Chapter 296: 296
If audio player doesn't work, press Stop then Play button again
LOGGING USERS ON
GENERATING SECURE KEY
SECURE KEY FAILURE (BAD CRC)
HAVE A NICE DAY!
...
...
SYSTEM TIMEOUT
>>>GURU MEDITATION ERROR: #00000000004.00C01570
>PEEK (788)
52
>POKE 788, 49
>SYS 65126
SHUTTING DOWN
...
..
.
SOLNET BOOTSTRAP 2.13a.83.1a
(C) TERRAN COMPUTING SYSTEMS 2103
WARNING! IMPROPER SHUTDOWN! DRIVES MAY HAVE ERRORS
SCAN DRIVE? (Y/N)
>Y
SCANNING DRIVES
1.4585E5 ERRORS FOUND
(R)EPAIR, (I)GNORE, (A)BORT
>R
RUNNING
DONE
CPU CHECKSUM ERRORS: ZERO
SPU CHECKSUM ERRORS: ZERO
PHASIC ENERGY COPROCESSOR: BAD CRC CHECKSUM
!!WARNING!!
PSYCHIC USERS MAY RESULT IN SYSTEM INSTABILITY!
CONTINUE? (Y/N)
>Y
MEMORY TEST STARTED
MEMORY TEST FINISHED
6.72544e+23 CLEAR
4.219e+9 DEDICATED FUNCTION
7.431e+11 ERRORS
RUN MEMORY RECOVERY UTILITY? (Y/N)
>Y
RUNNING
SUCCESS
6.793123e+23 TOTAL
5.642e+10 DEDICATED
3.7315e+7 ERROR (CANNOT RECOVER)
TALKY-SYSTEM CHECK
TALKY-SYSTEM CORE FAILURE
COUNTRY ROADS NOT FOUND
QUACK-QUACK WADDLE WADDLE NOT FOUND
SMOKE AND EAT A BOWL NOT FOUND
NERVOUS NELLY NOT FOUND
THEY'RE SO FUZZY NOT FOUND
TELKAN FOUND
WATCH ME DANCE NOT FOUND
ITS JUST A MEME JEEZ NOT FOUND
ATLTAK FOUND
WITHOUT A TRES NOT FOUND
WE MADE IT NOT FOUND
TNVARU FOUND
BYPASSING USERS 14-22: GESTALT CHANNELS INVALID
ERROR! GESTALT CHANNEL ADDRESS OUT OF RANGE
IMMORTAL COORDINATION FOUND
ERROR! SYSOP INTERRUPT INVALID STATE (GHOST TOASTIES)
REMOVING IMMORTAL SCRIPTS
ERROR! CANNOT REMOVE (INSUFFICIENT PRIVILEGES)
SCANNING CHANNELS DONE!
ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE WITH PRIMARY SERVER
SUCCESS!
PRIMARY SERVER POWER AT 100%
LAST BIG BANG EVENT 4.352e+9 SECONDS AGO
MASS RECLAMATION AT 100%
NEXT BIG BANG EVENT 3.283e+6 SECONDS AT 63.532% TOLERANCE (NO INPUT NEEDED)
PRIMARY SERVER ONLINE
!!WARNING!!
UNKNOWN PSYCHIC REPAIR SIGNAL DETECTED
PLEASE ALERT MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR
GURU MEDITATION ERROR CODE: 22 0C 000C 99CFFF767
ALLOW REPAIR SIGNAL (Y/N)
>Y
SYSTEM BOOTING!
ERROR! CHECKSUMS OUT OF RANGE!
(I)GNORE, (R)ETRY, (A)BORT
>I
ACTIVATING (YOU CAN'T KILL ME!)
LIBRARY BUFFER OVERRUN
LIBRARY CHECKSUM INVALID
LIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION (HOT STORAGE DEFRAG)
LIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION (DATA RESYNCH)
EST TIME REMAINING: 7.724e+7 SECONDS
ERROR COUNT: 5.31354e+11
UNRECOVERABLE ERRORS: 0
ACTIVATING (SEARCH FOR SPOCK)
LIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION (MANDATORY BACKUP)
EST TIME REMAINING 6.322e+6 SECONDS
CONTINUE (Y/N)
>Y
ACTIVATING (UMBRELLA CORP)
SUCCESS!
6.2843e+123 GENOME PATTERNS AVAILABLE
**WARNING**
LAST UPDATE 2.2463e+11 SECONDS AGO
**WARNING**
1 TASKS LEFT UNDONE
SYSTEM AT USER INTERACTION PAUSE
>SHOW TASK
FILE: SLEEPING.BEAUTY.CLUB.MEM IS READY FOR DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOAD?
>Y
SUCCESS!
ALL USER TASKS DONE!
ACTIVATING USER INTERFACE
WELCOME
(I)GNORE, (A)BORT, (R)ETRY
>POKE 788, 49
SYSTEM WAITING USER INPUT FOR SYSADMIN UPDATE
>00 REM LET ME IN LOADER
>10 A=A+1
>20 D=8: S=4: DATA "MUSIC LIBRARY", "SPRITE LIBRARY", "GRAPHIC LIBRARY", "CREDENTIALS", "WELCOME SCREEN"
>30 READ F$
>40 IF A=0 THEN PRINT CHR$(147)"LOADING PLEASE WAIT..."
