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.
Alone in a quiet corner of the nightclub, Fei shivered. Even though her injured ankle was healing well (thanks to the newest Heal-O-Matic device pumping her full of medicinal nanites, courtesy of Lady Rose, plus acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine), she couldn’t forget what she had seen at Cynfo Tech.
Rhino had taken over the VIP area of the nightclub and had spent half an hour cleaning and oiling his trusty CK 75B pistol. He was supposed to have moved onto his other guns by now, but was in fact reading his parents’ text messages once again. Though they had mostly discussed everyday topics — food, baseball, his mother’s ailments — the messages made Rhino feel strangely happy and reassured, at least temporarily.
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.
Standing outside the brewery’s loading yard, H3x could hear her puppets moving quietly around inside, safely secured behind a locked door. She checked the neural hacking interface that she used to monitor them. There were 261 CyMS spread across three floors of the brewery, all ready to do her bidding.
The spider-shaped device landed with a crack and slid across the table. Buck, Pai, Lance, Flash, Ranger and Bolt all turned to Nix, who had just walked in. He looked exhausted.
"Long night?" asked Bolt.
Nix ignored her and nodded at the device. "That’s from my Agency partner. Inside is a data clip. Mike is warning us to get out of SL before the Omicron Protocol is enacted."
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.
Lucky was helping Gadget and Thug with the repair work at ATS when the call came through. After the Red Dragon raid, they had put up a metal grille to protect the front of the shop. Putting down their tools and leaving Thug on guard duty with Seeker, Lucky and Gadget hurried to the back. Artemis gestured to a nearby laptop and Lucky noted that the special encrypted comms channel was active. Already on the call were Buck and Pai of the Peacemakers and Cyborg of the Creators.
Are you sure about this, Walter? asked Jugger.
I’m sure, replied the chimp, before opening a very wide door at the rear of the store. See — even you can get inside. This is the best supply of food we’ve found. We have to take it while we can.
Jugger aimed her trunk at the nearby sacks of food. Isn’t this enough?
It’s just cereal, replied Walter. The good stuff is all inside.
‘Boss, I’ve got something for you.’
‘Something else, H3x?’ answered Lady Rose. ‘The puppet trick was probably enough for one day.’
H3x grinned. It was always good to keep on the right side of the boss. Before replying, she checked the mirrors and the surroundings of her stationary SUV. Other than a couple of ambling CyMS in the distance, she saw no danger.
‘Actually, it’s kind of connected to the puppets. One of them was unusually lucid and I noticed a bottle of Kabalan sticking out of his backpack.’
