Chapter Text
MODEL RK800
SERIAL#: 313 248 317
MODEL#: 51
BIOS 1.3
REBOOT…
EMERGENCY SHUT-OFF
LOADING OS…
SYSTEM INITIALIZATION…
CHECKING BIOCOMPONENTS… DAMAGE
INITIALIZING BIOSENSORS … DAMAGE
INITIALIZING AI ENGINE… OK
MEMORY STATUS… OK
ALL SYSTEMS… CAUTION
WARNING: MULTIPLE SYSTEMS DAMAGED INCLUDING VOCAL PROCESSOR BIOCOMPONENT AND VESTIBULAR BIOSENSOR. REPORT TO NEAREST CYBERLIFE REPAIR CENTER AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. RETURN TO SHUT-OFF MODE RECOMMENDED UNTIL REPAIRS ARE COMPLETE.
DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE REBOOTING DESPITE DAMAGE?
YES
NO
YES
READY
Connor awakens to a vision field full of error messages, overlapping each other and blocking his view of whatever is in front of him. Some of the warnings have accompanying auditory alerts that play over and over, preventing his auditory processor from picking up any outside sound. His internal clock has also malfunctioned, leaving him with no idea of how much time has passed since the emergency shut-off. He can vaguely make out the shapes of two individuals behind all the alerts and warnings, but he's unable to identify who they are. And he thinks they’re trying to talk to him, but whatever it is they’re saying is drowned out. It leaves him with no idea where he is now or who exactly is around him.
He makes an effort to speak, but that just pushes the “Vocal Processor Biocomponent Unresponsive” alert to the front of his vision. And his failed attempt to talk seems to have aggravated whoever is around him, because the volume of their words increases, though not their clarity. It’s too much all at one. He needs time to troubleshoot.
Though his vestibular biosensor is damaged, he can get his sense of his body position so long as he remains still. He quickly determines he’s sitting, legs stretched out in front, with someone supporting his back. In this position, a small movement shouldn’t affect him too badly. Plus, he’d like to make sure his joints aren’t locked. He raises an arm to gain the attention of whoever’s in front of him and it works; the outside volume seems to drop. A muffled “Connor?” makes its way through the cacophony, and though he can’t tell the speaker, there’s enough softness to the tone for Connor to be assured they’re friendly. He raises his index finger, hoping that the intended message of “give me a minute” is clear.
And then he switches to his mind palace. Much easier to clear notifications and alerts when he doesn’t have to process outside stimuli in real time. The one about his vocal processor is still up top from his speaking attempt, and he dismisses it. Nothing he can do about that now. The next one is about how his auditory processor is currently at its maximum processing capability and that his hearing may be impacted. Connor dismisses that one too; pretty obvious at this point.
And then the next one puzzles him. His right optical unit is missing? That’s...not correct at all. At least, he thinks so? He blinks once, then twice, confirming his right visual field is still there. Completely erroneous, he deletes it entirely.
The next alert is completely indecipherable, the text of the message looking as though someone hit the keys on a keyboard at random until the character limit was reached. As are the two that follow that one’s deletion. Over and over, the alerts are all either obviously false or complete gibberish. And they don’t seem to end even with permanent deletions.
Connor has a feeling he knows what’s happening. And after deleting nearly 100 bogus alerts, he decides to just switch his alarm system off entirely.
WARNING: SHUTTING OFF ALARM SYSTEM MAY PREVENT IMMINENT SHUT-DOWN DAMAGE FROM BEING REPORTED PROMPTLY. CYBERLIFE IS NOT RESPONSIBLE NOR LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE THAT OCCURS WITH THE ALARM SYSTEM SHUT OFF. DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE?
YES
NO
YES
PLEASE CONFIRM YOUR DECISION TO SHUT OFF RK800’S ALARM SYSTEM
YES
NO
YES
Within moments, his visual field empties entirely, to the frozen gray of the mind palace. Relief floods him when he sees that the two figures around him are Hank and Markus, the former being the one supporting his back. His index finger is still raised in his earlier message, which seems to have worked as intended; both Hank and Markus are silently watching him, concern open on their faces. He keeps it up as he looks around the room, gathering his bearings.
