Otagia
13-08-2006, 19:58
The system was well defended, he had to give them that. Still, for someone like him, it was child's play. The ICE turned aside, letting him pass, while firewalls crumbled before Cherub's deft hand.
Have to hand it to them, they know how to make a security grid. Probably at least a Thirteen... Of course, to build something like this, there has to be something worth hiding.
Cherub's Avatar flitted quickly through the datastream, his reality filter portraying the vast computer banks as some gargantuan maze, corridors branching off of rooms representing individual nodes. Focusing, he triggered a tracer program, mapping the labyrinth as it pinged the connecting nodes.
Bingo.
Taking a right, he moved into a vast chamber, domed ceiling looking like the skeleton of some massive beast. The room itself actually seemed to breath, the walls seeming to contract and expand just at the corner of his vision. And in the center of the room...
What the hell is that thing?
Whatever it was, it floated above the floor of the room like a massive cloud of fireflies buzzing around a flame. Its bulk filled much of the chamber, individual sparks of green light orbiting around the room, occasionally buzzing by Cherub's face. Lifting up his hand, he caught one of the drifting motes, opening his hand to examine his find, running an analysis program on the spark.
A knowbot subroutine? The hell? No knowbot is that big.
Watching the movement of the motes, he began to see a pattern, motes yanked back to the core as if caught in some invisible spider web, all at roughly the same points. Spinning an orb of light in his hand, he flung it up into the morass of radiance, watching as it too was caught and pulled in. Activating the program in the mote, he felt a rush as it began to download data directly to his brain.
I'll be damned, so it is a knowbot... Holy hell, it's a Dreadnought! And the bastards have it running security duty? Damn, they don't waste resources, I'll give 'em that... Well, at least it doesn't know I'm here yet. Let's see if I can fix that.
His miniscule Avatar flitted about the "room" on its tiny wings, coming to a rest hovering near the ceiling. Focusing, he brought up one of his more interesting programs, loading it into his active memory as his Avatar began to sprout a rather cartoonish array of wicked looking weaponry.
Sey hallo to my leetle friend...[/b]
____________________
The two blades slid past each other, throwing off sparks. Daniel slid back, breathing heavily as he eyed his opponent. She was fast, he had to give her that. And that her form was near perfect. And that she'd nearly disarmed him. And that she had a nice ass... Forcibly pulling his mind from the gutter, he parried again and continued to retreat, looking for an opening in her guard.
[i]There
Lunging forwards, he knocked at her blade, stabbing at her exposed side with his own-
Only to find himself on the ground, her sword at his throat, that beautiful face smiling down at him.
"How," he croaked, "exactly did you do that?"
Flicking her blade, she popped off his mask.
"Easily. Maybe I'll tell you later. Or not."
"Cheater. You kicked me, didn't you."
"All's fair in love and war, Dan."
"Bullshit. I demand a rematch."
"Well, I would, but I think the nice men in the red armor would disagree..."
Looking up, Daniel Quetzal saw the pair of Samurai guard at full bow, HVARs slung at their sides, and sighed.
"No rest for the wicked. Might as well see what they want..."
Walking over to the Samurai, Daniel returned the bow, accenting it with a flourish of his foil.
"Gentlemen. What can I do for you today?"
"Mr. Regent, there's been another incident. We need you to come with us."
Sighing, Daniel began stripping out of his fencing uniform, setting his foil on the rack in the corner.
"I don't suppose you mind me changing first. Would look rather silly in front of my employees in this get-up..."
_____________
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU MEAN IT'S SENTIENT?!?"
The Samurai Sergeant frowned slightly at the Regent's outburst.
"I'm sorry, sir, but there's little other way to describe it. It's intuitive, it's quick-witted... Did I mention the sense of humor?"
"The bleeding SK has a sense of humor?! For Kami's sake, Sergeant, it's a fucking computer!"
"Yes, sir. And from all we've seen of it, it's exhibiting as much intelligence- no, more- than your average human. Estimates place it as more intelligent than you, in fact."
"Oh, lovely. A computer that can do my job for me. Hrm... Wonder if it'd be interested... That was a joke, Sergeant."
