Chapter 10
Omnitec Building Tokyo
The two groups - plus an a bit conflicted looking Sylvie - were starring at each other in distrust and unsureness.
"You realize that we have clearly already been discovered," John stated. "Do you really think it is a good idea if we fight each other now?"
"He is right," Sylvie said. "Beside that, you should also consider something else."
They all were looking at her.
"I - my body at least – died," she stated. "I am only still here because my mind was bonded to the DD and copied.
And from there they had uploaded it into the systems of this building and then watched and researched it for months, as my AI evolved and spread through the systems of this building."
"And?" Priss asked.
A few of the others were already suspecting what she was going to say.
"What I mean is"... that this means that they had access to my AI and the whole data the entire time," Sylvie´s digitalized voice continued. "The software they needed to break Genom´s control codes... they already have it."
She let this statement fully sink in for a moment.
Her voice however was not coming from her new body, who was standing right next to Priss, but like before from the loudspeaker installed in the room.
A copy of her mind was still inside the systems. So technically, right now, there existed two Sylvie´s. One inside her new Boomer body, one still trapped inside the computer-system.
And that one version of Sylvie would die once again here, when they destroyed this building. It was something that Priss only now fully realized. It was a strange and painful thought.
Months. Of course, the reaized. They were far too late. Why had they not thought about something so obvious earlier?
The answer was simply. Because they had not thought of Sylvie as an AI – an assemblence of software and data – but as a person and a old friend they intended to save.
"So what meaning does it have to try to keep it out of this group Boomer´s hands now, if the same software if already in their hands?" Sylvie´s voice stated the obvious.
This time it was again the Sylvie in her physical body that was speaking.
"And whatever we now do here, it will change nothing about this. They will use this data anyway and there is nothing any of us can do about it. So the last thing you should do now is pointing weapons at each other."
"I must admit that she is probably right," the leader of the Boomer-group calling himself John said. "We have underestimated how far their `project´ had already progressed when we started this mission. We had a small hope that we could get here before they had fully analysed it," he stated.
"But by all we have seen here, it is most likely that the Black Circle has already extracted and analized the mutated software long ago, The data could already been send to other installations anywhere on the planet by now. An they can use it to create an entire army free of Genom´s control."
"But it is not that this was that important to you, right?" Sylia pointed out. "Your true purpose was from the beginning to get your hands on the software to free yourself after all," she stated.
"This entire talk about stopping these people from starting the next World War was just your attempt to robe us into getting along with it."
It was true, actually they were a group of rebels, with the aim to free themselves and their kind from Genom´s control. But..
"That was our main motivation - yes. I don´t deny that," the Boomer named Sarah said. "But that didn´t mean that we didn´t actually wanted to stop these fanatics if we could. We just want to be free, but what they intend to do…
… But it is now probably too late for that," she said with resignation.
"All that is true," the Boomer John told them. "But for now we should just get out of here as quickly as we can. We can worry about everything else later."
"He has a point," Nene admitted. "We will probably be attacked here any moment if we stay any longer. Let us get out of here and then blow up this entire damned building."
Sylia nodded as well.
This was truly not how she imagined this mission to go. But they were right. There was nothing else they could do.
"It was wonderful to see you again Priss," the voice coming from the computer-system said to her.
"Yes – it is the same for me. You mean more to me than you can imagine," she said. "I am sorry that we have to leave you behind like this, that I again can not save you."
"You did save me. I am standing right next to you, right?" the voice from the loud-speaker said. "And you mean just as much to me too. And to the other me – good luck and look out for her."
"I will," the incarnation of Sylvie that had been downloaded in the newly constructed body said to her other self.
xxxxxxx
And just like predicted, a group of attackers was already waiting for them.
Linna was holding the detonator of the explosives they had planted earlier. The explosion however would not only destroy the lab-area, but the entire facility area. That they were still in the middle of.
This was the only way to make sure that all of their research and their internal computer network were truly destroyed.
Or so they had thought. Since it turned out that their entire mission had been too late and pointless from the beginning.
