Eye for an Eye - Chapter 1: Poisoned Well

FN-49 blindly stumbled through the forest, errant branches and shrubbery tore at her clothes as she tried to find her way through the unknown terrain to safety. Somehow she managed to do it. Somehow she managed to escape the hellhole that the Sangvis ringleader had trapped her in. How she did it, it didn't matter; all that mattered now was to get as far away from it as possible.

"Argh!" FN-49 grabbed her head as she stumbled to the ground, temporarily losing her balance. "What the hell did that witch do to me?!"

FN-49 picked herself back up, rubbing her eyes as she tried to regain her bearings. She had no idea where she was. She knew she was behind enemy lines, but not how deep. Her entire body ached, and she couldn't seem to focus her mind properly. How long had she been in there? Her internal clock had been forcibly reset, and she didn't have an external one on her. She set off on a border patrol on June 13, 2058, and-

Wait… 2058?

FN-49 shook her head, trying to focus. What year was it? No, it was 2063, not 2058. What happened in 2058 again? Oh, right, she was created that year… Whatever, she needed to focus on getting back to base ASAP.

"Freeze!" a voice suddenly rang out from in front of her. FN-49 instinctually began to raise her rifle in the general direction of the voice. Halfway through the motion, a bullet whizzed through the air right in front of her face, causing her to flinch and trip backwards onto the ground.

"Don't move!" the voice sternly demanded again. FN-49 raised her head, her eyes focusing on an approaching figure dressed in black.

"W- wait! Don't shoot!" FN-49 said as she raised her hands in front of her face. She glanced around and saw several other dark figures approaching her from all directions. Since when did they get so close without her noticing?

"Swiss, restrain her," the voice said. FN-49 spun her head around, and saw one of the figures begin to approach her.

"No, stop!" FN-49 shouted, slowly edging backwards away from the unknown doll. "Don't come near me!"

Another doll switched on a flashlight, the beam temporarily blinding her. Squinting her eyes, her surroundings seemed to fade into oblivion, the light trapping her in an illusory cage. She watched a small doll emerge from the boundary into the light. She was holding a length of rope in her hand.

"Sorry about this," the doll named Swiss casually said as she reached for FN-49's wrists.

"Get away from me!" FN-49 desperately pleaded, but Swiss was quicker than her. She grabbed FN-49's hand and twisted it behind her back. FN-49 tried to resist, but she couldn't shake herself from the doll's grasp. FN-49 felt the rope wrap around her wrist for a moment before Swiss suddenly let go.

"Fuck!" Swiss exclaimed, her hand recoiling from the FN-49's wrist as a sudden surge of pain seared her mind, as if someone had struck her forehead with a sledgehammer.

"Swiss! What happened?!" Dazzle demanded, watching Swiss stagger back a few steps. She took a step closer towards the Griffin doll.

"What… the fuck!" Swiss cursed through clenched teeth, both her hands grabbing her head as hard as she could. Her mind was ablaze with the tell-tale signature of an electronic attack. Did this Griffin doll just attack me? She wondered.

"Swiss, SITREP!" Night Eyes shouted, making her way towards her teammate.

"Wait- Stay back!" Swiss suddenly shouted, holding an arm out. "E- electronic virus hazard! I'm infected! Keep your distance, general defensive protocol!"

"Virus? What the hell?" Dazzle questioned, "What the fuck did this Griffin doll do to you?!"

Night Eyes froze in her tracks, an expression of disbelief painted across her face.

Alchemist tricked us, Night Eyes thought to herself, This isn't a capture mission, it's a trap!

FN-49 leaned back against the tree and let out a soft sigh, gently massaging her temples to ease her persistent headache. Beside her, Swiss sat cross-legged on the ground, both their weapons lying on the ground a few metres away from FN-49. She raised her head to meet the machine gunner—Dazzle—'s intimidating gaze before quickly dipping her head back down. Dazzle was standing guard over her, albeit from several metres away. FN-49 tried to warn them that she was infected with some sort of virus, but they ended up jumping the gun anyway. What a huge mess, FN-49 thought to herself.

"Oh no… This is worse than I thought," Swiss said to herself after a few awkward minutes.

"What do you mean?" Night Eyes asked, "Explain."

"This is… How do I explain it in lay terms…" Swiss began, "You can think of it as an 'infohazard.'"

"An infohazard?" Dazzle repeated, "What's that?"

"It's more or less your standard computer virus—well, more of a worm, technically, considering the ways it disseminates between targets—but the key detail here is that it targets the persistent memories of infected dolls, essentially traversing from node to node and performing pointer flips according to an algorithm. It uses a random walk-esque approach to-"

"Swiss," Dazzle interrupted, "Get to the point. Are you going to be alright?"

"Well, the infohazard is designed to slowly jumble the memories of infected dolls, eventually irreparably breaking down their neural cloud. So no, not really." Swiss explained, "It's spread through contact data-link, so you'll all be fine as long as you don't touch me or FN-49. Probably."

"How do we defeat the virus?" Dazzle asked.

"You need the decryption algorithm, or you brute force it, which would take me approximately 72,000 years," Swiss stated, "If you have the decrypt algo, you can essentially undo the effects of the virus step by step in a deterministic way."

"The decryption algorithm," Sapphire said, "What is it? How can we get one?"

"These sorts of malware, they don't discriminate between friend and foe," Swiss explained, "I'd assume that the person who created this program, Alchemist, would have a decryption algorithm on her. It's like having an antidote for a poison, though I suppose in this case it's more akin to having a vaccine for a contagious illness or bioweapon?"

"Alchemist…" Night Eyes echoed with a scowl.

"Unless FN-49 got the infohazard from somewhere else?" Swiss asked the Griffin doll.

FN-49 shook her head.

"How long do we have until…" Night Eyes asked.

"The infohazard, it acts faster on dolls with more data stored in their persistent memories," Swiss said, "Prognostic factors include total memory volume, memory volume in use, memory node interconnectedness, processing speed, et cetera. So for someone like me, well…"

"Well?" Dazzle prompted.

"Well, according to my calculations," Swiss continued, "We have… Erm. Wait, that can't be right."

"Swiss!" Night Eyes said, "How long?"

I have around… Two…?"

"Two what?"

"…Two hours."