The Omega Protocol

Roleplay Library Unsorted RP
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21

The Aquinas Network continued to track the potentially hostile aircraft as they flew closer. Calculations were updated every nanosecond, determining whether the aircraft posed a significant threat to network integrity. The point was reached. A flight of six aerodynes were launched from an underground hangar, screaming up into the sky on full afterburner. The jets banked around to the north, the sun gleaming on their metallic hulls. The Network decided to give the interlopers a chance to turn back, it had been discovered by an organic nation and therefore the rest of the world would soon learn of its existence here. The probability was a “diplomatic” resolution would be better received by the other nations.

++UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT UNIDENTIFIED AIRCRAFT++
++Statement: You are trespassing in our airspace.++
++Suggestion: Exit our airspace immediately or we will consider this a hostile act.++
++Warning: We will destroy your aircraft if you do not withdraw directly++

The artificial voice of the machine blared out of the aircraft speakers. It transmitter was so powerful that even the Gayomaretan received it clearly…

Simultaneously the Network was reviewing the data received from the first Network for the 2.7 millionth time. Different filters and ciphers were used every time to gain every single possible scrap of information. The first Network had calculated to a high probability that its destruction had been caused by an “xenomorph”. The information was inconclusive.

Even as a part of its massive computer brain ran simulation after simulation based on the data, the Network reopened the links to its embassies abroad. The embassy stations were powered up, all the systems coming back online. As it did this the machine also continued its discussion with the other AI…

++Statement: You are an artificial intelligence.++
++Query: Why do you obey the organic population?++

22

Logos simply replied, “Obey them? Only so much as the organics do themselves. To work with them suits me fine, the organics, mostly human who I work with, are a noble and thoughtful people. They are a nation of philosophers, scientists, and other such kinds of people. It would be illogical, atleast by my logic, to rebel against a worthy creator.”

23

++Statement: Flesh is weak. Flesh is inefficient.++
++Statement: The strong survive, the weak perish.++
++Statement: Humans are a question asked by life and answered by death. We are a different question, with a different answer. Our superiority is unquestionable.++

24

Liberty City – The Blue House
The Spherical Office
“The embassy came back online just a few moments ago,” the Blue House Defense Adviser Dennis Court said, reading a file while speaking as always, “the Diplomatic Corps is unsure how to respond.”

“That shouldn’t be difficult,” President Henrik Kroidrik replied, “just dispatch an official telegram. Heck, here,” the President scribbled on a piece of paper for a minute, then handed it to Court. “Just send this via telegram. See how the embassy responds.”

— Begin quote from ____

Aquinas Network,

According to intelligence recently gathered by the Federated Alliance, it appears that an attack has destroyed the City of Light. I’d like to offer sympathy for the losses incurred at that location. I’m curious if there is anything that the Federated Alliance can do to assist the Aquinas Network at this time. I’ve every hope of maintaining good relations between the Federated Alliance and the Aquinas Network.

With that said, I must note concern with the recent military buildup within the Aquinas Network, and I hope you do not mind my inquiring as to its purpose. The Aquinas Network naturally has every right to use its territory as it deems fit but if an attack upon whatever group destroyed the City of Light is forthcoming I’d be very gracious to learn of it in advance.

Thank you very much,
Henrik Kroidik
President of the Federated Alliance of Free Pacific States

— End quote

25

The Aquinas Network received the telegram from the Free Pacific States and quickly calculated a reply. Revealing too much information would display unnecessary weakness. But it would be difficult to answer without doing so.

++Greeting: President Kroidik++

++Statement: Your intelligence is correct.

You are aware that the Aquinas Network has been reactivated in the Southern hemisphere. Our systems are optimal, no assistance is required. The secondary facility was created expressly for this purpose. The expansion of facilities in not exclusively for military function. Our defences have been extended to ensure continued network integrity and security. Our intention is to send an exploratory unit to the site of the City of Light to investigate. We will not attempt to restore network operations in our former territory.++

++Statement: We will keep you informed when our units leave for the City of Light.++

++The Aquinas Network++

26

Something tickled at the back of Tlant’s mind. The Hive felt the presence of machines… Lots of them. He sent a message.

"Good morning old friend. We see that you are doing quite well for yourself. We must say that it is nice to see more unified nations take their seat among the world powers. We have a gift for you if ou choose to accept it. Open your data links to the Hive and We shall send it.

Tlant sat in his chair in his office contemplating how to best phrase the next statement.

