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XL-Story: The fall of Tech Haven

Character background? Made up storys? Ingame storys changed around into real storys? Well anything you got for public amusement!

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Postby HusK » Wed Jan 12, 2005 10:38 pm

Breath taking!! ...Dude!
.

.

.

.

...You really should... when its finished and all... put it up on official boards also... perhaps we should make it into a pdf with pictures? DAMN just to do that would already make me want to grab my cc and dive into the game again... GOD! this is to good not to be read!
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Chapter 24: The lost world

Postby Lisa Merlins » Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:39 pm

Maggie Blackstone and Lisa Merlins looked at each other in horror, as the ground floor of the store was now ablaze in a fire of molten Gaminion, and the transparent Arillium floor was now bubbling.

Maggie started making a run for the Genrep which was a few metres away. Lisa was not far behind. Whatever this bomb was going to do to the store, they was decided that they wasn’t going up with the store.

Maggie opened the genrep console and selected the first free genrep she could find – Techhaven Sector 2 – Genrep A, and she just hoped whatever was happening in the store was going to be contained within the Phoenix Store and Techhaven Sector 1. In a brief second Maggie’s molecules disappeared into a steam of genes, unseen by the human eye.

Suddenly the store became very dark except for a bright single point of light. In the darkness there existed pools of superheated Arrillium and melted cabinets. Lisa turned around briefly to see the bright single point of light.

The single point of light began to flicker. Lisa turned around and clicked on the Genrep console and quickly selected her apartment in Plaza 2.

The world turned white all around her. She looked around. This was not a normal Genrep trip something was wrong. Had she just left it too late? Then on her left, a portal opened and she could see the partial world of Simons Factory Genrep partially merging in against white void. Then she looked right. Another portal had opened and another world partially appeared against the white void.

She tried to make out where the second world was. She spotted a mast in the distance, and an outline of the small path, which she recalled lead to Tech Haven. Tyron Factory, thought Lisa. Was she going to see any other worlds, she asked herself. There was certainly enough space in the great white void for plenty of more portals to the other worlds.

Then all the sudden an invisible force tugged her belt, and then ripped it off her. It flew over towards the Simons Portal, and evaporated in a white flash as soon as it hit the portal. Then the two portals started to swing around towards each other. More of her personal belong started flying towards each portal and evaporating in a white flash as soon as it hit the portal. She then saw her hacktool, her armour, and then her Dalchi Red Nailpolish all flying towards each portal. Thinking quickly, she grabbed and held her holy lighting spell, hoping the force that was taking and destroying her possessions could not take her holy lighting from her.

The two portals continued to swing around towards each other and merge into one portal. Lisa looked at the merged portal. Both the worlds of Simons and Tyron were there now. Suddenly her hand opened involuntary and her holy lightning spell flew out of her grip towards the merged portal. Lisa watched in slow motion the spell flying through the air and hit the portal.

However, the holy lightning spell did not evaporate in a white flash like her other possessions, but it looked like it landed in the embankment of Simons, and stop. Then she saw what looked like a second holy lightning continue on from the same spot and land in the grass of Tyron. This was not making any sense to Lisa, and now, she had none of her personal belongings left on her. If anything was to attack her, she doubt she would live to tell the tale.

Then the two merged portals disappeared in a black flash. Lisa was standing alone again in the vast white void. She looked around to see if there was anything different.

The white void disappeared, and she was now looking down at a glowing blue floor, which had a pattern that looked like a circuit board that she had seen in Helious, the massive computer that Morpheous had designed and built.

She moved her head a little, and she could see tiny white pulses flowing in the smaller connecting circuits, which connected to larger flowing pulses. She followed the path of the pulses, only for something to catch the corner of her eye.

Lisa looked up and gasped at the mighty structure. She could see a face that was held in an octagon that was surrounded by a bubble, and held in place by a box. Holding the box was lot of white pulsating tentacles that seem to be connecting to the floor. Now and again a tentacle would move away from holding the box and connect with a node at the side, and flow with pulses. Lisa assumed that the nodes were data connection ports, assuming she was inside a computer. The face moved and looked at Lisa.

"RI-6 online", the face spoke in a soft female voice. Lisa didn't have a clue what that meant. "RI-2 transfer to the central core"

There was a white brief flash behind her, and a voice spoke.

"Welcome to our world."
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Chapter 25: Saving binary

Postby Lisa Merlins » Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:48 pm

Lisa spun around to see what looked like a glowing male spy, but he was semi-transparent.

"Who are you?", Lisa asked.

"I am RI2. From your world I was called Janos Blake"

Lisa thought for a second. She had heard the name before, but she couldn't put her finger on it. She thought hard for a second, and she notice the flowing pulses around her slow down.

"Don't think too hard RI6 we don't have that many resources to keep your RI running."

"RI?", Lisa quizzed.

