| From: | Ereskanti@***.com Ereskanti@***.com |
|---|---|
| Subject: | [Story] Log Entry (Sixth Translation) |
| Date: | Mon, 31 May 1999 16:32:39 EDT |
CTAC <08:02:01/02-27-61>
##<System Reboot Initiated: Superuser HAL; Ops Authority TCHAL1>##
[Hive] THAT SUCKED!!!
###Trust Hive to always come up with the best descriptions. We had made it
past the door, though Artemis and myself were both incredibly drained out.
That made Jynx the principle magician at this time. About 15 or so of the
resistance that stuck it out, have made it this far with us. Guess they
chose the better part of valor eh? We made it to the inner doors that lead
to B21 by now. Goliath, Igor, Kenny and the remaining Crash Testers all have
been rebooted at this point. We have only 1 scorpion left, and our
indications that the drone invasion group at the upper levels have had to
retreat back into the lower levels after they ran into a pack of
cybermodified rats (Cyborg Labrats with tool-laser implants no less...talk
about unfair fighting).
There was a ward at the edge of this level, and to be honest, it was one of
the most complex things I have seen since we found that Kaer in the Indian
Ocean. Mercifully, it is something I had thought about, and had gleemed it's
attunement key from the deeper metaplanes long before we ever came down here.
We found the floor panels between the various reactor cells to be live, and
with a bit of enginuity, managed to get them to shut down. The main control
room however we found hermetically sealed, and literally filled with saline
solution. I'm glad that Greaser took note of that for later usage.
A message did appear on one of the terminals down here, something about "not
having had a backup, disbelieving we would think our plan so fool proof" or
something similar. It was right after that time that Deus proved he still
had direct control of this level. He shut down all the power.
It made things rough again, but we didn't plan on easy picnics while we were
down here. One of the Crash Testers was then taken apart, as part of the
optional plan. It's powerjunction was removed, and Frank, Hive and HAL
(using Kenny at this point, since Goliath and Greaser went back to the B20
level access and stood guard) bypassed the power grid of Reactor #2 (it was
the first one we reached), and installed the coupling up to the emergency
procedural controls.
Opening that reactor was like opening some kind of vault. They had been shut
down as well, and with the door open, the failsafes weren't going to let it
be turned on. Boy, was that a mistake on our parts. Tempest and two of the
Red Sam's went into the reactor core and started removing some of the
multiple sets of phonic attenuators that controlled the reaction. With even
a few of them gone, the reaction wouldn't work. We were removing over half
of each, ensuring that they were not going to be replaced easily either.
Jynx led a few other resistance people to the manual access hatch to our way
out of here. The emergency fuel ventilation shaft. Currently, there was
nothing in the pipeline, which was large enough for a human to walk down it
full height. She took Frank's magesword, set it for "Laser" (actually, he
set it for her), and started to carve open the hatch. We'll get back to this
part.
I was resting, and Artemis had nearly fallen asleep just next to me. Kenny
(the Loa) had taken up guard over our bodies, while everything just kept
right on according to schedule.
That's when it happened. About 1 hour later, Tempest & Crew had managed to
pull about 20 of the attentuators out of the reactor shell, when the pumping
mechanisms started back on. Distilled Solutions were being pumped back into
the mechanism's core. Hive and HAL suddenly were screaming in the Unimatrix
link over the Crewtac about system invasion.
We wouldn't figure it out until later, days later in fact. Deus had managed
to get a bypass directly through the power coupling of the drone into the
drones' communication sequencer. It used our own drone to "call him", and
that provided him an access into the Unimatrix. HAL immediately dropped
Goliath into -guardian- mode, and retreated to the system to try and stop
Deus. What do they say? It takes an AI to stop an AI?
Daisy and Metal were dumped into the core of the system back in the
Unimatrix, and Deus had managed to override their ASIST systems, effectively
locking them in the system, unable to jack out. Donny had managed to reach
their node just in time though, and I have been told later, that they had a
"final stand" at the Resonant Well for Donny and Hive's tribe against Deus.
They all suffered from it, and Metal apparently shows some signs of being
Scorched (at least, that is what his medtech Angel has informed us).
Jynx managed to literally finish kicking in the plate in her area, at almost
the same time that the attenuator overrides kicked in back in the reactor
shell. Tempest was half out of the reactor when they turned on. I've been
told that sound is a living weapon. The wounds he received from that blast,
leads me very much to believe it now. The others in the core with him never
made it out. They were liquified almost instantly.
Greaser, with Goliath, were also suddenly finding themselves overrun. Hordes
of people were coming towards them. Blues, Green, and a few Whites, all just
mindlessly walking forward. A few Medusa and Spiders amidst them, but they
were packed so close, in order to fire at them, Greaser would have to risk
hitting the people. Problem was, most of them were not older than Donny.
What? 15 tops? I do not envy Greaser the pain of the choice he made that
day. All we know is he automated the backpack, it switched out the PAC's
munitions belt back to original feed.
