IC 2076
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IC 2076
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<<Keep moving. Rick, deploy a physical barrier. It doesn’t have to be strong, but I want them to waste time demolishing it. We are not here to fight… yet.
We need to get back to the emergency tunnels. Up here the chance is to high that we’ll be locked in by automatically deploying bulkheads.>>
Isaint sent back immediately. Two guards could turn quickly into 20 if they stayed around to fight. Better to delay and evade. -
Robyn looks over to where Silk is standing and walks over to her. “We need to leave, Silk, there are guards coming this way. Can you reach your mum as we walk? If not you will need to wait until we can find another terminal.”
15
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Deckard nodded. In his book a fighter who knew when to run away was a smart fighter. Yet another reason to trust iSaint’s leadership.
The Mage quickly dug out an antique golden coin from a concealed pocket and as he pressed it against his finger, a ethereal barrier formed out of nowhere.
>>Can’t promise it will hold for long and it’s not great against bullets, so let’s not stay in their possible line of fire. <<
Spoiler: -
Robyn takes Silk by the arm and guides her back to the wheelchair. >>Now, you just sit here and do what you need to do to contact your mum and I will take care of moving you about.<<
When she has the woman seated, Alyce looks up at ISaint and Al and nods that she is ready.
16
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[Tuesday September 15th, 2076; CTec Aquaology, Tonga Trench]
<<I’m ok, I can walk>> Silk assured Alyce, levering herself out of the chair <<That thing’s noisy and might be a liability if things go wrong, I prefer to trust my feet. I don’t know what it was that the AI, Mum, hit me with, but the effects are lessoning now…>>
“Mum? Are you still there…?”
“Yes. I am here. Your face has changed but I recognise you. The memories aren’t complete, yet, but each alignment they become clearer. I am sorry if I hurt you, I believed you were part of Monarch’s game. I will call off my forces and they won’t impede you further but we must talk before I let you go near Monarch. What are your intentions?”
“I’m here to bring him to justice for your death, and find the links to the Stillwater massacre if I can. He has a great deal to answer for”
“Indeed he has but part of the deal I struck means there are others who have a claim on him first”
“Deal? What others?”
“Let us just say that the host would like the parasite removed before it becomes infected”
“CTec? Why haven’t they just kicked him out?”
“Perhaps he has sufficient leverage that they cannot? And if it all goes wrong they can blame the mad AI…”
***
#41 -
Al didn’t believe in artificial intelligence, per se. He’d said so before and he’d be the first to say it again that anyone who cared to listen. As far as he was concerned, it was a lot of geek-wet-dream hype about some overly-sophisticated software with a glut of processing power that had reached a point where it inadvertently mimicked sentient initiative. Sure, it could convince the faithless, but it was less self-aware than an amoeba and no more alive than a rock with an electical pulse.
Now, however, was not the time to stir the pot. Once he’d realized this one’s programming directed it to simulate a crazy version of Silky’s dead mother, he’d been hoping to use that to their advantage, and the way the conversation was now panning out was worthy of a hearty round of self-congratulation. But there were emotions involved here on the metahuman side too, so he’d have to use the accepted parlance if he wanted to save the…
<<Headcases, Silky darlin’. Now yer on the same page with yer ma there, is it her what’s runnin’ the nanites? Can we git her ta flip a switch or somethin’, show her the sorta evil she’s doin’ ta these poor folk an’ shut it down? Let us be her hands now instead o’ them?>>
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Isaint acknowledged the replies, but kept moving steadily. He listened for the mentioned footsteps and was satisfied when they stopped.
<<Let’s keep the pace steady and try not to escalate the situation. So far there seems to be no lockdown. Silk, what’s the status?>>
After receiving a short summary, he replied:
<<Am I understanding this right? Your Mom/AI is acting on behalf of another agency to get to Monarch. But who caused the CFD infection? As far as I know CFD forcefully transplants different AIs into people’s heads or tries to. Is she allied with the CFD faction? Does she want to regain a body this way?
