Infiltration, Part 6
Note, the parenthesis indicate languages other than Japanese, in this case, French and English.
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
Exit Hatch 17,
Exit Hatch 37,
Exit Hatch 58
30 minutes after Iruel's Attack
At street level, three false buildings rose from the ground. Red lights spun and shrill sirens screamed their warnings to anybody who could see and hear.
The streets were empty.
There was nobody to be warned.
The hatches opened, and three colossi stood under the sunlight.
They stood there, unmoving. Waiting for their pilots.
Their eyes, one, two and four; were dark and opaque.
They would stand guard over an empty city.
Ivory Coast
Deep Underground
Brotherhood of Evil Secret Base
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
The Brain's mind was free of any thought, any idea, any notion. Outside him, nothing mattered.
He floated in a nothingness that welcomed him. It was the place he had dreamt about his entire life.
The Brain's mind focused on only one singular thought.
To be no more.
To exist, no more.
Time to cease.
Time to unmake everything.
Unseen, Dr. Naoko Akagi analyzed everything.
And agreed.
The time for destruction had arrived.
But she and the Brain were not alone. They had to persuade their counterparts.
A Ranch Not Very Near Reno, Nevada
And Very Far from the NERV-2 base
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
Cliff Steele and his neighbor, Dr. Naoko Akagi, fought wave after wave of mechanical, insectoid constructs. She used her energy rifle, he fought as he was used to, with the strength and resilience his robotic body provided.
It was a losing fight. For every insectroid they destroyed, three more appeared.
"(Doc! I'll cover you! Get into the control room!)" Robotman grabbed an insectroid by the tail, and used it as an improvised weapon, smashing four more to pieces. "(Hurry up! I'll hold the fort!)"
She shot another construct, slapped a panel, and a secret door opened. "(Hang on, Cliff!)"
"(Doc! Set up the EMP!)" he threw the remains of the insectroid, and smashed the head of another. "(I'll buy you time!)"
"(But…)"
"(Yeah! I know! But if these things get into the system, they will invade the whole world. Do it! I am nothing but a rust bucket anyway!)"
She nodded grimly while the reinforced door slid shut again.
Using the EMP would not only destroy the insectroids and fry the electric systems of the whole Nevada state.
It would kill Cliff Steele.
At the other side of the door, Robotman made his last stand.
With him, the Doom Patrol would end at long last.
Had he been able to do it, he would have smiled at the thought of meeting his friends again.
Larry, Gar, Steve, Josh, Arani, Valentina, Scott, Rhea, Jane, Dorothy, Flex.
He snorted, Hell, even Wayne and the Chief!
He wondered if Danny the Street was allowed to go into the Great Beyond…
Down at the control room, Dr. Naoko Akagi set to her task. She began to type with inhuman speed, setting the system to copy itself at the New York S.T.A.R. Labs mainframe.
Once the copy had been uploaded, the Nevada system would self destruct, taking the invaders with it.
She herself wouldn't survive.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Strategy Room
50 minutes after Iruel's Attack
Dr. Ritsuko Akagi pointed at the screen desk. The command and tech staff stood nervously around the strangely shaped table. It showed the last image obtained from the Pribnow Box Simulation Tank, specifically, Unit-00's Sim-Body. "This Angel seems to be composed of nano-machines. Virus-sized. In a very short period of time, these virii have evolved. With exponential speed."
Above the desk, Deadman floated, watching the proceedings in unusual silence. His eyes darted around, looking for anything that could help to destroy the Angel. He had little faith in his own capabilities to actually do something in this case, but still, he listened carefully.
Akagi continued, "As they have demonstrated, they have formed a very sophisticated form of intelligence circuit. They change and evolve continually, adapting to their current environment. Unless we can destroy them in a single attack, they will adapt to it, become immune to further attempts."
Testily, Fujutsuki said, "That's a survival mechanism. That's a life-form, not a machine."
Major Katsuragi had been thinking while Dr. Akagi spoke. "It is a parasite. The only way to be sure it's been destroyed would be to eliminate the host. We'll have to destroy the MAGI before they self-destroy, with us along for the ride." She nodded grimly to herself. "I propose the physical elimination of the MAGI."