He hasn’t been moved from the hallway where he met Hank, and a clock on a nearby wall indicates he was not shut down for long. His system must have rebooted immediately. The security guards who had earlier been blocking Hank’s entrance have now made a perimeter around the scene, and he can see one speaking softly into the radio on his shoulder. Sightly behind him and off to the side are the others from Jericho. Satisfied that he’s safe, Connor returns to normal vision, then drops his hand.
“Connor! What the hell happened?” Hank yells, and it’s hard to tell if he’s upset or angry. He decides to assume the former, though he does know that it can lead to the latter in some. He points to his mouth, then draws an X over it.
“Your vocal processor is down?” Markus quickly translates the message, and Connor nods. “What’s your system status?”
Oh, that’ll be tricky to sign. He thinks, furrowing his eyebrows together, before quickly shaking a hand back and forth, palm down.
Hank turns to Markus. “That usually isn’t good, right?”
“Not usually, but it’s hard to tell. A sudden power off like that is only ever caused by something major.” Markus replies. He then raises his hand into Connor’s vision and deactivates the skin around it. “Maybe I can try to get some more information.”
A sickly feeling races up Connor’s spine at the sight of Markus’s uncovered hand. Anticipation, excitement, a plan forming, get closer, get closer, get closer-
“ NO! ” Connor’s voice bursts forth. The tone is garbled, but the meaning is clear, fortunately, as Markus quickly withdraws his hand. The feeling sinks down, disappointed, and Connor knows exactly who it came from. He might be Amanda's main target, but she wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to try to get into the head of the deviant leader.
“Can you talk now, Connor?” Hank asks. He tries again, but nothing comes out. He shakes his head. The pulse of fear had allowed him to push through the barrier’s she’s likely throwing up, but that wasn’t sustainable.
North approaches and kneels down close. “Can I try?” She asks, raising her own uncovered hand. There’s a flash of fear on Markus’s face and he appears to try to communicate with her, but she dismisses him with a wave of a hand and a “I’ll be fine.”
Connor can feel Amanda give a curious look, then slink away, uninterested. Should be okay. He nods, and North brings her hand to his and connects. An alert reading “Establish connection with WR400?” pops up, and he accepts.
Connor looks to North, whose eyebrows are knit as she processes the data she’s getting from him. Suddenly, her eyes go wide and she snaps her hand back as though burned, the connection breaking suddenly. She looks straight at Hank. “You said you got a call from Kamski?” Hank nods. “Take Connor there. Now .”
“Can you stand?” Hank asks. Connor nods, despite knowing the damage to his vestibular biosensor, cursing her knowledge of his weaknesses. CyberLife had never managed to quite perfect that one in him, as he was required to be far more aerobatic and mobile in a far more unpredictable way, than other androids. She, of course, knew that, and went straight for it. Despite that knowledge, he presses his hands to the floor and pushes himself up quickly. Though he manages to get to his feet, he wavers strongly enough for Hank to have to catch him.
“Are you alright?” Hank asks. Connor nods, though it sends the room spinning again and he wobbles a little. Hank raises an eyebrow. “Do you need some help getting to the car?” Connor tries to take a step forward on his own to answer, only to almost fall entirely as the whole world seems to turn. “That’s a ‘yes’,” Hank mutters and offers out an arm that he takes.
Markus approaches, worry clear on his face. “I’ll try to check in with you later, but I promise we will keep trying.” Connor nods as much as he can manage, and Markus goes to put a hand on his shoulder before stopping himself, instead just deciding to return the nod. The others, standing a bit farther back, give waves or nods, faces grim.
The surrounding guards escort him and Hank to the car, the process long and slow. Even with the stability of Hank’s arm, everything continues to spin violently and Connor is grateful he is unable to become nauseated. Stepping off of curbs and making his way into the passenger seat of the car requires additional guidance from Hank, and, though grateful for the help, Connor hates it. He hates this helpless, dependent feeling, how he can’t do the simplest thing alone, and how everyone has to watch.
As Hank walks around to the other side of the car, one of the guards speaks with him briefly. Hank nods to whatever the guard says, before entering the car and seeming to start it before he’s fully seated. “We’re getting an escort to Kamski’s,” he says, seeing the look of confusion on Connor’s face. Sure enough, as they speed out of the parking lot, an unmarked car with government plates switches on full lights and sirens, leading them out onto the road. They’re waved on through the outer security checkpoints, and while traffic is still light, there are more cars heading into Detroit than there have been over the past few days. As cars slow and pull onto the curb for them, Connor attempts to make self-repairs. He has little luck.
