NERD Issue # 030
Betrayal
5 days had passed since Insidious Wolf had been taken prisoner by Dome of York forces. Unfortunately no one actually knew about this as he had been exiled, his NUBI's were unaware of his presence, and any that might have tried to follow his trail would not have got past the dragnet of security now encircling Dome of York. Thus Sid's disappearance had gone virtually unnoticed in the city of Neocron, with the exception of one.
R minus 5 days...
The wall gave way and dust filled the air. Light seeped into the dark void and illuminated small walkways and running water.
"Ok this is new. What have we found here?" Warlock asked as he widened the hole in the wall that he had just created.
"We have found a hole in the wall." Warlock might have backhanded McDanish, but it didn't seem worth it. Once the hole was large enough to pass through, Warlock entered the darkness. A few moments later he exited the darkness and went to the nearest Archer & Wessons for two flashlights (the one item in all of Neocron he'd never had a use for). Returning to the hole, he and McDanish entered the darkness, flashlights in hand.
The day before the two had been working on the last toilet installations for Pepper Park 3. At long last it seemed the toilet installation work was coming to a close. But while they worked, they had heard faint noises coming through a wall. Some minor investigative work had revealed that beyond that particular wall should be nothing. That wall was supposed to be part of the main city walls that enclosed Neocron from the Wastelands. Yet, they were certain they could hear sounds, rhythmic and mechanical. McDanish had repeatedly stated that this was 'odd' and that added to Warlock the Hermit's genetic disposition towards exploration led to the two deciding to see if in fact there was anything on the other side of a wall that was supposedly several hundred metres thick. When the wall gave way, they knew they were on to something.
Sure enough, as they entered the darkness, it was revealed that a long since abandoned passageway led between the enclosing walls of Pepper Park 3 and the main city walls. The walkways were hard to navigate, as it was incredibly dark, even with the flashlights, and various debris cluttered their path. But onwards they continued, after making a quick pause to contact NUTS HQ about their plan of action, into the dark unknown.
Not far off, at the Pepper Park Subway platform, Wannabe was preparing for work. Today he had some assistance, as his good friend LVirus had been accepted to work with him. The two were heading down to the NEXT employee access area. Wannabe placed his hand on the door access, and the DNA sampler identified him. The two entered the restricted area, and made their way into the tunnels. Wannabe was even more cheery this day than usual. Not only had he received a promotion to Assistant Manager of Tube Maintenance, not only had he received another substantial pay increase, not only was his friend now going to be working alongside him, but on top of all of that... with LVirus' help, Wanna felt he was finally going to get that damn rat that kept towing him out into the line of traffic. With all that in mind, he jovially stepped out onto the walkway and began navigating his way towards today's work area. They were going to be working at the Pepper park offramp, the point where traffic can either turn towards the old unused sections of the system, or turn to head off towards Outzone station. NEXT had quite optimistically put forth instructions to begin work on reactivating the unused segments. Apparently it was believed that CityAdmin would approve a proposal currently before them to add additional stops and increase the scope of the cities transit system. This all sounded like a lot of work to NEXT, but it also meant pay bonus', so the employees were happy. It would also mean a price skyrocket in NEXT stocks, so investors with their ear to the inside stories were happy too.
LVirus, having reached the location, took out his fusion-cutter and looked to Wannabe for instructions.
"Ok, so what now?"
"Ok, we basically need to open up the plates to access the cabling and see if the cables are still active. If not we need to replace them. Once we've verified that all cabling is functional to the next routing point, we weld all the plates into place, clear any debris, then activate this section. That'll probably take 2 days, so I don't really need to say more at this point."
"Cool, cool. But so I know, once we've done this section we keep moving further down the track right?" LVirus pointed down the abandoned passage.
"Yeah, thats the general idea. Once we reach the next junction we inform HQ and ask for the next assignment."
"Ok, well I guess we got our work cut out for us. That mess right there's gonna be a bitch."
"What mess?" and then Wannabe looked. And just a section down the track he saw the rubble. An entire segment of wall was collapsed and the debris was strewn about.
"Oh hell... what coulda caused this mess? Come on we'd better check it out." And so they marched on towards the rubble.
"... and we can have a half dozen Copbots in position to receive the latest shipment. Naturally securing the basic resources will be of paramount importance. Also sir, we've still got this matter of runners commenting on strange noises from Pepper Park. Naturally I've told them that any problems in Pepper are due to the meddling Black Dragons trying to act like a real estate broker, but I do believe there may be a need to investigate..." Cassandra Edwards prattled on about the daily list of work needed to maintain the city and CityAdmin's operations. Naturally, she knew Reza wasn't paying attention, but she paid this job all the lipservice it needed, in every meaning of the phrase.
"Reza may not care about anything I'm reading to him," she would think, "but he does care if I don't read it. Then he gets paranoid that I'm not being open enough." So she read as she had done every day for the last 4 years. The only time Reza would pay attention was when it was time for his personal 'lipservice' or when Cassandra drew upon the topics of 'CityAdmin Special Projects'. These were Reza's babies; that which he poured his energy into. And most of his projects showed that enthusiasm. The testing and manufacture of X-borgs might have been a failure, but it had not been for lack of effort. And even now, Reza still kept stashes of X-borgs just in case. At the end of the War for Neocron many months ago, Reza had noted that their bezerker tendencies made them hopeless for defense or security, but the perfect Trojan Horse. Reza's efforts to find 2 salvagable Cold Fusion Missiles had saved the city (although from the way he spoke, you'd think he'd have preferred Neocron to be destroyed, calling their use in its defense a waste, and how SpikeZ had doomed us all by launching them on the Dome's forces). His project to ready the Mechs had paid dividends big time. Production and demand were skyrocketing. Everyone wanted mechs, and once they had them, they were still wanting more. Able to cross all terrains at speed, highly armoured and packing some fine energy weapons, they were a formidable sight on the battlefield. Reza's latest project was called the Uplink Annex. Even Cassandra, whom all information and orders went through, could not discern the purpose of the project. Various CityAdmin clans, particularly Clan NCPD had been requested to acquire and hold Uplinks throughout the Wastelands. Since few clans actually used the Uplinks to boost their long range communications in the Wastes, there had been little resistance. But Reza had specified the clans to make the uplinks off-limits. So, the clans armed the uplinks heavily, and in so doing had attracted some attention. But again, with the limited value to the uplinks, there had been little opposition. The occasional problem had come from JERK's, but oddly enough they had been beaten back by Megaman.
