Post by Ranka on Jan 1, 2013 23:15:36 GMT -6
Getting information in this city had been no easy task. With virtually no resources, and a lack of eyes and ears this project had been a difficult task from the beginning. Then again he had always been used to fight against impossible odds - and as luck would have it he realized people responded well to the same forms of incentive as in his own world.
Bribery, fraud, intimidation; it was a game he had played for a very long time. One - he realized - he was exceedingly good at. He had gathered he was no longer in Domino, that much was clear, and it proved relatively easy to gather the headlines about the situation. He was in a metropolis under the rule of a megalomaniac and a ruthless AI which had control over every piece of electronic machinery in the city. Infiltration was by all extents and measures an impossible task. There was no doubt bytes of data was already being compiled and sent to some obscure mainframe in the secured locales of Isafaro. The Red Queen, as it turned out, was an interesting obstacle.
Every employee who had access to any facility pertaining to the government and military branches of Vulture was heavily fortified and monitored. Cameras, guards, codes, DNA scans. They had it all. And all of it was at the Red Queen's fingertips. Gaining any form of sensitive information was an arduous task and many citizens of Isafaro joined the Resistance in an effort to gain leverage over the state and make a better life for the nation. He had juggled the thought of using the group to his advantage but quickly opted against linking himself to high-profile enemies. It was too risky: His maneuvers would have to be considerably more elaborate to ensure the desired effect and discovery was not an option. He wanted to move how he wanted when he wanted, because more than ever he understood that every second of inaction against the Red Queen was another stream of information, another scenario she could process to defend herself against someone like him. It was unacceptable.
Stalking the streets before curfew had allowed him to pinpoint blind-spots in the city's camera system, but that alone wasn't enough - there was certainly satellite cover. He had to find an overpass of some kind. Luckily the various levels of the city sprawled with such locales. Following one of Isafaro's aspiring AI technicians prior an interview with the system director and manager and luring him in his trap was easy enough. Forging the credentials and the scans, on the other hand, proved laughable for a vampire who had just drained the man of all his blood.
Fredrick Summers passed the interview with flying colors and was admitted into office as an intern the next day with an impressive 6-digit salary, benefits and a high-security clearance. Better yet, his first station dealt directly with monitoring the computer's data processing. No need to hack into the system and install a trojan spyware - it was all there in front of him. Localizing priority system areas the Red Queen personally kept tabs on was extensive. Patterns of documentation and streaming were ambient. Rarely repeated over the course of a few days. After a bit of contemplation, he deducted that there was barely anything mechanical about the AI's actions. There was no signal he could trace as a weakness in her algorithmic design. He moved on to another station. The mainframe itself - located a mere 20 meters from where he was standing - was nothing short of a fortress. Unless given direct clearance by the director or General Vulture, no one could enter the room. The command could also be overridden by the Red Queen if she felt threatened in any way. The structure of the building - and its security - would not allow for sabotage without the risk of discovery. A short circuit would engage her backup system, which as luck would have it was also located in the mainframe. The bitch would not be tempered with one way or the other. It was a serious problem.
There were some tools the director had access to which had potential and intrigued the vampire, but the man was meticulous in his work. Approaching him and gaining access to his files would be difficult if not downright impossible until he moved up the ladder of hierarchy among the employees. That was until the wrath of god demanded the nation be put in full alert. Suddenly every man and resources available were directed at this threat. Effectives were dispatched, and the Red Queen's attention was focused at an unprecedented 61.3 percent at that single event. Primary and auxiliary systems were operating far above their regular thresholds and the AI willingly rerouted RAM and processor use to localized systems on the coast of Jherrazad. Everyone watched the monitors as the angel erupted from the ocean. The readings were spectacular. 74.2 percent. Everyone around him looked at the screens with a cold sweat running across their forehead as the orbiting battlestation was vaporized in a single attack. 82.9 percent. The director was shaking. This is unprecedented he said. The vampire needn't be told twice to understand this was the best opportunity to act.
