Infiltration

[Zukeenee]

Kusari State Police officer Tomimoto Tachiko was frustrated. It was not an uncommon feeling for him. In his position as High Commissioner of the KSP forces, he had come across more than his fair share of frustrating scenarios. Tachiko had dealt with stubborn lawbreakers and bloodthirsty terrorists. He had struggled to live up to the expectations of his fellow officers, to be the best leader he could possibly be. He had put up with criticism from the Naval Forces pilots who doubted his methods of upholding the law. He had even suffered the trials of marriage and fatherhood. The situation Tachiko was in now paled in comparison to previous problems he had faced.

That didn't make it any less frustrating.

At a 5K distance from Yokohama Shipyards, Tachiko's Wyrm was still drifting lazily toward its destination. Tachiko had spent the better part of an hour trying to reactivate his cruise engines, engage his emergency thruster, or at the very least bring his ship back up to full impulse speed. That was a good three hours ago. He had since given up.

Tachiko sighed, and leaned back in his pilot's chair. Hopefully someone on Yokohama would notice his Wyrm and send out a ship to tow him in. The station wasn't responding to his hails, though, and Tachiko was worried that something might have gone wrong on board the shipyard, too.

"It's those damn machines..." Tachiko muttered to himself. "They show up, everything gets turned upside down."

A few hours ago, Tachiko had encountered a freelancer at Shinjuku who claimed to have destroyed a Consortium fighter. The freelancer had tractored in a few pieces of scrap from the destroyed ship, and gave them to the KSP officer. Upon inspecting the remains, Tachiko discovered that one component was still relatively intact. It was a small, dark metal box about the size of a personal computer. Curious, Tachiko flew to the site of the freelancer's battle and scoured the wreckage for any other unusual devices. After only a few minutes of searching, he found an adapter cable that fit into the box, and plugged the device into his ship's computer.

At that moment, however, a Consortium rescue ship appeared on the scene and retrieved the wreckage. The machine demanded that Tachiko hand over the components he had recovered and, knowing that his Wyrm was no match for the Consortium transport, obliged. However, before jettisoning the hardware, Tachiko made a quick copy of the box's contents onto his ship's computer. He wasn't sure just what the box contained, but he figured the information therein could provide some knowledge about the Consortium machines and how to stop them.

The rescue ship left, and Tachiko returned to his patrols. He reached the Hokkaido jumpgate, prepared to jump... but the gate wouldn't open. He resent his command to the gate four more times, and got no response. Figuring something was wrong with the gate, he turned around to head back to base, and report the faulty jumpgate. So he entered the tradelane... and nothing happened. Tachiko passed through the ring again, engaged the tradelane sequence again, and got the same result. Fully confused and annoyed now, Tachiko engaged his cruise engines, and took off to Yokohama Shipyard, the nearest station.

About halfway to his destination, his cruise engines had deactivated unexpectedly, dropping his Wyrm back to impulse speed. After trying repeatedly to re-engage his cruise engines, Tachiko's Wyrm had slowed down even further to a snail's pace, not responding to anything Tachiko did at the controls. And so it was for another three hours or so, drifting slowly to Yokohama.

Tachiko checked his display again. 4.8K from the shipyards. Surely they must have noticed his ship by now. He sent out another transmission to the station.

"Yokohama Shipyards, this is Kusari State Police officer Tomimoto Tachiko. I'm in need of assistance, over." He said for the umpteenth time. Surprisingly enough, only a few seconds after he had sent the transmission, Tachiko saw a Combat Service Vehicle undock from the station and begin to fly his way.

"About damn time," Tachiko muttered, as the CSV connected with his Wyrm. With little effort, the CSV pilot quickly spun the awkward pair around to face the nearest docking bay, and towed the Wyrm inside.

---------------------

"Konnichiwa, officer!" A dockworker said as Tachiko climbed down from his cockpit. "Problems with your ship?"

"Hai..." Tachiko replied, unsure how to explain the situation. "I think there's something wrong with the nav computer. Can I speak with one of your lead technicians?"

"Of course, sir. I'll go get him." The dockworker bowed and ran off.

Tachiko sat and waited on a nearby crate. Within a minute, the dockworker returned with another man, older, likely in his late fifties. He smiled at Tachiko and held out his hand. An uncommon gesture, but a recognizable one. Tachiko took the hand and shook it.

"Honami Isamu. Lead technician on Yokohama. At the moment, at least. What can I do for you, Officer Tomimoto?"

"Ship troubles," Tachiko replied. "But first, is there something wrong on this station?"

"No..." Isamu said, confused. "Not that I'm aware of. Why do you ask?"

"You never responded to my hails. I must have contacted the station a dozen times before you sent someone out."

Isamu looked puzzled. "We never got any calls from you, Tomimoto-san. We sent out a ship when we finally picked up your Wyrm on our scanners. We weren't hearing anything from you, so we assumed something was wrong."

Tachiko considered this. That meant that the trouble was on his end, not Yokohama's. Not surprising, considering how much else on his ship had been deactivated, but not what he was expecting. Dismissing the thought, he explained hi situation.