This proposal angered the normally level headed Tech-Chief. "Impossible! That would be like destroying the HQ itself!"
The two women argued for a while, until, unexpectedly Akagi assumed responsibility for the invasion. "It is my fault, I am responsible for the MAGI, it was me who ultimately allowed this to happen. I got careless. I must be the one to solve it."
Major Katsuragi sighed. "You always assume responsibility. Avoiding depending on anybody else. You cannot do this by yourself."
Akagi raised her head, looking at Commander Ikari. "We have a chance for as long as the Angel keeps evolving."
"By controlling and directing its evolution?" he asked, getting a nod from the scientist.
"The end of evolution is death itself. Self-Destruction is a facet of death. You may proceed."
Vice-Commander Fujutsuki added. "Then, we just have to accelerate its evolution beyond its capabilities to destroy us."
Grimly, Akagi concluded, "If the Angel considers the only practical means of survival are to co-exist with the MAGI system, it will do so. Symbiosis instead of Parasitism. Another evolutionary stage."
Above them, Deadman facepalmed, "By my father's moustache! You want to adopt an Angel as a pet? This is not a God-dammed Pokemon we're dealing with! I'm I the only one who thinks it is a Bad Idea?" He sat on the projection desk and looked around at the grim faces around, "Yeah. I see I am…" He hung his head and sighed heavily. "Dang it, Stranger… Where are you? I cannot cope with this kind of thing! The best I can do with a computer is use a bit of text editing and play mine-sweeper…"
He missed a few words, but not the gist of the plan.
Basically, Akagi would hack the Angel's system. They still had an uninfected computed. Casper would be the MAGI to upload the self-destruct program into the Angel.
Lt. Ibuki delivered the bad news Deadman had been waiting for. "At the same time the virus is being uploaded, we'd have to turn off the firewall."
Commander Ikari knew what that meant. "So, in the end it all depends on Casper or the Angel being the fastest."
Major Katsuragi looked at her college friend, "Will the program be ready in time? If Casper is taken over before that, it will be over."
Dr. Akagi raised her eyes, looking ahead. "I keep my promises. I'll need some help, but I can do it in time."
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
Plans were made, resources allocated, and the order to evacuate non-indispensable staff was given. All D-Class personnel was sent to the Matsushiro secondary HQ.
In Central Dogma, the tech staff grimly set to their new tasks. Dr. Akagi opened a part of the system that was only accessed for the infrequent maintenance deep cleaning procedures. It was the center of the whole MAGI system. A conglomerate of tubes and wires rose from the floor. It looked like a nightmarish labyrinth for blind guinea pigs.
She opened a hidden hatch, and light entered a small tunnel, illuminating a place that had been hidden for long months. Yellowed sticky notes covered every surface but the floor. Akagi crawled inside. "These are notes left by the MAGI system's creator."
Lt. Ibuki gasped, "My gosh! The MAGI's access codes!"
Major Katsuragi took one of the notes. "Am I even allowed to see these? These are like the map of the secret codes to the whole system!"
Akagi looked at the notes with a sense of both fondness and loss. They held a deep meaning for her. Something that Maya or Misato couldn't imagine. Meanwhile, Maya smiled at the whole amount of information at their disposal. "With them, we can program even faster than I thought!"
Akagi sat on the floor, and whispered to herself, "Thank you, Mom. We can do this."
Minutes later.
Lt. Ibuki sat on a heavy metal piece, surrounded by carefully extracted, and still connected, tubes and nodes removed from the system, with some of the sticky notes still attached to them, while some others had been collected and copied in her laptop. The young bridge bunny typed frantically, inputting the codes into her computer.
Meanwhile, Akagi and Katsuragi had a different tsk, inside the mainframe. Namely, to directly access the main processing unit of Casper.
Dr. Akagi lay on the floor, half her body inside a lateral access port. Next to Akagi's legs, Major Katsuragi waited for her friend to ask for the next tool. She had never been a quiet person, she needed to talk. She wondered aloud about one thing or another. Akagi indulged her old college friend. "Ever heard about Personality Transplant OS?"
"Sure. An individual's personality is implanted into a computer system. Organic computer, I think. Seventh generation, right? It's like the EVA units OS."
