That's one of the puzzles Shelton and Kerzach are currently trying to solve. Where is the original equipment?
And the logging thing actually isn't a problem either, wait until the end (which is in sight) and you'll see why.
______________________________________________________________________
Before they left, Kerzach gave Eddie his pistol back. “Really?” gasped Eddie, surprised.
Kerzach picked up Alpha’s giant rifle. “Yeah.”
The trio headed out, Shelton figuring out the right direction through estimations of distances. While unconscious scientists were still lying everywhere, no technology could be seen anywhere in the forest.
“Did that code explain where all the original machines have gone?” asked Eddie.
“Not really. According to the code, they’re connected to the virtual equipment somehow, which merely reads and displays what the real machines finds out. The process wouldn’t work without the information gained from the real machines, so they must be somewhere.”
"Could they all be, say, in a remote cave somewhere?" suggested Kerzach. "Safely far away?"
"No, the virtual equipment has to be directly connected to the real stuff; the information is transmitted via USB. Plus the environmental scanners would only display information on the cave's atmosphere, negating their usefulness."
"So the equipment has to be here, despite the fact that its not."
“Maybe it's invisible?” suggested Eddie. “And the chip is stopping the brain from seeing it?”
Shelton shook his head. “Kerzach doesn’t have a chip, but he can’t see any machines either. Plus it would still be possible to walk into them, and it isn’t. The equipment has indeed been moved.”
After about ten minutes, Shelton said. “The virtual reality machine should be up ahead.”
“There!” Kerzach pointed.
Up ahead a tall thin black-walled room could be seen. A small trailer was partially attached to the side.
An autoturret sat outside the door. It didn’t appear to be on. Cautiously, Kerzach led the way into the room.
The inside was also black-walled, with the majority of the room taken up by a second, smaller white room. They seemed to be in a hallway that circled around the middle room. They entered the next room.
The majority of the inner white room’s far corner was taken up by the machine Shelton remembered. It had grown, however, and now included wires and antennae snaking off in every direction. The rest of the room was quite empty, except for a lone scientist, hunched over seemingly nothing.
“Tinner!” yelled Shelton.
Dr. Tinner looked over. “What areó?”
“Be quiet,” ordered Kerzach, aiming his giant rifle. “Start walking outside.”
“Get back! I’ve got an auto turret!” Tinner threatened, pointing at a second turret sitting motionless in the corner.
“The turrets aren’t on,” countered Kerzach, rolling his eyes. “Keep your hands where I can see them.”
In response, Tinner fiddled with seemingly solid air, and the turret fired, blasting Kerzach’s gun to scrap and sending him skidding. “Warned you,” Tinner smiled, still ëtyping’. “You should listen next time.”
“How did he do that?” asked Eddie, diving out of the way of auto-turret fire.
“Virtual reality controls,” said Shelton, ducking and covering. “They must be working.”
Eddie fired at the turret, destroying it. “Alright, Tinner!” he exclaimed, pointing the gun back, but Tinner had disappeared.
“Where’d he go?” asked Shelton, standing up.
“A better question is what are you doing here?” Tinner’s voice rang out, echoing off the walls. “Dr. Shelton. I admit you were the last person I expected to see here.”
“Where are you?” asked Shelton, eyes still looking everywhere.
“I am still here. Your chips have just decided to not see me.” They could hear the humor in Tinner’s voice, still echoing and making it impossible to find the source.
Shelton tried to figure out where the voice was coming from. “Is that your plan? To turn Dragonstorm invisible?”
Tinner laughed. “More of the opposite. I want Dragonstorm to be visible only to those with chips.”
"Yeah, we alre--" Shelton stopped himself from retorting, instead waiting for Tinner to continue. He might reveal more pieces of the puzzle.
He did. “While the personnel slept, Alpha and the other commanders went throughout the compound and buried the equipment in large protective bags. They still function correctly, but are now underground, transmitting to the virtual equipment.”
“Well, that explains that," realized Shelton, "and then you code the virtual equipment to appear exactly where the originals had been, then both sets of equipment are linked, and outside sources are unable to interact or see with any of the equipment!”
Tinner paused. “How did you know that? You aren’t telling me everything.”
Shelton looked at the door. “Neither are you. Since we didn’t see any virtual equipment, and because you’ve said nothing about memory loss, I assume something didn’t go according to plan.”
Tinner said nothing for a minute. Suddenly Eddie’s pistol was ripped out of his hand, and went invisible as well. Something hit Eddie in the face, sending him falling with a cry. “You can thank your friend here for that. He threw a bit of a spoke in the works. Once he discovered the plan, he sent the memory erasing command with the knockout and inserted gibberish code into the virtual reality subroutine. Fortunately, I had already taken steps to protect myself from the knockout command, and quickly revived Alpha, Beta, and Gamma to finish the job.”
Shelton heard the invisible pistol cock. “Said job is almost finished, and, as I am invisible, you two have no way of knowing who I’m currently pointing the pistol at. Care for a guess?”
