A glowing blue light washed over Tsubaki’s face in the dark of her apartment, the light cast by the computer she had been staring at for hours—digging, researching, and hacking. A warm yellow radiance streaked over the furniture behind her, and the noise of the city battered against her apartment window. Her fingers clattered away at her keyboard and her eyes never left the screen.
Her first target was Dr. Harry Valentino. Programming specialist at Khaganate Labs. Prodigy. Hired straight from university—alongside Shannon Alexis Murphy—by Myles Vulcan. Younger brother to Stephan Valentino, head of Psychology at Khaganate. A strange sense of déjà vu overcame her suddenly. She had never met Stephan but only heard mention of him from Takashi, who knew the man closely. Tsubaki dismissed the feeling as a bug and made a point to run a diagnosis later on. Next came Doctor Shannon Alexis Murphy. Biorobotics genius. Responsible for developing pioneering technology for Myles Vulcan and Khaganate alongside the other leading scientists in the field from an array of technology companies. Shannon and Harry appeared to be in a long-lasting dispute after Harry left their university research team to join another company and sell patents that Shannon and Stephan supposedly contributed to—funnily enough there was no legal action taken against Harry, likely due to the nature of their relationship. Last of all was Myles Vulcan himself. He was the spearhead of commercial robotics. Mysterious and reclusive. Wealthy. Believed to be heavily augmented with personal cyberware, such as electronic eyes and a Neural Interface Chip. Myles would be the most elusive to catch. So, where to begin?
She needed something tangible, some kind of evidence as to what they’re movements were like and what they planned to do in the future. This could be anything: schedules, receipts, work documents, a phone call. Yes. After a little digging—much of which was not strictly legal—and with help from Takashi’s resources, Tsubaki managed to intercept a phone call from Myles Vulcan to Harry Valentino, and create a transcript:
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Myles: Is this a good time?
Harry: Yes. I have to take Chris to her appointment soon, but I have about fifteen minutes. What do you need?
Myles: Tokyo Robotica have made their move. It’s time we do the same.
Harry: I’m guessing you have a plan.
Myles: Always. They’re going after POSEIDON, which means the project is already at risk. It’s only a matter of time before they learn about Jak, too. He’ll be in danger. Do what you can to keep him safe.
Harry: This sounds pretty serious.
Myles: The mainframes are the single greatest power that human kind as ever created. They are not to be taken lightly.
Harry: I understand that, sir. What else do you need?
Myles: I’m sending you a file. It’s an update for Jak. A necessary precaution. Install it as soon as you can.
Harry: After that?
Myles: How do you feel about taking a little holiday?
Harry: A paid holiday, I hope.
Myles: Tokyo Robotica’s North-Western Algae Research and Production Facility—that is where you’ll be going.
Harry: Well, I was hoping for some place a little warmer.
Myles: The computer at Epsilon-12 is an as access port to POSEIDON. Now, GAIA has created some defences but in this early stage she can’t transmit them remotely. I’ll need you to install the firewall, and then download any data relevant to PROMETHEUS before reforming the drive.
Harry: You sure about this, sir? It won’t be easy, but I can do it.
Myles: You’re the only person I trust with this. Not even Doctor Murphy is privy to this information.
Harry: She won’t like that.
Myles: How soon can you leave?
Harry: This afternoon.
Myles: Good. See me when the job is done. And good luck.
Harry: Thank you, sir.
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The call ended and Tsubaki sat back in her chair. Epsilon-12. How on Earth could Khaganate have discovered their plans so quickly? And who or what was Jak? What type of prototype was it, and what was its function? Either way, she had a lead, and it was time to travel north.
Tsubaki flew direct from Kakushin to Epsilon-12 and as she travelled, she learned of the malfunction at site Gamma, undoubtedly the result of Harry purging the site computer’s data. That part of the mission had ended before it began but she still had access to POSEIDON, which meant she still had something to do here. She was greeted by Tracy Williams, the general supervisor for Epsilon-12, who informed her about the status of the north-western operation. Tracy assured Tsubaki that the recent malfunctions had not negatively impacted the development of POSEIDON.
