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>>5944098

The metallic exterior of the external deck is cold to your touch as you draw it out from within your blue jacket, the rectangular device still quite unfamiliar to you even after cleaning it of tracking soft and installing your own new shards. Tracing a finger over the faint relief of the Arasaka logo on its exterior, feeling the fine texture of it, you let out a sigh - there’s no putting this off, you’d better be ready now. Flipping the deck’s screen up, you start it up with the tap of a button and then pull your personal link from the small port in your wrist and jack in.

Lines of code flash across the deck’s small screen as a connection is established, and just as it did this morning you feel your perception begin to fragment, to slip into two places at once.

You remain half aware of your physical body in the dimmest sense, and are nearly overwhelmed by the rush of sensory data as your avatar’s form materializes within the Net, displacing your awareness from the physical to digital world as you slip through a hole in the walled gardens put up by the corps to keep clueless gonks from wandering too far into the wilds of the Net. The stolen Arasaka deck cuts right through that safety railed garbage, and instantly you understand that you’re in the real Net, a shattered patchwork of servers and infrastructures slowly pieced back together over the decades post datakrash.

Cold awareness spiderwebs through your mind like freezing tendrils of supercooled mercury as you survey the digital landscape rolling infinitely far off to a horizon that never quite materializes. Only the distant menacing form of the Blackwall cuts across the infinite closing off one ‘side’ from access, but that is far, far off still. Monolithic and monochrome data-fortresses loom much closer, towering behemoths of corporate might among the ‘hills’ and ‘mountains’ of net infrastructure half a century older than you or more. Verdant holographic forests of smaller data centers carpet the landscape, swaying in the winds and streams of data flowing between on the ground, and below, and above. This visualization of the Net, this naturalistic look - excepting the Blackwall - is partially constructed from the software the stolen Arasaka deck you’re jacked into is using, partly from the transmitted images presented by corporations, but mostly because of your own mind and preferences. The Net looks like this only to you… And perhaps one other person.

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>>5944103

”Hide yourself, with haste! There are crawling things here, even in the bright places, spiders and frightful grasping creatures.” Alice implores from beside you, her own faintly crimson digital form far more detailed and solid than your own wavering blue, hints of truer colors playing faintly beneath the surface of her skin, like an old holographic card reflecting light strangely. She’s crouched low, almost blending entirely into a stream of passing data as it rushes by in a torrent, her form becoming harder to perceive by the moment except for a faint silver cord running from her clothes to your own. A direct connection through your neuralink.

“Hide from what? Are they close?” You ask quietly, crouching beside the ghostly AI, your sheathed sword bumping up against her thigh as you move half a step closer and into the stream… Your sword? A dull sword, and one you scarcely know how to wield. Another visualization of your deck’s core programs you realize, along with the scroll hanging by straps at your other side. That’s the daemon you bought in Kabuki marketplace earlier, the imp sold to you by Yoko - He’s sealed up in his datashard for now, ready to defend at a moment’s notice, already patrolling your personal network even if you’ve yet to think of him strongly enough to force his appearance.

”Everything is close, Kai, even the sky.” Alice squints off in the distance, down the path of the datastream, her awareness pulling yours along with it - And suddenly you are elsewhere, a much darker place, falling up, up, up, tumbling too and fro among currents of data - and with a thwack you land, in another forest, among other rustling digital trees, the same imposing data-fortresses from before still far off in the ‘mountains’ but the angles completely changed. Ahead of you now is a small encampment of tents surrounded by a ‘log’ palisade and ditches, resembling some sort of hastily constructed and half ignored military camp from long ages past… No, not a military camp, a barbarian one. Sloppy, haphazard, the work of bandits. Of scavs. A pair of wart covered and hunchbacked green goblin-like creatures patrol about the entrance with weighty wooden clubs in hand, their beady little black eyes looking out occasionally into the forest of data surrounding the scav subnet. IC of some kind, and not very good IC either.

“...We’re here.” You’re aware of it at once that Alice has brought you directly to the scav subnet you need to scout out for the job tomorrow, “That was preem tracing work Alice.”

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>>5944105

The ghostly girl shakes her head slightly, her lips pursed in annoyance as she brushes off her simple dress, “I am afraid it was quite clumsy. Are you intact?”

“I… am.” You reply after a moment of checking yourself over, bio and cyber-diagnostics flashing through your awareness quickly even as you check over your digital avatar ‘manually’, just as if you were out in meatspace, “Here’s the plan…”

VOTE OR GET FLATLINED:
>”We do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” Attempt to find a backdoor into the scav subnet, try to enter and leave unnoticed. You’ll want to keep your Imp sealed away in his datashard, the more you can focus your deck on remaining unnoticed the better.
>”Doesn’t look like they have any good IC, lets hit them fast and delta, snatch all the data we can while be blow through.” Draw your ‘sword’ and raid the subnet! The scavs will know *a* breach occurred but likely nothing else unless you are successfully traced or get fried by IC. You can have your Imp out for this, it’ll help keep you safe from attacks.
>”...I’ll go in and talk, get whoever is doing net security distracted. Dig around and see what you can find, camera feeds, anything useful.” Split up - You will attempt to do some social engineering while Alice pokes around like a proper ghost.
>Write-in.

Previous Thread:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2023/5829969/

>>5944109

>”We do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” Attempt to find a backdoor into the scav subnet, try to enter and leave unnoticed. You’ll want to keep your Imp sealed away in his datashard, the more you can focus your deck on remaining unnoticed the better.

Based, I’ve been waiting for this quest to return!

>>5944109
>”We do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” Attempt to find a backdoor into the scav subnet, try to enter and leave unnoticed. You’ll want to keep your Imp sealed away in his datashard, the more you can focus your deck on remaining unnoticed the better.

>>5944109
>”We do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” Attempt to find a backdoor into the scav subnet, try to enter and leave unnoticed. You’ll want to keep your Imp sealed away in his datashard, the more you can focus your deck on remaining unnoticed the better.

We've got Alice, I imagine this'll be easier than the last sneaky outing into scav dwellings. This is our element comparatively, or should be. Don't let em know we're coming, don't want to spoil the meatspace job.

Also, welcome back Mainline! I missed this.

>>5944109
>>”We do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” Attempt to find a backdoor into the scav subnet, try to enter and leave unnoticed. You’ll want to keep your Imp sealed away in his datashard, the more you can focus your deck on remaining unnoticed the better.

>>5944109
Komban-wa, Mainrine-sama.
May we remain nimble like the mongoose, and as subtle as the myriad folds of a geisha's kimono.

>>5944109
>>>”We do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” Attempt to find a backdoor into the scav subnet, try to enter and leave unnoticed. You’ll want to keep your Imp sealed away in his datashard, the more you can focus your deck on remaining unnoticed the better.

>>5944109
>”We do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” Attempt to find a backdoor into the scav subnet, try to enter and leave unnoticed. You’ll want to keep your Imp sealed away in his datashard, the more you can focus your deck on remaining unnoticed the better.
Good to see you back QM, excited to see this one again.

>>5944109
>”We do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” Attempt to find a backdoor into the scav subnet, try to enter and leave unnoticed. You’ll want to keep your Imp sealed away in his datashard, the more you can focus your deck on remaining unnoticed the better.
Netrunners who smash and grab are netrunners who are just itching to get their brains fried. Let's do this stealthily.

Also, welcome back, Mainline. I was really looking forward to the return of this quest.

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Rolled 47 (1d100)

>>5944328
>>5944268
>>5944170
>>5944151
>>5944129
>>5944121
>>5944116
I need two rolls of 1d100. DC is 55, higher is better.

Rolling for Alice's support as well.

Rolled 80 (1d100)

>>5944372
Well, at least she got the musical number.

Rolled 81 (1d100)

>>5944372
Watch this, Choom.

Rolled 79 (1d100)

>>5944372

>>5944381
>>5944382

Pretty sneaky, anons - well done.

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>>5944381
>>5944382
Good rolls anons, an 81 will do it.

>>5944383
...What are the chances of rolling a 79, 80, and 81?

we're so fucking back.

“We’ll do this quietly, get the detes on our target and logout.” You speak in a hushed voice, eyes focused intently on the IC avatar’s at the entrance of the scav subnet, trying your best to remember old lessons from your father, “...Scav gonks bought low grade IC, look at those goblins.”

“Filthy little barbarians.” Alice wrinkles up her mouth in distaste as she watches the goblins alongside you, one of the hunchbacked programs knocking the other over the head with his club, the thunking smack bringing his wart covered compatriot back to full attention, ”What an awful mess they have made of their own subnet, nasty creatures. We will have no troubles with those quarrelsome brutes.”

You share the ghost woman’s confidence, thinking little of the obnoxious greenskinned avatars of the scav IC programs. Careful not to pull the silver cord between you too tight, you lead the way toward the log palisade of the camp, running your deck’s basic intrusion soft with a thought. Data flashes before your eyes, phantom images of encryption grids, columns of letters and numbers searched and selected through quickly as your deck cuts past the basic encryption of the scav subnet’s firewall. Pff, ‘firewall’, the logs aren’t even on fire, someone failed to even set it up correctly, the entire thing is barely a defense at all. As you finish your intrusion attempt a small gap in the palisade materializes, a backdoor successfully located. Keeping low, you and Alice move through the swaying tall grass at the camp’s edge, useless junk data parting as you mask your presence and enter the quietly breached subnet.

Inside, past the poor excuse for a firewall and unseen by the patrolling IC, you lay eyes on the true interior of the subnet for the first time - The faint silhouettes of human figures walk between tents and piles of barrels and crates, representations of personal agents or links and the various shared datastores kept by the scavs. Another of those witless IC goblins stands in the center of the camp, one gnarly crooked green finger shoved firmly within its pointed ear as it picks away at wax. Clueless, just like the others.

Everything is going perfectly, you just need to find a way to access any cameras the scavs have, and their most recent records…

Something snaps behind you, bursts of data sent whistling and flying about through the air in whistling arcs, and the IC goblin’s beady eyes are suddenly wide and alert, his ear picking hand grasping at the wooden cudgel on his belt in a startled panic. Turning to see what made the noise, you find Alice positively mortified, pale as a ghost, one shoe having snapped a twig in two. She’s tripped some of the scav’s passive security, sending alerts out to all the active IC.

>>5944432

”Oh dear. She covers her mouth in embarrassment even as you hurriedly pull her behind one of the tents and out of sight. Alice speaks in a whisper as you both slink into the temporary hiding spot, ”I am terribly sorry, Kai - We can reset them still!”

“We can?” You question, a little out of your depth but thankfully not yet on the wrong end of whatever those bludgeons the IC are carrying around are - for now you’re still undetected, only a general alarm has sounded, and only to the IC it seems… No lurkers or scav netrunner today.

”You can, I… Lack full functionality, it would be more trouble than-”

“How?” You demand, hearing the grunts and footsteps of the IC grow closer, tent flaps being thrown open as they check each of the subnets' datastores and logs for intruding programs or netrunners.

“A trick!” Alice snaps her fingers, and… nothing happens, though thankfully it doesn’t even make a sound - whatever she tried was utterly inert, “...Drat, curse my missing data - You try, Kai.”

“Preem, Alice, very helpful.” You mutter while pulling up your deck’s basic spoofing soft - just a part of its core functionality, nothing fancy or specialized. In a rush you throw together a simple spoof, ripping code haphazardly from the deck’s libraries and assembling a fake ping of the subnet, a brutish fake advertisement that will play the role of a security tripping spam message almost perfectly. If anything the hasty and amateurish programming makes it more believable, the work of some unpaid intern at a soulless corp. With a flick of your wrist you send the burst of data high into the air, and it sails back down among the swarming goblins moments before they reach you.

…And they take the bait, resetting immediately and returning to their previous positions.

”Sorry, choom. Alice apologizes quietly once more, her eyes now firmly focused on the ground as you both return to your search of the subnet. At least she doesn’t intend to make the same mistake again.

>”No harm done. Take the logs over there, I’ll check their cameras and messages.” Many hands make short work, Alice’s slip up was a fluke.
>”...Just keep close, Alice, watch my back.” Do everything yourself, Alice lacks the data or hardware to properly back you up in her currently crippled state, even if she is a ‘native’ of the Net.
>”Never mind all this data, we need to find their leader’s agent - that’ll have the preem detes.” Hunt around for the real prize… it’ll take some riskier snooping around though, the scav personal nets housed inside their overarching subnet might have their own IC as well. The deeper you dive, the harder it becomes to leave if things go wrong.

>>5944434

>”No harm done. Take the logs over there, I’ll check their cameras and messages.” Many hands make short work, Alice’s slip up was a fluke.

I trust her natural aptitudes even if she's clumsy

>>5944434
>”...Just keep close, Alice, watch my back.” Do everything yourself, Alice lacks the data or hardware to properly back you up in her currently crippled state, even if she is a ‘native’ of the Net.
Idk, her one roll vs our bo3 roll makes me wary of letting her be on her own.

>>5944442
Best of two.

>>5944434
>>”...Just keep close, Alice, watch my back.” Do everything yourself, Alice lacks the data or hardware to properly back you up in her currently crippled state, even if she is a ‘native’ of the Net.

>>5944434
>>”...Just keep close, Alice, watch my back.” Do everything yourself, Alice lacks the data or hardware to properly back you up in her currently crippled state, even if she is a ‘native’ of the Net.

We need to get her a deck and sign up for some health insurance.

>>5944434
>”...Just keep close, Alice, watch my back.” Do everything yourself, Alice lacks the data or hardware to properly back you up in her currently crippled state, even if she is a ‘native’ of the Net.

We'll go through those old shards full of juicy dangers and fix her right up, in time. There's a lot to do, the encrypted stuff on dad's comp, the old deck when we are finally ready for it's IC, getting Alice a proper deck of her own and a real body.

For now she should stay close, just assisting us.

Cameras, layout, guard positions first. We can go deeper when we've got the basics, not before.

>>5944434
>”...Just keep close, Alice, watch my back.” Do everything yourself, Alice lacks the data or hardware to properly back you up in her currently crippled state, even if she is a ‘native’ of the Net.

>>5944434
>”...Just keep close, Alice, watch my back.” Do everything yourself, Alice lacks the data or hardware to properly back you up in her currently crippled state, even if she is a ‘native’ of the Net.
This will do fine and we do need to teach ourselves these things after all.

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>>5944437
No harm done.

>>5944442
>>5944455
>>5944469
>>5944471
>>5944612
>>5944697
Quiet and close, do it yourself. Wins.

Rolling time, chooms.
I need two rolls of 1d100, DC is 60. Slightly harder doing it all alone but failure (if it happens) isn't as harsh since Kai has a proper Deck unlike Alice.
No rolls for Alice.

Rolled 74 (1d100)

>>5944873
Rollin'

Rolled 85 (1d100)

>>5944873

I dig the pseudo-fantasy element to the net descriptions, Mainline

>>5944878
>>5944882
The 85 will do it nicely, good rolling. Writing.

“...Just keep close, Alice, watch my back.” You reply quickly, now realizing your mistake in relying on Alice - she’s willing to help, just as she did this morning, but that doesn’t mean she can do it reliably. Perhaps bringing her along for this run may have been a mistake with how damaged she still is and without her own deck to use.

Alice closes her eyes, wincing for half a moment before returning a small nod of understanding, ”I will remain by your side.”

