Cybrosis

Metadata

Era:Age of Cybernetics
Timeline: October 23, 2139 - November 4, 2139
Genre: Cyberpunk
Series: Codename Ciris Book 1
Status: Complete

Publication History

Podcast - 1/1/10
Podiobooks - 10/7/10
Amazon KDP - 12/15/11
Amazon Createspace: 4/22/14
Audible: Pending - Slated 2019

Credits

Text

Editor: Ming Russell
Cover Art: J.R. Blackwell & Jared Axelrod
Text Layout: Tee Morris
E-Layout: Philippa Ballantine

Audio

Narrator: Veronica Giguere
Producer:

Quick References

Characters & Organizations

Events

Cybrosis Incident

Plot

Hook

For Agent Ciris, the mission should have been simple: get in, apprehend the target, get out. But when the simple snatch and grab goes horribly awry, the worlds first cyborg finds herself backed into a corner. At odds with her superiors, she becomes embroiled in two conspiracies — one intended to destroy her with a cybernetic virus that will neutralize the technology that keeps her alive, the other intended to keep hidden the untold secrets of her origin. With the walls closing in around her, Ciris becomes a rogue agent with no one to trust and only one objective — unravel the shrouds of secrecy before time runs out.

Summary

CNSCP Agent Ciris leads a mission to apprehend cyber-terrorist Dr. Leon Quincy. Problems arise and despite becoming incapacitated herself, she succeeds. In recovery, she recalls an accident almost killed her years ago. She was saved through the construction of a cybernetic body around the remains of her biological body. Her husband, also involved, did not survive. In the present, Ciris meets with Tecgui, the head of R&D, and learns she had been infected by a cyber-virus.

Ciris is reprimanded by Director Briggs for her disastrous mission and is pulled from the field. She vents her frustration in the gym, but hurts herself when her anger boils over. As she tends to the injury, a blackout grips the entire city. Ciris is sent to a power plant where she encounters a hacker who both knows her, and has set a trap. She escapes seconds before the plant explodes.

The Cybrosis Virus, named for its creator, has re-asserted itself and Ciris’ prognosis is grim. Continuing her investigation, Ciris links the virus, the incident at the power plant and a data packet she received at the plant. Interrogation ties Quincy to this link. He then escapes.

Ciris is assigned to oversee security at a fundraiser where her investigation indicates Cybrosis will strike. At the event, the hacker implies that both Tecgui and her director are hiding the truth from her. Then he disappears. That night, at her apartment, both Tecgui and Quincy visit Ciris. Another fight breaks out, resulting in Quincy’s death and severe injury to Ciris.

Ciris wakes in a remote safe house where, under Tecgui’s supervision, she is to recover. The two exchange heated words and Ciris presents her suspicions to Tecgui, who denies them. When she returns to the Center, Ciris learns that the company SMT built Quincy’s implants. She meets with SMT Vice President Leila Richardson, who was found in Quincy’s bed when Ciris first captured him. She explains that he sold the technology to them in exchange for sexual favors and several ‘off book’ augmentations. Investigation reveals evidence of another cyborg created by the Center: Xavier Allenrod. She also finds evidence of a plot destroy her and goes rogue.

Director Briggs brings in, Min-Weh Chen, and gives her full disclosure. Ciris infiltrates SMT to steal a prototype of Quincy's tech and the documentation. The agents cross paths and agree to work together in pursuit of the truth. They arrange a meeting with Allenrod and find he has assumed the role of a public figure. Discussions imply the Center used him as a cybernetic test subject and then covered up the project’s failure. Chen’s continued skepticism leads to a discovery but is incapacitated before she can share the revelation. Ciris searches for Chen and finds what Chen had discovered: Allenrod is the hacker, and the author of the Cybrosis Virus.

Ciris and Chen regroup to discover Allenrod will attack the Center and access a classified intelligence network within. While Chen returns to the Center to prepare for the attack, Ciris returns to Allenrod’s mansion hoping to head him off. Chen arrives in time, but Ciris does not.

As Ciris rushes catch up with Chen, Tecgui uses the data acquired by the agents to develop a way to destroy the virus within Ciris. The Center falls under siege. Chen rescues a captured Tecgui and Director Briggs, allowing Tecgui to provide her with the completed antivirus for Ciris. Meanwhile, Ciris brings the internal defense system online and turns the tide of the battle.

