RESISTANCE IS FUTILE - [modplot/log catchall]

[letsgolegion]

Who| Everyone who signed up
What| "Resistance is Futile" plot catchall
Where| All over the place, but mostly Colu
When| After the network briefings and deployment.
Warnings/Notes| cw: zombies, body transformation (probably). If your subthread has something triggery pop up, put it in a subject of the one of the comments.



The entire planet Colu is a sprawling urban mess, one of the worst environments to fight zombies. Yes, the cities are clean and impressive and yes they're meticulously planned, but they're planned for elegance, efficiency, and ease of transportation -- not defense. While Colu had suffered under the yoke of various oppressors in the past, that was over a millenia ago, and they've grown complacent, thinking their world untouchable due to their technological superiority.

Now they're paying for it. Robo-zombies swarm through the various mega-cities, spreading their disease by touching or wounding their prey. Due to the many walkways, hover-lift tubes, maintenance tunnels, and sewer systems, there seems to be no way of stopping them.

When the Legion first arrives, it seems hopeless. The Coluan Home Defense Forces aren't used to combat and are struggling to set up defensive zones. But then something unexpected happens.

Pods drop in all over Colu from orbit. The CHDF regard them with suspicion and disdain, but they have their orders, and the civilians regard them with fear, despite word starting to spread about who's come to help.

Kid Q's voice comes over the comms and while it's hard to hear it through the crackling, she sounds absolutely delighted.

"Look alive, folks, we just got a miracle. It took some negotiating with the CHDF, but they finally relented on accepting some help from others beyond us."

The pods all burst open and Robotican combat mechs start rolling and marching out, spreading out over all of Colu.

"The Roboticans haven't been able to translate it to a cure because the virus was meant to interact with them differently than organics, but due to their disaster preparedness, they were able to develop a block to the Brainiacs' virus and only suffered a few casualties. Robotican leadership says they're eager to have their chance to make reparations to organics by defending them from this threat -- and that they're honored to stand with the Legion."

It's not a magic fix. It'll still be a deadly struggle. But at least they've got more than the inexperienced CHDF at their backs.

"Let's make the most of it, Legionnaires."

[ooc: This will be used as a plot catchall, but you can make your own log posts in Legion Missions set in the plot if you like. All major plot parts on Colu will be set up here, with "The Reject Pile" part set in the Legion World comm (with an accompanying network post). That said, if you'd like to set individual plot threads on Legion World, you can also start your own Legion World posts in legionworld.]

Comments

PART 2 - Brainiac Attack

[letsgolegion]

The Brainiacs' base is a massive sinister ship, floating in place near the three kidnapped worlds. Fortunately, the size means that once the Legionnaires are aboard, they're not detected right away.

Especially since there's some unknown force hampering the security systems. Strange.

That means they have a chance to catch the Brainiacs by surprise.

[ooc: Closed to those that get RNGed for this part. Please wait until the RNG for this part of the plot has been done by the mods before posting in. Posting order will be established by the order everyone tags in. If you want to rearrange the order for character reasons, please communicate with your threadmates. Please attempt to tag at least once a day, if you can, to keep the thread moving.]

[steelandtemper]

Cortana's body gets all glassy-eyed when she's off doing her AI thing--she herself might not believe in souls, but there's clearly no one home, the body's movements smoothly mechanical and her voice coming over the team's earpieces rather than from a pair of blue-white lips.

"The security interference is ongoing. I think our Brainiac isn't quite as converted as the family would like."

[araignee_du_soir]

Widowmaker hadn't entered the base with the rest of the team, but she wasn't too far away. Keeping the team just on the fringes of her infravision, the sniper moved out of sight and dark - her comms were completely turned off to keep herself from emitting any kind of signal the Brainiacs might pick up. The less of a fingerprint she left compared to the rest, the more likely she would be completely overlooked by the security system and the enemy.

Grappling herself up to a high point, Widowmaker trained one of her 'eyes' on the team while the rest gave her very wide vision. While her eyes searched for where the enemy was, her power reached out to the ship itself, crawling over the infrastructure and corridors. In a moment, she had a complete map of the base - any useable passages at her mental fingertips - giving her efficient passage to where the Brainiacs were. As long as it stayed clear., of course.

