From: bradw@cs.brandeis.edu (Brad Wyble)
Subject: A story about netrunning
Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1993 19:46:04 GMT

This is a story I whipped up that takes place in the game I'm writing
in which VR is the most important deal in one's life.  If anyone is
interested in the universe I can email massive amounts of info that
I've written thusfar.  (though response time will be limited because
after today I will only be checking email every few days until school
starts (Sept 1)  (check it, nested parens in a message(I'm having LISP
flashbacks)) (cool, emacs keeps track of which paren I'm closing!))

This universe if very different from the crappiness that is Cyberpunk 2020
Netrunning.  The World Net is setup by someone who knows jack about
computers (me), and therefore doesn't make us COSI majors wince in
pain as we read about 32K Memory Units and things.  I define precisely
how objects are represented and the links between programs and
virtually tangible objects.  should be cool when I finish it

This story is very off the cuff, with characters and plot generated on
the fly.  Don't expect much.

Sorry, no more rambling, here it is:


     Deathbringer hurtled towards his prey with unbridled
exhilaration.  His enormous green form sported massive wings which
thrust him through the air like a rocket.  His muscular limbs
reached out in front of him as if trying to pull himself through
the air more quickly.  Down below he sighted his target and
descended sharply.  His two companions followed suit, their equally
gruesome visages combining to form a vision of doom descending from
above.
All three roared in anticipation of the slaughter about to
commence.
     "I've got the green duplex my friends!" roared Carnax, whose
six fists clenched in anticipation of the fun to be had.
     Still safe in their houses, the users who would be such
crucial participants in tonight's carnage blithely went about their
business.  Mephisto was the first to reach the ground, and tore
through the roof of the first house he reached.  His image was that
of a red demon with horns and an immense musculature.  He tilted
back his head and let loose a massive roar whose shockwave shredded
the walls of the house he now stood in front of.
     Inside, frightened occupants stared in disbelief at the scene
before them.  Mephisto barely paused long enough to laugh before
raising his hands above him and dousing the pathetic Nostys in
fire.  One of them, who appeared as an elderly man with a pipe
managed to fire several shots from the pistol that suddenly
appeared in his hands.  Mephisto felt several impacts but ignored
their insignificant effects.  Meanwhile the pitiful fools who
opposed him tried to flee the scorching flame.  One of them had
already taken enough damage to destroy her exhibit module.  Her
image changed from that of a comely lady to a crude human image
with very poor resolution.  The huge image of the demon waded into
the fire, ignoring the flames, as he stalked his charges.
     Carnax, was having similar results in his onslaught when he
saw Deathbringer out of the corner of his eye encased to the waist
in some form of marble.  Around him stood three humanoid forms that
were laying into him with all sorts of weaponry.
     "Carnax help me crush these treacherous fools!" screamed
Deathbringer as yet another round sank into his scaly flesh.
     "They fight back! perhaps they'll be some fun after all!",
bellowed Carnax as he turned away from the carnage in front of him.
     The marble block suddenly exploded as the massive lizard
Deathbringer burst upwards and free.  At the same time one of his
assailants was scooped off the ground by Carnax who now moved to
help his ailing compatriot.
     Deathbringer hurtled upwards while devoting most of his energy
to repairing his wounded aspect.  In just a few seconds he would
return to the fleshfest below and resume his attack.

Captain Lithbaum turned his sleek Gangbuster VHP around in a smooth
arc.  It cut silently through the dark virtual space as it
accelerated through the turn.  Lithbaum liked to turn on simulated
inertia during his patrols, made'em less boring as he zoomed
around.  Had to do something to relieve the monotony of these
worthless runs.  The only reason they were around was to show these
bloody Nosty's that they were getting their money's worth for all
the money they pumped into Virtual Securities Inc.
     "This is patrol KX-P1624, everythings clean and green, I'm
coming home houston."  He always like to throw the word houston in
his reports to the base for the hell of it.  They hated it....
screw'em.
     Suddenly a head appeared outside the cockpit of his new
Gangbuster.
     "KX-P1624, this is base, we've received word of an incident in
progress, take care of it, KX-P1124 will rendezvous in 12 seconds."
At this, the head disappeared, to be replaced by a map, indicating
him, and his new destination.  The map then shrank and moved inside
his cockpit, fixing itself in an empty console to his left.
     "Shit, I was almost home!," griped Lithbaum as he effortlessly
swung the Gangbuster to its new vector.  He quickly switched off
inertia with a mere thought, then glanced at the map.  Looked like
three members of that new Grindcore spin-off gang, the Devil's
brood.
     These weirdos were the worst.  Pumped up their aspects  to
gruesome proportions and terrorized innocents for the fun of it.
They especially liked the Nostalgics, communities devoted to the
preservation of pre-VR society in the WorldNet.
     Just then KX-P1124 was off to his left.  They slid their craft
together and their cockpits merged into one, providing both with a
real-time 3-D image of the scene they were to investigate.  After
a quick pleasantry or two, the pair of corpsecs composed a quick
plan of attack.

