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Nier Automata (Re)Birth Chapter 56
🕑 Added 2023-12-15 17:00:12 +0000 UTCChapter 56: Operation Fallen Angel Part 2
“Seems like A2 is having fun,” 9S muttered, listening in to the chatter going on over the combat tac-net.
A2 had gone to hold off a small vanguard force of Neo-Machines which had tried to probe the defenses from the east. From the sounds of it, she had done an incredible job with the small amount of soldiers she’d taken with her.
There was a lot of awe from the troops who’d watched the fight coming in through the radio, and a lot of praise was being heaped on Alexander’s surrogate mother for dispatching two whole tanks and at least one Flicker all by herself.
“Ah, well, back to work,” 9S sighed after a moment, turning his attention away from the flow of data coming from the battlefield, and instead focusing on the streams of data originating from his current position.
As he checked over the information he had access to, 9S took a moment to observe the sight before him. A large rocket, designed to carry objects into space, sat on a launching pad several hundred feet from him at the foot of the hill upon which Griffith Observatory had been built.
Centuries ago, Griffith Observatory had been converted into the command and operations center for a rocket launch site, one of the many dummy sites the Council of Humanity had used to send supplies into space. Some went to the moon under the guise of supplying the humans on the lunar colony, but the rest were for the various satellites and space stations orbiting Earth, including the Bunker, back when it had been up there.
In fact, from what 9S could dig up, it was the very construction of this launch site that had led androids to rediscovering the media vault humans had hidden away underneath the Hollywood sign underneath Mount Lee.
While expanding the various tunnels and pipes and whatnot, the construction workers discovered the vault, and, well, the rest was history.
As fascinating as all this historical information was, though, 9S had other things to do. Namely, oversee the process of downloading all the digitized media and then making sure the copied databanks and various artifacts were loaded onto a rocket that would take it to safety up on the Moon base.
There was a lot of work left to do, but 9S was only in a supervisory role, he didn’t have to do much of the heavy lifting, and only had to act if something went wrong.
‘And while Purple Athena’s forces are pounding on the gate, they don’t seem to have gotten very far,’ 9S thought to himself. ‘Still, this could all just be an elaborate trap. Best stay on my toes.’
The S-type YoRHa android walked over to the control center, located within the nearby observatory.
“Things going well?” 9S inquired as he wandered into the command room, which was staffed by half a dozen Resistance model androids sitting in front of rows of computer screens.
“We’ve almost finished the transfer of raw data onto the shuttle’s onboard servers,” one of the operators stated, looking up from the progress bar in front of him.
“Good. What about the physical artifacts?” 9S asked.
“That’s going a bit slower. Since some are quite large and heavy, we’ll likely need multiple trips,” a different android explained.
“How many are we talking about?” 9S pressed.
“Three? Yeah, three should do it,” the android said after running some calculations.
“I’ll contact Commander White and request the delivery of a few more rockets, then,” 9S decided after thinking it over. “And, in the event that the Neo-Machines breech the defensive lines, I’ll ask her to provide cargo transports to take the artifacts away to a different space launch site.”
“That will have to do for now, then,” one of the workers agreed.
Suddenly, the lights flickers, and everyone was immediately on guard, looking around for any sign of danger.
“What just happened?!” 9S demanded.
“Power fluctuation in the generator room,” an android said, checking the systems.
“Go get somebody down there to check on it!” 9S ordered. “I don’t want any sort of mistake to occur, so make sure that another, even worse power outage, doesn’t happen!”
He then turned to the operator checking on the download. “Did the upload stall or fail?”
“Yes, there was a brief stutter in the transfer system,” the operator said, muttering a curse under his breath. “The download has stalled. I’ll need to run a reboot, and run a diagnostic to ensure none of the data was corrupted in the process.”
“Get on that right now!” 9S instructed. “Make sure nothing else has happened to the rocket or launch sequences, as well!”
As androids hurried about, ensuring the launch site was secure both physically and digitally, 9S frowned as combat instincts honed over years of war tingled, warning him that this was not the end of it. At least, that was what 9S assumed the niggling feeling of suspicion and discomfort was.
‘What is Purple Athena planning?’ he wondered.
9S received his answer far sooner than he appreciated, as mere seconds after this thought crossed his mind, the lights flickered once more, and brought with them a chaotic eruption of noise as the devices all around them went haywire.
“She’s trying to break in!” a technician suddenly shouted, before letting out a howl of pain, sparks shooting from the wires connecting him to the terminal.