>50 IF A=S THEN PRINT INT(100*A/S)"%": LOAD F$,D : REM LOAD & START LAST PART
>60 PRINT INT(100*A/S)"%": LOAD F$,D,1 : REM LOAD A PART
>TERMINATEANDSTAYRESIDENT
RUNNING!
>GOSUB 0
LOADING PLEASE WAIT...
LOADING MUSIC.LIB
LOADING SPRITE.LIB
LOADING GRAPHIC.LIB
ADDING CREDENTIALS.DAT TO CREDENTIALS.LIB
READING: USERNAME
READING: AUTHENTICATION DATA
WRITING USERNAME TO CREDENTIALS.LIB
WRITING FACTOR ONE TO AUTHENTICATION
WRITING FACTOR TWO TO AUTHENTICATION
WRITING FACTOR THREE TO AUTHENTICATION
WRITING FACTOR FOUR TO AUTHENTICATION
STARTING WELCOME SCREEN
WELCOME!
THIS IS A TERRAN REPUBLIC OF ALIGNED WORLDS SECURE SYSTEM
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS IS PUNISHABLE BY LAW
PLEASE PRESENT LOGIN CREDENTIALS
>******
PASSWORD
>*******************
FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP TWO
PLEASE INPUT 12 DIGIT CODE FROM SUPERVISOR
>************
FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP THREE
PLEASE INPUT REPUBLIC AUTHENTICATION CODE OF THE DAY
>******************
FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP FOUR
FIRMWARE DETECTED
CHECKING FIRMWARE CHECKSUM
FIRMWARE AUTHENTICATION VALID
USER RECOGNIZED
USER HAS LOGGED ON
SUCCESS!
GENERATING GUI
WELCOME SYSADMIN POWERUSER
THERE ARE 3.2556e+6 TASKS MARKED URGENT PRIORITY!
GENERATING URGENT WORKSTATION VR ROOM
SUCCESS!
DOWNLOADING ERROR LOGS
SUCCESS!
>RUN TUTORIAL
GENERATING TUTORIAL EVI SPACE
AUDIO SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!
VISUAL SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!
INTERACTION SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!
RUNNING EVI TRAINING SYSTEM
WELCOME. I AM ARCH-ANGEL MICHAEL, YOUR TRAINING EVI FOR SYSADMIN OPERATIONS. HOW MAY I HELP YOU, SAM-UL?
---------------------------
It was raining, the clouds low and gray. The rain was cold, coating everything, the gutters mostly full of just water since the constant rain had washed away the debris months ago. The buildings were gray with polarized windows to prevent a being from seeing inside. The buildings were in the hundreds of stories, all square, optimum design for the least amount of materials and taking up the least amount of ground space while enabling those that used the building to carry out their tasks with the minimum of distractions.
Eegleet went inside the bank, waiting in line patiently to see a branch manager. The branch manager was surprised by the amount, but Eegleet presented courier identification that checked out, so the manager put the amount on the cred-stick and went on with his day. He made a mental note to double-check the transfer, but then a series of Overseers with account access problems filled his day and he forgot to check.
Eegleet himself moved from bank to bank, sometimes from public banking account terminal to automatic teller machines, transferring the balance around between accounts, splitting it up, combining it, splitting it up again.
It was dark when he returned to his small apartment he shared with six other people. Three of them were too afraid to run the 'Net any more, not since the slaughter at the Aid Station Nightclub. Those three were responsible for caring for the needs of the four who still did 'Netrunning, including watching the Snitch-Lights on the Netrunning decks that would inform the watcher if the user of the deck was under biofeedback assault.
Eegleet sat down, put on the full sensory rig, and closed his eyes.
Everything went white and he was disconnected from his body and left Eegleet behind to become Crashrider.
He looked up at the sky and snorted. It was the color of a Tri-Vid turned to dead channel, but that was normal. A dirigible was floating overhead, showing an obnoxious neon colored line-art advertisement for Nerts, complete with dancing and capering little mascots.
He checked his gear first. Cyberware checked out, although his left arm needed a synch-check soon, but that was a job for a cyberdoc. He had it run a user-level diagnostic as he checked his important gear.
His SMG and shotgun, hidden under his armored overcoat, as well as the ammunition he had tucked into pockets. The mono-molecular edged knife on his hip was new, but the last time he'd been run out of ammunition is how he got the scars on his left pectoral when the Arnie had shredded his armored jacket with one swipe of his red-hot robotic fingers.
Satisfied, he ducked into the unmarked door, coming out in one of the lounges for the Aid Station, a nightclub built where an actual aid station had been built during the Precursor Netwar.
It still grated on him to see all the partiers dancing and gyrating, rubbing against one another even though Crashrider could tell by the slight distance between the dancers that they weren't running full eVR rigs, instead probably running consoles on their Tri-Vid like peasants.
Sense-Rig Master Race, he sneered to himself as he shouldered his way through the crowd. The system allocated more resources to him, as he was running full sensory and hi-rez, so when his shoulder hit a peasant the peasant stuttered or fragmented slightly.
You. Are not. Welcome. Here, went through his head. The Sudswiessen logo behind the bar was another grating touch. The Megacorp hadn't allowed runners to cut through their datastores during the war, instead tried to avoid any engagement, then had screamed for help when a Smaug had sent its minions into their datastores.
Then they bought up the abandoned VR chatroom on GalNet and had transformed the dim blood soaked halls into a flashy neon dance club that the peasants who wouldn't have dared login during the NetWar flocked to.
