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Into the Chaos - Land Grab [IC]

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Jack_Spade

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« Reply #2145 on: <03-06-16/1408:46> »
"I think so.
Also: Strawberry is crazy. Having Grail as a consultant... I can't even imagine.

And it seems she has done things like this before. Since she somehow knows all of this stuff it's not unreasonable to assume that she still has a connection to those spirits. Hell, she could be fullfilling her own bargain with them by sending you to them. Now she definitely is a case for a Firewatch team.

But your story reminds me of something. Another mage who wanted to get out of a pact. He found help by turning to the Adversary. He explained it to me as seeking help from the nastiest attorney ever to roam the earth. But on the whole - the devil you know might be preferably to the alien spirits from a hell dimension.
So on the whole - before you start sacrificing - you probably should try to summon a spirit who knows exactly how this thing works, because I wouldn't trust anything Strawberry says. Even if its the truth.
Where there is a will, there is a way.

Yeah, no worries on that underground complex thing. My feeling is that the lodge is somewhere under that tree.

Ok, but go on - you where delivered to the sewers - how did you end in a closed compound?"
talk think matrix

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield
Revenant Kynos Isaint Rex

Mulcarn

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« Reply #2146 on: <03-06-16/1450:57> »
Maxwell places a hand underneath his chin and massages it in contemplation.  "Huh, now that you mention it.  That could explain why she let me go.  I mean... it would have been so easy to just slit my throat and have a spirit possess my rotting corpse.  The way you describe it would mean she just traded places with me.  That makes perfect sense!  She wasn't sorry she banished my soul and cursed me!  She was sorry she didn't do it sooner!"

Two huge flames erupt from his outward stretched hands and his eyes start glowing red.  Insurmountable rage ignites within himself.  The kind of fury where he just wants to burn until there is nothing left to burn about.

Berserker Rage: 12d6t5 4

Maxwell managed to cool himself off and not set fire to the junkyard.  He collects his thoughts and readdresses Kynos.  "Sorry about that.  The notion she did that on purpose is so much worse than if by accident.  For her sake, i'll give her the benefit of the doubt until i'm absolutely sure.  Otherwise i'm going to take you up on your offer and turn her domain into a scorched volcanic hell."

"About the compound, Strawberry said that a vampire's lair was nearby as she led me through the sewers.  The two of us parted ways and I traveled through the damp rusted undercity to see if she was right.  After what felt like forever, I reached the end of the tunnel that led to an enclosed courtyard and some kind of water treatment facility.  It was there I came in contact and was reunited with a friend of mine, a friend that Grail captured and Venom tortured.  She let me inside and told me what she had been up to.  Grail had her kidnapped because she was a skilled hacker and he needed her to help to conceal his war effort."

"The compound is where a sect of cultists dedicated to Grail live.  The drones are there to prevent people from leaving.  However, they don't seem to mind people showing up uninvited, go figure.  I'm currently living there and pretending to be a cultist.  To be blunt, I wasn't expecting you to respond to my call, let alone offer me a job.  Thanks for that."
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gilga

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« Reply #2147 on: <03-06-16/1453:02> »
@Athos Rob said "The best way to predict your future is to create it. We were the original servants of Deus, enslaved to the will of an AI god that saw us as nothing more than tools. Deus made us interact with deep resonance and upon his demise we got free. We knew that the knowlege is not lost and understood that the catastrophe was not big enough to prevent the creation of new AI's. Even if the previous generation resulted in an entire matrix crush, the siren song of power and the false promises of creating an AI to solve the worlds problems. These cannot be ignored by people of power. 

We had to hide from very powerful matrix security, the stuff we did was high profile. Religion at its most insane incarnation,the fun loving Breslev movement was our cover.  You see, Breslev's disciples spend most of their time intoxicated or high, they take extreme risks and are required to constantly be happy. No matrix GOD was going to take them seriously so we could hide. They were our shelter for many years until we formed the new Breslev movement and centered here. We now follow Max as our champion or messiah if you want to be religious about it. We followed her since she entered the KE to to the day she left them with ownership of Cat.

Remember the story that madam told you? She could tell people about her meeting us, but who would ever believe her? We leave no phsyical evidence of our existence, and what is left in the minds of people we talk to cannot be shared, as it is completely insane.  We provided the development teams with ideas, code fragments and with parts of Deus' insights that we have, all to the goal that the AI they eventually create will be something we could understand. The desire was there and the wonderland theme was designed to test the influence of our resonance techniques. To indicate how deep our ideas effected the minds of the original programmers. "


« Last Edit: <03-06-16/1457:14> by gilga »

Mercy Merchant

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« Reply #2148 on: <03-06-16/1526:47> »
I am a simple trog, Rob, and do not really understand all of this.  So you gave someone the codes to create Cat, Red, and Alice?  And then lost control of them?  Was that foreseen as well?"
"Speech"  *Thought*  <Matrix>

Jack_Spade

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« Reply #2149 on: <03-06-16/1602:21> »
"Never attribute to malice which can be explained by incompetence.
But Strawberry may be many things, but she is not incompetent. She banished your soul to that exact spot where there just happened to be Insect Spirits floating around?
Well, I'll leave this decision to you. I have enough other reasons to get Strawberry eliminated.
Not to mention it's suspicious that Grail happens to have a strong hold nearby. Because to me Ginger Elf said she had no clue where the vampire could be found.

