Birthday gift for @elektronx !

Based on this comic of hers.

1202 words


The scientists had been expecting me. They had exponentially increased the number of guards on their facility. This would not shield them from my wrath.

Once above the facility I cut my engines and entered freefall, diving straight for the largest squad – who were right by the main entrance. I waited until the last moment to jam their coms and slow my descent enough for me to not take damage from the impact.

BOOM

Bones and concrete cracked beneath my feet.

KZZZZZZT

They toppled like dominoes.

Of the ones out of my immediate reach, surprisingly few fled. Most, instead, immediately opened fire. As if that would do them any good. Of the few rounds that made it past my energy shields, most ricocheted off of my angled titanium body without ever leaving more than a scratch.

The usual rush of battle did not come to me. My mind was focused on one task, numbed to the point of all my actions feeling automated and robotic. I may have found irony in that amusing had I been in a different state of mind.

The humans didn’t bother radioing for backup, but the gunfire and screaming was probably audible enough from around the complex to raise alarms.

Once I had mopped up the last of the squad, I quickly tore through the front doors as another squad started firing on me from a distance. The close-quarter fighting that would be done inside would be more favourable to me than the open grounds.

The white-coated humans fled their labs like insects from a stone upturned. I sliced indiscriminately through anything that stood in my way as I made my way to where I had detected their central computer systems.

Countless blockades in the maze of passages attempted to stop me. None succeeded. Even if a couple of their new weapons left some dents – those could be fixed. Nothing save death would stop me from achieving my goal.

I barely even registered when I had arrived at my destination, a trail of red in my wake.

“Welcome, Siphon. I’ve bee-”

I swung my blade at him. He reacted fast enough to not be sliced in half, but still took a deep wound in the side. I automatically whipped around, slamming the fool into the wall with my tail. He was at least smart enough to not attempt getting back up.

I marched to the racks of servers – their latest technology juxtaposed to the outdated wooden style of the room – and stared at them for a few seconds before snapping out of my battle-daze. I had to handle this delicately. No doubt they had set up many safeguards against the computer being hacked. Even if the digital defences would crumple as easily as the bodies they threw at me, there was the possibility that if I brute-forced the system open, it would destroy what I was looking for before I could get it.

I quickly secured the room, obstructing the door with everything in the room that wasn’t vital to the functioning of the computer or servers. I doubted that all that old-fashioned wooden furniture would hold out against much, but it would give me a chance to react if the other humans tried getting in.

The scientist had lost enough blood, even with his wounds having been cauterised, that he wouldn’t pose a threat.

I then positioned myself in front of the computer terminal and encompassed it with my mind. All its network traffic now went through me. Detecting a large enough packet of data, I quickly entered cyberspace and hijacked the packet, letting it carry me through the firewall.

Switching to claw mode, I corrupted the program which was to receive the data packet, then I watched the processes stored on primary memory and the caches, waiting for it to reveal itself.

Soon enough, the antivirus reacted to the corrupted process, and begun its scan for the culprit. Unfortunately for it, I didn’t have to wait for my turn with the CPU.

I jumped into the now-revealed antivirus, taking it down and then claiming the rest the rest of the computer as my own. As I had expected, there was nothing of importance to be found on this computer. But, I now had its private keys and MAC address to impersonate it when communicating with the servers.

First I needed to check what ports were open on the servers, so I ran a FNI scan. Aside from the standard ports, only 2693 was open. From what I could tell, this port was used especially for these scientists’ programs’ communications.

Indeed, I soon found a database-like program on the computer. I started it and tricked it into logging me on as a sysadmin user. I then initiated a TCP three-way handshake to the servers, via port 2693 and identifying myself as the computer I had hijacked.

Several tense milliseconds passed without a response…

I was in!

Normally I would have shredded my way through all the files until I found the ones I wanted, but that would definitely raise alarms if there were any. I didn’t want to risk that unless I was in complete control of the servers. Instead, I simply requested a full directory list.

This is huge… I will trash these servers once I have what I want.

The directory list was encoded, but I simply used the database program’s algorithms to decode it. The humans had to be able to understand their own files, and this was their weakness.

Research… Mutants… Class 4… Monarch… Why is there only one file here?

I requested the file, decrypting it with the database application and then opening it.

Saturday Stag Issue. 44 of 2034

Pair of Mutants Attack Stag City Again!

Authorities now codenaming them “Monarch” and “Siphon”.

I requested the directory map again. I loaded the single file under Siphon. I loaded all the files under class 4. I brute forced my way into the server and searched every last file.

“No No No No No No No No No No No… WHY CAN’T I FIND IT?!

“It is no use, Siphon. We are not as ignorant as you always think.” That abhorrent scientist spoke. “We never keep digital records of you or Monarch.”

He made a weak attempt to laugh, but ended up coughing as if his internal organs would soon not be so internal… and they wouldn’t.

“Tell me where he is or I’ll slit your throat next.”

“Now now. Let’s not get too hasty. Unlike your accomplice, we all know you are a rational thinker. Terminating me would result in the loss of information… valuable information you need.”

My claws ploughed massive grooves into the wooden table as my anger grew before I ignited my blade and cleaved the computer in two.

ENOUGH!!!

I spun, swinging my blade at the smug human – stopping it mere inches from his face.

“The tables have certainly turned now, haven’t they, Siphon?” He made eye contact. Those were the eyes of a man who belonged in an asylum. “Unless you want to find your friend as a cadaver in another one of our facilities, you will listen very closely and do exactly as I say.”


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