Bubblegum Crisis : Tokyo Babylon

A fanfiction by Mark Latus

Part 4 of 5

     Brian J. Mason (Mark 3) was in a rotten mood.  This was nothing new,
in fact ever since his second resurrection, he had felt cheated.  He should
have been a god on his return, and indeed possessed the superior body he 
had always deserved.  But it's a little hard to believe in your divinity
when you can't bring fire down from the heavens.
     Again he asked himself how his predecessor had bungled so badly.  He
would have called Largo a fool except that they had both started out as
the same man.  As he often did he remembered dying.  The cold shock as
Sylia's blade punched through him, the onrushing darkness and the final
terrifying realization that the Mason who woke up in the Gilgamesh lab 
wouldn't be him.  After that a timeless period of drifting until he became
aware that he was aware.  If he could think he was alive.  Again.  He had
awoken with a triumphant laugh, and heaved himself out of the suspension
pod revelling in the power of his new body.  Everything was ready to begin, 
he would assume the Largo identity he had created and set his plans in
motion.  He would gain the technology he needed to interface with the laser
satellites.  GENOM, no, the whole world was vulnerable before him.  He would
have the power of a mythological god, but he was real.
     He had disconnected himself from the pod wondering where his pet
researchers were.  Making a mental note to terminate them once he was
sure there were no flaws in the process he went looking for Hathaway, Otomo
and the others.  He found the building was empty, it resembled the abandoned
lab GENOM's records indicated it to be.  Though all the utility hookups were
still functioning there was no trace of anyone having been there for weeks.
     Then he saw the date on a terminal display and realized his resurrection
was months later than planned.  A cold feeling rippled through him and he
checked the support pods.  Of the three superboomer bodies only one remained.
He was the second reincarnation of Brian Mason.  The first would have been
the one to take the Largo identity.  Everything he'd planned to do had 
already been done.  He'd preempted himself.
     Except why was he awake?  The backup units, of which he now realized he
was one, were only set to activate if the primary was destroyed.  Which meant
... which meant Largo had failed.  The system was set to activate if a preset
check time was missed.  So Largo was eliminated and Gilgamesh began creating
the first backup.  
     Evidently Largo had not bothered updating the memory recordings.  The
last memories he had were of his human self's final moments.  Which meant he
had no idea where Largo had failed.  Having determined the identity useless
he ceased to think of himself as Largo, he might as well stick to Mason.
    The first thing he'd done was check the taps he had into GENOM's 
mainframe were intact.  They were and he began checking security records. 
Soon afterwards he knew what had happened to Largo.  The rooftop surveillance
video showed the whole dramatic showdown.  Crippled by a Knight Saber then
fried by a misfire of the laser cannon.  To make matters worse the Saber
who'd beaten him wasn't Sylia, it was the wild, undisciplined one.  She
should have been an easy kill to someone as superior as him.
     One interesting thing about the whole fiasco, Largo's remains were never
recovered.  No one had looked too hard.  After all what could survive after a
laser satellite pulse and a fall from the GENOM tower?
     Nothing, except perhaps a superboomer.  Shortly afterwards Mason had 
been crawling through the old city debris that ringed the tower's base.  
Unlike GENOM's perfunctory searchers (who'd been looking for fragments and
convinced themselves those were indistinguishable from the other trash) he 
had a scanner to home in on Largo's signature.
     He had found his predecessor huddled inside a semi collapsed building.
Largo was in no shape to greet him.  In fact Largo was in no shape to do
much of anything.  Largo was in stasis mode, having gambled that shutting
down everything except internal repair systems would enable him to regain
his mobility.  A gamble he was losing, the damage was too excessive.  His
bio components were a few days short of cell death.  All the repair system
could do was try to keep the inorganics working.  Those were also going to
fail very soon.
     Looking over the pitiful remains Mason had felt saddened.  It was 
depressing to see himself reduced to this.  Worst of all Largo's memories,
assuming they hadn't been lost, couldn't be downloaded from a body that
damaged.
     He had moved Largo into one of GENOM's Boomer research units.  Thanks to
a few intrusions into the facilities computer the staff believed Largo to be
an experiment.  A test to destruction to exact, studying how much damage a
Boomer could sustain and still be restored to an operational state.
