw. "I've got a lock on the perp! Fire?"
"Fire everything!", Starhawk shouted.
The Proscrita Estrella let loose a volley of cannon fire onto the angry cyborg, the glowing man disappearing for a second in the hail of explosions.
"I'm getting extremely high radiation levels!", the black-haired girl shouted.
"Melina! Get us-", Starhawk was cut off as a sudden weight impacted the front of the AV.
A second more powerful blast of energy rocked the AV, nearly hitting their reactor core through the previously pierced hull breach. This blast shot through the other side of the vehicle and kept on going.
"Get us out of here! Now!", Starhawk screamed as warning lights and klaxons blared throughout the AV.
Jericho just stared up at the smoking AV as it turned and fled from Mt Songak. He briefly wondered who they were as their AV was painted in a color scheme he hadn't seen before. Regardless, intruders needed to be dealt with. Whoever they were, they wouldn't be flying that thing around for a while. He quickly initiated AZ-5 protocols and vented his core, closing up his arm-cannon and starting the cool-down mode. He turned to his crew behind him.
"Not sure where they were from. Never seen the livery before."
"Jericho... That was Starhawk.", Hildegarde noted as she walked over to the cyborg.
"Perhaps I should've shot to kill, then."
"No. Starhawk is mine. He's most likely heading back to Irkutsk to repair the Proscrita Estrella. His base and shop are there."
"Good. Not too far away..."
"We'll head there, Jericho. But I'm going to kill him. Only me."
"I know. I'll be watching you. I have faith in you, Hildegarde. It's time to end this."
Hildegarde just nodded and headed into the Horus. Scotch was sleeping face-first on the control panel and had drooled on the controls. She just slapped him on the back and woke him up. "Time to go."
"Aye. Where? London? For yer bounty?", Scotch slobbered wiping the excess moisture from his face.
"No. Irkutsk. I need to make a deal with Jean Starhawk..."
Scotch just cackled and fired up the engines. Jericho took his usual seat at his desk, this time with his arms folded in front of him deep in thought. Asher took the co-pilot's seat and V sat down on his cot. Hildegarde sat on the couch and began to clean and examine her rail-gun.
"So that was Starhawk, huh?", V mused.
"Yep. I'm going to kill him.", the outlaw noted without looking up.
"Alone?"
"Alone. It's what he expects. I'll be fine, V. I've had a long time to prepare for this..."
V just sighed. This was turning into a roaring rampage of revenge. Hildegarde's rival was next, then Monarch, and after that... The world? A revolution? This was the endgame and all he had was Johnny, the Chipset and an antique Malorian 3516 pistol.
Chapter End.
A/N: I swear V will get some action. It's a Hildegarde chapter next, then V gets his time to shine.