MuseMart » Written Role Play
Cyberpunk-ish
(1 post)-
Gumshoe
The DuckOOC:\> So the last cooperative RP story didn't last long... Naturally I blame everybody but myself for that. Anyway, here's another one. We've already got a couple of people, but anybody is welcome to jump in. Just be polite and ask first. The setting is a distant future, lots of different planets all inhabited by humans. No aliens (well, no sentient aliens). Corporations have risen to the power and role of governments, and crime is pretty much a fact of life. And now, let us begin...
IC:\>
They were coming for him. He knew they were coming for him, because he knew he'd screwed up. He'd gotten stupid, or complacent, or both. And now it was going to cost him... big time, because these guys weren't your run of the mill enforcers. They weren't the cops, they weren't even the local crime syndicate. They were something far, far more dangerous.
"Crap," he muttered, fingers feverishly playing across his keyboard. "Crap, crap... shit." He didn't have time for this. They were going to be here any minute, and he had to get rid of it before then. If they found it in his possession, he was a dead man. If they got him and couldn't find it, at least he'd have something to bargain with, some reason for them to keep him alive...
He narrowed his eyes against the blue green glow from his three terminal displays, eyes darting back and forth as they took in the deluge of information. He had to find someplace to drop it, someplace where they wouldn't think to look, but someplace where he'd know how to find it again. He couldn't just dump it in some public server, though. If he did that they'd find it in no time. The same went for some of the barely protected private spaces he saw. If he could break it in five minutes, then so could they. And they would, too. They'd hack through every potential hiding spot to find it, no matter how long it took. He needed something hardened and low key, but accessible... no, what he needed was another week to look for a hiding place.
He heard car doors slam shut and froze. Was that them? Were they here already? No, they couldn't have found him that quickly. He still had time... but it was rapidly running out. He briefly considered putting it on a data chip and trying to hide the chip. But no, that wouldn't work either. They'd tear his apartment to the ground and go through it all with a fine toothed comb, and there was no way he was just going to drop it someplace random and hope it was still there whenever he got back.
Suddenly, one of his security monitors brought itself into focus and blinked an angry red. His heart jumped into his throat. They'd tracked him right back to his own terminal? If they knew that...
Only, they didn't. Something about the security monitor pierced his panic, and he looked more closely at the display. It wasn't an attack... if it was them it would have been a full out break and bake, his system would have already been fried or fully under their control. Whoever this intruder was, he wasn't using a sledgehammer. He was far too subtle... small probes here and there, an innocent looking port connect attempt, etc. He was sniffing around the security, like a bank robber innocently walking back and forth down the street in front of his target.
Old habits taking over even in this time of crisis, he pulled up his own arsenal and started looking for information. He was surprised to see that it wasn't so easy... whoever was on the other end had countermeasures going, and they were good. Not as good as they could have been. Whoever this was, he obviously wasn't expecting his target to be so paranoid, or so prepared. A more aggressive round of information gathering, and he had what he wanted.
He almost didn't hear the voices on the street outside, or the thudding of boots on concrete. He paled. It was still too soon... wasn't it? Getting up, he hastily went to the window and looked out. On the street below, men in trench coats wielding lethal looking weapons were gathered around the apartment building's front door. It was a security door, electronically locked. It didn't even slow them down.
Dashing back to his seat, he knew he had to get rid of it, and he had to get rid of it now. He brought up his toughest programs and set them to work. He didn't have time for a full assault, but luckily he didn't need one. All he needed was a quick window, just a couple of seconds and permission for a file transfer...
The other guy's countermeasures were good. Just a few seconds after they detected an attack underway they cut the connection and clamped down on everything. Normally those few seconds would have been useless... but for him, a couple of seconds was all that was needed. It was gone, transferred to the other guy's hard drive. Working quickly he memorized the other guy's information and enacted his last-case-scenario provisions. The drives would be wiped clean of all information, then his backup power supply would discharge it's entire contents into the machine, frying everything in the blink of an eye.
He heard heavy footsteps in the hallway outside and nervously watched the drive wipe near completion. It finished as they kicked in the door, and the power supply discharged as half a dozen heavily armed men spilled through the doorway...
Posted 3 years ago #
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