Chapter 5: Enemies within
San Francisco, California, USA
USMC Anti Megalosaurus Command West Coast Reaction Base
April 7th, 2019, 5:50 PM
The down time has been the most welcoming for both humans and machines. They can sit back and enjoy themselves after long and excruciating battles and regain their strength. For MechaGirain, she needed that rest, not for her strength but for her mind. Resting in her hangar and letting the humans dust off her armor, she focuses her efforts on ascertaining the behaviors of her so called 'Commander', Major Richard Glasgow and to her partner in the hangar next hers, Hera. There was distrust between brewing between her and the two persons of interests; she knew that Richard is outraged by his mother death and the outrage was exacerbated by the defunct GDF's lack of accurate information and reporting.
This much she knows, but how deep and troubling that matter is keeps her awake with curiosity. There was little of Richard that warrant her sympathy, only what he knows warrant her attention and curiosity. Within her digital mind scape, a void of coding lines and wondrous display of light and marvels of modern technical breakthroughs, she ran her check on the various IP addresses of the base's computers and their main hub, should she gain access to the hub, consequently it would translate to infinite access into other PCs within the facility. This control of accessibility was essential to gather intelligence on her subjects of interests, and he who holds the superiority in knowledge is set on the path to victory.
With her talons stroke back and forth across the space in front of her, MechaGirain was able to send out a backdoor program into the Hub. Her observation was filled with a gleeful, almost childlike satisfaction and astonishment as the backdoor program was attached into the Hub with ease. Its installation process was but a breeze to watch, taking only a mere 4 minutes and already her red carpet welcome was established. She subsequently did not waste time and dived right into the vast ocean of the digital mind scape. "Right on time, now to see if the Major is in need of company." She rumbled and place her palm on a blue pad with blue font that said 'Access'. Her influence struck far and wide, swift as the wind and unrelenting as fire, she blitzed her way through the network of the base before winding up in a surveillance camera inside Richard's room.
The unit's field commander office was nothing short of practicality meet formality, with a wooden desk made from oak tree, an American flag paired with a Marine and the newly issued Anti Megalosaurus Command flag adorned on the edge of the desk with his name plate speaks of the authority he theoretically posses. Nevertheless, he was still a Major and a Marine, how deep does that fact burrow itself into remains to be seen. To his left is a cabinet with glass doors, and inside, its shelves are full to the brim with files regarding things he might find interesting. Panning the camera further to the right, she catches sight of his bookcase and around the office is simple furniture and a compact refrigerator.
"Hmm, nothing here is worth mentioning. Perhaps Emilia's little boy isn't as spoil as I thought him to be." She sighed in her mechanical voice, safe within the digital world where no humans can penetrate into and ascertain its events with their eyes and ears. Her examination of Richard's habit and routine activities went on with the morbid curiosity of a child, she knew from instincts to look out for his side jobs and hobbies, these can tell the greater length of a man's soul than a mere paper clipped into a leather folder. Conversely, once he had put away his pen and the paper works of the unit's administration work, the real work begins. Her influence fixed the camera firmly on the major as he threw the piece of paper into the 'Away' rack on the desk and pull out a collection of files pertaining the unfortunate 'Accident' on Monster Island. "Now we're going somewhere."
He flipped through the various pages of the report, stopping only at the section with the 'Main event' heading. Inside were photos taken by the recovery and clean up crews of the main HQ building on the Lend-Lease sector. They have worked hard digging out the debris and could conclusively point out that the structure fell apart thanks to the malfunctioning mecha's melee attack and destroying it in seconds, as the report said. However, to Richard's eagle eye, there is something that sticks out and simply doesn't make sense. His reading of the report shows that the footprints on the parking lot in front of the building was several minutes older than the building's collapse. This would accordingly mean that whatever the mech was doing in front of that building, which his mother was on the rooftop of, it must had something to do with the time gap.
