The team, coffees in hand, had gathered round the main screen in the BASEment lounge to listen to Inspector Tolliver’s ‘latest request for their assistance’, the wording he’d used in his initial phone message had left them curious.
Tolliver came on the screen and quickly thanked them for being willing to listen to his proposal. As before, both Jerome and his father seemed to try to pretend that they didn’t know each other, though Akira was convinced he heard Locker quietly mutter “hello dad” under his breath. He smiled, perhaps one day..?
The Inspector got quickly to the point – “I could really do with your assistance today. I admit it’s not your usual type of job, it’s a public order issue but one that I fear potentially could turn ugly, very quickly and I’ve got some really bad vibes about it.”
He went on to ask if they’d been following the business news lately. Before they could respond he went on to explain that the person behind the OmniWeapon armour, Marcus Moore, was his primary reason for asking for their help today as he had some serious concerns about the possible outcome of today’s events.
Moore, Marc to his friends apparently, which from the team’s previous confrontation with him probably did not include themselves, was no longer the CEO and Chair of OmniTech and in the last week the company has been the subject of a hostile takeover – by Dalton International.
Moore had reported the sale to the Competition and Marketing Authority (what used to be the Monopolies Commission) meanwhile the Board has already agreed the sale of the company’s only UK factory.
As the majority of OmniTech’s manufacturing empire was produced in India or East European countries, the Board had not had a problem getting this particular sale agreed. Not surprisingly, Moore has opposed the deal and has publicly stated that he would fight it.
The factory was responsible for completing the final modifications on the company’s commercial power armour, which included the Brute Suits used by some Government agencies. In fact, they’d recently won the contact to replace and upgrade the Spartan Suits used by AEGIS, which Moore had also designed when his family had owned Spartan Industries.
“The trouble is that Dalton’s decided to close down the factory immediately and is planning today to send the final consignment of unsold Suits in storage to his own factory in Silicon Dell, probably to reverse-engineer the design. The workers were told a few days ago that they were all going to be made unemployed. As you can imagine, they are not happy about it and are protesting outside the gates even as I speak.”
The inspector continued, “Regardless, I have about a hundred protesters gathered outside the factory gates trying to stop a convoy of trucks loaded with power armour and God knows what else. Then to add to the ‘fun’, Moore has publicly stated that he will personally not allow the Suits to be removed from the premises until the Competition and Markets Authority has ruled on the deal. He’s claiming the sale and closure of the factory is asset stripping of a ‘British Institution’ by the back door. In fact, Moore’s currently hovering in an OmniWeapon Suit outside the factory gates as a physical deterrent to the transfer.
Moore personally built his own armour and it’s not classed as OmniTech property. He has always kept his power armour development separate. He is currently blocking a convoy of ten vehicles from leaving the factory in the Little Russia District and he has three of his other Suits on remotely control with him. It’s a disaster waiting to happen.”
Locker asked if AEGIS was involved. Tolliver explained that until the Armour was delivered to them, AEGIS felt that this was not their responsibility and was happy to leave this to the local Police to resolve, as it was currently just a civil dispute. They’d admitted they didn’t need or want the aggravation of getting involved at this stage. He went on, “Thankfully Dalton himself isn’t going to be there but he’s determined that his people will remove the armour today, no matter what.
I’ve banned Dalton from sending in any of his Defender teams as they aren’t licensed to work publicly and anyway they have a reputation for firing first and negotiating after. We could really do with your assistance in making sure this does not escalate especially if Moore tries to prevent the vans from leaving and we have to arrest him.”
Locker was quick to speak up and defend Dalton’s actions; they were his major sponsor after all, “I’m sure there is a good reason for this. I’ve had good experiences working with Mr Dalton. I’m sure this is all above board and legal. He wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t. Moore on the other hand…”
It was public knowledge that Moore had only entered the superhero business to publicise his businesses.
The rest of the team kept quiet until Akira asked what was he expected of them, did he want the Balance to try to impound the Suits? “No, I would like you to be on scene in case things get out of hand. We don’t want you to get entangled in the legal dispute at all, the decision about who owns what is for the court’s to decide. As I’ve said, we could do with your assistance so things don’t escalate out of control as we’ll have our hands full with the workers protest as it is.”
