Depths of Genom Part IV

The Depths of Genom
Part IV: The Conclusion


Well, this finishes up my first fanfic.  Let me know what you think.

All copyrights and trademarks of Bubblegum Crisis belong to AIC


[At Genom Headquarters]

   Quincy and Madigan were going over the days agenda when he turned to Project
Neptune.  "Madigan", he asked, "what is the status on the boomer?  Have they gotten the
difficulties solved yet?"

  Madigan answered "Yes, sir, they have discovered a slightly different polymer
combination.  It's not as strong as the original armor, but is still far stronger to any armor
we have developed up to this point.  They are testing it with a number of agents to see if
that 'solvent' problem reoccurs, but they seem to have beaten the problem.  The second
prototype should be ready within in the hour."

  "That quickly?" Quincy asked.

  "Yes sir, the second prototype was finished other than the armor already, and it appears
that this polymer can be applied remarkably quickly.  In fact, from first application to final
drying is less than 3 hours.  The lab techs have been working on this around the clock ever
since the first Prototype was destroyed." Madigan answered.

  "Excellent", Qunicy said with a cold smile curling his lips.  "We will use the prototype to
finish off Dr. Yamata, and the Knight Sabers.  It was foolish for Ortiz to expose the first
prototype, but now we know that Yamata held some secrets out on us.  If he has any other
little 'surprises', this should draw them out."

  "Yes sir, consider it done" Madigan said, as she prepared to move on to the next piece of
the agenda for the day.

[Meanwhile, at the Knight Sabers safehouse]

  Nene lay sprawled out on the in the back room, asleep in her hardsuit.  Sylia had come
quickly to the decision not to reveal their identity to Dr. Yamata, so they wore their
hardsuits whenever they were in the safehouse.  Sylia, Priss and Linna sat around,
discussing their next move.
  
  "Well, now what do we do?  We can't leave him here forever, and the next time he shows
his face Genom will kill him!" Linna asked in frustration.

  "I'm working on some options.  Hopefully, we can get him settled down somewhere with
a new cover identity." Sylia answered.  "I don't like it either, but I just don't see any better
ideas.  We could smuggle him to the US or Great Britain, but even then, Genom's reach is
worldwide today." 
   
   "How can she just sleep there?" Priss said of Nene in a bit of disgust.  "That's all she
does any more is complain about how tired she is".

   "Well, boomer incidents are up over 300% in the last 3 weeks you know" said Linna,
"and that keeps her busy on both ends.  Her work at ADP is more hectic, with more hours,
and then she comes out with us at night.  I mean, look at her, I bet she's lost 3 kilos this
week alone.  She hasn't even had time to have a piece of cheesecake this week it looks
like." Linna continued with a smirk.

  "I heard that." Nene mumbled, and rolled over and went back to sleep even as the others
continued to discuss the boomer situation in MegaTokyo and their options for some time.

   Meanwhile, in the next room over Dr. Yamata took the data disk that contained the
solvent formula and loaded it into a data-terminal in the safe house.  He quickly uploaded a
secret file and told it to execute.

  The program dropped into the MegaTokyo Net, eventually finding its way into the
computer of the company that supplied food to the Genom cafeteria.  That computer was
linked into the Genom net, so the program passed into the Genom net and eventually
found what it was looking for, another secret file that was hidden in the personnel files. 
When the intruder program found it's counterpart, it triggered an "Omega Command". 
That command set loose a secret, ultra sophisticated virus which began to delve into the
Genom database.

[Genom Headquarters, Central Computer Control department]

  "Sir, we have a weird reading in node 738!" a tech called out.

  "Identify" his supervisor replied.  Strange readings were hardly anything unusual.  While
Genom had the most sophisticated computers in the world, they had great demands placed
on them, and as such would do strange things every day.  That didn't even begin to take
into account the problems caused by bad data.  The American phrase from the stone age of
computers "GIGO" still applied the supervisor thought.

  "Sir! Whatever it is, it seems to be spreading, it is now in nodes 722, 831, 1034 and 2112
as well!  It seems to be destroying data as well!" the technician called out.

  The supervisor didn't even have time to curse.  If it was a virus sophisticated enough to
get into the Genom net, it had to be stopped now.  "Isolate the infected nodes.  Bring up
the adaptive anti-viral programs.  See if they can figure out how it works and what it's up
to!  Is there a pattern to the attacks?"

  The technician watched the directories of 3 of the infected nodes, and immediately saw
the pattern.  As the virus spread, it erased any file that spoke of a "project neptune" or any
of it's subprojects.  He quickly explained this to the supervisor, even as he watched the
virus slip past the blocks and infect 7 more nodes.

  The supervisor looked into a special codebook and saw that Project Neptune had the
highest priority level.  He was to appraise the chairman of any problems with the file as
soon as they occurred.  He went pale at having to call Chairman Quincy with this piece of
news, but he reached for his visiphone and placed the emergency call.  

   Within 30 seconds Quincy was on the line, and 30 seconds later he knew the basics of
what was happening.  "Can you stop the virus?" he asked.

  "We are trying everything we can, but whoever made this must know our protections
inside and out!" the supervisor replied.

