Annihilation

Birth

Page 1

A cold, grim, winter atmosphere greeted the Net Guardians as they disembarked from the plane that took them straight from Electopia to the neighbouring country Sharo. After the loss of the last Gamma piece, David contacted Kalinka to check on her father's status. It turned out he had just awoken from his coma an hour earlier and was reluctantly recovering. Cossack frantically grabbed the phone to find out how the mission had gone, and upon hearing the disappointing news, simply ordered the team to proceed to a certain location in Cyberia where he would meet them. So that's what they did. Although still impatiently waiting for an explanation, the NG were not about to disobey orders from the man when he was acting more vivid than they had have ever known him to be.

The seven operators were exhausted and depressed from their ordeals and the environment that met them didn't help. Sharoan soldiers were waiting for them on the runway as an escort arranged by Cossack. Beyond the grey, snow-filled night the only building the NG could see in the cold wasteland was a stone fortress at the other end of the runway. The only lights to be seen for miles were the search lights and blinking aircraft warning LED arrays adorning the towers on top of the fortress.

Wanting to get inside the hopefully warm fortress as quickly as possible, David approached the nearest soldier, who appeared to be the one in command. "Uh, hi there. I'm guessing you know who we are and why we're here." he said, not even sure if the man spoke the same language.

"Yes. You are the Net Guardians. You are operatives of former Scilab director Dr.Cossack who has requested we attend to you here." The man answered in a strictly serious manner along with an unneccessary salute.

David scratched his head and looked around. "Well, we actually don't know the 'why' part. If you wouldn't mind explaining..."

"Sorry sir, but I am not authorized to relay details pertaining to Gamma at this time."

"Who or what is 'Gamma'? That's the first we've heard of that."

"Dr.Cossack should be arriving shortly to answer all your questions."

"Oh sure, that guy's a bundle of answers. Fine, just take us inside please."

"Right this way, sir."

At the same time, in a valley a few miles from the fortress that served as a blind spot to its sensors, the AH tank touched down right next to a lonely outpost for the Sharoan military. The two sleeping guards inside the small shack was awakened by the beeping of the proximity alert. One of them groaned and quickly turned it off, fully expecting it to be another wandering wolf pack. The other had to remind him about the message they got from the main base about expecting reason for infiltration for the first time in about ten years.

<Feh. Fine then. You go check what it is. I will radio a message to the base.>

<It is cold out there. I want to send the message. You go out and check.>

<I went to check last time you communist bastard.>

A knock at the door broke up the lazy argument and caused the soldiers to grow slightly more concerned. They both grabbed their rifles and one opened the door. Nobody was there so he carefully ventured outside only to notice the black pillars that were suddenly positioned on either side of the doorway. The surprised guard looked up to see what the pillars were supporting and found the massive pod of the AH tank with its laser cannons pointed directly at his face.

Jeremy got himself out of the tank to announce the AH Arrival. He was now wearing his winter gear, basically a red winter jackect with a black ski mask with goggles. His Sharoan wasn't good. Here what his message was.

"Hello Suckers! We've come to take out your base."

"Horseradish is a tasty..." The guard said to himself before the AH Tank opened fired, blowing the guard out of his turret and into the cold harsh tundra.

The other guard dove for the radio as quickly as he could, knowing the only thing that could be done to avert disaster at this point was warn the more appropriately equipped fortress. He got his finger on the transmit button just before Nijubu's sword sliced off his hand. The tall Acid Hacker managed to exit the tank and rush into the building so fast the poor guard didn't even see his dismemberment coming. He staggered back and held back a scream as he reached for his pistol with his bad hand. The desperate move was finished before it began when the other Ah members piled into the shack and easily overwhelmed him.

"Heh heh, we're in. That went smoothly." Jeremy proclaimed smugly. "Okay, Jake, Nijubu, and Matt, tie up the guards. Stuart, Johnny, help Vidal haul in the laptops and antennae. Glorious master Jeremy, take five on that couch."

"Tie them up?" Jake repeated, confused. " Why not just kill them?"

"Because we may need to ask them important info while we're here." Jeremy clarified, getting comfortable in the one piece of home furniture accompanying the otherwise spartan outpost.

