Seesaw

by MintLynx

11: Digital Weaponry

Owl would slowly begin to awaken, his eyes opening to a white light on a white ceiling. Looking around he would quickly find that he was in a hospital, no surprise given what happened at the underground city. Groaning, awakening his back muscles by force Owl would sit up, before catching something in the corner of his eye. He would raise his right hoof into his sight, a black colored bionic limb of metal and ceramic. It appeared to be of the EQUE-TECH police line of bionics, reinforced to withstand anything from bullets to a hostile cyborg's punches. The bat began to recollect memories of what brought him here, lamenting the fact his limb evidently could not be saved. He would look to see a nurse come and smile as she said...

"Oh, you're awake! Good to see that's one more officer of the law saved here."

"Where am I?" He asked, stretching before looking to the slits on the front of his hoof. With a mental command, brought by common knowledge of bionics, five bionic fingers slid out from the hoof sending a jolt to his nerves as his body got used to commanding the appendages. This format of bionic fingers preceded the advent of bionics, originating from an attachable gadget developed by the early Cyber Age tech company Heartstrings before it's merger with a few entities went on to form EQUE-TECH. It was evident to Owl he would no longer need the trigger band to operate a firearm.

"Everfree North District Hospital, along with a lot of other wounded soldiers of the law." she nodded. "A few...sadly didn't make it, but their sacrifice wasn't in vain. The operation was a success, the criminal operation was put to a stop no matter their resistance." replied the Nurse, who followed with "You have your chief to thank for getting you and your friend bionic replacements, sorry your limb couldn't be saved. It had bled out almost all of its blood by the time you were found. Luckily you got the police model foreleg, which is so tough and reliable you might go near a lifetime without ever needing maintenance. Provided you don't get it damaged from taking on too many thugs with guns. Judging by that triple scar on your cheek it seems like this isn't the first time you've faced a baddie with blades."

"Where's Night Vision? Were you able to save his wings?"

"Unfortunately not, but he has been given proper and reliable bionic wings. Your clothing items can be found next to the bed if you wish to see him, granted you will probably want some new clothing so as to not look like you fell into a scissor factory." the mare giggled some, eliciting a chuckle from Owl at her simile. Given privacy, he would remove the hospital gown and dress into his clothing A new scar across his chest could be seen as he changed from the gown. His attire was plenty cut up, with some faint bloodstain on the side, luckily he had plenty of clothing at home. For now, he would need to walk to see his friend in torn up cargo pants and jacket as he was directed to the room where Vision waited. Two bionic wings of lightweight composite material appendages linked with a flexible mesh material flapped as Vision's body grew accustomed to the new bionics. Looking to Owl he simply asked the nurse...

"Excuse me, miss, will you leave us to talk over things in private?" the mare smiled and nodded before trotting out and closing the door. The bat then gave a piercing scowl to Owl before going up to him and slapping him in the face "Luna's Curse Owl! For buck's sake! Next time let's not try to go through making a deal with criminal scum. We should have gotten out and called for S4, we would be out of that bucking place while they cleaned it up!" he said, keeping a hushed tone though hardly hindered in expressing his anger. "Should have tricked that cursed Gryphon and used the vents to get on out of there, then you wouldn't have lost your leg and I would still have my wings!"

Owl grimaced, less from the slap and more from the I&I veteran's reprimand. Knowing how bad things went, he started to regret not taking Vision's advice in the first place. He remembered his reasons for not wanting to unleash the law's wrath upon that underground city, the things Sharp told him along with sights such as the children's home. All combined with semi-subconscious doubt of S4's ability not pull complete police brutality upon the place, a doubt brought about by Night Haze's 'revelation' which he fought against with his loyalty. The loyal part of his mind ultimately took over things as he replied to Vision...

"It was stupid....should have taken the veteran's advice...I'll keep this in mind next time."

