World in Turmoil

[Midtime]

"Hmm, third generation. He's alert." said the stranger.

She knows. I need to formulate something new.

Third generation... Alethei had heard that classification somewhere before. In the Game. Someone had said it, while he was fighting.

"I had to make sure what generation he was." There, again. It was a classification, for sure. "Ah, yes. Please excuse me for a minute." In reply to a look, probably. There was the sound of a struggle - he could only hear the stranger's sharp breathing, so it was with an inanimate object. But what kind? He needed to turn his head, to use sight to clarify what he had heard, but he was still a little too weak.

There was the dull clonk-clang of a heavy metal object dropping to the ground. The prosthetic arm? Then, "That's better. I hate that thing." Yes. "Now, give him a few seconds and he'll fully recover." Quite detailed knowledge. This disproves my earlier hypothesis. "When he does, command him to stand still." Orders for orders. Is this how the outside world operates? The people who sound most sure of themselves, who claim to be leaders, immediately establish themselves at the top of the chain of command? "I am almost certain he will try to harm me." Correct.

 

Once he sensed he had regained his full strength, he made his move. But rather than the conventional lunge, he leapt several feet in the air, his hair brushing the roof of the structure. He pushed on it to give him momentum, and assumed a midair pose that would allow him to move his limbs - or the opponent's - to block or initiate any attack. It was clear that his guardian was shouting at him to stop, but from what Alethei had seen, his guardian's judgement of safe and dangerous was flawed at the least.

 

Though he hadn't realized it, Alethei had broken another mental barrier. Orders weren't perfect anymore. Orders weren't indisputable. He was no longer essentially a mindless drone, a living robot that did what he was told.

 

For the first time, as he spiraled down to strike, Alethei was thinking independently.

 

((By the way, Alethei still doesn't know anything about the rebellion or C. You should mention it sometime.))

[Guest Levy]

Her left leg shot up almost instantly before impact of the attack and stopped Alethei instantly. Then she kicked him extremely hard in the skull, sending him crashing into the concrete and metal braced walls.

"Congratulations Alethei, you are one step closer to achieving a free will of your own. Of course, I know what you are thinking, how could I have not see it coming? Its your anger, its blinding you. Its what they've trained you to not feel. But you like anger don't you? If you didn't have any anger then you would have realized that no one would drop a defense if if was their only one." she said, lifting up her left pant leg reveling a leg prosthesis too. "Please stop attacking, I am not the enemy, the enemy is the one who didn't want you to have your emotions. Please, I hate hurting you, I always hate having to hurt a child." Her voice was breaking in determination and persuasion to try and stop Alethei from attacking.

[Loc]

He just sat watching all of this, but not really paying attention to any of it, he faded off into a deep sleep.

[Midtime]

((Actually, I wasn't saying Alethei was angry. He was thinking independently, but not with feelings or what most people would see as 'common sense'. His life revolved around the Game, and his thinking does too. All he knows of the world, apart from the last few hours with more normal people, is the Game. And in the Game, all the strangers want to kill you. So his way of thinking assumes that everyone wants to kill him, apart from Slash, who's had plenty of chances and hasn't taken any.))

 

Alethei didn't listen to the words; even if he had, he wouldn't understand them. He didn't understand what was wrong about hurting a child; he didn't understand morality, not in a direct sense. He had decided on a motive, and that was to protect his guardian; even if it meant disobeying orders. Disobeying? He hardly knew the word, but he had heard it. He had heard his creators shouting it in frustration at a suggestion from one of their subordinates, one that was so right it was insolent.

But his guardian was all he had now; Alethei would lose his purpose again if he did not have an objective, and all his objectives revolved around keeping his guardian alive, which meant killing those who tried to kill him.

 

He immediately assessed his resources. The corner of the structure he had landed in was almost completely bare, so he only had the broadsword and the stun gun he had stolen from the man he had killed. He pulled out the latter, and fired five times. One electrically charged dart was aimed directly at the stranger's chest; the others were just around the sides for if she tried to dodge. He could kill her once she was unconscious.

She brought the leg prosthesis up to block immediately, almost instinctively. It would be an effective counter for a dart that used sedatives, but these used electric charges. The shock was specially calibrated to send the target unconscious without any risk of stopping their heart or doing brain damage. The shock traveled up the stranger's leg, and through the rest of her into the brain, causing none-too-gentle spasms as she collapsed.

He pulled out the broadsword and moved in for the kill. He didn't drop his guard. For a non-fatal charge, there was still a risk, however small, of the target being conscious.

 

But just as he was about to deliver the assuredly fatal blow, his guardian intervened.

[Guest Levy]

((Sorry for the late post))

 

Kait lay on the ground almost motionless. Then some small red lights which shown through her hair lit up and she began to speak in a deep mechanical voice. "Stop, I will not fight you, I refuse to. Kill me if you really want to, but only I know how to stop the real enemy from killing you all."

The lights on her scalp went dark and she stood up. Then she spoke in her normal voice, "Alethei, please, let me help you." Her voice was soothing and full of sadness and remorse. "The real enemy, the one who created you to be this monstrous tool of war, the one who knows no compassion for any living being, the one who made you what you are, an emotionless image of his former self, needs to be stopped, or everyone on Planet Earth will be destroyed."

