Randolph Lalonde - Fragments

"What problems can we expect when you're finished?"

"We're sure to get contamination in several key parts of the system. That could lead to sudden power drops, overheating in parts of the assembly and accelerated internal corrosion."

"But you can burn some of the debris out of the thrusters and service them from the inside once they're installed, right?"

Liam's nodding holographic avatar appeared in the tertiary command seat. "I'll get the teams working. They'll be in place within the hour and connected in less than two. We'll be servicing those thruster pods for weeks though."

"You know if there was another way-"

"I know, we need speed if we're going to get clear of those battlecruisers. I'll update you with our progress in an hour. All repair and maintenance teams have been dispatched."

"Good. Let's get patched up so we can make a run for it."

“This system is corrupt. Permissions have been rewritten.” The various displays throughout Regent Tower spat back at anyone trying to access any information or function. Analysts across the city attempted to combat the aggressive digital entity as it spread like a drop of ink in water.

The bright sea of light that was New Versailles flickered and quaked as autonomous functions were retasked and shut down for purposes that were known to only the originator of the infection, Gabriel Meunez.

The traffic lanes crisscrossing the sky halted, leaving millions hovering. Impatient night commuters tried to break their lanes, to make their way around the hundreds of kilometres of still traffic only to be incinerated by orbital defence platforms.

For the first time in decades a battle ship descended from orbit and docked with the very top of Regent Tower. The long combat vessel made the smooth, cleanly designed building look lopsided and top heavy, as though it had grown an undesirable, geometrically out of place appendage. Not a single shot was fired at the invader as it cast its narrow shadow over the city below.

There were no shock troopers heralding his arrival. There was no need to damage the buildings exterior or interior. Gabriel walked down the debarkation hall from his ship straight into the upper docking centre.

Synthetic valets decorated with red vests and ties painted on their torsos watched Gabriel as he passed and took positions behind. Their blue and green eyes gleamed, as though they were eager, searching for something. Guards in combat armour burst through side doors, moving to block his passage into the main building with assault rifles at the ready. “Halt! This is your only warning!”

Gabriel ignored them. Tears rolled down his cheeks, a grin split his face unnaturally and the veins in his neck, forehead and temples stood out on his flushed skin. “How do you want to die today?” he breathed. Every display in the city echoed his question.

“Fire!” ordered the lead soldier. Every weapon in the tower displayed the same message; “Error 1441.” and instead of thousands of pulse rounds filling the air there was absolutely nothing.

Gabriel regarded the security Captain then looked over his forty nine men. With a thought and a sneer that only replaced his grin momentarily their armour sealed. In the space of three seconds their independent environmental systems increased the gravity in their suits, crushing organs and bone alike. Everyone wearing armour on that floor suffered the same fate. The main doors leading into the upper observation room opened to admit Gabriel and his small group of eight valets.

The way had already been cleared. Word had spread that there would be a fire fight at the top of the building and the humans who were enjoying their evening until only minutes before had evacuated via the stairs. Panic had already taken one life.

Gabriel strode across the open gallery floor, his teeth chattering, grinding together as he tried to control the mad rush of information streaming through his diseased mind. The power, the pressure, the pleasure of being connected to billions of terminals at once through a network unlike any he'd dreamt of was nirvana.

The virus created in the cybernetic computer nested in his organic brain had eventually begun creating connections with his biological mind and like the onset of a new addiction it tempted and teased him with sensations and dreams that were so alien, so utterly strange and amazing that he couldn't experience them anywhere else. The virus became the lens he saw the universe through, whether interfacing digitally with it or looking with his own soft biological eyes and it left him no other choice but to embrace it, to welcome it in with equal parts terror and awe. It needed to reach out, to express the bio-digital perfection that resided in Gabriel.

Control was the challenge. He would devour the entire solar system like a famished God, swallow the branching networks whole, but it wouldn't satisfy him for long. There would be nothing left, no one left, and he'd be empty. Billions must survive. Like ants they would scurry through their tunnels, back to the perception of safety in their homes and he would become their master. Nothing on the surface of the planet was untouched by technology and he would be connected to all of it.

The private elevator leading to the office of the President opened and he stepped inside. President Paolo Weir wasn't within, he was five hundred kilometres to the east in a personal vehicle, trying to decide to stay with the stuck traffic or take his chances, try and avoid the orbital defence system.

Gabriel stepped out of the elevator and walked up the steps to the thickly padded desk chair. By the time he sat down it had adjusted to his form. A fleeting thought to kill the President passed through his mind and the nearest defence cannon fired, reducing him and his vehicle to a mass of molten metal and ash.

“Oops,” Gabriel chuckled shortly. He reclined in the chair and let his mind expand into the network, commanding the hypertransmitters to extend his reach with hundreds of micro-wormholes to as many solar systems.

Security systems throughout the building went on high alert, killing anyone within four hundred meters of the office, erecting safety barriers and energy shielding strong enough to withstand several direct antimatter enhanced nuclear attacks.

He sighed as the remaining systems on the planet fell under his control and he began taking every foreign dignitary, high ranking visiting business person, or borrowed resource hostage. Gabriel's mind peered through the activities of millions of individuals per second using surveillance, automated systems and all of the individual androids across the globe. With unmerciful expediency he ordered anyone showing dissent killed and in ten heartbeats it was done.

The next task on his list was completed in short order; search for any mention of Jacob Valance or the Triton. To his surprise his query was answered with a report that was only minutes old. A Caran Enterprises battle group was registering the Triton as a fresh capture and inquiring with Regent Galactic about the bounty. A quick mental glance at information on Caran Enterprises' financial situation prompted a scoff, they were deeply in debt, most of their distress was caused by most of their products turning on their masters after the Holocaust Virus struck.

With a thought, Gabriel activated a hyper transmitter and purchased the entire company, saving it from a financial ruin that loomed in the near future but more importantly, giving him the opportunity to assume control of the battle group in pursuit of Jacob Valance's ship; Triton. He issued a series of orders to the battle group commanders and relaxed, satisfied that all his hardships had led to something so much greater than he could have ever expected.