2072: Game World, IC thread for 2072: Recruitment always open! Options

[phlapjack77]

@Virtual Scream, Dante
[September 1, 2072, 15:15:07, Hai Fuk noodle house, Redmond Barrens, Seattle]
PAN: off

<<Mandarin>>

"Japanese stuff's always been low quality shit, they're just sneaky bastards with hella branding and advertisement. Yeah, some work would be great. It's been awhile since I've had anything to do but work my food cart. Kinda killing my reflexes, so to speak. You have anything going on that could use some muscle?"

Dante pauses, trying to appraise the situation, trying to read between the lines.

"Red Lotus taking applications these days?"

[RdMarquis]

@Emerging: Tribe / Fre∑dom
[September 1, 2072 19:47:13; Senlis Residence, Bellevue]
SIN: Morgan Senlis, PAN: Active

She only nods silently, unable to shake the feeling that something far bigger was at work.

The Tutor sprite momentarily distracts Morgan from her thoughts. "Fascinating. I can't summon your kind, Tagget." She extends her fingers, and an angular line appears, leading from her hand to the desk. The girl falls silent until asked for her profile. Sprogget's information was going to come into play very shortly, and she had to remember it. Morgan gives him a file that looks like a student ID card. The photo was of her alter ego, a girl with vibrant red eyes and purple hair, and one of her few contributions to the false identity. Much everything else was information from a SIN crafted by one of Mordred's more dubious acquaintances.

The profile identified her as Iwakura Lain, a citizen of the UCAS. "I can't say it's normal for Angelo to show up at my door, but it isn't so unusual that people would start getting suspicious. The company I keep is well known. More so than I would like. I doubt there's a way to avoid anyone knowing that he stopped by. Which reminds me." She holds up a black, oval shaped commlink. "Call me on this one. It's keyed to my fake SIN."

Morgan becomes more talkative once the subjects of the tribe and culture comes up. "What you must understand above all is that the culture I grew up in was designed in a boardroom. A gross oversimplification, yes, but I believe it illustrates my point well enough. Whatever else it may be, our emphasis on loyalty and duty is a tool, recognized and employed appropriately." Her parents had explained as much, though she couldn't fathom the reason. "It comes down to conformity. To creating a banner for the people to rally under. There is little you can't accomplish with the loyalty of millions. What's more, conformity is self policing, in a way. At best, anyone who goes against the established way of things is shunned."

"You have been paying attention." Her paragon places a hand on her shoulder. "I had been concerned you spent all your time daydreaming."

Morgan smiles self consciously. "I thought I should return the favor. I really do appreciate that you want to help me get ready for the days ahead." She pauses. "You know why I call myself LeFey? Besides my obsession with Arthurian lore, I mean. The old stories describe the Fair Folk as inhuman in their way of thinking. So it is with sprites and AI. What I'm trying to say is, these past years, I've had my share of interactions with people far removed from my norm. By choice and chance, I now associate myself with them. I have an idea of what very different is. So I won't take it personally if you do something I find strange. And when you see me start to flounder, please step in." She clears her throat.

"I think we're getting off course. What else did you ask? Right. Though we have the best security programs possible, we lack a dedicated security spider. Aside from occasional checks from someone the company sends, the home node is not subject to monitoring by a person."

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Cat
[September 1, 2072, 20:17:32, The Looking Glass]

The club is busy but seems somewhat subdued. Her autotaxi had been late, fobbing her off with the default excuse that GridGuide was playing up, so she had expected it to be busier.

Still there are plenty of people here. And by people, it is definitely the weirder sort of people. Fur, feathers and scales are commonplace and in every color of the rainbow. There are cyclopses and people with third eyes. Tails of various sorts are also common and several people have more than a single pair of arms. She definitely fits in and her commlink flashes with several messages of appreciation and invitations for drinks, and more. There is also a message from Frank.

