Chapter 86: Codex
Ranger
Chapter 86: Codex
By Wanderer D
"They've started unloading."
"Indeed," Elena said, crouching low next to the entrance and peeking outside through the panel. "We will need to move fast, if we hesitate, we will be caught."
Sunset grimaced. "If they follow the same unloading protocol as they do in other locations, this will be the last car they work on. If we're lucky, they might not start immediately."
She couldn't see it under the mask, but she could have sworn from the body-language alone that the Reaper had rolled her eyes. "This is ADVENT," Elena stated, "They will do this as quickly and efficiently as possible."
"Point," Sunset said with a sigh. "Alright, let's keep our eyes open for the first chance we get."
Angel hissed, slamming her tail on the floor next to her, then motioned to an area they had cleared of boxes earlier.
"Are you serious?" Sunset asked, walking over.
"What?" Elena did not look away from the panel.
"I think… we have a way out…"
Sliding the panel shut, Elena made her way to where Sunset and Angel stood next to an emergency exit panel on the floor. She blinked.
"It was covered by the boxes when we got in," Sunset said, pulling out a tablet and plugging it in. She started running her program and grinned. "Great, this one's easy, they weren't expecting anyone to do something like this."
After typing for a few moments, the light on it went from red to green. The hatch hissed softly then pushed up and slid open.
With a hiss of her own, Angel quickly made her way in, followed by Elena and finally Sunset.
There wasn't much space, but she managed to turn onto her back and activate the panel's lock, which slid it back into place, sealing and leaving no trace of them being in there.
It took them a moment to reorganize in the tight space before they considered themselves ready to move on, quieting down at a quick signal from Sunset. A pod of soldiers slowly stepped into view, and they heard the leader give an order.
Above them, the doors slid open and one of the three jumped in. They could hear him walking around, even a tense few seconds when he was directly above them, but soon enough he was done and jumped out. The pod then continued around the train, and made its way back to the front.
"I should explore," Elena whispered. "We need an idea of where to head."
Sunset nodded. "Agreed. As soon as we go out, we need to send the signal and obtain an Evac spot."
Angel hissed her agreement, then hissed a question at Sunset, who activated her magic.
"I can see… three patrols next to the train," Sunset whispered, "And two more a bit further. If you want to take a look… it's… now."
Elena slid from under the boxcar, glancing around quickly before she disappeared from sight. Sunset followed her movements, zigzagging presumably around crates and then climbing far up.
"I can see..." Elena said through the radio. "We are in a large underground structure. There are six security towers spread over all of the area. I see the three patrols around the train, but the boxes hide the others… hold, I see some doors on the other side of the warehouse, they have opened and there are MECs working on loosening the cars."
There was a pause.
"There is a second level at the other end. The base is most likely in that direction." Should we attempt to sneak in?
Sunset thought for a moment. "No. Our mission would be at risk…" she could feel the helmet on her hip. She wouldn't screw this up, even if she wanted revenge. "See if you can spot a door parallel to the tracks. That's most likely what we could use to exit."
"There is no door, Sunset."
"Crap." Sunset grimaced, thinking fast. "We'll take the tracks then, I wanted to avoid that but… we don't have much of a choice."
Angel hissed a question.
"We'll have to hack open the train tunnel entrance without being detected…" Sunset said. "That wasn't really anticipated for the mission specs, so we'll have to do with my own skills for that."
She glanced around, noting the position of ADVENT troops. "Any MECs around, Elena?"
"None, most are on the other side of the base," came the reply.
"Great, come back down there, we need to get going."
Keeping aware of her surroundings, Sunset led the other two into the tunnel behind the train, and soon they had left the hub of activity behind.
They still ran in short spurts, covering a certain distance, and reconning the area before they proceeded. It was slower than simply trotting all the way, but despite ADVENT's usual superiority complex, they had been known to sometimes take more precautions than XCOM and other resistance groups had anticipated.
Fortunately for the group, that was not the case this time, and they soon found their way to the small room next to the train entrance. It was nothing more than a control station for the scanners and the entrance, fully automated, to the point that they hadn't even bothered creating another way to get there. If it needed repairs, the unfortunate ADVENT technician working there would have to walk all the way.
Sunset swiftly made her way to it, while Elena and Angel took covered positions. The computer was, unfortunately, much more secure than Sunset had anticipated. "Crap. Crap. Crap!" She gritted her teeth and broke into the network, seeing her options.
It was at times like these, that she really regretted not attending more programming and security protocol classes. Sure, it had been a steep curve for someone that lacked the lifelong knowledge of computers humans had, but the programming language hadn't been too bad. If she had gone that route instead of concentrating on combat… then what?
She shook her head. There was no point in wasting time with what-if scenarios. She silently wished herself luck and pressed the command.
She watched the switches activate, and the door started opening, but there was something wrong.
