XL-Story: The fall of Tech Haven

[Lisa Merlins]

If one was to read the Neo-hiker’s guide to the wastelands one would note it says not a lot about Techhaven. The opening paragraph just says “It’s underground and blue – recommend using sunglasses.” Then it lists the traders which, as for any guide around these parts, are six years out of date.

Brammers though to himself he should consider buying out the publisher of the Neo-hiker’s guide and actually making it useful, but he was not going to do that today. The last few weeks had been exhausting with the bombing of the canyons by the Dome, and he had a bad feeling he wasn’t going to hear the last of it for a long time yet.

The lift he was travelling in upto the Phoenix store, slowed down and stopped. The door opened, and Brammers stepped out into the hallway. The sensor above the door recognised him, and automatically opened the main doors to the store.

He stepped into the quiet store, to see Maggie Blackstone and Lisa Merlins working away. Normally the store would be a behive of activity. The R&D department would be here working away on researching and construction vehicles and anything else they could get their hands on. Section 2 would be coming and going from their patrols and operations. However today, hardly no-one was about. The R&D department had been assigned to assist the Fallen Angels Science Council, while Section 2 was trying to keep the homeless Twilight Guardian in check, especially when visitors from other factions were about.

Brammers looked around the empty looking store.

“Good afternoon Sir”, greeted Maggie Blackstone.

“Mrs Blackstone, Miss Merlins”, Brammers replied and nodded. “I can’t stop long, as I’ve been summoned to a meeting with City Admin…Again.”
Lisa could tell Brammers was getting fed up with the current crisis. Trying to keep the homeless Twilight Guardian population under control was proving to be an impossible task.

“But first, any messages, may as well start with the 1st item on the list.”

“Yes Sir.”, replied Lisa. “First of all Dominion dropped in….waving a white flag I might add. He requested a meeting with you.”

“Dominion…not him again, I guess I’m going to hear why he betrayed the Faction by shopping Fallen Angels to AYB, and why it was justified. Ok tell him I’ll see him after the meeting with City Admin, 10 minutes no more.”

“Ok sir, next Alex Starr dropped in. He said the matter is not about vehicles this time, but the current crisis.”

“Understandable, but I’ll see him in the meeting I hope. In fact I’ll leave early and speak to him just before the meeting, ok I can handle that one.”

Lisa looked down the list to the next item and smiled a little. “This one is a lot simpler. Garyu69 came in. He requested approval for his new name.”

“Approval? Why does he need my approval?” Queried Brammers.

“Well the name changing process has to be sponsored by two Faction masters. I said I would be one…”

“…and I’m the second sponsor? That shouldn’t be a problem. What is he changing his name to?”

Lisa picked up the datadisc reader and showed Brammers.

“The History of Land’s End Radio?” Queried Brammers.

“Opps sorry Sir, that’s my current Ceres disc reading material”. Lisa picked up the 2nd datadisc reader and swapped the reader with the one Brammers had in his hand.

He looked at the datadisc and gave a little grin. “Hmm I like his new name.” He then pressed a button on the reader to give his approval.

“Finally Dough Rosenberg, the Diamond Real Estate designed called in. He has completed the designs early, and wished to be paid. I got to say he done a fine job. He said he will be back to talk to you in an hour, but I guess that not going to happen?”

“Unfortunately not, can you give him my apologies. Hmm I’ve not got the time to look. I’ll trust your word on this. Ok can one of you pay him when he comes?”

“Sure Mr Brammers”, replied Maggie.

“Excellent, now I have a job for you both. I’ve made an announcement to the Angels on the THN, to be ready for action in a few days. However not everyone is aware of the facts surrounding this crisis. I’ve read both the Neocronicles and the Voice of the Resistance, and I think they are fair articles.”

Maggie looked at Lisa, a little worried.

“Anything else?”, asked Maggie.

“I think that's all, any problems?”

“No sir”, the two girls chimed together.

“Ok be safe.”. Brammers went upstairs to the Genrep. Within few seconds he was gone.”

[Lisa Merlins]

“That sounds a big task Lisa.”

“It is a bit, can you get the VoTR articles up on the console upstairs I think the Techhaven Public Mainframe has them. The Neocronicle ones are a little more tricky, but I know my way around.”

Maggie went upstairs, and pressed a few keys on the R&D console, and began the task for getting the articles together.

Maggie set to work, if the files was available from the Techhaven Public Mainframe, then the job was going to be a lot simpler. She click on a few displays to access mainframe.

“Verified, Maggie Blackstone, Phoenix.”, chirped the computer. This could get annoying if the computer is going to speak all the time she did anything. She clicked on the option for VoTR news, and there it was, the newsflashes from the Canyon reporters.

She opened one of them, and re-read the horror of the Neutron bomb hitting the Canyons, it was not a pleasant read.

Maggie re-focused on the task in hand – get the news to the Techhaven Network for all the Angels to read. She requested them to be copied to the Techhaven Network.

“Copying in Progress – Newsflash one of two….completed.” Maggie smiled, this was proving to be very simple. “Copying in Progress – Newsflash two of two….Network congestion…Estimated time to copy – 5 minutes.”