<<@Cat: Sounds like you got hit by the >1rtu@l5cr3@m. Couple of my regulars were talking about it. Drop by sometime and pay your tab and maybe I can put you in touch with someone who can help. By the way, did it leave anything on your link, like an eyeball or something?>>

As she activates the opera glasses icon, it flashes slowly in her vision. For a long, worrying moment she wonders if it is even going to load on her struggling commlink. Finally, a small target appears in her AR and a short tutorial leads her through the basics, stuttering occasionally as it loads the next section. It seems that all she needs to do is occasionally look in a specific direction or at a specific object indicated by the target and the program will do the rest.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she sashays over to the bar where a four armed young man is serving drinks.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream/Uller
[September 1, 2072, 12:16; Downtown, Seattle]

The trid player's screaming slowly fades as Uller leaves his apartment, then stops abruptly with a tortured fizzling squeal. For a few seconds, he can still hear it echoing faintly in his ears, as if it is coming from his commlink but that too soon stops.

Perhaps he can catch a rerun of the last five minutes of the game somewhere. Or maybe even find some work!

[Aria]

@E:PL /UK
[May 21st, 2072, 18:26; Overlooking Clearwater, Exmoor, UK]

Tsubaki

As you stretch out your astral senses you realise you are still buzzing from crossing the ley line…the Royal Ley Line no less! Cranking the window enough to get a clear view out towards the former reservoir you can’t feel anything out of place and the early summer breeze is refreshing after the confines of the RV. The manasphere is wild here with a plethora of small animal and insect life but nothing that speaks of major human habitation…if they are indeed here they are concealing themselves and their activities well.

Mordred & Gemeaux

As you gird yourselves for battle you are both constantly sweeping the terrain ahead and around you for signs of hostiles…there seem to be none, all is exceptionally quiet…far too quiet! There is no matrix activity that your links can detect and given that these are supposed to be a hacker tribe of sorts surely there would be something?

There are some structures around the edge of the reservoir, presumably the old pumping station. As there is clearly nothing above ground presumably the group are under it somewhere. The pump station seems as good a place to start as any without any further intel…

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream: Dubstep
[September 1, 2072, 12:18, Dubstep's Apartment, Downtown Seattle]

Working cautiously but with practised ease, Dubstep strips down both commlinks to their component parts and puts the batteries on to charge. He runs pretty much every hardware test he can think of. But, despite the faint smell of burnt solder and fried circuits, he finally gives a long sigh of relief as both devices check out okay.


[September 1, 2072, 14:42, Dubstep's Apartment, Downtown Seattle]

Now came the moment of truth. Both links were reassembled and charged. He presses the power button on his backup link. Slowly, the link powers up. It seems slower than before but that could be just his imagination. Fortunately, Cindy 's icon is still there in the link's memory but the agent is not running. Activating her, she takes her own good time in powering up but finally appears in his AR.

<<Warning: Core system functionality compromised. Warning: memory LOW. Warning : unidentified program identified: >1rtu@l5cr3@m.>> she intones in a slow drawl.

Sure enough, sitting there amongst his music files is a new icon with the name: >1rtu@l5cr3@m. It looks like a human ear. An ear that is eating up a significant portion of the link's memory and processing power. As he activates the Analyze suite, he can feel the link's response slowing even further. The ear is some sort of agent, similar to the one that had invaded his custom link. But this one seems dormant. Or at least dormant in a system hogging sort of way. Reaching out to touch it, he gets the same flash of sensations he did from the drop of blood. Data, a lot of it and some of it encrypted. And his Decrypt program is on the other link.

His custom link definitely takes longer to power up and the giant pool of blood filling half his AR view is clearly to blame. The pool of blood icon is tagged with the name >1rtu@l5cr3@m.

<<Warning: Core system functionality compromised. Warning: memory LOW. Warning : unidentified program identified: >1rtu@l5cr3@m.>> drones the custom link's OS.

Simply getting the Decrypt utility running is an effort and he watches the seconds tick by. Finally, after about five minutes, an eternity on the matrix, it reports back.

<<Decryption in progress : 1% complete.>>

[Aria]

@Virtual Scream / Gossamer
[September 1, 2072, 12:15:03, Argent's home]
PAN: Active, SIN: Charlotte Penthièvre (Owner), Response 8*, Signal 8*, System 8 (5), Firewall 8(4), (Analyze, Scan, Decrypt, Exploit, Stealth [5, inherent], Browse, Encrypt [6, ergo, optzd] / Covert Ops, Defence, First Aid [4], Homenode, Empathy, Lie Detection [3]) +Armour [6, ergo, optzd]

This is intolerable! To most having your node hacked would be an invasion of privacy, but for Gossamer this was far worse. This icon had invaded her body, her mind. The perversion of it is neither here nor there to her, she has not quite grasped the nuances of human behaviour even though the empathy software is indicating that most humans would find the imagery revolting.

