He could do nothing but stand there in shock, frozen at what he'd just heard. The hellishness of what he'd seen combined with his knowledge of its context was proving hard for him to process.
Gates had the opposite reaction, and looked to Barker and Fenrir in horror. "How the hell are we supposed to fight against something like that? We're not prepared for-"
Barker held a hand up to quell her outrage and stem her flow of questions. "Just hang on, he's getting to that!"
Indeed, upon turning their attention back to the video, Carson continued on in his exposure of Spyglass's plan. "With all of humanity's minds converted into one, namely his, he thinks that humans will be saved … 'New Humanity' indeed. Our physical bodies will be intact, or at least alive; therefore, he'll have succeeded. Obviously we know better, but it doesn't matter since he'll attribute any disputes on our part to human weakness. So … rather than trying to reason with him, we're going to have to take matters into our own hands."
Reaching for something to the side of the camera, he grabbed it and held it up for them to see. It was the same black cylinder that Gates had delivered to Barker and Fenrir.
"This is the data receptacle which will house all of the information required for you all to succeed, or at least have a chance at succeeding, including these video logs I'm making; but its main purpose is to stop Spyglass from carrying out his plot, and this is how."
Setting the cylinder aside, he spoke quietly but emphatically to the camera, waving his hands as though he were giving a demonstration. "His idea has but two flaws; one of them is that the nanites are only programmed to project one consciousness. In other words, they'll only be connected to him and no other source. So without him, they're useless."
"The other flaw is dispersal, how he's going to deliver them to the rest of humanity so suddenly without them catching wind immediately. But he hasn't had us develop anything other than the actual product, so I'm assuming he has his own ideas on how to do that. Rumor has it that he's been experimenting on the last Architect, the one that came back with the Inferno during the Amalgamation event. Whatever he's got planned with it, it can't be good."
At the mention of Al'cor, Tobias's mind flashed back to his memories of her. He felt a pang of remorse for her situation if what Carson said was true; though the Architect had hidden the true nature of her selection of him for becoming the next Inferno, it wasn't as though she'd had much choice. At the end of the day, he still considered her a friend, and it pained him to hear that she might be in Spyglass's hands.
"But," Carson muttered, "one problem at a time, huh? And we won't have to worry about dispersal so long as we shut this whole thing down in the first place. And that's where this thing's primary objective comes into play; Cinder."
Once again, the black cylinder was brought into view. "This thing will be carrying the arrow to Spyglass's achilles' heel; CNDR, a Cerebral Nanite Disruption Router, or 'Cinder' as we've taken to calling it. We've been developing the nanites with that weakness I talked about earlier in mind, leaving a way for you all to destroy the whole system. Cinder is a kind of network virus that will take advantage of the nanites' very design to kill them."
The diagram of the nanites was brought up on the screen again, and a red circle appeared around the ball-jointed legs. "When the claws of their legs retract into these orbs, the nanites will be close enough to each other for each of their orbs to be touching. From there, it only takes one to send a signal through them and convert the others into the same frequency it resides on … which means that Cinder only needs to affect one entity for the rest of them to follow suit."
With a groan, the scientist sat back on his chair. "Unfortunately, that's also part of the problem. See, if you introduce it to a single individual, then all of the local nanites would die, but no more than that. And it wouldn't even help, since anyone who's been affected by them is effectively nothing more than a husk; whoever they were before is dead. So to stop Coalescence completely, one would need to use Cinder on the source; more specifically, on the mind that they're all receiving their signals from in the first place-"
"Spyglass," Tobias muttered.
"-Spyglass," said the recording, as though it were confirming what he'd said. "The Cinder- er, the receptacle that we keep CNDR in is outfitted with a blade-port, just like standard data-knifes used by the IMC and Militia. All you need- I almost said 'all you need to do.'"
He sighed once more, his appearance one of a tired man ready to resign himself to whatever came next. "I'm not going to pretend that this is an easy task, let's face it; the odds are against us in every way, and chances are that none of this will matter in the end because we'll lose anyway. And I haven't even gotten to the bad stuff. But … that doesn't mean that we give up! A person's greatest strength is their resolve, who they are. And I don't intend to sit idly by while Spyglass attempts to take that away from us."