"But we don't even know what they're saying. Besides, I'm pretty sure the one you shot with the tank is already dead." Matt pointed out.

"Huh? I thought I used the stun setting."

"There is no stun setting. You just used the lowest power output and hit him in the chest with it. I think you made his heart explode."

"Really? Cool." Jeremy then shook his head and got back to business. "I mean spare me the gory details. Just get the bodies and body parts out of the way, we have work to do."

Johnny sighed "Why did Fate have to go back to Crescent? It was only for a few minutes but taking orders from him actually made me feel like he knew what he was talking about and wasn't some lazy lunatic asshole."

Completely missing the insult, Jeremy offered his theory. "Well, he said he was going to meet us here and yet he went in the opposite direction. Seems to me like he just likes getting us to do all the work and he's not going to meet up with us at all. Works for me. If we hurry we might even get Gamma all to ourselves. I'd like to see him claim it if he's late to the party."

"Careful what you say, man." Stuart said ominously. "There's still a whole lot Fate didn't tell us about what Gamma is or does. I'm starting to trust him less and less, myself."

"I hear that." Matt affirmed. "He's been inside the NG's base all this time and didn't even tell us about it. He's definitely got an agenda that doesn't sompletely synch with ours."

"I don't care. We've come too far to worry about backstabbing now, especially with all the backstabbing I have planned for Fate." Jeremy concluded.

"Wish I could help you guys figure it all out, but he didn't tell me any more than he did you." Vidal added. "Well, except for the part about being undercover in the NG base. I think he was keeping them around in case they could get the Gamma pieces better than you could. You weren't supposed to know for obvious reasons."

"... Anywho we have our jobs to come come on!" Jeremy yelled, commading his six teammates into battle.

The gang quickly jacked in their navis.

*********

The Net Guardians sat quietly in the chairs that sat in the room.

All there minds racing with different thoughts.

Though there a few particular thoughts they shared.

"What is Gamma?"

"Who is the hobo?"

"What will happen next?"

The door of room opened slowly, and Dr. Cossack walked into the room, Kalinka followed shortly after, looking worried both for her father's poor health and for the overall situation. This was obviously beyond what any of them had been in business for up until now.

Cossack surveyed the impatient and weary group and sighed. "Well my friends, I suppose you have a lot of questions. I will do my best to explain everything. The beginning of the story goes back quite a ways. Are you prepared to listen?"

There were some uncertain looks in response. Carlos voiced them. "Does this story go back more than thirty years?"

Cossack glanced from side to side and then held up his hand with the thumb and forefinger positioned in a "teensy bit" gesture. Carlos sighed. "Just get it over with. Be quick, who knows what the Acid Hackers are doing with that data?"

"Well...I do." Cossack reminded him. "And in a few minutes so will you. Now the story begins just over thirty years ago..."

There were groans from the audience, but Kalinka shushed them. Cossack clear his breath and began. "Tadashi Hikari of Electopia, then still known commonly as Japan, received large funding from his government to pursue research in advanced network interface. His research eventually led to the creation of CyberRealms, the stand-alone virtual planes from which the CyberWorld would eventually be derived. Along with that he also created the Net Navigator, the artificial intelligences that would inhabit these Realms."

"You know a story is going to be too long when it starts with the beginning of the world..." Cyros muttered.

Cossack continued. "When Hikari's research was made public, the next step was to extend the CyberRealm model to a global network. At first it seemed like Japan would not have the resources to complete that task, and so the other major network-oriented countries of Amerope, Creamland, and Sharo all put their SciLabs to work to try and complete the Cyberworld first. This period became known as the 'Cyberspace Race'".

"Huh, never heard of that." David commented. "I was taught Electopia pretty much got the whole thing started on their own."

Cossack nodded. "From the way things turned out, you would think so. The truth was there was global competition to see who would gain the reknown of being the creator of the Cyberworld. At the time I was the head of navi development. Actually, I was on an exchange visit to Japan while Hikari first developed the concept and got in on the ground floor of navi design."

"Ah, that would be when you made the Giant and Bass, right?" Sam blurted out in realization.