"Real Intelligence.”, Janos began to explain.”Humans spend a lot of time trying to create the perfect artificial Intelligence, which I have to say has never come close to simulating a human being. However with a bit of help with venture warp and genrep technology, and a very simple emulator, it's possible to run a complete human mind inside a mainframe. However there is an odd side effect. Unused parts of the mind or lost memories consume a lot more processing power. Did you see all those packets move a lot slower before I told you to stop thinking?"

Lisa looked around, and she did notice the pulses in the floor moving a lot faster than a second ago. She was still thinking, Janos Blake. Where had she heard that name before?

"RI6, please tell me what you are thinking?", asked Janos.

"I am trying to think where I have heard your name before, and also I am a girl, not a RI number!", she said firmly.

Janos turned to the face. "No.1 create symlink for RI6"

"Symlink Lisa Merlins created to RI6", replied the face.

"That's better, now you are Lisa Merlins, like in the real world. If I remember you are a PSI monk, not a hacker?"

"Well I can hack a few things, but I'm nowhere near as good as Morpheous. And who are you, since you know me, and I don't."

"I was the lead of CVOR which was part of GTL Inc. If you know your history, GTL was the trading name of Phoenix before it moved from Tangent to Fallen Angels. I did not move to Phoenix, I was recruited to NCPD Precinct 1."

Something clicked in Lisa mind. "Ahh I remember, Alan Parker said you disappeared in the North Wastelands?"

"Almost correct. I was hacking the genrep data to track down some criminals, when...well I just ended up here. Since then we have been monitoring all the factions for anything interesting and changing things when necessary. That reminds me."

Janos turned to the face,"No.1 explain why we did not get Morpheous?"

"Unexpected real world events left No.1 with limited options. The bomb attack at the Phoenix store was unexpected. No 1 predicted accuracy that the bomb would cause severe disruption to the Techhaven genrep and data networks. No. 1 predicted repair time of Techhaven genrep and data networks was estimated to be 6 hours. Suggested rapid course of action was to retrieve another suitable runner for mission from genrep steams. Runner Lisa Merlins fitted the required criteria with a score of 50%".

A screen slid in on the left showing a technician working on some data conducts in Tech Haven at very high speed, then there was some sparks and a small fire. The technician disappeared, and then there was a white cloud of CO2 extinguishing the flames.

"Update on repair time of Techhaven genrep and data networks is estimated to be 48 hours.", the screen disappeared. Janos sighed.

Lisa looked at No.1, "Can I ask a question?"

"Proceed", replied the face of No.1

"Who bombed the Phoenix store?"

"No.1 does not have information available to answer the question set by RI6."

"Damm...ok 2nd thing, did I hear you correctly, you said mission?"

"No. 1 has tasked units RI2 and RI4 with mission briefing. RI4 unit is currently in a disconnected node. RI2 Unit estimated time of arrival 12 hours.", replied the face.

"Ok how do I know that you are not the bad guys?”

“All I can say is keep a free mind Lisa and this mission does effect the future of Fallen Angels, and also the future of our world. Now you ready to listen, we do not have much time.”

Lisa nodded, and a second screen appeared showing the Twilight Guardian Canyons, which looked busy with people moving around. Then all the sudden there was a white flash, followed by static, as if the camera feed had been cut.

"Three weeks ago the Dome of York bombed the Canyon with a Neutron bomb. Lots of lives were lost, as you know. What you don't know is lives were also lost in our world. The segment connecting the Twilight Guardian Canyons was destroyed. Many AI's were lost. One of the RI's was also lost, and many CI's disappeared as well. CI's are copies of intelligences of hacker runners, under control of No.1. There are other losses as well and it's a long list. Mind if I skip that, as we are low on time."

Lisa once again nodded, and Janos continued. "After studying the data available we established the Neutron bomb seems to effect our world as well, when they should not. A neutron bomb is designed to kill just people, and leave equipment undamaged."

The screen started to show new footage of runners fighting Dome of York Defence bots in the desert. Then the scene cut to fighting inside a lab, which Lisa recognised the Neutron bomb design lab.

"Then the Fallen Angels, with the help of other factions attacked and stormed the lab. The Fallen Angels recovered two of the four blueprints required to make a neutron bomb. However City Admin recovered the codes and detonator for the neutron bomb.

The scene on the screen changed to sure Fallen Angels technicians storing blueprints in the secure network, which then cut to another room that looked like a conference room in Plaza. Then it changed to what looked like a Techhaven style apartment full of equipment and screens.

“The Fallen Angels with the Twilight Guardian secured the blueprints in their most secure computer system, under the guidance of the system administrator’s son. However, it seemed City Admin had managed to get a link into this system. We spotted this weak link and broke into the system ourselves before City Admin did. To protect our future we overwrote the plans with fake plans and watched. Creating junk data for an identical MD5 hash is certainly a little challenge.” Lisa looked at the emotionless Janos figure. If he was smiling she couldn’t see him smiling.

