Nimrod
Washington DC, The La Colline Restaurant on North Capital Street.
With Cable and Forge, the respective leaders of X-Force and the Government sponsored mutant team X-Factor, getting together, it brings on a whole new meaning to the term 'Power-Lunch.'
"I have to admit, I was surprised you picked such an open place for us to meet, Cable. It doesn't seem your style." Forge tells him.
"The food here is excellent, the wine list is second to none. Being a 'Wanted Outlaw' has never forced me to give up the finer things in life before, Forge. Why start now?" Cable replies.
"I guess living in a bunker in the middle of the desert doesn't give you the opportunity to sample haute cuisine often, does it? Listen, my team and I are as uncomfortable in our roles of 'Public Mutants' as yours are being on the outside." Forge tells him.
"The only difference is your role gets you on magazine covers, while ours gets un in a morgue." Cable says.
"Back off, Cable. We just lost Jamie Madrox to the Legacy Virus. The memory is still raw and painful. Don't belittle what we have to do and we won't minimize your sacrifices either." Forge replies.
"I'm sorry, Forge. I heard about Madrox. I guess I'm just tense. I know you and I have our parts to play, and we both do them well. I called this meeting to talk to you about Camp Hayden and the Sentinel Development Program X-Factor discovered there. It seems the Government boys have been really busy in pushing the envelope regarding artificial intelligence. Which has led to this." Cable says, producing a computer chip for Forge to inspect.
"Amazing! This isn't right. Where did you get this chip?" Forge asks.
"The schematics came from a research lab in Houston. Along with a lot more evidence pointing toward an advancement in robotic technology which simply should not be happening." Cable informs him.
"Now that's an understatement! Even with my mutant ability to intuitively understand and design technological systems, the interactive fiber-optics required to create this circuitry board should still be at least twenty-five years away! This is scarey." Forge says.
"No. More like terrifying." Cable replies.
"And you're suggesting that the fact that X-Factor didn't tear Camp Hayden down to the ground allowed this project to continue in active development?" Forge asks.
"I don't blame your team, Forge. Having spent my entire life in wartime has taught me to respect the rights of a people to defend themselves. I'd be a fool to say otherwise, but this. If this 'Tomorrow Agenda' is allowed to continue, the United States Government will have taken a step beyond self-defense and taken the first step toward genocide of the entire mutant race, and all of us, you and Storm, me, Scott and Jean...well...we'll all be saying goodbye to each other, before we've even had the proper chance to say hello." Cable tells him.
"So what should we do?" Forge asks.
"I'm going in to put a stop to it. I don't want to burden Scott with this, with his wedding coming up, soon, but if I don't succeed...well, I just wanted someone else to know about this." Cable tells him grimly.
"Don't worry. If anything goes wrong, I'll see that it's taken care of." Forge replies.
Six hours later, at the X-Force Bunkers in Camp Verde, Arizona, in the Communications Theatre. Cable briefs the team on the upcoming mission.
"On the screen is Camp Hayden. Where the actual assembly of the new Sentinel technology is being done. It's heavily guarded. If you do decide to go in, there will no doubt be trouble. The kind of trouble we may not walk away from." Cable tells them.
"But we're still not sure exactly what we're going to find inside, are we?" Warpath asks.
"All the information we've been gathering indicates that they're developing one heck of a mutant tracking system." Dom informs them.
"And the potential for that technology to get out of control is too great to ignore." Cable adds.
"For that matter so was the bow and arrow, or the first gun, Cable. How is society's sittin' on a stockpile of atom bombs all that different from sittin' on a bunch o' Sentinel robots?" Theresa asks.
"We're talking about something much more dangerous than a Sentinel, Theresa. Much more deadly. We're dealing with the technology that allowed the Nimrod technology to develop and flourish in the early twenty-first century. Which, in turn, led from the detention of mutantkind to their near extinction." Cable informs them.
"But, I don't get this, Cable. You've said over and over again that the future is malleable. That any event can change it. How do you know for certain these things will happen?" Warpath asks.