"Well, Bass came later, after returning to Sharo. But yes, the Giant you fought was made right there in Japan before Hikari's research was released and the Cyberspace Race even began. In a way it's actually the first navi ever completed, but since it was never used and in many ways it does not even comply with the modern definition of 'navi', I do not get recognition for that. At least with Bass I gained some infamy...in a way."

"Let's get back on topic, doc." Moe suggested.

"Right, so my return to Sharo and the induction of the 'Race' coincided nicely, and I was quickly appointed head of navi development. My friend and colleague Piotr Sudba was made head of CyberRealm development. He was under the most pressure, being responsible for making sure Sharo would beat the other nations in the integration of a CyberRealm network."

"Ah, and how did that work out?" Adrienne asked sarcastically, David already gave that answer.

Cossack looked off to the side and shook his head. "Yes, the Cyberspace Race ended when Japan's SciLab, under the direction of Tadashi Hikari released their Prototype Alpha. Hikari was certainly the perceived forerunner byt the end, being the original creator of the model, and he lived up to those expectations. We were all quite distraught for having our years of intense work amount to nothing." Then he looked up for a moment and shrugged. "Well, I wasn't too distraught. As a navi specialist my work could continue no matter what Cyberworld we were using. Sudba, on the other hand, was devastated..."

"I think I can see where the story will end now." Jon claimed confidently. "Sudba builds doomsday weapon Gamma to get revenge on the people that took his glory, right?"

Cossack cocked a bushy eyebrow at Jon and gave a frank "No."

"Oh, well am I close?"

Again, Cossack looked upward pensively for a moment then shrugged. "I suppose, slightly."

"Owned!" Jon shouted, throwing his fists in the air.

Cossack cleared his throat loudly and continued. "The story of the Cyberspace Race actually does not end there. I'm sure some of you would have at least heard of the Alpha Rebellion by now, particularly with the recent press it's gotten following its resurrection."

David nodded. "When the internet went berserk and started spreading like an amoeba. So there was a chance to get back into the game after Japan's fumble, I take it."

"Precicely. With the failure of Alpha, there was renewed hope for Sharo and Creamland to make the Cyberworld in their own image."

"Eh? What happened to Amerope? Weren't they a part of the race?" Jon asked.

"Yes, but apparently they had given up on winning it themselves. Amerope joined forces with Japan in the development of Prototype Beta. With the combined efforts of the two nations, the second race barely had time to begin before it ended. Beta was a success and it was eventually perfected into the Cyberworld you know today. But during those few short weeks when there was still hope, Sudba worked like a madman to finish what he started. Towards the end it seemed hopeless, I told him myself that Hikari's camp was on the verge of a breakthrough, but he never gave in, he claimed it was his destiny to change the world with his vision."

Jon stood up. "Right, so his second failure is what made him make his doomsday weapon in revenge, right?"

"No, shut up. There was a major problem with the lengths Sudba went to complete his vision. He acquired and integrated source code from Alpha."

This set off warning bells for the Net Guardians. Moe voiced his shock and confusion. "I'm not sure what's wrong with that more, the use of a known disaster in his invention, ot the use of his rival's rejected work in what was supposed to be his greatest accomplishment."

Cossack sighed. "Well, for the latter keep in mind we were copying off his model in the first place, so that didn't bother us as much. The Alpha Rebellion, on the other hand, was of great concern to us all. Sudba claimed he could make the amoeba model work, that he had a way to control it. He also seemed to be enthusiastic about the unity and equality possible through the amorphous, expanding link. However the Global SciLab council was not nearly as enthusiastic. He claimed his prototype was ready long before Beta was, but the other nations were too skeptical about the control of something using Alpha's code. It was decided Sudba's model would be put through extensive testing before public release. The testing never showed problems, but neither did Alpha at first. Beta made its quick release long before the testing was complete."

"Alpha...Beta...Gamma is Sudba's prototype Cyberworld, isn't it?" Sam reasoned.