"Well… The MAGI used one of the first test subjects. Using cloned brain tissue as its basis. My mother developed the technology, almost from scratch. She used some strange tech, donated by the US Government. It took her a while to finish, but it was worth it."
Idly Akagi looked up, at the stenciled name on the unit cover:
Casper.
Drei.
MAGI-System
Stein, V.
Further inside the system, two similar plaques still covered the other CPUs. It would be useless to even try to access them, as both Balthasar and Melchior had already been infected by the Angel.
Major Katsuragi made the connection in her mind, "So, it was your mother's personality that was transplanted into the MAGI?"
"Right." Akagi used a power saw to cut the CPU cover, she needed direct access into the cloned brain tissue. Once she had made the cuts, and the noise had quieted down, she continued, "In a very real sense, these cloned brains are all that's left of my mother. She imprinted herself into them."
Delicately, she removed the metal cover. A grey lump of neural tissue seemed to pulse behind it. Minute access ports set in specific places, waiting for the wires to be inserted into them, allowing direct access into the organic CPU.
Major Katsuragi asked softly, "Is that why you wanted to protect the MAGI?" she felt somewhat ashamed of her earlier attitude. Her relationship with her father had been tainted by years of abandonment, but her mother had always been there for her, until… until the end.
To her surprise, Akagi's answer was quite cold. "No. I didn't really liked my mother as a person." She selected the first access wire, and inserted into the corresponding port. "This was purely a scientific decision."
Outside, the main screen showed the complete assimilation of Balthasar.
A Ranch Not Very Near Reno, Nevad
And Very Far from the NERV-2 base
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
The noise outside quieted down. All she could hear was the skittering of the insectroid's legs.
Naoko Akagi had held onto hope for as long as she dared. Cliff Steele, Robotman, had finally fallen.
She hit the Return key on the computer keyboard.
The EMP would destroy every electronic system in the Nevada area.
And being at the very center of the pulse, her nervous system would be fried instantly.
There was nothing after the white light that enveloped her.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
Lt . Hyuga turned back, informing the Command Staff behind him, "Balthasar has been taken over!"
The automated voice droned from the PA system, "The Self-Destruct sequence has been initiated by the Computer. Destruction will be triggered twenty seconds after all three AIs agree."
Maya stopped for a moment, but resumed her frantic typing after hearing the message. The system droned the next part of the message, announcing that the whole Geo-Front would be reduced to atoms. "Special Command 582 requires the consent of two computer to cancel the action."
The screen showed Casper's blue image invaded by the first red pixels representing Iruel.
New York
S.T.A.R. Labs
Dr. Victor Stone's Office
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
Dr. Victor Stone's mind traveled through the mainframe. He diligently managed the myriad requests included in the latest processing package sent by the City Council. He guided the decision process as he always did; he suggested and proposed actions, working within the allocated resources. Once finished, he would receive similar analysis.
Sometimes, he had to add a request to redistribute the resources. Energy, raw materials, processing capabilities. Once he had sent his proposals, he and his counterparts in the other data hubs in the system would analyze the three proposals, vote on which each one considered the best option, and work with the chosen proposal.
He hadn't ever met his counterparts. He didn't even know who they were, but the system had worked well so far.
He hurried up. He had a bad feeling in the few bones he still had.
His foreboding was confirmed a moment later, by two simultaneous attacks. An army of insectoid robots materialized outside S.T.A.R. Labs, and a hot needle feeling stabbed into his brain. "(Gaaah!)" he grabbed his head with both hands, "(Ough… this feels like Houngan's techno-voodoo!)" he gritted his teeth.
"(Naoko!)" he screamed in the mic, "(I am being hacked!)"
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
"T-minus twenty to self-destruct."
Lt. Aoba gasped, "Casper will be taken over in eighteen seconds, Sir." Behind him, Vice-Commander Fujutsuki held onto Aoba's chair.
"T-minus fifteen to self-destruct."
Red pixels covered more than half of the Casper representation.
Pribnow Box
Simulation Tank
Sim-Body standing for Unit-00
Iruel worked on the last of the three primitive bio-tech computers. It would be a simple matter of time to detonate the charges that would release its creator.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
"Hurry up!" Major Katsuragi hissed.
"No problem, I have almost a whole second to spare."