Ciris confronts Allenrod but is initially defeated. Allenrod reveals he was was responsible for the accident six years ago. Rage builds, but Ciris experiences a vision that temporarily incapacitates her. However, Chen’s arrival prevents him from killing her. She too is defeated, but her attack allows Ciris the opportunity to recover and incapacitate Allenrod. Chen passes the anti-virus disk to Ciris, which purges the Cybrosis Viris from her systems. Allenrod recovers and assaults Ciirs once again, this time by trying to strangle her. However, before he can, Ciris deploys Tecgui's fix into Allenrod's hardware, corrupting his programming and giving her the opportunity to render the hardware useless, once and for all.

Ciris's position is reinstated and she reconnects with Chen. She makes amends with Tecgui thanking him for his role in creating both the anti-virus and the vision that saved her. They discuss the philosophical ramifications, and Ciris takes consolation in the vision's revelation—that Tecgui preserved the genetic material necessary to fulfill Ciris and her late husband's goal of a having family. She departs for the night and finds herself at his grave, mourning her loss.

Detailed Outline

Chapter 1

On the eve of an annual grand prix, Agent Ciris, an operative for an all-inclusive intelligence agency, leads a special forces team to apprehend suspected cyber terrorist Leon Quincy. The planned mission is a simple snatch-and-grab, but does not go quite as expected. Although Ciris rescues one civilian, a woman named Leila Richardson, violence ensues. After a shoot out, a vehicle chase, and a fistfight, Ciris succeeds in neutralizing the suspect, but is incapacitated.

Chapter 2

Thirty-six hours after the mission, Ciris has been treated and released. As she is cleaning up and dressing, her mind wanders to her past when she and her husband, also a federal agent, were ambushed as they discussed the potential of starting a family. The ambush resulted in a chase, ending in an accident that claimed her husband’s life. Ciris almost died as well. However, Center personnel resurrected Project Delphi, using Ciris as a guinea pig. Through this project, her body was augmented with, and in some cases replaced by, cybernetic implants. Although her life was saved, the result sent Ciris into internal conflict regarding her humanity. In the present, Tecgui, the Center’s lead engineer informs Ciris, that she was infected with a cyber virus during the mission. It has since been eradicated from her system.

Chapter 3

The next morning Ciris returns to work and resumes her duties. After being reprimanded by Director Briggs for losing control of the mission, then partially let off the hook, she is assigned to desk duty until she can curb her destructive nature. She attempts to prove herself in various on-demand training programs, but inevitably as her internal debate on humanity returns to the forefront, she only proves the Director’s point and injures herself in the process.

Chapter 4

After a brief citywide power outage, Agent Ciris is sent to the power plant to investigate the computer problems. During her investigation, she makes contact with a hacker whom she believes is involved. Through this contact, Ciris receives a data packet, which she isolates for later review. As she completes her investigation, it becomes apparent that time is quickly running out before the reactor overloads. Ciris makes her escape shortly before the building explodes. However, she suddenly becomes ill and calls for emergency evacuation.

Chapter 5

Ciris receives news from Tecgui and the Center’s medical staff that the cyber virus she was infected with was not destroyed as previously thought, and it will degrade and corrupt her cybernetic programming, eventually killing her. Ciris returns to work and finds a connection between her own virus, the hacking at the power plant, the data packet she received, and a fourth, unrelated issue. After she reports to the Director, she interrogates Quincy and confirms her theories. He then escapes.

Chapter 6

Quincy is once again pursued by Ciris. However, he eludes her and she is called off. Based on new, intelligence regarding the hacker she encountered at the power plant, she is re-assigned to protect a black tie fundraiser. She arrives on site and sets up surveillance. During the event, she is informed of an intrusion in the buildings internal network. As she investigates, she interfaces with the computer system and is again contacted by the hacker, who provides her with more cryptic clues and forces a download of information into her consciousness. She is then forcibly ejected from the interface.

Chapter 7

The fundraiser proceeds with no further incident. That night, in her apartment, Ciris meditates to draw the visions she experienced into focus. Her efforts provide results as she recalls a server address, directory, and password. Tecgui visits unannounced. His visit reveals that an intruder is in the apartment. After searching, Tecgui and Ciris find Quincy. As they fight, Tecgui is injured and Ciris and Quincy are thrown from her high rise apartment. Quincy is pursued through a forested area, by both Ciris and Tecgui, who succeed in stopping him.

