Artificial Existence
By Christopher Harrison
03: Entry
Violet looked around. The whole team had jacked in already. The teams entry point was a bedroom in a small urban house. They quickly exited the house, and Server pulled out her cell phone. 'Where to?' Server asked to Entry, who was onboard the Sanction as operator. Server waited a few seconds, then put the phone back into her pocket. 'Down to the end of this street, there should be a park,' Server said briskly 'The informant is sitting on a bench, he responds to the question "I wonder who programmed this apple".'. Violet raised an eyebrow but said nothing and began walking down the street. It seemed to be your average suburban street, rows of houses on either side.
They didn't take long to get to the end of the street, where Binary and Server waited. Violet examined the park from where they were standing. It was surrounded on three sides by wooden fences. The bench stood out clearly in the center, but it did not stand out nearly as much as the person sitting at it. He wore a dark black shirt with even darker jeans. He looked very out of place. There was assorted play equipment around the park, but none of it was currently being used.
Violet walked over to the man at the bench. 'Do I really have to say that silly password?' Violet asked to the man. The informant looked up, and with a slight grin on his face he replied 'I'm not sure what your talking about, sir.'. Violet sighed and picked up the apple sitting on the bench. 'I wonder,' Violet began, 'Who programmed this apple.' the man at the bench grinned even wider, and put out his hand 'I'm Jonus, your informant of the day,' He said, quickly, 'We've not much time, so I'll try to explain all of this to you as fast as I can. Zion needs a crew to hunt down a potentially deadly program recently inserted into the Matrix. This program, codenamed 'Parisite', is capable of warping the code of the matrix within a certain radius from his body. Because of this, he can stop bullets from hitting him, and create a shield from anything you throw at him. Because of the nature of this ability, he is unable to modify anything that is not part of the original matrix program, making anyone who is unplugged immune to his ability.'. Violet nodded, realizing that he was in a lot deeper than he had originally thought.
When Violet had been given order's to receive the Ip coordinates, he knew that the mission had to be pretty important. Busting into a high tech security company is something that he liked to think Zion command tried to avoid. What was even more confusing about the mission, was that the IP address he had discovered led them to a seemingly irrelevant location inside the Matrix. It was now quite obvious to Violet that the IP must lead to the source of the Parasite, or something to do with that. He also now realized why his crew had been chosen for the assignment. Most hovership crew's don't worry about combat drills or formation's, but it's something that Violet has always made his crew's endure. Because of this, their combat efficiency is way above that of any other crew, and they are also the only crew to have four agent terminations, which is something amazing on it's own.
'Are you listening to me?' Jonus asked. 'Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking, please, continue.' Violet replied. 'Okay,' Jonus started, 'Now, the IP adress you retrieved for us was the last murder scene of the virus, we want you to investigate there first. We are well aware that your first officer is currently under medical treatment, so we need you to do the investigation without him.' 'I'm afraid I can't do that,' Violet replied, 'I don't feel safe bringing my people into a hostile situation without my full crew. Most ships have seven or eight people capable of jacking in, whilst my crew has four. I would ask that we be able to wait until Protocol has healed before we continue.'. Jonus sighed, then said 'I understand your predicament, captain, but those are direct orders from Zion, there's nothing I can do.
'Alright,' Violet said, 'when can we expect the arrival of the Valiant?' 'They should reach you in a few days, but we want you to start without them.' 'Alright, we'll start immediately, is there anything else?' 'Just one more thing. If you are in need of weapons, there is a weapon stockpile here' Jonus handed him a piece of paper with an IP address on it. 'Good luck,' Jonus said, standing, 'and be careful.' with that, Jonus started walking down the street. Violet shoved the piece of paper in his pocket and walked over to the rest of his crew.
'Well?' Server asked as Violet reached the group, 'Where to, captain?' 'Firstly we go to these coordinates, get Entry to track them. I'll explain everything on the way' Violet replied, handing the piece of paper to Server.