The screen fizzled and suddenly a black, twirling portal materialized right next to the opening door. "Dammit! It summoned reinforcements!" Sunset shouted, pulling out her shard gun.
The creature that emerged was like nothing they had seen before. It was shaped like a naked woman, made of glowing energy and white eyes. But that wasn't all, her body shifted continuously, like an image flickering in bad reception, with ghostly afterimages of where her body had been before.
It let out a shrill, metallic screech the moment she saw them and teleported just before they had a chance to react, reappearing nearby and gathering psychic power quickly before throwing it at them.
A large, swirling storm of psychic energy formed in the middle of the trio, making them all stagger. Elena reacted quickly, shooting at the creature… but for some reason her vektor rifle jammed.
Sunset and Angel followed suit, but their weapons didn't work!
Before they could do anything, the psychic storm compressed and exploded, sending them flying painfully against the walls of the small room.
The feedback from Sunset's magic kicked in then, and the creature was sent flying back itself. It collapsed for a second, before levitating in the air. A moment later, it had split into two, equally armed creatures.
Forgetting about her shard gun, Sunset charged the first one, slicing with her sword and dispatching the creature, then turned to face the other… but stopped.
The other creature stood as still as it could, as if struggling with itself, then, as if seeing Sunset for the first time it spoke… the sound was like that of the screech earlier, sounding like noise and bleeps emanating from a radio than words, but it somehow formed a single word that shook Sunset to the core.
"Equestrian!"
And in a flash, the creature was gone.
Sunset and the others stared at the empty space. "Is it gone?"
"There seems to be no trace of her," Elena said. "And no alarm was raised."
Sunset crouched and picked up all that remained of one of the creatures. A small, black skull-like computer. She felt a shiver run down her spine. "Let's—let's just send the signal and get the hell out of here."
o.0.o End Chapter 86 o.0.o
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Did they turn Adagio to the base of the Codex?!?
Uh oh. This is gonna come back to bite Sunset in the butt.
I'm a little surprised Sunset didn't try to seduce the codex. Then again, that might be more Twilight's thing.
Couldn't agree more.
When they Clone, it Really gets annoying.
8914014
At least hp split among the clones.
8914118
Yeah
That cannot be good...
8913953
Asking about with a few friends, no other real villains that could fit. Ouch on that kinda fate, here's hoping for something of a break for the poor siren.
A Codex huh. I hate those motherfuckers with a passion. Always gets some of your soldiers killed.
8914200
Just get ahold of them happy cryo grenades from the alien hunters stuff since frozen Codex' don't split. God that thing is so OP when used even halfway sensibly.
I think....we may have just seen Adagio's fate. One hell of a reward....
On that note, she may be able to be turned. Normally attracting a codex does set off alarms. The fact this one didn't and retreated upon identifying Sunset as Equestrian speaks volumes of possibility.
8914148
Yeah... I think this explains a lot about the other two's actions so far...
8914232
cool. never knew that
Oh dear...
and the plot thickens once more.
Oh shit. Shit!
On the other hand, maybe they only know about Equestria because of the sirens and don't know where it is.
Yeah, that's probably not a good sign. Though at least there aren't any alarms... yet.
That’s just asking for Mr. Murphy to drop by and fuck you over.
It would be ironically appropriate for human!Twi to be the base model for a creature called the "Codex", would it not?
And there's the third sister...
8915778
...You realize the Codexes are more like sentient firewalls than they are actual living creatures, right?
Now I'm curious, what is your reasoning for thinking the Codexes are related to what happened to Adagio?
8920733
It makes sense to me. The Sirens are the only enemies in this world who've recognised Sunset Shimmer as being from Equestria. The Codex just recognised Sunset as being from Equestria. The Codices had to be given their basic physical appearance from somewhere - someone had to choose to design their body's look, and to the extent that they have a personality (which isn't clear in XCOM canon) someone had to design and code that too. In this world it makes as much sense as any other hypothesis that the basic appearance and personality could be based on a digitised version of Adagio.
Anyway, yow, that was a creepy chapter. Great stuff.
O damn... They used the third sister as Biological computer?!
Mechanical hiss:
"Paradies lost, bubble cake!"
Viper Angel hiss:
"Paradies regained, snuggeling and love..."
Damn... this has Matrix vibes. In the Matrix movie they are used as batteries, because the original script was to complicated for the common watcher.
Originally humans are used for their brain power, using excessive processing idal capacity to use like additional Ram card to lessen the load of the sytems strain.
Imagen yourself with tubes all over your body, to feed you nutrition paste, to remove the waste your body is producing and worst of all:
Having one or multible needels stuck in your brain, carrying electrical signals to it and from it.
Ideally you are uncomfortable at best, but the Elder never cared for good or acceptable working conditions, everything for efficiency.
That poor woman is most likely sufferings on a daily basis one way or another.
If not physically, than mentally.