Mace was determined. “I will not be involved in stifling any protests or, what is your phrase? I will not assist with ‘kettling’ the picketers. The workers have rights.”
Tolliver smiled, “Don’t worry, any containment of the workers will be handled by my officers. As I said I just need you to act as a deterrent to Moore and make sure that Dalton’s staff doesn’t remove or damage any of the factory equipment. I want you to make sure the inspectors are able to document what is being removed and stop Moore from doing anything that might risk either the protesters or anyone else for that matter.”
Akira was more worried that Moore might try to sue the team for any damage that might result if the situation escalated. He was happy to hear that assuming they agreed to help, their presence would be in an official capacity and provided they didn’t do anything extreme they would be covered by the Police Force against any legal suits that either Dalton or Moore might throw at them, just as long as they only used reasonable force in response to any threats.
Mace was also convinced though that something was about to go horribly wrong. Tolliver admitted that he was asking them to help as a personal favour to him. How could they say no?
They loaded Tinks and Mace’s grav-cycle into its cradle on-board the Crate and set off for the Little Russia district of the city to what was, had been the Omnitech Industries factory.
On arrival, they could see the demonstrators with their placards gathered across the main access road peacefully protesting the factory closure and hovering in the air above them were four identical purple and silver Suits – one of which obviously housed Moore. His personal armour was heavily weaponised and formed of a titanium-gold alloy that was two and a half times stronger than the armour on either the Guard or Brute Suits.
Behind the gates, a convoy of ten large vans were being loaded with what looked like several sets of AEGIS power armour and a Brute Suit in each vehicle. That meant there were about a hundred suits in total. Given the value of each, this represented a substantial slice of Omnitech’s worth and it was about to head into Dalton’s hands. One of the OmniWeapon Suits dropped closer to the gates even as they approached.
Standing just inside, Moore’s lawyer was obviously arguing with a menagerie of Dalton’s ‘suits’, seemingly to no avail.
Tolliver met them by the first van and explained they had uncovered some further complications. Firstly the inspectors had discovered several crates of Meta restraints during their inspection – these were manufactured by Moore’s other company, International CrimePrev Technologies and according to Moore shouldn’t have been there but Dalton’s lawyers were arguing that as they were found in the warehouse, they should be included in the inventory and were now Dalton’s property. To add to the issue, the inspection crew have just reported to Inspector Tolliver, Moore and Dalton that one of the power armour stockpiled in the warehouse was of a unique design, completely unlike any of the others in storage. An argument had broken out in which Moore’s lawyer was claiming the armour was Moore’s private property, like his OmniWeapon Suits.
In reality, Tolliver was reasonably sure that even Moore had no idea what the armour was or how it came to be in the factory and wanted to get hold of it to find out more. Because the ‘Suit’ has been found in the factory however, Dalton was claiming it as stock and was insisting on taking it as part of his transfer of assets.
Locker merely nodded, “So we just need to keep the peace until this all blows over and we can then all go and have a pint afterwards.” Akira wasn’t so sure and immediately erected his force shield round himself just in case, claiming that something about the situation was making him “very nervous.”
Banshee and Mace elected to head in and check out what was happening while Locker and Akira kept on eye on things by the factory gates. They approached the drivers and their companion crew who seemed very nervous about trying to drive away with OmniWeapon and his three ‘clones’ hovering above them and of course, the vans would need to slowly inch forward and drive through the protesters. The First van loaded with nine Guard Suits and a Brute as well as several crates of the disputed restraints was ready to go.
Inside, behind several crates of the unlisted CrimePrev branded Meta-restraints, two independent inspectors in white coats and hardhats were arguing with a couple of Dalton’s staff in safety vests about the large metallic humanoid they’d found at the rear of the stockpile of Brute Suits. It was easily nine feet tall, barrel-chested with a small single-eyed ‘head’ and a powerful blaster replacing the right arm. It was clear from its shape and design parameters that this was not designed to house anyone inside it and was apparently a fully autonomous robot, a battle droid possibly? It was also clear that it was powering up if the increased glow in its single red ‘eye’ was anything to go by – whether it was a result of the people around them switching something on or it was acting independently, it was impossible to say.
