Comments on: Episode XXIII

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:23:43 +0000

((New thread.))

By: A.C.

A.C. — Sat, 24 May 2008 22:18:49 +0000

OK, fine. I’m part of a team sent by a top player to find a major anomaly here. I assumed it was the eater, but I’m willing to accept it was whatever the eater was trying to cover up. That’s certainly poassible. So then, that would be what my people are after. Now, does that still exist somewhere? Somewhere in this tower, I mean? I’ll try to keep you as safe as I can, guaranteed. But a lot of expense was spent getting us in here, and I don’t want to walk out with a minnow when the shark I’m after was only a few floors away. So open up. Where’s the big fish? What D-Sec or whoever was trying to cover up– is it in here somewhere? We have some serious firepower… A.C. glances at Gummo …on this mission and we were tonld we’d need it. So, where’s the beef? What they were trying to remove all traces of– where’d they put it in realspace?

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Sat, 24 May 2008 20:32:42 +0000

((A.C.’s read, confirmed by LB, is that they guy is telling the truth: he doesn’t know who coded the erasure virus, he believes it was done intentionally by people inside GEMINI to hide the tracks of something, and he knows what the something is. He thinks the something is extremely important. He thinks its the most important thing in the world.))

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Sat, 24 May 2008 20:26:58 +0000

I have no idea. I don’t think you get what’s going on here, man. D-Sec coded that thing. . . gotta be. You want to know who coded it? I have no idea. But the eater’s just a, uh, a smart virus, right? Made to wipe out traces. You want to know who coded it or you’re going to kill me? Well then kill me cause I know shit about that.

He looks at A.C. for several seconds trying to gauge his response. Look, man, I want out of here. The eater is big, you’re right, and the coder would be fucking huge, sure, but I don’t have it — but I know what they were hiding. Let me tell you that’s even bigger. I’ll tell you, your people, you know, if your people are players, your people want to know this. . . serusly. Please, man, don’t fucking off me.

By: A.C.

A.C. — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:14:55 +0000

You can walk out with us if that becomes necessary. Our people can pay you and set you up, if they decide they want to. But we’re not here to do that. We’re here to get that AI — or better yet the person who coded it– and that person gets a free pass out of here. You only get one if you are essential to that mission, sav? If you can help us achieve our goal, you can tag along, and when we walk, you walk. And when we get paid, so do you. But if you can’t help we’ll put a bullet in you and shove you back into the pod for IntSec to find next time they sweep this farm.

So, we want the eater and its coder. You coming along? If so, where are we headed?

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Sat, 24 May 2008 03:42:26 +0000

Raff shakes his head. Is that your people . . . they can get me out, right? He looks like he wants to believe.

By: A.C.

A.C. — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:28:08 +0000

Ever heard of The Firm?

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Fri, 23 May 2008 03:42:48 +0000

Looking for an out. Once they knew, you know, shit, all I can do is pull together as much payload as I can and look for someone who’ll take it in return for a ticket out. I wasn’t looking for this, sav? It fell on me. Once I was in it I just spent my cykes trying to get as much data as I could and find a buyer. But you found me first. So now I guess I hope you’re the buyer, or I’m fucked anyway. No doubt. So man I’m ready to spill you a hell of a thing, man, shit, you know? So, you know, but I gotta know. Are you a player? Is it safe?

By: A.C.

A.C. — Fri, 23 May 2008 01:26:56 +0000

So why’d you stay in so long? You had to know someone was gonna come along in realspace. When were you thinking of cycling out?

By: The Bellman

The Bellman — Thu, 22 May 2008 03:23:44 +0000

Raff keeps looking over at Gummo as he talks. Something about Gummo makes him nervous. Uh, yeah ... but are you listening? I'll give you a peek -- but I need . . . you know, I need assurances, sav? I need to fucking stay alive and get paid! Fuck! Anyway here cheggit. He makes some complex gestures in the air and begins whispering to himself, then stops, looking sheepish, having momentarily forgotten he is in real space. Well, fuck. He looks around and finds a datapad. Grabbing a cable he plugs in into the pod control board and begins tapping away on it. After a while it lights up with incomprehensible symbols and codes. He hands it to A.C. OK, this is a sparse feed from my podspace crypto store. Wait . . . There. See? Eater. In the GEMINI stream -- see? He points to some symbols and nods excitedly. See? It's the INSIDE net. He gestures some more, pointing out some distinction that is obvious to him, but invisible to A.C. The bright, dense image of shiftng colors and symbols may as well be Ancient Bixpan to A.C. So . . . you wanna know what they were trying to get rid of? With the eater, you know? Tell me you can get me out of here and get me paid.