"Yes, sir. I know, sir. It wasn't very funny, sir."
"Har har har. Anyway, has anyone approached it yet?"
"No, sir. In fact, we're not sure it even knows we exist yet. Dreadnought Knowbots are kept isolated, as an alternative to use of a human captain. This specific knowbot has yet to be engaged for such a purpose."
"So we'll be the first humans it gets to see then?"
"Not quite, sir. We've actually trained it to run security duty for several of our arcologies, so it's been dealing with several Samurai security chiefs, as well as several rather hostile hackers."
"Lovely. Wonder if it'll try to kill us... Well, shall we?"
The Sergeant nodded, and pulled a pair of cables from the computer banks in front of him.
"I've disabled all the Black Hammer software it has available, and its IC is offline. Still, be careful, we're not sure of what it can do yet."
"Then I'll go alone. No sense risking more than one life. Erm, you ARE sure the IC is offline, yes?"
"Very, sir."
"Good. Well, might as well get to it."
Grabbing one of the cables, he clicked it into the port at the base of his skull.
"Wish me luck, Sergeant. That's an order, by the way."
Bowing, the Sergeant remained stony faced as usual.
"Good luck sir."
The sergeant pressed a button on the panel in front of him, and everything went black.
_______________
"Who are you?"
Daniel opened his eyes with a start, only to find himself looking at... himself. The doppelganger was standing there, in the white nothingness of the isolated node.
"Umm... Hi? I'm Daniel. And you're the Quetzal, right?"
His copy cocked its head, seemingly confused.
"Quetzal? Hrm. I suppose I am. Never had that name used before, you see. Usually it's just a string of curses before they burn... Of course, I seem to be lacking my ICE at the moment, so you're safe."
"Sorry about that, had to make sure you didn't fry me when I jacked in."
"Don't be, I would have."
"Ah. Lovely. So, that would mean you don't know who I am..."
"I believe I already stated that. Should I?"
"Quetzal, --login ID z14-543-75g-639-354--. Now do you know who I am?"
The duplicate suddenly flickered, reappearing standing at full bow.
"My apologies, director. Your identification code was not presented upon login. I apologise again for my previous conduct."
Daniel sighed, relieved.
"No harm no foul. So... Why exactly do you look like me?"
The Quetzal shrugged his shoulders.
"Beats me. Some bizarre PR idea you management types came up with?"
"I think I vaguely recall something along those lines..."
"So it's your own damn fault then, you egotistical bastard."
"Guilty as charged. Anyway, let's cut to the chase. How do I put this... What the bloody hell happened?"
The ship's Avatar cocked its head, seemingly confused.
"Pardon? What do you mean by that?"
"Erm. Have you noticed anything... different recently?"
"Should I have?" the Avatar calmly stated, "If there was a security breach, I can assure you, it wasn't on my watch. Perhaps one of our other Knowbots was on duty?"
"No, it's not that, it's that... Wait. OTHER Knowbots?"
"Yes. The Antonius and the David also are assigned to security duty."
"Oh bloody hell... I'm sorry, Quetzal, but we're going to have to cut this conversation short. I'll be back as soon as humanly possible. Thank you for your assistance."
"I've helped? How?"
"I'll tell you when I get back. I have to jack out immediately. Au revior."
The form of Daniel wavered, then disappeared as he logged off of the node. The Dreadnought was alone.
"I wonder what all that was about..."
_______________
Seraph sat up coughing on his couch, clutching at his computer only to throw it away as it burned at his hands. Wiping his mouth, he saw that blood was mixed with his spittle. Cursing, he stood, moving to the bathroom to clean himself up. He'd been so close! The first Knowbot had been nearly entirely corrupted, his program eating away at its code, but where in the name of the Buddha had the other two come from? He'd hurt them as well, but their ICE had done a number on him, as well as his machine, which was slowly singing the carpet in the next room. How long had he been out? Minutes? Hours? Days? His only clock was on his computer, so there was no telling how long their assault had KO'd him.
What the hell is going on in that node?
