A technician walked around the
table, carrying a stack of paper. He
nearly tripped over a wire coming out from the ground and mildly cursed. The room's lights were turned out to give the
holographic emitter more contrast. It
was an unfortunate effect that the table they used to display CAD/CAM data had
such poor illumination, but their budget couldn't afford the new SP model.
The scientist plopped the stack next
to Dr. Cain and went back to get more.
Cain tapped his cane against the floor as he studied the printouts. "This makes no sense. One report says six Maverick reploids, the
other says twelve."
"Mine says fourteen," Dr.
Addison interrupted.
"Nonetheless, we must count on
a number larger than what the reports estimate.
At least we know they're all headed to the power plant."
"I disagree." Dr. Fremont typed into the keypad on his side
of the emitter, manipulating the image.
"See how this valley connects with the old factory? I think they must be going there."
"Preposterous," Dr.
Addison said. "The old factory
isn't of nearly as much value as the power plant."
"Wait," Dr. Cain held up
his hand to the group while he looked at the computer screen. His personal monitor scrolled through lines
of text.
"One of the B.E.A.T.s has
sighted some shapes going towards the factory." He punched some more commands in and
presented them to the topograph. Some
black spheres with question marks showed up and moved into the valley. The stopped shortly where it branched off on
the side closest to the factory. He
turned to the other two with a raised eyebrow, in question of what to do next.
The two doctors crouched over the
emitter, deep in thought.
Dr. Addison said, "We cannot
assume that the Mavericks are truly going to the factory. The power plant is of much more importance
strategy-wise. If there are only shapes
being sighted then we don't really have ocular proof that Mavericks really are
taking the plant. Plus, the plant has a
G4 power transformer, extremely valuable."
"Wait," Dr. Cain declared,
still at the console, still receiving cryptically coded lines of
information. "There are more
reploids around the factory. More info's
coming in. I think... I think they're
joining their allies. They must be
congregating there and then moving to the plant. They're not going through the valley at
all. They're going right over it."
"Of course not," Dr.
Addison threw up his hands, "Why would they need to. The security on the power plant is meant for
humans who would go through the valley.
Mavericks don't care about environmental strategy."
Dr. Fremont wheeled his swivel chair
to a console in a corner. "Rally
the troops. We head to the plant at
dawn."
Cain sighed, and twisted his cane
into the floor as the scientists scampered to communication consoles to
assemble the soldiers. "Another
battle," he whispered sadly.
An extremely loud rapping came at
the door. "Dr. Cain? Are you in there?" came
the muffled voice of Zero.
"Enter," the doctor
commanded the doors.
Zero, X, the general, and a host of
troops and Maverick Hunters entered, filling the meeting room to near
capacity. The scientists huddled
together at the collection of brawn.
Cain swiveled his chair towards
them. "Zero, we need you to prep
for battle by dawn. Oh, General Brandle,
what are you doing here? We could have
used your expertise earlier."
The general stormed up to the table
and slammed his fist down through the hologram.
The doctors' eyes widened as they saw an expensive piece of technology
throttled like a child's toy.
"So could I!" he yelled
gruffly. "But my problem is
significantly more important than your idle prattle. Our system has been compromised."
"Huh?" the equally
bewildered scientist said.
"Corrupted, gone berserk,
haywire, Maverick! By all the chins in
Cain furrowed his brows. "If that's true, then we would have
noticed something about that, wouldn't we?" Dr. Addison said.
"Not necessarily," Dr.
Cain added. "What's your
evidence?"
"Him!" He pointed behind him to a bewildered
Zero. "He's the one that's done
it! We'll all be killed because of him
in a matter of minutes. Order his arrest
now!"
The scientists looked at General
Brandle confusedly. "Could you tell
us what's been done exactly?" Dr. Fremont asked.
"Well...oh," Brandle
remembered and dug into his pocket and produced the disk. "Here it is. Here's the knife that's been plunged into our
backs. It's all there in black and
white."
Dr. Cain took the disk from Brandle
and inserted it into a panel next to the console. Bringing it up, he observed, "This is a
log file."