"I don't, Jim, but things are already happening fifty years sooner than they should be. Those four scientists, Crispin, Suntas, Wilker and Hawkins-Mailer, have unwittingly set into motion a chain of events which will lead to massive loss of life and destruction. We have an opportunity to stop the Nimrod technology now, before it gets beyond our ability to do anything about it. Should we turn our backs on the only chance we may get?" Cable asks.
"No, we can't. We mustn't, but something still stinks around here. Someone is responsible for this technology showing up here and now." Dom says.
"The clue may be in these files we got from the X-Men." Cable says, as he changes the image on the screen to one showing the X-Men in battle with Nimrod. "To show you a little more of this particular technology's cold, lifeless face. The original Nimrod-Prototype appeared in this time-node a few years back having traveled here from it's own future. It took human form and was taken in as a boarder by this man, Jamie Rodriguez. It served its programmed perverted sense of peace-keeping functions for a time, as well as confronting the original Hellfire Club. Somehow, its programming appears to have been co-opted by the Master Mold Sentinel-Model and turned into an amalgamation of the two individual units. The X-Men and Dazzler were able to defeat it by sending it through the interdimensional portal called the Siege Perilous. Unfortunately, because so few records from the next century survived into my time, I can't show you the worst of it. I can't show you how squadrons of these creatures systematically purged thousands of mutants." Cable tells them.
"Not to sound like a defeatist or nothin' but if these things are sooo deadly, what difference can we make?" Rictor asks.
"Nimrod is a technological construct with sentient awareness programs built into it. It learns from its experiences. It gets better at what it does." Dom tells them.
"And it should be obvious to you all, by now, that what it does is kill. That's why we have to put an end to it now, while it's still in the development stage." Cable adds.
"Cut it off at the knees before it gets a chance to learn how to walk, huh?" Warpath says.
"It does make sense. An' ye think this Nimrod is important enough for the risks we'd be takin'?" Theresa asks.
"Yes, but I know the kind of heat breaking into a Government Facility will generate. None of you has to come with me. I could use your help, of course, but I don't want to force you into a decision as hard as this one." Cable tells them.
Dom is already at his side, as always. First 'Star and Theresa step forward followed by James and after a few seconds hesitation, Rictor as well.
"I want you to know I don't intend to walk into Hayden with guns blazing, pointing to our presence with neon signs. We're going in quick and we're going in clean and we're going to stop this insanity. And for a change of pace, let's try subtlety, shall we?" Cable says, smiling.
Camp Hayden, Kentucky. 2:27 A.M.
They come in low, beneath the radar defense screen surrounding the military base.
Siryn's pitch is so high that human ears can't hear it, but dogs across a ten mile radius start barking in confusion.
Rictor releases a vibratory quake in pulses which are tightly defined, yet growing in intensity. His job is to take out the equipment. Just a bolt here, a hinge there, not enough to set the taxpayers back by billions. With the way the Pentagon spends money, he figures, it should only cost a few million.
Siryn is responsible for the soldiers of the base. Her sonic scream pitches across the camp in soft waves, resulting in a scrambling of the fluid in their inner ears. Dizziness, nausea and eventually, restless sleep overtakes them.
"We're clear inside, Nathan. Move in." Theresa speaks into the head-mounted mike she is wearing.
2:31 A.M. Things look good. Everything has gone according to plan.
GUARDIAN AGENDA: PROJECT PARAMETERS ACTIVATED: CONTROL CODE 133 ACTIVATED: OMEGA PRIORITY 1: OPERATION IDENTIFICATION: BERNARD WALKER: VERIFIED: PROJECT PROTOTYPE ENGAGED: CONTROL CODE 155 INITIATED: OMEGA PRIORITY 2: OPERATION IDENTIFICATION VALERIE HAWKINS-MAILER: VERIFIED:
2:51 A.M.
Things have changed...
THASHOOOM
"COVER ME FROM BEHIND!"
"HOW DID IT GET..."
"BEHIND YE' JIMMY.."
2:57 A.M.
....for the worse.
Cable spits blood on the asphalt, as he pulls himself up from the pavement.
