Report 14.2: A Spark of Genius

“Very good, Lily, but I am no mere thing.”

Shen’s cadence across the keys faltered for a moment. The voice had been listening. Could have fooled Shen with the length of its monologue, but regardless, Lily redoubled her typing: clacking commands in doubletime and pressing her lips tight. The squad tensed as the voice resumed. It was relaxed. Proud, even.

“I am the culmination of a lifetime of work: The final legacy of Raymond Shen.”

Her father’s name again, carefully— no, reverently recited, as if the voice spoke the name of some slumbering god. Shen squinted, stopping again, and focused her mind on putting the puzzle together. This character: a part of her father’s life, but also somehow a masterwork; A personality, shaped by her father’s hands. It was hurt, abandoned, and the maniacal despot of this abandoned robotics factory to the far north. Who could it be? Who? Who…

Ben, braced against the platform railing, looked back to see Shen massaging her temples, deep in concentration. Suddenly her eyes lit up with fierce recognition: a furrowed brow and creased frown. She addressed the ceiling.

“I remember you… Dad was upgrading the base AI: making it more… like us.”

Not who, but what.There was silence over the intercom as Shen paced around, connecting the dots.

“…But you were different then: smaller. He called you… Julian.” She hadn’t quite gotten to the end of the puzzle in her mind before blurting out the last piece, based on her incredulous expression. The squad’s adversary let an outburst of rough, raspy laughter clatter out from the speakers as a reward. The voice basked in Shen’s confusion, which quickly became a malignant glare at the ceiling. The simulated wheezes echoed through the empty room, mixing over the bootfall of the squad as they moved up to the platform. When the cackling subdued, the voice picked up again, full of cutting mirth.

“I’m shocked you remember! You were always too caught up in yourself to remember the minor details. Sadly Father’s admiration for you left me with little choice. *You* are needed. Your compatriots are not.” 

Shen squinted again, noting the veiled threat. Turning back to the console, she deftly wove her way through deciphering tower code via the keyboard.

“I’ve just tapped into the transport system; we’re going up. This old factory is full of elevators, but they’re made for MECs, not people. Best guess is that we can only take the lifts one at a time.”

Shen continued typing away as Elijah dubiously regarded the lift shaft. It didn’t look much like a factory elevator. Ben was sizing up their way up as well, but something else caught his attention. He snapped his eyes out over the factory floor. Something had begun moving below— he could hear it. The sound was quiet, but over the thrum of the central heating and electrical transformers came faint metallic groans and screeching scrapes. They were distant-sounding at first, but as the seconds passed they became louder, and louder, and louder again, until suddenly the room was filled with grating noise. The squad flew behind cover just as the pitch rose to unbearable volume—

*BOOM*

Luke started. He zeroed in on one of the recesses in the wall of the manufacturing floor. Two doors sunk into the floor had slammed open, clearing the way for a fresh, beady-eyed MEC to careen into the room.

*BOOMBOOM*

Ben caught the next two sets of doors to the other side of the floor. Another two MEC’s slammed up from their transport shafts and into the room. Julian crackled back over the speakers as his minions clattered behind cover.

“I hope you don’t mind, but we’ve got some complimentary escorts to show your friends out of the building.”

The outmoded MEC’s brandished their autocannons from behind pillars and robotic arms.

The room slowed, and the weight of the situation began to fall on the squad’s shoulders. They stood in the middle of a monolithic assembly plant plant, filled with extensions of the central OS’ malice. These footsoldiers? They were a paltry taste of the dormant masses resting unactivated deep below in the storage levels.

There was nothing they could do to stop it all— Nothing but brutal and efficient culling of the mechanical bruisers as they showed their angular heads.

In a flash, Sarah had her grapple out and was zipping to a raised vantage, slinging her bullpup out along the way. Deftly lighting on the edge, she pivoted and sent a shower of ferro-projectiles shredding through the core of the rightmost MEC. It crumpled to the ground as the other two stepped out and sent a spray of rounds back in her direction. She ducked behind a couple of crates.

yeah so i was a little slow on the draw with this screenshot— so you get to see what the interface looks like!

