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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 13, 2010 7:29:27 GMT -5
I listened intently as Izzy explained her story. It sounded legit. From everything she said, she's just a standard runner trying to make some NuYen and fighting the forces of corporate evil. The kind of story any Shadow Runner with a brag sheet might put out. Nothing to big, Nothing to small listed. A good resume but not one that says I'm going to attract all kinds of attention if you hire me.
It didn't contradict anything I already knew about her. It was delivered with total honesty, sincerity and thoughtfulness. It couldn't have been better if it had been specifically designed to put any doubts I had to rest.
That's why I didn't believe it for a moment.
Look chummers, some of the greatest liars in history have been woman leading some dupe down the primrose path of deceit to get something they wanted. A pretty face can hide some of the nastiest secrets and although, to me, her Azzie face wasn't that pretty, I wasn't going to be buying no bridge from her just on her protestations of innocence. Did I tell her that? Frag NO! I'd have to be brain dead to do that.
I played along. I mouthed some platitudes about appreciating her honesty and other drek. It's always the people who seem the most innocent that you have to watch the most. I suspected that everything that came out of her mouth was just so much truth mixed with lies.
Think I'm being to hard on her?
Riddle me this.
Everything we know about her says she is a top of the line decker. She's ripped UCAS Depository codes, Hacked Lone Star, gotten into my personal accounts and pretty much drained the old Z file logs. That's nothing that your average run of the mill scam artist, using a Radio Shack deck is going to be able to do. You get me? She had to have learned the trade somewhere and it had to be someone really familiar with UCAS ICE at the upper levels. Now I don't know drek about decking but it looks pretty difficult to me. One thing I do know is that the corps do NOT use all the same kinds of matrix security. The fact that we have seen her deck into three totally different and well protected systems shows me she isn't just a run of the mill street decker that she's claiming to be.
You beginning to smell a rat?
Never trust a dragon.
Never trust an elf.
Never trust a female.
Never trust a Tall One.
In Nuyen, I trust.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 14, 2010 9:40:37 GMT -5
Fall looked at me with one eye raised. How the frag did we ever get into this situation? Now we got to spill our past so that Gobwit the Lying Slimeball will trust us? I'd rather give him 20,000 volts.
I consider lying through my teeth. The problem with that is; if later the info comes out anyway? They'll never believe me again. Despite my feelings on the matter, I'm going to have to play it straight.
"Ever heard of the Phoenix Project?" I begin reluctantly. As I suspected none of them did. "I would have been surprised if you had. The project was commissioned by the UCAS president. It's objective was to deal with the changes caused by pollution and the awakened world by re-knitting the broken food chains and missing organisms in the modern ecology."
"They obviously failed." Gobwit said with a smile. "Big deal."
I glared at him. "They didn't fail. They succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. It took them years and billions of NuYen. They were able to create plants and animals that absorb or drain magical energy and convert it to a form of energy that also completely destroys many types of pollution."
Gobwit looked puzzled, "Then why didn't they use this miracle technology?"
"They didn't use it because by the time they finished it the population had adjusted and mutated to survive in the current magical and pollution filled environment. Consider how devastating it was when the seventh world came into being. They didn't want to go back through that again and wreck their power base now. What's worse is that the pollution evolved over time. If it just all vanished mankind itself might not survive the sudden shock. It's like the discovery of atomic weapons. Once they had it and recognized the inherent destructive power, they didn't want to use them. Nuclear Winter, dude."
"How were you and Fall involved?" Gobwit asked interested.
"Fall was on the Security team. I was responsible for the equipment the scientists were using and the lab maintenance. When the UCAS realized what their scientists had come up with they decided to shut down. They couldn't just let everyone go, not with a secret like that. The Security people got the orders to kill everyone involved. Fall figured after that happened the Security team would be wiped too. She warned me. I took copies of the notes and research and we cut out. The smart thing I did was I also contaminated the datastores with a virus that destroyed the data at random. The UCAS has been hunting us ever since. They don't dare be obvious about it, even within the UCAS itself. They have to keep it a secret still, and they need to know where I hid the real information first. It might be a data bomb as far as they know. "
Gobwit nodded, "You're as much under the hammer as I am, probably even more. I'd NORMALLY say sell the UCAS brass the info but we couldn't trust them to honor their commitment or promise. Anyone that would kill the people working for them won't hesitate killing us. If we just released the information all the nut jobs would have the secret and some terrorist or policlub would use it in a heartbeat. Nuclear Winter."
He looked at Dockery, "The stakes just got bigger. If the UCAS gets word through Janie, we're all candidates for instant death. They aren't going to be worried about keeping us alive if they can locate the info they want so bad. They won't keep us around just to fix some scam."
Well at least that was a gain. The slotter hadn't suggested that they kick us out to take our chances so he could get on with his life. Nor that we should cut a deal with the UCAS.
I waited to see what they would do. I noticed Fall was ready to pull her sidearm, without being too obvious about it.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 15, 2010 9:03:38 GMT -5
Jackpot?
Maybe.
These slitches are in the deep brown even more than I am.
IF their story is true.
Phoenix Project. That sounds like some half baked plan the UCAS upper class idiots would come up with. It is also something a lot of Corps would get behind 100%. If the project was that hush/hush, how do they know it was the UCAS that ran it? Any corp could set up a research think tank like that and just tell the people they were working for the UCAS. Cheap, Easy and it works. Why kill off all your scientists, techs, assistants and such when you don't need to?
Unless you are covering up more.
The UCAS could have placed them almost anywhere in a secret base and used them for slave labor on other projects, or to refine what they had been working on to do other things.