Maggie sighed, maybe the job wasn’t quite so simple after all.

Downstairs, Lisa was just completing the compilation of articles. There didn’t seem to be much at all. Two Neocronicles released the same time as the VoTR and a new edition of the Neocroncile that came out a few days ago.

“Copying complete”, chiped the computer down in the shop area. “Links now available”

Edition 1 – http://forum.neocron.com/showpost.php?p ... ostcount=1
Edition 2 - http://forum.neocron.com/showpost.php?p ... ostcount=1
Edition 2.1 - http://forum.neocron.com/showpost.php?p ... ostcount=1

“Job done…” Lisa wondered upstairs to join Maggie, “Maggie how is it going?”
“Nearly there, there is some network congestion again….ahh it’s done.” The computer chirped again. “Copying complete, Links now available”

Newsflash 1 – PDF - http://www.techhaven.org/votr/newsflash01.pdf
Newsflash 2 – PDF - http://www.techhaven.org/votr/newsflash02.pdf

“Nice work there Maggie, you are getting better than me at using Morpheous’s software.”

“Oh it’s not so bad, hmm I think I’ll head off in a moment and see my Husband.”

“Why not, hmm who shall I see.” Lisa replied, and felt in her pocket for her nailpolish, when she heard a odd rattle from downstairs.

[Lisa Merlins]

The odd rattling continued to be heard in the store by Lisa. Maggie looked up from her console. Maggie noticed in the corner of her eye, that one of the plants downstairs was shaking a little. She looked at the plant, and then she looked at Lisa.

“Did you overwater the plant again Lisa?”
“No…not touched them all week. All the people who called today have been fiddling with it today.”

“Then why is that plant…”

Suddenly, there was a loud crack, as the case of the plant shattered into a thousand pieces of burning Gaminion. The two girls jumped back a few steps with the loud crack sound. Where once the plant was, there was a ow a glowing hot ball that was getting brighter, and making a high pitch roaring sound, that was getting louder by the second.

Maggie and Lisa covered their ears, and 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 a few metres away, and 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.

The noise stopped, and 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 picked the nearest open Genrep.

[Lisa Merlins]

The Genrep in Techhaven Sector two buzzed into life, and Maggie stepped out. She shivered as she adjusted from the heat of the store to the air conditioned comfort of Techhaven Sector 2.

Whatever that bomb was in the store was nothing she could even begin to comprehend. She held up her heal, and whispered to herself. “Guar de Santo” Immediately, she began to feel better, when she heard a dull thud from the direction of Techhaven Sector 1, and the ground briefly shook.

“What the hell was that”, Brammers asked in a sharp and urgent voice over the Phoenix voice link.
“Maggie here sir…someone set off…a bomb in the store.”
“What?! Who was in there?”
“Myself and Lisa… we both got out just in time via the genrep.”
There was a pause. Brammers spoke in a calmer voice. “Are you ok Maggie?”
“Yes…just shaken but I’ll be fine.”
“Ok Maggie I’ll get Marcus to check you over as soon as possible. Lisa, how about you”

There was an agonising silence of what seem like an eternity over the voice channel. The silence was broken by one voice.

“Lisa, report are you ok?”

[Morpheous]

Morpheous opened his eyes, to the sound of a loud thud. And the room shook violently for a brief second.

"Alert: Sensor node four offline."
Morpheous sighed and reached for his neural interface. He shut off the audible alert and looked at the last data readings.
Node four was the Phoenix store, with the inch square patch of sensors mounted next to the subprocessor.
He frowned and turned on clanchat.
"...damnit, can't get.."
Fragments of Brammers's and Maggie's voices shot over the link.
"Guys, what the hell is happening? Helios woke me, the store's sensors are off and I can't load the subproc unit..." Morph asked.
Brammers replied at once, but Morph had to tweak his suit to get a link stable.
"...bomb...some kind of *Crackle*... Comms are down, no casualties. Get to the lift, we're trying to get back in, we think Lisa is trapped inside."
"Roger that Brammers, on my way. Need any kit?" Morph replied
"Lots, but you tell me what- it's a mess, even to the lift. I heard it in TH2, despite the new soundproofing Maintainence put in.."
Morph held his hand over a scanner and a cabinet popped open. He pulled out a HEW Liquid Fire rifle and a set of PB20 drones, loading them and locking them into place on his back. He grabbed a LR-1 from a nearby shelf.

The lift ground into action, and almost jammed half-way down. He clipped his helmet on and locked the sealing rings down smoothly. His RPOS came online, and he loaded his chat window. Only clanchat and direct were usable here, meaning that comms were down for a fair chunk of TH1. He stepped out and greeted the members of eXo and Phoenix waiting at the lift, or attacking the lift with fusion and plasma.
"Evening Morph" said Brammers
"'lo Bram" he replied
"Want to take a look?"
"Sure. Got the lift open yet?"
"Looks like we just opened the doors..."
Morph stuck his head through the jagged hole that Melangior and Hiro Blackstone had made with their fusion cannons. Light shone from the top floor, where Phoenix was located.
"Looks ok. I can see light in the store though, shouldn't be there. What survived? The Helios subprocessor was armoured, that didn't survive..."
"Wierd. Lets get up there."
"Right."

