| From: | "Curtis D. Frye" <cfrye@********.com> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The Maxim Run, from the Inside |
| Date: | Thu, 1 Feb 1996 10:59:41 -0800 (PST) |
Matrix attack looked like from the Fuchi end, check out this recording one
of my contacts passed me:
***include maximrun.sim*** <Fuchi compression algorithms detected.
Expanding.>
After a flash of charcoal gray, a non-descript Matrix node opens in front
of you. Your reality filter depicts the setting as an almost infinite
grassland, with only an occasional hawk passing overhead to represent data
pulses transmitted through the node.
A brief flip to an external angle establishes your icon as a cheetah with
piercing green eyes, though the view returns to first person in an
instant. You take off through the steppe, traversing incredible distances
with each stride. In short order you reach an oasis, with palm trees and
all variety of animals. A lion steps forward to challenge you. Somewhere
in the depths of your perception, you feel yourself transmitting the
recognition code your intelligence staff gave you earlier.
With a flick of its tail, the lion wanders off, no longer blocking your
path to the watering hole. Your muscles move you forward at a fraction of
their maximum speed, a behavioral addition to your stealth package made
possible by your early arrival at the target node. In your subconscious,
you can sense your tactical efficiency score incrementing significantly.
As you move forward into the Maxim SAN, the landscape changes to that of a
military complex. You check your icon and see it translated as an elite
ground-assault soldier specializing in tasks requiring speed and stealth,
carrying a message pad. Apparently your code identified you as a
mid-priority message from one of the Asia plants, though you are eyed
several times by roving guards and sniffed by augmented German Shepherds.
Someone had the foresight to put the system on passive alert...not a
problem unless the knowbots are about, though.
A counter suddenly appears in the extreme top right of your display,
showing -00:15 and starting to decrease toward 00:00. You feel your
anticipation growing as the timer hits 00:00 and flashes red. Around you,
all hell breaks loose.
You take a few precious milliseconds to evaluate the attacks underway and
the defenses arrayed against you. Two of the Shepherds break free from
their handlers and start mauling them. Four Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
(UAVs) swoop down to drop cluster munitions on a bunker your scouts
identified as the CPU suite for the node.
Quickly disguising yourself as a damage assessment and repair daemon, you
sprint toward the bunker. You pass the remains of the guards and pick out
the central figure in the mayhem below, giving orders to re-route vital
functions and for the deckers to get their battle rigs. Your target.
Catching the figure unawares, you appear in front of him and offer the
databoard, modified to appear as a damage assessment. The enemy sysop
takes it and immediately begins losing coherence as the embedded attack
programs dig into his icon. You dodge two bullets as you spring back out
of the bunker.
Maxim's forces are now on full alert, with several figures in heavy battle
armor and carrying huge automatic weapons. You don't have a military
background so the names are unfamiliar, but the intent is not. To
reinforce the point, one of the Maxim deckers opens up on a Shepherd,
driving it off of the guard it was attacking.
While the Maxim decker maneuvers to hit the now-retreating Fuchi intruder,
you slot a one-shot attack program represented as a plasma grenade. With
a speed found only in the Matrix, you activate the weapon and hurl it
toward the armor-clad figure.
The grenade hits and latches on with a powerful magnet. Before the
defender can shake it loose, a directed plasma burst ruptures his armor,
twisting the icon several times before it lands. Despite the damage, the
decker staggers to its feet, attempting to bring its gun to bear on you.
Before it can threaten you, though, a bolt of electricity jumps from a
nearby ground station and strikes the armor suit. With a few final
twitches and a wild string of automatic weapons fire, the figure
disappears.
You glance over at the source of the lightning bolt and witness it
morphing into a drone...the Renraku knowbots have arrived!
For the next several minutes you dodge through the chaos, using your
lower-powered weapons to distract foes from their engagements with your
better equipped but less stealthy colleagues. In one case you're too
late...a Fuchi decker goes down under the combined assault of two Maxim
deckers and what had to be a defending knowbot. Frag!!! Those slitches
weren't supposed to show up for another three minutes and will almost
surely overwhelm the 'raku knowbots in the system.
Sure enough, the knowbots battle to a stalemate for two minutes, but the
defending system shows amazing resilience against the onslaught.
Eventually the Maxim system coordinates several of its knowbots against a
much larger group of invading programs. The attacking bots, sensing a
tactical advantage, pursue the defensive units onto a neighboring node.
In the blink of an eye, that part of the Matrix is ripped from reality,
trapping the majority of the remaining 'raku knowbots on a node that is
now isolated from the primary target area.
Fortunately, the mission is almost complete. As you avoid attacks from a
knowbot, you spy a satchel charge flying toward the remains of the command
bunker. With a prodigious explosion, the system begins collapsing. You
take a minor hit from the Maxim knowbot, but its cohesion is already
starting to break down.
You prepare yourself for the dump shock as the world goes gray again...
***end included file***
Not a bad job, eh? Of course, I wouldn't want to be in this guy's shoes
when Fuchi finds out where this bit of simsense came from.]>>>>>
--MirrorLynx <10:29:54/2-1-57>