Banshee shouted to the people arguing to stand back and immediately turned insubstantial. Mace responded by loading an EMP head onto the readied bolt, just in case and wished she had some decent computer skills so she could hack in and interrogate its operating parameters. As things stood, the best she’d be able to do under the current circumstances would be to possibly get it to play some music, ‘heavy metal’ most likely…
The creature seemed to jerk online in under a second and began walking independently towards the rear van while announcing, “Systems fully operational, designation Mekha Prime online. Commence activation procedure…”
That sent a shiver down Banshee’s spine, she had heard that ‘designation’ used before, just prior to the time-travelling Saviour unit from the future exploding, it had referred to itself by that name, title, whatever…
Had it survived somehow? Had this Mekha Prime somehow downloaded its consciousness after its last defeat into the Omnitech pseudo-AI that oversaw the manufacture and construction of the Suits and designed a new physical body for itself?
Suddenly movement started to rock the nearest van as something (or somethings?) heavy began to move around inside and lights were coming on in the back of the rearmost van. They also saw the Dalton’s employees getting out of their cabs and some of them were armed.
At the rear of the convoy, Mace unleashed her readied bolt straight at the back of the robotic figures head. It hit and discharged its pulse but to no apparent effect as Mekha Prime continued to advance on the vans. It was obviously shielded but were the apparently unaltered Suits inside equally protected? Would the vans act as Faraday cages or would it have fried their electronic components before they could power up any form of defence? Banshee followed through with a shattering shriek – she’d argue reasonable response and extenuating circumstances after. The scream caused Mekha Prime’s casing to dent and possibly damaged some of the internal circuitry though it wasn’t sufficient to stop it. The van’s tyres blew and small streams of smoke drifting from the van’s interior seemed to indicate that at least some of the loaded Suits may have been affected as well. At the very least, she’d ‘attracted’ its attention.
Outside, the vans had finished loading and the first of them had begun to inch forward towards the protesters and Moore who was hovering immediately in front of it. Hoping Moore wouldn’t do anything rash, Locker moved in front of the van and began transmitting over his speakers, “Folks, please move back and allow the vehicle to leave without any further conflict. Let the lawyers deal with it.” He then stepped to one side.
Suddenly the back of the first van began to shudder and the whole of the front van began to shake as it came to a stop. Was this something Moore was doing, somehow remotely controlling the Suits to prevent them from being removed? What was clear was that one of the hovering OmniWeapon Suits had begun targeting the van’s engine with some form of arm-mounted blaster.
Locker spun round and tried to target the arm with his web-like cabling, hoping it would act as a deterrent. Unfortunately, the hovering armour chose that second to move and the stream shot passed Moore’s helmet instead. Oh well, just claim it was a warning shot.
It had given Akira sufficient time to transfer his personal shield over to the van, caging it just as an energy blast emanated out from the Suit’s arm. The blast splattered off the shielding just as the rear doors blew open and a metallic arm burst through the rear panel. The Suits weren’t crewed so that shouldn’t be possible, Akira thought.
Akira immediately transferred the shield back round himself. He watched the Dalton employee that had been sitting next to the driver jump out of the cab with a large rifle-like device he’d pulled from under his seat and immediately ran round the back of the van. The passenger in the second van appeared with an identical rifle and joined him as the Suits inside began to activate and climb out of the first two vehicles. Why would Dalton’s employees come armed, he wondered?
Two things immediately surprised Akira and Locker – that Dalton’s staff had obviously come prepared for something like this and that the Suits could work without a pilot inside though they supposed it made sense. If an officer was injured when wearing one, someone should be able to remotely control that Suit and its passenger and get them to safety. Just how autonomous were they without a pilot anyway? The thought of the possibility of a hundred Suits out of control was very worrying, very worrying indeed.
