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(WIP) Story: Lisa Merlins Chronicles - Red Sand Rising

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(WIP) Story: Lisa Merlins Chronicles - Red Sand Rising

Postby Lisa Merlins » Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:01 pm

ooc: Well I've been writing this story on and off the last few years. This one I started writing before the Fall of Tech Haven, and starts in the times on Pluto in Neocron 1.

So stand by for weeks of "To be continued..." first few chapters coming tonight!
Last edited by Lisa Merlins on Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Lisa Merlins
Phoenix Public Relations - Member of the 1st Paladin Order.

"Painiting all my nails purple"
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Chapter 1 - Dark Night

Postby Lisa Merlins » Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:02 pm

November 7th 2748

It was a quiet dark cold night in Industrial A Sector 1. Years ago, this district would be a hive of activity, with machinery running 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Today, nothing was happening as it rarely did. Any runner exploring this sector today would find lots of old machinery abandoned and the odd roach crawling around.

Today there was a lone roach, crawling around an abandoned factory room that had not been disturbed for 20 years. A window in the ceiling opened, and a rope dropped down. A few seconds later, a male spy dropped down the rope, landing feet to hear what sounded like a raspberry-squishing sound. The spy lifted his foot up.

"Great.", cursed the male spy. The bottom of his left boot was now covered in the remains of a very sticky and very dead roach. Still at least this operation was now going ahead. It had got put on hold two nights ago when for some unknown reason, a large runners in Pepper Park started shooting their weapons in the air, chanting the name "Fawkes". However the situation in Pepper Park got ugly when a group of Gen-Tanks used sub-standard rockets in their Moonstrikers. The end result was there was a shower of shrapnel in Plaza One, and some very unhappy NCPD CopBots.

When the NCPD Copbots arrived on the scene to arrest the group of Gen-Tanks, they found a great dirty black blast mark on the ground and a group of five Gen-Tanks lying flat out cold. It was reported in the Neocronicle that one Gen-Tank didn't read the big letters on the Moonstriker that read "Aim this way", and the Gen-Tanks had a drunken bet on who could hit the moon. The excuse didn't wash with the Copbots as they knew it was a New Moon.

Then later there was two reported burnings of runners, which was straight away blamed on Crahn. NCPD arrested a Crahn near the scene of the crime, who was chanting the name "Fawkes" near a burning body on a pile of wooden crates. During questioning he just chanted, "Crahn has shown me the light! Fawkes will lead the revolution!".

At this point, NCPD still didn't have a clue who Fawkes was, and immediately concluded that he was a new unknown Twilight Guardian commander. Arrest warrants was issued for 126 runners who were unfortunate to have "Fawkes" in their name, who all pleaded their innocence with the NCPD. Twenty four hours later, NCPD still didn't know who Fawkes was, or what to do with the runners they had in custody.

The male spy turned his thoughts away from the happened of the last two days. Even though the department he was a member of had nothing to do with NCPD, it was annoying that they sometimes had an influence of the undercover operations of his department. He got his torch out, and turned it on. Slowly he panned the torch around. He stopped halfway around, and adjusted the narrow beam of the light into a wider field. Straight away he spotted the target of the operation, a field generator which he had seen many times before at outposts. He walked over to the generator, and brushed off a dusty plate to reveal a serial number.

He adjusted his headset. "Ok I'm in, and I have a positive identification on the target. Serial number 101-118-247."

"Copy", replied the female voice. "That generator has been missing for over 20 years. Got a reading on its strength?"

The male spy got out an instrument, and turned it on. Several figures flashed up. "It's giving a R reading and a C reading. They both read 100, one moment." He stepped away from the generator. "Ok the R reading has dropped off sharply, but the C reading remains steady at 100. Still this generator is unusual, since it is giving off R and C readings."

There was a silence on the headset, before the female voice came back. "Ok we need further confirmation, goto Phase 2."

"Affirmative.", he replied. The male spy took off his backpack and got out a construction tool, and a blueprint. He loaded the blueprint into the construction tool and pressed a button. A flow of namites started to flow and form into a shape of a Wasteland Eagle. Within a second, it was completed. The spy blinked in surprised.

“Erm, test completed. That was very fast.”, he examined his work. “And I may add, one of the best pieces of work I’ve ever made.”

The female voice spoke briefly. “Copy. Hold position.”

The spy looked around the field generator with his torch. He then spotted what looked like a research tool attached to the field generator. He adjusted his torch again to get a better look. He moved closer, and straight away he could tell that this research tool was an old model which used spiked metal data connectors that transferred the blueprint data between the tool. Then he did a double take. There were two rows of data connectors; this was not a standard research tool. Who could had modified such a tool and why?

“Ok we are proceeding to Phase 3 plan 2. Confirm.”, spoke the female voice.

The spy hesitated. “Negative, recommend we stick to plan 1, there is something unusual about this field generator. It has a modified…”

“Negative, proceed with plan 2, you have your orders. Keep your mind on the job, not on your new hobby for construction.”

This wasn’t the first time he had disagreed with his female commander. Some of the orders he had got issued was not making sense sometimes. He was also getting fed up with the same excuse she gave in reply. “We do not question City Admin orders, they do what’s right for the people.” This time he felt it was wrong, but unless he carried his orders out he would have no job or no future living inside Neocron.

“Yes man. Proceeding with Plan 2.”, replied the spy. He re-opened his back pack, and got out two packs of plasma explosives. He slapped them on top of the field generator at what he judged to be the weakest spots. The explosives would certainly melt and destroy any traces of the field generator. Once again he looked at the research tool. He then stuck two detonators into the packs, and wired up the timer. Thirty seconds would be enough time for him to climb out, and get to a safe distance. He pressed the timer switch. It read “30..29..28”

The spy grabbed his backpack, and ran towards the rope. He looked around at the research tool again. This time, in a split second he ran to the research tool and pulled it free from its holder.