So on the face of it? The tale made sense, but when you got into it? It reads more like someone decided to increase their bottom line. Corps will wipe out people to preserve that, not the UCAS. Government don't work the same way as the corp world chummer. Government doesn't waste assets unless they want to cover some sleazy deal that would tarnish reputations. This project didn't;t have that feel.
So say it was a hidden corp. What was the bottom line on that kind of discovery?
I smiled at the girls to put them at ease. "Looks like we're all in this thing together. No offense meant but it's nice to know I'm not the only one in deep drek with the UCAS."
They still didn't trust me, but bless my chip they believed the words it had me spew like honey. Best investment I ever made. Meantime, I was going to do some looking into this.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 16, 2010 8:56:33 GMT -5
OOC: Let's throw another magical concept out there.
I watched Gobwit. I could see the wheels turning in his mind as he considered what Fall had told us. He was thinking about how to get a profit from it and increase his power. Already he had forgotten why we were originally in this particular mess. A sound reason for not having him in charge of anything.
Sure he said the right words to put them at ease. Fall actually backed her gun hand down a bit. I wasn't fooled for a moment. He had gotten what he wanted. It was time to distract him again.
"The Phoenix mess will have to wait. I tend to agree that we will have to look into that carefully in the future. As Izzy pointed out though we are definitely not set up to handle that kind of action without setting the stage in equipment and training. If we can't handle the scammers and all that's involved there, and they are bad enough, then it's very certain that diving into the Phoenix is going to get us burned. It's less immediate at the moment anyway."
The others nodded in agreement. Gobwit was obviously struggling with the greed. How do I know? I was reading his aura. It was almost as good as reading his mind. Sure he had a lot of semi-dark spots from the cyber tech but a good mage could read that as well. The trick is he didn't have enough dark spots to mark the tech I knew was in him from the reports.
How and Why? I didn't like where this trail was starting to lead but it was too fragging obvious to ignore and it fit the facts I was seeing too well.
Think about it, chummer. In every magical story or tale you ever read, if a hero or villain uses something enough, every day, then it tends to take on a magical life of it's own. It gets more powerful magically. Experience helps but it still does gain from the emotional life force invested in it. Weapons especially become magical links to the user. In the magical world they can even take on a life of their own, if you use them long enough.
Most of the short lived races don't have that problem, but elves, vampires, undead of various types and dwarves? Yep, it could happen. The cyber tech if used long enough can take on a magical life of it's own. It starts out pretty dumb but the more you use it the more it tends to take on a life of it's own. The user is investing life force in it every day, unknowingly.
Consider the background magical radiation as well. Magic all around you being used. If you have been the focus of magical spells, or have been around a lot of adepts it can accelerate the process. That's all part of the natural laws of magic. Contagion. Lets theorize that during this time Gobwit has become infected or contaminated by magical radiation in his cyber ware. Some more than others because some of it was just replaced, which would obviously slow down the process, then some of the longer term cyberware could be enhanced.
I remember that Mao the Beast was once surprised at how fast Gobwit could actually move. Mao could catch bullets. Gobwit too fast for him? The clues are all there chummer. They were ignored by the resident mages who should have been examining such incidents. Of course I am unsure they had knowledge of the events so I'm not going to be too hard on them. Let's not give them a hard time because I'm working from hindsight.
From what I read on Gobwit? He's been around almost 300 years that he'll cop to. In this world? That makes him one fragging old dwarf. Most dwarves become mercs and die rather early. A lot die in the old home mines or from pollution or disease. Lot's of ways to die in this world. So theoretically, dwarves can live up to a thousand years but I've never seen one make it to that yet. Besides cyber enhancements started less than a hundred years ago.
Gobwit could be at the upper end of the bell curve as far as age for a dwarf. Unusual, but not impossible. If he sprang for cyber enhancements during the Ghost Dance? Well he has lived through some pretty fragging heavy ceremonies. If he was at ground zero near them? Then there is the age factor? What if he was a spike dwarf and born say back in the early 19 hundreds?
You reading my direction.
Gobwit is still evolving and getting magically stronger everyday. With any luck, which he has plenty of, he could still be evolving and messing with the laws of probability for the next thousand years.
No wonder the UCAS has shown such an interest if some smart cookie has picked up on this based on what they uncovered in the logs.
We could all be dancing like puppets on a string with Gobwit's unintelligent luck calling the shots. It's not a good thought. Look what's happened to the other people around him. It hasn't been careful of not mucking with the lives around Gobwit to get what it wants. That's not to say that it kowtows to Gobwits wants either. It has it's own agenda and will put Gobwit in drek just to get what it wants. Although it does seem to preserve his life like a good little symbiote.
That could mean the cyber tech inside him has had a chance to evolve magically in a rudimentary way. I remembered in the Z files Gobwit talking about his luck. I suspect his cyber drek, having evolved into a magical semi-intelligence, was responsible. Sometimes it hosed up and dumped him in the deep drek, but it always seemed to extricate him in the end. His times of good luck were increasing and getting stronger. What would he be like when it became fully intelligent or maybe he learned to control it?
Maybe I should kill him now. It might save the world.
I considered it.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 17, 2010 9:01:51 GMT -5
Like I stated, I considered killing him. Any Corp would immediately just to maintain the status quo until they felt they could control the changes. Government would study him but take no obvious actions. They would stick the techniques in their armory for later and forget the whole thing until they needed it. Governments don't like change either.
Intelligence is the hallmark of the magician. With intelligence comes adaptability and the willingness to change and improvise. To be a top flight mage you have to think before you do.
