Infiltration, Part 5
Note, the parenthesis indicate languages other than Japanese, in this case, French, English, and Interlac.
Please Read and Review. I'd like to know what I'm doing right (to keep doing it), and what I'm I doing wrong (to correct it).
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
20 minutes after Iruel's Attack
The automated voice delivered its pre-recorded message. Either the builders of the Geo-Front had included almost unimaginable eventualities in their list of messages, or the subsystems enslaved to the MAGI were even more versatile than expected. In any case, the voice was clinically cold. "Central Dogma has been completely sealed. Mega-Depth facilities are entirely occupied by the intruder."
Vice-Commander Kozo Fujutsuki wished he was as unflappable. "Well now, how will we fight off an Angel without an EVA?" he asked, from his usual place behind the Commander.
If Commander Gendo Ikari had an answer, only he knew what could it be.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
30 minutes after Iruel's Attack
The rest of the scientific team arrived 8 minutes after evacuating the Pribnow Box. They had a little time to recover from their forced run to Central Dogma. Still, their hurry to evacuate the doomed observation bridge was evident in their disordered hair. Even the short mane of Lt. Ibuki was in some disarray.
Dr. Akagi and Lt. Ibuki didn't waste any time in connecting the remote sensors to the main system. Only the fiber-optic instruments. Akagi wouldn't risk the use of any direct physical connection, fearing that the new Angel, code-named Iruel, could use any physical contact to infect the main systems. Having it loose in the lower level was bad enough, having it spread into the MAGI would be a catastrophe.
The sensors painted a terrible image. Red dots spread like wildfire all over the simulation tank.
Soon, the team had run through all the remote viewing specters available. Infra-red would be enlightening. It revealed an interesting distribution of the red dots.
Dr. Akagi interpreted the results on the screen, for the benefit of the rest of the command team. And unknowingly, of a dead acrobat, looking over her shoulder. "Look, this is the border between the normal and heavy water." She pointed at a simple diagram of the sim-bodies tank. There was a clear division between both types of water. Ultrapure water above, heavy water below. "There's a higher level of oxygen here." All the red hexagons that showed the presence of Iruel were above the frontier.
Maya caught the implications immediately. "Their preference is pretty obvious."
Aoba followed her reasoning without missing a beat. "The place where ozone is vented in, to maintain aseptic conditions isn't contaminated."
Major Katsuragi added, "So does that mean that its weakness is ozone?" She smiled, hoping that for once, the solution wouldn't involve sending children to fight her battles.
Standing behind Lt. Ibuki, Dr. Akagi sighed in relief, "It would seem so."
One minute later, a large amount of ozone began to arrive to the tanks, bubbling into the heavy water zone, and rising to the surface. Lt. Hyuga reported, "Injecting ozone." He paused to check the readings, "Ozone concentration is increasing."
At his console, Lt. Aoba confirmed, "It's working, all right."
Things were proceeding as expected for a moment. It was going so well that Vice-Commander Fujutsuki had to ask the question in everybody's mind. "Will this work?" Commander Ikari didn't answer, his eyes were fixed on the screens.
Lt. Ibuki followed with her own report, "Zero A and Zero B seem to be recovering."
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma (Astral plane)
Deadman waved his arms desperately, as if he hadn't over forty years of experience being ignored unless he was occupying somebody else's body. "Okay, no one say it, okay? You say it, you jinx it! Do you get that? Don't. Say. It! DON'T EVEN THINK IT!"
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
Lt. Aoba relayed his results. "The area around the pipes is getting back to normal."
Lt. Hyuga did the same "The central portion is proving a little more difficult."
Fujutsuki followed with the obvious order. "All right, inject more ozone."
Dr. Akagi's instincts screamed at her, but she kept her self-control. "This isn't right."
Lt. Aoba confirmed her suspicions a second later. "What? It's increasing?" and Lt. Hyuga had even worse news, "Something is wrong. Heat levels are increasing!"
Though it was clear to see, Lt. Aoba reported. "The contaminated area is spreading again." And this time, it didn't limit itself to the ultra-purified water, it also infected the heavy water zone! In barely a few seconds, the whole upper level of water was a furious red, and invading the lower level.
Even worse, Hyuga's next words chilled the blood of everybody else's "Now it's absorbing the ozone."
Dr. Akagi ordered to stop the ozone injection. It would be not only useless, but even dangerous to try to maintain a procedure that wasn't working in their favor.
From the astral plane, an angry voice asked "Okay, who was the smart guy who thought this was an easy victory?"
Seven minutes later
Dr. Akagi studied the reading relayed to Lt. Ibuki's monitor, "Amazing… it's evolving…" before she could continue, a shrill alarm brought her out of her thoughts.
Nervously, Lt. Aoba reported, "Something is hacking into the subcomputer! The intruder hasn't been identified!"