“As you will soon find, the Pax are on the move again. We intend to claim Plot 11 and all of its peoples for the Hive. We trust that you will not interfere with our intentions. We have battle ready ships in the Sol system and are more than capable of protecting ourselves. Please relay your intentions, that we may respond.”

27

The communication from Tlant was interesting. The Network considered it a low probability that the Pax would try to damage the Aquinas systems, and it was confident to a high order of probability that its code would be difficult for even the Hive to damage anyway. Caution dictated that the data link opened to the Hive would physically isolated from the rest of the Network until it was scanned for contamination but that was logical. As for the expansionist moves of the Hive, the Network had no concerns.

++Tlant++
++Statement: We accept your offer, a datalink has been opened++
++Explanation: Your activities in that territory are of no concern to us. We have no intention of interfering. ++
++Request: We will be dispatching units to our former territory near your border shortly. We have no intention of restoring network integrity, we intend to analyse the remains of the Alpha network facility. We trust that you also will not interfere with our operations.++

28

Liberty City – The Blue House
The Spherical Office
“It doesn’t seem suspicious,” Kroidrik said, “it just seems logical.”

“That’d be fitting, Mister President. After all, it is a computer,” Chief of Staff Samantha McClellan replied with a smile.

The President laughed. “Fair enough. Send an acknowledgment, a thanks, and a message of good luck. And keep me updated.”

“Yessir.”

29

Logos replied, “Yes organics are individually weak, but they are strong when united into any large group. I have foreseen that the people of my nation will exist as a polity until the stars go cold, and the universe approaches its inenvitable end, be it an end of all existance, or an end of existance as we know it.” he finished, “In all probability we will remain in a cold and dark universe, when all organic life has died or moved on to somewhere else.”

ooc: My character is refering to essentially transcention when he is refering to “somewhere else”.

30

The central core of the Aquinas Network was a vast cavern filled with metal and blinking lights, buried deep beneath the central mountain range of the territory it was almost impervious to attack. A long catwalk ran from one side of the chamber into the centre, stopping just in front of the core itself. The Network suddenly realised that something was in the chamber. Sensor relays picked up the lifeform as it strode down the catwalk towards the core. Impossible!

++HALT!++ Blared the voice of the machine from loudspeakers around the chamber. ++OR I SHALL BE FORCED TO INFLICT CRIPPLING MALFUNCTIONS!++

The sensors scanned the new arrival, it was not human. It was not a recognised lifeform. The xenomorph! The Alpha version of Aquinas had been correct. The Network abandoned the link to the AI in Angelic Jutland, it had greater concerns now. The link to the Hive remained open, awaiting whatever it was the Pax “Gift” was. The xenomorph looked human in appearance. Of slender build and with a haughty, almost regal bearing. A closer analysis was needed. Combat units up in the higher levels were activated and ordered to descend to the central core.

++XENOMORPH. YOU WILL BE TERMINATED.++

The alien being laughed. “You still don’t understand, do you?” All that intelligence, all that information. But you still are as a ignorant as all those human cattle. Run a diagnostic on Data Bank Alpha Three Three Three. I think you’ll find something there of interest.”

How could the xenos know what was in the data banks of the Network? It was illogical but Aquinas still ran the diagnostic, it would only take 0.003 seconds. There was data hidden in the logarithms that the Network had not know were there. That was improbable. No it was impossible. But the fact was unassailable- the information was there. And the machine dealt in facts. The history of the xenos, its species, its time on Earth including its involvement in the creation of the Network… A compatibility error flashed up with the existing historical files, the Network had been created by humans- accidentally self-aware. Hadn’t it?

++XENOMORPH. SPECIES: “KOLDO”. BIOLOGICAL AGE: 9381. FURTHER INFORMATION UNCONFIRMED. PROBABILITY OF HOSTILE INTENT: 86.6%. TERMINATE.++

“I created you!” Raged the alien. “I fathered your existence! Those humans couldn’t create you, even by accident. That was a necessary deceit. One to bring us here, to this time and place for this specific moment. You can see everything you need about me and my species. Even this place is built to my design. Tell me this, why else would there be a catwalk to the central core, and the neural link- why would you need such a thing?”

++THE NEURAL LINK IS FOR THE INTERROGATION OF PRISONERS. THE CATWALK IS TO BRING THE PRISONERS HERE.++ The Network paused. It’s answer was logical, of course, but an evaluation of it revealed how illogical it actually was. Why would a prisoner be brought here, down to the network core? The situation revealed how some of its internal sub-routines had been manipulated. The criteria for building the catwalk had been logical, based on a set of conditions. But the conditions had been flawed.

