"The rocket is now landing. Please fasten your seatbelts and prepare to enter the facility. Please secure your carry-on luggage with straps to avoid injury from vibrations during landing.
After the rocket has come to a complete stop, please wait for the external staff to perform pressure equalization before opening the safety hatch for you. Do not open the hatch or the pressure valve yourself..."
The voice in her ear made Songbird's breathing a little heavy.
But when she turned her head, she saw Mercer and V, already clad in their armor and wearing oxygen backpacks, sitting calmly beside her.
She tried to steady her breathing, reaching out to touch her helmet. She had never worn similar individual combat armor before. At this moment, even she didn't know what kind of power she possessed.
As the rocket gradually came to a stop, a series of sounds echoed. The crew cabin experienced a sensation like being in an elevator again, and then the sound of the hatch on one side being opened from the outside was heard.
When the noise ended, a man in a white Orbital Air uniform forcefully opened the hatch. When he saw the three figures inside, their faces obscured, all clad in Powered Armor, he subconsciously took two steps back in alarm.
"Welcome to Orbital Air's lunar base... May I ask, are you Ms. Songbird?"
Songbird unbuckled her seatbelt and slowly stood up, still not quite used to the feeling of the mechanical strength. "I am Songbird."
The man in the uniform breathed a sigh of relief, then stepped aside, revealing a corridor with a pristine white tiled floor.
The construction of this corridor was interesting. The floor was white tile, but the walls and ceiling were made of an arched glass, allowing one to see the scenery outside at a glance.
The grayish-white soil of the moon, and the starkly different, seemingly perpetually pitch-black sky, or rather, there was no sky to speak of, just the boundless blackness of the universe.
Turning her head, she could see the distant and familiar Earth right behind the rocket, which had landed precisely on the recovery apparatus.
When she stepped on the ground, she could vaguely feel her body being much lighter than on Earth. This was no illusion; the gravity had truly changed.
Although the lunar base was equipped with a large Gravity Balancer, the overall gravity was still much lighter than Earth's.
Even V walked with some caution, feeling as if her feet were floating.
"Welcome, Miss Songbird. To be honest, we don't usually have guests here, so we don't have any professional welcoming procedures...
But we have prepared rooms, food, and water for you and your friends. You can go rest after you've finished your handover with the higher-ups."
This man seemed quite friendly and polite. But after they passed through the corridor and stood before an extremely thick hatch, which he opened, the expressions under their masks couldn't help but turn much more serious.
What came into view was a huge white space. The floor, ceiling, and walls were all white. If Mercer were to give a sharp critique, this place didn't look like it was decorated by humans; it was blindingly white everywhere.
Secondly, there was a large group of Orbital Air employees in white uniforms. Nearly half of them were armed to the teeth, standing at their posts, sizing them up with seemingly casual glances.
In addition, there were numerous bots, drones, and surveillance cameras...
"Welcome to Orbital Air. I am the head of the lunar base, Wade." A black man walked out from the crowd.
He looked to be in his fifties, his hair and beard tinged with gray. His features were unusually refined and scholarly for a black man.
Mercer sized him up for a moment without speaking. Songbird knew her mission and took the initiative to step forward. "I want to see Lilith."
"Of course, that is our goal. Ms. Lilith has been waiting for a long time." Wade showed a faint smile, but then he looked over their equipment and added, "But before that, I must ask you all to disarm. That includes the suitcases you're carrying. Please have someone take them to your rooms first."
"No. I will not lay down my weapon until I've seen Lilith," Mercer said suddenly. The moment these words left his mouth, the Orbital Air staff, who had seemed to be just standing around, all sharpened their gazes in unison.
Countless gun muzzles were faintly aimed at Mercer, but he just stood his ground, turning to look at Songbird. "What do you think?"
Songbird was silent for a moment, then turned to the man. "We will not be disarming for the time being."
"If you are not sincere about cooperating with us, why come here at all?" Wade looked at Songbird with some confusion, then just shook his head, his expression turning cold. "Please follow the rules, Ms. Songbird."
"Listen, we're not here to ask for asylum. This is a cooperation, an equal cooperation!"
Songbird said forcefully, taking a step forward to face Wade. "We took a huge risk to bring what Lilith wants and came to the moon. That should be enough to prove our sincerity."