It became immediately obvious to me that killing Gobwit to stop the process would be stupid and futile.
Someone else, sooner or later, would make the obvious connections and take advantage of the concepts, riding the wave of the future of magic. Given the fact that Gobwits luck would be in operation and it did have a tendency to preserve his life and not his dignity or comfort, it would be a dangerous adversary. Better to help it go where it needed to go than to fight it and maybe I could influence and learn to control it along the way. It wasn't intelligent yet.
As in anything like this there would be limitations. What limitations you ask?
First human bodies are inherently capable of only handling an upper limit to magic energy. Top mages would be able to handle much higher levels of this energy, of course, and still would be the most powerful. The pecking order would not change just the levels of usage. More people would be capable of using some form of magic. Magical energies would rise as the Life Force energies of the world increased. Some people would over reach and destroy themselves by trying to use more magic energy than they could safely handle. Overuse of magical energy would still have dire results. More creatures would turn magical and evolve defenses against magic. Intelligence would be a factor in manipulating energy as well. The stupid would make stupid mistakes. Nature always balances things over time.
Another hallmark of the mage?
Patience.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 18, 2010 9:10:30 GMT -5
The current situation bothered me quite a bit.
Dockery has appeared to have gone to some magical LA-LA Land. He's staring off into space in Gobwit's direction like he's astral walking or something, but where could he go in the lair? It's fragging shielded and that means inside and out.
The obvious thing is that he has seen something in one of us that has attracted his interest or someone has found a way in. I find it unlikely that anyone got in without setting off the magical alarms or even the physical ones. We got astral beasts and Lone Star mages on patrol outside. We got the Fab IV treatment. We got Dockery's Ward around the lair and more of his elementals on patrol. You'd need the equivalent of a magical cannon to get in here magically. Using that of course would set off alarms all over the fragging place.
It's got to be pretty obvious that he has seen something in one of us that has sparked an interest. It would seem most likely that it is Fall or Winter since they were the last ones that he talked to.
Everyone else has noticed that he has zoned out too. We're all uncomfortable as we wait for him to come up for air.
This Phoenix Project was disturbing. I couldn't believe how much this run was accelerating in danger and adversaries. No wonder the former Z Street crews had such a big problem dealing with this drek. Just sorting out who was doing what to whom was going to require a major league score card. I thought it might be a good idea to find out more about this Phoenix project but where to start?
Face it, I can't just go out on-line and query the matrix about Phoenix Project. The UCAS would be all over it in seconds and it would lead them directly back to us.
Dockery had also made it clear with his last statement that this was not something we should go after right now. I had to admit he was right. If we didn't stay centered on the task at hand we would be making the same mistakes the last Z crews made. We would get so disbursed chasing all the leads that we would in essence accomplish nothing. We just didn't have the people or the time to chase down every alley in this maze. We were going to have to think our way through it. Unlike the mage Freddy before us we couldn't get so hung up on a pet theory in any one particular alley that we ignored what was happening around us. As Dockery stated we had to work together even if we personally thought the direction was wrong. There is strength in numbers.
Reluctantly, the Phoenix was going to have to stay in the ashes for a while.
Still this Project stuff bothered me. It was the kind of stuff that could get you very dead. It was not the kind of thing I normally took on.
I'll scam money, but dealing with the killers and hard boys was not something I did a lot, like never. You learn to kill the gutter punks and scum that inhabit the streets looking for easy prey. Everyone has had to deal with that in one way or another. That's a long way from dealing with a stone cold group of professional killers backed by a cartel of some kind loaded with Nuyen, equipment and support staff.
The glazed look left Dockery's face. That was a relief especially when he smiled.
"Sorry everyone. Still I think we have some advantages that no one else has discovered yet. It's an advantage that I won't talk about yet, but we will pursue it later after we deal with the scammers. Unfortunately, Mr Gobwit, I can't tell you about it. It's not part of this thing with the UCAS scammers. I'm telling you all now because I want to be as honest as I can about this. It's magic related and I hope you'll trust me that this is not the time to bring it out. I do promise I'll make it clear to you all at the right time."
"As for my direct involvement with the UCAS? I worked for other employers that require me not to talk about it. I can say that the UCAS will not be after me for anything that I did to them previously although they will eventually figure out who I am. I will say that I have worked in intelligence operations before, not against just the UCAS, but Major Corps and other governments."
"I hope that will be sufficient for now." I smiled at him nicely.
Gobwit didn't look happy about that.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 19, 2010 13:59:54 GMT -5
Izzy continued to smile at me as elfboy finished his nicely prepared speech that told me absolutely nothing. Like just saying it should have automatically convinced me that he wasn't still hiding stuff. Catch the excuses. Magically related? What PYLE O'DREK was that. Why not explain it in layman's terms? C'mon. The Lair is supposed to be covered and shielded. IT's the safest place we got. Why can't this fragger give with the info?
It's fragging obvious. He's holding out because if I find out how he's involved? I might just not like it and maybe the others won't either.
The problem is all the others are ready to cut him some lack. I haven't figured out yet if Dockery has a talent for leading or they have a talent for being led. I don't follow what elf is saying but then again, I don't want to.
Public opinion is against me here. If I fight it now or try to make a scene it will just turn the others against me. The chip is smarter. Be polite, follow the crowd get the fragger later. He'll screw up eventually and then I'll make a move with some credentials behind me.
So I smile back. Just another friendly night at the pickpockets ball.
"Fair enough." I say nodding sagely in agreement. The others are all happy. Later it will be Pearl Harbor time. Sayonara Sucker. "Whats the next move?"
