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11:06, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

Posted by Mr. JohnsonFor group 0
Mr. Johnson
GM, 530 posts
Mon 31 Jan 2022
at 01:42
  • msg #1

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

During the invasion in '36, the Tir Tairngire Princes ordered a massive matrix strike on CalFree. NeuroTech Computing (a division of Telestrian Industries) engineered a semi-autonomous virus and contracted a small army of deckers to help deploy the malicious code into the CalFree Government host on the Sacramento LTG. The result was devastating.

Once the virus hit the host's CPU, it aggressively began to overwrite everything in the host, rather than targeting only key process nodes. In a battle reminiscent of the Crash, NeuroTech's deckers fought to contain their creation as it went wildly out of control.  Many fell to the virus as it spread, first through the CalFree Government's host, then out into the LTG. Unable to stop the virus and fearing it would spread beyond SAC LTG, the Tir deckers cut the LTG off from the NA/NOCAL grid. After hours of rampaging, NeuroTech was finally able to inject a kill-signal into the virus, stopping it in it's tracks, but far too late to save SAC LTG.

To this day, the SAC LTG remains an electronic wasteland, isolated from the NA/NOCAL grid and only accessible to the few who are brave or foolish to travel here through a few hidden datalines.




:: LTG# 845 (115-4242) :: {Pr*53~1=0}
Here. 23:52.45 01.02.56. Kali.




The LTG host where Kali wants to meet is a broken shell, barely functioning on the edge of the shattered SAC LTG. As you descend down the dataline, strange shapes writhe in the distance. Massive hosts lay in ruins teeming with viruses and rogue code fragments.  Wild, untamed, fraught with danger and filled with possible treasures.

@Venom, @Splinter you are here.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:43, Mon 31 Jan 2022.
Venom
player, 44 posts
Actual product may vary
Mon 31 Jan 2022
at 02:43
  • msg #2

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

Venom looked out over this panorama and wondered what on Earth could be so valuable as to risk going in there? Followed by the obvious fact that he was about to find out.

He looked over at Splinter, and was genuinely impressed with the icon he'd chosen. Giving the, in essence, agreed IFF "handshake" (to show he was supposed to be there), he waited for further prompts.

>Venom, here.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:44, Mon 31 Jan 2022.
Splinter
player, 75 posts
Fri 4 Feb 2022
at 21:46
  • msg #3

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

A coded constructed, twisted beyond recognition crash down creating a little tornado of fragments.

The fragments spin faster and faster forming a portal through which the Splinter materialized.

<<<I am the Splinter>>>
Mr. Johnson
GM, 572 posts
Fri 4 Feb 2022
at 22:16
  • msg #4

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

Kali swooped down the dataline, a shining black goddess adorned with the skulls of the dead.

“Sorry to bring you both out all this way,” she said surveying the landscape of the SAC RTG. There were rampant rumors that the old viral code had never really broken apart, that it lay in wait out there somewhere, just waiting for an unsuspecting user to pick it up and carry it to a fresh system.

“I doubt that when you hear what I’m after, you’ll want to jump into that mess, but this could be a big one.”
Splinter
player, 78 posts
Fri 4 Feb 2022
at 22:48
  • msg #5

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

The fragments that made Splinter spun around faster and faster.

"Big one sounds interesting... mess sounds even more interesting." for ease of conversation Splinter removed the sound effect from the voice, so it sounded more like a metahuman instead of the scratches of fragmented glass. The voice was flat, without any indication of gender, race or nationality.
Venom
player, 58 posts
Actual product may vary
Sat 5 Feb 2022
at 00:55
  • msg #6

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

Venom had, on the whole, good experiences with Kali. (Well, aside from the blasphemy, but that was for someone else to sort out.)

"Well then." he says, simply accepting the terms of "probable risk, possible reward", "What's the situation?"
Mr. Johnson
GM, 573 posts
Sat 5 Feb 2022
at 04:32
  • msg #7

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

She leads you into the abandoned host's SAN, out of the storming code on the edge of SAC RTG. Inside the host, your simsense inputs normalize closing out the chaos and feedback outside.

