A/N: So, after months of work, I'm excited to share with you my very first writing effort, Orion Cyber Security Systems. This is an AU story quite separate from Canon, though it features our favorite characters as well as some of the not so favorite ones….and NO INTERSECT. With respect to the characters, I not only deviated from canon around the individual backstories, but I also made them different people in terms of confidence, competence, etc. The story will run some 35 or so chapters including the epilogue, of which 32 are already completed. The individual chapters are longer than many of the works I have been reading, with word count ranging from about 5k to 10k words per chapter, but sometimes you get on a roll, and …..
As for the release schedule, I am hoping to release a chapter per week, ideally on a Friday, to give everyone who cares an opportunity to read over the weekend.
A/N2: The story has a "T" rating for some language and adult themes (not explicit or graphic.) If you are offended by content, you are welcome to change the channel and read something else. I hope you will not be offended, but if you are, I will not be.
A/N3: The list of authors I should thank for inspiring, motivating, and guiding me is longer than I can manage here, but I would like to thank Nevr in particular, who not only pre-read, but Beta'd my work. Thank you Nevr…and thank you everyone else!
A/N4: I write for my enjoyment and my self-therapy, but if you enjoy the story, please review and check out the Chuck FanFic page on Facebook. If you don't like the story, or my writing, totally cool, just go read something else and have a great day….
A/N5: I don't own Chuck, and make no money from this exercise, but if I did, I would expect some of you to kick my rear for not doing more with such an amazing property!
Prologue:
Monday, 1 November 2010 – 09:00 am Pacific Standard Time
Culiacan, Mexico – Ramon Salazar Residence
"This is CNN," the severe voice of James Earl Jones boomed from the large screen television.
"Good morning, this is Wolf Blitzer reporting, and this morning's headline is the mammoth drug bust that took place late last night in the waters off San Diego. With support from the U.S. Coast Guard, the DEA intercepted a World War 2 Russian Foxtrot class submarine that was allegedly decommissioned in 1999, as it was unloading a vast quantity of contraband onto a light freighter just inside U.S. territorial waters. The bust is valued at over $200 million."
The large plasma screen exploded as Ramon Salazar, head of the Culiacan drug cartel, pulled out a massive gold-plated Desert Eagle .50 caliber pistol and fired 4 rounds into it. In his other hand, he held a phone, into which he was screaming.
"How the fuck did this happen? How did the fucking DEA and the fucking Coast Guard find my fucking submarine in the middle of the fucking ocean?" Salazaar screamed, then fired another 3 rounds into his smoking television set.
Salazaar was enraged. The DEA's seizure included over 2,000 pounds of cocaine, heroin, and smorgasbord of pills. The haul also counted 30 cases of firearms, including 10 full cases of AK 47's and 4 cases containing M-72 LAW (Light Anti-Tank Weapons) rockets which were unguided shoulder-fired missiles. Finally, there were 30 females onboard ranging in age from 14 to 29, intended for the booming sex trade. All of that product was committed to customers across the U.S. and now he would need to figure out how to make good on the commitments, as well as figure out who he needed to kill for the error that cost him so much.
Augusto Milan was the Culiacan Cartel's senior man in the U.S., and he was currently holding his phone a wise 12 inches from his ear. Now was probably not the best time to remind his Boss, the head of the most ruthless Cartel on the planet, that it might have been a bad idea to put so much value at risk in a single shipment. Life expectancy as a Cartel member was laughably short for the troops, but it was not much better for the more senior ranks as Salazaar was notorious for taking his displeasure out directly on his lieutenants.
"Jefe, I have no idea how the sub was intercepted. I had no idea about the timing, the route, or the coordinates of the rendezvous. Who had access to that information?" Milan asked, ensuring that his loyalty would not be called into doubt.
"We left the tactical details to the Captain of the sub to arrange. Now he is either dead or arrested, as is much of the crew, so whoever gave us away is already out of my reach. Fuuuukkkkk!" Salazaar's mind was racing. Perhaps he had been going about this all wrong. Milan had warned him that making such a high value shipment was a risk, and Milan had been proven right. As Salazaar considered the situation, he had an idea. Perhaps the answer was not to get more creative on smuggling….yes, using planes, boats, and even submarines had proven successful in the short term, but once the Federales figured out what you were doing, they figured out how to shut it down. What he needed was a more strategic approach. A bolder approach.
He slumped on his white leather couch, tossing the gold pistol on the empty seat next to him and rubbed his eyes as the thought. Then it came to him. A vision so bold and so clear, that even facing the loss of a shipment with a street value of around $200 million, he started to smile.
"Augusto, what was the name of that Gringo in D.C. you mentioned might be a powerful ally….?" Salazaar asked.