With the matter settled for now, you return to the real work at hand - scraping as much data from this scav subnet as you possibly can without alerting those fiendish little IC goblins or any of the faint silhouettes of the scavs themselves. Careful to try and mask your presence, you slink back out from behind the tent and set to work. Stalking from datastore to datastore, inching around the barrels and crates stacked haphazardly here and there between the other tents, you locate your primary item of concern; a crystal ball hidden away within a large black and red bell tent half covered in spiderwebs.

Careful, Kai. You think to yourself, Alice slowing her pace even before you do at the sight of the webs. The opalescent sphere lays just a few footsteps ahead atop a wrought iron stand, behind a thin and almost imperceptible curtain of that old webbing. Carefully you trace out the edges of the webbing from a safe distance, searching for weak points in the old passive security until finally you locate a more ragged section.

Drawing your ‘sword’, preparing an intrusion soft, you carefully cut away at the edge of the web. Even the dull blade of your unfamiliar deck is enough to deal with what must be terribly outdated defenses, so long as you remain fully focused. Encryption grids flash before your eyes once more, columns and rows found and selected at the speed of thought, and soon you’ve cut through, passing beyond the encryption and security protecting the tent… and toward the camera controls. As you step inside the tent the webbing behind you regenerates instantly, but it is entirely illusory now - you can step back and forth freely, and only a truly close inspection would ever find evidence of your intrusion. It will still stop others besides you and Alice.

>>5944919

Moving to the crystal ball, you grasp your hands along its sides and peer within. There are seven moving images, each of different rooms of the scav den - and what den it is. Dingy old walls of half rotted wallpaper or bare concrete covered in graffiti and worse, dim lighting from ancient lamps and half steel shuttered windows, ruined and decaying furniture covered in stains and used hypos. It’s disgusting, but largely what you’ve come to expect of scavs.

There must be two dozen of the tattooed and roughly chromed lowlifes milling about here and there, all of them decently armed - rifles, shotguns, vests, only a few helmet; they’re not wanting for weapons or basic armor, though there doesn’t seem to be anything truly stand out among them. …Or at least there wouldn’t have been if it weren’t for a trio of militech anti-personnel mines securing one of the back entrances to the highrise scav den. Attached like ticks to skin, the bulbous little mines cling to support pillars on either side of an old sliding steel door which leads out to the balconies and open air of Westbrook’s extremely densely packed residential highrises.

Taking note of the mines, and the positions of the scav guards, you move on to search for your target, this ‘Buddy’ the client wants back.

Waving your hand over the crystal sphere, you change the images again and again, connecting to different cameras and panning them unobtrusively about to search each room of the den, but you find nothing except a chop shop filled with decades old medical equipment and the stomach turning remains of some of the scav’s other victims, gore spattering the tile floor of the barbaric operating room and racks of harvest chrome lining one wall. No one who could be ‘Buddy’ though… just a cage off in the corner, too small for any adult unless they were a dwarf or… not an adult at all. Bile rises in your throat - Do the scavs have a kid?. You can’t get a good look at the cage, but having eliminated all the other locations in the den it stands the best chance of being where ‘Buddy’ is.

Pulling your hands back from the orb, you wipe them off, trying in vain to peel away some of the filth of what you’ve just seen. Fucking scavs.

“Found the target, Alice. Doesn’t look good, scavs have them locked up in a cage the best I could tell.”

It takes Alice a moment to answer, disgust written plainly on her face as her crimson eyes remained locked on the crystal orb, a deep fury growing behind them, ”...I saw it as well, such needless cruelty… We must keep going, Kai, lingering only draws more eyes.”

>>5944921

“Agreed.” There’s no time to sulk and mope over scavs being unhinged bastards, you’ve got work to do - There are data stores to plunder.

Stepping back out from the tent and moving through the camp, you find the datastores are mercifully quite unprotected, and all it takes is popping the crates and barrels open and scooping your hands within to gather up more information that you could possibly review right now - you’ll have hours after the run to look it over. Having plundered the datastores for all they have, and secured a solid understanding of the layout of the den, its defenses, and even those mines guarding the balcony entrance, you could leave the subnet and logout now.

The scouting job is done, but you could go further. Those silhouettes, the agents and links of the scavs themselves, they must have the truly juicy paydata, maybe even something vital for the job itself… It’s a big risk though, personal nets might have their own IC, and even alert those goblins lazily guarding the entire subnet.

”That one is their leader. Alice points an accusative finger toward one of the larger shades within the camp, the faint outline of a hulkingly large man standing out among the others as soon as Alice directs your attention to him - It’s some kind of trick of Net perception, the footprint left by the leader’s link is not actually larger than the others, Alice’s indication of it has simply grown its importance within your mind.

So do you stay and risk running into trouble, or delta?

>Attempt to infiltrate the leader’s link, paydata and secrets await.
>Snoop around some of the scav’s agents, maybe you can make it easier to cause trouble with their chrome during the job.
>Delta, you’ve got what you really need. No unnecessary risks.
>Write-in.

>>5944923
>Attempt to infiltrate the leader’s link, paydata and secrets await.

Perhaps we actually should've let Alice act independently, it seems that as long as we succeed we can cover up for her failure. Better overall chances of success. Too late now though.

I could take or leave the paydata, but the mission related information is what's important to me. This job required three people for a reason.

Though if people think the leader's link is too risky, messing with the lackeys is probably easier.

>>5944923
>Delta, you’ve got what you really need. No unnecessary risks.

We basically have earmarked anything important. What is important is we leave a basic rootkit to get back in quickly when the op starts.

Preceeding the op we can start messing with agents. Makes more sense to do that stuff when advanced warning doesn't let them move/ change things. As is we can even try tracking the scav leader for when/if he leaves the den.

As for agents, they don't have any real backup, we can take the hardware from them during the op and crack it on our own time. Should be easy enough to write a card ejection program that doesn't care if warnings are tripped. Could even leave a "fake file" as per the fake ad we sen
Capcha: 4vvv

>>5944923
>>Attempt to infiltrate the leader’s link, paydata and secrets await.

Risk it for the proverbial brisket.

>>5944923
>Delta, you’ve got what you really need. No unnecessary risks.
Overconfidence and all that jazz. I have the feeling that the big man will have some nasty IC or it will be difficult to crack it. Lets play safe for now.

>>5944923

>Delta, you’ve got what you really need. No unnecessary risks.

I figure we get out now, we’re NOT very proficient with hacking just yet

>>5944923
>Delta, you’ve got what you really need. No unnecessary risks.

>>5945050
>>5945033
>>5945012
>>5944956
Delta wins, writing.

“We’ve got him marked, that’s good enough for the job - Let’s delta.” You motion toward the edge of the log palisade with a nod, waving for Alice to follow along. She keeps close and tight, barely a step behind as you hurry back to the wall of the subnet and make good on your escape, utilizing the same backdoor you entered through earlier. In just a few moments the two of you are back out in the junk data of the tall grass surrounding the subnet, safe and intact with the data you came for in hand.

”Like thieves in the night.” Alice muses as the two of you hurry off among the data grass, a holographic window appearing in her hand in a little puff of smoke - Some of the logs scraped from the subnet, ”Though this certainly was not their rightful possession. Here, Kai, take a look.”

Continuing your careful pace toward the nearby ‘treeline’, you take a look at the logs yourself, noting the corporate logo immediately - These are TraumaTeam corporate records. Denial of service records, timestamps and location coordinates, initial medical assessments, preliminary cyberware diagnostics, even footage of the aftermath of several violent incidents.

“...Using it like a damned menu, picking out their targets.” You hand the data back to Alice, shaking your head - It’s not a huge surprise scavs klepped or bought that data, but seeing the logistics of scav work first hand is unsettling. People call Trauma, get denied due to missing a payment, and get scooped by scavs minutes later. “Getting happier by the minute that we’ll zero some of these scopsuckers.”

”No tears will be shed for the likes of them,” Alice states quite matter-of-factly, sighing a moment later and crossing her arms as you reach the safety of the trees and prepare to logout fully - It poses no risk at this point. ”What a tragedy, all of it.”

>>5945169

And with a thought, you log out. Layers of digital awareness peel back from your mind, displaced consciousness refusing completely with your body resting limply in your office chair back in meatspace - icey cold recedes, tendrils retreating from your brain like the onset of a migraine played in reverse and sped up. Blinking several times, your vision clears entirely - You’re in your apartment, at your fathers desk, just as you were a few minutes ago when this all began. Except now you have what you were looking for - all the detes you really need for the job.

…Not particularly reassuring detes, but it is what it is - You already know there would be a lot of scavs, so did Dolf and ‘Connor’.

Alice’s soft tones slip back into your thoughts, carried there directly by your neuralink, ”Shall we call our chooms, Kai?”

>”No use waiting on our hands, we’ve got the detes.” Call up Connor and Dolf, let them know what you’ve found out - you can pour over the other data later.
>”...Not yet, let's take a look through the data we scraped.” It’ll take hours to review it all, most likely useless, but there’s a chance of something useful among it.
>”Not yet, first things first - We’re getting you patched up, Alice.” You’ve got all day to report in with the others and make a plan for the scav job, getting Alice to a better state of functionality might be worth doing first - She’s a choom and your only backup on the Net right now, and besides that you do owe her for stopping you from getting fried earlier.
>Write-in?

>>5945170
>”...Not yet, let's take a look through the data we scraped.” It’ll take hours to review it all, most likely useless, but there’s a chance of something useful among it.
Preparation is the mother of success or some shit like that.

>>5945170
>”...Not yet, let's take a look through the data we scraped.” It’ll take hours to review it all, most likely useless, but there’s a chance of something useful among it.

It's literally the same day we met Dolf and Connor, and did that drone fetching job with Maeve. Dolf said we had two or three days, and it is just barely passed noon. We've got time. Go to the meeting with some actionable intel and a sketch of a plan in hand, it'll probably impress them.

We probably have time to fix up Alice too.

>>5945170
>>”Not yet, first things first - We’re getting you patched up, Alice.” You’ve got all day to report in with the others and make a plan for the scav job, getting Alice to a better state of functionality might be worth doing first - She’s a choom and your only backup on the Net right now, and besides that you do owe her for stopping you from getting fried earlier.

We didn't find out anything big, but I think this is too glaring to be ignored.

>>5945170

>”...Not yet, let's take a look through the data we scraped.” It’ll take hours to review it all, most likely useless, but there’s a chance of something useful among it.

We got in and out flawlessly, there’s no rush!

>>5945170
>>”Not yet, first things first - We’re getting you patched up, Alice.” You’ve got all day to report in with the others and make a plan for the scav job, getting Alice to a better state of functionality might be worth doing first - She’s a choom and your only backup on the Net right now, and besides that you do owe her for stopping you from getting fried earlier.

>>5945170
>”...Not yet, let's take a look through the data we scraped.” It’ll take hours to review it all, most likely useless, but there’s a chance of something useful among it.

>>5945170
>”Not yet, first things first - We’re getting you patched up, Alice.” You’ve got all day to report in with the others and make a plan for the scav job, getting Alice to a better state of functionality might be worth doing first - She’s a choom and your only backup on the Net right now, and besides that you do owe her for stopping you from getting fried earlier.

>>5945170
>>”...Not yet, let's take a look through the data we scraped.” It’ll take hours to review it all, most likely useless, but there’s a chance of something useful among it.

If we're going to be the data guy, we might as well be autistically thorough about it.

Rolled 90, 52 = 142 (2d100)

>>5945178
>>5945204
>>5945218
>>5945436
>>5945598
Reviewing data wins.

I need two rolls of 1d100. Higher is better.
Rolling for Alice analyzing as well.

Rolled 86 (1d100)

>>5945612
Rollin

Rolled 63 (1d100)

>>5945612
EnHaNcE

>>5945621
An 86 will do nicely.

>>5945622
kek

>>5944098
Oh shit, I'm late
Glad to see this back

File: 1689982059125726.png (281 KB, 597x380)

281 KB PNG

>>5944098

Hell yeah CP Quest is back!

“...Not yet, let’s take a look through the data we scraped.” You reply to Alice, mentally preparing yourself for what will surely be hours of tedious document review - even with the help of your neuralink. “Help a choom out?”

“Happily, Kai.” Alice’s voice whispers within your mind, more often a soothing presence than an unsettling one, ”...At last a task for which I am not so ill prepared.”

Leaning back in your father’s old office chair, you call up the data scraped from the scav subnet with half a thought, text boxes and images flickering half-real in your field of vision thanks to your link. As you begin to skim over the information, you continue to speak with Alice, taking an educated guess as to her current issue, “Don’t let the run get you down Alice, you’ll be blasting through IC in no time once we get you fixed up.”

”Undoubtedly. Our trip into the net was a thrill though, was it not?”

“Hell yeah, preem work too, in and out. I’d heard stories from my dad about netrunning, real dives, but they didn’t get half of it. Felt…”

”Real?” Alice volunteers the word easily.

“Exactly, choom.” You nod mostly to yourself, quite alone within the apartment, and return your full focus to scanning through your klepped data. Most of it is useless junk, as expected - Net searches, scop takeout receipts - buck-a-slice, of course - unread instruction documents for cyberware the scavs definitely didn’t buy legally… A full hour goes by before you stumble upon the first speck of gold in the digital sand you’re panning.

“...Huh. Interesting.” You eye the text file curiously, reading and rereading to make sure your suspicions are correct - you can scarcely believe these gonks would store something like this unsecured on their subnet, but gonks will be gonks, “Alice, check these records. Is this what I think it is?”

”...Registration keys? For games?” Alice questions back immediately, nearly instantaneous with her response but still uncertain, ”Hundreds of them, my goodness!”

“Yeah, looks like one of the scavs is dabbling in ‘redistributing’ things other than chrome,” You’d chuckle if their bigger business wasn’t so grim - this kind of petty Net crime is almost comical in comparison to abductions and murders, “I think we can make better use of these, don’t you? Can’t be hard to find buyers.”

”Arrr, aye captain. Raise the black flag.” Alice answers back in a terrible impression of a pirate. It still gets a laugh from you.

Asset Aquired: Game Keys
Estimated Value: ~€1800

>>5945686

“Find anything of your own?” You question before returning back to the endless review - paydata like those keys are nice, really nice, but you’re more interested in something to give an edge on the scav job. Dying makes it hard to spend eddies.

You can’t see it, but you can feel Alice sitting up straighter and adjusting a pair of glasses that doesn’t exist - you just know she’s getting ready to present something she’s quite proud of, ”I have been cross-referencing the serial numbers of cyberware harvested by the scavs with those of reported missing persons in the NCPD public database. I believe I have solved four missing persons cases.”

“...Wait, seriously?” You ask in mild shock - the data is there, now that you think about it, but putting it together so quickly is impressive, “Is there-”

”A reward? Quite the mercenary attitude.”

“I was going to ask if there was a way to contact their families.” You reply defensively, but you can tell she’s just screwing with you a bit, “Still not helpful for the job, but may as well do some good while we’re working, right?”

”Good deeds are their own reward.” She answers cheerfully, ”And we might receive some degree of material reward, they may be grateful for closure… if not the news itself.”

You’re unsure if you’d even accept payment for delivering that kind of information - you probably would, work is work and you generally wouldn’t deny money freely given, but at the same time it feels like something that should be done out of simple common decency. People deserve some peace and answers about missing family.

