| From: | Basilisk <prier@***.UNIBAS.CH> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Runnin' the Matrix |
| Date: | Mon, 11 Apr 1994 20:44:11 +0200 |
23:24:34/04-01-55 to 02:51:45/04-02-55.
Scene: A rather sparsely furnished hotel room in Bellevue.
Basilisk is sitting at the desk typing some last minute updates
into his attack codes. Jimi Smooth is reclining on the bed,
resplendent in a skintight glossy black leather outfit that would
shame Elvis while he unpacks his deck. Whereas Basilisk has
a deck that is obviously designed on the principle of
functionality, Jimi has a sculpted plastic monstrosity that quite
obviously was designed with the form before function
mentality. Both men perform prerun warmups and system
checks with little or no conversation, as neither seems to
particularly like the other. Soon they are both ready.
BASILISK: As we spoke of Mr. Smooth I will be leading, you
will be following, verstehe... understand? I have many things to
be keeping eyes out for so you must perform all system and
support functions. No "hot dogging" or grandstanding. As we
talked of earlier, this hot house client list that I have stolen has
many powerful people on it, and they have nuyen to make IC
which will kill you much before it will hurt me. If we hit Black IC,
you are out, understood? My system includes an external med
scanner and robotic device to unjack if my vital signs go red,
but I want meat back up just to be making sure. And I do not
want to need your body to be removed, it is very messy to
explain to Lone Star.
JIMI SMOOTH (Yawning): No problem Hon, I don't think you
need to worry about me much, this deck was made for me by
the Kaypro Kid, and they just don't get any better than him.
Besides you gave me at least a third of the progs I'll be using
anyway. Could I be any safer than with some of your sweet
code close to my bosom? I think not. Oh yeah just as a foot
note, I run on a filter, so just be prepared.
BASILISK: Wunderbar! You will be in another world so I have
to deal with you from the "real" matrix. Are you never tired of
games and fantasies Mr. Smooth?
JIMI: Not on your life hot pants! I'm having a fantasy right now
about me, three bifs and a thirty foot anaconda covered in
whipped cream, yum, yum......
BASILISK: PLEASE shut up! Enough prattle, let's go. Both
men jack in, Jimi on the floor by the bed and Basilisk at the
desk.
LOG SOURCE ALTERATION: SMOOTH MPCP
Scene: the endless blacker than black world of the Matrix,
dotted here and there with the glittering stars of corp constructs
and flashing data lines. Basilisk's icon resolves first, a
burnished metallic icon of a mythological cockatrice with
irridescent crest feathers, and great bat-like wings. The icon's
eyes glow a piercing yellow, promising mayhem to all comers,
the razor sharp resolution of golden beak and claw guarantee
more of the same. The icon is a magnificent piece of
workmanship, not only in the code but for aesthetics as well.
Suddenly a pink lightning bolt blasts into being at the entry
site, then fades to reveal Jimi's icon. It is a huge, massively
over-muscled cartoon-like effigy of Smooth. The upper body is
easily ten times the mass of the legs and is topped by a head
that is ridiculously small, with most of that being heroic cleft
chin. The icon is clothed in pink tights and a short pink cape, a
fake tuxedo neck wrap, and a BIG shiny smile. The icon
immediately begins to bound about the matrix entry site, very
heroically.
BASILISK: *Ughck*
SUPER JIMI: I'm here my dear,
I'm here to kick some rear!
I'll crush a wyrm and brazenly charge,
With buttocks firm, and biceps large,
Any foe so unwise to criticize
My fashion merchandise.
And now a manly laugh, for more than a man, Ahahaha....
BASILISK: SQWUARRRCK!!!!! Be silent! For certain that data
transmission on this line is shedding virus just because of
passing your icon! What have you done to my cloak program?
I made certain to tell you "No alterations", didn't I?
Unglaublich!
SUPER JIMI: Don't worry good citizen, your cloak shall come
to no harm, I have merely altered it to fit my manly proportions.
Shall I pose Majestically?
BASILISK: No. Come , we need to begin data searching.
Load your sensor programs, and let's get moving.
SUPER JIMI: Sensors, why use sensors when I have my
Atomic Vision? Watch, I'll show you!
The Super Jimi icon slows briefly then huge cones of laser red
light blaze out of his eyes like headlights. The entire area is
bathed in a crimson glow.
SUPER JIMI: Ahah! With my Atomic vision I can see
everything! Never fear good citizen, we shall discover any
miscreants long before they see us coming! And now to call
forth my trusty companion Sycophant Man.