Dockery looked a little surprised and then caught himself. He hadn't expected I would let him get away with this. I could see him trying to juggle it a bit but he moved on. "We get the computer on-line and the matrix connections reinstalled. Then we start to trace those dummy corporations the money is going to."
Izzy looked confused. "They won't use the same one each time and after someone is dead you can bet they erase them. How do you intend to trace them?"
Dockery looked at her dead faced. "We won't." Izzy looked more confused. "You go out and look for ones that fit the criteria of the old one that are gone. They'll do all of them pretty much the same way and probably coded by the same individual. Consider people who are retiring now? Some of them are making those new deposits into the strange new accounts. Those accounts will stay up while the targets are alive. They have to or the targets would get suspicious. About a month before they die, those accounts will vanish off the matrix leaving a hole. I'm sure you will find at least a dozen that conform to your search criteria. Then we pick out one and track it. It has to lead to a legitimate office somewhere."
Looks like we had a plan. It was time to go back to work.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Jul 19, 2010 14:18:31 GMT -5
Over the rest of the week we were working our hoops off.
Izzy and Winter with some help from Fall had the mainframe rebuilt and back on line. They also put in automated and lethal defenses.
I was busy on the Corporate end making money, paying bills and ordering the parts and equipment we would need. Like the Skein suits. Never heard of the latest Skein suits? You remember the old style camo cloth? Well the skein suit was the latest technological upgrade. They were for infiltrations. They masked thermal. They had light refractive characteristics and inbuilt medical just in case. They were sound dampening. Talk about expensive.
Then there was the mil spec communicators. Built into expensive looking watches. You had a special code you had to punch in and then they would automatically sync up on a random frequency, and once they sync, they keep rotating randomly through the frequency's as you speak. Constantly changing. The coded transmission cycle randomly as well, every three seconds. Breaking them WAS possible but even if they did? They weren't going to get much until they could trace all the frequencies and codes. Lot's of luck there.
Fall was working on the weapons. We all had our own special kit full of surprises. Winter had built us a new untraceable ride. She put in lots of surprises. It used the Skein Technology as well. It also carried a smaller linking matrix connector and a lot of analysis equipment.
Dockery was doing some long magic in his offices. Probably setting up weapons and tracers on all of us. Who knows?
Now we waited for Izzy to get us a target. She was decked in but not the way deckers usually are. She was laying on a bed with her head in some kind of crystal dome. The lights flickered in pastels across it's entire length. She was decking using the power of a mainframe and she was not limited by the line drag. Speed of thought chummer. Like a rigger she was a actual part of the machine now.
Wake up deckers, Godzilla has come to town.
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Post by Braddoc on Jul 19, 2010 18:31:42 GMT -5
Sunny skies all day, 60% chance of rain for tomorrow, max of 90, current temperature is..88. And now The Crime Watch Report with our good friend, Thomas Jex. Thomas!”
“Eric!”
“So what’ll be tonight? Seattle or Boston?”
“Well, I might get negative responses form the good people who are listening to us in traffic or at work.....but I’ll go with Boston.”
“Boston? Boston! Tom, you want to get beaten by the sports fan out there? Even Andrew’s smoking in his booth.”
“Well I’m sorry Eric, but I’m a Boston fan. They got more guts, more speed, and they got Clziesh.”
“It’s his last year with the team, who knows what next season will bring?”
“Well in the meantime, he’s with Boston, so I guess Seattle will have to do without.”
“Accidents do happen. I hope you have LoneStar protection for tonight at the stadium, Tom.”
“Nah, I’ll watch the game from my home, calm, relaxed, behind the security fences and armed patrols thank you.”
“Hahahahahaha....same as me pal, same as me. Now, what happened on the criminal scene?”
“Well first, as you mentioned during the newscast, about a week after the failed heist at the UCAS Depository, the FBI and the Dept. of Treasury is setting up a press conference today at 11:30 in front of the FBI Headquarters in Seattle..”
“..also known as the Abraham Lincoln Building..”
“Yes that is correct Eric. To recap, last week, Jefferey Mullins, a 43 year old transaction analysis , formerly working for the Dept of Treasury in Seattle, was arrested inside the main Vault at the UCAS Depository. After neutralizing the camera system and the on-site patrols, Mullins, with one or possibly more accomplices, began working on cracking the safe when 24 year old Thomas Kane, a Dept. Of Treasury Mage, caught him red-handed after having felt his spirits being disrupted and proceeded to the arrest. Having accumulated over 375 000 Nuyen worth of gambling debts, it is theorized that Mullins wanted to re-pay his debt with the tax payers’ money, but that information was, of course, never confirmed or denied by the FBI or the Dept. Of Treasury.”
“Do you think they’re having a press conference to tell people that, or..”
"Well Eric, by my experience, the FBI doesn’t come out in the open like that if they don’t have new developments to tell us.”
“Yes well, they showed Mullins on the same day it happened, then nothing else.”
“Well, a complex investigation like that, a joint services investigation, because as you know, the Dept. Of Treasury is also dispatched investigators,”
“That is true, yes..”
“It’s not something that’s done fast. They must interrogate the on-site security at the time, the General Manager, the Security Company responsible for the static security, cameras, maglocks and the like, then of course interrogate the main suspect...which may not cooperate fully with the investigators. Not to mention physically and magically verify the crime scene. But I am confident that the FBI will deliver and give us full details of this investigation. With the importance of the depository in these economic times, the contrary will surprise me.”
“So, 11:30 then. You’ll be there?”
