Conspiracy's Weave

"Initiated by Isaac, the Human-Machine Summit was a daring move that most believed would fail to make it to the assigned date. Usually politics and egos would get in the way of such a monumental opportunity. However, the decision came quickly within only two days of having received the video from the machines.”

Herbert Stein, Machine Historian  -

The path that everyone made for him weighed his heart down. The elevator came to a stop opening out to a sidewalk and back alley of the company. All of the military that had been around wasn’t present, no doubt inside killing everyone that he knew. Satoru's hands shook knowing that he had to keep going forward if he was to do any honor to their sacrifice. He took Asami's hand and rushed into the alley looking for the nearest stairs up to the train. "We've got to hurry and warn them. This entire thing was a setup." Satoru couldn’t believe the lengths that the machines were going to cause chaos in the world. They had already done so much. He thought that there was actually a chance for them to finally reach peace. "They even faked the Isaac video to put together this summit."

The train station was empty from the military storming the building as well as the street. Everything was closed down in the area. They had shut down the trains to prevent anyone from entering or leaving. No cars were around, even parked ones to steal. The last option left to them was running until they could reach a vehicle to take them.

Asami ran with Satoru, maintaining a speed with him that didn’t leave him behind. She knew what Satoru had to be thinking, but there was still so much that he didn’t understand about the machines. It might not have been a good time for her to tell him everything, but he needed to know that everything wasn’t as it seemed to appear. "I don't think that the video was a fake. They didn’t set up the summit."

Satoru wanted to stop, but he knew that he could not waste any time in doing so. They were out of time and the machines were already several steps ahead of them. Their plans ran deep to put together the summit so easily. "You heard what Yuu said. They're going to kill everyone at the summit. They must have been planning this the entire time."

"Not everyone is…" she said hesitating a little with uncertainty knowing she couldn’t go back to them. Asami knew that she was already beyond returning, but these secrets were still a part of her. She didn’t know if she should be telling him.

The pause in Asami's voice was enough for Satoru to know that she was holding something back from him. She knew something about what was going on. "What do you mean? Aren't all of the machines trying to kill all of the humans?"

'Aren't all of the machines trying to kill all of the humans?' His voice reverberated through her head, weakening her for a minute. Asami knew better than to think that it was directed towards her, but the unintentional generalization still hurt her. It made her pause in step for a moment bringing her to a stop. She looked down at the sidewalk trying to not look at Satoru. He needed to know; she knew that he needed to understand everything that was going on. "That's not entirely true."

Satoru took pause realizing what he had said too late. He couldn’t take back his words. "What is the truth then, Asami?" If there was something more to what was going on he needed to understand it. He couldn’t keep running around in the dark thinking that he could get things solved on spirit alone. Satoru still wondered what he could do to make a difference with so many powers at play out of his control.

"It’s not so simple." Asami knew that the door was already open and all she could do now was walk through hoping for the best. She started to sort through what she knew that he needed to know for the future. "There is more than one organized cell of machines."

The meeting room of the machines was almost completely empty. Left in poor light, General Yoshima faced down with General Oshiro, Lt Colonel Takamoto and one other machine. He hardly liked to call them by their military ranking knowing that they weren’t even working in the military as humans, but simply machines in disguise with their own objectives. Work had become loathsome recently as the machines were taken to a more stubborn position than their usual patient-calculating demeanor. General Yoshima didn’t know what was going to happen with them anymore. They were nearing the end of their usefulness.

In the week since their last meeting when they had agreed to take part in the summit none of the bombings that they had been doing stopped. The reality was that they had increased twofold nearly in the time. It almost seemed like they were desperate or lashing out in anger. "Don't you realize that continuing the bombings even now has only strained the relations between humans and machines? If we weren't there to constantly smooth things over this summit would never have happened. It would have been easier if you stopped the bombings as a gesture of goodwill."

General Oshiro leaned against the table with his elbows resting on the table's surface while his hands covered much of his face. He stared narrowly at the man knowing the stress that had been applied to the situation. His eyes weren’t blind and his mind wasn’t dull. "This is not your place to tell us how to do our job. The summit is being held shortly." There were other matters that he was being forced to take accountability for so as not to show weakness to his enemy.

The last meeting hadn’t ended well with a division in his subordinates that couldn’t stand the façade of human lap dogs. They were tired of waiting as this summit was the last straw for them. It seemed that they were set against him strongly enough that they only increased the attack in order to break the talks permanently. The machines that left with them were ones that couldn’t stand waiting out until the time was right. It made his position difficult to maintain as they could strike openly knowing that the main faction would still be to blame for it. "I will not show weakness towards humans."

