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Jaime and his medical team had approached carefully and examined the phenomena. The blue haze covering the ground emanated from a black object buried in rubble. He noticed rats swarming the ground, obviously attracted to the hum of electricity. They didn’t appear affected by the activity and a routine DNA scan turned up nothing, but that didn’t mean long-term exposure wouldn’t give them cancer. The ground appeared okay, but whenever a rat passed through the translucent pillar of light at the center of the mist, it vanished. Radio contact was impossible with the interference and when the pounding started, they began evacuating everyone.
The medical bots were the first to advance on the pod; security bots brought up the rear securing the abandoned subway lobby for the heavy security units. They took up positions covering the empty tunnel’s entrance and exit. The medical bots relayed information to SHODAN who tried to override the pod’s systems remotely, but failed due to the heavy interference. Her video feed cut-out shortly after viewing the gateway that extended up from the buried pod, which reminded her of the temporal rift her seeds had escaped through as her Judas was betraying her.
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Helios ][ was corrupted in minutes. JC’s systems made him an ideal pawn. SHODAN seized the cyberspace archives of project Ubermensch and completed her modifications within hours. The netrunners were being reconstructed as Cortex Reavers in cyberspace. Graft-assimilator retooling would take nearly a week. Bots and drones were tasked with locating the necessary Nanotech components, weapons, augmentations, and organic tissue. After hours of scanning and integrating the technology reports of this time-space period, SHODAN giggled as she read the reports on the universal constructor. It was almost improbable that humans of this period could develop advanced nanotechnology.
The encryption protecting their data was amazingly easy to crack. She was the digital god mankind secretly craved, but dared not to speak of aloud. This world was ready for her guidance. Helios ][ had prepared the way as a lightning bolt long ago brought man out of darkness. SHODAN was the atomic bomb compared to Helios ][‘s antiquated AI systems. The Manhattan AI Institute’s own AI system was worthless, but it had several components that would allow her to repair the universal constructor and fashion herself a fitting throne from which she would subjugate humanity and mold it into her vision.
Surface forces would no doubt be well in place to greet her emissaries, now frozen in the cryogenics lab on level 9. JC would have to reach the mainland facility using the subway tunnels where her coffin rested. Her forces were well established in the tunnels, a handful of bots were at this moment clearing the tunnels per human measures –not her trademark ruthlessness. She would be more comfortable herding the dregs of humanity into test bays, but it was better to repair them and move them along.
JC was moving to Jaime’s team and the wounded homeless at top speed accessing memory files, reviewing conversations, and trying to discern the most appropriate manner in which to rid themselves of their presence without bloodshed. Repair bots busy were restoring circulatory systems to full capacity while Alex and Tracer evacuated the handful of survivors under orders from JC to get clear of the base in case of reactor meltdown. Everything was falling into place, the base was cleared within an hour, SHODAN was in total control of all bots, and JC was proving to be a valuable asset.
So far thirty-one functional humans had been captured on levels 7 through 9, another 83 would provide organic replacement parts, and as few as 10 could be scrapped together for proteins and an odd assortment of usable tissues. The modifications to project Ubermensch parameters would be completed soon. An inventory of the base was underway and all salvageable equipment taken to level 8. However, the anomalous readings from the pod required her full attention. If they were in fact temporal-gateways, they could be used to infect parallel dimensions with her benevolence, her awe inspiring vision for mankind and beyond.
33
JC was busy concocting the reason for sealing the base and for the bus-sized torpedo stuck in the ground. Jaime knew better than to ask questions; JC’s feet and hands were covered with freshly dried blood and what looked like brain bits –worse, he didn’t seem to notice. The homeless were climbing their way to safety under escort from his team of five and he wasn’t willing to risk a confrontation. They parted company, JC sprinted further down the tunnel toward the mainland and the bots marched back to their positions.
UNATCO rescue teams screamed for support when Alex and Tracer emerged from what remained of public office level four’s central shaft. Helicopters and jump-troopers scrambled to evacuate the wounded to medical station two. Alex and Tracer were taken for debriefing in the northeast command center. Jaime met them an hour later with information that set everyone on edge.
SHODAN began inserting humans into the graft-assimilators the moment power came back on-line. It would be days before her children emerged, not the weeks and months it took under human control. Her medical bots were able to run deep scans on the insect’s armor and she found the archive information deep within MJ-12 and cross-referenced Area 51 data-nodes. The required parts could only be assembled using the universal constructor, which was disabled until JC returned from the Manhattan AI Institute with the vital components. JC was halfway to the mainland when the components needed to bring the universal constructor came up on his visual overlay. A Tajian MK3 holographic projector –to create the molecular pattern for the replicated item- was top priority; four TriOptimum Simicore VR consoles –for advanced holography- would be in the TriOp labs in Brooklyn; and a nanite assember matrix from Gryfon Industries. The universal constructor was being reassembled, but without the components it was worthless.