“So you saying that Fallen Angels have no blueprints?”. Asked Lisa.

“That’s correct.”, replied Janos.

”Something tells me there is a but coming. For a start if no-one has any plans a neutron bomb can’t be built? Which means your world is safe?”

“Very good Lisa, but there are two problems. One caused by our actions.”

Lisa shook her head as if she had seen that one coming. Janos continued. “The first is that the dome has nearly completed two more bombs. We don’t know the targets for them. No.1 predicts that their targets are Neocron city and Tech Haven, which if they hit those locations it will spell disaster for our world.”

“And for the people living there as well.”, replied Lisa.

”Then we learnt that City Admin had hacked our fake blueprints. That was predicted, and expected. But we did not even predict City Admin’s next move. They soon discovered the blueprints where fakes, and then devised a new plan.” The screen changed to a slideshow which Lisa recognised as the uplink outposts.

“Their new plan is to use the uplinks to tap into the Dome of York and remote detonate the bombs. That would destroy the Dome….and also our world.”

“Sounds like either option is not good. Where do I fit into this?”

”Quite simply you are the messenger to the outside world. First of all to prevent the detonation codes being sent to the Dome. Then your next task is to safely destroy the Neutron bombs.”

“If you overwrote the plans, can’t you destroy the detonation codes?”

“No. City Admin put the codes in a non-connected system.”

“Ok, so I have to get hold of these codes, or stop them using the uplinks, then destroy the Neutron bombs. I hate to say this, but I’m no Supergirl.”

“Of course not. You would have to talk to Brammers or someone high up in Fallen Angels, and get them to stop these bombs from going off.”

“Hmm, but Brammers would require some proof.”

“We know Brammers well, and as a result we will send you back with a very unique item from RI4, when he gets here.”. The screen flickered to show a meeting in the Fallen Angels Faction Hall. Lisa could see everyone clapping and Lupus Wonderboy putting medals around five people’s necks. She recognised, Brammers, Cybot, [TgR]Killer, and Husk showing their medals as the camera slowly panned down the line.

”Those are Free Thinker medals? A copy is not going to help convince anyone.”

The camera slowly continued to pan. “How about if we gave you RI4’s medal to take back?” A fifth runner panned into view. Lisa gasped as she recognised the runner. Then something clicked in her mind as she made a connection between the Free Thinker medal, an unsolved mystery and RI4. Then Lisa noticed all the packets in the world moving very slowly, and Janos stopped moving.

All the sudden the room went blank.
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Chapter 26: You got mail

Postby Lisa Merlins » Mon Jan 17, 2005 11:55 pm

The blank world remained blank for a time that Lisa could not define. Then an orange dot appeared at Lisa’s feet and expanded into a path that lead a short way. Two branches lead off, and two rather white looking objects appeared. Then she could see a vast gap and a platform in the distance.

Lisa first walked upto the two white objects. Close up they looked like old computer consoles. On one of the consoles a button was flashing. Lisa looked into the distance to the platform across the void. She could see a white glow that resembled a genrep, and a lot of moving pulses towards the genrep. She was no longer with No.1 or Janos, and she certainly didn’t have a clue where she was.

Lisa looked at the flashing button on the console. Well the worse thing she could do now was press the button. She walked upto the console and pressed the button. A screen slid up from the back of the console. A digital face appeared, that Lisa could not identify.

“Ahh Lisa, you are back online. It’s Janos here.”

“Did something happen?”, enquired Lisa.

“Yes….you thought too hard. You nearly consumed all the resources available to the world. There was a slight flaw in the emulation software, which No.1 has now corrected. And there is bonus side effect of correcting the flaw. The software can cope with many more runners. No.1 now has plans to allow the whole world access to our world, well some parts of it. Anyway enough of that, we still need you to complete your task. What’s the last thing you remember?”

“I was saying that Brammer’s will need proof.”

“Nothing about RI.4?”, asked Janos. Lisa shook her head.

“Ok we was going to send an item from RI.4 but he’s still lost in a disconnected node, and time is against us. Twelve hours has passed since I last spoke to you.”

Twelve hours had passed since she saw the store, Lisa thought to herself. It only felt like twenty minutes.

I’m afraid bringing proof to Brammers will be difficult. Right now we moved your program to Gravis uplink. What you need to do is get to that genrep over there and get the message….WAIT!”

Before Janos could finishing saying “Wait”, Lisa had walked to the edge of the Abyss and put her hand out. She was stopped by an invisible force field.

“As I was about to say. The security barrier is enabled, and the hard wire link is not connected. Look up.”

