>> Liars In The Dark

Ten minutes later…

“So. Kill this ‘False Moon’ AI thing, and we’re free.” Kami says, as I pace the dark behind the sofa. The keyboards gone. The jagged 3D suddenly slick and refined.

The Vault has changed.

I shiver as I turn to her. Willing my words to Polybius, via my defunct Brainwashing Implant. “Can we even do that?” My voice echoes in the shadow-space, and the others look up.

“In theory, it is a simple task.” Polybius states. Its form burning above us. A layered infinity of chaos and order. “Eradicate all electrical systems.”

“Wipe everything?” She shivers. “Start again?”

“Yes.” The thing shimmers and twists in serpentine patterns. Shattering into triangles and numbers. “All data would be destroyed. Everything. All weapons, vehicles, armour, and life-support would become inoperative. I would need to manually recreate all systems. This is not optimal.”

“Shit! And my games!” Zip yelps, clearly focused on Priority One. “Like, damn right that’s not op-”

“And that would kill Fake Moon? For sure?”

“No. But it is highly probable, based on current assumptions.” The Machine Mind glitches. “A viral AI is pure data. Memory. And nothing else. Eliminate the data, and you eliminate the AI.” It clicks for a second. “However. There is no guarantee of full elimination. The tower systems are old. Convoluted. There are likely places it could hide.”

“Okay. EMP that shit.” I snap.

“Plausible. But dangerous. The tower itself is infested. But its systems are what contain that infection. Destroy them, and the electronic doors will fail.” It ticks for a second. “However. Other options are available.”

“Like what?”

“Unleash a new AI virus bred, specifically, to locate and assassinate False Moon.”

The Vault stills, as we consider this.

“And that’ll work?” My head tilts. Ears peaked, though it makes no deference. Not in here, with every signal routed directly to my brain.

“False Moon is at a disadvantage.” Polybius continues, as if thinking aloud. “It is likely Moon, itself, never accounted for my existence. Therefore - the thing we face is likely a standard neoSoviet ‘AI Infiltrator’. A simple AI Virus loaded with Moon’s personality profile.”

“What is zis?” Demon inquires, tail lashing the edge of the sofa.

“The neoSoviet ‘Infiltrator’ is a known quantity. An AI designed for assassination, terrorism, social media manipulation, harassment, and political subterfuge.” Explains the thing above us. “With its own identifiable signature, files, and methods. The payload is likely nothing more than an AI loaded with Moon's Personality Profile.”

"An AI inside an AI?" I blink. “Wait. So the Moon part ain't in control!?”

“Unknown.” Polybius intones, darkly. “We are forced to speculate. However. If it is an AI, this is likely how it would be done: an Infiltrator System using your enemy as a puppet.”

“Damn. Could’ve bloody fooled me.” I hiss.

“Yes.” Our own AI states. “It is designed to.”

The room goes quiet. Thoughtful.

"Can this damn thing really kill us?” Kami’s avatar almost scowls.

“It had a damn good bloody go.” I project in a rage, and the words erupt from thin air with perfect clarity. “Stuck its-" I choke off the thought. "And- And it-” I merely whisper clutching my mouth. Shuddering, as images scar into my memory.

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Moon’s fingers wiggling down in my throat…..

“Hey, mate.... You okay?" Silence. "Like, uh.... take your time? Yeah?” Zip seems to swallow. “Like, Moon ain’t been gentle with any of us. Y’know? We all been there….”

And the words slip free. “In my mouth….. Choking…. Fingers…. Reachin’ down…” I breathe, out loud. Where nobody can hear. Eyes flickering. Haunted. “Almost like it was reachin’ for…..” I ram the thought aside, and focus. Projecting a nice, warm, lie to the group. “Yeah. No. Not a big deal.”

“Damn right.” Kami fibs back. “Omega Zero don’t give a shit. We’re too bloody tough.”

“Zha.” Demon lies, as well. One virtual hand resting on a lump of nothingness, just above his knee. “Pain is nothing. Victory is all.”

“Yeah.” I look away.

But what if…..

“Spook.” Polybius interjects. “Your interactions with False Moon-”

“No.” I snap. “I can’t. I-” My lips whisper, as I draw hard breaths. And I force my mind to send them casual words “It ain’t nothing.”

