A/N: This will be the last update for an unknown amount of time as I will shortly be losing access to the net indefinitely.
Chapter Thirty-eight - Activation
Everyone knew at this point that 18 had defected. It was kind of hard to miss something like that when she came to the planet to try and kill the Sai-jin King, and effective head of the Empire. Especially not when doing nearly fifty thousand credits worth of damage to the palace in the process. In the three days since the attack the repairs to the palace had only just begun. The work crews were still busy building their scaffoldings before even starting on the repairs themselves. Meanwhile everyone was busy speculating and gossiping about what had happened. Not just about 18's attack on Saiya but the reasons for it.
The events at Gorneo were not known to the general public. Not in full detail, at least. They knew that the world had been attacked, but no more. They didn't even know that Trunks was dead yet. The current story was that Trunks was out in pursuit of those who had attacked the planet. They'd leave that in place for now and then release a story that he'd been killed in some fashion, likely a ship malfunction. Anything that prevented word getting out that 18 had done it so as to prevent any Resistance groups from trying to rally around her. Of course, those in the palace had overheard the conversation between two groups so they realized they didn't have all of the facts.
None of them would say anything about it in the open, of course, but Vegeta had heard all of the talk just the same. They were also talking about the fact that Pan and Bra had been with 18 as well. Some were suggesting that it was the Cyborgs that had joined the two Hybrids, that the whole thing was a coup by the two girls to take over the Empire. Others felt that Pan and Bra were with 18 as spies for the Masters. There were also some who thought the whole thing a secret Imperial operation to locate and eliminate various resistance forces across the universe, by making it look like several Masters had defected. But there were those who had guessed correctly, that they had all defected.
The fact that no official statement had been released about any of it made them talk as well. No statement about 18 or 17 defecting, no statement about the Hybrids defecting, no orders for pursing or tracking them. At least, none that the general public had heard of. But orders had been given and Vegeta was currently making his way through the halls at the head of a small group.
The three behind him, all Sai-jins, were the volunteers for the Mind Digitization process. Zukkin had been his first choice and the first of the three he'd spoken with. The man was currently the commander of the Ninth Division's Tenth Strike Team. The rank was fairly low, but that was due entirely to power. Vegeta had full confidence in his abilities and his skill, his strike team had pulled off victories where even higher ranked and stronger teams had failed. And his command ability, most of all, was second to none.
Zukkin had obtained his command post because he'd seized control of all Imperial forces on the world of Kaput when riots there had broken out into revolution. The man had given orders to soldiers many times stronger than him, ones that would normally have been his superiors in the chain of command, and they'd been followed without question. No one in the Empire doubted that it was Zukkin's leadership skills that had enabled the small number of remaining low level and injured Imperial forces to put down the revolution and restore order to Kaput. So Vegeta could think of no one better for this assignment, and Zukkin had been more than willing to agree, even before Vegeta mentioned that successful completion of the mission could result in instatement as a Master to help bolster their ranks back up.
It was that opportunity of becoming a Master that had convinced Tamayto to agree to procedure and mission. Tamayto was a palace guard and hadn't been one of Vegeta's first choices. He hadn't even been fifth or sixth. He had the skill, certainly, but there were a few... faults to the man that made him a... less than perfect soldier. One of said faults was currently pressed against his lips. Most Sai-jins drank on occasion as a means of relaxing. Tamayto was the only one Vegeta knew of who would drink while on a mission, often even in the midst of battle. It didn't seem to impede his performance but, as he was almost never completely sober, it was impossible to be sure. The other main fault that had pushed him down on Vegeta's list was his ambition. Ambition was a good thing in moderation, but he had it in excess. Hence the instant change of heart and agreement to the procedure as soon as the promise of Master status had been made.
The third man was Kumber, another member of the palace guard. He'd not been on Vegeta's list of choices at all, he'd been recommended by Zukkin. The man didn't seem to have much to say, all of his responses to Vegeta had been through head nods, but Vegeta had agreed with Zukkin's assessment of him after going over his military record file. He'd been on Kaput as well during the revolution. There was nothing in the file that made him stand out, exactly, but his name was attached to every single one of the biggest operations on the world that had succeeded. Both before and after the local government had collapsed. His record before and after Kaput was the same. Nothing that made him stand out but not a single blemish to be found, and his name was linked to a lot of big missions, all of which had succeeded spectacularly.