The two tanks dragged the GravLift unit into place and Garyu69 powered it up.
"Should be working..." Gary said.
He moved back to the entrance but tripped on a piece of door, landing with his feet on the lift unit. He began to be lifted up by his feet, making defeated gestures down at the crowd below. Maggie hopped in and turned the lift off, and leapt out of the way as Gary fell to the floor. Wraith cast heal, and Gary walked carefully out, followed by Wraith and Maggie. The rest of the crowd finished laughing and started loading their guns.
"Well, we'd better take a look. Morph, got an LR-1?" Brammers was still laughing.
"Sure." replied Morph, grinning and placing the drone on the lift.
Maggie turned the lift on, avoiding the debris Gary tripped on carefully. The drones hit the endstop of the lift and activated. Morph hooked the cameras up to some Plasma screens.
"Right, lets power this up..."

'System online. Drone LR-1 'Oracle' online, pilot Morpheous. Drone LR-1 'Dromcam' online, pilot Brammers.'
"Dromcam?" asked several people
"Er..how did that get there?" grinned Brammers.

'Camera 1 online. Camera 2 online. Movement systems online.'
Morph and Brammers jetted forwards quickly, making the jump to the store's lobby. The door was burnt out, and they flew straight in.

[Lisa Merlins]

The two LR-1 drones flew into the store. Inside it was pitch black.
“Ok lights…wide field.”

The search beams fitted to the drones, turned on attempting to illuminate the area around. It was very difficult to make the out anything in the store. The walls was pitch black. Whatever this bomb had done it certainty had done a good job of destroying the store, Brammers thought.

Brammers flew his drone forward a little and did a slow 360 sweep of the area, trying to make any sense of the walls in the store. He then saw Morpheous drone search-light looking at his and moving upwards.

“You spotted something Morpheous?”
“No, but you drone….ahh the transparent arillium floor has gone.”
Brammers tilted the drone downwards, and the light immediately refracted in all directions. He could make out what looked liked a cabinet, which was heavily distorted. He powered the drone backwards and tilted the drone upwards to where the walkway was.

It was gone.

“The store is a complete mess… ok towards to Genrep Morph.”

The two drones Oracle and Dromcam flew out of the pit and towards the development area. All the cabinets that was there had melted into a lump of metal.

Morpheous sighed. “If Lisa was in there, when that bomb went off, she wouldn’t have survived.”

The crowd that was gathered remained silent. Gary looked down fearing the worse. Morpheous and Brammers continued to scan the area for the Genrep. A brief wave of static hit the display of Brammer’s drone. Confused, he turned the drone 360 degrees, and the searchlight illuminated the Genrep.

“My sense of direction is screwed in darkness…found the genrep, and it’s intact.” Brammers informed Morpheous. “Can you get a scan of the area for remains of lifesigns.”

Morpheous nodded, before realising Brammers wouldn’t have been able see him nodding. “Yes sir”

He adjusted his drone, and it tracked the path that Brammers had taken. He stopped short of where the genrep was.

“Enabling scans.” The plasma display started to show many different colours. Morpheous shook his head. “Helios analyse video feed from drone Oracle – identify any life signs.”

“Negative – no life signs identified.”
Morpheous took a deep breath. “Helios – identify any remains of life.”
“Negative – no remains of life identified.”
“Helios – enable data link to genrep…let see if the records are still intact.”
“Good thinking Morpheous.”, Brammers replied.
“Link enabled – data available.” Helios chirped.
“Ok retrieve outgoing records for today.”
“Retrieving….3 records found. Record 1 Time 9:20:22 – User: Brammers. Destination: City Admin HQ. Status: Cycle complete.”
“That’s sounds good so far.”, replied Brammers.
“Record 2 Time 10:15:07 – User: Maggie Blackstone. Destination: Techhaven Sector 2 Genrep A. Status: Cycle complete.”
“Record 3 Time 10:15:08 – User: Lisa Merlins…”
“Yes she made it!”, shouted Gary
“…Destination: Unknown. Status: Cycle complete.”
“Ohh…erm where is she?” asked Gary.
“Good question….” Replied Brammers, “One moment while I pull the drone back.”

After several minutes the two drones few out of the hole in the door down in Techhaven Sector 1, and dropped to the ground. Brammers walked around for a second considering his options. He was not going to give up until he knew for sure that Lisa was alive or dead, but so far he had no evidence to prove either theory, well except that she wasn’t in the store and had genrepped to an unknown destination.

“Ok Morph recall all members of Section 2 and any available R&D staff.” Brammers turned and looked at Garyu69 “Gary I request the assistance of eXo.”
“Of course Mr Brammers….tell me what you need.”
“We need to check every known and unknown genrep around the wastelands, and in Necoron.”