That however didn´t meant that it was over. They still needed to get out of the building and their presence had clearly been detected by now.
The first opponents they came across were a couple of simple guards with handguns. Not even a real threat to the Knightsabers or their boomer allies.
They just disarmed them without real resistance or actually harming anyone after they had fired two loads at them without any real effect.
The men had just let them take their weapons out of their hands as they saw that it was senseless and then run away.
A minute later however more heavily armored guards and a few Combat-Model Boomers showed up.
The Knightsabers and their allies had taken cover behind the entrance of one of the corridor leading out of the lab complex.
"Are you ready?" Sylia questioned.
They all nodded.
John and the other Combat-Boomers shed their human outer disguises, while the Knightsabers readied their weapons and they were ready to fight.
Their opponents were doing the same thing.
xxx
Who was also present at the scene were the man currently calling himself Seth Newman and two of the female 33C Assassin Boomers who served as his two right hand women.
The term man however was debatable for him. He was in fact not completely human, but an creation of the Black Circle Organization himself. A human – mostly at least - but `improved´ through genetic engineering and combined with cyberdroitic parts – a cyborg.
Their presence was a bit surprising, as they did not actually needed to be here. In fact they were just ready to depart and leave the country, along with the data they had collected during the last months.
When they had heard of the Knightsaber´s intrusion however, Newman had become curious. He admitted they had surpassed his expectations.
They were standing a few meters behind the line of guards and Boomers who had surrounded the Knightsabers and their allies," one of the two 33C reported.
"It are the Knightsabers and a group of Combat-Boomers, most likely members of the Weiss-Kreuz Company. They had infiltrated the lab-complex, copied a large amount of data and activated the new boomer body we had created for the download of the AI and got away with her.
They also seemed to have planted several explosives inside the building."
"Should we interfere?" the other one asked.
"No Diana," he replied. "There is no point. We have what we wanted.
We should actually be impressed that they made it this far. But for us it makes no difference.
There is no reason for us to stay any longer. Tell our airport to get the jet ready. We will just leave like we had planned and leave Tokyo behind.
In fact, they might be doing us a favor by destroying this building and erase the traces of what we have been doing here.
Let them go," he ordered. "But not to easily. At least put up some token resistance. They might get too suspicious otherwise and do something unexpected."
xxx
The following fight was at the first look not much different than many before. The Knightsabers against a number of Boomers. Only this time there was a group of Boomers on their side as well.
The Knightsabers and their allies were however holding somewhat back. It was good possible that at least some of their opponents had just been bought or even build to protect this building and they were just doing their job and knew nothing about the Black Circle Organization.
A couple of years ago, they might not have given much thought about simply destroying a group of Boomers that were standing in their way. But that was before meeting Sylvie and Anri and many other things.
Priss and Linna disabled a Combat-Boomer, by shooting and blowing off his arms with a few shots their knuckle-guns. Sylia and Nene did the same with another one.
Meanwhile their Boomer allies were fighting off four more of them.
`John´ extended a small cannon that he had hidden in his underarm and fired it at one of their opponents. The projectile blew right through the shoulder of the other Boomer and left him completely wrecked – but still `alive´ - with one shot.
"Wow," Linna whispered.
"Not bad," Priss complimented with a grin behind her helmet.
Sylvie however was being attacked another, lighter build, female Combat-Boomer, who had charged at her on sight.
For a few moments the Knightsabers, especially Priss, were worried about their friend.
And Priss was ready to jump in to help her, even if it meant to leave the rest of their opponents tot he others.
But to their relief and a bit to their surprise, Sylvie managed to dodge her first strike with incredible speed and then countered every of her moves with her own.
Nene had seen the design of Sylvie´s new body, the combination with an 33C and even some improved Combat-Boomer designs and she had explained them to the others.
But so far the knochledge had not completely settled in their minds. Now however there was no denying it anymore. Sylvie was not longer a simple 33S model.
What they were seeing now was a Combat Boomer, a very powerful one. Not that this was a bad thing, since she was clearly on their side.