As Vegeta entered the lab that Gero had told him to bring the volunteers to he looked around for the scientist and spotted him along the wall to the right at one of the terminals. The lab was one of the smaller ones Gero had, only about twenty foot by twenty foot by ten, and most of that space was taken up by three chairs, a large computer mainframe, and three metal caskets. "Are you ready?" Vegeta asked as the door closed behind Kumber.
Gero glanced back from his monitor and gave each of the volunteers a quick glance before responding. "Just about." he said. "I've been having a little trouble allocating enough processing power and RAM to run the systems. I'm still trying to track down the cause." He turned back to the monitor again and frowned. "I've never seen usage levels this high before."
"The entire palace does run off of the one mainframe." Vegeta said as he approached the doctor. He didn't know much about computers but he knew enough to get by on. "There's several hundred thousand different terminals all through the building. It's probably just a busy day."
"No." said Gero. "I've seen busy days on the system. CPU usage has never gone above thirty percent, RAM usage never above twenty percent, even on the busiest of them. Currently CPU usage is at ninety seven percent and RAM usage at ninety six percent. This is well beyond normal usage."
"Could it be a problem?" asked Vegeta, now concerned. The central computer mainframe of the palace ran... just about everything. And it was the central hub for the entire Galactic Network.
"Possible, but I doubt it." said Gero. "At least, not a natural problem. It could be some sort of virus. Or our hacker is back and not being as subtle as usual." Gero had noted several hacks to the palace mainframe, and determined hacks to other connected systems and his own computers, a few weeks before. He couldn't tell what information had been taken, if any, and hadn't been able to trace the intrusion. Whoever it was was exceptionally skilled. He'd set up a few new precautions since discovering the hacks, but he'd noted new intrusions to the system had occurred in the last few days, all of them circumventing his new defenses and still just as untraceable as before.
"What's this?" Gero wondered as a flashing notice appeared on the screen. "An Omega Level access restriction?"
"Omega Level?" Vegeta asked, furrowing his brow. "I've never heard of Omega Level access."
"It's the top level, in a sense." said Gero. "All Masters have Galactic Level access, the official top level. Bulma, however, also coded in Omega Level access to the system. Its data access level is actually three ranks lower than Galactic but its priority level is the highest, overriding even Galactic Priority processes. And anything coded Omega Level can only be accessed from an Omega Level user. As far as I know she's the only one with the Omega Level access codes."
"I hadn't known she'd done that."
The doctor shrugged. "It's her system. She designed the entire thing from the ground up, it's not surprising she gave herself priority system access. I would have done the same in her place. Still, I wonder what she's doing to use up so much power?" Gero quickly ran through a few more commands. While he couldn't directly access whatever it was that Bulma was using the system for he could trace back all of the CPU and RAM allocation requests to their source programs. At the very least he could determine what she had running and then try to infer a purpose from that.
"Hmm. Interesting, the Virtual Universe Simulator is running at full capacity, multiple instances. She's also got a massive data compile running in the quantum string network, and it seems... the numbers system is crunching something big as well. And this is... ah, looks like the system is also sending out a few thousand sensor requests, to every sensor system in the Empire, every twenty seconds, and compiling massive amounts of data readings... some of which are being fed to a few of the VUS instances that are running."
"What, exactly, does all of that mean?" Vegeta asked, scowling. He was rather irritated with Bulma currently as it was, this certainly wasn't helping matters any.
"My guess is that she's hit some major breakthrough with those equations of hers, or thinks she's close to one at the least, so she's running the entire thing through the system at maximum priority and spec to formalize and finalize her model." He typed a few more commands in and the monitor blanked for a moment and then Bulma's face appeared on screen.
"Oh, Dr. Gero, what's up?" she asked.
"I wanted to ask you if you could free up some more computer power." the doctor said. "I need at least twenty percent of the CPU and fifteen percent of the RAM in order to perform a few operations down here."
"Ah. Sure, I can free up some space." she replied. "Hang on." She went off screen for a moment. "There you go." she said, coming back. "I took my stuff down a few levels, that should give you plenty of power. Just let me know when you're done so I can put it back up again. I want to finish as quickly as possible and even at full power it'll be weeks, if not months, until it's fully done."
Gero nodded. "Not a problem." he said, closing the connection and brining up his control screen again. "Ah, excellent, she's given me more than enough resources to work with. Alright then." He entered a couple of quick commands and then turned to face the three volunteers. "Just to go over matters with all of you one more time." he began, walking toward them. They all still stood near the door, where Vegeta had left them upon entering the room. "This process will transfer your minds from your organic bodies into the mechanical ones I've constructed. This process will leave your original minds fully blank, you will be effectively brain dead.