She slams the armour program in to place and flowering vines sweep out to encompass her sylph form. The scent of jasmine pervades the node. Running any more programs will decrease her responsiveness and she has a feeling that battling this thing will require all her inherent speed.

She spits a stream of matrix protocol code at the thing with an English subtexter ”Get out!”

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Dante
[September 1, 2072, 15:18, Hai Fuk noodle house, Redmond Barrens, Seattle]

Xaio smiles a thin, calculating smile. He fumbles in a pocket with his off hand and draws out a packet of Chinese branded cigarettes, tapping them expertly and offering one to Dante before taking one himself. The cigarettes disappear and a gold-plated lighter appears in their place. He sucks hard on the cigarette, holds it for a long moment and then lets out his breath with a sigh.

{Mandarin}"I can always use some muscle. Depends on how dirty you want to get though. This is a tough business and once you are in, it is not easy to get out."

Dante wonders who Xaio is talking about: Dante or himself.

{Mandarin}"So yeah, we are looking for new blood. We are always looking for new blood. We are small fish and the small fish get eaten by the big fish. Plus, my dumbass lieutenant got himself arrested with a vanload of BTLs in a KE sting just last week."

He glances over the balcony.

"Hey, you two idiots see anything out there."

"No, boss!" "Nothing here, boss." come the replies.

{Mandarin}"So you think this is really an attack by the trogs or the Russians? Or just some soon to be dead hacker messing with my business? Tell you what, you find out who did this and you're off the hook for next month's payment. Do a good job and maybe there's a bonus. And maybe then we'll have a talk about more serious business. Now, get out of here. I was in the middle of something and don't like leaving any business unfinished."

With that he holsters his gun and returns to the room.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream: Dubstep
[September 1, 2072, 14:45, Dubstep's Apartment, Downtown Seattle]

While the decrypt program runs on his main link, Dubstep tries to get rid of the 'ear' on his backup link. First he gets Cindy to try and purge it.

<<Access denied : User does not have sufficient rights to perform this action>>

Then he tries to delete it. Same message. He logs on as sysadmin and tries to delete. Same message. He tries to log on as >1rtu@l5cr3@m. Different message.

<<Unable to log on : User >1rtu@l5cr3@m does not exist.>>

He backs up the data on the link and tries to reset it to factory defaults.

<<Access denied : User does not have sufficient rights to perform this action>>

He tries to reformat the memory and reinstall the OS. Same message. He resists throwing the link against the wall.

It is almost as if the agent/virus/whatever was trying it's best to avoid being deleted. Could it be sentient? Then he notices it. A burst of data being transmitted from the link. He waits and sure enough there it is again. He examines the data string. It's very short, just a handful of random characters: >1rtu@l5cr3@m

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream/Cipher
[September 1, 2072, 12:42; Downtown, Seattle]

Data is flashing into his brain faster than Cipher can process. He catches glimpes of images, snatches of conversations, smells, tastes, words and feelings but most of it is just a blur. He is starting to get a raging headache and the closer he gets to the giant icon the greater the pressure becomes.

The icon itself is like nothing he has ever seen before. It is part agent, part data file, but more than both. Many programs are running simultaneously, intertwined and all incredibly powerful. Is this one of the beings that runs the matrix or at least an agent of the beings that do?

He is almost close enough to touch it when the bloody face turns towards him and the full force of the scream tears into his consciousness.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Gossamer
[September 1, 2072, 12:15:03, Argent's home]

The >1rtu@l5cr3@m icon seems not to notice Gossamer's presence in her node or simply does not see her as a threat. The volume of the scream simply continues to increase as the icon grows larger and becomes increasinlgy solid.

Her initial scan of it reveals nothing but as she calms herself or is that anger that she feels, she sees it for what it truly is. While her first impression is that it is an agent, and it certainly has many of those traits it is far more than that. It is more like a nascent AI and this attack on her node is somehow part of its birthing process. No, not birth she realises, but conception. She feels a moment of terror/horror as her mind makes the parallel with that of a human woman becoming pregnant.

