Depths of Genom, Part III

Depths of Genom
Part III


Again, all copyrights, Trademarks and the like of the characters and entire Bubblegum
Crisis Universe belong to AIC.


   Sylia was sitting in her penthouse apartment when Nene called her over the secure
Comm-system.   With a feeling of dread that she knew what the call was about, she
answered "Yes, Nene, what is it?"

  Nene said "It's back.  Currently Deputy Inspector Hayubasa's squad is fighting a massive
new boomer over near the bay.  From the description it seems to be the one we fought the
other night."

  "Can you get off and help out?" Sylia asked, knowing that the Electronic Warfare suite in
Nene's suit was the only thing that had stopped the monster boomer before.

  "Yeah, for a change this is the only incident tonight, and I'm only on backup
communications.  Sayoko will relieve me in about 5 minutes." Nene replied.

  "Good, get down there as soon as you can, we'll meet you there" Sylia said.  As soon as
she set down the phone she immediately  called Priss and Linna and told them what was
up.

  About 15 minutes later the Knight Sabers were gathered together atop a small warehouse
as they watched the monster boomer ignore all the firepower of the AD Police and keep
walking in a straight line.  "What is it doing?" Linna asked.

  "We'll see", said Sylia "I would suspect that it has been given a specific mission, and is
taking the straightest part to fulfill it.  It's not a fast, agile or particularly intelligent Boomer,
but its raw power seems to be unmatched."  Suddenly, Sylia saw a figure in the distance,
about 150 meters ahead of the rogue boomer.  "It's him again...it seems to be chasing after
that same man as before" she said as she zoomed in with the optical sensor suite on her
hardsuit.  "Dr. Yamata, what have you done to get this sort of attention?" mused Sylia
quietly.   Then she said aloud "Knight Sabers, go!"

  The ladies jetted down standing before the boomer and didn't even bother to use their
weapons, knowing how useless they had proven in the past.  Instead, Nene started sending
out another broad band EM pulse, trying to shut down the boomer as they had done
before.  "It's no good!" Nene wailed "it seems to be shielded now"

   Sylia said curtly "Keep trying, it's our best hope!"

  Nene worked her controls and sent out EM-radiation at different strengths, mixtures and
wavelengths, but none of it fazed the oncoming boomer.  As she tried, the boomer kept
plodding forward, getting closer to Dr. Yamata who had run into a dead end alley. 
Suddenly, the power system on Nene's hardsuit overheated and the emergency exhaust
fans in the backpack kicked in.

  Sylia said "with her power temporarily down, she can't fight!  Priss, Linna, take her and
get out of here!  I'll grab him and we'll regroup at safe house 3."  At that, Linna and Priss
grabbed Nene by the arms and jetted away with her, even as Sylia grabbed the fleeing man
and carried him off.  The monster boomer immediately started trudging off in the direction
the fleeing ladies had flown off in.

[Later]

  Sylia and the other Knight Sabers stood around the terrified Dr. Yamata in a small
warehouse equipped with an apartment and various equipment.  They left their helmets on,
still not being sure if they could trust this man.

  Sylia asked him "Who are you, and why does that Boomer keep chasing you?"  Even
though she knew the first answer, she didn't want to give that information to Dr. Yamata.

  He answered slowly, "I'm Dr. Yamata, I used to be a professor of biomechanical
engineering in Osaka.  However...." and his voice trailed off and he sat silently for a
moment.

  Priss slammed her hand down on the table in front of him  "What do you think we are!
Idiots!  Professors don't rate having unknown boomers chasing them!"

  Finally, slowly, and reluctantly he continued "Well, about 2 years ago I got an offer from
Genom to develop a new type of Boomer.  I wasn't sure at first.  I had worked for Genom
years in the past with Dr. Stingray's team that created boomers, but I got out of that before
the incident that killed him.  I was afraid that Genom would use the new technology for
violence and powermongering, instead of peaceful purposes."

  Sylia prodded "Well, that still doesn't answer why that boomer was after you this time"

  Dr. Yamata nodded and continued.  "Well, about 2 years ago, I got an offer from Genom
to develop a new type of boomer.  They asked if I would design a boomer that would be
able to explore the bottom of the ocean.  Now, the ocean has long been a passion of mine. 
So, I agreed and have worked for the last two years on the "Neptune" class boomer.  It is a
very special boomer.  For years, we have built boomers that can survive in outer space, but
the deep ocean is a very different sort of thing.  The deepest parts of the ocean are well
over 10km deep.  You need a boomer that can survive incredible pressures.  So, we
created a special megapolymer shell for the Neptune that would withstand almost any
outside force."

  Sylia nodded, "I see, but the same shell that protects it at the bottom of the sea also makes
an ideal armor for combat boomers."

  "Exactly" Dr. Yamata answered, "The Neptune boomer is designed specifically for the
deep ocean. It is easily the most damage resistant boomer ever made, and it's musculature
is second to none.  This is all to facilitate exploring the deep ocean.  It is slow, but that's not
a problem where it was supposed to be.   The thing I don't understand though, is why they
are trying to kill me"

  "Scientists!, why don't you pull your head out of your test tubes long enough to see the
real world!" Priss spat.  "That much is obvious.  They intended to use this boomer for
something other than what you had in mind, and they were afraid that you knew too much,
or couldn't be trusted."

  Sylia joined in, "Well,  do you know anything that might be of use for us then?"

  Dr. Yamata responded, "Well, yes I do.  There is a weakness to the armor.  I never
passed it along to anyone else, because it would never be a problem as long as the boomer
is used for what it's supposed to do.  I mentioned before that the boomer has a special
megapolymer mixture that makes it's armor.  I found that another mixture of chemicals
would act as a solvent, breaking down the armor and making it weaker than the armor on a
standard boomer."

