Or you could just mail it anonymously to Media Technologies's HR department. Since you sent in the evidence first, any subsequent evidence he brings up will look like him trying to pin it on someone else. Kinda like you're doing now.

If you ever swap or download something larger than your I/O speed, we'll start talking null ops tests. Until then, it's water under the bridge.

~J

You have yet to find the file.

Possible reasons for failure: your TNs are higher than you think they are (pointing to Probe IC), the system got enough successes to cancel yours below 5, or the file is not within your area of search.

~J

Hmm, I don't think I triggered a Probe before. I'll give my Locate one more try...

1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 7, 7, 11, 11

You find a memo.

Presumably another host within the PLTG. Having it that separate from this host seems overly paranoid for an otherwise not terribly secure company.

~J

Locate Access Node. Another search-style operation.

Either that or finding info that'll point you right to it.

~J

Whoa, lots going on today: Red Sox, debate. Back now.

You do not immediately find the host.

You find a stock UMS SAN tucked away in the back of the system and covered in warnings. "DO NOT ENTER" and "SAN ENCRYPTED: AUTHORIZED CONNECTIONS ONLY".

Incidentally, under normal circumstances his TN or required number of successes would probably be higher, as his search terms were fairly general. On the other hand, coming up with a good search string is perhaps a bit beyond the scope of this initial demonstration.

~J

SAN=System Access Node, a point at which to access a host. UMS I forget the exact expansion of, something like Universal Matrix Symbology. A set of stock icons, whereby triangular prisms are SANs, cubes are datastores, spheres are slave nodes, dodecahedrons are SPUs or CPUs, etc. etc. etc. They're what you get if you don't spend the money or effort on a sculpted system.

It's usually a sign that the host is not meant to be human-inhabited or the attentions of those running it are turned to things other than human interfaces. Consider it similar to having an open directory over http with files instead of a web page.

~J

It's a second-tier host. Refer to the host arrangement diagrams in SR3 for example drawings of Tiered Host layouts. You can log directly on, but it requires a Logon to Host operation and you can't Analyze Host until you're on, as usual.

~J

If you want information exposed, you have another two options, though they rely on your contacts.

-If you really want the information to be found and it's juicy, you might earn some extra cred by sending it to a Media Corp so it publishes on the Afternoon Bulletin. This way, the corp will have to react and probably fire the "problematic" man, thus leaving your Johnson free and with a possible new job.

-Second, you can send it to Shadowland. Information is usually found here, even for corps, and you might earn some favors this way (at least, you pay your upkeep with this contact). Reactions to it will probably be less open, but probably useful too.

Both of this options are only usefull if the information incriminates the worker but doesn't really damage the corp. If not, your employer might not pay you, since you made his job danger.

Anyway, I must say this thread is being quite helpfull, but it'd win a lot if you both added the background descriptions of actions and places. If not, the Matrix becomes a bit "cold" and looses much of what makes it so appealing.

Well, that's just my 0.2 €. Keep up the good work!

I've been considering it, but I've been going light on that since the prime focus of the thread is the rules. I'll try to spice it up a little more here and there, though.

~J

Hey guys, sorry it's taken me so long. I need to read over the past couple of posts and figure out what I want to do. Stay tuned!

Sometimes there are descriptive materials about a given host outside of it. The "Do not enter" signs are examples of such. For anything more informing, you're going to have to search.

Oh, it also mentions that the SAN is encrypted. Should I take that last roll as a Decrypt SAN test instead of Logon?

~J

The IC shimmers as the bits fall into place. Eventually the inner portion of the SAN resolves to a wall of zeroes. A small green light shines at one end.

Ok, I'm back. Sorry for the delay.

Sorry if I've been unclear. The SAN was protected by Scramble IC, which meant you had to either crash the IC or decrypt it before you could try to access it (unless you had the proper passwords, etc. beforehand, but you didn't).

~J

Are you changing that to a Logon to Host operation?

~J

The inside of the triangle slides backwards slightly, then splits out of the way. You have been granted access to the system.