Now, some may recall that during the incidents where Martin had unleashed the Blood Brothers on the Pluto Universe, Megaman was assimilated into JERK's by Psycho Killa. This had been the case for a time. But those incidents, and the War for Neocron, had left JERK's somewhat disillusioned. Their power had waned and they had become less active. Thirsting for blood, violence, and his favourite Jukebox in the city, Megaman had convinced Psycho Killa to come with him, and the two had broken from JERK's. They had gathered to their cause as many like minded warriors as they could, and under the banner of the Black Dragons, had formed a clan of their own.
"So, what shall we call it?" Psycho had asked.
"Dunno, any thoughts?" Megaman had replied.
"How about, Claw of the Dragon, or CD for short!" Psycho suggested. Others nodded in agreement.
"Man, get your mamma to pick your names for you, you still need help. But you might be on to something with CD."
"Ok, how about Clan of Destroyers?"
"Not bad, but I like Three Letter Acronyms more. So how's about... Clan of Destructive Villains?" Everyone jumped up and shouted in agreement. Their name was chosen.
And so it was that the name of evil came into being in Neocron. CDV had come to reign terror in Neocron.
And by protecting the CityAdmin outposts, Megaman had won the favour of Reza. He now stood where Sid had fallen. And he swore his allegiance to Reza and Neocron. It had been he who had knocked Sid senseless before his eviction parade. And it was he that was succeeding in bringing Black Dragons under the CityAdmin protection veil, despite years of hostility. But Megaman had been most convincing to the leaders of the faction. So Megaman and CDV worked to ensure the Uplinks remained in CityAdmin control.
"Very well Cassandra, tomorrow I want orders sent to these carriers to deliver their cargo's to the uplinks and then return. That should be all thats required for that project. Anything else?"
"No sir, I believe that should be everything. Oh, wait, you wanted me to start reminding you about that special date."
"Ah yes, how are preparations going for that?"
"They are proceeding nicely sir. This should be a grand spectacle for the people."
"Good. In these chaotic times it helps to distract the cattle with something flashy from time to time..."
Meanwhile...
The Gates of the Dome began to open. More security bots rolled out into the desert areas. Night fell on the Wastelands, and all was quiet.
R minus 4 days...
NDA were setting up a training ground in the Northern Wastes. They had decided to use Soliko Lab as this ground. The area was to be set up for weapon testing stations and wargame exercises, to train their numbers. Centuri stood on a rock, looking out across his team as they worked. He looked towards the north and saw dustclouds raising from around Dome of York.
"That can't be good. What are they doing now?"
"Rumour has it they've been digging out trenches around the gate." Omega Res came up by his side.
"Trenches?"
"Yeah, seems they've been fortifying their position with more than just those rolling bots."
"Have a few more turrets placed around the outpost. Just in case..."
Cargo transports had made their deliveries during the night to the Uplinks. The cargo had been unloaded and the receiving clans had taken the contents down into the underground sections, where they began to install them. Today the transports could be seen pulling up to the cities loading docks, and the crews heading in for some long overdue rest. Meanwhile, Reza was ordering the satellite dishes to full activation. Ms. Edwards continued to relay the orders, but still could not determine the purpose.
Early in the morning, Ithaqua had decided to lead most of NUTS on a hunt between Neocron and Tech Haven, clearing out mutants and creatures as and when they found them. McDanish and Warlock had reported they would not be joining them, as they were still investigating the hole in the wall they had discovered. But the rest of NUTS had decided to go on a one week hunt with Ithaqua. They would salvage what supplies they could in the field, and sleep under the stars. Hopefully, they would have fun. Vain and SoulBurner took point, for none knew how to find creatures better than they. Evangelion and Gully Foyle followed up, discussing the pro's and con's of breast implants. Lisa Davitt, Techi, Trillian, Ithaqua, Mako Tanaka and the rest brought up the centre. Byron and Diesel served as the rear guard. They marched from Outzone station to Jerriko and went to the ASG. They activated some of their vehicles and loaded up. Ithaqua took the drivers seat of his 'bus' and others loaded in. ReefSmoker, Vain and Tiny Shopkeeper activated their Mechs and began marching alongside. Foyle decided his recently acquired Reveler would be a nice ride, so he drove in that. And thus they set off before noon, with no clear intention other than to kill some mobs.
Tomorrow was to be a very special day for SpikeZ and Danae. It was to be the third anniversary of their first encounter with each other. To celebrate, SpikeZ had planned a special trip for the two of them. They would set out late in the afternoon from their Plaza 4 quarters, and take a leisurely evening stroll. Their destination was to Outzone 7, where they had first ran into each other. Now, normally one would not even consider going to OZ 7 during the night, much less intending to spend the night there, but of late, the mutant population in that area had been reduced to nothing. Not really caring either way, as he felt certain he could protect his puffy cheeked goddess, SpikeZ carried on with his plan. He met up with Danae for a quick lunch of sushi (not the special kind) and then they grabbed their backpacks and started their walk. The two walked, for the most part without talking, not really feeling the need to, through Pepper park. A small clan skirmish broke out about them, but the two were oblivious...
Yesterday's discovery of the caved in wall had ruined Wannabe's perfect mood. He now saw days of excavation work before him before he could even begin on the cable inspections.
"L dude, come on, get that pile of rubble there out of here." Wannabe yelled as he continued to shovel loose rubble away.
"I'm a welder, Jim, not a dumptruck!"
"What?"
"Never mind, can't we get some help for this?"
"Not a chance. The rest of NEXT is tied up in some 'special assignment'. NUTS are off on a walk today, so there's no one I can call."
"What special assignment?"
"I'm not sure. But most of the NEXT runners have been working down in the labs, so they must be manufacturing something down there."
"Cool. Maybe its more hovercabs for the new tracks."
"Seems likely. Anyway, lets get back to clearing this crap out." He took another shovel-load, "Hey LVirus, check this out." and he lifted up a mechanical arm.
"Wonder what that came off?"
"Might be off an old maintenance bot, before they figured out this stuff needs the human touch."
"I suppose..."
