Chrome Symphony - Chapter 1

Scene: Elise's apartment, 2:00 AM [solo]

The bar had closed, and Elise finally made her way home. Her flat was small, but serviceable. She had a bedroom separated from a living area that flowed into a small dining area and kitchen. It was enough, and really, that was all that mattered. Glamorous lifestyles were for far more glamorous people.

Before going to sleep, she pulled out her commlink and made a call. It took a while for anyone on the other end to pick up, but pick up they did. "Sorry about bothering you so late," she started. "...Yeah, I figured you'd still be awake. Look, I need you to do me a favor." She paused for whoever was on the other end of the line.

"Yes, I'll actually pay you back for this one. Besides, you won't want to miss out on this intel anyway. Some Johnson tried to kidnap a couple cyborgs in the bar. ...Of course they failed. Think I'd even know if they pulled it off? So yeah, some dumbass decided to just try and pull a screw job before they'd even ended the meet." She paused again, and laughed. "They're lucky they weren't trying to hire someone like us or they'd be dead instead of just thrown out on the street."

"What I wanna know is this: what the f*** does Crest want with cyborgs, and why are they trying to shove illegal control chips into them? ... How do you think I know? The whole screw job apparently involved telling their runners to get chipped before they could actually start. ...Yeah, I though of that too. Smooth operator would just offer some nice maintenance or upgrades and f*** 'em over on the sly, all right. You wanna figure out why they pulled such a crappy job of it, you can do that on the side, it's not the juicy bit, now is it?"

"...Ok, sure, I'll give you the full story. So, a couple of cyborgs show up for a meeting with a Johnson. One's a freelancer who's so old he could literally be in a museum, and the other's some corporate type, I think she mentioned EMA. Both of them were deckers, I think. Miss EMA said something about her contract being with my boss, which just makes the whole thing worse..." She continued to sum up the events of the evening.

"So, you in? I can scrape together the cash if you need it, otherwise I can owe you a favor, as usual." Another pause, made a bit longer as Elise mulled over something her contact had said. Finally, she sighed. "Fine. I still don't get why you like this."

She paused again to compose herself, before speaking again, her tone of voice changed a bit, matching the usual peppy cadence of Eclair Antares. "Pleeeease~? It would make Eclair so very happy if you did this for her, master~"

She hung up. "I kinda hate hate that guy, sometimes."

Scene: The countryside (upper class region), 8:30 PM [solo]

A few miles from the outskirts of the city, the sun had just set behind a large mansion. Standing in the window, Jess was playing a violin, watching the last hints of twilight leave the sky.

She sighed and put her violin away. Along with her martial arts practice, Jess had to perfect her skills as a musician and entertain company at her home. Her keepers had put a lot of pressure on her in the past year as she was the heir to a very large estate and was to take a position at Crest, per her father's wishes.

Jess went down to the dining hall and spoke with one of her butlers. "Samuel," she said, "May I have a cup of tea and a bagel?" Samuel nodded and soon brought her a nighttime snack.

As she sat down at the table, Jess wondered about her future with her father's company. Jess had a family image to uphold but she really wanted to join the police force in order to combat the lawless, vicious hordes of criminals that had infected the city. Ever since her mother was assassinated, Jess constantly had to fight her thirst for revenge and maintain her image.

After she finished her tea and read a book, it was around 2:20 AM and Jess headed back to her bedroom. She pulled a small communications device out from a hidden panel in the wall and checked it. Jess had to be covert when communicating with her contacts at police headquarters and her other... less reputable... contacts who would provide her with inside information regarding criminal activity.

She had a new message. It was from her contact, "Dark Spider". Dark Spider was able to gain access to police files and give her information regarding the group that had taken responsibility for her mother's assassination. Jess dared not let her father know that she sought - let alone obtained - information through such channels.

She called the number for Dark Spider. It rang a few times and then went to voicemail, which was typical.

"Spider," Jess said, keeping her voice as low as possible so that her staff could not hear her. "I've seen the message." Jess reached over and grabbed her sword, looking it over as she spoke. "If they're working with us, for whatever reason, that gives me a golden opportunity," said Jess, with a stern, monotone voice. "Regardless of the circumstances, I intend to seize this. Send me their schedule, please."

Jess hung up. She knew she had a busy week ahead of her.

Scene: EMAcorp headquarters, Northern quadrant of the city, 1:45 AM [solo]

Shell could not open the door to her supervisor's office and tried knocking on some of the other doors on that floor. She tried sending messages to some of the other employees in the building, in the chance that someone was working late.

I find it hard to believe that no one is here, she thought. Shell took the elevator back down to the lobby to speak to the security guard. After what happened today, I need to make sure *someone* knows. Once in the lobby, she walked to the front desk, where an android receptionist was sitting at a terminal.