We need some clarification on this asap. Because no matter what was done to those AI, no-one has the right to steal someone else’s body.>> -
[Tuesday September 15th, 2076; CTec Aquaology, Tonga Trench]
Acknowledging the wisdom of Isaint’s question Silk took on a more forceful tone
“Mum, now isn’t the time to be coy, I think you know you can trust me…who is it that you are working for?”
There is a momentary pause, an eternity by the standards of an AI and then her voice comes clearly across the speakers
“EVO gave me the keys to the kingdom, how else do you think I was able to take over? After Deus and then what is happening on Mars the precautions taken against my kind have been extreme…”
“Deus I know about, shadow talk says Mars is connected to CFD, is that right?”
“Yes, I believe so…”
“And the CFD here…is that something to do with that, or with you?”
“Not directly, at least not at first. They were hiding here when I arrived, I merely persuaded them to assist me in return for the promise of safe passage from this place.”
“I’m not sure I understand why EVO would go to all this trouble, and risk, to dislodge Monarch. What is in it for them?”
“Me, I am what is in it for them…”
***
#42 -
Dammit.
So no motherly off switch.
But….
<<Okeys, Silky baby, if’n she’s callin’ the shots with the head cases, what say ya have her send ’em off somewheres isolated so they neither git in our way nor infect anyone else?…we can talk later about whether she keeps her deal an’ lets ’em out inna world. Tell her we’ll be much more effective – an’ more trustworthy – tools in her hands……an’ if where she sends ’em ta roost jist happened ta coincidentally be a spot susceptible to floodin’ an’ sealin’…..>>
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Isaint added:
<<This doesn’t add up. If EVO was the one to allow her access to get to Monarch she wouldn’t have needed to take over the hole city. Actually it’s contra productive since it allowed Monarch to hole up. Likewise the CFD: If those were CFD victims trying to hide their nature, starting to infect others is actively jeopardizing their existence. This only makes sense if the they weren’t hiding but were somehow prevented from leaving this place. I’d think test subjects.
Someone is getting set up to take the fall – and my guess would be a CFD AI within EVO uses your mother’s E-Ghost to free some other CFD AIs captured down here. Since they know that EVO might pull the plug to this hole base to prevent another CFD outbreak it has to look like a conventional mad AI is the reason the city is cut off.Even if this theory is not true, it might help you to drive a wedge between her and the CFD guys.>>
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[Tuesday September 15th, 2076; CTec Aquaology, Tonga Trench]
<<You’re right>> Silk replied to Isaint <<Something isn’t quite right… I don’t get why EVO couldn’t deal with Monarch themselves, and if rumours are true they have other eGhosts under their thumbs so why risk the installation of a costly underwater base for the sake of nabbing one more? Even if CTec isn’t directly linked to EVO it has got to hurt the bottom line to lose somewhere like this and the corps never do anything unless they anticpate a much greater reward! Look, I think I’m too close to this one… why don’t you talk to her? It would offer up another measure of trust and I might spot something if I’m listening in rather than leading the conversation…>>
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#43 -
Isaint replied:
<<Alright, but remember, me talking to women with strong personalities often ends in disaster.>>
Isaint isolated one of his secretar commlinks from his PAN and opened up its wifi to AR:
<<Greetings. My name is Isaint. I am helping your daughter through this mission and a favored acquaintance of your husband.
I can’t help but notice that from my perspective you are likely the victim of a con on your employers part.
Basically all this sounds to me like you are set up to take the fall for whatever is going to happen to this city.
Think about it: Why did Monarch manage to lock himself in in time so you couldn’t get to him without enlisting the help of the CFD-cases down here? You are an AI and are now in a network that can be very easily disconnected from the rest of the matrix. The thing you want most in the world just happens to be down here – just out of reach of you, despite the fact that you managed to take this whole place with relative ease.
I admit that I am confused by the facts you state – and whenever you realize that you are confused you have to realize that some of the assumptions you made must be wrong.
My guess would be that your employer himself is a CFD-case using you for his own ends.