“21..20..19”, flashed the timer.

He then yanked the research tool’s cord free from the field generator. Quickly he slung the research tool into the backpack, and ran back to the rope. The timer was still ticking down. “10..9..8”. He jumped up and grabbed the rope. Quickly he hauled himself up to the top as fast as he could, and climbed out of the ceiling window, as the timer continued to count down. “5..4..3”

Running over to the side of the building, he jumped down, when there was almighty BANG! The windows either side of the jumping spy blew out into pieces of evaporating glass and wood. The roof shattered into a hundred pieces of glowing metal. He crouched down and waited for the rumbling sound to die down. He got up and peeped inside to see pieces of molten metal and not much left of the field generator.

“Confirmed phase 3 plan 2 accomplished. See you in HQ in 20 minutes. Out”

The spy adjusted his backpack, and remembered he had that research tool in his backpack still. Quickly he looked around for an empty crate. He placed the research tool inside one, carefully trying to make it look like it had not been disturbed. He just hoped when NCPD did come to investigate the explosion, they wouldn’t bother too much, especially when someone from his department would conveniently come along and take over the investigation, before promptly closing the case.

The spy planned to return to retrieve the tool another day, when things had calmed down, and he had a good think about his future with his department.
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Chapter 2 - The start of a journey

Postby Lisa Merlins » Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:04 pm

Summer 2752

"You have trained well my young pupilla." The girl in her early twenties slowly bowed her head towards her Master. "However, you have much to learn, which I cannot teach you here. You have been sheltered for too long in this village. For if you are to become a padrone del vostro codice categoria, you must head to the city of Neocron. There you will open your eyes to the real world. However I will not be able to assist you there, you must make your own friends there. There will be many things you will discover about yourself, and also of this world."

"I understand, so when will I leave?", she asked asked.

"At first light”, replied the master, “It will take us the best part of the day to get there. Now you must rest."

She bowed again and left the hut of her Master. She walked back over to the hut of her grandmother’s, and entered to see the old lady fast asleep in her chair. She was going to miss her very much when she left. Her grandmother had looked after her from almost the day she was born. She had been orphaned as a child when her parents were killed long ago, but she did not know how or who had killed her mother and father. All she knew was that they met their deaths in vast underground city of Tech Haven.

She walked quietly to the back of hut, and sat outside in the shadow of the hut as the sun was starting to set.

The young lady reflected briefly on her life here in her home. She looked towards the cliffs to the east. Here she could see the path from the bottom of the cliffs leading up to the nearby village of Tawkeen, and beyond lay the city of Neocron. She knew what lay beyond the path of her home was going to be very different to her life here in this unknown hamlet of the wastelands.

However, no-one could have prepared her for the secrets that the city of Neocron held.
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Chapter 3 - First days in Neocron

Postby Lisa Merlins » Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:05 pm

Lyle Nash was bored, bored with this job, bored with this city. He spent years on this job as a NExT service employee for the Neocron subway system, and wished something would happen to make his life more interesting. He had given up a long time ago kicking the doors open on the hovercab, when they got stuck. He now preferred watching the passengers scream and watch their attempts to kick the tram-door open, which they often didn't succeed in doing.

“Only a couple of more hours to go”, said Lyle to himself, as the 14:10 service arrived dead on time as normal. The door on the hovercab opened, and a female monk got out. Lyle looked at her. "Hmm not bad!", thought Lyle. The monk had red hair tied up into a pony tail, and she wore a long green overcoat and, much to Lyle’s pleasure, a lot of stylish makeup. He tried to read her name on his RPOS, and straight away was puzzled. No name came up. Lyle felt a little disappointed, someone he quite fancied, yet he did not know her name.

“Can I help you miss?”, Lyle asked the female monk.

“Erm…yes I need to go to a place called the Com centre to register… I think.”, she replied.

“Well for a start your name is not registering on my RPOS, and that’s a bit illegal around here, so I think miss, going to the Com centre is a good idea. Up that exit to Plaza 1, take left to the Medicentre, then left and follow the block around. You can’t miss the centre, it’s big”.

“Ok, thanks!”, she replied.

The young monk stood by the Hovercab for a second, and composed herself. She had started her journey from a hamlet just west of Tawkeen, which had been her home for the last twenty years. There she grew up learning basic skills of PSI, and the history of the great wastelands, under the watchful guidance of her grandmother, and also her Master. Her journey with her Master, from her old home in the wastelands to the big wide world, had been trouble free. The only thing that interrupted their journey was driving across two runners who had driven straight into a lake, and needed help in towing the vehicle out. The two runners were taking part in a great big race around the wastelands. They didn't talk much but they were very grateful for the help.

“By the way, what’s your name?”,Lyle asked.

“I’m Lisa Merlins. I’ve better get going. Take it easy!”, she replied cheerfully.

Lisa Merlins adjusted her little travel bag she had on her, and started to made her way to the exit of the subway towards Plaza 1. Lisa worked her way up the dimly lit subway ramps, and around a corner. Ahead of her, she could see daylight at the end of the subway exit. She walked out of the subway entrance onto a bridge that was looking over the vast open area of Plaza 1. She could not believe the number of people that was standing around talking and exchanging items. Lisa began to listen to some of the louder voices.

"Zai's Construction workshop TL220 - open for business", shouted a runner.