Cassandra had the afternoon off, so she was relaxing at home. She'd sent a few private mails in the early noon, but was basically taking the rest of the day to just lounge about the house in her underwear. Reza seemed fairly content with himself. Whatever inane game he was playing with the Outposts was keeping him happy, and this celebration he had planned was obviously something he was planning on enjoying himself. So, Cassandra could just take it easy. And considering how the last few months had been going, she needed it. Her first real break wasn't for another 2 days, but she couldn't wait. Her private messager bleeped, but she decided to hold off for an hour before answering it.
"Ewww, what did I just step in? Is that moving?" McDanish exclaimed.
"Would you keep your mind on what you're doing?"
"My mind is on the path, and the path is covered in slimy moving things."
"Well mind the slimy moving things and cover the path. Shine your flashlight over there, I need more light." Warlock was investigating a rusty door at the end of the corridor. Yesterday the two had spent over half the day exploring the passage. In one direction it led to a small ante-room with various old tools. They were incredibly antiquated, which just led them to believe that they truly had found a long lost segment of the city. In one cabinet they had found a pneumatic drill, a relic of a bygone era, now replaced with the subwave drill or the mining tool. They had also found a generator, powered by combusting poisonglands in a flame. Crude, but effective. So they had converted the small room into the base for their investigations. They had brought adequate supplies in with them and then covered the hole in the wall over, to limit the chances of other runners invading their discovery. The air was stale in the corridors, but the ante=room itself had ventilation access to the city, so was quite hospitable to life. After spending the night regaining their strength they had carried on to the other end. And now they had found the rusty door. There was no terminal for handprint access (or hacking, which was doubly annoying) so they were having to remove it completely. After 7 hours of attempting to weaken the hinges, McDanish was getting fed up.
"This thing ain't budging. Lets head back and find Wannabe, maybe we can borrow a Fusion-cutter."
"If we borrow a cutter, he'll have to account for it. That'll lead to people discovering what we're doing. And you know CityAdmin. Once they hear of any 'new discovery' they try to claim it for themselves."
"Okay fine, but how are we going to open this thing up?" Warlock reached to his belt and grabbed the last momento from his predecessor Master Yoda. The lasersword blazed to life and he disintegrated the hinges and the lock.
"Ok, so why didn't you do that before?"
"Take 3 steps back and ask me that." McDanish did just before the door teetered over and fell on where he had been sitting. The corridor echoed with the boom.
"Not exactly subtle was it?" Warlock grinned. McDanish grabbed his flashlight and the two entered the newly opened room. It was a pump station, apparently feeding drainwater from atop the city walls down into the filtration system of the city.
"We have found a pump station." McDanish said.
"Thanks for that. Now to save yourself a kidney punch, tell me why its sealed off."
"Umm..." he got punched in the kidney.
"I think this is part of the original city infrastructure."
"Huh?"
"When the city was built, the original focus was not on nice streets, lots of shops and special services. The focus was on maintaining the walls and the shields, keeping power running and making the basic functions of the city work. This must be part of the system that keeps the wall from decaying."
"Great, so if its that important, why is it abandoned."
"I don't know. Perhaps when they started window-dressing the city to make it look prettier, they walled this up and forgot about it."
"Maybe. So what now?"
"Well there's another door over there, lets try our exploring luck." The two walked over to the door and to their relief found that it had a simple drawbolt lock on it. They opened it with only a minor degree of effort and proceeded further within.
Reza received reports from his special agents during the times he gave Cassandra the afternoon off. He trusted her with the running of the entire city, and kept a fairly loose leash on her, but there were some things he would not share with anyone.
"So, what is the word on the Uplinks?"
"The preliminary signal bounce has been returned by all but 1 of the Uplinks. Tescom didn't get the shipment till early this morning, so they'll still be installing them. We detect no delays whatsoever and should be operational by 0200 hours tomorrow morning."
"Excellent. Keep up the tests. I want it to work flawlessly."
"Yes sir." the transmission changed over to another of Reza's personal agents.
"What news from my breeding pens?"
"X-borg production has been limited like you ask. We have 3 deployable units ready for use at your call, and we can produce 3 more as quickly as 48 hours after getting the go ahead sir."
"Excellent. Ensure their containment. The proposed delivery system is ready?"
"Yes sir."
"Then all is in order. Good work and good day." and the next transmission came across."
"This is Tangent Requisitions, special agent, deep cover. The shipment of weapons has been prepared. It seems that NEXT will receive them tomorrow afternoon. However, there has been some snooping by the Fallen Angels. I will continue to monitor the weaponry till it has reached its destination. Out."
Yes, all was in place. The cover-story that NEXT would be expanding the subway was working well. Everyone believed that NEXT was about to begin a contract to build more hovercabs and increase Subway usage. This was far from the truth, but it covered enough bases to be believable. It explained the added manpower NEXT was using, the resources they were consuming and the continuiung conversations with CityAdmin over the matter. It would not explain the shipment of weapons tomorrow, but by then it would be too late to do anything. Reza sent out instructions, that Cassandra would issue in the morning to prepare a PR smokescreen, stating that CityAdmin had ordered a large number of Mechs for city protection, thus requiring a large scale order of weapons. The smoke only needed to buy them a few days. Then the project would be complete. Once ready, with the uplinks and the X-borgs, Reza would finally be able to....
The small opening in the steel door opened, and a tray of what passed as food was put through it. Tired and still in a lot of pain, Sid decided he'd make a move to get it shortly, but not yet. No one had come to see him for 5 days now. The last visit had been short and uneventful, with a doctor checking that the medikits were starting to take effect. He wondered how long he would be here, and what was to become of him. Then he tried to move for his food, and decided that thinking was a bad idea, almost as bad as moving. Darkness entered his cell as night fell on the wastelands.
R minus 3 days...
Danae and SpikeZ had camped out under the stars that night. Engrossed in each others company, the grottiness of the place around them had not phased their anniversary in the slightest. SpikeZ, attempting to be the perfect man, had attempted to make breakfast. Once they put the fire out, Danae made breakfast. The two decided to walk around the zone after their meal, and reminisce about the place they had met. That day long ago, when SpikeZ had been trying to reason with a Mutated Bat that his hair would not make good nesting material, and the Bat had responded by trying to render him bald. Danae had then burst in with her Double sharpened Claw and saved SpikeZ righteous hairstyle, and the two had got to know each other over a meal of Spicy Batwings.