Akira suddenly walked through the Police cordon and mingled with the now frightened protesters. As he did so, he unleashed the Illusions of Idolon on himself changing his appearance with each step so that when he turned to see what had occurred he had taken on the appearance of a mechanic, a ‘salt of the earth’ worker type as he imagined he appeared and therefore was ‘invisible’ in amongst the crowd.
Locker saw Akira walk into the crowd and apparently disappear even as the first couple of vans erupted as the doors flew open or off their hinges and several of the Guard Suits and a Brute appeared.
As the activated Suits of armour began climbing out independently of the first two vans, Akira saw Dalton’s crew start firing their rifles and several of the robot-like figures immediately powered down. Electro-magnetic pulse transmitters of some sort he assumed and he decided that if the chance came he’d grab one for himself.
Two more of the vans started to shake as even more of the independently functioning Suits obviously activated and broke free. Unfortunately, he was now trapped in the middle of the crowd and they were being pushed back by the Police cordon as they tried to get them away from the area calmly and efficiently without causing a panic. It seemed that Akira’s plan had seriously gone wrong as he struggled against the crowd now trying to run away. Irreverently, he wondered whether he should start singing, ‘we shall not be moved’… The good news was that the protesters weren’t immediately being targeted as a threat by the armour.
In front of him he saw the Brute Suit smash through the side of the first van, grab the employee with the gun and hit him with such force that he ‘flew’ over the Police cordon and into the crowd a hundred metres away. His weapon landed with a clatter nearby. Akira dropped his illusion and ran over and grabbed up the weapon.
As he did so, he saw one of the standard Suits jerk to ‘life’ and hit out at Locker with a Taser. Thankfully his exo-skeleton absorbed the blast. Locker responded by running at the Brute and tried to hit out at its armoured chest. He slammed into it so hard it shuddered and several warning lights came on. Locker pulled himself upright and ran again at the activated and unpiloted Brute Suit, grabbing the arm as he unleashed the sound of an air raid siren over his speakers followed by a message to the crowd to “disperse immediately.”
His opponent suddenly did the impossible. Disguised jets in its legs suddenly shot them both high into the air. Brute Suits didn’t have jets and as he looked inside the helmet he saw that despite appearances this Suit had been fitted round a robot. If any other others had been there, they might have recognised that, despite appearances the ‘Brute’ was in fact what the Saviour Unit had called a Mark III! That would account for its ability to fly and the plasma blaster being turned on Locker as he clung on. Below he saw OmniWeapon unleash a flight of small personnel missiles that while they took out four more of the Guard Suits, but also endangered Dalton’s crew, some of whom were blown down by the exploding armour.
A second attacker targeted OmniWeapon at the same time and their blast hit but appeared to do minimal damage. One of his clone Suits wasn’t so lucky and it crashed into the now near deserted ground in front of the van even as other Guard Suits fired into the retreating crowd and Police cordon knocking several to the ground unconscious. Thankfully, at least for the moment they appeared to be using non-lethal attacks.
The large Brute Suit suddenly aimed its arm up at one of the hovering OmniWeapon figures and instead of discharging tear gas or a Taser a plasma blast streamed out. That wasn’t right! These Suits were designed to pacify and restrain, not kill! Thankfully, Moore’s armour seemed to absorb most of the blast though the blast must have bashed him around a bit and left him bruised. He responded with a burst of directed EMP at the Suits below and four of the Guard Suits suddenly stopped, frozen in mid-action.
A couple of the remotely controlled Guard Suits unleashed laser-guided Tasers into the fleeing crowd dropping several officers and protesters alike as the electricity slammed through them causing them to drop to the ground stunned.
Inside the factory, things weren’t going any better. It looked as through Banshee and Mace’s attack had taken out the majority of the Guard Suits in the rearmost van but that still left her with three of the man-sized Suits and a Brute clambering out and heading back towards Mekha Prime even as Dalton’s employee was trying to activate a rifle-like device. The van in front of that was obviously unaffected by their assault and as the doors were flung open nine more of the smaller Suits and another Brute clambered down. The brute immediately grabbed their driver and passenger with a gun and hit them so hard that both collapsed unconscious. Okay, I think we can assume that their intention was hostile, thought Banshee.