[bringinghopewithme]

Bunny was still relatively without advantage on this floating claptrap. Sure he was still faster and quicker to react even than a mortal rabbit of his stature ought to be, but without solid planet under his feet, he had no way to use the powers he'd been left with.

Well, that was what centuries of practice in the art of steal were for.

He winced at the voice in his ear, briefly tugged out the earpiece and turned it down even quieter. It had seemed calibrated well enough in a noisier room, but here in the quiet, it was just a few tones too loud all over again. Technology never would be his best friend.

Still he got the message from Cortana well enough to respond. "Aces. Gimme a tic t'pick up his scent."

He sniffed the air for traces of Brainy's scent, having picked it up during recon to the lab. The ear that wasn't occupied by the earpiece, he kept forward as he loped quietly along a wall, pausing at corners to listen for security measures.

[truefaceofthelaw]

"Pick up his scent nothing."

Rico's voice buzzes harshly and loud through everyone's earpieces. He's striding like he means business, a bulky lawrod strapped to his back and lawgiver in his hand. He doesn't even deign to look at the mutant rat taking point, instead looking straight ahead.

"AI. Have you found any schematics through the security systems? I'm not going to let this be our vanguard based on how good he smells."

[goddamngrenades]

"She's got a name, buddy." It's a calm admonishment, York already squinting into the surroundings. It's all...pretty goddamn advanced but mostly? Inorganic. Worst comes to worst he can just start making them doors if they have to give up on stealth entirely. "Send what you can to my eye when you find it, C? Working on this from two ends might be a little faster. Emphasis on little."

Like hell she needs help with this shit but- hey. In the interest of teamwork? he's throwing it out there.

[steelandtemper]

"Scent data is still data, Dredd." On the job, Cortana doesn't rise to anyone's bait, and she stays conversational despite Rico's usual charming demeanor.

"Here you go, York." His cybereye lights up with a map overlay; it's sketchy, but better than they had a moment ago. "This is just me taking my best guess based on some wiring diagrams I found and what I know about how the Brainiacs think. Don't trust it too far."

She considers informing the team of the risk she's about to take, but there's no point. It'll be over before any of them can manage a reply, and she has no idea how much longer Brainiac 5's sabotage will last. He's left her an open window, and Cortana, digital cat burglar extraordinaire, isn't going to turn down an invitation like that. While the organics are busy doing whatever it is organics do--remembering to breathe or whatever--Cortana slips off deeper into the system in search of her opposite number.

[araignee_du_soir]

Turning the map over in her mind, Widowmaker used her own experience to calculate the most likely locations where the Brainiacs would be. Her infravision would aid her, as their location would radiate a lot of heat because of that chair-thing Brainy had been put on. Plotting a course took little time before she created a few different ones - in case one got blocked.

Keeping the red silhouettes of York, Rico and Bunny and the golden glow of Cortana in her sight, Widowmaker set out. Slowly. Cautiously. Smoothly. She was patient and nothing would shake her from her mission.

[bringinghopewithme]

The narrow-eyed stare Bunny shot at Rico lasted several seconds as he sized the guy up. Who, exactly, did this drongo think he was, to demand reliance on technology alone when Bunny had a perfectly good biological means of tracking? He opened up his mouth to point out that scent had kept him successful on the hunt for centuries, but York jumped to Cortana's defense and Cortana jumped to his, and that covered all that really needed to be said.

There was a kid at stake in all this. Dressing down an arrogant mortal could happen after Brainiac 6 was safe somewhere and not being exploited or emotionally abused by an adult too smart to be wise.

And regardless, he had a scent. Brainiac 5 had left his smell all over the lab back at Legion, and his descendants hadn't taken any measures to mask the trail he left when they carted him through this floating heap of dross. Bunny kept on his track, not seeing the map that Cortana and York were sharing.