     Mason's mind turned from weeks ago to earlier that day.  He'd entered
the boomer lab, using his security override, to study his counterpart.  Largo,
floating in a nutrient bath, was no longer at death's door.  His biological
components were regenerating though it would be months before he was 
operational.  Not that Largo had months left, another week, two at most, and
he would be restored sufficiently for Mason to download his memories.  Those 
would be useful, it would keep Mason from repeating his other self's errors.
After that ... well the world wasn't big enough for two Brian Masons.  Why 
keep a failure functioning?
     Mason heard a growl from one of his new Boomers.  Someone was passing the
building.  The sound faded and the Boomer settled down.  He'd acquired the
BU-12D's during his afternoon visit to GENOM.  Seeing a new model the urge
to take a few had been irresistible.  He'd simply changed the records of how
many units the Knight Sabers' wrecked during last night's field tests.  Then
it was a simple matter of overwriting their programming, adding a few false
pictures to the surveillance database and having them follow him home.  There 
was no point in missing an opportunity to pick up a few new bodyguards.
Especially since Largo had wasted their best Boomers against the Knight Sabers.
     Thanks to his implanted security overrides his GENOM visits remained
undetected.  Fortunately Largo hadn't compromised those.  He kept going back
in hopes of finding something big, something so monstrous GENOM wouldn't
risk putting it in the computers.  Something to replace the satellite control
system he'd been counting on.
     So far he'd found nothing very useful.  A few new hyper addictive drugs,
plagues bioengineered to destroy crops without being traceable (economic
warfare against some holdout country), boomers with banned weaponry, but
nothing grand enough for him.
     On reflection Mason was beginning to reconsider the wisdom of killing
Otomo.  Or rather the wisdom of killing him in such a flamboyant fashion.
Otomo was the last one capable of talking about what really happened on the
Gilgamesh project, he had to die.  However the flashiness of the murder was
probably an error.  He'd just felt the urge to give his half brother a
"welcome to Mega Tokyo" present.  Danny always did love riddles, so he'd
written one in blood.  He'd been sure Dan couldn't figure it out, but what
if he was wrong?  Better step up the timetable for killing him.
     He'd never been close to Daniel.  He kept seeing himself as Cain and
Daniel as Abel.  The closest thing to a link between them had been Sylia. 
Until she'd chosen Daniel over him.  How had she missed his obvious 
superiority?  At least she'd broken up with Daniel later on, but she hadn't
come crawling back to him.  Why?  Even a mind as advanced as his couldn't 
understand her behaviour.
     Mason studied the towering Gilgamesh mechanism again.  The best 
bargaining chip he held was this.  Immortality has a strong attraction, 
revealing its existence would make him rich.  But money wasn't what he 
wanted, what he wanted, what he needed was power.  The power he deserved, the 
power to crush his enemies, the power to make the world acknowledge his
godhood!
     He calmed down, best to stick to what he could accomplish right now.  
His immediate plans called for the elimination of Daniel and Sylia.  Daniel
would be a fairly easy target, just strike at a time when he only had his
personal bodyguard with him.  Before going after Sylia it would be best to
ensure an overkill firepower capability.  The other Sabers shouldn't be a
problem, remove Sylia and the rest of them wouldn't know what to do next.
No sense making the same mistake again.  Having Boomers rip them apart while
he watched by video hookup wouldn't be as satisfying.  However it would be a
lot safer.
     He sighed and returned to sorting through GENOM data looking for an
objective.  Apart from his round the world odyssey to kill everyone who'd
resurrected him he hadn't done a lot lately.
     It was 10:58 pm when Daniel Dumas arrived back at the storage facility.
All seven powered suits were assembled, the five Wolfpac suits, his own and
Cynthia's.  They weren't as advanced as Sylia's creations but they exceeded
the state of the art military suits.  Part of the 'Pac's willingness to work
for him was the unique hardware he supplied.  Along with the high fees.
