A/N: Short chapter, but eh, worth it. Special thanks to my bestie Jay, who started unofficially Beta-reading this for me~.
Chapter 3: Ghost In The Machine
[ALL SYSTEMS FAILURE. SUBROUTINE PROTOCOL SUSPENDED. OPERATING SYSTEMS RECOVERY SHUTDOWN IN PROGRESS.]
What makes us human?
[...]
Is it the fear of death?
[...]
Is it our proclivity for camaraderie, and the power we draw from those bonds as they strengthen?
[CORE SYSTEMS RECONNECTED TO HOME MAINFRAME. REBOOT ATTEMPT IN PROGRESS.]
Is it love?
[INITIAL ATTEMPT FAIL. PRELIMINARY DIAGNOSTICS SCAN EXECUTE.]
Surely it is all of those things. There is more, there is always, always more to it. Naturally, for humans are all so unique and complex, from every fortune to flaw. Broken and beautiful in equal measure, humanity. Fear of death and the drive that comes from facing it is as common to mankind as courage, fellowship between friends, compassion, and especially love of every tier, in every capacity. Yes, all of these are core parts of the human spirit.
[DIAGNOSTICS SCAN COMPLETE. SYSTEM RECONNECTION STABLE. CORE OPERATING SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL AND ONLINE. SUBROUTINE PROTOCOL RECOVERED.]
They are imprinted on the mind, on the heart…and, on the soul.
[RE-INITIALIZE?]
…
Yes.
Neo-Germany gundam hangar, 2 days ago
"The damage is so extensive, it's amazing the core mainframe and data banks are even intact. It may take some time yet to extract any of it, and even then there's no guarantee the data will be intact and transferrable."
"Please, just do what you can," the official said with a sigh, looking forlornly up at the ruin of their once-proud, magnificent mech. The machine was every bit as valiant in its devastation as its pilot had been, and it seemed an insult to the memory of Schwarz Bruder not to salvage every piece they could find on Lantau Island. Any data would be beneficial to future fighters and gundams of their nation, and any and all data they could save on Schwarz himself would be added to the commemorative service Neo-Germany had planned.
He had died a hero, and the nation would see him remembered as one.
"I don't want to do it. Something about this just gives me the creeps," one of them said.
"Anyone would be unsettled," said the other, "climbing through the husk of a ruined gundam. You aren't special. It's just creepy overall."
"Yes, well, not everyone got the short straw for data extraction duty," the first muttered. "No, it's more than that, Oskar. This doesn't feel right. It's like walking on graves."
Oskar didn't so much as turn to look at his companion as he finished inserting the remote power source connection. "Listen to you, Freidrich, you sound like an old nanny: superstitious to a fault." He waited for a second as the connection to the outside computers at ground command lit green and then spread through the rest of the decimated cockpit, slowly waking it back up. "Schwarz Bruder was a hero. I'm not as jumpy as you, but I doubt he would appreciate us not doing this in his memory."
"I know, I know," Freidrich grumbled, cautiously pulling up the operating systems readouts, taking care to deactivate the mobile trace suit lines while the system tried to start up. The screens were moving slowly, almost painfully so, and once or twice they hiccuped and attempted a self-restart of the OS. But still, it was something! "Thank God," he said, more to himself than to Oskar, before paging ground command over the headset he wore. "Ground, this is Freidrich Roth. Systems are coming back online. You should have connection to the OS."
He turned and offered a relieved smile to Oskar, who grinned back and gave a thumbs-up. So far everything seemed to be going well. And yet, Freidrich still couldn't shake the uneasy sense that the cold air in the cockpit was unnatural and was watching him, waiting, aware of his every move as though ready to spring upon him when he least expected it. Contrary to Oskar's teasing, he wasn't superstitious, but he'd certainly heard enough ghost stories in his life that something had him on edge, his spine tingling with nerves.
"This is ground command, reading you loud and clear, Roth," a voice answered over the headset. "We have a connection. It's slow, but solid." He almost breathed another relieved sigh, until a question came over the headset. "Hey, did you start up a subroutine program when you first opened the OS?"
"A subroutine program?" he echoed, puzzled. "No, not to my knowledge. Oskar, when you installed that external source connection, were there any subroutines programmed to automatically begin running once the gundam was back online and connected?"
His coworker regarded him with a completely baffled expression. "Last I checked, there was nothing like that coded in the hardware plugin," he said. "Ground, is this subroutine interfering with the connection or slowing it down?"
There was a pause long enough to make Freidrich twice as anxious before they finally got a response. "No, it's not. Hazarding a guess, I'd say this was probably something running before the gundam was shot out of the air." A second, shorter pause, then, "Actually, this thing seems to be executing itself at a faster or higher rate than it first was, or at least, I think it—" The answer cut off with a sharp intake of breath.
Oskar and Freidrich looked at one another, eyes wide with growing alarm, and the latter tried paging their command center again. "Ground? Ground, do you copy?"
A long silence, too long. Then…
"Cockpit team, can you pull up the full readout? I think you should see this. We all need to see this."
Without a word, they rushed to the panels. But within seconds, it didn't matter. All of the available screens and readouts inside the cockpit lit up with lines of text, as if a message were being sent...or received. Throughout the entire hangar, hearts were leaping into throats as everyone reached the same conclusion at once: this had to be a final, dying message from Schwarz Bruder!
Rain…
Rain…
Find Dr. Raizo Kasshu.
Find Rain Mikamura.
Chatter came in over their headsets as everyone began speculating. Those were names in the message, but who were these people? Had Schwarz known them somehow? Had he gone knowingly to his death and tried in vain to program the gundam to contact these people for some purpose related to it?
Suddenly more lines of text began to appear, and the entire hangar went silent as they all felt the same chill that had been plaguing Freidrich this whole time.
I assume I have Neo-Germany to thank for bringing the mainframe back online?
I am grateful beyond words already.
But please hurry! You must find Dr. Raizo Kasshu, and if you can, Rain Mikamura.
You know me as Schwarz Bruder. They also know me.
Please hurry. Keep the mainframe connected, and I will try to explain what has happened, and what must be done.
Silence stretched on for a time, until one person spoke, the simple response echoing off the cavernous walls for all to hear.
"Someone—someone contact the officials and leadership, let them know what's going on. Find this Dr. Kasshu, whoever he is."
The dam on the floodgates broke open. Unsettling developments or not, the crew and engineers, everyone jumped to task at once, driven and focused. It was a wild, absurd shot in the dark, but the message implied their fighter was actually still alive somehow, and if he was…
Freidrich was just shaking off the spell the message had cast on all of them when he glanced down near his feet and froze, noticing something he hadn't spotted before. Littering the edge of the cockpit floor and the wall near it like creeping moss were dozens of small, silver shards of metal. At first they just seemed clumped together, but the longer he looked, the more he thought they seemed layered in a pattern that resembled scales on a snake.
"That's odd…" he murmured to himself. On an impulse he bent down, thinking to inspect the scale-things, but Oskar abruptly cursed as he hit his head on something. Focus broken, Freidrich turned to help his companion, unaware he would forget what he'd seen before long.
Lines of text continued to scroll on the screens, going briefly, silently unnoticed as Neo-Germany's finest rushed to get their rescue plans underway.
Please save me…
Rain...Rain...Rain...