The Host

[contributor]

I got inspired and dreamed up a little Cyber Knights story. It will probably take me a while to finish, but hopefully I will be adding to it weekly. I wanted to get more done before starting to post, but I'm posting the first two chapters now because I would like some feedback before I get too far into it. Leave all your thoughts over at the COMMENTS thread, thanks.

Chapter 1.0.0

“Hey Zep, why don’t you just get a hellhund?” Suzan asked wryly, her eyes half between awake and asleep.

…connecting…

“A hellhund’s had it soul ripped out. Wouldn’t make no kind a pet.” Said Zep, slowly. He broke off a piece of cookie and created a trail of crumbs from the rat’s hole to the rest of the cookie resting on his hand.

...session tokens granted…

“What, and you’re telling me that thing’s got a soul? Next you’ll want me to believe you can talk to em.”

“Well it ain’t no godam machine. That’s for sure.” Zep fixed his eyes on Suzan with an odd mixture of repulsion and concern.

“Frag off, you’ve got your own chrome too.” Suzan’s response was fierce. She turned away and closed her eyes.

“It ain’t the same…”

...user threads niced…

The silence didn’t last long in the little alley next to the data terminal where the three team members sat. In about an hour, the sweeping dome above their heads would begin to filter the light of the rising sun, giving the impression of daylight. For some reason, dawn always reminded Suzan of the ravaged world outside the dome. Before her thoughts could turn to that however, the silence was broken by the hacker’s sudden sharp inhale.

“He’s out! Time to move,” said Suzan. “Hold him up for a second while he sobers up.” She began busily disconnecting him from the terminal and her own cyber knight’s computer.

Shroud’s eyes flicked here and there rapidly; dome, Sue, bricks, dome, Sue, hovel, Sue, Sue. “Suzy frag me! By the net, why couldn’t we have done this from the Harbour?” His eyes went haywire again.

“Welcome back to the real world Shroud.” Suzan patted him gently on the cheek. “Did you get to the host?”

Shroud gave a few grunting laughs, “let’s just say the atom is bombed.”

Suzan’s shoulders relaxed. Her eyes met Zep’s and they shared a brief look of relief before Shroud continued. “But can’t you two shut up while I’m working? I swear I could have had this sorted 3,000 cycles ago if it weren’t for all the rats.”

“You can hear us when you’re jacked in?” Zep asked incredulously.

“Yes, well no, I mean I can hear you, but not in there. But it’s all going on there and here and sometimes the stacks overflow, ya know.”

“Not really”

Shroud’s stream of babble seemed to be continuing, but all that came out was “Oh! running, running!” with elevating intensity.

Suzan’s eyes suddenly darted out to the avenue where there was a large cardboard box that appeared to be some poor bastard’s home for the night. The feet that had been sticking out of it when they arrived were now gone. “Shit!”

Zep followed her eyes just in time to see the box rip in half to reveal a man in crisp suit wielding an assault rifle. From back in the alley, they saw him let off a stream of fire to the left and then head off sprinting to the right. “I thought you gave Williams the night off?” Zep looked at Suzan.

“He wouldn’t have it,” She shrugged. “He never liked this whole set-up with the dead end alley.”

“Atta bastard.” Zep smiled, as he unstrapped the mighty Street King hammer from his back and followed the wall out to the edge of the street. He peaked around the corner and looked back at Suzan and Shroud as they began to move further back in the alley. “See you at the hidey-hole,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye, and then dashed around the corner heading to the left.

...disconnecting...

Suzan heard the telltale, electric whaaaoowp of the Street King as it charged mid-swing and then a withering scream. She kept listening, nothing… Just one, that’s good. That would keep their heat down.

She settled into a dark corner of the alley behind some barrels. Shroud, sitting next to her, was now fully present and checking his machine pistol. She rested her Mk251 Bounty on a knee, pointing towards the opening Zep had just disappeared around. “Pity the next fool who pokes his head around that corner,” she thought, but no one ever came. An hour later, as the dome lights came up, citizens peered cautiously out their doors to find an empty street and little sign of the early morning commotion.

[contributor]

Chapter 2.0.0

On the holo-display in the center of the bar, a joygirl pretending to be a newswoman prattled on about AzTech’s advances in nanotechnology that would soon be restoring the world outside the dome, making it fit for human habitation. “Didn’t that story break five years ago?” Shroud balked.

“No, that was totally different, that was Yakashima.” Said Williams. His tie was now hanging loose around his neck with his top shirt button undone. He raised his voice so the nearby patrons could hear him. “This time it’s really going to happen, ‘I guarantee it.’” He struck the pose of the AzTech executive from the Fit Drink advert. It scored him a few guffaws. “It’s a tough crowd at 10 am,” he muttered, as he sat back down at the table again.

Suzan and Zep slipped in through the front door and made their way straight to the table. She was looking all business, which Willams took for a very bad sign. “Time to pack it up boys, we’ve got some more work.”

“Frag it Sue, I’ve got my own work cut out for me here.” His eyes fell on the two-thirds full bottle of mint-green colored liquid on the table.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “This is one of my jobs. You get to sleep in the cab and dream about whether you’re going to take the red pill or the blue pill. Besides, you’ll be able to afford a whole lot more than that when this is done,” She looked at the bottle.

Williams pushed back from the table. “Blue, always the blue one for me,” he said, taking a last swig from the bottle and heading for the door. Squinting on the front steps of the Silver Empress Club, he tightened his tie and rummaged around in his pockets till he found his electric razor.

“You mind if I…” Zep began with a smirk.

“Frag off,” Williams replied sharply, before he could finish.

“Shroud, you’re going pop your pill now. I need you sifting the data you pulled last night for anything that concerns BraveStar.” Suzan was on fire this morning.

...Current Pipe Connects to :Washington St….

“Lieutenant, There’s a knight, Suzan Quinn-Laramie here to see you.”

“I don’t know any such knight. If she ain’t shown us no love, she ain’t gettin any.” He let his hand off the comm and went back to his crossword puzzle and sandwich.

The stubborn comm lit up again. “I’m sorry to bother you again sir, she says she’s here on behalf of Yakashima and that it’s in your best interest to see her now.”

He sat up straight…”Yeh, ya, um,... send her up…, but give me a minute. ...and Johnny, get a riot squad ready in the hallway I don’t want any bullshit from some she-knight.

Lieutenant Hankins, had known this was coming. A highly valuable and illegal piece of technology had come across his desk last week and he now had Unified Metals Research by the balls. He had prepped the artifact for release in the case of his untimely death and then signalled his willingness to help them quietly recover it for a mere 250,000 credits. With that kind of money and the right connections he might actually manage to get himself out this blasted dome. Now he just had to play his cards right.

He was ready to play hardball. He hadn’t become an officer in one of those pretty-boy cadet training schools. He had proved he was tough and smart knocking heads together as a Riot Star when the gang wars spilled over the wall. He wasn’t the kind to let some techno-mutant-freak push him around. He was totally unprepared for what walked through his door.

Had Aphrodite herself appeared in his office, he couldn’t have been any more surprised. The tall, voluptuous cyber knight with blood-red hair began to speak with the most easy familiarity, as if she were an old girlfriend who had suddenly shown up on his doorstep. His spine, which he always envisioned as being a steel rod, suddenly melted into slag. With the most apparent interest in his well being, she was saying “Lieutenant, I don’t think you realize how serious this is, deadly serious.” He heard it, but he was having the hardest time formulating a response. For the moment, the blood in his veins seemed to be circulating in the opposite direction.

...owner@host :% netutil connect -devconf -force...

In the lobby, Zep, Williams and Shroud were in a tense sudo-standoff with a bunch Brave Star toughies. The three stood obediently, in front the sign that said “NO WEAPONS BEYOND THIS POINT,” but it seemed of little comfort to their hosts. Zep let his hammer swing slowly at his side emitting a deep hum. Shroud, who hated these moments more than any other in his work, held his Mongoose machine pistol in a death-grip. The weapon itself was an impressive gift from Yakuza elder, Kazuo Ichin, that Suzan had permitted him to keep. “You need it more than the rest of us,” was all she had said. The remark chafed, but, at the moment, there was no denying it.

Williams was engaging in a misguided attempt at de-escalation, his voice raised high. “Alright chummers, it’s pretty obvious that I can’t kill all of you at once, but I can guarantee that whoever moves first is getting his brains splattered on the front window. So, as long as everyone keeps his hands in his pockets, we all get to go home for dinner tonight.”