"Graham, Jefe. Langston Graham. He is the Director of Special Operations at the CIA and a greedy and corrupt bastard, but he has enormous influence at his fingertips," Milan replied cautiously. "What are you thinking Jefe?"
Milan was suddenly very nervous. Making a deal with Graham was like making a deal with Harvey Two-Face…..except that Milan's own neck would be on the line if Graham fucked the Cartel for his own gain.
"Augusto, what if we had people inside the DEA, the CIA, the FBI, and the Department of Justice? What do you think we could accomplish if we had a few senior, well placed people on the payroll like this Graham person?" Salazaar let that idea float for a moment allowing his trusted lieutenant to give it some consideration.
Milan was turning the questions over in his head 'Jesus….is he seriously thinking about buying off the intelligence and law enforcement arms of the U.S. Government?' he thought quietly.
"Jefe, we would need more than Graham on board, and we would need to know who the right people are."
"That's true Augusto. Have you ever heard of Archimedes? He was a mathematician and inventor in ancient Greece. He once said that with a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, he would move the world. Fitting words don't you think?" Salazaar asked pausing again to continue his thoughts. "Our lever will be money, and when that is not enough, we will put some of your boys to work to make sure that people we want do what we want….Graham will tell us who we need to get on board. He will be our fulcrum."
"Fulcrum project…I like it Jefe" Milan replied enthusiastically.
"Call your gringo, and let's set up a meet. Once we give him a taste of some money, this will all start to fall into place. And he will help us go after senior people in the DOJ, the DEA, the FBI…..and maybe a few more. We won't need too many, just the right ones, and they need to be senior enough to steer the way their organizations operate. If we can make that happen, we not only help ourselves, but we can use the resources of the U.S. government to go after our competition."
"Si Jefe. I'll have my guy get to Graham right away.
"Excellent. If we do this right, we can expand the model to other countries…..no one will be able to stop us…but what we need to do now is build our control of the intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the U.S. If we have those two things, there is no limit to the money and power we can achieve."
= ! =
Chapter 1 - The Rise of the Piranha:
Tuesday, 16 November 2010 - 11:00 am Pacific Standard Time
Palo Alto California - Starbucks Coffee Shop
"You did not just do that….." cried Morgan, Chuck's best friend from childhood. "That is incredible….wait, are you sure we won't get in trouble for this?" he added quietly, looking around the café, suddenly nervous.
"Don't worry about it, buddy. I got this. No one can touch the Piranha…!" Chuck responded with a flourish. And Chuck was right!
Chuck Bartowski was currently in his final year of his Master's in Computer Science from Stanford. His father, a computer scientist with a prodigious knowledge of computer hardware and software design, immensely enjoyed having his young son spend much of his childhood in his lab, learning about computers and the language that made them work. So it was not too much of a surprise that Chuck took to computers like a fish to water. Aside from being exceptionally intelligent, Chuck was inquisitive, always looking for new things to figure out. Naturally, when Chuck first started to explore the internet, he found himself in an almost infinite playground full of opportunities, and none piqued his interest more than figuring out how to sneak into different sites for fun. Over time, what was originally a way for a smart but bored teenager to entertain himself became the path that created a world-class hacking virtuoso. Chuck intuitively understood software and hardware at a level few did and could almost see the digital connections, perhaps the same way that Mozart saw the notes in his head. However, unlike most hackers, Chuck was not driven by greed or politics, so he vowed to do no harm with his hacking. Like some street artists, the challenge was accessing something inaccessible and leaving a tag that let people know you were there. It was the thrill of beating the system and the challenge of not getting caught, and there was no one better at this game of cat and mouse than Chuck's alter ego, the "Piranha."
The skills he developed, coupled with his intellectual capacity, earned him a full academic scholarship at Stanford University. He graduated at the top of his class with degrees in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. On graduation, chuck joined Roarke Instruments, one of the world's largest tech companies in Silicon Valley. While at Roarke, he developed anti-virus software for the consumer market and became recognized as a rising star. However, he found the work unrewarding and quickly grew to detest the politics of the large corporate environment. After two years, he left Roarke to pursue his Masters in Computer Science at Stanford, planning to eventually partner with his lifelong best friend, Morgan Grimes, to build their own business. During this time, Chuck started to develop a revolutionary approach to identifying, stopping, and tracking hackers, leveraging his own encryption technology driven by a series of algorithms he started conceptualizing while at Rourke. The system he developed was codenamed Heimdall, a nod to Marvel Comic's Thor, and it was almost ready for testing. If Heimdall worked as effectively as expected, Chuck was convinced they could really build an exciting business around it. He pushed the thoughts of the future aside to refocus on the present moment, where the Piranha was busy redefining what the hacking community thought was possible.
