ORIGIN

What on Earth...

As he suddenly gained consciousness, Ezrith found himself on the deck of a cold and rusty starship. Piloted by no one, the giant ship was self-guided as if it had its brain. Ezrith was chained to a wall, along with a few other Origin Project operatives. This part of the ship was very dark and the closest door was being guarded by two armed robots that could unite together to form a larger robot. The ship's insides were mechanized complexly and moved about like clockwork. The ship was headed to Earth. Ezrith's wrist gadget was broken. He was bleeding from his nose, two of his teeth were loose, and his eyes were swollen, but he could still see a little. He could hear the faint sound of screams, maybe somewhere else on the ship. All he kept thinking about was Akira and his unborn child. The ship, which resembled a colossal sea monster, approached a small base that scanned it for recognition. After the ship was scanned, a huge hole opened up in a forcefield that covered the Earth so that it was invisible, not only to the human eye but also to radar. Anything unrecognized passing through the force field would be incinerated by it. The earth was very dark. The sun was being sapped of solar energy by a giant matter converter that the androids used to sustain themselves. When the ship landed, its mouth opened up. Hordes of androids exited the mouth with many captives from Citadel, including Ezrith. Ezrith had never seen Earth. It seemed like everything man built there was in ruins. The sun was being depleted of its energy to power the planet's artificially intelligent civilizations. The androids brought Ezrith to a place that looked like an old, castle-like cathedral. It was crawling with insectoids and swarming with nanobots that were irritating Ezrith like gnats. The android city was constructed very intricately and different from any human city.

Meanwhile, on the Darksiders' training facility, everybody was being escorted to separate interviewing rooms where they would be questioned and analyzed by veteran Darksiders. The plan to take over the facility from the inside had to be executed without the help of weapons. Bio told Cannon to contact him after it was okay for him, Ratch, Circuit, and Austere to storm the space station, but he couldn't because his wrist gadget had been taken. Everybody felt naked and extremely vulnerable. They were surrounded by their enemies and they were in the heart of their territory. 

Meanwhile, Bio, Ratch, Circuit, and Blake Austere were at the luxurious resort on the beach around beautiful and exotic Veccan models. Bio was still waiting to receive Cannon's call. After a while of no word from him, Bio, Circuit, Ratch, and Blake came up with a plan. Ratch was loading up all kinds of automatic blasters and explosives while they discussed the plan on the beach with a view of Ecriss' busy skyline. You could see starships blasting off and touching down on skyports. Bio stroked his chin in contemplation. After finally coming up with an idea, he presented it to Blake, Circuit, and Ratch. "We need to take an unorthodox approach to taking over the Darksiders' base. And we need to be quick about it. I think I know a way we can get some backup," Bio said. Then he turned to Blake Austere and asked: "Didn't you have corrupt ties to the hacker they call Firewall?" Blake answered: "Yeah. He was the key to the Nebulis setup. But as far as he knows right now, I was killed during Jason Stone's shooting spree on the Brigade outpost." Bio said: "Firewall's too close to the Darksiders but NumLock's an old friend of mine. Circuit even rubbed shoulders with him during his days as a Code Heart. NumLock's part of another hacker empire native to this planet. They're called "Digital Underground". They run many cybermarkets around this city. NumLock owes me a few favors. Maybe I can get him and Digital Underground to help us with our mission."  Blake asked Bio: "How are you gonna do this?" Bio answered: "Well, for one thing, Digital Underground is an outlaw band that lives by certain noble codes. Although criminals, they don't believe in artificial intelligent beings dominating man for their own purposes. They believe in just the opposite. I think we can get them to help us." Circuit spoke up and said: "I think so too." Ratch said: "There's nothin' like new-found leverage."