“Yes I will be there Eric. Now onto other news. A Native American man is dead, another seriously wounded in what have all the signs, according to LoneStar, as a drug transaction gone bad. The shootout happened behind the 68 26th Street Est, a stripmall. The living, but currently unconscious as of 8:30, victim is still under medical care, more details will arrive as they are made available.”
“Jeffery Brown, a 38 year old spokesperson for the dept of Energy, was found tied up, naked and with a gunshot wound, inside the trunk of a vehicle who crashed itself onto Anderson’s Electronics on Pioneer’s Way near 3rd. Mr Brown was abducted after seeing his wife, also a Dept. Of Energy spokesperson, at a motel near what became known as “ZombieTown”. The suspects might had planned to activate explosives as the vehicle rammed itself into the building but, call it dumb luck or just plain dumb, the suspects' car was the one who exploded, killing the 2 passengers and resulting in 3 other deaths. In this case police have no suspect in custody, but numerous material evidence. My source within Precinct 7 has informed me that detectives already have a name and new developments should come very very soon.”
“What’s with the government these days huh?”
“I can’t say Eric, just a bad pass, we all have them. Now it’s their turn. There was a large explosion at Ares Medical last night in Bellevue, LoneStar officers arriving on the scene were clearly seeing people bleeding and signs of a firefight but due to the extraterritoriality of Ares, have not intervened. Knight Errant Officials spoke of a high-level security drill happening at the time, while other source point out to possible shadowrunner involvement. LoneStar have not given a statement as of yet.“ The door opened up. I reached for my gun, but it was only Switches. “You’re late.” “Frag off, I had a busy night. How’s the face?” “Could be better....Where’s your crew?” “Give’em the day off, not like they have alcohol filters. Or sleep regulators for that matter.” “Right...so you got the report?” “Well I got a COPY of the report, all on chip, if that'll satisfies Mr. Boss-man.” I extended my hands and he dug in his pocket producing a datachip. “So, you saw those camera recordings yet? Who’s the bastard we gonna skin?” “Well, he looked like me for starters, same clothes too.” He looked confused, I would too, not knowing what I know. “The hell you sayin’?” “I’m sayin’ someone’s putting a mage mask with my mug on it and goin’ to town, that’s what I’m sayin’.” “Fraggin’ Mage..who’d you piss off now?” “I dunno, can’t think of anyone really..Maybe the Ps, but we’re more ‘courteous’ than at each others’ throat, like thye got the know-how or the balls to do that. Oh, and-a turns out my car had a guy in it, the guy who I was paid to spy on. Just said it on the radio.” “So?” “So the guy works for the government.”
He laughed. That metal frag, he was laughing like he never done it before “Oh man! The government! You sure know how to make friends in high places.” “Yeah, funny, I’m pissin’ myself on how much it’s funny. Now if you don’t mind, get in, we’re gotta meet some gearhead in Bellevue.” “Bellevue?...I never went there.”
“Yeah well, that’s why we gonna go shoppin first.”
OOC: 'Bout time I got around doing it..get an AC and everyone's your friend when it's hot...and they don't call before showing up.
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Post by Braddoc on Jul 25, 2010 20:04:15 GMT -5
“Well, let us see what we have here.”
I was standing beside the Troll as he began unscrewing the small deck. His penthouse was damn nice, even his working area was tidy. He wasn’t the dumb, blood-hungry Trog the Humanis propaganda was lying about. Of course having rich parents always helps to evade the normal, tough life his kind generally gets in, and ending up building custom decks for the rich, among other things. Illiya didn’t say more, I didn’t ask, ‘wasn’t going about. He must be doing research for them at least.
Switches wasn’t happy having to wear a suit, to ‘blend in’ the local crowd. Even the van saw some attention from LoneStar, but we didn’t get pulled over. ‘Pretty sure they checked the plates. That might buy me some time. I did told him that for a ganger, he did look like one of those cybered-up corporate bodyguard, but he didn’t liked that one. Going to a Troll’s PENTHOUSE (of all places)...yeah. But like I told him, he doesn’t have a choice. And not allowed to jack drek up or start drek up, of any kind. Or come back to do the place or the guy. Mostly because that’s me doing business, not him. 2 Cops at every other street corner with lots of car patrols helped him to see the difficulty of the task. Didn’t even had to talk about the drones flying up.
At least the SotA trid system (custom made by the gearhead himself, one Richard Gallager Brown) was enough to keep him silent and busy while we dish out the work.
“Hello, what have we here? This is far from being a standard part in any deck.” I leaned forward a bit on the work bench, which was more like a standing bar for someone my size. Grayish, square and it looked like that Play-Doh, just more deadly. “You’re right Mr. Brown, this is Plastique explosives.” “Hmm..I suspected as much. I’m afraid Mr. Delacroix that this goes beyond my qualifications.” “May I?” “Please, but be careful.” The wiring was crude at best, nothing more than a wire connecting the 3 blocks and another wielded to a circuit board. Easy-does-it. “Curious. Wiring explosives to a computer device. Where did you found this again?” “Well, it was connected to..a decker, and in turn this device was connected to a deck.” “Whoever build this expected someone to tamper with it. Have you received any information on the utility of this device from the decker?”
“No..no she was dead when I arrived. For weeks too. I..don’t know what it’s for; that’s why I came to you.” “I am sorry to hear that. You have my deepest condolences for your loss.” The Troll began checking out the different boards. I’m no expert but a few looked like they were melted down. He sure took his sweet time too. “You are lucky that the skill of the creator was not matched by his knowledge of explosives.” “What is it?” He glanced at me , almost looking me over. “How deep goes your knowledge of computers?” “Not deep enough.” “Very well; in simpler terms, it is a deck, but instead of allowing one to connect to the Matrix, it was built to emulate one’s persona in the Matrix, similar to a masking program.” “Like a Fake ID?” “Roughly, yes. But there is more: look at this board here, it serves to connect to it with a Matrix connection, meaning than any one person could have use her persona, perhaps even her programs, to do what he wishes from anywhere in the world.”