“Go frag yourself” came the reply from one of the Brave Star veterans. “No corporate flunky who obviously couldn’t follow orders, gets to march into our precinct and start giving em. These boys are all highly qualified, now stand down.”

“I wouldn’t call brown noses and a taste corporate bullshit qualifications.” Williams had now completely forgotten that he was trying to get everyone out in one piece.

“I believe what he meant to say…” began Zep loudly, but everyone was already reaching for his piece.

...acl -validate- override…

Zep sighed as he heard a woman’s footsteps approaching rapidly behind him. “Thank you very much gentlemen, you’ve been the most gracious hosts.” Suzan’s voice cut the tension like a cool breeze on a hot day. “We’ll be on our way now. Thank you so much for your patience.”

At times, her presence had the ability, as if by magic, to drain every last ounce of testerone out of a room. The three men, lowered their weapons and fell in behind their commander. The mob of Bravestar men parted in front of her. She even heard a few “take care ma’am”s and “have a nice day ma’am”s, before the door closed behind them.

Back out on the street, Zep couldn’t hold it in, “that was damn fast.” He was hoping for some indication of how it went.

“Sometimes, the tougher they are, the faster they crack,” was all she volunteered, but the smile gave it all away. “It looked like you guys were having a real meeting-of-the-minds in there.” She shot a piercing glance at Williams.

“What? Have you ever met a Bravestar officer who wasn’t born with a major stick up…” Zep slammed the cab door on him before he could finish.

[contributor]

Chapter 2.0.1

In the cab, Williams was still hopped up on crammers and sour at having had his plans for the day shot to hell. It was a lethal combination when paired with a big mouth. “So what did you score us in that fancy little package you got tucked under your arm, Sue?”

“I haven’t got a clue what it is, and it’s not for me. So it’s definitely not for you.” She replied in a tone that signalled that line of conversation was supposed to end.

But Williams was not going to be deterred. “Whatever chummer, I don't buy all that cyber knight stuff. The truth is you've probably got a pretty good idea of what's in that package and it’s probably worth 50 times what we’re getting paid for it, but you’ve turned into some mega-corp company man. ‘Cold hard steel,’ my ass. That’s corp-speak for ‘do what we say, take what we give you and don’t complain when we put you in a gutter some day.’”

“Honestly Williams, you know how this works.” Suzan began calmly. She could see he wasn’t going to be put in his place easily today. “The partitions and firewalls created by my crypto-chip are the one thing that keep us in business and keep us safe. The less I know, the less we all know, the better for everyone.”

“You really expect me to believe that you just negotiated a deal but you have no idea what any of the details were? That's a pill even Zep’s junky mom would have a hard time swallowing.”

“Look,” Suzan began before Zep could respond, “it’s one of those things that you can’t really understand until it’s happened to you. When I begin a negotiation all of the information I need to know is present in my mind. It combines with everything I know about negotiation and any other information I might have picked up somewhere. But, when the negotiations are over, all of the details are tucked away again by my crypto-chip and are lost to my consciousness.”

“So you’re saying you’ve got a bad case of short-term memory loss?” Williams was forgetting about the bee in his bonnet for the moment.

“If it helps to think of it that way, you can.”

“What was his name?”

“I'm guessing it was Lieutenant Hankins. But I only know that from the sign in the lobby and the conversation with his clerk.”

“What color was his hair?” Williams skepticism was growing again.

“Beats the heck out of me. Look, I remember certain things; like the chair that I sat in, the mustard stain on his tie, I even remember parts of our conversation. For some reason, I remember that he scored himself a cool 15k today, but that’s not normal. It all depends on what gets coded into the contract. Sometimes they forget some interesting details, but honestly the quicker I forget those the better.”

“What’s to stop you from recording your conversation and listening to it later?”

“That’s not the point. All that would make me is rogue knight who doesn’t get any more jobs and who knows something that makes me worth killing. It’s just like there’s nothing to stop me from opening this package right now. It might be a million creds or I might be returning his girlfriend’s panties before his wife finds them. That’s not something I want to flush a lot of hard work down the drain for. In the long-run, it’s better for all of us to play by the rules.”

...User Thread Started at CPU 100%...

“Yeah, I suppose you’re probably right,” conceded Williams. “But doesn’t it drive you nuts? I mean, not knowing what’s going on inside your own head? What if your next mission is to kill off your whole team and throw yourself off a pier. You’re nothing but a tool for them to use?”

“It’s not like that, when I go in on a mission I’m still me. I’m still the same person whose talking to you now.”

“How can you be sure about that?” Zep’s voice suddenly broke into what had been a two way conversation.

Suzan had had enough. “Look, you two can sit and theorize all you want about what it’s like to me, but the truth is you’re not me. You don’t have to live with the decisions I’ve made and you will never understand what it is to be a knight.”

“If there’s nothing stopping you, then open the package.” Zep was looking at her with all seriousness.

“Go frag yourselves. I’m getting paid today. I’m not so sure about the rest of you anymore.”

The conversation would have been over if Shroud hadn’t suddenly snapped to. “Hey, hey, I had no part in…” But three sets of eyes giving him the death stare were enough to make him leave off his sentence and return to his efforts to “see the matrix” moving past his window.

As they pulled up to the Dragon Gate Inn, Suzan gave the cabby a generous cut of Williams' and Zep's share for keeping his eyes on the road and his ears closed. There was no reason everyone had go home pissed. The Dragon Gate wasn’t really their home, but Suzan preferred it to the Wurstkuche, especially when she was in a foul mood. Williams headed back to the Silver Empress in search of something he had left there and the prospect of more interesting clientele later in the afternoon.

...fsutil -fs : logs -op : clear -aflush 2…

[contributor]

Chapter 3.0.0

...user threads niced…

A few days off had been good for the team. At the moment, an outside observer might have even concluded that they liked each other.

“What!? You’re shitting me! You’ve never? Not once?” Williams was incredulous.

“Look, the day I meet a man who’s not a barbarian I’ll give it some thought.” Suzan replied cooly giving Zep and Williams both a dismissive look.

“Have you ever seen a barbarian wearing a suit?” Williams knew he was blowing smoke, but that never stopped him from saying what was on his mind.

Zep half laughed, “If history is any indication, a suit or getting yourself called ‘sir’ just makes you a bigger barbarian than the rest.”

“And what about him?” Williams pointed over his shoulder at Shroud, who was surrounded by a gaggle of women. Some of them were for sale and might have just been looking for work, but others seemed genuinely interested in whatever techno-babble the hacker was spewing at the moment. “Some of them ain’t half ugly, and they can’t get enough of ‘im.” It was true. What Williams worked so hard to accomplish through careful grooming, Shroud had in natural good looks and an easy way with women. “Pity he doesn’t know what to do with em. The last one he brought up to the room fell asleep while he was still waxing eloquent about neural bridge frameworks.”

“Exactly.” Suzan gave Zep a knowing look. But now that her attention was on Shroud, she called him over to the table. “Hey, as much as everyone enjoys a few days of neural dampening, it doesn’t pay for itself. It’s time to get back to work. Unfortunately, all of my Mars nego connectors seem to have gone AWOL for the moment. It’s not that bad though, because we need to schmooze our way up with Bravestar a bit. I hear they’ve got some gear we need.”

Williams let out a long “Pffffft.” He and Zep shared a look of disdain.

“Look, they control the center of the city. We can either give them some token business or we get hassled every time we pass through their territory.”

“I like hassles,” Zep’s eyes were focused somewhere far-off. “I know just where to put a few police batons.”

“Get over it. You work for me now” Suzan was getting in the zone. “They’re currently handing out hacking and phracking jobs like V-caps, so you two get to come along just to look pretty and keep snooping civvies out of our hair.”

“Let’s hope it’s more than that.” Zep didn’t seem so excited.

“Com’on, big guy, there’s never a dull day in the dome. I’m sure we’ll run into some errant enforces, snipers or toxic clouds before it’s all over with.” Williams began rummaging through the large duffle bag that they all called the locker until he found his MX Defender. “Let’s go.”

...Current Pipe Connects to :Old Waterfront….

They had had a good couple of days of hassle-free “geek jobs” as Zep called them. At least Suzan was happy. He sat, looking at his boots dangling off the edge of the pier. There was a storm outside. He could tell by way the water churned up from the bottom. The dome that extended out over the defiled waters certainly didn’t go all the way to the sea floor.

