Jacob

An engineer working for the U.S. military on Michael Tucker's former project on Inlays. Probably the only one currently on staff who will go near that damn thing, and the only one concerned about its performance over its appearance. Also actually feels bad for their treatment of the Inlay.

Somewhere in the Mojave Desert, the Inlay project resumes with a demonstration featuring IX7 prettied up so to secure further funding from the U.S. military while rushing to meet a deadline. Unbeknownst to them, IX7 makes contact with Tin-Head, who is disgusted by their mistreatment of the Inlay and works to thwart their demonstration.

When Jacob boots IX7, Tin-Head sends the public file validation request, which causes IX7 to crash and power cycle. Tin-Head is immediately worried by this, as he had figured the request would get IX7 stuck in an endless cycle trying to connect with the non-existent servers, but instead IX7 gave up immediately and reverted to factory default settings. This is a problem because the factory defaults include commands to kill certain targets on sight, like "50 Star Americans" (who may or may not be indistinguishable from regular pre-Black April Americans).

The Major impatiently (but under his breath) demands to know what's the hold up, as he is trying to impress the General, and Jacob notes that the system has crashed and rebooted. IX7 immediately comes online and greets the Major, which the General finds droll but Jacob finds distressing. Seeing Jacob's face, the General quickly realises that IX7's speaking was not something Jacob had been aware was a feature and asks if they should back away slowly. As confirmation of Jacob's fear, IX7 apologises to the Major and informs him of some necessary maintenance, tearing off the mini-gun and raising it to strike just as the Major looks behind him and sees the others running away.

IX7 chases Jacob and the General to the military car, informing them to consult the relevant Advisory regarding compensation for the damages, and accepts Jacob's apology before running off.

The General tracks IX7 in a Humvee easily, although Swanson and Jacob try to talk him out of following. Jacob specifically notes that IX7 will not be stopped by an M2 Browning (or, not permanently enough) as the Inlay's fullerene armour is "atomic level bubblewrap" with the only known working attack being a chemical attack with inorganic solvents.

The General continues pursuit, but at a distance. He asks Jacob about IX7's weaponry, which Jacob describes and the General interprets as a Metal Storm, although he points out IX7 used to have two before "something" burned off one side. The General asks what that something was, and Jacob replies that no one told him, as the information was classified. The General then turns to Swanson and asks who fucked up. Swanson admits that no one knows, as the security footage was wiped, and their only leads were a programmer and security guard who went missing. Yet they don't know how IX7 was stopped.

Their conversation is interrupted when the driver and navigator(?) report that IX7 abruptly turns toward the airfield. The General orders them to radio ahead to warn them. IX7 notes their pursuit and suddenly turns, aiming at the Humvee's right front tire and blasting it, causing the vehicle to spin out.