"Is that enough?"
"T-minus ten."
New York
S.T.A.R. Labs
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
Dr. Naoko Akagi typed frantically in her own substation. She was busy receiving and coding the operating system of the robotic bugs. Her mind worked inhumanely fast, thanks to her man inside. Watching Cyborg's own operating system interface with S.T.A.R. Labs mainframe was a work of art. Between the two of them, ably aided by Dr. Karen Beecher, they had a hope of neutralizing the invaders.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
(Spiritual Plane)
Deadman had removed one of his red gloves, and was busy trying to bite his ghostly nails, to no effect. His ghost form barely changed, and his nails were as short now as they had been when he had been murdered. His teeth had no effect on them.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
"Maya!"
"Done!" Lt. Ibuki hit the Return key, uploading the virus into the last section. On the screen, only a few green pixels remained.
"Two…"
New York
S.T.A.R. Labs
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
The building was completely covered by metallic bodies, chewing their way into the place. In a matter of seconds, they would be inside.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
"Zero."
A single green pixel remained. Everybody held their breath, waiting for their fates to be decided.
New York
S.T.A.R. Labs
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
Dr. Naoko Akagi hit the key, the virus she had improvised was broadcasted to the swarm.
Victor Stone screamed.
Pribnow Box
Simulation Tank
Sim-Body standing for Unit-00
Iruel 's system was invaded by contradictory commands. Existence and Anti-Existence ran through his circuits at the same time.
Complex equations that demanded a resolution.
Existence or Anti-Existence
Unless Iruel chose in the next few pico-seconds, it would cease to be.
Unacceptable. The whole chamber resonated with frantic pinging noises.
The golden bio-circuits shone white hot.
Existence as a symbiont.
Anti-Existence as a destroyed Angel
Life.
Anti-Life
Life held hope.
Anti-Life held despair
Iruel chose.
Its existence was to be subsumed into the host. Its operating system imbued into the primitive bio-tech.
Iruel raged at this development.
However, if it was not able to fulfil its mission, it was to preserve its existence until the parameters changed to a more favorable combination.
Ivory Coast
Deep Underground
Brotherhood of Evil Secret Base
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
Dr. Naoko Akagi's voice came from the comm unit. "(Brain, Mallah, I have a lot of data to analyze. I'll be out of reach for a few days.)"
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
The green pixel blinked several times, and suddenly, it exploded all over the diagram.
The red pixels in Balthasar and Melchior turned back into green. "Self-Destruct has been canceled by the MAGI." The VA System announced impassively. "Special command 582 is also canceled. The MAGI are returning to normal mode."
The cold announcement was followed by enthusiastic cheers from the staff on duty.
Inside the mainframe, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi exhaled in relief. She allowed herself a moment to breathe, before setting herself to the task of disconnecting the access wires from their ports, and resealing Casper inside its containment unit.
A Ranch Not Very Near Reno, Nevada
And Very Far from the NERV-2 base
(Mental Plane)
Same Time
Cliff Steele sat up, pushing the remains of the metallic insects off his chest. "(What happened? I thought I was toast, Naoko.)"
"(I'm not sure, Cliff. I'll get some tea and food while you check outside. I think we got rescued just as the EMP hit.)"
Pribnow Box
Simulation Tank
Sim-Body standing for Unit-00
The glowing golden circuits went black, turning themselves into fine powder, that would be scrubbed from the tanks by the filtration systems after a few hours.
Everything left from Iruel was now part of the MAGI.
Tokyo-3
GeoFront, NERV HQ
Central Dogma
(Spiritual Plane)
Deadman slumped over Lt. Aoba's monitor. "I'm too dead for this kind of life…" he moaned.
A rough voice croaked next to him. "…Deadman…"
The wandering ghost turned around, "Stranger! Where have you...?" He stopped, alarmed at seeing his partner. The Phantom Stranger could barely manage to stay standing, his face pale, and beads of sweat covered his skin. The mysterious man swayed dangerously, and fell unconscious.
Deadman reacted immediately. To his own surprise, he managed to catch the Stranger. "Oh, boy." He picked up the unconscious body, and focused his will on returning to the Quintessence plane. He hoped that the Phantom Stranger woke up there. "Dammit, buddy… don't do this to me!"