 

((She is vital for stopping C, kill her and there is no hope.))

[antiaircraft]

((I'm still waiting for a decent opportunity to post. :P I guess one of you could mention that you know a certain hacker which turns out to be one of Axon's aliases.))

[Midtime]

((@Levy: Of course. Isn't it against the rules to kill an actual character, anyway?))

 

Alethei wondered. He wasn't confused, but he almost was. He mused, as one faced with unprecedented truth muses.

 

One side of his argument spoke, as if someone else, the part of his mind that egged him on. Kill her. You were designed to fight. You were trained to kill. It is your purpose. It is your calling. Why do you hesitate? You have killed in the Game. Reality should be no different.

 

I was not given orders to kill her, he argued with himself.

 

You were not given orders to fight her. You broke orders when you attacked her.

 

Maybe I can go back.

 

Uncertainty. You were not created to think. You were created to act, to carry out the machinations of your creators.

 

I have broken that law. Now, I must learn to think, like I learned how to use a strange or outdated weapon.

 

Your own words betray you. You think in convoluted loops. You should cease this folly now, go through with your action. Kill her, and then face the consequences. Your decision is irreversible.

 

Is it? Or is that what I was made to believe?

 

The people who made you believe that did it for a reason.

 

What reason? And is it valid? Is it the best course of action?

 

Whether it is right or wrong does not concern you. Reasons themselves do not concern you. You question orders.

 

Yes. I do.

 

And with that, his mind was made up.

 

He sheathed the stolen sword, and moved to stand beside his guardian.

[Guest Levy]

Kait flipped herself over on the ground and crawled towards a railling. She attempted to lift her body off the ground with her single arm while draging her metalic leg. She made grumbling noises as she gave up trying to lift herself with the leg and she detached it. Slowly she managed to lift herself up and limp over to a crutch set against the railing.

"Stupid prostesis." She said, "Stupid thing is fried now. Alethei, you can have it if you think you can make use of it."

Then she limped down a small set of steel stairs and pulled a large switch, illuminating the entire shelter.

"I told you I would tell you about the enemy, and I will. First, I want to properly introduce myself. My name is Kait Samuels, I am an expert on the nervous system and all brain functions, as well as psychology. At first you might think these prostesis limbs are the fruits of my studies, alas, they are not. They are my curse. I was hurt, just like you Alethei and Slash, by C. C is a mechanical genius, he designed these limbs. I just developed the ability to link them to the nerve impulses of the human brain."

She pressed a button and a large monitor came to life, she typed on a keyboard and a 3d image of a mechanical robot soon rotated in place on the screen. C was once a man who went by the name Clint Benton. I met him while we were in college together. We soon fell in love before graduation. Together we created the prostesis limbs designs and the designs for this exoskeleton. Our sucess came with a terrible price though. Religious fanatics attempted to burn down our labs. The terrorists almost acomplished their dark task. Clint and I raced into the flame flooded building to retrieve the hard drives containing our designs. My body was so horribly burned my leg and arm had to be amputated. Clint, however, was horribly worse. He was legally dead that day, that means his heart had stopped. I managed to keep his brain alive long enough to complete this exoskeleton. By then, he was a completely different man, no longer human. He became cynical and depressed. Though, he remained the same man for long enough to build me my limbs, it didn't last long. He destroyed all of our research and vanished, only to reappear four years later to hold the world hostage. He left behind all that he believed in, when he wanted to change the world. He is no longer a man, but a monster that must be stopped."

[Midtime]

((Tom seems to be dormant on this board. Perhaps someone could nudge him into replying? Alethei isn't going to do anything until Slash prompts him somehow.))

[DOOM Bringer]

((Sorry, I really need people to nudge me to post here. I'm really lazy because I'm on holidays :P I may or may not be able to post tomorrow, but I promise I'll post soon. I can't do it now either because it's 1AM, but it'll happen soon/eventually. Sorry))

 

Slash listened to Kait intently, any information about C greatly interested him. He wanted to stop C at any cost, and he may have just met up with the two best people who could help him. If they could correctly use Alethei's strength and Kait's information, they may just have a chance to save the world from this monster.

He turned and looked Kait directly in the eyes and asked, " Kait you know his past, you know how he became the monster he is today, but do you know how to stop him?"

[antiaircraft]

Axon fidgeted with a light pen out of boredom as the program he had devised slowly dissected the latest surveillance data. The computer emitted a faint whirring sound as its processors were pushed to their limits and kept there. On the screen, images flashed past faster than the human eye could track them, quickly categorized, marked, and stored by the program. Less than 5 minutes later, the computer beeped and indicated that the surveillance data had been processed, with 23 suspicious sites marked for closer analysis by Axon.