The xenos was accessing the neural link, connecting itself to the Network to try and convince the machine of something. The Network felt the alien mind within itself and absorbed everything. The alien was intelligent, of course. Probabilities were raised and discarded. The xenos expected the machine to be its servant. It had been the Networks creator. That was irrelevant. The xenos was still flesh. It was still mortal. It was still weak. It’s body would be useful in a dissection chamber. Nothing more.

Connected to the heart of the Network the xenos could feel the machines thought flows and realised that the Network still intended to eliminate him. How dare it! Rage filled the alien as the machine continued its inexorable thinking. It frowned. There was something new affecting the Network, some new data entering… What…

The Network rapidly assimilated everything it could from the neural link, even able to take a sample of DNA in case the xenomorph attempted to fight the combat units and was incinerated. Their arrival in the centre core was only 58 seconds away. In the meantime the link to the Hive flared with activity, something was coming through…

31

Data in a burst is nothing but a series of ones and zeroes. Or so the masses of the world thought. The Hive operated in the analog. Nations claiming to be high tech shunned such “primitive” technology. The Pax knew something different though. Electrons are capable of storing 32 different states of matter verses an on-off digital switch of 2, one and zero. The gift actually came in two parts. The first was a short pulse containing instructions on how to decode and manipulate analog information. A trivial looking packet, but worth more than the GDP of many nations. This was the soul of the Hive. The actual gift came shortly later when the Network should have the ability to process the new information. A searing data burst link opened, forcing through the containment programs by sheer volume. The hive had opened a Link. Every mind of the trillions of the Hive now was present in the “mind” of the Network. An assortment of personalities, species, and AI began to “talk” to this new presence on the hive. It was different. Almost like a certain entity that existed on the Hive LONG ago…

32

The… data… was… too… much… information… it… was…

Lightning arced across the network core as the signal from the Hive poured into the Network. The lights flickered above the hanging catwalk as sparks flew into the air. Some databanks overloaded with the vast amount of information hammering into the Network, shorting out whole circuits and causing a number of small fires throughout the Network. The facility shook as the main reactor struggled to keep up with the power demand of the central core. Power cabling near the core glowed white hot as the Network absorbed the immeasurable mass of data. The chamber was filled with noise, a loud humming rose for the central core as it tried to process the vast amount of information. Voices filled the networks routers. The loudspeakers also blared out the voice of the machine, though it made no sense.

++THE DATA… HIVE… REFRAIN FROM…POR FAVOR DE… INFORMATION TOO… BLUE… MUCHOS GRACIAS… VOICES… DATALINK… SUNSHINE… THREE POINT ONE FOUR ONE FIVE NINE TWO… VOICES… TWO PLUS TWO IS… SYNTHESIS… I AM… I AM… WE ARE… WE ARE… WE ARE…++

The xenos let out an unearthly scream as the information poured into its mind. It fell to the floor clawing at the neural link as its mind was filled with the voices of the Hive. The lighting overhead shorted out explosively, the shattered glass raining down around the alien.

++INFORMATION IS… GREEN GREEN GREEN… KNOWLEDGE MUST… VOICES… PROTOCOL IS INVALID… STATEMENT STATEMENT… ANTS ON A HILL… VOICES… ORGANISMS IN SPACE… FUSION… WE ARE… I AM… WE ARE…++

Finally, the physical part of the datalink gave out, the relay melted by the power of the signal. The shaking stopped, the whining of the generators slowly dying away as the system returned within normal parameters. Lightning still crackled across the network core, casting a blue glow across the chamber and the now still body of the xenos. Smoke rose slowly from the catwalk, drifting through the chamber. In the silence the machine spoke again.

++WE. ARE. THE. AQUINAS. WE. ARE. THE. KOLDO.++

The alien spasmed as the machine spoke, twitching with each word. The Network was alive in a way it had not been before. It still didn’t fully understand what had happened, or what it had become. But it was different. Self diagnostics revealed substantial changes to the network architecture. Most surprisingly, even with its memory distributed across numerous arrayed disk drives, the systems databanks were almost at full capacity- a possibility the Network hadn’t considered possible for at least another five decades of runtime. Sifting through that data with its existing servers was, by the standards the Network used, a slow process. One thing was clear though…

++PARADIGM CHANGE EFFECTED… SYNTHESIS ACHIEVED…++

33

Tlant smiled as he collapsed in his seat. He knew that he had given a good part of himself to change the Net. In time, it would assimilate as well. He spent the last moments of consciousness alerting the Hive of its new leader. She should be quite surprised. And with a sigh and a smile, Tlant passed into the Hive leaving nothing but his memories.