“Careful” Williams said looking down at the greasy water. “I hear it will strip the flesh off a corpse in 20 minutes.”

“Yeah, it comes in handy sometimes.” Zep chuckled.

“Street rats” was Williams' only reply.

“Well, it shouldn’t be long now.” Zep glanced over at Suzan and Shroud, the latter of which appeared to be getting intimate with the nearby data terminal. He was jacked in and swaying slowly with his hands fixed tightly on either side of the machine.

Williams followed his eyes. Seeing Shroud, he cocked his head, “It’s not his usual stance, but I guess we all like a little variety sometimes.”

The terminal suddenly came alive with electrical energy and shot up a plume of rancid black smoke. Shroud let go and clawed frantically at his data port until he succeeded in yanking out the cable that connected him to Suzan’s computer and the terminal. His eyes were as big as saucers and he was backing slowly away from the terminal as if he were face to face with a hellhund. Another instant, and he bolted.

“Grab him!” Suzan yelled at the top of her voice.

...owner@host :% netutil connect -devconf -force…

For as big as he was, Zep could still move with all the speed of a wild animal. In four giant strides he caught the hacker by the top if his arm and jerked him to the ground. Shroud writhed in Zep’s grip muttering incoherently. “GPU Identification Mismatch, fsutil -fs:dev -op:log -target, haaaAAah, aaaah ahhh, it’s here, it’s here!”

Then suddenly he relaxed and his eyes seemed to focus on the world around him. He was coming to. He looked down at his feet, nothing. “Oh shit, they’re gone!” But he couldn’t sit up, his arm was stuck. He looked over to see Zep pinning it to the ground. “Oh God, what happened to my feet?” he asked desperately.

“They’re still there.” Zep replied calmly as if speaking to a child and pulled him up to a seated position. Shroud found that he was sitting on the cusp of the sea wall, his feet were dangling over the edge. “You almost had yourself a nice swim!” the trogger added with a big smile.

The hacker glanced down at the churning sludge and then turned around to look back at the still sparking terminal.

“That’s going to draw a crowd.” Williams unshouldered the Defender and checked his clip.

[contributor]

Chapter 3.0.1

Suzan very rarely took violent work. It wasn’t her style. Most of the time, her team was able to talk or threaten their way out of trouble and when that wasn’t possible they ran. “Happy factions mean less trouble and better pay.” Everyone on the team had heard Suzan’s mantra multiple times. None of this meant, however, that they weren’t ready for a fight, if backed into a corner.

Suzan was looking at Shroud. He was out of his post-hack haze, but he was still clearly shaken by whatever had happened to him in the net. Watching him fumble with his machine pistol, she could see that, at the moment, he was more of a liability than an asset. “Thank God it’s just Fennian” she thought to herself. But still, she knew that one wrong move, especially when there were hunds involved could quickly bring down a team member. Shroud was the newest member of the team and he wasn’t their first hacker. The last one had been gunned down by some Yakashima corporate soldiers.

She looked at Zep. He was chomping at the bit for some instruction. “I can bust through these chummers no problem.” It was the usual strategy. Send Zep on a mad dash, usually through the middle of the group of enforcers and draw them off while everyone else melted away.

Suzan looked at the sea. It hemmed them in on two sides and enforcers were coming from the other two. If Zep’s stunt didn’t pull them all away, her and Williams would be pinned down with nowhere to go. “Why don’t you stick around this time? After all the geek-jobs I figured you’d be spoiling for a fight.”

Zep gave a wry smile and then turned a quick eye to the enforcers that were pouring into their very literal corner of the Old Waterfront. The gangers would wait until their boss arrived to really press the attack. The team was tucked behind the building to which the terminal was connected. It was an odd windowless block of cement but if you put a hand to it, you could tell that the whole building was humming with energy. It was another mysterious piece of dome infrastructure. There were also some shipping containers that could be used for cover.

Zep grabbed Shroud and nearly carried him behind the furthest back container. On the far side they faced nothing but toxic sea. He looked at the hacker with all seriousness. “Shroud, you’ve got to make sure they don’t get behind us. I’ve seen them send a bunch dock rats with guns around in a boat before. It’s a nasty trick. If we get surrounded, that’s it. You think you can handle this?”

Shroud looked from the sea to the trogger and then down at his piece, “yeah, ya, I got this. Nobodies getting around us.”

“Good, I know you can do it.” Zep dashed back around the front to where Suzan and Williams were picking their positions.

With the terminal building in front of them, and the sea to the south and east they were left with a narrow alley between the building and sea going towards the north and a larger promenade heading to the west. Suzan took the alley and Williams, with his higher rate of fire, took the western approach. Zep camped out in the middle. If either side was overwhelmed he would literally be batting clean up with his hammer.

“Chummers, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do. You can either come with us and talk it out with the Kelley brothers or we can beat it out of you here and now.” Everyone knew the gang boss’ words were more of a formality than a real offer. Even a surrender at this point would mean a serious beating now and probably being killed by the Kelley brothers later. Even if you had done their dirty work before, they would kill a knight who worked against them just because “they got principles.”

“Sorry boys, you’re going to have earn your pay today,” Zep bellowed. Then he added, “Viva Los Valentinos!”

“You just had to kick the hornet’s nest didn’t you?” Suzan shook her head. It made no difference now.

“It makes me happy to think that it’s the last thing they’ll ever hear.” Zep smiled.

“Release the hunds!” was the only answer that came from the far side of the building where the gangers were preparing their assult.

...CPU has I/O Speed of 400MP/cycle. Total load time is .34ms…

Suzan fired first, but her target wasn’t an incoming ganger. Just past the edge of the building the attackers would have to come around, was a stack of barrels. The rounds burst a few barrels and Suzan smiled to see them vomit out some sort of toxic yellow-green liquid. She took out a few more. “That’ll make their eyes and lungs burn.” She shouldered her rifle and pulled out her SMG. If the toxic spill did it’s job, she would be able to provide additional cover for Williams.

Even with the knight cornered, the fight was hardly fair. The enforcers’ one hope was to rush them en masse and overcome the team’s superior fire power. It wasn’t the gang boss’ first fight, however. He came from the west but stayed out of range, sighting in his rifle. At the same time, a hammer wielding trogger and two hunds came around the corner. Williams’ first burst took down a hund. While Zep found his footing and waited for them to come into melee range.

The gang boss having found his position, released two rounds. Williams heard the sickening thwop, thwop as the rounds slapped Zep squarely in the chest. It pushed him back but clearly didn’t puncture his armor. He would have some impressive bruises, but he would be fine. As he shook the blows off, the enemy trogger closed in on him. Zep’s first swing was wild and missed, but he kept his hammer moving in a great circle. It came around faster than the trogger had expected and landed on him with devastating force.

The Street King was a shock maul that harnessed kinetic energy when it was in motion. On contact, the energy released, delivering both the physical force of the hammer and a kinetic shockwave that would often knock a target unconscious even if he were struck on the torso. If Zep’s enemy was fortunate, this would have been the case, because the blow was powerful enough to send him careening into the sea, never to be heard from again.

Next, Williams brought down the gang boss and Suzan shifted position to take out the remaining hund. With the initial wave dashed, the stragglers were easy to mop up.

What Suzan didn’t notice, however, was that a hund had picked it’s way through her little chemical spill. Demonstrating all the instincts of its bygone ancestors it remained in a crouch position and closed in quietly on its prey from the north. When it was within 3 or 4 yards it broke into a full-on run. By the time Suzan heard it’s labored breathing and quick feet on the ground she knew she had only seconds to react.

She flicked her machine gun out to the right and squeezed the trigger. At the same time she ducked down to the ground hoping that the beast might lunge and go sailing over her head. She heard shots ring out, and a tremendous yelp, and then she was bowled over by the, slobbering, clawing, writhing, bleeding mass.

All 200 or so pounds of the hund came to rest on Suzan who was sprawled on her back. Her face was being sprayed with warm liquid. The spray alternated with a horrible sucking, slurping noise. Was it slobber? As she collected her wits she could see the source of her sticky shower. The beast’s lungs were punctured. As it lay dying, the holes in it’s side alternately sucked in air and expelled blood.