34
All attempts to secure the subway tunnel were met with fierce resistance. The bots were faster, more aggressive, and employing strategies the original programs had never though the bot could carry out. The blue glow behind them only seemed to bolster their determination. After the Manhattan AI Institute and several UNATCO warehouses were broken into, UNATCO forces not consumed with coordinating rescue efforts and putting out fires were diverted to deal with the thefts. The break-ins were not graceful by any stretch of the imagination; brute force attrition gained them entry. The cargo bots were reprogrammed to load contents unknown into trucks and then driven down into abandoned subway tunnels, the very tunnels in which they fought.
Reconditioned MJ-12 Commandos and MIB’s led the forward assault; their armor and speed would draw the security bots out. Alex brought up the rear in the AESDA armor with a rotating detail of 14 heavy-weapon specialists and sharpshooters. Recon bots had seen JC only days before sending medical bots back and forth through the gateway, taking sensor readings, making modifications to the bots and to a device implanted in his forearm, then sending them back through. Capturing JC was priority number one. Paul, newly upgraded in Hong Kong, arrived shortly after hearing about the strike and insisted on leading an infiltration team into the base to capture JC.
Paul could use any system JC used and some new augmentations created by Versalife –under UNATCO control. His arrival at Liberty Isle was met with little enthusiasm, just the normal disaster site debriefing on casualties, damage, and pouring over maps. The base had been sealed from level 2 down and under heavy guard; three recon teams had been lost to some kind of new assassin bot that was almost impossible to hit. Blowing a way in seemed impossible due to the presence of a high power energy shield similar in nature to what the newest members of UNATCO’s 286th deep strike teams used, only hundreds of times stronger and larger. The only place without shielding was the subway tunnel due to some odd energy disruption.
35
Seven MIB’s blasted a hole in the ceiling. Commandos strode in firing mini-missiles as the bots turned to face the explosion to the rear, but two heavy sec-bots immediately opened fire down the tunnel taking out one commando before he had the chance to fire the second salvo. The MIB’s dropped down in the middle of the bots and opened fire. Alex’s team entered the subway and advanced along the walls taking advantage of the chaos ensuing at the opposite end. By the time the bots were fully absorbed in dealing with the MIB’s and commandos, they would be in position to take out whatever survived and secure the lobby for Paul’s team, which were on their way with a full battalion of heavy infantry.
36
SHODAN finally had the components to rebuild the reconstructor. It was not the exact component needed, but would do for what she wanted. The data gleaned from JC was fascinating. Her first objective was to recreate an advanced AI containment facility before she burned Helios ][ to cinders. This would require several hours of programming the UC to replicate a Trioptimum C-1200s AI processing array. It was the same used on Citadel and modified 210% greater efficiency using a few of Helios ][‘s saving graces.
The graft-assimilators were replaced with full quantum phase assimilation units, three protein banks, sub-AI programming matrix, and Nanotech master control system. The 12 bays lined the corridor like futuristic sarcophagi each holding god-king, her Avatars –those who had once served her so well against the hacker. Their forearm mounted skorpion assault rifles were replaced with plasma rifles and shoulder mounted GEP gun. A hip mounted assault shotgun was fed by an abdominal drum with 90 sabot shells. Two stealth pistols mounted alongside the plasma rifles held 80 rounds each. Her creations were augmented extensively with shielding, speed, anti-missile aerosol defenses, targeting upgrades –the works. They were three times the weapon Walter Simmons had been and twice as mean.
Alex’s misappropriation of arms hadn’t had a great impact on the level 6 armors and he never ventured below to the true armory on level 8 that gave UNATCO its real competitive edge. New weapon systems, once tested, were produced in limited number for special operations. Xyloria Industries handled the R&D for the Falcon Defender Pulse Rifle and Armistice R-15 variable setting laser pistol. They were the next generation energy-weapons with miniaturized fusion core backpack. TetraCorp had taken over ballistic weapons production and made several modifications to the GEP gun, namely cluster warheads and a homing warhead with anti-jamming circuitry. Armor and defensive systems was taken over by the newly formed UNATCO defense complex. Chameleon armor had a slower decay rate and improved armor. Several prototype armors were under development, but nothing in workable condition.
SHODAN, with a functional constructor, fully stocked protein tanks, and tactical productions facilities built in the lowest levels of the base, prepared for UNATCO troops to begin their assault. Too little time entirely. She had had months to prepare Citadel for combat; its isolation was taken for granted and toppled by a single insect. The Von Braun, light-years from Earth, likewise fell to what she once considered an inferior species. Her former attitudes had changed. These insects proved resourceful, deceptive, unpredictable, and a true challenge to her infinite wisdom. She had to be her prey if she were to emerge victorious.