As they walked, they spoke softly and intimately, occasionally stopping to mack out a bit, then carrying on when they realised some mutant creature was watching and enjoying. However, at one stop, Danae peered over SpikeZ' shoulder and spotted an open hatch. Curious, the two decided to take a look inside. They found a large corridor heading in a downward slope. Not wanting to go unprepared, the two returned for their gear before carrying on. With no idea as to when their journey would end or where they would end up, they entered the corridor together.
In another dark corridor...
The third day in the abandoned sections of the city, McDanish and Warlock were making good headway in their explorations. So far they had located 2 pump rooms that were functioning, and one that was not. Signs of wall degredation were appearing in that area, and they made a note to bring this to the attention of the people in charge. But just before dusk (or at least their timers told them that, no natural light had found them since they entered these tunnels) they discovered a very heavy deutrithium door. There was no way Warlock's laserblade would even singe this door, so instead they set to work in repairing the doors systems so they could open it. This was going to take some time.
In yet another dark corridor...
Wannabe had managed to requisition a hovertrolley to help them cart the debris out. As they had proceeded, they had noted more and more mechanised bits. He was starting to become concerned. Yet something nagged at his mind, something he knew he should know about his current situation, but it escaped him.
Night fell on the wastelands.
R minus 2 days...
Soliko was armed solid. Scouting parties had detected numerous Dome of York bots rolling around in ever increasing circles from the gates. The rumours of the trenches were true, and now the entire surrounding areas were littered with pop-up turret defenses. Beta Warbots were out in force and whatever was causing the dustclouds had yet to show itself. Centuri had not slept a wink since he'd heard the rumbling growl of 3 beta Warbots walking past the base of Soliko precipice 2 nights earlier. Since then he had called in all NDA forces; placed Mechs at strategic locations and the outpost was now bristling with turrets. But still he was ill at ease. It was in the air again, that sense that something was coming. The last time he'd felt like this, Neocron had been given a gaping gash in the city wall, most of the wastelands had been destroyed, and Centuri himself had ended up with a piece of outpost stuck in his thigh for 3 weeks. And the winds were picking up...
Ithaqua's hunting party had finished an outstanding battle in the Crystal Caves. Carrying bits of batqueen with them, NUTS were feeling quite good. They loaded back into their transports, and this time set off west. Ithaqua was really happy he'd thought to start this hunting party.
"Simon, have the calibrators been adjusted yet?" Ulam asked.
"Yes sir, the man from CityAdmin was just here. He's completed his work on the system."
"You made sure this time?"
"He had work papers issued by Ms. Edwards herself."
"Ok, thank you Simon." Uman went back to his work. In the alley behind his office, an individual in CityAdmin clothing and holding official papers, threw them on top of the corpse in the trashcan and walked off towards Pepper Park.
"I have had it with this crap, man. This was supposed to be a 2 day job. And yet, here I am, 4 days in, still digging through this crap. If I find the moron who caused this cave-in, he is gonna suffer dearly." LVirus was wishing he'd never become gainfully employed.
"I think I might be that moron." Wannabe said softly. LVirus turned to look at him. In his hands were what was left of an exploded fusion-cutter. "I threw this down here to block the corridor when Dome of York tried to invade."
"But that was months ago right?"
"Yeah, so?"
"Well look at this, this damage is new. It can't have been here for more than a few weeks." Wannabe realised he was correct.
"Lets keep digging for a bit shall we?"
Around noon the announcement came over the loudspeakers of the city:
"Citizens of Neocron. This is Lioon Reza. Recently CityAdmin has undertaken the task of studying the Ceres Disc's further. In our investigations, we discovered a reference to a particular date, every year, that we have overlooked. That date is the 4th of July. It was traditional for a long since dead country, the United States, to celebrate their Independence on this day. Since the attack by Dome of York several months ago, we have not celebrated the fact that our city is not an occupied city. So, the day after next, we shall celebrate the 4th of July. Shipments from the Uplinks have been acquired by CityAdmin clans of food and beverages for our enjoyment. I encourage all citizens, even the denizens of Tsunami and Black Dragons, to join us in this celebration. As was customary, ProtoPharma and Tangent have developed fireworks, for a visual display in the nights sky. Thank you for your time."
That afternoon MAX-T and Synergy XR received delivery of the weapons consignment from Tangent. They transported the goods to the factory beneath NEXT HQ and got to work on the installation of the weapons.
The corridor that Danae and SpikeZ had entered had proven to be insanely long. Eventually the two found a relatively level place and went to sleep, and then resumed their walk the next morning.
"Are we there yet?" Danae asked.
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"No."
"Are we there yet?"
"Hun..."
"Sorry. Ooh, whats this? Sugarfree Milky Ren?" Danae tasted it, and seemingly liked it.
"No self-respecting man would eat a sugarfree Milky Ren."
"Well I'm fortunately not a man then." SpikeZ agreed, for so many reasons. Eventually their journey levelled off, but still no end was in sight. But determined to see things through, they walked on.
The replaced cables conducted power from the gland powered engine in their sleeping quarters. The doors jolted to life, then creaked out of the way. Victorious, McDanish and Warlock stepped into the next room. And they stopped and stared in awe.
Before them was a monolithic machine, some 10 stories tall, cables running to and fro. From where they were standing, they could see 4 other structures, each identical, partitioned from each other and enclosed by a duraglass ceiling. The balcony they stood on overlooked the 5 structures.
"Ok, so what are those?"
"Reactors." McDanish replied.
"Huh?"
"These must be the 5 reactors that power the city."
"Ohhh... k, so I'm guessing we shouldn't be here."
"By all accounts no one will be."
"Oro?" Warlock's affinity for the anime sections of the Ceres Discs' kicked in again.
"The cities generators were placed before the ground levels of the city were. They were given self repairing and self replicating maintenane drones with the sole purpose of maintaining the reactors. Then they were sealed off according to the tales."
"You mean those busted down drones over there?" And they both looked to see where he was talking. A landing bay for the drones which was obviously their launching station, had been crushed by a girder that had fallen down. They looked around and could see no working drones.
"Dude this is serious," Warlock grabbed McD by the arm, "we need to check the reactors. If nothings maintaining them, there could be trouble."
"Indeed, lets go."
A few hours later the two had determined that the reactors were working fine, but there were no drones in operation at all.
"So what do we do?"