Morgan Grimes, Chuck's best friend and future partner, had earned a B.S. in Management Science from UCLA, focusing on MIS, and went to work for one of the big consulting firms advising clients to improve the efficiency of their technology infrastructure. He took advantage of his firm's generous compensation package, which included a tuition reimbursement program for advanced degrees in the field of practice to pursue an executive MBA in MIS. Morgan received his MBA from UCLA without giving up his day job. However, when Chuck was ready, he would quit the consulting firm to launch a startup with Chuck. Beyond the technical and academic background, each would bring to their future partnership, none was more important than the depth of their friendship and their trust in each other.
= ! =
Tuesday 16, November 2010 – 14:00 Eastern Standard Time
Fort Meade, Maryland - NSA HQ
John Walden, the Assistant Deputy Director of the NSA, enjoyed a cup of afternoon decaf coffee while reading today's risk reports. He was particularly interested in reading that yesterday, both the CIA and the FBI had had their internal networks compromised by some hacker calling himself "The Pirahna." What was different was that the Piranha caused no damage, made no demands and left no trace of his identity or location. However, the most interesting thing was that he left several suggestions on how the FBI and the CIA could better protect their technology infrastructure. In both cases, the FBI and CIA immediately initiated the protocols to cut the hard lines, thereby breaking the connection to the hacker to stop any potential loss of data, most of which was highly classified.
Whoever this Piranha was, two things were certain to John Walden. The first was that Piranha had some serious skills. Breaking through the firewalls of some of the world's most secretive organizations was thought to be impossible. The skill or resources needed to accomplish such an audacious task were unprecedented. The second was that Piranha was an idiot. Nobody fucks with the FBI AND the CIA and gets away with it. Eventually, Piranha will do something stupid and get caught. 'They always get caught. And when they do, there will be hell to pay,' thought Walden
He was rocked from his thoughts when his phone rang,
"Sir….we are detecting an unauthorized incursion. I have no idea how they could breach our firewalls, but they are in…..and have access to everything we have. Shall I cut the hard lines?"
Walden's mind took an unexpected left turn as he started to contemplate the odds of this also being the Piranha and the sheer size of this guy's balls. Adding the NSA to his list of accomplishments was nothing short of astounding. Still, his behavior was not at all consistent with typical hackers who either fucked things up for some political statement or attempted to monetize their crimes by either blackmailing their victims or selling the information for profit. What if….Walden's thinking was shattered by a high-pitched scream on the phone that brought him back to reality…..
"Sir….they can get at everything! I need authorization to cut the hard lines."
"Cut the lines, Tom. Do it now. I'll wait for your confirmation."
"Sir, the lines have been cut, and it does not look like any data was extracted. It looks like nothing….wait….wait one, sir…something is coming up on the system monitoring screens….Not sure how this is happening with the lines cut, but there is a message from someone calling themselves Piranha…wait…what the fuck?"
"Tom, what's happening?" Walden asks with an excited voice.
"You are not going to believe this, sir, but this lunatic is giving us a list of things to strengthen our security protocols…..they are just popping up on the screen, we are at number 7 so far, and we cut the hard-line a little over 75 seconds ago. I've never seen anything like this."
"Ok. I want a screenshot of the message and the list of proposed enhancements as soon as they stop popping up. Next, I want an assessment team to be ready to brief me in 15 minutes with a preliminary report of what was accessed, taken, or damaged and a preliminary assessment of where the incursion originated. Fifteen minutes Tom…after that, I will brief the Director and the Deputy Director. And Tom, it's going to be a long night piecing this all together, so lock everyone down….no one comes or goes, and start pulling together all the teams to drive the investigation into how the hell this could happen and who the hell could have done it."
Walden then picked up the phone to call the Deputy Director of the NSA to share the unhappy news of what just happened.
"Diane, we just got our cherry popped just like the CIA and the FBI. Our firewalls were breached for a total of 43 seconds until we cut the hard lines, and as far as we can tell, no data was corrupted or taken, but the team is checking, and I'll know more shortly. The Piranha claimed responsibility for the attack. I will be ready to brief you and the Director in 30 minutes with a preliminary assessment, and we have already started pulling together the forensic team to see what we can determine."
Deputy Director Diane Beckman was a rising star at the NSA and established herself as an intelligent and incredibly tough person in a very male-dominated intelligence organization. Beckman was formally an Air Force brigadier General but had years of experience as an intelligence field operative. At roughly 5'2", Diane Beckman was very short, with very red hair, very big brains, and an extremely short fuse.
"Thank you, John," Beckman replied in a surprisingly calm manner, and then she just let the silence hang on the call while her gears started turning. "I'll advise the Director that we will brief him in his office in 30 minutes," Beckman suddenly snapped, then terminated the call as soon as the words left her mouth.