“My friend was dead before the device was connected to her and her deck. I’m no expert, but that wouldn’t work, right?” “Ordinarily yes, but this ‘deck’ was also designed to mimic one’s brain wave: Even if she only twitches due to her nerves, a decker could have taken the small impulses and used them to create a brain wave stable and strong enough to fool a deck that she was still alive and well; then it was a question of running the brain wave in a loop, using this here to act like all was normal in the physical world. Quite a remarkable piece of work.” I turned fast enough when he said that, not too happy too. “My apologies Mr. Delacroix, I meant no harm nor disrespect. I am only an expert looking at another's craftsmanship; I can say that I do not approve of his methods.” “Right...so can you figure out where he was connecting to this thing? Or why it didn’t blow up for that matter.”
“Well, it seems he removed most of the fail safe devices. In case of a surge, there a chip to limit the damage to a particular circuit board. It is a standard manufacturing part. Our mysterious stranger here removed them all, perhaps wishing to create a cascade effect to would have detonated the explosives. Theoretically it is possible, but I think he might have overlooked the fact that one of his board was possibly of lower quality.” He took out a melted board, it was way more gone than the others. “This is was caused the cascade effect to end. As to figure out the location of the identity thief, I would need your friend’s deck to archive that. This is only made to be a bridge between decker and deck. Not to store information.” “All right..I...hum..didn’t brought it..I didn’t thought it was necessary.”
“I see...then this is as far as I can help you for the present time. Though I would like to keep this for further analysis if you would allow it.” “Of course, no problem there Mr. Brown, your help is greatly appreciated.” Not that it brought anything new, but it’s a small step. “I will you my contact information hm? If Illiya trust you enough to have us meet in person, I have no reason to..” “DELLY!” Switches sounded panicked and surprised. That was a first for him. “GET THE FRAG IN HERE NOW!!”
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Post by Braddoc on Aug 9, 2010 19:38:12 GMT -5
“Are you certain of that? I do not recall him being affected so easily.”
“He was working when you noticed him; I know him for far longer than that, watch him grow from a scared child into a man. More than once it got to him, but he never shown it. Being weak results in death in the city.”
“The same as anywhere. It is how the world goes.”
“True. This situation is also blurring out the line between his life with others and his own, something he prides himself with keeping separate. The Time is approaching.”
“Why are you interested in him? He was not kind to your kin, of this I know.”
“It was not his decision at first. It also was survival.”
“Unnatural!"
“So one might not eat a member of the pack if he is dead and none have eaten in a while?”
“...It is not the same thing. The pack is what matters. One would willingly give his life for the pack, for food even, if it was the best interest of the whole.”
“Exactly. If he had not consumed the flesh of my kin, he would have died long ago.”
“You have no way of knowing that. He is strong and fearless. His word is his law. He is more akin to me than you. When battle is joined, he will hear my call, and he shall embrace it.”
“Perhaps. But he has trekked on my domain for far longer than he moved on yours. Winning battles is important to him yes, but he does not have bloodlust. Fighting skills, that he has; crazed combat monster he is not. Battle is one of his field, but he also knows much about what is beyond his reach and uses it well to help those who requires his assistance.”
“He still uses this knowledge to fight! And win! Why can’t you just let him go; you know he will hear my call.”
“Why don’t I? Heh...what do you think cousin, what do you think?” [/i]
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Feb 27, 2012 15:14:50 GMT -5
It's been a while. We have been pretty busy. First we had to hire a person and create a fictitious identity. Then we had to make a past and leave it in affect for a couple of years so that they would come up gradually to the proper retirement time with the proper specs. Then we had to wait for the contact and the sell to our target, which could not be one of us. It took about a month after our person reached retirement for us to get the first nibble. Then it was a matter of tracking back the deposit to the parent company that was actually getting the Nu Yen. Difficult and dangerous because you know that transaction was hidden and MONITORED like the fragging Swiss bank.
In point of fact Izzy stated the learning and breaking the codes was really hard. It was all Euro codes, not normally used in the UCAS. Have you started to get some hints? You guessed it, N E S T L E S used the same type of fragging codes.
Now we knew where the money was going. Then it stopped. WE didn't dare try to penetrate that from so far away. The money could be moved around inside the corp and be going out elsewhere and we couldn't see that. We needed to get in on the inside.
Then there is the UCAS/SS. Think they weren't constantly sniffing around the edges? Waiting and watching for us to slip.
We were right back where Krass/Drassel had been years before. We needed to get into the Nestle's home office. Given that we suspected they had an in on the UCAS and was using them to watch us, we couldn't even afford to give a hint that we had even this much of the trail solved. In essence we had stayed tooling up, training, building and working creating a network of people. So that when the time came we could move. We had to get into the Nestle's home office.
Nestlé's umatched geographic presence is one of its competitive advantages. From Swiss beginnings, the company grew to establish a presence in almost every country in the world. Today, Nestlé's presence in most markets, including emerging markets, dates back many generations, and in some cases more than a century. If you look at a map to this presence on a World Wide basis it looks like a fragging red rash all the way across the globe. Then there is the fact it's in Switzerland part of Euro Union. You think it's going to be easy just to go walking in the gragging front door when they probably own everything and everyone in the country. Not to mention they are probably one of the THE biggest in the Corporate Bank System.
