In the Net

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

[Just a note before it starts - while I started a thread here before, this is completely seperate, as Stryker's now working for Cerberus]

This is my mental black box, a backup of my mind and my memories, created in case the original is lost. Why would anyone need that? Well, for people like me, there's no such thing as too careful. You see, I live in the Net. The physical world is just a distraction, a brief detour, a side-note. The Matrix is my home. I own safehouses, yeah, but they're a necessity - I use them to lie low, burn off the heat, and recover my strength before I come back to the Net. I have a gun, but again, that's a necessity. A guy in my line of work makes a lot of enemies, and most of them are dangerous. That doesn't matter though, because physical threats are really nothing more than distractions, flies to be swatted away with bullets as I go about my business. So what can I tell you about my business? Well, watch this...

Mayatech NDC-110 DataDirect Comm Stat

connectto:81.76.53 "Boston Common"

Welcome to the Global Matrix.
Ultrix System-VII Asymetra 11.4.23-9 holo-VAX VM Quad-HMP
Use at your own risk.

guest@net :?
alcutil -override -validate
Matrix Direct 81.76.53.14 is online.
guest@host :>
acl -threadgrant -force -repeat
Session Tokens Granted: USER
user@host :# fsutil -fs:logs -op:clear -aflush 2
User Thread Started at CPU 100%
user@host :# fsutil -fs:logs -op:{} -wflush 1
User Thread Started at CPU 100%
owner@host :% netutil connect -devconf -force
List of Network Pipes:
"DT*T" (90.91.92.81)
"Corp Exchange" (79.48.54.76)
"Boston Common" (115.0.0.53)
"New Boston Exchange" (0.0.86.37)
Current Pipe Connects to :"DT*T"


And that's my life. I just went from a public information terminal on the side of a building to the network connecting the entire world. I won't give you the rest of my readout for that run - trade secret - but it got me a whole load of information certain people really, really want right now. If any of you are tech-heads, you'll have noticed that I hit a Yakashima node - I know, our line of work means Yakashima aren't good people to get on the bad side of, but AzTek are really squeezing their digital presence, and I have some V-chips that will lead me to a large sum of money if I send them good data on either of them. Why didn't I hit AzTek? Well that's simple. This terminal is built into the side of my safehouse, and the shorter the distance is to my door, the fewer chances the enforcers have to scatter my brains against the wall in a shower of lead and neural implants. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some data to steal. Be back soon.

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

Well, that was brilliant. Not only did I bag a ton of cash from financial records and investment plans, I actually got my hands on an experimental digital armour program that hasn't been released to the public yet, or even to the majority of Yakashima employees, so my computer is now about as secure as Mercury Arms HQ. Nice. Anyway, the Net War ended after I crashed one of Yakashima's nodes and AzTek drew their necks in when they realised there was an independent hacker in the running with the power to crash a Yakashima node. Truth be told, I nearly paralysed myself doing it, and I had to spent the next few days lying in my safehouse with the lights off, but it was worth it. Seriously, it was - Yakashima hasn't been near it since, and I've fortified it so much it's basically a digital safehouse where I can dump data before selling it, and hide from stubborn tracers.

Before, I said the war ended, but the hostilities haven't - they've just made it a bit quieter, using PR, smear campaigns and that kind of stuff. I actually remember a really good one I got involved with between BraveStar and the Yakuza - I forged some records in Yakuza networks indicating they had Mars backing, but I forged some BraveStar fingerprints on the documents to make it look like they made them. That got Mars really angry at BraveStar for trying to implicate them in Yakuza dealings, and that turned into a full-on war, which the Yakuza took as an opportunity to get revenge on BraveStar, and I got a lot of money from giving all three factions information on what the others were doing.
Anyway, I've got a contact who wants to tell me something, so I've got to go.

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

...That wasn't very nice. The contact said he wanted to meet in person, that what he had wasn't something he could give me digitally, and after the trouble I've just caused in the Matrix, that was enough to get me thinking it might be a setup. Turns out what he wanted to give me was a large amount of bullets, and the only thing that stopped them from turning me into a broken corpse was their failure to notice that I'm quite good friends with the Yakuza, so the middle of Liberty Square wasn't the best place for the execution - security was onto them in seconds, they could barely fire their weapons before being shot to pieces. Only problem is that now I can't get any information out of them, as they're all dead, meaning I don't know who hired them. It must've been someone with a lot of money, or power, or both, because that contact wasn't someone I'd expect to sell me out like that, so there must've been a pretty good incentive. Anyone like that would be sure to cover their tracks, so that means they'd probably stay off the Net entirely, so-FRACK!!! Sniper...need medkit...be back...