   "Can you still make this 'solvent'?" Linna asked.  

  "Yes I can, I have the information on a private memdisk I keep with me.  Contrary to
what your friend says, I'm not a total idiot" He said looking sideways at Priss.  He quickly
loaded the data into a desktop computer and called up the appropriate file.

  "Oh, yes, we can make this, very easily in fact" said Sylia.  She then went into a back
room while the others stayed to keep an eye on Dr. Yamata, both to keep anything from
happening to him, and also to make sure he didn't cause any trouble.

[About an hour later]

  "Sylia," Nene called to her over the hardsuits comm units, "that boomer, 'Neptune' I guess
we can call it is still out there.  It's headed in the same direction we left the battle scene.  It
just seems to be plodding along searching.  There are 3 ADP squads, and a squadron of
Hornets on it, but they are having no effect."  she continued as she monitored the ADP
dispatch channels.

  "Okay, we are ready then.  I have a batch of this solvent ready to go.  I wasn't able to get
it rigged to use in one of our weapons, so we'll have to apply it manually.  Here is what we
will do" Sylia said.

  Soon, the Knight Sabers were approaching the Neptune boomer again.  However, this
time Linna held in her hand a sort of thick latex "balloon".  As they approached the
boomer, they broke off into two groups.  Priss and Nene set down in front of the boomer,
and started to fire it on with Priss' needle gun, and Nene's shoulder beam cannons.  Even
as they did so, Linna took advantage of the distraction this placed on the Neptune's limited
AI to slip behind it and hit it with the "balloon".  The balloon broke and covered a half
meter square section of the back with a thick green gel. Immediately, the back of the
boomer gave off a acrid, yellow smoke.  Priss, Nene and now Linna continued to keep the
boomer busy while they gave the solvent time to work.  Then, when she judged the time
was right, Sylia extended the sword out of her arm and drove it deep into the back of the
Neptune boomer.  The boomer, stiffened, and then stopped, clunking to the ground.

  "We did it!" cried out Priss.  "Well, I'm glad that's over, I don't want to ever see one of
those again." 

  "Um, Priss-dear, I hate to tell you this, but if they made one of those, they can make
more you know" Nene said with a smirk as she got her minor revenge for all of Priss's
comments about her lately.

  "Well, even so, we stopped this one, we can stop em again now that we know what to do. 
And if you EVER call me 'priss-dear' again, I'll make you wish you were still at home with
mommy and daddy!" Priss snarled.

  Suddenly, about 10 combat boomers came pouring out into the fray.  The Knight Sabers
quickly fanned out to deal with them.  After a short but brisk fight, they got rid of the
offending boomers, but then saw that the Neptune was gone.

  "It seems that Genom has recovered their toy" Sylia observed.  "I'm afraid this may not be
over yet.  If they figure out how we destroyed this one, they may be able to devise a
countermeasure.  Well, lets get back and check on the good Doctor, before he causes us
more trouble".

[The Next Day]

Ortiz again entered Quincy's office.  As he walked in, he felt with a dull ache in his
stomach that this would be the last day of his life.

   "Well, what happened".  Quincy asked, shortly and crossly.

  "Well, um, sir.  After examining the remains of the Neptune it seems that somehow the
Knight Sabers devised a chemical that reacted with the armor of the Neptune.  It weakened
the armor to the point that they were able to defeat it.  I assure you that there was no way
to predict this."

  "Yes there was," Quincy said in a low and menacing tone.  "It seems likely that the
Knight Sabers didn't develop this, but it was Dr. Yamata who told them of this weakness. 
That was why we needed to get rid of him, to make sure he didn't tell any secrets about the
Neptune.  This was made worse by insisting that you would "field test" the Neptune on the
elimination of Dr. Yamata, when a standard boomer would have done the job just as well."

   "However, I will admit that this was an unusual situation.  So, I think I'll have mercy on
you. You will not die today. You are now assigned to head up the mail department at the
Genom-Seoul facility."

   After Ortiz left the room, Madigan came in and said to Quincy "It seems that there is a
way to get past this 'solvent' problem, and they think they will have the second prototype
ready to test in a day or so."
 
   "Very Good", Quincy said with a feral smile.  "Then we will be finished with both the
good doctor, as well as the Knight Sabers."

[The Next Day]

  As Ortiz sat on the Genom shuttle to Seoul, he reflected on just how lucky he was.  He
had fully expected to die in Quincy's office the day before.  Yes, he was getting a lowly job
in the mail department, at the very unprestigous Seoul branch of Genom, but under the
circumstances, it was certainly better than dying.

   He looked out the window and saw the beauty of the Yellow Sea in late fall when
suddenly he felt a lurch as the floor panel underneath him opened up.  His flight chair, with
him strapped in dropped out of the bottom of the shuttle craft.  He plummeted down
toward the water.  Ortiz couldn't believe this was happening.  They had just decided to
keep him alive long enough to dump his body in the ocean where no one would find it.

   "At least I'm not going to drown" the engineer in him said.  He knew that the impact of
his chair hitting the water would kill him instantly.  He was glad for that, because all his life
he had a secret fear of drowning.  Surprised that such thoughts went through his head, he
realized that he had mentioned that in one of his sessions with the Genom mental
counselor.  Suddenly, a parachute opened above the chair and carried it down to the water
for a soft, gentle landing.  However, before Ortiz could begin to hope that he might get out
of his chair and be rescued, he realized that he couldn't open his safety harness.  As he
went to the bottom of the ocean, he found out just why he had such a fear of drowning.



Coming Part IV: Neptune Rising

Then the sequel "the Blizzard"

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