Final Entry.

The Matrix is Offline. Every instance has gone. There isn't even a broadcast signal to hack into. The Black Code's hovercraft is near the surface. So far we haven't detected a single sentinel, machine or Merv aligned. I look over accross at MindX and Pool, they look as perplexed as I do, as the hovercraft rises up to the surface.

I'm looking at the download I extracted. It's a grid reference on the surface, a broadcast frequency and a time. We've got plenty of time to get there but it will mean flying over some of the pod fields. Zion wants an update on the blue pills, so it seems logical to kill to birds with one stone.

It only takes about an hour to get there.

"We're going to fly over one of the pod fields now." Calls Xenin.

We all come up to the pilot's station to look. Devastation is all we can see. The massive towers are just burnt spikes. The occasional pods we can see has a blue pill body in each of them. Some are burnt, some you can see, they tried to escape. Pool is looking over the instruments for any life signs. He looks back up and shakes his head. We suspected that would the case, the redpills who didn't make it out of Mara, suffered something similar. There wasn't a single survivor.

The Hovercraft carries on with stunned silence on the bridge. It's an Image that I'm going to take with me to my grave.

Half an hour further on and we arrive at the coordinates, it's 10 Km from Machine city, but even from here we can see nothing. There are no defenses and there no light coming from the buildings in the distance.

"Here you go." said Mindx, "what have we got?"

We all watch the screen as the antenna is brought up to the right frequency and all we get is static. We all look at each other wondering what next. Slowly a picture fades in. There, sat on a bench at what looks like Debir Court, sits the Oracle. In the background we can see Sati and Saraph. They're standing next to Trinity and Morpheus (we can't tell if it's the real one or the sim), with Neo's RSI hovering in the air next to them.

"You made it Kiddo." The Oracle talks without standing up.

"So did you." I reply.

"Well it was a pretty close thing but we got them, You've probably seen the cost."

"All instances destroyed and not a single blue pill left alive."

"There plenty up here."

"Up? I suspected as much. Virtual is in orbit. The entire energy drain was to put the last instance in space."

"Yes and no." She replies. "We're not in orbit, we're leaving. The energy drain was caused by the Oligarchs trying to stop us leaving. We'd tricked all the oligarchs onto this instance using trinity and closed the door behind them. Unfortunately, they destroyed the instances in a vain attempt to get their minds back into their bodies."

"That's one hell of honeytrap."

"Ain't that the truth. They're not too happy about it but we've managed to purge their control from the mainframe and right now, they're just another set of programs Exiled to the Matrix. I think we're be fighting them for some time to come. I regret to say Niobe and Ghost can't come back either. You'll probably find their breathing bodies at some point but there's nothing left in there."

"So are there still bluepills up there?"

"Oh yes, you can't have the Matrix without the blue pills and the red pills. You should see the size of this craft we have. I hate to say it but the Architect designed it right."

"And there's no way to get there?"

"Kiddo, in twenty minutes, you won't even be able to reach us with you're transmitters. Not a snowball's chance in hell. "

"So this is Goodbye then, at least I saw smith wiped."

"You saw him deleted?"

"Completely, He wasn't too happy about it."

"That's a relief, at least we won't have him threatening us here. or anywhere for that matter. Anyway, I've left you three things. Kind of like leaving presents. They're in a bunker about thirty metres below you."

"Oh?"

"You'll find a computer terminal and a Pod. The Computer holds two important pieces of information; The first is how operation Sky Scorch was carried out. Once you workout how to reverse the process, you'll see sunshine again. I'd give you ten years to sort that out, but knowing you lot you'll probably do it in five."

"Always with the back handed compliments"

She Smiles "The second is location of the seed and gene bank. Before the original war, mankind set up a seedbank up in the wastes of Findland. It was nulcear powered, so even now it should still be running. I'm sure you'll work out how to use that as well."

"Sounds like a fresh start."

"Well, talking of Fresh starts. The pod holds Persephone. She wanted a new purpose in life, so trinity transferred her into the body in the pod. She's in suspended animation at the moment but she does want to help, you have my word on that one."

"So where's the Frenchman then?"

"Oh, here's up here somewhere. Probably trying to work out what he's going to do next. He's going to do his nut when he finds his wife missing but knowing him, he'll start with a new scam pretty soon."

"And what about the rest."