[Lisa Merlins]

The door open, and the runner stepped in. He handed the woman a piece of folded paper, and left the apartment almost as quickly as he arrived.
She opened the piece of paper and read the first line.

“Phoenix store destroyed.”

She let herself smile a little. Then she read the second line.

“Brammers reported alive.”

She screwed up the paper and threw it at the door and slammed the table with her fist in anger.

[Lisa Merlins]

The Neo-Hikers guide to Sector I12 is, for once informative. Most Neocron runners call this region the Desert if they had not visited it before. If you had been, as in most cases, unfortunate to visit this region, you would call it hell. And if you were the average GenTank, you probably go and demand a full refund at Miltary base on your power armour when it leaked in sand, before ganking the seller for refusing to give a refund. Unfortunately for the frequently changing seller at Miltary Base who sold the power armour, it was more of a case of being ganked first by the Gentanks, before being asked for a refund. For these many reasons alone the job Miltary Base Power Armour seller got voted the least satisfying job at Military base.

Like any other day in this sector it was very windy and dry. The strong winds was stirring up the sand into small sandstorms, making visibility virtually zero. No runner would be mad enough to be walking out in these sandstorms, and certainly no Drom would be here either. The only thing of note was a lone Rhino tank crossing the sector at full speed on it’s way to Tristar uplink in the sector next to I12.

The three occupants, Sedna, Kolesar and SanityIsLost had been searching all the genreps in the north east regions for any signs of Lisa. So far, nothing had turned up.

“Should be in Tristar in two minutes Sil”, said Sedna who was driving the Rhino at full speed.

“That’s Chilled, then we better report in to Tech Haven.” Replied SanityIsLost. SanityIsLost was worried about Lisa, then part of her felt she didn’t care about Lisa, but she was puzzled why she would think that. Maybe she would meditate on the matter latter with her pet, Herb back in Tech Haven.

Sedna thought for a second, “Kolesar, what you think…should I dye my hair?”

“Err to what colour?” questioned Kolesar.

“Hmm…dunno. Not green, since I did have that colour hair before my droning accident….and everyone in Fallen Angels seems to think green hair is in. With the exception of Lisa and me, Tricia and Siona have green hair, and I heard Ressi is going to change her hair colour to green as well”

“How about cutting it short and making it black. That would be very sexy and chilled!” sugguested SanityIsLost.

“Hmm…I like that idea.”, Smiled Sedna” Ok here we are, Tristar Uplink Genrep.”

The Rhino pulled up outside the genrep room. Kolesar jumped out and got his Silent Hunter out, and scanned the horizon for hostiles.

“Looks all clear, except for a group of Elite Storm bots gathered South. Hmm what they doing in this sector, they are normally on Patrol further North.”

“I don’t know dude. Sedna, get those genrep records checked, I don’t want to be around here too long with those stormies about.”

Sedna jumped out of the driving Seat and walked upto the genrep. She got out the link lead to her hacktool, and plugged it into the access port. She pressed a few keys on her hacktool and waited for thirty seconds for the hacktool to break the security layer. After thirty seconds, the tool beeped and started to download the records. Sedna examined the records and shaked her head. “Nothing here.”

“Damm that’s not chilled.” SanityIsLost replied. She walked over to the Rhino and activated the hypercom link to Techhaven.

“Brammers Sir?”

“Go ahead SiL”, replied Brammers.

“Tristar is a negative. That’s the whole North East Region checked out.”

“Understood. Ok then. Can you check out Krupp, Jeriko and Simmons? eXo ran into some problems with Tangent at Jankins, and are bit behind.”

“They ok Sir?”

“Oh yeah, they took a few injuries but nothing they could handle. And besides Tangent was well and truly Tea-bagged. eXo will be checking out Hawkins, Regents, Gravis, Redrock and Tryron”

SanityIsLost grinned. “That’s chilled – Ok we are on route to Krupp. Out”

Sedna jumped into the Rhino and started the tank up again and revved up the engine. Kolesar and SanityIsLost jumped in the back. The Rhino left at full speed for Krupp.

[Lisa Merlins]

Tyron Factory Genrep. Unusually it was a sunny day. And for the occupants for the Reveller that pulled up, they was pleased that it wasn’t raining as usual.

Allure in the Reveller turned off the Engine. Garyu69 and Belkin jumped out. Garyu69 looked around.

“Ok keep your eyes peeled, I don’t want Tangent pulling another surprise today.” said Garyu69. He walked up to the Genrep and crouched next to it. He got out his link lead and plugged it into the socket on the genrep. He opened the display on his hacktool, and pressed the start key. Straight away the display on the hacktool went blue.

“Dammit” frowned Garyu69. He got up and walked back to the Reveller and fetched a spare hacktool. He unplugged the link lead from the old hacktool and plugged it into the new hacktool. He opened the display and pressed the start key. Success, the hacktool leaped into life. He waited 30 seconds for it to complete it’s hacking sequence. The tool then beeped and started to download the genrep transaction records.

Garyu69 scanned the records and stopped at one record and stopped at one record.

It read “Record 79 Time 10:15:09 – User: Lisa Merlins. Source: Techhaven. Status: Cycle incomplete.”