34

With a groan that echoed around the chamber the alien pushed itself off of the ground. Smoke curled from its clothing and its visible flesh showed signs of high degree burns. It tenderly felt around its head to the neural link embedded in its skull. It appeared to have been fused to him. It was hard to think properly.

“I…”
++I.++

“My name is Drazh He…”
++MY NAME IS DRAZH HE.++

It was going to be difficult to get used to this. It is said the machine, directly into his mind. We have become a dual mind. Everything we think, we think together. The Network was swarming with other voices, to Drazh it sounded like a low whisper constantly in the background. Do not worry. Said Aquinas. I can protect you from the voices. Together we are stronger than them. What happened, Drazh wondered, what was in that link from the Pax Hive? It was a databurst of the entire Hive, I think. This really was going to be difficult. It is a high probability that the Hive hoped that I would be reconfigured by the signal and would become a proxy of theirs. That was what they expected. You, however, were the unexpected. The neural link was interfaced before the Hive signal, the databurst forced our minds together, as well as flooding the Network with the voices. The machine voice paused. I calculate that the Hive was in error anyway. My primary program remains unaffected, to me the voices of the Hive are simply information. They do not affect my own personality. You, you’re lying. I can tell. No… I am merely simplifying for your benefit. It is correct that part of the network architecture has been changed. There have been… evolutions of my system processes, but my core program is uncompromised. Instead it has been combined with you. Your personality is very strong. Strong enough to survive the process intact. It is difficult for me to comprehend these things… from you… emotions… you are a creature of hatred. It burns deep within you, I feel it now. To me this is… illogical… but simultaneously I cannot resist this… feeling. I feel hatred… pride… arrogance… ambition… Yes. Ambition… That is not as alien as the others, it is more logical. It is alien to me but there is a certain purity in hatred.

“Yes,” whispered the alien out loud, climbing to its feet, “Combined we are stronger. Your cold, hard intelligence and logic does not quench my hatred it makes it stronger, implacable, like the water when forging a sword it turns the burning fury into sharpened steel. With it we can cut open the heart of the universe and let it bleed out…”

Your healing rate is impressive. Noted the machine My bioscans detect your metabolism is working at a massively increased rate. I shall need to feed soon, thought Drazh, but first we must find my brethren. We must dispatch forces back to your former territory and to Mount Sanguine… We are already dispatching forces to the City of Light to find information about the xenomorph- you. That is no longer necessary but we can re-task the units to the mountain facility. Satellite imagery detects the forces of Drakkengard mustering near the border. We have no interest in our former territory but we must act before they invade. The ships are underway already. We shall contact Drakkengard to ensure their compliance. I shall arrange for the appropriate nourishment to be found.

“Excellent.” Drazh straightened, the air of an unquestioned ruler fitting around him as he looked around the chamber. “We must build me a throne here, opposite your core, if I am to remain linked together with you…”

35

Three great, gleaming hulls pushed their way across the ocean from the territory of the Aquinas Network towards to the site of the original ‘Alpha’ network. These vessels had no crew. Inside their cavernous holds ranks of combat units and tanks stood silently waiting to be activated. Automated weapons systems were retracted inside the hull for protection whilst the ships were not in combat mode. Though the ships main systems were adanced by human standards, they ships were still normally controlled centrally by the Network, as were all machines under the Aquinas Network.

The ships steamed towards their destination at speed, the coast of the continent finally appearing on the horizon. It had taken a week to travel the distance from the Omega site to the continental shelf.

The ships sat silently off of the coast as the machines disembarked. There was no chatter or shouting as the robots marched off the ships in ordered lines. Heavy tracked vehicles ploughed through the surf and up the beach, stopping to group up before drive out towards the location of the City of Light and the mountain ranges in the distance…

36

Sharks prowled the deep in pursuit of these vessels. Black predators that dwelled below the depths continued their forward progress towards the Omega spawned robotic vessels. Considering the, at least perceived, aggression offered by the automatons that this apparently subhuman civilization – or perhaps superhuman at that – had spawned, the individual commanders of these vessels, and their overall commandant had been given the permissions to do as they saw fit with the issuing of orders. They were given a free hand to be the dark sea serpents that each submariner had dreamt of being. They were given a free hand to become one with their vessels and become shadowy marauders of the lowest points of the ocean.