Lisa looked up. High up she could see a platform that was red in colour. “That platform needs to be lowered. However it’s a hard wired system, which we cannot control. It can be lowered by flipping the switch on console 7 in the uplink underground. Once the platform is lowered, just use the GR and you are out of here.”

“I sense a but coming?”, said Lisa.

“Almost. The other console controls the email to Techhaven, so getting a message to someone there should be easy. Get them to take control of the op and get them to flip the switch.”

Lisa nodded. “Right I have to go Lisa and prepare for Plan C, good luck Lisa!”

“Wait!”, Lisa shouted, but it was too late. The image on the screen had gone. She had a few more questions.

Well there was not much else she could do. This place seem to be devoid of all activity, except for what was happening across the abyss. She walked over to the second console. There was only one button on this console, which she touched. Two more buttons appeared on the console, and once again a screen slid up from the back of the console, then two smaller screens expanded out from each side of the first big screen. The screen on the left lit up displaying a load of static, and the screen on the right came up with a prompt, that just said “RDY”. Then the middle screen came up with what looked like a load of options. She tried to make out what was on the screen.

Code: Select all
HrEEDoM PHORC3 9R4V15 uPliNK U83r h4x0r 50F+wAr3
0p+i0ns
1.   W4k3 b055 4ND +35+ NI9H+ $H1pHT R35P0N$E
2.   WE8C4M L1NK$
3.   LInK +0 9r@v15 uplINk-+eChh4V3N m4Il +R4N5F3r 4gENt
4.   cl05E


Lisa frowned. Where was her Fire Apoc when she needed it? She gave the console a good kick. The characters in the middle screen and dropped to the bottom. Then the options reappeared in a more readable form.

Code: Select all
Freedom Force Gravis Uplink uber hack software
Options
1.   Wake boss and test night shift response
2.   Webcam links
3.   Link to gravis uplink-techhaven mail transfer agent
4.   Close


She wondered what the other two options did. Webcam links seem to be pretty obvious. Now she started to wonder how to select the options, as there was only three buttons on the console. She pressed the left button and a “1” appeared in the right console window. She pressed the middle button, and “ERR” appeared in the window. She tried the right buttons, and a “0” appeared. She once again pressed the middle button, and “ERR” appeared.

“How do I get the options up?”, she thought to herself. She touched the screen and “2. Webcam Link” highlighted. The left screen sprung into life, showing four different camera views.

The first camera was from a high point outside the uplink overlooking the area. It was dark outside. The second camera was posted inside the uplink so one could see what was going on inside the uplink. The third camera seem to be in a control room. Lisa wasn’t sure if it was the inside of the uplink control room or not. Then the forth camera sprung into life and appeared to be tracking something moving. Lisa looked closely at the image before making out the camera was tracking a fast moving herd of Droms.

Lisa decided to try the first option. “Wake boss and test night shift response.” She tapped on the screen and the option highlighted. On the console screen a message appeared. “Dropping and restoring level 1 barrier – test mode”. Then she looked at the webcam console. She could see the uplink was ablaze with Gentanks, PSI monks, spies and private eyes running around at high speed, and looking puzzled. She then realised everything in the real world was running twice as fast, or she was thinking slowly.

Back to the real task in hand, get a message to Phoenix to get her out of here.

She selected “Link to gravis uplink-techhaven mail transfer agent” A new screen of options came up and the console sprung into life. “MTA Tech haven– 74910 messages frozen, 600 mailboxes offline, 215 mailboxes online.”

She then examined the other operations on the screen. There didn’t seem to be a “send message” option. There was a “Edit frozen message” option. Then she hit on an idea. Lisa found an option to “Freeze all messages” If she could edited a frozen message, then she could get a message out. Now to find a message from her boss Brammers. She browsed the frozen message queue, and saw a few for delivery to Brammers. She could see quite a few. The first one seemed to be from Tricia. Lisa thought it would be best to leave the boss’s love mail alone, and found an newsletter message from NExT. She opened the message, and started to read the message. Then she saw the status line in the message “Status: Frozen (Reason: Mailbox offline since 10:16)”

“Oh for Crahn’s sake.”, Lisa cursed to herself. She needed to find a mailbox that wasn’t offline. Finding a well known Angel who’s mailbox wasn’t offline would be difficult. Lisa examined the online mailboxes, and worked her way down the list. Then she spotted a name she knew.

It was Garyu69,’s mailbox and it was online. Lisa knew Brammers trusted him, so the chances of a hacked message reaching him and getting to the attention of Brammers were very high. She opened his mailbox, and saw a few messages there unread. The first message subject read “XXX I’m your hot pepper girl – get me the way you like it.”, and the second subject read “Cheap Black Dragon Viagra – the real hard stuff!”