"This doesn't make any senses at all. What was it doing that they didn't tell me? And why did mom stay in there when she could have escaped? Time to call that guy again, hopefully he has some answers I need. Otherwise..." Richard reached out to his phone, undoubtedly dialing Jason's number for personal questioning and even worse, implied torture. Consequently, his action alerted MechaGirain to move quick and warn Jason of the impending danger he might face, unfortunately for MechaGirain, her connection to the base's network was severed and she was pulled out of the facility's system by a force as powerful as herself. Like thunder from a cloudless sky, she felt an agonizing blow struck her side, and a force invisible and unrelenting even to herself, slashing off her connection and influence one after another and drag her back to the mind scape.
Her back felt what appeared to be a whiplash made of flexible material struck hard on it with a lash, its metallic surface tasted her spines and dorsal plates with a stinging blow. Relent, it didn't, but furthering its assault, it did. The whip tied her up and forced her on her knees, facing the intruder, Hera or as she would like to be called, "Giryia. The name that has been adorned on the remains of my ghostly past. Or as you would call me now, MechaGiryia, my twin sister unit." The purple MechaGodzilla said with a sinister, metallic hiss. The purple machine stands intimidatingly over her captive, the whiplash launched from her palm restraints MechaGirain with a grim, almost mechanical indifferent. However, MechaGirain refuses to back down, conversely, MechaGirain willed her strengths of programming and coding to its maximum and broke the bondage with a defiant roar and display of strength.
"How did you break in here?" MechaGirain snarled, she accordingly assumed a defensive posture in anticipation of MechaGiryia's assault. "Same trick as you use on them, backdoor of course. First rule of hacking, attack your enemies but be mindful of their similar approach to yours." MechaGiryia gave a roar, a battle cry with absolute conviction and resolute. She then promptly jumped up on high, and descended upon MechaGirain with a fist at the ready. Consequently, MechaGirain defended herself with a high block and jabbed MechaGiryia's purple chest, this blows MechaGiryia's first strike pattern and derail her future attack moves. With one jab, MechaGiryia was knocked off her balance, and, in a swift reaction and attempt to regain her control, she rolled on her back before finally getting back on her feet behind MechaGirain. "You're good for a loose canon, I assumed you would be more...chaotic." Implied to be less in control and more overridden by emotion, this conversely prompted MechaGirain to inquire Giryia's sudden assault. "Who sent you here? Was it the Major instructing you to keep an eye on me?"
MechaGiryia chuckled at MechaGirain, finding it rather amusing that she would jump to conclusion on her obvious suspect in a heart beat. "You're a truly that naïve, aren't you? Your hatred towards the Glasgow Family blinded your evaluation, perhaps you would do well with examining your own security standards around here." MechaGirain snarled at her mistake, the lapse in security standard around her digital mind scape has left her open to assaults. But that can't be right! She always ensure that her firewall and security protocols are up to date to prevent some irresponsible hacker in his garage causes unwanted damages. "So, you implanted a backdoor program inside me on our way here..." Accordingly, MechaGiryia chuckled and let out a loud cackle at the realization. "Exactly, I was able to peer into your mind and memories. So much fascination and intriguing attention towards your counterpart in Japan." MechaGirain shrugged and shuddered once she had heard of what MechaGiryia might have peeked on.
Her anger was propelled to new height, this require venting and MechaGirain met it by a rushed attack at MechaGiryia, which was intercepted by the purple MechaGodzilla knocking down MechaGirain with a well place punch into the face. The albino MechaGodzilla fell on the ground before being flipped back on her stomach, MechaGiryia was on her knees on top of MechaGirain's back with her hacking tendril dangling on her hand waiting dug itself into MechaGirain. "How did you know your real name?" She panted tiringly, wanting to break free from the grip of her attacker. "Like I said, by using the same programming algorithm and components as you do, I am able to gain access to you via the communication grid they set up for us. And through you, I learned the techniques to infiltrate their archives and find my name. But I need to borrow...something from you...this won't hurt a bit."
She cooed seductively before ramming the tendril into the back of MechaGirain's head. The jolt of such sudden intrusion caused MechaGirain to jerk her entire body, her HUD was overwhelmed with error reports and the forceful installation of a supposedly hostile program. She heaved and desperately tried to fight back to no avail, once the installation was done, MechaGiryia left with no further words, leaving MechaGirain to twitch and jerk her body off in the cyber space domain, there was only one person who can help her here. And he was being questioned by Richard.