>>5945688

Several more hours later

“...And you’re sure they haven’t updated the firmware for their smartlinks?” The ask for the third or fourth time, questioning Alice’s conclusions on what may be the single most important piece of data you’ve found all day - Several of the scavs have older Militech rifles with defective targeting firmware. A patch was rolled out for it years ago, but for legal reasons that are beyond you it wasn’t offered over the Net and the guns had to be brought in for ‘repair’ in person. Almost none were, and disabling them is rather trivial over the Net.

”Is the pope Catholic?”

“Ask the poles, they don’t seem to think so. Anyways, if you’re certain this can be used then that’s good enough for me. All I managed to find were the detonation codes for those anti-personnel mines on the balcony door.”

”But what a distraction that will make!”

“True, tinnitus on demand isn’t something to turn down. Might be able to blast a scav or two as well, there’s a lot of those assholes in there.” You cross your arms, finally sitting up in your father’s old chair and surveying the interior of your apartment idly, thinking over everything you’ve gathered: Firm paydata, morally questionable ‘paydata’, means to disable some of the scav’s weapons, as well as a potential distraction with the mines - or even a trap, with a bit of creative luring of scavs.

>Call up Connor and Dolf, discuss what you’ve found. No new information on ‘Buddy’ but you’ve got a bag of tricks now, and a better idea of the scav defenses.
>”Alright, let’s see if we can get you back into fighting shape, Alice.” Check out some of those encrypted shards you couldn’t access a few days ago, and your father’s old NETWATCH deck as well, it’s possible they could have some of Alice’s data. You’ll need to be careful, Yoko’s warning is still fresh in your mind.
>Go looking for trouble and eddies out on Night City’s streets - you’re an NCPD subcon now, try to put some of your new gear to work and collect a bounty. There’s time until the scav job.
>Call someone else. (Who?)
>Write-in.

>>5945689
Ah, maybe we can make a distraction at the back, lure some of the scavs into their own mines, then detonate em. It'll thin them out, attract even MORE to the back, letting us infiltrate the front.

inb4 we're 'rescuing' a kid from scavs only to deliver them to a pedophile or something.

>”Alright, let’s see if we can get you back into fighting shape, Alice.” Check out some of those encrypted shards you couldn’t access a few days ago, and your father’s old NETWATCH deck as well, it’s possible they could have some of Alice’s data. You’ll need to be careful, Yoko’s warning is still fresh in your mind.

I'm actually worried we aren't ready for this. We were warned about old IC and daemons being real bad shit even for modern times, worse even. Still, maybe it's best to poke our heads in just to get a taste of what we need be ready for.

I'm not sure about doing dangerous work before our upcoming job either, what if we get injured? It'd ruin our rep if we had to sit this one out because of a stupid mistake prior to the real thing. Still, it'd be a shame to waste the time sitting on our hands.

>>5945689
>”Alright, let’s see if we can get you back into fighting shape, Alice.” Check out some of those encrypted shards you couldn’t access a few days ago, and your father’s old NETWATCH deck as well, it’s possible they could have some of Alice’s data. You’ll need to be careful, Yoko’s warning is still fresh in your mind.

Glad yo see you're back, Mainline!
>>5945689
>Call up Connor and Dolf, discuss what you’ve found. No new information on ‘Buddy’ but you’ve got a bag of tricks now, and a better idea of the scav defenses.
>>5945686
>”Arrr, aye captain. Raise the black flag.” Alice answers back in a terrible impression of a pirate.
Oh no, be still my beating heart!

>>5945697

Supporting all this.

>>5945697
This sounds good, support. Also, love that we got some game keys kek.

>>5945689
>>”Alright, let’s see if we can get you back into fighting shape, Alice.” Check out some of those encrypted shards you couldn’t access a few days ago, and your father’s old NETWATCH deck as well, it’s possible they could have some of Alice’s data. You’ll need to be careful, Yoko’s warning is still fresh in your mind.

Rolled 78 (1d100)

>>5945949
>>5945893
>>5945739
>>5945716
>>5945697
Alright, we'll start with the shards first since they're less dangerous and complex by far.

I need two rolls of 1d100, DC 75.
Rolling for the armor sa- I mean for Alice.

Rolled 61 (1d100)

>>5945958

Rolled 21 (1d100)

>>5945958

>>5945996
>>5946002
>61
Well, at least Kai isn't getting fried by the attempt. Writing.

Thinking over your options for a minute, tapping one hand against your father’s old metal desk, you finally settle upon a new course of action - Connor and Dolf can wait a little longer, “Alright, let’s see if we can get you back into fighting Alice.”

”Data shards?” She may as well be a child asking about candy.

“Yes, we’re going to crack some of the encrypted ones dad left, see if there’s any of your old data on them,” You get up and move to your bed, pulling the box of shards out from under it, “And once we’re done with these, we’ll try his old deck.”

”We should take care not to dig too deep or greedily, Kai.” Alice warns, though her still excited tone does a lot to dampen any fear the ominous warning might’ve brought on, ”I wonder if any of my memories will be on the shards as well? Oh, this is so exciting, Kai, thank you!”

“Only one way to find out - and save your thanks, might just be about to open a can full of old daemons…” You sit on the bed and go through the usual procedure of connecting to your recently stolen deck, linking into it from your wrist but not going for a dive - not yet. Your other hand grabs a few of the mystery shards, little black not-quite-rectangles, and slots the first in. With a final thought, now you dive in and begin the dangerous wor-

Two hours later.

>>5946086

”Kai? Kaiiii?” A familiar voice whispers in the dark, ”Anyone home? Oh dear, still no - Aha! There you are!”

“Wha…?” You groan awake, eyes blinking at too bright light overhead before slowly lifting a hand to shield yourself from the horrendous glare, “What the hell happened?”

”He lives!” Alice cheers within your pounding skull - What asshole is playing drums right now? Oh, it’s just your heartbeat. That’s not a good sign.

“Did I get spiked by something?”

”A mild daemon, I was able to stop it before it did any permanent damage to your link - I am so happy you are alright, Kai, I was worried the diagnostics were wrong after the first horu passed and…”

“The first hour?!” You bolt upright in your bed, unjacking from your deck with a hasty pull and letting the cable snap back fully into your arm port, “How long have I been out? Fuck, my head!-”

”Two, just now.” You can’t see it, but you know she’s checking a pocket watch that isn’t her own. ”We were successful in cracking several of the shards, I even found some of my old data! I can wear hats now.”

“W-what?” You wince, closing your eyes and pinching a bit at your forehead with one hand, pain slowly receding, “Hats? What do you mean?”

”I can make my Net avatar appear with a hat.” Alice states more flatly. You groan again. Knocked out for two hours for Net accessories? That just isn't fair. ”I am sorry Kai, I wish I had better news, or perhaps a sophisticated breaching protocol… I do look rather dashing now though.”

Standing from the bed, slowly and with a slight wobble, you head over to the kitchen and grab drink, opening the can with a quick hiss and then sipping away at its over-caffeinated goodness. The artificial flavors are harsh and overly fruity, with a hell of a tang, but you’ll take anything to distract from this headache.

>>5946087

“I’d rather have been shot.” You complain mostly to yourself, “...You said you stopped permanent damage?”

“Yes, I was able to shield you from the worst of the attack, but only just. Your link was knocked offline temporarily, and the… Imp escaped. I put him back in his box. Friendly little fellow, though rather odd. Do you think you’re ready to resume cracking the shards, or perhaps some buck-a-slice first?”

>”Back to the grind. Let’s do this right this time.” That’s twice she’s saved your ass today, netrunning is, as people have warned, alarmingly dangerous. But that just confirms that you need her for backup - some risks are necessary. Crack the rest of the shards.
>”Buck-a-slice, I’ll take cardboard scop and synthcheese over jabbing more nails in my brain… Any calls come in while I was out?”
>”...I think we’re going to need some more experienced help with this, Alice. Let’s get back out on the streets, we’ll need more eddies for help with this.” You’ll need more eddies for EVERYTHING.
>Write-in.

>>5946088

>”Buck-a-slice, I’ll take cardboard scop and synthcheese over jabbing more nails in my brain… Any calls come in while I was out?”

Maybe we should take a beat, rest up, hit the scavs to retrieve Buddy first before we return to this

>>5946088
>>”Buck-a-slice, I’ll take cardboard scop and synthcheese over jabbing more nails in my brain… Any calls come in while I was out?”

>>5946088
Okay, so the old timey deck is a no go for us then. Not until we are far more skilled than we are currently, and once Alice has a deck of her own. Even these shards are too much for us.

>”Buck-a-slice, I’ll take cardboard scop and synthcheese over jabbing more nails in my brain… Any calls come in while I was out?”

We're gonna need a break after that one. A boring boy with no play makes for a very boring day. Or something.

>>5946088
>>”Buck-a-slice, I’ll take cardboard scop and synthcheese over jabbing more nails in my brain… Any calls come in while I was out?”

With extra sauce.

>>5946088
>>”Buck-a-slice, I’ll take cardboard scop and synthcheese over jabbing more nails in my brain… Any calls come in while I was out?”

>>5946088
>”Buck-a-slice, I’ll take cardboard scop and synthcheese over jabbing more nails in my brain… Any calls come in while I was out?”

>>5946100
>>5946112
>>5946120
>>5946147
>>5946157
>>5946367
Cheap "pizza" by unanimous agreement, writing.

>>5946455
how about Anchovies?

>>5946512

>anchovies on $1-a-slice pizza

My god, anon - are you trying to kill Kai?

“Buck-a-slice,” You agree, still trying to shake of the last of the pains from getting your neurons knocked around by whatever daemon your father had on those shards, “I’ll take cardboard scop and synthcheese over jabbing more nails in my brain… Any calls come in while I was out?”

”Only one, Officer Reyes attempted what I believe was a check-in call. The Buck-A-Slice is on its way, I have placed the order.”

“Vicky? Sounds like her.” You send off a text to her with a thought, all while still sipping away at your drink - the flavor really doesn’t get better over time, you’d prefer a NiCola, but it is what it is.

// Message to Victoria Reyes: Hey Vicky, I’m doing fine, just trying to get by. Thanks again for the cookies and checking in, means a lot.//

…Yeah, that’ll be enough for now. You dismiss her contact information with a thought, returning your full aching focus to the impending arrival of buck-a-slice. It’s about as cheap and low quality as pizza gets, but as soon as Alice mentioned it you realized you’d been craving it for awhile - Dad would buy it sometimes, even when you lived downtown. He always explained that it was a habit from his college days, and that the taste grew on him… Mom hates the stuff. Heh.

You miss having them both around. Sighing, you crumple the now empty can and toss it in the garbage with practiced aim before heading back to your dad’s chair and sending it into a slow lazy spin with a light kick of the floor. Staring up at the lights overhead, and the dark slightly stained ceiling, your thoughts begin to wander. Images and smells from the last week flash through your mind, more vivid than usual - the smell of blood, of burnt powder, billowing CHOOH2 exhaust, all the grime and grit of merc work…

>>5946561

”...I believe I was rather fond of buck-a-slice.” Alice’s voice muses quietly in your mind, her ghost blissfully unaware of your darker thoughts, ”I can nearly recall its taste...”

“You remember bad pizza?” The absurdity of the claim drags your thoughts back to the present, a small grin spreading across your face.

”No, not a bit, but it did leave an impression... It is familiar. I know not why. It is quite the odd sensation.”

“It definitely leaves an impression.” You chuckle lightly, “Must not've been that well off if you picked up a taste for it. Got mine from dad, hiding it from mom made it kind of fun, even if it tastes like greasy cardboard sometimes.”

”You truly know how to make a food sound appealing, Kai. Bleh.” Alice replies with mirthful sarcasm, and you can feel her next question brewing even before it slips into your thoughts, ”...Who do you think I was before I became like this?”

Before she died.

>”We’ll find out when we get more data, but whoever you were, you are who you are now, Alice… If uh, that makes sense.” Even faded now, the pain from earlier makes eloquent speech a real bitch.
>”...Well, if you got along with my dad, and Yoko, and you like cheap pizza… Maybe a netrunner?” You don’t have much to go on, this doesn’t even qualify as a proper hunch.
>”Clearly you were a pirate nomad, Alice. Arr harr.” She *probably* wasn’t, but you honestly don’t have a clue.
>Write-in.

>>5946563
>”We’ll find out when we get more data, but whoever you were, you are who you are now, Alice… If uh, that makes sense.” Even faded now, the pain from earlier makes eloquent speech a real bitch.

>>5946563
makes eloquent speech a real bitch.
>”...Well, if you got along with my dad, and Yoko, and you like cheap pizza… Maybe a netrunner?” You don’t have much to go on, this doesn’t even qualify as a proper hunch.

>>5946563
>>”...Well, if you got along with my dad, and Yoko, and you like cheap pizza… Maybe a netrunner?” You don’t have much to go on, this doesn’t even qualify as a proper hunch.

>>5946563

>”...Well, if you got along with my dad, and Yoko, and you like cheap pizza… Maybe a netrunner?” You don’t have much to go on, this doesn’t even qualify as a proper hunch.
>”It’s a bit sad - as you remember who you are, this version of you will slowly disappear.”

Ship of Theseus and all that

>>5946563
>”...Well, if you got along with my dad, and Yoko, and you like cheap pizza… Maybe a netrunner?” You don’t have much to go on, this doesn’t even qualify as a proper hunch.

>>5946609
>>5946622
>>5946625
>>5946694
Writing.

File: Death to Corporations.jpg (238 KB, 1024x1024)

238 KB JPG

Going to be a bit longer until the next update, got caught up in watching Dune with my family. Should still have it posted later tonight.

“...Well,” You mull over what you’ve learned of the ghost woman the past few days, closing your eyes and reclining further in the chair as you think, “If you got along with my dad, and Yoko, and you like cheap pizza… Maybe a netrunner?”

It’s a shot in the dark, close enough to a blind guess, but there’s something to it that pulls at the edges of your thoughts - nothing like a clear pattern of details, but perhaps a faint impression of one. Or perhaps you are simply imagining things which are not there, projecting aspects of yourself on the faint hints of Alice’s past which you’re privy to.

”A netrunner?” Alice ponders, her soothing voice slowly growing as familiar as your own, ever present through your link, ”Yes, perhaps that is who I was. An explorer of the old Net, striking out into the unknown only to be caught unawares by Soulkiller, a victim of Arasaka just as Yoko spoke of earlier… That would be quite the dramatic tale would it not? For a purveyor of shards and daemons, Yoko has quite a sinister aspect when relaying stories.”

“Maybe she missed her real calling in life.” You open your eyes, staring up once more at the slightly stained ceiling, “Could’ve been spinning ghost stories like that with Maximum Mike on Morro Rock, would fit right in.”

”Indeed.” Alice laughs lightly, ”There are other stories which tickle at me, teasing things. I could have simply been caught in the DataKrash - Perhaps I am an old woman reliving a sort of second youth, or a witless victim of corporate crossfire in the last war. So many possibilities, none more real than any others, equal musings all of them. I am glad to be alive and here, regardless of the circumstances.”

“You definitely keep up beat,” You admire that about her, whatever oddities and quirks she has - Charges of glowering cynicism or depressed resignation could never be brought against Alice, whatever her true past, “Does it bother you?”

”Not knowing? Indeed, quite terrifically so. But as I see it that is hardly unique, it is… comfortingly human. I learn more by the minute, the search is a thrill. Do you know who you are, Kai?”

