[IC] Hacker's Club

Anarchy Online Rubi-Ka Buzz
1
Originally posted on old Rubi-Ka Buzz. This thread is the ic communication between characters involved in the cross-faction CoT hacking story arc. See OVERVIEW: The Hacking Storyline Thus Far for ooc background information.

A tiny opifex sits eating pizza in front of a grid-terminal in a slum town house.

“Woice psswrd: Afffa-Afffa-Whsskuh-…oh…” she swallows the pizza slice and leans towards the terminal again, repeating the authorization code.

“Ok, display that message again.”
 

[ENCRYPTED MESSAGE TO ID: ‘GUMIHO’ FROM ID: ‘KITTIEFIXIE’]

Hey, I’m getting back to you with some new intel about the hacking situation. We recently had a Council meeting and while I can’t tell you anything we discussed at it, I’ll let you know that afterwards I met up with a person who was there who had also lost one of his informants. He gave me a name of a person I should contact about a hacker club his informant had been a part of, Sirocco, and I recognised the name. I’ve had dealings with him before, see, and I remembered this chip he gave me then that was some sort of membership into a hacker club.

Anyway, decided to drop him a message about it, because it seems like a lead worth looking up. You know anything about him? Had any dealings with him before? If so, you might want to see if you have one of those chips. I’m going to try to get in, see if I can hear something from in there. Hackers sometimes like bragging about their hits even if most of them are sensible enough not to do so in public, so maybe we’ll get lucky?

I’ll also be looking for this person’s missing informant, even if that is secondary.

Oh, and I guess since it wasn’t really anything specifically to do with the meeting, I’m also attaching a strange message I got uploaded to my NCU.

Maybe that can be of interest to you as well? There’s talk about someone called Corker, or something called Corker. May be a call-sign or an alias of some sort? Hopefully there might be answers about that as well from Sirocco or the club, but we should probably be very careful not to ask too many questions without plausible reasons.

Graham is still missing, but I’ve started to put up posters now. Put a notice up on the grid too. I’m not mentioning anything about the connection to the hacker issue, but I figured setting up posters for a missing person makes sense and is innocent enough in itself not to be su****ious. I’ll let you know if I hear anything about that too.

Until then, stay safe and vigilant.
/Kittie
 

[ATTACHMENT 1]

[ENCRYPTED MESSAGE TO ID: ‘SIROCCO’ FROM ID: ‘KITTIEFIXIE’]

Hey, don’t know if you remember me, but it’s Kittiefixie again. You know a few years ago when I ran you some errands and you taught me how to hack the grid data stream to get into the Fixer grid? A few days ago I was rooting through some old stuff to see what I could get rid of and I found this Hacker Club membership chip I think I got from you around that time, if I recall things correctly.

You know if those Smokers are still active? I find myself in need of a new gig and I’m sure there are ways I could be useful if I could get in contact. Nowadays I’m a master meeper and I know my ways around this place.

As I’m a resident of Old Athen it would be easy for me to meet up with you again sometime if you’re still around down by the stream. Not many people around there usually, as we know, and I go by frequently anyway.

Please, get in touch. And be safe out there.

/Kittiefixie

[ATTACHMENT 2]

To: Me
Date: 01.08.29491
Subj: Re: Corker?

Yeah person. Sounds like a neut. Get this though:

:: BEGIN V2T LOG ::

210, CW actual. Send traffic.
Er actual, can you confirm corker is any force authorised? Over.
210, ready to copy. Apprehend target. Alias Corker. Faction zero. Clan harboured. Any force authorised. That’s straight from EP, 210.
whistles Copy. Break to relay.
_
:: END LOG ::

Could be to do with that hack? Big though… That’s OP-CW. Means clan territory op. Raids maybe. Call up the clanners, we’re eating well tonight.

QUOTED TEXT:

Dave,

Lots of Pol chatter. I’m hearing ‘apprehend order - corker’ a lot. Is that a person? A code? What?