     Carnax paused amidst the wreckage and looked up.  "Fellows, I
sense danger on the wind!  someone comes to oppose us!"
     Mephisto hesitated amidst his looting, a dysfunctional aspect
in each hand.  After a short while, a small window appeared in
front of his face.  "Ahh," he growled in satisfaction, "a pair of
new Gangbusters, they would please the broodmaster immensely!"
     Deathbringer spoke, looking over his companion's shoulder at
the window suspended before them.  "I'm not sure they will be so
easy to defeat, we are wounded, perhaps we should wait."
     Mephisto crushed the window by closing his massive fist around
it.  "It is you who are wounded, I will not allow myself to be
hindered by your foolish incompetence.  Come Carnax, let us capture
these vehicles for our master!"
     Mephisto led the way, heading directly towards the incoming
security patrols.  Carnax followed close behind, and Deathbringer
brought up a poor third, his movement hampered by the damage he had
sustained.  His transportation routines were inundated with
inefficient cycles, implanted by the bullets of those that had shot
him.  Some of his functions would now request his current location
over 100 times in a row before computing the current vector.

     Mephisto was the first to make contact, "I see one!" he roared
as a huge blast emerged from his outstretched hand.  It slammed
into the oncoming Gangbuster and the energy coursed over its
surface.
     Lithbaum, grimly pressed on, briefly checking the damage he
had sustained.  He opened up almost immediately with his own
barrage.  2 Missiles appeared beneath the vessel and streaked
towards Mephisto.  They impacted with minor explosions that knocked
him backwards through the air.  Carnax quickly retaliated,
targeting the transport module of the vehicle program.  His
electrical barrage streaked towards the rear of the gangbuster,
tearing into the engines.
     Lithbaum detected a slight decrease in power as the attack
struck, a quick check confirmed the damage.  But no matter, these
were fools to attack so stupidly.  He set his sights on Mephisto
and fired again, this time with guns that fired massive energy
bolts.
     Meanwhile Deathbringer had just arrived on the scene and
surveyed it quickly.  "Where is the other?" he asked.
     "You worry too much, show'em the hell they deserve!" screamed
Mephisto as yet another blast tore into his red flesh.  He had
taken significant damage on that last attack to his sense module.
He noticed a barely perceptible jerkiness in everything he looked
at.
     Just at that moment, several more blasts tore through him.  He
turned and saw the second Gangbuster flying straight at him.
Mephisto turned and attacked physically, trying to rend the vessel
with his bare claws and horns.  He was badly hurt now.  His defense
module  was beginning to ebb and he began to panic.  Another blast
from Lithbaum tore into his transmit module, he now needed to
escape.

     Captain Lithbaum coolly swung his VHP around for another
attack.  The red one was almost done for.  The other two were being
pretty much ignored by both him and Asanoc, but he knew that with
this one out of the way, they would probably turn tail and run.
Lithbaum took a split second to initiate registration checks on all
three of them.  If he could find their ID numbers, he could perhaps
shut down their aspects and capture them.
     Just as he let loose a finishing barrage, the red demon
disappeared from sight.  The VHP rather intelligently noticed the
vanishing of its target and automatically stepped up the scan mode.

     Still nothing, must have teleported, Lithbaum thought.  He
checked the system monitor to see if the security daemons had
noticed the breach.  Nope, well he could fix that.  A quick alert
sent out told the system something was wrong.  Now that it knew
something was amiss, the system checked its backlog and noticed the
teleportation which constituted a security breach.
     Lithbaum requested the new location of the target, gave his
access codes and was rewarded with a blip on his map, about 15
klicks due north.  A quick examination revealed security daemons
closing rapidly.  That one would never get away in its wounded
condition.  The system itself would capture the aspect, forcing it
out of the system, which was better than he could do.
     Lithbaum turned his attention back to the battle in progress.
Asanoc was pursuing the other two who fled as predicted.
Finally his ID check returned.  It had managed to successfully get
the ID number of the green winged aspect ahead of them.  It was
already somewhat wounded, but he could stop it in its tracks now.
     He sent another request to the system, this time requesting a
suspension of execution privileges for aspect A391-7412.
Lithbaum's Gangbuster let him know it had repaired the transport
damage and was ready to fire on the six armed monster that was
still in good shape.  "Good night you ugly mother fucker" he
mumbled through a grin as his vehicle tore into its target.

      Mephisto limped along at a rather slow speed.  He was trying
to repair his transport module first, but the damage was fairly bad
and required much time.  He happened to look behind him just in
time to see a massive form rise from the ground.  It was a robotic
form, bristling with weaponry.  It fired a net that ensnared the
red demon.  The subtle subroutines confused the hell out of his
already damaged transport module, bringing him to a complete stop.
He clawed at the net, seeking to destroy the program that bound
him, but even as he struggled another form rose in front of him.
Mephisto was doomed.  His aspect would be captured and forcibly
removed from domain server 314, not allowed to return for one weeks
time, his master would be most displeased.