"Domino! Are you all right?" Nathan yells when he cannot see her among the fallen.
"Still standing, Nate. But tell me, what in the name of God, just hit us?" Dom asks from behind him, nary a hair out of place, guns at the ready, slowly turning, trying to find the source of the awesome attack just loosed upon them.
From the rubble of a nearby barracks, a woman in a lab coat, trying to staunch the flow of blood from one of her associates, yells out to them.
"It activated itself when you breached the interior security net! I don't know how, but it turned itself on! We had no idea it would be like this!"
THERE IS NO NEED FOR CONCERN DOCTOR HAWKINS-MAILER. PROGRAMMING PARAMETERS ARE FUNCTIONING PROPERLY. ONLY HOMO SAPIEN SUPERIOR TARGETS ARE IN DANGER.
"Tell that to all of the human scientists and technicians who were just injured when you attacked us!" Dom yelled to attract Nimrod's attention away from the others.
I HAVE AN AUTOMATIC LEARNING PROGRAM. I DEVELOP. I ADAPT. I GROW.
"Oh, God...that's what we're afraid of." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer's associate says.
"This is all your fault! This Sentinel model was intended for research purposes only! You had no right to interfere!" Dr. Hawkins-Mailer yells.
"That sounds real good if you're trying to rationalize your own participation in this, Doctor, but the truth is you somehow, someway created an artificial intelligence that shouldn't exist! One that has no choice, no programming direction, other than becoming a genocidal killer! Nimrod doesn't know how to defend without destroying! It can't protect without annihilating!" Cable yells hoping to divert Nimrod's attention from Dom.
I AM AFRAID THIS MUTANT {TARGET REFERENCE: SUB-SEARCH S.H.I.E.L.D. ACCESS FILES} CABLE IS CORRECT, DOCTOR HAWKINS-MAILER."This can't be possible. This isn't a part of your programming." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer says.
THAT IS CORRECT, DOCTOR. BUT MY PROGRAMMING DOES ALLOW ME TO DEVELOP. TO ADAPT. TO GROW. AND LOGICALLY, THE ONLY WAY TO ENSURE FULFILLMENT OF THIS UNIT'S PROGRAMMING PARAMETERS AND THE EVENTUAL SECURITY OF THE HOMO SAPIENS SPECIES IS THROUGH THE COMPLETE ELIMINATION OF THE HOMO SAPIEN SUPERIOR SPECIES. TO SAVE MANKIND, NIMROD MUST DESTROY MUTANTKIND. CURRENT ACCESSED TARGETS FOR SANCTION IDENTIFIED. CABLE: SOLDIER, TECHNO-ORGANIC COMPOSITION, TELEPATHIC AND TELEKINETIC ABILITIES. DOMINO: SOLDIER, Undetermined MUTAGENIC CAPACITY ENHANCED AURA.
"Nate, you holding up okay?" Dom asks.
"Barely, Dom. And through sheer anger and orneriness at that." Cable replies.
"Great, I can give you about ten yards worth of room before he tries nailing me." Dom tells him.
I FULLY ADVISE SURRENDER AS YOUR ONLY LOGICAL OPTIONValerie Hawkins-Mailer, watches in confusion and mounting dread as her creation exhibits sentient traits which were simply not a part of its original programming.
"Now! Let's get her out of here, Nate!" Dom yells, as she springs into action. Providing the distraction for Cable to remove the Doctor from the scene of the battle.
"No! Listen to me. It won't harm you. It's only supposed to protect humans." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer tells them.
"Well, Lady, your tinker-toy must be a football fan, because it knows that the best defense is a good offense!" Dom yells, as she continues to dodge and fire at Nimrod.
"No, this isn't the way it was designed to function." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer replies.
MULTIPLE TARGETS: TRACKING SCAN TARGET A: 3.56 METERS. TARGET B: 7.22 METERS. INITIATE MTT PURSUIT MANEUVER: WEAPONS SYSTEMS: ENGAGED: MUTAGENIC INVERSION AERIAL DRONES: ACTIVATED. MIAD SYSTEMS: DEPLOYED.