"I know," Cain said,
stating what was obvious to him. He took
a brief glance at the multitude of text.
"Would you like to tell me what's on it so I don't spend hours and
hours searching?"
"It details how Zero," he
paused to emphasize the name, "Created a privileged account for himself
that gives him access to s-superuser...no, superuser access all over the
network."
"At what time
index?" Cain asked.
"What?"
"Where in the file?"
General Brandle stammered,
"Uh... somewhere in the bottom."
"Gentlemen, if I could say
something?" Zero said.
"Feh, traitor," the
general muttered and rolled his eyes as he spoke.
"It is true that I created my
own privileged account and hacked into the system server to do it. Now, I'm not a great scientist or well versed
in computer technology. I'm a Maverick
Hunter, and I've been one for nearly all my life. I'm not a security tech, so I didn't cover my
tracks well. And I didn't intend
to. I just tweaked the permissions on my
account. I didn't do that to bring down
the system. And I'll tell you why and
how if you give me a chance."
"Computers are delicate pieces
of equipment," the general said, "They can't be toyed with. You have to go through channels to create
system accounts. This is a vile
disregard of protocol and everyone knows it."
Cain said, "This is hardly what
I'd call irrefutable proof that Zero is a full-blown hacker." He turned away from the console. "Zero, please continue."
"So far everyone's been
accusing me and no one really wants to hear the truth. In fact, I haven't done a damn thing
wrong. Have you seen the way this system
is set up? You can't access a text file
without needing three passwords. So I
changed my own account. The problem is
we're so damn paranoid about Mavericks hacking in here that everything's
bordered up to the point of inaccessibility.
Even you must've seen the blockers and bumpers, the ASC, filters,
scanners. They slow the system down to a
crawl. I can't even play a game of
minesweeper. It was the only way to get
anything done."
Cain put a hand to his chin. "Well, I suppose you have a good point
there. I can find the security system
hampering at times too. It certainly
seems overloaded with programs."
X stepped into the
conversation. "We all know the
security measures are extreme, but we need them. The propensity of Mavericks is to attack
technology systems where they're weakest.
It's better than having no access.
But I know Zero well. I was there
when he created his account. He's
invulnerable to Maverick status, we all know that. Same as me.
I hold as much loyalty to him as I do to the human race. I pledged to serve and protect and so did
he. I think this might just be a case of
misunderstanding between human ways and reploid ways."
Dr. Cain rubbed his long white
beard. "All right, I'm going to
allow it. But I want full access to your
account."
"I'll do that as soon as
possible," Zero nodded.
General Brandle lunged forward,
shaking his fist in the doctor's face.
"You fool, you can't possibly think this
is all right! This is a breach of
security, clear and simple."
"It's fine. Zero's the only who can access the account,
and we haven't had an internal breach of security for a while." Cain could see the general was still
fuming. "General Brandle,
let me give you a piece of advice I heard in school: when someone gets the
better of you, don't let your angered feelings stew."
"Oh, that's very clever Dr.
Cain. I have one for you too. 'When your job is to keep the peace, don't
make business with reploid thiefs'."
He turned on his heel and walked out of the room. His military troops followed him, leaving
only scientists and reploids in the room.
"'Thiefs' doesn't really rhyme
with 'peace'," X pointed out.
"Isn't it supposed to be
'thieves', not 'theifs'?" Zero added.
"Enough. Grammar lesson later." Dr. Cain waved his hand to dismiss the entire
issue. "We've got Mavericks to
worry about." He motioned them up
to the center table. Zero and X took
foremost positions, with the others looking over their shoulders.
"The power
plant?" X asked as Cain got out his laser pointer.
"Right. We estimate eighteen or more Mavericks in
there. Its security system is not
exactly up to par due to budget cuts, but they've probably rendered it useless
by now anyway."
"Well, at least that means it
won't try to attack us," X commented.
Cain continued, "We're
preparing our mobile command units. We need to gather the proper Maverick Hunter
divisions and head out immediately.
We'll be there by dawn."
"I'm ready to go now,"
Zero said, pumping a fist in the air, apparently recovered from his
sleepiness. "Just need to gear
up."
