Among the Missing
Flood: Well, well, well... So the toasters have finally wiped out Zion--the old one, anyway. The cave-dwellers really aren't making it easy for us to help them keep this convenient war of theirs going. The Cypherites hit them with a hijacked ship, then a bomb in their command center, while the Machines inserted a virus into their mainframe, courtesy of a device captured from the infamous, and now quite dead, Danielle Wright. In all the excitement, Sentinels swooped in and took over. Some of them even belonged to us, unbeknownst to the Machines. The General has some sort of report to make about it.
Operator: You're due to meet the General's holographic projection in there. He'll probably wait until your nearby before he makes his appearance, since the Machines like to jump his signal. No sign of hostiles in the area. There are tons of rumors going on about old Zion's destruction. Hard to tell what's true and what isn't, but at any rate, Zionites are still popping up in the Matrix, so most of them must have made it over to their new city.
Operator: Getting a signal... I think that's him.
Holographic Projection: Several of my Sentinels were present when the city fell. A pitiful display--the Machines resorted to trickery, and dependence upon human agents, to achieve their end. Had I been in command... No matter. What concerns you is this: my scouts spotted two humans scrambling into shelter in the wreckage of Zion's command area. One was Zion's chief military commander, Lock. The other was unknown. My men could not risk tracking them further. As far as we can ascertain, Lock has not been seen since. Scouting images of the other man will be uploaded to you.
Operator: Yeah, we've been hearing from operatives that Zion still doesn't know what happened to Lock after the bomb destroyed his command center. The Machines are keeping their mouths shut, so who knows if they bagged him or not.
Flood: Ugh, now the General is uploading his dirty pictures to me... Yes, well... All I can make out from this is a tall, muscular, dark-skinned, and disgracefully dressed man with jacks in him stumbling through debris. I've certainly never seen him before; he can't be that important. Oh, why--that brings you to mind, Mayk. Be a good operative and find out who this is, hm? Zion must have a record of him somewhere; go steal it.
Operator: Oh, I'm sure Flood loves us, really. I'm picking up redpill signals in there. If Flood's on the money, they'll be Zionites. I'll keep my scanners peeled for their data terminal.
Zion Pathogenist: I don't need this right now!
Computer: // x39 mailer proc - id4830011010 Roland? Hell, I was no fan of Lock, but Roland?? his idea of strategy is a fist in the gut. And now the Council goes and makes him Commander in Lock's place... The "war hero" ...just because he let Niobe crash his ship into the dock when the Sentinels tried to take out Zion before, only that didn't even work, and Neo had to bail him out. And this time he gets his ship destroyed AGAIN, without even making it to the dock, and they promote him to commander. Just great. He must have some real good friends on the Council.
Operator: I'm picking up an active computer system nearby.
Operator: Well, that was a flop. Either their security's getting better, or the old city getting wrecked has really put a nail in their tire.
Flood: It seems I can't count on competence from anyone; no, not you, Mayk--I gave up on you long ago. But usually Zion's systems work well enough to run a decent data query after you've hacked them. It's a sad state of affairs... Very well, I can see the way the wind is blowing. We'll try for what we need from the Machines; the jacks in his skin indicate that the man was an operative, and the Machines will have surveillance records of which Zionite ships were around the old city when they sacked it. That should narrow things down considerably.
Operator: Okay, I'm reading what look like System programs in there. Let's hope they're more in the know about Zion's forces than Zion was.
Tactical Security: Intruder detected. Response routine running.
Operator: You're getting close to some kind of heavy data reading.
Trevor Miller: SNTL OAJDE Access?
Operator: Homey say wha-a? Hm... I think the data reading is coming from that guy.
Operator: Yeah... Data reading's still strong in that one.
Operator: Man, that guy was a walking data repository. Pretty handy. Upload that first at a hardline.
Flood: There, you see? That's the nice thing about the Machines: they keep their trains running on time, so to speak--be they ever so big and ugly. No, I'm not going to be rooting through that surveillance data for you, operative. That's what there are colourless people like Malphas for.
Operator: Hm. well, no, I don't think Flood likes Malphas at all, really. Jealous, probably. Just our people in there, and no hostiles on the horizon. Have a fun chat with the vampire.
Blood Noble: We're not so different. We both lead two lives, hmm?
Lupine Lieutenant: When things get crazy, lots of stuff goes missing...doesn't it?
Ookami: Hrr... I'll hunt who I please. They aren't yours; what do you care? You're getting soft...
Ookami: You've got to have an appetite for the kill if you want to hunt with me.
Malphas: ... Machine records of ship movements around Zion at the time of its destruction were minutely precise. The human with Zion's Commander was a crew member of the Mjolnir II, also known as "The Hammer": a large hovercraft that crashed near the main gate of the city's dock, although the Machines do not record having inflicted significant damage on it themselves. According to our records, his operative name is "Mauser."
Malphas: That is all I can tell you. If you will excuse me? There is something I would like to discuss privately with Ookami.
Flood: "Mauser?" No bells are ringing, Mayk. As I guessed, someone unimportant. Go look it up yourself if you're so fascinated by trivium. Ha, ah-ha... Well, I have to have some fun with you, even if it is at your expense. I pay you for the missions, don't I? So stop sniveling. I swear, you're so unspeakably dull sometimes...
((And that's all folks.))
