From: kerry@pinn.nacjack.gen.nz (Kerry Hart)
Subject: CT05 (part two)
Date: Tue, 03 Jan 95 02:17:19 +1200


  Copyright 1995 - Kerry Hart

                              CT05                    (part two)
                              ----                    ----------

  As we walked to the armoury we all chatted about what we had been
  doing for the last year. Anyone watching us would have just seen an
  ordinary bunch of officers, probably on their way to some routine
  assignment.

  Hidden from the perception of passers by, a lot was going on. Each
  of us was checking secure comms channels with the others, making
  sure the parrallel tracking system was functioning correctly and
  testing scanners. The 05s' used a custom networking system that was
  able to link up all our CPUs into a parralell processing system for
  tracking and tactical deployment.

  Cats' icon came up in my top right vision. He had been loading the
  mission data into his pocketcom and was ready to transmit it. CINCH
  took over and started downloading. There was a lot of information.
  The data included complete plans of all the buildings, underground
  maps and detailed information on the companies that were located in
  the area. It took nearly two full minutes to complete the transfer.

  Trent had arranged our usual weapons. I put on the armour and
  holstered a .45 auto. A compact pump action shotgun went on my back
  and I filled up my pockets with several clips of assorted ammo and
  a few mini-grenades. The last item I got was a Sunburst 1000 plasma
  rifle. It was the favoured weapon against borg terrorists. I wasn't
  sure how good it would be against these guys' new armour. There was
  the familiar metalic click as Arm mounted his gun and the whir of
  servos as he plugged it in. With full armour and a backpack ammo
  feeder, he looked a lot bigger than any of us. Trent always said he
  made a nice large target. Arm reckoned his "presence" gave him a
  psychological advantage. I wondered if these cyborgs we were going
  up against were capable of fear. We had no idea what sort of combat
  drugs they might be using.

  The van was already loaded with cases full of Cat and Dannys' gear
  as well as a good supply of extra weapons and ammo. Danny was making
  up a cable while Cat was already jacked into his deck, getting his
  programs ready for the mission. Trent was going to stay with them in
  the security centre, just in case something slipped through while
  they were in the net. He would be able to watch everything from
  there as well.

  As we were about to leave Trent gave us one last bit of info. "I
  just got word from state HQ. We've got 24 hours to get the job done
  with minimum damage to the scenery, then they're evacuating the
  area and sending in a couple of plattoons with air support and
  everything. Our time will be up at 16:00 hrs tomorrow. Intelligence
  reports some careful probing has been picked up on the net, but
  nothing traceable. They're watching for us."

  He turned to go to the front of the van, then stopped. "There's
  something else," he said. "One of the gangers that survived an
  attack just came 'round at the med centre. He said they aren't
  bothering to negotiate with the gangs. They just start shooting.
  Such a display makes me wonder if the doc isn't just luring us in
  for his own reasons, using the gang bashing as a front. Remember
  what they say in the old 20th century cop dramas." He paused.

  "Be careful out there!"

     ------------------------------------------------------------

  We parked the van in a loading bay that had been readied for us. The
  video cameras had been cut and a prerecorded image of the empty bay
  was online to the building security system. Cat plugged his deck
  into a wall socket and did a quick scan of the local net. Danny had
  a monitor plugged into the deck and watched Cat slink along beside
  an IO channel. A tentacle reached out and gently massaged its way in
  between packets of user data, feeling for something that might not
  belong here. He slowly made his way towards a large sphere which had
  several channels connected to it. The local server. The watchdog
  didn't even notice as he slipped a small tap program past it and ran
  the servers' log back to disk for Danny to have a look at.

  "Nothing unusual here," said Danny as he checked it out.

  Meanwhile Cat was right inside the server now, carefully probing
  each channel, looking for anything suspicious. A minute passed.

  "Here he comes," said Danny and a few seconds later Cat jacked out.

  "I couldn't find any trace of them locally, so I've put a rat trap
  in the server to warn us if anything passes this way," said Cat. "I
  don't think they'll be watching us enter the security centre."

  The Nova security centre was in a sub-basement bunker. An agent met
  us outside the centre and led us in through the bomb proof doors. We
  were quickly introduced to the Chief of Security and Cat and Danny
  got their equipment set up.

    -----------------------------------------------------------------

  The moment Cat entered the net CINCH went parrallel and started to
  use the security systems data to set up a search pattern for Arm and
  me in this quadrant. Meanwhile Danny was monitoring Cat, feeding him
  programs, as he started setting up links to security systems
  belonging to other companies in the area. Once our path was set, we
  left the centre and got started. As we left, CINCH was already using
  data from one of Cats' link-ups to instruct the next team were to go
  and search.

  Cat was in a very precarious position at this time. It was quite
  likely that the enemy were expecting just this kind of activity on
  his part and were waiting for him to blunder into some sort of trap.
  He slipped in and out of the streaming data using programs that were
  transparent to the flow of data, but tapped every secret from it as
  it went past. He got past the front doors of each system without
  raising any attention, using a false id at one place, re-routing the
  security at another place so it missed him totally and so on.

  We were all deployed within thirty minutes and then Dannys' work was
  split between monitoring us and backing up Cat, who continued to try
  and find signs of the enemy in the net.

   -------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                  (end of part two)




+----------------------------------------+----------------------------+
| A wise old owl sat on an oak.          |  \|/                  \|/  |
| The more he saw, the less he spoke.    | - * -   Kerry Hart   - * - |
| The less he spoke, the more he heard.  |  /|\                  /|\  |
| Why aren't we like that wise old bird. | kerry@pinn.nackjack.gen.nz |
+----------------------------------------+----------------------------+