Carson finally seemed ready to lay out a specific plan of attack. "Spyglass doesn't think we have any chance at all, and this has made him careless. Every action you take, even as simple as sending directions like he's been doing for us, leaves a footprint in the network. His may be encrypted exceptionally well, but we're not the top scientific minds on the frontier for nothing. Having decrypted exactly where his orders are coming from, and where our blueprints are being sent to for him to build the nanites, we've narrowed down his location to the planet Regis."
He tapped away on a keyboard, and a pixelated image of what was presumably Regis appeared on the screen. It seemed to have a mixed coloration, splattered with lots of blue, and intermingling grey and green. "We don't know much about it other than he's likely using it as both a production site as well as his current residence. Information is too locked down nowadays, and we're monitored far too much to take any unnecessary risks in trying to find out more."
From behind them, the door to the bridge slid open and two of the researchers who had been analyzing KT walked through. "Sir, we think we know what happened to-"
Barker held up a hand. "Hold on, it's almost done," he said, pointing to the screen the rest of them were watching.
A warning sound emitted from Carson's monitor, and he quickly moved to silence it before analyzing the situation and deciding that it was time to go. "I have to go- that should cover most of the necessary information anyway. I'll leave a few more logs for other things I must discuss, but for now this is it. Remember; you have to plug the Cinder into the source, or none of this matters! Get to Regis, find Spyglass, and use this damn thing on him … or else humanity as we know it will become extinct."
On that grim note, the recording ended. A few beeps that demanded attention rang out a few meters away, near a a crew member who proceeded to look up from her station and glance at Fenrir. "Ma'am? I'm getting a readout of high warp energy materializing nearby."
While Barker's second-in-command walked over to assess the situation, Tobias and Gates turned around to face the researchers who looked like they had quite the important news to share. The one in front brushed some hair out of her eyes, and held out a hand for him to shake. "I'm Dr. Mayfair, this is Dr. Rye- I have to say, it's an honor to meet you."
Awkwardly, he extended his own hand and shook hers with as firm a handshake he could muster. "Uh … the pleasure's mine. So, you know what happened to Kay?"
She nodded. "Yes, we- we believe we have a good idea as to what happened to her."
Finally, some good news. He gave a sigh of relief and looked at her with a bit more light in his eyes. "Great. So what is it, and how do we fix her?"
At his question, both her and her colleague's face fell. "It's not that simple, sir," she told him softly. "What she's gone through is not something that we really have a solution for."
He felt his spirits come crashing down, the same ones that had so jubilantly risen just a moment ago. He should have known better than to hope for good news. Swallowing his disappointment, he waved a hand for her to explain. "So, uh- what is it then?"
"What she's gone through is a process called fra-"
"Commander!" Fenrir barked from the console she'd gone over to investigate, "We've got NH forces warping in!"
Barker's eyes narrowed, the relaxed expression upon his face gone and replaced with one of consternation. "New Humanity is here? How the hell did they find us- we're not even near any major systems!"
From the viewport that surrounded the front of the bridge, all of them were able to see pinpricks of light as several large ships warped into close proximity with the other frigates of the Embers' fleet, accompanied by smaller sharp-nosed ships of some kind.
"Boarding parties," Fenrir growled. "They're here for something, and I've got a guess as to what." She glared angrily at Tobias, surprised to see the same expression on his own features."
"I do too," he muttered, grimacing. "This is my fault, Kay must have led them here somehow. Dammit, I should have-"
"No time to worry about that now," Gates cut him off, "we've got to get out of here."
Barker nodded in agreement, and looked to Fenrir. "Tell the fleet to scatter, and stay that way until further communications."
She did not hesitate in quickly moving towards the other working crew and relaying orders. Barker turned to the rest of them, a frustrated look present on his face. "If that Simulacrum you brought onboard really is what led them to us, then we can't warp out of here until she's off the ship; they'll just keep following us. I know she's important to you Four, but-"
"I understand, sir."
Gates turned to look at him, surprised by his words. He had a steely look in his eye; one that told her that he definitely didn't want to have to do this, but he knew full well that it needed to be done. Looking down at himself, he frowned. "I'm not gonna be able to make a trip down to the Leatherback to get my suit- do you have any spares lying around, perhaps a bit closer than the hangar?"
...
[Your reinforcements have arrived, Artemis. Waiting on your word.]
Yes, she could sense them close by; a side effect of their unusual nature and similarities to her. Now, it was time to escape and get that data receptacle.
