Two days passed in a flash, Tower Town had made preparations by evacuating the area in anticipation of the fall of the tower, and the Block-5s responsible for the bombing mission had been spending almost all their time preparing. Making sure all the bombs were placed correctly, gauging where the tower would collapse, and making plans of the immanent aftermath of the ordeal.
The delivery was to happen that night, on the outskirts of border, Koreh would be the one to check the bombs and Sylvie and five others were there to make sure nothing went wrong.
With the Tower shooting into the night sky and the town border several miles back, the gang sat on their truck on the desert and waited. The delivery was to come soon.
Everyone was nervous, they were approaching the conclusion to their first mission, doing this would be an act of starting an all out war, a revolution against the Block-1s. Finally they'd be noticed, finally Zedek and the unlocked cities wouldn't be ignored. Getting rid of the tower would have effects on Mars for miles and miles.
And then the group would attack another tower.
And another.
And another.
And they'd get more help from other unlocked Block-4s and Block-5s. The world would change.
Sylvie sat next to Koreh on the truck, Gobot was on her lap. She shivered. It wasn't because she was cold however, it was those emotions of hers cutting in again. Fear, uncertainty, guilt. What was she doing? Betraying her people? Or was she doing it for the greater good? The Major hadn't gotten back to her in the last two days, no orders on whether to continue with the mission on not. At a moment's notice the Major could tell Sylvie to stop them all, with lethal force if necessary.
And they were off the network, so their memories wouldn't be backed up. If they died, they'd be gone for good.
Maybe the Major would decide that it was time for a revolution, she seemed disgusted by the lies of her fellow Block-1s.
What were her orders going to be?
Speak of the devil. The Major opened the radio channel and started to talk to Sylvie,
"Sylvie? Are you there?" she asked,
"O-oh, hello Major," Sylvie replied, in her head,
"I'm sorry it's been a while since I messaged you. You should be getting the bombs today shouldn't you?"
"I'm waiting for them right now ma'am."
"I see."
"Ma'am... what are your orders? Should I stop them from doing this? I don't know where I am with this mission any more."
"Sylve, the Block-1s are our enemy. They've been working with Mother to control the Servs. I don't know why and I don't know how long for. But this entire war has been a lie."
"What!? When did you find this out!?"
"It's a long story, either way I found out that the disturbance that caused the network to crash here in Zedek was a result of a virus on Europa."
"...So the two really are connected then."
"Exactly. Furthermore, the virus still has its grip on the robots there. They're completely wide open. I'll be going on a mission with some next generation Block-2s to investigate Europa, in person."
"You're going on the mission too!?"
"Yes. This is an important one. We've detected a particular factory on Europa which needs to be hacked, once we do that we'll have enough data to isolate the exact whereabouts of Mother, where she's hiding in the clouds of Jupiter. Security on Europa is all but gone now. That valuable data is now wide open. Once I get that information, I can find Mother myself. And kill her."
"...Yourself?"
"Yes. I don't trust the Block-1s anymore Sylvie. I don't trust anyone. But I care about my fellow Servs, Mother needs to be destroyed to liberate them."
"Then... my mission. Mission is to-"
"Yes. I'll stop Mother. And you-" The Major paused, she sighed nervously, "your mission is-"
"Yes?"
"It's your choice. Your mission is to do whatever you want. That is your final mission Sylvie."
Sylvie got it. The Major was telling Sylvie that she had the option to join the Block-4 and Block-5s. To help take down the Block-1s. Start a revolution. She was given the choice.
"I-" Sylvie started.
"Give it some thought Sylvie."
"Yes ma'am."
The signal cut out.
Suddenly Sylvie noticed a huge truck in the distance coming from the direction of Zedek City, big and black, pretty inconspicuous in the dark but loud enough to be noticeable as it approached. This was most definitely where the bombs were being kept.
It took no more than a few minutes for the truck to zoom up to the group, it braked heavily and stopped right in front of them.
"Ok Sylvie, you wait here, I'll talk to the guys and get those bombs!" said Koreh as he hopped off his own truck,
"W-wait. What if-" Sylvie started,
"Don't worry it'll be fine."
Everyone watched as the doors of the other truck opened, two male Servs walked out. They wore blank expressions and had generic black shells on. They were dolls. Bland Block-5 puppets. Locked down to the highest degree. Another one came out from the back, he was holding a tablet with a screen on it.
He pressed a button on the side turned it on. Immediately, President Goro appeared on the screen. Sylvie's eyes widened, she had no idea he'd be here! What was going on?! She looked around for whatever she could find in her truck to cover her face. A small piece of cloth lay in the back, she wrapped it around her face to make a mask.