Entry quickly tracked the coordinates to a small building in a nearby city. It usually wouldn't have taken long to just hotwire a car and drive there, but Violet insisted one finding one he thought was nice. They eventually got under way, and Violet explained to the other two crew members what he had been told by Jonus.
They arrived at the weapon's storage area in half an hour. The coordinates that they had followed had lead them to a small concrete building. It had only one room, with a wide array of weaponry. Pistols, Rifle's, submachine guns, it was all there. Violet decided to arm himself with two small MP5K submachine guns, and a pair of Baretta 9-mm pistols. He also strapped a Spas-12 shotgun over his back.
Server decided for much smaller weaponry, arming herself with four Colt M1911 .45 pistols, two Micro-uzi submachine guns, and two Steyr TMP automatic pistols. Server also decided to carry a FAMAS assault rifle in her hands.
Binary's weaponry was probably the lightest in the group. He carried two Smith and Wesson .44 Magnums, one MP5 submachine gun, and a katana strapped to his back. He was also the only one of them to be carrying a close combat weapon.
They all decided to put on Kevlar under their respective clothing. They were almost ready to leave when Violet's phone rang. 'Hello?' Violet answered. 'It's Entry. I thought you should know, Protocol should be ready to move in a few hours, do you want to jack-out and wait for him?' Entry said, over the phone. Violet thought for a moment 'No, we're going to go without him,' he responded, 'when he's recovered, get him to meet us at the second IP address.' 'Okay,' Entry responded, 'Good luck, captain.' The phone clicked to indicate the call had ended. 'Alright,' Violet said to his team, 'Protocol going to join us in a few hours, let's go.' The team moved through the door, into the car.
The coordinates they had been sent to were a small house on the other side of the city. The house had a small front yard, and by the look of the plants, nobody had been paying attention to the yard for a while. The house was off white on the outside, with a small, white door and two windows either side. 'Quaint.' Remarked Server, walking behind Violet up to the door. Inside was quite simply boring. There were no signs of struggle, nothing to indicate that anything had gone wrong there. That was true, until they finally reached the bedroom. The walls were dark red, but only in one corner. Where the red of the walls faded, there was blue wallpaper. The red was seemingly blood, yet there was no body anywhere. There was a large bed in the center of the room, also covered in blood. At first, Violet couldn't figure out why there was no body. Then it hit him. There were small chunks of meat and flesh all over the place. The walls, the floor, the bed, it was all covered in the remains of a body.
The three of them left the house almost immediately. 'Shit.' Server proclaimed, as she breathed heavily, leaning on the fence outside the house. Binary seemed somewhat unaffected from the experience, yet Binary rarely showed emotion. Violet, on the other hand, was rather unsettled, but he made sure not to show it. When the captain is shown as troubled, it can make the crew less effective, and he knew that quite well, and, as such, was seemingly emotionless to the experience. He just repeatedly told himself in his head it wasn't real. 'Alright, guys,' Violet said to the others, 'let's pull it together. Server, get a hold of Entry and Steam, get them to trace the last known program in this house. Binary, patrol the surrounding area, I don't want him sneaking up on us. I'm going to try and find more information on the person who was killed in there.'
The group did as they were told, and they returned back to the front of the house in little under 15 minutes. Server had received the traced IP from Entry, and they had hunted down the rogue program to a large mansion in the countryside near the city they were in. Binary had detected no danger in the immediate vicinity either, so they were seemingly safe.
'Okay,' Violet began, 'the victim was a 32 year old man, and he was also a very good hacker. His name was Jacob Freeman, and his hacker alias was Golem. He wasn't married, and seemingly lived a pretty lonely life. Have Steam check the Zion database for any hackers by that name and see if they were due to be unplugged. Server, your driving, let's get to those new coordinates.' they all got in the car and began their journey to the mansion.