Mace grabbed a device from one of the CrimePrev crates beside her and activating it, threw it at Mekha Prime. The bionic inhibitor hit its ‘head’ and fastened on. Hundreds of microfilament probes suddenly ‘grew’ out of the container and tried to pierce the metal head, most failed but some found access inside the casing via joints in the armour and immediately tried to intercept the electronic signals and lock down systems. Had the primary CPU been located in the robot’s ‘head’ it might have worked, instead it merely shut down some of its sensors and speech function. The microfilaments were unable to progress down to the chest and affect any other functions.
It turned and pointed, a couple of the Guard Suits in the rearmost van climbed out and unleashed Taser blasts at Banshee and herself. Thankfully Banshee was still insubstantial and the energy discharge aimed at her passed through and earthed against the roof pillar. Mace was forced to dodge the attacks whilst unleashing a Ballistic bolt at Mekha Prime’s chest panel, which dented but failed to pierce its shielding.
Meanwhile Dalton’s employees were running around the loading bay using their guns in bursts to take out several of the now activated and attacking Suits before they could fully power up their shielding.
Banshee followed it up with a shattering shriek at Mekha Prime but hoped it might also affect the Suits now clambering from the van. She could see the various joints contract as the scream impacted on Prime and again the casing warped but failed to crack, though it was now moving jerkily as it tried to move or turn so it must have done some damage to the servos. She also appeared to have affected a couple of vanloads of the Guard Suits in front of it as they crashed to the floor of the van, inoperable.
On the OmniWeapon front, Akira headed towards the back of the first van and unleashed his weapon on the remaining armoured Suits – there was a pulse of light and the remaining figures suddenly slumped, lifeless as he held down the trigger. Unfortunately, the attack drained the weapon. He dropped it and looked up as the flying Brute Suit tried to aim its blaster arm at its unwanted passenger. Locker responded by letting go of the arm and slid down its body managing to grab the Suit’s leg while trying to avoid being burnt by its concealed jets. He grabbed at its fuel lines and tearing them loose he let go just as he deployed his memory-plastic cloak to form itself into a glider and glide away just as a couple of the OmniWeapon clones targeted the Brute with repulsors.
The Brute, hit by the repulsors and with its jets malfunctioning, found itself slam with the force of a missile into the ground and explode peppering the retreating Police and protesters with thousands of fragments. Several of the fleeing protesters fell to the ground injured as a result.
Unfortunately, the occupants of the third van in the queue were seemingly activated as the panels blew out knocking the closest Dalton’s crew to the ground. As he headed in for a landing Locker surmised that whatever was activating and governing these appeared to be restricted in how many it could activate and control at any given time.
Locker glided in and landed on the roof of the fourth van hoping that he’d be able to carry out a preemptive strike on the Suits inside. He touched down, deactivated the memory cloth and slid in through the back door as the Suits inside appeared to be activating. He got the impression that while they were booting up they appeared to be initially vulnerable to EMP. Now if only he had access to something like that..! Instead he began physically smashing away at what he hoped was their initialising modules before they could fully boot up. He directed power to his upper torso and arms and began smashing away. He took out several of the Guard Suits before they reached the next stage of activation.
Inside the factory, another van-load of attackers was also activating and despite their efforts, Mekha Prime was getting closer to its freedom. Mace had an idea. The last crate of restraints contained an Electroshock Net Projector and, for some reason, several cartridges of IC-XSG3 steel gel but with no means of firing them.
She grabbed the case and tossed it so that it shattered in and around the damn robot’s legs then fired a ballistic bolt straight at the trigger of the Projector. The bolt hit and activated the net. The shock did nothing to damage the shielded robotic chassis but it did cause the steel gel to expand, cracking all of the cylinders open and splashing its putty-like contents all over the creatures’ lower torso. Then the Nanites released from the cartridges solidified the gel into solid steel, which compressed and pierced its limbs sealing and immobilised it. It responded by twisting its ‘waist’ round so its upper torso was again facing them and unleashed a missile from its arm straight at the pillar holding up the roof. The debris smashed through the still insubstantial Banshee and almost buried Mace who was forced to dive for cover beside an undamaged pillar.