Fire.
[I leave the rest to you.]
After a few seconds, the frigate shuddered from the impact of several missiles impacting against its shields. The lights flickered momentarily, sending the remaining researchers around her into a confused panic.
It was all she needed.
Starting with her hands, she allowed them to demagnetize from the ends of her arms. They fell to the ground, unheard over the sound of the warning alarms. casually, she slipped the rounded wrists of her form backwards from the restraints, and felt great satisfaction in being able to bend her arms once more.
Now, for the rest of her.
Dislodging her shoulder joints from their sockets, her arms fell away and to the floor as well. This time, being much heavier than her hands, their slams against the metal floor were heard, and a few of the researchers turned to stare at her easily pulling her legs out of their metal restraints now that she was more than capable of scooting backwards. Silently, they watched her with mouths agape as she stood up to her full height on the table and stared at them.
One of them slowly moved his hand to the side of the room's door, and pressed a button. A red light illuminated above, and the door made a clicking sound as the sector was placed on lockdown.
Well, that would make this slightly more interesting.
Unwilling to wait for them to make the first move, she drew her leg back and swung it forcefully at the nearest one to her. His neck made an audible snapping noise as his head spun a full 180 degrees from her blow, his body falling to the floor without a sound.
They quickly split into two groups after that; those that screamed and immediately scrambled to leave the now inescapable room, and those that decided to take a chance and challenge her. The former were the smarter ones; they'd live just a little bit longer than the ones that attacked her would.
One of them simply dove at her, a move fueled by pure adrenaline and zero thought. With her arms still detached and on the floor, she brought a knee up and into his chin. With her acute senses, she could hear several teeth cracking apart as his jaw slammed upward.
Time to get those arms of hers back. Jumping lithely down from the table, she rolled onto the ground and felt her left arm magnetize back into its proper place. Another soon-to-be-victim charged her with a sharp instrument of some kind, presumably designed for something other than trying to stab a simulacrum chassis with.
Sweeping her leg towards him, his feet were knocked out from under him and he fell to the ground on his back. Quickly extending her single arm so that her hand could magnetize onto it, she raised it quickly enough to catch the instrument in mid-air, making a point to aim the keen side of it towards him before plunging it down into his chest.
As his punctured lungs wheezed for some kind of relief, her last attacker came at her with a heavy rod. Swinging it at her head, the woman actually managed to score a hit on the AI. Ducking as the rod came around for a second attempt, she caught it with her hand and wrenched it from the woman's grasp. Now without a defense, she was helpless to stop the advanced Simulacrum from lacing her cold fingers around the researcher's neck and lifting her off the ground.
As the woman's choked cries and desperate gurgles mingled with the moans and screams of terror from the other researchers trying in vain to get past the locked-down door, she casually looked to her other arm and hand lying on the ground. Aiming her socket as best she could, she watched as the limb came flying up to rejoin her once more.
Giving a synthetic sigh, she moved it around and flexed her fingers to test it. When she was satisfied, she turned her attention back to the woman choking in her left hand. She let her hang there a few moments longer, a reward for her success in landing a blow. It wasn't until she saw that the woman had soiled herself that she decided to end it, and made one small movement with her fingers that crushed the woman's spinal-cord.
As her body fell to the ground, the last researchers fell silent in their efforts to bang against the door and throw objects at it, instead turning in paralyzing fear towards her.
She stepped forward slowly, one foot lightly in front of the other. She could do nothing but give a small disappointed sigh. "You all could have been a part of something so much greater."
One of them gave a whimper of terror, the only noise they were capable of producing with imminent death in front of them. She did not particularly enjoy what she was about to do, but the fact remained that it wasn't up to her. These people had made their choice.
Just as she'd made hers.
A/N: So I'm going to be taking a small hiatus so that I can focus on finishing my film project I've been working on for a while now, so hopefully this chapter will tide you over until then. Tell you what though; I'd probably be MIGHTY motivated to work faster if I had some reviews from people letting me know just how much they want a new chapter …
-ahem- Anyway, I'm enjoying this method of giving you guys a few pieces of the puzzle each chapter. At some point, you guys will figure out exactly what's going to happen even without all the pieces; others of you will need that final piece for it all to click and you see what's going to happen. Can't wait for that.
Until the next time,
- Matteoarts