Spam she thought. Garyu69 was not going to need those messages. She froze the message, and opened the frozen mail message. She cleared the subject and main message area. Then she managed to find her name in a selectable list of senders, and changed it so it was from her, and not from someone called “Daisy Lick”

Then she needed to think of a message to convince Garyu69 it was her. She knew Garyu69 like her red nail-polish, so she would mention that in her message. “Right.”. Lisa looked at the console, and then realised there was a slight problem.

There was no keyboard.

Lisa hit the button on the console in frustration, feeling upset and annoyed. “Why me?”

Then there was a faint beep that made Lisa look up. In the edited message there was a “0” in the message body. With a look of curiosity, she pressed the middle button and a space appeared. She tried the left button and “1” appeared.

She had an idea, to send the message in binary. She would need to devise a code, and hope someone like Morpheous could crack it. However thinking of a code was going to be hard. Then she had a brainwave.

Lisa had been reading some material from the Ceres disc, about a communications place called Land’s End Radio. Her curiosity on Land’s End Radio was sparked when she and Section 2 were checking around Simmons Factory, and they had found a yellow sign that read “British Telecom – Lands End Radio.” She read from the Ceres discs that Lands End Radio handled distress messages using a code called Morse code. The code was very easy to remember and learn that she had a little fun annoying the R&D department making beeping noises on her terminal while there was working. Now if she changed the dashes to “1” and dots to “0”, she had a working code.

She started to tap away on the console using the buttons, and composed a short message for Garyu69. After a few minutes, and checking the message was correct, she saved and closed the message. She unfroze Garyu69’s message queue, and monitored the message to see if he had read it. While she was waiting for Garyu69 to read his email she had a little fun re-sending the Viagra mail to some unknown person called Jake Hard.

Then she noticed that the message had been processed and read. Hopefully Garyu69 had got the message and was acting on it, however in the mean time she had to play the waiting game for help to come.
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Postby HusK » Tue Jan 18, 2005 12:27 am

I know I already said it before, but once more....



Breath taking work!! Can't wait to see the finish line... though it seems far off right now. Hmmm which is a good thing come to think of it *g*
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Postby sanityislost » Tue Jan 18, 2005 5:05 am

Once again nice work, was worth the wait!

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Postby Lisa Merlins » Tue Jan 18, 2005 2:10 pm

HusK wrote:...You really should... when its finished and all... put it up on official boards also... perhaps we should make it into a pdf with pictures? DAMN just to do that would already make me want to grab my cc and dive into the game again... GOD! this is to good not to be read!


The finished version with Kat's and Morph's parts will make it to the official forums.

I do like the idea of having pictures with the story! Maybe anyone here would like to make a screne of the events from the story and post them? If you need Rhino's for props, ask myself or Brammers in Phoenix for a Rhino. (One thing I would love to do is a live NC movie with voiceovers, but thats a lot of work!)

Also I was thinking of doing a writers commentary like a directors commentary you get on DVD's!

First things first, I need to get the story finished. I have enjoyed writting this, and I will do another one. I've got to admit I wasn't expecting this story to take this long to get to the final parts.

Enjoy!
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Chapter 27: The Tech Haven Guardian

Postby Lisa Merlins » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:43 am

Lisa wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it was now daylight outside in the uplink. She had tried to get a little attention during the night by selected the “Wake the boss” option a few times during the night. However every time she selected that option, a group of people would turn up, look totally puzzled and leave again. Every time she selected the option, the responding group got smaller and smaller.

Then she saw something move on the first camera. It looked like a two Rhinos approaching the uplink at very high speed. Then on the second camera she saw a Rhino arrive inside the uplink and two more covering the back entrance. Back on the first camera she could see the first two Rhinos arriving at the front of the uplink.

All the sudden the world turned totally white for a brief second. Lisa was still standing where she was a moment ago. She looked at the image on the first webcam, and saw the same two Rhinos approaching the uplink, and another Rhino arrive inside the uplink. As before two more Rhino’s covered the back entrance and on the first camera she could see two Rhinos once again, take position at the front of the uplink again.

“Déjà vu”, Lisa said to herself. She swore she just had seen the same images a second ago, but anything was possible in this world. Lisa continued to watch the hide speed action inside the uplink. Then she started to recognise some of the runners. She recognised Morpheous, Sedna, Kolesar and Garyu69, and also Marcus Blade.

“Yes!”, shouted Lisa jumping for Joy, as the console beeped. She looked at the right command line screen. “Command control transferred to Phoenix Ltd – Receiving uplink control software – Success.”

Lisa Smiled, the plan had worked, help was here. Then she stopped smiling, when she realised she forgot something. She had not told Garyu69 in her message on how to enable the hard link that RI2 told her about. Quickly she pressed a button on the console to call up the mail transfer program

The screen flashed up “Phoenix Ltd – Enter Helious command code.”

“Dammit!”, She did not know any of the Helious command codes that Morpheous used. The console was once again the receiver of a sharp kick of frustration.

