44 Perfect World VR (22) - Command and Conquer

"Reyes, come on!!... Wake up, you narcissistic bastard!!" Nathan yelled at the top of his lungs. It was somewhat pointless to do so but he had no other options. It's not like he could run back to their base to wake him up.

"You should stop now. There's no point." Leah said. "…" He remained silent as he stared at the space in front of him. Just as hopelessness was about to descend on him, a response came through.

"Ugh, no need to scream so much, man. Your feminine voice is giving me a headache." Reyes was conscious!!... "Haha, Reyes, you son of a bitch, I knew you would wake up soon," Nathan said joyfully with Leah heaving a sigh of relief.

She was done with her part of their plan to change the Crawler to the Mammoth. It was a simple task to override the existing system code and replace it with an identical one similar to the system code used by the Mammoth.

The only thing left no was to download the Mammoth AI into the Crawler and they would be good to go. "How is it going over there?... Hope you guys are kicking ass." Reyes asked in his usual tone. If Nathan was not privy to his situation, he would have thought that he was still fine.

"No need to act tough, Reyes. I know that the Mammoth is about to collapse. I know you guys were bombed by an ICBM." Silence followed for a few seconds. "It came out of nowhere. It's a miracle that I'm still alive."

"…No-one expected something like that to happen. How are you feeling." "I feel like dying. The sensitivity of Perfect World is way too similar to the real world. I almost quit just now. Your voice stopped me from taking that step."

Nathan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm glad you aren't out of it yet. Just wait for a bit. We'll finish up here and then be right back to help out." Reyes chuckled. "Yeah sure, no problem. Take your time, not like we'll be going anywhere."

"True." "In any case, why did you call me?... Did something happen over there?"

"Yeah. Uhmm, Leah and I are trying to save the Mammoth to ensure we don't end up failing the assignment we were given." Reyes tapped his forehead lightly. "Of course, how could I forget?... Without the Mammoth, the mission is over."

"That's not something to remember after you just got attacked with an ICBM." Nathan pointed out. "I agree. Wait, how exactly are you planning on saving the Mammoth?... Because based on what I'm seeing…"

Reyes trailed off to take a good look around. He struggled to his feet amidst groans, Nathan remained silent on the other end. Once he was able to stand on his feet, he quickly surveyed the area.

Metal debris from the Mammoth was scattered all around with electric fires erupting at various points. "Yeah… I think the Mammoth is beyond saving. We should just give up."

"No, not yet. We can still save it." "Really?... Bruh, it would take an entire team of technicians to fix this and it would surely not just be something that can be fixed in a week. How do you plan on saving it?"

"We are going to turn the Crawler into the Mammoth." Nathan simply responded causing Reyes to become silent as he pondered on his words. "…That could work… But then, what do you need me for?"

"We are already done rewriting the Crawler code to fix the Mammoth. All we need now is the mainframe AI of the Mammoth so we can download it into the Crawler mainframe and finish the configuration." Nathan explained. Reyes stood on the other end with a somewhat confused expression.

"You need me to retrieve the command AI of the Mammoth?" "Basically, yes." Reyes looked left and right. "Where do you want me to start looking. This place is a mess."

"The Mammoth mainframe is still relatively intact. Just check amongst the intact wreckage. It should be within a disc compartment. Within it would be a chip which is the storing cage for Mammoth AI."

"Alright, after that, then what?" Reyes asked. "Ask Thunder to scan and send it to us. We will handle the rest from there." Nathan replied. "I'll do what I can." Was the last sentence before the intercom was cut off.

"Do you think he would be able to find it?" Leah asked, slightly doubtful. "Of course, I trust Reyes."

"But he just survived an ICBM attack. There's a chance that the mainframe could be so damaged that even Thunder won't be able to work with it."

"There's also a chance that it would be intact and we would be successful in our attempt. Elena asked that I do my best… That's what I'm going to do." He showed his resolve as he kept a clear mind. Leah for some reason felt that Nathan looked incredibly good at that moment.

***

"Life is hard..." Reyes muttered to himself as he struggled to keep himself standing. Once he was stable, he began the search for the Mammoth's mainframe.

He didn't get far though before he heard someone struggling in the wreckage. "Is that Celeste?" He wondered as he rushed over as fast as he could. "Oh thank goodness, I was worried that you had been logged out," Reyes remarked with a slight chuckle.

Celeste was buried under a small pile of metal debris. "My legs are stuck and my back is pressed against something. I don't think I can get out of this." She gave a self-evaluation.

"Let me help you." Reyes offered as he moved to take down some of the debris. Celeste only needed to take one look at him to know that his condition was not different from hers. It seemed to be worse.

A minute later and Celeste was able to finally break from the wreckage but soon realized that she could not stand on her own. "My legs are paralyzed."

"Maybe if we could…" She cut him off as she shook her head. "It's fine. I can't afford to be a burden to you anyway." Reyes looked her over for a moment before ultimately withdrawing as he put up his hands in defeat.

"What now?... I guess we failed the assignment?" Celeste asked. Reyes sighed in response. "That would have been equal parts sad and good."

"What do you mean?" "Never mind that. Just know now that Nathan and Leah are attempting to salvage the situation and for that to happen, I need to recover the mainframe AI chip of the Mammoth and send it over to them."

"I roughly understand. So we need to find the AI chip?" Reyes nodded in response. "Fine then, go ahead. I'll use [Hawkeye] to keep an eye on the surrounding."

Reyes obliged as he continued on his search while Celeste made use of the Sniper class-exclusive skill. Soon enough they also found Ruben but he was mostly unconscious with his boy all bloodied over.

"I found it!!" A few minutes later and Reyes had found what he was looking for. It looked a lot like a DVD player with a glass screen sticking out at one end.

He pushed the only button on it that was visible and a whirring sound was heard after there was movement in the machine.

A second later and a square chip shot out from a slit close to the screen. It looked a lot like a motherboard from the twenty-first century but with a blue and ash color combination.

He slowly reached out for it and held it in his hands. "Thunder… is this the mainframe AI for the Mammoth?" He asked as he pointed his wrist at the chip while holding it with his other hand.

Greenlight shot out and scanned the chip over after which it was retracted. [Yes it is. It is slightly damaged but it would work well as a source creator.]

"Alright then. Scan the schematics and transfer them to Nathan." [Right away, sir.] Greenlight shot out again and scanned the chip over. [Scan successful. Transferring data to Squad member Nathaniel Holt…. Loading… Transfer complete]

Reyes heaved a sigh of relief. His work was done.

***

[File received. Would you like to view the file?] Nathan received a notification. He opened it up and checked its content. "It's here?" Leah asked as she rose from her seated position at the control panel. "Yeah, it's the moment of truth."