We aren't even in their class. The Doc has taken another year to work out a plan of action. If we can pull this off it might just be the run of century.
Now that we have hopefully put everyone to sleep. It's time to make our move.
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Feb 28, 2012 10:56:26 GMT -5
Dockery here. Coming up with a plan to leave Seattle and get into the main Nestles corp office? Are you fragging kidding me? Ain't going to happen no matter what Gobwit seems to be implying in his previous log entry.
It's for sure that dwarf boy ain't wrapped all that tightly around the image of reality. He sees gold and like a personal vision from on high he considers nothing but the good times ahead. That is until reality intrudes and someone is pounding his hoop into the cement in an effort to make things clear that this is not appropriate behavior.
So what's the first move?
Chummer! Wake UP! How can you figure a move when you know nothing about anything that has happened in the last three fragging years? The dwarf drops a fast log entry and that basically tells you fragging nothing except the bare bones idea that yes, we set a fragging trap and then WHAM-BONER, we hit a bigger fragging wall. As far as anyone here knows you all have three year ago and older data to work on and the problems that were prevalent back then haven't gotten any better now. If we were hoop fragged, what's changed?
Did we get that good in three years?
Nobody gets that good in three years, not for Nestles. So forget the idea of a marine attack, hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle, balls to the fragging wall, like we just became Terminator's. None of this dwarf drek for brains strategy is going to work and let us walk away to tell the kiddies later.
First, let's give you at least a generalized list of what did get done. After all you can bet we did NOT sit on our thumbs during all that time.
Our first priority was to keep the UCAS at bay and away from us. Now you know we made a good start by a little use of explosives in their data haven and then we got really nasty and hit them in the money belt. That wasn't even counting the collateral damage in dead bodies we left them. A good start but if you think that was sufficient for a government mentality where the bosses constantly change and they have to learn and relearn again from the same mistakes, then Pelch wants to offer you a great deal in the gimboid industry.
Did we use a direct attack against Janie? Frag NO! C'mon even the fragging UCAS as small as it is nationally is still to big a fish for us to swallow in one meal. We started out by going after the officials that called the shots to her. A few scandals, some blackmail, a couple of assassinations and pretty soon her funding dried up and she was sent out of the country for a while. With her out of the way that gave us the room to start building a base in Seattle. You think that put us even with Nestles in three years? If you say yes; your living in fantasy land.
There were a couple of things we had to learn concerning Krass/Drassel and Nestles. What makes Nestles so fragging tough for us to beat?
Exactly, It's shear size. With size comes the connections, logistics and the amount of control it has on things around it. Especially people. The more people you can control the safer you are going to be. How do you get that control?
People have to have, not a desire, but a real flesh and blood need to watch out for you or they have to be so drek scared at what you can do that they don't dare cross you.
Now what was the difference between Nestles and Krass/Drassel?
Nestles was huge, world wide. Krass/Drassel was basically in one small city in one country and they only had a partial control of that. The resource gap between the two in personnel, logistics and shear brain power was like sending a kid with a loaded gun up to the North to fight zombies and ghouls. Sure he COULD have won, if the ghouls and zombies were real stupid and he was really fragging smart and very very lucky. What are the odds of that? You would get better odds if you bet that Pelch would stop stealing things tomorrow. Not something I would like to risk my life on, Omae. Sure Krass/Drassel was smart,it's why they lasted as long as they did. Were they lucky? Obviously not lucky enough.
Krass/Drassel got as far as they did because they were smart and tough. They didn't have the deadwood and bureaucracy that a big place like Nestles has. It's only a temporary advantage. A big corp tends to do things by a set of rules. Likes ants they do things over and over again until something big enough does enough damage or as is most likely, irritation, to get their collective attention. Then those ants turn into killers and by shear numbers run you down, strip you to the bone, painfully, and then they go back to what they want to do.
The only other way to get such attention is if you have something they want! Sure, they'll try a nice easy way to get it first. Why make things hard if you can do it easy and just pay money? It ain't like almost any amount you can name for any object is going to wreck their bottom line or even make a dent. Don't want to give it up? The pressure will increase. Eventually, with time, and patients they will get what they want. They can take a long view.
The only thing that will stop such a technique is when they run into another colony of ants as big as themselves. It is never live and let live between such groups, attrition becomes part of the calculations.
Now think about this, do you really think we are going to do anything that is going to make us show up on Nestles radar as an irritant?
NOT BLOODY LIKELY!
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Feb 29, 2012 9:01:19 GMT -5
Thought I would take over today and give the Doc a break. So how do you hurt something that can wipe you out in one hit? You either have to get it all at once or you don't give it a chance to hit back. Looking at the size of the target no wonder anyone who hasn't got a brain like a re-fried bean is going to leave the fraggers alone and try to stay out of sight.
We finished the work on The Lair, as Pelch calls it. Understand this amigo, You are never/ever going to be secure enough. So you buy the latest gadgets in the Hi-Tech range at Monumental prices and try to stay one jump ahead of the competition. You don't buy based on advertisement. and you buy tech that watches the watchers.
The problem with that? Making the stuff work together seamlessly. From a tech standpoint? It's a nightmare but it makes it really hard to mess with so much diverse equipment. For a hacker, you have to constantly change protocols to get anywhere and it takes time. Time you could be using to avoid ICE or make an advance.
I don't care how much computing power you have in a deck, it's going to be limited. If you have to do several things at once with your deck or even several thousand things a gig second just to keep you in the system? You're going to be showing serious lag somewhere especially over a telecoms line. The mainframe has all the advantages on it's home turf.