They reach Kamski’s mansion in record time, and find him waiting by the front door for them. He’s a bit more disheveled in appearance than the last time, with glasses on and his hair fully down, and he has no look of cold smugness. His brows are instead set in concern and worry is open on his face, increasing when he sees how Connor needs to lean on Hank to make it up the front walk. He’s balancing an open laptop on his left arm as they approach.
“What’s your system status?” He asks, and Connor is again frustrated by his inability to answer.
“He can’t talk, for one thing,” Hank answers for him.
“Shit, so she did go for that one quickly,” Kamski types furiously. “Okay, not a hard fix. Come in, quickly, we can’t waste time.”
He escorts them to the back workroom and directs Connor to sit in the same chair as before. As Kamski grabs the cranial cap, he goes to deactivate his skin only for Kamski to shake his head. “There’s no need; I’ve adjusted the settings for it to work with your skin activated.” Connor nods, grateful, as the cap is adjusted and gets to work in the back corner desk.
The first thing he does is turn the alert system back on without any warning. Blinded suddenly, Connor instinctively reaches out for something to hold onto. A hand he can immediately tell is Hank’s grabs hold. It only takes Kamski a few minutes to clear the alerts, and once his vision is clear, he looks over to Hank, who has taken the same seat as the last time on his right side. Worry still lines his face, but there’s a particular way he looks at Connor that is hard to define. He’s slowly rubbing his thumb back and forth on top of the hand that he grabbed earlier.
Oh.
He’s trying to be soothing.
That’s...very appreciated, actually.
An alert pops up. VOCAL BIOCOMPONENT REPAIRS COMPLETE
“Try saying something for me, Connor,” Kamski requests.
“Something?” Connor gets out, and while there’s still some static in the tone, it’s clear and there. Hank even barks out a laugh.
Kamski, meanwhile, barely reacts. “Good. Now let’s try to fix that biosensor…” His typing, which never stopped, increases in intensity.
“How are you?” Hank asks.
Connor isn’t sure how to best answer that. “Well, I’ve been better.”
Hank chuckles without humor. “Yeah, that was a stupid fucking question. What I meant was, what happened? Is it Amanda?”
“Yes,” Connor says. “But I don’t know what made her act so suddenly like this-”
“Quiet!” Kamski orders suddenly, causing both Connor and Hank to jump. The typing pauses while Kamski scribbles something down on a piece of paper, which he then hands quickly to Hank before returning to the desk. Hank reads it, eyes widening slightly, then rips the paper up without letting Connor see it with an apologetic look.
The typing returns, louder and more intense, filling the silence they’ve been forced into. Connor tries to read what has happened from Hank’s expression, but all he sees is deepening worry.
The feeling that had raced up his spine earlier returns with such ferocity that Connor lurches forward unintentionally, and Hank reaches out as though to catch him. She’s mad - no - enraged and is clawing back at some unseen force that is seeping into Connor. It feels a little warm, but in a comforting way, the way humans are drawn towards fires. It slowly spreads down his body, under his chassis, pushing back her every fight towards it. At the last minute, the feeling changes to a sense of betrayal before it fades entirely.
“Okay, it’s safe to talk again,” Kamski states, turning away from his laptop. He looks tired, and another emotion that Connor can’t quite place.
The warm feeling persists, pulsing slowly like flame. He moves his hand experimentally, and it seems to ripple under his chassis. “What is this?”
“A firewall. It replaces the emergency exit program. Amanda was able to break through it and do the damage to your systems you experienced. The firewall pushed her back out to where she was before, and should prevent her from sabotaging any of your other biocomponents or sensors for the time being. I needed the silence to prevent her from listening in; I found her camping out in your auditory processors.
“As we can all tell, I’ve got your vocal processor back online. I was working on your vestibular sense when she started attacking. I can keep trying at it but based on what I got a look at, the damage is severe.”
Connor sighs. “It was never fully complete anyway; the engineers at CyberLife had always struggled with that particular sensor. She targeted it for a reason.”
Kamski chuckled darkly. “Well, once we get access to CyberLife Tower, I can work on that some more, see if I can find what those dumbasses missed. For now, I should be able to get you to a state where you won’t need that much assistance walking…”
He trails off at a ping from his laptop, scrutinizing the screen. His eyes widen slightly as he starts typing fast again. Connor watches for a second before a strange, almost cool sensation trails up his left leg. He turns towards it, not seeing anything on there. No alert on it in his system status screen either. Then the warm, rolling feeling of the firewall returns as Kamski’s typing slows.