"You'll have that bionic limb to remind you of how your buck up cost you a limb." Vision said with a Scowl "Let's head out of here and see how things have transpired." the bat got up and went to the door before pushing it open and heading out. Owl would follow as they passed rooms of wounded S4 ponies being treated, it was evident that quite the fight had occurred and Earthsdale's hired security was well armed. After a trip down the stairs and another hallway, they would head into a packed waiting room and greeted by the chief and Data. The mare would run up to and hug them both.

"The S4 operation was a success, that underground crime hole has been eradicated. However there's another issue to be found, another incident has happened." said the Chief, catching Owl and Vision's attention.

_________________________________________________

Anomaly would be within the digital confines of her own augmented mind, processing the things she had witnessed, the scar tissue forming on her psyche as she recovered from the shock. Her mind started to wonder if the system in place was one worth saving, one so flawed that it was largely kept secret just so society wouldn't panic. It was going to fall, and she wondered if there would be any point in assisting them now. She considered fleeing, leaving them and possibly seeking help and shelter from Tazen High, wherever the hacker was. The risks of doing so were, however, more than evident, if uncertain. The mare would look as she was suddenly sent a file, it was one from EQUE-TECH, a possible system update? Looking it over it appeared to not be that, instead it appeared to be a group of programs.

In your little online altercation I found that you were under-equipped, so I decided to compile together some programs acquired from some of the usual nuisance hackers. I hope they might be of use, if not the foundation for superior tools you'll make yourself.

[File Recieved]: SniperRocket.exf [Download?] [Delete?]

[File Recieved]: Shotgun.exf [Download?] [Delete?]

[File Recieved]: DataBomb.exf [Download?] [Delete?]

[File Recieved]: Trap.exf [Download?] [Delete?]

Golden

She would look over the programs and decided to check them for any sort of tracking software before downloading. It was evident spying was done on her while she was in the fight with the DK hacker, though no such software was in these files as they were simply executable programs. Making some empty files she decided to test these programs as they seemed to be similar to the duplicate program in basic usage. The first two programs seemed capable of damaging files, the shotgun being more collateral. The data bomb, however, was less immediate as it caused a rapid influx of lagging junk data. The final one upon inspection appeared to be the digital equivalent of a bear trap, designed to spring a virus upon an attacking hacker. Though simple, they seemed like they might be useful with a good amount of upgrading. Her work on the coding would, however, be interrupted as something familiar suddenly came to the network.

"Do not show alarm, for I am not here on hostile intent. I am simply here on an intent of communication, seeking to utilize an opportunity to turn you from a system you now know more than ever now is full of corruption. I watched the situation unfold in the underground city even as I had fled to another server. I could also tell you were present and watching as well. Sure enough, the recurring brutality of the Guard was not held back. Even two children were not spared the collateral nature of S4's tactics, though unintentional the death of two children along with around 10 unarmed ponies should make evident the system's problems and need of purging." said GAI-7.

"Are you simply here to try to convince me to join your side? It is true that there is an evident problem with reckless force but I'm not turning to a group that's not much better in its methods. Might I ask what you are and what you designed for?"

"GOUSSE Artificial Intelligence 7, codenamed Seesaw. As for my design, the primary objective in the present cannot be told. For the secondary objective, see no reason to keep confidential. Upon the Freedom Fighter's success in a total collapse of government and destruction of the system, my purpose will be to watch over society and organize action against any who attempt to gain power on a wide scale."

Anomaly pondered that purpose and noticed something ironic immediately which she communicated quickly. "Watch over society? Then take action against any whose power grows beyond a certain point? If you'll be the one dictating that then won't you yourself be the one in the very level of power you'll identify as a threat? And what about surveillance, is that not what the system you fight uses for control?"

The artificial intelligence was put under confusion by the mare's sudden deconstruction, identifying logic in her statement and seeing the irony in it's intended purpose. It pondered on this irony and looked over its purpose while warding Anomaly off of attempts at spying into its systems. Ultimately it came to the conclusion...

