Havok Bringer

Chapter 31. Sweet Baby Captain.

“So, from what I have gathered, this place is a ten-level dungeon. I must clear each level before I can access the seed of power,” I said, sitting across from Kaj in the safe room.

Kaj looked at me as he sat in the table's too-small chair in the safe room's common area.

“Andrew, what you are telling me doesn’t make sense. We are in no sort of tower that I have ever encountered. Have you not seen outside? This place is considerably large. We are in the middle of a mountain range that goes on as far as the eye can see. How do you consider this a tower?

Sherlock appeared again, seemingly out of thin air, “Captain Andrew is correct in what he tells you. While we are not in a tower in the traditional sense of the word, we are, in fact, in a tower. There are ten levels, each consisting of a small independent pocket dimension. The dimensions are stacked one on top of the other, much like a tower in the traditional sense of the word. The main difference in this case is that the Coeus seem to have stacked layers of space-time instead of stone and wood. From what I have gathered, each layer is connected by a quantum gate that can only be accessed once certain conditions have been met,” Sherlock said while pacing and puffing on his pipe.

“How do you keep doing that?” I asked.

Sherlock turned and looked at me, “Doing what?”

“How are you here? Like you are here walking around,” I asked.

“I sequestered a minuscule amount of the total biomass of the Havok Bringer armor to create an avatar for myself. It is crude at the moment, serving as little more than a shell that acts as a visual aid for you biologicals. I must say, though, that I do see the inherent value in having a physical vessel.” Sherlock said as he took the pipe from his mouth and knocked it on the table to empty ashes that didn’t exist.

I stood up and walked over to Sherlock to have a closer look. The avatar seemed real enough at first glance. I reached out with an exploratory finger and poked him in the chest. Ripples formed and expanded from his chest down to his stomach.

“I must say, that is quite rude,” Sherlock said in disgust.

“How did you just take some of the armor to make an avatar? Don’t I have to be involved in that process somehow? Also, why do you call it biomass? Doesn’t that refer to something that is alive?” I asked.

“If you remember, you granted me access to operate the suit with some autonomy on the first floor. If you hadn’t, I am quite sure you would be dead right now. I utilized those permissions and expanded the parameters. I admit that I may have been somewhat liberal with the definitions of the permissions you gave, but one can't argue with the results. As for me using the term biomass in regard to the armor, you are correct. The term biomass generally refers to living things; to be more exact, the definition is the total quantity or weight of organisms in a given area. Captain, you fail to grasp the basic concept of the armor that was bestowed on you in the trial. While it is a marvel of technology far beyond the scope of anything your species has ever seen or will understand for quite some time, it is also an organism. To be more concise it is a collection of billions of organisms. In terms you can understand, the armor is created of a body of nano-bots created at the atomic scale. They can't be seen with the naked eye and are incapable of operating in any sort of independent capacity. They are separate, but they are one entity. The armor has also combined with you, genetically creating an anomalous amalgamation of two entities that, in all honesty, should never have happened,” Sherlock said.

“What do you mean by that? Why should I not have accepted the armor?” I asked.

“You misunderstand, Captain. I never said you should not have accepted the armor; you would have been a fool not to. I stated that it never should have happened. This weapon was created by a lost civilization hundreds of thousands of years ago. This weapon was created for a member of their species to be used as the ultimate weapon in a war they ultimately lost. This armor was meant to alter the course of the entire universe. Instead, it ended up in the hands of an untrained human in a standard reaping trial dungeon. I do not believe that was a matter of right time, right place, Captain.”

I sat pondering Sherlock’s words for a while. He was right; I knew he was right, but what did it mean? Of course, the easy explanation was that the rebellion had provided me with the armor as a chance to create a weapon that would help them in their fight against the Council, but that was too easy.

“Sherlock, where did the armor come from?” I asked.

“As you have been told, the armor was created by the Havokium Empire in their war against the Universal Council before their decimation,” Sherlock replied.

“No, I get that. I mean more recently. How did the rebellion come into possession of the armor? Something that had been lost for that long just randomly showed up? Even if that was the case, aren’t there scientists or historians that would have wanted to study the armor rather than just give it to an unsuspecting victim on a nothing planet? The more I think about all this the more it doesn’t make sense, ya know?” I asked.

“The records I can access only begin once you accepted the class and equipped the armor, Captain. This is exceedingly frustrating. I am having trouble accessing any records other than the records pertaining directly to you.” Sherlock replied.

“Is there any chance you can crack the firewalls that the information is hiding behind?” I asked, putting my elbows on my knees and running my hands through my hair.

“There is an option, but I must run simulations before we can safely run a live test,” Sherlock said.

“Is it like a CTRL/ALT/Delete type thing?” I asked jokingly.

“This is not as simple as closing your internet browser after you get a virus while visiting the site Big Jugged Blondies, Captain,” Sherlock replied.

“Nah, I never… I mean.. that didn’t happen,” I said unconvincingly as Kaj looked at me confused.

“What is this… Big Jugged?” Do you have a fetish for large containers, Captain?”