A hacker friend you say? That could be very useful. Do you think she would be interested in a rescue? My own hacker contact never made it out of that strip club, so I wouldn't mind having someone like that on my side.
Venom torturing a girl... well just goes to show that the guy was just full of bullshit. I'm glad I put that fucker finally in that urn.

The easiest way to get rid of Grail would be to plant a bomb in his larder and blow it all to hell when he comes to feed. Shouldn't be to hard with you being able to sneak in and out.
Yeah, I think we can do that together."

Kynos showed a smile that promised violence galore...
talk think matrix

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield
Revenant Kynos Isaint Rex

Mulcarn

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« Reply #2150 on: <03-06-16/1640:04> »
Maxwell crosses his arms and grins back sinisterly.  "Yeah no doubt.  The more thought I put into it, the more I believe it couldn't have been mere coincidence.  I need to think about the best way to handle the situation.  Because the way it is right now, I still have hungry insect spirits to feed whether she dies or not.  Personally I hate violence against women.  But I hate being screwed with just as much."

"And about Amy, my hacker friend.  I don't think she's in a good spot to be rescued right now.  She's already taking a huge risk by letting me stay there.  Also, it's not my place to say exactly what happened, because that would betray the trust that she and I have.  But Venom and Grail did some extremely evil shit to her to make her comply and do what she was told.  I don't think she can bring herself to leave until Grail is dead.  I can talk to her about it but no promises."

His smile vanishes at the mention of Venom's death.  Maxwell's face grew dark and serious as he looked at the ground in disbelief.  "No wonder my Ifrit couldn't find him.  He was already dead..."  He looks up again with a twisted sadistic smile.  "Good to hear you pulled it off.  I'm sorry I couldn't have been there to watch the lights in his eyes go out.  Or to burn his remains upon a pyre."
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Jack_Spade

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« Reply #2151 on: <03-06-16/1700:11> »
"Yeah, I had to fly to Japan to geek him. Would have preferred to do it here. But that reminds me - I don't want to search for you again. Here, take this."
Kynos game Sovereign a little pebble.
"That's a stealth RFID tag. Press it and it activates so I can trace your position. Keep it on your person at all times. I'll come and get you if necessary.

Ok, that should be all. If you want to find me, give me a call. I've also got a bolt hole around here and the Red Hot Nukes have been quite hospital to me. So if you want to crash somewhere else than your vampire prison, be my guest.
For the meeting tomorrow: Be punctual and wear a suit. We want to make a good impression on this wet work job"
talk think matrix

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield
Revenant Kynos Isaint Rex

gilga

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« Reply #2152 on: <03-06-16/1710:41> »
@Athos Rob say - "But you are not a simple troll, you were personally hit by pre-crime. Red tried to kill you to dismantle the Mafia and the Yakuza as they are the strongest sources of crime in the city. She managed to get every single gang fighting each other and she is only a baby.  You are Finnigan, your family is at stake and you cannot survive Red. Red will be defeated eventually but what will happen to the Finnigan? Will they survive to see the world after Red?

You got it half right, we inspired the creation of Cat and Red. Their combined work along with the fact that their memory was wiped allowed us to use them to do things without trace. To set events in motion to keep the AI we did plan, Alice safe. Alice is the most sophisticated AI ever made, a complete integration between human and machine. Alice will be a completely normal human girl, that will be born with a functioning AI that grows with her. She will be like you and Cat, only the two identities will develop the same notion of self.

She will be a naturally born trans-human capable of procreation. The kind that is born, lives life and dies. Without any purpose. We are not building another god - but the future of man kind. Look at yourself, you are part man, part machine and the integration is very good but it is not quite there. You and your augmentations are different things, you and Cat are separate identities. You are trans-humanist but you paid a price to become more than human. Alice will be born like that, she will be smarter, more healthy and more physically fit than normal humans. Alice will be both a human and an AI and the two will be completely symbiotic. She will be a true trans-human and if our experiment is successful her genetic heritage will live on after her. Through normal evolution.