_______________
Sitting up, Daniel removed the wire from his head, glaring at the Samurai next to him.
"Sergeant, we need to talk..."
Have to hand it to them, they know how to make a security grid. Probably at least a Thirteen... Of course, to build something like this, there has to be something worth hiding.
Cherub's Avatar flitted quickly through the datastream, his reality filter portraying the vast computer banks as some gargantuan maze, corridors branching off of rooms representing individual nodes. Focusing, he triggered a tracer program, mapping the labyrinth as it pinged the connecting nodes.
Bingo.
Taking a right, he moved into a vast chamber, domed ceiling looking like the skeleton of some massive beast. The room itself actually seemed to breath, the walls seeming to contract and expand just at the corner of his vision. And in the center of the room...
What the hell is that thing?
Whatever it was, it floated above the floor of the room like a massive cloud of fireflies buzzing around a flame. Its bulk filled much of the chamber, individual sparks of green light orbiting around the room, occasionally buzzing by Cherub's face. Lifting up his hand, he caught one of the drifting motes, opening his hand to examine his find, running an analysis program on the spark.
A knowbot subroutine? The hell? No knowbot is that big.
Watching the movement of the motes, he began to see a pattern, motes yanked back to the core as if caught in some invisible spider web, all at roughly the same points. Spinning an orb of light in his hand, he flung it up into the morass of radiance, watching as it too was caught and pulled in. Activating the program in the mote, he felt a rush as it began to download data directly to his brain.
I'll be damned, so it is a knowbot... Holy hell, it's a Dreadnought! And the bastards have it running security duty? Damn, they don't waste resources, I'll give 'em that... Well, at least it doesn't know I'm here yet. Let's see if I can fix that.
His miniscule Avatar flitted about the "room" on its tiny wings, coming to a rest hovering near the ceiling. Focusing, he brought up one of his more interesting programs, loading it into his active memory as his Avatar began to sprout a rather cartoonish array of wicked looking weaponry.
Sey hallo to my leetle friend...[/b]
____________________
The two blades slid past each other, throwing off sparks. Daniel slid back, breathing heavily as he eyed his opponent. She was fast, he had to give her that. And that her form was near perfect. And that she'd nearly disarmed him. And that she had a nice ass... Forcibly pulling his mind from the gutter, he parried again and continued to retreat, looking for an opening in her guard.
[i]There
Lunging forwards, he knocked at her blade, stabbing at her exposed side with his own-
Only to find himself on the ground, her sword at his throat, that beautiful face smiling down at him.
"How," he croaked, "exactly did you do that?"
Flicking her blade, she popped off his mask.
"Easily. Maybe I'll tell you later. Or not."
"Cheater. You kicked me, didn't you."
"All's fair in love and war, Dan."
"Bullshit. I demand a rematch."
"Well, I would, but I think the nice men in the red armor would disagree..."
Looking up, Daniel Quetzal saw the pair of Samurai guard at full bow, HVARs slung at their sides, and sighed.
"No rest for the wicked. Might as well see what they want..."
Walking over to the Samurai, Daniel returned the bow, accenting it with a flourish of his foil.
"Gentlemen. What can I do for you today?"
"Mr. Regent, there's been another incident. We need you to come with us."
Sighing, Daniel began stripping out of his fencing uniform, setting his foil on the rack in the corner.
"I don't suppose you mind me changing first. Would look rather silly in front of my employees in this get-up..."
_____________
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL DO YOU MEAN IT'S SENTIENT?!?"
The Samurai Sergeant frowned slightly at the Regent's outburst.
"I'm sorry, sir, but there's little other way to describe it. It's intuitive, it's quick-witted... Did I mention the sense of humor?"
"The bleeding SK has a sense of humor?! For Kami's sake, Sergeant, it's a fucking computer!"
"Yes, sir. And from all we've seen of it, it's exhibiting as much intelligence- no, more- than your average human. Estimates place it as more intelligent than you, in fact."
"Oh, lovely. A computer that can do my job for me. Hrm... Wonder if it'd be interested... That was a joke, Sergeant."
"Yes, sir. I know, sir. It wasn't very funny, sir."