"Researching TL190...OI!", shouted one runner as he was pushed from his spot by another runner. Lisa looked and observed what was going on from her high vantage on the bridge.

"Hey, you are on my spot, get lost. TL130 researching..."

The first runner decided to take a swing at the runner who had pushed him. The crowd gathered around to watch the fight. The second runner ducked and was about to strike back, when the first runner pulled his gun out. Out of nowhere two very large people in white armour appeared from nowhere. Lisa wasn’t sure where they had appeared from either. She had been told that these white guys in white armour were called Copbots. She remembered what her Grandmother had told her. “Just don’t argue with them my child, as if you do, it will be your last argument.”

"Drop your weapons now!", bellowed one of the Copbot. Lisa could see two Copbots both holding a very large and powerful rifle aimed in the direction of the two arguing runners. The first runner dropped his weapon, and looked at the other runner. The two runners took ten paces backwards from each other, before each Copbot grabbed them and lead them away from the scene. The disturbance was over, and the crowd that was gathered just carried on with their previous business.

Lisa observed the busy area of Plaza 1 for a little while, before deciding to explore the vast area of Plaza 1 further.

She came across a vast building marked Com Centre, and decided to look inside.

Walking inside the Com Centre, she approached the front desk, which was flanked by two City Admin security guards.

"Can I help you Miss?", asked an female official at the desk in uniform.

"Yes I need to register."

The official looked at Lisa. "You just arrived in Neocron?" Lisa nodded.

The official got out a scanning device, and scanned her hand, and then her head. “Ah you do have an RPOS-ID chip, it’s just awaiting activation. Here we go…”

For a second Lisa felt a little dizzy, and she blink as the world around her went green, before turning back to it’s normal colours.

“Ok new citizen, Lisa Merlins ID 511268373 date of Birth 2nd Feb 2731. That looks ok. You have also been registered to the Next Faction.”

“Erm I thought I could choose my faction?”

“No no. All new runners are assigned by demand, and Next do need people after someone tried to buy their stock out.” On the terminal something flashed. “Erm I need to get my supervisor a second.” She walked over to her supervisor who was sitting a desk away, and spoke into his ear. The supervisor got up, and nodded to one of the guards. Quickly they moved behind Lisa, who was a bit alarmed.

”What’s going on?”, Lisa asked.

The supervisor approached the desk, and tapped a few keys on the terminal. He looked up sharply and nodded. “It’s ok.” The two guards moved away.

The supervisor looked at Lisa. “This normally doesn’t happen, but there is a message here for you. You are to contact Usko Hood at Neocron Bank as soon as possible.”

“Ok then, I better get going, if that’s ok?” The official nodded.

Puzzled why someone would wish to contact her so soon on her arrival, Lisa slung her bag around, and set off to find Neocron Bank.
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Chapter 4 - Missing

Postby Lisa Merlins » Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:07 pm

Officer Katherine Mayer looked at Officer Alan Parker untangling the mass of wires at the apartment interface. Katherine was getting uneasy with the time it was taking Alan to wire and hack the door interface so they could search the apartment of Janos Blake. To Alan and Katherine, Janos was not only colleague in NCPD Precinct One, he was also very good friends with them as well. It was not unusual for Janos to go missing for days, but he always left details of his plans with Kat and Alan. When he didn’t show up for work seven days running, and didn’t reply to Kat or Alan messages, they decided to pay him a visit at his apartment. There was no answer from inside the apartment from the constant buzzing and the shouts of “NCPD! Open up!”, so Alan decided to try and break in by hacking the door interface. Katherine was feeling uneasy, as forcing an entry without a search warrant was not exactly above board. She looked at Alan to see how he was doing.

“How’s it going?”, whispered Kat.

Alan Parker didn’t reply, he looked at the mass of wires from the apartment interface to Janos’s apartment. He moved his hacktool probe over a few wires, and pressed a few buttons slowly, as if he wasn’t sure what he was doing. A light on the probe flashed green, so Alan clipped the second lead from his hacktool, and pressed the “Run sequence” command on the hacktool screen. Five large red squares lit up, and a sequence of letters and numbers scrolled up behind the squares. The first square went green, then the second. Then all the sudden, the sequence of letters and numbers scrolling up behind the squares moved a lot faster. The squares went red again before the display blinked and went out.

“Bloddy thing. Talk about giving myself a tough job, but trying to hack Janos’s own apartment door is certainly mission impossible. What extra security did he add this door interface?”, cursed Alan.

Only Janos knew what extra security he had added to stop hackers from accessing his apartment. One thing that Alan knew was that he was out of his depth. Alan had a job to manage basic information retrieval, where Janos was a master hacker within NCPD Precinct One who could get information from just about any secure computer system.

Alan restarted the hacktool, and scanned the wire he had checked earlier. The light on the probe turned red this time.

“I don’t get it, the data flow is reversed. We need a proper hacker for this job, you know any Kat?”

“None that we can trust, and the ones we do know are Fallen Angels. You think they are going to let us borrow one of their hackers, after Janos nearly cracked their own network a month ago?”

Alan nodded, it was a fair point, but they needed to get into Janos’s apartment fast. He pulled the leads off the wires for the door interface, and closed his hack tool.

“Sod this, you got your crowbar?”, he asked Kat

Katherine dropped her rucksack on the ground and opened it. She pulled out her crowbar, and handed it to Alan. He jammed it in the gap between the apartment doors and tried to prise the door open. Pushing with all his strength, the gap didn’t widen. Katherine roll up her sleeves and joined Alan behind the crowbar. She applied her weight and strength behind the bar. There was a sound of a snap, as one of the security retaining bolts broke. Alan easily slid the door open to allow both of them to squeeze through.