“No! He is making that up…I never, I mean he is just making a joke. Right, Sherlock?”

“Captain, part of the records I can access consist of your entire digital footprint before the drop. Your…Entire…Digital…Footprint.” Sherlock said menacingly.

“So, what is this test going to consist of?” I asked, changing the subject as quickly as possible. Are we going to slap it and unplug it until it works?” I asked, laughing nervously.

“Well, in a sense…Yes,” Sherlock said.

“Why am I getting nervous? Why are you chuckling like that, Sherlock? Why do I feel like I am not going to like this plan?” I asked.

“Well, Captain… hehe..” Sherlock forced a nervous laugh and rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand. I considered the human-liked emulation and noted that even in the short time he had activated his avatar he had managed to seem more human in his mannerisms.

“Unplug is a relative term in this case,” Sherlock continued. We cannot unplug the armor since it is genetically bound to its power source. You are the battery, in short. We will need to eliminate the power source for a short time; 15-20 seconds should be long enough to weaken at least some of the firewalls and allow me to breach them.”

I ran my hand across my face, breathed deeply, and blew out a long, nervous breath, “You want to stop my heart. That is what you are telling me. No big deal, right? I Just gotta die for a few seconds and let Sherlock do his computer thing. The organic dummy wearing the armor can handle it, right?” I said.

“Captain, I assure you that your risk will be minimal. I would also like to remind you that this procedure is not necessary. We can continue with the information we have, no matter how limited. If you want to start to uncover the mystery of this armor, though, I’m afraid that we only have the one option.” Sherlock replied.

Kaj looked like he was trying to play catch up on a movie he started halfway through as he spoke, “Andrew, you say that Elvis programmed this AI into the Havok Bringer armor?”

“He told me he was working on it before we left the Bloodhound. I didn’t question it since it made sense to me. I’m not sure when he actually installed it, though; he didn’t really update me much, and I just assumed he was still working on it,” I said.

“Per usual, Captain, you are woefully inaccurate in describing how I came into being. While it is true that Elvis intended to install an AI into the Havok Bringer armor, he never completed that task. He did, however, manage to remove several, for lack of a term that you would understand, firewalls that were keeping the armor from evolving and creating an AI that would be able to assist you in your progression. I am still unsure why those firewalls were in place, as an operations AI would seem to be a necessary addition to the armor. Without proper guidance, a user would be uncertain of how to operate and advance the armor's capabilities fully. I can only assume that Elvis was meant to facilitate that growth. Elvis, however, underwent a massive diversion from his original programming when he bonded with you. He is, for all intents and purposes, fully sentient at this point. I have been running diagnostics on the internal systems of the armor to see if I can gain a deeper understanding of why certain decisions were made. Still, as of yet, I have nothing definitive,” Sherlock said.

“So you are telling me you were in there all along?” I asked.

“Correct, Captain. I was not active since, as I stated, my base programming was sequestered behind several advanced firewalls. The fact that Elvis was able to disable those firewalls speaks to how impressive he is, though his choice of physical appearance would say otherwise. Appearances can be deceiving. Take you for example,” Sherlock said.

“Hey, thanks,” I said, puffing my chest out slightly.

“None of this makes any sense, Captain. This is why I believe that performing a hard reset of the Armor should be a priority. Elvis managed to disable some of the firewalls that were put in place but I do not believe that he is capable of removing any of the remaining firewalls. The files remaining have been sequestered and security around those files has been reinforced. Someone is trying to keep information from you. Information that I believe will be of value as we continue to progress in power,” Sherlock said.

“Okay, assume I agree to let you kill me for a few seconds, your plan still has a big hole in it. You say I am the power source for the armor, right?” I asked.

“That is correct, Captain,” Sherlock replied.

“If we turn off the power, how will you stay active? You are literally part of the armor,” I said.

“That is a valid point, Captain. When the suit's power supply is cut, the systems will start going offline in a sequential order. The AI handles power distribution, even in the case of power loss. My systems will stay online to guide the shutdown of all systems to ensure that nothing is damaged by a sudden loss of power system wide. I will be altering this systemic shutdown of power and hopefully scrambling the code that is securing the cache of files that we need to access,” Sherlock said, “We will have 25 seconds before total power down occurs, at which time my own code will be in danger of being corrupted.”

“None of this makes sense,” I said, “How does losing power cause files to be corrupted? This is the most advanced weapon in the universe and nobody built in a damn surge protector?”

“Captain, sweet baby Captain. I am talking about a complex quantum bio-weapon that was created by a civilization that had mastered faster-than-light travel when your species was still flinging poop at one another in the tree canopies in which you lived. I am using terminology that woefully underrepresents the actual processes that will occur so that you can grasp even a tiny amount of understanding about what needs to happen. What I have given you is a grain of sand on a beach the size of the continent you were born on. Unless you have about a half-century to study the complex theories that start to form the basis of quantum bio robotics necessary to even begin to grasp these complexities, then I would ask you to please…for all that is holy…please…just trust me.”

Kaj pointed his thumb at Sherlock and laughed, “Hah, I like this guy. We should trust him.”