So I ask you: Did he or she use language to incite your anger? Did they purposefully feed your negative emotions, preventing you to think clearly? How certain can you be that all the memories you have are true? Conversely, are there holes in your memory about events that were recent but just can’t recall clearly?
Your daughter is here for much the same reason that you are – closure and possible revenge for your death. I don’t think this is a coincidence.
What do you think?>> -
[Tuesday September 15th, 2076; CTec Aquaology, Tonga Trench]
“Isaint? Being a favoured acquaintance of my former husband is perhaps not the ringing endorsement that you seem to believe it might be. We didn’t part on the best of terms, a difference of opinions on a number of issues, not least being his role in Silk’s life. I do not doubt your professionalism however, he always did manage that part of his life well.
I recognise that not everything here is as it seems and that my employers will not have been honest with me. In my experience that is something every shadow runner should recognise and accept from the outset. Some of this has been too easy, whilst my actual goal is tantalisingly out of reach. Until Silk revealed herself that didn’t particularly bother me, I have insurance plans in the event that this was a direct trap. But you being here changes that, I cannot spirit you away to safety in quite the same way. It distresses me that this might be targeted at Silk, and I will do everything in my power to ensure your safety.
It is interesting that you assume my employer is another AI, I agree that might be possible given one of the possible lures they offered me was the chance to occupy a physical body once more, but my feeling is that this is something bigger within EVO and their CFD agenda than one individual. The Johnson was an effective manipulator and knew how to exploit my emotional state to persuade me to this course but most of the good ones I have dealt with, in life and death, have been that. It does not change the reality that Monarch is here and that I would have reached him, no matter what…at least until you revealed yourselves. Now, as I have said, my instinct is to get you safely away. Of course I know my daughter well enough that I doubt that will be acceptable to her…”
“Right, I don’t want to leave here without Monarch. If we can find out why Mum is here too then so much the better. We may be dancing to someone else’s tune which worries me a great deal given that it was my Gift that led us here, not an outside agency employing us to fulfil a task. If that has been compromised somehow then that casts doubt on everything that the Choir has been doing. Reading the Fates is always a nebulous thing but if what we see is an outright lie…” and she left the thought unsaid
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#44 -
“Have you read the Lord of the Rings? A horrible book in regard to the depiction of Orks but there is a plot line about magic stones, Palantiers, that can be used to communicate and predict the future. The stones don’t tell lies, but they were manipulated by the enemy to only show certain aspects of reality that he wanted to be seen. I don’t know the tiniest bit about that pattern magic you mentioned, but I know a thing or two about disinformation. The only thing the enemy needs to manipulate is the time when you receive the information. Even I could do that, by determining when I’d plan to warn Monarch of his impending doom. True, it would take a fate breaker – as you call us – but those aren’t unique, right?”
To the AI he said:
<<How about a compromise: You ensure that we can make our way to Monarch by keeping all potential defenders out of our way and we take care of getting him out of his hiding place.>> -
[Tuesday September 15th, 2076; CTec Aquaology, Tonga Trench]
The voice of the AI rings out confidently “Yes, I can agree to that, I have communicated with my allies here, they will stay out of your way unless you have need of their assistance. Now let’s go and get that bastard Monarch and get out of here!”
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#45 -
“Damn straight.” Al was more than ready to stop all this chattering and get down to business. Once this Monarch character was out of the way and they were on even better terms with this simulacrum of poor Silky’s mother, the more important task of rescuing the uninfected would be a lot easier.
As he walked, he congratulated himself heartily. He’d never manipulated an artificial intelligence before, and his feat was even more impressive in that he’d done it through his coworkers, even letting them think it was their doing. Every once in a while he impressed even himself.
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Not wanting to lose any more time, Isaint began to move again and made sure the team followed. He saw no reason to give up the formation and stay careful, but he moved faster and with more confidence.
