Several hours later, Irvine went to check on Janus and found him sitting in his bed staring into space.
"You doing any better?"
Janus nodded his head. "I'll be fine. You mentioned a war before."
Irvine nodded. "What of it?"
"Is it still happening?"
"No, it isn't. There was one factor that changed it all."
"What was it?
"Inside of the Matrix, there's a consultant that we call The Oracle. She's been with us since the beginning of the war. She's a guide, and a large help to us. She told us that once upon a time, when the Matrix was first created, there was a man inside that could control the Matrix's reality by will alone. He was called The One. Apparently, it was this man who freed the first of Zion's people and showed them the true nature of the world."
"What happened to him?"
"When he died, The Oracle came up with this prophecy that said the return of The One meant the end of the war was near. Not long afterwards, we found the guy. His name was Neo. Under the tutelage of Morpheus, one of the more praised and respected ship captains of Zion, Neo reached his full potential. There were those who thought the prophecy was bull, and refused to believe that one man could stop an entire race of machines. When the time came, Zion was about to be attacked by huge machine army."
Janus merely watched and listened.
"It didn't happen, for some reason," Irvine said. Janus noted that he sounded distant, almost disappointed as he said it.
"Neo traveled to the Machine City with his partner Trinity. We don't know how he did it, but the machines ceased their attack; they were already inside of Zion and destroying it by then. The war was then declared over. We never saw Neo or Trinity again. A truce was made between Zion and the machines, and we existed together in peace. Those that wanted to be free from the Matrix were allowed to do so with no restraint. That was five years ago."
Janus nodded as though to say "Go on."
"Despite the fact that there was peace between humans and machines, there were some people that couldn't accept it. A whole bunch of different opinions from different groups. Some wanted to uphold the peace, some wanted to destroy it, some even wanted to go back to the Matrix. In particular, one group argued that we were still vulnerable, and that the machines could come and destroy Zion at any time. With Neo gone, it was widely held that there would be no way to stop it. The counter-argument was that as long as Zion did nothing to instigate, the machines would have no reason to attack. Well... that was easier said."
"....."
"Well, let me break this down. Three years into the peace after Neo made the truce, one particular group of people came with an undeniable point- the machines were still in control and they could attack if they wanted to and there would be nothing Zion could do about it. They said that since the Matrix still existed, and as long as humans were still being used as a power source, the machines still were in control. They didn't trust the truce, and they threatened leave Zion. But the High Council didn't take them seriously. So, said group got pissed that no one was listening to them, so they went off to prove their point. There were six captains, six ships, six crews. My crew and I were a part of the group. We felt that instead of being sitting ducks, we'd rather be prepared and at least be ready to warn Zion if the machines were going to attack."
"So that's how we fall into this?"
"No, there's more. After we left, the captains grouped up and decided on what to do. There were the six of us alone on our own, and we were trying to find something we only had a hunch about. So we set out to look for some kind of proof behind our suspicions. What we found... well for once it didn't feel good to be right."
"What did you find?" Janus asked.
"With six hovercraft scoping out the tunnels and the desert, we had a lot of area covered. That's how we stumbled across them. An entire army of sentinels poised to attack Zion, waiting on standby for the order should the truce ever fail, or as we figured, whenever the Machines saw fit.. We screwed that up big time."
"What happened?"
"We leaped before we looked. On an impulse decision, we set up an attack formation and struck at the sentinels. Our attack plan worked out, we managed to take out a majority of them since we took them by surprise, and we scattered before the rest could take us down. That was what did it though. We didn't think it through, we thought we were protecting Zion. The consequences of our actions were worse than we figured."
Janus raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.
"The moment we left port, Zion considered us rogues and refused to be involved in our expedition or give us any assistance. The machines, unknown that this split went down, saw this as an offense and a declaration of War. They sent a larger attack squad to Zion and when it arrived, Zion wasn't expecting it. Lock, the commanding officer of Zion's military, was quick to come up with a strategy and built up a large enough defense force to hold off the machine army from getting into Zion. We came to help out after we realized what we did wrong, and it was like a slap in the face to the Council, and added insult to injury because it also counted as an I-told-you-so. So then Zion began mobilizing and increased its military size to almost double the size it was during the first war. They insulated the dock, the living quarters, the temple, all of the main conduits, and all of the tunnels leading to the entrance gates, and surrounded Zion with EMP charges, in and out."
"An electro-magnetic-pulse. Automatically shuts down circuitry. SWAT uses weapons like that."
"Correct. Lock figured that if the machines were going to try to get into Zion again from any entrance point, they would be ready, and if they somehow got past the first few lines of defense, they would have the military ready for them. When the machines found out, they decided that since we were mobilizing for another war, then another war it would be."
"And we're neutral? How does that work out?"
"Zion wouldn't accept us back home. The Council ruled that everything was our fault, and our actions ended the truce and put on stake once again the lives of every person in Zion. We were outcast, and on our own without a home. Since we took matters into our own hands once before, we figured we could do it again, so we started calling ourselves the Resistance, as redpills were known before Neo ended the last war. The other five captains agreed that we should do what we could to destroy the machines and take down the Matrix. At this point, they weren't opposed to fighting or even killing Zion forces inside the Matrix. In fact, they were all for it. They figured that if Zion was going to try to stop us from completing our mission, then they were the traitors."
"What about you?"
"I thought it was crazy to even think of pulling it off. Finding a way to destroy the Matrix was one thing, but the six of us ships couldn't take on the entire race of machines alone. We would be destroyed in no time, and it had been done before to those that tried. Second, there was nothing I would get out of attacking Zion. Just because my crew and I were thrown out didn't mean I hated them or thought they deserved to die, and I wasn't willing to kill the very same people I was trying to protect. So I took my ship and my crew and left the group, and now we're neutral to both sides. We're like rogue rogues, and we have to look out for ourselves."
"How's this accomplished?"
"We don't attack anyone, we only defend ourselves, from the machines, Zion, and the Resistance fleet. We're only pirates because we do whatever it takes to survive. We're fringe in all this."
"What about the Matrix?"
"Everything I told you so far applies to the Real World only. Inside the Matrix it's a mess. The three factions are still fighting against each other in there as well, but when you throw Exiles into the mix it gets more hectic."
"What about the people that want to be free?"
"Stopping humans from escaping the Matrix was the first course of action within the Matrix that the machines took. It was right back to the old policies again. When that happened we had to start worrying about Agents again."
"Agents?"
"Do you remember the three men that came after you at work? Williams, Davis, and Miller?"
Janus frowned. He didn't think Irvine had any idea about them. Was he watching that? "Yeah..."
"Those are Agents. They're sentient programs designed to eliminate any soldier from the real world that plugs into the Matrix. They also go after exiles."
"What can they do?"
"They're stronger and faster than any of us. Their strength and speed is like no other. They punch through walls made of marble. You could fire off an entire magazine at them and never hit them once. You could square off against one of them, but you wouldn't last long, since they're not human. Neo could beat an Agent. He could take *CENSORED*-loads of them down. But for any one of us ‘regulars,' when you see an Agent, you run like you've never ran before unless you have no choice but to fight to maybe buy yourself some time. Regardless, you have a better chance of being killed than you do defeating one of them."
"Why did they put that thing inside of me?"
"They were trying to use you to catch me. They have a bad habit of underestimating us though. There's a few ways to get rid of them, they're not invincible."
"But you just said.."
"They can die like any man, since they're programmed to operate in the Matrix, and they have to blend in the people still plugged into the Matrix, and therefore, they're bound to the rules of the system. Those rules, however, we can bend."
"How?"
"Not now. We'll deal with that when the time comes, and now isn't the time."
"Then what do we do now?"
"Well, now we get out of here. Time to eat."
Irvine walked away, and Janus followed. Glitch came and caught up but not before he came up to Janus and gave him a play-punch in the shoulder.
"Well, you coming?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah, I just didn't know where the galley was," Janus answered.
"Oh, well come on, I'll show you. By the way, I'm Glitch, I'll be your Operator."
Janus looked him over and nodded his head. "Nice to meet you."
"C'mon, this way," Glitch beckoned, and walked through a door out into a hallway. Janus promptly followed. When they had all reached the galley, Janus noted that it looked more like an old restaurant kitchen with a large table in it surround by stools than an actual galley. When they sat, Janus found himself sitting across from Anubis. He looked at him in a skeptical manner, but Anubis rested his head on his hands and stared off into space, not even acknowledging him. Janus could tell he was going to have to put some effort into getting to talk with this guy, but he didn't care to worry about it now. He was hungry. He looked over and saw Kira, Marley, Blade, and Glitch bringing the food over. When his plate was put down before him, Janus eyed the food and it looked like white meat chicken breast to him. Glitch sat down across from him, next to Anubis.
"Have a bite," he told him.
Judging by the sound of his voice, Janus figured it couldn't be anything at all too bad. He caught a piece on his fork and put it into his mouth and began chewing, and waited a few seconds for the flavor to set in. Remarkably, it tasted like chicken. He looked up at Glitch and held up his fork.
"What is this?"
Glitch grinned. "It's synthetic," he answered before taking another bite.
"Then what is it made out of?" Janus inquired.
"You don't wanna know. Just eat it, enjoy it," Kira said to him. She was sitting to Janus' left. Irvine spoke out.
"Guys, today we're fortunate to have another person join us after being freed from the Matrix, and we should give thanks for finding and saving him. We'll take our minds off of the war and our enemies today, to take a break and celebrate."
Irvine looked over at Janus, smiled, and nodded to him. "Happy Birthday, Janus."
This caught Janus off guard. Irvine's welcoming statement was followed by a few other Happy Birthday's from some of the other crew members, and it felt nice. Snapping out of his stupor of surprise, he shook his head and nodded. "Thanks," he told them, and went back to eating his food. It seemed as though only hours passed, but he was already settled in like he had lived this life for days.
"Listen, get a good rest, you're gonna need it for tomorrow," Blade said.
Ascendent Logic
Joined: Aug 17, 2005
Messages: 600 Offline
((Hmmm.. To be honest with you this is pretty cool. I wouldnt mind seeing this as an Anime or cartoon movie. Nice storyline and all. I tip my hat tp this. Good Work.))
Janus awoke, and he realized that he was still in his quarters aboard the Nemesis. He'd been dreaming of his old life inside the Matrix, and waking up to this wasn't the most welcoming feeling. He took in a deep breath and yawned. Then he heard someone walking down the hallway towards his door. The person stopped there and knocked three times. Janus arched a brow and opened the hatch, and saw Glitch standing there with a smirk.
"Hey, what's up? You sleep good?"
"Uh, kinda. What do you need?"
"Oh, come with me, we gotta get your trained."
Janus' eyes darted around in several directions and then he blinked and nodded. "Oh, yeah, I remember. Let's go."
Glitch nodded, and then walked down the hall. Janus followed and blinked a few times after yawning. He watched where he was going with one eye while he used his finger to wipe the crust out from the inside of the other, and then switched to the other eye, repeating the same process over again. They reached a ladder, and he climbed up after Glitch, making sure to stay low enough so he wasn't hit by Glitch's feet. Finally, they reached the main deck. Janus looked around to see what was going on. Marley was at the operator station, Blade was welding something, Solitaire was tightening something with a ratchet, and the others he didn't see. Glitch snapped his hand over in Marley's direction and then threw his fist back slightly with his thumb extended as though to tell him to get out of his chair. He came over to them and nodded.
"What's the deal?"
"Newbie needs combat training. Where's Irvine?"
"Cockpit. I'll go see what he's doing." Marley nodded to Glitch and lightly punched him in the shoulder, and patted Janus on the back before he walked past them. Janus looked over to Glitch, who returned his look.
"You ready?" Glitch asked, and Janus replied with a nod. Motioning over to the chairs, Glitch told Janus to have a seat. He then grabbed the plug and inserted it into the canal in Janus' head, and chuckled when Janus' face cringed.
"You'll get used to it," he said.
"You're going to upload the training into my head?" Janus asked.
Glitch shook his head repeatedly in the yes fashion and with an assuring tone he said, "Don't worry, you'll like it, I promise." Then he made his way over to his control setup. He pulled out a small metal box containing several small square shaped disks. He picked one up that had "Basic Operations" written on it and smirked, dropping it back in and digging through the box some more to find a different one.
Finally, he said "aha!" and pulled a disk from the box. Janus looked over to see what the commotion was about, and Glitch grinned. He popped it into the nearest drive and pressed the engage button on his keyboard. Since his chair was located behind Glitch's station and to the right, Janus could see some of the screens. When Glitch put the disk in, one of the screens read "Jeet Kune Do."
"You're gonna upload it into my head? And I'm gonna know it just like that?"
"I hope you're strapped in." Glitch answered with a grin. Janus' forehead and eyebrows wrinkled as he tried to figure out what was about to happen. Glitch pushed the engage button again. Janus' eyes closed but his eyebrows raised, and then his face cringed, and then his eyes opened. He panted for air trying to figure out just happened, but one change he noted was he now knew Jeet Kune Do like the back of his hand.
"Whoa.."
"Ready for more?"
"Bring it."
Glitch nodded, and the uploading continued. Over the course of the next few hours, several different styles of combat were uploaded into Janus' head. Every so often, the words on the screen would change in accordance with what style was being loaded into Janus' head. Hapkido, Xing Yi, Drunken Fist, Mi Zong, Ninjitsu, Sambo, Tong Bei, Yuan Yang, Shuai Chiao, Wrestling, Muay Thai, Judo, Karate, Tai Chi, San Shou, Aikido, Eagle Claw, Ba Gua, Mantis, Shaolin Fist, Baji Quan, Lui He Ba Fa, Longfist, Wing Chun, Tae Kwon Do, Gun-Kata, Leopard, Fu Jow Pai, Tang Soo Do, Escrima, Nan Chuan, Jujitsu, Hung Gar, Crab, Pi Gua, Snake, Crane, Kenpo, Shotokan, Dragon, Kickboxing, Kung-Fu, Black Dragon, Judo, and Kendo, among many others, were all loaded up into Janus. Irvine approached Glitch as he was typing commands for the uploading procedures.
"You couldn't have come at a better time." He watched as a bar finished growing from one point on a screen to the other and when it did, the uploading procedures were finally complete. Irvine stood over Janus and his eyes opened, and he let out a sigh of relaxation as he looked up at Irvine with newfound knowledge in his eyes.
"How you feeling?"
"Like I could beat 50 Bruce Lees if I wanted to."
"Oh really?"
The next thing Janus knew, he was standing before Irvine on the rooftop of a skyscraper building. He looked around in amazement, in awe at the fact that this was all a computer program yet it looked so real. Real. What was real now? He shook his head, telling himself not to worry about it. He looked down at his clothes. He was dressed in a form fitting black t -shirt, black BDU pants, combat boots, and kneepads. It was night time. He turned around and saw Irvine standing there in his suit with the knee-length jacket, black in color with a cobalt blue shirt underneath and a matching tie.
"What is this?"
"This is the Jump Program. Our version is made a bit different, so that you're less likely to fail. Practice makes perfect."
"Practice at what?"
"Before you can survive in the Matrix, no matter how much combat and fighting knowledge you have, you must free your mind."
"Free my mind?"
"Yes. Open it up. Throw away your fears, your disbelief, your doubts. Concentrate on executing the improbable, and more importantly, the impossible. Free your mind."