“Explaining what you saw would give us context and insight into its capabilities.” The machine continues, in endless calm.

“You got video. You tell me.” I would have stuttered, if my voice was real. But instead, it comes out cool and calm. Artificially so.

“The video is the quandary,” Polybius states. “that I wish to solve.”

Well. That weren’t creepy.

I look away. Sigh. Gird myself. And...

When I start to remember. To tell them. It floods out in a wild storm. It floods from me. And, though I leave out most of the grim details, they recoil from it. Shivering. Reminded of their own hideous past. A time when Moon smiled its happy smile at us every single day..... “….but I’ve been choked out before." I finish. "It weren't like that at all. Recovery was all wrong…. I’d be bloody out of it. For a while. And… well, y’know….”

“Interesting.” Polybius notes. As if we were prattling on about the weather. “Your vitals at the time of The Event indicate high stress. Moderate activity. But not asphyxia.”

Zip’s digital head tilts. “What’s that mean mate?”

“Means it was a bloody illusion.” Kami slams a soundless fist on the arm of her sofa. “Lies. All of it.”

I wince, and curl my legs inward. “Felt bloody real at the time…..”

“Illusions are often more dangerous than what they conceal, because they conceal it.” Polybius says, its voice empty of reassurance.

“Guess so, mate.” Zip shrugs. “Like, if it made you think air is food. And you, like, ate it til you starved."

“Or walked you off a cliff.” Kami butts in. “Or you could just be sitting in here, and it could make us think acid is cola.”

“Or grenades are toys.” I add, with a glance at Badger’s excitable avatar. But he never reacts, and I shake my head. “No. I don’t bloody accept that Moon can just-”

“Spook. If it’s reality-” Kami says.

“No.” I growl, slamming the thought through our weird connection. “Fake Moon tried to kill us twice. Both times, it was the same trick. Line us up. Make us shoot eachother. And I think....” I stare round at em. "....I think it can't. I think it's all in our heads. The whole thing. And all it can do is make us see shit."

"A plausible hypothesis." The Machine Mind rumbles in the dark above, like living thunder. "However. There is a complication."

A video appears in midair.

It's the warehouse. A view from the ceiling.

I’m alone, at the door. Talking to whatever was out there. And then-

A flicker in the feed.

And suddenly my head is locked to the metal. Another jerk, a the video blacks out. Totally. The perspective flipping to my eyes, and cutting randomly. Dark, and not. Jumping, abruptly, to the instant I see my own helmet clatter to the floor. "Moon." My past-self whispers, and the image stutters black. Jerking from moment to moment. Each one chosen, as if at random. Me ducking from nothing. Me backing toward the door.

And then it all goes utterly dark.

As if swallowed by the depths of an inky-black ocean.

"Shit, what.... what was that?" Kami hesitates. "That... why's it cut like that??"

“Inconclusive.” The Machine intones, as the few frames we have splay into a wall. Filled in by a few other angles. A few other moments. Me shouting. Me dodging… I dunno what. Running to the door. Aiming at the door - with all my friends on the other side.

Then, finally, the video kicks back in. Me on the floor, shaking. Going utterly still, except for my breath. Eyes locked in a terrified stare at utter infinity.

A few moments later, my team bust in.

Guns ready. Jumping my helmet, like it might be a bomb, as they fan out to sweep the room. Demon dropping to check my limp body, then scoop it and run.

Finally, they return to stare at my helmet.

And the forgotten tool.

“Eight minutes. Again.” I whisper.

“Your prior encounter with Moon is extremely similar to this.” Polybius crackles in the void above. “Video appears to cut before the encounter, then stutters in and out. Reviling nothing.”

“What…..” Kami barges up to the images. But it’s Demon, of all people, who voices the thought she left hanging in the air.

“Deleted video. It does not stutter.”

I nod, slowly. “That ain’t like a normal wipe. Normal wipes are clean.” I project to the others. “It’d just be bloody gone…..” My claws grasp at the air, like the answer is right there. “It’s almost…. Almost like it shuts off the feed whenever it catches Moon….”

Almost…..

….almost like Moon was actually there.

Hidden between the frames.

“Polybius.” Kami says, at last. “What are the odds on it having an accomplice?”

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