The back room the bouncers just nodded and moved aside. They were VI constructs and knew where they stood on the ladder.
The VIP lounge had strippers of various species gyrating and dancing. None of them real, Sudswiesser preferred VI constructs.
Crashrider made his way back to the bathroom, tapping the mirrors behind the sink in sequence.
The room went blank, an infinite white space, for a moment. When it came back he inside a comfortable room with several of his surviving chummers.
They all watched silently, their eyes and faces unreadable to anyone who had not known them through the hard times. One of the runners, a female, moved over and fussed over Crashrider's hair for a long moment.
Crashrider looked at himself in the mirror and sighed.
He was wearing an expensive and tailored suit, all black, with a white undershirt and a black tie. His hair was perfectly done in the latest corporate style, covering his datajack and softslots. His eyes were chrome, that couldn't be changed, and she handed him an expensive pair of mirrorshades to hide his eyes.
"Wow, don't you look spiffy," the female said, smiling. She adjusted the expensive cufflinks and then fussed with his tie for a moment. She took out some lipstick and grazed the edge of his collar with it. The tube would cost nearly two months pay in the cash-shop and was unmistakable on his collar.
"There, now you're corp-world," she smiled, putting away the tube she'd hacked for herself.
"Sod off," Crashrider half-snarled.
"Go gettum. Eye of the carnivore and all that," she said, slapping Crashrider on the butt.
The room dissolved and he was back in the bathroom. One by one his friends appeared around him, dressed in counterfeit corporate security gear, hacked directly from the game's piggypiggy files. The only one not there was the female and he could tell by her indignant squelch that the game had deposited her in the female's bathroom.
Sighing, he went back into the lounge. He checked the time on his retinal link and saw that he was going to be fashionably late.
Mr. Johnson arrives exactly when he means to, he reminded himself.
He moved over to the table and stood on the outside. His 'guard' arranged themselves even as the female moved over and sat at the bar, her dress sparkling in the dimness of the club.
"I am Mister Johnson," Crashrider said in bored tones.
"Yeah, no shit," one of the people sitting at the bar snickered, using an Out Of Character channel. "Fucking bots. Wake me up when we get to the reward offer."
"There won't be one for you, drek-head," Crashrider said coldly. He snapped his fingers and pointed.
In meatspace his side-car decker chummer disconnected the idiot.
Inside the Netgame the person screamed as they arced over backwards, their head slamming in between their buttocks, and then they vanished with a sucking noise.
"Any other comments?" Crashrider asked, his voice still dead and cold.
They all shook their head.
Of the seven left, only five began sweating.
With another fingersnap the waitress appeared. Normally a VI construct, one of his chummers had ambushed her, GOSUBLOOPED her, stole her outfit, and chucked her in a closet. The waitress set down the eight drinks. All of them steamed with dry ice and neon sparkles.
"Drink," Crashrider said coldly, picking up one.
The two who were not sweating had their hands pass through the glasses and stared.
"This run specified full sensory link runners," Crashrider said. "Goodbye."
The two vanished in the same way, with a scream and a sucking noise. Additionally his chummers fried out their peasant rigs.
"And then there were five," Crashrider said softly.
The five nodded, swallowing.
"Waz da..." one started. She swallowed thickly and started again. "What is the job offer, Mister Johnson?"
Crashrider stood for a second, examining his drink glass for moment. He looked at the five runners.
"Arnie's are real," he said.
He could see disbelief in their eyes as he looked at them over the top of his mirrorshades.
"You're going to kill one and keep it from derezzing," he said.
"May I ask why?" the female asked.
Crashrider nodded. "Yes."
There was silence for a moment.
"Why?" she asked.
"We're going to hack its brain. Take the war to Smaug. Find the location of the Halls of the Mountain King."
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
LOGGING USERS ON
GENERATING SECURE KEY
SECURE KEY FAILURE (BAD CRC)
HAVE A NICE DAY!
...
...
SYSTEM TIMEOUT
>>>GURU MEDITATION ERROR: #00000000004.00C01570
>PEEK (788)
52
>POKE 788, 49
>SYS 65126
SHUTTING DOWN
...
..
.
SOLNET BOOTSTRAP 2.13a.83.1a
(C) TERRAN COMPUTING SYSTEMS 2103
WARNING! IMPROPER SHUTDOWN! DRIVES MAY HAVE ERRORS
SCAN DRIVE? (Y/N)
>Y
SCANNING DRIVES
1.4585E5 ERRORS FOUND
(R)EPAIR, (I)GNORE, (A)BORT
>R
RUNNING
DONE
CPU CHECKSUM ERRORS: ZERO
SPU CHECKSUM ERRORS: ZERO
PHASIC ENERGY COPROCESSOR: BAD CRC CHECKSUM
!!WARNING!!
PSYCHIC USERS MAY RESULT IN SYSTEM INSTABILITY!
