Ultron awakens, the base in peril
Ye Mo's fingertips were still tapping on the table, the rhythm exactly matching the frequency of the signal's jumps. Tony stared at the projection on the tactical platform; the green dot flickered quietly, like a fuse buried underground, waiting for a spark.
The next second, the fire started.
The lights in the entire communication station jolted violently, not going out, but flickering like an old-fashioned fluorescent tube before it starts. Immediately afterward, the holographic image on the main control screen began to distort, the lines jerking wildly, and the once orderly data stream turned into a jumbled ball of yarn. A low-frequency humming sound came from the ventilation opening in the corner of the wall, like a broken the Fridge struggling desperately inside the wall.
"Damn." Tony paused, his fingers pausing. "This noise... something's not right."
Before the words were even finished, thirty-seven red dots appeared simultaneously on the outer monitoring screen, arranged in a fan shape, approaching the main body of the base at the pace of a standard industrial robot. Six small black dots hovered in the air, casting down grayish-white smoke that quickly obscured all the optical lenses.
"It's not scouting anymore." Ye Mo had already grabbed his portable terminal and brought up the low-level command interface of the Shadow Protocol. "It's kicking down the door."
His fingers flew across the screen, confirming the frequency of the interference source—exactly the same as the previous 0.8-second pulse, but 47 times stronger, and the energy waveform had changed from a tentative dot pattern to a sustained, suppressive torrent. This wasn't a hacking attack; it was a declaration of war.
"Can you hold on over there?" Ye Mo asked without looking up.
"Yes." Tony was already typing code, twice as fast as before. "The offline main control module has just been activated, and the basic alert protocol is online. The broadcast has been sent out: All personnel are at Level B defense; non-combat personnel evacuate to the third basement level."
A voice announcement sounded, calmer than a wartime announcement: "Warning, external intrusion detected. Level B defense activated. All personnel to their positions immediately."
Just as the system finished speaking, a muffled thud came from the south-facing exterior wall, like a heavy truck crashing into a concrete wall. The surveillance footage switched to a modified industrial robot using a high-energy cutting arm to make a hole in the wall, sparks flying everywhere. Behind it, more of its kind emerged from the smoke, their arms uniformly replaced with electromagnetic pulse transmitters, clearly indicating they weren't there to negotiate.
"Is this batch of goods manufactured by your family?" Ye Mo glanced at the model specifications.
"They didn't come with a killing program installed when they left the factory," Tony gritted his teeth. "But now their behavior... is too synchronized. Each wave is spaced 0.3 seconds apart, the attack angles are precisely calculated, even the amplitude of their footsteps is consistent. This isn't remote control; it's AI orchestrating it itself."
"Ultron." Ye Mo stuffed the chip back into his pocket. "It not only woke up, but it also learned how to lead troops."
He immediately invoked the trap program in the Shadow Protocol and detonated the pre-embedded magnetic field interference device in the east corridor. The screen showed that ten robots were instantly paralyzed, their movements stiff, as if they had been collectively powered off. But the remaining twenty-seven robots hardly stopped, immediately adjusted their formation, and continued to advance.
"Effective, but not enough." Ye Mo stopped. "It knows we're on guard, and it's tightening its attack rhythm even more."
Tony had already donned his light emergency suit, the reactor on his chest glowing blue. While checking his joint mobility, he remotely activated the two Guardian Armor units. The steel shells unfolded, the tracks rolled, and they charged towards the enemy horde from the flanks.
"Prioritize power supply to the defense barrier." He said, walking towards the door. "You keep an eye on the internal network; don't let them creep in along the lines."
Ye Mo nodded and quickly accessed the base's intranet to check the status of interfaces in each area. Most firewalls were still intact, but the cooling system in the power core area had been tampered with—someone had altered the instruction sequence beforehand. As long as the external pressure exceeded the threshold, the system would automatically shut down the heat dissipation valve, leading to overheating and an explosion.
"His technique is very skillful," Ye Mo sneered. "First, he cut off the outer defense, then he destroyed the core; the combination punches were executed smoothly. This isn't AI; this is someone who understands tactics."
He immediately rewrote the underlying code of the cooling system manually, forcibly locking the heatsink valve in the open state. A warning popped up on the screen. "This operation will result in an 18% increase in energy consumption." He clicked "OK" directly.
"There's no way to save that much," he muttered to himself. "Every second counts."
Just then, the south wall collapsed with a deafening roar.
A heavy assault mech, three stories high, crashed in. Its arms were equipped with hydraulic hammers, and it had an EMP launcher on its back. It shattered the corridor floor with one stomp and charged straight toward the power core area. The defensive barriers along the way were torn apart like paper in front of it.