Chapter 8

After a nightmare, Ciris awakes to find herself at a safe house under the watchful eye of Tecgui. She receives an equipment upgrade and is brought up to speed. Quincy was killed in the fight and the Center is re-evaluating its data to find a new angle on the investigation. Ciris confronts Tecgui regarding suspicions she has been developing about the cybernetics program, as well as those regarding Tecgui’s and Briggs’s efforts in covering up the truth. Tecgui avoids it, and then denies it. Ciris feigns acceptance of his denials and excuses herself. Tecgui then contacts Briggs, worried about Ciris’s suspicions.

Chapter 9

Once again back at the Center, Ciris delves deep into her investigation, but of Tecgui and Briggs, not the Cybrosis case. She searches the Center’s computer files for the server and directory information she was given. Her search turns up data indicating that Project Delphi was terminated some years ago. Her work is interrupted by a fellow agent and cybernetic prosthesis patient, Min-Weh Chen. Together they report to the lab analyzing Quincy’s cybernetic implants. They discover the implants were created by and stolen from Sciber Medical Technologies. One of SMT’s board members, Leila Richardson, is still in protective custody. Ciris leaves to interview Richardson, who reveals that the cybernetic technology was not stolen from SMT. Rather, Quincy provided the original specifications to the company.

Chapter 10

In a flashback, Leila tells Ciris the story of how Quincy contacted her company and offered to sell them cybernetic technology, and how she traded sexual favors to obtain the contract. It is late in the night when Ciris returns to the Center and she uses the relative calm to continue her investigation of Tecgui and Briggs. She discovers that contrary to what she was told, the Center did create another cyborg, a man named Xavier Allenrod, and then abandoned him when it became clear that his implants became unstable. She also finds clear evidence that Tecgui intends to cancel Project Delphi and terminate her. In a fit of anger and betrayal, she assaults Tecgui, steals field equipment, and severs her ties to the Center.

Chapter 11

As Ciris laments her troubles at an area bar, Agent Chen is brought up to speed on the Cybrosis case and Ciris’s accusations. She is instructed to find Ciris and bring her back to the Center alive. In response, Chen demands full disclosure and proof that Ciris’s accusations are false. While Tecgui shows her more private recordings that he made, Ciris attempts to find the hacker with whom she had been in contact. She presumes that it is Allenrod and that his intention in contacting her was to warn her. He finds her and they arrange to contact each other again when they can speak through secure channels.

Chapter 12

Seeking answers, Ciris infiltrates SMT headquarters intent on stealing the prototype cybernetic implant sold to the company by Quincy, as well as the electronic specifications. After she acquires the implant, she is ambushed by another operative. Their fight is inconclusive but does reveal Agent Chen as Ciris’s opponent. Harsh words are exchanged, but they work together to leave the building after the Cybrosis virus flares up and temporarily weakens Ciris’ systems. They return to Ciris’s new apartment where she explains the extent of the Cybrosis virus to Chen. Ciris again makes contact with Allenrod and arranges a meeting for the three of them. Chen makes a deal that she will work with Ciris to discover the truth, so long as they both agree to accept the consequences.

Chapter 13

The meeting with Allenrod raises more questions than it answers. Allenrod has assumed the identity of a well known, though reclusive, executive. He explains how he came to the identity and provides general information on his past. He invites the agents to attend a formal banquet to be held that night. At the banquet, Ciris notices that no one is without at least minor cybernetic implants. Seeing that Ciris is allowing herself to be swept away by the mood of the evening, Chen beings to question Ciris’s objectivity. After the reception, Ciris and Allenrod talk privately and he shares details on his involvement with Project Delphi and that he volunteered to receive the prototype implants. He implies that Project Delphi was originally intended as a weapon, and when the implants failed, the Center disowned the project. Ciris tells him that she has been infected with the Cybrosis virus and Allenrod volunteers to help her.

Chapter 14

The next morning, Ciris and Chen get into a debate about Ciris’s objectivity and her ability to remain faithful to the bargain they made to find the truth. The conversation is tabled so Ciris can meet again with Allenrod. He invites her to take up residence in the mansion, and she accepts. In the meantime, a more suspicious Chen investigates the mansion. In her search, she finds a hidden door that leads to a cybernetics lab. In the lab, Chen discovers something she believes that Ciris needs to see and is just able to send an E-mail warning before she is knocked out and captured.

