Disclaimer: I do not own any Resident Evil characters or Resident Evil terms but I do own anything else that is original, Kronos virus, everything about the project and much more coming in the next chps.
RESIDENT EVIL
CODE: Kronos
By Vickie1
Summary: It came in the email. By who? Unknown. But what she got is more important-a cry for help, leading Claire Redfield and three allies to a tropical island hidden from the world thanks to the power and money of HELIX Foundations. What they discover is not only the outbreak of a virus that outmatches any other in history but also an 11-year-old lie and a friend she thought was dead... It's a race against the clock to save 8,000 lives and more in this game of chess.
Prologue
"Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change." ― Stephen Hawking
28 May 2006, 7:58 P.M.
? ? ?
Tap, click, tap, tap, tap!
Access ({
hostname: 'localhost',
user id: '********',
password: '******',
database: 'internet access'
}).connect(function(web network))
({public string security firewall = 'offline';
private string network firewall = 'offline';
private string HELIX protection = 'offline';
}).run(function(bogus virus))
(run(function(anti-hacking alert))
}).initiate Anónimo program;
Click!
THE DARKNESS IN THE CYBERSPACE lit up like a Christmas tree. The realm around him shifted and twisted to make data into blue-lined 'physical' blocks. It was alive, forming the way he could interact – move freely just like anyone would in reality.
Minus the boundaries of course.
"Ok... Just need to get pass security and find the address."
It was still an open void but he could see the marker. Estimated over 500 kilometres away. Every footstep he took sent ripples through the grid lines.
Crossing the ocean was easy. But that was only if he didn't trigger any alarms.
Calm down. You've done this many times. Just a simple delivery.
He was smart but he was also scared. He pulled out all the safety measures he had. All the tricks he'd mastered over the years. One wrong move and it would take seconds for the hot shots to find him and the laptop in his bedroom.
The world ahead of him rose up with towering rectangles. The ripples below his feet crippled into soundwaves as he entered a coastal city.
Ok, he was out of HELIX's grounds.
"Anti-hacking software detected."
Ah, hostia.
He was expecting to be hounded even outside the island's network. Just not this early before he could execute another bogus virus to lead them astray. 'Anónimo' was a wanted man by every government agency out there.
"Anónimo, how many?" he asked.
"Five. 2 and 3 o'clock."
He found himself in a crossroad with two forks intersecting into it. In the distance, he could make out the slow, low-intelligent formless AIs swarming after him in the empty matrix world. The 'white-blood cells' of the internet's protection.
Sloppy programming. Made the attackers look like zombies.
"Too old school."
BANG! BANG!
His years of playing shooting games were paying off.
He ducked into the right fork after clearing it out, the marker ahead of him in sight. It was still a long way – probably would take thirty minutes on foot, straight line.
He didn't have thirty minutes. He was down to six out of a fifteen-minute window.
"Whoa!"
A giant red holographic barrier fell before him, blocking his way down the main street. A firewall.
And lovely. It was from DOD.
"Great!" He slammed a fist at the virtual wall. "Anónimo, I need a route to the nearest transport server. Hurry!"
The marker's location changed in a blink. Northwest, through downtown.
Huh. Kind of empty-
"Twelve in approach."
Nevermind.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
"Gah!" he yelped, foreign arms wrapped tight around his neck from the back. "Get off me, you carallo!"
With a strong swing, he elbowed his surprise attacker. He kept on moving, sending glimpses at the spilling data coming out from a scratch in his upper arm.
Just a flesh wound. He could patch it up later. Luckily, it wasn't severe but that didn't mean he couldn't be less careful. Unlike his games, attackers tearing his avatar apart wouldn't mean a game over. If he 'dies' in cyberspace, they'd be getting a free pass to his IP address in demi-seconds.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He cleared his path and in two minutes, he found his next point of interest and raced up a set of stairs.
"When's the next train leaving for Weston?"
"40 seconds."
"Great."
He kicked it into high-gear, save the ammo for later. The only good prompt about being in cyberspace was he could easily hopscotch over the gates without a ticket or guards.
His form of transportation began to leave.
"Time for some distraction," he huffed and scooped out a neon blue cube from his inventory. With a toss, the cube metamorphosed into an identical avatar. "AI dummy to Clear Rapids."
With a mind of its own, the second avatar headed to a second aisle while he leapt onto the long three-dimensional train. Before he shut the back door behind him, he peeked out to see the attackers climbing onto the second train.
He smirked. This made the fourth time DOD fell for that trick.
"Ok. Might as well enjoy the ride for a bit."
No matter where in the net, there would always be connections. Everything was connected. Through wifi, through bluetooth, through every circuit on board and outside the mobile vehicle. The virtual train he was closely resembling the train's real world, choked with all sorts of folks leaving for home while they thumbed away on their smartphones to kill the boredom. After all, the world was what made the net.
Moving through the compartments, he searched for something to patch up the hole in his arm – spotted a little virtual green entity of thin sticks and with a slap of it onto the arm, it instantly refilled the gap.
Good as new.
"Arriving in Weston."
What would have been two hours on a long-distance passenger transit between states in real life was about a small faction through the network's channels.
He hopped out the train. "Ok, next point."
The marker updated itself, the spinning abstract arrow a stadium-length away from where he stood. He ran.
A dying whistling sound entered his ears. Instinct took him to halt as the blocks before him dismantled and fell down through a bottomless pit. The streaming blue lines zooming into the once structured region ended before the dark ditch.
"Proxy servers shut down in west district."
"Well. They pulled out a blackout. Anónimo, alternative route."