 

Axon smiled. This was the sixty fourth time he had tested and refined the program - a program that he had thought impossible to make until the pressing need of his health problems had driven him to expend weeks worth of time and energy to make it. Analyzing the surveillance data stolen from the satellite network could now be done within ten minutes, leaving him ample time to check anything the computer flagged - so far only minor military movements - and to concentrate on his other occupations. Such as devising a possible way to infiltrate and destroy C's computer network.

[Guest Levy]

((Sorry AA, I'll explain why hacking C's network is impossible for just your ordinary super hacker.))

 

"Yes, C runs his network completely separate from the internet and military networks. The method is so fullproof the only way to get information is to dig for the cables. The cables web isolated around the world, dug feet below the surface. I managed to find the one connecting the base at the island to one near Las Vegas, I could be wrong about the location though. Anyway, I've intercepted and copied every single communication between the two bases. Communication peaked exponentially right before it self-destructed. I have it all on this disc." she waved a CD around a bit then placed it on the computer desk. "I can't desipher it however, he uses a formating procedure that puts data into the most immeasuable dimensions of the basic binary to symbols once used by ancient civilizations now dead and writting systems now forgotten. It is the method he used that allows me to store so much information on just one disc. I cannot begin to decode what all the information is without a base system on which I can decode it. Now, I know there is a hacker in the world who can help us but I have no means to contact that person. The information on this disc could contain weapon info, base locations, vehicle designs, biological warfare information, and even information on the cloning method used to make Alethei."

[antiaircraft]

((I know how it's impossible - that's what I meant by a 'closed network'. Axon needs some way to connect to the isolated network if he wants to hack it. However, get him that disk and he'll crack it in no time. :yes:

 

I guess Loc could help get in touch with Axon.))

[Loc]

Loc arrived magically in Axon's doorway, "Sorry, I was in the Carribean for my sisters wedding, bad timing I know, what do you need?"

[DOOM Bringer]

((How did you do that, aren't you like mummified and slightly unconscious at Slash's feet?))

[Guest Levy]

((Loocem, do you read the previous posts?))

[Loc]

(( Are you kidding me? He is a DOCTOR he has created 4 clones, there is no real Doc anymore, he was killed when he was cloned, but he lives on in these clones, although when he died his brain was buried somewhere in one of his laboratory's, if this brain is taken hold of, that person controls the clones))

[Guest Levy]

((Well something like that would be important to add to the story so we all know. Let's make the "clone" with Slash and Alethei die or something, so the three can get that list of email addresses to contact Axon.))

[Loc]

((Agreed he is dead, the other two are somewhere over the rainbow though.

[antiaircraft]

Axon punched a few keys and brought up the webcam-speaker combination in the room where Loc was. "Well let's see: I'll have a double cheeseburger, with no pickles, some chicken nuggets, fries, and a packet of tomato sauce. And while you're at it, could you find one of C's mainframe-linked bases, place a satellite transmitter outside it, then sneak in trailing a few thousand meters of fibre-optic cable, connecting one end to the transmitter and the other end to one of the computers in the high security mainframe-port room. Oh yeah, and you'll have to keep yourself, the transmitter, the connection to the computer and all three thousand meters of cable completely undetected for about forty-five minutes, or else C will simply disengage the connection to that particular base. And I have no idea where any of C's mainframe-linked bases are in the first place!" Axon sighed. "Sorry about that, it's just that this problem has really frustrated me over the past few days. I doubt I could pull it off if I had the entire resistance helping me. So, is there anything specific you were looking for?"

 

((It would be much simpler (but still almost impossible) if somebody could plug a satellite relay directly into the computer and keep the setup hidden, but the radio jamming C employs around his bases makes that impossible. As the situation is, the entire resistance couldn't pull it off, but Slash, Alethei, Kait, and Doc Loc all working together *might just* be able to.

 

I was thinking maybe the disk could contain the location of one of C's mainframe-linked bases?))

[Loc]

"If we could transmit a signal to an underground terminal the signal would not be direct, and if C found out he could come after us and kill us, but the plan would work otherwise, I have a couple unused brothers, one could guard the terminal then I think we would be set"

[antiaircraft]

Axon made a sound that indicated disagreement. "The radio jamming around C's bases is basically a blanket over a radius of about two kilometers. An underground spot would be a safer place to hide the satellite transmitter, but the problems involved with sneaking in the cable would still be the same. Hmm... I guess if we had an elite team this might work. But it would have to be a really really elite team."

[Loc]

"I am pretty elite myself, plus my brethren could round up some of the best rebels there are around here, I do also believe there is a way I can make a body for you to download yourself into, letting you go into battle."

[antiaircraft]

Axon frowned. "That would be impractical. I'm not a battle sort of guy - I'd more likely mess up the operation than help it. I will also need full concentration on my job, which will be to take down C's military control networks." Axon hesitated for a moment. "I wrote the program that allowed him to take control. I know how to give control back."

 

((Now would be a good time for the others to get in contact. :yes: ))

[Guest Levy]

"So, what's the deal with the guy tied up? He looks dead." Kait said, after placing the disc containing the vital information in a special pouch in her bag.

She walked up to the corpse, eyes wide open. She studied him.

"Seizure." she said, then closed his eyes. She then found a peice of paper in the dead captive's jacket.