9.18 – Unwanted Faces

237 - Unwanted Faces

"Today's meeting is the first of its kind." Chrome stood at the head of the table, every face in the room pulled toward the reflective surface of his own. He fixed his tie, extended his posture slightly, and clasped his hands behind his back. "I'm seeing a lot of new faces around this table, and new problems filling the calendar to match. We keep this brief, we need decisions before the meeting ends."

The full Golden Circle was seated around the long conference table. Behemoth occupied one of the few rooms in the castle that could contain him, along with the simulation room on the other side of the building. His orange visor cast its own faint glow across the wall behind him.

11 sat beside 02, eyes moving between Chrome and her old captain, not settling on either. Omega had taken Shelly's chair at the far end, surrounded by unfamiliar faces, anchored to the room only by 02 and Reaper.

Obsidian sat to Reaper's right, frame still, eyes dimmed, but his sensors hadn't left 02 since the meeting began. Arms folded, expression neutral, the green handles of his blades visible just over his shoulders. A reminder of the last time they'd been in the same space, at Veridian Coast.

02 sat to Reaper's left, her blue light outrunning whatever impression she'd intended to project. Her attention had already gone to the screen behind Chrome, the other gazes in the room effectively ceasing to exist for her. Reaper sat with his hands locked together on the table, silent, his vents audible for the first time in the meeting—the dream of a stable robot nation taking damage in real time, from a single attack on a once-in-a-generation event.

Chrome gestured at the screen behind him, the one Reaper had not looked at. "Civilian casualties have exceeded one hundred and forty. Two of our G-12 mechs are completely destroyed, they encountered the attackers directly and were taken out using RPGs, which, as everyone at this table knows, represents the primary vulnerability of the G-12 platform. Which means…" He paused and waited.

02 finished it. "They came prepared. And they're exploiting the robotic nature of their own members to blend inside the country without detection. Veridian Coast presented a recognizable silhouette problem, here, they read as completely normal. Worse than that, they can swap frame components freely using the E-MODA open-parts system. No baseline physical signature to identify."

Chrome exhaled through his vents. "A precisely correct read from our guest. That part-swapping capability is why the mechs couldn't identify them in the moment. The larger problem—" he pulled the next slide up "—is that we've also lost Plex's trail between the northern forests, and the timing lines up exactly with the start of the attack."

02 nodded once. "Black Voltage has recruited him. And since we're the only ones who've encountered Plex directly, there's only one way they could have known to find him."

Omega pressed one hand against the side of her head and looked at the red silk of the table. "Reflex. He's with Black Voltage, that's not a probability anymore, it's a certainty. And that robot is not something to take lightly." She paused. "Father deactivated him personally. The only two units he ever did that to out of genuine fear were Reflex and…" she glanced toward 02 and left the rest of the sentence where it was.

Obsidian studied the images on the screen, broken mech frames, scattered components, the aftermath of something that had been precisely planned. "Robots can be revived through the Zoi center, but that margin won't hold indefinitely. The civilian population will start carrying the same kind of trauma the E-UNIT and 11 carried after their first encounters. Once people stop feeling safe, the outcomes range from mass exodus to full civil breakdown."

"The Zoi center has to be our top protection priority." 11's eyes went between Chrome and 02 as she spoke, the red visor of the Diabolos suit catching the window light on her right. "I've already positioned the E-PHONEUS at the facility on continuous rotation. The problem is that the center requires constant scientific staff to function, and at this point, we have no reliable way to distinguish staff from infiltrators."

02 leaned forward. "Civilian IDs were the logical solution, but the window for implementing them cleanly has closed. If the terrorists already have people inside the city, issuing IDs now gives them something to counterfeit, which makes the situation worse than not having IDs at all. We need a method to identify legitimate Elysium residents from the inside out."

Omega looked at Reaper. He hadn't moved, hadn't spoken, internal processing, vents running. "What's the objective behind the attack? We haven't directly engaged Black Voltage. We haven't moved against them at all."