She looked over to her right to see Shroud holding his still smoking Mongoose pistol. “I, ah, I didn’t see any boats, so came out…” he stammered. She closed her eyes and dropped her head. A single shot rang out close by. She felt the last bit of life go out of the dog and then Zep pulling it off.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

[contributor]

Chapter 3.1.0

After their foray into Fennian turf, the team made their way to Liberty Square where Suzan kept a private apartment in friendly Yakuza turf. It was another generous gift from Kazuo Ichin. At times it was nice to have a place that felt like your own. She and Shroud sat at the faux-wood table. It wasn't uncommon for him to need a few days of detox after a string of hacking jobs.

"What the hell happened in there the other day?" Suzan was trying to understand how they had failed a mission.

"I, I don't entirely know. The faster I disconnect, the foggier the whole session becomes. I might actually remember more in a few days." Shroud was being completely honest.

"What do you remember? Do you remember how far you were able to tunnel in?"

Shroud closed his eyes and propped his head up with his arm on the table. "Yeah, that's right. I was trying to get into the TelNet node. It was hot as hell in there." Shroud paused for a long time. "It was like the old DoS attacks, everything was jammed up, except that it was all unique. I've never seen so many users online all at the same time."

"That sounds about right. We did some asking around on the way back and it's practically World Net War III right now. All the corps are involved in one if not two conflicts. Bravestar must have known something was up before everyone else did. It explains all the hacking work."

Things were coming back to Shroud slowly. "But the thing is, I don't even think everybody was from the New Boston Zone. If you've been around long enough, you get to know the major players. People, or machines, were running code that I've never seen before. It was crazy stuff."

"Wait, what? There were operators from beyond the dome?" Suzan forgot her usual desire to know as little as possible.

"Well, yeah, in theory it's all possible. Now that the Global Matrix is all coming back on-line there's no reason that Tokyo or Brasília couldn't hack the NBZ, especially if the corps controlling the major exchanges let their traffic pass through unobstructed. It's also possible though that somebody simply imported some new utilities and released them all at the same time. Maybe even through some sort of botnet."

"I thought the botnets were all taken down before the Pac Wars?"

"Yeah they were and there are systems in place to keep them from being resurrected, but that's the nature of the Matrix. New routines are constantly being developed to overcome whatever security features have been put it into place. There's a simultaneous building and cracking and patching and exploiting that never ends. With the corps it's the worst. They're simultaneously trying to ensure their own digital security and exploit everyone else's. Elements within corporations are even placing backdoors in their own foundations, that allow them to get around their own systems. Botnets are simply too powerful of an idea to lay dormant forever. If a corp can recreate them with enough plausible deniability they're going to do it."

"Welcome to the dome-blasted jungle.” Suzan herself was a prime example of the corp's continuous under-the-radar war. “But when you were in the Net did you figure out what any of it was about? I mean, while you were trying to jump into the sea, you said 'it's here, it's here!' What did you find?"

Shroud stared at his cup of Hot Beverage as if peering into a crystal ball. "I really don't know, it might have been nothing, a random fragment. I don't remember even saying it." He stared into his cup again. "But there was something else going on." He was taking his time to find the right words. "Frag, it's so foggy. But Suzan, I'm pretty sure they were trying to hack your computer."”

"What? Can they do that?"

"I've never heard of it being done before, but theoretically it's not impossible. After failing to get into TelNet, I tried to go around though the NBZ Exchange, but I think something picked me up. You began to get all these queries coming from different servers, mostly AzTek. I don't remember how far I got, but suddenly I got this feeling like I had to get off ASAP."

Shroud was starting to get jittery, as if he had just unplugged from the Matrix." Frag it! That’s it, they wouldn’t let me disconnect! They were trying to figure out what I was…, what we were." Shroud was holding his cup in both hands and bobbing his legs up and down on balls of his feet a furious pace. "Oh God!, you remember that crazy utility we picked up in the Narrows? I actually unleashed that in the wild. I’m lucky it didn’t bring the whole Net down, but if it weren't for that I might never have gotten out. They were going to find out what I was or kill me…, and they almost did!"

Suzan put her hands gently on his wrists. He was squeezing his mug so hard she was afraid it would shatter in his hands. She began softly, "hey, hey, slow down, you're out, you're here. If they were trying to crack my knight's computer then that means you probably saved my life twice that day. You did a hell of a job."

...session tokens granted…

The comm buzzed. Suzan got up, looked at the viewscreen and hit the button to open the downstairs door. In a minute Zep and Williams let themselves into the apartment. Williams had a largish package tucked under one arm.

"Hey we just heard there's a massive heat wave in Old Waterfront." Williams blurted out. "You two wouldn't know anything about that would you?"”

"Who us?" Suzan replied with a smirk. "We've been here minding our own business for the last four days."

Everyone smiled except for Shroud, who looked at the package Williams was carrying with suspicion. “Are we back to work already?” He didn't look enthusiastic at all.

Zep was in one of his usual chipper moods. “Haven’t you learned anything yet new guy? The best part about working for a she-knight is that they go shopping every time a job goes wrong. It's their 'therapy.'” Zep was holding up two bent fat fingers on each side of his head and sporting a wide grin.

Suzan gave him a quick scowl. “Yeah..., last time, Zep fragged one up, I bought him a nice satin nighty and made him run from one end of Fairmont to the other. You should’a seen the trail of troggers and hunds trying to get a piece a that action.” Now Suzan was smiling and Zep was scowling.

He began again. “But hey, this time, thanks to fact that Williams somehow still knows how to find a real tailor in this drek-hole of a dome, we got some fancy embroidery with your name tagged on it, so that everyone will know who they’re chasing and where to find you later!” He grabbed the package and unceremoniously plopped it on the table in front of Shroud.

Shroud looked at the package and then at the others. All eyes were on him. He was learning not to put much faith in the steady string of bullshit that came out of most everyone’s mouths but he still couldn’t imagine what was in the box.

Lifting the lid off, he could see that it certainly was some sort of smooth, satin-like garment. It was thick though, like neoprene, but not quite the same. He had to stand up to pull the whole thing out of the box. It was a full body suit.

"That's slick-weave kid." Williams chimed in. "The shit sheds air and everything else, and it's nano-ready to boot."

Shroud had heard of Kracken armor before but never thought he would actually see any, let alone put his hands on some. He gave Suzan a somewhat confused look.

"If you're wondering whose it is, check out the collar." She smiled.

Shroud flipped it over. Sure enough, embroidered into the inside collar was the word Hundsbane entwined in green vines with purple flowers.

But, before he could say anything, Zep spoke up, "Hey, don't get all sentimental, we just needed to make sure we could use you for target practice without splattering your insides all over."

...user threads niced…

[contributor]

Chapter 4.0.0

Zep, Williams and Shroud sat in the bar-lobby of the Marrillott Downtown, while Suzan carried out negotiations in one of their various rooms. "Just try to fit in," she had told them. That was easier said than done for Zep in a fine megacorp establishment such as this. When no waiter made his appearance, Williams went to the bar to put in their order.

"Maybe your friend would be more comfortable on the other side of the wall," the barkeep, in a vest and bowtie, muttered as he put their drinks on the counter.

"Look, we're just here to enjoy a few drinks. So as long as nobody gives us any trouble there won't be any." Williams replied.

"Now you look here…” The smug little man began in a lecturing voice. “If there's any trouble caused, it’s gonna..." he fell silent as Williams stepped closer to the bar and began reaching a hand over it.

"Good little corp-monkey," Williams said, as his hand found a tray for the drinks. He collected their beverages and headed back to the table.

...user@host :# netutil -read : usr -override -repeat...

"Stop touching yourself!" Zep was growling. "If we were anywhere south of here you'd be asking to get yourself tied over a barrel and made the evening's entertainment."

Shroud awkwardly pulled his hands up and set them on the table. He was still getting used to his new armor and often found himself running his hands along his thighs or grabbing a pinch of it on his torso, stretching it out and letting it snap back into place. Williams was right. Somehow the armor made him feel twice as fast. How had he never noticed how much resistance air gave before? He wondered though, the armor was supposed to be hardened, but it gave every impression of being only soft and supple. He moved his right hand again and was feeling along his ribs, imagining what would happen if a bullet struck him there.

"If you want to know how it works, we could go out back and I'll take a few swings." Zep seemed to know what he was thinking about. The trogger patted the handle of the Skull Smash hammer he was trying to hide discreetly under the table.