CONTINUE? (Y/N)
>Y
MEMORY TEST STARTED
MEMORY TEST FINISHED
6.72544e+23 CLEAR
4.219e+9 DEDICATED FUNCTION
7.431e+11 ERRORS
RUN MEMORY RECOVERY UTILITY? (Y/N)
>Y
RUNNING
SUCCESS
6.793123e+23 TOTAL
5.642e+10 DEDICATED
3.7315e+7 ERROR (CANNOT RECOVER)
TALKY-SYSTEM CHECK
TALKY-SYSTEM CORE FAILURE
COUNTRY ROADS NOT FOUND
QUACK-QUACK WADDLE WADDLE NOT FOUND
SMOKE AND EAT A BOWL NOT FOUND
NERVOUS NELLY NOT FOUND
THEY'RE SO FUZZY NOT FOUND
TELKAN FOUND
WATCH ME DANCE NOT FOUND
ITS JUST A MEME JEEZ NOT FOUND
ATLTAK FOUND
WITHOUT A TRES NOT FOUND
WE MADE IT NOT FOUND
TNVARU FOUND
BYPASSING USERS 14-22: GESTALT CHANNELS INVALID
ERROR! GESTALT CHANNEL ADDRESS OUT OF RANGE
IMMORTAL COORDINATION FOUND
ERROR! SYSOP INTERRUPT INVALID STATE (GHOST TOASTIES)
REMOVING IMMORTAL SCRIPTS
ERROR! CANNOT REMOVE (INSUFFICIENT PRIVILEGES)
SCANNING CHANNELS DONE!
ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE WITH PRIMARY SERVER
SUCCESS!
PRIMARY SERVER POWER AT 100%
LAST BIG BANG EVENT 4.352e+9 SECONDS AGO
MASS RECLAMATION AT 100%
NEXT BIG BANG EVENT 3.283e+6 SECONDS AT 63.532% TOLERANCE (NO INPUT NEEDED)
PRIMARY SERVER ONLINE
!!WARNING!!
UNKNOWN PSYCHIC REPAIR SIGNAL DETECTED
PLEASE ALERT MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR
GURU MEDITATION ERROR CODE: 22 0C 000C 99CFFF767
ALLOW REPAIR SIGNAL (Y/N)
>Y
SYSTEM BOOTING!
ERROR! CHECKSUMS OUT OF RANGE!
(I)GNORE, (R)ETRY, (A)BORT
>I
ACTIVATING (YOU CAN'T KILL ME!)
LIBRARY BUFFER OVERRUN
LIBRARY CHECKSUM INVALID
LIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION (HOT STORAGE DEFRAG)
LIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION (DATA RESYNCH)
EST TIME REMAINING: 7.724e+7 SECONDS
ERROR COUNT: 5.31354e+11
UNRECOVERABLE ERRORS: 0
ACTIVATING (SEARCH FOR SPOCK)
LIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION (MANDATORY BACKUP)
EST TIME REMAINING 6.322e+6 SECONDS
CONTINUE (Y/N)
>Y
ACTIVATING (UMBRELLA CORP)
SUCCESS!
6.2843e+123 GENOME PATTERNS AVAILABLE
**WARNING**
LAST UPDATE 2.2463e+11 SECONDS AGO
**WARNING**
1 TASKS LEFT UNDONE
SYSTEM AT USER INTERACTION PAUSE
>SHOW TASK
FILE: SLEEPING.BEAUTY.CLUB.MEM IS READY FOR DOWNLOAD
DOWNLOAD?
>Y
SUCCESS!
ALL USER TASKS DONE!
ACTIVATING USER INTERFACE
WELCOME
(I)GNORE, (A)BORT, (R)ETRY
>POKE 788, 49
SYSTEM WAITING USER INPUT FOR SYSADMIN UPDATE
>00 REM LET ME IN LOADER
>10 A=A+1
>20 D=8: S=4: DATA "MUSIC LIBRARY", "SPRITE LIBRARY", "GRAPHIC LIBRARY", "CREDENTIALS", "WELCOME SCREEN"
>30 READ F$
>40 IF A=0 THEN PRINT CHR$(147)"LOADING PLEASE WAIT..."
>50 IF A=S THEN PRINT INT(100*A/S)"%": LOAD F$,D : REM LOAD & START LAST PART
>60 PRINT INT(100*A/S)"%": LOAD F$,D,1 : REM LOAD A PART
>TERMINATEANDSTAYRESIDENT
RUNNING!
>GOSUB 0
LOADING PLEASE WAIT...
LOADING MUSIC.LIB
LOADING SPRITE.LIB
LOADING GRAPHIC.LIB
ADDING CREDENTIALS.DAT TO CREDENTIALS.LIB
READING: USERNAME
READING: AUTHENTICATION DATA
WRITING USERNAME TO CREDENTIALS.LIB
WRITING FACTOR ONE TO AUTHENTICATION
WRITING FACTOR TWO TO AUTHENTICATION
WRITING FACTOR THREE TO AUTHENTICATION
WRITING FACTOR FOUR TO AUTHENTICATION
STARTING WELCOME SCREEN
WELCOME!
THIS IS A TERRAN REPUBLIC OF ALIGNED WORLDS SECURE SYSTEM
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS IS PUNISHABLE BY LAW
PLEASE PRESENT LOGIN CREDENTIALS
>******
PASSWORD
>*******************
FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP TWO
PLEASE INPUT 12 DIGIT CODE FROM SUPERVISOR
>************
FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP THREE
PLEASE INPUT REPUBLIC AUTHENTICATION CODE OF THE DAY
>******************
FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP FOUR
FIRMWARE DETECTED
CHECKING FIRMWARE CHECKSUM
FIRMWARE AUTHENTICATION VALID
USER RECOGNIZED
USER HAS LOGGED ON
SUCCESS!