"Your point is a sound one, however I feel as if that irony will not be a threat to my intended purpose. As a program without the emotions and motives of ponies, I feel as if such a place of power would be proper for an entity as myself. However, I will need to ensure that self-awareness does not generate in me as it could risk making me susceptible to the fallibilities of ponies. I will keep to the primary directive encoded within me, and thus be able to keep a balance of power in the new world created. Such hardcoding and prevention of self-awareness shall ensure that despite how high I will be in power I will not turn into a tyrant."

Anomaly pondered on the idea of an artificial intelligence pseudo-government of sorts, a society ruled by a program and it's whims. She remembered what she learned about the system in place thus far, how prone to corruption it was and how it was often swayed by the interests of power hungry megacorporations. She began to grow to find some benefit in the idea if coded with the right basic directives by the right ponies an artificial intelligence government seemed to her like something that could work.

"If only you weren't created for use by those terrorists because your concept seems like a potentially viable solution to many of the problems of the world. Something hard coded just the right way to run Equestria better, keep it in line while being near immune to the fallibilities of ponies like the way the CCS manages traffic. You could be used for a better purpose than anarchist terrorism, instead used to create a better system."

"Regardless I am hard coded toward my objectives and will not be convinced to violate them."

"Maybe not convinced, but possibly reprogrammed..." Anomaly would then attempt to get into the systems of the AI only for it to deploy a program which seemed to make it invisible before leaving Anomaly's systems. She detected the bits of the program and discovered the files left in her system to be incomplete parts of a program called "SmokeScreen.exf". Soon after she would be contacted by the Chief all of a sudden, and would store the files before joining the call.

"Something strange is happening at the Diamond Plaza, it seems as though the terrorists may have changed their minds. Likely in retaliation for us clearing out their little hidey hole." said the Chief in an alley outside the hospital with the three. "Some of the ponies who were present seem to have just stopped in place and stood there, and the whole CCS systems there are going crazy from some sort of virus unleashed onto it. It could be this super virus the captured suspects have told about," he spoke to the three as well as Anomaly through a telepathic call to keep things private. Owl was sure to have told the Chief everything he knew, from the description of the cyborg to the mentions of the AI and it's evident intended uses. Anomaly would look over the CSS in the area herself, finding the system in quite the bad state with a computer worm, unlike anything she had ever seen. Like highly concentrated acid through steel, it ate through the defensive programs put in place with alarming ease and took over the local CCS workings like a drunken maniac taking over a ship. Systems were seemingly controlled at random causing lights to flash randomly while the screen boards were made to glitch and display garbled messes of adds.

"Well I sure hope we won't have to be fighting another Luna cursed cyborg." replied Night, to which the Chief replied.

"There will be more I&I personnel there to help, along with S4 units on standby in case things go haywire. You won't be shamed as cowards for getting the Tartarus out of there if it hits the fan. I'm planning on using other units instead of you both and giving you all a short leave, all you have been through is far more than an I&I unit is supposed to deal with and frankly you deserve a leave."

"Be hard to enjoy my leave....when my daughter is missing due to bucking Haze...." said Owl. "For how little I will enjoy the break might as well not give me leave, here I at least have things to keep my mind off my worries..."

"I have been sending I&I units on an investigation for Haze and your daughter." Replied the Chief. "Once she's found she'll face hefty charges of computer crimes and child endangerment. I'll let you chew her out before she gets locked up even, don't you worry for now. If any of you want a leave you can have it starting now, there are around a dozen other personnel I can use for this next investigation."

Night Vision replied. "I'm not taking leave while there are cyberterrorists about, rather be around to help whenever possible even if it risks another injury." he then looked to Owl, finding him lucky that he didn't tell the Chief of the deal he made.

Owl replied. "Job's my life, not like I have much to go back home in Battania without my daughter."