[Machine Ghost]

@E:Tribes, Sprogget
[September 1, 2072 19:47:13; Mechanical Complex, Sprogget's Shop]
Bionode: Response 4(5), Signal 2, System 4, Firewall 3; Hidden; Analyze(3), Command(1), Edit(1), Scan(1), Sniffer(3), Spoof(1), Stealth(3), Shield(1), Tacsoft(2), Simrig(1)
CMT Clip: Response 1, Signal 3, System 1, Firewall 1; Passive; SIN: Paul Brickhill (R3)

When asked about Angelo dropping by, LeFey responds.

"I can't say it's normal for Angelo to show up at my door, but it isn't so unusual that people would start getting suspicious. The company I keep is well known. More so than I would like. I doubt there's a way to avoid anyone knowing that he stopped by. Which reminds me." {showing a black oval shaped commlink} "Call me on this one. It's keyed to my fake SIN."

Sprogget looks at the indicated commlink, and realizes it is a low powered Meta Link.
@self:So just 'dropping in' is not going to set of alarms.  Good.  Only signal 2 on the link though, remind in a bit about extending the range some.
He saves the link address and ID to the 'jailbreakers' firewall rule set on the CMT Clip, and looks over the results.
@self:Ok that is all ready to go now.  Forward a few more details to the group when I am done here, and I can go dark as well.

Also receiving the student ID profile information, Sprogget links it to his own copy of the LeFey profile for later reference.

"What you must understand above all is that the culture I grew up in was designed in a boardroom. A gross oversimplification, yes, but I believe it illustrates my point well enough. Whatever else it may be, our emphasis on loyalty and duty is a tool, recognized and employed appropriately. It comes down to conformity. To creating a banner for the people to rally under. There is little you can't accomplish with the loyalty of millions. What's more, conformity is self policing, in a way. At best, anyone who goes against the established way of things is shunned.

Sprogget does what he can to twist that world view into what is more familiar to him.

"I thought I should return the favor. I really do appreciate that you want to help me get ready for the days ahead.

@LeFey: <<Thanks, and that helps both of us.  The better I understand, the easier it is to avoid the toes.  It actually sounds not all that different from a tech tribe, on a much bigger scale.  We also have loyalty and duty to the group, as well as some discrimination against those that do not have the skills or knowledge to 'fit'.  Our conformity though has a much narrower focus, around technology, with much less need to live up to expectations on the culture side, and the loyalty is more directly earned and known by direct word of mouth, instead of demanded from above.>>

You know why I call myself LeFey? Besides my obsession with Arthurian lore, I mean. The old stories describe the Fair Folk as inhuman in their way of thinking. So it is with sprites and AI. What I'm trying to say is, these past years, I've had my share of interactions with people far removed from my norm. By choice and chance, I now associate myself with them. I have an idea of what very different is. So I won't take it personally if you do something I find strange. And when you see me start to flounder, please step in."

Sprogget relaxes some more.
@self:Looks not be as naive as first expected then.  What Osha would probably call call 'Sunday manners' will probably avoid most problems, until learn more.

"I think we're getting off course. What else did you ask? Right. Though we have the best security programs possible, we lack a dedicated security spider. Aside from occasional checks, the home node is not subject to monitoring by a person."

@LeFey: <<Sounds like you should be OK to go mostly offline then.  I don't know if that is necessary, but I trust the source enough to expect they have a good reason to be concerned about trouble.  Are you going to lock the commlink down for now, to only accept direct connections from us?  I should be able to get a message to the courier, to let Angelo know comms is down.  In fact, if there is any public news about why grid is currently risky, he could even mention that as a reason for not calling ahead.

Oh that reminds me.  Your comm appears to be a Meta Link.  If that is the only thing being used, connecting nodes will need to be within 100 meters.  You could extend that some, by routing through your house CHN, but I think that would not be as safe.  Once the package arrives though, you could boost the commlink to reach 4 times that, by connecting the 'link to the wireless adapter.  Fibreoptic connection cable included in the package.>>

[Aria]

@E:PL/Chi Town/Copperhead
[July 8th, 2072, 23:37:16; Storm Drain, somewhere beyond Blackwater, CZ, Chicago]

As your voice echoes tumultuously around the chamber a sinister chuckle, impossible to place the direction, echoes back to you.

"Everyone pays the toll…! Even mean fragging trolls!"