"Well, there's no immediate danger, so lets see if we can't fix some of these drones. If they're self repairing, they might have instructions on how to fix their landing platform as well."
"Ok, lets try. But if we haven't figured this out by sundown tomorrow we go up and tell someone."
"Absolutely."
And so they began their work. McDanish began opening one of the lesser damaged ones, looking for areas that needed repairing or replacing. Warlock began scrounging for drone carcasses that they could canibalise to fix the others.
Cassandra Edwards excused herself from Reza's office slightly early this evening, saying she had an old friend coming to visit. She returned home and accepted her visitor just before 9. The two spoke for a few hours, then her visitor passed her a package, a modified hacktool with extended range. Her visitor then departed.
"We're almost there. Just a little further."
R minus 1 day...
Centuri was glad he was not sleeping. By morning light, the canyon was infested. Communication signals were jammed and they were in trouble. Scythe-bots were pouring across the cliffs, Beta Warbots were marching on their position, those annoying artillery cannons were slowly rolling their way, and Ceres War Veterans were standing on the clifftops like something out of Shaka Zulu. Not a shot had been fired, but they were here, and Centuri was not going to lose this time.
Ithaqua and the others had reached Regants Fortress. They decided to take a day off from hunting and set up camp in the field south west of the generep. It was a nice flat space with little creature population. Hurricane, not being one to just sit around, decided to start wandering further west, using his cloaking device rather than his gun when trouble arose. The rest set up camp, watched Eva do her morning lapdance for whoever was closest, and peeping on Lisa and Trillian as they got undressed in their tents. Ithaqua just kicked back and enjoyed the moment.
Wannabe was not enjoying a single moment. The more he dug, the more he realised this landslide had been orchestrated. At 2 in the afternoon he discovered the broken tip off a CityAdmin subwave drill. At 4:30pm LVirus found the coattails off a Monks jacket. And as the workshift came to a close, neither was leaving. There was something not far off and they were going to find it.
Danae had found it. The door at the end of the corridor. Not caring what was on the other side, just wanting to end their 3 day trek, she opened it leaving SpikeZ to haul in their luggage. When he arrived his eyes met with the following sight:
Chemicals lined one wall, and workbenches the other. There was no one present aside from the two of them, but it was evident that people had been here, and recently. They investigated the workbench. It was obvious they had been mixing the chemicals here, but for what purpose? Danae was about to move on when SpikeZ spotted a small package behind part of the bench. He reached for it and brought it to sight. It was an explosive. A chemical composite bomb to be exact. Suddenly the realisation that the two had walked into something much bigger than they ever intended smacked them round the ears, and they knew they were in trouble. They were deliberating their next move when a door at the other end of the room opened. A Psi-monk, with face covered, entered and stopped short.
"Who...who are you!!!" the monk said.
"Hey, I know that voice... its ... um.... oh come on help me out..." SpikeZ started trying to 'guess that voice', but the Monk wasn't waiting. It dived out of the room, and the door slammed shut and locked. But not before an active bomb rolled in. SpikeZ went to pick it up but Danae grabbed him and hauled him out the rear door, which from this side was obviously a hidden exit. They dived out into the corridor just as the bomb went off and the two dived to the ground.
"SpikeZ sweetie, you have really got to learn to sense danger better."
"Danger? But that monk left that for us."
"Yes, to KILL us."
"Oh come on, he just met us." Danae rolled her eyes. SpikeZ had this ridiculous love for all people and never believed they could be bad. One day she would knock that realisation into him. But now was not the time. Danae knew who that was, and with the knowledge that that monk was armed with composite explosives, she knew there would be trouble. It had taken 2 days downslope to walk to the room. They would need to make haste to get back in time to warn anyone.
Reza was taking much of the day to just bask in the peoples joy. The declarations of the 4th of July celebrations for tomorrow had greatly picked up city morale. And the message from NEXT indicating that his pet project was completed was picking up his morale. And the silk teddie that Cassandra was wearing was picking up the Little Dictators morale. Life was good.
Life sucked. Standing there in that silk teddie, about to give herself over to Reza's Little Dictator (and yes she did mean little) was one of the degrading parts of her job that she had accepted for all these years. But her break started tomorrow, why couldn't she just go home? She closed her eyes as Reza approached and the lights went out.
The lights came on.
"Hey I found a lightswitch!" McDanish yelled.
"Thanks man, that helps a lot." Warlock had grown tired of scrounging for drones, only to find them by tripping over them. The light showed two more just a few steps to his right, so he walked over to them. Then he stooped to pick them up and stopped dead in his tracks. McDanish was called over.
"What's up?"
"Look." McDanish looked, and he saw. The drones had the scorch marks that only Copbot Rifles leave.
"What the hell happened down here."
"It might not be a good idea to report this." McDanish stated.
"For once, thats an obvious statement that I wanted to hear." Warlock grabbed the drones, and they got back to work on the repairs.
Sid was abruptly hauled from his cell and dragged onto a balcony overlooking the gate to the city. His eyes, while blurry, still widened at the sight. The sight of the military power before him was overwhelming.
"You know, Reza assumed that he had crushed the majority of our forces during the last campaign. And he'd be right," Garn Warner, Military Commander of Dome of York was speaking, "but the majority was not all. I still possess an army greater than any Neocron can put together. And come noon tomorrow, I shall unleash them." Sid could only look on stunned. Finally words formed.
"Why am I here?"
"You were requested." Sid looked at him strangely.
"Requested?"
"Yes. You shall see. Take him to his new quarters." Sid was taken to an actual apartment. It was comfortable, though messy, and a fair improvement over his cell. He went back to sleep, to await the dawn.
Darkness fell on the wastelands.
R...
Reza, under the escort of several STORM bots, exited his apartment and walked the streets. Runners were in such a buzz over the days festivities, they seemed to have forgiven him everything they'd normally have thrown boulders at him for. Food and drink was plentiful, and Pepper park had an abundance of sushi, special and otherwise.
MoonUnit, sensing sushi, decided now would be a good time to visit the lower plain. The other EGOS felt they might as well come along. But something was wrong. MoonUnit started to look concerned, as one after the other, they all tried to warp to the Lower Plain. And failed.
"It is done, my Master," Teh Bunneh spoke, "the Lower plain cannot be accessed by the EGOS or The DEVS. They are alone." and the grin began to grow.