"Note, also, that the process is not perfect. The transfer will not be one hundred percent. You will still be, largely, you. Most of your memories and personality will remain intact but there will be variances, changes, and possibly a few memory lapses. There are also a few basic lines of command coded into the computer brains that will imprint into your own minds during transfer. Mostly operational data but a few command directives as well. With power on this scale safety measures are always must. I just want to be clear that you all understand this and are fine with it before we begin." All three of them nodded. "Alright then. Zukkin, if you could take the chair on the left. Kumber, the chair in the middle. Tamayto, the chair on the right, please."
The three Sai-jins did as instructed and soon Gero had them strapped down and secured in place and then he lowered large helmet like devices down over their eyes. He'd gone over each of their records after Vegeta had listed them as the volunteers in order to best determine which one to transfer into which body. Physical size of their original bodies, their own current power levels, and their fighting styles had all been taken into consideration, after which he'd made the final adjustments to the Android bodies they would be transferring into. That was also when he'd installed the infinite energy generators into the units, as well as the vocal simulators which were designed to give the machines the same voices as their originals, based off recorded data from their mission files.
With the three Sai-jins secure Gero moved back over to his terminal and brought up the command control program. "The process shouldn't be too painful but it will be uncomfortable. Try not to move and please try not to break the equipment." he instructed. Breaking the equipment wouldn't be an issue for Zukkin, his power level was only just over thirty thousand. Tamayto was at just short of a hundred and seventy thousand and Kumber was at almost three hundred thousand. The two of them both exceeded the strength tolerances of his equipment and if they broke something, or moved too much, the transfer could fail. "Beginning transfer... now."
A loud whine started from the machine the three Sai-jins were hooked up to, and then a blue glow came out from under the helmets as the three of them suddenly jerked and tensed. They managed to relax a moment later and Gero kept his eyes on the screen as it showed the transfer rates and progress bars as their minds were scanned, copied, converted into digital binary data, and then downloaded into the computer brains he'd built and installed inside the Android shells. "Transfer process is proceeding smoothly." he said, scanning over the data. "Transfer completion estimated to occur in ten minutes."
"How long after that before they're up and working?" Vegeta asked.
"Once the transfer is complete I'll just have to boot up their systems and cores." replied Gero. "Activation will only take sixty seconds. Barring any unexpected complications they'll be fully operational then."
The Sai-jin nodded. "Good. The others are still on route to Xentron?"
"They are." said Gero. "The three of them will be able to trace the nano-bots in Videl's system, so if they change course after today it wont matter. The main issue, I think, is travel time. They seized one of your ships when they left, after all. The newest and fastest one, if I'm not mistaken."
Vegeta nodded. Bra had no doubt made sure they went for the fastest ship. "We don't currently have anything else quite as fast as it." he agreed. "Not that it matters too much. I've already assigned the three of them one of my other ships to use. Not quite as fast, but close enough. So long as 17 and 18 remain on Xentron for more than four days they'll still be there when these three arrive. If not, they'll be able to redirect to follow them. And... if they run into each other in space..."
Gero nodded. The destruction of the stolen ship would result in the deaths of Pan, Bra, and Videl. An unwelcome outcome but one the three Sai-jins had already accepted as a possibility. Of course, 17 and 18 would be fully able to survive and function in the vacuum of space, but so would these three. The destruction of the ships would be irrelevant in the outcome of the battle. If it came down to it they'd just fight each other in the dead of space. The two remained silent as the process completed and Gero checked over the log. Everything checked out so he sent the activation codes through.
Just over a minute later the metal casket in the middle moved, the door moving up and then falling to the side, open. A single large arm was all they could see for a moment, and then the occupant of the casket sat up. He was a large man with gray skin and long black hair in a braided ponytail. As he climbed to his feet the right hand casket lid moved up a little, dropped back down, then was thrust open with a loud bang. The small purple skinned occupant floated up in the air then moved from his horizontal position into a vertical one and smirked. A moment later the left hand casket creaked as the door to it was pushed open and the third and final one emerged and climbed to his feet as he pulled a ball cap down onto his white haired head.
"This is different." the purple one said, looking at his hands. "Very cool, very cool." He blinked a few times as he gazed around the room until his eyes locked onto Vegeta. "Whoa. Check it out. Look at all of that data. Power reading, height, weight, age, even face recognition. I could get used to this."