“I…” You stumble on the question for a moment, failing to find a truly satisfying answer, “I’ll have to think about that more.”

>>5946983

An hour later.

Finishing off the last slice of the greasy pizza, you look at the now empty box with a hint of regret - That was a lot to eat all at once. Still, it was about as good as you could’ve hoped for, cheap dirty food has a certain appeal even if the taste and texture are lacking. For the next couple of minutes you clean up, disposing of the box, washing your plate, generally busying yourself with mundane tasks instead of thinking about the swamp of problems you’re sinking into. Debt, danger, even death - It takes a back seat to the simple chores of life for a moment. You even take a little longer to clean up the apartment.

Finally finished, you find yourself well into the afternoon - Night City won’t be living up to its name for another couple of hours still, but that’s not much daylight to work with.

>Head out onto the streets of Night City and see what there is to see - Maybe do some subcon work, maybe just a drive in the Quadra, you don’t have anything particular in mind at the moment, but you want to keep your feet moving - hiding away in a (poorly equipped) netrunner lair isn’t your style. Sleep is for the dead.
>Conveen the council of chooms, call up Dolf and Connor and give them all the detes you scraped off the subnet earlier. They might try to drag you off into something else once they know you’re done though, maybe even kick off the job early.
>Take it easy for the rest of the day. You’ll need to be well rested for the job, report back to Dolf and Connor tomorrow morning.
>Get in a bit of lower risk netrunning practice. There have to be easy targets out there on the Net, and you need to strengthen your barely existing skills. This won't be restful at all.
>Call someone. (Who?)
>Write-in.

>>5946985

>Conveen the council of chooms, call up Dolf and Connor and give them all the detes you scraped off the subnet earlier. They might try to drag you off into something else once they know you’re done though, maybe even kick off the job early.

>>5946985
>Conveen the council of chooms, call up Dolf and Connor and give them all the detes you scraped off the subnet earlier. They might try to drag you off into something else once they know you’re done though, maybe even kick off the job early.

Nah better give them time to prep if they want to make any last minute changes to any initial plans they had.

Sleep aside, kicking it off early is fine too. Then we won't have to worry about wasting days sitting still, worried about being injured before the job and leaving our chooms hanging. Night time makes sneaking easier too.

>>5946985
>Conveen the council of chooms, call up Dolf and Connor and give them all the detes you scraped off the subnet earlier. They might try to drag you off into something else once they know you’re done though, maybe even kick off the job early.
The better the plan the better the chance we all go home alive.

>>5946985
>Conveen the council of chooms, call up Dolf and Connor and give them all the detes you scraped off the subnet earlier. They might try to drag you off into something else once they know you’re done though, maybe even kick off the job early.

Planning is good, but we probably shouldn't do the job early after a tiring day like this

>>5946985
>Conveen the council of chooms, call up Dolf and Connor and give them all the detes you scraped off the subnet earlier. They might try to drag you off into something else once they know you’re done though, maybe even kick off the job early.

>>5946985

>Conveen the council of chooms, call up Dolf and Connor and give them all the detes you scraped off the subnet earlier. They might try to drag you off into something else once they know you’re done though, maybe even kick off the job early.

I’m not opposed to kicking off the job early tbqh

>>5947141
>>5947112
>>5947108
>>5947050
>>5947002
>>5946987
Writing.

A few minutes later, on the holo with Dolf and Connor.

2076.01.06, 16:45
Night City (Kabuki, your apartment)

“What’s the sitch, choom?” Dolf answers the call as soon as you ping him, Connor following a moment later.

“I’ve got the detes on the scav den, scraped everything useful off their subnet,” You speak aloud, spinning slowly in your father’s old office chair as you relay the details - not that Dolf or Connor can see that, you’re just a talking head in a box to them, same as they are to you, two disembodied faces in the corner of your vision, “There are thirty of them, give or take a couple depending on the time of day, spread out across eight rooms. They’re armed with a mix of rifles and submachineguns mostly, nothing heavier, some have armor - most have visible chrome, street grade, barely better than meat… I’ve got a map of it worked up, guard positions will change but the layout is right.”

“Damn, that’s a hell of a lot of gonks,” Dolf mutters to himself, frowning contemplatively - Even as a flickering half-real image projected by your link, it’s an intimidating look. Connor bites at her lip, eyes narrowed.

“Yep, dumpsters full of them, but that’s only the bad news.” You’re can’t help but grin devilishly, already thinking of the mines, “The good news is we know our target’s location, they’re in this cage back here… Couldn’t get a good look inside, but there’s nowhere else for them to be.”

“Sure there’s not a room you missed, like uh, a trap door or sliding bookcase?” Connor questions, eliciting a barking laugh from Dolf.

“Too many cartoons, choom, this look like some kind of haunted mansion to you? That’s fancy, scav dens don’t do fancy.”

“Hey, fuck off you big meathead, you know what I meant,” Connor rolls her eyes, grinning, “Scavs don’t live by just being gonks, they’re sneaky assholes too, clever enough to hide from cops and stuff - Maybe they’re hiding things.”

You tilt your head slightly, contemplating if you might’ve missed something - probably not, “I looked around, didn’t find any mention of it on the data I scraped, or see or hear anything on the cameras - That cage is the best we’ve got.”

>>5947276

“And there’s more good news, yeah?” Dolf prompts you, clearly hoping for more.

“Oh yeah, hit gold. Scavs have the balcony door over here covered in mines,” You send out an update to the digital map to both of them, pinning the location of the explosive laden door, “And I managed to snatch their remote detonation codes. Can light the whole place up like a block party in Santo Domingo. Some of their rifles aren’t running updated firmware for their smartlinks either, can jam those up - and I picked up some other tricks in Kabuki earlier.“

“See, that’s that wizard shit I was talking about earlier! He’s not just a doors and cameras guy…” Connor almost cheers at the news, grinning wider before another thought tamps down her enthusiasm, “Uh, you did get the doors and camera controls though, yeah?”

“Naturally, got all the basic covered.” You confirm, setting the wiry woman at ease.

“Alright, alright, this is what I love to see - We’ve got a map, doors, cameras, numbers, weapons, weaknesses, big bag of spooky ass Net tricks - Ah, choom, I’m feeling all tactical and shit, this is some good stuff.” Dolf is clearly pleased with the results, “So how do we hit them?”

“Hard.” Connor offers enthusiastically, if somewhat unhelpfully.

“No, I was thinking we’d smack em’ like a pillow - Of course we hit them hard.” Dolf’s image in the holocall box moves about slightly as Connor punches him in the shoulder, “Ow! Hey, hey! Save it for the scavs… little maniac. Been reading up on this kind of op, old Blackhand stuff, Militech tactics manuals - I can put something killer together.”

“Holy shit, you can read?” Connor laughs, receiving her own - lighter - punch from Dolf, “Gah! Watch it you big gorilla, I’ll kick next time!”

>”Alright Dolf, what’s the plan then?” Hear out what the big guy has to say.
>”I was thinking we lure some scavs to the mined door, lock the other rooms up, and enter after detonating the mines - split the scavs up and work room to room, I’ll jam guns and eyes and unlock doors as we go. Grab buddy and ghost out before they can all swarm us.”
>”Think there might be a way to do this quietly?” Dolf probably doesn’t do quiet all that well, but Connor… Well, she MIGHT be able to, she’s kind of small and definitely agile enough. Just has to shut up for a few minutes.
>Write-in.

>>5947278
>”Alright Dolf, what’s the plan then?” Hear out what the big guy has to say.
If he has a plan, lets hear him. We can add to it or change it after we hear it.

>>5947278
>”Alright Dolf, what’s the plan then?” Hear out what the big guy has to say.

>>5947294
This

>>5947278
>>”Alright Dolf, what’s the plan then?” Hear out what the big guy has to say.

Sounds like he has something in mind.

>>5947278
Less points of conflict mean less chances for things to go sideways

>>5947278
>”Alright Dolf, what’s the plan then?” Hear out what the big guy has to say.

But do be ready to interject with our own plan before the meeting ends, may as well hear out all the ideas and compare their pros and cons against each other.

>>5947278

>”I was thinking we lure some scavs to the mined door, lock the other rooms up, and enter after detonating the mines - split the scavs up and work room to room, I’ll jam guns and eyes and unlock doors as we go. Grab buddy and ghost out before they can all swarm us.”

One thought - can we exploit social divisions in the scab group? Did we pick up on any factionalism between the scavs? Maybe we try to spark a gunbattle between scavs just before we hit the site

>>5947499
Social engineering is a hell of a weapon.

>>5947486
>>5947350
>>5947303
>>5947294
Writing.

Almost done writing. Got caught up in other things again.

”Alright Dolf, what’s the plan then?” You ask the big man, curious as to what he’s been cooking on his own after only just seeing all the information you gathered - not long to think things through at all.

“Give me a few minutes and I’ll get back to you, Choom - Need to look this map over closer…” Even in his holocall box you can see Dolf squinting, presumably at the map of the den you sent to him and Connor, “If you can jam the smartlinks on some, could you make them… shoot?”

“Even easier, probably.” You furrow your brow as you consider the idea, “Looking to sow some chaos?”

“Making their iron bark on its own? Nova, but… that’s kind of fucked choom - I love it! This is why I don’t trust iron though, better to just work a gonk over with a metal bar, or-” Connor starts to comment before getting quieted by Dolf, the small tan woman making a face at him as one of Dolf’s overly large hands waves into Connor’s holocall box briefly.

“Chaos is exactly what we need.” Dolf’s taking this more seriously than earlier, though he’s no less enthusiastic, “Anything to draw some of the gonks off, split them up, get them out of there lair. Maybe even get some ‘friendly’ fire going, eh? Bet we can get them at each others throats.”

“Getting shot in the gut by a choom that swears the ‘gun went off on its own!’? HAH!” Connor laughs hard at the thought, even mocking wiping away a tear, “That’s preem, choom…”

“Interesting distraction along with the mines,” You can’t help but grin devilishly at the thought, smiling at an idea that just a week ago would have horrified you - of course a week ago you didn’t understand the true depravity of most scav groups either, just how fundamentally fucked they all must be to participate in a chrome ‘scavenging operation. Murderers and vultures, worse than mercenaries. They don’t just kill, they defile. It offends every sense of the sacred you bear on a subconscious level.

”I could use my crime voice.” Alice offers - though only you can hear her currently, the group call and your near constant connection to her partitioned for now.

“It’s an old Blackhand trick - You know if a guy keeps doing solo work for seventy years or whatever the fuck he’s at now, there’s got to be something right going on with his plans.” Dolf’s a hard man to argue with, though you’re only vaguely aware of the man he’s speaking of - Morgan Blackhand, “It’s all in the set up. ‘Low trust gangs’ are ripe for uh, ‘exploitation’, yeah? Bet these gonks are chooms in name only. Lead starts flying from two places at once, they won’t stop to ask questions.”

>>5947808

“Would’ve taken you for the guns blazing type, Dolf.” You don’t mean it as an insult, he and Connor both definitely gave off that vibe earlier at the bar - but they opted for you to sniff around on the Net and to prep more gear, so it’s hardly the first sign of prudent action.

“Oh, I am, choom, I am. But I like my insides inside, and my eddies not spent on a MedCenter bill. We’re going to need more distractions, something to pull a load of the gonks further apart before we bust down a door… I’ll figure out the breaching plan in a bit, might not even be a door. Distractions first.”

“Aw man, I like the part where you draw the colored arrows and x’s on the map.” Connor teases, “Makes you look like that uh… Ah, damn, what’s the sunglasses guy from Bushido XI? The map guy, with the minigun, jumps out of the space shuttle when they’re at the crystal palac- Malcolm!”

Dolf’s grin gets bigger and dumber, “Yeah, that’s exactly it! Can’t be sloppy like an old flick though. Think I’d look good with a minigun… Back to the job though - Any other ideas for how to draw more of the scavs out, Kai? I was thinking maybe we spoof a target, get some of them sent off, or set a ghost deal. Get a dozen of them sent off to Rancho looking for chrome that ain’t there, hah!”

>”I can spoof some messages, try to lure them out for a fake chrome deal.” That’s new territory, you only just got your Deck, but how hard could it be really? Maximizing distractions seems like a solid foundation before any other plan.
>”Maybe, maybe. I’d like to get a feel for the ‘arrows and x’s’ part of this first though, doubt it’ll change too much if we peel a handful more of them off with some gonk business on the other side of NC.” He’s had his couple of minutes to look over the map, push for him to spit out the rest of his idea.
>”If we set the guns off in the furthest room, think it’d draw enough away to sneak in through the balcony? Deactivate the mines, unlock the door, grab ‘buddy’ and ghost the way we came.” Stealth has been working great for you so far, why quit now?
>Write-in.

>>5947811

>”Maybe, maybe. I’d like to get a feel for the ‘arrows and x’s’ part of this first though, doubt it’ll change too much if we peel a handful more of them off with some gonk business on the other side of NC.” He’s had his couple of minutes to look over the map, push for him to spit out the rest of his idea.

>>5947811
>>”I can spoof some messages, try to lure them out for a fake chrome deal.” That’s new territory, you only just got your Deck, but how hard could it be really? Maximizing distractions seems like a solid foundation before any other plan.

>>5947811
>”I can spoof some messages, try to lure them out for a fake chrome deal.” That’s new territory, you only just got your Deck, but how hard could it be really? Maximizing distractions seems like a solid foundation before any other plan.

If it fails at step 1 though, then better have a backup plan worked out. Whether that be the 'lock the doors and go room by room' plan or different, more basic stealth plans that don't involve us trying something new, assuming they haven't noticed us yet.

>>5947811
>Spoof some messages
Shouldn't be too hard, just get one of the old messages, change the name, date, chrome, and location, and brain blast it to them

>>5946985
>Conveen the council of chooms, call up Dolf and Connor and give them all the detes you scraped off the subnet earlier. They might try to drag you off into something else once they know you’re done though, maybe even kick off the job early.
But before that, call Vicky.

>>5948129
A little slow on the draw, choom.

>>5948129
This anon has me thinking though. We aren't the only one that lost our pops. Maybe we should call Vicky soon.

>>5947945
>>5947979
>>5948018
Writing.

“I can spoof some messages, try to lure them out for a fake chrome deal.” Your hand drifts toward your deck sitting atop the desk, and place a foot down to slow and then stop your lazy spin in the office chair, “Shouldn’t be too hard, just need to poke around in

“Think you’ll need to spoof voices too?” Connor questions, one of her hands appearing in the holocall box and miming the shape of an ancient phone pressed against her cheek. Her voice shifts into a deeper, gravely tone… which is still pretty high pitched, she just can’t do it well, “Yo, this is Scavvy McGonk, got your text. We on for the Rancho deal?”

”We are. Eddies are waiting, choom.” Alice replies smoothly, piping into the call through your link, her presence still hidden.

“Woah ho ho, that was preem!” Connor breaks ‘character’, if her joking scav imitation even qualifies, laughing in delight at the unexpected voice.

“Nova spoof, got that handled then.” Dolf rumbles approvingly, taking Alice’s voice for a voice spoofing program - Hopefully she can do others as well, you’ll need to impersonate particular individuals if it comes up, “How long do you need? I’ll get grinding away on the plan, have it all laid out in… half an hour? And Connor, you can…”

“Whips and kicks, bro, whips and kicks.” Comes her squeaky response before Dolf can finish, “Need to practice with my wire more before we’re neck deep in gunfire.”

