The Contaminant Protocol (The Internal Crisis)
The squad moved quickly through the maintenance shafts their destination blinking neon pink in their HUDs. The shafts were wide enough for three to walk together side by side – Lyra and Sura took the lead, Mikael after, followed by Jackie and Aiden and Dax brought up the rear.
BDJ spoke into Jackie's neural net and her ocular implant whirled to life – her arm reshaping and calibrating to air pressure gun.
"Structural integrity compromised location updated on schematic. Use of six pressurized shots along rivet line will increase integrity by 78.34%"
Jackie nodded as she looked at the coordinates and her tactical array aligned the shots. She spoke quietly into the encrypted comms.
"firing 6 shots to stabilize area." The air gusts fired, virtually soundless, and hit six points. The metal around them groaned a bit as it settled into place, and the pressure settled around them.
"Good work Jackie – maintain visuals on facility patrols – Lyra, Sura ensure that no alarms are triggered. Mikael give us another 5 minutes."
They all grunted into the encrypted comms, their pressurized boots hovering just above the metallic floor, causing their steps to be silent. All that could be heard was the hiss of their cybernetic joints as they moved back and forth.
'BDJ form contingencies for exposure to Crysalite. How can effectively fight against it."
"Calculating probabilities. There are six viable contingencies. Two could lead to the death of a cohort, one will require abandoning ongoing Nexus infiltration goals, and one could trigger overrides associated with Asset 4986J protective protocols. The last two are dangerous and have a 63.81% chance of being outside current system abilities."
Jackie frowned. She didn't like any of the given possibilities and told BDJ not to go over any, while she thought – little did she know she did not have the time to contemplate.
Mikael staggered, Aiden was by his side and had him before big man fell.
They all looked at their HUDs as one. They still saw 4 minutes 26 seconds remaining in the clock. A weak Mikael broke through the encrypted comms.
"There are suddenly too many internal scans, my optic-camo system is pulling to heavily from my Cybernetic cortex. My equilibrium is off."
"understood. Engaging contingency B."
Lyra, Sura, and Jackie went into action. Jackie's cybernetic optical systems engaged her scrambling protocols and Sura and Lyra began smoothing the edges so it looked natural to New Andes Systems.
Both girls plugged ports into Tally and the amorphous black substance spread out to encompass both women as the AI boosted both ladies' scrambler enhancements by over half.
"scrambler field fully deployed and softened. End the camo Mikael."
Before Lyra's sentence was complete Mikael's obsidian ocular implant hissed and released an acrid smell as it liquefied and pulled back into Mikael's cybernetic ocular system.
Aiden heard his cortex relays kick in stronger and Mikael began to regain mobility. Aiden found himself wondering if the man had more cybernetics than he let on.
"Okay everyone, stay focused!" Dax's voice blasted through the encrypted comms so hard they all squinted as it tore through their neural nets.
They came up to the rendezvous point – a high catwalk three fourths the way up in the center of the second major city on the island – and it happened.
All of their HUDs glitched at the same time and Jackie's cybernetic optical systems fought to maintain the scrambler field, her enhanced optical nerve spiking with pain.
'What's going on BDJ?'
"Analyzing….
"There is a miniscule amount of Crysalite in the air here. At this level there is 800 particles/cm³ of Crysalite and it is doubling every 100-meters.
"Another 300 meters and your cybernetic joints will begin to malfunction. At 500 meters your systems will no longer function and your Subaquilus-titanium alloy will begin to deteriorate. These affects begin in your cohort at half levels by comparison.
"Would you like to go over theorized contingencies now?"
Jackie cursed under her breath just as Lyra hissed into the comms.
"Jackie, Sura? Are you two seeing what I am seeing."
"Yes. We need to descend at least a hundred meters."
"Wait. Our rendezvous is up here. We can't leave them in this."
Lyra hissed into the comms again as all three of them began searching for their liason's signature.
"What's going on you three."
Lyra spoke up. "That Crysalite stuff is floating around up here commander. It is eating away at us as we speak."
"Don't exaggerate Lyra. Commander the levels here are tolerable but we should not stay here…"
"Got them!" Jackie cut Sura off as she dashed to their left. The other five were close on her six without any hesitation. Just as they were two steps away Jackie felt the odd tick across her entire body – she even felt the stutter of the nanites in the flesh and blood half of her body.
She froze in midstep. Her message through the encrypted comms was urgent and strained.
"Keep going! My systems have locked. There is an asset protocol embedded in my system!"
"What the hell!?"
"We're not leaving you!"
"Sura, Lyra get the liaison. Aiden you're with me, Mikael cover us."
Aiden and Dax ran to Jackie - as the others moved to follow orders – just as Jackie's body flexed and she dived from the catwalk.
All they could do was watch her descent.
Her systems chose her over the others without any warning and now her life was in the hands of a subroutine none of them knew anything about.