The marker updated again. "Fourteen in proximity."
"Guess DOD's throwing everything at me this year."
Six minutes left. Time to brute-force it.
Attackers swarmed into the street he darted into. Five shots were fired and he quickly switched to his melee weapon. Whacked one down to the ground, he then smashed the AI's head with his foot. Data scattered and the body of information dematerialised.
"Twenty coming your way."
He glanced up. Halfway to his destination.
Five minutes left.
I can't stop now!
He kept going, scooped another three dummy cubes and tossed them to the floor. They'd have to be his troops. His clones swung out their own virtual firearms and fired at the overwhelming packs. But he knew it wouldn't be enough. More and more would keep on coming.
Unless DOD had a higher priority than him.
"Anónimo, send two dummies to their building server and hack in."
He watched the two hijack onto a bus transit link down one lane to another nearby city while the third one followed his lead. The horde was splitting up, the numbers relentlessly growing twice as faster as before and with more red roadblocks falling from the infinite sky.
His guess; another player, just as skilled as him, hired by DOD to catch people like him in cyberspace.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Four minutes. 25 kilometres away from the point
"DOD server hacked in. Power offline."
He and his partner had entered into an office building to escape the attackers. Through the clear windows, the blue lines of one single building sitting on the other side of the realm completely shut down, pitching away into the cyber world's darkness. With the shutdown of DOD's computer network, the dazed savage AIs fell onto their knees with the light in their eyes and their contour lines dying out. Dropping through the ground and into nothingness.
Thirty seconds of panic and darkness in the Pentagon.
It was smooth sailing from here on out but he still had to beat the clock. Another second of delay and he'd have no choice but to cut off his operation.
Back down to the first floor. He jumped through the glass. The other dummy followed without question. Both dove down a 50-storey building without fear. Without consequence. Both avatars landed on the virtual floor like superheroes surviving a freefall that far with no broken legs. Further from there, he and his AI friend jumped onto an internal bus network.
By the time the thirty seconds were up in the Pentagon, he was gone from their radar - already dropped off at his destination. From what he had gathered about the place before he started, it was a nice suburban neighbourhood within the street of tightly knitted apartments. Close to the nearest train station, a good school, low crime. Nothing fantastic.
He swiped his fingers at his AI friend, his touch converting it back into its cubic form and slotting it back into his inventory. "Traffic security footage."
The cyberspace shifted again, textures of brick, stone and grass simmering across the blackness. Lampposts and car lights lit up the one-way street. Although it should be past dinnertime now, there were a few people manifesting inside the cyber world– laughing, talking, enjoying the cold starry night in their real world. A couple walked right into him but he was a ghost, easily phrasing through their bodies of data.
Three minutes.
A SUV drove down the street, catching his eyes. A father, a mother and two kids.
His pace slowed down as his eyes followed the happy family driving by. Maybe coming from a dinner, he guessed. And later on, would be doing some get-together activity at their home before the kids went to bed.
Truthfully, he had a hint of jealousy...
He shook his head. Focus. And turned his attention to one of the apartments.
One wave of the hand and a small window interface blinked before him.
He checked it. The envelope icon flashed on the interface.
Ok...just a drop, a check, then plug out.
Smaller blue lines with circled ends glided into the building. At the side of the entrance, he touched them and in response, names appeared. Names of owners with their personal IP addresses inside the apartment.
One finger ran down the list.
"There."
It ended at Claire Redfield.
"Let's hope she's at home," he said and phrased right into the building.
He had heard the name but never met this person before. He had been told about her but not a lot. And no doubt once he sent in the message, Miss Redfield would be calling the government that her computer was hacked in by...him. However, he was the messenger today. Delivering something big and something important. Only to her and her alone. No one, not the FBI. Not the CIA or the BSAA. Nobody but her.
He wasn't sure why her. All he was told was that Redfield needed to have this email.
At all cost.
Game Objections:
-Follow the marker
Vickie: Hello everyone and welcome to the prologue of my new fanfic. Actually, this would be considered a revamped idea of an old RE fic I did long ago.
Come to think of it, I've been revamping my ideas a lot now and then.
Anyway, it's a complete revamp. What's more, because I've had study in game design, I'm writing this story like...it's a game to you. You can instantly imagine the prologue being your tutorial round through like any Resident Evil games, learning the basics and all. I'm very much hoping that this will not only be better than my original (now dead) idea but also that with me thinking of the plot like it's a video game, you're not only feel engrossed to it like it's a fanfic but also a game too.
However, this idea, I can see it as a big one for me to write alone. Even the next chapter, I know I'm gonna be struggling because I'm not that well-invested in Resident Evil. I do like some of the games but the lore, I'm not too sure here and there. Even on information, details bout characters, etc that ended in 1998 in the RE universe and never much continued on in the latest games.
So if you guys are really interested after the prologue, then I'd like to ask your help. I've already made a help forum post that I will often return to ask questions – at least to understand better of Resident Evil stuff and even real world stuff. Even brainstorm on backstories of existing characters that stopped at 1998.
You can help out here: www. fanfiction topic/5553/122610093/1/Resident-Evil-Kronos-Help-Post [just take out the spaces]
I really hope for your help and I will be thankful. This idea, I really want to write it just as much as I write any game document, but more of a story to you. But I know, I can't do it alone without info and your help.
Thank you again and I hope you enjoy the prologue for the time being. I don't know how long this will take me but I look forward to writing it. :) Please r'n'r!
P.S. I really hate the formatting the doc manager has. I had written the prologue very nicely, with paragraph spaces too. :/
Cover designed by me. :) Hope you like it too.