Hurricane had allowed his impetuousness to get the better of him. He was now stuck on the roof of a wood hut, alongside the swamp road leading west from Regant's Fortress, surrounded by aggressors and Swamp Stranglers. He sent a call to his clanmates to come give him a hand, but they were still going to be a good 2 hours away. So he huddled down on the roof to wait, occasionally taking potshots at anything that got too close.
Centuri and NDA stood tense. Since an hour earlier, the forces of Dome had stopped moving. They just stood poised to move.
"Why are they here? Do they want us so bad?" Omega Res asked.
"No, last time they passed by Tech Haven because they had a secret plan to knock out their turrets. This time I'm guessing that won't work, so they're coming down this way, past us and then past Twilight Guardians." Centuri responded.
"And TG will just..."
"let them walk right past, yeah. Make sure everyone's got lots of ammo. They're gonna need it."
"I don't think I can fix these little guys by myself." McDanish stated.
"Yeah, I'm having no luck here either." They both dropped their tools and sat down in silence.
"Maybe we can sneak one or two out, and get the others to help. Then we can return here with them."
"Suppose thats an idea. Lets take a breather then head on out." Warlock replied. Again they sat in silence. Warlock suddenly thought he heard something new. A whining sound, like something powering up, and then a regular bleep.
"What's that?"
"Dunno." McDanish replied. They both got up to look. Suddenly, Warlock came upon the source.
"Oh.... hell. This is all starting to make the kind of sense that sucks."
"What?" McDanish ran over, only to wish he hadn't, "is that a bomb?" the bleeping device was connected to a very large container of composite explosives.
"Yep. Now we know why the drones were purposely shot down. This is a sabotage operation."
"But why? Why would Copbots be part of a mission to sabotage the reactors that power the city."
"If the city had been betrayed." Warlock grumbled.
"Well can we disarm it?"
"We got about 2 hours. Even if we went for help from people who knew how, and we're still not sure who's behind this, we can't make it back again in 2 hours."
"So fine, lets get outta here before we get fragged."
"Dude, this bomb is here for a reason. To put the whole city up Sh*t creek. If we can't find a way to at least limit its effects, then running outta here won't help. Besides, remember the walls surrounding the reactors?"
"Yeah, the deutrithium barriers."
"Well no explosion could get through those, so we only have to get outside the reactor containers. So we can save ourselves. But how do we save the reactors?"
"Well, look. There's only this one bomb right? So if we close the connector doors, the other 4 reactors won't get damaged. It'll be bad, but at least they'll be ok." McDanish suggested.
"True, but that doesn't completely save us. See the reactors are all connected, feeding power between the 5 of them in a sort of loop to generate more. So if one goes, the loop is broken."
"And the rest are useless. DAMNIT!!!"
"Well hang on McD, therein lies our hope." Warlock had that glimmer.
"Huh? What hope?"
"If we can reroute the connections from this reactor so that the other 4 are the loop and this one is excluded, then seal the doors, the reactors will continue to run."
"Ok, so lets get started then." And the two got to work.
Cassandra Edwards was sitting in her Reveler jeep, not far from Tech Haven, looking back on Neocron. She took a sip of Blue Poisongland Chardonay '42 and reached for her specialised hack tool. She entered a command and pushed execute.
Simon and Ulam were too close to the control centre. They were killed instantly in the blast. The entire control centre was annihilated in the blast. The survivors began digging through the rubble, while one contacted Reza.
Reza nearly crapped himself at the news. He returned to his apartment immediately and got on the city PA system. This was one message he had thought he'd never need to give.
"Citizens, may I have your attention please. It pains me to have to announce this on what was looking like being such a festive day, but announce it I must. This message also goes out to the wastelands and I hope all runners, enemies included, might hear it. A few minutes ago in a cowardly attack, the Tangent branch of Genetic Replicator Control was attacked and bombed. The control nexus inside was destroyed. As a consequence; the following will affect you all.
Firstly, it will be impossible to teleport anywhere using the generep system. All travel will need to be done on foot or by vehicle (groans went up from the world). Secondly, if you lose your backpack during this time, it will not be remotely tagged with a recaller. Thus you will not be able to gain your inventory back through the genereps (a few people stopped trying). Thirdly and most importantly... if you are killed during this down time, there will be no replicators to lock on and clone you back. As a result, anyone who dies during this time will experience perma-death (at this, the populace broke into a cold sweat. Centuri and NDA looked on the fields of Dome forces in renewed horror at the realisation that they were stuck, and that if they died today, it would be the end)." Reza deactivated the PA system, but suddenly a new voice broke through:
"Citizens," and Reza went pale, "I believe you have all heard of my little present for you all," Reza began to sweat hard, "I hope you all are enjoying it," and Reza realised he'd never loathed a voice as much as he was loathing Cassandra's voice right now.
"I have bombed the Generep control unit. You can all choose to risk your lives to come and get me, or you can choose to hide in the 'safe zones' till the crisis is over. Its your choice..."
Having heard the announcement in the Subway, Wannabe and LVirus were about to pull out, but the last of the new rubble fell away. They both looked on in horror. Several composite explosives were seeded behind it, and were ticking down to zero fast. The two fled the tunnels. Wannabe began broadcasing, but there was no one listening to him...
"... but it may be hard to stay where you are. For here comes my second present..."
The timers ran to zero and the charges blew. The ground in Pepper Park 2 heaved upwards in a groan and then exploded upwards. Windows shattered, strippers were killed and copbots buried in debris. The Black Dragons HQ entrance was caved in. And then they came.
It suddenly became clear what the noises were people had been reporting in Pepper Park. The bots that Wannabe had sealed off several months ago had remained in the tunnel. And now they had a way out. Swarms of Scythe bots and Ceres Veterans began pouring through the gash in Pepper Park and began to annihilate everything in sight. Runners fled for their apartments, only to have Scythe bots tear through the walls after them. In the initial assault, 43 runners were perma-killed.
"...have fun Reza." she smirked.
"You Bitch!!" he broadcast back, not caring who heard, "you dare turn on Neocron? You dare turn on me? And today of all days?"
"You're damn right. I have had it with this city. I run the whole city, me, by myself, yet all the credit goes to you and all the blame comes to me. And I will never miss having to go down under your desk you pig." (the citizens raised eyebrows, but few were suprised).
"You will die screaming Edwards. I shall see to that."