Tell it to them straight

"If we were running in OAK RTG, this would be an oldschool datasteal..." Kali's voice like a funeral dirge, low and dark, "But given the state of the host out there in the wilderness, nothing about the run will be predictable."

Flipping a datafile like a coin from one of her four hands, a photo and dossier becomes suspended ghostlike in the air. "Martin Rourke. Recently arrived in the BayPlex. He was managing a research farm in Silicon Valley, got a transfer and today he is finds himself in another mid-level corp workhorse job, lowly Director of Maintenance at Mercury Transport" she continues, referring to an ageing but athletic looking man with a shaved head and narrow eyes. "But, a quarter century ago our man Rourke was a hot commodity. Deputy Operations Chief of none other than Ares Security when all the big CalFree contracts came into play right after independence."

She flips through pages of corporate memos, stopping on a series of internal security reports from 2037. "Inside the company there were rumors of a private mail host. Hosts actually, a bunch of executives had them. Rourke had one from his time as Ops Chief and it's somewhere out there in that chaos. I have a buyer who will pay handsomely if we can bring it back from the abyss."
Splinter
player, 79 posts
Sat 5 Feb 2022
at 08:20
  • msg #8

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

Splinter watched the data with interest, several of the fragments that made it's body touching the data files reading into them.

<<<Jarvis, analyze the data about Martin Rourke>>> Splinter issued an internal command to the agent.

"I have several questions... first, is Rourke a mark, asset or a collabrator. Second, do we know if he has anything of use in his private files? perhaps a copy, a password or address or something else? third, how much the pay and what is the time frame?"

Splinter had more questions but they figured it would be best to get some answers before.

The run sounded dangerous, Splinter had no idea who Venom was and what was their deal but if they were like Splinter they were new to the scene and hungry for rep, success and fortune. Good enough for Kali to consider partners for the run, fresh enough not to take to much of the cut and desperate enough to try something more experienced deckers would call rush and suicidal.
Mr. Johnson
GM, 580 posts
Sat 5 Feb 2022
at 23:05
  • msg #9

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

“Rourke is oblivious to any of this.” Kali replies “Just happens to be him that was caught with unauthorized hosts, or just unlucky that the internal security guys at Ares recorded his infractions. That’s lucky for us though, because if there is something useful in his private files, we might be able to find out in the Mercury Transport host in SF RTG. That’s likely an easier hack then the Ares cube, so we got that going for us.”

“That brings us to pay.” she continues, “My buyer is in no rush. Those files have even out there for almost thirty years, another week or so won’t matter. The offer is twenty-thousand to confirm the files were destroyed, double if we bring them back intact. Even split three ways? Well, that’s a nice little payday.”
Splinter
player, 82 posts
Sun 6 Feb 2022
at 20:29
  • msg #10

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

Forty K... Splinter mind was spinning, that was a little over thirty key each... a very nice fat pay data that would allow Splitner some nice upgrades.

"So, our first step is the Mercury Transport? see what we can find? did you do a full profile of Rourke? it might aid in figuring out his passwords and codes."

It was at times like these Splinter was happy the Splinter avatar had no face, otherwise it would have been impossible to wipe the grin from the avatar face.
Mr. Johnson
GM, 595 posts
Wed 9 Feb 2022
at 03:41
  • msg #11

[February 2060] Yesterday's Man (Crew: Matrix)

"Time is on our side," Kali replied. "I'm game for taking on Mercury Transport and seeing if we can get something that gives us an angle on Rourke. We could shadow him directly too. Find out where he lives, get into his building or his PocSec and watch him for a little while to see if we hit paydata."

Looking out over the swirling chaos of the SAC LTG, she added, "You know, we might also be able to find someone who has been crazy enough to go out there already. See if there is a path through that wasteland."
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