Again the Super Jimi icon slows, then a sickly looking
smartframe in the form of a skinny man with spectacles attired
in a chartreuse leotard appears, he is waving a small pennant
with "SJ" written on it.
SYCOPHANT MAN: Yay Super Jimi, you're my hero.
BASILISK: Mr. Smooth, have you ever given thought that you
will crash nodes with excess loading? This frame is most
unneeded and pathetic.
SUPER JIMI: Not to worry, I'm on the instant diet plan to trim
up my waist and reduce load, and Syco here is a real wiz at
scanning those files, aren't you Syco (Hearty thwack to
Sycophant Man's back which instantly collapses him)?
SYCOPHANT MAN: Yes Super Jimi. You are incredibly huge
and strong, I wish I could be so wonderful.
SUPER JIMI: Thank You (He poses, very majestically ).
BASILISK: I will never do this again.
The three icons move off into the matrix and begin a lengthy
search of names on the client list. The search reveals little or
no information of value for the next two hours, until the file of
Neal Parsons, Chairman and senior partner of the Cromwell and Bates
law firm.
BASILISK: (Twin Emerald beams lance out from his eyes
scanning the UMS standard SAN of Cromwell and Bates).
There is high grade security on this node, it will perhaps be
worthwhile to scan this files here even if we do not find any
specific to Parsons. I scan a standard Access linked to Blaster,
both are sophisticated programs. The node here is rather high
rating Orange. They must not receive and send much, or they
suffer extensive time delay from too many security checks.
SUPER JIMI: Of course, you are right good citizen, they must
be hiding something nefarious behind those mighty gates of
steel they have left here. I think I will smash them down and
put an end to their wrong doing (a quick subroutine runs on
Jimi's deck, and a camera icon pops up, along with a flashing
"Photo Op" sign. Jimi flashes a blinding smile for the camera),
Dun-dun-daaaaa....
SYCOPHANT MAN: Go Super Jimi. You are so brave and fast.
Save us from the horrible bad guys (Waves banner feebly).
BASILISK: (moving much quicker than Super Jimi and
intercepting him before contact with the IC.) Stop! Remember
what I said, no grandstanding! I knew you would be a normal
Dumkopf Samurai who thinks matrix means you can't get hurt.
This is not so. Your brain can get fried faster here than you will
die from bullet in the meat world. In meat world you make
plans and give assignments, here I am in charge, or we jack
out now. Understood?
SUPER JIMI: Of course citizen you are absolutely correct. It
would be unlawful to cross this street without obeying the traffic
signs, I shall await your signal to cross (Turning to Camera
icon: "Remember Kids, obey all laws, even the ones you don't
like. That's the only way to be like me, Super Jimi!". The
camera is momentarily dazzled by a flash of teeth and a
brilliant posing sequence that shows not only Super Jimi's
physique, but his consummate grasp of state of the art
sensitive-fifties-guy poses.)
BASILISK: You use stupid amounts of processing power for
useless things Mr. Smooth. You will never be successful here
if you continue ridiculous things like this. Now, delete that
evaluate/browse frame so we don't black hole the node, unless
it has some use.
SUPER JIMI: Why I can't do that! Sycophant Man is my loyal
sidekick. Besides he has a secret weapon!
SYCOPHANT MAN: Super Jimi you are smarter than a rocket
scientist. You know really big words that sound neat. You are
so cool (wave, wave).
BASILISK: Fine. We don't need to crash any IC more than
needed because our deck power will be used to suppress
alarms, so we will sleaze this. Can you do this, and still bring
your frame?
SUPER JIMI: Of course. I can sing a song for the pretty young
lady. Guitar please.
An acoustic guitar icon appears in Jimi's hands. The camera
whirs, the photo op sign flashes, and Jimi begins a sensitive
but manly love ballad for the Access IC. Meanwhile Basilisk
flys to the IC and craftilly drops a pile of sparkling high rez
gold coins that flash brightly in front of the alphanumeric wall.
For a brief moment the alphanumeric walls seems to slow,
pondering the brightly flashing coins, and Basilisk slips
through untouched. Jimi finishes his landmark song of
undying love and boldly strides through the wall which has
taken on a flickering appearance, perhaps moved by the
music. Syco follows. Inside the UMS standard SAN:
BASILISK: (Shifting through several different colors of eye
beams that represent sensor programs) Now we move careful.
Send your frame to locate any Parsons files. I am shifting into
cloak mode (the brilliantly colored basilisk icon becomes
perfect matte black that is almost impossible to see). We go.
