"You mean you haven't made any progress YET?"

Rod Jakes could tell that his boss was VERY peeved, "Sir, like I said, they were ready for us!  We cut the power to the mansion, hoping it would take out the security system, but they had two backup generators in the basement.  Trodden and most of his employees may have been freaks, but they were very well prepared freaks."

The sigh was audible enough to come over the radio, "I've sent the special forces squad that you requested.  This is taking too long, and there may be problems at the Alpha site."

"Problems?"

"Yes.  It seems to have disappeared, along with 30 square miles of the Amazon Jungle with it."

"30-Sir, are you SURE?  That's far too big for what the Alpha team carried with them."

"Oh, we're sure all right."

"Well, Baines is a good man.  He'll be on top of everything."

"I know.  Half the time, I wonder if it was wise making them go in under radio si-"

There were two extremely loud gunshots outside.  Loud enough for Jakes's boss to hear them, "WHAT WAS THAT??" he demanded.

"I'm checking on-" Jakes yelled, rising, only to stumble backwards when the encryping radio gear emitted a large shower of sparks.  He turned, ran to the door, opened it, and leaned out, "WHAT HAPPENED?"

"DON'T MOVE, SIR!" one of his men, dressed as a Meridiana Police SWAT member, yelled and waved frantically at him, "A power line is on the antenna!  You may get fried if you try to step off!"

Jakes groaned: He would have to call the power company to kill the power to the line and get it off the portable communications trailer.  The last thing he wanted was any civilians present!  Too many of his men were occupied trying to keep the press away from the siege of the Trodden mansion, which was being advertised as a hostage situation.  "I'll call the power company!" he said.

"Sir, the telephone line may be hot too!"

Oh, right. "Well, get Hodgins to pho-"

Gunshots from the sniper nest in the evacuated apartment building opposite of the mansion drew Jakes's attention.  He caught sight of the sniper hastily pulling back from leaning out of the window.  THAT was unusual!  His eyes went to the wall, and bugged when he saw someone in camo clothing running along the top of the wall at an inhuman speed, shooting a gun at the sniper nest to take the heat off of themselves,"STOP HIM YOU IDIOTS!" he shouted, pointing.

The figure turned and LEAPED 10 YARDS to the nearest tree inside the gardens.  The others, having seen the leap, froze and didn't move, momentarily stunned.

"SHOOT INTO THE TREE!  STOP HIM!"

His men scrambled to get their weapons, having been drawn away from their posts due to the excitement caused by the power line landing on the trailer.  However, the moment they climbed onto the makeshift platforms set behind the long wall surrounding the mansion, they came under fire from the house as everyone inside opened up.  Whoever it was, he were being well covered as he leaped from tree to tree toward the mansion.

"OKAY!  STOP!" Jakes yelled, highly irritated when he saw a small figure leap from the tree closest to the mansion and crash through a second story window, "Back to your positions!  I don't know who went inside, but I don't want them coming out!"

Out of habit, he turned to report this bit of news to his boss, only to be reminded of the condition of his radio equipment from the pungent odor of burnt electronics filling the trailer.  There WAS a backup, but he'd have to wait until the power line was removed before he felt it would be safe to turn it on.  Sighing, he sat down and ran over the possiblities of who the intruder was.
--------------------------
"DON'T SHOOT!" Cyprus Trodden, Techno 53, yelled to his men as they ran ahead of him to the guest bedroom, "DON'T SHOOT!  BACK AWAY FROM THE DOOR!"

The technos immediately obeyed, but the two human bodyguards stopped and looked at Cyprus quizzically.

"DO IT!  NOW!" he shouted.

They looked at each other and backed away from the door.  Cyprus approached it, "This is Techno 53!  We saw you coming in and covered for you!"

"I appreciate that, even if the shooting was lousy!" came a young, female voice from within the room.

"Sir-" a human guard started.

"Its okay, Mike," Cyprus waved, backing away from the door, "She's on our side."

The door opened, and the men blinked at the slight, unimpressive looking teenage girl dressed in camoflage who stepped into the hall, "Sorry to be, ahh, dropping in like this, 53."

"Quite all right, Cyber-" he paused.

"Six.  I'm Cybersix."  She glanced at the men, "Shouldn't you guys be back at your posts watching the enemy?"

"We've rigged the security system to buzz when an attack is being launched," Cyprus explained, "And they don't try during broad daylight."

"Things were pretty quiet until you arrived." a techno said, grinning, "I saw your last jump.  Impressive!"

"Thanks."

"What news do you bring from Father?" the other techno asked.

Cybersix looked grim, "I need to talk to everyone."

"The front hall," Cyprus said, "That's the rally point between sorties."
--------------------------------
Cybersix looked at the group of 26 technos and four Normals.  The technos were expectant, while the humans  had looks of amusement mixed with skepticism.