>”I’ll get cooking on that fake deal, call you back in thirty. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ve already got a real one happening.” [You will be able to access the scav subnet immediately, your targets are the scav’s personal networks within it.]
>”I’ll set up a fake meet later, let’s get the rest of this plan figured out before I dive.” It’ll need to be tweaked if some of the scavs get lured off,
>As above, but send Alice off to fake the deal while you stay on the holocall with Dolf. Head out to the Quadra to hook your deck into it temporarily - It still won’t give Alice her missing data she needs to really be a threat, but she should be able to make use of it while you aren’t. She'll be making her own decisions on the Net to get the task done.
>Write-in.

>>5948215
>”I’ll get cooking on that fake deal, call you back in thirty. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ve already got a real one happening.” [You will be able to access the scav subnet immediately, your targets are the scav’s personal networks within it.]

We've got a whole day or two still. Time can be spared.

>>5948215
>>”I’ll get cooking on that fake deal, call you back in a 2-3 hours. I'm going to need some time for other prep." Still need to get Alice patched up. You need her backup.

>>5948130
Yeah I didn't notice lol
>>5948164
Definitely

>>5948215
>”I’ll get cooking on that fake deal, call you back in thirty. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ve already got a real one happening.”

>>5948215

>”I’ll get cooking on that fake deal, call you back in thirty. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ve already got a real one happening.” [You will be able to access the scav subnet immediately, your targets are the scav’s personal networks within it.]

I’m feeling good - we’ve done the prep and we’ve got a smart plan

>>5948215
>”I’ll get cooking on that fake deal, call you back in thirty. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ve already got a real one happening.” [You will be able to access the scav subnet immediately, your targets are the scav’s personal networks within it.]

>>5948517
>>5948483
>>5948351
>>5948218
We'll just get right to it then.

I need two rolls of 1d100, DC 55. This is for breaching some of the scav's agents and links. How cheeky you want to be with the spoof messages/distractions will come up next.
Alice will remain on the sidelines for now.

Rolled 59 (1d100)

>>5948536

Rolled 44 (1d100)

>>5948536

>>5948539
A 59 will do it, writing.

“I’ll get cooking on that fake deal, call you back in thirty.” You’re confident in your ability to pierce a couple of the scav’s personal networks and get the data you need for a quality spoof, ”Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ve already got a real one happening.”

“Good luck with the dive choom, don’t circ out - I’ll have a plan waiting.” Dolf’s farewell rumbles into your thoughts over the holocall, the big man raising a hand before disconnecting.

“Don’t get your brain fried, Kai!” Connor says cheerily before disconnecting, flashing a final dual thumbs up and a big smile. Those two are something else, but at least the enthusiasm doesn’t seem to cut into their willingness to plan.

Reclining back in your chair for the second time today, you jack back into your stolen deck, close your eyes, and find your consciousness swept away into the Net in a wash of overwhelming cold. When you open your eyes, you’re standing within the digital landscape once more, streams of data filling the air and distant data fortresses dominating the unending skyline. Alice appears beside you, appearing to step from a fog, holographic dress fluttering in a non-existent wind.

”Shall we venture forth?”

A minute or so later, back within the scav subnet.

Returning to the ill defended subnet was only a matter of thinking your way there, your path already prepared by your previous entry a few hours ago - Alice handled it once again, sending you tumbling briefly from the sky, but instead of outside the palisade you are within the camp upon landing. The gnarly looking goblinoid IC is, as earlier, blissfully unaware of your presence.

Shaking your thoughts clear after the jarring transition, you hurry along to the relative safety of one of the nearby ‘tents’ and hide your presence within, sheltering inside a decrepit old terminal the scavs are using to store their data. You already pilfered this one earlier, and it’s only use now is as a safe position to observe the interactions between scav personal nets and the rest of the subnet’s connected systems. Soon enough you become aware of them, the wraith-like forms of personal nets materializing one after another as traffic on the subnet carries on as normal, ghosts walking from tent to tent, occasionally placing data in various crates and barrels or taking from them.

Eyeing them over, you spot a few promising targets - Not the leader of the scavs, but a few of the personal networks interacting most frequently with his. Lieutenants of some kind, or maybe just his chooms - they’ve probably got worse IC and most of the same data you’ll need for a spoof. Perfect.

>>5948724

A few quick strides carry you from the tent, Alice close behind and keeping the silver thread connecting the two of you held loosely in one hand. Reaching one of the personal nets close to the leader, you extend a hand, grabbing it by the arm and holding it up for a moment as you begin a breach. Grids of numbers and letters flash through your mind, your decks decryption soft struggling to burrow past the scav’s basic security… But you do get in, no alarms raised, no IC scrambled to attack.

The data is yours.

Alice is far quicker on the draw when it comes to analysis, her free already hand extended and a trio of red icons floating above it - holographic representations of promising contacts, fully picked over. She explains the options quickly, ”These are promising targets for spoofing. The first and most promising is a low ranking Maelstrom lieutenant, ‘Dum-Dum’, a frequent bulk purchaser - Their swaps are usually held at an industrial park in Northside. The next is one of their contacts at TraumaTeam dispatch, ‘Vulture’’, I believe she is the one feeding them their information on service denial locations.”

“And the third one?” Upon closer inspection you can see it is actually a pair of icons orbiting about on another, a young woman’s face - clearly one that had work done, strongly resmbling a popstar you vaguely recognize from a few years back - and that of a rough looking man.

”The scav who’s agent we have breached, and the scav leader’s… output?”

“Yeah, that’s the word.”

”It is distasteful, but we may be able to frame her as a disloyal philanderer, and this scav as one of her partners.”

“They might be into that.” You half joke, but honestly it’s a risk.

”...I doubt it. I have educated myself on such… behaviors. The signs are not there.”

“You have?” You arch an eyebrow, intrigued, “What are these ‘signs’ you’re looking for?”

”J-just pick an option!” Alice turns a brighter shade of crimson, thrusting the floating icons toward you more forcefully.

>”Keep it simple, we’ll fake a Maelstrom deal in Northside. Had a run in with them a few days ago, know enough about recent losses to make it sound like they need replacements.” Still not ‘easy’, but the easiest option.
>”Trauma’s probably harder to spoof, but we could fake multiple pickup sites.” More challenging work, but perhaps with more scavs pulled out of the den.
>”Lover’s quarrel turning into a gunfight is a certified Night City classic.” Scav tempers probably run hot, that kind of work generally doesn’t attract stable personalities. Dicier, you’re working with more unknowns here.
>”...Any reason not to try all of them? Might just be a busy day for them tomorrow.” The reason is that it is a hell of a lot harder. It would be very effective if you pull it off.
>Write-in.

>>5948726
>”Trauma’s probably harder to spoof, but we could fake multiple pickup sites.” More challenging work, but perhaps with more scavs pulled out of the den.

With luck, any survivors of our hostage rescue will think this disgusting 'Vulture' sold them out, and thus will hopefully remove the wretched parasite feeder from existence. If anything we're just helping them balance out their karma.

Also, still jealous Alice? Maybe if you wore cat ears you'd have better luck. lol

>>5948726
>”Trauma’s probably harder to spoof, but we could fake multiple pickup sites.” More challenging work, but perhaps with more scavs pulled out of the den.

>>5948726
>”Trauma’s probably harder to spoof, but we could fake multiple pickup sites.” More challenging work, but perhaps with more scavs pulled out of the den.

>>5948726

>”Keep it simple, we’ll fake a Maelstrom deal in Northside. Had a run in with them a few days ago, know enough about recent losses to make it sound like they need replacements.” Still not ‘easy’, but the easiest option.

Vulture sounds like someone we could take out in our own time for some good loot.

>>5948726
>”...Any reason not to try all of them? Might just be a busy day for them tomorrow.” The reason is that it is a hell of a lot harder. It would be very effective if you pull it off.
I think we can do it and it's be very good practice working with the net.

>>5948726
>”Keep it simple, we’ll fake a Maelstrom deal in Northside. Had a run in with them a few days ago, know enough about recent losses to make it sound like they need replacements.” Still not ‘easy’, but the easiest option.

We're still a fresh netrunner and we're not quite a savant, lets play it safe until we get better soft and better skills.

>>5948726

>”Keep it simple, we’ll fake a Maelstrom deal in Northside. Had a run in with them a few days ago, know enough about recent losses to make it sound like they need replacements.” Still not ‘easy’, but the easiest option.

Success here could later be parlayed into tricks 2 and 3, if we so choose.

File: Gonk Containment Breach.png (1.4 MB, 1024x1024)

1.4 MB PNG

>>5949019
>>5948925
>>5948879
Maelstrom.

>>5948905
Everything.

>>5948775
>>5948819
>>5948746
Trauma.

Got a tie between Maelstrom and Trauma, I'll give voting another hour.

>>5948726

>”Keep it simple, we’ll fake a Maelstrom deal in Northside. Had a run in with them a few days ago, know enough about recent losses to make it sound like they need replacements.” Still not ‘easy’, but the easiest option.

File: Maelstrom Gangers.jpg (164 KB, 1200x675)

164 KB JPG

>>5949083
>>5949019
>>5948925
>>5948879
Maestrom wins.

I need two rolls of 1d100, DC 45. Higher is better.

>>5949087
Maelstrom*

Rolled 17 (1d100)

>>5949087

I’m feeling good about this boyos. Are there crits in this quest Mainline?

Rolled 53 (1d100)

>>5949087

Rolled 42 (1d100)

>>5949087

I'm glad I rolled when I did, seeing these rolls. Also very glad the easiest choice won, in hindsight at least.

>>5949090
There are, 100 and 1 are both crits. Higher is better, meets beats, the degree of a success or failure increases its potency. Rolls can also REDACTED when they REDACTED, so you should look out for that as well.

>>5949095
A 53 will do it, writing.

Apologies for the delay today, it'll still be a few hours more. The next update is about half written, kept having things come up.

>>5949087
Can we at least mark down who "Vulture" is

“Keep it simple,” You snatch the floating image of Dum-Dum out of the air, commcodes and voice patterns from past holocalls filling the periphery of your vision for a moment as you hold it tight in a closed fist. Reading carefully, your eyes dart from each box of text to the next. Yes, this will do nicely, Alice has done a preem job organizing everything. “We’ll fake a Maelstrom deal in Northside. Had a run in with them a few days ago, know enough about recent losses to make it sound like they need replacements.”

”...Maeve was responsible for their losses?” Alice tilts her head curiously, red eyes peering past you for a long moment as if she was observing something else entirely.

“She made a mess of a whole pack of them trying to sell some cargo she klepped running from her raffen clan… How did you know? I don’t remember mentioning it.”

”Intuition. I see I was correct.” Alice smiles a touch mischievously, wiggling her shoulders a bit and clearly far too pleased with herself at guessing correctly, almost laughing in delight, ”We will not use the others?”

“After blacking out earlier? Feeling a bit humbled still, Alice.” You scratch somewhat nervously at the back of your head, “I doubt these scavs are packing daemons like that, but I’m sure if we shake the nest a bunch they’d find something to send our way. Sloppy as it is, someone set up their subnet and defenses.”

”I will not allow them to harm you.”

“I appreciate it, Alice. I’ve got your back too.” Her promise isn’t something she can really guarantee in her current state and without a deck, but she’s pulled you out of the fire twice today, “Let’s get out of here, I’ll get the messages ready. You can handle the calls if they try to confirm?”

”With pleasure.”

With a thought you summon up your decks basic spoofing soft, unfurling a holographic scroll and willing false information into it, carefully grafting in commcode information and basic verification protocols before writing up the details of your false Northside meeting with Maelstrom… It won’t stand up to a very close inspection, but it won’t get flagged by anything automatic an agent or link is running. As long as the scavs don’t have a reason to go searching for a problem, they won’t find it. …Probably.

>>5949445

“Think I did that right…” You inspect the spoof once more, squinting at it uncertainly. This is the first time you’ve ever done something like this for real. It’s simple work, but a lot is riding on it. You roll it back up and then search about the camp’s interior for the personal network of the scav leader - Alice proves helpful once more, pointing toward the ghostly silhouette with one finger. As it did hours ago, the flickering outline grows in size once more, towering above its transparent compatriots. A few steps carry you and Alice towards the figure, and with a smooth motion you extend the spoofed message toward it - The personal network reaches out, grasping the scroll, and pulls it from you.

It accepted it as real!

You let out a sigh of relief. Whether or not the scavs buy into the deception is another matter entirely, but you’ve gotten the technically riskiest part of the setup done now.

Alice tugs at your hand, pulling your attention back to her - She’s pointing off at another person in the camp. Not IC, another runner. Arms crossed, leaning against one of the stacks of crates nearby, the black hooded figure observes you both with predatory interest - Yellow eyes peer out from under the hood, slitted like a lizard.

>Ghost the fuck out, delta yesterday. It doesn't matter who the runner is, anyone seeing you here is bad news.
>...Bit of an intense look, but if they wanted to jump you or Alice they could have already. There’s a decent chance it isn’t a scav - Greet them politely.
>Greet them somewhat less than politely. Get your IC imp out and pull up your decks basic - and rather unimpressive - default combat soft. Don’t attack, greet them warily.
>Write-in.

>>5949449
>>Ghost the fuck out, delta yesterday. It doesn't matter who the runner is, anyone seeing you here is bad news.

>>5949449
>Ghost the fuck out, delta yesterday. It doesn't matter who the runner is, anyone seeing you here is bad news.

Oh shit, time to go. Plothooks can wait, this isn't the place for us to be chatting.

>>5949449

>Ghost the fuck out, delta yesterday. It doesn't matter who the runner is, anyone seeing you here is bad news.

We should hit the site ASAP, before these vultures steal our target first!

>>5949449
We're being traced or watched...

It might be prudent to forward our scrolls a few other places while we're at it until we're "boring" to watch.

>>5949449
>Greet them somewhat less than politely. Get your IC imp out and pull up your decks basic - and rather unimpressive - default combat soft. Don’t attack, greet them warily.

the net is the best place to make friends

>>5949449
>>Ghost the fuck out, delta yesterday. It doesn't matter who the runner is, anyone seeing you here is bad news.

>>5949449

>Greet them somewhat less than politely. Get your IC imp out and pull up your decks basic - and rather unimpressive - default combat soft. Don’t attack, greet them warily.

We've already been spotted. Lets find out if this is a foe... or something else.

>>5949449
>...Bit of an intense look, but if they wanted to jump you or Alice they could have already. There’s a decent chance it isn’t a scav - Greet them politely.

>>5949616
>>5949474
>>5949467
>>5949452
Δ! Writing.

An electric jolt of fear courses through you at the sight of the dark runner; whoever they are, whatever reason they’re here for, they’re bad news.

“Oh shit, delt!-” Before you can finish speaking Alice’s hand is already wrapped about yours, a wall of vertigo slamming into you once more as you fall upward through the Net. Out of the subnet in a blur, passing through the code filled liminal spaces your mind can scarcely process, before getting dumped in a violent tangle of limbs far off… somewhere.