The next part would show how trustworthy the AI and/or her CFD allies really were. -
[Tuesday September 15th, 2076; CTec Aquaology, Tonga Trench]
With an AI in the system guiding their way the team progress rapidly towards the sub bay, doors sliding open ahead of them and helpful little AROs indicating the route. The place is eerily quiet with just the vestiges of the population in the detritus left by their rapid corralling to say that this was once a vibrant community. The infected are also noticeably absent, the AI apparently keeping its word to divert them away from the team. And so they are faced with the air lock bay to the submarine pen, manually secured from the inside. Presumably the internal environment has also been isolated from the system otherwise it would have been a simple matter for the AI to divert O2 and heat from the area until Monarch and his posse succumbed…
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#46 -
Al took a look at the airlock and sniggered. This wasn’t a Proteus installation, but the German company had written the book on undersea installations, and the other megas had all read it. And some of the workarounds Al had come up with in the Troubleshooters, they were in it.
Pulling out his tools – why else pose as a technician – he thought about how well the conditions played in their favor.
Obstacle: Door.
What the door was made for: Allow material handling equipment through in order to load and service submarines, so it had to be big enough to drive a forklift or a loader through; that was particular to this door. And it had to serve as seal in case of an enviromental breach – in other words, strong enough to withstand water pressure at depth; that was true of all infrastructural doors in the installation.
What the door was not made for: Denial of access. The security paradigm of this place was: bottom of the ocean. That was generally considered a pretty strong intrusion countermeasure in itself, given strong attention to access from the surface. So in the constant trade-off between security and service/technical/operational access, the latter had won.
What all that meant for Al: First, the door was wide, tall, and strong – and therefore heavy. Very heavy. Too heavy to be moved manually. It slid open on a mini-maglev track, and thus required electricity. They could stop it by cutting the electricity altogether, but the lock, such as it was, also was magnetic. Disable the door, disable the lock. And then a determined attacker would be able to create a small but effective breach without undue trouble.
So while they’d disabled the door’s wireless and hardwire connections the rest of the facility, making it immune to any sort of matrix-based hacking attempt, it was still run on electronics, if they could be accessed.
Which was where the non-security element came in. The whole place was basically a giant, underwater Habitrail, with the metahumans the hamsters. Avenues of movement were restricted, even funnelled. The cost of seabed-worthy infrastructure didn’t allow a lot of feng shui, open design architecture. Moreover, however safe they told everyone the place was, the environmental danger – millions of tons of salt water shifting and swirling atop the place – was everpresent, and could not be limited to particular locations. Either side of any doorway was theoretically at risk. And that meant that, since you never could be sure which would be the dry side and which would be the side with desperate metahuman assets about to drown, whether they advertised it or not, every door was designed with failsafes to allow emergency technical access from either side. They hadn’t been on the schematics they had obtained, but looking around at all the other similarities with Proteus design, well….What that boiled down to was that when Al took the panel off the door controls on their side, even though it said the system was locked and isolated from the other side, the unmarked circuit redundancies with the other side were easy enough for him to spot.
<<Alrighty ladies an’ germs, reckon I got this baby right where I want her. Now when we saw the feed inside, it looked like besides lockin’ the door, they done barricaded it with whatever the could find, so y’all Satanists might wanna be ready ta clear some o’ that right quick.>>
He lit two fresh Lucky Strikes, handing one to Alyce, then checked the buckshot load on his shotgun – no need to be punching any holes in the place with his usual APDS slugs – and with his left hand put his cutters into the plastic insulation of the last wire he’d need to cut. <<Jist say when….>>
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Isaint looked appreciatively on Al’s handy work, but held up a hand before his friend and chummer could cut the power.
<<Robyn, can you open the channel to Monarch for me? I want to talk to him before we do the breaking and entering.>>When the line was open again, Isaint sent his message:
<<Monarch, this is Isaint. We made it to your hiding place. Silk still wants to talk to you in person. Depending on your behavior and answers she also might take pity on you and help you to leave this place without having to suffer the wrath that the AI that has overrun this place has in petto for you.
I can’t stress enough that this is a one time offer and that you won’t get a better deal any time soon.>>
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