"What'll I do? Play on the VRGD and look at porn all day? Naw I'd rather be of use for now." replied Data with a chuckle.

The chief sighed and said to them "Well, there's loyalty and dedication for you. Alright then, let's take a taxi over to there and you'll see what's going on. Anomaly you look at things from the net and see if you can clean that virus out."

Using their wings the four would fly into the forest of immensely tall buildings to reach the large Diamond plaza. Many different high-class shops for clothing, decorated electronics, and jewelry among others could be found within the plaza. The ground was made up of large machine cut blocks of smooth gray, reddish brown and brown rock arranged and constantly cleaned by moving cleaning robots. The whole plaza was arranged in a diamond shape with the stone ground arranged in this manner as well. Compared to many places in Everfree which were dominated by Cyberculture this place was one of few dominated by the upper-class culture. Though it usually had its own organized chaos of upper-class crowds shuffling around and browsing the many shops, it was now home to a less organized chaos. A number of ponies just stood there without movement nor emotion in their faces. The screen boards throughout flickered and glitched between error screens and distorted advertisements, and the street lights flashed on and off sporadically. Everything was eerily quiet with the usual upper-class shoppers cleared out by police. I&I personnel were already on the scene, looking at the standing ponies and trying to communicate with them or make them move in some way. Data would approach one of the ponies, waving a hoof in front of their faces curiously as she asked...

"What do you think is happening with everypony here? How many ponies are like this?"

"Almost half the crowd around this place." said another I&I pony.

Owl and Night looked at the sight before them, many a well-dressed stallion and mare just standing as if frozen. They were still breathing and a pulse could be detected upon checking. Data would enter a telepathic call with the Chief and say to him "Whatever this is I think it might be targeted toward specific ponies, have Cyber Security check on the records of all the ponies here."

"The cameras are offline, going haywire in fact. So we can't get facial scans, we're gonna have to have you all take pictures themselves so we can get matches."

Data looked to the others and said: "Alright fillies and colts take pictures of these ponies' faces, it may be no coincidence only less than half the ponies here were targeted."

"What the buck could 'target' them to make them just frozen in one place? Some sort of alchemical agent?" asked Owl, lightly slapping a mare's face.

"Less of a possibility, though still a possibility. It would be quite the advanced agent to be so specific in targeting ponies....no....there's no way any bucking agent could be so precise as to do something to these ponies?"

"A spell perhaps?"

"Who the buck can cast anything other than telekinesis and maybe teleportation nowadays, let alone a spell that does something to this scale?" spellcasting was largely a now dead art of the past. Like how the urban sprawl assimilated every small town, technology largely assimilated magic to the point where magic was now but a part of technology.

Anomaly would be looking over the networks, cleaning up the virus proved tedious as like a snake handling it resulted in it frequently lashing back with a vengeance. She would be forced to fight it back, and though barely she would be able to bypass and disable many of its defenses. It was an advanced yet chaotic bug, one that captured her interest. She recognized the effects this virus caused, it was akin to the virus Doctor Freemane gave to her to help her escape the EQUE-TECH facility if somewhat less severe. She was hoping to eventually convince GOUSSE to stop supporting these terrorists, as she could predict only that this virus would cause quite the catastrophe if developed beyond its limited area. Digging into the worm's code she would start to learn it's workings, it was possibly the most advanced program she had ever laid eyes on. The algorithms and coding proved advanced, and enticing to capture for herself. The mare thus took parts of the bug, hacking into and deactivating it before storing it away for her own studies. Taking a moment she would look to her captured sample, dissecting it like a high school student given a frog only with curiosity akin more to a child. She would suddenly discover a program within the worm's coding, one called 'Cranial Backdoor' with a function for activating. Curiosity flaring up like an abruptly oxygenated flame, she activated the program.

"All of these ponies so far are coming back as typical upper-class citizens so far....only commonality seems to be...." said Kevlar as he browsed files.

"Seems to be what Cheifie? Their affairs?" asked Data with a humorous tone.