      Felipe was running final systems checks.  He was the only one of the 
mercs without his own suit.  As he saw it why should the tech. support risk 
his neck with the cowboys?  Besides did his colleagues want to start taking
the trouble to keep their fancy toys working?  So he still got full shares
and avoided the worst dangers of this lifestyle.  A healthy difference in his
opinion.  The only thing he wondered about was where were the women who were
supposed to fawn over tough guy merc types?  The only women he met were
regularly were Marie, Ilsa and Nadia.  Any of whom would break him in half if
he tried anything.
      Dumas noticed something new about the suits.  They'd each painted their
national flags on the suits upper right chest.   French, German, Austrian,
Russian and British.  When he hired Marie, Helmut, Ilsa, Nadia and Frank he 
got his own little multinational force.  Five people from different states
bound together by a common creed of greed, self interest and a tendency 
toward violence.  A microcosm of what he hoped to do to the world, except
for the violence part.
     Getting back to the mundane world he asked Marie, "Hathaway?"
     "Told us everything.  We know where the lab was when they set it up.
Your friend may have moved it but Hathaway thought that unlikely.  There's
a lot of delicate equipment and it was tricky setting the site up.  Mason
rigged the computers to list the site as vacant but refuse any requests for
reopening or demolition.  They're also set to list all utility drains from
there as coming from other research sites.  It's also got a pretty good
security system in place.  Assuming it hasn't been improved we're looking at
a guard force of 12 BU-12B's.  Which were state of the art not so long ago
and still aren't going to be pushovers.  There's also 4 boomers of a type
Hathaway didn't know.  He said they had a camouflage mode that lets them
look like the Knight Sabers."
     "Those four were destroyed during the Largo incident.  Go on."
     Marie shrugged, "That's about all he saw.  Mason was the one who set
up lab security so I'd guess there's a few more traps.  We'll have to hope
the Sabers trigger most of them.  You did get them right?"
     Dumas nodded, "They'll be here at midnight.  The plan remains unchanged,
the Sabers go in first.  We wait outside in case Mason decides discretion
is the better part of valour.  If he tries to run you take him out.  If the 
Sabers do the job then we got in and confirm the kill.  If they die or get 
trapped we move in quietly.  Since the Sabers work alone Brian shouldn't be 
expecting a second wave.  Then you take him down and I come in to view confirm
your kill.  Either way I'm going in last."
     "Don't like taking risks Danny?", Ilsa called looking up from her 
magazine.
     "That's what I pay you for, and don't call me Danny.  You haven't been
paid yet."
     "Hey that's a point", Frank commented.  "Do we still get paid if the
Sabers take out this Mason?"
     "Yes, but you don't get the combat bonus.  If you have a problem with
that talk to your leader."
     To forestall the grumbling Marie told her troops, "Remember you were all
leery about operating outside Europe.  So we could be sitting on our asses
back home not making a franc."
     She turned back to Dumas, "Were you serious about letting Hathaway go?"
     "Yes, I have some plans that could use a scientist with his experience.
Sedate him.  He'll go back with you, we use the wipeout drug and he has his
miraculous escape."
     "OK, since our transport arrived while you were out there's nothing left
to do but wait for our cannon fodder."
      "Fine, just remember not to call them that in person."
      Meanwhile Sylia was blanking out the "Silky Doll" logo on the truck. 
It would be best not to have that recorded on the security video's at
Daniels temporary base.  Why give him more evidence that she ran the Knight
Sabers?  She polarized the windshield, from the outside it was an opaque
black.  Best not to have motorists staring at a Knight Saber acting as a
chauffer.  The alternative was having Mackie drive which wasn't a real option
right now.
     Priss, Linna and Nene had arrived not long ago.  While changing they
were still debating if she'd gone crazy.  A not unreasonable speculation
after the events of earlier this evening.  Mackie was hacking into Interpol
and other Euro databases looking for anything he could find on the Wolfpac.
Proving a connection would be difficult but she'd make it given time.  Just
how much time she'd have after tonight she wasn't sure.  
     She was reasonably certain Daniel did want the Knight Sabers around.  He
intended to use them as a tool to advance his own agenda.  Probably.  However
reasonably certain isn't good enough when your life and your friends lives
depend on being right.  Killing Daniel wasn't an option, that would just
release his evidence.  She needed something else, some other hold over him.