He handed the crowbar back to Kat, “There, a proper tool for the job.”

He and Kat looked around his Via Rosso apartment. It looked fairly normal and undisturbed. Katherine walked slowly around the room to look for any clues to where Janos had gone. She turned around to the windows, which looked firmly locked. She was about to check the windows closer, when the terminal in the corner caught her attention. On the screen in the terminal she could see a random colour blocks moving around and flashing. This was not good, either Janos had not wanted his colleges to find him, or he had discovered something that he wasn’t meant to uncover. Katherine sighed.

“Great, there is a wiper program running on his terminal.”

She turned around to see Alan working away on the datalink terminal on the Genrep. A beep came from the hacktool, and Alan smiled a little for a brief second.

“Ok got something, looks like he genrepped to Cajin uplink, seven days ago.”

“That’s a start, but that too close to Dome of York territory; we can’t go there without authorisation from City Admin.”

“Well I got some holiday leave coming up in a weeks. You think the wastelands will cover Cajin uplink, when I put in my intended destination?”

“Doubt it. We better go, I was due back at NCPD HQ 10 minutes ago.”

Katherine and Alan squeezed back through the door, and closed it. While Katherine sealed up the door, Alan made sure the door interface was re-sealed, before the two NCPD Precinct officers left the scene.
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Chapter 5 - Neocron Bank

Postby Lisa Merlins » Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:09 pm

Since Neocron city was so new to here, it took Lisa a while to find her way to Via Rosso 1, and the Neocron Bank. On the way to the bank, she passed a Rokkwear Plus fashion shop which fascinated her for ages. And the one thing that she fell in love with, was the nail-polish, and the long purple cloak. Her grandmother always insisted she wore a green overcoat, which she was never happy in.

However there was a slight problem. The nail polish alone would cost 10,000nc’s and the purple coat would cost 79,000nc’s. She only had 2,000nc. So after a short while, she left the Rokkwear Plus fashion shop, feeling a little disappointed.

She worked into the Neocron bank, and approached the receiption desk. "Can I help you Miss?", asked the receptionist.

"Yes I'm looking for Usko Hood, do you know where I can find him?", enquired Lisa.

"Do you have an appointment?"

"No I don't, do I need one?"

"Mr Hood is a busy person, I can schedule an appointment, but it will be a few weeks at least."

Lisa, looked down lost as to what to do next. "Can you tell him I called as he asked."

The assistant open a blank email on her terminal, and looked at Lisa with a disapproving eye. "Ok...which club are you from?"

"Club? What do you mean?"

"Well Mr Hood hires girls from several Pepper Park clubs, and needs to keep his account settled with them."

Lisa was stunned, surely she wasn’t going to a bank to be a prostitute. "What you saying? You think I'm a sleazy girl from one of those Pepper Park clubs?"

A door to the left opened, and a respectable looking man step out. "That will be all Miss Frederiks, I'll take it from here, Miss Merlins please come in."

"You think I'm coming in there to be your sleazy girl, think again.", Bellowed Lisa.

Taken aback with this outburst, Usko calmly replied, "I am the keeper of your trust funds, which your parents set up for you, now do you want to come in?"

Lisa was taken aback with the calm response. Quitely and slowly, she followed Usko in to the office, and he closed the door.

"Take a seat, I must apologise for the misunderstanding. I am expecting a girl from a pepper park club, but she's not due for several hours yet. Lets just say I'm a lonely man, who has too much work to do, and leave it at that..."

Lisa said nothing.

"Hmm so you joined NExT, I wouldn't have expected that for the daughter of the Merlins, but I'm sure they would have approved. I knew your father quite well, he made me some outstanding weapons for hunting. He certainly made a lot of money from his trade of construction."

Lisa just nodded slowly.

Usko continued on, "It was a sad day in Neocron, when we heard of Paul's death along with his wife Sue. NCPD never got down to the bottom of who did it, and why. But one thing for sure was they made sure that you was well taken care of."

"Well my grandmother has looked after me well, and…I hope taught me well. But you mentioned you are the keeper of my trust funds?"

"Indeed, and as I said they made sure that you was taken care off. Their wishes was for you, when you had chosen your faction, was to receive access to the funds. So the first thing is to put a voice print identification on your funds. So first of all...oh wait have to double check that it is really you."

Usko pulled from his draw a device that Lisa could only guess it was a scanner. He then pointed it at Lisa, and it beeped twice. He read the display.

"Your date of birth and you citizen ID number please".

"2nd Feb 2751 id is 511268373"

"Very good, now please state your name."

"Lisa Merlins?", she said, looking a little confused at Usko.

"Of course it is! Ok that’s the voice print identification completed. Now you should have access to your trust funds. You may request 500,000 nc a week into your own funds. If you need more it may incur a charge and also I have to approve the funds transfer."

"May I look...?"

"Of course"

Lisa turned the terminal, and it instantly recognised her access. She looked on the screen and saw lots of options. There was a tab, titled Neocron Bank. She selected the tab, and a brief summary appeared on the screen, with 3 options. Request weekly funds, current trust balance, and request additional funds.

She pressed the request weekly funds, and the screen responded with a message "500,000 nc transferred." Lisa checked her RPOS, and sure enough she had received 500,000 nc.

Time to go shopping for that purple overcoat, that she had seen and liked at the Rokkwear Plus shop! Looking back at the screen she saw the CityCom display the new trust balance, and was taken aback with the amount displayed.

"How much money is there...", she whispered in shock.