Janus arched a brow, and then suddenly Irvine ran from him and jumped across the ten foot gap to the building across from the one he previously stood on. In response, Janus lifted his eyebrows. That looked easy..
Irvine looked back. "Well? What are you waiting for?"
Janus was skeptical. Nevertheless, he shrugged, shaking his head, and took a few steps back so he would have a decent enough distance to get a running start. After walking a few steps, he stopped, turned around, and looked back. Irvine was standing with his arms crossed, looking around as if he had better things to do. Janus broke into a quick sprint, and eventually built up speed. When he reached the ledge, he stepped up onto it and pushed off, flying over the gap and landing next to Irvine. He looked back before looking to his mentor.
"That was it?"
Irvine grinned and shook his head. "It gets better."
Janus' forehead wrinkled when he tried to comprehend what he meant, but once again, Irvine broke off running and went from one end of the roof to the other and jumped up. He went through the air and landed on the next building. This time, the gap was about half of the width of a city block.
Ooookay.. Janus got into running position, and bolted off again. The closer he got to the other edge of the building, the faster he ran. The edge came, and he jumped. Up into the air he went, bringing his legs down in front of him before he landed, and with a "WAM" he landed on the next rooftop. He stood up and stopped for a moment, and turned around. He looked over the ledge and looked at how high up they were. Then he looked at the distance of the jump. How the hell did I do that? He turned back to Irvine as though he was expecting something.
"This is it," Irvine said. "This is the last jump. If you can do this, you can do anything." Janus nodded. And then Irvine was off. He repeated the same process, running and gathering speed, and jumping at the ledge, soaring over the gap that was literally a city block wide and landing on the rooftop across the street. Now Janus stood there alone. He inhaled, and sighed slowly, fixing his view on the rooftop. He remembered all the dreams he thought of when he was running away from the Agents out of Club Duality, the dreams of making super-jumps to get away, and realized that this was no different than those dreams. He felt a wave of confidence come over him.
Free my mind. I can do this... Irvine watched through his sunglasses. Janus began to run.
"Come on, come on...." Irvine said to himself. Janus got closer to the ledge.
Glitch, Marley, Anubis, Blade, Kira, and Solitaire's eyes were all glued to the screens, the suspense building.
"Here it comes," Glitch whispered.
Janus made it to the edge and pushed off and flew up into the air. Moving his legs as though he were running, he stared at the point on the rooftop next to Irvine. I have to get there.. Irvine looked up and followed Janus' path through the sky, and was eventually looking straight up above to his zenith. Janus touched down behind him and the sound of crushed concrete was heard. He had landed in a kneeling position, and it seemed as though he was waiting for something. Slowly, he opened his eyes and looked around.
I made it.
"He made it!" Solitaire said out loud. "Our jump program beats the *CENSORED* out Zion's."
Blade nodded his head a few times. "This guy's got it down. How useful you think he's gonna be now, Kira?" She smirked and hit him in shoulder.
Janus stood up and Irvine came over to him with a smile. "Good work. See what happens when you believe?" Janus nodded. He looked at the rooftop he had jumped from across the street, then back down to himself, and all around.
"In this virtual reality, we can do anything as long as we believe?"
Irvine shrugged slightly and nodded at the same time. "Almost anything. The One could do whatever he wanted."
Janus nodded as though to say he understood. Irvine took his phone out of his pocket and opened the face shield. The phone rang, and Glitch answered on the other side.
"What's up?" he asked.
"Next training program, please."
Glitch nodded, typed in the command, and pressed engage, and the rooftop slightly changed around them. Janus looked at Irvine with a questioning look as he put his phone back in his pocket.
"This is a sparring program. Unlike the other ship captains who use a dojo for their sparring simulations, we use city locations like this one to be a more accurate simulation of the real thing, because the odds are, you're more likely to be defending yourself somewhere in the Matrix rather than a dojo. Therefore, this gets you better conditioned, like our version of the jump program. Before we fight though, there are a few pointers you should know. First of all, this sparring program is just like the Matrix in that both are virtual reality simulations based on rules. Some of the rules can be bent, and some of them can be broken, for example, physics like breathing and gravity need not apply, but that all depends solely on one thing."
Janus arched a brow and Irvine tapped his own forehead with an index finger.
"The more open your mind is, the more things you can do. Now, fight me, if you can. Remember: free your mind."
In an instant, Janus put himself into a random ready stance, and Irvine did the same. Then, the fight begun. They ran at each other. Janus punched for Irvine's head , but Irvine blocked and punched back. Janus pushed Irvine's arm down to his right, and executed a mid kick to Irvine's kidneys on his right side. The kick connected, but Irvine showed no expression of pain. Then Janus went to chop at Irvine's neck, but Irvine raised his left arm, wrapped it around Janus' oncoming arm, and pulled it down to his left, yanking Janus down in the same direction.
Janus' head was right in front of Irvine's now. Irvine punched his head twice, then followed with a knee strike to Janus' gut area, causing him to bend down forward slightly, so Irvine finished off the combo with an elbow strike to Janus' back. He fell sort of, but then came back suddenly and gave Irvine a hard uppercut, causing him to nearly fall backwards, his arms going up.
With the same fist, Janus backhanded Irvine's head, causing him to face toward his left, and followed up with a right fist to his gut. Irvine keeled over, and Janus chopped Irvine's mid back, sending him downward. Then he kicked Irvine back up to his feet, and struck Irvine right in his chest. From the waist up, Irvine tilted back. Janus went to follow up with a left fist towards Irvine's head, but he blocked, and wrapped his arm around Janus' arm and pulled Janus towards him, so that now the his left side was facing Irvine. He gave out a medium kick to the Janus' gut, causing him to bend forward and lean right into Irvine's follow up attack, which was a kick to the Janus' head. Irvine then let go of the Janus' arm and punched him right in the nose.
Janus spun around 270-degrees counter-clockwise, and was now facing Irvine. He delivered a palm strike to Janus' chest and sent him flying back. He landed on his hip, but he was unphased. Irvine dusted himself off and looked at Janus
"You did good. Solid, fluid motion, improvisation, yet you try to get too many shots in too fast. Your method wasn't the problem though.."
Janus got up and started running at Irvine. He got ready, and started running at Janus. When they had about 5 feet between themselves, they jumped up into the air in bullet-time.
Janus held his left arm out in front of him with a clawed hand, and his right hand was cocked back in a fist, ready to give out a punch. As he brought his fist forward, his left hand came back. Irvine had his arms wide open with fists similar to a Gorilla would have before pounding his chest, and his chest was facing Janus, unguarded.
Janus' fist smashed right into Irvine's head, in his left eye. His head snapped back, and Janus landed in front him. Irvine's head came forward, so Janus gave Irvine a roundhouse right elbow to the nose, causing him to look towards his right, and then Janus smacked Irvine's face back forward by using his left fist, with his elbow still pointed forward, executing a left backhand punch. Irvine was still trying to place himself from getting smacked up so much, so Janus used it to his advantage and gave Irvine a right hand forward punch into his chest, sending him back about two feet. Behind Irvine was the rooftop stairwell doorway and behind Janus was nothing. Irvine shook his head, and made a quick dash towards Janus with his right fist out forward, and came at him like a bullet. Irvine had just barely missed him, for Janus had leaned back slightly and Irvine's fist barely clipped his face. If Irvine had hit him, it probably would have had knocked him out and nearly took his head right off his shoulders. Janus jumped up when he was safely out of Irvine's range of attack.
Back on the Nemesis, the crew had rounded up around Glitch's control setup after they heard from Marley that Irvine was fighting Janus when they has asked where he was. Kira whistled. "Didn't think he'd be this good on his first spar match."
Blade smirked. "Beginners luck."
Marley shook his head, "Wow, he's got a lot of fight in him." He chuckled. "Maybe he can square off against an Agent."
Anubis arched a brow and glanced over at Marley before he looked back at the screens. "He'll never be that good."
Solitaire chuckled. "He speaks," she said as though she was amused.
Glitch spoke out, "Yeah okay we know guys, shut up. Fight's still on."
In bullet-time, as Irvine came by, Janus jumped up in the air and performed a spinning round house kick, with his fists up in karate stance fashion.
Janus' foot smashed into the Irvine's back, and sent him flying. His head would have smashed into floor, had he not put his arms up in front of his face prior to impact. Irvine got up as fast as he could and turned, now facing the city below, and when he looked behind him, Janus was running at him. It appeared as if Janus was going to punch him, so Irvine put his arms up ready to block a punch. But a punch wasn't what Janus had in mind. When he was 2 feet away from Irvine, he dropped. He caught himself on the floor with his hands, and with his right foot, sent a kick right up behind Irvine's arms. It would have been perfect, but he leaned back and Janus' foot went flying up past his head in front of his face. He grabbed Janus' leg by the ankle and started to spin, building up momentum and speed. Then he let Janus go and watched as he flew backwards through the air. He started to fall, but he missed the edge of the rooftop. So he kept falling. He kicked his legs and reached his arms around trying to find something to catch himself on, but found nothing to grab. As he fell, he screamed.
"IRVINE!!!!"
His body finally hit the street below, but it stretched like a trampoline and prevented his body from smashing. Then it rebounded and launched him back up about 10 feet or so into the air before he fell back down, this time onto solid pavement. The impact hurt, but he'd live. His body ached. As he picked himself up, he turned and saw Irvine approaching calmly.
"You handled yourself quite well. You're able to stand your ground, but an Agent would have thrown you off the roof like that in no time. Always remember that.
"Janus nodded again. "I understand."
"There is one more test you must take before you're finished."
Arching a brow, Janus thought of what he could mean. "What else do I have to do?"
Irvine looked around as though he was a tourist. "Whenever you go into the Matrix, you run two major risks: Getting killed, or getting captured, and that risk is as high as ever."
"Why?"
"Agents can move in and out of any body still plugged into the Matrix, and you've seen them before. But they've been upgraded, again. Originally they weren't as hectic, and we didn't have to worry much about them as long as we weren't traced, and if the situation called for it, we could briefly stand our ground against them. Now, they're practically impossible to fight, and they're frequently present. They'll either kill you on the spot, or if you're a ship captain, they may capture you to get Zion mainframe codes, and then kill you. Either way, we're more of a priority to them, and they are extremely dangerous."
Janus took note that Irvine had mentioned Zion again, that which he had no knowledge of. Now was the time to get out of the way. "You keep talking about Zion; What is it?" Irvine turned around to face him.
"Zion is the last human city. It's the only place we have left for refuge when we're not in our ships. It was once almost destroyed, but thanks to Neo we got lucky. It has more defense systems than it did before, but it's still treated as though it's always at risk."
"What for?"
Irvine's tone became more serious. "Those machines are still out there, and we're at war with them again. As long as they exist, Zion will always be in danger of attack. If it were to be obliterated, we would have nothing."
Irvine sighed. There never seemed to be an end to this living in fear. Living day to day, hour to hour, hoping and praying they would see the next. He called himself a fool for thinking that Zion was really safe and that their worries were over when Neo made the truce. He knew it wasn't. He knew that the machines could attack at any moment they pleased; The fear was still there. That's why he chose to leave Zion. Living as though the war had not ended was more comfortable to him and the other ships' crews than living where you weren't sure if it was over or not. Now, he got what he wanted, but at the cost of Zion's peace. It was a guilt that weighed on his shoulders that he didn't think he would ever be able to get rid of. The look of reminiscent remorse slowly crept over his face. Janus stood there waiting, and Irvine didn't seem to notice or remember Janus was there.
Glitch frowned. "What the hell is he doing, taking a coffee break?"
Blade walked over to the chairs and stood over the one Irvine sat in. He slapped Irvine on the cheek, but not too hard. "That oughta do it."
Irvine snapped out of his trance when he felt the small bit of pain on his face. He shook his head and looked back over to Janus. "I'm sorry, I--" but he was cut off.
"No, it's alright. I understand. What does this last training involve?"
Irvine tilted his head slighlty, and then remembered what he was talking about with a nod. "Oh! Yeah, that's right. Like I was saying, when you go into the Matrix these days, you risk your life, and the chance of getting captured. Should anyone be captured or held up and not able to get to their exit in time, the first available person from any of our ships will be sent in to get you out. Your objective here is to be the knight in shining armor. There will be simulated people who can turn into Agents at any possible moment. Cops can be called in and will try to kill you, their bullets will hurt, but if they hit you in an area where you would die immediately, the simulation will end. There will be a simulated redpill that you have to rescue, and if he is killed before you get back to the exit, you fail. You're to make sure he gets out of the Matrix before you do. You'll be given a pistol and two extra magazines. You'll have a phone to contact us with in case you need any help. Good luck."
As he stood there, Janus watched the world around him change. Irvine's image before him faded into a transparent figure broken up by particles of light and then disappeared. The new surroundings consumed the existing environment he was in like a huge expanding mass. The border of the new programmed reality as it swarmed over all of the buildings and streets and floor and sky was hi-lighted in a bright green light. Janus took a moment to look around him as the changes took place.
Now, instead of standing on a rooftop, Janus stood in a crowded street full of pedestrians and cars, and skyscrapers towered over him. There were changes on him as well. Adding to what he was already wearing, the bright green light came over his body and a black ankle length trench coat formed over him. It almost resembled a cape. On his head, the green light took the shape of sunglasses.
He felt the gun materialize in the back of his waistband, and the two clips attached to his belt in the back, both well concealed by the coat. Theses change happened in a matter of maybe five seconds tops. He looked around a bit more at the people and the buildings to familiarize himself with the new environment he was in, and then he heard the phone in his pocket ring. He took it out and pressed the button to release the face shield, and it quickly slid down with a *CHAK* He put the phone up to his ear.
"Alright, you all situated?" the voice on the other end asked. It was Glitch.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Tell me where he is."
"Okay. He's stuck on an apartment rooftop downtown from where you are, building 344. He was running from an Agent but he stalled it for now, but you have to hurry, because the cops are after him and they have a chopper."
"I'll need something fast."
"Coming right up. Anything else?"
"A full-auto AR-15 in a pistol configuration. Make it quick."
"The alley to your left."
Janus shut the face shield and put the phone back into his pocket. Looking over to his left, he saw an alley, just like Glitch said, so he made his way over to it, pushing his way through people as he went. When he finally made it to the other side of the street, he didn't waste time and went down it quickly and saw what Glitch left for him. It was a black ninja-type motorcycle. "I said fast, not a crotch rocket." He noticed the AR-15 pistol hanging onto the handle grips by its sling. He hopped on and started the ignition and revved the engine making a loud *VVVMM* noise. He slung the AR-15 pistol over his shoulder. The traffic and all the pedestrians in the street would be a problem, so he turned the bike and went down the rest of the alley into the less occupied back roads.
Speeding through the roads in the downtown direction, he thought of what Glitch told him, how the guy he had to go in after was stuck on a rooftop. He turned right and thought of how he could get up onto the roof in a manner that they could both get down. He built up speed, going about 50 MPH, and he could hear sirens a few blocks away.
Time was running short. He looked at the address number on one of the buildings he passed, and it read 426. He still had some way to go. He switched gears and kept going straight and then made another left. Looking to the number signs again, he caught a glimpse of 340 as he passed by, so he knew the building was just down the block.