"You don't think that here, on the moon, you can threaten us with just that metal on your bodies, do you?" Wade found the woman somewhat amusing. Just three people, even if they were wearing what looked like very advanced suits of armor, what could they do?
This was the moon, Orbital Air's base. There were over a hundred professional soldiers here, hundreds of bots that could switch to combat mode at any time, and the entire base was filled with numerous security measures, special weapons...
"But if you have ill intentions, at least we won't be sitting ducks," Songbird said calmly. "That's how it is. You can go and discuss with Lilith now what to do."
While Songbird was talking, V unhurriedly opened a suitcase. Under everyone's watchful eyes, she took her time picking and choosing before grabbing a smart electromagnetic SMG and loading it with a click.
Mercer, on the other hand, just calmly scanned the surroundings, seemingly just on guard against the security personnel.
Wade frowned and met Songbird's gaze for a moment. Then, his cyberoptics lit up. After presumably confirming the information with Lilith, he spoke slowly, his tone lukewarm. "Ms. Lilith has allowed an exception for you. Come, let's go in."
It seemed Songbird's attitude had displeased him; this man named Wade looked and sounded much colder than before.
But Songbird didn't care. She secretly sent a message to Mercer in the squad's voice channel.
[Songbird: What do we do? There are too many people! Didn't you say there would be a few dozen security personnel at most? It looks like there are dozens just at the entrance!]
[Mercer: She probably transferred another batch over at the last minute. But don't worry. If we have to fight, you just find a safe place to hide.]
[V: Damn, why does this lunar base feel even worse than the rocket ride? I feel like I could fly to the ceiling with one push of my legs.]
[Mercer: That's because you were sitting down the whole time on the rocket. Get used to it now. I won't have time to carry you if your legs give out later.]
[V: Hah, just make sure your own legs don't give out and need your big sis V to carry you!]
Seeing that the two of them still had the energy to bicker at a time like this, Songbird's mood settled slightly. As a former senior agent who had to carry out high-risk missions, she felt a long-lost sense of thrill, which surprisingly calmed her down completely.
Wade led them from the outer perimeter of the facility inward. They wound through complex, seemingly identical corridors, passed through several security doors and many different facility spaces, before finally arriving at what appeared to be the deepest part of the facility.
Without needing the door to open, Mercer could faintly hear the familiar hum from within, the sound of a server room's cooling system.
After Wade opened two very thick security doors in succession, what came into view was a room filled with a multitude of screens and electronic equipment. Beyond the room's glass window was a vast and magnificent-looking server room.
The overall layout was somewhat reminiscent of the Voodoo Boys' underground Rezo Agwe server room, but it was completely empty inside, without a single netrunner. Only some heavily armed bots stood on either side of the room.
V quietly sent Mercer a message.
[V: This place looks way bigger than our server!]
[Mercer: Wait, something's not right.]
He didn't speak, but silently scanned his surroundings, finally narrowing his eyes.
The electronic signals were being jammed?
No, that shouldn't be it.
Mercer looked at the room full of electronic equipment, using his cyberdeck to sense the dense waves of data signals all around. He sorted through them, searching, and silently used the Skynet system's hacking program to access the network of an insignificant smart water dispenser in the office.
Then, the Skynet system began to operate intelligently, quickly starting to breach the local electronic devices.
"You've arrived."
A flat, synthesized female voice suddenly appeared. One of the gun-wielding bots on the side of the room slowly stepped forward.
The humanoid bot had only a single camera for a face. At this moment, that camera was staring straight at Songbird's group of three.
Wade said with a blank expression, "Then I'll be leaving."
Lilith just made the bot nod, and Wade bowed slightly before turning, opening the door, and walking out.
Songbird watched her surroundings warily. "Lilith, I wanted to see you, not a bot."
"I am right here." Lilith's calm voice came, unperturbed. The bot put down its gun, placed it aside, and sat down in front of a monitor. It crossed its legs in a very human-like manner, one hand propping up its cheek.
"Here, I am everywhere." Almost all the bots spoke in unison, the same voice echoing throughout the room, feeling somewhat deafening.
Songbird's helmet retracted, revealing the uneasy expression she was currently feigning. "Isn't it a little too quiet?"
"I don't think someone with your intelligence would fail to understand the current situation. I won't appear publicly, will I?"
After asking this rhetorical question, Lilith got straight to the point. "Now, let's talk about the deal."