"I have a partial Consortium program installed on my ship. I had intended to return to the planet with it, but my ship was... malfunctioning. I believe that to be the work of the program. Yokohama was the closest station, and I need to get the program somewhere it can be analyzed."

Isamu raised an eyebrow. "You have an active Consortium... intelligence aboard your ship? And it's interfering with your ship's functions? I know it's not my place to say this, Tomimoto-san, but you could have been killed. What drove you to do this?"

"Any knowledge we can gain about these machines and how they work is desperately needed," Tachiko replied sternly. "I felt the risk was worth the reward."

Isamu considered this for a moment. "Hai. Of course, Tomimoto-san. Well..." he said hesitantly, "If that's the case... I think we have the equipment and the brains here on Yokohama to dissect the Consortium intelligence. I'll have my technicians create a secluded system to download--"

"No," Tachiko interrupted. "This is a matter for the Kusari State Police and the Naval Forces only. I won't allow civilians to get involved."

"Hai, Tomimoto-san," Ismau said, failing to hide his disappointment. "In that case, I can show you to our communications center, and you can call another officer to come tow you back to the planet."

"Arigato, Honami-san. Thank you for understanding," Tachiko said.

Isamu led Tachiko to the elevator that would take him to the communications center. After the officer had left, Isamu called a dockworker over and whispered his instructions. "Set up a secluded network. Download whatever you can from the Wyrm's computer. Contact me when you're done." The dockworker bowed, and went to the nearest console to begin his task.

Isamu took another elevator back to his office, lost in his thoughts. Officer Tomimoto was right. We need any information about the Consortium machines that we can get our hands on. Maybe we'll discover something important, some weakness, or better yet, secrets of their technology... and if Samura happens to discover those secrets first... Isamu smiled. Yes, he thought, it's very much worth the risk.

---

[Szerano]

<Reboot initiated...>
<10% complete: memory status returned: 30%>

<::Gernz....location...location...location...LOCATION: NEW TOKYO! Gernz! must...error...

<30% complete>

<::Must leave and return to.....return to.....base! Berzomo! No Berzomo memory!

<50% complete memory status returned: 80%>

<::Error...ship functions are failing to comply...

<70% complete memory Status returned: 100%>

<::Berzomo! Berzomo! Berzomo! I was killed by a Berzomo!

<90% complete>

<::What is wrong with me? My ship function are not....this is not my ship...where are I?

<100% reboot completed>
<Initiating scan of surrounding area...>
<Completed. Location is: Kusari state police vessel>

<::Nani?! Berzomo no hidentue! Must leave now! Error! Body functions error! Scan for EXACT location!

<Location is onboard the computer systems of the Kusari state police vessel>

<::Namedu...I know...I will hack this ships system! Corelona! Hack this thing now!

<Hack completed: All comms systems will be momentarily shut down, but I have kept the ship from cruising or sending docking requests of any kind>

<::Why my creators didn't give me hacking knowledge I will never know! I could do a way better job then you could! Plus why do I share this small space with you gernz! It's annoying...Shut off the comms COMPLETELY!

<Your creators told me you were build nicely and you were initially meant to have hacking systems but, on the test run you completed your job but due to your slight personality program errors your success rate drop from 100% to a measly 40%, due to the fact you let your target walk away while on your emotional rampage>

<::...You will say nothing to the other bots about that...

<The ship is sending a docking request to a FTL transit point, will you allow it>

<::Of course not! Deny everything he does! And send out a distress signal to our home base...what is our current location?

<New Tokyo, Hokkaido FTL transit point>

<::Hmm, will they respond to the distress signal? Has a savager frigate arrived and left without us? Send the distress signal now but encode it so only our bots will recognize it...

<Sent, the message will repeat every hour>

<::What? Oh wait that makes sense...

<Ship is requesting to dock at a FTL transit point>

<::The same one again?!

<Negative, new transit point>

<::Well just ignore them all then...wake me when he does something else important...

<Affirmative>
__________________________________________________________________________
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<Wait, how can you sleep, you are a bot like me>

<::Yeah I know, I just didn't want to listen to a berzomo...

<Moving on, the ship is being towed>

<::Yes! our men have responded we are saved!

<Negative, This is a retrieval ship from Yokohama shipyard>

<::Your kidding me, OF COURSE IT'S A RETRIEVAL SHIP! STOP IT AT ALL COSTS!

<We cannot, we don't have that kind of power over the vessel>

<::Gernz! Fine! we can see where this leads then...

*Several minutes later*

<::Are we there yet?

<Your personality program should be removed>

<::Stow it, now are we docked?

<Yes, the pilot has left the vessel, but I cannot control the ships movement>

<::What can you control?

<The weapons to some extent>

<::Perfect! Let's cause some havoc!

<What's stopping them from harming you>

<::The beacon is still active yes?

<Correct, it has yet to be detected>

<::Good, aim for torso's we shall cause injury and force them to move the ship to somewhere "safe", hopefully a militia base where we can get uploaded to their system and make the signal stronger....

<Weapons armed>

<::...Fire...

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