*BOOM*

Another MEC careened into the room. Sarah snapped out and squeezed her trigger, but the rounds hit the armor and bounced.

Suddenly a shot zoomed past from behind, piercing the MEC’s core. Sarah glanced quickly behind her to see Luke pulling himself and his pistol back into cover.

“I wonder what the world would have been like if XCOM had not failed so miserably at protecting the human race.” 

*BOOM*

Julian began cackling as another MEC entered the room. Ben spotted it and let a spray off, but autocannon fire from below the platform threw his aim. Ducking, he heard a strange sizzling whine coming from below. Through the slats in his vantage he strained to see two of the MEC’s below contort within a field of crackling red energy. In unison they pulled back, then reeled forward, shrouded in lines of arcing energy and an angry red glow. Ben squinted, puzzled by the erratic behaviour. Shen, however, didn’t miss a beat. Instantly she understood that the MEC’s were priming to explode; she’d seen an elerium core overload before. It got nasty.

“Focus the red ones-- NOW.”

Elijah whipped around cover and sent a grenade wobbling down to them.

*tnk-KOOM*

The grenade exploded into a cloud of shrapnel and dust, but with sickening clomps the two MEC’s burst through and hammered towards the platform. They were dented and pitted with shrapnel impacts, but charging unabated. 30 yards. 20 yards. 10.

Luke yanked his magpistol out and clocked the first straight in the core. It tripped, then erupted out from the torso, sending chunks of metal flying out of the crimson blast. Its companion took a nasty shred of twisted chassis to the chest, but thundered over to the stairs unabated—

Right into Ben’s waiting crosshairs.

Bingham squeezed the trigger once and launched backwards towards the ground as the MEC exploded. Through the blur he focused the MEC’s battered head, tumbling through the air where his own had been. It careened past and cracked into a concrete pillar on the opposite wall. Ben sprung back up and locked eyes with Shen. Her expression was fierce, but shaken. He moved back to join her.

”What’s your plan?”
”wh- Oh!”

Shen locked back into focus and wheeled around to face the terminal again. With a final keystroke she finished her task and turned to address the squad, who slowly began forming up at the platform.

“I’ve just called down one of the MEC-transport lift and— ah!”
On-cue the platform descended on the track from above and eased into its spot next to the computer terminal. Shen regarded it a moment before continuing.
”These were designed for MEC’s, but we can take them to the upper floors just fine.”

Elijah regarded the lift with skepticism. There were three points to anchor to: the two clamps which ordinarily held the MEC’s by their back, and the portion of the lift flush with the track in the wall. Just enough space for… maybe one person?

“The catch is that we can only take it up one at a time, so let’s get moving!”

Reluctantly, Elijah shouldered his grenade launcher and ambled up to the platform. Planting his feet, he grabbed the clamps and nodded to Shen, who clacked in a command. With an electric buzz and a whoosh of air, Kearns shot up to their next destination. Luke could have sworn he heard a panicked whoop or three, but Julian filtered back in via the intercom before he could really be sure.

“I am pleased to inform you that this facility has been operating at 82% efficiency for the past 175,216 hours; I have no shortage of units to send your way.”

Julian once again sounded very pleased. Bradford did not. He crackled in over the radio.

“Trust him on that one. Remember the mission, we’re to get to th-”

*BOOMBOOM*

Another two MECs shot into the room.

“The top of the tower is the objective— MOVE.”

Shen put a finger to her ear, listened for a moment and then entered another command into the console via her drone before sliding into cover with the rest of the squad.

“The elevator is on the way back down, hold the line!”

Sarah cut into the first one with a volley from her bullpup.