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

...You know what's the most annoying thing in the world?...Finding out that your armour isn't nano-ready...the hard way...At least I'm not dead...In my safehouse, alive and patched up to an acceptable level...but a direct hit from a sniper isn't exactly something that heals over-night...no matter what happens, I won't be going outside for a while...I'll just lie here and talk to my contacts, try and find out who's trying to kill me...
Yeah, it's me....I'm being hunted, I got shot...any ideas on who?
...
That sounds like it might be relevant...send me the data.
...
Meet you in person? The last guy who said that to me -Aah, that's not a good angle to sit at- tried to kill me. Not happening.
...
Then it's not happening. Any other ideas?
...
Fine. I might just do that.

King, you good to take me some places?
...
First to a doctor, then to the Gambling Den in Copley Square...I've got some friends to hire...

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

Say what you like about the Yakuza, but they help those in need. They help those in need and with deep pockets even faster, but that's beside the point - what I'm trying to say is that when I walked into that backroom saying I was assembling a team to get revenge on an unknown killer, a persona-fixer came straight up and gave me the V-Chip of someone who could get me into any building in the NBZ. I called them up, and I could tell immediately who they were - the Face of my team. No debate. Smooth, cultured, and with an attitude that made it clear they had expertise in both extremes of the negotiation spectrum. We sorted out a contract, and that was the start of my team.

Next, we decided that the team could use someone to counter the enemy's knack for shooting me without me knowing anything about it, so we went to get a sniper of our own. Turns out Face (we don't use real names in case one of us is caught - that way no one can spill our identities) knew a guy in a Blue Ox backroom - OK, it was a drughouse - who could put us in touch with one. The Sniper that joined us turned out to be a complete and utter psychopath, but seeing as his job is to shoot people and make sure they're dead, that's really not a problem.

Having a guy to kill at range, we decided to find someone capable of killing those close to them, and for that, we went to the most wild, uncontrollably dangerous people we could think of: the Los Valentinos. Turns out we were right, and now we've got a perfectly vicious little son-of-a-bitch running around with us as a complete counterpart to the stealthy, quietly intimidating Sniper that can make you crap yourself in fear just by looking at you.

So, now all that remains is to get started on tracking my hunters, and surprise, surprise, Face new a guy who could help with that. We gave him a call, and he sounded completely terrified out of his mind - if that doesn't say "chased by myserious unknown killers", I don't know what does.

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

...
I'm a Cyber Knight. You're being chased. Who's chasing you?
...
No. Who's chasing you?
...
They're chasing me. Who's chasing you?
...
I'm going to find that out when I get to them, and then I'll kill them and we can both live in peace. Before I can do that, I need to know who they are and how to find them. That's why I'm talking to you. Now, who's chasing you?
...
NO!

He got shot. We were about to arrange a meeting, and he got shot. His location was encrypted, too. By the time I had it cracked, the body would be gone and it'd be too late. That's the end of that lead. What's more, now the enemy knows I'm looking for them - why else would their other target be called on a scrambled line by a Cyber Knight? Seriously, this is really bad. Surprisingly, that was actually the only guy Face knew who had direct contact with them, as well.

Wait, what?

OK...well...thanks.

Sniper just told me there was someone about to shoot me from the opposite rooftop, but he now has - to quote Sniper - "a bullet in his skull, taking the place of all the blood and brain that got blasted out the back of his head". He could've just told me the guy was dead, but apparently I needed to know the details. This just tells me we've got in pretty deep already - the channel I called the guy on was encrypted, so they must have some seriously high-tech equipment if they can break it that quickly. Actually, they must've been tapping the conversation all along in order to get anything more than the last second or so, and that wouldn't be enough to track me here, so it has to be someone with a hand in operating the communications in the NBZ, and Yakashima do that, don't they? Yeah, I think they do. But to track me they'd need pretty good trilateration systems, and the only people with them are AzTek, so maybe they work in conjunction? No, they were nearly at war when I got into this whole bloody mess. Maybe just a handful of high-up officials? No, it makes me sound like a conspiracy-theorist nutjob. Maybe Yakashima hacked the AzTek satellites? No, I crippled them in the Net War, they don't have enough power back. That was just in the NBZ though - no, no matter what I've done, they wouldn't pull power from other cities just to track me. They might...no. They wouldn't. It's got to be something else..think, dammit, think! OK. Let's say they did hack AzTek. They'd leave a Matrix trace. Maybe not much of one, but something I can look for. Let's start there. Right. Team, watch my back. I'm getting online.