 

[ENCRYPTED MESSAGE TO ID: ‘KITTIEFIXIE’ FROM ID: ‘GUMIHO’]

I remember him, old dude that likes to hang out by the water ways in Old Athen. I still have one of those chips, kept it mostly out of sentiment for old times sake. Right now, I don’t think you’ll hear much if I show my face around any hacker meet-ups. I’m pretty sure word has spread already of my spiffy job in an Omni-Com sub-department.

I’ve heard some chatter about this Corker from Pol but they’re not sharing information, at least not at my security clearance level. Will try and find out more. Is Dave the missing informant? Would be handy to have the dudes full name.

Nothing on Graham either. Security scan shows him as entering the station apartment but nothing shows him going out. I went in to check on that apartment, looks like the older neut lady who lived there is gone too. She has no family or anyone who would have noticed she was gone, a Teresia “Essala” Eskew if you come across that name. I got maintenance to let me in, the locks on the place show doors were last opened when your brother showed up, garage doors were never opened and grid terminal logs were empty. Ya got any ideas?
 

Peace.

/|_._|\
/ * * \
~ \./ ~
.GUMIHO

1 Like
2

[ENCRYPTED MESSAGE TO ID: ‘GUMIHO’ FROM ID: ‘KITTIEFIXIE’]

Hey, I want to let you know I managed to make contact with Sirocco and apparently the Smokers are a bit thin right now and could use some people. He’ll set me up with someone.

Right now, I don’t think you’ll hear much if I show my face around any hacker meet-ups.
I’m pretty sure word has spread already of my spiffy job in an Omni-Com sub-department.

I still put your name out there to him. People on the inside tend to have the best information anyway, so your position as someone on the inside should be more of a bonus. With you there and me at the Council we should be able to figure out what the heck is going on and who’s behind this no matter where they hide and their affiliation might be.

I’ve heard some chatter about this Corker from Pol but they’re not sharing information,
at least not at my security clearance level. Will try and find out more.

That sounds like a good start. It seems like it’s something really important and that finding out what that’s about will make other things clearer.

Is Dave the missing informant? Would be handy to have the dudes full name.

According to the person I talked to it might be a name or a hacker alias, but he also told me I should try to find ‘Corker’ first and that it’s more important. Maybe he thinks this Dave can fend for himself. He seemed kind of unconcerned about Dave’s safety and even his own, honestly? It stood out to me. I’ll see if I can get more out of him but I’m not sure even he knows more than that name.

Nothing on Graham either. Security scan shows him as entering the station apartment
but nothing shows him going out. I went in to check on that apartment, looks like the
older neut lady who lived there is gone too. She has no family or anyone who would
have noticed she was gone, a Teresia “Essala” Eskew if you come across that name.

Wait, Graham got into some apartment but never left but still wasn’t there when you checked in? The name ‘Essala’ sounds familiar, but I don’t know if it’s just because Graham talked about her so much. He was spying on her and took some photos, but as far as I knew he had no contact with her other than occasional greetings and waves. Do you know if she was in there when he entered?

It’s all so confusing. All these people going missing. Now we seem to have another one. How would this even be possible? Meeping out should make disturbances that can be noticed and recorded, and especially if done in a hurry.

grid terminal logs were empty. Ya got any ideas?

Maybe there’s a backup somewhere? Many people have things like emails stored on servers and terminals that aren’t their own. If we can figure out what services she used we might be able to find out that way. Some terminals send diagnostics that way as well, and that way we could see any deviations in data traffic going in and out through it and also where it’s going. Should be spikes in traffic around where the hackings took place and maybe other spikes for ones we might not know about yet.

Be safe, and good luck.
/Kittie

3

Hey.

Any news on Corker from your end? I’m still looking into the Pol end of things, they’re keeping like totally quiet for once. Not much gossip around the Relax! bar. Must be big if they’re sticking to discipline.

I made contact with the hacker’s club dude in Omni Ent. They’re pretty spread thin, between OT-AF raids and sum dude trying to take over the slums, their ops were pretty messed up. They weren’t too happy to see me, since it was my old OT-AF unit that ran the raids, but I’m working on making friendly.