She watched the webcam links that was still running on the left screen. Inside the uplink she could now see Sedna and Morpheous working hard inside the control room, but they was not looking anywhere near the lifeless unit that had a number seven on it.

Lisa decided to look at the first console she had used earlier to speak to Janos. She had only noticed the first flashing button earlier, but she had failed to notice the other two buttons, like on the second console. She pressed the button to hopefully call Janos again, but this time something different happened.

The screen cleared and displayed a message “Message Broadcast Console No 7”, and all the sudden a very wide pulsing bream of light shined out from the back of the console into the Abyss, where the beam of light was bent ninety degrees downwards halfway across. It certainly looked like a laser light show that she had seen on the seafront in Via Rosso 3. She pressed the other two buttons, and like the second console “1” and “0” appeared on the screen, while the middle button became the space again. Then she noticed the pattern for the beam of light had changed, and Lisa figured out what the console was doing. It was an image projection console, whatever Lisa entered with the buttons would be projected into the Abyss. She wondered why the makers of this world made these consoles that served no purpose.

Once again frustrated she wondered over to the second console to see how Morpheous and Sedna was doing. They was still working on the other consoles, and still ignoring console number seven. Then she noticed that the display on the console number seven was active and was displaying the same image as the second console screen.

Lisa ran back to the second console, and tapped out a long message in binary to get Morpheous and Sedna’s attention. The message was quite long, and it filled the whole console screen up. The projector continued to project the image across and down the Abyss which was now quite brightly lit up. She walked back to the first console and continued to watch all the action inside the console room.

For hours nothing seemed to happen. She observed Sedna and Morpheous work on the main consoles, using their hacktools to examine the data. Yet they did not look at Console number seven, and they did not take a break. Then she noticed all the Rhino’s outside had left, and all that was left was two monks walking around. After a while she managed to recognise it was Wraith Nightcaster and Allure.

Sunset came outside the uplink, and still Sedna and Morpheous continued to work without a break.

“Please take a break guys.”, she pleaded.

Darkness fell outside the uplink, and finally Sedna got up and stated to walk towards the door. Lisa did something she had not done for a long time. She closed her eyes and prayed to the Skull.

After a moment, she opened her eyes, and she could see Morpheous and Sedna now looking at console number seven. Her prayer had been answered. Now they just needed to flick the switch.

Sedna moved her hand and flicked a switch. Lisa looked up to the platform that was high in mid air.

It did not move.

Lisa looked at the image on the screen. There was a second switch that Sedna had not touched, but Lisa could send a message to get her to try that switch. She started to walk back to the projection console, when she spotted two APC’s arrive. Some spies jumped out and then what looked like Storm Bots. Lisa had a bad feeling about the City Admin Storm bots, and the runners there. Then she saw a runner on the second camera head towards the hack room.

Lisa remembered what Janos told her about City Admin plans to use the uplinks to destroy the Dome's neutron bombs. This was no peaceful take over of the uplink by City Admin.

She ran over to the projection console and cleared the message. Could she get Sedna and Morpheous to flick the second switch so she could run over the hard-link to the Genrep the other side, and join Wraith and Allure at the uplink and fight City Admin.

Then she realised she had no weapons on her. Out of options and time, all she could do was warn Sedna and Morpheous that City Admin was here. Lisa quickly created a binary Morse message that read, when decoded “CA”

She ran back to the first console, to see Morpheous and Sedna looking puzzled. Then all the sudden the two consoles in her world powered down. She could not see what was going on the camera console, and the projection console had powered down. This seemed to be bad news all around, and the next thinh she felt was a sharp tingle behind her that forced her to spin around.

A white object had appeared on the platform from nowhere that could only be described as a bad paper origami cutout, started speaking. “City Admin code broadcast program part one of three ready. Waiting for parts two and three of program to initialise neutron code transfer protocols. Begin sweep of uplink for hostile code. Hostile code detected, initialising sweep protocol.”

The broadcast program changed it shape, to take an attacking position, when a white pulsing bolt knocked the program off the platform.

Lisa turned around to see where the source of the bolt had come from. She could see a white semi-transparent male person, that was not Janos, holding a spiky looking white coloured weapon.

The male person, nodded and spoke. “Miss Merlins. It’s been a long time since I saw you last in your real world before my disappearance. I am RI4.” Lisa straight away recognised the voice.

“Are you…”, Lisa began to ask, before RI4 cut her off. “Yes I am.”

RI4 pressed a button on his wrist, and a white pulsing circle appeared behind him. “No time to explain Miss Merlins, step this way.”

RI4 and Lisa stepped through the circle, into a new world that consisted of many blue platforms. The circle disappeared as soon as both of them was through the circle.

“Ok Miss Merlins, change of plan since you could not get out. RI2 has been creating a new program that will keep our world safe, but we had to get you out of Gravis Uplink. You are now in the Tech Haven Bridge Storage area.”