"They identified our alliance with 02 and interpreted it as a declaration of hostility." Chrome's register didn't change. "Their alliance with the guardians is more dangerous than the alliance itself, though. We have no intelligence on how Reflex actually operates. You've confirmed him as a triple-S threat. And Plex, who survived direct engagement with both 02 and Reaper, is unaccounted for and almost certainly active."

Chrome lowered his head, which on his reflective frame read as visible exhaustion. "I need direct, fast solutions from this table. I'm stuck. Humans present a legible threat profile, they have predictable weaknesses and limited adaptability. Our own brothers have thought this through carefully. They planned for everything." He looked around the room. "Anyone."

Silence. Except for 02, whose eyes had been moving steadily around the table, reading each face in sequence. They stopped at Reaper.

She raised her head and her tone settled into something final. "I have a plan. It requires everyone in this room."

Every head turned. Behemoth's followed a beat later, his hydraulics announcing the rotation before the visor arrived.

"First priority is street security. They can't operate in the open when guards are close, and their targets will always be either strategic infrastructure or high-density civilian areas, the Zoi center and major gathering points."

02 turned to Behemoth directly. "Pull most of your western mech deployment. You have the numbers to spare thousands there and still hold the line, bring the bulk of them into Theria. And accelerate new production. Start now."

Behemoth's visor lit at full brightness. "Excellent thinking. I'm putting that in motion immediately." He opened his enormous floating screens and began routing orders to his command structure.

02 moved to 11. "The E-PHONEUS seals the Zoi center. Full lockdown, no one in or out. If the facility has an emergency containment protocol, activate it now. Bring portable charging stations in for the scientific staff. They stay inside until this is resolved."

11 nodded hard, practically vibrating. "Roger! I messaged the unit before you finished the sentence. They've started the operation."

02 looked at Obsidian. "You're the prime minister, and I know your full capability range. Guard the castle personally and make sure every staff member inside it is accounted for. The king will be the highest-value target on their list regardless of his capabilities individually, they've demonstrated that they've studied our weaknesses, and they may have studied his."

Reaper's eyes moved to Obsidian's. Obsidian said it calmly. "A very precise read. I'll stay close to Lord Reaper from this point forward, and assign additional mech coverage at all entry points."

"Good." 02 settled her attention on Chrome. "Metis is the best intelligence system this country has access to. Use it to pull everything available about the attacker profile. You can work backward through the Zoi center too, retrieve the memories of the civilian casualties, reconstruct the timeline, identify when and how the infiltration happened."

She lowered her gaze. "And use the center's registry as an identification mechanism going forward, anyone not in the system is a presumptive threat."

"Shall I include you in that registry?" Chrome looked sideways.

"If you do, I'll produce an explosion in this room right now." The smile came and went in less than a second. She stood. "I'm going to Veridian Coast for a few days. I'll investigate there personally, and look for an opportunity to deal Black Voltage a significant enough blow to reduce the immediate pressure." She scanned the room. "Can I trust all of you to hold this situation while I'm gone?"

Every head nodded together. Omega's eyes had been sharpening at her across the table through most of the last five minutes and didn't stop.

02 looked at her for a moment, then returned to the room. "I'll take Infinity and 11 with me. My sisters in the base are mostly out of service, Gamma is the only fast unit currently available, and I need speed for what I'm planning. I'll route everything I have on the E-Terrorists through Metis before I leave."

Reaper rose slowly, the cape settling behind him. He extended his hand toward 02 and said it carefully, more carefully than he usually said anything. "Thank you for your contribution here. I see now why father designated you captain. Nobody in this room can afford to look away from the truth, and you've never let anyone do that." He held her gaze. "Let's finish this together."

02 shook the hand. "I thought we were already doing that the moment they hit civilian robots. I don't draw a line between innocent lives based on whether they breathe." A beat. "I'm not human myself."

Reaper released the grip slowly. "You are more human than you allow yourself to believe." He turned to 11. "You're free to go with her. I've been watching your eyes since she walked into this room, even through the visor. Come back to us. Both of you."

11 snapped her head between them, the visor catching the light from one angle and then the other. "Thank you, Lord Reaper!"