The man stood on the roof dressed in black pants and boots and a patterned dress shirt tucked in. He had a two-tone P8 in his waist band, and black biker gloves on his hands that ended at his wrist. His hair was short, black, and spiked, and he had a goatee. His glasses were black framed with red lenses. He listened nervously as the sirens got closer, and he heard the whooping of helicopter blades. In the distance, he saw the helicopter itself. Looking around, seeing buildings with rooftops too low to jump on without hurting himself, and buildings that were tall enough were too far to make a jump to.
He clenched his fist. "*CENSORED*!" He tried his phone again, but it was dead, of no use. He threw it down to the street and it smashed into bits. A few blocks back he was being chased by an Agent, but he caused a ten-car pile up and that gave him enough time to run a few more blocks. He was unfortunate though to find after climbing up the fire escape ladders that the door to get down into the building was locked, and he couldn't jump. If he went back down, he risked another Agent getting a lock on his position.
Janus zoomed down the block past the building the guy was on. He saw a multi-story parking garage across from the building that was too far to jump from to get to the apartment rooftop, but he wasn't planning to jump. He stopped the bike in front of the parking garage with a fish-tail, and the back tire screeched. After switching gears again, he went forward and busted through the small gate and went up the ramp to the next level. There were five levels in all.
Kira watched the screens and arched her eyebrow. "What's he doing?"
Anubis shrugged. "I don't know. I would have used a grappling hook."
When Janus made it up to the fifth level, he saw a small ramp on the other side farthest from him. He backed the bike up, and he heard the helicopter and sirens getting closer.
"No way," Irvine said out as he watched.
Janus hit the gas and with a loud *VVVVMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM* filling the air, he sped across the rooftop and hit the ramp. He went flying up into the air. The guy on the other roof watched in awe. The bike slammed down on the roof and Janus swooped around, hitting the breaks. The pilots of the helicopter were in eye view now. The Agent was with them. The helicopter flew overhead and circled around to come back to make another pass.
"I'm Chip," the guy said.
"Come on!"
Taking the hint, Chip jumped onto the bike as Janus revved the engine again. He started to drive, and the pilot brought the helicopter around in the air in front of the building to stop Janus from making the jump, with the door facing Janus, the Agent facing him.
Acknowledging this, Janus pulled up the AR-15 out and aimed it up at the blade rotors and fired a stream of automatic fire. The bullets hit into the base of the rotor. It sparked and whined, and the helicopter began to spin out of control. The pilots flew forward and tried to move out of the way of the building.
Janus hit the gas, and the bike raced forward, off the rooftop of the apartment. They flew through the air and the bike went through a gap into fourth level of the parking garage. The pilots tried to control the 'copter, but it started to fall and it tipped forward, and crashed into a nearby building side with a loud explosion, killing the pilots inside.
When they landed on the top of the parking garage however, Janus looked back to see the Agent jump up into the window after them from the ground below.
"*CENSORED* it!"
He turned and drove down to the next level of the parking garage, but he knew it would be of no use. "We gotta ditch this bike," Janus said. He rode off into a corner and they both got off. Now they were on level three of the parking garage. Janus looked over all of the cars.
"We can sneak out behind those."
The Agent came down and saw the lone bike, hesitating for a moment, then began scanning the area. Janus and Chip were ducked behind the cars, moving ever so gently as not to make a sound. Slowly moving along, Chip slipped and hit into a car with an alarm. It sounded off, giving away their spot with loud sirens blaring and echoing.
"Oh that's bad," Glitch said as he watched.
Seeing the Agent look over in their direction, Janus first pushed Chip away and then dashed, quick enough not to get hit by the bullets sent flying his way. They both ran, ducking behind cars and hiding behind pillars, over to the nearest set of ramps leading down to the next lowest level. The Agent fired and they ducked, the bullets almost making their mark, concrete bits flying up into the air from the impact points. More car alarms sounded off. Janus looked out from the concrete pillar he hid behind and blind-fired his AR-15 pistol. The Agent's body suddenly blurred, and he moved in all sorts of positions, the bullets passing him by and hitting the wall far off behind him. Janus looked back to Chip.
"Go."
Chip nodded and jumped over the railing, falling down to the next ramp. He landed in a crouch and ran down the rest of the way to the bottom. Janus faced the Agent as he backed toward the ramp cutout, and kept shooting until he ran out of bullets. When he did, the Agent went from blurry to solid again and a sly smile came over his face. He raised his gun and Janus ducked back behind the pillar. Three rounds flew past where he was standing. Had he not moved, he would have been killed. He ran quickly and jumped down the same way Chip did, following the same path down to the bottom.
Putting his gun back into the holster under his jacket, the Agent walked over to where Janus jumped from to see where he might have landed. Smirking, with a nod, he walked off.
"Are you hurt?" Janus asked as he made his way over to Chip and reloaded his gun. He looked back to check for the Agent, seeing no sign of him. "Where did he go?" Janus asked.
"No, let's keep movi--DUCK!!"
Janus turned his head to see the Agent pick up a car as if it was as light as a feather. His eyes widened; he couldn't believe it. He jumped out of the way as the Agent hurled the car in his direction. It slammed through the wall of the parking garage, and that was all it took to get Janus moving again. He and Chip both started to run again, and the Agent ran right after them, fast. Very fast.
As they both ran, Janus pulled the phone out of his pocket as his coat billowed out behind him. After opening the face shield, he put the phone up to his face.
"Glitch!!--" *BOOM--BOOM BOOM* the bullets zipped past his head. "Where's the exit!?" he yelled into the phone.
Chip turned back and fired back *BAM BAM*
"It's two blocks away on 5th street. A phone booth. You're almost there."
Dropping the phone, Janus grabbed Chip's arm and pulled. They kept running, but the Agent was still behind them. Janus knew there was no way they were going to be able to run two city blocks away from this thing, so they had to find a short cut. He looked up ahead and saw one of those stores where the owner lives on the top of the store, where the door to get upstairs is next to the door that leads into the store itself.
Holding his gun up and aiming at the doorknob, he fired a few rounds until he saw it hang limp. Leading Chip, and unfortunately the Agent, he ran up to the door and kicked it in, running up the stairs and into the apartment. Chip followed, the Agent at least twenty feet behind him still, so he didn't want to give it the chance to catch up by shooting at him.
He followed Janus up the stairs and to the back of the house where he was waiting. "Up the fire escape!" he instructed, and up they went. When the Agent caught up, he was slowed down when he tried shooting at them and climbing the stairs at the same time. Every round he fired missed and made a loud *PANG* or *TWANG* noise when it hit the steel. They made it up to the roof, and without say, they ran to the edge and super-jumped across the street to the rooftop on the other side of the street.
When they landed, they ran and jumped one more time. The Agent was one roof behind them; The exit was on the sidewalk below. "The exit is down there. Go, I'll cover you," Janus said to Chip.
The simulacrum looked appreciative and nodded. "Alright. Thank you."
He ran over to the fire escape ahead, and Janus looked back at the Agent.
*BOOM BOOM*
Two shots whizzed past him and he fired back
*BAM BAM BAM BAM*.
The Agent's body blurred again, and he stood there like that until Janus had stopped firing, then solidified again. Janus ran over to the fire escape ladder and looked down to the sidewalk. He saw Chip enter the phone booth and disappear; Then he started his way down. The Agent stood there and waited for a moment. His head shook and his body transformed into the civilian he had originally taken over. When Janus was low enough, he let go of his ladder and fell down the rest of the way to the sidewalk, only a ten foot drop.
The phone booth was just down the block, so he started running. Janus looked back again to make sure he wasn't being followed; He saw a car pulling into a parallel parking spot. The driver's head began to shake, and it transformed into the Agent. He dropped to the floor as the Agent moved to open the car door. As he fell he aimed at the gas tank under the backside of a car, and when he fell , he fired a shot. The bullet ripped through the air and smashed into the gas tank making a small hole.
A *CLANK* was heard, there was a spark, and as the Agent passed the car, it exploded into a fury of flames. Janus figured the Agent was out of commission-for now.
"Check out this bad *CENSORED*! He's a regular action movie star," Glitch said, looking quite entertained.
Slowly, Janus got himself up off of the payment and walked over to the phone booth. The phone rang when he saw it, like someone was waiting to call him. He walked over to it, opened the doors and took the phone off the receiver. Hesitantly, he put it up to his ear, and felt his eyes close. The next thing he knew, he was taking in a deep breath and looking back up at the ceiling of the Nemesis. Irvine was staring down at him.
"You made it. So did he. Good job. You're ready to operate in the Matrix."
Janus nodded. "Thanks."
Anubis looked over at him. "Don't let it get to your head, it's nothing fun," he said as he passed by.
Janus' eyes followed him as he left. What's his problem?
"Don't mind him," Marley said as he walked over. "He's always in a bad mood. We just ignore it, he does what he has to. Congratulations. You're a full member of the team now."
Janus looked back up at him. "Uh, yeah. It's great."
"Come on, move!" Blood shouted. He wore a black tactical vest over a blood red t-shirt, and black BDU pants over his combat boots of the same color. He fired an UZI back at the Agent on the other end of the car garage so Balthasar could get over to the car so they could get to their exit.
Balthasar had long black hair that went to his mid back. He was dressed all in black: Leather pants and an ankle length black coat. A black t-shirt covered him underneath that and was tucked into his pants. The boots he wore went up to his knees, with four buckles going up the front of each over the laces. He was armed only with a Glock 21 and his magazine was running low. He was ducked down behind a dumpster with an Agent firing at him. Blood fired and the Agent blurred, giving Balthasar the chance to run. He did so in the fashion of rolling out of the way and diving over to the car.
He climbed into the back seat and Leon, the person driving the car, shouted out to Blood. "Blood, into the car, time to move!"
Leon and Balthasar aimed out of the window and fired at the Agent to keep him over on his end while Blood climbed into the car. He ran around, opened the door, and climbed in, slamming the door. Balthasar chucked a grenade out behind the car as they peeled out, for cover. As they drove up out of the garage, they heard a loud BAM behind them.
"Is the exit ready?" Blood asked as he reloaded his clip.
"Not sure, why don't you check?" Leon suggested sarcastically as he dodged cars and pedestrians left and right.
"Maybe if you actually learned to drive.." Blood started off.
"Hey, guys, shut up, I'm trying to call Sideways now, okay?!" Sonia shouted. She sat in the back with Balthasar, and was dressed in black and green. The phone rang and Sideways picked up on the other end.
"I know, I know, Exit right? I'm working on it," Sideways said as he typed DIAL.EXE into the keyboard so he could patch the exit. "Make the next turn on your left and drive under the overpass, it's right there. We'll be waiting for you."
She hung up the phone and repeated the directions to Leon. He followed them, but when they got to the overpass, someone was waiting for them. A black car.
"Who's that?" Blood asked. The doors opened. From the driver's seat stepped out Niobe dressed in her brown croc-print leather, armed with an AK-47 Beta Spetnaz; From the front passenger seat: Morpheus, in his purple suit and leather trench with a Tommy-gun. Out from the back came Ghost in his black suit and trench coat with two Walther P-99s, and Kid in a knee-length version of Neo's cassock, with an HK P2000.
"*CENSORED*," Balthasar said. "We can handle them."
Leon put the pedal to the floor and hit the car into the wall so that it made a sort of barrier in front of the phone, but so that no one was injured. As soon as their car stopped, the bullets started flying. Leon and Balthasar opened their doors up and everyone jumped out and got behind the car and started shooting back. The phone started to ring.
Blood shouted out over the gunfire: "Morpheus, you got a lot of guts trying to pull some *CENSORED* like this!!!"
Balthasar reached up over the roof and fired two shots over at Ghost, causing him to wince slightly even though he wasn't hit.
"Someone get through the exit!" He yelled.
"Blood, you go!" Leon told him. Blood nodded, handed his gun over to Leon and reached for the phone. When his RSI disappeared, Sonia hung up the phone so Sideways could load the exit again. When it rang, it was her turn. She left, and as Leon hung up the phone, Balthasar guarded him with cover fire.
"They're outnumbered!" Kid yelled as he shot for Leon's head as he answered the phone. The bullet traveled through the fading avatar though. Balthasar was the last man left. He grabbed Leon's UZI and aimed over at Morpheus and fired through the windows, hitting him twice in the stomach region. Morpheus yelled out; "AGH!"
The others stopped firing for a moment, just enough time for Balthasar to hang up the phone and pick it up again. He faded away, and the four Zion fighters were alone. Niobe tended to Morpheus.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
He nodded. "I'll be fine. Did he get out?"
She nodded. "Barely, but yeah."
He sighed. "*CENSORED* it. Call Sparks, tell him to set up the exit. Then have Link ready to get the ship back to Zion, we'll need to recharge."
The Nosferatu sat dormant on the composure of rock and metal that made up the ground it sat upon, and the walls that surrounded it. The tunnel was dark and damp, hues of depressing blue fading off into black as the rock and wires and pipelines stretched off into the dark. The Nosferatu itself was one of the larger hover crafts, the largest hovercraft Zion had next to the Mjolinr, both ships in the large class. It had at least 12 pads, and it looked like a large control center building as it sat in the dark with steam all around it on the floor. Aside from all the pads, there were four antennae for transmissions, and fourteen gun turrets.
Since it was the largest ship the Resistance had with them, it was crowned their flagship, and it's Captain, Blood, the main Captain of the fleet. Blood was one of those tough-as-nails types of people. One could tell by the scars on his face that he had experience with this life and how to live it. He was a man they could depend on and trust, wise and with a few tricks up his sleeve for anyone who tried to come after them, man or machine.
In the core of the ship, the four who had just had a run in with Morpheus's crew were being unplugged from their chairs. Blood got up from his chair and looked at the others. "Is everyone okay?" he asked.
Balthasar sat up from his chair and pushed his hair away from his face and nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. What about the others?" Sonia's eyes opened and she inhaled. After blinking a few times, she exhaled.
"Are you alright?" Blood asked her, looking at her vitals screen.
She nodded. "Mhmm."
Leon shook his head when he sat up and looked around. "What an unexpected pain in the *CENSORED* that was." He looked over to Sideways. "Didn't you see those guys waiting for us?"
Sideways, the Nosferatu's Operator, looked up from his screens. "I was concentrating on getting that exit up fast enough before any Agents began to chase you again, alright? I can't do everything, I'm only human."
Leon rolled his eyes. "Whatever.."
"Hey!" Balthasar called out. "Both of you shut up, I'm not in the mood to hear it, I was just getting shot at."
"Oh yeah, that's right," Nitro said as he put the last insertion needle back onto its rack. "Hot shot over here hit Morpheus, twice."
Sideways chuckled. "Yeah, that was great. Score for Balthasar!"
Balthasar grinned and nodded. "Yeah, that's right. I did hit him. Maybe he won't be so zealous and macho next time we meet."
Blood walked around so he could join into the conversation. "I couldn't believe he had the balls to show up and try to kill us right there. If we find his ship he'll be sorry."
Leon arched a brow "Oh yeah, when was he allowed to get a new ship?"
Blood scratched the back of his neck to take care of an itch. "He was granted a new one when Hamann made him the head of Zion's Matrix Corps shortly after this war began. He believed our job wasn't over in the Matrix even though there was peace, and Hamann thought the same. Remember when he let the Nebuchadnezzar leave after Lock called back every ship because he thought something about the oncoming sentinels could be done in the Matrix?"
Sonia nodded. "Yeah, I remember watching it leave and wondering why it was being allowed to leave in the first place. Both of them are crazy."