From his console, Lt. Hyuga's news were even worse, "Not now! Dealing with C-mode!" He changed his console to watch the computer system. The Angel's status would be watched by the AI, while the hacking was dealt with. He three bridge bunnies would be dealing with a terribly competent adversary. Their attempts to lead it away from the really important subsystems were met and dealt with, with contemptuous ease. The intruder recognized and evaded any false opening the team threw at it. At this pace, it would soon penetrate through all the external subsystems and enter…
The MAGI.
To his horror, Lt. Aoba located the source of the hacking. "It's in the B-Wing, in the Pribnow Box!"
The Angel.
The Angel itself was hacking the most advanced computer system mankind had created, as if it was nothing but a toy.
Pribnow Box
Simulation Tank
Sim-Body standing for Unit-00
Iruel transcended its previous limitations. Its nanocomponents finally had enough material to do it. The sim-body it had infested before now changed under its command, infrasonic Pings singing a symphony of praise and pride to its creator. The red dots that covered its surface changed into their next iterative form. Now, Iruel became a living computer. In barely a second, the surface of the body was covered by golden circuitry, just as its creator had designed Iruel to evolve and change according to the needs of any function it would be asked to accomplish.
Right now, all of Iruel's resources were focused in one single purpose.
To free its creator from the insignificant lifeforms that held him a prisoner.
The most efficient way to do so would be also the simplest.
Total destruction of the facilities holding him prisoner.
Iruel was able to survive a supernova, after all. The detonation of a few megatons of explosive charges would be of no consequence.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
Back with said lifeforms, none of the resources at their disposal to cut the Angel from the system worked. The means to cut the physical connection were under the control of the system itself. There were no manual alternatives at their reach.
Deadman facepalmed at this revelation. "Hell and damnation, people! This is ridiculous! I am a dead circus acrobat, and even I know you always keep a physical killswitch at hand when dealing with this kind of thing! Pull the damn plug and that's all!"
He missed a few words, but it was clear soon that the Angel was trying to enter the main systems. Even to a computer illiterate as the former acrobat thought of himself, that sounded like a really bad thing. An Angel controlling the GeoFront? "Okay, people. Don't panic. Tell me you have some way to deal with this." He looked at Akagi's face, set in a gesture full of determination. "Anytime you want to, Doc. I'll just stay here and watch, silent as a dead mouse."
A scared Lt. Hyuga reported the next bit of bad news, "It's broken into the main banks! It's reading the main bank! We can't stop it!"
The cold voice of Commander Ikari cut the frantic chatter. "Shut down I/O system."
Hyuga and Aoba extracted the keys they always carried with them in their posts. Two keys that would shut down the system in an emergency. The designers of the NERV base had foreseen the possibility of the AIs developing some malfunction that would need a quick shutdown, but they never expected that such emergency would come from inside the GeoFront.
Both lieutenants turned their keys at the same time, per the stablished procedure.
It didn't work.
The next words heard chilled the blood of everybody present. "It's made contact with Melchior! It's taking over Melchior! The Angel is reprogramming it!"
Ivory Coast
Deep Underground
Brotherhood of Evil Secret Base
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
"(Mallah! I… I…)"
The ascended gorilla recoiled in fear. "(Brain? Brain? Are you okay..?)"
The eyes of the skull shaped mobile unit shone red for a moment. "(…Yes…)" the electronically produced voice answered, calmly. Its tone was now devoid of any emotion. "(I am fine… …better than ever, my friend. …In fact, I have been shown what I must do. Therefore, I will do it. Doctor Akagi's help is no longer needed.)"
The whole base disappeared between pinging sounds. The only thing remaining was the Brain's container, floating in the nothingness.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
To the horror of all people present in Central Dogma, the awfully calm computer voice announced, "Melchior self-destruct has been initiated."
Hearing those words, Deadman did something he hadn't done in decades. The red ghost joined his hands, and prayed.
"Overruled, Overruled, Overruled." The other two MAGI had voted on Melchior proposal, and discarded it. The self-destruct sequence could only be activated by unanimous vote of the three supercomputers.
Aoba practically screamed his next report, "Melchior is hacking into Balthasar!" The diagram showing the three MAGI changed. Melchior's section was now completely red, while Balthasar's showed a few red pixels against its usual light blue color. The red pixels spread constantly. Soon, they would cover Balthasar's image completely.
Finally, Akagi found a way to stop the invasion, or at least, to slow it down. "Change synchronization code to every fifteen seconds!"
It worked.
The red pixels stopped for a moment, but soon they were spreading again, although much slower.
"How much time have we bought, Lt. Aoba?"
"At least two hours… I…, I think, sir."
Fujutsuki sighed. "Well, we better get to work, then."
