Complex Case #1: Free Run
“Ambassador, it is a true pleasure to see you,” Celestia inclined her head in a slight bow.
“The pleasure is all mine, Your Highness,” Hayato Uchida replied, sinking into a full bow with one leg lifted up to his barrel. The intricacy of the gesture wasn’t lost on those nobleponies who understood the difficulty most humans had in controlling pony prosthetic bodies. The body the ambassador had chosen was that of a middle-aged unicorn, with a seafoam green coat and blue mane. All present knew his choice of tribe was purely to placate the nobleponies, but they appreciated the gesture all the same. “Your acceptance of my request to meet with you on such short notice was very generous.”
Celestia laughed lightly. “Well, I do admit I found myself curious when you refused to tell me what it was about. However, the landing pad is no place to discuss this.” She gestured with a wing to the castle. “There is a secured room prepared, so that we will not be interrupted. If you and your escorts would be so kind?” The gold-armored unicorns surrounding her reformed to take the lead, and the party was off.
Following along behind the ambassador, his two security personnel traded concerned glances, ignoring the stares the nobles gave them. Even after six years, seeing a human in Equestria’s capital was an odd sight.
“I don’t like this, Major,” the taller of the two thought silently across their local comm channel. “Why’d the Ape even stick us with this job?” His grey, expressionless eyes swept over the ponies who were gathering out of curiosity.
“Probably as a favor to the Prime Minister. Remember Batou, Section 9’s gotten quite the reputation for keeping its charges alive, after all,” she replied with the same silence, magenta eyes mirroring Batou’s as she scanned the other side of the column.
“I guess. Just wish we had more support.” Batou said with a scowl. ”It’s a pain in the ass that we don’t even have the Net to back us up. We don’t even have a Tachikoma to lend a hand.”
“Well, if it becomes a real issue, we can always use that.” Motoko gave the pony-shaped robot trotting after the ambassador an appraising glance. It wasn’t as elegant as the prosthetic bodies given to the public, but its innards were filled out with self-contained broadcast infrastructure, allowing for Net access even while in the heart of Equestria.
“I’m just glad that we were able to argue the technicality about the firearms ban. Hard to do our job if all we can do is throw rocks,” Batou remarked.
Motoko assented wordlessly as the diplomatic party entered the castle proper. Her eyes scanned over the towering windows, outwardly enjoying the view, but cursing the exposed, wide-open nature of the building. “Amazing. Still hard to believe that this whole place is made of marble. Would cost a fortune anywhere else.”
“Not to mention the whole damn place should fall right off the mountain,” Batou grumbled as they crossed a joining bridge between two towers. Ahead of them, Celestia and the ambassador, along with their escorts, were preoccupied with catching up.
“So, what is the purpose of this visit, Hayato? It’s not like you to be so secretive,” Celestia commented.
“Well, it’s not something that can be spoken about through nonverbal communications,” Hayato replied nervously as he glanced at the nobleponies following them. “Or in the open...”
“I understand,” Celestia whispered before she turned her head. “My apologies everypony, but I’m afraid that I’m going to have to ask you to retire for the time being. Ambassador Uchida has had a long flight from Japan, and would like some rest before resuming his visit. I’m sure that you all understand.”
The crowd murmured amongst themselves, but dispersed, leaving Celestia, Hayato, and their respective escorts.
“Is this more to your satisfaction, Hayato?” Celestia queried as they continued up the tower. “I had a room prepared for our meeting, since you implied that security was paramount. Although I’m not entirely pleased with allowing your guards to bring firearms in spite of the treaty.” She shot a pointed glance at Motoko’s sidearm.
“My apologies, but it is necessary. The information I have is highly confidential, and requires the absolute best in protection. Section 9 is by far the most successful at their work than any others, and can be trusted.” Hayato mollified as they entered a large room, with a low-set table at the center. A small pot of tea was set out, along with two cups.
While the Ambassador and Celestia took their seats, and the Net hub trotted to sit behind him; Motoko, Batou, and the two unicorn guards took up position at the door. Batou caught one of them staring at his eyes and scowled at him.
“You have my assurances, this room is entirely secure,” Celestia said calmly as she levitated the teapot. “Now, perhaps you can answer a question of mine?” She began to pour a cup for herself first.
“What do you mean, Celestia?” Hayato asked, eyes narrowing slightly at her gesture of disrespect.
“Who are you, really?” Celestia asked coldly as she set the teapot down.
Hayato blinked curiously. “Whatever do you mean?”
Motoko and Batou stood up from the wall, hands drifting toward their sidearms slightly, as the two unicorn guards glowered at them.
“Major, this could get hairy.”
“Understood, just keep calm for now.” Motoko ignored the guards for now, instead choosing to focus on the Ambassador and Celestia. The two were staring intently at each other, sizing the other up.
“You know what I mean, ‘Hayato.’” Celestia lifted her cup and took a sip. “You’ve been acting imperceptibly different from the other visits you and I have had. I admit to not knowing much about your technology, but I do know ponies well enough. And I know that you are not Hayato.”
Hayato scowled and opened his mouth to protest... only to freeze, quivering slightly as his eyes widened. “Wha—” managed to come out before his mouth snapped shut, and the shaking intensified before he fell over.
Everyone in the room stared, incredulous. Except Motoko, who leapt forward to crouch over the ambassador’s body. ”Batou! I need you to back me up! The ambassador’s being hacked!”
Batou ran forward, pushing the Net hub to the side to join Motoko. He reached around and pulled a cable link from the back of his neck. ”Right behind you!”
“Hold it right there!” A voice behind them shouted. The two wheeled around in time to see the Net hub strike one guard hard enough to throw him across the room, before striking the other directly on the horn. With a sharp crack, the top half went spinning away and the unicorn collapsed to the ground with a strangled gasp. The hub wasted no time and slammed the doors open, galloping through and down the corridor.