"You can say that again," Leon claimed. "In either case, now our reason for going into the Matrix is the same as it was before: To find a way to destroy it."
"A lot of work five ship crews are going to have to do." Sideways said.
"We'll pull it off, trust me. A free mind's more effective than a closed one. It'll be destroyed before you know it."
"Okay, enough with the wishing and hoping, we're off. Let's see if we can find something new besides uncharted tunnels. Nitro, come with me."
Nitro nodded and he followed Blood off to the cockpit. The other three looked at Balthasar.
"Sideways, I want you to monitor sentinel activity," Balthasar ordered.
"Sonia, Leon, do whatever you want, I don't care."
Leon gave Sonia a suggesting look with a nod, and Sonia shrugged back. Leon tilted his head forward slightly, and Sonia's eyes widened a bit. Leon shoved her and she smirked and shove him back. He went to shove her back again but she ran off and he chased her. You could hear their giggles as they ran off down the corridor.
Sideways looked at Balthasar and he rolled his eyes. "I can't be a hypocrite. Why deny it?"
Sideways shrugged. "I don't know man, you just go with the flow." Balthasar shrugged and walked behind the consoles, grabbing a swivel chair and setting it behind Sideways before sitting himself down. Rather than being situated in some random spot on the ship, the consoles and monitors were wired and attached to the wall a few feet from the chairs, on top of a grated floor, with wires hanging down above him and pipes all around him. The chairs were over to Sideways's left. Behind him, the ship's fuses. He typed in a a few commands and the three central monitor panels displaying the code script of the Matrix switched to three different HUD screens. One displayed sonar readouts, one displayed radar readouts, and the other displayed what the camera's in front of the ship could see, that way, Sideways could see what they saw.
A few of the smaller screens switched to display things such as proximity, power display, and hull integrity. Some of them also displayed the matrix script code so that it could still be checked on without being in the way of monitoring sentinel activity. Sideways spoke into the headset. "Alright cap, me and Balthasar are ready. Nothing near us at the moment."
"Alright. We're setting off," Blood answered. He flicked the right switches and pushed the necessary buttons while Nitro started up the ship's holographic and navigational systems. Blood flicked three main switches to his left on a panel full of the critical controls, and Nitro pulled back on an overhead lever. The lights glowed as they lit up, luminating the inside of the cockpit, and the hum of the pads coming to life followed. The ship rocked and dropped a bit when the landing gears were taken up into the ship, but remained hovering nonetheless.
Gripping his controls, Blood spun the ship around 180-degrees while Nitro kept it steady, and then they headed off down the tunnel the same way they had come earlier before landing in that area. The pads gave off light blue trails as the ship flew, and the light that came from them lit up the tunnel before them. It wasn't long before they came to a crossroad of sorts. One path leading straight up from their current position, one going down on a slant, and then the tunnel continued forward and downward. Since they had previously come from the path leading down, Blood and Nitro exchanged looks as they thought of which way to go.
Blood nodded his head forward and Nitro nodded. Turning back to the paths that lied before them, they continued on the path leading forward. The ship buzzed as it flew down the tunnel, lined with pipes jutting out from the top and bottom and running along the path. The tunnel began leading downward, and so, the ship tipped down with it. It straightened out after a while, so Nitro tipped the ship's rear down slightly to prevent crashing and causing a ruckus. The radio began to crackle, and someone's voice came through.
"Heading off?" the voice asked. Blood identified it as the voice of Vega, Captain of the Merciless. He grabbed the receiver and brought it up to his face.
"Affirmative. We're seeing if we can find anything interesting. What about you?"
"Same thing, we'll be heading opposite your direction though. Going anywhere special?"
"We're taking an uncharted route that's currently just going straight ahead. Looks like it'll stay that way. Any sign of anything we should be worried about?"
"We thought we detected another ship before but whatever it was it left pretty quick. Crew started scaring themselves saying it was a ghost ship."
"Heh, you never know out here. We'll see you later, we're gonna maintain radio silence from here on out."
"Alright, good luck. Don't do anything I wouldn't."
"Right, right." Blood sighed as he hung the receiver back up and switched off the radio. Nitro listened in on that sigh. "Something the matter cap?"
"It's just the irony of it all," he answered. "What do you mean?"
"We left Zion because we thought living there with the machines at large would be a risk. We're at more of a risk out here going into uncharted areas than we were living in Zion."
"Yeah, I guess you have a point. But we're out here for a good reason. The ones back at Zion don't want to be a part of this anymore. So, leave them behind. Those fit will be the survivors."
Blood simply nodded in response as he thought of it. The tunnel stretched on forward and remained this way for a while with no tunnels branching off on the sides for about a hundred miles. They were the bullet, slowly traveling down the barrel of the gun. Blood turned on the microphone on his headset.
"Anything Sideways?"
"Nothing boss. Smooth ride so far."
"Good. Tell me when something comes up."
"You got it."
He shut the microphone off and typed a command into the keyboard before his piloting joysticks, speeding the hovercraft up a bit.
"Getting impatient?"
"Getting bored."
Nitro chuckled and checked the holographics. "This should bring some sunshine to your day."
"Don't play with me."
"No, I'm serious. The tunnel moves up and branches off up to the right. To the left is what looks like a desolate factory that was used for construction."
"Where are we?"
"300 kilometers below a stretch of mountains."
"A construction factory in the middle of the mountains? Never mind, the turn is coming up now." Gripping his controls, Blood turned the ship so that the stern swerved 90-degrees left, while Nitro took care of stabilizing the ship. The climb before them was pretty steep.
"Gee you really find the good spots don't you?" Blood asked.
Nitro's forehead wrinkled. "What? You wanted to go this way!"
Blood hit him in the shoulder. "No bitching. Don't make me drop you off before one of the Zion gates."
Nitro shuck his head. "Alright, alright."
Blood turned his headset on again. "Balthasar, Sideways, hold something, we're going up and we're making a tilt that might throw you into a wall."
Balthasar and Sideways exchanged looks. "Uh, thanks," Sideways responded.
Balthasar rose from his seat quickly and poked his head down the hallway leading to the quarters. "Hey! Love birds! Vertical tilt, find something to hold onto!"
Leon and Sonia, who lay under covers, looked at each other with an alarmed look. They both frantically looked for something to hold onto before Leon came up with an idea. "Let's just sit up against the wall!" So, they did. Needless to say, their bare upper bodies were exposed, but nonetheless, if the ship tilted any, they'd be in a reclined position. After letting a few minutes pass by, Blood and Nitro pushed the ship forward and up. The whole ship tilted back until it had nearly turned upwards 90-degrees going straight up.
"Boost power to the pads!" Blood shouted, but Nitro was two steps ahead of him, already typing in the commands. The pads glowed brighter, with more white and electric blue bolts moving from the pads to the tunnels that surrounded the ship. After increasing the ship's speed, Blood pushed his joysticks forward. Balthasar and Sideways held onto their chairs for dear life, and Leon and Sonia laughed as though it were a roller coaster ride.
Blood and Nitro were doing all of the work and it wasn't a walk in the park. Soon enough, they came out of the top of the tunnel, and they straightened the ship out so that it floated as though it were idle. Blood and Nitro took a look at what they were in. The ship floated amidst a waste factory, compacting, melting, and burning wasted over materials the machines had used for power and construction. The chamber was rather flat in shape, and lined with furnaces. Steam and smoke rose from underneath the ship, and went out through the shaft that was above the ship in the chamber.
Nitro studied the holographics. "This is new. Well, ancient. It's been around for years according to the return readouts, but we've never seen it before. You know what it is?"
Blood looked at the furnaces and noted how the steam and smoke moved from under them and rose above them. He looked up the shaft, lined with pipes, grates, conduits, batteries, and tried to see what it lead to. Then there was a flash in the smoke. But then Blood realized it wasn't smoke. Thunder cracked like a whip. It was then he realized that the shaft led up to the surface. "We're in an exhaust shaft. The furnaces are disposing the waste from that factory we passed before. Boost the power to the bottom pads, we're going up."
Nitro's eyes widened. "We're going to the surface!?"
"We're so far away from Zion and the rest of the ships. It's worth a shot, we've never seen this part of the world before."
"Well, I guess we have no choice. Let's go."
Shifting the power to the lower pads, Nitro made sure the ship didn't tilt or slide as it floated up in it's regular horizontal position. Blood's eyes followed the pipes and cables that lined the shaft as they ascended, and he kept alert. The ship was moving slow, but steady none the less. Static bolts generating from the pads would every so often zap out onto the shaft's inside. The shaft itself was big enough to fit two Large class hover crafts into. Above the opening of the shaft, lightning broke the clouds followed by the rumble of thunder, highlighting the wreckage below.
The Nosferatu rose out with steam and smoke from the top of the shaft, that was lined with a teeth-like crown of sorts. Spinning the ship around, Blood and Nitro surveyed the land before them. Huge, destroyed towers rose up from the ground, amidst the fallen debris. Buildings lay decimated and crumbling, with parts of machinery all over the place. It was rare that any of them saw the surface. It gave gave them a creepy feeling, a feeling that said "This is what lays above you while you are deep underground. The graves of your fallen ancestors," as though their ghosts may be walking amongst the ruined cities.
Lightning flashed again, and something caught Blood's eye. In the mountains that were the wall behind the city wreckage, he saw a carved out passage tunnel, just big enough for the Nosferatu to fit into.
"There," he pointed. "The tunnel. Something's behind the mountains."
Nitro nodded and pushed the ship forward, and with a loud buzzing hum, the ship sped quickly towards the hole. "It's conveniently big enough," Nitro commented.
"It could have been used by people once with ships like these," Blood answered. Nodding, Nitro drove forward into the hole, and the pads brightly lit the narrow space with a blue tint. They came out the other end, and the sight took their breath away. A huge, almost endless city lay out before them. It was obvious that the structures were human made, but it had been overrun by machines.
The scary part was, it was so much in any bad condition as it was abandoned. Power lines, nearly 1/5 the size of a Small class hovercraft, wound and twisted throughout buildings and structures. That was another thing, the buildings. Insanely tall towers rose from sections of buildings, and in between each of these square shaped sections were gaps. Very deep gaps.
"You sure you wanna go down there?" Nitro asked.
"The place is abandoned. The machines have already passed the place over. As long as we're quiet, they won't suspect a thing."
Nitro shrugged. "Can't hurt."
Blood brought the ship down into the city and in between two sections, turning around a corner as he descended. The both of them stared at the structures as they passed them by, and also looked down deeper into the gaps at what was below them.
"This is intense...." Blood managed to say in his state of awe.
"You can say that again.." Nitro replied.
Balthasar and Sideways said nothing as they watched the display. They were both alert and hypnotized by the images of this unseen city at the same time.
"We'll set down over there," Blood said pointing ahead. There sat a tremendous dome with a large 04 painted onto it. There were more power lines leading into it and out of it on the opposite side. There was a hole in the top of this dome, so Blood flew the ship in and swooped around before going in. When they did, he found a place to land and with a rumble they did so, setting down under the hole from which they entered. Sideways spoke up on his headset.
"Everything alright?"
Blood turned his headset on. "Yeah, we're fine. Any sign of sentinels?"
Sideways checked the readings, and saw no sign of anything. "I got nothing, but the readings are saying that there's a huge amount of electricity in whatever you landed us in. Do you know why?"
Blood looked at one of his side monitors to verify Sideways' claim, and he was right.
"We'll check it out," Blood said, and turned off his headset.
"So what is it?" Nitro asked. After a moment, he spoke out again. "It looks like the inside of Zion's dock."
All Blood could say was "Hmm.." Inside of this dome, a large generator sat in the center, and power lines lining the inside of the dome were all wired to it. Every so often, bolts of electricity would spark from a random power line to the generator. Considering what Nitro suggested it looked like, he compared the size of this dome to the size of Zion's dock in his head.
"This used to be a dock," he said. "When the machines came through they cleaned it out and put this huge generator in here. There's millions of volts passing through here. Now it's a power station."
Nitro's eyebrows raised up. "Are we gonna blast it?"
Blood sat there considering the effect it would have, both on the ship and the machines. "Yup." He switched on his headset again.
"Sideways, charge the EMP."
He and Balthasar exchanged looks, and Sideways shrugged, pushing down the button marked "ARM". It glowed red after being pushed down, to signify that the EMP was now ready for fire.
"EMP's armed," he responded.
Blood sat there and waited a moment. "Punch it."
With the loud sound of an electrical explosion, the blue shockwave flashed out from central area of the ship and consumed the entire dome in its blast radius. In the same instance, orange sparks exploded from every single point in the dome creating a super bright flash that could have blinded Blood and Nitro if they didn't look away.
There was a loud noise, a *BAAMMMMMMM*, from the millions of volts of the electric power suddenly being strangled and killed. Electrical fires broke out all over the dome and it suffered structural damage.
----
Sitting in his black chair surrounded by hundreds of screens sat The Architect, monitoring activity and anomalies all over the Matrix. Suddenly, in red blinking letters reading "ALERT: POWER LOSS" came up on all of the screens. Arching a brow as he read the message, he hit the button on his pen, bringing up damage detail. It read: "Damage suffered: 03/04 Mid-area. Time: 23:09:27:12. Cause: EMP." He sighed as though he was bored, or annoyed. "They knocked out a serious power station. Sentinels will be deployed."
----
Alarms in the ship went off, and Blood stared out at what was becoming an inferno inside the dome. Their power was out, all except for their headsets and the radar. The power array within the ship was insulated to survive an EMP. "What happened to the ship?!" Blood yelled.
"Nothing happened yet besides a power loss, but it's about to get the Osiris treatment if the auxilary power doesn't kick in soon!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Sentinels coming in fast. Whatever you did, you gave away our position and pissed them off. I count ten sentinels incoming."
"How long before they get here?"
"I'd give 'em four minutes"
"*poop*. How long before the auxiliary power kicks in?"
"Three minutes!"
Blood looked over to Nitro. "Some sunshine to light my day huh?"
All Nitro could do was shrug with a "heh.."
Blood shouted back into the headset. "Is there anyway you can get that auxiliary power to charge faster, we're sitting ducks!"
Sideways typed like there was no tomorrow, accessing the ship's power setup. "I can try to reroute the power, but it might take me a few minutes."
"You have two!"
"Got it!"
Sideways began reworking the ship's power shift path, and then Leon and Sonia entered. "What's the matter, we heard sirens," Leon said.
"Turrets, now!" Balthasar answered, and the three of them ran to the nearest ladders and dropped down to the turret stations. Outside, the sentinels were getting closer and closer with that familiar whine as they tore through the air. Blood looked at the holographics.
"Where the hell did they come from?!"
Nitro shook his head hitting all sorts of switches as he turned on the ship's front turrets. "I got no idea sir, all I care about right now is getting out of this *CENSORED* city before I get torn apart limb by limb."
Blood turned back to his controls. "Sideways, the power?"
"Almost finished..." Once he accessed the final circuitry path, he switched the root path so instead of the auxiliary power spreading out to the entire ship, it would go directly to the priority emergency systems and then worry about secondary circuits. Once this was finished, there was a distinct repetitive beeping noise that confirmed that the new path would work out, and the power rushed back to the ship. As the sentinels drew nearer, the Nosferatu rose up from where it landed, spun 180-degrees and flew up out of the old dock and now useless power station. Buzzing through the city sections in the deep gaps, the Nosferatu fled, with the sentinels in pursuit.