“Incomplete?” asked Garyu69. He stood up, “Seems she came to this genrep, but the cycle didn’t complete. Look around for any signs or traces of her.”

Allure and Belkin started to look around the genrep building. Straight away Belkin spotted something glinter in the grass. He walked up to it and picked up a PSI module of incredible quality.

“SIR!” Shouted Belkin. Garyu69 ran over to the spot where Belkin was standing. Belkin handed him the PSI module. Garyu69 examined the module very closely. “That looks like Lisa’s Holy Lightning spell. In fact I’m pretty sure. Allure can you look?”

Allure walked over and took the PSI module. “It feels and look like hers, from when I last looked at it….shall I try it?”

Garyu69 nodded. Allure held the PSI module and whisphered to herself. “Lampo Santo” A bolt of energy hit a nearby rusty bolt and burnt a hole in the top panel. “That’s her spell all right.” She handed it back to Garyu69.

“Better call Brammers up.” Garyu69 said, as he started to adjust his hypercomm.
”Go ahead Garyu69” Brammers replied.

“Mr Brammers Sir. Lisa came out at Tyron Genrep, and we have recovered her Holy Lightning spell. Can you get the other teams to come here so we can expand the search?”

“What time did she get there?”

“10:15:09 Sir”

There was a long silence on the hypercomm.

“Negative on the search Garyu69.”,Replied Brammers, ”Bring the spell and the genrep records back to Tech Haven. We have a bigger mystery on our hands now. I’ll explain everything when you get here.”
Allure and Belkin both looked at Garyu69 very puzzled.

[Lisa Merlins]

The doors opened to let Garyu69, Belkin and Allure walk into the Phoenix Rare storage apartment in Techhaven Sector 1, which was the makeshift location for the Pheonix store. Inside waiting was SanityIsLost, Sedna, Kolesar, Brammers and Morpheous. Kolesar and Sedna was busy studying something under a microscope.

Garu69 walked upto Brammers. “Whets happening?”

“Let Kolesar and Sedna have the spell and give the Genrep records to Morpheous”

Garyu69 handed the Hacktool to Morpheous. He placed it near a remote access point, and pressed a key on his terminal.

“Garyu69, sorry for calling you back like that. But it seems there is a problem. You see SanityIsLost’s team recovered a Holy Lightning spell from Simmons Factory. They described it as belong to Lisa’s like you did. Also they have genrep records saying she arrived at Simmons genrep…at precisely 10:15:09”

Garyu69 eyes opened up. “You saying she arrived at both Genreps?”

Brammers Nodded “From the initial reports from yours and Sanity’s team, that what the conclusion is. Morpheous is double checking the records for any time difference and....”

“That’s impossible…”, shouted Sedna from the other side of the room. Brammers and Garyu69 walked over to the microscope. Sedna was shaking her head.

“Sir!”, began Sedna. These two Holy Lightning’s are identical down to the molecule signature.

This time Brammers was taken aback. “That’s..impossible. What are the stats on the spell?”

“4 slots, 2 are used. 120 on damage, frequency, handling and range. It also has your own signature on it as well…and that’s also on the 2nd one.”

Brammers looked very puzzled. He walked over to the go-guardian and opened it. He pulled out a red book, and opened it. “Unless my records are wrong, and my memory is wrong, I’ve only ever made one Holy Lightning with four slots.”

Kolesar looked up from the Microscope. “Sir I agree with Sedna’s findings…the two Holy Lightning’s are identical…even if it is impossible.”

Garyu69 was even more puzzled. “So what does all this mean?”

“Garyu69, it’s impossible for any constructor to create something that is 100% identical. The parts, chemicals and blueprint copy makes every item unique. I may build something with the same stats, slots and construction signature, but the molecule signature will always be different. The chances of a normal weapon having the same molecule signature are so slim that it’s like 1 chance in 800 billion. And for a rare weapon like this holy lightning…well the number is just insanely long.”

Morpheous turned around from his Terminal. “Sir, the genrep time records are correct and in sync.”

Brammers walked up the room lost in thought. He looked for a long second at the wall, before turning around. “It means there are now two copies of Lisa’s spell and also two Lisa Merlins walking around the wastelands.”

“Ermm that’s not quite correct Sir.” Morpheous replied. “The grenrep cycle records are marked as incomplete. I checked them further. It seems they got to stage 2 and aborted. You see stage 1 is opening the connection from the source, stage 2 is where the runner’s items are materialised. Stage 3 is when the runner themselves materialises, and Stage 4 is the final alignment stage.”

“So her weapons appeared at both genreps but not Lisa?” Garyu69 summed up.

“Correct” replied Morpheous.

Brammers walked up and down the room again. “So…whats the connection between Tyron Factory, Simmons Factory and two Holy Lightning spells?”

The room went quiet for a whole minute. The silence in the room was broken when the doors to the apartment opened. Maggie Blackstone walked in looking out of breath.

“Boss, I’ve got big news. Lupus Wonderboy has resigned as Faction Counsellor.”