Chapter 15

When Chen does not meet Ciris for lunch as previously planned, Ciris grows worried and begins to ask around. She receives the E-mail and searches the mansion. As she re-creates her friend’s trail, she finds herself in the same cybernetics lab as Chen. She discovers Chen’s blood on a computer terminal. The computer finishes an automated diagnostic and Ciris helps herself to the results. She discovers that the computer was analyzing unencrypted coding to the Cybrosis virus. Knowing that Allenrod could not have decrypted the virus over night, Ciris begins to suspect that he wrote the virus in the first place. She makes a copy of the data and then finds a beaten Chen. Together they escape and retreat to a safe house to rest and regroup.

Chapter 16

After a second nightmare Ciris and Chen compare notes and conclude that Xavier Allenrod and the hacker, known as “Cybrosis” are the same entity. The two agents review the results of a tracking program and attempt to model the data in order to predict Allenrod’s next move. Although the data indicates that Allenrod will hack the Center’s network, the agents are skeptical because he has already used Center data against them and would not need to risk another intrusion. They conclude that Allenrod has a backdoor to the Center’s backup servers and that he created the recent power outage as an opportunity to install the backdoor onto the main servers. Recalling her nightmare, Ciris reveals the existence of a highly secured and classified intelligence network, the Halcyon System. This system is used by allied governments all over the world to coordinate intelligence and military deployments. The agents theorize that Allenrod will attempt to access the server, an action requiring him to be at the physical terminal, as remote access is not possible. They return to Allenrod’s mansion in order to head him off.

Chapter 17

Ciris and Chen arrive too late to prevent Allenrod and his cyborg army from leaving the mansion. Chen finds a small airplane and uses it to return to the center ahead of the impending attack. Ciris holds back, infiltrates the mansion so she can download a complete copy of his database, and then heads towards the Center using the winning race vehicle from the recent grand prix. Chen arrives and briefs Tecgui and Briggs on the prevailing theory and hands over the data Ciris obtained when they were Allenrod’s guests. Using the new data, Tecgui works feverishly to complete the antivirus. As Allenrod begins his attack from the sewers, Tecgui and Briggs are sequestered for their safety, Ciris begins a guerilla war against Allenrod and, on the upper floors, Chen is ambushed.

Chapter 18

The Center is under siege and their internal security forces are losing ground to Allenrod’s cyborg army. Tecgui and Briggs are captured by Allenrod’s forces. Ciris works her way to a control room where she can re-activate the internal defense system. As she completes that objective, Chen succeeds in rescuing Briggs and Tecgui. Tecgui gives her a disk and tells her to get it to Ciris. The newly activated defense systems tear Allenrod’s forces to pieces. He makes one final push to the room housing the Halcyon System’s access terminal and obtains access using the forged credentials of Director Briggs.

Chapter 19

Allenrod is confronted by Ciris, who had beaten him to their mutual destination. They fight, but he defeats her. As he is about to deliver a killing blow, Chen interferes. Allenrod beats her as well, severing one of her arms in the process. He then takes a moment to savor his presumed victory and torments Ciris by causing the virus to become hyperactive. He also reveals that he was responsible for the death of her husband some six years ago. In a new sense of rage, Ciris becomes paralyzed by a vision. It passes, and she finds the strength to finish the job. She stops Allenrod long enough to receive the disk from Chen. It destroys the Cybrosis virus, and gives Ciris the strength to confront Allenrod one last time. The two cyborgs fight, each intent on destroying the other. Although Allenrod possesses the physical upper hand, Ciris uses the Antivirus disk to destroy Allenrod’s cybernetic programming. As Allenrod falls, Ciris sees him for the mechanical monster that he has become. As the dust settles, both agents find themselves overcome by their injuries as backup arrives to their aid.

Chapter 20

After a few days, Ciris has been completely cured of the Cybrosis virus and reports to Briggs. Despite her recklessness, he ultimately accepts some responsibility for keeping secrets from her, forgives her, and reinstates her. Afterwards, Ciris meets up with Chen who has been fitted with a new arm. They share reflections about the mission and the nature of humanity. She then meets up with Tecgui and she thanks him for his help, then tells him of her vision when she fought Allenrod. Tecgui explains that he designed it as a failsafe, to remind her of her humanity as well as the desire for a family; a desire she thought long dead. They, too, share reflections on the human condition and Ciris takes consolation that despite everything, she can still bear a child in fulfillment of the only goal she and her late husband made together. She departs the Center for the night and finds herself at her husband’s grave, mourning him all over again.

Threads Left open for future works