Episode 7: Inelligent Listening for Beginners/Blake's Worm

What about the Ghost in the Shell video games? Discuss them here

Moderator: sonic

Locked
Slipstream
Posts: 95
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2005 11:48 am
Location: Prince George

Episode 7: Inelligent Listening for Beginners/Blake's Worm

Post by Slipstream »

EPISODE 7

“A rose thou art sick.”

Tagawa Chemical Processing Factory

“A rose thou art sick?” A technician repeats as he read it across his terminal screen.

“What in god name was that? Okay…who’s the joker?”

“We got a problem.” Another says.

“Yeah, and it starts with one of you nuts messing with my—“

“2nd Process line is out of phase.”

“Well balance it.”

“I can’t, the computer is not responding”

“Let me!” The other buts in. Failing that he runs to a terminal wall and starts flipping master switches.

“We’re loosing 3 as well. Hit the alarm!”

The claxon wails. Everyone drops what they are doing and bolt. Pipes breach. Explosions blow out rooms. Fires break out.

On that same computer console, the words, “The invisible worm that flies in the night.” Rolls off, out of sight of the people making a mad dash for safety.


INTELLIGENT LISTENING FOR BEGINNERS / BLAKE’S WORM


Section 9 is investigating the disasters at the facility and Section 10 is asked to go to Chandri Encryption systems, which apparently is asking for a respresentative from Public Security

The facility has the most advanced security systems around. The building’s AI has a quadruple level variable attack barrier guarding it. Angelo Chandri followed in his father’s footsteps and created a communications R&D corporation from the ground up. He is worth about 55 million. Most of his staff are mathmeticians and engineers. Security is handled by security androids…and there is a lot of them here.

The corporation has military contracts.

Rumors abound that they are working on Digital Cryptography.
Chandri says that he has information that might help them. There are many expensive paper books on the wall. Many are poetry, mostly by William Blake (a lunatic). Intelligence has come into his possession. A group of extremists are planning to hijack one of the Earth-Moon shuttles quite soon. They appear to be members of pan-continental organized anarchists (Anarchy is without leader, not without order) called the BHG, the Black Hand Gang.

He says the information is reliable but he will not say where it came from.

He has nothing more to say.

Upon leaving, Section 10 investigate both Chandri’s group and the BHG.

Investigating Chandri’s group reveals they are developing an intelligent listening system that monitors all the noise and transmissions and picks out what’s important. It’s a new AI designed primarily to listen to everything and determaine for itself what is usable. They did a test run and instantly picked this out.

Chandri’s group is part think tank / part R&D. They’re only recent release is a special space-based hand laser called a pulsar. It is a weapon that has no side effects and no waste products. It can be tuned for a variety of certain components of organic matter (like the pigmentation of the skin), and it won’t touch anything else.

Researching the BHG reveals nothing. There is no other report of them. There is a Black Hand Gang which was a criminal group formed in the United States in 1868. There is a Black Hand which was a terrorist group in 1883 supressed by the Spanish militia.

Two more computer based accidents have occurred. Rumors of poetry preceeding disaster have been circulating.

There are two flights from Earth to Moon every week. The first one is already on route. Checking the roster finds nothing out of the ordinary. There are engineers, reporters, a few politicians.

Greg continues his search. After almost a full day, he expands his search for visual reference to the Black Hand…

…and gets a hit… There is a military surplus store in Bertarve called the Hand of the Fourth International. He leaves to investigate but discovers its closed. He knocks on the door and someone cracks it open in inch. They are renovating. She slams the door hard. Greg decided to return with the other members. Sharron climbs to the second floor window. Ben stays with the vehicle. Greg knocks on the door again. When no on answers, he open the door himself. Ben hears the cocking of a .50 cal machine gun and pulls Greg away. A massively overweight women mans the turret with two armed men at either side. Ben jumps to the second floor and flies through the window. Sharron enters quickly and takes out one Terrorist on the second floor. Ben, seeing the ground through the boards in the bad flooring, takes a few shots to the gunmen below. This compromises the stability of the level. Given Ben’s cyborg weight and the damage already caused when he slammed into the wood, he falls through the level. Sharron sneaks down the stairs. With attention firmly on Ben, Sharron takes out one terrorist with ease. Greg reminds them one needs to be taken alive…or at least, with an intact Cyberbrain. Ben uses his stun tonfas. Not knowing his own strength, he crushes a terrorists skull with the weapon. The “stun” part of the tonfa never got a chance to be used.

Finally, Sharron uses his shock Gauntlet to subdue the fat woman. The electrical surge flexes her muscles, spraying the room with bullets until the .50 cal runs dry. Greg bolts in and scans her memories.

They are an anarchist group all right…but they were contacted by an outside source, gave them money and weapons and access codes to the plane. They had no itention of hijacking the flight before being prompted. Who prompted them. They have not been hacked.

The members on the flight are all in autistic mode.

The terrorists plan on crashing the liner into the Moonbase.

Section 10 must try to board the spaceflight.

Section 9 Investigates the launch facility and find the bodies of reporters.

The flight was docked at the Space Station until just an hour ago. Another flight is being prepped. It is being rushed to flight status. With hope, it can catch up to and intercept the previous one.


* * *

“Everyone else is ready…including roger” comes a male voice. The female turns to the other man.

“Wesson, secure the cockpit. Roger’s coming out front. Keep that baby quiet!”

”Wesson leaves for the bridge. The divider parts and one man floats out. He is totally covered by explosives and small glass speres. It is all wired to a push-button in his right hand. It is depressed.

“Everyone, this is Roger. Roger’s a very sick man. He got less than six weeks on his ticker! So roger ain’t got nothing to lose. He has five lbs of C-5 and a hundred glass sphere. It won’t blow up the plan but it will turn hamburger of everyone in this cabin. And its all wired to a dead man’s switch. Everything is copacetic as long as he keeps the buttons depressed. But if he lets go for any reason. Instant Karma.”

Section 10 hop on the intercepting flight and race out to rendezvous with terrorists. The flight has gone dark. No radio is moving to or from the liner. Section 10 is given a quick debriefing on how to move in zero-G. Since liners don’t have radar like airliners, the pursuing liner is invisible. It approaches from behind and docks. Greg gains access to the Liner while Sharron, Vincent, and Ben infiltrate the flight through crawl-spaces. Vincent hides in the bathroom. When the signal is given, Greg cuts the lights. Ben takes out one Terrorist immediately while Sharron drops onto the bomb. With his Shock-Gauntles, he forces the bomb to keep his wrist clenched. He then disabled the device. When Wesson marches over from the cockpit. Vincent blows a hole through the door, pushing a round into Wesson’s skull. Vincent then bursts into the main cabin and takes out another terrorist.

One of the pilots its taken out of the incident and Vincent shows his piloting skills by docking the liner with the L-5 Space station. After a day or R&R on the station, enjoying the boring life of deep space, they return in first class. They still have the matter of Chandri to settle.

However, when they arrive at Chandri HQ, they find it oddly quiet. Chandri greets them…and shows them the Worm program. Chandri’s intelligent listening system picked out the program. It was the last thing his system detected…but that makes no sense since the computers were working when Section 10 arrived. Chandri is lying. He then activates the Worm system on his terminal. When it is destroyed, it will prove his system works and he did not fail…Chandri actually staged the terrorist act. He also created the worm program. His system never worked…he staged it to prove it worked…when its destroyed, it will erase all evidence of failure. He will stay and attempt to suidice with his building. Section 10 escape the facility before it self-destructs.
Creator, Ghost in the Shell D20 RPG
www.serenadawn.com
Image
Locked