The room remained in silence, everyone was completely stunned by the latest news.

[HusK]

[ooc:] haven't be around much anymore, but seriously this story ROCKS big time!! Its (almost...?) surpassing NERD quality. [/ooc]

[Morpheous]

[OOC]Nice agree with Husk here
I might write some more RP stories, but i'm not playing anymore so it's kinda hard.... moving to EVE Online btw [/OOC]

[Lisa Merlins]

“Say that again…” Brammers asked Maggie.

“Lupus has resigned – it’s in the latest edition of the Voice of the Resistance. And I just called in at his office, and he confirmed it to me in person. He also requested a meeting with you and Garyu69 at 23:00 NST in the prime bore he said…but I don’t know where the prime bore is.”

Garyu69 and Brammers looked at each other. They was amongst the few people in Fallen Angels who knew where the prime bore was.

“23:00 that's 10 minutes away. We better get going. Everyone here, get to the bottom of this dam mystery. Call in anyone from the other departments to help if needed.”

Garyu69 and Brammers left the apartment, and took the lift down to sector 1. The lift door opened and they stepped out. There was a few Twilight Guardian sleeping on the floor. Brammers looked at them for a brief second before opening the door to the connecting corridor between the main corridors of Sector 1 and 2A to 2C entrances. They waited for the door to close behind them. Instead of going straight on they took a right into another section that lead to the deepest sections of Sector 1. Brammers and Garyu69 passed through 3 more doors before they approached they final door and opened it.

The two runners stepped into the bottom of the long shaft of Techhaven sector 1 which lead to the surface. It had long ladders running up to the top and no gravlift. The entrance at the top had been sealed since City Admin had set up their scanning station outside Techhaven to keep an eye on the Fallen Angels.

“I just hope I don’t have to climb up to the top today.” Brammers said looking up to the top.”

“Not today…a voice came up from above Brammers and Garyu69. Come up to the 2nd platform.”

Brammers and Garyu69 obliged and climbed the ladders to the 2nd level.

“I bet none of you know why Thomas Cooper and his 62 followers choose to bore a shaft at this point in the mountains.”

Brammers and Garyu69 looked at each other. “No sir”, replied Garu69.

“Well for a start the ores in this part of the mountain are very unique. It seems that scanning signals cannot penetrate from the outside into this area, yet any scanning equipment located in here can scan the outside world, and not be detected. The perfect natural cloak, except we don’t do anything like that now. It was used for a while in the early days of Techhaven against Crahn.”

Brammers and Garyu69 sat down on the ledge of the 2nd level.

“The Fallen Angels Science Council knew this, so they sealed the door at the top, for…lets just say safety reasons.”

Brammers started to get a little impatient. “Sir, I’ve had a long day…and not the best of days. My store has been blown up, Miss Merlins is missing in the most bizarre circumstances, and now I hear you have resigned. Why Sir did you resign?”

Lupus stood up. “Lets face it Brammers, the Angels are in a very difficult position. City Admin have never liked us being friends with Twilight Guardian, but as least they have accepted it. Yours and Zane Shadowfall's work in making Techhaven as safe to all visitors has paid off. However, the incident with Dome of York bombing the Canyons has changed things. The Angels felt obliged to help the Guardians, which was the correct thing to do. After all how many times have they helped us when Tangent or Black Dragon wanted to storm this place.”

Brammers nodded in agreement “That's true...until City Admin decided take advantage of the situation when we were moving them all from the canyons. City Admin and the Angels did engage a few times.”

Garyu69 shook his header. “Although their excuse for attempting to control both of the Tech Haven entrances, just doesn’t wash with me. Like hello City Admin, the Dome nuked the Canyons, doesn't their listening devices tell them that most of the guardian want to take on the Dome....not City Admin?”

Brammers though for a second and he knew Garyu69 was right “I quite agree, I could see the logic of them controlling the south entrance, but the north, I would expect those NE2250 scout units to be out there.”

“I would agree, something is fishy there.”, Lupus said. “Now as for the relations between Dome of York and the Angels, they are not good either since we, again... help Twilight Guardian fight against their enemy to steak the blueprints from their lab and destroy it.”

Brammers and Garyu69 wasn’t going to argue with point Lupus made.

“So we now have a problem.”, Lupus continued.”The relations between Dome of York and City Admin to the Angels is very frail, because we sided with the Guardians. As you know, its split the faction down the middle. One half saying we shouldn't be involved and the other saying we have a duty to help the guardians. Both have valid arguments, and all these arguments got a lot louder when we had the bomb blueprints.”

“I've been listening to both sides as well. Trust me it's been driving me around the wall, but all this doesn't explain your resignation. Or does it?”, asked Brammers.

“Well I was getting to that bit...I had an idea which ultimately lead to my resignation.”

Garyu69 tapped his finger on the ledge. “And your idea was?”

“Quite simply, let the faction split in two.”

Garyu69 and Brammers looked at each other wondering if they had really heard Lupus correctly.” WHAT?”, they both exclaimed.