"President Goro!?" Koreh exclaimed,
"Is this it? A handful of Block-5s and a dog?" President Goro replied,
"W-what's going on here?" Koreh frowned, "what did you do to our..." he didn't want to finish the sentence,
"Is that any way to greet the President? It's protocol to show some respect to a Block-1." Goro replied, "Being off network has warped you all indeed."
Koreh grit his teeth, "None of us respect you. And we're not bowing to you Block-1s anymore."
"Yes, that's quite problematic though isn't it? You've stopped becoming a nuisance and started to actually be a problem."
Koreh growled, "So this is a trap is it? Someone tipped you off."
"We can't have you destroying that tower. Building a little shanty town around it? That's fine. But knocking that tower will be quite an issue. So we'll have to kill you. And after that, everyone in Tower Town," he paused, "and perhaps the off-network cities in general."
"What? You think your pathetic Block-5 slaves will be able to take us on!?" Koreh pulled out a metal staff, the others too. Sylvie stayed still. She didn't know what to do.
"Of course not. But I think the other thing I brought with me will be more than enough."
The black truck started to rumble, suddenly a giant spider-like leg smashed out of the back of the truck. Then another one, and another, and another, more and more until eight legs were sticking out. Then the truck exploded open to reveal a Spider-type Evo that was hiding inside.
Every jumped back in shock and horror, the beast made them look like dwarves, there was no way they'd be able to take that thing out. Goro spoke once more, in that standard high and mighty tone he always had.
"I haven't come here to gloat. Consider this an honour, I came to see the faces of the Servs who were daring enough to survive outside of the network. And I came to tell you it's not possible. Consider this a mercy killing my children, I'll remember you." the feed cut out.
The spider dashed forward swiped its front leg across, knocking everyone to the ground with incredible force. Gatling guns extended from its head and it started to gun down its hapless victims. Two of the Block-4 Servs were instantly torn to shreds.
Koreh pulled a grenade out and threw it at the beast but it quickly dashed to the side and avoided the explosion with it's nimble feet.
None of them stood a chance. Sylvie was the only one who could take it on, her body was far too weak to beat it in a one on one fight, but she had a trick up her sleeve. She could hack.
She ran to the side of the spider, sadly, she'd have to avoid it's attention if she were to actually connect to the creature and hack into its mind. That meant she couldn't help Koreh, he'd have to keep it occupied while she tried to find a way to stealthily jump it.
Sylvie could hear Koreh and the others yelling as they tried to fend the beast off, and as the seconds went on, more and more of the voices started to die out.
Finally, an opening, the beast couldn't see her and she had a clear view of the back of the creature's head, a perfect place to hack it efficiently. She jumped on the spider's back, and got ready to hack, trying her best to hold on as the Evo shook around. From her vantage point she noticed that only Koreh was left, and he was cornered. Everyone else had been slaughtered.
Time to hack.
She rammed her hand into the back of the neck and transferred her consciousness into the mind of the Evo. She was swam into the depths of the creature's mind, he found her body covered in a ethereal expanse of heat, something she'd never experienced before. Torrents and storms forming around her psyche as she tried her best to find a way to disable the creature. She didn't really understand what she was doing, she'd never hacked before.
No doubt Ava would've disabled the spider by now, but Syvie had little idea where to go or what to do.
Eventually she found something, something that felt like a switch. She scanned it for a while. Yes. Disabling that switch would shut the spider down completely. Without further hesitation she completed the hack, she pressed the switch and shut the spider down for good.
She immediately found herself thrown out of the spider's body and back into her own.
She opened her eyes. The spider had collapsed, it wasn't moving at all. Sylvie was still on the beast's back.
What about Koreh?
Sylvie stood up and looked around, and she saw Koreh lying there in front of the spider's corpse. He wasn't moving.
Sylvie scrambled to the ground and ran up to Koreh's body. As she approached it became clearer how damaged he was. His arms and legs were smashed and his shell was leaking. Sylvie knelt next to him and held him in her arms.
"Koreh!?" she shouted, "Koreh wake up!"
Koreh didn't reply,
"No! No no no!" she said through grit teeth.
She closed her eyes, and clenched her fists. She dug her head into Koreh's chest and started to tremble. What was this emotion? Why did she keep feeling it? How would she get rid of it? She hated it so much. She wanted to scream.
But she stayed silent. Sylvie opened up her radio channel to the Major,
"Oh Sylvie, what is it?" asked the Major,
"Major. Regarding my mission. I've made my decision." Sylvie replied.
"Ah. I see." the Major seemed to have already figured out what Sylvie's choice was, "Good luck Sylvie. Take those bastards down."
Edit: Thought I'd fast forward a little. Originally the Sylvie section was going to be longer, but my full plan for it was too complex and would've been way too long. Maybe I'll write it as a short accompanying story at some point in the future.
Tomorrow we'll be back on Europa with Ava and the gang (sorry for the delayed uploads, holidays have been busy!)