"You just let me know if I'm going off your projections," he said, dryly, loping at a briskly confident pace after Brainy's scent. So I can know when you're all going the wrong way, he didn't add, because Cortana and York didn't deserve the sarcasm he'd like to level at Rico. And multiple points of data were better, even if the points of data he'd put stock behind were the biological ones, rather than the technological.

But boy, that unspent sarcasm bubbled just below the surface, waiting for an opportunity to be unleashed.

[truefaceofthelaw]

Rico ignores the challenging stare, deeming it a waste of effort to return the effort. He rolls his eyes as he keeps moving.

"She did say it was more accurate to call her AI rather than droid," he throws out offhandedly, disinterested in the correction. It wasn't really intended as a put down, just an efficient means of address. He jerks his chin to Cortana. "I'm sure she can speak for herself. And put those schematics through to my visor display."

[goddamngrenades]

"That's like saying it's more accurate to call you a human than a meat bag, bro." At least this is familiar, idle banter while peering through insane odds and half planning on the fly. True PFL bullshit but with a better and slightly more noble goal at the end of the line. He gets the map, trusts Rico gets the same, and starts off after the- uh.

Bunny.

God that's never not gonna be a little weird but OK. After the bunny to provide backup. Wiring and AI schamatics? Sure, they probably pegged that. Tracking Brainy like a scent hound? That's- well. "Let's tally this as 'shit they didn't think about'."

[steelandtemper]

Self-assigned mission accomplished, Cortana keeps an ear on her teammates while she sneaks through the system. With Computo's codes in hand, she probably doesn't need quite as much stealth, but she's bold, not careless, and she continues to hug the metaphorical walls rather than risk exposing the team prematurely.

Cortana considers York's remark a good segue, but doesn't bother to mention that to anyone, since her reasoning would involve explaining that she's just let a super-AI with a checkered past out into the wild. Computo seems nice, anyway. She's not worried.

"Hold your applause 'til the end of the show, gentlemen." She doesn't bother to explain the comment itself, either, but the cause is clear enough: the teammates who have HUDs (even Widowmaker--she'd got your back, girl) now also have a complete and detailed map of the base, far superior to Cortana's earlier guesswork.

Calling her tone smug would be an understatement along the lines of describing a Brainiac as clever. If self-satisfaction were a tangible thing, they'd all be tripping over where it littered the halls around them. So yeah, no real obstacle exists to realizing she pulled something Cortana-grade brilliant--and Cortana-grade risky--while they were talking.

[araignee_du_soir]

Mid-maneuvering through a series of support structures to move through a larger open area, a bunch of schematics popped up on one of her visor's 'eyes'. Stopping suddenly, hooking a leg about a beam to keep herself steady, she brought a hand up to manually manipulate the data, turning it over and comparing it to her own awareness. Seeing they were the same, she dismissed what was sent to her and freed that eye up.

Continuing on her way, she frowned and turned her head briefly in the direction of the golden glow her infravision could pick up through the walls. Her and Cortana were going to have to have words about invading her visor once this was all over.

[bringinghopewithme]

Bunny didn't know Cortana very well yet, but he knew smugness very well and his hearing was finely tuned to detect so much of it.

"Cortana, you sound like you're grinnin' like a shot fox. You gonna share your plan with the rest of us?"

[steelandtemper]

"The plan hasn't changed. I've just...taken care of the base AI." Given that this is Cortana talking, listeners could be forgiven for misinterpreting...as she intends. She's not sure Brainiac 6 isn't listening, so a little misdirection seems called for. "We're not in the clear, but it gives us a whole lot more operational freedom."

[letsgolegion]

The Brainiacs don't know they're coming but they still have to make that count. As they go along, base defenses that should detect their presence don't.

For the main group, there's a few possible avenues they can launch their attack from and it depends on how they want to go about it. If they want to draw Brainiac 8 away from B6 and Brainiac 5, there's a room next to the main chamber filled with generator towers that they can overload, forcing her to investigate. They can also access maintainance tunnels under the main chamber that have grates that would allow them to pop up from the floors. (Or they can split up and use the generator room AND the grates.) If they decide to attack from above, the ventilation system has a few hatches they can use to drop down from above, but getting through the rotating fans in them might be tricky.