“Site Gamma remains completely off-grid,” Tracy explained. “The only ones who have been there since is Carlyle—I call him that but I’ll give you his serial number—as well as the other two members of his team. I have his report on the incident.” She pressed a few keys on her computer and sent the data through to Tsubaki’s phone. “Here.”
“Did he say what caused the malfunction?”
“He guessed that it was a virus, but he couldn’t risk having it spread to him or his team, so we can’t say for certain. The storm did the rest.”
“This android, is he protective of his team?”
“Well, yes, in the interest of the mission, of course.”
“I’d like to speak with him.”
“He’s off base right now but I can call for him. Site Delta is just under a day from here if you travel by snowmobile.”
“In the meantime, I’d like to look around.”
While Tsubaki waited for Carlyle to arrive she did a solo tour of the base and found that everything was in good order. She scanned their files and ran a diagnostic of their system, deducing that the source of the problem did not come from here. Harry had not come this way. It could have been a proxy, an android disguised as a Tokyo Robotica worker, but somehow Tsubaki didn’t think this was true. Harry came here himself, and he would have finished the job himself.
As sundown splashed crimson on the tips of snowy trees, the android Carlyle arrived at Alpha Base and met with Tsubaki in Tracy’s office. There Tsubaki questioned him about Site Gamma and extracted everything she needed to know. This one seemed different from the other androids that Tsubaki had known, and Tsubaki considered Takashi’s warning about deviant androids in this area. Did his eyes appear more alive than they should have, or was she simply misinterpreting her senses? Either way, the androids were not her priority as of yet. Naturally Tracy gave Tsubaki the transport and equipment required to reach the site, which she did with very little trouble
Tsubaki’s boots crunched into deep loose snow. Of all the theatres that her missions had taken her to, the north was one of the more formidable. She lifted her goggles onto her furry cap and removed her fabric face covering to inhale fresh cold air. She was a phantom dressed in white. The part of her hair not covered by her cap stood out in stark contrast against the snowy backdrop. Everything here so clean and quiet felt very different to her home in Kakushin. She had been in the city for so long and she refused to admit that the ashen rolling fields conjured the smallest sense of awe within her. Her snowmobile rumbled idly until she cut the engine, and the fume of gasoline hung heavy in the air afterwards. She gazed upon the ruins of Site Gamma, which had already become partially enveloped in snow. A checkerboard of sun-glinted and shattered windows lined the upper level of the main warehouse. Somewhere Tsubaki placed the rhythmic tap-tapping of a panel or a door swinging open in the breeze. This place was well and truly dead.
The interior of the main warehouse possessed a cathedral-like quality, something about how the rays of sunlight hovered in swirly icy mist, and the choir of the wind chanting through snaking pipes overhead. Red dots shined like eyes in the remaining gloom, the remnants of the facility’s electrical system. Tsubaki’s slow footsteps echoed loudly as she advanced to the facility’s main computer. The terminal was dead, of course, but by placing her hand to its power socket she was able to feed it enough electricity to run for just a short time. The screen was chipped, dusty and pixelated but it still beamed to life. First, Tsubaki checked the computer’s files but found nothing of significance, other than clues that the system contained encrypted files, and that it had been infected with a virus. She would have to interface directly to find the answers she required, by placing her hand on the screen and establishing a link via a cord in her wrist. Sure enough, the moment that she connected she was attacked by the virus. It approached her like an all-consuming black fire, and she recoiled but remained prepared to defend, and just like that the virus was extinguished and the computer was freed. So, it was true, Harry had done this, and the complex nature of the virus only confirmed her suspicion. If she could salvage any piece of information from this mainframe, anything that Harry might have missed, it would prove invaluable not only to Takashi but also to her, as she would gain some insight the secret she was trying to protect. She looked further, dug deeper, until she uncovered a single word: ARES.
What was ARES? Another mainframe, obviously. What was its function? How was it connected to GAIA? Did it belong to Tokyo Robotica? Tsubaki could only guess at the answers, as it wasn’t her directive to know.