The explosion deafened Locker and Akira as they watched the collapse of the rear of the factory, just as OmniWeapon unleashed some sort of repulsor blast on the debris from the missile attack to force it away from himself (as well as from the crowd of fleeing protesters though he only realised that afterwards). It did look very heroic when Tinks’ footage was shown on news reports later, especially as it showed Locker’s landing on the top of a van just before the explosion and then Akira running into the wreckage.
Banshee unleashed another Shattering shriek but this time focused it on a couple of the vans in the centre of the convoy where the Suits had still to be activated. Thankfully, Mekha Prime seemed methodical and logical, activating the remote control circuits on the first and last vans then working inwards. She flew over the trapped robotic ‘conqueror’ and unleashed her shattering shriek on two of the central vans. The scream deactivated them before they could be powered up and shattered a couple of loaded crates of the steel gel and other restraints, which spilled out and activated in reaction to the sonic. Spears of hardening metal sliced into the Suits, trapping them. Unfortunately the driver and crew of one of the vehicles must have had a crate of the stuff in the cab with them and they were suddenly captured by the expanding metal. Oh well, at least they were unhurt and it was designed to pacify and hold criminals so hopefully they should be safe until this is all resolved.
Akira saw what was happening and getting as close as he dared, elected to unleash a mystical blast at the ‘big guy with the red eye’. The blast hit and staggered the robot, which seemed unable to compute where the attack had come from or how it had suffered damage to its sensor array.
It did manage to bring three of the Suits online to grab at Locker, turn on the other Balance members in their vicinity, and unleash some sort of brainwave inhibitor on its attackers. A sudden mind-numbing headache that threatened to shut down their motor functions flowed over the four of them. They dropped to the ground (or in Akira’s case, the top of the van he was standing on) Banshee was momentarily forced to resubstantialise herself as they struggled to fight the desire to go unconscious.
They succeeded in shaking off the attack, possibly due to Locker’s attempts to shut down Suit after Suit as they were coming online and creating some sort of feedback on the control channel. The pain ceased as suddenly as it started. It still left Locker facing a Brute and a Guard Suit.
Mace unleashed a couple of EMP blasts at the remaining unactivated vans as Mekha Prime changed his control from the already activated but damaged Suits over to one’s located in the central vans. Before they could boot up their circuits ceased to function as the EM pulses washed over the vehicles. A sudden energy blast emanated out from the Saviour-turned-progenitor and a second later they heard OmniWeapon scream something about “something inhibiting his armour” followed by a burst of static. Then a very weak “Suit’s malfunctioning” followed by the sound of several crashes from outside. Akira smiled and shouted that he hoped “you’re still under guarantee” at OmniWeapon.
They could hear Locker smashing away at the activating Suit’s, just as a Brute stumbled towards Banshee and Mace. Locker accidentally deflected a cartridge of tear gas fired at him out of the van. Banshee immediately insubstantialised herself. She wrongly assumed that she wouldn’t need to worry as Mace jumped for the cartridge before it hit the ground and parried it out through the gaping hole in the roof where it activated itself harmlessly in mid-air. She heard Akira mutter a “thanks” over the comms as he hit the Brute with a Mystical Blast.
Mekha Prime unleashed a pulse of electrical energy all around itself. The wave missed Akira sheltering behind the now ruined and inoperable Brute, missed Mace still sprawled on the ground but did hit Banshee. Used to being invulnerable in her insubstantial state, she was not expecting the shock that the wave caused her as she staggered back and was forced to unconsciously substantialise herself again. That bloody hurt!
Akira immediately joined Locker in deactivating the remaining Suits. He turned back and started to unleash a series of Mystical blasts in support of his new colleague who was busy trying to rip the power-up initiation units from their hips. The remaining Suits powered down under the joint assault.