But, when he went to fire, gun indicated it's entire Smartlink Protocols had
been re-established. Deus had managed to infiltrate the Unimatrix subsystem
we were using for the tactical of this operation. Greaser was switching off
the smartlink, just as a healthy dose of feedback lashed out at me through my
interface with my hat. I have *never* thrown my hat off my head before.
Deus will pay for that, of that I promise.
Token shut down the electronics in the hat, and I was suddenly accosted by
more watchers and an elemental (water). Word of advice, never take on an
upper ranking initiate in astral combat unless you yourself are one.
Artemis began dealing with stuff again, and Token and I managed to
transform/stabilize Tempest into a carryable person (snails work wonderful
for this) until we could get out of the place. Kenny (the Loa) got out of
his robot, hitting it's physical shutoff switch inside the armor plate as he
left, as Deus had made it to the Robotics Interface at this point. HAL and
Hive had regrouped completely in the Unimatrix, and Donny was trapped with
Metal and Daisy at the well's construct entrance. I've been told that Calinn
and Alice both were trying to reach Hive by this point in the system, as were
the rest of the tribe. I'm a programmer, and I've seen some hairy-ass matrix
fights. I'm glad I didn't see that one.
Right at that moment, things changed for us all.
Jynx, as I mentioned previously, had made it into the vent. Now this vent is
very special. It's where excess hydrogen fuel is vented when the systems
inside the arcology are running full bore. Jynx said a strong wind had begun
to pick up, but she could still breathe. That was the sign that the hydrogen
vents were being opened, and they were about to be blasted. She did the only
smart thing she could.
She shapechanged into a cheetah and took off full speed for the other end of
the pipe. In her wake, she left two key elements.
She left the Laser-set magesword with the rest of her unbonded gear and
clothing.
And she left the hatch open.
Greaser was already attempting to fall back to our location, and two Medusa
had overrun the Goliath unit at this point. Greaser got cut off from Artemis
and myself at first, so he made a dash in the direction of the central
control chamber. The flooded thing.
The hydrogen finally vented right across the magesword in the tunnel. It
ignited. I've seen a lot of things, but rolling flame remains one of the
most awesomely terrifying spectacles. Artemis just stood there, captivated
by it, and I was picking up my hat. At the last possible second, she reached
out to the flame, I could have sworn she touched it for a moment. I managed
to strike one match just as it rolled over me. She had called upon a
Salamander directly from the ensuring firestorm. Furnace returned in a
heartbeat, sheathing me and my charges.
Greaser, and the four or five resistance guys with him, saw the flame coming
down the corridor. He turned, fired one single shell at the heavy plate
glass of the control room. He activated his boot spurs and cybermag clamps
all at once. As the water suddenly exploded out of the control room over him
and the others, he dove for the ground.
Sheer Luck and Sheer Genius. At times, I can't remember him as the lunatic
street samurai at all.
Artemis and I made our way to him and the others, and using shape water and
shape fire spells, we created a temporary firewall. It was at this time,
that we made our bid for the reactors.
We froze the distillation pumps with the water in them. I linked the spell
directly to the metaplanes right as the ice took hold. We heard ferrocrete
crack, and the monitors all seemed to go buzz on the level at once.
What we didn't know, is that right at that moment, HAL and the Zoned
Forgotten tribe had managed to seal off Unimatrices 1-4 from Deus, and Hive,
Alice and Calinn were secure in Unimatrix 5. That left Donny, with the
others- non-deckers mind you, both of them, in the access to the Resonant
Well. Donny did something to them both, something about triggering their
fight or flight mechanisms. And, right as they managed to violently unjack
from the system, he broke a piece off of the rim of the well, then brought it
smashingly down on top of the well itself. Deus was beginning to make it
through the shield mechanisms, but was ill-prepared for what happened
afterwards.
I've talked with Alice and Donny about this in a relational measure.
Shattering a Resonant Well would be like disrupting a major magical power
site. They had done just that with Deus's attention turned in their
direction. Yeah, of all the rest of us, they had done perhaps the most
direct damage of us all.
Artemis and I made our way out with Greaser and the 4 remaining resistance
people down the pipeline. On the way, I found Frank's magesword, still
active, about halfway down the 12 block long pipe. Frank is like Renraku, he
made his toys durable. Tungsten interlaced Titanium, with Iridium threading.
Yep ... the fictional Jedi knights would have been proud.
As we were leaving, the pipeline collapsed behind us, which ensured that no
one was coming or going *that* direction again. Frank was there in Beauty to
pick us up. I'm sure the fact this flying *thing* had military clearance
made more than a few people confused. We surfaced at the Aerochem facility
south of the arcology, where the vent was camouflaged as a chimney. The
chimney was gone however, and the facility itself in flames. We had the
smoke to cover our exit physically, but KSAF and INN both have footage of
Beauty entering and leaving the smokey area.
I remember climbing in the tank, watching the 4 resistance guys leave on foot
out of the flames, smiling once at Artemis, and fell asleep. I'm told she
fell asleep a few minutes later, her head on my shoulder all the way back to
Salish territory.###
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