Syco moves off down an available dataline idly waving his
banner, and mumbling, while Jimi and Basilisk move off down
another. It is soon obvious that the law firm has a rather
extensive system, mostly composed of previous and ongoing
client files. There is little or no IC that is not easily sleazed
by the golden coins or a lovely ballad. Eventually it becomes
obvious that one data line is the location of the CPU and any
sensitive data, as it is the only path left unexplored. The decker
and samurai are rejoined by Syco at the remaining line juncture.
SYCOPHANT MAN: (When he sees Jimi) Super Jimi, you light
up my life, you give me hope to carry on. You light up my days.
SUPER JIMI: Thank you.
BASILISK: This is where it will be getting difficult, so be ready
for anything. I assume you are running full bod mode, if not
you should, your masking and evasion are not good.
SUPER JIMI: Could this incredible bod be anything but full?
But you are right good citizen, I shall prepare for any
possibility. (Turning to the ever-present camera) "Remember
all you mini-Jimies out there, be safe, wear a condom!" (At this
point a huge matrix body condom appears and Super Jimi
makes a rather spectacular show of climbing/struggling/fighting
inside. A muted flash from his brilliant teeth is seen, along
with a muffled comment to the camera.)
BASILISK: Please tell me you did not make so bad a thing of
my shield program. No never mind, say nothing. I will never
want knowing. Proceed.
The icons whisk down the dataline to where it terminates at a
node that reveals itself as very red, very deadly to Basilisk's
emerald eye beams. An IC construct resembling a court
recorder sits behind a desk of Access IC.
RECORDER: Please state your name for the court.
BASILISK: Can I interest you in these? (A cascade of gold coins
lands on the desk).
RECORDER: One moment please I must check with his Honor.
She stands up and begins to move to the node entry.
She has moved only a short distance before two blazing
yellow beams lance out from Basilisk's eyes and strike her.
Immediately the construct surface begins to turn to marbled
stone with the effect spreading out from the contact point until
the entire construct, trace/report and access, is stone.
BASILISK: Gott in Himmel, that IC did not even respond in a little
bit to my sleaze! This is most interesting, and means good chance
for us to find vital data through this node, "Protect not
what you haven't got" they say. Mr. Smooth please suppress
this Construct, I must remain free to operate unhindered.
SUPER JIMI: (Muffled inside the condom/shield program). No problem
citizen (as he places a large pink Band-Aid over the IC construct's
mouth). That should do it! Here, let me hold that door for you!
The three icons step through into the node, which has been
heavily sculpted to resemble a massive court room. Where a
rail would normally be to section off the public area is a
juncture that appears to be another node which, curiously, is
visible from the "public node". The public region is full of
milling citizens who are in the process of wildly castigating the
participants in the trial taking place in the next node. When the
decker icons enter, all of the public icons turn and begin to
harass them. The attack soon becomes savage and begins to
tear holes in Jimi's condom. Basilisk remains relatively safe
behind furiously beating wings which have mysteriously grown a
scale coating. However, scales are flying off at an alarming rate.
BASILISK: Mr. Smooth, deal with this, I believe our target is
ahead and I will be needing time to make ready.
SUPER JIMI: This calls for the Secret Weapon! Sycophant
Man, ready your UltraMan Strap-on Cattle Prod! I will as well
then we shall have at these evil-doers.
SYCOPHANT MAN: (wave, wave).
Both Jimi and Syco stop and pull forth truly huge gleaming
golden cattle prods with attached strap-on jocks and strap
them on. Both icons then hop into the midst of the public with
hips thrust forward, wildly beating the rabid court room
attendees with the prods. The attack program is obviously
quite effective as the public are rapidly subdued, but not
without cost. Sycophant man lies on the floor, de-rezzing while
waving his banner. Super Jimi is heavily damaged, and not moving
very well. Data bits stream off of the icon's broad shoulders.
Meanwhile, Basilisk continues extensive scanning of the adjacent node.
SUPER JIMI: MAKEUP! (immediately a shapely female icon appears and
begins to apply powder to damaged areas. She then disappears)
BASILISK: (Looking at the far side of the courtroom with judge,
jury, and DA.) Faszinierend. This is actually a virtual
representation of what I am thinking is in the next node. When
we go to the gate there, we will actually be on a data line into
another node which will be like what we see here, I think.
Please suppress this IC Mr. Smooth, the worst is yet to come
and I will need much freedom to move.
SUPER JIMI: Fear not loyal Syco, you will be avenged!
(Turning to the blacked out Basilisk icon) Hold on there citizen,
let me help you with those bags!
Both icons move to the gate where Basilisk again begins to
scan the adjacent node with emerald eye beams.
BASILISK: We are moving into very much drek here Mr.