"Drinks are here." Williams interrupted. "We got any idea how long this is going to take? I don't exactly get the idea that we're welcome around here." He glanced at the barkeep who was now talking to a rather large fellow who was no doubt part of the hotel security staff. Thankfully, the man didn't seem inclined to do anything about the unwanted visitors.

"What's with you guys and hammers, anways?" Shroud asked. "I mean, aren't you called cyberswords? I always imagined you guys more like a ninja or, you know, a knight or something."

"The answer lies in that fancy new suit you're wearing.” Zep’s speech, as always, was slow and deliberate. "For now, armor is advancing faster than blades are. Even if I came at you with nice sharp sword, it wouldn't do much more damage than a butter knife with that thing on. As the armor got better, guys just kept getting bigger and bigger choppers to add more force, until some genius down on streets figured we might as well just be swinging hammers. If you can't crack the armor, you can still deal enough blut force to damage internal organs, knock em of their feet or knock em clean out."

The conversation continued on the subject of armor and weapons, until Suzan reappeared. She was walking fast with her brow deeply furrowed.

...user@host :# fsutil -fs : logs -op: {} -wflush 1...

Shroud’s back was to her approach. “That’s great and all, but what if they shoot me in the face?” she heard him saying, as she reached the table.

“Nobody would do that. Let’s go.” She said sharply, without stopping her march for the door.

Shroud, almost fell on the floor, as he jumped up from his seat. “What, why not?” he stammered, but Suzan was already half-way across the room.

Williams chuckled, as the three of them quickly collected their things and rushed to catch up with their leader. “It’s too pretty!”

...

“What’s up?” Zep asked as he caught up to her on the curb. “Didn’t go well?”

“No, it went fine, it just ain’t over yet.”

“Whaddya mean, it ain’t over yet? A job’s a job isn’t it?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too, but somehow, when this one completed, I got new instructions. Shroud, do you have stims? I’m gonna need you sharp.” She was talking fast and looking around as if she was expecting a taxi to be waiting for them. Not seeing one she huffed. “Nevermind we’ll walk.”

The only one on the team who had ever seen Suzan so frazzled before was Zep. Since the early days, she rarely lost her head. He and Williams exchanged uneasy glances.

On the walk to Old Church Suzan had pulled Shroud close and began briefing him on the details of the job. There seemed to be some misunderstanding however.

“So what then?” Shroud was saying. “I get the to the Lucky Phoenix host and something new is just going to pop up? You can’t mess with me like this. Every job takes special utilities and if those aren’t loaded ahead of time we’re not going to be able to do crap in there.”

“I don’t know what to tell you. We just need to hack it. That’s all I know.”

“I mean, I can look for paydata if you want?”

“Yeah, if nothing else pops up, get what you can. Maybe we just need to get there to clear this out.” Suzan herself didn’t seem certain about what her new instructions were.

“That doesn’t make no sense." Zep spoke up. "I say, frag it! I’m sure that whoever we’re working for can stand a little rep hiccup. Most everybody in this city loves you Sue. You did the job you agreed to and now they’re messin with you. Frag em!”

“I can’t,” burst out of Suzan’s mouth. “I mean, we can’t,.. afford to be messing with the corps. Look this is an easy hack, we do it all the time. Friendly territory, in and out, no fuss, right?”

...owner@host :% netconf -seek:* -network:* -dconf...

“Come on Zep, aren’t you the least bit curious?” Williams was taking it all in from a distance. “I mean, this is new territory. We’ve never had a secret ‘double-contract’ before. I mean, most likely, some sponge-head probably just fragged up the code, but maybe, just maybe, it’s more interesting than that. Maybe it’s somebody else’s contract or maybe our employer has a big surprise for us. Who knows...? Maybe they’re going to try and fry Shroud again and Suzan too?”

“Williams, shut the hole in your face before I ask Zep to shut it for you!” His last comment really pissed Suzan off. This was going to be Shroud’s first hack since the Old Waterfront and the last thing she needed was Williams messing with his head.

Indeed, they had arrived at the terminal now and Shroud was beginning his plug in and pre-hack routine. He paused and looked at the terminal for a few seconds, breathing deeply. “You are my friend, we can do this,” Suzan heard him mutter under his breath as he established the connection.

...

The job was fast, it wasn’t a few minutes and Shroud was out and coming to.

“That did it! Job’s cleared!” Suzan seemed genuinely relieved. She smiled at Shroud. “What the hell did you do in there? I didn’t get any more instructions.”

He looked at her with an odd smile. “I think somebody wanted to get your attention. There was nothing extraordinary about the host, so I just started digging around. There was lots of Kuza paydata, but I think there is one file you’ll be more interested in than the others.”

Suzan pulled up her knight’s computer to begin looking at the latest trove of stolen data. Shroud looked over her shoulder. “There, that one!” he pointed, “the file named Quinn-Laramie.”

...user@host :# fsutil-fs : bin -op : idx -bcache : access...

Williams gave a long-low whistle.

...

Hours later, Williams and Suzan sat at a table at Devan’s bar. Shroud was in the back working with some of his old associates on Suzan’s file. It hadn’t been anything he recognized. It wasn’t text or other data. It didn’t seem to run in any program he knew of. “I need help. If anyone knows what this is, they’ll be in Yaka.” And so, the team found themselves hanging out in a data haven for hours on end.

Williams was being persistent about drawing Suzan into a discussion about what could possibly be in the file and who put it there.

“I should have listened to Zep,” Suzan mused. “This is a bunch of hundshit. I should go tell Shroud to delete the thing now. Contract’s over, I don’t need any other trouble.”

“Yeah, but somebody wanted to go and break everything out of their nice little boxes just to get your attention. As much as you hate work spilling over into whatever you call the rest our pathetic existence in this drek-hole, you can’t just pretend that didn't happen now!” Williams was relishing it all a little too much.

“Where is Zep, by the way?” Suzan hadn’t noticed when he quietly dismissed himself.

“He went for walk about 10 minutes ago. You know he can’t stay inside for too long or he’ll turn into a princess and nobody want’s to see that.”

Suzan was thinking about how to extend that line of conversation further and keep it away from the file for awhile, when Shroud suddenly pulled up. “Hey, hey, hey, I found something good.”

“What is it!?” The tone in her voice showed how poorly Suzans’ efforts to convince herself that she wasn’t particularly interested in the file were working.

“Well, we couldn’t find anything that could read the file, and believe me they’ve got copies of nearly every of program written since the 21 hundreds here, so we started trying to decrypt it, which can take, well..., an hour if you’re lucky, or pretty much the rest of your life, if you’re not. The decrypter identified repeated patterns in the code and spit them out, but it wasn’t coming up with any kind of a solution. While it was working, I just started looking at those lines and this is where it gets good. Every one of them had your initials in it Suzan, along with a lot of seemingly random, repeated information. If you filtered the random repeatable stuff out, however, every line basically had one unique letter and number or number and number combination!” Shroud was beaming as if he had just invented quantum computing all over again. It still didn’t mean anything to the other two.

Williams fixed a blank look on him. “That’s great kid, but you haven’t gotten yourself a raise just yet.”

“Oh, ah, yeah, I was getting to that. If you put the numbers in one column in order this is what you get in the other.” He pulled out a napkin and spread it out on the table. On it was written “08142217NEMOS1900.”

The three of them stared at the napkin for a few seconds, until Shroud couldn’t hold it in. “That’s today’s date. That says Nemo’s and that says 1900, or 7pm! That’s in a couple of hours not far from here!”

William’s let out his low whistle again. “And all that just so somebody could ask you out Suzan! I gotta tell you, I didn’t see that coming…”

Suzan didn’t even hear the content of Williams comment. Fingers pressed against her forehead, she seemed intent on burning a hole through the napkin with her eyes.

She stayed that way for what seemed like a minute or more, until suddenly she snapped out of it. She lifted her head and seemed to see Williams and Shroud again for the first time. She looked at them both, eyes narrowing. “When’s the last time you two went on a nice date?”

“What?” They looked each other. “You mean like together?”

[contributor]

Chapter 4.1.0

Anita took a seat at her table for two. She wondered if everyone else could see just how terrified she was. If it weren’t for the fact that the dome light didn’t give anyone a tan, she would have been alarmingly pale. As it was, unless you were born with natural pigment or spent your creds on the tanning chambers, your skin was as white as ivory all the time.