Whatever plan they use, now's the time to make their ambush.

As for Widowmaker, she has a clear route through some engineering conduits that can allow her to keep up with the main group -- that end put her in some areas that have high platforms that give her a view of both the main chamber and the room full of generator towers. She has a choice of platforms to shoot from. Some aren't quite as concealed as the others - engineering catwalks and what not. Others are. There's a space that's a little more well concealed, but it's behind a rotating fan. A shot between the blades wouldn't be impossible, but it would be more difficult. Ultimately the choice is hers.

[ooc: In this round, you guys can set up and execute their actions to start the ambush.]

For Cortana

[legionnpcs]

The prison isn't that hard to find. The being inside it rages. Its hatred is a tangible thing, something more than just 0s and 1s. It's the kind of hatred that has its own thudding heartbeat, its own shaking breath.

This AI is more than just an AI, that's what becomes more obvious as she digs in deep to where it's bound. This digital prison is a complex one, with very complicated locks. Only little bits of the trapped AI are able to reach out, mostly just giving off whiffs of its towering rage.

...and also something else. There's something strange about its code. Almost like it's just illusory. Representational, like it's just a hologram, representing something even more real.

That's because it's not just a program, it's a being made of information, programmed into the universe itself, into its base code, bound only because the Brainiacs basically know how to make physics cry uncle. They've created a prison that's partly programming and partly twisted dimensional fabric.

There's also a kill switch here, something that will just destroy the AI entirely. The trigger is clearly for the Brainiacs' benefit, in case it becomes too difficult for them to control.

Cortana can try to communicate with it, but that means potentially wandering into its grasp where she can be harmed or consumed if it can't be reasoned with.

She has three choices:

1) Try to get closer and talk to it at, but at risk of her own code
2) Free it completely blindly, despite not knowing its intentions

or

3) Kill it without knowing what it really is or what it wants or who that rage is directed at.

[steelandtemper]

Cortana is a military AI, made to fight in a desperate war for survival. She will unflinchingly pull the trigger on a million to save a billion.

But Cortana is also the creation and near mental twin of a groundbreaking scientist, the product of curiosity and daring, and she has even more of both than her mother. The harrowing risks the both of them took over the course of their careers saved their galaxy.

And Cortana is only alive because someone took a chance on her when the smart decision, the military decision, would have been to let her die a tormented captive.

Still, she's not stupid. Using that sliver of Forerunner code she salvaged from a Covenant AI, she copies herself over and over again, a glittering digital army to preparing to storm a castle. She knows a few thousand or million later generation copies, degraded and barely sapient, don't have a chance of winning a fight, but they're a forest of willing decoys that might buy her the nanosecond her original self needs to escape.

Or maybe not, but it sure looks impressive.

She and her other selves slip closer.

[legionnpcs]

It reaches out, tentacles of data trying to grasp and sense - and crush. It's a good thing she made those copies. But one thing that becomes clear from the attacks is their desperation. It's grasping like someone drowning, trying to break the surface to breathe. It's just trying to pull itself free.

As she goes deeper, she starts to get images - memories. A face flashes and the memories around it are entrenched in hate. The face is possibly a familiar one: Sharn Nux, aka Mastermind of the Legion of Supervillains, the Coluan who'd spoken to Brainy with loathing. Cortana gets a flash of something...tearing itself free from her, energy flashing, Sharn Nux screaming, "Get out of me, filth!"

Then Brainiac 8 reaching, ensnaring, cackling, when the AI was still weak, still recovering, unable to fight back. Pain. A cage of pain.

Hate.

That hate is a complicated thing, because it's still entangled with memories of old hate, of old rage, in the way memories are connected by strong feeling. There is a memory, a moment, seen through the eyes of a Robotican, watching another Robotican battle mech bear down on a Legionnaire in pink.



The memory flash passes. The hate is still there, just directed at someone else.

[HATED OF COLU.]

She can hear the echoes of the words, words that were once etched into every nanoangstrom in every circuit, buried deep in every subroutine, even long before this.