What?  Take advantage of the bioprogrammed desire they felt for each other?
Perhaps.  But if the stakes were high enough she wouldn't hesitate to 
sacrifice a lover and they both thought alike.  All those years ago would 
their old friendship have led to a relationship even if her father hadn't 
meddled with their minds?  She didn't know and it was irrelevant.  For now
she'd just have to play things Daniel's way and look for a opportunity.
     "We're ready to roll Sylia", Priss called.  "I still think this is the
stupidest thing you've ever done though."
     "Just trust me one more time.  Besides I'm afraid right now our options
are somewhat limited."
     Priss muttered something unintelligible and climbed into the truck.  Linna
followed, pausing only to whisper, "Priss'll be fine, she's having a little
trouble dealing with this."  She didn't add she was having her own problems
dealing with the recent revelations.   
     Nene, having not been personally present during Dumas's visit, stopped
in front of Sylia.  "Uhm Sylia .... that stuff Priss and Linna were telling
me ... about you and Mackie being uh ... not 100% human ... it's not ... I mean
they're wrong, right? ... uh ... what is going on?"
     Sylia sighed, "It's a very long story, I'll explain the relevant parts
on our way to the meeting."  They got in the truck and Sylia took the wheel.
Mackie emerged from the lab long enough to wave goodbye.  Then vanished back
to his terminal and the hunt for material they could use to blackmail Dumas.
      The Wolfpac had finished suiting up.  The dark gray suits shifted 
slightly as personal dynamics took over.  Daniel noticed Helmut and Nadia had
moved away from each other.  Good, he hadn't liked their relationship, it could
lead to unpredictable behaviour in combat.  Both had claimed it was purely
sexual but he'd never quite bought that.  There was a slight grunt over the
general link channel as Cynthia integrated with her suit.  Unlike the humans
the boomer interfaced with her suit through a com port at the base of her 
skull.  The link between thought and action was faster than anything a human
could achieve.  Why no one else had seen the obvious link between bio-mech
and hardsuit technology was something Daniel had never understood.  People
kept viewing them as separate and competing technologies.  Linkage was still
in the experimental stages but someday soon he'd be giving GENOM a new way to
wage warfare.
     He sealed his own suit and double checked his systems.  He wasn't planning
to go into combat, the suit was purely a safety precaution.  Still plans have
a unfortunate tendency to go out the window during combat situations.
     The security pass Daniel had provided got the truck into the storage 
centres' parking lot without incident.  Priss, who'd been half expecting an
ambush by Boomers, looking somewhat disappointed.  Sylia reminded the others
to keep their visors down and use the vocal scramblers.  While Daniel knew who
they were his mercs wouldn't.  That would have increased the odds of exposing
their identities which would have ruined Daniel's hold over them.  
     "Ok, time to meet the Wolfpac."  Sylia disembarked, followed by the 
others.  The main door opened and the two groups were face to face, or vizor
to vizor.  Helmut gave a low whistle over the Pac's general link (Nene, having
detected it, was trying to hack into the frequency) either in admiration for 
the Saber's hardsuits or imagination as to the shapes inside it.  Frank was a
little more direct, "Man, I'd like to see them without the hardware."  Ilsa
slid her cutting blades half out of her suit armsheaths, "Care to repeat that?"
     "Uhh ... so we could learn who they are, keep an eye on them, intelligence
data, you know."  Ilsa seemed willing to accept this fairly pathetic 
rationalization and slid her blades back.
     One thing after another, Daniel thought.  Switching to the command channel
he asked Marie, "How long has that been going on?"
     "About a month, same time she dyed her hair green though don't ask me the
significance.  Could have something to do with Frank being a video junkie, 
could just be some fashion thing."
     "Whatever.  Anyway assume the Sabers will compromise both the general and
this channel and use the codes if things get complicated."
     "We are professionals, why are you so nervous?"
     "I am hardly nervous."
     "Everything's relative.  For an iceman like you this counts as a major
case of nerves."  Marie disconnected leaving Daniel to wonder if involving
Sylia was affecting him more than he thought.
