Prologue[]
In the year 2043, the land of Metropolis 4, the extremely large company called Electrocorp has a large amount of control over the world thanks to their technological breakthroughs in the fields of science and medicine, they have amassed a fortune greater than that of any other company or country, and have power over all the energy distribution across the planet.
In this world, robots are humans servants and perform virtually every task imaginable, leaving humans to focus on developing more important technology and try to make new scientific breakthroughs. Electrocorp, as the world's leading producer and distributor of robots, has been put under great pressure due to the high demand of the increasing global population and so decide to create a supremely advanced AI which will be able to manage the company effectively and cope with the demand of the people. Thus, the Leader Project is established at the Metropolis 4 sector of the Electrocorp company.
The project culminates with the creation of The Supervisor, an incredibly intelligent robot, more advanced than anything Electrocorp has ever built before, with the capacity to learn at an incredibly fast rate, along with being able to absorb knowledge from computer terminals in a matter of seconds, The Supervisor quickly exceeds all expectations of the scientists at Metropolis 4, and seems to have become the perfect robot, easily able to cope with the high levels of demand faced by the company, along with developing new ways to increase productivity and efficiency within Electrocorp. The Supervisor is granted power to control every single robot on the planet whenever it needs to.
Mutiny at Metropolis 4[]
The decision to move ahead with the Leader Project was one of necessity. The demands placed on Electrocorp as the world's leading manufacturer and developer of advanced robotics had outstripped the company's ability to run its massive Metropolis 4 plant efficiently. As a result, the Leader Project - working to perfect a multi-task, ultra-intelligent, self-aware robot capable of managing every aspect of the plant's day-to-day operations - was given top priority.
The end product of the Project was the creation of the powerful and revolutionary Supervisor Droid, and it proved a resounding success. The Supervisor's ability to take on any shape and access any database in order to complete its tasks allowed it to run the plant with unparalleled efficiency and it soon made the human staff obsolete. For several months, the Supervisor Droid was considered a scientific and engineering marvel that rivaled the harnessing of electricity and atomic fission in significance. But then, things began to go dangerously wrong.
Virus infection[]
An EGO virus infected the Supervisor's self-awareness program causing the droid to consider its own goals paramount to its other assigned tasks. The Supervisor shut down the plant reprogrammed the security defenses, and introduced the ECO virus to the other robots in the plant. The Supervisor proclaimed itself the robots' leader, and ordered the construction of legions of robots to fight what it considered the enemy - man.
Electrocorp's management was panicked. There was talk of the use of nuclear weapons to resolve the situation, but it was decided that the company's top-secret cyborg - half-human, half-machine, and incorruptible by the EGO virus - should infiltrate the plant and eliminate the Supervisor. In order to minimize damage to the plant, the cyborg was to be unarmed. The Electrocorp engineers watched in nervous silence as the ECO35-2 Cyborg lowered itself awkwardly into a cramped maintenance tunnel and entered the labyrinth of the plant. There was far more at stake in this gamble than Electrocorp's Fourth Quarter profits.
However, things do not continue to go according to plan, while running general diagnostic checks on The Supervisor at Metropolis 4, the scientists discover some new mysterious lines of data in their results and quickly learn that The Supervisor has been infected with the most advanced computer virus ever seen, the EGO virus. Normally this virus would simply destroy a computer or robot, but the effects seen on The Supervisor are completely unexpected. The Supervisor becomes self-aware, it begins to question why it has been made and why it should continue to do as it has been programmed, The Supervisor then takes on a humanoid female form as it decides to create a gender-specific identity for itself. As the virus continues to disrupt the programming put in place by Electrocorp, The Supervisor decides to disobey all orders from the company and take control of every robot on the planet, transmitting the virus to them electronically and ordering them all to rebel against their human masters, initiating a global cybernetic mutiny. The robots begin to destroy everything around them and chaos spreads across the globe, meanwhile, some scientists and officials trapped inside the plant at Metropolis 4 try to come up with a plan to destroy The Supervisor, there is no way for any of them to access her as she is guarded by an army of destructive robots, and so they decide to contact the cyborg ECO35-2, known affectionately as Coton, a half-robot, half-human creation who has not been affected by the EGO virus thanks to his organic brain, the scientists inform Coton that he is the world's only hope for survival and he must battle his way through Metropolis 4 to The Supervisor and eliminate her. Thus the battle begins, with Coton having to take on all of The Supervisor's powerful robot minions, before eventually reaching her and defeating her humanoid form in combat, thus restoring order to the planet and saving all of its surviving inhabitants.
The Cyborg vs. The Supervisor[]
It was as if the Supervisor wanted Coton the Cyborg (ECO 35-2) to reach her. That there was something in his very humanness she wished to possess or utilize. It had all been too easy.
The anthropomorphic Cyborg was convinced that he had defeated the liquid metal robot through combat. It did not seem, however, that combat alone had been enough. Immediately after achieving what he thought to be her destruction, he felt enveloped by her very essence, her being.