"Can we lose them in the city?" Nitro asked as he checked the proximity of the sentinels.
"I wouldn't waste the time. If we're lucky we can get them in the tunnels."
"The tunnels? You know how far that is?"
"Yes I know how far it is, don't worry about that just worry about helping me fly this thing. Is our power back?"
"100% power, got any ideas?"
"Increase the speed."
As the Nosferatu entered the passage that was in the mountains, Nitro increased the speed to make the ship go as fast as it could go. The g-force threw him back into his seat.
"Whoa! What are you doing up there?" Sideways asked.
"Hauling *CENSORED*!" Blood shouted. Coming out of the passage and passing through the wreckage of towers still standing, Blood could see the exhaust vent up ahead when he saw the smoke and steam rising out from the ruins. Nitro checked the rear visuals and saw 150 small red lights in the dark of the passage chasing after them. "Not good...They're still after us." The Nosferatu was coming over the ventilation shaft now.
"Alright Nitro, on my mark take power from the front pads and reroute it to the rear, I need a 90-degree front tilt when I come around that vent shaft."
Nitro typed in the commands. "Reroute to rear pads...90-degrees front. Waiting for your signal.."
Blood swerved to the right of the vent shaft and turned left to bring the ship so that it was facing the shaft. "Now!" Nitro activated the set commands and the stern went up into the air bringing the ship completely vertical. Nitro held onto his chair.
"Ah..*poop*...." he mumbled as he nearly fell out. The Nosferatu rolled as it flew deeper into the tunnel as though it were a screw. The sentinels weren't far behind. The tunnel began to bend, and they were getting closer to the point where the tunnel would cut left and begin to straighten out for about a hundred miles.
"How are we going to lose them in that tunnel?" Nitro asked.
"Get ready to tilt the ship again. Route all power from the pads to the top pads, were gonna hug the wall when we make that turn," Blood answered. He was worried about getting the ship steady before worrying about sentinels. The turn came, and a plethora of blue bolts sparked out from the pads on the bottom of the ship, pulling it closer to the wall and scratching up against it a bit, making screeching noises.
"That didn't sound so good.."
"Did we lose any pads?"
"No, hull integrity is 97%. Turrets are firing away."
Bullets luminated in an orange glow flew from the turrets and were shot into the swarm of sentinels.
"Now that the ship is moving straight, it should be easy to take them out!" Blood said into his headset.
"We're working on it..!" Balthasar said through gritted teeth as he tried to stay in his seat and shoot at the same time. One of the red blips on his targeting screen disappeared. "Got one."
Leon shot down another. "Make that two!" Blood tilted his head over to Nitro as he looked straight ahead. "Find out how close we are to the mapped tunnels and increase our speed."
"Speed's as high as she goes. 17 miles from mapped territory."
"Using Zion's dock EMP's are too risky, the ship won't be able to get out and we could be captured."
"So what are we gonna do?"
The holographics console beeped, a new image was on backup display. Nitro checked to see what it was; It was the Rebellion. "Rebellion's close by."
"Call 'em." Nitro typed in "OPENTRANS\:REBLLN," and a communications link was set up. "Django you better be there I need your help!" Blood shouted into the headset microphone. He turned right into a side tunnel and cut another left. The radio crackled and Django called back. "What's wrong?"
"I have about seven sentinels chasing me, we need to set up a trap for them."
"Alright, I see you, go down the tunnel and go down the first chance you get, I'll be waiting there."
Remembering the directions Django provided, Blood sped the ship forward. "He better have a good plan."
"He's Django," Nitro said. "He's always got a good plan."
Django activated the Rebellion's propulsion system and retracted the landing gears. The ship rocked and the rest of the crew looked around.
"What was that?" Sigma asked, looking at the others. She was about 5'5, and wore dark blue pants and a white shirt.
"He's taking off," said Cable, the ship's operator. He was wearing a black short sleeved, wide collared shirt with dark blue pants and brown boots.
"Sit tight, I'll check it out," Masai said, and he went off the the cockpit. He wore a red long sleeved shirt with black pants. The ship lifted off with a forward tilt and moved out into the mainline tunnel, adjacent from where the Rebellion had taken off. Masai moved into the cockpit and sat in the passenger seat. "What's going on?"
"Nosferatu's coming in, being chased by sentinels. We gotta help him out."
"This should be fun." He grabbed an headset and turned it on. "Cable, arm the EMP, we're gonna need it in a minute."
Cable answered with an "uh-huh" and pushed the ARM button, turning on the light under the red switch. The Rebellion moved in and set down on the ground in the tunnel in a small ditch in the rock, and it sticked out just a few feet above the surface of the tunnel lining. Up ahead, Django looked out the window and saw the Nosferatu turn down into the tunnel. Then the sentinels followed after it.
"Alright Blood, you see my ship? Pass overhead and when you're out of my EMP range I'll burn the squids."
"Thanks."
"Bring up the holographics on our EMP range, Masai."
Masai brought up the holographic image and it showed an image of the outside surrounding area. It showed the tunnel, with a red ship in the middle showing the Rebellion's position. Another red ship was approaching, and that was the Nosferatu. A clear, blue tinted bubble surrounded the red icon that was the Rebellion, which showed the ships EMP range. The blast radius was 200 meters from the ship. "Here he comes.." Django said under his breath.
The Nosferatu approached and Django watched the holographics. It passed over and was almost out of the EMP blast range, while the sentinels were just coming in, not knowing the Rebellion was even there.
"Stupid squids.." Django said as the Nosferatu came out of the EMP range. "Now, Cable."
Cable turned the key and the blue electric shock wave exploded out from the ship, rocking the surrounding area. The sentinels sparked and shook violently for a moment in mid air as electric bolts passed through them. They dropped lifelessly to the ground with a "CLUNK".
"Thanks Django, I owe you," Blood said into his headset.
"Don't mention it. What happened out there?"
"We found something, then we wrecked it."
"What was it?"
----
Nothing like the taste of pure Italian wine. Captain Raven of the Vendetta thought to himself, sipping the glass he had poured, placing the bottle on his oak desk as he drank. He savored at the sweet and yet sour liquid, the same liquid that nearly a millenia ago that had been drunk by Julius Caesar and the great Emperors of Rome. Or at least, it was supposed to be, had Raven not known better. As one of the Resistance captains, he was fully aware of the Matrix and the conflict going on in the outside world, but he didn't let it deny him the pleasures of his life.
There he was, in his office at the top of the tower. Right now, he was posing as the CEO of a software corporation called the Rivermore Corporation, a proud company that boasted for its support to the United States military and several other large groups around the simulated world. While the real President of the company was currently on vacation with his secretary on a 'business trip', at least as a phone call between the President and his wife described it, Axe, the Vendetta's operator, managed to alter the last given orders so that Raven would be named CEO in his absence, at least for sometime.
It was the perfect way to create undercover operations within the Matrix that would tie the Resistance closer to the machines, as well as other things. Raven particularly enjoyed the setup, being at the top floor that overlooked the city in an office with black tile, an oak desk, a flat screen drop down TV/entertainment center with surround sound and two glass visors that surrounded the office at 90 degree angles, being divided by the entry way to the secretary's office and hall way, and the wall behind the desk that held the President's various awards, certificates and diplomas, plus three pictures, each of a friend of the Presidents. It originally had a picture of the President too, but Raven had Axe hack that out of the office and replace it with a picture of himself.
From his view point, Raven could see evening was beginning to set in through the clear sky, as darkness start to creep into the blue. He sighed at that, wishing the sky around Mega City would be more like how it was in Arizona, which had a mixture of pink, orange and yellow colors in the evening. Then again, Raven probably wouldn't have been able to put up with the simulated heat, or the desert for that matter, so he didn't complain about the chosen location for this job.
The door opened to reveal a man dressed in a white suit with knee high black boots, and a crimson red cape slung over his shoulders. If this were the ancient world, one would mistake the man for a german kaiser of sorts, judging from the ornate black lining around his white suit and the fur on the top end of the cape, which encircled the man's neck before ending at the sides. The suit was split open to reveal a black undershirt, but barely enough that one could just see a line of black in the man's attire.
At his right side, he had a single Colt Single Action Army revolver holstered, and though it could not be seen, there was another "Peacemaker" revolver at his left, except that one was on the back of the man's left side, covered over by the cape. He had a stern look on his face, which was squared and somewhat broad, definitely specifying the man as Austrian decent. His hair was combed back, and his mustache was neatly trimmed. And finally, he wore a pair of shades that had long, slender lenses which covered his eyes entirely. He gave Raven a nod.
"What is it Arius?" Raven asked, adjusting his square shaped, shaded glasses a little.
"Our dealer is here, Captain." Arius said in a thick Austrian voice, booming and strong.
"Excellent, send him in at once." Raven spoke in a cool, yet happy tone. He himself wore a black business suit here, with a dark green dress shirt, black tie and slender black slacks with dress shoes. Everything he had on was black and dark green, aside from the gold buttons, cuff links and the button on emblem on the tie. His hair was also black, parted to the sides to make him look more like a gentleman to females and a negotiator with males. And as always, he wore glasses so no one could see to his eyes in conversations.
Arius stepped to the side and allowed a man dressed in a black jacket, black slacks, a tan dress shirt and his hair pulled back into a tight pony tail, to walk through the door. As he did, Arius took out his right revolver and began to pistol twirl it up and down in similar fashion to a cowboy.
Following was another man, dressed in an overcoat that extended to his knees, a black dress shirt and black dress pants. Curiously, the sleeves of his overcoat both had white crosses embroidered into them. Other than that, there wasn't much to discern. He wore a pair of square shades similar to Raven's, except his were reflective. As the man with the pony-tail had learned, it was impossible to see past those shades to the man's eyes, as they were as dense as a blind man's.
"Ah, Captain Anome, a pleasure that you finally arrived." Raven began, "Please, have a seat, we have much business to discuss."
Anome immediately jumped at the man's voice, to which Raven held his arms up in the air. "It's alright, Arius. If he doesn't want to sit, then we should honor his decision. After all, Captain Anome is technically sitting down at this very moment, if you think about it. Still, for the sake of appearances, I must request you to reconsider, Anome." Raven tipped his head down to give Anome a view of his eyes, showing his enjoyment at watching the man sweat.
Anome hesitated for a moment, but complied with Raven's request, taking a seat at the front of Raven's desk. "Thank you." Raven said, also taking a seat at his chair, then proceeded to pour some more Italian wine for himself. "Would you like some as well? I know it's simulated, but one should not deny the body the enjoyment of taste."
"No, I'm here on business and business alone, Raven." Anome said in a low growl, trying to hold back the venom he felt toward this man.
Raven sipped his wine and then took a cigar out from the desk, and with it a pair of clippers. "Always business, Anome?" he sighed as he clipped the tip off the cigar, "For once, I wish Zion would get a man just like me. Someone that I can enjoy a glass of wine or smoking a cigar with."
"You never offered me a cigar."
"You want one?"
"No."
"My point exactly." Raven said, raising an eyebrow at Roland. He took a wooden match and lit the cigar, then placed it in his mouth, taking a long drag. He let out a puff of smoke and smelt the aroma. "You know, I've always wondered why Zion treats the Resistance with such hatred, like you're treating me now," he said, taking the cigar out of his mouth.
"But I can understand why you think we're villains, just..." he looked up in the air as if thinking, "What if, in the middle of the story, the protagonist decides to quit in his quest? What if, just before he fights his nemesis, he decides he doesn't want this anymore and just goes back to his home. And better yet, who is there to take his place?"
Raven grinned. "There will be no one else but the villain to take his place. Granted, the villain's role was originally to make the hero's life more difficult, but in this case, the so-called heroes quit ahead of time, leaving only the villains to slay the dragon. So tell me Anome, if the villain is fighting for the hero's cause, does that make him a villain? Even if the title remains, would it be a sin for the villain to win?"
"You, Blood and the rest are nothing more than terrorists." Anome said with an accusing tone, "Disturbing the peace between Zion and the machines just because you can't lay down your guns."
"Please, you call that peace?" Raven laughed, "To me, it takes more than a deal to create true peace. It takes an agreement between the two parties on the matters they originally disagreed on, the building of a relationship between the two races. Not some deal made between Neo and the great Lord of the Machines itself. That's why 'villains' fight on, to continue the work 'heroes' like yourself started and abandoned for some cheap *CENSORED* excuse. 'Neo saved Zion... Neo this and Neo that....' Pah, the thought of a whole treaty made because of one heroic act, such hypocrisy on the heroes' part for believing it."
"It wasn't until you and the rest of your fleet went active that our relations with 01 have turned for the worse." Anome sneered, "Frankly, I don't want any part of this war."
"Then why are you here? Why did you want to make this deal with us?" Raven wondered.
Anome sighed, "Because 'General' Morpheus still thinks our job isn't finished in the Matrix, and he has ordered the remains of Zion's navy to deploy."
Raven laughed at this, "Oh, this is rich. Very rich. Like a divine comedy even." he leaned forward, "No matter what side you're on, the Matrix is still the center of attention. Tell me, is it your homesickness for Zion fueling your decision, or just your hatred for Morpheus?"
"Neither." Anome said, "I'll make this point right now, I hate the machines, and I hate the Matrix. But I don't give a *CENSORED* about your crusade. If you want to fight the Matrix, that's fine with me, but I'm not on your side."
"And yet you are."
Anome sighed, "I'm merely giving you an advantage in the war." He pulled up a briefcase that he had carried into the room before, placed it on the desk, and opened it to reveal several CD cases stacked together like dollar bills, "Each of these discs contain simulacra programs that were created by Zion's coders to help its redpills fight the war. You'll be one step ahead of Morpheus and the machines, because you'll have dozens of renewable soldiers at your disposal."
"Very interesting." Raven said, pulling a CD out and looking it over, seeing his own reflection on the plastic cover. He then looked over to the man in the black overcoat. "Magnus, is he speaking the truth?"
Magnus slowly walked over to the case and looked at it. Immediately, Anome felt a cold tension wash over him, as if the coding that his RSI consisted of had fluctuated. His heart beat quickened as a result. Just what was this guy doing?
"He speaks the truth." Magnus assured, "However, our friend's neural patterns have sped up some."
"So I see." Raven smirked at the sight of a nervous Anome, "You must disregard Magnus, he has some 'sensitivity' in the Matrix. He can feel out coding and impulse patterns the same way an operator can at the console." He looked back at Magnus, "That's all I needed to know."
The man in black nodded and stepped back next to Arius, who was still pistol twirling his revolver. Raven continued to speak, "Now, the question is what's in it for you? You gave us what we want, but why did you on your own accord?"
"I want your word that you'll end this war," Anome declared.
"And how do you suppose I do that?" Raven asked.
"Figure something out." Anome said. "I don't care about Morpheus' ideals or yours, I'm sick of living like this and I want it to end."
"Please, no sob stories, they don't do anything for me." Raven griped, contemplating, "I tell you what. One of my sources in Zion is in a rather close position to your Lock. And you know how close 'Deadbolt' is to the High Council. I'll work something out with him, and you'll be on your way back to your precious city. Do we have a deal?" he reached across the desk with his right hand.
At first, Anome hesitated, feeling as though he had just sold his soul to the devil himself. As he recalled in old mythology, ravens were birds that carried the souls of the dead to heaven or hell, and right now, he didn't trust this raven at all. Still, if he or his crew were to see Zion again, then he had no choice but to make a deal with this demon.