"A lot I can assure you, a lot of people won’t even see that amount of money."

Lisa remained speechless.

“Now there is something else, there are two keys for your parent’s apartment here in the city. One is located in Plaza 2, and the other one is located in Via Rosso 3. Now that complets the first half of their will.”

“First half? I’m having trouble taking all this in.”, she replied.

“Well, that’s where the problem is. There is supposed to be a cube with instructions or something from your father, but it wasn’t in the safe when I went to get it.”

Lisa looked puzzled. “So where is it then?”

“I’m not sure; my staff are looking into the matter with great urgency. I can only apologise for this, slight problem. I shall contact you as soon as I have any more news.”
Last edited by Lisa Merlins on Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:16 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Chapter 6 - Dead visitor

Postby Lisa Merlins » Thu Sep 29, 2005 8:13 pm

In the vast underground Tech Haven in Sector 1 a Light security patrolled the entrances to the runner housings and clan apartments. That’s if you could consider a patrol in a confined space of ten metres by five metres to be a patrol. There were three doors that lead to the rather cramp runner housings, and another door opposite the three doors, which lead to the main area of Tech Haven Sector 1.

The security sentry bot’s eye rotated towards the main door, as if it had detected an approaching runner. For a good few seconds the eye stayed focused on the door, which then slid open to reveal an elderly runner carrying a briefcase. The runner’s face turned into a picture of terror, as he realised he had made a fatal mistake.

The noise of bullets firing in a confined space rang out, and died down. The old man fell to the floor, but just barely alive as he watched the case just slide out of his reach. With his last breath, he grabbed his briefcase, and pressed a button to secure the contents of the briefcase, before closing his eyes for the final time.

The door opened again, and the sentry bot one again opened fire. A monk stepped through the door, and waved his hand at the sentry bot. There was a load crack. The sentry bot stopped firing and glowed blue for a second before shaking violently, and then it’s legs gave way as it collapsed under it’s own body weight.

"Quick you got thirty seconds, before the alarms go off." A young tall person stepped next to the dead man, and took out a hack tool, and plugged it into the data port on the dead runners case.. He pressed the start key, and his fingers rapidly danced on the keypad. "Easy….This is only mark one security briefcase, my mark 4 code breaker will break it fast."

The monk turned around to face someone lurking in the shadows, "Looks like the sentry bot got him." he said to a man lurking in the shadows of the corridor.

"He nearly made it you idiot. Remind me that I won’t be hiring Dark again. If that datadisc had got into the wrong hands, it would have been a disaster.”

“Ok got it.”, said the hacker as he open the briefcase and removed a datadisc. He closed the briefcase, as a red light came on again to indicate the case was secured. The hacker started to approach the man hiding in the shadows, when the monk put his hand out to stop him approaching the man in the shadows. “Since you are not hiring us again, I want double for the job.”

The man in the shadows looked at the monk. “Alright double, but I want that cube now.” The monk looked at the man in the shadows. He lowered his hand, and nodded to the hacker. The hacker walked up to the man in the shadows and thrusted the cube into his hands. He turned around to face the monk as a klaxon bellowed out twice. “Let’s get out of here, this way...”

He turned around expecting to see the man in the shadows waiting, but he was no-where to be seen.

“Ahh bollocks to him, let’s go.” The two runners disappeared down the side entrance, as the middle door opened which lead to the runner housings. A drone flew out, and hovered over the dead body, and then a private eye, and a spy emerged. The private eye looked at the dead body, and then checked his weapon. He spotted the brief case lying next to the dead runner. "Morpheous - hack that case"

“Ok Sir!”, smiled the young hacker, as he pulled out a hack tool. The drone scanned the area, before landing next to Morpheous. About ten seconds later, another runner emerged. “Zane, nothing in the area. Whoever was here, has made a fast exit when the alarm went off. And that bot looks busted. I’ll get it to the workshop and fixed.”

“Ok Brammers.”, replied Zane Shadowfall. “How’s that case coming on Morpheous?”
Morpheous pressed a button on his hacktool, as the red light on the briefcase changed to a green light. Morpheous opened the empty case.

"Sir, someone beat us to it. It's empty."

Brammers, Zane and Morpheous looked at each other. "So who got the briefcase before us?", asked Brammers, as the main door opened. A female private eye holding a Liberator stepped through with two Gen-Tanks flanking her.

Zane turned to face the private eye. “Anything Trillian?”.

The leader of the Tech Haven Security Council shook her head. “Nothing yet. We got the genreps covered, so whoever it is, is not getting out, and…” Trillian stopped speaking as she held her hand again her headset. She frowned, “Ok, we did have the genreps covered…”

She tuned towards Brammers. “Brammers, it’s Tricia, whoever it was injured her and…”

”Oh no.” Brammers quickly grabbed his drone and opened the main door to head towards Tech Haven Sector 2. He ran through the door before Trillian could finish what she was saying.

“…she is going….to be fine.”, finished Trillian. Zane looked at Trillian a bit puzzled.

“Did I miss something there?”

Trillian looked at Zane very surprised, and laughed. “What you don’t know?”

“Know what? I guess not.”

“You make me laugh Zane, the Chief Executive officer of Phoenix Ltd, and the Chairman of the Fallen Angels does not know that his Chief Engineer is dating Tricia McMillian? You need to get out more!”

Morpheous sniggered in the background. Zane Shadowfall thought for a minute. Normally he would find his Chief Engineer working long hours on something in the Phoenix Store, but he had noticed recently that he had been working less hours at the store. Not that it was a problem, as all the orders were being fulfilled on time and everything seemed normal.