If you can get behind this idea, I tell this to you because there is something we need from you. Red may appear as a threat but she is not. With Red tormenting a city and escaping control and CFD outbreaks we anticipate that nanite research will be delayed for a long while. There have been cases like this before, Zeppelin research was eliminated for several generations following the Hindenburg disaster. This delay of research, will give Alice a chance to pass as a completely regular girl and to integrate to society without a stigma. Alice can be Deus' gift to the human race an AI the way AI should have been built in the first place. Without godlike powers, without the capabilities to destroy cities - as peoples like you and I, like Cat.

So what do we need of you? Red is about to be defeated, Seattle is isolated but not disconnected. Red's defeat is unavoidable as we designed her with a major flaw, electromagnetic pulses kill her. She is not to blame for her actions, she is a baby AI without guidence one that took the combined effort of hundreds of people and 10 years to create. Out of all the people in the city, you talked to her like equal, you had the best chance to kill her but chose to let her live. If she will listen to anyone she will listen to you. We want you to go to her, talk to her and convince her to come with us.

We built this entire world based on previous matrix technology, it will survive what is to come and Red will be able to grow here without harming man kind. Just because Red is dangerous does not mean we should just let her die. She and Cat were created with love. With passion, and they deserve to survive. Go talk to Red, convince her to save herself and we will show you how to preserve Cat with you for all time."


« Last Edit: <03-06-16/1712:21> by gilga »

Mercy Merchant

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« Reply #2153 on: <03-06-16/1915:58> »
"OK.  Talk to me.  How do I get to see Red?  I would like to ask her some questions and I am all in if it will help  preserve life in the city.  And I would like to save Cat as well.  Is it possible to have a part of both of them in me at the same time?"
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Mulcarn

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« Reply #2154 on: <03-06-16/1934:36> »
Maxwell takes the tiny device and examines it by holding it close to his eyes before pocketing it.  "Oh you had to go to jap-land to end him, bummer.  Well since you killed him and cremated the remains, all of the bounty is yours by my consideration.  Only fair, right?  Anyway i'm going to head to back to the cultist facility and catch up with Amy.  I'll be sure to show up in a suit of armor tomorrow."

He'd let Kynos figure out if he was joking or not about the armor.  Maxwell leaves the junkyard and heads back to the compound through the sewers.  In a few days time he'd probably have the entire layout of the undercity mentally mapped out.  He could add sewer traipsing to his job resume after everything was said and done.  Predictably nothing stood or impede his passage to home.  The occasional rat coupled with the rancid stench of death were his traveling companions.

Maxwell arrives at the decaying hotel from hell and makes his way toward the inside.  The drones didn't care and made no notice of him entering the building.  The buzzed and whirled about in their endless mote task.  He enters the elevator and rides upward to greet Amy and see how she is doing.  She might be interested in what had transpired since they first met.
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gilga

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« Reply #2155 on: <03-07-16/0711:07> »
@Athos Rob tells you "Go to the military base, she'll wait for you there. There is no way she will miss it. You cannot also have Red and even if you had Red, she is a pilot. You would not be in control of your body. However, she can send someone with you or perhaps provide you with some other vassal. "

Mercy Merchant

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« Reply #2156 on: <03-07-16/0948:25> »
Athos nods.  "Makes sense.  What am I supposed to tell her when I see her?  You have to know that my conversation skills are pretty much drek.  And do you know who the parents of Alice are going to be?  Will they need protection?"
"Speech"  *Thought*  <Matrix>

gilga

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« Reply #2157 on: <03-07-16/0953:02> »
@Athos Rob said "Their best protection is ignorance, otherwise, their daughter will never get a normal life... I do not know what you should tell her, she is lost and confused and alone, perhaps Cat would know what to say "

Mercy Merchant

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« Reply #2158 on: <03-07-16/1014:36> »
"Well, I can certainly identify with the lost and confused bit.  Maybe we can get along."  Al looks around.  "So are there only the five of you or are there other communities like you elsewhere?  You seem sort of a small group to be deciding on the future of everything."
"Speech"  *Thought*  <Matrix>

Jack_Spade

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« Reply #2159 on: <03-07-16/1052:32> »
Kynos finally made his way home to prepare for tomorrow.
He inspected his suit - the dry-cleaner had done a miracle with all the blood and gore - and made sure all his weapons were in top condition.

The rest of the evening he spent in the matrix, looking for information on that toxic mage and what he should expect of Aurora Village - notably where all the exits were.


Matrix Search Hotsim: 9d6t5 3
Matrix Search Hotsim: 8d6t5 0
Matrix Search Hotsim: 7d6t5 2
Matrix Search Hotsim: 6d6t5 0
Matrix Search Hotsim: 5d6t5 3
Matrix Search Hotsim: 4d6t5 1
Matrix Search Hotsim: 3d6t5 1

I hope 10 successes are enough to find all relevant data on Toxic mages currently active in Seattle.

talk think matrix

To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield
Revenant Kynos Isaint Rex

 

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