Bubblegum Crisis Fan Fiction ❯ Of Knights and Ghosts: A BGC & Ghost in the Shell xover ❯ Chapter 3

Of Knights and Ghosts: A Bubblegum Crisis: Ghost in the Shell crossover.

Part Three

 

Sergeant Motoko Kusanagi waited patiently, the black haired woman laying stealthily on top of a rooftop. The intense young woman would occasionally raise a set of binoculars to her blue eyes and survey the Genom Tower in front and above her, studying the movements of vehicles and personnel going in and out. She had been perched here for several hours and was prepared to continue to wait, as long as it took.

 

'I almost wish I had been able to specify an exact time for the Knight Saber's attack,' Motoko thought wryly, 'but I think that'd make them suspicious.' Two days ago she had finished transferring the funds through shell accounts and various alias, receiving confirmation that the raid on Genom's research wing would go ahead today.

 

In Motoko's professional opinion whomever was running the Knight Sabers was a professional paranoid. Just contacting the Knight Sabers had involved some fairly ridiculous steps, and whoever was running the organization had used some of the best computer evasion tech she'd ever seen. Even Motoko herself was having a difficult time tracing them, and she had the latest bleeding-edge tech in software and hardware.

 

'Makes me glad I'm working with them,' Motoko admitted as she got up cautiously, moving over to where her cache of equipment waited. A modified briefcase, loaded up with arms and ammunition, her covert entry gear, explosives and finally a glider module. She sorted it all with half her attention then smoothly packed it all away once again.

 

"Movement on the perimeter," the voice came in on her ear plug, Motoko's tap on Genom's communications working perfectly, "unidentified vehicles on the south fence."

 

Motoko moved to the edge of the roof, pointing her binoculars to take in events around the south side of the facility. A big, older armored truck barreled along the road, ignoring the speed limit as it ran through the twilight. Suddenly it swerved towards the main gate, racing towards the guard's shack even as the men fled.

 

BOOM!

 

The vehicle obviously contained explosives, there was no other reason the gate would have gone up so spectacularly. Even as debris rained down Motoko was on the move, grabbing her briefcase even as she listened to the chatter on Genom's security system.

 

'They're all racing right to the explosion,' Motoko thought wryly, 'how amateurish.' Clearly the blast was intended as a distraction, and the Genom personnel were falling for it easily. 'Too bad I don't know the Knight Sabers' frequency,' Motoko mused as she pulled her back pack on and raced for the steps downstairs, 'I'd love to know where they're really going in.'

 

Disregarding that thought Motoko reached the elevators and headed down to street level even as she adjusted her uniform cap. The borrowed Genom security uniform fit her body perfectly, the identification she had perfectly matching the corporate design the company used. Blending in with the other security personnel she used the chaos to get by the outer layer of defenses and into the facility.

 

'So far so good,' Motoko thought as she entered the massive Tower, nodding to a young man still at his security post. The key to this sort of deception was confidence, voice and manner utterly convincing those you dealt with that you belonged.

 

Another squawk of static as she listened in to the security network and Motoko smiled slightly. "Unusual activity on the East side, I...." the woman started then she was cut off by a burst of static, a very familiar tone.

 

'Jamming the internal systems,' Motoko smiled slightly, now knowing where the Knight Sabers were probably going in.

 

The eastern side of Genom's Tower was primarily devoted to R&D, and was therefore likely the location of her target. With the Knight Sabers publicly attacking she could quietly make her way over to the main computer room, try to find out what was really going on.

 

Using her false security passes Motoko made it to the computer center without too much difficulty, logging in with an illegally acquired and expensive password. 'This job has been hard on my budget,' she thought to herself as she typed away, 'I still don't know how I'm going to pay the other half of the Sabers' fees.'

 

Disregarding that thought Motoko scrolled through the files, swiftly working her way through subdirectories until she found the janitorial files. A casual look at Genom's budget documents had shown a suspicious amount of money going in there, far more than they could really use. An earlier cyberdive confirmed her suspicions, and even showed her how to access the data.