Beckman had an uncanny ability to see opportunities where others saw threats. It was through this lens that she was considering how this "Piranha" was able to break into three of the world's most sophisticated and well-protected intelligence and law enforcement agencies in just two days. But before going too deep, she wanted to see what could be learned about this "Piranha" character.
Beckman picked up the phone and called John Walden back.
"Diane, we are not quite ready yet…still collating data for you," said John, expecting Diane Beckman to be already barking for results.
"That's fine, John. I did not think you would be ready yet, but I want to start a separate investigation. I want you to pull together a small team to see if we can find out what else Mr. Piranha has done. I want to get a sense of when he started, see if anything suggests what time zone he may be operating out of, and understand how he picks his targets….I want to know if we can start building a profile for this person to better figure out how to hunt him. Get cracking on this as I suspect that your technical forensic assessment will not get us what we need to find this guy, and I want him…immediately."
"Sure, Diane. I'll put a team of analysts on it right away and will provide you with a daily update on findings."
= ! =
Wednesday, 17 November 2010 – 12:00 noon Eastern Standard Time
Washington D.C. - The White House.
"Be seated," the President said. Seated around the table in the situation room were the most senior members of the U.S. government's intelligence and law enforcement services, as well as several of his senior advisers.
Seated next to the President was Alexander Albright, the Director of National intelligence, and next to him was General Scott Merryweather, the Director of the NSA.
"Alex, you want to get the ball rolling on this please?" President Warner asked his DNI.
"Thank you, Mr. President." Albright looked over at Merryweather, then nodded to Diane Backman. "General Beckman, Deputy Director of the NSA will provide the briefing sir, General Beckman, the floor is yours."
"Thank you, Sir," Diane Beckman started the briefing. "Gentlemen, as you are aware, within the last 48 hours, a hacker identifying himself as "The Piranha" breached the internal networks of the FBI and the CIA, within a few hours of each other, and roughly 24 hours later, the NSA was also breached. Piranha caused no damage in all three cases, nor did he access or remove any data. Still, in all three cases, Piranha left behind several suggestions to further fortify the security for each Agency's network. The NSA has been sharing information with both the CIA and the FBI by putting our forensic teams together to see if we can find clues to Piranha's identity, his location, and his objectives. I would add that based on the preliminary assessment, we are assuming that Piranha is probably a single person. Having said that, we have never seen this kind of capability, so it remains possible that Piranha is an organization, consortium, or foreign government as the level of sophistication and resources needed to pull something like this off would likely exclude some computer geeks in their parent's house doing this for fun."
Alex Albright interrupted with a question. "General Beckman, on what basis do you believe this to be an individual given the speed and scope of the breaches?"
"Well, Sir, there is an incredible consistency to the approach taken, the language used, and other technical elements that strongly suggest Piranha to be a single individual, but we are not discounting that it could be consortium because we have never seen an individual anywhere near this capable."
"Thank you." Replied Albright. "Please continue."
"Thank you, Sir." Beckman continued. "It is also our collective opinion that in addition to the collaborative work done by our collective technical forensic teams, we propose establishing a joint task force of operatives to track down Piranha. Given that Piranha may be a local or foreign individual or organization, we would recommend the task force be staffed with a cross-organizational team to ensure jurisdictional authority for action both inside and outside the United States."
"So," the President said, half laughing, "Someone broke into three separate agencies where we keep some of the most sensitive information on the planet, took nothing, broke nothing, but left some tips on how to protect ourselves better?" The President paused for effect. "I'm wondering if we shouldn't give this Piranha a medal and put him on the payroll…..but I understand why we need to catch him. I'll have the Office of the Attorney General draft the executive order authorizing the creation of the task force and allowing the task force the required jurisdictional authority, and…."
The door to the situation room opened, and a uniformed member of the NSA approached General Beckman with urgency and whispered in her ear.
"General," the President said…."care to share with the rest of the class?"
"Yes, sir. Twelve minutes ago, the Office of the Attorney General was hacked by the Piranha."
And the room got very quiet.
= ! =
Wednesday, 17 November 2010 - 09:00 am Pacific Standard Time
Palo Alto California - Starbucks Coffee Shop
Morgan was trying not to spill his coffee while laughing at his friend's latest escapade.
"The Attorney General's Office? Really? Who else are you going to tap, Chuck."
"There is no Chuck, only Piranha," answered Chuck in a deep and hollow voice. Then, with a growing grin on his face, Chuck said, "All of them, Morgan. I am going to tap all of them. These government agencies are being careless, which represents a risk to everyone in this country. Someone needs to push them to do the right thing and protect themselves and us better. So yeah, all of them."
With that statement, the Piranha started his journey, bringing fear to the system that tried to keep secrets and stoking the flames of those who rebelled against it.