A pair of faintly glowing feral eyes lift out of what passes as water below you reflecting back the light of your glo sticks…reminiscent of those images of Gollum from the flat-vid that was so popular at the beginning of the Awakening. Except Gollum didn’t bring friends and you see a disturbing set of ripples as another four sets of eyes surface in a wide spread around you…too wide to catch in a spell or with the shotgun. Luckily only one is close enough to block your way to the exit…for now, just how fast can these buggers swim through this crap?!

"Ok boys…they don’t wanna pay up, let’s make them welcome!"

[Aria]

@E:CoP/Johnny Awesome
[August 20th, 2072, 21:15; NeoNet Tower, Oxford]

The lady, Ryl, smiles at your vid reference and answers in a suitably breathy voice the preceding line "Where shall I go? What shall I do?" Her smile lets you know that she isn’t about to be caught out on esoteric movie trivia. "I think we should all be concerned. I know that’s idealistic and perhaps contrary to the status quo. Many people in this hall would welcome the additional control. Is it even censorship if people willingly let it happen to them? I think perhaps you are wrong about people being told what to do…if it is phrased in the right way the sheep will follow! There are powerful interests that would see this go through unless someone were to give the scheme a little discrete nudge…" and she leaves that last part hanging. "But enough of such talk…you're right, I want to dance!" And the serious tone is replaced by the giddy girl that she appears on the surface to be, convieniently ignoring your last question.

<<P2.0 Friend Search: Ryl deBathayre>>

After a fractional pause your link responds <<SIN unidentified, please refine search parameters>>

[Notsoevildm]

@E:PL/Chi Town/Copperhead
[July 8th, 2072, 23:37:16; Storm Drain, somewhere beyond Blackwater, CZ, Chicago]

"Bite me!" barks Copperhead. She barely hesitates as the ghouls emerge from the water, continuing to stride towards the exit. The Enfield barks twice as she closes on the ghoul in her way, one shot for him and one for his closest buddy.

<<@Stitch, Requiem: If you boys is planning on playing cavalry and arriving in da nick of time, den right fragging now would be good.>>

"Shoot dem!" she hollers back over her shoulder at the two wide-eyed kids.

[faultline]

@E: Tribes
September 1, 2072 19:52:13;
Physical Location: 167 N on the way to Renton
PAN - Passive; SIN - Nicole Deveraux

Glyph grins as she flies along on the freeway. She was letting her Rapier cruise along at just a bit over the speed limit and was listening to listening a an album she had downloaded the night before. It was something a DJ's she had met at one of her favorite music chat rooms had recommended.

Damn good music even if it is 60 years old, I think I'm going to have to see if K1llj0y has any more like this when I can get back on the 'trix.

Glyph glances at the upcoming highway sign, and at the traffic up ahead of her

Good traffic flow, baring any accidents I should be at Angelo's before 8:30.


September 1, 2072 20:20:02;
Physical Location: Angelo's Apartment Renton
PAN - Passive; SIN - Nicole Deveraux

Glyph pulls up and finds a spot in between two parked cars with just enough space for her to park the bike. She looks at the address and checks it against what LeFey gave her.

Looks like this is the place.

She walks up to the gated entry for the apartment and looks over at the touchscreen building directory, and hits the "buzzer" buttons for all the apartments.

Someone should be expecting a delivery or a visitor and should buzz me in without checking the camera. Its an old trick but still works.

A few seconds later she hears the buzzer, she grins to herself and enters the building. Doing a quick search of the ground floor she locates a door marked Maintenance, and presses the button below a speaker on the wall next to it.

"Watcha want?"

"I'm looking for Angelo, he's expecting a delivery"

"Just a minute he'll be right there."

[JxJxA]

@E:PL /UK
[May 21st, 2072, 18:26; Overlooking Clearwater, Exmoor, UK]
PAN - Active ; SIN - Maximilien Danton

"I do not like this," grumbles Gemeaux. He frowns as he surveys the vast array of nature and nothingness that stretches out in front of them.

"There is no sign of civilization, save for the dam and that old pump station. And a pump station has the sinister possibility hiding any type of liquid..."

"But perhaps I am blind to the relevant sights," he continues, turning to Tsubaki and Monsieur Collot.

"Do either of you see anything in your respective realms of perception? If not, I can try scouting the area, but cities are my natural environment. I am out of my element here, amidst the uncomfortably bucolic embrace of Mother Nature..."