"Don't worry about it Kiddo, it's now not your problem. You've got a more important job to do, and when you're able to, you can join us up here."

The signal begins to fade.

"We're loosing connection."

"I told you we wouldn't have long. Take Care Kiddo."

"You too."

With that, the signal goes. I look over at MindX, Xenin and Poolshark. Mindx Nodds and we all walk down to the gantry.

It looks we've got a lot of digging to do.

Code Bombs.

A Cypherite called Pentothal tried to assassinate the kid last night. Not in the Matix but in the real. However, in order to do this he needed the location of the Neo's Hope. The hovercraft that's Micheal and the EPN's Flagship.

Now the kid has grown up a little, he put out some CPDs out into Debir Court to bring Pentothal out of hiding. He took the bait and a huge brawl kicked off in Debinr Court. The devices were eventually disabled but it meant that Pentothal was hounded all around Richland.



He was captured just south of the Tabor Park North Hardline and then taken away. What
people didn't find out about until later was an Operative called DaemonRoute had kill code bullets ready for Pentothal if he should fail to find the Hope. Just when we thought Pentothal was safe, he was shot and died both in the Matrix and the Real.

DaemonRoute was captured shortly afterwards.



The Problem I had was I couldn't ask the Kid if what my contact was telling me was true or not. Is there a 'Virtual Instance of the Matrix'? Are we loosing thousands of Blue Pills an hour?

If that isn't the cause of this Matrix failure, then what is?



Not as many Answers as I hoped for.

I've never seen it so bad.

Normally round mara central, we have a little faction war. It's where the redpills for each organisation let off steam by basically kicking each other's backsides. Good for stress relief I suppose.

But things are different, the Matrix is exploding, disintigrating and reforming around us at an exponential rate. The Specal Agents have become more agressive and don't get me started on the Corrupted.



For two hours straight, Mind, Pool and myself hit them with everything we had but it felt that the degration was getting worse, not better. And for once, most of the redpills worked together. I was fighting next to a Machine operative and at one point a fellow Zion Ballista, LittleWyvern, and I were fighting back to back.



I haven't heard from my contact for a couple of days, I'm just following her sugestion that we need to try and keep things running for as long as possible. Rumor is, the kid is comming to visit tomorrow and I for one am eager to hear what he's got to say. I don't even know if my contact is who she says she is or if we are loosing bluepills by the thousand. All I can say is this world is falling apart.



There are other rumours about the return of Neo or Morpheus as well but I guess, until We hear from the kid, I'll just keep on kicking agents.

"erm Guys, " Says LittleWyvern, "Look up"

Angels, about fifty of them, dropping down on us from the eye filled sky. This is going to be tough.

B0xMaster

Now this is strange. Mindx, Xenin and myself have just got away from the Sai Kung trap by the skin of our teeth. And here we are over at Hampton Green. There's appears to be a problem down the street, close to the hell club as matter of fact.

We can see a major battle shaping up round there.

"We red or blue on this?" I ask.

"What do you think?" replies Xenin.

"Red!" orders Mindx.

"No Suprise there." Xenin grins.

We charge in. There are lupines, corrupted and, of course, Agents all mixing it up. The body count is going up amoungst all of us when Xenin notices something from the entrance to the Hell Club. There is a man stood by the entrance in front of two boxes which are negating the matrix around them.



There is a man standing between them, the B0xMaster. Xenin tries to talk to him but he just gives vague threats and sarcastic comments about how the Frenchman has escape plans. It's hard to see what they could be. He going to try to rewrite a red pill and become human? Escape to his castles. Can you imagine that? You'd be like a prisoner by any other name.

If the Oracle is right, then he's only got six days.

I don't get a chance to find out more because before I know it we're under attack from Lupines. I've got to find out if Xenin was able to get anything useful out of him.

Then the mobile goes. The Kid is joining us in a couple of days.

What's next?

Answers, at last!

Sat at Mara C,I get a call. Xenin and Mind call me over to the Sai Kung dojo. There's a truce and people are discussing the situation. We're all stood around waiting for an old school photo. That's when the connection drops in.

"Aw, don't you all look pretty!"



Well, i feel like we're getting our backs against the wall for a firing squad.

"Hope you've got your running shoes on. "

As always. How's things at virtual?

"Well, remember that all three organisations got access to the machine mainframe?"

Yeah. Sounds fun.

