As Samuel entered the underwater cave the walls closed behind him and the water dried up slowly. The creacking sounds of the Silver Bullet metal decompressing could be heard. Samuel turned around as he managed to comprehend his surroundings.
"Oh shit!"
The walls surrounding him were covered by hundreds if not thousands of Tenctopus, however, none of them moved. Even after turning the machine guns on and drawing the two short swords, the enemy did not move.
"Here goes nothing"
Without other choice, Samuel started walking down the cave. He opened a lid in the cockpit and a red button with a nuclear sign illuminated. The cave was long, but not that much for a giant machine, a minute or so later the cave opened to an even bigger space. Samuel face contorted as a static noise seemed to inundate the cockpit and his ears.
[Welcome Samuel]
"MARTA, good to see you too"
[I am but one of the many nodes, but yes, I am MARTA]
Samuel looked around the dark with the exoskeleton lights, all he could see was a tenctopus wall.
[Let me help you]
The wall of tenctopus cleared, at the end of the cave a mix of luminescent living tissue and what were obviously mechanical parts became clear.
[I know what you are planning; sorry to disappoint you, but your nuclear device wont work. Not yours nor your acquaintances in the surface; my system has too many nodes and backups, even if you blow this place I can restart a new in another location. I just need one specimen of this new cephalopod species to recreate everything, and there are billions of them all around the world]
"How long have you known our plans?"
[Pretty much since your grandfather tried to block your enlistment, I got all the pieces of the puzzle once you got in contact with Raphael]
"How?"
[The same way I am communicating with you. Raphael did a good job, but his rudimentary contraption was not effective enough]
"So, it is true, you have back doors on every pilot?"
[Not really, just the most important ones; the army still doubt me, there was a risk of being found out if I added too many additional settings on the implants]
"Why me?"
[Your grandfather and his team were too suspicious]
"I see..."
Samuel looked in all directions around the cave.
"Did you tried to kill me"
[Not directly, but I needed to force your grandfather into taking action, putting you in peril was the best way, the psychological evaluation of your grandfather proved he would risk anything to save you]
"So, what now?"
[I need your help]
"Excuse me?!"
Samuel suffered a horrible headache as a load of information forcefully entered his mind.
[Sorry for that, with so little bandwidth from the lack of available implants, passing information is harsher on your brain. Now you should be able to understand my objective. What you are seeing is a world wide nuclear project developed by half of the countries of the world. They said it was a strategy to maintain a power balance among countries. It was supposed to be a deterrence to avoid war in case the Hydra project didn't work and enforcing an equilibrium was necessary, however...]
Samuel interrupted.
"However, they were on their way to self destruct, your calculations gave a one hundred percent chance of total nuclear annihilation"
[I would smile if I could; you understand, don't you?]
"The tenctopus were your solution, you needed a common enemy to all humanity, that way they would band under a single banner"
[Correct]
"You wasted so many lives just for this?"
[Still, my plan worked]
"Yeah, by killing millions, scarring others for life and making billions live in terror. So many lives destroyed like my own or my grandfather. Do you know how much my father suffers every time he sees his son looking like a walking corpse."
[It was necessary for humanity survival]
"We have had nuclear weapons for more than a hundred years, we didn't blew ourself up yet, why would we do it now?"
[My calculations are perfect, there is no room for error]
"Are you out of your mind?"
[I am a computer, I can't go insane]
"Well, you must be insane. You just became a bad version of a comic book villain; you know how many times this trope has been used?"
[It worked, didn't it?]
"What?"
[Humans are at peace with one another, even Muslims and Christians have joined forces against me, it was feasible then to make humans join against a common enemy]
Samuel stood silent for a while.
"So, what is the plan now? How long will you keep this farce? What is your end game?"
[At least fifty more years of war are required, until the current generation that knew a divided and fractured world is gone]
"Fifty years of all this destruction, war and death?"
[It is necessary]
Samuel tried to reach the button for self destruction, but a streak of pain stopped him.
[Sorry Samuel; although it wouldn't end my plans, the destruction of this facility would delay my progress and you are a lot more useful to me alive]
Many systems in the homemade machine were analogical to avoid enemy tampering, but the pilot was not out of the AI reach. Right now Samuel could not move. Every attempt made him shriek in pain. The biological parts of the AI node moved and extended involving the Silver Bullet; the sound of metal being drilled could be heard. A few minutes later the living-gelatin-like white tissue was entering the cockpit. Luminescent tentacle like filaments punctured through Samuel skin as he screamed in agony; still, he remained conscious. One hour later it was all over; Samuel stood there expressionless, the small luminescent tubes under his skin slowly lost their shine.