Smooth. The node is Red, high rating CPU. There is a lot of
processing power in there. I pick up two IC, one Blaster of high
rating, another I can't get a fix to what it is. We will be going
blind in a way, so engage the first thing you see, it will not be
asking for password, it will be attacking.
Basilisk takes flight and moves into the next node, Jimi briefly
checks his prod, then hops after. On the other side, which
does match the virtual image seen in the previous node,
Basilisk has already assaulted the Judge Blaster IC. The judge
is rapidly turning to stone, and has succeeded only in
removing more scale from Basilisk's wings with his gavel. Jimi
moves to the DA, but recognizes too late that it is simply part of
the node's virtual imaging. The jury behind Jimi has stood in
the meantime and pulled huge axes from under their seats. They are
almost upon him before Jimi turns, cattle prod at ready.
SUPER JIMI: THRUST! DODGE! PARRY! SPIN!
Jimi hops into the jurors and beats upon them with some small
effect. The smiling jurors finally back him into a corner and
begin to hack wildly into the Super Jimi icon.
SUPER JIMI: Guhgh. Holy shit, Bas, help, this is ......
The Super Jimi icon vanishes, leaving only scraps of torn
condom behind. In the meat world, Jimi's body stops
convulsing as the power surges are cut off when Jimi
reflexively pulled the jack. He sits drooling and slumps over
on his side. In the matrix, Basilisk has turned the judge to
stone and suppressed a call for a bailiff to restore order, and
turns to the jurors. However when Super Jimi disappears, all
of the IC that had been suppressed sets off an internal alert.
The courtroom immediately turns red, and the jurors swell in
size to gigantic proportions.
BASILISK: Gott verdammt Smooth, can you do anything right?
Basilisk then takes flight. Simultaneously his wings become
re-coated with new scales. Twin yellow beams strike out at the
madly pursuing jurors who are still smiling blandly, even as
they wield their axes with maniacal fervor. It soon becomes
apparent that the eye beam attack is not doing any damage,
and the jurors have caught Basilisk several times, removing a
good portion of his wing scales. Out of desperation Basilisk
resorts to another attack program that he normally uses against
other deckers. His beak and claws begin to drip ichor as
Basilisk wheels and plunges into the midst of the jurors,
furiously striking about him, his anti-persona program pumping
code into the Black IC. The jurors begin to show signs that the
program is working, some of them are now immobile, others no
longer have image integrity and float about dismembered
before de-rezzing. In the meat world, the price of the brazen
attack is visible as Basilisk's diminutive body begins twitching,
and blood starts to drip from his nose. In the matrix the combat
continues. With a particularly deft maneuver, Basilisk hacks
out a one shot mirror that creates a kaleidoscope like image of
multiple Basilisk icons. The black IC wades into the multiple
image but does not land any blows on the true icon, and
Basilisk is able to land a full force strike on the IC which de-
rezzes with alarming speed as large blocks of viral code are
dumped into its programming. Basilisk hovers for a moment as
a large program is called up from memory. A radiant potion
appears in front of the icon, to be quickly consumed. The
Metallic beast is immediately restored to near perfect condition
as his wounds glow and begin to seal over. In the meat world
Basilisk stops twitching, and the now conscious Jimi backs off
from the data jack connection.
BASILISK: Mein Gott, now we know where legal fees go to!
Black IC at a law firm. Very unreasonable.
The basilisk icon moves off to the judge's bench where a
doorway to the judge's chambers can be seen. After passing
through, Basilisk sees a chamber full of legal texts, obviously a
data store. He quickly begins searching the datastore with
purple eye beams for traces of Parsons, knowing that an alert
has been triggered and he will likely be dumped or attacked
soon. After a brief scan it is revealed that Parsons has a
sizable cache of personal files in one batch folder. Basilisk
downloads the file with associated scramble IC, and still
undetected, breathes out a whisp of smoke that begins
evaluating files for street value. Basilisk has time to download
only one finance file before he is dumped from the system.
Scene: Jimi and Basilisk are driving away from the hotel in
Jimi's Dynamit.
JIMI: I hope that was worth it. I hurt. Alot. And I'm not
supposed to feel pain unless I get real hurt. I gotta see a
buddy of mine who runs a chop shop, you need any rehab?
BASILISK: Nein. My program skill is much better than yours,
and I have better buffers incorporated in my deck, so my
injuries are very small. I want to rapidly scan these files before
they lose value. Drop me at my apartment, you can contact me there.
JIMI: (Under his breath) Yeah well my Kung Fu's betta,
asshole. END LOG. RoboBabe AutoSecretary v 2.0.]<<<<<
-- Jimi Smooth <02:51:45/04-02-55>