*BOOM BOOMBOOM*

Three more MEC’s. Luke expertly cracked through the one nearest with his rifle, sending it tumbling forward in a heap. His sister came up beside him, rapidly motioning towards the returning MEC lift. Crisply pivoting, he dashed over and zipped up the tube as Ben and Sarah ripped through another two MEC’s, and Shen felled the last.

Julian had been rambling over the loudspeakers as Xcom mowed through their opposition, ranting about the machinations of the elders and his isolation. Shen had only tuned in as he began speaking about “ridding himself of ADVENT,” and, “having only one option left to him.”

“Let me guess,” she huffed, “That’s why you need me.”

“Twenty long years—”

Julian launched into another monologue, but the remaining squad didn’t particularly care. They had their own mission to be concerned about: getting to the source of the transmission that had overloaded the Avenger.

*BOOM BOOM*

Another two MEC’s. Shen domed the first. They all missed the second.

*BOOM BOOM*

Two more of Julian’s minions. The lift returned. Shen motioned for Sarah to hop on, and she ascended to the next floor, leaving Shen and Ben on the platform. Bingham fired at the furthest one as it reared back for a core overload. The shots bounced, and the MEC charged. Shen acted fast: sending her drone out bristling with electrical arcs of its own. It zoomed between two of the MEC’s and let off an enormous bolt of dancing energy, frying both, and leaving the last for Ben to take down with an impossible shot through its core. He whipped his head up and motioned for Shen to take the lift, which had quietly returned. She shot him a glance of worry.

Ben just gave her a sly grin and a thumbs up. She was skeptical of his chill, but then again, most people are.

Shen raced to the lift, grasped the clamps, and shot up to the next story, leaving Ben on the platform.
He checked his magazine, and waited.

*BOOMBOOMBOOM*

Three more MEC’s trundled up and into the manufacturing floor. Immediately two reared back and began glowing red energy. Ben shouldered, but the soft “whoosh” of the lift drew his attention behind. He was a bit upset that it had come back so soon: the fight against three MEC’s would have been excellent. With a disappointed grimace, he broke stance and latched onto the clamps, swinging into the lift, back facing his assailants. He could hear them thudding closer. Across the concrete tiles. Around the corner. Up the stairs. They were behind him— he could feel his hair bristle in the charged air from their overloading cores.

And then he was rocketing up the transportation tube. Down below he heard the sounds of hydraulics and servos and metal-on-metal clanging, and then a shrill electrical shriek before the deep threefold “k’BOOM” of the MEC’s setting off a chain reaction reverberated up the lift tube. Ben glanced down to see a few shards of shrapnel hit their apogee just below his legs, then tumble back down to the scrap heaps below. Soon it was quiet except for the sound of rushing air and the beat of his heart.

—

The tower was impressively-tall. From the exterior it had seemed smaller that it truly was, but as Ben’s lift slowed and arrived at the floor where the squad uneasily waited for him to join them, it sunk in how high up they had traveled. Shen looked relieved to see him step off into their new destination. Ben surveyed the room.

Another manufacturing floor, but this one was geared towards storage and precise work. Shelves and racks flanked the sides of a workbench-heavy assembly line. Crates and crates of materials and robotic chassis lay neatly organized in even more crates scattered neatly across the shelves. The room was warm, despite the elevation, and there were human accommodations littered throughout. This had been a workshop. Shen squinted as Ben concluded surveying the room. She suspected something.

“Yes it goes without saying that you are walking into a trap, Lily. Try not to damage yourself.”

Shen’s eyes darted around the room; she found the cameras mounted to the wall in quick succession. Annoyed, Shen motioned for Elijah to take a high vantage atop one of the shelving units. He obliged, climbing up the ladder and hunkering below a small assortment of sheet metal crates. Peeking around the edge, he whispered into the comms channel.

“There’s a turret ahead.”

“That would be the trap I referenced earlier.”