Lupus repeated his last statement slowly. “Split the faction in two.”, he waited for Brammers and Garyu69 to absorb the big idea, before carrying on. “What we would have is Fallen Angels on one side like yourselves, and the non-fighting traders on the other side.”

Garyu69 shook his head. Something wasn’t adding up. “Ok last time I checked, Fallen Angels are free minds. People don’t resign over ideas even if they are bad ideas…And if you ask me this does sound like a bad idea.”

Lupus smiled a little. “I’m still a free mind and I didn't resign over the idea. Well quite simply the Fallen Angels Science Council approved of the idea, and needed to appoint a faction leader. This is where I stepped in, and obviously I can't have two jobs in two different factions. So I said I would lead the new faction.”

Lupus, Garyu69 and Brammers debated the merits and the problems of actually creating a new faction would bring, to both Tech Haven and the rest of the world. At first Brammers wasn’t too keen on the idea, but after a while he realised that Lupus and the Fallen Angels Science Council was set on the idea and there was very little he could do to change it.

After about thirty minutes, everyone had agreed their had made their points, right or wrong, and it was now the time to accept that there was going to be a new faction.

“Well”, Brammers concluded, “It’s going to be interesting this new faction, but we can continue this another day. Time for me to call it a night.”

Garyu69 got up first, as he was keen to also call it a night.

Lupus got up and smiled. “Be Safe you two”

“Keep a free mind”, Brammers replied.

“Form a society” Lupus replied.

“I think you just did Lupus....Oh what are you going to call the new faction?”, grinned Garyu69.

"I'm still working on that.", replied Lupus.

Brammers got up and started the short decent down to the bottom of the shaft. Garyu6969 and Brammers left the long shaft and headed back to the main corridors of Techhaven Sector 1.

“Hmm you fancy a drink at Leroy’s Bar”, asked Garyu69.

“No not tonight…much I would like to. I really need to see Tricia. I’ve been neglecting her with this crisis.” Brammers began to smile a little.

Garyu69 knew Tricia was one special girl to Brammers. He also wondered how Brammers managed the endless juggle of keeping Phoenix going, running the Fallen Angels Faction, and also keeping the one he loved happy as well. One night Brammers while a little drunk admitted that if he had to choose one of the three, he would choose Tricia anyday. Garyu69 remembered something else. He thought he would mentioned it to Brammers now, but decided against it.

“Hmm….on 2nd thoughts I think I will turn in as well.”

“Ok then Be Safe Mr Garyu69” replied Brammers
Garyu69 headed of in the direction of entrance 1A while Brammers headed off towards Entrance 2C to Tricia’s apartment.

Garyu69 got to entrance 1A, and typed in his password to his apartment. The lift moved up slowly to the level of his apartment, and stopped. The door open and he stepped out into the lobby of his apartment. He pressed the buzzer and the doors opened. He walked over to the drinks cabinet and got out a bottle of Jack.

He opened the bottle took a swig and sat down. He looked at his terminal on the other side of the room, and saw the display. “You have 1 new message waiting” it said in bright blue.

Garyu69 was a little surprised, as the blast at the Phoenix store blew most of the communication lines to Techhaven Sector 1. He knew that the technicians were working flat out to restore communications to sector 1, but he wasn’t expecting his to be working so soon. Perhaps he was one of the lucky ones to have his link restored, or maybe it wasn’t damaged in the first place.

Garyu69 though he better check the email just in case. He got up from his seat and walked over to the terminal, and pressed a key to open the new email. The display changed and started to display the contents.

Code: Select all

To: Garyu69
From: Lisa Merlins

Garyu69 hope he wasn’t going to be reading Lisa’s final message. Then he looked at the next line.

Code: Select all

Sent: 23:15NST

Garyu69 looked again at the time. It still read “Sent: 23:15NST”. That meant Lisa had sent the message in the last 30 minutes, while he was meeting Lupus. Garyu69 hoped no-one in eXo was playing a very cruel joke on him. He scrolled down to the body of the message and immediately was puzzled.

Code: Select all

Character set not found: Raw data stream.
110 01 010 1011 001   00 1   00 000   0100 00 000 01   010 0 100   10 01 00 0100 000   0000 0 0100 0110   00   01 11   1 010 01 0110 0110 0 100   00 10 000 00 100 0   110 010 01 0001 00 000   001 0110 0100 00 10 101
End of Steam.


Garyu69 went to open a commlink.

[Lisa Merlins]

It was 9:00NST in Techhaven Sector 1. Brammers entered the cramped apartment which was serving as the temporary location for the Phoenix HQ. Inside the apartment was almost full with people all in full conversation.

Straight away he could see the full complement of the Phoenix Management staff, all recalled from their various assignments, and several more eXo members. Brammers immediately saw nearly all his Senior management staff was here. Ben, Husk, Morpheous, SanityIsLost, Wraith Nightcaster, Renegade Maggie Blackstone and her husband Hiro Blackstone.

He then spotted Marcus Blade and Michael Blade upstairs, and it looked liked the two brothers was arguing about something as usual. From eXo Brammers could Garyu69 was here, with Krunky, S3-X0, Belkin and Allure.