  "I see, well, can you trace how it got in?" Quincy said.

  "I believe so, I already have a man backtracking it.  It came in through our cafeteria
subcontractors computer.  Within a few moments we should have it's point of origin.  It's
kind of strange.  Whoever made this program made it sophisticated enough to slip in, but
he didn't bother to hide his tracks."

  Another tech shouted out "Sir! I have it! It came in through a warehouse over near Tinsel
City!"

  Quincy said "I heard that, I'll take care of that end. You save whatever you can.  We will
talk about this failure later though."

[Back at the safehouse]

  As the Knight Sabers sat around in the back room, Mackie buzzed into Sylia's comm
channel.  "Sis, we seem to have a problem.  Someone uploaded a program into Genom
from the computer in the safehouse!"

  "Yamata!" Sylia swore under her breath.  "What is that fool doing!  He's liable to bring
Genom right here!"

  "I'm afraid that's exactly what's happened sis, I was fixing Priss' Motoslave when my
computer warned me that someone was tracing into your system there.  I've cut off the
other systems, and they can't trace any of our other units, but they have found you!" 
Mackie quickly explained.

  The Knight Sabers went storming out the door into the main room, where they saw Dr.
Yamata casually watching a cable tv show on the mating habits of tuna.  "What have you
done!" Priss roared, even as she reached out to pick him up by his shirt.

  Sylia held out her hand, stopping Priss before she did any damage.  "Explain yourself",
she said coldly.  What have you done on the computer?"

  "Huh, how did you find out about that?" Dr. Yamata answered trying to collect his
thoughts.

  "We have our ways, now what did you do?" Sylia demanded.

  "I uploaded a virus that will destroy all of Genom's data on Project Neptune.  They will
be able to make no more of them!" Dr. Yamata cried triumphantly.

  "Why didn't you tell us this before?!"  Priss practically exploded.  We could have
uploaded that from any number of places!  But from here?  Now you'll bring Genom to
our doorstep.  You think you are...."  

  Before Priss could complete her sentence, the wall exploded inward and  4 new type
combat boomers could be seen barging in.  The Knight Sabers jumped into action.

  Linna slipped to the side of the first one, and whipped it with her ribbon cutters.  The wall
prevented her from getting a clean shot, but the left arm of the boomer fell to the ground
with a dull thud.  She then jumped back and began to spar with the one armed boomer. 
Suddenly, she faked a kick to the side where the arm used to be, and when the boomer
shifted to cover that side, she reversed out of the kick and threw a spinning back fist
connecting on the boomers head with her knuckle bomber.  The boomers head exploded
and it fell to the ground.

  Meanwhile, Nene backed away from hers, trying to find a way to override the AI of the
boomer, with little success.  The Boomer fired at her and nearly hit her, dropping a bit of
rubble from the wall on her.  She managed to slip out from under the rubble and jumped
up, letting loose with her shoulder mount blasters.  The boomer stiffened and fell, likewise
out of the action.

  Priss, as was her wont, took a more aggressive style with her boomer.  She slipped in and
began to hammer it with rocket assisted kicks.  While the boomers balance was still off, she
slipped behind it and fired off her metal spikes into the boomers head from point blank
range.

  Sylia was all style, and panache, as she forced the boomer into a corner with her hand
mounted laser.  When the boomer began to raise it's gun, she swooped in and used her
sword to slice the gun in half, and then on a back swing with her sword, cut down and
through the cornered boomer, taking it out.

  "If that's the best that Genom can throw at us, I think it's time for them to give up on the
boomer business and sell roses" said Priss.  "When I saw that they were some new type, I
thought we'd have a fight on our hands.  So much for that idea."

  Suddenly, they heard a dull thunk, and saw a nightmare revisited.  There before them
stood the Neptune!  It had Dr. Yamata's head in it's hand, and had just rammed that head
into the desk, cracking Yamata's skull wide open..

  "What! There is no way they fixed that thing this time!" said Priss.

  "Hold it, it's not the same boomer" said Nene as she read the readouts from her hardsuit. 
"It's the same model, but there are some subtle differences.  The height, mass, and density
are all a bit different.  Probably a second prototype of the model."

  The Knight Sabers jumped into action against the Neptune.  While Nene, Sylia and Linna
kept the monster occupied, Priss ran back into the back room.  When she came out, she
was carrying a small gun that looked like a "Blooper" grenade launcher.  She aimed it at
the Neptune and fired.  Her shot hit the Neptune's back and covered it with the same green
gel as they had used on the first boomer.  This time it had no effect.  The gel clung to the
armor, but there was no smoke, no sign that the armor was failing.   Even as she had a
sinking feeling that Genom had somehow fixed the problem, Sylia snuck in and as before
tried to thrust her sword into the back of the Neptune.  However, it not only didn't
penetrate the armor, but the sword blade actually broke in half.

  "Knight Sabers! Regroup" Sylia called out over the commline.  They then jetted off to an
intersection about a block north of where they had been fighting the Neptune.  Sylia then
got back on the commline "Mackie, come in, can you hear me?  Good, I think we are
going to need "it" after all."