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

Right, that's all the AzTek nodes scouted and nothi-wait, no, forgot bebop, let's just head back in there...nope. Nothing. Well, I think it's safe to say Yakashima haven't been hacking AzTek, just some independent guys trying to profit from the Net War, same as me...hang on a second, I thought something was up with that address before, I should dig deeper...now THAT is good. Real nice mask you're wearing there, Mr failed-Yakashima-hacker. I wouldn't have spotted you unless I really wanted to find a Yakashima connection, which I guess is your intent, so well done there. Anyway, I'd actually really like that masking program myself, so let's just follow you to your digital home...where are you going? That leads into the Shadownet tree, and there's no way the guys down there would let a corp hacker in. Ah, that makes sense. Double back through beast into the NBZ Exchange and resume your work against AzTek - but if you're not actually going anywh-Oh.

You know I'm here, don't you.

Yes. Very well done on getting through the mask. I built it myself, you know.

Very impressive. Mind if I have a copy?

Maybe.

What do I have to do to get it?

Firstly, keep my presence secret.

Fine, no probl-

DO NOT INTERRUPT.
Secondly, cease investigation of those pursuing you.

That's a ste-AAHHH!!!

I told you. DO NOT INTERRUPT.

Finally, keep the existence of this program a secret.

So you want me to forget the fact that I'm being hunted down by mysterious killers with the power to do basically anything they want in order to kill me, but you don't even ask for money for this program?

You have seen what I can do in the Matrix - with these abilities, I have no reason to demand money from you.

That's true. OK, fine, I'll do as you ask.

Good. I will transfer the program to you now. Goodbye.


Well, that was interesting. And he's really not as smart as he seems to think he is. Because he gave me the mask, I know how it works - I already broke it once before, but this'll make it much easier. Couple that with the fact that I was tracing him, and I got his location from the file transfer, it won't take me long to find out his physical location, and then I can pay him a visit to explain exactly why he can't do anything to stop me from pursuing my hunters.

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

OK guys, I have a location on our little digital ghost, and it looks like we're headed to that old fallout shelter in the Narrows.

I know it's dangerous, which is why I'm calling in a favour from some Connector I once stole some data for, so we can get an armoured ride up there.

I didn't expect that to be coming from you - it'd actually be pretty useful. Thanks.

Yeah, we're heading to Ox land, and that just happens to be where we found Sniper - he just offered to have some of his friends (well, they're really just hitmen he knows) keep an eye out for people on our tails. When heading north in the NBZ, never turn down protection. So anyway, we've got ourselves a van to get us there, and bodyguards to keep us safe once we're there - pretty good deal if you ask me.

Now, about the hacker we're heading off to meet. He's clearly very intelligent, and not just with computers - he built this Matrix address mask, which is a masterpiece in itself, and he also has the good sense to move into the old fallout shelter, which is one of the best locations he could've picked. It's exactly what you'd expect a fallout shelter to be - underground, fortified, and with walls so thick you can barely get a radio signal through them. Oh, yeah, I should probably mention that I downloaded the schematics of the building so I know roughly what to expect - if he thinks anything like I do, he'll have prepared traps and other defences in where I think he will, and we should be able to get through without too much trouble. Unless I'm wrong, or he's smarter than me, in which case we may well be screwed.

Right. The van's just turned up, let's get in and head out. We've got a genius to interrogate.

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

Wait, best not to go any further. Just drop us off at the Moon Blood Secure-house, or he might get suspicious - even this far north, it's not normal to have an armoured van drop a Cyber Knight off outside your front door.

Sniper got us protection, remember? We'll be fine.

That concludes our journey in the armoured van, bringing us into the Narrows with only one minor incident with a BraveStar security team, which Face managed to get us out of without any spilt blood (much to the disappointment Sniper and Brawler (that's what we call the Los Val guy - he didn't want to be called CyberSword, as he said it sounded "too noble for a pro hell-raiser")). Now, let's see if those guys Sniper arranged for really are here...yes they are. Alleyway over there, two on the roof of Moon Blood, two on the roof of the old church over there. As long as they're not planning a betrayal, that's actually pretty good. So, to the fallout shelter.