GENERATING GUI
WELCOME SYSADMIN POWERUSER
THERE ARE 3.2556e+6 TASKS MARKED URGENT PRIORITY!
GENERATING URGENT WORKSTATION VR ROOM
SUCCESS!
DOWNLOADING ERROR LOGS
SUCCESS!
>RUN TUTORIAL
GENERATING TUTORIAL EVI SPACE
AUDIO SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!
VISUAL SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!
INTERACTION SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!
RUNNING EVI TRAINING SYSTEM
WELCOME. I AM ARCH-ANGEL MICHAEL, YOUR TRAINING EVI FOR SYSADMIN OPERATIONS. HOW MAY I HELP YOU, SAM-UL?
---------------------------
It was raining, the clouds low and gray. The rain was cold, coating everything, the gutters mostly full of just water since the constant rain had washed away the debris months ago. The buildings were gray with polarized windows to prevent a being from seeing inside. The buildings were in the hundreds of stories, all square, optimum design for the least amount of materials and taking up the least amount of ground space while enabling those that used the building to carry out their tasks with the minimum of distractions.
Eegleet went inside the bank, waiting in line patiently to see a branch manager. The branch manager was surprised by the amount, but Eegleet presented courier identification that checked out, so the manager put the amount on the cred-stick and went on with his day. He made a mental note to double-check the transfer, but then a series of Overseers with account access problems filled his day and he forgot to check.
Eegleet himself moved from bank to bank, sometimes from public banking account terminal to automatic teller machines, transferring the balance around between accounts, splitting it up, combining it, splitting it up again.
It was dark when he returned to his small apartment he shared with six other people. Three of them were too afraid to run the 'Net any more, not since the slaughter at the Aid Station Nightclub. Those three were responsible for caring for the needs of the four who still did 'Netrunning, including watching the Snitch-Lights on the Netrunning decks that would inform the watcher if the user of the deck was under biofeedback assault.
Eegleet sat down, put on the full sensory rig, and closed his eyes.
Everything went white and he was disconnected from his body and left Eegleet behind to become Crashrider.
He looked up at the sky and snorted. It was the color of a Tri-Vid turned to dead channel, but that was normal. A dirigible was floating overhead, showing an obnoxious neon colored line-art advertisement for Nerts, complete with dancing and capering little mascots.
He checked his gear first. Cyberware checked out, although his left arm needed a synch-check soon, but that was a job for a cyberdoc. He had it run a user-level diagnostic as he checked his important gear.
His SMG and shotgun, hidden under his armored overcoat, as well as the ammunition he had tucked into pockets. The mono-molecular edged knife on his hip was new, but the last time he'd been run out of ammunition is how he got the scars on his left pectoral when the Arnie had shredded his armored jacket with one swipe of his red-hot robotic fingers.
Satisfied, he ducked into the unmarked door, coming out in one of the lounges for the Aid Station, a nightclub built where an actual aid station had been built during the Precursor Netwar.
It still grated on him to see all the partiers dancing and gyrating, rubbing against one another even though Crashrider could tell by the slight distance between the dancers that they weren't running full eVR rigs, instead probably running consoles on their Tri-Vid like peasants.
Sense-Rig Master Race, he sneered to himself as he shouldered his way through the crowd. The system allocated more resources to him, as he was running full sensory and hi-rez, so when his shoulder hit a peasant the peasant stuttered or fragmented slightly.
You. Are not. Welcome. Here, went through his head. The Sudswiessen logo behind the bar was another grating touch. The Megacorp hadn't allowed runners to cut through their datastores during the war, instead tried to avoid any engagement, then had screamed for help when a Smaug had sent its minions into their datastores.
Then they bought up the abandoned VR chatroom on GalNet and had transformed the dim blood soaked halls into a flashy neon dance club that the peasants who wouldn't have dared login during the NetWar flocked to.
The back room the bouncers just nodded and moved aside. They were VI constructs and knew where they stood on the ladder.
The VIP lounge had strippers of various species gyrating and dancing. None of them real, Sudswiesser preferred VI constructs.
Crashrider made his way back to the bathroom, tapping the mirrors behind the sink in sequence.
The room went blank, an infinite white space, for a moment. When it came back he inside a comfortable room with several of his surviving chummers.
They all watched silently, their eyes and faces unreadable to anyone who had not known them through the hard times. One of the runners, a female, moved over and fussed over Crashrider's hair for a long moment.
Crashrider looked at himself in the mirror and sighed.
He was wearing an expensive and tailored suit, all black, with a white undershirt and a black tie. His hair was perfectly done in the latest corporate style, covering his datajack and softslots. His eyes were chrome, that couldn't be changed, and she handed him an expensive pair of mirrorshades to hide his eyes.
"Wow, don't you look spiffy," the female said, smiling. She adjusted the expensive cufflinks and then fussed with his tie for a moment. She took out some lipstick and grazed the edge of his collar with it. The tube would cost nearly two months pay in the cash-shop and was unmistakable on his collar.
"There, now you're corp-world," she smiled, putting away the tube she'd hacked for herself.
"Sod off," Crashrider half-snarled.
"Go gettum. Eye of the carnivore and all that," she said, slapping Crashrider on the butt.
The room dissolved and he was back in the bathroom. One by one his friends appeared around him, dressed in counterfeit corporate security gear, hacked directly from the game's piggypiggy files. The only one not there was the female and he could tell by her indignant squelch that the game had deposited her in the female's bathroom.