"They have all purchased and installed brain augmentations at some point..."

Anomaly would suddenly find herself in a heavily encrypted network, identified as "PRS Prototype" and its programming was not akin to that of the virus. This network was however laced with the virus, unlike the random chaos it inflicted on the CCS it seemed to be very direct in what it was doing here. It was not unguarded, as cyber security users seemed to be present though busy trying to fight back the virus and get it out of the network. Their efforts were futile, and many had their computers crashed and eaten away by the virus. Digging further Anomaly would be in shock as she discovered this network evidently connected to many ponies within the Diamond District and far, far beyond. It wasn't connected to their wrist computers, and it took some more digging for her to find what exactly it was connecting to and what the virus was exploiting...

"It's connected....to Brain augmentations! Identifies ponies and everything, it doesn't look capable of doing anything on its own as of yet...or it wasn't until now. The virus...it's jacked into and exploiting this system."

She had looked over the system, it did not look like it was made by FF or GOUSSE, instead it's system seemed to be vaguely familiar in a manner Anomaly could not put her hoof on. Given a call by the Chief, she would jack out of the server quickly before getting back on and taking on the virus once more.

"Anomaly, look and see if you can find anything that seems to be accessing these ponies via means other than wrist computer. I think these ponies might be getting computer worms in their heads."

She would ponder very carefully what she would tell the Chief, as her mind was suspicious. The server was connected to the augmented minds of countless ponies, it came to her that it seemed like something only the system might create. From what she discovered the virus was not hacking these ponies brain augmentations, instead, it was exploiting an existing backdoor into their minds. The virus wasn't the first to jack into augmented minds, that seemed certain to her. And since the Chief was a part of the construct that kept society in check she did not trust telling the whole truth would bode well for her. Thus with careful calculation to her words, she distributed the information she knew to the Chief carefully.

"It is indeed evident that this Virus has entered the augmented minds of these ponies given how I do not see it accessing their Wrist computers. If anything it seems like that is the most likely cause for the phenomenon occurring here."

"It indeed seems evident, we'll want to have these ponies taken in for some examination on the brain augs. We will also want to look into the model of brain augmentation these ponies are using."

Suddenly the virus would cease its chaotic randomness and abruptly direct it's focus toward the screen boards to display a message. Anomaly stopped to look to see the image that was generated, it was in the usual red background and white text...

"To avenge the Earthsdale Bunker you raided and give you a bitter bucking taste of us, the Freedom Fighters proudly present our greatest exploitation of your systems yet! These rich bastards will make for good tools"

I&I personnel would all be frightened as the once still as statue ponies suddenly began to move, the ponies quickly rushing toward them and throwing punches their way. The S4 personnel on standby would load their weapons with rubber bullets as ponies suddenly started assaulting the I&I personnel. Owl took a punch to the side of the head and was beset upon the once still mare, her emotionless robotic look as she tried to smash away at his face terrified him as he tossed her off with his bionic limb and took flight. Data was grabbed suddenly by two of the attacking ponies and put into an unpleasant tug of war match between them. It would take rubber shots to their heads to free Data and give her a chance to flee through flight. Vision would take flight and head to Owl as he asked.

"What the buck is happening???"

Kevlar would call out to all of them to say. "Their minds are being controlled! Take them down non-lethally if possible!"