 

There was a soft hiss as Motoko pulled out the link cable from the back of her neck, then she plugged in, accessing data as fast if not faster than human thought. The military artificial intelligence project was buried in with several other black project files, some of which Motoko made note of later for possible blackmail purposes. Speed reading she found the location, pleasantly surprised to see the module that she was looking for had indeed been moved to headquarters before her abortive raid on the R&D facility a few days ago.

 

Brian J. Mason's personal notes made Motoko smile wryly and shake her head. "Our Ministry snitch reveals that they're sending in a retrieval agent," he wrote, "but I'm confident that we can send her home in a bodybag."

 

"Overconfident, maybe?" Motoko mocked, though she wished that Mason had actually listed the name of the snitch. "Of course," she murmured, "that would have been too easy."

 

Motoko downloaded all the relevant data, including internal maps of the facility then plugged in a virus of her own devising. A Trojan-horse type it would wait, quietly, until someone else accessed the AI project data then cascade through the system, wiping random data as well as destroying everything on the project.

 

With a grunt Motoko unplugged, accessing the security net as she did so. Just from the motion sensor feed she could see the chaos that the Knight Sabers were causing in another part of the facility, coupled with the frantic and confused radio communications from the security staff. Even more amusing the security cameras in the area were showing looped footage from some concert, not what was going on in the building itself.

 

'The Knight Sabers' hacker has been busy,' Motoko thought as she strode calmly by the racing, confused figures, keeping her own expression remote enough to discourage conversation. Her research had shown the woman in the pink armor was both capable and dangerously unpredictable, much like most hackers.

 

"Where are you going?" the tall, purple haired woman frowned at Motoko entered the elevator with her, studying her warily.

 

'Madigan,' Motoko recognized her from briefings, 'possibly third in the hierarchy in Genom, maybe more. Ambitious, but not quite as clever as she'd like to think she is.' Looking up at her respectfully Motoko answered, "Security post f-23, ma'am, the chief is concerned the attack may be a feint of some kind."

 

"He really doesn't think that the intruders could penetrate to F level?" Madigan asked her disbelievingly.

 

'She doesn't even know that the attackers are the Knight Sabers,' Motoko thought with a grim pleasure. "I don't think he wants to take chances, ma'am."

 

"Fair enough," Madigan acknowledge with a sour smile. She stopped the elevator on the right level and Motoko got off, feeling the woman's thoughtful gaze on her back.

 

Walking as coolly as possible Motoko strode down the hall, trying not to rush until the elevator doors closed. 'Did she wonder,' Motoko thought as she headed for the lower level bunker, 'or are the other rumors about her true?'

 

Security post f-23 was manned by a boy who could only have been in his twenties, if that. "Ma'am?" he blinked as she approached. Scratching his head he muttered, "I didn't think it was time for me to be relieved...."

 

Whack!

 

The karate chop dropped the boy to a puddle on the floor and Motoko stepped up to the control panel. Her earlier 'dive had gotten her the codes, and with a few quickly pressed keys she was inside. The lab was cluttered, finished and incomplete projects scattered about but she was focused on one thing, the square data module sitting on a table nearby. It matched the images she had been given, as did the code numbers,

 

'Mission accomplished,' Motoko thought as she stowed the module in her pack, 'now I just have to get out with it....'

 

The floor shook beneath Motoko and she grabbed at a table for support. The sounds of battle, explosions and she raced out into the hall, gazing around her in pure disbelief. Badly organized security forces were trying to organize a defense, but it looked like a lost cause already.

 

'They couldn't have actually gotten this far in....' Motoko thought in disbelief.

 

The doors to the elevator shaft blew out and the blue armored figure emerged, arm cannon at the ready Right behind her a green armored woman, then two more took up positions as they readied themselves for battle.

 

'The Knight sabers are here and I'm dressed in a Genom security uniform,' Motoko thought. There was only one thing she could think to say, "Crap."

 

To be continued....