In the astral plane, Deadman exhaled a sigh of relief, even though he couldn't actually do such a physical act. "Well… with some luck, the Stranger might be able to do something about this. I have no idea of what is actually going on beyond 'Oh, boy, this is bad with a capital 'B'…"
A Ranch Not Very Near Reno, Nevada
And Very Far from the NERV-2 base
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
Cliff Steele ran into the cabin of his neighbor. In the way there, he had already destroyed several insectile-looking robots surrounding the place. Normally, he would have preferred to fight outside, he would have more freedom of movement, and wouldn't have to worry about hitting something he shouldn't, but the hole decorating the wall told him his presence was needed inside. He speared through another robot, cutting it in two when he pulled at the mechanisms inside.
As soon as he got in, he smashed a nasty looking metallic construct shaped like a centipede. The impact of the insectile robot probe against the wooden wall shook the whole place. "(Cliff! Thank the kami you're here!)" Naoko Akagi was hiding under a table, she screamed when another construct tried to pull her by the hair. Cliff punched its head away, and pulled Naoko to a relative safety.
"(What in tarnation are those things, Doc?)" he asked over his shoulder, while keeping his body between her and the multitude of invading robots.
"(I don't know! They appeared a few minutes ago! And they want to get into the servers!)"
"(Darn! The ones that control the city?)"
"(The same! If they manage to control or destroy them, they will do untold damage to the whole city!)"
Gravely, Cliff rubbed his mechanic knuckles,"(Well, then. We have to stop them.)" He pulled a wall covering, revealing a hidden weapon. A high tech rifle, chromed to the nines, and with a bloated cannon with a bore wider than Naoko's arm.
"(Just point and pull the trigger, Doc. The Chief lent me this baby for emergencies.)"
Dr. Naoko Akagi took the weapon and nodded gravely.
Vega System
Psion Homeworld
Same Time
"(Naughty children! Granny will be pleased to give you a nice, cold bare cell tonight! And tomorrow, target practice!)" A pale woman with scarlet red hair cackled happily. Her eyes shone for a moment, before sending twin beams of solid light towards the two young heroes.
"(Nah. I have a lot of chores to do!)" Jor Max-El jumped aside, and before Bloody Mary could react, he grabbed the beams with his bare hands. "(Think fast, you witch!)" he pulled at the beams, catching the vampires by surprise, she stumbled and fell on her face.
"(Hurry up with that lock, Aleea! I can hear Speed Queen coming!)" He said over his shoulder, while his companion fumbled with a complex gadget over the electrolock that barred their passage.
"(Keep her busy for fourteen seconds, Jor!)" she whispered, knowing he could hear her easily, a small advantage she liked to exploit whenever possible.
"(Riiight! To my left!)" Jor answered. Aleea spun around, and shoot two Parademons closing too much towards Jor. The young Almeracian Prince spun over his heels, dragging Bloddy Mary around, using her body to bowl several Parademons more. The Female Fury managed to dig her nails right into the wall, stopping herself for long enough to retract her energy beams. She looked at Jor from under her now messy hair.
"(That's it! I'm gonna rip your mask off and use it as a cleaning rag!)" she ran towards Jor, her nails hitting the wall, drawing sparks with each strike.
"(Mask? I don't wear a mask, lady!)"
"(Then it will be your face, I don't care!)" She closed enough to swipe her claws in a curve that barely touched Jor's torso. Three lines appeared on his shirt.
"(Wha..?)" he touched his side, and incredulous watched the streak of blood on his hand. "(But I'm invulnerable!)"
"(Nice to know, pup!)" Bloody Mary licked the blood from her nails. "(And not only you're vulnerable to my claws, you're also tasty! I want more!)."
"(Finish that already, Jor!)" Aleea shot four times, the first two shots missed their target, but the last two hit Bloody Mary right in the face.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Jor grabbed her cape, and spinning over himself, he gathered enough momentum to throw her almost three miles away!
"(Damn. Mom will kill me… this shirt was a gift!)" Jor Max-El shook his head, ruefully.
Click!
"(Right on time. Hurry up!)" Aleea crossed the threshold and put the gadget against the electrolock on the other side.
"(Something hit the door on the other side.)"
"(Cool! That was Speed Queen! She did a Coyote on the door!)"
"(Let's just hope she doesn't have some Acme brand T.N.T.)" Aleea took back her lockpick and shot the electrolock. "(Do me a solid and melt the edge of the door.)"
"(Don't we need a working door to get out?)" he pointed at the door with a thumb over his shoulder.
"(Nah. We make a new door once we get Mar'i free.)"
Jor nodded and used his heat vision as asked, before following his friend down the corridor.
Outside, a furious Speed Queen kicked the door with an enthusiasm Stompa would have been proud of.
Author Notes:
None this time.