The Facility

While the train continued to speed through, Alexander could be seen entering the main conductor cabin, While the group of engineers was busily controlling the massive machine he walked close to the head part where a middle-aged man could be seen, by his position and attire he is the main engineer.

As soon as Alexander closes near the head engineer he can hear some information being passed to the older man "Sir two friendly drones inbound, Signatures are clear looks like they will hover near the middle section"

"Keep me updated on their locations, We are closing in to the main shield and bridge decrease the speed, and lower the train Shield" Swinging his chair back he says "Alexander do what I owe the pleasure of your presence here?"

Deep in thought, he takes some time to reply "Could you do me a favor for old time's sake, I want you to take the train to that old hangar after we disembark try to keep it off the records if you can"

The old man raised an eyebrow "Hum.... even if I do that the security detail will still follow us there, Why? you think some faction is going to attack us?.. hum I doubt they are that dumb, that place has been off limits for a long time..."

"I know but I feel something is wrong, he had no frictions to do this emergency visit and my doubts just increased after seeing those drones... makes no sense for them to be here"

"I understand I can spout some maintenance bullshit and maybe get us like 3 hours but the escort is still going to be around at all times not sure how you want to deal with that"

"Being outside the surveillance zone already helps a lot"

A blip in the main terminal interrupts the conversation

"We are here, I never get tired of seeing this place"

In front of them exist something that can only be described as a superstructure, huge airstrips on both sides of the semi-squared structure, at each corner huge machines kilometers tall can be seen poking out of the ground, and in the middle a very tall building and a huge rail cannon on top of it, dozens of smaller building scattered around, hangars, barracks, anti-Air placements and a lot more at the very back of the structure a huge machine, It looks like a satellite dish but in huge proportions, the middle piece looks like a semi-transparent cannon, producing a head aching green glow, by the side, you can spot a lake that has been artificially made to flood the machine, you can see the water being fed and churning in the middle, becoming steam that blows up to be cooled down again as snow by the planet.

As the armored train crosses the shield and slows down on one of the many stations near the main building a group of armed guards with exoskeletons can be seen closing in on the perimeter of the train and protecting, over in the air the two A-09 patrol the air doing circular motions slowly.

Alexander and the old man can be seen leaving the train with a group of security officers and scientists.

A skinny figure can be seen approaching the group from the main building but when it gets close his true self can be seen, a human fully augmented by Cyberware, his face covered by what looks like a helmet, his body fully clad in metal, even with the amount of hardware his form is still streamlined and close to the normal human proportions maintaining a high degree of elegance, where his feet should be there is two anti-gravity motors, his voice is smooth and deep probably artificiality constructed as his vocal cords should be inexistent, the machine looks at the old man and says "Mike good that you are here, pleasantries aside we should head down, my time is limited!"

"Oliver... I see you installed some new upgrades again Should I be more worried that I knew your old self or that you have nothing else left"

The group starts moving to the main building.

"Flesh is weak, never understood why everyone thinks they are going to lose their humanity.... efficiency is the most important, is painful to watch everyone being so slow and weak... what is humanity without technology, is bound time that we embrace it fully I am just ahead of everyone but enough about me, why you here anyway the test should be going through as planned! having to rush things is never good.. even more when those meat bags are the ones doing the work"

"You know the old council wanted to speed the program"

"Ah...! I see the old foggy bald group can't wait anymore what a surprise, they can't piss straight anymore but think they can run everything still" A mechanical laughter comes out. 

"As bold as ever Oliver you could show some restrain in front of your guests.."

"As if I give a flying fuck Mike, I am restraining myself enough as is because I know you from back in the day but let's move on, the prototype AI has been anchored to the main processing unit... You should see that beauty a huge core and an artificiality constructed brain.. is amazing what we achieved, is going to be the most powerful machine we ever constructed capable of operating the whole planet.. fully independent"

"How about the testing phases anything we should worry about?"

"Technically no, we isolated the main core on every boot up... the personality matrix has been a bit more complicated to operate than anticipated the brain and human used as the base for the machine even as young as it was, shows instability when operated outside of the personality core protocols, some rejection shows up, the shock of the sudden change of environment and body is not that kind to the mind.... our earlier understanding that a young mind is more flexible for the changes remains correct and probably the only possible way to interface a human so deep into a machine but the emotions and the ego more or less break because of the pain... a young mind is not ready for the emotional side of the operation.... larger testing has shown that emotion suppression and a lot of mind-altering drugs does indeed solver partially the problem... but we require more testing... sadly the old fuckers did not give me more time to do it"

The group finally arrived inside the main building.