”Batou! Tend to the ambassador!” Motoko shouted as she sprang to her feet and sprinted down the hall after it.
”What? Shit, the bot was the source?” Batou asked incredulously.
“Indeed, that seems to be the case,” Celestia replied as she got to her hooves.
“Wait, did you just...?” Batou trailed off as Celestia’s horn lit, a flood of gold light pouring over the twitching ambassador.
“I think for now, we should focus on helping Hayato here. If you’d be so kind as to link with him?” Celestia asked quietly, her eyes narrowed in concentration.
Batou stared before a wry smile broke across his face. “Fair enough. But next time, maybe give us a little heads up if you know something’s up.”
”Damn, but this thing is faster than it looks,” Motoko thought as she pursued the hub. It had reached the main corridor by the time she made the first corner, and she hissed in annoyance as she heard more screams.
Bounding around the corner, she could see several ponies lying against the walls or sprawled on the floor, limbs broken from the force of the impacts. ”Whoever designed that hub, they definitely used military hardware.” Ignoring the ponies for now, she continued toward the stairwell and stopped at the entrance. She could hear the hoofbeats of the hub as it galloped down the tower and allowed herself a small smirk. By her estimation, the timing between the hoofbeats indicated it was coming up on the middle floor, where a few windows would afford her the chance to ambush it.
”Just need to catch up first,” she mused as she pulled a length of rappelling wire from her belt. Spotting a suitably heavy-looking statue, she wrapped the wire around it, then sprinted for the window and leaped through.
She ignored the glass that floated past her, eyes locked onto the window far below. As she fell, she turned off her auditory inputs so the howling wind wouldn’t distract her, and tactile soon followed to allow her to ignore the upcoming impact with the window and the bot. The window approached almost in slow-motion, and without even thinking about it she rolled herself around the wire to position herself legs-first at the opening. With a sharp yank, her motion changed and she crashed through the window, rolling to her feet in time to see the hub rear in alarm.
Dodging the first hoof, she caught the second and grit her teeth as it drove her back. She twisted her body, yanked the hub forward, then drove it to the floor. She grabbed one of her link cables and connected it to the port on the hub’s neck. ”Time to see who’s pulling your strings!”
Her vision blurred as she Dove into the hub’s cyberbrain, the circuit paths shining in a riot of neon. The core ahead of her glimmered as inbuilt attack barriers swarmed to meet the intruder, and she grinned. She reached out, fingertips languid as she manipulated the code-space around her. Her own attack barriers spun into life, spears of cyan light lancing her assailants and tearing them asunder as she moved closer to her goal.
”Come now, did you really think that’d work?” she projected as she began to force open one of the gateways.
”Barrier Twenty-Eight-Seven-Five-Vermillion down,” the hub’s voice bellowed. Motoko frowned as it slid across her input channels, a chorus of echoes spilling across all frequencies. ”Initiating containment protocols.” The gateway shuddered and yawned open as a swarm of infected code blocks reached out. Fragments dripped and dissolved into nonsense as they gripped her digital self.
She growled and spun more barriers, only for them to shatter uselessly against the blackened code. They dragged her into the hub’s brain and began to claw at her defense barriers. With a thought, she duplicated them, and smiled as the only damage was some corruption of the outer layer. ”Now, about the whole trapping me in here part. You’re good, but not that good—”
”Alert! Intrusion detected in primary host link!” her primary barrier blurted. ”Terminating infected link to prevent host infection!”
”What?” She refocused in time to see her link begin to shut down. ”Terminate process at once!”
”Cannot comply with demand from infected instance, termination proceeding.”
”Shit!” Motoko swore as she tried to force more power through the link to keep it open, but had to turn to address the renewed assault of the corrupted code. She felt her connection to her prosthetic body fading, and struggled harder. ”I’m not letting this thing beat me!”
”A commendable resolution indeed,” came a warm voice, echoing through the fading link. It abruptly began to brighten, gold light pouring in to attack the corrupted code. Where it touched, the code recoiled, fleeing back into the depths of the core. ”Are you well, Major Kusanagi?” the light asked as it began to condense.
Motoko stared, honestly awestruck for a second at the equinoid form floating in front of her, before she regained control of herself. ”What’s going on? What was that? It wasn’t like any code I’ve seen before...”
The light seemed to dim. ”I do not know for sure. But there was traces of magic in its structure. However, it is not safe for you to linger here, so shall we withdraw?”
With a frown, Motoko allowed the light to guide her back along the link, and felt her body begin to respond. She finally opened her eyes, her visual feed flickering as she struggled to sit up. Her body felt like she’d just undergone a swap-out, and she almost fell back down before a hand caught her.
“Easy there, Major,” Batou whispered. “You okay?”
“Yeah. The hub?”
“Secured, though it seems like it shut itself down. We’ll take it back to the lab.”
“I am relieved to see you are recovering, Major Kusanagi.” Both of the humans looked up to see Princess Celestia trotting over, a dour-faced pegasus guard at her side. “My most sincere apologies for any injury you suffered. Our facilities may not be the equal of yours, but should you require any assistance—”
“That won’t be necessary,” Motoko replied as she pushed herself to her feet. “What’s the ambassador’s status?”
“Hayato is recovering as well, though there is a troubling development. His memories of the reason for this visit have been erased.”
Motoko scowled. “So, the net hub was simply a distraction?”
“It would appear so,” Celestia replied as she glanced over at the restrained body of the hub. “I would make a request, that this machine’s purpose be exposed.”
Motoko allowed her scowl to be replaced by a wry smile. “Oh, that won’t be a problem.”