Alice rolls off of you as you try to pull a trapped arm from under her, and everything is a terrible mess of tangled bodies, enough almost to make a person lose track of themself, until you at last separate properly and begin to brush yourselves off. Streams of blue data pass lazily overhead, carried on non-existent winds through the valley and off towards a data-fortress which is altogether far too close, the great menacing bulk of its dark blue, nearly black, stone walls towering high above.

Rising uncertainly to your feet, eyes darting about warily across the shadows cast by the enormous structure, you finally settle your gaze upon Alice. A faint green string is wrapped about her, shooting off into the sky in a flickering line - A trace. Her dark hair is a bit ruffled, messier and puffier from the fall, and she’s still trying to wipe scrap data from her red dress… But her eyes are fixed firmly upward, toward the trace and beyond.

Following her gaze, a speck appears in the streams of data snaking through the air overhead, falling parallel to drawn out tracing string. Though black at first, as the dot grows closer you find it shifting to red, changing from a speck to a shape, and from that vague form finally to a hat. It lands neatly atop Alice’s head, as if it was always meant to be there - It’s a tiny thing, a miniature top hat, an anachronism in your fantastical visualization of the Net but hardly moreso than her dress or your jacket ever were. At once, as if the frame of a film changed, Alice’s hair is fixed, now perfectly groomed, her red dress unwrinkled and free of imperfection, and the green tracing string burnt away by black and crimson flame, ceasing to bind her.

A feeling of reassurance carries across the silvery cord of your link, calming your pounding heart.

”Are you injured?” Alice asks strangely, leaning far over to peer at you, dark hair hanging loose as she cranes her neck, mere inches from you.

“No, I-” You take a half step back from her intense, and far too close, stare, “I’m fine, I think. You?”

You run a diagnostic quickly, confirming the belief - your Net connection is stable, your deck is fully functional, and there are no indicators of biofeedback or neurological damage of any kind.

>>5949903

”I am thoroughly exhilarated! Oh, a proper whirlwind escape will get the heart pounding like a drum, like drum, thum, thum, thum…” Slowly Alice leans back, whatever temporary mania’s grasped her fading as her eyes flick up toward the dark walls of the looming datafortress. Her grin collapses into a terse displeased line. “Harumph. Perhaps we should not stay here, Kai.”

“Hell no.” You agree quickly, having no desire to find out what’s going to come out of that fortress if you linger near it for too long, “Log off?”

“We are no longer traced, though perhaps I missed a strand… Mmm, clear as a spring day!” Alice flashes a confident grin, energy filling her once more, before waving for you to follow her. Together you travel on foot directly away from the fortress wall and out into the wilds of poorly managed Net infrastructure, “Why in such a hurry, Kai? Our work on the Net is hardly done.”

“The spoof? We got the message through, and it’s too hot to go back with another runner sniffing around.” Now that you’ve had a few seconds to think, more questions slowly bubble up from your mind, the brisk stroll back into the wilds jogging your thoughts, “How’d you kill the trace with your hat? I thought it was useless other than for… looks…”

Alice tips her tiny hat with a careful motion, her hair and dress flashing back into a mess for a split second before returning to total tidiness, ”I fiddled with it while you took your greasy vittels, and after toiling for a time I discovered the secret of the hat. It not only changes my look, it change me! Ah, but we still have enough on our plates, buck-a-slice or no. Enough of the past when adventure awaits!”

>”...Nova, glad I blacked out for something then, that headache just about killed me after - Anyways, you think the spoof isn’t done?” Stay on target, stay on target.
>”...Greasy vittels? What? Are you sure you’re alright?” She’s getting weird again.
>”Got something else in mind besides the spoof?” The message was sent, further spoofed correspondence can be handled later. Why not log out now?
>Write-in.

To clarifying a bit on the options, #1 is pushing to work on the spoof more, #3 is more curious about alternatives/exiting the Net. Realized they're a bit ambiguous on the differences.

>>5949904
>>”Got something else in mind besides the spoof?” The message was sent, further spoofed correspondence can be handled later. Why not log out now?

cyberdate

>>5949904
>”Got something else in mind besides the spoof?” The message was sent, further spoofed correspondence can be handled later. Why not log out now?

We've got time. Sure, our chooms are waiting on us for the planning and stuff, but we've still got days. Still, we're sure the trace is gone, right?

>>5949904
>hats change her
>black hat/white hat

goddamn it GM

>>5949904
>>”...Greasy vittels? What? Are you sure you’re alright?” She’s getting weird again.

>>5949904

>”...Greasy vittels? What? Are you sure you’re alright?” She’s getting weird again.

Personality instability seems a bit worrying

>>5949904
>”...Greasy vittels? What? Are you sure you’re alright?” She’s getting weird again.

>>5949904
>”...Nova, glad I blacked out for something then, that headache just about killed me after - Anyways, you think the spoof isn’t done?” Stay on target, stay on target.

>>5949999
>>5950000
>>5950088
Writing.

>>5949904
>>”...Greasy vittels? What? Are you sure you’re alright?” She’s getting weird again.

“...Greasy vittels? What?” You ask confused, looking your digital choom over with worry, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

”Vittels? Erm… victuals. The ‘buck-a-slice’. It was greasy, was it not?”

“Uh, sure,” You brush past the archaic mannerisms, already somewhat accustomed to odd speech patterns from Alice, “The hat changes you? I'm concerned about that, not what you're calling food.”

”...Oh, of course. I see why you might be taken aback,” She lifts the hat slightly once more, her hair bursting into a messy spray of dark strands, ”I am still myself deep down, do not worry a bit!”

“Not exactly normal though, is it?” You scratch at the back of your neck as the two of you pass under the branches of small copse of trees, twisted old elms representing half abandoned subnets from the year prior, probably bit of infrastructure a smaller corp forgot to shut down, or perhaps far older, “Changing like that, I mean. It’s so sudden. You’re in control of it?”

”Indeed, indeed, quite in control, more than yesterday but not half so much as a week and a day ago, or so I suspect.” The hat settles back into place, Alice’s ‘clean’ look returning along with her odd shift in behavior. Clasping her hands together with a loud slap, she gives you a fiery, determined look. ”Much remains to be done - there will be time for wither-tos and why-fors later, and much talk of my stability - though I assure you I am the very picture of engramatic cohesion. Shall we get to work once more?”

“...If you say so. I’m just trying to look out for you, Alice. Sudden changes aren't natural... I don’t know how this is supposed to work.” Without an expert on artificial intelligence, human derived or otherwise, there’s really no method by which you can check her assertion other than to observe behavior and guess. For now you choose to speak honestly and carry on, worry still brewing at the back of your thoughts. “Get back to working on the spoof then?”

”...Perhaps, perhaps not. We have…” Alice holds out a hand, a small hologram of a pocketwatch appearing, dangling from a glittering chain. She cranes her neck over to inspect it, lips curling into a mischievous grin, ”...The better half of half an hour, half again more than needed for a spot of adventure - Shall we set off? Data awaits.”

>”Your data? You have something particular in mind, Alice, don’t you?” That's new.
>”After the job, we have a contract to finish out, Alice - Scavs first. We still need to shepard that spoof along, make sure they fall for it.” Stay on target. You’ll have to be wary of that other runner.
>”A runner tried to trace us - did, for a sec - Let’s not push out luck, it’s time to leave the Net.” Enough close calls for today, just let it be and check back in with Dolf.
>Write-in.

>>5950308

>”A runner tried to trace us - did, for a sec - Let’s not push out luck, it’s time to leave the Net.” Enough close calls for today, just let it be and check back in with Dolf.

Is this even Alice, or are WE now getting spoofed by that other runner?

>>5950308
>”Your data? You have something particular in mind, Alice, don’t you?” That's new.

Uh...this is worrisome. Not to say she isn't fun like this, but I'm not sure how much of this is AI weirdness and how much is the runner we ran into. I'll go along with it, I guess.

>>5950308
>>”A runner tried to trace us - did, for a sec - Let’s not push out luck, it’s time to leave the Net.” Enough close calls for today, just let it be and check back in with Dolf.

>>5950308
>”Your data? You have something particular in mind, Alice, don’t you?” That's new.

I'm not worried about this, a "hat"/disguise program making superficial changes to speech patterns and the like makes sense, it's probably a filter applied to her.

>>5950308
>”Your data? You have something particular in mind, Alice, don’t you?” That's new.

Maybe the hat is linked to a data cache?

>>5950522
>>5950472
>>5950317
Writing.

“Your data?” You ask, eyes widening at Alice’s words. It seems unlikely she’d care much about any other kind. “You have something particular in mind, Alice, don’t you?”

”Indeed I do, Kai - It only just occurred to me, a bolt of inspiration struck as soon as we fled that hooded rapscallion. It is almost embarrassing that I had not thought of it sooner, considering our first meeting.”

“When you put on your hat?” You stop by one of the gnarled old trees, keeping under its ancient shade - perhaps a decade or two old, downright wizened by reconstructed Net standards, “See, that’s the kind of shit that makes me think you’re gonking out, Alice.”

”No, no - When I obliterated the trace!” Alice claps her hands together with, sparks of black red flame cracking forth as she laughs in delight, ”Haha! Oh, what a thrill!”

“It was rushed, but a clean getaway compared to what could’ve happened…,” You can feel her renewed confidence surging through the link connecting you - Whether the hat has changed her on some deeper level is unclear, but for now it seems to merely be a massive boost to her confidence, “Really nova work - Can you do more than kill a trace though?”

Her grin fades, mouth scrunching up in annoyance, lines of code flickering briefly across the surface of her transparent red skin, ”To my dismay, no - And with a bit of bravery, and a companion with a deck, that should be more than enough to explore the hinterlands of my old fortress… Or rather the fortress I tried so desperately to contact upon first waking. In truth I have not the slightest inkling of who owns or owned it, or if it even exists.”

>>5950890

“Woah, woah, hold up,” You shake your head, waving your hands in front of you in the universal sign of ‘oh fuck that gonk idea’, “You want to go snooping around a data-fortress? On purpose? Look, I get that you think you might find something of your old self there, makes sense, but that’s like wandering the badlands looking for old war scrap, you’ll find it in the form of a landmine.”

”Mmm, yes, of course there is a real danger to the endeavor, but so long as we keep our wits about us and refrain from touching what should not be touched, I see no reason to fear it. Now that I can hide us, the risk of watchers is far smaller. I do not propose we attempt to enter, I am very fond of living, data or no. What do you say, Kai? If the fortress has become a derelict, then the longer we wait to act the more likely it is that data will be lost to time. It could be fading even as we speak!”

>”...Alright, fuck it, I’m in. But just around the outside of the fortress, alright? Not getting zeroed over just a chance at some data.” Dangerous(?) side quest at a spooky castle, what could go wrong?
>”Later, Alice. We have to take these jobs one at a time, scavs first and then maybe we use the eddies to prepare better, come back with more than a weird hat and a deck I’ve had for less than a day.” Log out, talk with Dolf, get on with the job back in meatspace. This doesn’t close off working on the spoof more.
>Write-in.

>>5950891
>”...Alright, fuck it, I’m in. But just around the outside of the fortress, alright? Not getting zeroed over just a chance at some data.” Dangerous(?) side quest at a spooky castle, what could go wrong?

This is a terrible idea, I'm in.

Seriously though, the better idea would be to at least spend the day dealing with the shards we have lying around, maybe even splurge out for a cheap deck for her, rather than actually doing this, let alone going in. I feel like actually entering would be about as bad as probing dad's old deck at our current skill level. Still, as long as we stay outside, this isn't 100% suicide, which isn't saying much.

If we didn't have a couple days to spare, I would say to focus on the spoof and the scav mission, but I'd rather we spend our spare time risking our brain getting scrambled like an egg than spend it risking our flesh in blood in the streets right before a big job.

>>5950891

>”Later, Alice. We have to take these jobs one at a time, scavs first and then maybe we use the eddies to prepare better, come back with more than a weird hat and a deck I’ve had for less than a day.” Log out, talk with Dolf, get on with the job back in meatspace. This doesn’t close off working on the spoof more.

Look, this whole personality shift is a red flag for me

>>5950891
>”Later, Alice. We have to take these jobs one at a time, scavs first and then maybe we use the eddies to prepare better, come back with more than a weird hat and a deck I’ve had for less than a day.” Log out, talk with Dolf, get on with the job back in meatspace. This doesn’t close off working on the spoof more.

>>5950891
>”...Alright, fuck it, I’m in. But just around the outside of the fortress, alright? Not getting zeroed over just a chance at some data.” Dangerous(?) side quest at a spooky castle, what could go wrong?

What is life without risk?! The potential gains are immense!! Having our own data fortress would kick ass

>>5950891
>”...Alright, fuck it, I’m in. But just around the outside of the fortress, alright? Not getting zeroed over just a chance at some data.” Dangerous(?) side quest at a spooky castle, what could go wrong?
Blaze of glory, dex. Blaze of glory.

>”Later, Alice. We have to take these jobs one at a time, scavs first and then maybe we use the eddies to prepare better, come back with more than a weird hat and a deck I’ve had for less than a day.” Log out, talk with Dolf, get on with the job back in meatspace. This doesn’t close off working on the spoof more.

Let's do >>5950910 with looking at the shards and maybe look at getting a deck for her, but I want to do the job first and get experience. We didn't even know we were being tracked.

>>5950891
>”Later, Alice. We have to take these jobs one at a time, scavs first and then maybe we use the eddies to prepare better, come back with more than a weird hat and a deck I’ve had for less than a day.” Log out, talk with Dolf, get on with the job back in meatspace. This doesn’t close off working on the spoof more.
Hm, hm, very risky. Let us focus on the problems of the now.

>>5950891
>>>”...Alright, fuck it, I’m in. But just around the outside of the fortress, alright? Not getting zeroed over just a chance at some data.” Dangerous(?) side quest at a spooky castle, what could go wrong?

We can do an inital survey from the outside. Can get tools later to do something proper.

Getting the resources for those tools is goal #1 though. Therefore one job at a time. Cruising around the net takes almost no time in the day at least.

>>5951026
>>5950968
>>5950964
>>5950910
Spooky data adventure.

>>5950911
>>5950946
>>5950973
>>5951016
Back to the meatspace.

Got an even split so far, I'll give it another couple of hours.

>>5950891
>>”...Alright, fuck it, I’m in. But just around the outside of the fortress, alright? Not getting zeroed over just a chance at some data.” Dangerous(?) side quest at a spooky castle, what could go wrong?

>>5951048
>+1 spooky data adventure

>>5950891
>>”Later, Alice. We have to take these jobs one at a time, scavs first and then maybe we use the eddies to prepare better, come back with more than a weird hat and a deck I’ve had for less than a day.” Log out, talk with Dolf, get on with the job back in meatspace. This doesn’t close off working on the spoof more.

>>5951054
>>5951083
>>5951026
>>5950968
>>5950964
>>5950910
Spooky data adventure wins 6-5, writing.

“...Alright, fuck it, I’m in.” The words escape you with more enthusiasm than you realized was building, trepidation turning easily into a kind of dangerous excitement - maybe Alice’s new confidence is contagious somehow. “But just around the outside of the fortress, alright? Not getting zeroed over just a chance at some data.”

”I would never dream of going further, not in our current shabby state…” Alice considers her words carefully, tapping a finger against her lips as she thinks it over, eyes fixed upward at some unseeable point far beyond any horizon, “Mm, perhaps I would dream it, but I would not do it! Let us be off then, Kai!”