"As you can probably tell from her grand entrance," Cyprus said, "This is one of our Cyber sisters, Cybersix.  She's come from the compound, and wants to talk to us.  Six." he nodded to her, giving her the floor.

"I-I-" she stammered, wondering how to break the news.  She decided to be direct, "I'm sorry to report that the compound, our home, is now gone."

There were audible gasps and dismayed looks, "What do you mean, gone?" one asked.

"Gone.  No more.  Four planes from an unidentified nation dropped cannisters of YX gas on the compound night before last.  I was the only one away from the compound at the time.  Everyone else is dead."

"Everyone?" a male techno asked, almost in shock, "Father?  Mama?  The other technos?"

"Almost everyone," Cybersix said, almost shedding a tear of sympathy at the tone of the poor techno's voice, "Only the eighth batch of Cybers and I were left."

"About when?" a female techno asked amid the sobs that arose from around her.

"About eleven in the evening."

"That matches," she said, "Our people started getting hit in their apartments at midnight, and since the compound is one time zone west of us, that indicates that this was a coordinated attack.  But I'm interrupting.  Please go on."

"No," Cyprus said, visibly shaken, "Let's tell her what happened to us first.  You tell them, 418."

"Okay," The techno said, "I was at my apartment, cleaning up after a dinner party, when I got a phone call from Hannah, the shipping supervisor.  She's really agitated.  She had been talking with 323 on the phone when she overheard someone breaking 323's door down.  She hears gun fire.  Lots of it.  Then she hears someone say, 'Grab the glow tube and let's go to the next target.'  Then someone else says, 'Wait!  It was talking to someone!'"

"'You've got to get to the mansion!' Hannah says, 'I'm calling up as many as I can to warn them!  Get going!'  Then she hangs up."  418 sighed and shook her head, "Hannah is normally as cool and calm as they come, but she was scared.  VERY scared."

Cybersix's attention went to another female techno, who had suddenly started crying much harder, "What is it, sister?" she asked, starting to walk around the group to her, only to have a Normal guard stop her.

"Don't," he jerked his head toward the window she was about to pass to get to the grieving techno, "Sniper.  We've lost four already."

Cybersix's eyebrows went up, "Thanks.  What is it, sister?" she asked again gently.

"I-I worked for H-H-Hannah on the s-s-shipping dock!" the techno stammered, wiping at her face, obvously trying to get herself under control again, "'S-she called me  to warn me too!  Only-" here, she began to sob again.

Cybersix dropped to her hands and knees, crawled under the window to her, and put her arms around her, "Only what, sister?" she whispered, arms around the shaking techno.

"T-t-they broke her door down while she was talking to me!" she cried, "I heard gunfire, and-and I h-heard her scream, and-and-"

Cybersix hugged the weeping techno more tightly, shedding a few tears too for Hannah.

"I think they got the other Normal employees too," Cyprus said sadly, "As soon as I heard what was happening, I tried calling them, but I couldn't raise any of them.  Not even the ones that I knew stayed at home on workday nights. Then the phone lines were cut.  Whoever's out there even disabled my cellphone account.  I guess I should have tried to call the mayor or a friend, but-" here, he shook his head.

"We're probably all that's left," a guard said, "And maybe Mouser."

"Mouser?" Cybersix asked.

"Our resident computer guru," Cyprus answered, "A high school kid who hacked into our computers, and who I later hired.  He stays with friends, and hops from house to house."

"That's it," Techno 418 finished,  "We came here, opened up the little arsenal 53 had, and have been defending the house since, hoping to get word from the Compound.  So what happened to you?"

Cybersix wiped at her cheeks, then told of the burial, the arrival of the soldiers and agents, their capture, and of what she found in the crates and on the tape.

"Tape?" Cyprus asked, puzzled.

Cybersix chuckled despite the gravity of the situation, "Father had installed a 24 hour continuous tape recorder in his office, to catch anyone who tried to plant any practical jokes in his office while he was asleep.  Poor 1517!  His room had set off an exploding watermelon in the office and were promptly caught.  They were sure 1517 had squealed on them, and everyone made his life miserable!  Nobody knew of the tape until Elio told me about it while he was dying from being beaten by the bastards.  What?" she turned to Serena, who had covered her mouth to hide her chuckle.

"Ohh, Father got onto us for shipping in a watermelon to the culprits," Serena, Techno 54, grinned, "We checked around, and figured out Mouser had given in to temptation and had arranged the delivery.   Cyber 1512 proved to be quite the Mata Hari."

Cybersix's eyebrows went up, but she smiled and nodded, as if she'd just found where to put an irksome piece of a large puzzle, "So, does anybody know anything of Greta Von Groven and Oaken Fist?" Cybersix asked, looking around, "Any clues?"

