Chapter 7
The two completely different groups, one of them the four mercenaries known as the Knight Sabers, the other who was a special team of combat-boomers, were on their way to their destination.
This destination was one of the many buildings in the central area of Mega-Tokyo. It was the local headquarters of a company named Omnitec International.
In truth were the building and even the entire company that was owning it not much more than a facade for the mysterious organization named Black Circle.
The same building was now their target for a important mission of both teams. Their goal was it to retrieve a very special AI from the grip of this organization. This meant in one way or in another.
For one of their members however, Priss, this particular AI was even more `special´ than for the rest of them. The AI in question however was in fact nothing else than the mind of the 33S boomer just called Sylvie, her old friend.
This was also one of the reasons that they all and especially she had more than just second thoughts about this entire task they were doing here.
`Because getting the AI out of the grip of this organization´. That might in this case, at least as far as it came to their new allies, as well mean destroying it if things came hard to hard.
Sylvie died over a year ago...by her own hand. Priss knew at least a part of her should have been happy that the person she had become so close to in such incredible short time might still...at least in some way
...be alive? She wasn´t even sure if this term could still be used for what her friend had supposedly become...a computer program, stored somewhere in the systems inside of this building.
Even if it was true...would there even be anything left of the woman she had known? Would `it´ even remember her? Or was it just software now?
The truth was, Priss wasn´t happy at all.
For nothing in the world she wanted to repeat the situation from one year ago. If she or some part of her actually still existed in some form, then she wanted for no price be responsible for her destruction once again.
For her, all this was like a nightmare come true...in the truest sense of the word. She remembered how she was barely able to sleep for weeks afterwards. But she would fight with all she had against things repeating themselves.
On the other hand however, their allied had a good argument. When in the end it came down to the choice between the conserved mind of a close friend and the safety of quite possible millions of people...There should have been no choice at all. But she hated the thought alone.
It was a choice that Priss had in fact already made before, one year ago and she was sick of it...she could not longer take it.
In the end, it changed nothing. That way or the other, their mission had started. They would do now what they had to do, herself included. That was their job.
Another member of their team, their leader Sylia, had similar feelings...for a bit different reasons. She remembered all to clear what happened one year ago, how it had torn Priss up. And like herself, the last thing that she wanted was to put her team-member...and friend, through that again.
But just like Priss herself...unknown to her...had thought a minute ago,
"We go in like we have planned," she heard the voice of `John´, the leader of the boomer-group, interrupting her thoughts.
"Yes, we are ready," she answered.
xxx
In front of them they could see the large shape of the building they were heading for. It wasn´t quite like the giant sky filling form of the genom tower, but it was big enough. They knew about the security they would be facing. Their allies had provided them with as much information as possible.
Anyone else who was going against that kind of resistence would have probably been more than just intimidated. They however had spend the last years doing even the most dangerous jobs and managed to survive somehow.
Mason, the super-boomers, Largo, they had seen them all and lived through it. This here was not any different.
They had nearly reached the building. That way or the other, the attack would beginn now.
xxx
They were using stealth tactics, trying to come as far as possible without being detected. So far it went well.
Of course they knew that their chance to actually reach their destination unnotices was next to nothing. Both of their sub-groups, the Knight Saber´s and the boomer squad, were as skilled and experienced as it was possible.
But if something was just impossible to achieve, then it was impossible and this was clearly such a case. They had to break right into the complex for Research and Developments, that was located in the very heart of the building.
Just as predicted, it didn´t take very long for them to be discovered. Two of the guards, both of them as it looked combat-boomers of the 55c type, noticed a movement from one of them.
They weren´t even completely sure if it was one of the Knight Sabers or one of their allies who had caused them to be detected. And it didn´t matter, they were working as one team right now, at least for this single mission.
The two guards opened fire at them, nearly in the same moment that the alarms were going up everywhere at the building.
"They have noticed us," Linna said.
"Well, it has taken them longer as expected actually," Nene commented.
"But not as long as we had hoped for," Sylia replied. "Move," she ordered the others. Both Knight Sabers and allied boomers followed her instructions.
She and `John´, the leader of the boomer-group and as such the representative of their client Weiss-Kreuz, were sharing command for this mission. This was another unusual detail.
They split up into a few smaller teams. It was a plan they had worked out earlier in case they were discovered. This meant here of course that it was the most likely scenario. All of them had known had no real hope from the beginning to actually reach their destination undetected, not with this security-system. Now it had happened.
The only question had been how far of it they would have to fight their way through instead of moving undetected.
Lina and Priss were right now exchanging fire with a couple of combat-boomers. One of the knuckle-bombers from Priss hit one of the cyberdroids in the head.
All of them however were still trying to move as quickly as possible to their target. Now however they had to fight off attacks on their way to it, from both boomers and human security personal. To that came a number of automatic defense systems that were safeguarding the buildings.