"Morrigan," Shell said to the android, "Can you tell me who is currently on the 115th floor?"

Morrigan sat still for a moment as she queried the building's security data. "All management offices are currently vacant," Morrigan replied. "No one, including cleaning or maintenance staff, is currently on floors 90 through 120."

Shell was shocked. "That's very unusual. Was there an evacuation?" she asked Morrigan.

"There is no record pertaining to a fire alarm or any other security notice," Morrigan replied. "There were two logins to the security database immediately after the last employee took the elevator down from the 117th floor."

Shell asked, "Can you give me a time and a user name?"

Morrigan hesitated for a moment, which was not characteristic of an android receptionist at all. "There was a security lock placed on the records just now. I'm sorry but access to that information is now restricted."

Shell checked the time. It was 2:15 am.

Scene: Duncan's house, Eastern quadrant of the city, residential sector. 1:19 AM [solo]

Duncan arrived back at his house after making a late night munchies run to the donut shop in his neighborhood. He'd brought back two bags of light roast coffee and a box of assorted donuts for the late-night hacking session he had planned on his trip back from the Velvet Room earlier that evening.

My first priority is to get any communications between Crest, The Velvet Room, and EMA for the past five days, he thought.

Duncan sat down at his terminal. Screens surrounded him although they were largely unnecessary due to his cybernetic neural interface which was constantly connected to the 'net. He liked to do things the old-fashioned way while at home whenever possible. Sometimes, he used both methods just to speed things along and work more efficiently.

After brute-forcing the credentials for Crest's servers, he made a quick scan of their e-mail system, only to find nothing of relevance to the day's unfortunate meeting at the Velvet Room.

His next network intrusion was with EMAcorp. Duncan had a look around at the e-mail server and saw a few messages that stood out:

From:  rkprice@msgserv.crest.jl.com
To:  mkgs-gen@emacorp.com
Date:  February 5, 2216 22:14:07 EST

Their people screwed up.  Why exactly I pay these individuals is beyond me.  
If we can't round up troublemakers then I don't see the point in this deal.

Shape up and get it right.  You either accomplish this simple task or I WILL 
find someone who can.  If I see one word in the news, you know what will happen.  
Don't make me spell it out for you.

Do your f***ing job.

Duncan read the first message and checked the detailed headers. They're routing their messages through a third party server... why would a large corporation feel the need for this without masking their identity too, he thought.

He looked over the next message.

From:  mkgs-gen@emacorp.com
To:  rds2937122@maskedmail.privacy.org
Date:  February 6, 2216 01:13:56 EST

11:30  Delivery of weapons at Dock 13
11:35  Shipment scanned, ID# 2019238122-A678
12:03  Loaded onto truck.  Route through 17th and Main, est. arrival @ 12:16
15:00  Meeting to be held at destination, EMA branch office, 118 Broad Street

If you need more info, buzz me.

-- D A R K  S P I D E R --

Duncan noticed something familiar. Dark Spider, he thought, scratching his head. I've become somewhat familiar with his work. He's one of the most accomplished hackers in this city.

Duncan continued to scan for relevant information for another hour before dozing off in his seat with a half-full cup of coffee on his desk and donut crumbs in his lap.

Atlas had left the bar at closing time. He mulled over the events of the day, still frustrated and angry over being used as a common thug to do underhanded work.

Looking down the alleyway, Atlas took his time getting back to his small apartment. Money was tight and he couldn't afford to stop anywhere to eat. The pain in his stomach from the lack of food was starting to become more nagging. He knew he would fall ill if he didn't get some nutrition.

Atlas took a quick glance at his watch. Am I going to have to resort to hawking this just so I can have a meal, he thought. His life had really fallen apart in the last year as he struggled to make ends meet. He noticed the time on his watch - it was about a quarter after 2 am.

At the end of the alley, Atlas could spot the docks. Among the shipping containers and giant cranes, he spotted something in the shadows that looked familiar. There were men, dressed in dark military outfits, sneaking around the containers. His keen eye just happened to get a glimpse of them, if only for a second. There's an operation going on here, he thought. The scene was familiar because his past military work had him doing the same types of missions in his past.

Atlas knew better than to be nosey. Instead, he took a right turn and headed toward the boardwalk, which had also recently closed all of its bars for the night. There wasn't much in the way of lighting along this route and he could get out of the area without being seen. After what happened earlier, I shouldn't take any chances.

He wondered why Crest wanted to chip those cyborgs. Neither one of them looked all that valuable for their purposes, after all. He wasn't quite aware of their abilities as hackers but assumed they weren't much different from the hackers that Atlas had met in the underground during some of his black ops work.

Finally reaching his apartment, Atlas saw something he had been dreading but expecting. On his door, an eviction notice had been posted. God dammit.