Three weeks had passed since I awoke in this dangerous place. I'd seen two of my fellow children die to AI. I'd already made multiple pieces of hardware for them but they still got swatted like flies when an AI found them. Lucy had been the only one of us to survive an AI attack so far. The project managers had made her my 'experimental' subject for my tech. She had resisted at first as my stuff was quite invasive but after the AI attack she'd practically begged for a way to hide from the better.
Unfortunately for her I didn't know the software side of things as well as I did hardware. I could freeze her brain and keep it living and functioning but I couldn't do much in the net. In my fourth week I began making escape plans. With the escape plans was an AI. Just like my previous AI creations it was mostly Star Wars based and could eat up anything in this world.
The only thing holding me back after making the AI was my own body. I was a small weak child and practically everyone who knew about this project and I, was gunning to kill me. I had to hide the AI so that it wasn't taken but without it every time I tried to make something it would blow up from the slightest connection to the net. Aside from the left arm and leg cybernetics I'd been forced to replace half my face, my right hand and most of my right leg. I'd added a secondary heart, sub-dermal armor, and replaced my skeleton.
Anything I created that had a way to hurt me was destroyed so I was forced to either make it unconnected to anything or make it so simple that it didn't need a connection. I was already building a completely new body for myself as what I had wouldn't be enough. I would have already died if I hadn't connected my AI directly to myself via a cord.
As the days passed by more children died despite my protections and more showed up as replacement data mining slaves. I continued to try to keep them all alive but nothing could save them if an AI grabbed them. Lucy and I continued to become more and more valuable to the project as I advanced my tech. Outside of this place she'd be like an AI compared to other netrunners.
Seven weeks in this new world I had a conversation with the project lead. I'd just got out of recovery from another attempt at my life and had been called to his office. He had attempted to worm more technology out of me but I'd turned it into a trade for some ripperdocs to help me with a full body conversion. With the head idiot happy I set to work in a new body.
I had been tempted to keep my human body for the loose connection to the force I could still feel, but that last attempt had removed most of my gut. I was mostly cybernetic already and I'd still have my brain so I would probably still have the connection.
As soon as I started I immediately hooked up my AI to the net and took over everything in secret. With the little magic I could still do I put together some beskar and durasteel. My new skeleton was made of durasteel with a beskar weave. My muscles were mostly synthetic muscle but I hid some micro tech from Star Wars inside for massive bursts of power. Most of my organs were ignored as I had already made powerful replacements or they weren't needed for my brain.
I traded some more tech for some powerful nanobot forges. I wanted my body to have a powerful healing factor and having multiple nanaobot forges would do that. Along side the nanobot forges I made some things to make sure my brain regenerated from any damage that may occur. The Phoenix Monocyte breeder and atomic-valence tri-radii-oscillator would effectively heal any damage to my brain.
After scrubbing the nanobot forges of any corpo software I finished the body with multiple support cybernetics then carved hundreds of hidden runes all over my new body. After everything was covered I put on the body cover that the synth skin would go on. I again covered the body cover in runes and put on the synth skin. After that was done I brought in the docs and we put the finishing touches onto the body.
I sent a message to Lucy telling her to prepare to escape. As soon as I woke up from the surgery I'd be initiating our escape. Before the docs could put me under the project lead and some other corpo rats entered. "Ellery, I trust that the technologies you have created for your new body will be shared with the company? We did dedicate oh so many resources for your use. We should expect some kind of return no?"
I looked at the rat, willing myself to keep an innocent face while gritting my teeth at the idiot. "Of course sir. The company has given me a lot. If it weren't for all the attempts on my life I'd probably have already finished some stuff I was preparing for the company. As soon as we're done here I'll be finishing the work and sending it to you." I was about to continue sucking up to him but he interrupted. "Send what you have now. We wouldn't want to lose what you have created if this procedure goes wrong, would we." He said with a smile. "Sure. I'll send it now sir." I flicked some stuff to the asshole and immediately flicked a startup command to the docs. Hidden within the startup command was my AI slave control.
I'd worked with these docs before and knew they were all here on contracts. I was fully transparent with them about my AI having control over this place and my plans. They immediately caught onto what I was doing and I deactivated the slave control. They kicked the corpo rats out before they could do much and we began the procedure. I had my AI watching over everything shred of movement, both in and out of the net.
By the time my brain had been put in my new body the idiots at the top figured something was wrong. I easily found what they'd figured out. One of the docs was trying to send something out over the net. I had my AI fry the idiots brain then got up and put on my new outfit. I was completely bulletproof so my outfit was a basic armored baseball cap, gold aviators, a black and red armor-weave long vest, a military grade netrunning suit, old cargo pants, and some combat boots.
After dressing I led the docs with me and collected all the children I could. A few tried to resist for some reason but I knocked them out and had the docs carry them along. Most enemies we were met with got hit with fatal hacks. I activated the base evacuation system and put everyone in the back of an armored 16 wheeler. I grabbed multiple cans of choo2 and any weapons I found and stashed them in the back with everyone else. I had my AI erase everything about this project and everyone connected to it from everything it could. We took a quick detour from Canada to the New York area for one of the docs to get his family. We then rushed across country to Night City.
I hacked anything that might slow us down and practically stole anything the people in the back of the truck needed. With a generous 'donation' from Arasaka I payed the Aldecaldos to pick up anyone who wasn't staying with me. A bit of that money would be used by them to help set up the docs and the children.
Unsurprisingly, Lucy was the only one to stay with me. The truck had had a net connection that she'd spent most of the trip screwing around on. I'd integrated my AI into my body so I was confident that she'd be safe as my AI would be near her at all times. We barely had to slow down at the border checkpoint and I gunned it into night city.