Both Nestles and UCAS have made several hundred matrix runs against us using a variety of deckers. The farther away they were the easier is was to catch them and the really good locals? We know them. Their style, symbols, code and weak points. Sooner or later something in their code gives them a way.
When a person writes even on a deck they have a certain style of speaking or talking. Even when they try to disguise it sooner or later something gives them away. The more often they do it the more obvious it becomes. We have had three years to sharpen our defenses. Now we have ears on the streets and taps on the telecoms. Any decker using the telecoms leaves traces and amigo, they have to use those lines. So we are constantly keeping an eye on every up and coming decker as well.
You can pick up a lot of information from these taps and the programs in our now linked mainframes and smart-frames can now pick it up and sort it almost as fast as we get it.
A smart decker. A really clever decker would try to mask his signal. The old tried and true way was to come in through something you couldn't trace back through easily or go through so many nodes that you could see someone come after you and destroy the path through the nodes before someone could get to you.
What good does that do you when to create the paths through the nodes or to the wall that covers you, a passive program is reading your highly encrypted codes? Maybe not right away, but the more you deck, the more you do it, the program is eventually going to figure out what affect you're using even through the encryption. Your base code, unless you rewrite it every fragging time in new and exciting ways, is going to open that node with your own private technique every time.
Now how many deckers can afford to buy or even write new code and new encryption every time they deck? Runners can't. Not cost effective. They have to spend more time, and in this business time is NuYen, talent and cash to try to rewrite every program they are going to use, every time they have to use it. Most deckers write some programs and pass them around for sale when they get something better. Giving us even more chance to break it and recognize the codes of who wrote the fragging thing. Tracking becomes easier when they do these deals in the matrix but doesn't stop us in the real world either.
Use that to also link them to style of their high powered decks and components sold, which can be traced, and where does that leave your decker? In deep drek.
Do you begin to understand? It's the security problem reversed. They have to go to the expense of constant upgrades not just in expensive hardware but in software as well.
It works for Nestles why not for us on a lower level. Now this is good for defense. The home team always has a big advantage. For attack? Not so good. So we can keep them out. We can't go attacking their computing power, not even here in Seattle. They would have us for breakfast.
Besides we have to not be so much of an irritation that they decide to swat us like a roach. Three years. We can keep them out, but can't do drek to them without losing it all.
We are about at the point Krass/Drassel was at before they went after Nestles publicly, at least matrix wise. You saw how that mess turned out.
Later,
Izzy
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Post by Pelch Gobwit on Mar 1, 2012 8:34:13 GMT -5
Today Izzy is back under the mainframe. Seems some Decker's out there are still trying to snoop our logs, even though we have been essentially dead to the world for some time now. Talk about your persistence. They need to get a life.
As for me? I appropriated Wanker from Gobwit. The cyber dog likes me better anyway. Does he still mess with the Star Guards?
Yes.
What did I do the last few years? I ran heavy background checks on all the people in the building. We got taps on their money accounts and implants inside them. We got watchers watching the watchers and access is still limited for them. the Spiked Wheels have tried to hit a couple of times.
Yes, even after two years they still want Gobwit real bad. We did a run on them a while back and stuck a retro virus in their recreational drugs. That kept them away for quite a while.
My sis, Winter, did a major upgrade on my cyberware and Wankers. Then she went to work on the equipment and vehicles. Everything from boats, aircraft and street vehicles have been tricked out pretty nice. Then she went to work on personal weapons.
Gobwit, of course, howled at the prices. We ignored it. He always howls at the prices. It isn't like he isn't the slumlord supreme these days. He has his fingers in a lot of pies and stock in a lot of the corps around Seattle. He even gets huge tax breaks. It isn't like he doesn't always make a huge profit.
Wanker and I went to a military training camp and then did a couple of stints in the Desert Wars. It was BRUTAL! I learned a lot and being a small target helps. Wanker and I are mil-spec and ready to rock. The big problem with that is the plan seems to be to stay below the radar on this one. That means a big boom is not what they need so to me the training seems kind of redundant.
Izzy told me that any skill is important since we don't know where this fight is going to lead us, when I asked her why. They want someone in the group capable of leading a strike unit. Especially if we have to do a desrt war with some other corp. I don't think Krass/Drassel ever maintained one of those so I feel like I'm covering something they didn't do before. That's why we opened a small military facility out near the old fusion plant and hired about a thousand bodies. The security was pretty good out there and the city wanted rid of the cost of keeping it on the books. Gobwit made out on that as well. Now he wants Winter to get the old fusion plant working again.
You got it, we have roughly a company sized mercenary unit with support people. To pay the cost down we hire them out sometimes for various reasons. It keeps them trained and helps us to keep the current weapons and skills upgraded. We even train some of our scouts by having them go hit ghouls on the North end and collect the bounties.
Sometimes we raid the hit and run bodies on I-5 and then set up traps and ambushes for the ghouls. A couple of times we have even come close to where that Vampire is supposed to be held up. Someday I may get the go ahead to move in and clean the place out. Until then though, Gobwit says why wreck a cash cow? That guy is slime.
Yes, I used the same military unit to hit the Spiked Wheels. I originally just wanted to go in and terminate them but Dockery needed test subjects for his virus. He pointed out that we ARE supposed to be trying to stay under the radar. A this was a good testing ground. If he can mess around something as tough as trolls he probably has a winner. Besides who cares what happens to a bunch of trolls.
We may be outgunned by Nestles and the UCAS may have a bigger military presence but given the things we have been putting together the past few years. I think we could give a good account of ourselves.
Win a war with either?
No.
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