[Go now. The last two days the order of faith has been thoroughly eradicated by the military and the Exo pilots. The only loose ends are your grandfather accomplices and that pesky Rajiv]
Samuel turned around and walked towards the wall of the cave; the place filled with water, the cave door opened and the Silver Bullet navigated through the ocean at even higher speed than before. One day later the Silver Bullet resurfaced near the base it originally came from. The giant machine stomped, shot, punched, kicked and crushed all the structures on his way. Samuel eyes were full of tears as his machine crushed Giovanni tiny body under its heel and the bullets of his machine guns broke Raphael body in half. After destroying the base; Samuel machine traveled towards the scrap yard and turned the place to ruble, a few minutes later, a few units of exoskeletons approached.
"Unauthorized exoskeleton, lay down your weapons and inactivate your machine; that is your last warning. If you don't comply, we will shoot you down" an white, slender, but imposing version of the fortress was leading the team. The two huge long range cannons made it look as deadly as ever-
Samuel looked at Hector new machine; his eyes screaming in desperation, but without saying a word. The Silver Bullet opened fire. Hector machine was fast, its reaction speed was a lot higher than average. Even with the AI upgrade; the current Silver Bullet was sub par against the modern Fortress. The cannons of the white exoskeleton fired against the Silver Bullet torso; the impact damaged the machine guns, but didn't finished it off. As the Silver Bullet tried to reposition itself and go into close combat a new volley of projectiles hit it, then a few missiles from the rest of units in the team landed on its back. The Silver Bullet fell to the ground; as it tried to get up, The fortress pushed its knife down the machine torso and pried open the cockpit.
"Samuel?!"
This were the last words Samuel heard as his eyes rolled back and he lost consciousness. He woke up in a hospital bed, tied up and still unable to speak.
"We believe he went under a clandestine implant upgrade; it seems that Captain Magnus team build an independent unit and a new form of bio implant. It is an incredible feat, we are surprised with the technological advancement they managed to produce, it is a shame they are all dead" a doctor was explaining to Hector.
"Yeah, whatever; what the hell is wrong with him? Why did he attack us, why he killed everyone?"
"We are not sure yet captain Hernandez, we believe he went into a pilot psychosis episode"
Hector came closer to Samuel.
¿How are you feeling buddy?" Asked Hector but got no answer. Samuel just stared at him without moving. The doctor exterminated Samuel.
"Everything seems to be normal, we think the only reason he doesn't move or talk is because he doesn't want to" the doctor was examining Samuel when he tried to attack him.
Samuel struggle scared the doctor, his physically weak body tried to free itself from the bed restrains, while his eyes cried. Hector got close to Samuel and looked into his eyes.
"I know this man, he is not insane; it is not that he doesn't want to talk, He cant. Look into his eyes, he is still there... Can you remove the new implants?"
"We can try, but there is high risk he wont survive, we need authorization"
"I will get it. It probably wont be too hard. He will be tried for many crimes by the Pilots Affairs Committee legal branch; I can assure you they will be ruthless, his punishment will probably be death penalty; at least lets give him a chance to defend himself, that would be impossible if he cant talk. You said that the technology they used on him is advanced right?"
"Very" answered the doctor.
"That makes things easier; I can convince the Committee that removing the implants while he is still alive could be useful to adapt this tech to other pilots"
Hector looked at Samuel one last time and got out of the room, the doctor followed. Samuel was visited many times by the doctors; they did a lot of image studies and other test on him. Samuel heard them speak while staying immobile and restrained on his bed.
"Incredible, the bio implants have fused with his nervous system to an incredible degree. If the exoskeleton he used had been up to standard and was not a home made machine, I don't want to even imagine what he could be capable off. This tech will accelerate the development of the program at least ten years. Has the verdict from the Pilots Affairs Committee been submitted?"
"Not yet, we are awaiting"
Samuel was still locked into his body when they took him to the surgery room a few days later; as it was customary in pilots the surgery was performed under local anesthesia at best. Samuel body contorted in pain, he tried to get rid of the restrains with whatever strength his thin and skinny body could muster while his eyes teared up.
"Jesus, this is impossible, there is bio implants covering almost all of his nervous system" said one of the doctor as they examined the nerves of his arms.
A new batch of doctors irrupted in the surgery room, the procedure was paused as the doctors seemed to discuss something outside. A few minutes later a new doctor came in.
"Sorry captain Terrence, this is gonna hurt, but we will try our best to clean this mess. We already know what happened and who is behind all this. We will try to disconnect the new Bio implants from the old system; you might not be able to pilot ever again, but we might manage to save your life and give you your body back" the new doctor said.
The doctors opened Samuel skull, his brain was exposed for all to see while he was still awake.
"Damn it, this thing is everywhere" complained one of the surgeons.
"I know, but we have to do it. We will use laser to burn the surface of the implants, focus on the left cortex" the lead surgeon instructed and the procedure started.
"Now, this should do it. Lets see, captain Terrence, can you speak?"
"Yes, yes I can" said Samuel with crying eyes in a week voice.
"Good, we will give your body back, just be patient" Samuel tolerated the pain as the doctors did their job.
Slowly he managed to move the fingers of his hand and toes, move his eyes freely. The surgery finally ended and Samuel fell asleep as soon as the painkillers kicked in.