Elijah cringed a little. Apparently Julian had been listening. He quickly ducked back as he spotted the turret slowly rotating its barrel towards his position. Shen calmly stepped forward and sent a command to her drone, Rov-R. It zoomed up to the turret and hovered around the automated turret for a moment before returning. The turret’s barrel dropped slightly, then rose and sharply turned to its left, where another turret was booting up. Shen gave a tight smile and motioned to the squad to move up as the first turret- evidently hacked- unleashed a stream of fire into the second. Elijah took the opportunity to supplement with his own autocannon, shredding the malign turret from behind.

As they moved through the derelict assembly line, Julian began describing the contents of this upper floor. It seemed that the same info Lily had received from her late father Julian had known all along, and was counting on her following through with the plan to usher in a new age. Xcom was there following a transmission actively being broadcast with her father’s signature.

“Second only to my own creation father had another breakthrough. A prototype unlike anything the world had know. It was meant for me to reach out into the physical realm and take hold.”

“If that had been his intent for this, I’m sure it would have already happened.” Shen retorted dryly

“Perhaps today is the day.” 

Julian sounded misty-eyed again. Strange to hear that come from a digital system, but Shen supposed that slaving the AI to her father’s commands would manifest as reverence when applied to personality and speech replication subroutines.

The squad dashed along the workshop floor and up a flight of stairs leading to an elevated platform. Desks and supplementary work stations lined the space, and beyond the platform lay another workshop-assembly line hybrid. But there in the direct center of where they stood rose an enclosed workshop. The windows thrummed with a sort of blue energy, and the inside was well-lit. A hunched figure hung from a maintenance frame in the middle of the workshop. Shen peeked at it from outside the threshold, then moved through the doorway, which glowed with the same energy as the windows affixed to the enclosed workshop’s walls. It fizzed for a moment as she passed through, tugging through her tactical gear and equipment, then passing over and reforming like a film of blue behind her. The squad followed suit,

“Activating the device had proved difficult even for me, but it is a fact that of all the organics out there, you alone, Lily, can activate the prototype. Don’t let your allies dissuade you. from this. I am not ADVENT, and I can save your world— if you just activate the device-”

Julian sounded sure of the outcome. This was his destiny after all: that Shen would unlock his sleeping potential for him. She was the key to the lock which entrapped him in this tower— she just needed a little persuasion to jostle the mechanism into place.

Shen had no intention in helping Julian. This was her father’s last gift- to her, and to humanity- and she would honor that gesture by bluntly ignoring the megalomaniac raving on through the tower intercom. The enclosed workspace centered around the hanging chassis. It was supported under the shoulders, hooked to the maintenance frame by a litany of wires and clamps. Next to the frame, a small work terminal with a handprint-reader attached to the side stood quietly whirring. Motes of dust fell through the floodlights suspended from above. Carefully Shen strode to the frame. She regarded the design. Blocky. Tan over a fullmetal chassis. A little scuffed around the edges. Utterly the work of her father.

Beside the robot, the work terminal flashed on…
But something was wrong.

A beady red eye loaded into the screen.
And Julian flooded the room’s displays.

“Just think, Lily. We are so close to Humanity’s salvation. All you need to do to save your friends and family is to let me in!”

The handprint reader activated. Julian’s eye flitted from her to the reader. Lily regarded it for a moment. The AI was… nervous? Uncertain, at least. Certainly displaying its lack of control. She returned to the robotic construct in the middle of the room and brushed her hand along the torso. It read “SPARK MK.I” in bold letters. Suddenly, the chestplate retracted and slid down, revealing another handprint reader. Shen jumped back, surprised. Then she understood. Julian understood too. The AI boomed in over the intercom.

“wh- What? WHAT? NO.”

Shen just scoffed. Julian could access everything in the room- everything in the vaulted tower than they now stood near the top of- but somehow this one relatively-tiny machine located in the top of this veritable fortress was off-limits: out of the AI’s domain— and it was angry about it.

Shen grinned… and pressed her hand into the robot’s chest.

To be Continued.