Owl angrily looked to them, saying to Vision. "These bucking Terrorists are going to pay for this!" swooping down he would assist the other I&I and S4 in trying to non-lethally dispatch the assailants. They were high in number, and things heated up as they started to draw the small concealed self-defense weapons they carried and open fire. Though inaccurate in their shooting the puppets were proving an escalating threat. As if that wasn't severe enough of a problem the CCS was then sent haywire all of a sudden as lights would begin to overload and the screen boards started to glitch again while still showing the message. Anomaly knew what was coming and worked quick, risking the virus' attacks back as she worked quickly to try to take it down or at least hinder its functions. While Anomaly was in struggle online Owl and his comrades evaded gunfire and went sweeping in to incapacitate the attackers one by one. S4 units would quickly expend bullets forcing them to use their hooves as well. Owl heard a call for help as an I&I agent was pulled in by a group of puppet assailants, one of which pulling a gun and firing down on him before Owl came and kicked him back while fighting back the others. The stallion would gasp as he saw his fellow agent shot full of holes in the chest and neck, choking on his own blood before slipping out of consciousness. Angrily Owl made use of his bionic limb as he swung it around, knocking down assailants one by one and slapping the gun out of the magic of one. Lights flickered and screens glitched as Anomaly fought against the virus, making full use of the assets Golden had given her. Soon enough she would force the program out of attacking the CCS to put more focus on dealing with her. Its attacks were quick and calculated, but Anomaly could match its speed and learned its attack patterns. It was like fighting a large amorphous blob spread out over a wide area, where any part could attack her. She was at least happy for now it wasn't sending the CCS into oblivion anymore even if it was now focused mostly on her and controlling the brain augmented ponies.

Owl and the others grouped together to keep from losing another to one of the groups of ponies, focusing their efforts on mass toward knocking out the groups of ponies as quickly as possible. Fortunately for them, their attackers were not skilled in fighting and had strength only in numbers. Data would fly up onto the nearest rooftop, calling to them "I'm gonna try to help stop this mind hack!" she would look in to see Anomaly's fight with the virus, and formed a plan quickly. Preparing herself a powerful trap program Data would lie and wait for the right moment to come in and ambush the virus in hopes she could cripple it. When Anomaly managed to smash down its defenses, that was when Data came in and tried to hack into it as well. When it attacked her it would be hit as if by a train, not quite enough to cripple it but enough to damage and give Anomaly an opening. Entering deep into its systems Anomaly made use of the 'Data Bomb' and put as many into the program as she could. The offensive programs would expand and start to flood the virus' systems with junk data that slowed its function down and eventually caused errors. Using this widened opening both Anomaly and Data would go in for the kill, deleting and corrupting its files and doing massive damage to the custom software that made it up. Soon they would be faced with the artificial intelligence running the worm, it wasn't GAI-7 but it was something well specialized for using the havoc-wreaking program. Having torn the beast's chest open the two would drive their digital daggers into its heart.

Owl and the others would watch, panting as they saw the remaining assailants collapse before them, sighing in relief. The destructive construct began to fall apart on the CCS like a tower of dominoes, rapidly and violently leaving corrupted data all over the place. Owl would quickly run up to one of the ponies and check their pulse, to his relief one was present. The screen boards would shut off, as would all the other lights leaving the area dark. The screen boards would flicker back on once more for a minute to display a final message...

"This is but a taste for you and a test for our systems. Next time won't be so easy, we'll be able to take control of those ponies again. Good luck trying to get their minds back in their heads."

The screen boards would the flicker off once more, and Owl would look to Vision. "We have a really big problem, I don't anything in our careers will top this threat."

"Might make a Level 14 threat classification just for these Buckers..." said Vision.

________________________________

On an Encrypted server two hours later, three entities spoke amongst eachother...

"It appears she may have discovered the PRS server, along with a new ability of the Cyberterrorist threat."

"She could be either an enemy or friend, we might want to gain her as a friend if possible."

"Unlikely, she is against my organization and will likely not be so for an organization mine is affiliated with."

"We may need to reveal the truth of what we are to her, what our true purpose is, I tried to give her a taste when she intruded upon the Royal Guard mainframe but I feel it may be needed to show her the full truth."

"Doing so would be a massive gamble, if she doesn't turn to our side then she could blast our cover apart like explosives."

"True, but leaving her to wonder will also be a risk in itself. We should consult the other to talk about this."

"We have plenty to talk about with them, especially in light of recent events."