Cossack nodded solemnly. "The global council halted testing on Gamma and proceeded to remove its potential threat by deleting what they could, and then fragmenting the core into five pieces which they gave to different facilities for safekeeping. Amerope's SciLab took charge of four of the pieces, while Japan took the fifth. I offered to have it uploaded into Giant's body so it could act as a guardian just in case someone tried to recklessly revive Gamma."

"'Upload' is a nice way of saying you shoved it up its butt." Cyros pointed out.

"Don't blame me for that. I wasn't even in Japan at the time, I just said they could do it."

"Hey, if they wanted to remove a potential threat, why didn't they just completely delete Gamma?" Adrienne asked the painfully obvious question.

"The same reason they didn't delete Alpha. They couldn't. The prototype Cyberworlds are part of the source code of the complete Cyberoworld. They couldn't be directly deleted without causing complicated bugs throughout the system."

"That sounds idiotic." said Carlos.

"We prefer 'shortsighted', back then the source code was all we had to work with. Going back and fixing all those potential errors seemed easy before the network became as widespread as it was by the Alpha Rebellion. We could still directly delete Gamma with difficulty as a last resort, but sealing the pieces away was much easier."

"So the Acid Hackers are going to revive something that might become another Alpha..." David began.

"Oh, not 'might'." Cossack interrupted. "It most certainly will. The key to controlling Sudba's upgrade was the use of competent, level-headed administrators. This Gamma will be under the control of the Acid Hackers."

"Oh shit, the internet's doomed." David finished.

"Wait, what happened to Sudba after all of this?" Sam asked.

"Well, like I said earlier, I specialized in navis and my research still had directions to go, but Gamma was Sudba's last chance. He was dismissed from SciLab and I never saw him again. Although..." He then pulled out a black-and-white photo from his coat pocket and showed it to the group. The Net Guardians all got up and huddled in curiously to get a better look at the picture. It was a group shot of a small assortment of men and women in lab coats standing in front of a wall of computers. The NG quickly recognized a young Dr.Cossack among the team, looking vibrant and successful. The older, more dissheveled Cossack of the present pointed to the man on the far left of the picture. "That is Sudba, does he look familiar to any of you?"

No one recognized him at first, but looking some more he started to ring some bells. He was about Cossack's build, with dark hair hanging down above his shoulders and covering his ears. A short beard and moustache covered his grim and beleaguered face. Despite the quality of the photo, they could make out his cold eyes. Jon was the first to put a solid memory to the face. "Well goddamn crap freakin' hell that's our beloved hobo. So that's why he stole the last piece from us." He moaned sadly for the confirmation of his friend's betrayal.

The other Net Guardians realized the same thing. "So, Sudba really is behind this? He's the one that's been helping the Acid Hackers?" David asked for clarification.

"There's not a big list of people it could be." Cossack answered. "Only a few high-level SciLab VIPs know exactly what Gamma is, and everyone else who just knows of its existence, like the Officials, don't know enough to bring it together for any reason. Aside from Sudba, everyone who knew about Gamma was against it. The list of suspects begins and ends with this man.

Kalinka broke her silence to scold the group. "So just why did you let this spy stay in plain view in your apartment for so long and even bring him with you to Electopia?"

"Because he's hilarious!" Jon protested. "He was awesome, you guys should have enjoyed his drunken conversations along with me."

"He never dropped any hints at all he wasn't actually a drunken homeless loser?" Kalinka pressed on.

"Well...there was that one time a few weeks ago when I was making him dance for quarters and I brought up how cool it would be if I could get Bowlman drunk, and he suggested either targeting him with a BugBomb or other confusion-inducing battlechip, or doing this thingy to the customizing whatchamacallit..." Jon then dug around in his pocket and pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper to read from. "Yeah, realign the motor control subroutine with the equillibrium variance program in the perspective stability node of the Navi Customizer for a gradually auto-correcting bug more analgous to human intoxication."

Everyone stared at Jon with mouths agape. Jon laughed. "Yeah, that's the look I gave him when he said that too. Then he noticed me looking at him like that and started slurring again and talked about how the corporations were all out to get him with their cosmic mind control rays and army of killer pigeons...he also talked with a Sharoan accent sometimes...I'm gonna miss his crazy antics."