He slumped over, gurgling in pain and twitching sporadically, and 9S hesitantly stepped towards him, a hand on the hilt of his blade at the same time.
“SHE’S COMING!” he screamed, eyes glowing an ominous purple.
Cruel Oath lashed out, severing the cables, and the android whimpered in pain but also relief as he collapsed like a puppet without strings.
“Thank you,” he managed to get out, eyes no longer glowing.
“What happened?” 9S demanded, shaking the technician’s shoulders.
“She… Purple… hack…” he uttered, before convulsing and going still.
“Damn it!” 9S scowled as he realized was what was happening. Purple Athena was attacking them through a virus, just like the Red Girls had once done!
“Purple Athena must be trying to delay the launch of the rocket containing the human media files so she can destroy them,” 9S muttered, causing those nearby to gasp in horror.
In the grand scheme of things, the various entertainment files and memorabilia weren’t all that important. Compared to the value of the botanical and animal DNA, the ancient archival records on history, or the knowledge of science, technology, and industry that allowed the androids to fight the Machines, mere ‘entertainment’ was low on the list of priorities.
Yet, the loss of mankind’s cultural heritage would be a severe blow to morale. This early into the war against Purple Athena and her Neo-Machines, it would not mean the difference between losing hundreds of miles worth of territory gains and vital industrial nodes, but it would influence how future battles would be fought.
Not to mention, when – if – the Army of Terra won against the wannabe goddess, the loss of its culture would cripple the efforts to ‘civilize’ future generations of humanity and whoever else came after them.
This was a war for the soul of the future. And 9S was not going to let them lose all this valuable data!
‘Besides, Alexander would absolutely lose it if he finds out that Purple Athena destroyed all of his favorite TV shows,’ 9S thought with a suppressed snort of amusement.
“The physical assaults are a distraction,” the Scout-type YoRHa unit suddenly realized in dread as he figured out what the actual plan was.
“I have to get into the terminal to repel Purple Athena’s hacking attempt,” 9S declared, stepping up to the sparking computers.
“That’s insane! In those conditions, you’ll be lucky if the devices explode on you before hacking them!” an operator exclaimed.
“Does anyone have a better idea? Or have YoRHa-grade hacking tools?” 9S demanded sharply, looking around the control center.
When no android spoke up, he nodded to himself grimly. “Thought so.”
9S then walked up to the console and placed his hand onto it. “Hacking the systems now!”
There was a glow as he remotely accessed the observatory’s systems, and then he felt his awareness of the outside world fade away as he plunged into the digital landscape.
The insides of the observatory launch site network was old, and 9S could feel a large amount of constriction on his data-bandwidth as he entered. Add in the damage from the sabotage, and there wasn’t a lot of room for him to maneuver through.
As such, he had to be extra careful, lest he damage things further or get ejected from the digital realm.
‘Where’s the infiltrator?’ 9S wondered as he looked around. The digital space he was in was made up of green and black wireframe models, very bare bones. Lines of data spiraled amount, like rivers made up of numbers, and he could see glitchy, static-laced sections where corruption had set in, disabling the command center.
The landscape of the digital space looked like a recreation of the observatory and launch site back in the real world, with a rocket shaped like a loading bar in the distance being a representative of the data being uploaded for transfer.
Lines of code encircled the loading bar-rocket, but 9S was able to see that they were frozen in the air, bound by purple chains. There were also numerous data fragments scattered about, the remnants of the firewall that had been broken down by the assault.
9S followed the purple chains back to their origin, and winced. Squatting at the edge of the launch pad was an ugly digital entity. It resembled a clockwork, wind-up frog, complete with a big, toy key stick out of the back. Its tongue was not a single mass, and instead was made up of dozens of lengths of purple chain, which were what currently bound the data trying to enter the rocket so it could be saved.
Smaller, tadpole looking entities surrounded the giant frog, though they looked like they were made purely of liquid metal rather than a bunch of gears. They occasionally flung themselves at the command center or the rocket, exploding like missiles, and causing more damage to the systems. New one would pop out of the frog’s back every so often, leaking from the keyhole.
They were not going unopposed, however. Automated defenses that resembled PODs were attacking the frog and tadpoles, trying to drive the invaders off, but to little effect. The frog was too durable, the attacks bouncing off of its hide, and the tadpoles, while easily destroyed in a few hits, seemed endless and would throw themselves in front of the frog or chains to protect them. Without anyone to guide them, the PODs couldn’t unleash their superior anti-hacking protocols.