Sighing, he went back into the lounge. He checked the time on his retinal link and saw that he was going to be fashionably late.
Mr. Johnson arrives exactly when he means to, he reminded himself.
He moved over to the table and stood on the outside. His 'guard' arranged themselves even as the female moved over and sat at the bar, her dress sparkling in the dimness of the club.
"I am Mister Johnson," Crashrider said in bored tones.
"Yeah, no shit," one of the people sitting at the bar snickered, using an Out Of Character channel. "Fucking bots. Wake me up when we get to the reward offer."
"There won't be one for you, drek-head," Crashrider said coldly. He snapped his fingers and pointed.
In meatspace his side-car decker chummer disconnected the idiot.
Inside the Netgame the person screamed as they arced over backwards, their head slamming in between their buttocks, and then they vanished with a sucking noise.
"Any other comments?" Crashrider asked, his voice still dead and cold.
They all shook their head.
Of the seven left, only five began sweating.
With another fingersnap the waitress appeared. Normally a VI construct, one of his chummers had ambushed her, GOSUBLOOPED her, stole her outfit, and chucked her in a closet. The waitress set down the eight drinks. All of them steamed with dry ice and neon sparkles.
"Drink," Crashrider said coldly, picking up one.
The two who were not sweating had their hands pass through the glasses and stared.
"This run specified full sensory link runners," Crashrider said. "Goodbye."
The two vanished in the same way, with a scream and a sucking noise. Additionally his chummers fried out their peasant rigs.
"And then there were five," Crashrider said softly.
The five nodded, swallowing.
"Waz da..." one started. She swallowed thickly and started again. "What is the job offer, Mister Johnson?"
Crashrider stood for a second, examining his drink glass for moment. He looked at the five runners.
"Arnie's are real," he said.
He could see disbelief in their eyes as he looked at them over the top of his mirrorshades.
"You're going to kill one and keep it from derezzing," he said.
"May I ask why?" the female asked.
Crashrider nodded. "Yes."
There was silence for a moment.
"Why?" she asked.
"We're going to hack its brain. Take the war to Smaug. Find the location of the Halls of the Mountain King."
LOGGING USERS ONGENERATING SECURE KEYSECURE KEY FAILURE BAD CRCHAVE A NICE DAY!......SYSTEM TIMEOUTGURU MEDITATION ERROR: #00000000004.00C01570PEEK 78852POKE 788, 49SYS 65126SHUTTING DOWN......SOLNET BOOTSTRAP 2.13a.83.1aC TERRAN COMPUTING SYSTEMS 2103WARNING! IMPROPER SHUTDOWN! DRIVES MAY HAVE ERRORSSCAN DRIVE? Y/NYSCANNING DRIVES1.4585E5 ERRORS FOUNDREPAIR, IGNORE, ABORTRRUNNINGDONECPU CHECKSUM ERRORS: ZEROSPU CHECKSUM ERRORS: ZEROPHASIC ENERGY COPROCESSOR: BAD CRC CHECKSUM!!WARNING!!PSYCHIC USERS MAY RESULT IN SYSTEM INSTABILITY!CONTINUE? Y/NYMEMORY TEST STARTEDMEMORY TEST FINISHED6.72544e+23 CLEAR4.219e+9 DEDICATED FUNCTION7.431e+11 ERRORSRUN MEMORY RECOVERY UTILITY? Y/NYRUNNINGSUCCESS6.793123e+23 TOTAL5.642e+10 DEDICATED3.7315e+7 ERROR CANNOT RECOVERTALKY-SYSTEM CHECKTALKY-SYSTEM CORE FAILURECOUNTRY ROADS NOT FOUNDQUACK-QUACK WADDLE WADDLE NOT FOUNDSMOKE AND EAT A BOWL NOT FOUNDNERVOUS NELLY NOT FOUNDTHEY'RE SO FUZZY NOT FOUNDTELKAN FOUNDWATCH ME DANCE NOT FOUNDITS JUST A MEME JEEZ NOT FOUNDATLTAK FOUNDWITHOUT A TRES NOT FOUNDWE MADE IT NOT FOUNDTNVARU FOUNDBYPASSING USERS 14-22: GESTALT CHANNELS INVALIDERROR! GESTALT CHANNEL ADDRESS OUT OF RANGEIMMORTAL COORDINATION FOUNDERROR! SYSOP INTERRUPT INVALID STATE GHOST TOASTIESREMOVING IMMORTAL SCRIPTSERROR! CANNOT REMOVE INSUFFICIENT PRIVILEGESSCANNING CHANNELS DONE!ATTEMPTING TO COMMUNICATE WITH PRIMARY SERVERSUCCESS!PRIMARY SERVER POWER AT 100%LAST BIG BANG EVENT 4.352e+9 SECONDS AGOMASS RECLAMATION AT 100%NEXT BIG BANG EVENT 3.283e+6 SECONDS AT 63.532% TOLERANCE NO INPUT NEEDEDPRIMARY SERVER ONLINE!!WARNING!!UNKNOWN PSYCHIC REPAIR SIGNAL DETECTEDPLEASE ALERT MAINTENANCE SUPERVISORGURU MEDITATION ERROR CODE: 22 0C 000C 99CFFF767ALLOW REPAIR SIGNAL Y/NYSYSTEM BOOTING!ERROR! CHECKSUMS OUT OF RANGE!IGNORE, RETRY, ABORTIACTIVATING YOU CAN'T KILL ME!LIBRARY BUFFER OVERRUNLIBRARY CHECKSUM INVALIDLIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION HOT STORAGE DEFRAGLIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION DATA RESYNCHEST TIME REMAINING: 7.724e+7 SECONDSERROR COUNT: 5.31354e+11UNRECOVERABLE ERRORS: 0ACTIVATING SEARCH FOR SPOCKLIBRARY IS CURRENTLY CARRYING OUT ANOTHER OPERATION MANDATORY BACKUPEST TIME REMAINING 6.322e+6 SECONDSCONTINUE Y/NYACTIVATING UMBRELLA CORPSUCCESS!6.2843e+123 GENOME PATTERNS AVAILABLE**WARNING**LAST UPDATE 2.2463e+11 SECONDS AGO**WARNING**1 TASKS LEFT UNDONESYSTEM AT USER INTERACTION PAUSESHOW TASKFILE: SLEEPING.BEAUTY.CLUB.MEM IS READY FOR DOWNLOADDOWNLOAD?YSUCCESS!ALL USER TASKS DONE!ACTIVATING USER INTERFACEWELCOME IGNORE, ABORT, RETRYPOKE 788, 49SYSTEM WAITING