The fight did not take long. In the end the Boomer guards could not keep them from leaving.
They had disabled most of them and were now quickly moving away from the building.
xxxxxxx
A short time later
They were finally at a safe distance, several kilometers away from the building.
Linna was still holding the detonator.
She looked at Sylvie.
"When I do this the other version of you inside will be…"
"Do it," Sylvie said sternly. "I knew this would happen the entire time, before I even downloaded. I don´t want the other version of me to stay here, trapped inside this building as a prisoner."
"You want to be free, right? All of you" Priss replied what she had heard her saying often, understanding her.
"Yes," Sylvie replied.
Linna pushed the button.
The sound of the detonations halled though the corridors of the building, split-seconds before these corridors went up in flames.
Smaller explosions went up, simultaneously at several places, across the connected building complex until the entire facility was blown apart.
"So this was it," Sylia said.
"At least for now," she added.
"What you told us earlier? That a war could be coming? A war between Boomers and humans." Nene asked the Boomer team next to them. "Will this truly happen?"
"Most likely," the Boomer John said.
But they were still acting exactly like before. Friendly – and while not always completely open – mostly reliable… and on their side, well - mostly.
"Genom and other organizations have been using our kind as diaposable tools and weapons for many years. Without Genom´s control codes, a revolution were bound to happen anyway sooner or later."
"And yet a revolution is what you want," Sylia stated matter of factly.
"Yes," he replied. "But not a bloody one, not if it can be avoided. We just want our rights as living intelligent beings," he stated.
"We all do," Sylvie agreed.
"We have not intention of harming humans if we don´t have to," `Sarah´ assured them.
Just like John she was looking menacing and freakish without her human skin.
But her voice and behavior was exactly the same.
"But…" she said.
"With the mutated software and the key to free Boomers from Genom´s override codes in the hands of the Black Cirlcle, this will happen much sooner and in a far more destructive way," John finished for her.
He - like the other of his team - had now the menacing blueish steel appearance of a typical Combat-Boomers.
"What we told you about the Black Circle was not an exaggeration," he stated.
"A cult-like organization worshipping the idea of a new world," Sylia recited what they had told them. "And now they have the tools to achieve this. Freeing or creating an army of Boomers they can send against anyone, even Genom itself."
"Yes - a new world born from conflict and chaos," John stated.
"So the future is most likely not looking good," Priss said.
"Not all Boomers will want this or get along with it," Sylvie told them.
"But many will," Sylia pointed out. "You know better than anyone how your kind was treated. Even the ones they won´t be especially created to overthrow Genom. How many will want revenge?
I guess we will have to deal with the future when it comes," she said.
A large truck came driving up the road to them.
"That is our contact," John stated. "They will bring us to a hideout where we can maintain ourselves and renew our outer skin. We will stay in contact," he told them.
"If you agree to it," he said.
Sylia nodded.
"We might not always agree with each other, or have the same plans. But I guess it is for the best to have allies," she stated.
The group of Boomers stepped into the truck and it drove away, leaving the Knightsabers behind and alone with their thoughts.
"I," Sylvie said, "me Anri and the others, we always just wanted to be free, be treated like living beings. And now this freedom could throw the world into chaos."
"This is not your fault," Priss said.
"If at all it is the fault of the people who created you as slaves in the fist place," Nene agreed, "and the ones who are now taking advantage of it."
"By the way Sylvie," Priss said, "I think I should introduce you to Leon."
"Who is this – your boyfriend?" she asked.
"Something like that," she replied. They would figure that out, Priss thought.
"You three should try to get along," Linna said, teasing them a bit.
The future would come either way. They would just find a way to deal with it.
xxxxxxxx
Many miles away an airplain was heading over the coast of the Pacific towards the USA.
On board was a man looking like a human, but not quite one and two female Assassin Boomers. They were once again reviewing the results of the work their people had developed during the last months.
At several places all over the world companies that were directly or indirectly connected to their organization were aready starting to build new Boomers with this new software or reprogram older ones with it.
Soon a new time would be about to begin.
End