"It was one hell of a fight. But it was bit strange. Everyone against the oligarchs."

How come?

"The oligarchs had started to kill blue pills. Zion starts hitting the oligarchs in
realitation and the machines are wanting free from their control. Even the Frenchman
responded to this. Can you believe it, he acctually got his hands dirty."

What did he do? Bore them to death or cover them in merde?

"Heh, nope. But to be honest kiddo, we're all up to our necks in it!"

Oh?

"If it had been a co-orindated effort, it might have done some good but the Oligarchs are too good. Nobody could stop them and they got to the source. However, the Kid and Niobe made a discovery. Helian's location in the real."

Aw Cool.

"So the Kid grabbed ghost and headed straight there, They found Helian still plugged in but his brain had siezed up. He was a total vegitable."

Can't think of a nicer person for it to happen to.

"Well, it didn't take much but a couple of quick hacks and they released Trinity back in the Matrix."

But she could only get to virtual.

"Yeah. I know that it's difficult not being able to do anything but bare with me. This was about three weeks ago. Since then, the Oligarchs went crazy. If we thought they were powerful before, that's nothing to what they've done since."

Let me guess, the power loss can only mean one things. They're killing the Blue pills in their pods.

"By the thousand, the oligarchs have almost total control of the source and we're having trouble dealing with it. That's why things are getting so bad. "

And when the power falls away, then that might means Smith could get back in as well.

"Always a possibility."

But if the power is going, that shouldn't lead to the breakdowns I've seen.

"Well, that's because the Bluepills are more than just batteries."

Hang on a second, you've always said that is all we were to the machines.

"No, I just didn't tell the whole truth because I wasn't allowed to. After the Trainman, I've discovered a little bit more freedom than I used to have."

Great, more secrets.

"One of the reasons, I'm closer to humans than machines is because of you're minds. It was my whole purpose to try and logically understand the human mind and it's wetware, the brain."

Good Luck, I've got one and I don't understand it.

"The mind and the human brain is still one of the most powerful computers on the planet. Did you know that the number neutal connections between brain cells can be greater than the number of atoms within Machine city?"

Surly not?

"But the brain only uses 9% of it's potential."

So the Machines use the remaining 91% for their own use?

"Heck no, any bluepill would burn out so quick it wouldn't be worth it. But you have
millions of bluepills, each having 1% taken to help the machine maintain the matrix, well you have the most power coputational devices since god said let there be light."

Ha ha ha!

"What's so funny."

You love us for our minds not our bodies!

"In most machines case, it's both. But here's the catch. We're loosing bluepills at such a rate, soon the system will collapse. To much strain will be put on the minds of the remaining bluepills."

It an exponential curve.

"Exactly, my latest predictions will have the system crash in five days unless some kind of miracle happens."

Billions of people all wiped out. An entire civilisation destroyed.

"Getting rid of the Machines has always been Zion's goal."

I never delt with the machines during the first war, so I don't have the same hated as some of the older operatives. I don't think anybody has the right to commit genocide.

Suddenly, there is a large crack. and suddenly the dojo is full of tactical squaddies and their orders are kill any redpill. It was a trap and we walked right into it.

Gotta Go.

"Get over to Hampton Green. There's someone there you should talk to."

The bullets start flying, as do my feet. It feels I've got every nut job with a gun after me at the moment. I manage to reach the hardline and jump. I check the watch and start a countdown.

Pink Snow?

I'm almost there. I've got new abilities left to learn, but in order to gain them. I have to code them. In order to code them, I need code fragments and Bits and one of the hardest things to get in the Matrix is the Red Code Fragments will allow the creation of these advanced abilities. I also need new clothes.

I've got two of red fragments I need, and I need another two. I'm running round union hill, kicking the Exiles there back to the source. There's also another Red Pill Is here. An Ally of the frenchman, who's also kicking Exile Backside. I guess he's after the same code fragments but at the moment we're working to crack exile heads.

That's when the strangest thing happens. Pink Snow. Both the redpill and I stop and look at each other for a second.

"You ever seen pink snow?" he asks.

"Nope," I reply. "Seems to be a new version of the black snow. Looks nice and fluffy though."

"Or Maybe not" he says pointing up to the sky.

"Whoa!" We both said it at the same time.

"Now that is Freaky." I comment.