“I’m sorry I failed Sir.”, replied Lisa.

RI4 wave his him to calm Lisa down. “Don’t worry. Now RI2 program is going to blow the links from the uplinks to our world using a programming technique called buffering overrunning. This won’t stop City Admin from blowing the neutron bombs, but it will keep our world safe. Now the problem is this.”

Lisa looked at RI4 as if she was unsurprised. A new white shape appeared next to RI4. “This ping routing daemon, will reconstruct the data paths to the outside world once the danger has passed. It will take a few days to complete. In the meantime all the programs including you and me, will be offline. Once the ping routing daemon has completed a safe path, it will restart your RI program, and guide you to a safe exit back to the real world.”

The ping routing daemon began move to in front of Lisa. “In the mean time, I must get to my storage area. Be safe Miss Merlins.”

Everything around Lisa went blank.
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Chapter 28: Raiders

Postby Lisa Merlins » Wed Jan 19, 2005 12:59 am

Three month had passed since the fall of Tech Haven.

Brammers sat the new Fallen Angels HQ Bar in the Dome of York, drinking a cup of El Farid coffee blend, reading his PDA with the latest reports from the Fallen Angels Science Council, Phoenix's Section2, and the R&D department. There was even a few reports from Black Dragon and Crahn officials, something which Brammers or any other Fallen Angel never expected to see.

During the first days after the Dome of York fell, all the factions surveyed the sectors of the Dome. Out of the sixteen sectors, only ten where accessible. Six inhabitable sectors lay in total ruins, and access to them was blocked off from the rubble that had fallen. The remaining ten habitable sectors had some structural damage and they could be used to live in, but the comfort by the apartments was nothing compared with what was offered in Tech Haven. Even, Crahn, TS and the Black Dragons found the comfort of the Dome a far cry from Outzone or Pepper Park. The Twilight Guardians was indifferent, while the Fallen Angels found it hardest to adjust from the clean Tech Haven apartments to the rat infested apartments of the Dome.

It was also not possible to go back to Tech Haven or Pepper Park. City Admin controlled both areas with an iron grip never seen before. Going anyway near there was signing your death warrant. And the few spies who made it back under stealth found their apartment records wiped, and no longer accessible. It took several days to figure out why they had been wiped.

The investigation teams found out the two neutron bombs where remote detonated by City Admin. What information remained of the computer cores in the labs, revealed that City Admin sent the detonate code into the dome using all the Uplink outposts in the wastelands. However the exploding neutron bombs sent back a massive feedback pulse through the connected uplinks, and wiped out a lot of essential computer records, including the ownership records of all the apartments. Some unconnected systems survived, but the information on them was next to useless.

Once it was realised that no-one had a home to go back to, Ronald Rodriguez brought all the faction leaders together in one room. One faction by one, they all agreed to put their differences aside. At first Black Dragon and Tsunami Syndicate nearly had a shooting match in the meeting room, not before Ronald banged their heads together pointing out that neither of them had control of Pepper Park.

Fallen Angels and Crahn was also another sticking point. One it was pointed out that Crahn had a sector in the Dome right next to Fallen Angels, did both sides agree to cease hostilities. However there was a still a lot of Angels who did not trust Crahn, which included Brammers.

Then came the months of rebuilding and cleaning out what was left of the Dome of York. The most gruesome part was removing the dead bodies, from the Dome. A mass burial site in sector K13 was set-up. During the burials, a lot of the Crahn preachers took the effort to give then the religious blessing of Crahn. It was small touch which made quite a few Fallen Angels look at Crahn in different light.

Brammers put down his PDA, and thought to himself for a moment. There was also a long missing in action list. Runners who had disappeared without a trace, or who had not been heard from. The list featured a lot of Fallen Angels, who had stayed to hold onto Tech Haven. From the few reports that had managed to filter to the Dome, it turned out that someone had hacked the power systems to Tech Haven, and shut down the security systems.

The small force that was in Tech Haven was no match for the Elite Storm bots. What remained a mystery was what had happened to the defending force. He opened a file on his PDA and looked at the list of missing in Action. From Phoenix was Sedna, Morpheous, Wraith Nightcaster and Lisa Merlins. Allure from eXo, then the list of missing from House DoY was very long. Ressi was very upset to learn that her team in Tech haven was all missing in action.

When Tech Haven fell, Brammers wanted to lead a force to take back Tech Haven. However the Fallen Angels Science Council denied him permission, which infuriated him. They said the time would come when they would see Tech Haven as their home again, but not just yet. He suspected the Fallen Angels Science Council was not telling him something.

Brammers picked up his PDA, when the Section 2 com-link buzzed into Life. “Boss?”

“Yes Marcus?”, replied Brammers.

