OIC (37)
MegaZone23
"I--the I that matters, the I that usually inhabits that
meat body--was in the Matrix, and that's all there was to
it."
--Derek 'Dirk' Montgomery
Upon reaching her room Yuri pulled her 'deck out of it's
case. It wasn't much to look at, having been cobbled
together and upgraded over the last few hundred years, but it
sure got the job done. It was designed just for Yuri, and
with it she could run with the best of them. Being immortal
meant having a lot of time to practice. Yuri plugged the
'deck's interface plugs into her 'Frankensteins', tuned in,
turned on, and dropped into a new world.
The shipboard Matrix was a slightly modified electronic
simulation of the old WPI campus. The various building
constructs simulated various shipboard departments.
`Harrington Auditorium' was where the recreational programs
and files were located, `Daniels Hall' held files relating to
the ships stores and maintenance areas, `Fuller Labs' was
where the very files the system ran on were located and also
served as Eve's `home', other buildings held files related to
what the real buildings had been used for. So of course Yuri
headed for the construct of the `Campus Police Building',
where security was based. As she approached the construct
she could she her icon's reflection in it's mirrored
`windows'. In the 'trix her icon closely resembled Yuri in
the `real' world. Except her skin looked like white silk and
her hair was the black of a black hole. And her 3WA uniform
looked like polished gold.
Yuri entered the construct easily, as her shipboard rank
gave her nearly total access to the Matrix. Of course size
means nothing in the 'trix and the construct was much larger
on the inside than the outside, and spatial geometry had no
reign at all. She knew the node well and it took her no time
at all to find the connection controlling the security on the
hanger bay. She was right, a decker was doing it realtime.
That would make it a bit harder, but there were few onboard
who were a match for her. She doubted that anyone from
GweepCo would be doing such a menial task. The decker seemed
to be running overwatch from his own cyberdeck. Well, she
might as well get started.
Yuri reached out and shoved the barrier over the hanger
controls. The barrier flared red and a klaxon sounded.
Instantly another icon appeared, to investigate the
disturbance.
Yuri knew exactly who she was facing. The icon, dressed
in a Domino's Pizza uniform, could only represent Schletz,
the Domino's Dude. This would be interesting. Schletz
wasn't much of a programmer, but he did play interactive
combat games all the time. He got started with mudding way
back at WPI and was now into full fledged virtual reality
adventuring. So he did have a lot of, admittedly simulated,
Matrix combat experience.
"Yuri! Hold it right there. What do you need in Hangar
7? The only thing in there is Ben's fighter."
"Actually, I wanted to get to the fighter."
"No can do. I'm sorry, but Zoner specifically said
no one goes near it."
"Well, then, I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist."
Yuri thrust her open palm at him and a beam of searing blue
light leapt at Schletz. The beams impact knocked him back a
bit, but he didn't seem very damaged.
"Well, if that's the way you want it." A pizza appeared
in his hand.
What the hell kind of weapon is that?, Yuri thought.
The he threw it at her like a frisbee. It emitted a high
pitched keening sound as it flew and it seemed to track her
as she tried to dodge.
Yuri waved her hands in an arc before her and generated
a shield. The killer pizza glanced off and returned to
Schletz's hand.
He then produced a ladle of pizza sauce which he
splattered on her shield. The sauce began eating its way
through.
I don't believe this! Where the hell did he come up
with these silly weapons? Yuri thought as she dropped the
now useless shield and produced a mini-grenade which she then
lobbed at Schletz.
When the grenade struck him it exploded into thousands
of stands of light which surrounded him like a cocoon.
"That should hold you," Yuri said, turning back towards
the hanger. She spun back as she heard the strands shearing.
He was cutting through the net. But with what? Of course, a
goddamn pizza cutter! His icons may be silly, but they sure
as hell work.
Yuri snapped off a shot with the Bloody CardTM, but he
caught it in a gooey wad of melted mozzarella. Before she
could react he threw a handful of something at her.
Anchovies! They seemed to multiply as they flew. The
covered her and stuck. Wherever they touched her she felt a
white hot pain. What the hell?! These anchovies were part
piranha and they were eating her icon.
Yuri realized that this was a killer program and tried
to punch out. No use, she was trapped. The program ate
through her persona and began attacking her mind directly.
She knew that this was the end, killed by anchovies. Yuri
screamed as the world flashed white--
Then she was sitting in her room. The external
biomonitors she had installed on her 'deck had dumped her
before the killer bio-feedback could do its job. She had a
splitting headache, but she was pissed. No more pulling the
punches. She loaded a few new programs into memory and dove
back into the Matrix.
She used her auto-recall program to return her to her
last location immediately. Schletz was still there.
He seemed a bit surprised to have her fly in again,
after her had used his best program on her. Although he was
a bit relieved; if she had died Zoner probably would have
made him follow soon after.
Before he had even gotten over his initial shock of
seeing her she struck. Again she flicked the Bloody CardTM
towards him, and again he activated his cheesy capture
program. But this time while he was occupied she drew her
electromag and fired.
A blinding beam of white light leapt from the barrel and
pierced Schletz's icon. The light infused his icon for a
moment, then it faded.
"Hahaha. Looks like it was a dud," he gloated.
"I don't think so," Yuri replied, a wry smile on her
lips. As she spoke his icon began glowing again, this time a
deep crimson.
"Wha... What's going on? Aurgh!"
As the glow increased in intensity his icon began
writhing in virtual agony. His screams became incoherent as
his icon began burning from the inside out. It only took a
few seconds for the icon to flare into a full blaze and
collapse on the ground.
Yuri knew that at the same time the icon was burning
before her, somewhere Schletz's real body was twisting in
agony as her killer program created deadly bio-feedback in
his 'deck and wiped his mind. She would have to face up to
that later.
With Schletz out of the way it was easy for her to
override the lockdown on Hangar 7. She deactivated the
alarms, unlocked the doorways, and instructed the hanger's
automated systems to begin equipping the fighter for long-
distance warp flight. Then she activated the comm screen
where Gryphon was waiting.
Gryphon jumped as the comm screen came to life.
"The bay is clear," Yuri informed him.
"Have many problems?" Ben asked.
"Nothing I couldn't handle," she replied.
"Who was the decker?"
"Schletz."
"He put up much of a fight?"
"He used killer on me."
"Killer? Are you ok?"
"I'm fine, but I can't say the same for him."
"Yuri... Did you?"
"Yes, I retaliated with killer. Only I was a little
more successful than he was."
"Oh Yuri. Are you going to be ok? I mean trouble
wise?"
"I don't know. I'll take care of that when it comes
time. Now get out of here. Your ship should be ready in a
few minutes."
"Ok. Please take care of yourself. You're a great
friend. I love you."
"I love you too Ben. Now go."
Ben ran to his fighter and mounted up just as the
automated systems began powering up. He activated the
computerized pre-flight checklist as he stowed his bag and
prepared himself for his flight. He still wasn't sure where
he was going, he just needed to get away from the Wayward Son
until things had cooled down. He figured he would just head
to some inhabited world that he could lay low on until he
could find a way to clear his name.
The computer informed him that all systems checked out
100% in working order. He issued the command to open the
outer bay doors and pushed the throttles to the stops. His
Valkyrie leapt from the bay and streaked into the blackness.