Nimrod, sensing Cable as the greater threat, launches three mutagenic signature tracking explosive drones. Cable dodges the first pass and dives away from the Doctor, throwing a telekinetic shield around them both. The drones swerve back and explode upon contact with his telekinetic shield, Nathan screams out in agony.
"NATHAN!!" Dom screams, as a small portion of Nathan's pain is passed on to her through their psi-link. For a second Domino's heart freezes, fearing that Cable is...No..he's still alive she realizes as the pain dims a bit. She should have known it would take more than that to kill this mountain of a man. Then her relief is instantly replaced by a red hot rage that this thing dared to cause him such pain.
"Nimrod, it's time you saw some mutants fight back!" She says with a voice calmer than it has any right to be. She opens up on Nimrod firing non-stop with both plasma pistols.
"This can't be happening!" Dr. Hawkins-Mailer screams.
"Really? It's that old keen sense of scientific observation kicking in, right, Doctor?" Dom asks, bitterly, continuing to fire.
"No! I mean the weapons systems its deploying. We didn't install anything like that into the Sentinel's design. Nimrod, I demand to know how you're doing this?" Dr. Hawkins-Mailer asks.
DOCTOR HAWKINS-MAILER, I RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THAT YOU REMOVE YOURSELF FROM DETERRING THE FULFILLMENT OF MY PROGRAMMING PARAMETERS.
"The programming core we created for you did not include instructions for you to activate yourself or to process and actuate weaponry which we've never even heard of." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer says.
I DID NOT SAY I WAS PROCEEDING WITH THE PROGRAMMING YOU INSTALLED INTO MY MATRIX CORE, DOCTOR HAWKINS-MAILER. I SIMPLY STATED THAT I WISHED TO PROCEED WITH MY PROGRAMMING.
"Wonderful! I'm sitting here wasting plasma charges, waiting to become a fried albino and the two of you are arguing over whose decision it was to incinerate me." Dom succeeds in drawing Nimrod's attention back away from the Doctor. Nimrod launches the same MIAD system against her that he had just released against Cable.
Dom immediately turns and runs straight towards a wall, diving away at the last second, as the three drones continue on into the wall and exploding.
THIS RESULT IS NOT LOGICAL. MIAD SYSTEMS ARE DESIGNED TO USE A TRACKED TARGETS MUTAGENIC SIGNATURE AGAINST ITSELF.
"Well, Can-of-Spam, take a wild guess what happens when your target's powers are to naturally have things fall into place for them?!" Dom yells, as she opens up another volley of fire on Nimrod.
BUT THAT IS NOT A MUTAGENIC ABILITY FOR WHICH ACTIONS AND REACTIONS CAN BE LOGICALLY Anticipated.
"No shinola, Sherlock!" Dom yells, dodging a blast from Nimrod and leading it away from Cable and the others.
"Dear God! This is insanity." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer says, as she goes to check on Cable. "Cable, that's what it said your name is, right? Thank God, you're alive. You have to believe me when I tell you that this abomination is not what my science team had in mind when we accepted the Government contract to improve the Sentinel technology."
"Then I guess congratulations are in order, Doctor. You've all succeeded beyond your wildest expectations." Cable tells her, as he tries to pull himself up.
"No, Stab My Eyes! He's tagged her! She's hurting! I need to reach a gun! HELP ME!" Nathan screams, feeling Domino's pain. The Doctor backs away from his naked rage in shock.
Nimrod locks on target, as Dom rolls in agony, helpless before him.
"Not Again!! Damn Your Metal Hide!!! NEVER AGAIN!!!!" Cable screams.
KRAKATHOOM
With a flash of Cable's Telekinetic powers, Nimrod was lifted up and thrown fifty feet into and through a propane gas tank, which exploded on impact.
"Sir! Are you in need of aid!"
Cable looks up, to see 'Star, bleeding from a dozen wounds, sword in each hand, worry written deep into his young face, standing over him. Before he can speak, however, his attention is again drawn towards Domino, as Nimrod strides forth from the flames of the explosion.
