Chapter 60: Chapter 58

It took a few days before we cracked the code. Having god-moded the Courser before he went boom meant we had access to the Courser chip, which allowed us to obtain the Institute’s location. The Courser’s mind was also hacked into and thoroughly studied for an idea of how different their programming was, and my research bots were finally able to unravel the full secrets of what made a synth a synth.

I attended the first batch of prototypes in Blacksite Tleilax with Curie. The Nexus’ own batch of programming chips were implanted into some of our raider prisoners. They were sedated and had the top of their skulls sawed open as the robots went to work, and it took some intricate work for the brain and electronics to properly interface.

As I watched from behind the observation window as the first chips were inserted into the six prisoners, Curie briefed me on the progress made so far like she was merely chatting about the weather.

“...Complications have been reduced to negligible levels, assuming the recipient’s brain is not malformed in any way. Once implanted, we have telemetry of the entire body’s functions, automatically summarized and compartmentalized for ease of reference.”

She lowered her head slightly in an expression of sadness. ”Unfortunately, your speculation proved correct; the procedure is not reversible for the near future.”

That issue kept me from considering much use for the chip. Once the chip got interfaced with the human brain, it would hijack full command of its host’s functions, but should that small piece of metal and plastic be removed or damaged, that control would be cut off, causing death from the body literally shutting down before the healing arches could even work. I’ve seen the recorded trials, it looked like they were puppets with their strings cut.

With the chips implanted and the hosts’ skulls stapled up, I went to the terminal next to me to have a look at the sudden flurry of data. It was like the stats displayed in my own console, except most of the information couldn’t really be modified, only monitored.

I picked a command that overrode the sedation and the raiders smiled serenely as they sat up. I’ve triggered the right spots in their brain, leaving them in a calm and blissful dreamlike state, blotting out the pain they must be still feeling from the callous surgery.

At least the things I could modify were useful enough.

“So, personality changes?” I asked, and Curie shook her head.

“The results are highly unpredictable and would require further research.”

“Memories?”

“Memory implantation has proven to be a limited success. It would be far more effective if there are sensory stimuli to fake the experience of the false memory. Whether such memories would affect the current state of behaviour is as yet unpredictable.” The Eversor nurse gave a short pause. “Selective memory removal requires far more work before I can consider it safe for use.”

So, no changing psychopaths into docile slaves, but with a power point presentation I could probably make these dozen raiders think that they used to have wet dreams of being a mirelurk’s egg-layer. Eh, it’s progress.

I looked away from the terminal and turned back to Curie. “So, no non-oppressive applications?”

“Alas, no. Anyone implanted with the chip would be a permanent slave to the programming, including the current inbuilt security measures of reduced aggression and stunted thought processes. The absence of true free will and unburdened consent makes such a life incompatible with the Nexus’ core principles.”

Meaning that if we encountered such a thing in the wild, at best we’d be keeping the poor victims in specialised care homes if we have the resources, or we put them out of their misery.

Well, good thing this is a controlled environment and these raiders are going to be put out of their misery soon.

“Get these men equipped and ready for a visit to the Institute.”

*****

The air was tense within the meeting room. Shaun was listening in silence as Dr Ayo finished his briefing.

“...with no updates from X8-31, we can’t really assume if contact has been made and talks broke down, or X8-31 simply didn’t manage to establish contact.”

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There was some muttering around the table. The chances of losing a Courser to the wild wasteland was slim, but not zero. Plus, there was a very real chance that Sev had changed his interaction with the outside world with some form of bureaucracy. There were after all rumors of outsiders having to endure some sort of probation upon entering his domain.

They’ve only discovered the ‘formal’ establishing of the Nexus Severalty two days ago, from updates from Bunker Hill. The complete denial of the Watchers around Sev’s lands, coupled with the Institute’s own cautious approach, led to a time lag of over a week for even a hint of major news from that region to arrive.

Never before had the Institute been left so blind to the goings-on of the surface, nor had it felt so...helpless against a threat before.

There was some hope that Sev could be reasoned with, at least. Clearly the man was willing to work with others, judging from the contact he made with Diamond City and the Minutemen. Shaun only hoped that the Nexus could understand what they were trying to achieve here at the Institute. Surely a man with such technology could appreciate all the advancements being done for the sake of humanity?

The meeting door opened suddenly, a courser stepping in curtly. “Sirs, we have received multiple incoming signals at the molecular relay. All seven signals bear the X8-31’s ident code.”

The air was mixed with tension and optimism. Did X8-31 succeed then and was bringing back a delegation from the Nexus? It was well within the right to make that decision. Perhaps the lack of communication was due to it working hard towards that achievement.

Everyone hurried out to form a welcoming party at the relay room, with a heavy security detail just in case. It never hurt to look stronger.

Instead of a triumphant return however, the scientists and Coursers were greeted by six naked men materialising in the room, their bald heads showing off fresh scars across their foreheads. They stood rigidly straight, barely moving as they stared blankly forwards.

X8-31 was also present, just barely. The head was recognizable but covered in surgical scars, though from the neck down the Courser had nothing but spine and ribs with the heart and lungs dangling wetly within. Horrifyingly, X8-31 was still alive with the same blank stare as its mouth began to move along with the other six men.

“What-”

“HOW ARE YOU GENTLEMEN?” Those seven voices spoke as one in halted, tortured voices. Shaun noticed how the eyes of the men were glistening and tears were streaking down their cheeks.

“ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US. YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY TO DESTRUCTION.”

The message stunned and confused everyone present, as an audible beeping was heard after it finished. It took a few seconds before Shaun and a few scientists realised what was happening.

“Get out!”

The wet explosions that followed drenched the relay room in gore. The men and synths had mostly cleared out by then, only a few suffering burns and broken bones from the explosion’s force.

Shaun got up, stunned and confused at how this could happen. As he got up on his feet, he saw his advisors and senior scientists sharing the same shocked state. What had happened? Did X8-31 get subverted?

Another crackle caught their attention, and they spun back to the slagged relay room as a lone figure materialised from the controlled lightning storm. Dressed in an armored black greatcoat and a similarly dark uniform underneath, he was young, carrying himself with an assured arrogance and a cold grin.

It was Sev.

“Make your time.”

Another crack of artificial lightning, and then another, and then another, each one bringing in more figures into the relay room. Armored figures in tinted glass helmets, humanoid robots, robots with tentacles… Shaun felt his legs give out as they all began moving.

The Institute was being invaded.

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