Marcus Blade spoke over the open communications link. “Boss, you are not going to like this, but we spotted a convoy of 10 APC’s in J14 heading towards the Dome. Looks like City Admin are going to raid the Dome.”
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Postby sanityislost » Wed Jan 19, 2005 3:45 am

Daaaaaamn another great part. nice one

Go CA.....raid the dome....keeell!

SiL ..:..
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Postby Katherine Mayer » Wed Jan 19, 2005 8:27 am

8) *hums "Ride of the Valkyries"*

Oh, thats right. We're meant to be the bad guys..

:twisted: *hums "Imperial March"*
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Postby booglebox » Wed Jan 19, 2005 1:49 pm

Tee hee... *hums We Will Rock You*

Nah, that's too cheesy.

*hums rage version of imperial march*

btw, if anyone wants the rage version of star wars imperial march, email me next next weekend and I'll email it to you.
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Postby Morpheous » Wed Jan 19, 2005 6:10 pm

Funky. :)

*Hums The Prodigy- Voodoo People* :lol:
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Postby HusK » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:43 pm

another great episode sir!

I shall see if I can find some suiting pictures that might go with it...

talk to you soon I hope (prays account still active / or money is on bank account again)
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Chapter 29: The hills of Syncon

Postby Lisa Merlins » Tue Feb 01, 2005 10:06 pm

Syncon Lab. The Neo-Hikers guide to the wasteland describes it as one of the sexiest labs to be at. Located in the desert regions of the wastelands, quite frequency you would see researchers sat outside working not on their researching, but also on their suntans. Since the researching profession was still very much a female dominated profession, any male runner making a visit to Syncon was usually not only guaranteed to get their much need researching done, but quite often they managed to get a date with a researcher as well. However there was the downside to sun-kiss life of Syncon, and that was the high hills that surrounded the lab. These high hills were a prime spot for snipers.

The City Admin sniper was located on the high hills directly looking down into the entrance of the lab. He raised his sniper scope to his eye, and began to scan inside the lab for his prey. He could see two females inside chatting away, both with green hair.

He braced himself and took aim on the first green haired female. He started to squeeze the trigger on the sniper rifle, when he felt a sharp crack on his forehead. He let go of the trigger, and then saw his blood pour into the viewfinder of the scope.

Across the valley on the opposite hill three runners watched the City Admin sniper’s head explode in a shower of blood and his body tilt forward. The Gentank patted the spy. “Good shooting Kolesar”

The dead City Admin sniper started to roll forward and fall off the edge of the hill on a plunge to the ground below.

“No problem Husk. I’m just glad we got him before he got Siona or Tricia.”

The dead sniper plunge to the earth was interrupted by one of the labs very high lightning conductor spikes. His body lay resting on top of the spike until his own weight was too much, and the spike pierced through his body. He then slid slowly down the spike painting it with his own blood. Husk heard the two girls in the lab shout in shock.

The third member of the group stepped forward to see the gruesome sight. “Well I keep telling those girls to stay inside, but they never listen to me.”

“I know Marcus.”, replied Husk.

Marcus Blade turned around looked towards the South. He could see a small sandstorm brewing in the distance.

“And you may as well tell the holiday camp that there is a sandstorm coming. I thought the weather said it was staying calm for the next few days?”

Husk turned around. Sure enough there clouds of sand kicking up in the distance. “Want to check that one out Marcus?”, asked Husk.

“Sure. Getting sand in my boots sure beats getting hot and sweaty boots from this heat.”

Marcus started heading down the path from the top of the hill. It only took him a less than a minute to get to the bottom. He then ran around the next hill to see the sandstorm getting closer. He got out his electronic binoculars and scanned the distance.

This was no sandstorm. The eletronic binocular registered ten metallic objects moving in a convoy, before it actually identified then as APC’s. Marcus thought to himself, wondering if the APC’s would be friendly. Then he remember that not many people had more than one APC. The first he knew was Phoenix. The second he knew was City-Admin.

“Crap.” He opened his com-link. “Boss?”

“Yes Marcus?”, replied Brammers.

“Boss, you are not going to like this, but we spotted a convoy of 10 APC’s in J14 heading towards the Dome. Looks like City Admin are going to raid the Dome.”

“Ok get back to the Twilight Guardian Entrance. I’ll get a defence force ready. You get yourselves back to FA-HQ”

“Roger Sir. Marcus out.”

All the sudden out of nowhere an APC roared up beside him and stopped beside him. The gunner on top of the APC pointed his gun at him, and the door on the side of the APC opened.

“Get in.”, shouted a voice from the inside of the APC.

“Look just shoot me, I’m not playing the hostage game.”

Two runners got out, grabbed Marcus around the arms, and dragged him inside. “What the…”, he started to protest, as the door slammed shut.

The engine of the APC roared, as it sped off at high speed.
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