500 meters, 700 hectometers or 1000 kilometers. The UCNA group wasn't sure of how far they travelled but they all had a feeling that they were close, which is surprising since only two of them have actually been to the facility. Revenge was at hand any second now though they still have to find the culprits first and that part might take a while considering how labyrinthian the facility can be.
As they continued to trek along the path a voice called out to them from the radio that was dangling from Silver's side, it was Engie's voice and it sounded like she wanted to tell them something important.
"Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?" She came through crystal clear. Despite a few bumps in the road, humanity has improved in medium distance communications.
"Yeah we can hear you." Silver held up the radio to reply. "Uh, do you have something you want to talk about?"
"Of course she has something she wants to say! Why would she even radio us if she didn't?" Miley shouted back at them. Both her and Catherine were leading the group as they followed the map.
"I managed to bring everyone back to the gym. They seem more relax now that they are here, some of them are even playing basketball can you hear it!" Engie raised her communication device in the direction of the basketball game and Silver could barely make the sounds of the ball hitting the ground and squeaks of the shoes. "They're just playing it for fun by the way, no dying involved ha ha... I also told them about, um, what we're doing."
"Seriously? This is top secret, alright not really but let's pretend it is. They shouldn't have to worry about us after y'know... the thing." There was concern in Silver's voice, she wished that they would just forget about all that happened and go back home but considering they're from the US and the whole war affair going on it might make things more difficult. How would you explain to border patrol that you've left the strict security of your country because you joined a cult but then it blew up and you had to be rescued by the rival country? It most definitely won't go over pretty well.
"We can think about that later we should focus on Bill and the others first. Some of them have even asked if they could assist you but don't worry though I told them that you can handle it just fine." Engie paused. "This brings me to my, um, next point. Miley said something about the Institute jamming all communications once you get in and I realized that my radio assistance would become useless."
It was in the heat of the moment that Engie decided to stay and she came up with the idea of communicating through the radio as a way to convince herself that she wouldn't be letting the team down but now after mulling over it she regretted not coming along.
"I think you did the right thing by staying to help out. I'm not an expert on people stuff but they looked like they needed someone." Silver reassured that Engie's decision was the correct one.
After they deal with their current situation they will eventually have to find out what to do with the remaining former cultists. None of them were willing to take them as hostages and they weren't sure if handing them over to the US would be any better. It wasn't any use thinking over it right now but it is a fact that they will have to face it later down the road, Engie calming them down now will make it much easier.
"Yeah... it's mostly resolved now, a few have taken up the mantle of leadership and are sorting out the rest of the problems. I feel like I can leave them now."
"And come to us?" Miley grabbed the radio from Silver's hand. "We're too far away already and we can't just wait for you to catch up."
As she finished saying that they reached the edge of the crater and overlooked the buried facility, they came at it from a different angle but this was most assuredly the former Loch Ness unless there was a similiar looking giant hole in Former North Dakota. They weren't a 100% sure that the culprits even came here, it was just their best shot at finding them and the further they stall the harder it will be for them to locate them.
"Still..." Engie's had a disappointed tone in her voice. "There must be something I can do!"
Miley gave it a thought as they scaled down the crater but continuing to help the cultists was probably the best and only choice she had if she wanted to do something. If the group were to go in ahead and she were to arrive later she would just end up getting lost and become a detriment as they would have to go and look for her.
"I-I have an idea. Do you have any drones on you?" She finally spoke up again.
"Hmm? Drones? They probably all blew up." Catherine chuckled.
"Damn it..." Engie muttered through the radio.
"What's the matter Engie? Why do you even want to come to this shithole?" She had it easy so Miley wondered why she was pressing so hard to come out here.
Engie hesitated to reply as the radio remained silent. Miley sighed and motioned for everyone to follow her to the spot where they first entered the facility. They found the hole and rope that lead down to it but what came next was a shock to them, the giant backpack that Haven had brought along with him and left behind was ransacked with most of the stuff in it gone. That all but confirms that they came by here whether they continued going on or went down to the facility was up in the air. It wasn't entirely a coin flip because they still lack the vehicle to go anywhere that isn't a desolate pile of waste so there was a low chance they would want to keep braving the wilderness.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"I want to help!" A voice boldly came out of the radio. "It doesn't matter where I'm headed to or who I'm facing down, the reason I'm here is because I don't want to be useless! None of you can handle technology better than me, those computers you've talked about Miley? I can pull any information from them even if they are heavily encrypted and I can tap into any cameras, if I'm there we can easily find them and solve the mystery of this place!"
"Yeah... if you're here but you're not, it's too late for you to second-guess you're choice of staying." Miley replied.
"I'm not there physically. But I don't need to be." There were raised eyebrows from the group as they listened to Engie. "Did any of you bring a camera or anything that can be controlled remotely? Even a bodycam will work and I know one of you should have it since it's required. Please, one of you has to follow the dress code."