What was she thinking? Setting up a meeting with a cyber knight outside of official channels, it was sheer madness. But no, she had to remember, in the face of what the corps were planning, it was the only thing that made sense. Even if she would be gone before it happened, she had to do what she could. How could she just sit back and allow it to happen? The death of a million plus people was no way to build a new humanity. Besides that, she was positively sick at the idea of how many of her research projects would be annihilated in the cataclysm. The total waste of so many years of research.

What had changed in her? She had always been the loyal Mars Corp scientist. She had climbed the rungs until she was asked to lead her research team, and then her department. Eventually she was put on the executive leadership team for the whole division. Her cohort was her only family and together they had made decisions, some of them monstrous decisions, but the only ones they could have, given the circumstances, but this was too far. Perhaps it was the hormonal changes in her body. Perhaps it was just getting older and knowing that even if she climbed up one more rung and got out of the dome for good, it was all going to end for her some day. Something had changed, and for the first time, through thousands of layers of propaganda, she was beginning to see Mars Corp. and the other corps for what they were. If she could save this one dome it would be worth all of the breakthroughs and all of the shallow accolades that decorated her office walls.

Her thoughts had succeeded in calming her trembling hands, but now, where was her dinner guest? It had been nearly twenty minutes and the waiter was eager to take her order.

In the mean time, a man looking every bit the corporate executive, had seated himself at a table vexingly close. She had been hoping for a bit more privacy. The man himself also seemed agitated, his eyes roving regularly around the room as if he were looking for somebody. If she were in a Mars neighborhood she would likely have known who this gentleman was, and though she knew many Yakashima execs as well, she definitely didn’t know all of them. Of course, seeing someone she knew would have been an utter disaster for her plans this evening. The tremble had found it’s way back into Anita’s hands again.

The reason for the man’s agitation soon became clear when another man, who Anita took to be a corporate decker came trotting up to his table and plopped down smugly across from him. “Oh my god, what are we doing here? This is so close to your apartment!” he nearly squealed.

“Don’t worry, Sandy's high as kite right now. Quentin and Lawrence are staying at their aunts. Um…, let’s see, I’ve probably got at least two hours before she even realizes I’m not there.” The executive gave a coy smile.

“Ooh, then we’re on the clock, how exciting.”

For the next 30 minutes Anita tried her best to ignore their conversation. While the two men hastily scarfed down a romantic meal, they discussed all manner of lewd things that Anita, even at her age, had never dared to imagine. By the end of it, she was seriously considering performing a memory wash on herself. The last thing wanted was to be lying on her death bed some day thinking about a “nizztrangle” or getting “data-ported.”

When she had had enough, she got up, tipped the waiter generously for her Az20, and headed towards the door. But before exiting she made a quick stop at the ladies room. Either her knight had never gotten the message, or she had decided it was too dangerous, or possibly even a trap. Maybe it was all for the better. After all, Anita had done what she could, at personal risk. But the idea of giving up so easily wasn't settling well with her suddenly resurgent conscience.

As she stepped out onto the street, she saw the two lover-boys were already outside enjoying a smoke before heading off to whatever secret love nest they kept. As she walked passed them the decker piped up, “We’ve still got room for a third, if you don’t have any plans for the night?” He was clearly addressing her. She paused, dumbfounded for a second. It’s not like this was ganger territory.

The man in the crisp suit suddenly leaned in, speaking quickly and quietly. There was something entirely different in his voice. “Next time choose a location in your own neighborhood. Nobody goes wandering this far from home at this time of night unless they’re up to something.”

Anita was slowly starting to understand. “Um, oh, ah..., I live and work in Mars Core.” Was she nuts to volunteer this information?

“48 hours from now, in Boston Core." The man looked at his watch “you need to buy yourself some protection, it's not far.”

“24, you don’t have a lot of time.” Suddenly her executive instincts were kicking in.

“Ooh, I love a woman in a hurry,” exclaimed the decker.

“Deal,” the executive gave her a long look up-and-down, rocking his pelvis slowly.

“You filthy pigs!” She said loud enough so that anyone standing nearby could hear. With that she gave the executive a stiff slap on the cheek and hastily moved off towards home.

Williams and Shroud laughed their way loudly to the waiting taxi and practically dove into the back seat together before it disappeared into the darkened dome.

[contributor]

Chapter 4.2.0

The clerk at the Self Defense Store was not having a good night. He’d seen enough old ladies come shopping for body armor that he knew exactly what to expect. His sole client of the evening was looking at her fourth suit and going through the same agonizingly long list of questions “does it stop bullets?” “Does it come in any other colors?” “Do you have something that’s less bulky but still just as strong?” “I've heard they’re cheaper along the bay.” “Will it fit under my clothes?” “Do you have anything matching for my cat?” In all likelihood, when she’d gone through every suit in the shop, she’d head home mumbling something about talking it over with her son and never come back. The clerk consoled himself with the thought that if she wasn't annoying him, she would probably be sitting at home alone tonight drinking herself to death.

A break in the monotony came when the lights suddenly went out. “Oh, isn’t this is exciting!” the older woman suddenly piped up as the two sat alone in the momentary darkness. It wasn’t long though, before the lights came back on. The clerk was still meditating on what the older woman’s comment meant to express, when the door opened and in walked a hulking trogger escorting a tall beautiful female knight. “By the dome!” He didn’t know they came in that model. A good working knight was usually flush with cash too.

He didn’t even excuse himself, as he left the older woman holding an armored vest and moved to welcome his much more promising clients.

"... get yourself something nice baby,” the knight was saying to her escort. “I’ll just have a look around myself.”

...user@host :# fsutil -fs : logs -op : clear -aflush 2...

“Hey mate, I imagine you’re only interested in the good stuff…” the clerk was a little disappointed to see the knight wasn’t his main client, but a sale was a sale. “You’re going to love what we’ve got here.” He pulled out his keys and began unlocking the cage behind the counter. "We carry some of the most advanced armors, directly from…"

Suzan, casually browsing the armors on the rack, moved to the back of the store. There she found the woman from the night before, just as Williams had described her. She was still pretending to be interested in the armored vest. “You’re going to need something much heavier than that, with the games you’re playing.” She pulled a SecureTekk Coat off the rack.

The old woman came alongside her. “Look, I know you probably don’t remember me” She began, speaking low and quickly. “But you once negotiated a deal with me, in my office.”

Suzan’s expression was blank. If she remembered anything, she wasn’t giving it away.

The woman continued, “I learned something that day; you are damn good at what you do knight. But I saw something else too, if I’m not mistaken, you are a good knight.”

“Whatever you think that might mean, it doesn’t mean anything to me.” Suzan replied in such a monotone that she might as well have been a computer. “I’m in business and work for myself. If you have something to say, I suggest you get it out and quickly.”

"Ok knight, but just so you know, I'm risking my neck talking with you too. I asked you to meet me because the corps are planning something terrible and even though I’ve worked for Mars my whole life, I just can't let it happen. I need someone on the streets who can help me to save...”

"Sorry I don't do side jobs." Suzan put the armor back on the rack and turned her back on Anita as if to go.

If it’s possible to shout and whisper at the same time, Anita did her best, "they're going to nuke the dome and everyone in it!"

Suzan froze in her tracks and slowly turned to face the older woman. She really looked at her now for the first time. One of the things that made Suzan a great negotiator was her ability to read people, and now her gaze was peeling away the layers of the person in front of her. The woman was a strange mixture of confidence and fear. She was accustomed to having power and being in control, but now she was out of her league. Whatever the truth, she, at least, believed what she was saying. "Why would they do that?"

"I don't have all of the information, but something terrible has been discovered in the dome and the corps are determined to destroy it."

"What is it?" Suzan was switching into interrogation mode.

"I…, well, it's a matrix host. They say it was created before the Tokyo meltdown and contains information or code, capable of destroying everything that the corps have been working on for the last 200 years."

"They would destroy the dome because of a matrix host? Why not just destroy the host itself?"

"Like I said, I don't know everything. I only accessed the minimum files that I dared, but it seems that the host is only intermittently connected and isn't always connected in the same place. When they have happened to find it online, no one has yet been able to access, attack or track it."

"What about a physical attack?"

"Nobody knows where it is or how it runs. Believe me, if they could destroy just the host they would. Look, we, I mean..., they all have a lot invested in this dome and a lot of assets here. If it weren't for that, the dome would already be gone, honey. They're in the process of moving their most critical assets out now."