Kalinka rubbed her temple in frustration. "Okay, forget the hobo, why did you let Jon stay in your apartment for so long?"

"Forget it, what's next, doc?" Moe asked Cossack.

"There's still a chance to stop the rebirth of Gamma. The pieces have to be reunited here in this fortress' server because it was here Gamma was created and dismantled. The location is inherently linked to its recreation, much like a sixth Gamma piece. The Acid Hackers will most likely try to invade the system soon."

"So it's our job to guard it and get the pieces back..." David concluded. "Sounds like a plan to me. Alright team, we'd better get to some terminals."

********

Punk rolled up into a ball and began shredding guards left and right.

The other six quickly spilt, shutting down the West and East wings. Mist Man commanded Desert Man and Flame Man while Plant Man took charge of Flash Man and Beast Man.

"Alright, we need to halt back up from coming in." Plant Man informed, "First we fight our way through, wipe out the guards here, then we joined the others at the front gate, we seal then join punk at the front plaza to reasemble Gamma."

"That your plan?" Beast Man asked.

"So?"

"Well..."

"There they are!" A guard yelled.

"No time to change it!" Plant Man cried, sending his vines to impale that guard.

*********

The Net Guardians were now in the central control room of the fortress. Whatever lack of modern features was found in the rest of the decaying stone building was made up for in this room with wall-to-wall computers and the loud hum of the region's servers. Armed guards fortified the entrance to the room while other Sharoan soldiers with more dressed-down uniforms commanded their navi equivalents inside the system. The NG were taking their time to get their folders and such ready while the moment of peace lasted.

"What the hell are the Acid Hackers trying to do, anyway? I knew they were crazy, but why destroy the whole net?" Cyros pondered out loud while micro-managing Metalman's customizations.

"I'm starting to think they don't really know what they're getting into." David attempted to explain. "...Then again, if I know Jeremy, he could treat anything as a joke, he could even sacrifice his own navi like this."

"Maybe we should try to...you know...talk them out of it now that we know what it is they're doing. Just in case they don't." Adrienne suggested hesitantly. She was met with shocked looks from the others. "Yeah, I know it's unorthodox but things have been getting desperate lately, and I'm too tired for another fiasco like that Giant thing."

Carlos shook his head. "I can already tell it would never work. Besides, we want to fight them as much as they want to fight us..."

Suddenly, alarms blared throughout the base. The NG was caught off guard by the noise, but when they realized what it meant, they knew what was coming. The various monitors in the room began switching to feed from the Cyberworld, where underarmed security forces throughout the grid were coming under relentless attack.

"Damn, they're here already." Moe rasped. "No more time to kill. Let's jack-in!"

"Looks like they've got us surrounded already. How in the hell?" Sam analyzed the readings on the monitors while everyone else hurried to find a port without knowing where their navis were going. "Either the Acid Hackers have picked up some impressive elusive techniques or the early detection at this base sucks ass!"

"Don't care. Either way, they're not getting any farther!" David declared passionately. "Serenade's going alone to the front gate. Yamato, King, Drill, you're in the east, everyone else in the west." He gave his hasty orders and then jacked-in. The others could tell already they were off to a bad start.

********

"Man, I haven't had this much fun for a long time!"

"Zezowar!"

"Stay focused! We have a mission to do here!"

After the small scolding Mist man gave to Desert Man and Flame Man, more guards rushed towards them, blaster fire flying through the air.

"Ow, sonva bitch shot me!"

Flame Man than unleashed fire all along the ground, setting the remaining guards aflame.

"Zezowa!"

"Keep moving!"

Geeyaah!" Beast Man yelled, slicing though a couple of guards.

Flash Man took out a flash bulb from his shoulder and tossed into a hallway, deleting all the guards there.

"This is Plant Man! We've got the West wing almost secured, how's you end?"

"Almost got it..." Mist Man replied, before stopping to see something.

"Mist Man? What is it? Respond damnit!"

"... Net..."

The Wood Element Navi got the picture clearly.

"The justice train rolled by! Let's take them out!" Plant Man ordered.

********

"You're not moving anywhere!"