By Christopher Harrison
03: Entry
Violet looked around. The whole team had jacked in already. The teams entry point was a bedroom in a small urban house. They quickly exited the house, and Server pulled out her cell phone. 'Where to?' Server asked to Entry, who was onboard the Sanction as operator. Server waited a few seconds, then put the phone back into her pocket. 'Down to the end of this street, there should be a park,' Server said briskly 'The informant is sitting on a bench, he responds to the question "I wonder who programmed this apple".'. Violet raised an eyebrow but said nothing and began walking down the street. It seemed to be your average suburban street, rows of houses on either side.
They didn't take long to get to the end of the street, where Binary and Server waited. Violet examined the park from where they were standing. It was surrounded on three sides by wooden fences. The bench stood out clearly in the center, but it did not stand out nearly as much as the person sitting at it. He wore a dark black shirt with even darker jeans. He looked very out of place. There was assorted play equipment around the park, but none of it was currently being used.
Violet walked over to the man at the bench. 'Do I really have to say that silly password?' Violet asked to the man. The informant looked up, and with a slight grin on his face he replied 'I'm not sure what your talking about, sir.'. Violet sighed and picked up the apple sitting on the bench. 'I wonder,' Violet began, 'Who programmed this apple.' the man at the bench grinned even wider, and put out his hand 'I'm Jonus, your informant of the day,' He said, quickly, 'We've not much time, so I'll try to explain all of this to you as fast as I can. Zion needs a crew to hunt down a potentially deadly program recently inserted into the Matrix. This program, codenamed 'Parisite', is capable of warping the code of the matrix within a certain radius from his body. Because of this, he can stop bullets from hitting him, and create a shield from anything you throw at him. Because of the nature of this ability, he is unable to modify anything that is not part of the original matrix program, making anyone who is unplugged immune to his ability.'. Violet nodded, realizing that he was in a lot deeper than he had originally thought.
When Violet had been given order's to receive the Ip coordinates, he knew that the mission had to be pretty important. Busting into a high tech security company is something that he liked to think Zion command tried to avoid. What was even more confusing about the mission, was that the IP address he had discovered led them to a seemingly irrelevant location inside the Matrix. It was now quite obvious to Violet that the IP must lead to the source of the Parasite, or something to do with that. He also now realized why his crew had been chosen for the assignment. Most hovership crew's don't worry about combat drills or formation's, but it's something that Violet has always made his crew's endure. Because of this, their combat efficiency is way above that of any other crew, and they are also the only crew to have four agent terminations, which is something amazing on it's own.
'Are you listening to me?' Jonus asked. 'Yeah, sorry, I was just thinking, please, continue.' Violet replied. 'Okay,' Jonus started, 'Now, the IP adress you retrieved for us was the last murder scene of the virus, we want you to investigate there first. We are well aware that your first officer is currently under medical treatment, so we need you to do the investigation without him.' 'I'm afraid I can't do that,' Violet replied, 'I don't feel safe bringing my people into a hostile situation without my full crew. Most ships have seven or eight people capable of jacking in, whilst my crew has four. I would ask that we be able to wait until Protocol has healed before we continue.'. Jonus sighed, then said 'I understand your predicament, captain, but those are direct orders from Zion, there's nothing I can do.
'Alright,' Violet said, 'when can we expect the arrival of the Valiant?' 'They should reach you in a few days, but we want you to start without them.' 'Alright, we'll start immediately, is there anything else?' 'Just one more thing. If you are in need of weapons, there is a weapon stockpile here' Jonus handed him a piece of paper with an IP address on it. 'Good luck,' Jonus said, standing, 'and be careful.' with that, Jonus started walking down the street. Violet shoved the piece of paper in his pocket and walked over to the rest of his crew.
'Well?' Server asked as Violet reached the group, 'Where to, captain?' 'Firstly we go to these coordinates, get Entry to track them. I'll explain everything on the way' Violet replied, handing the piece of paper to Server.