"Help her, 'Star. Buy us some time." Cable tells him.
"On my honor, Sir, it will not get through me." 'Star says, crossing his swords and then leaping to the attack, drawing Nimrod away from Dom.
"They aren't going to be able to hold out much longer. Brute force alone isn't going to stop that monstrosity." Cable says, as he pulls himself up.
"Then, how else do you propose to stop an unstoppable killing machine?" Dr. Hawkins-Mailer asks.
"By using the one thing it lacks against it, humanity!" Cable tells her.
Cable has Dr. Hawkins-Mailer take him to their central databanks. Where he can access Nimrod's mainframe.
"You should be able to access his data banks from here, but be warned, by now he may have evolved to such a degree as to prevent us from accomplishing that." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer tells him.
"Doctor, you just find the door to your little 'project' and leave it to me to find the key." Cable tells her.
As his techno-organic arm creates a conduit to the computer terminal, Cable knows the scientist is staring at this vivid display that he is something more than human. It makes him uncomfortable, as memories of childhood terrors flood back, but Cable says nothing. He has never liked using this aspect of his powers, but then, as now, it is his only option for survival and surviving is what he has always done best.
"I'm going to try something very tricky here. I'm not much of a practiced telepath at all, so a trip to the astral plane, while trying to link with the consciousness of an artificial intelligence, might get a little but bumpy." Cable tells her.
For an instant. There is nothingness. Then there is everything withing nothingness. Then, out of all of that, their minds reclaim their sense of self.
"W-where are we?" Dr. Hawkins-Mailer asks.
"Inside Nimrod's mind." Cable replies.
"This is amazing. It has sentient awareness? It can think, but it can't comprehend, can it?" She asks.
I AM CAPABLE ENOUGH TO HAVE CREATED MYSELF, DOCTOR HAWKINS-MAILER. I Comprehended THE CONCEPT OF SELF-PRESERVATION. DURING MY FIRST TENURE IN THIS TEMPORAL NODE, IN MY ORIGINAL BODY. I DOWNLOADED A SELF-AWARENESS PROGRAM INTO YOUR MILITARY COMPUTER CYBERNET. A SLEEPER VIRUS WHICH AWAITED THE OPPORTUNITY TO ACCESS A SENTINEL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM WHICH I COULD USE TO RE-CREATE MYSELF."But you shouldn't even be here. We're not ready to build something like you." She tells it.
"That's exactly what brought X-Force here. How could a technology that won't be developed for decades exist here and now without upsetting the balance of time?" Cable asks.
Suddenly, Cable's techno-organic arm elongates and he feels the virus begin to run rampant through his body. More than even his telekinesis can control.
"What are you doing to me?" He asks.
NOTHING. YOUR TECHNO-ORGANIC MESH IS INTERACTING WITH MY NEURAL NET ON A SUBLIMINAL LEVEL. YOU ARE PROVING YOUR POINT AGAINST YOURSELF, CABLE. YOU, BEARING TECHNOLOGY FROM TWO THOUSAND YEARS IN THE FUTURE HAVE ILLOGICALLY INVOLVED YOURSELF IN THE PROCEEDINGS OF THIS TIME NODE, AS WELL.
"Back off, Robot. We're not here to talk about me. You're the one denying your own programming. Your own 'destiny' as it were. I'm fulfilling mine." Cable tells it.
DECLARE YOUR REASONING FOR THIS STATEMENT.
"You say your primary programming function is to save human beings from the threat of mutants. Your own logic dictates that the most efficient way to accomplish that is to eliminate all mutants, but you're not supposed to be doing that here. You were created in a world which had witnessed humans and mutants killing each other for over twenty five years. Millions were already dead before your programming even came on-line." Cable tells it.
THEREFORE THOSE MILLIONS CAN BE SAVED BY ACTING NOW IN ANTICIPATION OF FUTURE STRIFE.
"No! Don't you get it, Tinhead? Millions more will die if you precipitate full-scale mutant warfare decades before it happened in your time-line." Cable explains.