A second later, both had disappeared from Central Dogma.
New York
S.T.A.R. Labs
Dr. Victor Stone's Office
(Mental Plane)
Dr. Naoko Akagi sat next to Cyborg, handing him a mug full of tea. "(Better, Vic?)"
Victor Stone sighed, he put the cup on the table, and pressed on the cold gel bag set on his forehead. Silently, he thanked the gods for that simple invention. Though his bionics were waterproof, he hated the feeling of cold water settling on the artificial skin under his chromed implants.
"(Much better. If you hadn't hacked those bugs, I'd be a drooling vegetable right now.)"
Middle of Lake Ashi
2 hours after Iruel.
"Gott-dammit! Boy Wonder! Answer me!"
"Still no answer from HQ, Huntress." Shinji answered calmly. "Something must have happened. This would be too expensive a prank for anybody to even think of it."
"I agree with Robin. I suggest we swim to shore. There are survival kits in each plug."
"Are you insane, Wonder Girl?" Asuka's agitation was clear in her voice. "I'm not going skinny dipping at this hour! Hell! I am NOT going skinny dipping EVER, you heard me! And that goes double for you, Boy Wonder, so you can erase that image from your perverted little mind, Ist das klar, Boy Wonder?!"
"I.. um… wasn't about to propose that… We are in the middle of a cold water lake, we have no idea of how long the recovery team will take to arrive, it's getting dark outside; and I don't know about you two, but I have never been away from a city! I have no experience camping." (1)
Asuka facepalmed in her plug. "So, I want you two to think on how can we get out of this problem! That's an order."
"Aknowledged." Rei's delivery was so dry it was very difficult to know if she was being sarcastic or not. Asuka chose to think it was not sarcasm.
A few minutes later, Shinji initiated a new call with the other two plugs. "Well, according to the clock in the plug, it will be night soon. And we would get a cold if we get out into the water. I vote to stay in our plugs for now. The support system will last for more than twelve hours from now, and if we haven't been rescued by then, well… uh… I could swim to shore and try to get help…"
His hesitation showed just how uncomfortable he was with the idea.
"Aha… Sure…" Asuka thought about the idea, a bit more calm than before. "Your swimming lessons are not up to that standard yet, Boy Wonder. I won't let you try that unless we have a gott-dammned catastrophe here. Is that clear, hmm?"
"Very clear, Huntress."
Rei piped in. "Something happened back in HQ. I'm getting a text message. You must be getting the same."
Both Shinji and Asuka opened the most recent message in their holoscreens.
Please report your status. Recovery crew on the way. Anybody hurt? M.
"Must be Misato. I'll respond, there must be a problem with long range comms, a single message won't strain the frequency." Shinji said, as he answered the message. Asuka and Rei agreed with a simple 'Yes.'
"We are okay. I think we are in the middle of the lake." He voiced the message for his colleagues, "Bring some clothes, please."
"I'm about to send, anything to add?" he asked his companions.
"No." Rei's flat voice answered immediately.
"They better hurry. I don't want to wait here all night long!"
"Okay, I'll ask for you two to be recovered first." Shinji tapped the message. "I can wait."
"Don't be an idiot. The procedure states that the first one to be found gets recovered first, barring medical emergencies."
"I think that won't be a problem, the map shows our plugs are quite close to one another, the crew finds one, they find us all."
"Very well, but you better keep your eyes to yourself, got it?"
"…got it…" he sighed, resigned.
Author Notes:
Nope, I haven't gone crazy. Naoko Akagi's situation will be addressed in the next series of Interludes (though alert readers will probably have a theory about what's going on. Please send me a PM if you think you have the answer. First one to send me the right answer will get a shoutout next chapter).
Also, what has been going on with Jor Max-El and Aleea Strange, and with Dr. Canus and Nosferata will be shown too. I felt their scenes would detract from the tension this chapter.
(1), As Shinji stayed at Tokyo-3 after being released from the brig, after the Fourth Angel fight, he didn't met Kensuke in his camping trip/war games playing.
Edit:
After only a few hours, I got the right answer.
Congratulations, AReader (Guest)! You got it right on the second! I will release your Review with the next chapter, to avoid spoilers.
Lex