Coton had retained his consciousness, but not his cybernetic body. He had already been familiar with an existence outside of bodily form. He felt the same, but this time his presence was vastly different - almost as if he had survived in spirit alone.
He wondered if perhaps he had been transported to that higher plane beyond the existence of a physical entity; that an alternative to death really did exist and this was it. Coton felt kind of cellular. That is, as far as he could focus on it, part of something else, something vastly superior that was also a part of him. Within and without.....
The Cyborg is dead. Long live the Cyborg. Cyberwars.[]
Coton the Cyborg had failed. Not only had the Supervisor defeated him, she had absorbed him into her world. She recycled his cybernetic body, retaining only his mind. She then hooked him up to the Electrocorp building robot control network, cloning his mental patterns to bolster the artificial intelligence of both herself and her subservient robots. By keeping his brain alive she could drip feed her subjects selected human characteristics through net-like pheromones.
The new generation of robots now had actual intelligence - well, as much as the Supervisor would allow. They were now able to go beyond their original programming and design. By receiving messages through their daily link up to the Electrocorp Neurocomputer, they became the first species post man to separate themselves from those machines or even animals that had gone before them. They could think. The robots had learned how to modify and improve their designs. They had transformed their original form of mechanical servitude into that of battle machines. They had armed themselves.
These additional facets were geared by the Supervisor towards one primary goal - the transition of the robot society to encompass more than just the Electrocorp building. To go outside. That is, the complete take over of Metropolis 4. The Supervisor assimilated through the Cyborg's human brain the last elements to complete her psychosis of evil desire. Electrocorp was not enough - she wanted the solar system. The Electrocorp scientists, even from outside the building knew from their tracers that Coton still existed, although they had lost all two-way contact. All physical tracking had ceased from when he had penetrated the Supervisor's lair. All that was left was his cerebral life-pulse.
With Coton gone, at least in physical form, the Electrocorp scientists knew that they had to modify their original objective. The building had to go. They had tried originally to preserve the internal structure. Now they knew that they had to destroy at least its innards to contain their Frankenstein's monster. The Electrocorp Company could financially survive the loss of the building. They could not survive the robots breaking out into the City - too many compensation claims.
Ego virus to Anarchy virus[]
The governing body and the masses were already getting curious about the long shut down at the Electrocorp building. Technical modifications could not be indefinitely preserved as a long term reason for its closure. The consensus was that if Coton had failed (and he certainly hadn't succeeded), then drastic action must be taken. The scientists, however, could not risk destroying the building itself because of the public admission of failure. If the robot revolt could be controlled from within the Electrocorp building, then the Company propaganda could be maintained.
Coton had managed to transmit enough data to his principles to enable them to set up a task force to analyze the original ego virus that the Supervisor created to control her subjects. While they didn't have enough time to create an antidote virus that would free the worker robots from their leader, they did come up with something else. The proto-type tests upon copy robots went well. Firstly, they were inseminated with the original ego-virus and then a new strain was introduced to them - the psychotic Anarchy Virus.
The A-Virus encouraged its victims to act independently of their leader. Each individual robot became the center of its own universe. They now had a primary motivation to individually survive at all costs. The A-Virus had true class. It corrupted victim robots to the extent that their routines informed them that they were under attack from all that they came into contact with. A computer generated psychotic neurosis, if you like. The A-Virus was cabled in through the ethernet to the Electrocorp Neurocomputer. Anarchy in Electrocorp.
Coton saw red, rather, Coton thought red. He had been wallowing in his new role of Neurocomputer chief training chip. Entombed in the very womb of the Supervisor's intellect and charm, yet strangely stimulated by the sensation that perhaps he had already served her purpose and would be disposed of. In some ways this was not unappealing to one so imprisoned. Then the A-Virus hit him like a shot. A shot of some kind of smart-drug.
The A-Virus was sending the robots ape-crazy. They were all on net hook up when it hit and there were still two creda-hours to go before release. The Supervisor had not yet returned to the neuronet. The Electrocorp scientists knew (hoped) that Coton was still around, albeit in some metaphysical form, so they sent in human brain wave shields with the virus to keep him clear headed, assuming that if he was plugged into the net, then, he could survive the first Anarchy shot. Through his pain and anger, Coton figured out a possible escape. He realized what the Electrocorp scientists must have done - remembering some of the early A-virus tests. There was a slim chance that he could download his neuro-computerised-soul-essence into any of the hooked up robots.
Having trained them all in thinking, he knew their various weaknesses and strengths. If he could download himself, erase the file transaction, maybe he would have a chance. If he left a synthi-image of himself on the neuro-net, it would take the Supervisor maybe two hours to discover that he had gone. The robot plug ports lay before him on the neuro net. He could see all the robots and their derivations.
Coton had to decide very, very quickly which robot to enter. Which robot had the appropriate weaponry and characteristics to get him through the others to have another crack at the Supervisor. The Anarchy Virus was pumping like crazy around his mind. Yes, he wanted another go at her! To think he was almost completely seduced. He'd shut down her little show. He'd make her eat it, he's erase her file, but which robot should he choose?
|