Two of their `allies´were a short distance behind them, dealing with another group of cyberdroids guarding the area.
Despite that they were constantly coming closer.
Finally they had arrived at the door of the section they were targeting and entered the building. It was the last part of their way.
It took them another ten minutes to get through the security systems inside of the building but then finally they had arrived.
They were now standing just outside of the door that was leading to the R&D department of this company. It took only a few moments for Nene and one of their boomer companions to open it and get their way inside.
That meant they had nearly arrived. This however did not necessarely left only good feelings in all of them. This meant especially Priss, but to some degree also the other members of her team, since they didn´t knew what exactly they would find.
What they expected, more or less, was a computer-system with the mind of Priss friend. One that they would maybe had to destroy, if they didn´t manage to separate the software from the hardware.
What they found however was something completely else.
xxx
It was a lab, very much alike to some others the Knight Sabers had seen in the past, that they were standing in now. They knew what it was meant for. It was an installation like Genom used it for the creation of boomers.
But this wasn´t genom but another company... one that currently acted as a fassade for something else.
The room they just entered was filled with various, tools, computers and even unfinished machine parts. Aside from that it looked like a typical construction site for cyberdroids.
Seeing this, at least a few of the Knight Sabers were overcome with a feeling of deja viu. It reminded them of the day they had found the first super-boomer in one of Genom´s fascilities. Somehow this here looked very similar.
And in some distance to them they saw the boomer that was about to be activated...a new prototype.
But this time...
xxxxxxx
2 weeks earlier
The `main project´, if you wanted to call it that, this company had been working on during the last months was making remarkable progress.
The current `leader´ of this installation, Seth Newman...who was sometimes also known by several other names... was recapitulating the situation. In truth he was an agent of the organization called Black Circle, that was controlling this company from the background.
After killing the actual director Yamada for not be willing to get along with all of their ideas some days ago, he had taken over their operation.
The boomer AI that they had salvaged was now spreading trough the computer-systems of their building, just like they had expected it. His men were still following the very interesting development of the Entity, they were closely monitoring every step on the way.
What had once been the personality software of a simple 33S boomer, mixed with various elements of the programing of the battlemover, was now a completely autarc, self-developing AI system. One that had practically completely outgrown it´s original programing...that and the limitations Genom had once put on all it´s creations.
Just like they had intended for it.
Beside all that however, he had also another...you could call it...special side-project running...It was something for the time were their main work here were finished...when they had their data... and the actual AI would not longer be needed.
The truth was...aside from the unique software he and his associates were seeking for...there was also something else that he began to find quite fascinating...and that was the personality of the Artificial Intelligence itself.
What especially caught his attention was that, despite all the changes and spontaneous mutations in the software, the loss of the original hardware and the integration of foreign programs, the old core personality was still intact inside the new electronical being.
Or in simple words, `Sylvie´, as the 33S had been called, was still Sylvie.
After the merging with the battlemover, her own violent death...and even the reactivation and partly reconstruction of her AI by Omnitec, she had somehow still managed to keep her sense of self and the greatest part of her original personality intact.
He had to admit he was impressed. Whoever had designed an artificial mind like this and then decided to use it as nothing but a simple sex-toy had truly been a fool.
During the last weeks he and `it´ had began to have regular conversation with each other in cyber-space. His fascination with...not only the software that had been their original interest...but also the creature itself grew even more.
Not in the way someone would expect of a `sexaroid´ of course. While he admitted that he found her physical representation attractive and her character appealing...something like this was the furthest thing from his mind right now. Even if their current side-project - her new body - was currently being finished.
No, his true interests were lying somewhere completely else. One of them for example `Sylvie´s´ antagonism to the being named Largo. The AI was in fact thirsting for revenge.
He himself had already stirred up this particular desire even more.
Largo and his plans and actions had actually been a stumbling block for their organization in the past. So why not giving her what she wished for und using it - at least as a distraction - against him?
xxxxxxx
Now
The Knight Sabers, right along with their temporally partners the group of boomers coming from the company named Weiss-Kreuz, were now still moving through the research fascility. On their way here they had been shooting their way through dozens of boomers and human guards.
Right now they were standing inside of a construction lab, a site used for the construction of boomers.
But this was not what they were truly searching for. So John and his team were mostly ignoring the nearly completely finished boomer who was here under construction and were looking for the computer-core of this section of the building.
The Knight Sabers on the other side...and especially Priss...could only stare at the body lying on a workbench before them. It was a practically perfect replication of Sylvie´s body.
But this was it not that they had been coming for. John and his group just walked around the place where the still deactivated boomer was lying.
None of them asked the question why this company had bothered to recreate Sylvie´s body. They knew however that this was not part of their main plan. What Black Circle...and also they...were after was the software that was right now installed inside the network of this building.
They had located the computer-terminal...on the other side of the room.
"We have found it," John declared.