He took the hand. "Alright," Anome said, "If you'll excuse me, I must get back to my ship." He got up and turned, walking out the door, past Arius and Magnus.
"Ever a prudent man, don't you agree?" Raven asked his two crew members.
Magnus just smirked, "I can sense his fear. Right now, he's regretting making negotiations with us, trying to find another way out of our deal."
"Shall I shoot him boss?" Arius asked, immediately grabbing the handle of his Colt in mid twirl and pointing it at the doorway.
Raven shook his head, "No, we made a deal, so we must honor it, even if he regrets it. After all, honor is one of the traits that we have that will put us above the machines." Just then, his cell phone rang. He slipped it out of his pocket, opened it and placed it at his ear, "This is Raven."
"Axe here, Captain. Just got word from the Nosferatu, I think it's something you want to hear..."
----
Morpheus sat topless on the table in the infirmary. Two wires were taped onto his chest with medical tape, taking his heart rate. Another plug was inserted into the canal in the back of his head. On a screen his vitals were displayed, recording his heart rate and brain waves. Zee came over with a syringe filled with white fluid and injected it into one of the plugs on his forearm. Morpheus gritted his teeth at the annoying sting of the needle. "Don't be a baby," Zee told him. "You'll be fine."
He smiled. "You know, for a crew mate you sure do take the liberty of making fun of your captain," he said to her.
"Yeah, well, I volunteered to come on board as a medic. Someone has to watch you guys to make sure you don't kill yourselves."
"You're just here because you think I'm crazy," he said.
"That may be a reason, but I just figured the more help you had the better."
Morpheus laughed. "Do you think we can't handle ourselves out here?"
"No, that's not it," she said as she disposed of the needle and checked the area he had been shot in. "One of the main reasons is so I know Link is okay. I figured if he wouldn't stop operating for you, then at least I could go out with him. I can handle myself around here."
He nodded. "That's true. How long have you been with us?"
"Two years."
"Ah, that's right. Two years of dependable service and not a second of doubt." She rolled her eyes and shook her head as she smiled. "Are you still hurt?"
He shook his head. "No, not really. I've been at this game long enough. Knowing it isn't real takes the pain away."
Zee came back up and began taking the wires off of him. "Yeah, well, at least it was only a 9mm round. Could have been worse," she said suggestively. There was a creaking noise of a hatch being opened. They looked over and saw Niobe coming in.
"You know," she began as he walked in, "There wouldn't be any pain if you didn't create the Matrix Corps."
Morpheus raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? I suppose you have a point, but then again, our presence in the Matrix during this war is just as important as it was during the last, maybe even more so." Zee unplugged the coaxial from his head.
"Yeah, maybe, but it's a lot more hectic. I mean, why do we even fight in there anymore? New Agent programs are so deadly, it's obvious they want us out. Five years ago I thought we had peace, and we wouldn't have to fight and live like this anymore. Don't you get tired of it sometimes?"
"Part of me agrees with you, and I want to say yes, but at the same time, I can't."
"Why not? Didn't your prophecy say The One was going to end the war and destroy the Matrix too? That turned out to be lame anyway."
Morpheus sighed, remembering how the prophecy he believed in so much was just a measure to keep him under control. "He ended the war. He did what he had to do. This wasn't planned by either side." He took a moment to think. "The reason is that the Council also thinks we need to be in the Matrix, to take care of the ships that left. That's why I'm sitting on this table anyway."
"Oh yeah, that's right. 'General Morpheus of the Matrix Corps'," she said in a mocking tone. "Jason couldn't believe that, you becoming his equivalent in another field," she said with a laugh.
"Oh yes, who could forget," he said in a concurring manner. "Victory never tasted so good. Besides, someone has to oversee Matrix activity."
"Yeah, who better than you?" she asked, drawing a look from him.
"Are you mocking me?"
She smiled. "Relax tiger, playing with you." Zee laughed to herself while she cleaned up her equipment and unplugged the heart rate monitors. Morpheus looked over and paused for a moment, then he nodded. "Alright, playtime's over. Niobe, Link is in the cockpit getting the ship ready, we're going back to Zion and you two are flying like usual, so get going.
"Yes, Captain." She said in a cool tone. She turned to walk out but just as she was about to walk through the door, she stopped and looked back. "Or is it General?"
"Move it." He said with a stare and a deep tone. She smirked and went to the cockpit.
Niobe and Link sat at the controls in the cockpit. They slowly drifted down an entrance tunnel approaching Zion gate six. Wires hung like vines from junctions and metal criss-crossed to form frames that loomed overhead like rafters. The gate up ahead was closed, with two turrets on either side. Every 250 feet a small cylindric object came out of the top of the entrance tunnel with a blinking blue light. These were the EMP charge defenses, some of many that surrounded Zion. Link put on a headset and turned on his holographics monitor.
"Zion control this is the Nabonidus on approach requesting access through gate four."
Behind the gate operators plugged into their chairs sat another operator, hovering over his keyboard and listening in to the conversation on his headset. His screens displayed blue code strands falling down the screen, and he logged in that the Nabonidus was incoming, then patched Link through to the control, and then monitored the procedure.
In the construct sat the six Zion gate operators clad entirely in white. An asian man pushed, pointed and dragged several boxes on the interface before him that formed pictures of the gate, the turrets, the tunnel, several trickling numbers that were statistics, and the oncoming ship. "Nabonidus, your request is confirmed, standby."
"Roger that, control." Link responded. He looked at Niobe and they smiled as if to laugh, at how many times they'd gone through this same procedure.
"This is gate control ordering a weapons stand down at gate four, the Nabonidus is coming through. Open the gates." As the Nabonidus passed by, the gun turrets disengaged. "Nabonidus, you are cleared through gate four to bay six."
"Roger that control," Link said again. The doors began to open with a loud rumble, blue light peering through. "Welcome home Nabonidus, good to have you back."
"Good to be back," Link replied.
As the Nabonidus passed through the narrow opening in the tremendously thick bay doors, some bolts shot from the pads into the doors. "The Nabonidus is through," said the operater watching the screens of blue coding. Up in the tower in the center of the dock, a gate control operator nodded upon seeing the ship pass through. "Roger that control. Zion control, standby for gate four lockdown."
The giant gears marked "ZION FOUNDRY" and the counterweights and the chains began to churn slowly. As the gate began to close, an APU stood by, armed, its guns aimed down the entrance tunnel. The huge gates closed with a *SLAM*, and the APU's pilot turned around and disengaged his weapons. Drifting the ship in and taking it down ever so slowly, Link guided it down into bay six. It shook as it came down, and touched down smoothly.
"The Nabonidus is down in bay six," said the gate control operator. "Roger that," the operator behind the screens of blue coding responded.
The hatch opened with a hiss. The crew- Morpheus, Niobe, Ghost, Kid, Link, Sparks, Gizmo, Hacksaw, and Zee, all walked down the ship ramp with their bags slung over their shoulder. They looked out at the dock, seeing that some other ships were also back, such as the Freedom and the Validus, two of Zion's newer ships since the others had been destroyed. Since the other five left, Zion was left with six hovercraft, not including the new ones still being built, or the hover barges. Civilians and soldiers walked around peacefully. Calm was in the air, and the light shined down upon the dock crane on top of the gate control tower, creating quite the welcoming atmosphere. It was good to be back. Morpheus was greeted by a passerby, then he turned to the crew.
"Go on ship's liberty. Meet me in the Dead Duck at 21:00 hours, drunk or sober." Smiles came out amongst them.
"Alright!" Link said, and he turned to give a high-five to the hearest person, that being Kid. He laughed. As they began to walk away, Morpheus began walking in another direction, and Niobe arched a brow.
"Where are you going?"
"I have to speak with the council. I'll be with you shortly."
She nodded and Morpheus walked off. Niobe joined up with the rest of the group as they walked down the street suspension past several people. Civilians and soldiers gave them nods as they passed by, acknowledging the fact that another crew had come home. It was a custom among the people that lived here. The mumble of the voices of so many people drowned out the sound of the footsteps clanking against the iron plated street.
Carved into the street level were innumerable stores and shops, above them, apartments and balconies that lined the cylindric area of living space that housed thousands. People flowed through the streets. Their clothes of homespun wool, denim, and leather. Carved into the solid granite walls, between homes and around red steel doors, were intricate and beautiful carvings. They navigated through thick crowds of people, humanity melting into one race.
This was the main street, full of fighters, some even children. As they walked by, they passed a workshop with children approximately twelve and thirteen years of age working on a machine. They stepped into an elevator, and came down to a street full of shops. Stepping out of the elevator, they walked down the street and stepped into a club, Dead Duck. It's a sailor joint. A not so shabby place, with beer on tap, and rum. Crew members of other ships recognized them, and greeted them with nods and hellos. They took a booth in the corner and the waitress arrived.
"Welcome home, brothers and sisters. First day back?"
"Yes, lovely." Sparks said with a wink.
"On the house then. Eight rums?"
"Sounds good." Niobe said. The waitress nodded and walked off.
"Good to be home.." Sparks said with a relaxed tone. "You can say that again," Kid added.
"What do you think Morpheus is up to?" Link asked.
"Nothing important, he went to check in with the council. Probably giving them an update." Niobe told him.
"Oh. Nothing special." Link said. He looked over at Zee. "You look better when we're here, you know that?"
The others came back with a loud "Aww!" Link and Zee smirked.
"Don't be jealous!" She said. The others laughed, and the waitress came back with their drinks. Tall glasses of rum. Hacksaw picked up his glass and the others rose theirs up.
"Live free or die fighting!" They hit their glasses together and slammed their drinks back in one gulp, and hit the empty glasses onto the table.
"How about one more round?"
They all said "Yeah!"
----
Morpheus stood before Zion's high council. "General Morpheus," Councilor Hamann called out. "You have something to report?"
"Yes Councilor, I do. An update on the war front."
"Good. How are things looking?"
"My crew and I ran into Blood's crew in the Matrix. A shootout ensued, but no one was killed. They were being pursued by an Agent, for what reason I don't know."
"Do you have any insight on their activity?" Councilor Danzer asked.
"We don't know what they are doing in the Matrix for sure, possibly looking for a way to destroy it, but we do believe they are up to something in the tunnels and on the surface that could be very dangerous."
"What do you mean?"
"Intel between our ships still out in the tunnels report that several of the Resistance ships have been moving into uncharted territory and to unseen areas on the surface to look for a way to destroy the machine city itself."
"That's preposterous!" Councilor West called out. "How do they plan to do such a thing?"
"We were wondering the same thing. The other day, Captain Jade reported that the Nosferatu passed by and was being pursued by several sentinels, and the readouts that her sensors took read that the EMP had just been fired off. After tapping into their radio frequency, it was revealed that they had taken out some sort of power station for the machines."
"They didn't even call in the attack or ask if they had the go ahead!" Councilor Undila claimed.
"Why would they? They left Zion, they wouldn't listen to us or take orders from us." Councilor Hamann said.
"We will continue monitoring their activity without their knowing as best we can. Until then, I have nothing further to report."
"Thank you General, you're dismissed." Councilor Dilliard said. Bowing his head slightly, he turned and left the chamber.
"If we don't stop them quick they'll get us all killed," she said.
The Nemesis' mess hall wasn't really the most glorious looking part of the ship, but then again, not a lot of hover ships were that way. As far as old-time ship classification would be concerned, the Nemesis would be an assault cruiser, placed between the sizes of ships like the infamous Logos and the Mjolinir, as well as balanced between speed and offensive capabilities. Basically, a medium sized hovercraft, like that of the late Nebuchadnezzar and the more recent Nabonidus, in the Medium class. It was an ideal multi-task vessel that could be put on any mission front and expected to accomplish it with flying colors, thus making it suitable for a pirate band. But that still didn't leave much room for the mess hall or quartering.
As one would see, the mess hall was the same gunmetal gray colored surrounding as the rest of the ship, dank and generally unkempt. A few shoddy posters decorated the walls, one of which was a picture of Zion General Morpheus standing in his Matrix attire with sunglasses and a sheathed katana slung over his shoulder, the bottom line reading 'WE NEED A FEW GOOD MINDS. ZION WANTS YOU', a promotion for the Matrix Corps. The poster had several make shift darts embedded into Morpheus' bald head, reflecting the crew's thoughts on the poster.
The rest were several pictures of naked woman with beer bottles, beach balls, revealing clothing and other objects covering their breasts and vaginal areas or some movie posters like a 'Star Wars' poster with Boba Fett or a Sin City poster. There was also a movie poster for 'Harry Potter', but that one had a few metal darts through it as well.
As for the room itself, it was really nothing more than a metal 'picnic table' set in the center, the galley across from that, and the entry way on the other side. Anubis was sitting at the picnic table, currently eating some makeshift oatmeal, minding his own business as usual. At the corner of the room, Solitaire was leaning against the wall, filing her nails with a make shift file.
Though free from the Matrix, Solitaire had made it a habit to take care of her body's appearance, despite the rather primitive society she now lived in. Not that she was the stereotype supermodel wannabe, it was just something she was used to in the Matrix, a habit that was hard to abandon. Much like her love for martial arts. She loved studying new forms of combat style and ways to make her body move, ways that took strength and stamina to make happen. In fact, that was the motivation that made her free her mind, the thought that she could accomplish techniques that she never thought possible. Times were tough, but she had no regrets about her decision.
There was some light music in the room, jazz playing from speakers that were placed at every corner of the room, as if the 'bloodthirsty' pirates were trying to establish a calm atmosphere. The band was unrecognizable, but one could tell the music was ripped from the Matrix. It was at this point Blade came through, in his stern attitude as always, looking ready to pick a fight. "I hope you two aren't planning to stay here all day," he said.
"Not really. After I'm done with my nails, I'm going go shopping at Times Square, then to Broadway to see Phantom of the Opera." Solitaire rolled her eyes. She spoke with a chinese accent in her voice, but unlike other members of her 'race', she could speak fluent English. "Geez, Blade, you should sit back and relax. It's not like Zion has orders for us."
"Solitaire, if you haven't noticed, we're not in Zion right now," Blade shot back. Blade was an interesting character, as he took himself as the stereotype second-in-command that would hold the ship together, even with a lazy captain and a motley crew. Difference was, Irvine was quite serious about his job, and the crew, though being pirates, were very good at their jobs, needing little to no management to keep them in line. In many opinions, Blade took his job well too seriously, always acting as though Commander Lock or General Morpheus had issued important orders to the crew for some special ops mission. Some have even questioned why Irvine took him on as his first mate, but so far, the Captain of the Nemesis has failed to give out with an explanation. "If Sentinels all of a sudden pop out of nowhere, I don't want to die because you two being lazy."
"I'm not being lazy, 'if you haven't noticed', I'm filing my nails." Solitaire stated in a matter-of-fact tone, "Even if our minds our 'free', we have to care about our bodies. It's part of our nature after all, right Anubis?"
Anubis just continued to eat his apparent snack, trying his best to ignore the two around him. He did, however, look up and give Solitaire an icy glare, one that made her regret trying to bring her apparent comrade-in-arms into the conversation. As she and the rest of the crew had noticed over the past few days, ever since his mind was freed, Anubis was a cold man, uncaring about what the rest of the crew did around him. But Solitaire new better than to judge him here. She had seen how he fought, even before his mind was freed, when he was Daniel "the Swordsman" Lancaster, the infamous assassin for the Silver Dragons gang inside the Matrix. A cold man, but one well versed in the art of combat, especially when it came to the sword. Solitaire felt her body shiver remembering one of Anubis' little bouts in a training program.