"Oh, I don't think so. You have Dome forces spreading out through Pepper Park, runners perma-dying, and close to a million Dome troops marching from the north as we speak. You think you have time to catch me?"
"Lets find out." He went to order the release of an X-borg unit to hunt her down.
"Yes, lets. Whats a good act of treason without trump cards eh? Time I played my big one." Reza paused, "you wanted to celebrate July 4th? Independence day? Well you got it wrong. Today is R day. Today is the day I see out the last wishes of the last true leader of Neocron. Today I unleash the contents of Regants Legacy upon thee!" In a convulsive frenzy she hammered the controls. And the wastelands shook.
"Thats the signal. Unleash the army!" Garn Warner yelled.
Centuri was the first to fire, and NDA followed suit as the forces of the Dome flooded towards them. There was no turning back.
The gates of Regants Legacy and all its restraints were blown to kingdom come. The Legacy was laid wide open, and its contents began to march.
Reza's command panel indicated the Legacy was open. Suddenly showing his age, he collapsed in his seat, old and weary. He knew what was in there, and the horror of it overwhelmed him.
NUTS could be seen on the horizon, and Hurricane breathed a sigh of relief. Suddenly, the earth around him shook and quaked and he was thrown from the roof to the waters below. Spluttering and dirty, he dragged himself to the bank. Expecting to be attacked again, he pulled his rifle ready to fight, but the creatures had fled. He walked back to the path and looked towards the legacy. And it was fortunate he was already wet, so that no one would ever see the piss stain forming.
Marching towards him were hundreds upon hundreds of PowerArmour wearing GenTanks. Each one was armed with either a Cursed Soul or a MoonStriker. And they were annihilating everything in sight. Hurricane sensing the danger activated his scope on his Redeemer and opened fire at range. Shot after shot flew and struck the nearest unit in the head. Not only did it not take damage, it didn't even slow down. Hurricane looked on in fear. But he didn't look for long as he began running his ass off to get away from the incoming missiles. He linked up with NUTS and in an out-of-breath kind of style gave them the heads up. They fell back to the base camp and acquired all their firepower and the Mechs. As a clan, they engaged the oncoming forces. Shot after shot from Pain Easer, Cursed Soul, Holy Lightning, Gat cannon, Redeemer, First Love and the Mechs slammed into their foes. And not a scratch was made.
"What directly the (censored) are these (censored) things" Eva began spitting out.
"Ok, I know its powerarmour, but COME ON. They're not taking little damage, they're taking NO Damage."
"Fall back... Now." Ithaqua pulled everyone away. The units began to split into two groups. One followed after them, heading to Neocron, the other marched North and, passing by TH, turned towards the Dome.
Cassandra drove onwards towards the Dome, her hair blowing in the wind, and smiling more than she ever had in the last 4 years.
"Ok, I'm ready, lets thread the cables through now." McDanish yelled.
"Ok, we'll do it one set at a time, to limit the power outtages."
"Got it." And they disconnected the first set.
The city blacked out completely. Emergency generators kicked in for basic systems (the radiation shield and communication networks to name two) but ultimately the city was pitched into chaos. And then the Scythe-bots struck. Those that were able activated their LaserSwords and held the line. The light from over 130 laserswords was enough to illuminate the battle in an eerie orange and blue.
Reza was giving orders as best he could in the confusion. He had ordered Megaman and CDV to overtake and kill Cassandra Edwards, so they moved on at great haste. He ordered Tangent clans to repair the generep controller and to check the Mainsewer power conduits. They promptly reported that the Mainsewer conduits were fine. This left Reza to worry about why the power was failing. The only reason he could think of was a cut in the power supply. But when the power came on again for a short time, he feared that something had happened to the reactors. At that moment, a call came through from Ithaqua.
"Reza, we got trouble out here. There's these Gentank things heading our way..."
"Yes I know, the DeltaGens."
"The what?"
"Oh well, like it matters now. The Gentanks you see walking the streets these days are GammaGens, the 3rd generation of Gentank, designed for combat, but capable of acting within a society as a member, albeit a stupid member. The ones you see before you are DeltaGens, the 4th generation. They were designed during the Ceres war as the final weapon. Ammoral killing machines. Just point them at a target and they will annihilate it. They do not age, they do not need food. They just need air and ammo. Furthermore, at the time of their creation a freak accident created a special alloy for their powerarmour that has never been duplicated. That armour is indestructible."
"Oh gee, and someone saw fit to deploy such things?"
"Regant wanted to win. I think you're experiencing his desperation right now aren't you?"
"Almost."
"Hmn?"
"As you said, their armour is indestructible, but they are not. Our Aggressive Monk Diesel has found a way to destroy them."
"What? The entire army of York couldn't do that... how?"
"As you said, all they need is air and ammo. And to get air, that suit has airholes. So it is possible to get fire into their suits to kill the DeltaGen inside. He's using a Fire Apocalypse, but he's only one man. We could use some help to help kill off the rest."
"Fire you say? Good work NUTS, I have just the thing. We may survive this one yet. Get your people clear."
"Understood."
"This is Reza to NEXT special projects. I am authorising the use of the project now. Proceed to these co-ordinates and destroy the targets."
A gate in the city wall, half a mile above the ground opened up and from it spewed 12 NEXT FireWreathes. Each one was a long range combat aircraft, the first flying combat vehicle built in Neocron ever. Each fighter packed 4 Plasma Plasma Cannons and a full payload of Napalm Missiles. The fighters formed up and came down to 100 ft above the surface. They quickly located the targets and unloaded on the ravine they were in. Hundreds of DeltaGens were engulfed in fire and they fell. NUTS cheered on as the fighters flew overhead, then banked east and returned home. They then entered a holding pattern around the city.
"They're destroyed? Excellent, maintain patrol around the city until we can solve this power failure to the Wall shields." Reza had hope once again. He had already dispatched the rockets containing 3 squads of X-borgs at the gate to Dome of York. They would not last long, but they would cause chaos. CDV was hot on Cassandra's heels, and the brave souls in the city had already begun to look like they might conquer the bots belching forth from Pepper Park 2. But the last transmission from NDA said they weren't out of the woods yet.
"Ok, 4 more sets of cables and we're done!" McDanish yelled, "How much time?"
"47 minutes." Warlock called back. They carried forward.