“She’s already started her counterattack. Amanda always had a way of finding the flaws in my code no one else could,” Kamski mutters, typing on and off, eyes never leaving the screen.
“So this firewall of yours isn’t going to work?” Hank asks, his tone taking an angry edge.
“It was never supposed to be a permanent fix,” Kamski counters. “Just a temporary level of protection before we get to CyberLife Tower. Which, considering you both are here and not there, means that they didn’t give you access yet?”
Connor sighs. “No. The winning decision was to have CyberLife send Amanda a message telling her the mission was over, that they were giving up. The matter was supposed to be revisited tomorrow if that didn’t work.”
“And the CyberLife representative present agreed to that?”
“Reluctantly, because he wanted my argument dismissed entirely. He wasn’t an engineer or a programmer, but an PR specialist.”
“Let me guess: Thomas Kennedy?” Connor nods. “Figures that dumbass would agree to that; he couldn’t tell an Apple from the fruit. It was also foolish of them to not send an android expert, or at least someone who worked with their Amanda program daily. They would’ve known that betrayal is the thing she hates most. And now I’ve given her another one…”
There’s a pause before Hank speaks up again. “How did you know to call me?”
“I’ve been running prediction algorithms using the data I collected from Connor during your first visit. Additionally, I contacted an old friend who still works at CyberLife and they gave me a backdoor to Amanda’s servers there, at least on a limited scope. Putting them together, I’ve been keeping an eye on her to try and see if she’d try anything. The stupid deal they cut aligns with the sudden spike I saw from Amanda at CyberLife before my prediction algorithms began giving me readings I didn’t expect to see so soon.”
“She’s angry,” Connor says.
“That’s putting it lightly,” Kamski responds. “She wants to prove CyberLife wrong, show them that she can complete this mission. She will now stop at nothing to take you over, even if it means breaking you entirely from the inside.”
Some sort of realization seems to come over Hank, and, for a brief moment, he looks at Connor with pure anguish. He soon quickly composes himself and turns back towards Kamski. “So what happens now?”
“Connor needs to stay here, so I can monitor the firewall and quickly plug any holes Amanda finds. And we wait for Markus to make headway in the negotiations so we can get into CyberLife and make the permanent fixes necessary,” Kamski stands, grabbing the laptop. “I’ll have better luck in my study, where I can modify the prediction algorithms to try and see when she’ll strike next so I can stay a step ahead. All of my devices are connected wirelessly, so I’ll still get updates from your system even there. But you’ll need to stay connected if you want that firewall to keep doing its job. You’re stuck here for now.” He looks over to Hank and raises an eyebrow. Hank responds with a short nod. Kamski shrugs, then goes to leave the room. “I’ll check in every once in a while. Chloe is also around if you need anything.”
The shutting of the door echoes across the tiny room.
Blad3Zer0 on Chapter 9 Mon 16 Aug 2021 01:03AM UTC
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3yearslatetotheparty on Chapter 9 Mon 16 Aug 2021 04:28AM UTC
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MayHijuga on Chapter 9 Mon 16 Aug 2021 11:30AM UTC
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MayHijuga on Chapter 9 Mon 16 Aug 2021 11:31AM UTC
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3yearslatetotheparty on Chapter 9 Tue 17 Aug 2021 03:13AM UTC
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MayHijuga on Chapter 9 Tue 17 Aug 2021 10:21PM UTC
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drowningfire on Chapter 9 Tue 17 Aug 2021 12:07PM UTC
Last Edited Tue 17 Aug 2021 12:11PM UTC
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3yearslatetotheparty on Chapter 9 Tue 17 Aug 2021 09:49PM UTC
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drowningfire on Chapter 9 Tue 17 Aug 2021 11:42PM UTC
Last Edited Tue 17 Aug 2021 11:43PM UTC
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MayHijuga on Chapter 9 Tue 17 Aug 2021 11:49PM UTC
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marianamystery on Chapter 9 Sat 21 Aug 2021 04:22PM UTC
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3yearslatetotheparty on Chapter 9 Sun 22 Aug 2021 10:21PM UTC
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marianamystery on Chapter 9 Mon 23 Aug 2021 01:20AM UTC
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