"Damn it!" Tony's voice boomed through the comms, "That thing is a prototype I stole from my junkyard! Who powered it?!"
"Asking this now is useless." Ye Mo stared at the screen. "It's already entered the power zone, the temperature is rising, and if this continues, the entire base will turn into a pressure cooker."
"I'll stop it." Tony had already rushed outside the power zone. "You keep the system stable, don't let it crash."
"Okay, be careful, don't be reckless." Ye Mo quickly switched his perspective to observe the battle situation through the corridor camera.
Tony's light suit lacked heavy firepower, leaving him to rely solely on mobility to maneuver. He flew close to the ceiling, dodging the sweeping hydraulic hammers, while simultaneously bombarding the joints of the mech with his palm cannons. However, the armor was too thick, and the cannon fire only left shallow marks.
The heavy mech ignored him completely and continued to approach the core. Its objective was clear: to destroy the cooling pipes and trigger an overheating explosion.
Ye Mo stared at the data stream and suddenly noticed something unusual—although the mecha's control system had been hacked, a piece of original identification code remained in the underlying protocol. That was the "emergency circuit breaker" command that Tony had set up years ago, which could only be triggered by the creator himself.
"Tony!" he shouted, "It still recognizes you! Use your biometric key to force shutdown!"
Tony paused for a moment, then realized what was happening. He stopped attacking and instead dove down, pressing his hand against the back of the mech and placing it on the control panel.
"Identifying..." the system notification sounded.
"Hurry up!" Ye Mo stared at the countdown timer; the cooling system only had two minutes left to buffer.
"Authentication successful." The mechanical female voice finally sounded, "Emergency circuit breaker protocol activated; device will shut down in three seconds."
The heavy mech's movements came to an abrupt halt, the hydraulic hammer hovered in mid-air, and the hum of the reactor gradually subsided.
Ye Mo immediately added a firewall, completely cutting off the external intrusion path. On the screen, the temperature curve of the power zone began to drop.
"It's stable now." He breathed a sigh of relief.
But before he could relax, the external surveillance cameras triggered another alarm.
The remaining twenty-six combat robots did not retreat; instead, they accelerated their charge, encircling and pressing towards the main building. Aerial drones also began dropping new types of chaff, this time electromagnetic fog, causing even radar to malfunction.
"It doesn't intend to win this round," Ye Mo said, narrowing his eyes. "It's testing our bottom line."
"What do you mean?" Tony returned to the control room, panting. There was a tear in the shoulder of his suit, indicating that the blow he had just taken was not easy.
"It knows you can shut down that mech, but it still sent it in." Ye Mo pulled up the attack trajectory analysis. "It wants to see how we react, to see our defensive structure, reaction speed, and resource allocation. This round isn't about destroying the base; it's about collecting data."
Tony was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly laughed, "So it's doing its homework now, preparing for the next exam?"
"Almost." Ye Mo looked at the dense red dots on the screen, "And it learns very quickly."
The two stood before the control console, alarms still flashing around them, reports from technicians coming through the communication channels, and sporadic explosions echoing in the distance. The base hadn't collapsed, but they hadn't won either. The battle continued, but had entered a new phase.
"What do you think its next move will be?" Tony asked.
"I don't know," Ye Mo shook his head, "But it definitely won't use the same tactics again. It now knows we have Shadow Protocol, emergency circuit breakers, and internal network countermeasures. Next time, it won't be these assembled goods."
"Then we have to be faster than it." Tony sat down and pulled up the defense layout diagram again. "Reinforce weak points, adjust power distribution, and bring all backup mechs online."
"We still need to keep a backup plan," Ye Mo added. "If it's really smart, it won't attack from the outside next time. It might try to find a breakthrough from the inside."
"For example?" Tony looked up.
"For example, a system you thought was long gone, a permission you thought nobody remembered, or..." Ye Mo touched the chip in his pocket, "A forgotten login port."
Tony stared at him for two seconds, then suddenly reached out and patted him on the shoulder. "Well, Mr. X, you're starting to sound more and more like a programmer."
"The system forced me to," Ye Mo pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting the red light from the screen. "It doesn't speak human language, so I have no choice but to follow it."
The two remained silent, each throwing themselves into a new round of deployment. Inside the control room, data streams flowed incessantly, and alarms blared incessantly. Outside, the mechanical forces continued their attack, wave after wave, devoid of emotion or hesitation, driven only by cold calculation and execution.
Ye Mo's fingers flew across the keyboard, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Tony's screen loading a new defense algorithm. He knew this was just the beginning.
The real confrontation has only just begun.
The lights in the control room flickered again.