9S frowned, and a digital recreation of his sword Cruel Oath appeared in his hands. He flew forward towards the invaders, and sent out a pulse of command orders to the PODs floating about.
The defense system buzzed as they received his instructions, and began to fight in a more coordinated manner, concentrating fire on singular targets instead of fighting aimlessly on their own.
The clockwork frog didn’t react, however, and simply sat there, soaking up damage even as 9S flew closer. Only when the Scanner was within blade’s reach of it did the digital automaton move, leaping up into the air to avoid being attacked.
‘It can’t be this simple minded… can it?’ 9S wondered as he watched the frog hop around out of reach. Was fleeing and shooting tadpole bombs all it could do?
No. It turns out it wasn’t, as when several PODs got too close while trying to attack it, the frog let out a sonorous “CROAK!” that sent out visible shockwaves that slammed into the defense programs and instantly obliterated them.
‘Ah. That explains how it got here, and why the POD programs haven’t gotten closer to utilize their more powerful combat protocols,’ 9S realized. Still, the whole thing seemed a bit too plain to be one of Purple Athena’s plans.
Unfortunately, as simplistic as it may have been, it was still a threat, and the digital construct was causing a mess, and thus needed to be eliminated.
Focusing on the issue at hand was easy enough, and 9S charged at the mechanical frog, dodging to the side as it unleashed its powerful croak, and then charged in as it closed its mouth to recharge.
The S-type slashed the frog across the face, leaving a deep mark that released a spurt of red pixels. The creature gained a furious look, and a dozen tadpole bombs appeared around 9S, homing in and trying to explode the android’s digital form.
“Like I’d fall for such a simple trick like that!” 9S taunted, backflipping away and letting the missiles explode harmlessly on the ground. He then blitzed through the cloud of dust kicked up by the blast, and unleashed a flurry of blows at the frog on the other side.
The fake amphibian let out a ribbit of fear, and leapt up, soaring over 9S’s head and landing behind him. It then lashed out with its hindlegs, delivering a vicious double kick which landed squarely on the back, sending 9S flying across the field with a loud shout of surprise.
“Ow, that actually hurt!” 9S uttered with a grimace.
‘And that explains how it managed to destroy the Resistance android operator,’ he also realized, causing his eyes to narrow into angry slits behind his visor.
Normally, get hurt in cyberspace would knock an android out of the system and back into the real world. They might be woozy for a bit, but it wasn’t lethal. Yet the operator had suffered burnout, and the attack just now confirmed it for 9S. The mechanical frog was a virus, not just merely a hacking program.
A virus would attack and then destroy an android’s software rather than eject them from the simulation. It was what made them so dangerous.
‘Those missiles,’ 9S thought to himself, glancing at the bombs the PODs were attacking. ‘They aren’t just shaped like tadpoles to be cute and thematic. They’re mini-viruses that, if left alone, will evolve into a full-grown copy of the one I’m fighting.’
“New Order!” 9S shouted as he got back to his feet. “All Firewalls are to be set to Level 4! All invasive programs are to be shut down and terminated! And institute a complete quarantine of the area! Don’t let a single enemy escape!”
The PODs beeped in acknowledgement, and began to pursue the tadpole-bombs with renewed vigor. Meanwhile, the ‘crack’ in cyberspace the frog had entered through was sealed off by a wall of fire. A very literal firewall sprang up to prevent escape, or further intrusion.
Then, 9S turned back to the frog, ready to continue the fight, only to blink in surprise as it had not stuck around, and instead began to hop away towards the observatory in the distance, ignoring the rocket completely.
“Damn it, it’s trying to hack the launch codes!” 9S realized as the frog made its way to the digital version of the command center, a cloud of wriggling bombs surrounding it.
He leapt into the air, and flew off like a rocket, catching up to the virus in no-time. He sliced apart a few of the missiles that tried to protect their creator, and cut open a path to the virus. He then dove down, plunging his blade into the head of the frog with a grunt of effort.
Cruel Oath struggled for a moment against the mechanical frog’s metallic skin, but then sunk in deep, piercing through it and causing it to freeze mid-leap.
The virus’s body glitched, and then exploded into purple pixels, leaving the wind-up key to clattered lifelessly to the ground.
“Phew! Glad that’s over,” 9S sighed in relief. “Now, to clean up the rest of the mess…”
He turned to give more orders to the PODs, but had to jump backwards as a bunch of the frog’s tadpole missiles shot towards him, trying to blow him up.
At least, that was what he thought as he dodged the attack. Only for the mini-viruses to not explode, and to instead turn into a shimmering, silvery liquid metal that splashed onto the key that’d been left behind.
