Welcome to the Omicron Protocol Story Blog, where we’ll periodically reveal and post new stories about the world and its character through a series of blog posts. Through this blog, you’ll get to know the precarious situation that our heroes (and villains) are in, and what they need to do to survive and get out of San Lazaro. You’ll also get background stories that help you understand why your favorite (and most hated) characters are who they are today.
Rhino was glad to be rid of the do-gooders and on the move. But, as he and the rest of the Dragons walked through Narim, he began to think about the city. It had been messed up before, but now it was totally messed up. And if the Dragons hadn’t escaped, they would have been exterminated by the government. Rhino had never liked the authorities — they were always getting in his way — but now he hated them.
Gadget had been disturbed by the beeping, but was even more disturbed when it stopped. Pai’s Firewall program was now without power, and he feared they were without hope. Even more CyMS seemed to be coming their way and they could see nothing of their allies. It seemed they were all very busy, because none of his calls were getting through.
As Goddess approached Ryder and the enormous robot, Lady Rose gestured for Crimson and Jenny to follow her in the opposite direction. A man called Kuznetzov — apparently a Cynfo engineer — came hurrying up rambling about something, but Crimson shut him down. Lady Rose met Rhino and the gunmen behind the convertible and they all looked on as Goddess appealed to her former employer.
Pai and Gadget were on their own. The others — led by Buck, Cyborg and Lucky — had halted at the edge of Aureus Gate Park while Pai and Gadget advanced to the bridge to hack the entropic disruptor terminal.
Pai was controlling Timmy via her arm-mounted computer, and the drone was hovering just above them. "EFN active. Let’s hope it works as well today." Twenty-four hours earlier, they had tested Dr. Altmann’s device and found that it had successfully shielded them.
Nix lowered his binoculars. "Another team stationed near the junction. What’s that, the seventh?"
"Eighth," replied Bolt.
Two days earlier, the Peacemakers, Survivalists and Creators had all begun to notice small Army teams on the move around San Lazaro. The groups were typically composed of five medics protected by around 10 soldiers and one or two Agency operatives. They seemed to be setting up at strategic locations across the city. Drone reconnaissance by Flyboy and Flash revealed that the entropic disruptor was being temporarily lowered to let each team through.
Standing in one of the corner offices, a mug of green tea in her hand, Crimson stared down at the city. But she wasn’t thinking about San Lazaro, or Cynfo Tech, or Ryder or Goddess.
She was thinking about her husband, Troy. When she had last spoken to him all those weeks ago, he’d been on a business trip to Los Diablos. Troy hadn’t been permitted to leave once the virus began to spread, and they’d been apart ever since. Crimson couldn’t even remember what they’d said during their last phone call.
Lady Rose listened carefully as Rhino updated her. The last she’d heard, he and Gudu — working alongside Crimson, Zephyr and Beater — had broken into the abandoned mansion that overlooked the Creators’ headquarters. Here, they were close enough to receive data from the bug Zephyr had planted in Dr. Altmann’s implants. They had also observed the arrival of Flash and overheard the discussions of the plan to negate the entropic disruption field.
Goddess was deeply concerned about Ryder, not to mention the missing Winner. She wanted answers, and she doubted Ryder would have thought her capable of the scheme she came up with: It involved a prototype Cynfo program called QuickClone, which she used to dupe Ryder’s BioAuth signature through near field communication. Even though they hadn’t slept together since he’d begun behaving oddly, Ryder had embraced her that morning, and the NFC did the rest. His BioAuth would give her everything she needed.
Plate stood with Nix, Threads and Lucky in the lobby of First National. Pai and Artemis had already disabled the bank’s security systems and — thanks to the Scientists — they’d also located the entrance to the secret government facility. It was an innocuous-looking door between the bank’s two main vaults. The door was, in fact, heavily reinforced and secured by a full-range bioscanner. Pai and Artemis were confident of getting around it, but had warned that might take a while.
‘Are you sure about this, Buck?’
Pai looked across the table at the veteran police officer. The pair were alone in one of the station’s interview rooms, a laptop on the table in front of them.
‘We can’t go on like this forever,’ Buck replied. ‘These guys seem to be on our side. We were fortunate that the Purge Script ended up in our hands. Now it’s time to take action.’
Even for Cynfo Tech, 5 a.m. was an early start. Winston ‘Winner’ Malik wasn’t all that happy about sleeping at the office but this was a common event now, even for Ryder Arcadia himself. They had transformed some of the rooms into decent living quarters, Scarlett ‘Crimson’ Young ensuring that all were comfortable and well-equipped. Though he was beginning to feel rather claustrophobic, Winner sometimes looked down at the empty streets below and felt glad to be safe. He also didn’t have enough time to get depressed about the wider crisis; he was too busy.
Cyborg didn’t know what to expect. He hadn’t heard from Ryder Arcadia for months and now suddenly the CEO of Cynfo wanted to see him. He would have expected the wealthy, well-connected businessman to have found a way out of San Lazaro but admitted to himself that events had overtaken many since the outbreak. He was also surprised to find the Kilcline building largely intact, with only a few broken windows on the lower floors. As he reached the entrance, the familiar figure of Scarlett ‘Crimson’ Young appeared. As usual sporting her augmented shades, she offered a thin smile and shook Cyborg’s hand.
‘Impressive creature.’
Ryder “El Jefe” Arcadia peered through the reinforced glass at the Komodo dragon. The lizard was eight feet from nose to tail; currently tearing a deer carcass apart and gorging on the bloody flesh.
Winston ‘Winner’ Malik was sitting on a stool outside the cell, studying his laptop. ‘This one’s more impressive than most, El Jefe.’
To: Interested Parties
From: Friends
If you are receiving this transmission, you clearly possess specialist equipment and knowledge. We are exploiting a weakness in the communications blackout surrounding San Lazaro but only have a short window of time to communicate. We are contacting you to present an offer that can benefit both sides. We do not currently wish to identify ourselves but please be assured that our intentions are good. Our aim is to cooperate with individuals and groups such as yourselves and work towards solving this crisis.
‘Are we ready, Winston?’
As usual, Mr. Arcadia was dressed in skinny jeans, button-up shirt and blazer. Winner had made an effort today by donning a jacket; partly to impress his boss but also because of the visitors. It was an important occasion; and he had to clear something up before they started.