Mist Man turned towards the voice of the voice, only to get slashed by a pawn, dissipating the gas for a moment to just reform a moment later. And he saw his attackers: Yamato Man, Drill Man, and King Man.

"So the losers have arrived" said Flame Man. "Well bring it on wusses!!!!!"

Flame Man fired his fire towards King Man, Drill Man, and Yamato Man. Drill Man drilled into a hole, King Man jumped out of the way, and Yamato Man successfuly stood his ground by pinning his spear, stopping the fire in its tracks.

When King Man landed, he was immdiately attacked by Desert Man's tiger fists, which were than drilled away by Drill Man, who was than punched by Mist, who was struck by the spear of Yamato Man, who was atatcked with Flame Man's fire, who was than stepped on by a Knight.

All in all, a good battle.

********

Metal Man walked down the dark corridor with Dark Man and Bowl Man behind him.

"It's quiet." Dark Man said, anazlying the situation.

"Too quiet..." Bowl Man replied.

"All right guys! Enough of the cliches." Metal Man ordered. "The Hackers could be anywhere in the building."

At the moment the three of them heard a glass ball rolled onto the ground. It was dark but Metal Man reconized it as light bulb. It started to flickered on and Metal Man saw two shadows behind. It went out and turned on again. Now there were four shadow. Two hacker navis were behind them.

"AMBUSH!" Metal Man yelled!

********

Somewhere in Crescent City, deep underground in a dark and secluded bunker, Fate was working furiously among a clutter of old machinery and computers. In one corner of the room, a large empty spot where the tank he had spent much of the last twenty years building used to be parked stood out as a lone clean surface among several piles of spare parts across the floor and blinking, humming servers across the walls. Even the ceiling was rather crowded with robotic assembly tools and wiring that led up to the surface where he discreetly siphoned power from several key locations in town. The grizzled old man once known as Piotr Sudba was moving from computer to computer, preparing all his hideout's processing power to activate a single piece of machinery in another corner of the room.

Coughing and shaking from his weary frame served to slow his work somewhat, but he pushed on with more determination, the weaker he felt. "Hmm, it's almost time. I don't mind using the last of this body's strength this way...soon it will not matter at all." He said out loud to himself, not caring one bit what that implied of his sanity. "All these years, all this work, not only acquiring the parts and plans from my old SciLab connections, but putting them together with my own two hands, not to mention all the hazardous 'training' and preparation that allowed me to succeed with this stage of my plan..."

He flipped three more switches to divert the power flow, then looked around to make sure everything was in working order, then finally turned to the device of his current focus. A loud humming sound began to emit from the high-tech chair in the corner. The helmet attached with wires to the top displayed various LEDs that changed colour as the systems finished booting up. Sudba pressed one more button on the nearest computer which made a countdown appear on the monitor. He then sat in the chair. "All this work, all this material wealth. All that is left is to destroy it. In a way I think I will miss this wretched struggle of a life, but the allure of my new, eternal life, far outweighs that."

Fate carefully strapped the blinking, wire-filled helmet onto his head, and proceeded to attach several electrodes around the base of the chair to his vital points. The Pulse Transmission System was ready to send the old man's mind to the Cyberworld. "Will it work? If my calculations are correct, it will. If not, I will certainly die." Thinking about the strong chances of his imminent demise only made the man chuckle and then cough due to the sudden strain his laughter put on his lungs. "I have nothing to lose. One way or another, this worthless body was going to die very soon. It has to be this way."

He glanced one last time to the countdown on the monitor. He had to squint and strain his weak eyes to make sense of it, but he could tell there were less than ten minutes before everything in his lab would simultaneously short out and likely burn down everything in the room to a worthless heap, including his own corpse. The infamous risk of the PTS was that if either the user's physical or electronic form was damaged, then both forms would feel the effects. However the PTS was designed to always enable a link, a lifeline between the mind and body so a digitized human could always return to the real world. Fate had spent much of the last two decades re-engineering his pirated system to sever that lifeline and allow the digitized human to remain in the Cyberworld forever, despite what becomes of the physical body. Now, in less than ten minutes, he would find out whether or not he succeeded.

"Fate.exe...Pulse...IN!"

********

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