"Nice to see you like the new you." Gero said, grinning, and then he turned to face Vegeta. "Allow me to introduce you to the fruits of Project Hunter. Androids 13, 14, and 15."
Vegeta nodded as he looked them over. They were an... interesting bunch by appearance. "Everything checks out?" he asked. The three nodded. "Good. There's a ship already waiting for you in the hangar bay. You know the mission. Locate and eliminate 17 and 18."
"What about the others?" asked 13. "Mistress Pan, Mistress Bra, and Mistress Videl?"
XXX
The three of them were making their way through the palace for the hangar bays and their ship, 13 and 14 in the lead. 15 was walking behind them, hands in the pockets of his light yellow-green coat, a frown on his face, eyes watching the stone floor of the hall and his feet as he made his way along. They were nearly to the hangar when he finally made up his mind. "Hang on guys." he said, looking up again and coming to a stop.
"What is it?" 13 asked, looking back over his shoulder at his smaller companion.
"I need to make a quick trip back up to my quarters." he said.
"We don't have time for detours." said 13. "17 and 18 already have a head start and they've got a faster ship. I would prefer not to have to chase them all across the galaxy, or the universe."
"I know, I know." 15 said, pulling a hand out of his pocket and waving him off. "But there's some stuff I need to get. I wont be more than thirty minutes." He turned around and started back the way they'd come.
"Fine." 13 replied, turning back toward the direction of the hangar bay. "But I'm only giving you thirty minutes. If you're not back by then we're taking off without you. You'll just have to catch up."
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."
XXX
"Ship secure, sir." a soldier called from his console. "All stations are reporting green. We are outside of planetary sensor range. No ships in the area."
"Good. I hate having to be so subtle but I'd rather not draw attention to ourselves." said one of the two men standing in the center of the command bridge. "The natives wouldn't be overly thrilled to see us and I doubt we'd get the red carpet treatment. Unless they're painting it red with our blood."
"Probably why he came here." said the other.
"Yes. It makes a good place to avoid Imperial soldiers and makes things annoying for us. Even we're no match for a few of the natives."
"I suggest we recommend the entire planet be destroyed after we leave."
The first grinned. "Indeed. It would make the universe a far better place." he agreed. "Though I doubt it would be approved otherwise they would have destroyed the place a long time ago. Well, let's get moving. Getting to the planet from here by pod will still take us five hours."
The second nodded and the two large men turned and made their way off the bridge. Five minutes later they were climbing into their pods and readying for launch. Both would have much rather taken their command ship down to the surface, but hiding a ship full of Imperial soldiers would be no easy task. It was far easier for them to simply leave their battle armors behind, don civilian clothes, and land by pod somewhere in the desert. The pods could then be sent back to the ship until they needed them again. No ships to hide meant no ships to find and give away their presence to the natives.
A moment later they'd launched and were hurtling through space toward the distant planet. "I know it's a long shot." began the second over the ComLink between pods. "But we wouldn't happen to have any contacts out here, would we? That would make things much easier."
"It would but we don't." replied the first. "The only contact we had out here got themselves killed nearly eight years ago, now. We're completely and utterly on our own."
"Damn. And we can't even wear our scouters in public. How the hell are we supposed to find two people on an entire planet?"
"With any luck the one who sent the message will still be on the planet and able to find us and lead us to them. Otherwise we'll just have to scout around in the main city for some sign of them. The Namek will stick out pretty well, if he's still with the Human. If it comes down to it we can approach one of the Bosses and present our case to them. I'm sure they'd see the appeal of helping us over forcing one of the Masters to come here personally. I just can't guarantee they wouldn't send us all back in body bags or I'd just do that from the start."
His partner snorted. "There was a time when being a Super Elite in charge of an Imperial Strike Force got you some respect from these backwater planets. The Masters are getting too lax in their rule."
"Nah, it's not the Masters, just the Sai-jins." said the other. "Why do you think I put in that transfer request to work for Frieza six years ago?"
"Hah. You say that now but I know the only reason you did it was because you thought that slave girl you saw on his ship was hot and you wanted access to her."
"One of the perks of the job." he agreed.
XXX
"Today's status report has arrived, Captain." a young woman said as she walked onto the bridge carrying a small computer and reading the information on the screen.