Yoshima remained in his stare down with Oshiro trying to figure out the machine. It seemed like a futile effort or an old habit of dealing with real people. He knew well enough that the machine would never reveal his hand unless it was in their interest. This was a distasteful association, but it had its purposes in the end. "You can't do this without our help."

"We-" Oshiro began to speak but they were interrupted by a messenger. The intrusion into the meeting brought all eyes on the audacious individual standing in the doorway waiting to be acknowledged. An empty emotion unaffected by the attention marked them as a machine. Oshiro motioned the messenger forward bringing the young machine next to his chair. "What?" Oshiro said already calculating the information that he heard to be used for his plans. "Alright."

The messenger left the room returning the occupancy to normal and leaving Yoshima curious. He let the silence in the room remain for a moment looking for clues to what was discussed between the two. However, there was nothing as he expected. All that remained now was the direct approach. "Something wrong?"

Oshiro saw this coming having already finished adjusting his plans to meet with the change. These humans were too curious to stick their nose in business that didn’t belong to them anymore. Failure didn’t create entitlements. "It would seem that your military has failed you. Satoru Kuromura has escaped from Qintech along with one of our agents. However, it is not a total loss, you managed to capture Malakh."

"You've known who Malakh was all along?" Yoshima restrained his surprise at the nearly casual statement from Oshiro. Malakh had been an enigma for years working in the shadows as the figure of the Malakhim Faction. The machines claimed that they knew nothing about the individual apart from his affiliation. Not even the Malakhim Faction knew who he was making their infiltration fruitless. Malakh seemed to be more of a connection at times rather than the one that led the faction. This disconnected state made him impossible to trace, yet he was captured now.

Direction changed now leaving the focus on Yoshima now rather than Oshiro and the machines. This would play into his hand well with a little more time. It was all only a matter of time before their plans were complete. Oshiro pulled away from the table letting his face be revealed. "We had a good idea, but it has now been confirmed."

General Yoshima stood up from the table realizing that this was over for now. The machines were clearly holding him at a disadvantage. It only made matters worse that they were holding back information. The secrets were hardly a surprise to him, but it didn’t change the fact that he was in a weakened position. "I must leave." He walked away from the table taking up his military coat blowing in his brisk pace.

Oshiro didn’t follow Yoshima as he stepped into the doorway. "We expect to have Malakh released to us," he said to the General before he left. Malakh belonged to them for all of the meddling that he caused, creating the rift between the machines to begin with. He had a greater purpose to the machines than the humans as they just saw him as a leader that needed to be removed.

The remaining members of the table looked at Oshiro now that Yoshima had left. "Do you think that General Yoshima will comply?" the machine said knowing how important it was for them to take Malakh. It would be a sign to the others for unity and end debates that the rebels continued to cause years after his departure.

It almost seemed like a pointless question to ask. None of them trusted the humans knowing that they weren’t honorable individuals. Once they knew that they have something of value it would make them hold on to it more tightly. "He's a human, all they know is deceit. When confronted he will cower like a frightened animal like they all do." However, Oshiro knew that telling him about Malakh would only cause them to hold on to him even more stubbornly. This would plan to his benefit, as their greed would lead them to betrayal and a corner that had no escape.

"And what about the others?" the machine said, bringing up the sore topic. The new division that had been created weakened their position and ability to operate. They were able to make new machines now unlike before, but the splinter cell would be a constant thorn in their side if not dealt with immediately. "He is right that they are disrupting the plan. We can't control them any longer. They could ruin everything before we have time to carry out the plan."

"We'll deal with the rebellious faction that is why we have the military," Oshiro said, having a contingency plan already developed when the divide was building. He wanted to avoid using it knowing that it was dangerous if it was miss deployed, but it was a small price to pay. This act of defiance wouldn’t go ignored for long. However, even their extremist tactics had their usefulness. The bombings distracted those that might be otherwise getting curious about things that they shouldn’t be. He couldn’t afford their plans to be discovered.

They knew what Oshiro was thinking, knowing that it would be the only sure way to quickly eliminate the rebellious threat that they posed. "But Hashimoto failed us."

"He was just a pawn who thought that he was a double agent," Oshiro said to the others to dispel the uncertainty that they might have about being unable to acquire it. They had known for a while that Hashimoto was working with the military to take Adam for them. Hashimoto also had made the same agreement with the machines thinking that he could play the two sides against each other and make use of the resources both had that he didn’t. It didn’t take long for them to discover his duplicity. Knowing the traitor made them that much easier to manipulate. "We control the facility now. Adam will be ours and it will eliminate the threats against our plans."

"Very well, I'll give the orders," Lt. Colonel Takamoto said standing up. Now that the military was in place thanks to Hashimoto it left them easy to manipulate them into doing what they needed. He walked out of the meeting room needing to hurry before the humans grabbed the work they needed.