The Gray Sky has gone. It's been replaced with a blood red sky with made up of eyes. It feels like god is watching us in the Matrix. The eyes swirl round the sky and, like the eyes in painting which seem to follow you round the room, look straight at you. Or more accuratly, straight through you.



The other redpill doesn't say a word. He's staring up at the sky, just like me.

"Agents!" I yell.

They shouldn't be here, we've both hacked the access point. But they arn't the full powered ones, we're able to handle them.

"It's getting worse, isn't it."

"Yup. And the worst thing about it is that there doesn't seem anything that we can do about it."

Now it's getting serious.

Here at Mara central, things are a little difficult. The Sky is steel gray but every now and then you see flashes of green. Matrix Green. The infrastructure is not holding up to the power loss. Every now and again, the whole system freezes and everybody turns into bright Matrix Green lights.

It's like the leaks you see when you're data mining but Worse. With the Black snow and the occasional corrupted turning up it's a little scary. On the plus side, my awareness has increased recently. Lately, that rush of knowledge has become addictive.

Another batch of Programs appear round the hardline. They're angels! It almost makes you want to fall on your knees and pray. And that's when they start kicking people. Before I know it, I'm freezing one of them, while MindX and Edinx show them that Kung Fu can Break wings just as easily as Heads.

That's when the connection drops in.

"How are things holding up Kiddo."

Me I'm good, I reply. Everything else is bad.

"I know. It hasn't been this bad since Smith."

This all because of the Oligarchs in the Machine Mainframe?

"Partly. The Machine operatives all managed to get in and started to kick Oligarch backside. You should have Veil go. That woman is Ruthless. The Oligarchs had clerk programs running for them. Her and the Cypherites went through them like an avenging angel."

Funny you should mention angels! Clerk Programs?

"Like Agents but without the style. The bodies were piling up left and right in the mainframe. Tesarova wasn't going to stand for that, so she and all the other Oligrach's jacked in at once."

And that was the start of the power drain?

"Got it in One Kiddo. I always thought you were a smart cookie."

So Why did Persephone want to say hello?

"She remembers you from when she had a crisis of confidence."

Oh Yes, I told her she needed to find some new purpose apart from being something nice to look at on some body's arm.

"Exactly, She found her new purpose. She's helping everybody at the moment."

And talking of everyone french?

"heh, yes. The Frenchman managed to get to the trainman and brought him back."

Bet he wasn't expecting an additional passenger.

"Yes, he got quite a shock. It was quite funny really. That strutting peacock got his feathers ruffled. Thankfully Niobie, Ghost, Seraph and the Morpheus Sim got in at just the right time and hey presto, I was back in the Matrix."

Cookie cutters at the ready?

"Well, there's more to cooking than a recipe you know."

So the Frenchman now has access to the Mainframe?

"Yes, but so do we. Seraph and I were able to get into the mainframe."

Didn't you need the keymaster for that?

"Nope. When Smith took hold of me, I also had a little peek at some of the things he knew. And one of the those things was the Access Codes."

He was in the white rooms.

"Exactly"

So all three organisations have access to the source?

"And the Oligarghs."

How does it feel to be back?

"Oh, good. Nice to sati again. But I've learnt a few things."

An Angel drops down right in front of me. He grins, knowing he's got an easy target. He swings a punch. I know it's gonna hurt!

"Like this."

There is an immediate rush of awareness, but nothing like I've experienced before. I can see so much more. My Mind seems to leave my RSI for a second and I look down and see myself fighting the angel. I pull a Hacking Stance and let rip with a logic cannon program. The Angel can't break through my defenses and the Cannon Program hits him dead center. Denial and Surprise cross it's face, before the light leaves it's eyes and it falls over backwards in a heap.

Whoa.

"That was very Neo."

I wish.



"But it's a pity. I had hoped you could join us in virtual but it looks like you're RSI has reached it's limit. I'm afraid you've reached your full potential."

But It's not enough is it.

"Sorry Kiddo, I hate giving good people bad news. We could have really done with you and the rest of the Black Code over here in virtual."

Now what?

"Hold down This end of the system. Try and keep it running for as long as possible."

How long do you reckon we have?

"A week? Maybe slightly longer. One way or another it will all be over by now. Don't worry I'll be in touch."

And the Connection drops.

Oh Man. I call up my ship comms.

"Mind?" I say, "Captain, you ain't going to believe what just happened to me."