He stared at the looping trideo from some ancient flat-flic with a stoic look that betrayed no emotion, eyes half-lidded and hidden behind the mirrored surface of his sunglasses. The blue light of the female figure reflected off them perfectly, and as he sat and stared, he couldn't help but wonder what his next move should be.
He gave half a glance at his deck on the desk beside him and a flurry of mental commands bridged the distance between his datajack and the device, bringing up a browser and a thousand windows, all searching the same thing: "The Savior of College Station."
Within minutes, He was pouring over everything the Matrix had to offer about the incident, the things that have been happening, what happened after, and the rumors surrounding events. It didn't take him long to find stories about the shootout in the quad, and the death of the Savior.
He blinked, slowly, then dismissed the browser. The little blue woman was still doing her dance in front of his shades, looping that same phrase in an echo around the warehouse he had holed up in.
”Help me //Archive// Kenobi, you’re my only hope."
>>Establish Connection: Ares Global Grid
>>Locate Host: Ares Space Museum....
>>Host Located. Connecting...
He slumped, eyes closed as his world receded around him and was replaced by a swirling cyclone of generic voxels, disappearing in an instant to be replaced by the ornately sculpted node of the museum. Floors that looked like the most polished marble echoed his footsteps as he walked slowly through the exhibits, past a display on solar radiation and the cycles of the moon towards the far end of the corridor, where he could see a slight glow of red coming off the Red Planet.
It sat floating perfectly in a hole in the marble, separated from the floor of the museum by a few meters of the blackness of space. It looked to be no larger than perhaps 5 meters in diameter, but the detail on its surface was exquisite, slowly rotating it place as the weather on the surface played out in what he was sure was a perfect recreation of the current conditions on the surface.
He blinked a little, looking down at the default icon he had loaded before coming here, looking like a generic humanoid shape with solid green skin. How fitting, a little green man about to walk across the surface of Mars. He would have chuckled if he had the facial features to do so.
He took a step towards Mars, then another, feet leaving the marble floor and striding across space as the Martian atmosphere grew closer. For awhile, it felt like he was walking in place, Mars expanding to full scale around him as he descended through the clouds and down onto the surface itself. The dirt crunched slightly under his feet as he looked out towards the horizon.
>>Query: Mars Map
A map of the planet appeared floating in front of him and he quickly identified the deepest valley, pressing his finger against it. In an instant the world rolled beneath his feet, repositioning itself until he was standing within the Valles Marineris. He was so deep beneath the surface, sunlight could not reach him, but he had no need for it. The light of the key that Breeze had left him was all he needed.
As he touched the key, it vanished into his icon, and in an instant the encryption was broken. His icon shifted, transforming into a tall robed figure made of data, and as the Martian surface disappeared, he brought up the files he had been given, going over the data Breeze had entrusted to him.
It didn't take him long to set his sights on the contact information he had left for his team.
In an instant, he opened his eyes again, once more finding himself in the dark warehouse with the dancing specter of a woman in front of him. Once again, he considered his options. Wondered if this was even worth it.
He and Breeze weren't exactly friends. He had worked with him a number of times, but it had always been business. He had even done that thing where he intentionally replaced letters with numbers just to try and annoy him. Not exactly the closest of relationships.
Even so, somebody had shot him. He couldn't help but feel angry about that. He wasn't entirely sure why he cared so much himself, but of all the people he had met over the matrix, Breeze probably deserved to die the least. And who was he to deny a man his dying wish?
>>Send Message: Hopeless (Avalon)
>> "You left me a key within the deepest valley on Mars, and I have found it. Call me Archive. Breeze has given me a lot of info on your little run. That shit sounds fucked, Omae. How can I help?"
