(IC)Integrity, In the LA Shadows Options

[Curuinor]

A drain appears below Malloc.I's foot. Immediately, a clay hand reaches out of the drain and tries to grab his foot. System diagnostics detect an automatic attempt to Track Malloc.I.

Back in meatspace, some kind of gas is being emitted from various nooks and crannies within the tank room. It looks like steam.

[Curuinor]

Some observation proves that the gas is, indeed, normal water steam. It is, of course, very hot. Every surface in the entire room will probably be extremely hot for the next forty minutes or so.

[BlackHat]

As the clay hand reaches out for his icon, Malloc.I begins to melt away. His innate Stealth routines dissolve his icon into his surroundings, but the clay hand flails and grasps ever closer to his form. Shocked at his inability to evade what should have been a laughable trap, Malloc.I recognizes both the impressive robustness of the Trace routine as well as the iconography of the program. As he loads his Spoof-class program, from his server a thousand miles away, into working memory, he creates a message for the team: <<'Drain' trapped. Alert raised. Proceed with 'ignite' or 'poison'? Notify objective completion.>>

If he was correct in his identification of the IC program, he needed to stall - he was locked into a form of cybercombat. Redirecting the trace would be a good start, but it would be quite a while before the program degraded to the point that it lost its lock on Malloc.I's flittering form. And, although a typical matrix user could be triangulated in seconds, Malloc.I's path would not be so easily backtracked - even if the construct followed his datatrail all the way back to the Kabushiki Gaisha Sukai PÄ?fekuto KomyunikÄ“shonzu satellite system, his location would not be pinpointed more accurately than originating from somewhere in the Tokyo region of Japan. Even that, however, was information Malloc.I intended to make the tracker-bomb earn.

[Mickle5125]

Rose yelps softly to herself as she hops away from the steam.

<<Damnit! I told you it'd be trapped! Frag! that's really effin' hot. Malloc-I, I'm not seeing any tanks drained yet, and I'm not exactly in the mood to deal with poison gas. Before you go and set off anymore traps, do you have cameras in here? Sunuvabitch, it's getting really hot in here!>>

[BlackHat]

<<Correct. 'Drain' did not drain. Misleading controls will be ignored. Good luck.>>

<<Delay visual sensor request. Neutralizing IC.>> A timer appears which begins to count down from 12 seconds.

[Mickle5125]

<<Dancer, just so you know, we've hit a bit more trouble. Let the others know that we might need a hot extraction. And see if anyone has any burn cream. This is going to hurt... alot.>>

[Glyph]

Dancer mentally curses as she gets the message. This run is going sideways quickly. She marks the positions of the outside guards, and starts calculating fields of fire. She subvocalizes terse messages to the other team members:

<< Understood. I've got your back, Rose. >>

<< Doc, get ready. Rose might need some first aid from you when she gets out. >>

<< Malloc.I, I might need you to get the entrance door for me if Rose needs help getting out. >>

[Mickle5125]

<<Damnit! I don't have time to wait... ouch! Ok, I'm waiting outside the room. Let me know when you're done. Actually, better idea. let me know when you actually manage to drain the tanks. Or just tell me which tank has the target, and I'll drain it myself, Malloc-I.>>

Having declared her intent, Rose spins in place and throws herself into the air, looking to get out the door posthaste.

[BlackHat]

There was a slight pause, and then Malloc.I replies <<IC crashed. Inspecting available functions.>>

[Curuinor]

Poison appears to connect to a driver connected to a tank labeled "Fish."

Ignition is a connection to rigger controls for some kind of car.

[BlackHat]

Malloc.I's response takes another second. <<Fish or vehicles? Analysis of remaining options... indeterminate. Drain may not be networked. Proceed with caution.>>

[Mickle5125]

<<Malloc.I, can you identify in the camera footage which tank contains the target?>>

[BlackHat]

<<No. Intentionally so.>> Along with Malloc.I's message is a link to the direct feed of the room. The video is low-quality and grainy, and there is obvious on-the-fly editing to blur out the contents of each of the 41 tanks.

[Mickle5125]

<<Well, is there any past footage of them putting it in? If not, then... explain what you meant by fish or vehicle. Maybe one of them would help...

If not, then get ready to intercept and suppress any and all alarms, because this is going to get noisy in a flash.>>

[BlackHat]

<<Control labeled "poison" maps to tank labeled "fish". Control labeled "ignite" maps to a vehicle. Purpose unknown. Suspected unhelpful.>>

<<Back-up security-camera footage possible. Visual-editing will obscure contents, immediately. Multiple tanks in use. Information unclear.>>

[Mickle5125]

<<Well, let's poison the fragger's fish and start causing some chaos, shall we? And if that doesn't help, be a dear and tell me which tanks are the most likely to contain our target. I'll start blowing holes in them until we find what we're looking for!>>

[BlackHat]

A number of red bull's-eye icons appear over some of the vats in the camera feed from Malloc.I - seemingly at random - at the same time that the artificial intelligence reaches out two tendrils of code to access both "poison" and "ignite" simultaniously. He wasn't sure what was going to happen, but got the impression that, whatever it was, it would constitute "chaos".

[Curuinor]

Some persona named Ichythoid_3 is trying to access Ignite through you. Do you allow?

[BlackHat]

Malloc.I's icon shifts apart as that of Ichythoid_3 reaches through it to access the "ignite" control. Realizing that anything a legitimate user of this node wanted to do was probably not something his team would appreciate, he quickly used his administrator access to block the command, and lock permissions on the control.

When Ichythoid_3's icon clicked the control, it flashed red for a moment and activated the OS's stock "error" sound, before presenting the confused persona with a message-box explaining that he did not have the necessary permission level to access this command. At roughly the same time, the icon for the "poison" command mysteriously flashed green as the still-hidden Malloc.I reached around Ichythoid_3, and continued with the plan to "poison the fragger's fish".

The artificial intelligence was still curious as to what each of these commands would do, but he was also very interested in how Ichythoid_3 was going to react to the strange malfunctioning behavior of these controls.

[Curuinor]

Ichythoid_3 stops for a moment, and then runs its fin over to "drain".

The custom-designed IC comes up again and tries to ruin him, also.

[BlackHat]

When the IC appears, and attempts to attack the other construct, Malloc.I forms a quick message to the user, and transmits it to his account on this node: <<Mistake. Drain = steam. Also, tracing. Who are you? What do you want?>>

[Curuinor]

A message back:

Ah. It seems that you have caught me in extremeness. I may have reason to think that I work for same company as you do. Any choice of helpitude?

[BlackHat]

<<Choice? Always choice.>> Malloc.I's tendrils dig deeply into the surrounding iconography reaching out for the matrix security controls. With his administrator access, commanding the IC to stand down should be a simple task. <<Co-workers or competition?>>

[Curuinor]

"Nihongo ga wakarimasu ka."

[BlackHat]

<<Hai. Wakarimashita. Demo eigo ga jozu desu ne?>> Malloc.I replied, still using the OS's built-in messaging system, rather than expose his icon to Ichythoid_3. Malloc.I paid little attention to the transition from English to Japanese, but was curious as to the reason.

Additionally, it appeared that Ichythoid_3 was not, as first assumed, a legitimate user. Therefore, his reason for blocking the ignition command was no longer valid - and should be revoked. As soon as he was finished commanding the IC to stand down, he access the ignition command and executed it.

He also fired off a quick message to the rest of his team. <<Commands accessed. Observable results? Company online.>>