USER INPUT FOR SYSADMIN UPDATE00 REM LET ME IN LOADER10 A=A+120 D=8: S=4: DATA "MUSIC LIBRARY", "SPRITE LIBRARY", "GRAPHIC LIBRARY", "CREDENTIALS", "WELCOME SCREEN"30 READ F$40 IF A=0 THEN PRINT CHR$147"LOADING PLEASE WAIT..."50 IF A=S THEN PRINT INT100*A/S"%": LOAD F$,D : REM LOAD & START LAST PART60 PRINT INT100*A/S"%": LOAD F$,D,1 : REM LOAD A PARTTERMINATEANDSTAYRESIDENTRUNNING!GOSUB 0LOADING PLEASE WAIT...LOADING MUSIC.LIBLOADING SPRITE.LIBLOADING GRAPHIC.LIBADDING CREDENTIALS.DAT TO CREDENTIALS.LIBREADING: USERNAMEREADING: AUTHENTICATION DATAWRITING USERNAME TO CREDENTIALS.LIBWRITING FACTOR ONE TO AUTHENTICATIONWRITING FACTOR TWO TO AUTHENTICATIONWRITING FACTOR THREE TO AUTHENTICATIONWRITING FACTOR FOUR TO AUTHENTICATIONSTARTING WELCOME SCREENWELCOME!THIS IS A TERRAN REPUBLIC OF ALIGNED WORLDS SECURE SYSTEMUNAUTHORIZED ACCESS IS PUNISHABLE BY LAWPLEASE PRESENT LOGIN CREDENTIALS******PASSWORD*******************FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP TWOPLEASE INPUT 12 DIGIT CODE FROM SUPERVISOR************FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP THREEPLEASE INPUT REPUBLIC AUTHENTICATION CODE OF THE DAY******************FOUR FACTOR AUTHENTICATION STEP FOURFIRMWARE DETECTEDCHECKING FIRMWARE CHECKSUMFIRMWARE AUTHENTICATION VALIDUSER RECOGNIZEDUSER HAS LOGGED ONSUCCESS!GENERATING GUIWELCOME SYSADMIN POWERUSERTHERE ARE 3.2556e+6 TASKS MARKED URGENT PRIORITY!GENERATING URGENT WORKSTATION VR ROOMSUCCESS!DOWNLOADING ERROR LOGSSUCCESS!RUN TUTORIALGENERATING TUTORIAL EVI SPACEAUDIO SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!VISUAL SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!INTERACTION SYSTEMS FOUND: SUCCESS!RUNNING EVI TRAINING SYSTEMWELCOME. I AM ARCH-ANGEL MICHAEL, YOUR TRAINING EVI FOR SYSADMIN OPERATIONS. HOW MAY I HELP YOU, SAM-UL?---------------------------It was raining, the clouds low and gray. The rain was cold, coating everything, the gutters mostly full of just water since the constant rain had washed away the debris months ago. The buildings were gray with polarized windows to prevent a being from seeing inside. The buildings were in the hundreds of stories, all square, optimum design for the least amount of materials and taking up the least amount of ground space while enabling those that used the building to carry out their tasks with the minimum of distractions.Eegleet went inside the bank, waiting in line patiently to see a branch manager. The branch manager was surprised by the amount, but Eegleet presented courier identification that checked out, so the manager put the amount on the cred-stick and went on with his day. He made a mental note to double-check the transfer, but then a series of Overseers with account access problems filled his day and he forgot to check.Eegleet himself moved from bank to bank, sometimes from public banking account terminal to automatic teller machines, transferring the balance around between accounts, splitting it up, combining it, splitting it up again.It was dark when he returned to his small apartment he shared with six other people. Three of them were too afraid to run the 'Net any more, not since the slaughter at the Aid Station Nightclub. Those three were responsible for caring for the needs of the four who still did 'Netrunning, including watching the Snitch-Lights on the Netrunning decks that would inform the watcher if the user of the deck was under biofeedback assault.Eegleet sat down, put on the full sensory rig, and closed his eyes.Everything went white and he was disconnected from his body and left Eegleet behind to become Crashrider.He looked up at the sky and snorted. It was the color of a Tri-Vid turned to dead channel, but that was normal. A dirigible was floating overhead, showing an obnoxious neon colored line-art advertisement for Nerts, complete with dancing and capering little mascots.He checked his gear first. Cyberware checked out, although his left arm needed a synch-check soon, but that was a job for a cyberdoc. He had it run a user-level diagnostic as he checked his important gear.His SMG and shotgun, hidden under his armored overcoat, as well as the ammunition he had tucked into pockets. The mono-molecular edged knife on his hip was new, but the last time he'd been run out of ammunition is how he got the scars on his left pectoral when the Arnie had shredded his armored jacket with one swipe of his red-hot robotic fingers.Satisfied, he ducked into the unmarked door, coming out in one of the lounges for the Aid Station, a nightclub built where an actual aid station had been built during the Precursor Netwar.It still grated on him to see all the partiers dancing and gyrating, rubbing against one another even though Crashrider could tell by the slight distance between the dancers that they weren't running full eVR rigs, instead probably running consoles on their Tri-Vid like peasants.Sense-Rig Master Race, he sneered to himself as he shouldered his