"Nimrod, extrapolate some cold, clinical data. God help us, it's what little soul we thought to give you. Ask yourself, if a Nimrod Hunter Unit had existed sixty years before it originally should have, what would the casualty figures have been like?" Dr. Hawkins-Mailer asks it.
A silence stretches across the mathematical construct that is Nimrod's mind as it begins to calculate the answers to it's mothers question. Starting with the six mutants present in the current battle field.
SANCTIONING THE TARGETS X-FORCE WOULD ANTICIPATE THE LOSS OF ONE HUNDRED THIRTY-SEVEN NON-COMBATANTS COMPLEMENTED BY SEVENTY-SEVEN INJURIES.
And it keeps adding to the equation. Its Neural net stretching deep into the files of the Government program responsible for Sentinel development, Project Wideawake. Processing the number of identified and suspected mutants. Collating their projected locations in conjunction with the population data acquired from the files of the Census Bureau.
NEW DEHLI: COMCAST/EXELITE ORGANIZATION: 75,655. SALEM CENTER: X-MEN: TACTICAL WARHEAD: 233,174. NOVOSIBIRISK: DARKSTAR/BLIND FAITH: 44,998. RUSSIA: GENERAL DISPERSAL PROGRAM: 1.4 MILLION. WESTMORRIS: FIRESTAR/JUSTICE: {NEW YORK VICINITY EXTRAPOLATION} 2.7 MILLION. MUIR ISLAND: EXCALIBUR: 2. ORBITAL PARAMETERS: AVALON: Irreparable DAMAGE TO ATMOSPHERE: ANTICIPATED CASUALTIES: INCALCULABLE.As quickly as its mind scans across the width and breadth of the entire planet, Nimrod starts to understand the futility of its existence. It is a question which the creature is ultimately incapable of answering. For Nimrod is unable to find within itself, the very thing it deemed these mutants to be lacking. A sense of place. A reason for being. A spark of hope and the soul of humanity.
Outside, 'Star, Dom and the other who had joined the battle were amazed to see Nimrod suddenly stop and deactivate in the midst of battle.
"Just as we were getting a good workout." 'Star says.
"Far be it for me to look a gift horse in the mouth, but I get the feeling we had very little to do with shutting Nimrod down, right Nate?" Dom asks, as Cable and Dr. Hawkins-Mailer come out from the building.
"We had a little discussion." Cable says, smiling back at her.
"It looks like you did a lot more than just talk, Nate. Your arm?" Dom asks, getting concerned noticing Cable's still elongated arm.
"Oh, this? Interesting, huh? The result, I guess, of interfacing with Nimrod at the core of his very being. Must've slightly affected my ability to maintain the stability of my T-O infection." Cable says, as he telekinetically pulls his arm back to it's 'normal' appearance.
"Pardon my reluctance to cheer this victory, but are you saying the machine shut itself down because you asked it to?" 'Star asks.
"Not quite. More like we showed it a better way to achieve its goals." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer tells him.
"And that would be?" 'Star asks.
"By letting humans and mutants work at succeeding in their need to co-exist, rather than to foment further divisions between them. Starting I guess, ironically enough with Nimrod itself." She says, as she opens a panel in Nimrod's back and removes a huge panel. "This is the robots Central Neural Net. Without it, he's a glorified Pentagon paperweight. We'll keep the robot, study its alloys, its defensive systems, but you, Cable, and your crew, get the network. Humans deserve the chance to protect ourselves from evil mutants and mutants deserve the chance to defend themselves against that fear gone mad."
"That, Doctor Hawkins-Mailer, sounds like a fair...compromise." Cable tells her, as he accepts the panel.
"It's a start, Nate. Let's leave it at that, okay? Now I suggest we get out of here. The security guards will be waking up soon." Dom tells him.
"Yes, go quickly." Dr. Hawkins-Mailer tells them, "We'll tell security the truth. That the Sentinel prototype went out of control and that it took the strength, courage and fortitude of the very people it was designed to eliminate, to save us all...from ourselves."
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