“I do now, and since you said I need to get out how about Dinner at 8pm?”, Zane replied as the main door opened again.

“9pm and you are buying.”

“I’ll see you then and I’ll…”. Zane stopped speaking.

“Well well well. I just come from Tech Haven sector 2, and there I see your Chief Engineer nursing a green headed girl who’s clueless with guns and talking about having a dinner date, and to top it off I see two more lovebirds arranging dinner as well. It’s no wonder why the raiders escaped, as it seems every damm Angel has love on their minds.”

Zane scowled as he had not noticed Technocrat come through the door. Trillian frowned. “And where was you when all this was going on?”

“That’s not the point. It’s obvious to me that the two biggest leaders of the Faction are more interested in their love lives than security of Tech Haven. Be safe you two.”, Technocat let of a quick dry smile before entering the left lift door. Zane waited a few moments for the lift to move off. Morpheous who was standing silently in the background, rolled his eyes.

Zane was the first to break the silence.“One of these days I’m going to put a bullet though his head. Whenever he does something, or speaks, he causes chaos in the faction. He does not care about the faction, all he cares about is himself.”

“I know, and putting a bullet in his head will only have you thrown out of the faction. Relax, he’s trying to get at you. How are the two other love birds getting on?”

Zane adjusted his com-link. “Brammers, how’s Tricia?”

“Sir, she’s fine. Whoever ran past her was stealth, and give her a sharp kick.”, replied Brammers.

”That’s good, oh I need you back at the store, got an urgent 100 turret order.”. Zane grinned at Trillian.

“That will take all day to make with everyone in Sir.”, replied Brammers. Zane winked at Trillian. Trillian slapped him cheekily in the ribs.

“Just as well I had 100 made earlier.”, continued Brammers. Zane did a double take. “Thats…good work there Mr Brammers. Just tell me you and Tricia on a date tonight?”

“Erm yes we are Sir.”

“Just tell me where you are going so me and Trillian don’t run into you. And that 100 turret order, I was joking.”

“Ermm Via Rosso 3 Sir. And also I was joking about having 100 in stock, we only got 20 turrets in stock. The dev team can’t make any more as we are out of storage space again. Brammers out.”

Zane turned around. “Morpheous get Husk down here with a body bag, and get Marcus Blade to find out who that dead body is.”

ooc: Thats got you wondering, and now those dreaded words..."To be continued..."
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Postby sanityislost » Thu Sep 29, 2005 9:12 pm

Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn Lisa, thats some kickass reading there!!!

I demand more!! :P

SiL ..:..
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Chapter 7 - Rumours of the Street

Postby Lisa Merlins » Mon Oct 24, 2005 6:54 pm

Dustin Bowman, sat in his usual corner on the border between Pepper Park and Plaza. His luck to find a job in the city had failed again, and he was depressed about it. So much for Reza promising work for him. Even getting a simple job of delivering a packet was impossible. The last delivery he did went wrong, and that wasn't his fault either. He wasn't expecting to meet a Twilight Guardian GenTank in the City Admin HQ while delivering a package.

The end result was the GenTank took the package off him, and threw it in the air and just to add insult to injury the tank shot down the package into flames with his Cursed Soul. When he told NeXT what had happened, he was fined 10,00nc's and told that it was his responsibility for the safe delivery of the package, and don’t bother calling for a job again.

Dustin cracked open a can of Cron 55 beer, that a passing Twilight Guardian GenTank threw at him earlier. He took a long swig on the can, and felt much better. He looked around and spotted a monk running past very fast. He recognised it being one of the regular pepper park monks, who would often go there to have a fight, but today he look different. His face had a look that was full of rage, but his eye's seem to be deadpanned and looking straight ahead. Dustin hoped there wasn't another disease outbreak again, as he had seen a few runners in Neocron of late just running past full of rage.

The monk that ran past disappeared around the corner to Pepper Park. Dustin signed, he thought he would walk down to Pepper Park later, once the effects of the Cron 55 beer had worn off, and he knew that would be a while today. The can of Cron 55 was a lot better than the Cans obtainable from the barkeepers of Neocron. He had often noticed the cans of Cron 55 dropped by Twilight Guardian members had a much fresher and stronger taste to them. Perhaps City Admin was trying to keep drunken disorder down in Neocron by reducing the alcohol content.

Dustin’s eye turned to the entrance of Pepper Park, when his ears exploded with the sound the monk who ran past earlier, screaming in agony. He was on fire, and just flapping his hands wildly trying to brush down the flames, but it was not having any effect, and then the monk just fell over and died all in a space of a few seconds. A bit unusual Dustin thought, as he knew that monk sent other runners fleeing from pepper park in flames, and those runners usually just survived or died very slowly if they was unlucky not to get any help, but someone just dying in seconds was odd. Perhaps a load of people in Pepper Park ganged up on the monk to dish their own revenge out to him.

Dustin felt a breeze of someone with a long thick purple cloak walking past. He looked up to see a tall young looking girl who was definatly a monk. Wow! Though Dustin, this girl got a nice sexy body, with her hair tied up nicely. Dustin could tell she was out to impress the boys with her choice of colours in her clothes which for the dullness of the city was very bright looking, perhaps she was off down to the clubs in Pepper Park.

Dustin face lit up and he smiled, "Be careful young lady”, he said drunkenly, that place is dangerous today."

The young girl smiled back and paused, "Thank you, I know this place is nasty at times." She then waved her hand and whispered to herself. Her hand glowed white, and then a bright white glow encircled her for a brief second.