Entry quickly tracked the coordinates to a small building in a nearby city. It usually wouldn't have taken long to just hotwire a car and drive there, but Violet insisted one finding one he thought was nice. They eventually got under way, and Violet explained to the other two crew members what he had been told by Jonus.
They arrived at the weapon's storage area in half an hour. The coordinates that they had followed had lead them to a small concrete building. It had only one room, with a wide array of weaponry. Pistols, Rifle's, submachine guns, it was all there. Violet decided to arm himself with two small MP5K submachine guns, and a pair of Baretta 9-mm pistols. He also strapped a Spas-12 shotgun over his back.
Server decided for much smaller weaponry, arming herself with four Colt M1911 .45 pistols, two Micro-uzi submachine guns, and two Steyr TMP automatic pistols. Server also decided to carry a FAMAS assault rifle in her hands.
Binary's weaponry was probably the lightest in the group. He carried two Smith and Wesson .44 Magnums, one MP5 submachine gun, and a katana strapped to his back. He was also the only one of them to be carrying a close combat weapon.
They all decided to put on Kevlar under their respective clothing. They were almost ready to leave when Violet's phone rang. 'Hello?' Violet answered. 'It's Entry. I thought you should know, Protocol should be ready to move in a few hours, do you want to jack-out and wait for him?' Entry said, over the phone. Violet thought for a moment 'No, we're going to go without him,' he responded, 'when he's recovered, get him to meet us at the second IP address.' 'Okay,' Entry responded, 'Good luck, captain.' The phone clicked to indicate the call had ended. 'Alright,' Violet said to his team, 'Protocol going to join us in a few hours, let's go.' The team moved through the door, into the car.
The coordinates they had been sent to were a small house on the other side of the city. The house had a small front yard, and by the look of the plants, nobody had been paying attention to the yard for a while. The house was off white on the outside, with a small, white door and two windows either side. 'Quaint.' Remarked Server, walking behind Violet up to the door. Inside was quite simply boring. There were no signs of struggle, nothing to indicate that anything had gone wrong there. That was true, until they finally reached the bedroom. The walls were dark red, but only in one corner. Where the red of the walls faded, there was blue wallpaper. The red was seemingly blood, yet there was no body anywhere. There was a large bed in the center of the room, also covered in blood. At first, Violet couldn't figure out why there was no body. Then it hit him. There were small chunks of meat and flesh all over the place. The walls, the floor, the bed, it was all covered in the remains of a body.
The three of them left the house almost immediately. 'Shit.' Server proclaimed, as she breathed heavily, leaning on the fence outside the house. Binary seemed somewhat unaffected from the experience, yet Binary rarely showed emotion. Violet, on the other hand, was rather unsettled, but he made sure not to show it. When the captain is shown as troubled, it can make the crew less effective, and he knew that quite well, and, as such, was seemingly emotionless to the experience. He just repeatedly told himself in his head it wasn't real. 'Alright, guys,' Violet said to the others, 'let's pull it together. Server, get a hold of Entry and Steam, get them to trace the last known program in this house. Binary, patrol the surrounding area, I don't want him sneaking up on us. I'm going to try and find more information on the person who was killed in there.'
The group did as they were told, and they returned back to the front of the house in little under 15 minutes. Server had received the traced IP from Entry, and they had hunted down the rogue program to a large mansion in the countryside near the city they were in. Binary had detected no danger in the immediate vicinity either, so they were seemingly safe.
'Okay,' Violet began, 'the victim was a 32 year old man, and he was also a very good hacker. His name was Jacob Freeman, and his hacker alias was Golem. He wasn't married, and seemingly lived a pretty lonely life. Have Steam check the Zion database for any hackers by that name and see if they were due to be unplugged. Server, your driving, let's get to those new coordinates.' they all got in the car and began their journey to the mansion.