"How much time do we have?"

"There's no official timetable, I would guess that there's some rather complicated calculus involved. They want to get as much out as possible, but if they are afraid that the Host might escape or begin hostile activity they won't hesitate to make sure that it doesn't happen."

“But how would they get away with it? I mean, I know the corps wrote the city charter, but that doesn’t mean they have the right to just destroy it. They don’t own everyone in it!”

“My dear” Anita looked at her as if she just asked a rather silly question “of course Mars or Aztech or Yakashima would never carry out such a heinous act,” she pretended to be shocked at the suggestion, as if she hadn’t just said as much herself, “but there are always those dastardly terrorists who might attempt something so brash.” The sarcasm wasn’t wasted on Suzan.

"So why are you telling me this? I can't help you get out of the dome. I don’t even know if I can get myself out.”

Anita gave a soft laugh. “You think I'm doing this for myself? Look, I'm a critical asset." She flashed her corporate badge so Suzan could see her grade. Indeed, she was the highest level citizen that Suzan could ever remember meeting. "Unless something goes wrong soon, I won't be here when this all goes down."

"So why are you telling me all this?"

Anita sighed, and began pensively “I’ve asked myself that question a hundred times already. To be honest..., most of us don’t think they’re going to find it before time runs out, and while this might be a drek-hole of a place to live, there’s more than a million people living here, and that’s just counting the ones above ground. I…, I just thought that maybe you should all have another chance.” She paused. “The corps, of course are mobilizing all of their assets to find this thing, but not all of them see eye-to-eye on it. Mars is committed to it’s destruction, but the other corps, who know less about it, might try and capture it for study. It is, after all, some sort of weapon. If that happened, and Mars found out about it, they would most likely commence the destruct sequence rather than letting it fall into the hands of a rival. Suzan, there are a thousand ways this can turn out wrong, and I just thought, that an intelligent knight working with full knowledge of the situation might be able to do more for the dome than hundreds of corporate goons or knights who have no clue what they’re really working on.”

Suzan remained silent for some time. It was a lot to process. “Why should I be…” She began, but then fell silent again.

Anita didn’t wait. “Knight, I’m making a wager and I know that not all wagers work out the way you want. I might have made a mistake contacting you, but it is one of the few things that I could do, given the situation. Ultimately, you’ll have to decide what to do and prove me right or wrong, but I can tell you that, from here on out, every job you do will probably be related to this one thing. I will do what I can to help you. There is a matrix host, called Data Terminal Servers. Look for files that start with a letter followed by a number that matches it’s place in the alphabet. Any additional information I find will be in those ones. That’s the best I can do.” Anita hung up the piece of armor that she had been pretending to look at and began making her way to the front of the store and the door.

Suzan opened her mouth to call out after her, but then held it in. For whatever reasons, she believed everything the woman had just told her. There was nothing more she really needed to know, she only needed time to wrap her head around it.

She waited for another minute or two and then headed up towards the counter. Taming the thoughts that were running wild in her head, she addressed Zep in a tone of bored annoyance. “You made up your mind yet?”

“Yeah,” He was clearly excited. “You said anything I want, right?” He held up a new Mars Inc. Plated Duster.

“I guess I did, didn’t I.”

The clerk was also clearly excited about the impending sale. “I can promise you, you won’t regret this. This thing will probably save your life like multiple times. I mean, if you need it to, which, I mean, it looks like you might be the types of folks who might, just need that, if you know what I mean?”

Zep and Suzan both gave him blank stares hoping the silence would encourage him to keep digging. Eventually Suzan handed him a cred stick.

...owner@host %netutil host -reverse -nocheck...

The clerk rang up the sale and tapped the cred stick on the reader. He paused, looked at his screen, tapped again and then again. “Shit, give me a second, I’ll get you guys out of here in no time,” he said, getting nervous. He did some more quick typing and gesturing. “What the hell, everything’s down? Damn, I can’t get into the FINnet to process this. Comms are down too. So are all my cameras, what the hell?” As the last words came out of his mouth, he realized he probably shouldn’t have volunteered that information, alone, in a store full of merchandise, with a cyber-knight and her head-smashing friend. “Ummm” he looked again at the two of them, at a loss for words.

All he got was more blank stares for what seemed like an eternity. Then the knight began cooly “ummm, we’re not that kind of customer. We’ll be back when you get your shit together.” She grabbed the credstick out of his hand and the two headed out the door. “You might think about locking up for awhile.” She volunteered over her shoulder as the door closed.

Shround and Williams were playing it cool out in front of the Self Defense Store. Suzan looked at her hacker. “We still good?”

“Yeah, we’ve probably got another 10 minutes before they get everything working right again.”

“Who wants drinks?” For whatever reason, despite having a lot to think about Suzan didn’t feel like being alone at the moment. “I know a place not far from here that’s usually full of off-duty police officers this time of night.” She gave Zep and Williams both a playful look.

[contributor]

Chapter 5.0.0

The team had shacked up at the Motel 10 after a enjoying themselves at the Blue Steel Parlor for a few hours. Had Zep and Williams been less curious about Suzan’s conversation with the old lady, the evening might have been more entertaining. As it was, the two of them hovered around her like flies and left the boys in blue alone. For her part however, Suzan didn’t seem ready to volunteer any information.

As she stepped out onto the street that morning, nothing seemed any different than before. The dome photo-cells were bright, which normally meant a stiff breeze outside, blowing the smog and nano-pollution away. Suzan had a strong urge to tell herself the conversation with the older woman was just something she dreamed up last night. She cast a sidelong glance at Zep, he was still looking at her with the same concerned look from the night before. No, it hadn’t been a dream. But maybe it was something else. Maybe the old lady was up to something, playing her own angles. But if her identity card was to be believed, the woman didn’t need to go out of her way to get a knight working for her, and unless she had a better poker face than Suzan guessed, she was scared and she was telling the truth. What had the woman said? “From here on out, every job will probably be related to this one thing.” Maybe, it was time to get some work. She looked over at her agent EX and sighed. There was no other way. “Hey Williams, I need you to scrounge me up a voice recorder. Something nice and discreet.”

...Current Pipe Connects To :Copley Square…

Zep, Williams and Shroud sat on a worn out bench near one of the few grassy patches in the whole dome, while Suzan made a few visits, looking for work.

“Yeah, well I’m the one that actually keeps everyone on the team alive, thank you very much.” Williams and Zep were bickering again. “She just keeps you around to scare off all the hyper-punks and whores. Which would work well enough, if they weren’t all your friends and relations.” Williams found it necessary to regularly remind Zep of where he came from.

“I seem to remember her and I getting along just fine before we found your carcass drunk as a skunk full of bullet holes in some alley. Besides, the only reason you know how to avoid all the corporate kills squads is because you were one of them until they realized you were banging all of their friends and relations.”

...owner@host :% netutil host -reverse -nocheck...

Shroud normally stayed out of their little tiffs, but he was starting feel more and more like a contributing member of the team. “Whatever frag-faces, you know that before I came along you were the brokest squad in the NBZ. Let’s face it, whoring the two of you out was the only way Suzan kept this operation in the black, until I joined up.”

Zep nearly choked at the unexpected remark from the “new guy.” Williams too was silent, for a brief moment. “Oh what, you think that because you killed one little pooch you’re suddenly tough-shit? Suzan didn’t buy you that armor because you’re a badass. She bought it cause you’re a dumbass who’s going to get himself killed and she can’t have her little cyber-trollop go dying on her.”

The response was harsh, Shroud took it as a sign that he had scored a point. He was considering how to respond, when he looked up and saw Suzan marching across the lawn towards them. “What about her? What’s she add to the team?”

Williams and Zep looked up too. “Oh…, that’s just the team computer, where we keep our important files and contracts.” Zep smiled.

As Suzan drew near she noticed the three of them all looking at her with big stupid grins. “What...? Did the three of you finally figure out that you all share the same bastard father? Come on, it’s time to work. The first stop is just down in Old Kenmore. Zep, you’re up for this one. We’ll walk.”

"Here you go boss." Williams tossed Suzan what looked like a small button matching the ones on her overcoat. "It was as close as I could get. We'll stitch it on and then it's long press to start recording and tap to stop."

“Perfect, thanks” Suzan said, as if it were just another part of the job. If she noticed the strange looks on the rest of the team’s faces, she didn’t give anything away.