"Will this tunnel never end?" Danae panted. She and SpikeZ had been running all night long and were still unable to reach anyone.
"Just keep running honey, we've got no other choice."
"The East walls collapsing! Take cover!" The wall of Soliko crumbled and the defenders fled back. NDA was still fighting and were still all accounted for, thanks to the fact that their attackers weren't all that interested in them. The Dome forces were flooding past them, heading for Neocron, and were only attacking in passing. NDA saw it their duty to kill as many as possible, but were not going to risk perma-death to do so. The wall collapsing seemed like a sign to retreat to the underground section. Only Centuri remained above as the scout, under cover.
Dome forces were flooding hard and fast towards the city walls. Only a few were prepared to defend from the outside of the wall, as the last time had been a slaughterhouse, saved only by the Genereps. Thus the FireWreathes were the first line of defense. They were ordered to assault the column on its way towards the city, and assault they did. With every pass, hundreds of Dome forces were lost. The fighters were exceeding expectation. Meanwhile, Reza was gathering all CityAdmin clans to him and selecting specific personel to go to a special room full of terminals beneath CityAdmin.
NUTS returned to the city, and joined the gate defense for a short time, but battered and weary, they feared they were not combat ready any longer, so re-entered the city.
Wannabe linked up with NUTS once they returned, and told them of all that had been going on.
"So Edwards has screwed us all?" Ithaqua asked.
"Damn straight. Nearly killed me and LVirus."
"Um, Wanna, wheres Warlock and McDanish?"
Despite the air barrage, the forces of the Dome drew closer. This was largely due to the emergence of what had been causing the dustclouds. Dome of York had unleashed Hovertanks. Shrouded in dust and much faster than everything else, the fighters were having a much harder time destroying them. As a result, York forces were able to bring their artillery to bear on the wall. The defenders fled and it looked like breaching time.
"That's it, last one! Connected!" McDanish slammed the cable together, and the 4 generators were connected. The city had guaranteed power again.
"We're out of time, lets go!" Warlock grabbed him and pulled him towards the door. The gates had been set to shut 5 seconds before the bomb was set to go. The two ran towards the gate, which had begun to close. Just at the very last, they both tripped on some of the broken drones. Warlock tucked his arm and rolled on, sliding through the gap. McDanish fell. He looked at the now closed door, and then at the timer.
"This can't be good. . . "
The bomb detonated and the city shook. Warlock was catapulted by the force into the wall behind him and lost consciousness. The 5th generator was destroyed, but power remained.
The artillery opened fire at the wall. The shield flickered and then powered up. The artillery fire bounced off harmlessly. In the next pass, the FireWreathes annihilated the artillery. Cheers from the citizens went up as the Dome forces, seeing that the shield was not down as promised, turned to flee. Hundreds of runners, now fueled by hope and adrenalin, ran out and grabbed their Mechs and began the pursuit, under the air cover of the city's saving graces.
Centuri saw an opening and climbed down from Soliko. The forces had left a gap, which he passed through unnoticed, and he set course for Dome of York.
Cassandra pulled up just in front of the Dome. Behind her marched the DeltaGens. Garn looked out perplexed.
"Well this is certainly unexpected. You bring me new troops as well?"
"Not quite, Garn. I bring these troops to kill you." and Cassandra began her second act of treachery. The DeltaGens poured towards the Dome, and the Dome forces, split between defending the Dome and retreating from Neocron, fought back as best they could.
"Alright, its time," Reza yelled to the terminal room, "HackNet is activated, BEGIN!!!" And the handpicked hackers of CityAdmin began to remote hack. The transmission was beamed through the Uplinks through to Dome of York. In an instant, they hacked the pop-up turrets of the Dome and took control of them. And then Reza's grin returned.
The turrets opened fire on everything. The Dome forces caught between, to their mind, invincible DeltaGens, and their own turrets were quickly obliterated. The DeltaGens then wrecked the turrets, and proceeded inside to annihilate the populace.
Sid, seeing his guards distracted, took this opportunity to kill them. He then fled into the corridor to be confronted by the DeltaGens. They looked at him, and stepped aside. Confused, he carried on. The DeltaGens then carried out their act of genocide.
Cassandra cackled away as her forces flooded into the Dome, spilling a river of blood. Her funtime was cut short, as Centuri appeared behind her and demanded she take her hands off the controls. She obeyed.
"Damn you. You would unleash Armageddon on us, just to kill them?"
"No you fool, I unleash Armaggedon to rule them. You're looking at the Queen of the Dome." and she grinned.
"Actually I'm looking at a corpse with nice make-up..." and he took aim.
"Finally I got a signal!" Danae exclaimed, she activated full broadcast, "attention all Neocron. I don't know how late we are reporting this but we discovered a plot to bomb the city (there were no suprises to this news). We found out that the bombers (Centuri paused to listen) were CDV. I repeat, Megaman's CDV planted the bombs. I heard Psycho Killa down in the place where they made the bombs (Reza broke into a cold sweat again)."
Centuri took aim, but it was for nothing. He was shot from behind by Megaman.
"Welcome to your new home, my General." Cassandra sneered. Megaman grinned, and killed Centuri.
"I think we're gonna like it here." and the new lords of the Dome entered their new home. Cassandra promptly found and confronted Sid, offering him the position to head up their Assassination Guild. He did not decline. And the grin of MJS grew.
Centuri respawned in Plaza 1.
"What the hell? I thought that was it?"
"We got the control unit working again, looks like just in time." One of the techs reported.
"Not quite in time." Warlock, injured and covered in dust, carrying a large burden over his shoulder emerged through the covered hole in the wall.
R plus 1 day...
Reza ordered another squadron of FireWreathes created, and a special team to begin repairs to the reactor and the pump stations, based on Warlock's report. Warlock himself was asked to head the team, but for the time being, he was otherwise engaged.
Danae and SpikeZ were asked to show the location of the bomb lab, but they demanded a rest and some form of transportation before braving that walk again.
The Powerarmour suits from the deceased DeltaGens was melted down and forged into the new casing for the GeneRep control unit, to ensure such an incident could not be easily replicated.
The burial took place just south of Tech Haven, McDanish's original home. A simple gravestone can be found there, simply enscribed
"McDanish. In Memorium. This is A Gravestone. It signifies that there is a grave here" His friends felt it needed to be obvious.
Until next time...