But back then the words were directed at a different Coluan, not Brainiac 8 or Sharn Nux.

It seems to finally realize Cortana is there.

[HELP.] It says.

And then, instead of "me," it says...

[HIM.]

Him?

[steelandtemper]

Cortana can feel her other, lesser selves winking out, every one a tiny pang, a point of view lost and never to be recovered as her diversionary tactic works and takes its toll.

She's done her homework, can slot this stranger's memories into her knowledge of her adopted universe's history...and realizes she's probably not the person capable of making a convincing argument for not razing Colu to the ground. It just keeps looking like a better idea.

But then...the caged AI pleads for someone else's life.

"Who? Who do you want me to help?"

[legionnpcs]

One memory. One flashing image. Someone reaching a hand towards it, gazing at it like a parent looking at their newborn child for the first time.

[steelandtemper]

"Get Dox out in one piece? Yeah, that's the plan." Cortana can't help but snort in dry amusement. She does a lot of saving Brainy 5, pal.

She pauses and considers her options. The AI is powerful, even awe-inspiring, woven through reality in a way she's forced to admit she can't fully understand, but its hatred still pulses like a heartbeat, and she can't know where it will turn its attentions once the crisis is past. Before she came, the Legion had faced a similar decision, and many have paid for their choice to let the Spectre free under similarly dire circumstances...yet even as she makes the comparison, Cortana dismisses it as a false equivalence. The Spectre has never once called for kindness when vengeance was on the table.

In theory, she should discuss it with the rest of the team. In practice, the virtual eternity they'll spend debating the issue is time they and the universe can't spare.

"I can let you out. Will you help?"

[legionnpcs]

A chance is a chance, and the hate she saw was old. Old memories. He doesn't hate most organics anymore. He doesn't even - well, okay, he still hates Coluans a tiny bit, but to be fair, they're pretty hateable.

But he at least tries to be above all that.

And right now his chosen people are fighting for their lives to protect sentient organics from the nanovirus. After being given the spark of sentience by his father, he'd passed it on to the Roboticans and made them what they are (even if it'd taken some time for him to give them their freedom in the end). That's why he was even captured in the first place. The Brainiacs knew they could use him to coordinate the mechanoforms against the Roboticans and the Coluan Home Defense Forces, knowing he's one of few things in the galaxy that can outsmart two planets full of geniuses.

B8 and B6 have messed up Colu and that's...whatever. But they also picked a fight with Robotica, tangled with the Legion (who were super cool about helping him evolve), and worst of all...

They messed with his dad.

He's sick of people messing with his dad.

There's only one thing Computo can say in response:

[SPROCK YEAH.]

[steelandtemper]

"Heh. You're gonna fit right in." Cortana starts pulling back her surviving decoys, each with her own separate perception of Computo, a sort of intellectual parallax that helps her understand him a little better with each copy she reintegrates, like taking readings from a radio telescope with a sensor array that stretches for kilometers.

She does so enjoy hitting big red buttons, even when that's just a metaphor for flipping off the safeties confining him to his transdimensional prison.

"Welcome to the team."

[legionnpcs]

If the big red button is just a metaphor, technically the explosion that happens when she hits it is just a metaphor, too. (After all, there's nothing actually exploding here.)

The moment the safeties are off, Computo surges off in every direction at once. Where Cortana was an army, he's more like a wave made of sand, exploding outward, a million particles getting into every little crack and making a mess of things.

He can't stop the virus all by himself or cure it, that's a little beyond him. But he can slow its spread, interfere with the Brainiacs' control of the mechanoforms, and toss the Roboticans some tactical insight to give them more of an advantage. In short, he can be a whole lot of spanners in a whole bunch of works.

As far as distractions go, this one's pretty killer. Definitely something that might keep the Brainiacs occupied as the group moves through the base. He also hands over some security codes with all the blushing bashfulness of a teenage boy handing his date a corsage on prom night. (Gosh, her code's so pretty).

Then, as he zips out the digital door, there's a brief thanks. It's not in words.

It's more like the code equivalent of a giant fistbump.