The well-hatted ghost extends a slender hand toward you in the shadow of the old Net tree, waves of detail washing over her skin. Holographic red one moment and then very nearly indistinguishable from a living person the next, at times she’s more real looking than your own avatar. Taking her hand in yours, clasping tightly, you close your eyes and prepare for the inevitable falling up that you’ve begun to associate with her style of rapid Net travel…

But it isn’t like that this time. It isn’t like that at all. You do not fall, but slide.

Like a pair of skaters blown by a gust of wind across the ice, you simply move. Trees and hills peel away into blocks of abstract code, then streaking lines of lights. Monumental data-fortresses blur from castles into simple geometries before zipping past and entirely out of sight. Faster, and faster, and faster still, you slide - The naturalistic landscape is gone now, nothing is recognizable except the endless horizons of the Net and flowing streams of data above and below you. Even the dataflows vanish into the dark, drifts of and dunes of scrap data replacing them. Soon those begin to flatten, to grow bleak, worn down...

…And only the Blackwall remains.

>>5951644

As suddenly as it began, your motion stops.

Data coalesces slowly on the desolate plain surrounding the Blackwall.

Barren wastes devoid of life stretch forever to either side before the ominously undulating surface of the infinite black and red barrier. The skies are devoid of data flows, dead. Squinting, straining to perceive the Net with your deck’s limited ability, you begin to notice more of the bleak ‘landscape’ lying in the shadow of the wall. There are ruins here among the dunes of white grey scrap data. Rubble, of a kind. Walls and towers, crushed almost to dust, the detritus of old servers long lost. Net infrastructure half a century old at least… None of it is active. Imprints are all that is left, nothing is interactable, nothing lives. It has all been reduced to grave markers for a long gone era.

”...Drat.” Alice’s voice is a whisper, but it thunders loud in the silence, echoing again and again in the bleak emptiness before the wall. Slowly she removes her hat, that gleaming spark of adventure that burned in her eyes dying. In a flicker her hair is a mess once more, her dress tarnished. ”I had hoped there would be something here… Dust to dust.”

She cries out and kicks at a stone on the ‘ground’ in frustration, knocking free a cluster of advertisements for a show that hasn’t been made since before even your father was born. Ancient, useless, dead data. It loses coherency, dissolving into nothing, more dust to settle among the ruins.

“There’s still the ruins, we could look around. Might be part of the fortress… You’re sure you pinged this before?” You glance about somewhat nervously, your voice carrying just as far as Alice’s has, echoing strangely. The Blackwall seems to absorb the ‘sound’, a feeling deep within the recesses of your mind screaming at that it is aware of your presence - But if it is, it makes no move but to fluctuate slightly, like the slightest ripples on a vertical pool of red and black before settling back to vertical striating rows of red data. On the far side of the wall, something pounds at the great red and black barrier, causing a small portion to bulge. It soon returns to near placidity.

”...I am certain of it, Kai.” Alice leans down and picks up another piece of old data, inspecting a degraded skull even as it crumbles away, falling to ashes in her hands, ”Burned from the inside. Destabilized.”

>>5951650

Alice takes a few steps toward a larger clump of data speared through by a shattered stone pillar, clearing some of the ashes from it with a swipe of her hand - The small motion moves more ash than it should, a gust of wind clearing the rest of the object she is inspecting… It is a colossal jawbone, a few teeth missing but otherwise recognizable as human. Sighing in defeat, on the very verge of sobbing, she buries her head in her hands and leans against the bone pile, sinking slowly down into a defeated kneel.

“Alice, there’s more. We can keep looking for…” The Blackwall pulses again, something else pushing against it from the other side, a deep resonating thrum passing vibrating the ruins, and bones, and dust, and your soul. The barrier holds. “...Fuck. Uh…”

It takes a moment to clear your thoughts, “We can keep looking, there might be something that survived. Maybe the fortress got buried, there’s no telling how deep this all goes.”

Indeed, the longer you spend here the clearer the details of your bleak surroundings are becoming, what appeared at first as drifts or small dunes of ash and dust beginning to clear to reveal more shattered ruins or great bone piles. A weapons, countless degraded swords and spears, some thrust into the ground, others into walls or bone piles, some simply discarded. Rotten and rusted, the imprints of thousands upon thousands of corrupted combat programs litter the area beneath the wall.

”Did you bring a shovel? A pick?” Alice’s response is bitter, a surge of petulant anger and frustration pulsing through the cord connecting you, ”It is all gone. Everything is gone. I do not remember it but… It hurts.”

A smaller impact strikes the far side of the Blackwall, another ripple sent across its black and red depths, lines of code vibrating… almost into song. You don’t understand it, but the wall is singing, quietly, almost silent even in the great bleak stillness of the wastes around it.

>”...Is this from the datakrash?” Sit beside Alice, she needs some support. This definitely doesn’t seem recent, certainly not from as close as New Years. However this might relate to your father, if at all, it’s a lot older than his death.
>”...Just stay here, Alice, take whatever time you need… I’ll look around, maybe there’s a program we can capture… or something left. Anything.” She needs time to process this, but you came here for data. You can capture data with your deck, store it away on a shard for later use or just give it directly to Alice if it’s her own.
>”We should get out of here, Alice, come on.” Pull her back to her feet and exit the Net.
>Write-in.

>>5951653
>>”...Is this from the datakrash?” Sit beside Alice, she needs some support. This definitely doesn’t seem recent, certainly not from as close as New Years. However this might relate to your father, if at all, it’s a lot older than his death.

>>5951653
>”...Is this from the datakrash?” Sit beside Alice, she needs some support. This definitely doesn’t seem recent, certainly not from as close as New Years. However this might relate to your father, if at all, it’s a lot older than his death.

it's the blackwall, we'll be fiiiiiine

....probably

>>5951653
>”...Is this from the datakrash?” Sit beside Alice, she needs some support. This definitely doesn’t seem recent, certainly not from as close as New Years. However this might relate to your father, if at all, it’s a lot older than his death.

>>5951653

>”...Is this from the datakrash?” Sit beside Alice, she needs some support. This definitely doesn’t seem recent, certainly not from as close as New Years. However this might relate to your father, if at all, it’s a lot older than his death.

She’s older than we think, clearly - maybe not human after all

>>5951653
>>”...Is this from the datakrash?” Sit beside Alice, she needs some support. This definitely doesn’t seem recent, certainly not from as close as New Years. However this might relate to your father, if at all, it’s a lot older than his death.

>>5951674
>>5951761
>>5951786
>>5951821
>>5951847
Writing.

“...Is this from the datakrash?” You ask quietly, wary of how your voice has been echoing. Alice remains quiet as you sit down beside her in the ashes, leaning back against the enormous weathered jawbone.

”I… I do not know. Perhaps so. What else could create such a grave?” Her words are a whisper, solemn and sorrowful. Sitting seiza, sunk into the ash nearly past her knees, she runs a red hand across the ground, leaving a furrow in the corrupted and lifeless data. ”What do you think their names were?”

“I couldn’t say. They’ve been resting for a long time now, whoever they might have been.” It’s a grim resting place, a scorched charnel field left lifeless in the Blackwall’s shadow, “Another impression?”

“Something of the kind. May we wait here?”

“We have time.” Dolf’s not expecting you for another twenty minutes at least, and after the week you’ve had you won’t begrudge someone for their mourning. Silence settles upon you both, and the shadowed data wastes, and time passes. You contemplate the events of the last week, the whirlwind that has pulled you along since your father’s death - even today feels like it has gone on forever, starting with blood in out the badlands and leading to this digital mass grave…

At some point, you’re not quite sure when, Alice began to lean on your shoulder as you sat together, her head resting against the simulated material of your jacket. It isn’t nice, nothing in this desolate place could be, but it is… welcome. A reminder of life.

And while you rest together, and Alice mourns silently for a past she cannot remember, the Blackwall sings. Eerie, utterly inhuman, it resonates across the Net, brushing strangely against the edges of your thoughts, pulling at the cohesion of your avatar. Dull thumps sound against it, impacts upon the far side, each failed escape accenting the alien song. You close your eyes and listen.

Footsteps sound in the emptiness, thunderingly loud. Someone else is approaching. Several someones. They do not belong here.

>>5951963

Opening your eyes, you see them - three figures moving toward the wall, a pair holding a box between them, each gripping a handle, and the other at the head of the group. Their forms are obscured, blurring distorted boxes shifting about vaguely humanoid shapes hidden beneath, a shifting veil of dark red fractals covering each. They are humans, netrunners, and they have not seen you.

“...This is the location.” The leader of the trio speaks, her voice distorted heavily, “Do not fuck this up, I’ve got a lot riding on this. The board... Ugh, just keep an eye open for NETWATCH.”

“Ooh, NETWATCH going to get us, jump out from behind every bone and zap us good.” One of the box carriers laughs back, distorted but clearly accented, not a native English speaker. “Everyone goes to the dust some day, yeah? Not our day.”

“Ha, yeah, not ours.” The other carrier chuckles in a far deeper voice, sharing a similar accent you cannot place. “You brave or stupid to think you control this for long. But we snag it, eddies good. Buy a new chair and new girl, ahaha!”

“I am not paying the two of you for... for comments! Load the program and prepare the capture protocols.” The woman barks back sharply, “Go, get it against the wall.”

“Ay, Blackwall, long time, ne?” The second carrier laughs as both men make their way toward the Blackwall, “Help a choom out and give us a BIG one, yeah? A real nasty girl, someting with claws.”

The ‘leader’, or probably more of a client you realize now, watches impatiently as the two jovial men cross the last few dozen meters toward the Blackwall and black the box against it. They haven’t seen you or Alice, a layer of old data having settled lightly on both of you, a fine covering of dust doing just enough to hide you.

What the hell are they doing?

>>5951967

“Capture protocols ready?” The client shouts, refusing to approach the wall any closer than she had when sending the two men off.

A shout and wave come back in the affirmative from the two men, the pair just barely still in sight, “Yeah, capture good and ready!”

“Pro…” The woman fails to finish the command. She stamps her foot slightly in the ash, balls her fists, and shouts the order firmly, “Proceed!”

Hellish screeching, inhuman and agonized, pierces across the wastes as the breach begins - It is not the wall crying out in pain, it continues to sing - No, it is noise from the other side. Alice’s hand grips your own tightly, shaking. Taking a few steps back at the horrific noise, the client woman looks about the area… Her shifting fractal eyes settle upon you and Alice.

Does she actually see you?

>Watch silently. Do not move, do absolutely nothing to reveal yourself. Dead data, scrap, dust, ash - that’s all you are, just another pair of ancient corpses. Maybe she hasn’t seen you.
>Bolt immediately. Flee further into the ruins and bones - maybe the breach will keep them distracted enough that you can escape and begin to head back to the rest of the Net.
>...She’s scared. Use that. You are covered in the ashes of the dead and a ghost stands at your side. Play the part of an ominous specter… long enough to get the hell out of here. Bluff.
>Write-in.

>Watch silently. Do not move, do absolutely nothing to reveal yourself. Dead data, scrap, dust, ash - that’s all you are, just another pair of ancient corpses. Maybe she hasn’t seen you.

>>5951968
>Watch silently. Do not move, do absolutely nothing to reveal yourself. Dead data, scrap, dust, ash - that’s all you are, just another pair of ancient corpses. Maybe she hasn’t seen you.

>>5951968
>>...She’s scared. Use that. You are covered in the ashes of the dead and a ghost stands at your side. Play the part of an ominous specter… long enough to get the hell out of here. Bluff.

>>5951968

>Watch silently. Do not move, do absolutely nothing to reveal yourself. Dead data, scrap, dust, ash - that’s all you are, just another pair of ancient corpses. Maybe she hasn’t seen you.

Whoa, are they playing dead program Pokémon over there?

>>5951968
>Watch silently. Do not move, do absolutely nothing to reveal yourself. Dead data, scrap, dust, ash - that’s all you are, just another pair of ancient corpses. Maybe she hasn’t seen you.

Just got caught up. My morning shit just isn’t the same without my favorite /qst/ threads.

Good to have ya back, QM!

>>5951968
>Watch silently. Do not move, do absolutely nothing to reveal yourself. Dead data, scrap, dust, ash - that’s all you are, just another pair of ancient corpses. Maybe she hasn’t seen you.

>>5951968
>Watch silently. Do not move, do absolutely nothing to reveal yourself. Dead data, scrap, dust, ash - that’s all you are, just another pair of ancient corpses. Maybe she hasn’t seen you.


spooky! Lets hope they don't get something wrong and let something out...

>>5952122
M1ss1ngn0 appears.

>>5951967
Hire-ons maybe Voodoo boys, that 'someting' and all that. Or Japanese because of the 'ne', though I'd think we'd recognize the accent more clearly if it was something that common. No idea for the leader, either corpo or a criminal org with a board structure.

>>5951968
>Watch silently. Do not move, do absolutely nothing to reveal yourself. Dead data, scrap, dust, ash - that’s all you are, just another pair of ancient corpses. Maybe she hasn’t seen you.

Bluffing will just get us into a fight we aren't prepared for.

The net is a scary place. I'd rather risk walking through your average bad neighbourhood in Night City.

>>5952037
>>5952054
>>5952122
>>5952187
>>5952274
>>5952276
>>5952340
Writing.

>>5952122
Not quite. I haven't been emphasizing it much but you can absolutely play Pokémon with wild programs on the Net, lots of things are captured rather than made. That is how the IC imp that Kai purchased was 'made'. It got caught, shackled and dedicated to a clearer purpose, and stuffed in a shard.

>>5952340
Kai would immediately know if they were Japanese, you can rule that out at least. The net is very scary, you're right about that, choom.

>>5952355
>The net is very scary, you're right about that, choom.
Yeah, I hear there's terrifying programs out there made to run on JAVASCRIPT, BASH, C, and even GNOME. God help the netrunners that encounter these entities, created by madmen.

…You keep as still as a corpse, remaining exactly as you were before the netrunner woman’s gaze fell upon your hiding place. Her eyes glow dark blue, distorted by the swirling fractals concealing her form. The shifting shapes hover above her avatar’s body, distorting into new patterns as the hellish screams continue to sound from the direction of her hired netrunners and their ‘capture box’. Alice’s hand grows still, her shaking ceasing, but you can feel her fear through your link.

“...What the fuck are those?” The woman’s blue eyes narrow, and she takes a step closer toward your accidental hiding spot. Can a layer of dust really hide you? It settled upon you without your notice - these wastes before the Blackwall are where it all seems to settle, where the winds end.

Another step, and another, she grows closer, head cocked to the side curiously as she approaches directly toward you. She must see you. She sees something. The otherworldly screeches continue, vibrations traveling through the ash dunes and drifts, shaking the shattered ruins, pulling again at your thoughts. Screams of dying beasts, of mothers discovering slain children, rage, hatred, fear, despair, and a sea of noise and thought utterly alien in its vastness - gnashing, gnawing, clawing. The noise digs at everything - and it draws the woman’s attention back to the wall again, too horrific to be ignored.

“Is… Is the capture working?” She turns her attention from your spot and shouts to the two men and their box. You dare not look, not even a slight turn of your head - you cannot see them.

“Preem connection!” One of them answers back, barely able to be heard in the cacophony now filling the wastes, “Stability good too, real good - We… Wait.”