Since what I’m up to is part of an on-going investigation, I’ll have to keep to the books as much as I can on this. Passed on some of the info from you and Boss-dude ain’t happy about the disappearing informants. He don’t want us getting added to the missing persons list too so I’m to work with an agent on this one. Going to have some trigger happy hothead named Weaver on my rear from now on.

Maybe there’s a backup somewhere? Many people have things like emails stored on servers and terminals that aren’t their own.
If we can figure out what services she used we might be able to find out that way. Some terminals send diagnostics that way as well,
and that way we could see any deviations in data traffic going in and out through it and also where it’s going. Should be spikes in traffic
around where the hackings took place and maybe other spikes for ones we might not know about yet.

Dude, you’re missing it. There was -nothing- on her grid access terminal. The logs weren’t erased or stored someplace else, the old gal just never used the grid access terminal to leave her apartment. Only logs of her ever leaving or entering were through the front door. So like maybe she’s just one of the older folks that don’t like the grid or maybe the old gal was hiding something? Some folks with stuff to hide are afraid of the scans on grid terminals identifying them. But, the grid terminal was not used and the door logs show the old gall was in the apartment with Graham. They must have warped or beaconed out. Guessing it was someone skilled at getting individuals or a group of people evaced; or they were using a recall device of some sort. There are some medical peeps and others that use grid transfer nanos, but combined with the hacking issue I’d say it’s likely another fixer is involved.

 

Peace.

/|_._|\
/ * * \
~ \./ ~
.GUMIHO

4

Hey, I need to keep this short, but I need to let you know what’s happened.
So, half an hour ago mom called and said Graham’s come over to their place so I meeped the **** over there, and he’s here with us now. He asked me to say hi to you from him and that he’s still up for that pizza. He’s not harmed or anything, it seems like, but it’s like he’s… not all here, if it makes sense? Really spooked.

He doesn’t say much about what happened to him. He says is that most of the time he’s been gone he’s been held in a small, white room and that the lamp was on all the time. Someone kept asking him questions, but he didn’t see anyone. They let him go maybe yesterday. Someone dragged him out of the room and then he was in a forest. He’s been trying to find his way back home since then. Someone found him near Reet Retreat and pointed him the right way.

But you were right, he says there were fixers there. They grabbed him and meeped out when he got into the apartment. I have no idea how they ended up at the place they took him or what happened to Essala when they got there. They put a bag over is head and gave him a shot of something and he doesn’t seem to remember much before the white room. They took everything he was carrying except for his clothes. They took his comms. They even took his sunglasses.

He says someone kept asking him what he knew about Council matters, and he didn’t tell them anything. Like, he doesn’t even know. There wasn’t anything he could tell them, but they kept on asking.
One of the things they kept asking was if the Council has made contact with someone called Radiman, and I’ve looked through the logs of who’s come and gone for the meetings and that name is nowhere in there. I’m going to ask the clerk in charge of the meetings and see if it’s a name he’s heard, but I doubt it. You’ve ever heard of anyone by that name?

With all that’s going on I’m happy to hear that you’ve got trigger happy company. I’m all for talking, and running if I can’t talk, but this scares the **** out of me. I’m not going to put my perennium down again until this is all over.

Have to go, I need to get back to Graham. I’ll probably stay in Borealis for a few weeks. I’m not going to let him out of my sight for a while. Anyone tries to touch him I swear I’ll be ******* trigger happy as well. I swear.

Stay safe. I’ll contact you as soon as I know anything else.
/Kittie

5

Kittie,

Oh dude am I glad to hear ya got him back! About the old gal, I didn’t want to say anything before I could be sure you know, like since there was a crew still looking and all, but she was killed. Maintenance dudes found her body caught in some rigging on an outside section of the space station. I didn’t want to you get the wrong idea, to think Graham was like out there in space someplace too you know, at least until I could get more info.

But damn Hannah, ya never heard of Radiman? He’s all on the records over here, made it in to the gridfeed rumor mill too. Dude was a bookdealer, he ended up working for the Council of Truth. Some of your Clan mates didn’t all like him much, thought he was like all too soft on us OT-types. He’s been gone on and off, I did find a reference to him two years ago, some peeps tagged his ID on 26:02:29489. They registered that he headed to the Happy Rebel with some Hill Clanner.