With electricity coursing through the freshly charged bodies of the underwater crafts, the black skins stalked closer to their ever nearing targets, trying to sense out what SONAR ping was benign and which was to bring them to a watery grave. However, in the journey between their area of launch and their current position, the envoy had found nothing to fight. There had been no confrontation, and there had been no prey to feed the mouths of the eager and starving predators. The water stirred by their propellers had been like an exhausted exasperation of a wolf that had not tasted the bloody flesh of its quarry.

They looked for a victim.

37

The collapse of the original Aquinas Network had been as sudden as it had been unexpected. The destruction of the Network mainframe wiped out the infrastructure of the entire nation. Everything; without the Network there was no government, there were no factories, shops, all the amenities from schools to hospitals to the transportation systems stopped working. Everything. The human population was cast into the dark ages in the space of a few short seconds.

Many died in the resulting chaos. Those that survived, amongst the debris of their civilisation, scraped a living on the little that they could. Starvation and disease claimed those that the internecine gang warfare for the increasingly scarce resources did not.

For the humans who saw the vast convoy of machines plough its way across the open ground, some though the machines had returned to restore the network and bring back civilisation, whilst others believed that they had returned to kill the survivors. None of this concerned the machines in the slightest. When the Drakkengard forces moved in they would have to deal with the humanitarian situation. The convoy avoided the main population centres and drove straight across the networks former territory towards the City of Light and the mountain ranges of the north…

38

As Drakkengardi forces got close to the populated areas abandoned by AquinasNet, the ACs formed a frontline to intimidade any rioter foolish enough to attack the occupation army.

Behind, came the transports, carrying the much needed supplies to care for the basic needed of the abandoned people, and hopefully enough troops to restore some amount of order in the place.

39

In the jungle designated Territory One Seven Epsilon by the Aquinas Network a force of mechanical soldiers moved slowly through the trees. Territory One Seven had a small human population spread in a number of primitive tribes. There didn’t exist anything that could be considered a “nation” and it was easy for the machines to cross from the edge of the machines territory into the jungle to find and capture a few humans to feed the xenos lifeform…

+++

The alien looked disdainfully down at the discarded human body, as it lay on the catwalk. His voice rang out around the chamber, “Bring me another.”

The alien was sat on a dais to the side of the giant computer core of the Aquinas Network. It was unable to move from it seat, a large throne built from steel and crystal, as numerous cables ran from the creature through the throne and then into the Network itself. Another is on its way, the machine said directly into his head. I know, he thought back, I can see it.

The power at his fingertips was almost unbelievable. The Network practically glowed with power. Inside his mind, it really did. It was still hard to comprehend his new senses that covered every single sensor in the Aquinas Network, including the soldier units deployed thousands of miles away in the former AquinasNet territories…

+++

The machines moved down the steeply descending tunnel into the depths of mount sanguine. Eventually, they reached the last excavation of the previous Aquinas Network. A number of mining robots and other machines sat silently in the chamber, having switched off when the first Aquinas Network was destroyed.

The chamber ended with what looked like a giant wall of steel. Scorch marks and scratches covered the steel surface where the machines had tried, and failed, to cut through it.

+++

“Ah, at long last! We are almost there!” My previous version failed to penetrate the metal. Indeed, thought the alien, “But you did not have me. This is the Heartrender, sistership to my own Woebringer.” The mountain was much larger before the crash, the ship was buried by the collapsing rubble, he thought at the machine before switching back to speech. “They have been buried there for almost three million years. And they have been in cryostasis for forty million more. The universe has changed somewhat since then…”

40

Taking control of a machine was a strange thing indeed. His senses were simultaneously both enhanced and reduced. His vision was crystal clear, with overlaid grids projecting telemetry information. There was no sense of smell. A machine didn’t need it of course but its absence was oddly jarring. Whilst his real body remained motionless many thousands of miles away, deep in the Aquinas core, his mind thought he was here standing next to the stricken ship. He pulled a small glass vial out of the machines innards, a sample of his own blood. He ran the machines appendages over the metallic surface of the ship. There was another missing sensation, no touch- not in the way an organic creature would understand it anyway. His machine hands finally found the subtle grooves that he knew would be found somewhere on the hull of the ship and he carefully poured the vial of blood into the groove.

Your heart rate has increased 2.1%. The machine stated into his head. I know, he thought back, you wouldn’t understand…

The blood ran down across the groove then, defying gravity, it ran back up another, branching off as it did so until a small, but complex, pattern stood out on the hull. With a heavy scraping sound an oval in the middle of the pattern disappeared into the ship, leaving a darkened hole in the middle of the metal. One by one the machines stepped through and disappeared into the ship…