lr.2
MEGAZONE 23
"All my father wanted to do was make a toaster you could
really set the darkness on. And you took his work and
perverted it into those hideous machines!"
--Sylia Stingray, kind of.
EARTH
The GENOM tower gleamed, silver and mirrored, stretching
all the way up to the two hundred ninetieth floor; it was
nothing compared to the vast arcology it would later enjoy,
but for now it was a most impressive structure, a huge tower
of glass and steel reaching for the sky. All around it were
the corporation's actual production facilities, connected
into one huge complex by a network of tunnels and glass
transtubes and the like. The whole vast complex had sprung
up seemingly overnight, in fact, it was overnight, complete
with its own airport and all, in the center of the crater
that was once Worcester, Massachusetts.
At the building's very top, the president, owner, chief
executive officer, and undisputed lord and master of GENOM
had his office. And a huge office it was too, encompassing
the entire 290th floor, excepting the outer office and
secretarial pool. It offered him a beautiful three hundred
degree view of the surrounding wasteland; the remaining sixty
degrees were taken up by beautiful oak-paneled walls
containing bookshelves, paintings, and the like--and of
course the huge, armored oak door to the office. The back of
the office, in front of the windows, was dominated by a two-
step-high dais upon which rested a magnificent desk, a desk
that appeared to consist entirely of black glass and small
glowing lights.
Behind that desk, in a luxuriant leather chair, sat the
man who controlled the corporation like Kurita Takashi
controlled the Draconis Combine in the 3020s, a mysterious
man known only as Largo. Largo was tall and thin, with
straight black hair and penetrating, narrow brown eyes; he
looked Japanese, but no one could ever tell it to hear him
talk. He spoke English with no accent at all. He spoke many
languages with no accent at all, as a matter of fact, which
led a lot of people to mistrust him; there were many such
facets of his being that marked him as something more than
human. And perhaps less.
Largo was, in fact, a modified HBU-99a Hyper-Buma, and
the third and final free sentient creation of CLULESS.
Created accidentally by Larry "Entropy" Foard, Largo had come
into being on the campus of Worcester Polytechnic Institute
and his entire industrial empire underneath it. He had
decided early on to seize control of the campus and use its
resources to attempt world domination; the faction of
students called the Wedge Rats, with the aid of WWWA Trouble
Consultant team #261 (the Lovely Angels), defeated him
militarily in a resounding battle, slaying his general and
most of his original troops.
The battle cost the Rats as well; they were forced to
flee into space in the small spacecraft their Wedge had
become as an energy surge caused by the use of an ExoSalusia
Arms Model 4a Wave Motion Rifle caused the nuclear reactor in
the Washburn Shops, modified by Largo and company for more
power, to go supercritical. The entire city of Worcester and
most of the surrounding boroughs were utterly destroyed in
the ensuing explosion. Only Largo escaped unharmed, having
fled into the tunnels below the campus. There he discovered
the underground complex and the means to raise it to
prominence. Having done so, he activated its vast resources
and began to build his power base. With the Wedge Rats out
muddling around in space, there would be no one to stop him
this time.
He picked up the telephone on his desk and dialed a
three-digit extension; upon receiving an answer, he said
simply, "This is Largo. Are you still on schedule?
Excellent. Proceed as planned. Make sure all is in
readiness. It is vital that these three projects be
completed at once." He then hung up, stood, and left his
office.
The turboelevator outside his outer office took him
speedily to his specified destination, a biotech lab deep in
one of the sublevels. He entered, as he generally did, with
the calm and quiet arrogance of one who knows he is absolute
master of all he sees. And what he saw at the moment was a
crew of expert biotechs clustered around a Mann Systems
Series 101-E Bio-SculptTM tank, inside which, suspended in
the syrupy red liquid of the tank, was one of his latest pet
projects. Actually, it was the second in the series; the
first attempt had been, by his standards, a dismal failure.
Individual Cybernetic Zygote Enhancement Research, the
technicians called it; a biomechanical process whose end
result was device similar to a Type 33-S Buma which could
control and redirect the energy around it and, in addition
generate its own. Revolutionary; Largo looked forward, once
it was perfected, to having a similar system implanted
somewhere among his own systems, to increase his power.
First, though, he wanted a suitable Buma-style testbed. He
had insisted on an anthropomorphic design; further, he had
insisted that it be female. Perhaps if her AI systems
developed far enough and to his liking, he would take her as
a consort.
"Doctor Astbury," Largo said quietly. The small man
working at the master console started violently and turned
around slowly, almost reluctantly. "How is your work
progressing?"
"A-as well as can be expected, sir, considering the
precautions we had to take after the failure of the first
prototype. Although I still don't see why you considered her
a failure; all the energy control systems worked perfectly
and her AI was developing at a most pleasing rate--"
Largo turned and picked up the spare-framed scientist by
the front of the lab coat with a single hand, raising him a
good two feet from the floor. "I've explained it to you
before, you fool--her psychological profile was all wrong! I
want a weapon of mass destruction, absolutely obedient to
me--not the living embodiment of conscience! Conscience has
no place in my plans, do you understand? That is why I
ordered the first prototype destroyed--she could have proven
a stumbling block, not an aid!"
"A-absolutely, sir. Forgive me." Largo set Astbury
back down on the floor, rather roughly; the scientist dusted
himself off before continuing, "At any rate, the first
prototype has been disposed of, and the second should be
ready to come online and begin testing tomorrow morning."
"Good. I don't want to have any more failures, Doctor."
"You won't, sir. I've taken a great many precautions
against the development of such a...benevolent personality in
I.C.Z.E.R. 2."
"Excellent. Alert me when you are ready to bring this
unit on line. I want to be there." Largo went and surveyed
the Bio-SculptTM tank. "I want her to know immediately who
her master is..."