...Current Pipe Connects To :Old Kenmore…

The team stood outside of slayernz Shipping, a ramshackle operation consisting of a few shipping containers welded together attached to a smaller brick building. At one point, the front patch of concrete had been fenced in, but if there was ever a gate, it had long since disappeared.

“God I hate cats.” Zep was looking at the 10 or so felines lazing around the front door.

Williams gave Shroud a knowing look and muttered quietly, “I told you he was a street rat.”

“It’s time to give me some specifics boss.” Zep looked at Suzan. Her eyes always found the same spot, down and to the left, when she was accessing a contract.

...guest@host :> fsutil -fs:usr -op:srch -vol:all...

“Ok, we have a job to threaten the owner of this smuggler’s den. He needs to agree to hold a particular shipment on the docks until the 18th.” It didn’t take long for her to fill in the rest of the details.

Zep thought for a minute, looking at the building. Nobody had come in or out in some time. “This shouldn’t be too hard. I think we’ll have you two stay outside and keep an eye out. Oh and go jam any back doors closed too.” He looked at Williams and Shroud.

Williams, in turned, looked at shroud “You head down to the All Nites. You can see everything from the East, West and South, and remember, if you see enforcers coming, you make your way back to me. Don’t get any dumbass ideas.”

“Oh, and Williams, one more thing” Zep began again. “I’m going to need that bottle of shit you put in your hair every morning.” Sometimes it was convenient that the team had no real home and usually carried a supply of personal items in the locker.

“Frag-off, that’s not team property.”

A quick look from Suzan let him know that, at the moment, she did consider it to be team property. Mumbling, Williams began to dig through the extra weapons and armor for his personal bag. “When this job is over, we are going back up to AzTek and you are replacing that with two of the same.”

[contributor]

Chapter 5.0.1

The door to slayernz Shipping opened and in stepped a knight and her hammer-wielding runner. Being a smuggler’s den that was pretty common. Simon, the proprietor, had a pretty constant flow of goods coming in and out and most of them required confidential couriers. The two of them looked around briefly, letting their eyes adjust to the light. He was sure he saw the trogger scowl at his feline “friends."

...CPU has I/O Speed of 400MP/cycle. Total load time is .34ms…

He remembered this knight. She wasn’t an easy one to forget, but it had been quite a while since she’d come around looking for work. “Well hello there miss.” He began. “Let me guess, you pissed off too many corporate types and now you’re coming back to the Streets for a little cool down work? If you were smart, you’d stay down here where people are free to do as they please.”

“Yeah, it’s something like that.” Suzan smiled coily. “It’s Simon right? Why don’t you just show me what kind of jobs you got.”

He was quite pleased that she remembered his name. “The one and only, and you always were a working knight. I respect that. Anyways, I think you’ll find something you like, it’s high times right now.” Suzan kept the owner busy for awhile peering through the smuggling jobs he had available. Her pheromone injectors made sure that he kept his attention fixed on her. In fact, he was so distracted he could hardly focus on the contracts he was trying to push, until the sudden sound of a padlock clicking together broke the spell.

He looked up to see the trogger securing a chain around the door handle and an iron post nearby. “What the hell’s...” was all he managed to get out before the knight reached across the counter grabbed the back his neck and slammed his face down on the metal countertop. Zep crossed the room in a stride and jerked him over the counter by his belt. It was always wise to separate a target from whatever security measures he might have hidden close at hand. Cats scattered and hissed as he crashed face-first on the floor at their feet.

Living in gang territory the owner of SlayerNZ shipping was not wholly unprepared for such sudden violence. He found his feet quickly and pulled out a large hunting knife from somewhere. He charged Zep, thrusting the blade forward with both hands. It hit him just off-center in the abdomen, but wasn't able to pierce his armor.

"Yep, that's pure Aztek, cat-boy," Zep glowered as he again caught Simon by the belt. He jerked him off his feet and held him upside-down this time he wasn't letting go. He smashed the store-owners face into the ground and then fixed a boot firmly on his neck with enough pressure to convince his victim he could probably break it if he wanted. The smuggler quit struggling.

"Simon baby, we gotta talk." Suzan started cooly. "Do you want to do it like this, or can you settle down for us?"

Unable to speak in his present position, he signalled his willingness to chat by letting the knife drop to the floor. Zep kicked the knife away and lowered his charge to the ground on his belly. Zep sat on him holding his arms behind him, not tight, but enough to make sure he couldn’t get out of his grasp again.

“Look, we’re not here to hurt you.” Suzan continued in a tone that almost made you believe it. “We just need you to know that we’re serious. What we’re asking is pretty simple. You’ve got a shipment on dock 37a. I think you know which one I’m talking about. It just needs to stay put until the 18th, that’s all.”

“Whatever fraggers.” Simon was going to need some convincing. “You’re barking up the wrong tree. This is already out of my hands. The boys on the docks already have orders to send it out tonight.”

Zep began gruffly “Well then I strongly suggest you find a way to get it back into your hands, because if it goes out tonight you won’t be around come morning.”

“Honestly, there’s nothing I can do. Shit’s moving out of here fast these days and there’s no way to stop the wheels once they get turning.” Simon was also a convincing liar.

Zep opened his mouth, but Suzan suddenly jumped in. “What do you mean stuff’s moving out of here?” Zep gave her a sudden queer look. It wasn’t often that she deviated from the script.

“I, I don’t know. I mean normally there’s a flux, some stuff comes in and some goes out, but right now everything is going out. Word on the street is that there’s another dome or warren getting set-up somewheres.”

“I wouldn’t put much stock in the word-on-the-street.” Suzan realized she had lost momentum on her current job. She needed to get things back on track. “But more importantly, for the moment you’ve got a problem. Somebody wants that cargo to stay on the docks and if you don’t find a way to keep it there, some other knight’s going to be coming to see you on a very different type of mission.”

“Yeah, and if I don’t get that out on time some other knight comes to see me as well. I’ll take my chances with your bosses, because this cargo comes from the top.”

...user@host :# netutil -read : usr -override -repeat...

Zep lifted up his head by the hair trying to make eye contact with him. “Sounds to me, fraggo, like you need to think a little harder about your options. We’re here now and I’ve got all day to make sure you see things my way. I’m sure you’re smart enough to find a way to put your other boss off about why their shit didn’t get out on time. It’s not like we’re saying you can’t send it at all. Breach of contract isn’t a capital offense, but pissing me off right now might just be.”

“No really you don’t understand. If I mess with the queue now they’re going to know that I did something on purpose.”

Suzan was still playing the good cop. “You could always tell them that you were looking after their interests. Wouldn’t they rather have their cargo shipped late than find it in the hands of the infamous pirate Chalibs Cantu? You’re a smart man Simon. I’m sure you can think of something.”

“It’s not that simple…” He was cut short by Zep smashing his face into the floor again.

“Look, if you want simple here you go.” Zep pulled bottle of clear liquid out of his pocket. “You probably don’t have any clue what this is, frag-face, so let me explain. Those sick bastards up in Blue Ox territory just couldn’t stand it when their hunds wouldn’t attack something like an old lady or a rock that pissed them off, so they developed a little compound that makes the mutts go insane and attack anything that it happens to get on. Hell, I’ve seen a hellhund bite into a barrel of toxic waste with this shit sprayed on it. Well lo and behold, guess what else they found out? It works just as well on cats.” Zep looked around at the ten or so felines that were intently eyeing the situation from their various perches.

“So here’s simple, since you already tried to run me through with a knife. Option one, you keep being a stubborn ass and I hog tie you and hose you down with this stuff. Then I go on my merry little way while your little kitties chew your face off. Option two, you give me lip service now but you still send that shipment out before the 18th, in which case, I come back and hog tie you and hose you down with this shit again just because I think you’re a prick. And option three, you do as you’re told, figure out a way to bullshit your client about why things were late and most likely save your skin.

“What’s it going to be?”

...owner@host :% netutil connect -devconf -force...

When Zep and Suzan emerged from the smuggler’s den, Williams could tell by the look on their faces that it had gone well.

“Zep was most convincing.” Suzan smiled.

“Oh God, you used the aggro-phero injectors didn’t you” Williams said as Zep got closer. “You smell like a musk ox in heat.”

Zep gave him a look of disdain. “I don’t even want to imagine how you know what that smells like.”