“Wait? Wait what? What’s going on?” Panic fills the woman’s voice immediately, standing within a waking nightmare too much for whatever resolve she might normally possess - fields of bones and ash, the Blackwall, and what screams and gnashes beyond it. “Is… Is there trouble with the capture?”

“No, no, we good, big claws though, sharp teeth,” The man reassures her, but even through the distortion and screams you can hear uncertainty, “Make your [indecipherable] ‘board’ happy, yeah?”

>>5952579

“...Uh, very! Keep it going!” The woman crosses her arms, eyes fixed on the box and its screaming connection to the Blackwall, one foot tapping nervously in the piled ash which covers everything, tap, tap, tapping away at the old dead scrap data. “...Shit end of the stick on this one, always get the fucking worst assignments…”

“It is failing.” Alice whispers while the runner woman murmurs and complains to herself, cursing her luck with jobs, ”They cannot do it.”

“The breach?” You ask back quietly, barely able to force your mouth to form the words - fear grips you tighter than you’d realized, your stillness born as much from terror as prudence.

”The capture. They cannot do it. Not with that little cage. It is bait.”. The screams begin to grow quiet, distant, as if they were a crowd fleeing from the point at which the wall has been breached. You finally dare to look back toward the Blackwall. The two men have taken several steps back from the box, abyssal cracks spider webbing from where they attached it to the striated red code of the wall.

“...Is it done?” The netrunner woman asks, the sudden silence unnerving her. Whatever curiosity she had for you, or whatever she thought she saw in your hiding spot, it is gone now.

“...No. You are though, [indecipherable].” The man laughs nervously, glancing to his companion for reassurance - But the other box carrier doesn’t laugh. He’s on his knees, facing the cracking section of the Blackwall, head bowed as if in some kind of prayer.

“What?” Anger rises in the woman's voice, a slender crystalline spear materializing in one hand and her obscuring fractals hardening into something harsher, a kind of angular plate armor instead of a shifting veil, “You’d better not be trying to fuck me - Get him up, finish the job.”

“No, not us, we not the ones to fuck you. Our job done.” The speaking box carrier continues to chuckle nervously, though with shrinking enthusiasm as the cracks on the Blackwall deepen and silence slowly returns to the wastes.

The Blackwall thrums, something massive impacting the far side.

>>5952581

The cracks in its striated surface deepen, merge, and begin to consume the remaining streaks of red code - slowly it forms into a solid black circle, a portal which leads only out from the other side.

Four eyes peer through, slanted and lizard like, a large set burning red and a smaller set just below them. The ground shakes once, and the eyes grow larger, and then again, and again, this thing from beyond the Blackwall slowly emerging from the hole bored in the great barrier. As it passes from the dark and into shadow, darkness is pulled along with it, a clinging cloud of abyssal data obscuring the details of the AI’s form. Its slanted crimson eyes rise up as its neck snakes fully into the Net, slender and armored but vast enough to easily swallow a person whole. It peers down its long scaled snout at the two kneeling men and their strange box. It is a dragon.

“We… we bring sacrifice!” The previously laughing man cries out half in terror, whatever superiority he felt over his duped client melting away. His eyes are averted from the looming AI, his words nervous and uneven, “One rich in secrets, one who came to bind - we offer her data to you, great spir-”

The dragon crushes him with a step.

With another step it crushes the box, prowling out from the gap in the Blackwall one step at a time, its gaze now fixed on the spear-armed woman and her hardened armor. The second man still prays as the draconic thing continues to emerge, thin strands of data flowing from his body and toward it, every bit greedily absorbed by the alien intelligence, siphoned into its clinging abyssal clouds.

The armored netrunner charges forward with a cry of terrified defiance and throws her spear, launching the lethal program at the AI. The combat program arcs across the gap, transforming into a bolt of lighting half way across, instantly crackling forward the rest of the way along a jagged electric path. The bolt smites the skull of the dragon between its larger set of red eyes, and there is a brilliant flash of light. The dragon stops in place, frozen and half headless, a perfect sphere blasted into the top of its skull. For a heartbeat you expect it to fall lifeless.

It just keeps walking.

The darkness that clings to the dragon fills its gaping head wound, flowing like water to fill the missing chunk, reforming its shape and hue until it is indistinguishable from before the bolt struck - scrap data is sucked up from the ground to renew the cloud as it passes, ‘useless’ ashes turned to fuel. Every step shakes across the dunes, rumbling through the ruins, until nearly the entire body of the dragon has been freed from the far side of the Blackwall.

>>5952583

The woman throws another spear, and another, each turning into crackling, jumping bolts of lightning which now leave no mark on the slowly advancing AI’s hide. She changes to throwing fire, and again the first bolt finds purchase, scorching deep until more swirling darkness and dead data fills the wound. The next bolt does nothing. Slowly you realize the dragon isn’t even looking at the netrunner anymore, ignoring the ultimately harmless assault - Its eyes are fixed on something far off, in the direction of the rest of the Net.

It is almost free now, only half of its long spiked tail remaining on the far side of the Blackwall. You dare not move, sitting still beside Alice as the netrunner continues to try different programs, now alternating on every attack, blasting apart great chunks of the beast only to see them reform ever faster, consuming more of the nearly infinite scrap data piled high among the ruins - she’s got quite the variety of combat programs ready to be called up, but it’s like digging at a mountain with a hand trowel.

As the dragon’s tail is almost clear of the portal, the Blackwall closes shut, falling upon the creature like the blade of a guillotine. Where it had moved slowly before, lumbering step by step, the dragon shrieks in pain and whirls about like a cat, its severed tail lit aflame with black and red, smoking and burning and turning to ash. It spews its own dark fire back at the barrier, leaving no mark upon the Blackwall.

The tail does not heal.

As dark clouds of data pour in to extinguish the flame, trying to repair the wounded tail, it only serves to feed the fire. Sparks of that terrible flame arc off, one landing on the prostrate box carrier - He goes up like a torch, crumbling to ash before a cry escapes his lips. The tendrils of data which stretched from him to the dragon fall apart as well, more ash to pile on the endless heaps. Moving from ruin to ruin, the female netrunner continues her desperate and panicked barrage, flinging a spinning ax which bites deep and sinks into the dragon’s neck, but she is still not its focus - Why is she not fleeing?

As the flame advances up the dragon’s long tail, its jaws snap shut around the base of the appendage, arm length fangs sinking deep, and then it rips, tearing its tail free in and throwing it away into the wastes to be consumed in fire. It begins to heal, siphoning in data to the stump of a tail, but it does not regrow - the stump seals, gnarled and ragged, but even as more data pours in it cannot reform it. The dragon’s head whips back to look at the Netrunner, the ax in its neck slowly being absorbed into its body, data consumed like all the rest, and for a few seconds she receives its full attention.

>>5952584

The runner freezes, the AI’s gaze enough to hold her in place - It is not fear holding her, you can see and hear her struggling against invisible bonds, unable to slip free. Fractal armor cracks and crumples, the blazing white sword now held in her hand extinguishes and bends until it curls in upon itself, and flickering geometric patterns swarm about her, eating away at her programs - Just as the last of her armor is peeled away and it begins to destabilize the runner herself, a horn sounds far in the distance.

The dragon releases the netrunner, its four eyes blazing as they gaze in the direction of the horn call. Taking two quick steps it attempts to leap into the air, wings spreading wide… and it crashes into the ground, crushing a half collapsed tower further to dust. The horn sounds again, and the dragons kicks and flails about, trying to right itself for a moment before burrowing its head and claws deep into the ash. It slithers and kicks, throwing up great clouds of ash, and burrows away and out of sight, seeking refuge within the deeper structures of the Net. It does not return.

The distant horn sounds again, and the Blackwall’s quiet song can be heard again. Silence slowly returns to the wastes.

You rise to your feet alongside Alice, surveying the aftermath of whatever gonk plan it was those runners had. None of them got what they thought they would. The capture failed if it was ever even possible, the betrayal failed, offering a ‘sacrifice’ failed, fighting failed - the only thing they did was turn the key on that Blackwall’s prison door, letting that thing out from the far side.

>>5952585

“...Why would they do that?” You finally speak, looking to Alice in shock. While she brushes the clinging ash from her filthy dress, she just shakes her head and doesn’t answer the question, choosing not to speculate.

”She lives.” Alice points toward the mangled form of the Netrunner’s avatar. A groan sounds from it, one hand twitching trying to grip at a sword that no longer exists, ”...As does the tail.”

More surprised by that than the runner, you turn to see that the severed burning tail has been largely extinguished. Little of the flame which consumed it remains, slowly burning in a few places but quickly losing its vigor, as if the fire somehow understands that its purpose is complete now that the tail was severed from the rest of the AI. Alice stares contemplatively at the tail, deep in thought.

>Check on the Netrunner, she looks like she’s in pretty awful condition - probably can’t exit the Net on her own after getting thrashed so thoroughly. A fraction of a second more and she’d be ash just like those box carrier netrunners, whoever they were.
>”Can’t believe it ripped its tail off like that either, didn’t even hesitate.” Alice is probably just in shock. If you hadn’t been in a couple of gunfights in the last week you’d probably be unable to speak as well. Even now you barely can.
>”...The AI delta’d when it heard the horn. NETWATCH?” It’s a guess, but if it is you’ll probably want to get out of here soon.
>Write-in.

>>5952586
>Grab the tail, put it on a shard

Maybe it'll regrow and we'll have a contained piece of insane malware, maybe it'll be a cool souvenir, maybe we can tame it. Any way we go about capturing it, it can only go well.

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43 KB JPG

>>5952591
>+1
Let's take a chance.

>>5952591
Fuck it, we ball. +1

>>5952583
Okay, so my guess is that they were indeed Voodoo Boys, or at least some netrunner crew attempting to curry favour with rogue AIs, the woman is presumably Militech, and this is Project Cynosure. Her hesitance regarding saying if the board would be pleased could just be nervousness, or she could be acting independently, typical corpo ambition, it would explain the lackeys.

>>5952584
Baby AI no match for daddy Blackwall.

>>5952586
Because they're gonks Kai.

>Full greed: Grab the Netrunner, tell Alice to package up the tail into a shard, and even stop to scoop up the remnants of Alice's data fortress from the data-ash into another shard.

If Netwatch catches us, just explain what we saw and hope they don't zero us and enslave our AIgirlfriend.

>>5952591
>>Grab the tail, put it on a shard.

Time to upgrade our greatest advantage an best friend! She obviously wants it but does not wish to burden us by asking.

>>5952621
>Sanity is for the weak!!! Become truly sane through cosmic knowledge!

>>5952668
Miltech will zero us. Netwatch will do worse.

>>5952591
>>5952621
>>5952632
>>5952793
Writing.

God this is going to be fucking hilarious imagine when this AI comes after us later for having the tail

“Can’t believe it ripped its tail off like that, didn’t even hesitate,” Your voice carries across the wastes loudly once more, the silence hungering to be filled with any noise it can, “...Let’s take it.”

”Take it?” Alice gasps in surprise, red eyes widening as she covers her mouth with one hand, ”It is dangerous, Kai, that is the core data of another artificial intelligence, there is no telling what nasty secrets it could hold.”

“Yeah, isn’t it great? Come on, think of the possibilities, Alice. I saw how you were looking at it.”

“It… did cross my mind.” She licks her lips slightly, eyes locked on the half burnt remains of the severed tail and its many spikes, “Oh… Maybe just… a little. What is the harm?”

You see an opportunity and can’t resist, needing some levity now more than ever, “Just the tip?”

She snickers childishly at the immature joke, her laugh carrying sweet and clear across the ash wastes, utterly out of place among the dead, “Stop it, cat lover. How do you propose we do this? I could try to integrate it into myself, but there are dangers.”

“Always use protection.” You’re chuckle, a shard materializing between your fingers - one of the empties slotted into your deck. With no stored data, it takes on only its own appearance. “We’ll try to shard it and deal with it later.”

“Mm, no, I want it now.” Alice shakes her head, looking a bit wild with her hair and dress as messed up as they are - all the scrap data here really seems to have done a number on her appearance, far more than her scuffs and changes after evading the trace earlier, ”...Just part of it.”

>>5952859

You walk toward the smoking wreck of a tail together, footprints in the ash quickly fading and filling in behind you. Quiet groans sound from the disabled netrunner, but you pay her little attention for now, every ounce of your attention focused upon the tail. Part of you worries that it might be more corrupt than it looks, scorched internally and only appearing to remain intact. Upon reaching the elliptic crater in the ash where it landed, you kneel beside the severed data and look it over uncertainly. How do you shard something like this?

“Just stick it in, you pansy.” Alice chides, reaching out and grabbing ahold of one of the long spikes of the tail, her brow furrowing as she concentrates upon data held within, ”It is safe enough. And I will be taking this.”

With a concerningly violent yank, she tears the spike free of the corroded code beneath, bits of scrap data spattering her already filthy dress. Pulling the remaining strings of code free with her teeth, like an animal tearing away sinew, Alice soon has the long spike cleaned. Adjusting her grip on it, she holds it from its narrow base like a sword. The oddly shaped root of the spike melds into a hilt, shifting to fit her grip, and she gives it a hesitant swipe through the air.

”Lots of snicker, not so much snack….” She pulls another spike free, scraping it clean with the first blade before flipping it into the air and catching it by its newly formed hilt, “...Lots of snack, not so much snicker. I love them. …What are you looking at, Kai?”

You’re looking at the semi-feral AI woman standing beside you wielding a pair of gore spattered teeth as swords. Her hair is a wreck, her red dress filthy and nearly black in places, flecks of the dragon’s scrap code spattered about like dried blood. She’s red and black, just like that dragon was. Like that Blackwall is. She always has been.

>>5952860

“Nothing, just thinking you’d make a good horror BD villain looking like that… Seriously though, are you feeling alright? I didn’t think you could integrate data that wasn’t your own.”

“Oh, shush, I am not that scary…” She looks down at her dress and then to the quite sinister looking spike blades held in her hands, “Oh… P-perhaps you have a point. A leather choker and a guitar and I could start a band… Hm, I do feel good though, very good. Tingly? The data is similar to my own, this tail was a person once.”

Your blood runs cold, and despite being deep within the Net you can feel the hair stand up on the back of your neck - your actual neck. “That was a person?!”

”Once. A person’s engramatic data was the seed for it. I would bet my life on it, or my new at least. Rather a chilling thought… Are you going to shard it, Kai?”

You nod, deciding to just shove the horror of the situation aside a little longer - hardly the first time today - and get to work. Jabbing the shard into the scaled surface of the tail, it sinks in easily and begins to siphon in the data, distorting and shifting it into a whirlpool of code, pulling it in until nothing remains except the elliptic crater.

// Data Capture Complete! //
// Shard Capacity at 73.6% //

“Surprised that worked,” You murmur half to yourself, ignoring the scraping of bone on bone as Alice uses the two spikes to sharpen each other, “Aren’t AIs supposed to be hard to handle? That was as easy as moving any other file.”

”It is uncontrolled, it simply cannot resist it… May I have that?”

You give a small nod, “Later. Doubt we could sell it anyways, too hot. Speaking of which, we should probably delta, can’t get out of here fast enough. …Uh, do those blades work?”

”I am not inclined to test them, but I suspect so. It is not familiar, but I have gained a measure of combat effectiveness - With the rest of the data, perhaps I could make something of myself.” Alice turns to face back toward the disabled netrunner and the rest of the ruins, putting her back toward the vastness of Blackwall.