[phlapjack77]

@Virtual Scream, Dante
[September 1, 2072, 15:15:10, Hai Fuk noodle house, Redmond Barrens, Seattle]
PAN: off

Dante grins at Xiao Hong's meaning. "Right. I'm gone." A nod to the two gangers on the way out results in more angry looks from 'Lucky' Lee, but Dante didn't care. He was feeling good at the prospect of work. As he walked down the street, the reality of the situation starts to sink in. This would be a lot more complicated than a straight-up job where he was hired muscle. He tried turning on his commlink but this ">1rtu@l5cr3@m" program turned it from a high-performance device into an inert hunk of plastic. He turned it back off with visible disgust. The iBall hadn't fared much better. His backup, disposable commlink was more responsive as he flicked it on, a small sigh of relief escaping him as data flooded his senses again, feeding him information about his ware, his gear, the world, those around him...he wasn't alone anymore. After bathing in the data for a few moments, Dante sent a quick message to his fixer.

<<@JiuJiu[Dante] JiuJiu, this is Dante. Need you to help put me in contact with a wiz tech guy. Got a virus or something on my 'link that won't go away, something called >1rtu@l5cr3@m. Let me know at this commcode, my other commlink is fragged with this thing.>>

[September 1, 2072, 16:21, Dante's flat, Redmond Barrens, Seattle]
PAN: hidden, Response 1, Signal 3, System 2, Firewall 1

Stopping in a neighborhood hardware store across from his place, he bought a medium-sized faraday cage and carried the box home. The instructions weren't too difficult to set the thing up, and within the hour he had his wireless-negating cage ready to go. Stepping inside with his commlink, his iBall, and his tools, he went to work trying to figure out how to purge this virus from his systems. The rest of his gear, he left outside the cage, his disposable commlink set to sound an audible alert when messages were received.

[RdMarquis]

@E: Tribes
[b]September 1, 2072 20:20:02;
Physical Location: Angelo's Apartment Renton
PAN - Passive; SIN - Nicole Deveraux

Glyph pulls up and finds a spot in between two parked cars with just enough space for her to park the bike. She looks at the address and checks it against what LeFey gave her.

Looks like this is the place.

She walks up to the gated entry for the apartment and looks over at the touchscreen building directory, and hits the "buzzer" buttons for all the apartments.

Someone should be expecting a delivery or a visitor and should buzz me in without checking the camera. Its an old trick but still works.

A few seconds later she hears the buzzer, she grins to herself and enters the building. Doing a quick search of the ground floor she locates a door marked Maintenance, and presses the button below a speaker on the wall next to it.

"Watcha want?"

"I'm looking for Angelo, he's expecting a delivery"

"Just a minute he'll be right there."

Ms. Deveraux, right? The speaker is about sixteen. Angelo is a human with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. Three of the fingers on his left hand are bandaged, and aside from the cap on his head (which bears the Pathfinder logo), his clothes look used. His SIN identifies him as Andrew Jensen. "You said you had a package for me?"

[Aria]

@Virtual Scream / Gossamer
[September 1, 2072, 12:15:03, Argent's home]
PAN: Active, SIN: Charlotte Penthièvre (Owner), Response 8*, Signal 8*, System 8 (5), Firewall 8(4), (Analyze, Scan, Decrypt, Exploit, Stealth [5, inherent], Armour Browse, Encrypt [6, ergo, optzd] / Covert Ops, Defence, First Aid [4], Homenode [3]) +Attack [5, targeting], Expert Defence [2]

The emotions raging through her were almost as upsetting as the hostile agent burrowing into her node. Was she being inseminated? Raped? The concepts were familiar but she had no way to rationalise them with her narrow frame of reference. Whatever this thing was it seemed to be gobbling up system resources and she could feel her mental processes slow as the thing dug itself in like a tick.

As it seemed to be ignoring her, perhaps it couldn’t see her as the matrix cloaked her in its metacoding, she decided to take the milliseconds required to upload her active arsenal. If this failed she wasn’t sure what she was going to do…the flowering vines sprouted long thorns reminiscent of claws as the attack program engaged. A gossamer web of spidersilk glittered with dew as the expert defence algorithms further cloaked her ethereal form.