A sound from somewhere nearby rattled through the icy air. Tsubaki turned and scanned the empty warehouse. The sound came again and she took a few slow steps in that direction. “Come out!” she called. Slow pattering footsteps belonging to a cloaked figure standing in the darkness rebounded around the large room. They wore a tattered piece of fabric around their shoulders, giving them a shadowy bat-like quality when they raised their hands. As the figure stepped into the light Tsubaki saw frightened desperate eyes—one was blue like aquamarine and the other was cloudy and pale, and grotesquely scarred around the edges. A deep gash split the figure’s skull above the right brow, revealing the digital insides within.
“Please, don’t hurt me,” the figure stuttered.
“Who are you?”
“SR-201779,” he replied, and then laughed nervously. “Decommissioned, at least I was supposed to be.”
“What are you doing here?”
The android took little steps forward. He rubbed the back of his palm with his fingers and always avoided Tsubaki’s eyes. His entire body trembled.
“Oh, I’ve been here a while. Others come and go but I mostly avoid them.”
“Why are you not avoiding me?” Tsubaki asked cautiously.
“Are you an android?” His lips flicked into a smile. “You’re not like me though, are you?”
“Who were the last people to visit this place?”
“There were… yes, there were three of them. One female-type, two male-type. Maintenance androids. They came to repair the station but it was long beyond saving by the time they arrived. One of them almost caught me but I stayed hidden.”
Again, Tsubaki’s eyes scanned the android’s body. Judging by the movement of his cloak, he concealed something heavy inside. She pondered his words: ‘one of them almost caught me’.
“Before then, who else came here? It was a man, right? A human?”
The android nodded quickly and took another step forward. “Oh yeah. He was the one who shut this place down. He turned off all the androids.”
“Stop there,” Tsubaki said quickly. “I’m leaving now. You should contact your Alpha Base and let them know you are still operational.”
“Oh, no, I can’t go back, not now, not at all. I’m not useful to anyone back there, and they don’t have time for anything that doesn’t serve a purpose. You can’t exist if you’re not useful. But I found I way to exist out here, all on my own.”
The android’s cloak opened to reveal a pale and scarred torso. Tsubaki perceived that some of the mutilations were self-inflicted, but not all of them. She detected burns around the neckline, and deep puncture wounds as if from a screwdriver. Other scars appeared to be the remnants of surgical incisions.
“You are dysfunctional,” Tsubaki stated coldly.
“I only wanted to exist,” he moaned. “Are you going to take that from me?”
“No,” Tsubaki replied. “It is not my mission. You mean nothing to me, but when I return to Alpha Base, I will inform the supervisor that you are here.”
“Oh,” the android breathed, and then his eyes flashed.
Metal glinted like piercing lightning from under his cloak and a heavy wrench struck Tsubaki on the side of her head. A dizzying light enveloped her vision as she thudded against the floor and black Thirium seeped into her mouth. The android cried out and swung the wrench again for a killing blow just as Tsubaki recovered her senses and rolled out of the way. The wrench shattered the concrete where her head had just been. Tsubaki climbed back to her feet. She constantly dipped backwards to avoid the attacking android, until he swung the wrench from overhead and she caught his hands and yanked the weapon away.
She jabbed the android hard in the stomach with the head of the wrench. His head bowed forward, and she struck it from below as if she were swinging a baseball bat. He flew backwards and landed in a heap on the ground. Then, smote with fear, he turned and fled, but Tsubaki hurled the wrench and it span through the air and clashed against the back of his legs. The android fell flat on his face. Tsubaki walked apathetically towards the wounded crying android as he crawled with broken legs away from her. The wrench scraped loudly against concrete as she picked it up. He turned and lifted his arm to protect his face—Tsubaki broke it with a single swing. She knelt over the android, stretched her fingers outright and angled her hand over his exposed chest, and then dug them deep inside. There was a blood-curdling crunch, the sound of wires ripping from flesh, and with a heave she yanked the android’s core regulator from his body. He writhed and squirmed, and stared blankly at the ceiling, and then all his movements ceased.
The android was dead.
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