"And what about you, Anubis?" Blade changed his direction toward the man sitting at the table, "Didn't you hear Solitaire ask you a question?" he sat down, and gave of a sneer at Anubis, who continued to eat, "What's the matter? Habla ingles? Did your vocal cords fail to generate when you were grown?"
"Leave him alone, Blade." Solitaire said, putting her file down and now looking at the table with the two men, "I thought he'd enjoy verbally making you look dumber than you are anyway."
"No, no, Solitaire." Blade replied, "I know his type, I've seen it before back at Zion."
"Here we go again..." Solitaire muttered to herself.
"Whenever a mind is freed, it's usually greeted with confusion and fear, of the regular world," Blade began to preach. "However, some new minds tend to keep quiet and not affiliate with their shipmates after being freed, because they have this little bit of hope..." he gestured with his index finger and thumb, as if he were holding a speck of dust, waving it in Anubis' face, "...that this is all a dream, that they will wake up to their regular lives in the Matrix like nothing happened. Guess what, my friend, this isn't a dream." Blade then shaped his hand into a fist and punched Anubis across the face. While Blade wasn't super strong physically, the punch was enough for Anubis' head to shift to the side.
"You see?" Blade smirked, "Life is not a dream after all."
"Ah, if I were you Blade, I wouldn't talk anymore." Solitaire said, in warning.
"What do you mean...?" That's when Blade felt all blood flow to his hand begin to shorten out. Since he was looking at Anubis' face the whole time, he failed to notice that after his punch had landed, Anubis' right arm had grabbed onto his wrist, singled out a nerve point and was now pressing on it with much pressure with his thumb. Blade grimaced, feeling needle-like tingling around his entire arm, trying to break free of Anubis' stone hard hold. Seeing his point had been made, Anubis let go, as Blade took back his arm.
"You son of a..."
"Bloodthirsty my *CENSORED*." a voice said around the corner. Both Solitaire and Blade turned to see Janus leaning against the wall, with his arms folded. His hair had grown back more, slightly longer than it was before he was unplugged. "Geez, Blade, you sound like what that Commander Lock guy Marley told me about."
"And what are you-?"
"Don't start bitching at me after that little speech to Anubis," Janus stated with metal in his voice, "Because I won't let that punch land."
Janus' eyes narrowed, some of his attitude as a narc detective returning to his personality. It was no different than some mob boss or street punk trying to intimidate him into backing off, aside from Blade just being an *CENSORED* with no back up. Either way, he never took that.
Blade sneered, "Fine. If I had it my way, I would dump you and any other new mind back to the machines," he growled. After that, he promptly stormed past Janus, heading to cockpit. Janus merely shook his head, "Is he always like that?"
"Don't mind him, he has a prejudice toward newly freed humans." Solitaire shrugged, "After all, he's a seasoned warrior of Zion that's seen it all," she said with great sarcasm. "New minds to him are a liability."
"Why did he leave Zion?"
"He got tired of 'elite soldiers' like Lock or Morpheus bossing him around." Solitaire answered, rolling her eyes at the irony.
Janus just chuckled, also seeing it, but being amused by it. Without another word, he walked past Solitaire and got his own bowl of food, or whatever they called 'food'. Deep down, Janus longed for a decent hamburger or hot dog, the kinds you got from street vendors. He sighed, as regret started to settle with the effect of a tidal wave. He knew he gave up on his life, but he never contemplated losing some of the smaller pleasures like a hot dog or even a microwaveable pizza. Stuff that humans took for granted, but would feel dire regret if they lost the privilege of having in their lives. After getting his bowl and some water on the side, he took a seat next to Anubis and started to eat, immediately grimacing at the flavor. "What is this stuff anyway?"
"Some sort of protein enzyme, mixed in with enough vitamins and minerals to keep you healthy and alive," Solitaire explained, sharing some disgust. She reached into her pants pocket and pulled out a small sack of paper, tied together with a piece of yarn, or at least it looked like it, and tossed it over to Janus.
"What's this?" Janus asked.
"Salt." Solitaire explained, "Pure salt, mined in the caves around Zion. I managed to sneak a whole load of the stuff out the last time we were there."
Nodding, Janus opened the bag and sprinkled the white crystals over his bowl, then taking another taste. He closed his eyes, savoring at the new flavor. A flavor that he had missed, "Thanks, much better."
"No problem." Solitaire said, "You miss your old food, don't you?"
"How did you-?" Janus began.
"I've seen it before on a lot of people. When it finally comes down to it, people only think about what matters the most to them like family, friends, stuff that motivates them. However, they never think about the minor stuff that plays a huge effect in their lives. Hobbies, like going to the movies, playing video games, listening to music or eating decent food." Solitaire explained, sitting back, and thinking.
"Back in the Matrix, I was a movie star in Hollywood. I made several kinds of movies, mostly martial arts and action, because people knew me better as a fighter than an actor. Everyday, after I was done practicing or shooting a scene, I would stop by this one little chinese cafe for my dinner, as a mental reward to myself for completing my tasks." she closed her eyes, remembering the taste of fresh sesame chicken, pork-fried rice and an egg roll, "In a way, that cafe was as important to me as my career, I probably could never live without it in the Matrix."
"But here?" Janus asked.
Solitaire smiled, "Just the thought of doing stuff that people would think impossible keeps me going." she leaned her head against the wall, "What about you? What do you miss the most from the Matrix?"
Janus let out a short sigh, "Out of everything, including habits, it was my work. I know it sound cheesy, but it kept me in line and on track of things, kinda like how you make that chinese restaurant sound. It kept me focused."
"And how do you feel now?" Solitaire asked, "If it's alright for me to press on."
"It's alright. Now, I really don't know what I'm here for." Janus replied, "It's like going undercover, that kind of feeling, except here you know there's no way out. Once you're in, you're in, so you have to make the best of it and try to do your job. That's how I feel anyway."
"I see..." Solitaire said solemnly.
"What about you, Anubis?" Janus turned to the man beside him.
"Ah, I wouldn't do..."
"I don't miss anything." Anubis replied, with a monotone voice that spoke volumes of his nature. "I left the Matrix because that world had nothing for me to believe in, nothing more."
"And this world has something for you to believe in?" Janus said, in a matter-of-fact tone, "I don't understand. Daniel Lancaster, a dark legend among the crime lords and police force alike. You must've had something that kept you working, everyone that works in crime does."
By this point, Anubis had finished his meal and got up. Without responding to Janus, he moved past, and washed his dish in the sink area in the galley, then walked out. Solitaire and Janus exchanged looks with a shrug. Marley walked in and gave the two a nod. "Hey guys, whatcha doin'?"
"Just talking, really," Janus answered. Marley went over a pulled a makeshift pitcher from the refrigerator and poured it into a makeshift cup. He chugged it down and due to the bitterness of whatever it was drinking, his face scrunched up and he shook his head. "Woo! Strong stuff!," he said. He began to pour another glass and glanced over at the others. Janus looked curious. Solitaire was indifferent, as she was back to filing her nails.
"Want some?" he asked Janus.
"Uh, sure."
"Comin' right up." He pulled out another cup and poured some in, then handed it over to Janus. Janus looked down at the liquid in a skeptic manner. He looked back up at Marley, who took a gulp.
"Well don't just look at it, go ahead, take a sip."
Janus shrugged. Couldn't hurt, right? He took a small sip and spit it out in the same instance. Solitaire looked up as Marley started laughing his *CENSORED* off. Janus looked up at him, his face and mouth all wiry from having sipped something so strong and bitter, yet sweet and flavorful at the same time he couldn't take it. "What the hell is that?"
Kira came in and poured herself a bowl of the enzyme goop, sitting down to eat while Marley laughed up a storm.
"Hahahahaha-huh? Oh, what you never drank before have you?"
"Yeah, but-"
"No, you've never really drank before."
Rolling his eyes, he got it. "No, I guess not."
"You know what else you've never done before?"
"What?"
"You've never gotten your freak on either. We got two fine ladies on board, I'm sure one of them would be up to dancing horizontal with you. Which one you want? Solitaire? Kira?"
Janus glanced from Solitaire to Kira, and saw Kira was smiling. "Uh.."
"Yeah, and virtual doesn't count, Mr. I can't remember having sex with my girlfriend," Solitaire chimed in.
"Well, I'll drink to that," Janus answered with a grin.
"Here, here," Marley called and hit his glass to Janus'. This time they both took the beverage down in one gulp. Marley let out a refreshed "Ahhhh" while Janus coughed for a moment.
"Well, I gotta go. Stuff to do." With that, Marley left. Janus looked up to Solitaire, glanced at Kira, who was looking down at her bowl of goop, and back to Solitaire, with a look that said "Did any of that make sense?" She let out a small laugh, and Janus did the same in return. Good times.
----
The Nemesis was parked in a dark and damp sewer mane. The pads were shut off and this was where they planned to stay for the night. Freezing cold drips of water dropped from the top of the sewer mane to the bottom, giving it the likeness of a cave. A quartet of sentinels wormed their way into the murky depths and slipped by. Making their way through a twisted passageway, they passed the cockpit by mere feet. In the shadows, Irvine and Blade watched them sail by, an appearance of beauty and terror at the same time, as though they were mechanical organisms. They faded off into the distance.
"Power up. Sleep mode." Irvine whispered. Blade nodded, and flicked two switches and typed something into the keyboard in front of him, setting the mode. Minimal cockpit displays turned on, and the cabin remained dark. The ship was small, cramped, cold. Nonetheless, it was home.
On the main deck, Glitch, Kira, and Janus were hanging out. Janus leaned against a bulkhead while Kira stood up on a ladder. Glitch was standing, pacing around, quizzing Janus.
"Okay, the Construct..."
"Holding program used to load things like clothes, weapons, and training simulations. We go there before going into the Matrix."
"Right. The Matrix is..."
"A virtual reality program that's made to keep the minds of the enslaved oblivious to the fact they're in a prison and being used to power machines."
"Hmmm, yeah."
"What?"
"Well, you can't really tell someone what the Matrix is. They have to see it for themselves after they're unplugged to see it for what it really is."
Janus thought about it. It made sense, sort of..
"Your eyes felt weird when you were unplugged because.."
"I never used them before."
"Good. Now what's this?" He pointed over at one of Janus's monitors.
"Life systems monitor, glucose levels."
"What's that?" He pointed over to the giant silver ball over in the back.
"Main power supply to the core." He followed Glitch over to the operator's station, where there were vines of coaxial hanging and snaked to and from huge monolithic battery slabs, a black portable satellite dish among banks of ship systems and keyboards and computer monitors. He pointed over to the red key-switch.
"How about this?"
"Power systems self destruct. Uses all remaining power to generate an E.M.P"
"Our best weapon against the machines. The problem is if someone is still in the Matrix when that thing goes off, they're not coming back."
Janus nodded. He looked over and stared at the screens displaying the huge syllabus of green Matrix code characters that fell in strands. Over the past few days he'd been struggling to learn the complex codes. "Ka equals 9. But reverse Ka is point-nine, right?"
Glitch nodded. "You catch on quick man"
"I know these symbols from the hacking trainer. But why's it so hard to find them on the keyboard?"
"Your brain knows what to do," Kira said. "But it has to associate the characters with your body."
"It's muscle memory, Janus. Think of the space bar and your thumbs nail it, because they've hit the space bar millions of times. But think about reverse ‘ka,' and your fingers don't automatically hit the reverse key and the ‘ka' key in one shot. It's kinda like the shift or caps lock function."
"Where did these symbols come from anyway?"
"Most of it is from the old Japanese. It's Katakana. See, the machines aren't binary, no zero and one. They're quantum-based, so instead of an open-close base of zero or one, open and closed, they use all numbers between zero and one."
"All numbers between zero and one. That could be an infinite number of numbers."
"Not could be, it is." Janus was astounded.
"Holy *CENSORED*. How many calculations per second?"
"How many CPS...well, that's kind of hard to estimate. Put it this way: picture all the particles in the known universe. Not just atoms, but sub-atomic particles that compose atoms."
"Okay. At last count that was like, billions right? Trillions?"
Glitch let out a "heh" with a smile. "Well, it's up there. In any case, the number of calculations per second the Matrix can perform is greater than the estimated number of particles in the known universe. I'd say around a googol."
"*CENSORED*."
"That's how they have the operating power to create entire worlds within their mainframes." Kira said.
"That's why it looks like reality huh. They have the computing power to create entire worlds."
Glitch nodded. "Right."
"So, if we hack into the Matrix, why can't we just change the code while we're at it?"
"No, no. See, it's not that simple. We broadcast a signal to hack into the matrix, which is what this satellite dish is for. If a hack is discovered, security measures are taken to secure the breach, like for instance, sentinels may be dispatched to the ship location or Agents might be distributed to the hard line location. The sentinels may logically decide to watch that location going forward, terminate it, or change some codes to access it. The Agents would sever the hard line, thereby setting a trap, refusing entrance or exit. It's like the wireless internet. It frees you from connecting your machine to the internet with wires. Kind of like how remote controls changed the way people interacted with their TVs. However, some people do not secure their access point."
Janus nodded as though to say, "I'm listening."
"In our case, we try to secure the access point before sending you in, and then if it becomes compromised, either we find another one or we hack it and patch it again. Now, the reason we can't just change coding around when we hack into the Matrix; The machines, the programs that code, create, and maintain the Matrix, they are code. There are different types of programs at work, many unseen with no interaction in the Matrix. Then, there are the enforcers, the ones we all know as Agents. In simple terms, think of the game battleship. You can see your field, and I can see mine. But we cannot see each other's and yet that is the goal of the game, to locate your opponent's coordinates and remove their pieces. If there is a third party watching along with us who is not participating in the game proper, then they can see the picture in its entirety, 'they' being the machines and programs that operate in the Matrix. They have the overview that we are trying to attain. They have uploaded all the information and can be arbiters of what is to happen. They are the server. They are the control."
"..Right."
"Well, my point is, the machines code and recode the Matrix by pure will. Interaction with the Matrix, the physical act of being there, by default, allows people to change their environment - The Matrix. They move objects, make sound, affect cause."
"Like reality."
"Almost," Kira began. "Reality is unalterable. But the fabric of reality in the Matrix can be rewoven. Some can reach beyond normal cause. Their affects on the Matrix are deeper than the average. They have learned to change it according to their needs. But they don't have total control. That's why we need operators like Glitch here."
"Oh. What makes us able to change the Matrix when we need it?"
"A free mind," Kira said with a smile. Caught off guard at first, Janus paused for a moment before smiling back. Glitch looked up to see Irvine walk in as Blade went to his quarters.
"Whatcha guys talking about?"
"We just finished the operation programs and he's showing great retention. I'm trying to teach this guy some programming. He's stuck in the 20th century. He's got no skills."
Janus smirked.
"Don't worry, he'll learn in time. But we're done for the night, so get some rest." The others nodded and went off to their quarters. Glitch went in first, and Kira and Janus were still on the way. He swallowed a knot in his throat.
"Hey, Kira," he called out.
She paused for a moment and turned around. "Yeah?"