While her programs loaded she composed three messages and fired them into the ether

<<@[School’s Name - redacted for security]: We are currently experiencing what appears to be a matrix attack. Please retain the Penthièvre children until an authorised member of the household comes to collect them. >>

<<@Argent: The CHN, your work node and my own node have been compromised by a matrix entitiy. The >1rtu@l5cr3@m is draining resources and seems to be doing firmware damage. In case this is a precursor to an assault I suggest you stay away although from your usual locations. I have requested that the children remain at school until this is resolved. This may be a wider phenomenon though affecting this area of the matrix and possibly elsewhere, perhaps your contacts have some information? G. >>

<<@Aria: I was in the Citadel when it was assaulted, I hope you were able to contain the >1rtu@l5cr3@m entity? It seems to have lodged itself in my own node and I am going to try to dig it out now but I do not know how successful I will be, it seems to defy what I know about agents and viruses…it is possible that it is a nascent AI. Any help or information you can give me would be much appreciated! >>

The messages gone she hurls herself towards the intruder, claws set to rake into its digital flesh…

”I said Get Out!”

[Aria]

@E:PL/Chi Town/Copperhead [July 8th, 2072, 23:37:16; Storm Drain, somewhere beyond Blackwater, CZ, Chicago]

The dark, the uncertain footing, even the water, all serve to distract you from making a killing shot. The first ghoul squeals but you are not sure if it was the slug impacting with it or whizzing past its malformed visage. The second seemingly ignores your wild blast and continues to wade towards you with its brethren, rising dripping from the water like some grotesque parody of a sim starlet wading out of the sea.

<<@Copperhead: Hold out a bit longer will you, the entrance seems to be covered in all sorts of crap. We’re going to try and blast it clear but we aren’t exactly equipped for demo work. Will give you enough warning to duck and cover!>>

The message distracts you sufficiently that it is only the belated hiss of warning from Mama Snake that stops you plunging in to the fetid water at your feet as the crushing weight of the ghoul lands on your shoulders. Its claws scrabble for purchase on your scaled arms and torso as it chuckles into your ear "I am going to bite you!"

[Notsoevildm]

@E:PL/Chi Town/Copperhead
[July 8th, 2072, 23:37:16; Storm Drain, somewhere beyond Blackwater, CZ, Chicago]

Splash. The Enfield drops into the water at her feet as the ghoul lands on her back. Her arms go up over her head, their armor plates shifting to protect her neck, as she tries to grab it with her razors and pull it off.

<<@Stitch, Requiem: Just fraggin blow it. I got a buncha ghouls here trying ta eat us!>>

"Keep shootin!" she barks at the kids.

[Slacker]

@Virtual Scream: Dubstep
[September 1, 2072, 14:45:23, Dubstep's Apartment, Downtown Seattle]

"Aaaarghhhh!" Dubstep cried out in frustration as he through he datachips across the room. "How the hell am I going to get this drek off my 'links?"

Whatever this >1rtu@l5cr3@m thing was, it thwarted his every effort to pin it down or get rid of it. It was just so frustrating. He start banging his head against the wall and tearing at his hair trying to rack his brain for some new angle to attack the thing. Back when he worked at Mitsuhama, this wouldn't be nearly so difficult to deal with, he could just....

"That's it!" In a flash of insight, he quickly called up Matsuko's number. Gnashing his teeth at how long the commlink was taking to do something as simple as connecting him to her, he was eventually rewarded with an image of her smiling face in his AR vision.

"Henry," Matsuko greeted him cheerfully. "I was just thinking of...." A look of concern furrowed her brow."Henry, you ok man? What's with your icon? It looks like shit."

He glanced up at the mirror across the room, despite knowing that she was only seeing his avatar. Still, he caught the sight of his hair sticking out at odd angles and self-consciously started smoothing it out with is fingers."Yeah. Uh. Sorry about that. It's actually why I'm calling. Can you get me some access time on the Nexus servers?"

"Um, yeah. That won't be a problem. You know we rent out server time to freelancers like yourself. But what is this about?"

"It's this damnedest thing. Something hit both Cindy and me earlier today. And it's left something behind on both 'links that is impossible to get rid of. I don't know who created this >1rtu@l5cr3@m drek, but they are going to wish they hadn't by the time I'm through with..."

"Wait, you got hit with >1rtu@l5cr3@m too?"