Cyprus frowned, "I do believe that one of Father's maternal ancestors was a Von Groven.  German, naturally.  It is possible that this Greta von Groven is related to Father and may know about this Oaken Fist project.  I surely don't."  The other technos shook their heads too, unable to help solve the puzzle.

"By the way, what did you do with the bomb?" A Normal guard suddenly asked.

"I found out that they had been going through father's files.  They had just pulled the files on the cybers and on sustenance when the villagers were brought to the compound.  I think they were looking for information on how to grow their own cybers."

"Honey," the guard said patiently, "I'm asking about a NUKE, here!"

"I know," Cybersix nodded soberly, "I used it to blow up the compound."

"YOU WHAT!?!?" Cyprus exploded.  The other technos either gasped or added their vocal protests.

Cybersix raised her hand, and they quieted, albeit definitely simmering, "I did kill the agents for beating Elio, which led to his death.  I had to let the soldiers and pilots go, because they surrendered.  I had to get rid of the notes, the tank building, the sustenance generators-"

"And the eighth batchset of Cybers!" A techno interrupted, horrified, "You killed five hundred Cybers.  Children!  Your own brothers and sisters!  They couldn't have been more than 4, 5 years!"

"I-I know." Cybersix admitted, voice shaking, "But if I did nothing, others would have returned, and in greater numbers.  Perhaps they would have gassed the compound again, this time getting me and leaving no one to oppose them.  They could have completed the growth process, giving them 500 Cybers ready to be reprogrammed to serve them.  Men who were capable of beating a helpless black man to death.  What would Father think?  Do you want THAT to be his legacy?  Do you?"

The thought of their brothers and sisters possibly being perverted to evil ends was enough to mollify the technos.  After all, at the base of their programming was the imperitave to follow reason and logic.  However, their programming did not rob them of their feelings.  Cybersix's heart fell as she saw the looks of sadness, despair, hopelessness, and loss wash over the faces and bodies of what was, very likeley, all that was left of her family, "Please, don't be discouraged!" she said enouragingly,  "If we get out of here, we can survive!  I had the natives collected enough vials for us to live on until we can build a sustenance generator.  Everyone in Elio's tribe is willing to have us live among-"

"And what then, sister?" A male techno said bitterly, "Even if you get us out, what then?"

Cybersix stared blankly at him, "B-but-" she stammered, surprised to hear such talk from an older sibling.

"You're a fighter, a warrior," the techno waved her objection aside, "You're programmed to bounce back, to keep on going.  Good for you.  But what do you know of Techno programming?"

She shook her head, "Only the general-" she started.

"Yes, yes!  The general parameters, yes!  Think, Cyber!  You get us out and protect us, and you fulfull your programming, but what of ours?  You're not a techno, so you wouldn't know what would fulfill ours."

"So, what IS it?" She asked, shaking her head, honestly confused,"I want to understand."

"You should be able to.  It's you."

"Me?" she asked, looking around and seeing the other technos slowly nodding in agreement.

"You.  As a Cyber, you are the pinnacle of Father's dreams, for only you could be a member of the Army of Peace.  We could never fight.  Look at us!  You said yourself that we were pathetic shooters.  We could never fulfill father's dreams directly, but we could help.  We could raise you, feed you, teach you, hand you over to the instructors, support you, cheer you on, obey you in military matters.  We lived for the CYBERS!  We lived for you, dear sister!  Now they are gone.  And since father is dead, there will be no others."

"i-I-" Cybersix stammered, at a loss for words.

"Yes." Cyprus nodded, his face looking like a house that had collapsed from within, "Our purpose, our reason for living, is now gone, but not yours.  You must find out who did this to our parents and punish them.  You must find out why they did it.  If they did it for Father's technology, past or present, then you must make sure Father's legacy, which now lives on in you, is not betrayed or misused by falling into their hands!" he looked around at the other technos, "Are we technos in agreement on that?"

They all nodded, then Techno 418 said, "The Normals!  We must get them out of here!"

"What?" the largest one there, a black man with a broken nose, growled belligerently, "Johnny doesn't run out on his friends!  Not no time and not-"

"Johnny, I'm your boss, and you follow my orders!" Cyprus said roughly, "We can't last forever, and they'll certainly kill-"

At that moment, Cyprus' cellphone beeped.  He grabbed at the receiver, "Hello, Trodden here." pause, then "MOUSER!  Get the hell off the line!  You'll be traced! No, I'm not a hostage!  What?  Three??" he glanced at the phone as it hummed a dial-tone, then went silent, "Crazy kid." he muttered, putting the phone away, "Get himself killed if he's not careful!  Cybersix!  Come into my office!"

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