Everyone checked their equipment to find what Engie asked for. Annie, who was still carrying Doogledert over her shoulders, continuously turned in a circle to search for a bodycam while the professor begged to be let down.
"A bodycam will do, right?" Silver said as she pointed at hers.
"Wait..." Annie paused and dropped down the woozy professor. "You also said something about something remote controlled? I have that!" She pulled out a spider mine from one of her pouches and despite having the name spider it didn't have a lot of likeness to the creatures. For one thing, it only had 4 metal legs that helped it latch onto anything as well as crawl on walls. Another is that it had one glowing red eye that can move in 360 degrees allowing it to track down it's target. The final difference was that it explodes.
The reason she was carrying it was because she had a funtime testing it out and thought that she could bring it along to play when she got bored.
"That will work! Those have a camera and a speaker, it's perfect!" Engie was thrilled.
"Will it though? Did you forget about the interference coming from this place? You won't be able to control it from so far away." She gets what Engie's feeling but Miley didn't want to waste any more time standing around.
What Miley didn't expect was Engie's reply. "I'm not going to control it remotely, I'm going to become it."
The eyebrow raising carried on as they wondered if she had gone insane, they weren't even sure what she meant by that.
"Turn it on, I'm going to connect to it and transfer myself over." She explained to her dumbfounded comrades.
"Isn't that really dangerous?" Miley tried to talk her down from doing it.
"Also very illegal. Most androids shouldn't be able to do that! This is way too drastic!" Doogledert, after regaining his footing, joined in on the conversation.
"I know, I know... but this is a drastic situation. I'm just using it as my eyes, ears and mouth but it won't be able to handle my processing power so I need to let the load off onto one of you. I'm thinking of using Annie since the way she was constructed allows for a second foreign entity to easily connect without sending her mind into disarray." Engie considered using Silver at first but she wasn't sure what would happen if she had to handle 4 AIs, Annie would be able to bear the weight of her consciousness without as much side effects so she was a much better choice than the others.
"Soooo what you want us to do is let a suicidal spiderbot get hooked up to Annie to borrow some of her computational powers so you can put your own consciousness into it and have her carry you around?" Catherine followed along with Engie's thought process. "You realize that that sounds crazy right?"
"Don't worry I found a safe place to leave my body and spider mines are more resilient than you think." Once she moves over it will turn her original body into a shell and it will be unprotected but that is the least of their concerns since bodies can be replaced, if Engie were to die in the spider mine that would be it for her. This type of AI transferring was highly dangerous because she's was doing this from a long distance and she's moving to a more feeble form.
Everyone gave glancing looks at each other, unsure of whether or not they should go through with this plan. It is true that Engie could decipher all the information on the computers much faster than any of them but they were going into a combat zone and just a slight graze by an electric weapon could set the mine off.
"Don't worry I'll protect my lil sis!" Annie placed a hand on her chest.
Despite being... Annie, she is the best choice to protect Engie because of her size and toughness plus she doesn't have the propensity to rush into the frontlines, she was more of the covering fire kind of support. With these facts in mind Miley begrudgingly agreed to her plan and gave the go ahead to transfer.
Catherine turned on the spider mine and Silver help connect it to a port behind Annie's shoulder using a long thin cable. The mine looked around with it's glowing eye expecting them to command it to latch on to an unsuspecting enemy but it never recieved it as it's awareness of it's surroundings slowly started to fade away as Engie entered into it.
Annie's body started to jitter due to the extra stress of handling a second AI but it soon begins to settle down as her body becomes more adjusted to it. The mine seems to spring back to life while a familiar voice came out from it.
"Uh... did it work?" The singular eye moved back and forth. "I can see everyone! Why are you all staring at me? I'm starting to get worried, say something!"
"Oh... my... gosh! I never knew an exploding piece of metal could look so cute." Catherine leaned closer to pet the mine.
"We can hear you don't worry, I guess..." Meanwhile Miley was becoming less sure of their plan. "So all we have to do is just connect you into the computers and you can hack things?"
"Yes!" Engie was pretty excited despite being in something that was meant to throw it's life away meaninglessly.
"Annie don't pull on the cable!" Silver grabbed her hands which were tugging on the cable. "Just carry Spider Engie around and protect her, that's all you have to do."
Annie nodded and looked down at the new Engie who skittered around her arm. She gently grabbed her and placed Engie on her shoulder to give her a good view.
"On the brightside we'll be able to find the skeleton of the Loch Ness monster much faster now, I sure hope this ends well." An anxious smile appeared on Doogledert's face.
"I just hope this doesn't end in a fucking tragedy." Miley said before lowering herself into the hole.
Their revenge mission had suddenly been tacked with an escort quest.