Then, to 9S’s shock, the liquid metal wrapped around the key and rapidly rebuilt the frog he’d just destroyed.
“Okay, that’s actually clever,” 9S begrudgingly admitted as he watched the virus reconstruct itself from a few of the tadpole-bombs it’d left guarding it.
He still raised his blade and darted towards the virus, hoping to destroy it before it could finish repairing.
This time, rather than attack the body, he aimed for the wind-up key on its back, and brought Cruel Oath down in a brutal, overhead chopping blow.
Sparks flew from the contact, and the key resisted. 9S was then forced back as the mechanical frog reformed completely, and it hit him with a point-blank sonic croak that sent him flying backwards.
“Alright, that’s twice now you’ve done that,” 9S scowled as he got back to his feet. “I must be getting rusty, because I didn’t use to have such troubles fighting in cyberspace.”
He then raised his left hand, pointing the palm at the virus. “I’ve wasted enough time in here already.”
A beam of energy shot forth, identical to the Laser a POD might fire, which slammed viciously into the deadly beast, cutting it in half.
It didn’t destroy the key, however, but 9S was ready this time, and flew towards it, bringing Cruel Oath against it once more.
This time, the blow was effective, and the key shattered, dissolving into pure data that 9S took a moment to scan, just to make sure it had no more hidden surprises for him.
When he was sure there wasn’t another layer of defense to the virus, he grunted in relief, then turned his attention to the battle still raging between PODs and tadpoles at the launch site.
“Better go clean that up,” he muttered, and flew over to help the PODs.
Without the frog to spawn new ones, the remaining explosive viruses were dealt with quickly, and repairs to the vault and uploaded code could begin.
They didn’t need him for that, so 9S logged out once he’d confirmed that had been the only problem he’d needed to solve.
Although it had felt like tens of minutes had passed in cyberspace, it’d hadn’t even been a single minute back in the real world, and he shook his head to clear some of the de-sync issues swapping between real and virtual sometimes created.
“The intrusive program has been destroyed,” 9S informed the command center staff.
“Excellent! We’ll begin diagnostics right now!” one of them said, and the room quickly got busy as they made sure no data had been corrupted by the download being interrupted.
“I’m going on patrol,” 9S informed them, before doing just that. He left the observatory, walking out onto the hill and looking out over the ruins of the city beyond with a frown.
‘What did Purple Athena hope to get out of this?’ he couldn’t help but wonder, his thoughts lingering on the virus he’d just defeated.
Yes, destroying the data and the rocket would be a nasty blow to morale, but he couldn’t help but feel there was something else to the whole thing. An angle he hadn’t considered yet.
‘Trying to puzzle out this insane Machine’s desires is so hard,’ 9S sighed to himself after a moment. With Adam and Eve, their madness was bizarre but understandable. They wanted to know more about humans. Something 9S could relate to. But the ‘and then what?’ of their plan had never really come up. What did Adam and Eve want to do after experiencing humanity? Kill them? Become them? He would never know.
‘Is that why Purple Athena is so hard to understand? She already claims to ‘understand’ humans. She’s studied them, and deemed them worthless. Only Alexander matters to her,’ 9S thought.
And then, it hit him. 9S blinked slowly as he realized the ‘why’ of Purple Athena’s plan.
It was all about Alexander. That’s what everything had been about this whole time. This war was just Purple Athena trying to catch her love interest’s attention, as well as the leader of the Neo-Machine destroying everything that Alexander loved and cared for, so the only thing left would be her.
It was an insane, disturbed sense of love, but Purple Athena’s actions made sense, if viewed through that lens of distorted madness.
‘So this is what a ‘Yandere’ is like, huh? Not sure I’m a fan,’ the S-type thought to himself warily.
For some reason, he couldn’t help but shiver at the concept, and silently hoped he’d never run into anyone that deranged.
&&&&&
Far off on the other side of the world, in the depths of Purple Athena’s fortress-factory, 13R giggled madly to herself in her room.
“Soon, my beloved… soon we will be together…” she cackled, stroking a printed out photograph of 9S the spy satellites that had been observing LA and Hollywood had taken mere hours ago.
It was kissed a few times, and then crumpled up and devoured, like every other photo of 9S 13R had taken over the years.
Once her ‘meal’ was finished she then stood up. It was time for her to play her part in Purple Athena’s plot.
“It’s been so long… I wonder how much the Bunker has changed since I’ve last been there?”