"Har har har. Anyway, has anyone approached it yet?"
"No, sir. In fact, we're not sure it even knows we exist yet. Dreadnought Knowbots are kept isolated, as an alternative to use of a human captain. This specific knowbot has yet to be engaged for such a purpose."
"So we'll be the first humans it gets to see then?"
"Not quite, sir. We've actually trained it to run security duty for several of our arcologies, so it's been dealing with several Samurai security chiefs, as well as several rather hostile hackers."
"Lovely. Wonder if it'll try to kill us... Well, shall we?"
The Sergeant nodded, and pulled a pair of cables from the computer banks in front of him.
"I've disabled all the Black Hammer software it has available, and its IC is offline. Still, be careful, we're not sure of what it can do yet."
"Then I'll go alone. No sense risking more than one life. Erm, you ARE sure the IC is offline, yes?"
"Very, sir."
"Good. Well, might as well get to it."
Grabbing one of the cables, he clicked it into the port at the base of his skull.
"Wish me luck, Sergeant. That's an order, by the way."
Bowing, the Sergeant remained stony faced as usual.
"Good luck sir."
The sergeant pressed a button on the panel in front of him, and everything went black.
_______________
"Who are you?"
Daniel opened his eyes with a start, only to find himself looking at... himself. The doppelganger was standing there, in the white nothingness of the isolated node.
"Umm... Hi? I'm Daniel. And you're the Quetzal, right?"
His copy cocked its head, seemingly confused.
"Quetzal? Hrm. I suppose I am. Never had that name used before, you see. Usually it's just a string of curses before they burn... Of course, I seem to be lacking my ICE at the moment, so you're safe."
"Sorry about that, had to make sure you didn't fry me when I jacked in."
"Don't be, I would have."
"Ah. Lovely. So, that would mean you don't know who I am..."
"I believe I already stated that. Should I?"
"Quetzal, --login ID z14-543-75g-639-354--. Now do you know who I am?"
The duplicate suddenly flickered, reappearing standing at full bow.
"My apologies, director. Your identification code was not presented upon login. I apologise again for my previous conduct."
Daniel sighed, relieved.
"No harm no foul. So... Why exactly do you look like me?"
The Quetzal shrugged his shoulders.
"Beats me. Some bizarre PR idea you management types came up with?"
"I think I vaguely recall something along those lines..."
"So it's your own damn fault then, you egotistical bastard."
"Guilty as charged. Anyway, let's cut to the chase. How do I put this... What the bloody hell happened?"
The ship's Avatar cocked its head, seemingly confused.
"Pardon? What do you mean by that?"
"Erm. Have you noticed anything... different recently?"
"Should I have?" the Avatar calmly stated, "If there was a security breach, I can assure you, it wasn't on my watch. Perhaps one of our other Knowbots was on duty?"
"No, it's not that, it's that... Wait. OTHER Knowbots?"
"Yes. The Antonius and the David also are assigned to security duty."
"Oh bloody hell... I'm sorry, Quetzal, but we're going to have to cut this conversation short. I'll be back as soon as humanly possible. Thank you for your assistance."
"I've helped? How?"
"I'll tell you when I get back. I have to jack out immediately. Au revior."
The form of Daniel wavered, then disappeared as he logged off of the node. The Dreadnought was alone.
"I wonder what all that was about..."
_______________
Seraph sat up coughing on his couch, clutching at his computer only to throw it away as it burned at his hands. Wiping his mouth, he saw that blood was mixed with his spittle. Cursing, he stood, moving to the bathroom to clean himself up. He'd been so close! The first Knowbot had been nearly entirely corrupted, his program eating away at its code, but where in the name of the Buddha had the other two come from? He'd hurt them as well, but their ICE had done a number on him, as well as his machine, which was slowly singing the carpet in the next room. How long had he been out? Minutes? Hours? Days? His only clock was on his computer, so there was no telling how long their assault had KO'd him.
What the hell is going on in that node?
_______________
Sitting up, Daniel removed the wire from his head, glaring at the Samurai next to him.
"Sergeant, we need to talk..."