Other thing, not sure if it could be related but digging up info on Radiman, I found a reference to an Elena Oak. The chick had a truck with an AI chip, and its name was Corky. If peeps are looking Radiman, could they be after Corky not Corker? If not, then still no definite leads on who this Corker peep, peeps, thing or whatnot. Tried to hack into Omni-Pol’s files, but the whole thing is like totally gone. Pol-dudes must have moved all their info someplace else.
 

Peace.

/|_._|\
/ * * \
~ \./ ~
.GUMIHO

6

Hey, the Council is all up in elections and stuff right now and I’ve been named head of security here so there’s a lot to do, but a thing came up at the last meeting that I thought you and the Ash Man should probably know about. I can’t give you any names for who I got this from, but I’m attaching an audio file recorded of a recording that was played. Sorry the quality is pretty bad, but it’s what I can do.

I’m not sure if this is related to the hacker business or not, but it seems big. We’re currently looking at this from our end, but it seems like you might have a problem on your end as well. Pretty sure they’re not talking about a Clan CEO. When I asked about what this ‘Omega’ could be I was just told they’re an ancient enemy of the solitus and some sort of enslavers.

Maybe you don’t need to let the Ash Man know where you got this from either unless you have to.

Stay safe out there.
/Kittie

[ ATTACHED AUDIO FILE: ‘audiologcot2dec-omega’ ]

[Male voice]: Rise, solitus.
[Female voice]: I have a message from the CEO.
[Male voice]: Speak it.
[Female voice]: A truce. She knows who you’re looking for. Cease hostilities and you can look together.
[Male voice]: Your leader is a liar and a manipulator. There will be no truce.
[Female voice]: Then I’m to deliver another message: Return to the citadel. You’ve started a war you will not win. Go back and she will forget this ever hap- [strangled gurgling noises]
[Male voice]: No. You go back. Tell her there is another war - one that she deserted for a petty title.
[Female voice]: O-Omega, please…
[Male voice]: So fragile… I forget the limitations. Will you be incarnated this far out? Will you be able to deliver my reply?
[Female voice]: Wait! St- [frantic struggling and a final gurgle as the struggling ends]
[Male voice]: No matter. I will tell her myself… It is time we left the shadows.

[ END OF AUDIO FILE ]

7
:: Secured message, originating from an unknown source in the Shadowlands. ::

Kittie,

Damn, now that’s an interesting recording. Sorry, but I had to tell Ash where it all came from.

I’m sure you’ve heard the Omega rumours from the Shadowlands as most on Rubi-Ka have so I’ll skip that bit. I went looking through Omni systems for any mentions of Omega. All history files say the Omega were peeps who died out during the Emancipation Wars of 12,100 or so. No more about them. Most files talk about how OT was founded afterwards in 12,272 to help bring peace and stability to a post-war Earth; how the corporation greatly improved quality of life, and helped make giant leaps forwards in technology.

I went looking in a few other places outside Omni-approved grid systems, all I could dig out were a few old holo docu-dramas and a children’s story that would probably give most kids nightmares. Some information that seems consistent across multiple sources is that the HomoOmega were the old human race from before the long winter. They were really technologically advanced, like they used nanobots to halt the aging of their bodies. One story said their nanobots made them near impossible to kill, needing a massive amount of damage in a short amount of time. Which I guess is the inspirational source of the instructions in the kids story which said you need to cut off their head, dice up all internal organs, seal the pieces in separate stone containers and check back in a year to see if the Omega is dead.

Now, here is the catch that made me nervous and has me messaging you from an old Redeemed temple. Someone inside Omni-Tek has a watch out for anyone showing interest in Omegas. I made my search look like I’m working on a lesson plan, went and taught my group of Sewer Rats all about the founding of Omni-Tek. Ra-ra Omni protects, aren’t we awesome?

I think this all is something we should chat about in person.

/|_._|\
/ * * \
~ \./ ~
.GUMIHO

:: end message ::
1 Like