Brammers raised his hand, to silence the room, and the conversation stopped. Morpheous looked up from the terminal and got up.

“Ok Morpheous, report”

“We think we have located Lisa Sir.”

“Think? I need something better than that….Ok tell me what you got.”

“Ok Sir. Right, last night the message Garyu69 got a message from Lisa on his Citycomm. We not been able to decipher the message she sent, but one thing for sure the message wasn’t a prank message and we did track the route it came. It came in the Techhaven gateway via link 2, which leads to several uplinks.”

Morpheous walked over to the table and picked a large rolled up map.

“Yesterday you asked the question what’s the connection between Tyron Factory, Simmons Factory and two Holy Lightning spells. Well if you ignore the Holy Lightning spells you have two genrep, which are, unusually linked by underground cable links, rather than satellite links to Gravis Uplink.”

Morpheous rolled out the map on the floor.

“Link 2 also connects to Gravis uplink”

“And the two Holy Lightning’s? Where do they come in?”

“We are still puzzled by that one. This is what I propose. We take Gravis Uplink and get control of it. Then the hackers can scan the systems for any signs of her, without having to worry too much about security programs interfering or excessive data. This would keep the risks to Lisa to a minimum….if she is trapped inside Gravis Uplink.”

Brammers looked around the room. “Anyone else have anything?”. No-one said anything.

“Ok I guess this is the best lead we have. You have a go, get a team ready to take Gravis…who is holding it?”

“Freedom Force Sir”, a voice shouted from the back.

“That’s good news, I’ll go and speak to Lore and ask for a peaceful handover of the op.”

Garyu69 got up. “There was a lot of Tangent in the north of that area yesterday, can we come along as well?”

“Please do….Morpheous how long will this take?”

“Could be hours, or days or weeks….no idea Sir”

Brammers looked back at Garyu69. “I think we need a good size force if the hackers are to work there with the minimum of risk.” Brammers turned back to Morpheous. “Ok take a force to Gravis. Awaiting for my authorisation to hack the op off Freedom Force.”

Morpheous picked up the map from the floor to avoid it being tramped on by the whole room. “Ok everyone, we take Rhinos, vehicles and travel on foot to Gravis – no genrepping, I want to keep the data traffic as low as possible in Gravis. Meet outside Techhaven exit 1 in 15 minutes. Lets go!”

Garyu69 remmebered from last night to have a word with Brammers. He approached. “Can I have a quiet word Sir?”

“Sure…” Brammers could tell from Garyu69’s look that he wanted a private word. They waited for the room to clear.

“Ok Garyu69, whats on your mind?”

“Sir, just wondering, has Section 2 paid any attention to who bombed the Phoenix store?”

“No they haven’t. Getting Lisa back has been the top priority for them.”

“I was giving it some thought, and I was wondering. Who was the attack aimed at? Fallen Angels, Phoenix…or yourself?”

Brammers stopped to think for a moment. “Hmm…Good question. No-one has claimed responsibility, and the store so burnt out, none of the teams have turned up any clues. Whoever did it didn’t wish to be identified. If it was an attack against Fallen Angels, or Phoenix, then we have the usual suspects. And all my personal enemies are in the list of the usual suspects who have their own clans with plenty of firepower to attack me. Tell you what, as soon as we get the uplink secured, I’ll have a meeting with Section 2 and see what they have turned up”

“Ok Sir, but I do recommend you have bodyguards with you sir at all times.”

“You know how much I hate having bodyguards with me.”

“Well do it for Tricia, she really hates seeing you get hurt.”

Brammers wasn’t going to argue with that. He open his commlink. “Husk?”

“Yes Sir?”

“Could you arrange….a bodyguard please for me please.”

“Of course Sir…erm who’s made a threat?”

“Just a precaution, since we don’t know who the store bombing was aimed at. Could be me, Phoenix or the Angels.”

“That’s true sir…I’ll get some of the other section 2 staff to look into it more…and I’ll be along shortly sir as your Bodyguard.”

“Thank you Husk”.

Brammers started to make his way to the Faction offices, where he knew Lore of Freedom Force was most likely to be.

[Lisa Merlins]

OOC: Can you crack the code?

So Garyu69 has a message, and no-one can crack it...here it is in full.

Code: Select all

To: Garyu69
From: Lisa Merlins
Sent: 23:15NST
Character set not found: Raw data stream.
110 01 010 1011 001   00 1   00 000   0100 00 000 01   010 0 100   10 01 00 0100 000   0000 0 0100 0110   00   01 11   1 010 01 0110 0110 0 100   00 10 000 00 100 0   110 010 01 0001 00 000   001 0110 0100 00 10 101
End of Steam.


So you fancy a Challenge? Who can crack the message? The first person to PM me, with the cracked message, and how it was encoded gets.

1. 200k in cash to any of your characters on Terra.
2. And a special painting of my nails exclusively to you with the colour of your choice, for your own pleasure!

The solution will be up in the next few parts so you have about a week. So get cracking everyone and take it easy!