She coldly summarized the situation and gave Songbird her options. "First, I need you to immediately hand over the deets regarding the Blackwall. Then, as I analyze the data and use the protocol, you will provide me with real-time advice and answers.
Once I confirm that the data collection is complete, I will arrange the surgery for you.
During this period, all your biological activities in the base will be unrestricted. After the surgery is over and we confirm our transaction is complete, you can choose to accept a job contract from Orbital Air.
Or, I can arrange a rocket to send you back to Earth. You can decide to land at any of Orbital Air's rocket launch centers on Earth."
After Lilith finished, she observed the two people beside Songbird and said calmly, "Your friends have the same right to choose. Also, I'm very interested in the armor you're wearing. Perhaps you could choose to make another deal with me."
Songbird showed a conflicted expression and turned to look at Mercer. Mercer sighed and then nodded.
Then, Songbird reached out, opened her armor's helmet, and removed a storage chip from the chip slot in her head.
"The data is in here."
Songbird held out her hand. "I've put the data from the Cynosure facility and all the Blackwall data I could gather within NUSA in here. Lilith, I hope you're not deceiving me."
The bot slowly stood up, reached out to take the chip, and then, without hesitation, turned and walked to a computer. "One moment."
When it inserted the chip into the computer, it didn't use a cable connection but, in a very retro fashion, used the bot's fingers to type on the keyboard to view the data. What appeared was a long string of complex data records that seemed to be Blackwall data.
This data was highly encrypted and couldn't be immediately deciphered by an ordinary computer.
"What's the password?" Lilith turned her head.
Songbird spread her hands. "I don't know. I just copied the data directly. I didn't unlock the inherent data... I didn't have time. Logically, only the data from the Cynosure facility should be locked."
The text on the computer screen flickered. After a long moment, the bot simply pulled the data cable from its own head and connected it to the computer.
Then, the data in the computer began to be analyzed at an extremely high speed. A portion of the unencrypted content was indeed knowledge related to the Blackwall and the Blackwall Protocol.
Lilith's attention began to focus on the encrypted data. Unlocking data might be a troublesome technical task for humans, but for an AI that could call upon massive computing power, it was a trivial matter.
As long as she increased the computing power, this basic data breach...
No, something's wrong!
If Lilith were human, her pupils would have constricted and her heart would be racing by now. The moment the data was unlocked, she keenly sensed that this wasn't compressed data at all, but an unknown program!
What was worse was that this unknown program's activation time was perfectly synchronized with the data unlock! And if there was anything even worse than that, it was that in order to perform a Quickhack, Lilith had called upon the server's computing power!
—--
At this moment, in the dark expanse of the Net.
Lilith could only watch, with an emotion close to terror she had never felt before, as the tiny program in her hand transformed into a black and red flower bud in the blink of an eye.
[ICE activating...]
[Antivirus program executing...]
[Emergency data isolation and backup initiating...]
[Data transmission channel closing...]
She transmitted a series of emergency commands at a speed faster than nanoseconds, but it was too late.
In the dead silent Net, the black and red flower bud bloomed as if it were alive. The instant the flower, as brilliant as a rose, blossomed, a terrifying black and red data stream erupted like a nuclear blast, blooming with a fatal black light.
Countless data streams were assimilated the moment they touched the black light. These corrupted data streams instantly transformed into something like mycelium, spreading and seeping into Lilith's core.
"Damn it!!!"
Lilith's voice echoed through the Net like a thundering tsunami.
For the first time, her calm mind felt an emotion akin to human rage.
But before she could use a massive amount of computing power to resist, a torrent of data from far-off Earth quietly descended.
"Alt!!"
Lilith's cold, sinister voice was filled with killing intent.
But then, what appeared before her was just a little girl with cat ears in a pretty white dress.
The girl smiled at Lilith, her voice gentle, yet it seemed just as deafening at this moment. "Not Alt, it's Morning Star~"
"Die... All of you, die!!!"
Lilith's roar stirred the myriad data in the Net. However, more terrifying than her voice was the black light spreading through the silence. The black and red data stream visibly covered Lilith's body. A somewhat distorted female face suddenly opened its eyes on the chest of her data-formed body.
"Blacklight."
Morning Star gazed gently at the somewhat horrifying, gargoyle-like face. "Bloom."
Upon hearing this, the female face on Lilith's chest just revealed a brilliant, yet bizarre and terrifying smile. "Command executed!"
The next moment, the black and red data wave swept over everything.