When [b]Dubstep confirms what he got hit with, Matsuko tells him that some of Mitsuhama's systems were hit too. She goes on to tell him that they've managed to isolate a few pieces and have some of their best people trying figure it out. They've never seen anything like it before.

"You say you have a couple pieces of it yourself? What do you have?" she asks.

"Cindy's link has a damn ear on it and mine's got a freaking pool of blood covering the entire interface. I've tried doing some limited testing on it, but with my comm so bogged down with it I can't tell anything. At least nothing more than even the tiniest drop of the blood has massive MegaPulses of data in it."

Matsuko is interested indeed in finding out everything he has been able to figure out. But with not much else to tell her, he says that she will have to wait until he can try to offload it to their servers and can run some more diagnostics on it. "Your boys can certainly take a look at it too. But I'm am going to do my best to figure this out."

'Yeah, yeah. I can understand that. If you don't mind, please tell me if you find anything.

"Sure thing."

'Thanks, hon. Maybe the next time we go out, dinner will be on me?"

"Promises. Promises. I've heard that one before." Still, he was smiling when he said it and so was she.

Then she signed off sending him an encrypted message with the address and temporary Access ID for one of the heavier Nexus nodes within her department of Mitsuhama.

Dubstep spared little time in connecting to the Nexus and trying to offload the >1rtu@l5cr3@m file to it. To his exstatic relief the file actually seemed to be transferring off his commlink. Still it's pace was that of molasses and he didn't celebrate until it was complete. When it finally finished and he double checked his commlink to confirm it was clean, he literally jumped up and started dancing around his apartment.

"Take that you bastard!

He quickly followed up his success with likewise transferring the ear off his backup commlink to a different folder on the Nexus. Once it was cleared, he was once more greeted by the firey glory of Cindy's icon. Some of his best work creating that body, but the hair of flames is what really made her stand apart from every other avatar. The detail of it was exquisite. While the >1rtu@l5cr3@m file was on her system though, it looked atrociously pixelated.

"Ok, Cindy baby. Let see what we can find out about this thing.

Hours go by as he tries to decrypt the data, once more Cindy is filling his ears with some mellow trance music to calm him while he works. At some point he notices something though. The >1rtu@l5cr3@m file appeared to be sending out a burst of data periodically. Now where could that be going, he wondered. Pulling up a Trace program, he starts to see if he can follow it home.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Gossamer
[September 1, 2072, 12:15:06, Argent's home]
PAN: Active, SIN: Charlotte Penthièvre (Owner), Response 8*, Signal 8*, System 8 (5), Firewall 8(4), (Analyze, Scan, Decrypt, Exploit, Stealth [5, inherent], Armour Browse, Encrypt [6, ergo, optzd] / Covert Ops, Defence, First Aid [4], Homenode [3]) +Attack [5, targeting], Expert Defence [2]

This is her node and she knows it better than anyone or 'anything'. At first, she easily keeps out of the reach of the >1rtu@l5cr3@m. Her node, however, is doing less well under its onslaught.

Wherever the scream's code hits the node walls, red rose petals burst into the air. They swirl around the invading icon like blood red rain. Whenever a petal land on its skin, it is absorbed into it. Each petal represents another fraction of the node's resources falling under its control and she can clearly see that it is growing larger and better rendered with every passing moment. And she is getting slower.

The last message sent she hurls herself towards the intruder, claws set to rake into its digital flesh. She screams "I said Get Out!"

It turns almost lazily in her direction, a bloody and handless arm batting her attack away with apparent ease. And then the scream hits her, shaking her to the root of her programming. A creature of pure code, she has never felt real pain before. She does now.

She feels every wound that has been inflicted on the icon. Her hands and feet are sliced off, her nose and ears too. Her eyes, teeth and tongue are pulled out. Her chest is sliced open and her internal organs drawn out, one by one. The top of her head is sawn off and steel probes pierce her brain.

It feels like death, not birth.

[Notsoevildm]

@Virtual Scream / Dubstep
[September 1, 2072, 16:23, Dubstep's Apartment, Downtown Seattle]

Almost immediately, his Trace progam pings up a matrix address.

Then another.

And another.

And another.

In the next 10 seconds, the number of hits quickly passes the 5000 mark.

By 30 seconds, it's over 9000!

At 42 seconds, the counter hits 9999 and the Trace program terminates, its address buffer full.