"Bah, status reports." the Captain sneered. "I don't need a report to know what the state of my ship is. We're still dead in the middle of fucking nowhere. That's our status, just like it's been for the last month." he growled. His good mood at watching the 'hitch hikers' get sucked out into space hadn't lasted more than a few days. By the time they'd finally gotten their distress call through to Saiya he'd been irritated again. The response from Saiya hadn't improved his mood any, either. A month and a half wait for their rescue ship! They still had nearly two weeks to go before it arrived and he'd already put five crewmen into Regen Tanks because of his foul mood.
"Actually, there is some good news." the woman said.
The Captain turned from the monitor he'd been using to watch an old movie on and raised an eyebrow. "Good news? Well then, let's here it. I could use some good news for once."
She nodded. "Yes, sir. It seems that the repairs to the air purification systems are complete now and the air circulation systems are running again."
"No more recycled air?" the Captain asked happily. The air on the bridge had been stale for weeks because they'd been breathing it ever since the attack. The air recyclers could keep air breathable for months, if needed, but it always got a foul odor after a few days. If the circulation system and purification systems were running again they could decapsulate fresh air into the system and eject the stale stuff into space.
"Exactly, sir." the soldier replied. "Maintenance has scheduled a full ship atmosphere purge and restock to occur in just under two hours."
"About damn time!" the Captain cheered. "Alright, so, what else have you got for me?"
"Primary power is almost back to full." she said. "We've managed to restore air to all areas of the ship, the hull breach is fully secured with no leaks now, and gravity is stable in all areas. There are still some burnt out power circuits in the holds that we can't repair, however."
The Captain waved it off. "There's nothing down there that needs power from us. I don't care if whatever they had frozen down there goes bad." he said. "We'll replace the circuits when we get back to Saiya. How are we doing on fuel?"
"At current output we're good for another four months." she said. "We are starting to run low on rations, apparently a few boxes are missing. Likely they're what our attackers were after. Still, as long as the rescue ship isn't delayed too much it wont be a problem. We just have to cut everyone's intake by two percent."
The Captain nodded. "Send the notice out when you leave." he said. He didn't like the idea of depriving any of his crew of food. They were all Sai-jins and food depravation on a ship could often lead to... problems. But smaller portions were preferable to going even a day without any food at all. "Anything else, Luttece?"
"Sensor systems should be back on-line by the end of the day." she said. "But engineering reports a total loss on propulsion. We'll have to be towed back to Saiya and have the entire thing replaced."
"Replaced!"
"Yes, sir." she said, nodding, but also taking a half step back. The five soldiers who'd spent time in the Regen Tanks over the last month had all been delivering status reports with bad news in them. She wasn't about to take any chances. "I asked about a refit instead but they say the entire thing is fused, there's nothing to refit. It all needs removed and replaced. Completely non-salvageable."
"Damn it!" he cried, smacking a fist against the arm of his chair. A full replacement of the propulsion system meant replacing the entirety of the engines as well. A refit would have been expensive enough and it would only have been ten percent as costly as a full replacement. "What about more good news?" he demanded.
She quickly scanned through the data looking for something else good, something to improve his mood again. "Full ComNet functionality is back." she said. "Transfer rates are still a little slow, lag time is about three seconds, but we've got total ComNet access again."
"Well, that's something at least."
"Um, sir... There is... one more thing..." He turned to look at her again and scowled but she pressed on, she couldn't not tell him. This was probably the worst bit of news she could give him, considering all the monetary losses incurred so far and the repair costs. Better to get it over with quickly. "Sir, we received a transmission from Saiya about an hour ago, from our client. They are... holding you personally responsible for the loss of the cargo they'd ordered. They're... billing us for the full cost of..."
"How much?" he interupted.
"Five mill..."
"DAMN IT!" he cried, slamming his fist against the arm of the chair again and shattering it this time. As he lifted his hand up from the ruined arm he scowled at it, flexing the fingers slowly. Suddenly there was a burst of white light in his hand, his arm snapped out, and then there was a small explosion and a loud crack as the energy blast he'd formed and launched hit the soldier and knocked her back into the wall where she slumped to the ground unconscious. As the other crewmen on the bridge rushed over to check on her the control panel screen of the cryostasis chamber in the cargo hold flashed and the message it had been displaying changed.
*ATTENTION*
*BACKUP POWER SYSTEMS NEARLY DEPLETED*
*BACKUP POWER REAMING - 10 HOURS*
*AUTO THAW SYSTEMS ENGAGED - FULL THAW ESTIMATED TO OCCUR IN 5 HOURS*