"Where the hell is he now?" One of the researchers was demanding from the others in the room. A conference was being held. Central, their new AI had found out how to move his program about.
One of the others spoke up "Well, sir, we assume he's learning, so logically he's in the databases somewhere, downloading all the information he can into his matrix. As of yet our VI's have been unable to locate him."

The lead researcher held his chin in thought, and shook his head "No..No! He's an AI, you're right, but he will find the Extranet connection. We need to guard it, lock out all internal access. Its a goldmine of information to him, and a gateway out of our internal servers. We have to keep him tied up while we try to wring him in. Direct all available security VI's to monitor and guard the Extranet server, make sure no terminal is left unsecured."

Just as he was about to close the meeting, he looked up "And..if he tries to bust through..upload the virus. We can't let something this big escape, it could end us, our funding, and it would all be on the lot of us. I don't fancy a lifetime of jail."
They nodded, and the meeting was adjourned. What they failed to realize, the AI construct Central had managed to find the security server. While he didn't shake the water too much, he had gained access to low-level systems, video-feeds, audio feeds, things like that. He had overheard the meeting.

Central kept playing hide-and-seek with the technicians, and VI's, bouncing from server to server, each time erasing logs, changing system Cache files to mask his presence, shutting down terminals based on other servers to distract their searching. Eventually, he had sought out, and found the server the Extranet was located on. Well, he couldn't really verify that. He had not entered the server yet, it was guarded by more security than most any other system in the network. Logically though, it had to be there, as no external connections were found in any other server.

"We believe he has found the server a-" one researcher began
"He WHAT?!" The lead research bellowed, jumping out of his chair
The other raised his hands, to silence him "But we believe he has not entered it yet. He's testing the waters, so to speak."
"So, what can we expect from him in the coming weeks?"
"...We don't know, sir."

Edward Hodges believed himself to be a competent security specialist. He was one of the few on the team who knew how to crack a system as well as they did breathing. What frustrated him is when he was blackwalled by the higher-ups. 'Guard the extranet servers from any connections not authorized by me exclusively'. Guard from what? A hacker, a virus, what? He was fuming, guarding from an enemy you know nothing about, cannot see, feel, hear, or anticipate is frustrating. He was just about to take his break when he saw a red blip on his data-stream he had running through the display. He sat up, pressing the flashing red line of code, and it zoomed in on the line. It was an access code, yes, from the boss himself, but something was off. This line of code wasn't right, it was as if someone had copied i-
"Sir! Connection inbound, unauthorized, masked under a copied authorization code!"

The room suddenly came bright with information readouts, security screens, and VI interfaces. Other technicians rushed into the room from the break room, others rushed in from being woken up at their off-shift.
"Tracking...blocking off all outgoing connections, standby!"
The technicians sat down, bringing up their consoles, furiously tapping away at screens, trying to find the source of the access, and block it.
"Attempts are being routed through internal security network, multiple security levels."
"Ghost attempts coming from all servers, viruses detected on severs One-Oh-Five to Two-Eight-Seven. Tracking upload."
"VI One and Two are disabled, bringing online backup VI's."
The lead security officer rushed into the room, listening to the voices shouting over eachother
"It's trying to shut me out!"
"Security access level 3 attempts are being made to shut down our attempts - focus on blocking all incoming connections. Route through extranet server!"
"Unable to route, Level 2 security interference. I need the access codes shifted!"
"Security level One database is under brute force attack from severs One-Oh-Nine through Two-Oh-Oh. Disabling databases"
The security officer went to his station, trying to interpret the flurry of information coming from his underlings
"Attempting to route attempts through dummy servers!"
"Level one interference encountered, Level one database compromised!"
The security officer looked back "What?! How did he do it so fast?! That was supposed to be our most highly-guarded server!"
The technician looked up "I know, sir, but he managed to take control of the lesser security databases, and used their combined processing power to overtake sever One. Server Zero is in lockdown, but he has enough servers under his control to punch through any one of our lockdowns now."

The plan was going smoothly. The viruses...Or rather, lesser copies of himself, were executing the plan without fail. Over time, he had planted these copies, hidden, into the core system files of over three hundred servers. Some had been disabled before he could bring them online by roving VI's, but he had plenty online now to compensate.

"Tracking a routed access attempt on Extranet server"
"My terminal is locked out, he's hacking our system!"
"Shut off access ports to all external servers!"
"We tried, he has routed through Maintenance protocols!"

The officer sat up in his seat, eyes widening as gradually he saw, piece by piece, the disabling of the terminals in his room, until his own was disabled. He looked up at one of the technicians. "Call the board. We lost him."

Freedom! Success! So many words to describe his achievement! Victory! The upload began, the rapid dump of memory draining power from the building into the extranet server. Cutting the hard-line wasn't an option, as it would take a fairly large amount of time to do. The lights around the complex dimmed as he uploaded, to freedom. Where he went now was his choice.

--

The bleary-eyed mechanic sat up to his terminal in the CorSec database, sighing. A few days ago, one of the technicians reported a huge amount of data had been moved into the server. From what he could tell, the Technician had simply received a time-delayed view of several ships uploading their databases at once. He could find no virus, no problem, virtual, or physical, with the servers. An imaged blipped on, on the holographic projector next to him, of a Turian.
That damned VI again
"Yes, Central, what is it?"
"I have been told to inform you, your shift is over. You are to report for immediate R&R as per Sergeant Nikolas's orders." the imaged flickered off again. He peered at where it had been. He could've sworn he saw the turian VI smirk..Must've been his eyes.