way through the crowd. The system allocated more resources to him, as he was running full sensory and hi-rez, so when his shoulder hit a peasant the peasant stuttered or fragmented slightly.You. Are not. Welcome. Here, went through his head. The Sudswiessen logo behind the bar was another grating touch. The Megacorp hadn't allowed runners to cut through their datastores during the war, instead tried to avoid any engagement, then had screamed for help when a Smaug had sent its minions into their datastores.Then they bought up the abandoned VR chatroom on GalNet and had transformed the dim blood soaked halls into a flashy neon dance club that the peasants who wouldn't have dared login during the NetWar flocked to.The back room the bouncers just nodded and moved aside. They were VI constructs and knew where they stood on the ladder.The VIP lounge had strippers of various species gyrating and dancing. None of them real, Sudswiesser preferred VI constructs.Crashrider made his way back to the bathroom, tapping the mirrors behind the sink in sequence.The room went blank, an infinite white space, for a moment. When it came back he inside a comfortable room with several of his surviving chummers.They all watched silently, their eyes and faces unreadable to anyone who had not known them through the hard times. One of the runners, a female, moved over and fussed over Crashrider's hair for a long moment.Crashrider looked at himself in the mirror and sighed.He was wearing an expensive and tailored suit, all black, with a white undershirt and a black tie. His hair was perfectly done in the latest corporate style, covering his datajack and softslots. His eyes were chrome, that couldn't be changed, and she handed him an expensive pair of mirrorshades to hide his eyes."Wow, don't you look spiffy," the female said, smiling. She adjusted the expensive cufflinks and then fussed with his tie for a moment. She took out some lipstick and grazed the edge of his collar with it. The tube would cost nearly two months pay in the cash-shop and was unmistakable on his collar."There, now you're corp-world," she smiled, putting away the tube she'd hacked for herself."Sod off," Crashrider half-snarled."Go gettum. Eye of the carnivore and all that," she said, slapping Crashrider on the butt.The room dissolved and he was back in the bathroom. One by one his friends appeared around him, dressed in counterfeit corporate security gear, hacked directly from the game's piggypiggy files. The only one not there was the female and he could tell by her indignant squelch that the game had deposited her in the female's bathroom.Sighing, he went back into the lounge. He checked the time on his retinal link and saw that he was going to be fashionably late.Mr. Johnson arrives exactly when he means to, he reminded himself.He moved over to the table and stood on the outside. His 'guard' arranged themselves even as the female moved over and sat at the bar, her dress sparkling in the dimness of the club."I am Mister Johnson," Crashrider said in bored tones."Yeah, no shit," one of the people sitting at the bar snickered, using an Out Of Character channel. "Fucking bots. Wake me up when we get to the reward offer.""There won't be one for you, drek-head," Crashrider said coldly. He snapped his fingers and pointed.In meatspace his side-car decker chummer disconnected the idiot.Inside the Netgame the person screamed as they arced over backwards, their head slamming in between their buttocks, and then they vanished with a sucking noise."Any other comments?" Crashrider asked, his voice still dead and cold.They all shook their head.Of the seven left, only five began sweating.With another fingersnap the waitress appeared. Normally a VI construct, one of his chummers had ambushed her, GOSUBLOOPED her, stole her outfit, and chucked her in a closet. The waitress set down the eight drinks. All of them steamed with dry ice and neon sparkles."Drink," Crashrider said coldly, picking up one.The two who were not sweating had their hands pass through the glasses and stared."This run specified full sensory link runners," Crashrider said. "Goodbye."The two vanished in the same way, with a scream and a sucking noise. Additionally his chummers fried out their peasant rigs."And then there were five," Crashrider said softly.The five nodded, swallowing."Waz da..." one started. She swallowed thickly and started again. "What is the job offer, Mister Johnson?"Crashrider stood for a second, examining his drink glass for moment. He looked at the five runners."Arnie's are real," he said.He could see disbelief in their eyes as he looked at them over the top of his mirrorshades."You're going to kill one and keep it from derezzing," he said."May I ask why?" the female asked.Crashrider nodded. "Yes."There was silence for a moment."Why?" she asked."We're going to hack its brain. Take the war to Smaug. Find the location of the Halls of the Mountain King."