Good point, cameras are almost inevitable. I've actually got a little device here that can temporarily shut them down, but that'd be just as suspicious as being seen on them, so we'll have to do this the old-fashioned way: heads down, approach from the sides of the building, keep an eye on where the cameras are facing and no verbal communication. Right, let's go.

Door likely trapped: scanning

COVER!!!

Sniper, I thought we could TRUST THESE PEOPLE...

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

Well, that didn't last long. Face and I ducked behind cover, Sniper took out the ones on rooftops - fastest sniping I've ever seen - and Brawler beat the one in the alleyway to a bloody pulp, then dragged him over to Face for an interrogation. The guy could barely move, let alone talk, but Face is extremely skilled, and we got something interesting out of him: he didn't realise there was a problem. His task was to ambush us, not protect us. You know what that means? It means whoever organised the hit has influence in Blue Ox, as well as the corps. Anyone who can infiltrate those guys deserves some credit for their abilities. Either that or their pockets are extremely deep, which to be honest is probably more likely, as no one in the NBZ will turn down money if they're offered enough of it, no matter what they have to do to get it. So, who would have that much money as well as the ability to contact Blue Ox high-ups? Well, there's obviously our little hacker friend we're paying a visit to, so we might as well start there. There's really no point trying to sneak in now, as there's bound to be security on the outside, and it wouldn't exactly miss a firefight like the one that just happened. There'll still be traps on the inside, so we can't go in too fast.

OK, entrance is clean. Surprising, but maybe leading us into a false sense of security. Now, if I were fortifying this place, I'd set traps there, along that wall, maybe from above there...

Nothing at all. We've got to the guy's door and it's been totally empty. What's going on here? OK, let's just go inside and see what happens.

Hello?

Hello? Anyone in?

Guess not...OK, now things are getting really odd. He's left his rig here - no hacker on the planet would do that willingly, especially not one as good as this guy. Well, might as well check it out.

A recorded message? What have I walked into, a spy film cliché?

Never mind. Things just got interesting...Why didn't I see that before? "Those pursuing you" is what he said, and that doesn't exactly sound like how you'd refer to someone you work with. He has some kind of stake in this, that's for certain, but the guy definitely isn't really involved. Let's think, what could that lead to...Hang on a minute. That blip at the end. That shouldn't have happened. Seeing as it's an expert hacker we're talking about, the chances are it's some kind of game or challenge for me - we all do it, it's just fun - so let's analyse this, take it apart, and see what we can dig up.

[bullgod]

Great hacking side to things :-) Can't wait to see more. I quite like the sniper, reminds me a lot of my old gunslinger's attitude before I missed a load of updates and restarted. When's the next post out?

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

Glad you like it - I have no real schedule for posts (just write as it comes to me), but I've been meaning to get back to it, so hopefully it'll be sometime soon.

[Jamozk Ekhiss]

Yep, I was right. It's a challenge, and it's fun. That blip? Slow it right down, it's Morse Code. Translate it, it's what you get from an image in a text viewer. Look at the image, play around with its properties, it's some bloody good steg work. Get the image underneath, its bitmap is a node address. Let's head over there...Another address. Head there-AAH, nice trick. OK, take that address as a bitmap and make the image, we get an address. OK, it's not attacking my brain, so this must be the real one.

I'm afraid this is the end of our little game. It was fun though, wasn't it?

Don't insult me, I could've solved that when I was 5. Onward we go, you've actually got some encryption down there - nothing serious, but it shows you're expecting me to solve it, which means you've probably got better things along the way. Another image? You're a big fan of steg - no, you're not stupid enough to do this again. It's a double bluff, the image itself actually is the next step...Oh, that's omega, I haven't been to that node for ages! Let's see what you've left me in there...OK, that's genuinely disgusting and I wish I hadn't seen it, but this is the NBZ and it's hard to avoid seeing things like that. What are you trying to tell me? OK, we're going node-hopping. We go direct to flexi, then move to Drop Host Iron...Really, if I got this far, your disturbing images aren't going to stop me. What does the next one say? Well, the...vibrance...of it says I should be looking in the background, couple that with the generally crude theme going on...archangle. Head there...nothing. Let's do a full sweep...Nope. Nothing at all. OK, where next? Well, with your fondness for Free Street nodes, the ShadowNet's probably going to have something, so off we go.

Nicely done. I'm glad you made it.