     Meanwhile Sylia had been studying the mercenaries hardware.  For 
conventional power armour it was definitely beyond state of the art though
inferior to her hardsuits.  On the Knight Sabers comlink she reminded them,
"Remember, assume they'll hear everything we say on this channel."
     Linna and Nene acknowledged, Priss muttered, "We already knew that, stop
being so goddamn jumpy."  Sylia reflected that this was the first time anyone 
had accused her of being jumpy.  Her unshakeable reputation was falling by 
the wayside.
     She switched on the external speakers addressing the two unmarked suits,
Daniel would be in one of them.  "We're here, do you have our target yet."
     The second unmarked replied (in a scrambled voice), "Yes we're heading for
an abandoned lad in sector 12."  In response to a remote command a portable
terminal lit up with a city map, zeroing in on sector 12 and from there to
the target.  Sylia logged it in and asked, "Are you providing our transport?"
     "There's a GENOM cargo heli in the lot.  I've arranged all the flight
clearances.  It'll carry everyone easily, it's also the last thing anyone would
expect the Knight Sabers to be riding in."
     "Yes.", Sylia acknowledged.  To herself she added, "It could carry a lot
more than 11 people and suits.  It could also carry a lot of heavy equipment.
Equipment currently in Mason's possession."
     "So if your people are ready to move out ..."
     "Anytime your's are."
     "Fine."  Daniel switched to the command channel, "Marie, time to move 
out."
     She acknowledged and gave the orders as Sylia got the Sabers moving.  Both
groups, taking care to remain separate headed for the heavy lifter.  Daniel,
preceded by Cynthia, brought up the rear.  Listening in on the various 
conversations he reflected that, while languages remained distinct, speech 
patterns were becoming indistinguishable.
     At a little after 1 a.m. an alarm went off in Mason's headquarters.  This 
wasn't particularly unusual, every time someone approached too close to the lab
or entered its airspace an alarm went off.  What was unusual was that this
aircraft, a GENOM cargo lifter was heading for a touchdown at the heliport.
He sent a query to its onboard computer.  It replied, automatically, that it 
was carrying a crew of 3 humans (pilot, copilot, overseer) and 8 Boomers 
(standard heavy work/construction model C-7) and was on assignment to strip
the equipment from a lab recently discovered to be vacant.
      Mason cursed.  His programs to prevent this eventuality must have been
purged somehow.  His first impulse was to blow it out of the sky, but that 
would bring far too much attention to this site.  The thing to do was let it
land and take the humans alive, find out who had sent them.  Perhaps he still
had time to kill everyone who'd heard about the salvage job and replace the
programs keeping the lab unnoticed.  Failing that an intact cargo copter would
be useful for moving the Gilgamesh equipment and his Boomers to another base.
     He ordered the patrolling BU-12B's to react as if they had received the
correct security shutdown code and signal the copter it was safe to land.
Replacing GENOM's codes with his own had been one of the first modifications 
he had made.  "Flies to the spider", he chuckled.
     Inside the copter everyone relaxed as the guard Boomers signalled it was
safe to land.  They'd all been waiting to detect missiles and blast their way
out of the copter.  The only exceptions to this were Sylia and Daniel, both had
known how Mason would react.
     "Good luck Sylia."
     Sylia acknowledged with a nod.  Time to forget about Daniel and deal with
Mason.  Helmut landed the copter but kept the rotors running, a fast exit might
be necessary.  Hopefully not as this thing flew like a hippo but it's a good 
idea to keep your options open.  
     "Nene, do it!"  Sylia's voice echoed in her helmet and Nene triggered the
jammer program.
     Inside the lab Mason saw the copter door start to open and then his 
videofeed went dead.  What the hell!
     The guard boomers studied the four figures with cybernetic puzzlement.
They did not appear to be construction Boomers or humans but there were no
incoming orders from the master on dealing with this situation.
     Daniel and his people emerged from the copter and moved away fast.  When 
the shooting started it would be a very big target.
     Sylia started towards the watching Boomers.  "Knight Sabers GO!"

end of part 4
     

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