Dustin looked more closely at the young girl to get her name on his RPOS, and read her surname. In an instant of familiarity he bolted up, dropping his can of Cron 55 all over the Plaza pavement.

"Hey wait...I know your father...that's right... he was famous for being the best constructor in Neocron.", slurred Dustin.

The young girl signed. Not another old bloke tying to chat her up she thought to herself, and she started walking away.

"Paul", blurted out Dustin, "That’s what his name was...Paul...that was his name.". The young girl stopped and turned to face him.

"Paul....yes that was the name of my father. I don't know much about him, except from my Grandmother. All I know he was killed, along with my mother in Tech Haven.", the girl said.

"Your mother...Susan?", ask Dustin.

The girl nodded in reply. Dustin Smiled, "The legacy of your family name lives on! There was many tales around the city here that the children of Paul and Sue did not survived, and now I see with my own two eyes that one of their two children lives."

"Two children...erm I was told I was the only child, I don’t have a brother or sister.", Lisa was starting to feel uncomfortable. “Look I better go.”

Lisa started to walk on into Pepper Park. She reached the first entrance to Neofrag, and she looked at the two guards. Lost in thought she pondered the question. Did she have a lost brother or sister? Why didn't her grandmother tell her? Lisa quickly answered the reason, why her grandmother may had not told her. One of the reasons was the radiation had made her forgetful. She was only briefly told that her mother and father had been killed in Tech Haven, but her grandmother was not able to tell her who had killed her parents or why.

Lisa realised she had been lost in thought for a few minutes, and the two guards were now looking at her with intense interest. She started to walk on towards sector 3 of Pepper Park.

While she was walking, Lisa made a decision. She was going to find out who her parents killers were. She had the money to buy information and hire people to help her. Then she realise, there was a minor problem. She didn't know many people who could help her. She ruled out her bank manager, as he seemed to know more questionable girls than useful contacts. Then the question of her lost brother or sister came to her mind again. Perhaps if she could find her lost brother or sister, then perhaps she would know the fate of her mother and father. However something was bothering Lisa right now, she had the feeling that someone was following her.

Lisa spun around, and heard a hissing sound in the distance. There was no-one behind her. The she heard the hissing sound again coming from her left. She looked to her left to see the subway entrance leading off to Pepper Park station. Lisa realised the hissing sound was nothing more than a subway tram door opening and closing. She refocused on her surroundings and realised she had walked all the way from sector 1 to sector 2 without realising it.

She sighed, and then heard some music start to kick in. She looked up, to see a sign for a place she hadn't spotted before. "Pepper Park Pub". Curiosity got the better of Lisa, so she decided to head into the entrance of the Pub. A bouncer at the door greeted her, and opened the door.

The pub was fairly quiet with groups of people all talking and drinking amongst themselves, and the music was playing at a volume just below the crowd noise. Lisa walked up to the bar. Lisa wondered what to order. Then her mind started to slip into the thoughts off her parents and the story the drunk had told her.

Her train of thought was broken by a voice. “Chill out Dude, you look like you got the world on your shoulder.”

“Hmm?”, replied Lisa, still feeling it bit lost.

“Here, let me get you a drink. You like to try something that will blow you mind away?”

Lisa smiled a little and held her hands out as if she was trying to say “Whatever!”. The monk turned to the barman and ordered two Blue Heaven Cocktails. A few moments later, the barman came back with two blue glowing drinks.

”Thanks.”, Lisa took a sip of the blue drink. “Wow!” The strength and taste of the drink blew her senses away for a second, but it made Lisa smile a little. She took another sip. After a moment she was feeling a lot more relaxed after the encounter with the drunk she had met a little earlier. “That’s better. Sorry about earlier. I’m Lisa.”

“SanityIsLost, or SiL as my friends call me. What’s bothering you?”

“Only some family history and what a drunk told me.”

Lisa began to explain, that she knew her parents was killed in Tech Haven, but she didn’t know who did it, or why. Then she talked about the drunk telling her that she was not an only child, but she had a Brother or Sister. Lisa wasn’t too sure if the Blue Heaven drink was making her talk easily, or it was the years of wondering who killed her parents.

“Woah! That some heavy shit! You want my opinion, I don’t think the Angels did it.”

Lisa looked at SanityIsLost. “You don’t sound like you are saying that, because you should say that?”

“Well yeah I am a Fallen Angel. It’s chilled because you can think what you like, and say what you like. Like if I said Sylvia Bennet had a new bloke, she would laugh at it, deny it or confirm it. Not like Reza who would have your brains blown out for starting rumours, if you was a member of City Admin.”

Lisa cringed, “That’s harsh.”

“Yeah I know. Here I got an idea about your parent records. Biotech has a great big database with family history. Maybe it’s worth a look in there?”

Lisa thought for a second. Maybe that was worth a try. She had to start somewhere, and it made sense to use official records. She picked up her drink and knock it back in one go.

“Ok I’ll do that! Now you want to try a Fire Wallbanger Cocktail?”

“Sure dude!”

As Lisa drunk the flaming cocktail, Lisa realised she had met a friend, who she could trust and talk to.

Lisa and SanityIsLost spent the rest of the evening drinking Pepper Park’s most daring cocktails, talking about every subject that they could.
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Chapter 8 - Family Records

Postby Lisa Merlins » Mon Oct 24, 2005 7:01 pm

Lisa woke up with a sore head. She looked at the clock, to see the time. It read 13:37 which meant she had managed to sleep through the alarm. She tried to remember what time she had got back to her apartment, yet alone how many drinks she had with SanityIsLost last night down the Pepper Park pub.