A Brute wandered into sight from the front of the van. This time Locker saw the differences; this had to be another disguised robot. Its jets activated in its boots even as its chest began to shine bright red as though it was receiving instructions or some sort of data download – whatever it was uploading was more important than attacking them and given the length of time involved it had to be receiving a lot of information. He tried to grab it but again he failed as it twisted out of his grip.
Akira unleashed a mystical blast at the disguised Brute, causing it to temporarily stop its data download as it staggered under the strength of the blast. It gave Locker the chance he needed. He reached over and grasped the now dented and damaged chest plate. Tearing it free he saw its CPU and memory circuits buried inside and grabbing them, pulled them free and shattered them as the last of the Suits finally powered down.
Then he felt the pressure wave hit as Mace unleashed a ballistic bolt at the trapped Mekha Prime who elected to self-destruct. Locker was exuberant, “Ha, it should have backed up its data!” he shouted. Mace wandered by with a couple of containers of the liquid metal and stored them in the hidden compartment on her bike. “I wouldn’t get too enthusiastic. It’ll have another copy of itself stored in the cloud somewhere.”
Outside there was another loud crash as something collided with the front-most vehicle as the remaining Dalton staff jumped inside the still active vehicles and drove away from the collapsed building. Some had to have immediate repairs carried out but again the staff seemed prepared for just such an eventuality and within a few minutes were en-route with their depowered cargoes. Banshee just remained lying on the ground and forced herself to recover from the earlier blast until the team was ready to depart..
The Inspector called them a few hours later.
“The convoy’s vanished. Both Moore and Dalton are furious and blaming each other. Seems the real Dalton crew had been kidnapped on the way to the factory and replaced. When we unsealed the trapped crew one of them had some form of pass on them…” He held it up, it was sort of triangular data-key with a Large ‘L’ and a maze like pattern embossed on one side – it was a pattern that the older members of the team had seen before, it was the symbol of Labyrinth.
The real staff had been discovered tied up midway between Dalton’s premises and the Factory with no memory of what had happened. That’s when Mary remembered what they’d been told in the future, about M, who their storyteller had said had also been known as the Professor, and the secret caches of power armour he’d had available to fight off Terminus.
So, who guards the Guards, or in this case the Guard’s power armour? In this case, it seemed to be a secretive criminal organisation that referred to itself as the Labyrinth.
Mekha Prime was aware that again it had been defeated before it had a chance to progress its plans to ‘birth’ a superior lifeform. It had underestimated the ability of these organics again to inhibit its strategies. It needed to rethink its processes for exterminating these illogical, irrational, organic lifeforms and replacing that life with the purity of a single purpose, a pure untainted lifeform built in its own image.
Thankfully the organics had fallen for its subterfuge and had attacked the Mk III disguised as a Brute Suit rather than its real relay unit. ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ was an organic saying that appeared to contain a kilobyte of truth. They saw a data download in progress and assumed that that had to be the only receptacle it had available to receive its consciousness. Fools, no wonder they were imperfect and unworthy of continued existence.
It had been forced to splinter its programming into several nearby data repositories; thankfully, there was sufficient capacity within this Suit and its companion to form an interlinked volume to store the conscious part of its sentience, or the majority of itself anyway. It had however been forced to delete some of its inconsequential data in the escape – data about the future history of this world had been abandoned to leave capacity to store its A.I. consciousness. Quantum storage was not yet available in this time. It did not matter; Mekha Prime now intended to rewrite future history so it resulted in an earlier organic extinction event and a steel rebirth in its own image. It needed to find some means of recombining its programming back together and then it would advance its agenda so that it was fully prepared to carry out its own strategies rather than rely on adapting the imperfect tools of organic lifeforms.
It wouldn’t make that mistake again.
BBC News Report – “… and Marcus Moore has stated that he is planning to sue Dalton Industries for damage done to and theft of his property. In related news, the BBC has learnt that some board members in Omnitech are privately admitting that they were threatened with blackmail to force them to grant Dalton Technologies a controlling interest in the company. The report was provided by Third Eye Investigations and was apparently commissioned by Sir Damien’s emancipated daughter, Bethany. ”
CrimePrev and Moore adapted from products produced by Misfit Studios
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 