  "Are you crazy!! You know that thing still doesn't work right!" Mackie responded.

  "I know, but I think it's our best chance to bring this thing down.  Bring it out as fast as
you can, we'll distract it until then."  Sylia answered.

  For the next 15 minutes, the Knight Sabers tried everything they could think of.  Lasers,
knuckle bombers, ribbon cutters, combo attacks, and, as before, nothing worked.  The
monster just plodded along and kept trying to catch them.  As the battle backtracked
towards the Knight Saber's safehouse, it picked up one of the autocannons from the
defeated boomers.  It let loose with a spray of fire, and one of the shots hit Linna in the
leg.

  "Linna!"  Priss cried out she jumped over to where Linna had fallen.  "Are you okay?"

  "I think it broke my leg" Linna answered weakly.  

  Priss grabbed her and flew here away from the battle as Nene and Sylia ducked the
continuing fire from the Neptune until the ammo of the gun ran out.  At about that time,
Mackie called over Sylia's commset.  "Sis, I'm about 2 blocks from you, where do you
want it?"
  
  "Just stay right there,  Mackie, I'll have Priss go get it.  Priss, go to the van and get the
special cargo that Mackie is carrying.  Bring it here, but be careful with it, it's rather
delicate."
  
  "I'm on it" Priss said.  A moment later she came back on the line "What is this thing?". 
Even as she said that she came carrying a 4 meter long metal tube with wires and tubes
attached.  It had a tripod stand at one end, and a targeting scope at the other.  It was
hooked to a pack that Mackie had magnetically attached to Priss' back.  Without the
strength augmentation of the hard suits, there would have been no chance Priss could have
carried the device.

  Mackie came back on the line.  "It's a rail gun.  It works on the same principle as the ones
in your hardsuit, but it's much more powerful.  If anything we have will crack the hide on
that monster, this is it.  BUT...there is one problem.  It's not perfected.  It will only fire one
shot.  After that I basically have to rebuild the thing."

  "Priss, you are the best shot of any of us, take that thing down."  Sylia ordered.

  Priss  called up the electronic targeting system of the railgun, relieved that it worked much
the same as the system on the Knightwing.  She carefully took aim at the Neptune, marking
the targeting pip right on the middle of the boomers chest.  She took a breath, and then
held it, then firing the railgun.

  The railgun flashed, sparked and smoked as the electronic components were overloaded
by the massive electrical discharge.  However, the slug flew true and struck the Neptune
right in the middle of the chest.  It broke into the chest and knocked the boomer backwards
onto its back.

  "Wow! I like this thing" Priss observed.  "Mackie, fix this thing and put it on my
motorslave!"

  Before Mackie could answer Priss, the Neptune stood up once more and began to lumber
back towards the Knight Sabers.  It was smoking, and had a 6 inch hole in its chest, and a
outward dent in its back where the slug had tried to exit, but it still kept on coming. 
Quickly, Sylia jetted in, ducked the arms of the Neptune as it tried to grab her, stuffed an
S-Mine in the hole and jetted away.  The S-Mine exploded, gutting the inside of the
boomer.  Finally, the Neptune fell, and remained on the ground.

[Later that Evening, at Sylia's apartment]

  The Knight Sabers sat around the room, all exhausted from their long night.  Linna wore
an air-cast on her left leg that would be a major nuisance at the brokerage.  She had
already decided to tell her coworkers that she broke her leg water-skiing.

  Sylia said, "Unless I miss my guess, that's the last of the Neptunes.  I just heard from
Fargo that Genom lost enough data that it will be years before they are able to build
another prototype, and Genom normally only builds 2 prototypes of a new boomer.  I think
it's finally over."

  Linna asked "Sylia, will  we be safe here?  I mean Genom found out about our safe
house.  Will they be able to track it back to you?"

  Nene answered that question for Sylia.  "Linna, no problem, Sylia and I have hidden the
ownership of that property under so many dummy corporations, false fronts and everything
that I think Genom will have a bit of a shock when they find out who really does 'own' it"
she said with a smirk.

[Genom Headquarters]

  "What! What do you mean we own it?" Quincy raged at Madigan. 

   "Yes sir, it seems that when you look through the ownership shells, it actually is a
warehouse belonging to our processed fruit division" she answered.  "However, they know
nothing of it, and have never stored anything there".

  "Does that mean that the Knight Sabers actually are a part of Genom, or are they just
very, very clever?  They are getting to be problem.  Well, hopefully, Operation Blizzard
may just flush them out.  The Neptune project is a failure, but we can afford the occasional
failure.  For every failure, we have 10 successes.  Let us make Operation Blizzard one of
those."  Qunicy said before he left for the evening.

[Sylia's apartment, much later that night]

  Sylia sat in her chair, with a nearly empty bottle of brandy in front of her.  "Father, will it
ever end?  The killing, the pain.  Now your friend Yamata.  He was a fool, many times
over, but he didn't deserve that.  Father, how am I supposed to carry on your work.  It just
goes on and on, and never ends.



The End.
[for now]

coming soon (hopefully)
the sequel: The Blizzard

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