He looked down and first but shook his head and looked up, his eyes meeting hers. They both paused for a moment then. "Uh, this life you live. The cold ship. Never knowing when danger will show up, and fighting in the Matrix...Why do you do it?"
She thought about it for a few seconds, looking down to break the eye lock. "I don't know, really. I asked for the truth, and this is what I got and there's no turning back. I wouldn't have it any other way. I know it sucks at first, but you kinda get used to it. Have you ever felt like you couldn't find your niche in life?"
"...Yeah."
"Well, after Irvine found me, I felt like I found my place." His eyebrows wrinkled as he thought about it. He knew exactly what she meant, and found himself nodding his head in agreement
"Like when you live day to day waiting for something to happen in your life, but when nothing happens, it just seems meaningless?"
She looked up at him, sort of surprised. "Yeah...just like that. How did you know?"
"I felt the exact same way until I came here. After that...this life is exactly what I've been waiting for. I didn't care what it was, I just wanted something to happen. I always knew it was there, I just didn't know how to get to it."
Kira looked at him like he was a whole different person. In a few seconds, he put her whole life into a few words. She felt like she knew him for the longest time.
With a smile she said "Goodnight, Janus" and left to go into her room, leaving him standing there in the hallway.
He heard a voice behind him say "Make a hole," and he turned around to see Marley coming down the hall. He let Marley pass and then went into his own room.
He took off his boots and climbed under the covers, put his head down on the pillow and closed his eyes to go to sleep.
I must admit, this is really good, puts mine fully to shame. Anyway, this is one of those DEAR things they teach you at school. Drop Everything And Read!
The Vehemens slowly cruised through the tunnels of the unknown region, the bright search lights and the blue energy generated from the hover pads providing the only lights in the tunnel. Being a medium sized hovercraft, it was a little harder to maneuver in tight spaces than the Atlantis, a small hovercraft Ravage was put in command of before receiving the Vehemens. At times like this, he really, really missed the little ship, since he was currently deep within the unknown territories, probably somewhere around what used to be Russia.
Next to him, on the co-pilot's seat, Iratus was laid back, with a pair of operator headphones over his ears, listening to some music downloaded from a file sharing program in the Matrix. The large, well built captain let out a small grumble at the sight of his so-called first officer, silently wishing he had the same "bad luck" as Irvine when it came to crew assignments. While Iratus was an expert gunman and fighter, since he was a former bounty hunter in the Matrix, he lacked any enthusiasm toward his job, and had over time adopted a lax nature, even around Ravage. Not that Ravage minded this, it was just in situations like flying through an unknown region that he wished Iratus would take his job more seriously. Or at least, take off the stupid headset and talk to him, so Ravage wouldn't feel so goddamn bored at the helm.
The Resistance captain then noticed that the tunnel began to extend upward, toward the surface. He keyed in the intercom to the main part of the ship.
"We're going up, hold onto something." Ravage said, in his usual, nearly booming tone. After a moment, he pulled the medium sized hovercraft up along the tunnel's curve. He fought the urge to suddenly turn the ship to the side, just to throw the now snoring Iratus out of his seat. He didn't have to though. The ship was angled back so much, the co-pilots chair turned ninety degrees, forcing Iratus to fly out of it, and roll along the deck until he fell against the entry way.
"If you're going to sleep like a dog, then you can sleep on the ground," Ravage said, now in the tone of a master training his pupil.
Iratus merely blinked a little at his statement, "You could've dumped water on me," he said, before yawning.
Ravage just shook his head, as he angled the ship out, so that they flew along the rugged terrain of the region. Unlike the area surrounding 01, this point was a more mountainous region, with large peaks stretching over the land, as far as the eye could see. And also unlike 01, this area was much, much cooler. The black atmosphere remained abundant, but the ground was littered with black ice and snow. In fact, at that moment, both Ravage and Iratus could see small drops of snow hit the view port.
"I hope this doesn't turn into a storm," Iratus complained, getting back into the co-pilot's seat, slipping his headphones back on.
Ravage nearly ripped the headphones off his head. "We're near our objective point, stay alert!" he ordered.
The first officer held his hands up in surrender, "Alright, alright. I'll go back and make sure everyone's ready," he replied, wanting to avoid Ravage's trademark temperament. He got out of his seat and paced out of the bridge, walking down the hall until he got to the main deck.
It took him a few moments to get to the main area of the Vehemens, where the rest of the crew were. Including Ravage and Iratus, there were six crewmen: four Matrix fighters, one operator and one crew assist.
The first one that Iratus saw was Zero, the Vehemens' operator, sitting at the main console, monitoring a duel between Reiko and Alucard. Or at least it looked like it, because he kept switching in between the monitor that displayed the duel to another one which had code on it. As far as looks went, Zero wasn't anything special, and because of his attitude, many had considered him a lowlife of sorts. His messy brown hair and the many stubbles on his chin hinted to his spending hours on end at the operator's screen, or in the medical ward before leaving Zion as a volunteer nurse. Iratus grimaced at that last part, knowing he wasn't a real medical man, and at the same time, he was usually posted in a room where there were lots of comatose woman. Which was probably why he was on the Vehemens, to escape life in the stockade. His only saving grace was, he was a lowlife with computer skills, the best out of Zion arguably. Who else could hack timed explosives into a government facility in the Matrix, without alerting the Agents, like he had done on more than one occasion?
As Iratus approached, he saw that Zero was shivering, keeping his arms crossed and his knees up to them in an attempt to conserve body heat. "Why did it get so *CENSORED* cold all of a sudden?" Zero asked.
"It's snowing outside, that's why." Iratus replied, "We're near the operation point, so call off their little fight and get back to work," the first mate ordered in cold monotone.
Zero grumbled, looking over at that side monitor again, "Dammit, Iratus, you know how hard it is to hack a pornography file out of the Matrix!?" he complained, "Especially the kind that you carry home in a brown paper bag?"
"How far are you on downloading it?" Iratus rolled his eyes, feeling like he was a father, telling his son to get up from the TV set on a Saturday morning to go mow the lawn.
"76% right now," Zero replied.
"Alright, I'll let you keep it on, but concentrate more on the sensors." Iratus said.
Zero nodded to this and keyed into the training simulation, "Okay, fun times over you guys. Back to reality."
Without waiting for a reply, he deactivated the simulation program and brought the two fighters into the construct, before jacking them out. The first to wake up was a pale skinned man, in his mid-30s, with combed back black hair, and a calm looking exterior, although the other crew knew better on that last part. He was plain looking, but a cunning thinker underneath. He was dressed in a white uniform sweater with black pants and black boots, as if he were still in the Zion military.
The other one was a young teenage girl, 17 years in age, something of a rarity to see on board a ship. She was oriental, with dark brown eyes and a long mane of black hair. As well, despite her age, she had fully developed breasts, which an observer would first notice do to her chosen outfit: a pair of uniform pants with boots, and an olive green tank top that barely drew down to her waist, fully showing off the size of her chest. She followed the man in waking, stretching her rather-built arms out in order to get blood flowing again.
"That was a fun break," she said, looking at her left arm, running her right hand index finger down, indenting where a scar had been. "Although I'm getting really tired of your knife tricks, Alucard. Why can't you use a handgun like everybody else?"
"And why can't you fight in a close-range battle, Reiko?" Alucard shot back, speaking in a pure Romanian accent, "Hiding on a roof top with a PSG-1 isn't exactly very bushido," he simply put, in an amused tone of voice. "Although, you shouldn't complain," he wiped his hand across his mouth, turning it around to reveal blood to her.
Reiko smiled at her handiwork. "I can't help it. I love watching the little people run up and down the city through a sniper scope, because no matter what they're doing, their lives are in my hands."
"Will you two knock it off? We've got work to do," Iratus said.
"What kind of work do you mean?" a new voice said. In came a woman with blonde hair, late-30s, dressed in a gray outfit that signified her as the ship's crew assist. There wasn't much to discern, she wasn't very beautiful, with her built exterior and aged expression, but one could say she looked deadly and at one point had her looks. However, where right eye would have been, there was a black eye patch, and a scar the size of a Sentinel claw going down through her eye to the bottom of her cheek.
"Trancing around an unknown region is a lot of hard work indeed. I honestly wonder how we'll ever survive, Iratus."
"Shut up, Artemis," Iratus put out. "I'm only following the Captain's orders. We're to remain alert in case we find anything 'important'."
"And what's so important that Blood would sent us all the way out here?" Artemis shot back. "This place is a waste zone. There hasn't been any machine activity in this region for decades. Hell, even Commander Lock chose not to explore further into this area, because the climate is more of a threat than the chance of Sentinels operating here!"
Iratus merely gave a "whatever" smirk and shrugged. "I'm not going to question Blood on this one, because he was so *CENSORED* sure about it. As much as I hate asking machines for guidance, following the Oracle's advice is a lot better than wandering around the region blindly."
"With all due respect, 'sir'," Artemis seethed, "I don't believe in her prophecy mumbo-jumbo. A program that can predict the future... heh, right."
"She's proven useful so far." Iratus said.
"Hey, I got something!" Zero yelled out, breaking up the conversation. Iratus gave Artemis an 'I told you so' look, before everyone in the room gathered around Zero, looking at the main monitor. It was displaying a large red area on a black landscape, which nobody but Zero knew.
"Okay, I'll start," Artemis said. "What are you using, and what have you found?"
"To answer your first question, Arty, this is infrared," Zero replied. "It's a sensor system that detects heat, instead of sound like Sonar or objects like radar. I just copied some data from the Matrix and wrote my own program for it. As for what I found, it's some kind of facility."
Zero typed further, switching over to RADAR.SEN. Angling the radar over to the location, he got a general outline of the facility. It was square shaped and generally uncovered, outlined by a perimeter of metal. The main building itself looked like a bunker of sorts, since radar couldn't scan further into the base line.
Zero then remembered they were still flying, so he keyed in the intercom. "We struck pay dirt, Captain. Better land here. We have a big heat signature in those mountains."
"Alright, I'm putting her down." In a few moments, everyone felt the forward motion of the ship slow, and eventually drop down onto the soft, black terrain below. Although they were well out of the range of infrared, everyone could feel the spot they landed in was warm. Rather strange, considering this territory was a frozen wasteland. Another few moments went by, and Ravage emerged from the cockpit as the sound of the Vehemens' hover pads winding down echoed across the ship.
"Okay, so what are we looking at? Volcanic activity?"
Zero shook his head, "I'm not detecting any movements in the ground. Whatever it is, it's on the surface. And it's very, very hot." Everyone, without a word, looked at Ravage for orders. "You want to find out what it is?"
"Of course I do. Reiko, Alucard, Artemis, join me at the exit hatch and get suited up. Iratus, stay with Zero on the ship. If this is a trap, I want you to fire the EMP and get the hell out of here, with or without us."
"Why does he get to stay behind? He could fly off witho..." Artemis began to complain in her scathing tone. Before anyone blinked, Ravage grabbed her shirt with his right hand, yanked her into his grip and threw her on the right side of the operator's console. Seeing Artemis' expression turn from anger into fear and shock made Ravage feel self-satisfaction inside, and also told him she was now more than willing to listen to him.
He continued. "Out of all of us, Iratus is the best at flying the ship, thus our best getaway driver. But, assuming he is a traitorous bald-headed caucasian bred dog for a moment, as you think of him, I'll clarify. Yes, he could fly off without us, but he wouldn't get far. The closest ship to our position is the Nosferatu, way back in the 01 region. Since I'm the only one that knows the route back to the 'Bloodsucker', he'd most likely end up getting lost. And if he gets lost, chances are, sentinels will find him. Without Reiko, Alucard and yourself, he'd have one hell of a time to fight them off."
"Even if he didn't have all that to deal with, Iratus is the first mate of this ship, and your fellow comrade, so you better put as much trust into him as I do. Because that, my dear Artemis, is what will keep you alive."
Ravage wrapped up with an even deeper, more intense voice, "Do I make myself clear?" he said, returning to abnormally calmer vocation, as calm as he was anyway.
Artemis grimaced at that part. Ravage was very well known for his disciplinary methods, and she didn't really want to know what the big oriental man was capable of. "Yes Sir," she growled, in pure, unjaded irritance.
"Good," Ravage said, dropping her, "Now, if everyone will join me..."
After some time, the Vehemens' loading ramp lowered, revealing Ravage, Alucard, Reiko and Artemis clad in environmental suits. One of the latest designs from Zion, the environmental suit was made to allow humans to explore some of the more hazardous environments on the planet. Originally made for the lava tubes that were around Zion, they could absorb a great amount of heat, making them ideal for this situation.
"Alright, let's go." Ravage ordered, after taking a moment to survey the scenery.
Hesitantly, the others followed him as he walked toward the ruins ahead of them. The complex wasn't very big really, but it looked extremely sturdy, built in an age where the force of an explosion was mankind's most powerful weapon. It was rectangle shaped with rounded edges, and a large shutter type door at the end of the building. Despite its durability, time had taken a toll on the building.
The metal walls that had been designed to absorb missile attacks were now rusted over, with some tears appearing around the sides. Only a few metal bars remained of the chain linked fence that once surrounded the facility and an empty checkpoint post was all that evidenced a gate being there. Aside from that, there were some remains of EMP-Tesla Tanks, perfectly lined and parked in front of the complex, and the wreckage of a VersaTran attack-craft scattered across the landing pad.
Everyone ventured past the wreckage and approached the shutter door. Alucard was the first, reaching out and wiping the black frozen ash off a sign. Although the sign was written in Russian, Alucard stumbled back when he recognized the black fan-like symbol. Ravage rose an eyebrow behind his visor, showing great interest, while Reiko remained indifferent. Artemis was the only one that didn't know what it meant. "What is it?"
"That explains the heat signature." Ravage said, "It's a nuclear waste facility, left over from the Man-Machine War," he pointed at the HazMat emblem.
"Looks like the machines haven't got here yet." Without saying another word, Ravage reached down, and with his immense strength, forced the shutter upward. Being over two centuries old, the shutter was almost rusted tight, but Ravage managed to open it all the way, doubting he could pull it back down though. But that didn't matter, it was inside that counted.
All around, there were tight-sealed boxes, almost perfectly preserved thanks to the armored structure. All of these boxes had the same emblem on the warning sign, the radioactive HazMat symbol.
"I understand now." Alucard spoke up, "This was probably a disarmament or storage facility at some point. A lot of these places were abandoned when the machines won the war, since there was no organized functioning military to staff the place."
"Captain," Reiko called out. She pointed to one of the boxes that had been crushed open in it, probably from a shard falling on it, "That explains where the radiation is coming from."
Although nobody saw it, Ravage had a very large grin on his face. If he were religious, he would've thanked God, Allah, Ryujin or whatever God had led him to this place on the spot. This would be useful against the machines. "Okay, we're going to take a few boxes with us back. Alucard and Reiko take one box, while Artemis and I take another."
"You're not serious, are you Captain?" Artemis griped, "It could endanger the crew..."
"We'll be fine, as long as its in the case." Ravage shot back.
"Out of curiosity, Captain Ravage, how do you know so much about nuclear weapons?" Reiko chimed in, "You know how much I love intelligent men."
Ravage grinned. "Believe or not, I was a military officer before I got my mind freed, in charge of a nuclear facility, so I know a fair share of information. But most importantly, I know how to put these to good use," he waved his hand around at the various boxes. "Now get to work." ----
