USH'S MATRIX GAME 2006 FIFTH ASSIGNMENT- 'The Pagoda'

Step by step, the Virus makes his way towards the City.

Agents keep coming at him. The System is in emergency mode now; Agents are taking any form of transport- with people within- and driving it out out the city towards the mountains, in order to try and get as many people onto the Virus as possible. A bus lays nearby, each person inside having been overwritten by an Agent and then killed.

The Virus waits once more. He is patient. He does not attack the Agents, he waits for them to attack him. His programming undoes the Agent's attack modes; he can see the weakness within each and can exploit it when they come, until the window comes where he can kill their host body. If necessary, he waits until the effect of the Virus weakens the host. The longer the fight goes on, the happier the Virus is.

He has been fighting his way to the City for hours now. he is out of the mountains, with only the countryside to cover. The best efforts of the System are slowing him, but his progress is inevitable.

If he reaches the City, every Human will die.

---

Whup-whup-whup-whup-whup

The blades of the Osprey turn over and over, biting at the air to give your vehicle the lift need to propel you towards your target.

Sennacherib said that the viral shield needs to be taken to a Pagoda to be found to the north of the Fortress. The Pagoda is an access point for the Matrix's weather control system. There you must meet the weather contro programme. His name is Melitus, and that is a name spoken with... interest by all of those who were on Dallas' last mission.

Those that were on the Philosophy Path are dying. The rush of adrenaline and mental attitude has staved off their symptoms, as Sennacherib said it would. Whilst their physical bodies fade, their self-images have not yet caught up. But with this reprieve comes a faster death sentence- the adrenaline speeds the work of the Virus, and so although symptomns are ignored now, death will come sooner.

It seems to manifest, mostly, in a horrible backing cough that brings up vblood. other than the noise of the rotors, a cacaphonous coughing is what can be heard.

"Ok," says Dallas, over the phone from the Shez's operator chair. "Pagoda, pagoda..." he says, staring at the lines of green code. He presses a button, and all the screens go completely blank. He waits a moment.

"Yup, I see it," says Dallas. "Y'all just carry on as you are." He hangs up and scrambles for a headset. "Finn... how do I turn these things back on?"

Azrael sits on his own in the corner. He is sicker than the others, but it is not just that. he is not looking happy with anyone.

---

Here we go then guys, the final Assignment. Like last time, this one is shorter than the others as all we are interested in is wrapping the whole deal up. Still, there is time for a few other aspects to be looked at first- I am sure some of you are interested in what Melitus has to say.

Right now... I think it is time you guys talked and preapred. The two Paths have been separated for a while, and perhaps people need to be filled in about what the bloody hell is going on and why...

(I am guessing Combat-y people don't know yet what happened when Philo guys went back to Sennacherib...)

"What happened with you guys back there in the Fortress?" San asks the Philo people.

Berserker coughs up some blood, "Well we had a situation involving a nasty Virus, a deranged General, and something out of a B rated Movie."

"Well, we know already about the Virus..."

"Yep that is definitely going into my list of things never to do again."

"Well, I know sentinels are definitely on my list of things I never want to see again..."

"Sennacherib is most likely dead, after we convinced him to help us, his own servants turned against him. He told us about the Pagoda and that we need to take the antidote to the weather control programme. His name is Melitus, it seems that some of you know him from the past." -Melkor speaks, trying to overcome his illness.

"Yep thats sums it up perfect..."

"I though you guys destroyed Melitus before all this happened..." Hawk says, speaking to the older crew members.

"We didn't do squat to the old man, the agents came before we could do anything. I guess they gave him a reprieve..." Cloud says, suddenly remembering something, "I seem to remember seeing something about an antidote in a weather control system before I was freed... I think it was a movie sequel to a tv series or something... This place sure works in mysterious ways, huh?"

"That's the..." Heph tries to say, but ends up hacking up his lungs with the vicious cough. He clears his throat, but only triggers another cough. "That's the Matrix for you," he finally says.

Klez watches the passing landscape, coughing every once and awhile, surprised that he is not the most ill.

"Every Agent that we had run from in the Monastery," Klez tells them, "was destroyed by the Virus. It was absolutely astounding. I'd never seen anything like it! Sennacherib was a genius..."

"You never met Neo," Mors responds to Klez.

Mors watches helplessly as the men and women they just rescued, his friends and fellow soldiers, cough themselves to death.

"Is there nothing we can do to stop the Virus?" Mors asks. He holds the vial containing the Cure in one hand, before slipping it into his coat pocket.

Ares just keeps on piloting.

"The only thing we did to Mel was to expose his shit," Ares replies. "His whole building was invisible in the Matrix until Ariadne hacked us a new way of looking at things. And then we showed the System."

"So you ruined his little private resort huh I wonder how willing he would be to help us now and as for your question Mors as far as the King said once you are infected there is no cure."

"It is hard to accept that you are dying, isn`t it?"- Melkor tries to laugh through his bloodcough.

"You're not gonna die..." Cloud says in a cheerful manner, with an unfounded confidence, he still doesn't know the truth "If we could hold off an army of sentinals without too much of a problem, we can get you guys fixed right up."

"Hey I'm fine with it not everyday you get to save the whole human and machine race from utter destruction." Berserker lets out a hearty laugh although it ends with just as hearty a cough.

He regains himself and adds "Besides we have more important things to talk about so is this Mel guy gonna be nice or mean when we get to him?"

"Who knows. Melitus never seemed to think anything was more than a game, at least that's how it seemed to me. And hey, getting out of weird situations seems to be our thing."

Mors sighs. "Let's hope we continue to be lucky. Otherwise..."

He cuts himself off in mid-sentence and goes to San.

"I think we should talk to Azrael," he whispers to her, making sure none can hear him. "He seems rather...out-of-it. Moreso than the others."