"X, are you going on this
mission?" Dr. Cain asked. "It
should only be a clean-and-sweep."
"Most definitely," Zero
interjected. He and X had been
inseparable partners in battle ever since the Dr. Doppler incident.
"I can handle myself equally to
Zero," X said.
"Fine, then. Prep your systems. Let's get rolling."
Zero turned to leave and noticed
Janus standing there in the background.
"Janus, rouse your division commander, tell him what's going
on."
"Yes, sir," he saluted.
Zero, X, and the other reploids left
the room. "Let's set that account
up for Cain before we have to go," the red one said as the door closed
behind them.
Dr. Cain, Fremont, and Addison
gathered their papers. "Gentlemen,
sorry to deprive you of more sleep, but we must get that MCP online first
thing."
"Not a problem,"
"Ugh," Dr. Addison said,
"My wife is gonna kill me." He
turned off the emitter and left as well, leaving Janus and Duplex the two sole
occupants. The two looked around the
empty room awkwardly, as if waiting for more people to show up, waiting for
someone to break the silence.
"Well," Duplex said and
shrugged, "What do we do now?"
"Now?
... I think I'll go back and relax before dawn," Janus smirked. "You?"
"I think I'll retire
myself."
"What?"
"You saw them. They ignored me, they ignored you. I was promised a commendation by the general
if everything turned out all right, but I lost it. We didn't accomplish anything. I just got yelled at. Again.
Why shouldn't I want to have myself deactivated?"
"Because deactivation is for
bad computers and faulty antiques. Do
you know what we just proved?"
"What? We proved something?"
"Sure. We proved that Zero is clearly the favorite
son. He's untouchable. He can do no wrong. Now, if you retire yourself, they win. This isn't about you lamenting how little
pull you have in the system. It's about
whether you have pull in the system at all.
It's about whether you have the willpower to succeed. Your emotions are something you can take off
and put on like honor. Therefore, I say
prepare for success, prepare for the future.
Soon, the leaders will stand up and notice your valor, therefore prepare
for success. If you prepare for success,
success will follow you. We are all what
we want to be. If X and Zero want to be
untouchable, they will be. But that doesn't
mean they're invincible. So, prepare for
success. X and Zero were born into
violence, and violence will undo them.
So make all the money you can.
Forget about deactivation. A
silly notion."
"Then will you still support
me?"
"I will. Mark my words, Zero and X will pay. I've told you before how much I hate
them. So no more talk of
deactivation?"
"No more."
"Prepare for success."
"I will."
"All right?"
"All right," Duplex
mumbled.
"We ride at dawn, my
friend. Get your stuff together."
"Right," Duplex said,
somewhat despairingly. He turned and
left the room.
REC
SYSTEM 1.2
Copyright
© 2105, 2109, 2114
Real
Mem = 8192 TB
Avail
Mem = 32768 TB
Primary
Data Cache = 512 KB
Primary
Inst Cache = 768 KB
Secondary
Cache = 32768KB
Testing
file system..........
Testing
files.........
OK!
Login:
janus221347
Pass:
*********
Welcome!
Janus2214347>
new log -nx
Created
new logfile 6/29/21XX 184934
Duplex may prepare for success. Too bad he doesn't know whose. The one truth I have told him is of my hatred
for the crimson commander. If I should
ever be seen with Zero, making merry and amiable, then retire me. I saw his privileged account as I snuck
through the computer pathways, broke through the ice that encased secret files,
and then I knew. That wretch thought it
was allowable to make his access unlimited because he's outgrown his own
ambition. And the executives accepted
it. He's reached the top of his game and
now he can't go any further. He's trying
to be better than the best. But it's
hard to keep your balance when you're at the apex of a tower. He'll fall eventually, and his ego won't be
there to catch him. Whether all this is
true or not, I don't know. But I'll
pretend like it is for the sake of my own hatred. The difficulty is 'how'. How will Zero fall? How? ... X and Zero are partners at the
top. They hold loyalty to each other
most of all. So much they trust each
other without question.
That's it.
I have it.