She laid back on her bed, in her apartment thinking for a second. There was something she had planned to do today, but the task she had planned for the day was escaping her. Sitting upright in her bed, she rubbed her head.

"Biotech.", she said to herself. Now she remembered what she had planned, to go to Biotech's HQ to seek out her family records.

She wasted no time getting up. She took a quick shower, and made sure her red hair was tied back. She was happy that she didn’t look a complete wreck from the drinking last night. There was only one slight issue, and that was the nailpolish. The purple colour nailpolish she had purchased a week earlier had ran out. This was not going to put her in the best of moods.

It was about one hour later before she arrived at Biotech HQ. The signs above the front desk, gave directions to each department within Biotech, but she could not see a sign for Family records.

She approached the female assistant standing at the desk. The assistant looked up, and smiled.

"Hi I'm looking to access my family records, how can I do that?"

"Just follow the signs to Genealogy Lookups. A search costs 100,000nc's and that includes a datadisk to copy records.", replied the assistant.

Lisa looked up and sure enough there was a sign over a door that said "Genealogy Lookups"

"That’s good.", said Lisa who mentally allowed 100,000nc to be transferred. The assistant handed over a data disk. "There you go; any problems come and see me."

She walked through the door to Genealogy Lookups, and sat down at the nearest available terminal.

Lisa typed in her name, and clicked on the "Quick Family Search" button. The terminal displayed a "Please wait" message before coming back a minute later.

"Immediate family members of Lisa Merlins" "Susan Merlins (Deceased - No further records available)" "Paul Merlins (Deceased - No further records available)"

Lisa looked at the display, and noticed another button. "Show family tree". She pressed the button on the display.

"This search will take 5 minutes to complete, please wait"

Lisa opened a bottle of Warbot cola, and sipped it while waiting for the terminal to complete it's search. Five minutes passed, and the display still said "Please wait". Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, and then finally after thirty minutes, the terminal displayed the message she was waiting for.

"Search completed, 12 family members identified, 1 family member not identified due to database error" Her attention was caught, by the error.

She looked at the family tree diagram. It looked all complete, so where was the error? Then she looked at her generation in the tree. It correctly displayed a tree, with her name, her mother and father, and a blank.

Very odd, she thought, as the Immediate family search showed herself and her parents, but the family tree search showed an extra member. Perhaps the drunk was right, she did have a brother, but this search was not making any sense to why the records where wrong.

She inserted the datadisk, and copied the data down to the cube for further reference, and headed back to the front desk.

"Excuse me, the family search has returned a database error.", she explained to the assistant at the desk.

"I'm sorry, that’s not possible."

“Well explain this.", she inserted the cube into the CityCom and called up the results of the two searches.

The assistant looked at the display. "Very odd, ok if you fill in this form, a system administrator will investigate the data error. This process can take up to seven weeks to complete."

"Seven WEEKS?", Lisa started to fill in the form, which thankfully was quite simple to complete and only took a few minutes to complete. "There you go."

"Thank you miss." Lisa turned and headed out of the Biotech HQ. Seven weeks was going to be a long time to wait.

Lisa’s wasn’t sure what to do next, as she walked back home to her apartment in Plaza 2. The only thing she could think of, was to call up SanityIsLost for some ideas on what to do next.

As soon as she got in the door of her apartment, she sat down at the desk to her citycom. She typed in SanityIsLost’s name into the terminal to call her. After a minute, SanityIsLost’s face appeared looking a bit worse for wear after last nights drinking.

“Hey Lisa chick! How’s it going?”

“I’m good.”

“That’s chilled. Any luck with those Bitotech Records?”

“Yes, I got some records back, except there was a database problem with a missing record.”

“That’s not so chilled.”

“SiL, you know any good people who are experts on database records? I got a copy of the records here.”, Lisa said waving the cube in front of the screen for SanityIsLost to see.

“Hmm yeah I do, there are some good guys in Phoenix who can help out.”

”Phoenix?”

“Dude you are a newbie around these parts, how come you don’t know about the wastelands number one vehicle company?”

“Ok ok! I’ve only been living here in Neocron for a week! But how is a vehicle company going to help me?”

”They don’t just do vehicles Lisa, trust me. Come over to Tech Haven, or don’t you know where that is?”

“That’s one place I do know where it is. Phoenix is a Fallen Angels faction company, that right?”

“Yeah they are dude!”

Lisa had a thought for a minute. What if the Fallen Angels was behind the killings of her parents? Well she knew she could get the records again, but could she trust the Fallen Angels?

At this time she didn’t have any other options open to her. “Ok I’ll give them a shot.”, she replied to SanityIsLost.

“Cool, see you in a few minutes at the genrep?”

“Erm I don’t have the genrep location.”

“Ahh. Tell you what there is an APC Taxi service that leaves from the Outzone gates that does to Tech Haven Sector 1. It will be leaving in about an hour, and it takes about thirty minutes to get here.”

“Ok I’ll meet you in Tech Haven shortly.”

Lisa closed the terminal, grabbed her long purple coat. She left her apartment to head to Outzone Station to get the APC Taxi service to Tech Haven.

ooc: Another chapter or two in a few days!
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Postby sanityislost » Tue Oct 25, 2005 3:21 am

Woooooooo nice one chick :D

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Postby Trillian » Fri Nov 18, 2005 3:35 am

You said the next part would be out in a few days. Quite a few "few days" Have gone by since then. Where is the next part?!?!?!

Good stuff btw :)
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Postby Morpheous » Sat Nov 19, 2005 2:14 am

Awesome... not so chilled delay tho :o

*Demands his next fix of RP stories*

Great stuff.
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