He calculated it. The Red Queen's reaction time for an internal security breach would be relatively quick; 10 seconds at the most under normal circumstances. Given the current strain on the system, it gave him as much as an additional ten second to act. 86.0 percent. Fifteen. He never hesitated and snapped the director's neck before ripping his throat with sharp fangs and proceeded to drink his blood. The others barely had the time to turn to look at the commotion before vicious snake-like familiars melted unto them. That took him 4 seconds. Fredrick reached for the director's pocket and pulled out two small devices before quickly walking towards the mainframe's door. He punched in the seventeen-digit combination without missing a beat. Memorized by heart by the man he had just killed. He entered the mainframe just as sparks erupted from the blood-littered screens. A number flashed across the top right corner in red numbers - 97 percent. The short circuit corresponded precisely with when he opened the inner-chamber of the mainframe at the fifteen second mark. System reboot and reconfiguration. This was perfect.
The mainframe was a dark room with emergency floorlight illumination. The room was a myriad of labyrinthine technological drives which slowly began to light up one by one in lieu of the restart. He inserted the object he had stolen from the director and manually tapped into her binary construct. He changed 20 variables and entered the command. The lights flickered back on and he pulled the device, discarding it on the ground before slowly stepping away from the console. There was a soft thud behind the vampire as the vault door shut. Regulation.
His ruby-red eyes scanned the room until a familiar holographic image came into view.
Bribery, fraud, intimidation; it was a game he had played for a very long time. One - he realized - he was exceedingly good at. He had gathered he was no longer in Domino, that much was clear, and it proved relatively easy to gather the headlines about the situation. He was in a metropolis under the rule of a megalomaniac and a ruthless AI which had control over every piece of electronic machinery in the city. Infiltration was by all extents and measures an impossible task. There was no doubt bytes of data was already being compiled and sent to some obscure mainframe in the secured locales of Isafaro. The Red Queen, as it turned out, was an interesting obstacle.
Every employee who had access to any facility pertaining to the government and military branches of Vulture was heavily fortified and monitored. Cameras, guards, codes, DNA scans. They had it all. And all of it was at the Red Queen's fingertips. Gaining any form of sensitive information was an arduous task and many citizens of Isafaro joined the Resistance in an effort to gain leverage over the state and make a better life for the nation. He had juggled the thought of using the group to his advantage but quickly opted against linking himself to high-profile enemies. It was too risky: His maneuvers would have to be considerably more elaborate to ensure the desired effect and discovery was not an option. He wanted to move how he wanted when he wanted, because more than ever he understood that every second of inaction against the Red Queen was another stream of information, another scenario she could process to defend herself against someone like him. It was unacceptable.
Stalking the streets before curfew had allowed him to pinpoint blind-spots in the city's camera system, but that alone wasn't enough - there was certainly satellite cover. He had to find an overpass of some kind. Luckily the various levels of the city sprawled with such locales. Following one of Isafaro's aspiring AI technicians prior an interview with the system director and manager and luring him in his trap was easy enough. Forging the credentials and the scans, on the other hand, proved laughable for a vampire who had just drained the man of all his blood.
Fredrick Summers passed the interview with flying colors and was admitted into office as an intern the next day with an impressive 6-digit salary, benefits and a high-security clearance. Better yet, his first station dealt directly with monitoring the computer's data processing. No need to hack into the system and install a trojan spyware - it was all there in front of him. Localizing priority system areas the Red Queen personally kept tabs on was extensive. Patterns of documentation and streaming were ambient. Rarely repeated over the course of a few days. After a bit of contemplation, he deducted that there was barely anything mechanical about the AI's actions. There was no signal he could trace as a weakness in her algorithmic design. He moved on to another station. The mainframe itself - located a mere 20 meters from where he was standing - was nothing short of a fortress. Unless given direct clearance by the director or General Vulture, no one could enter the room. The command could also be overridden by the Red Queen if she felt threatened in any way. The structure of the building - and its security - would not allow for sabotage without the risk of discovery. A short circuit would engage her backup system, which as luck would have it was also located in the mainframe. The bitch would not be tempered with one way or the other. It was a serious problem.
There were some tools the director had access to which had potential and intrigued the vampire, but the man was meticulous in his work. Approaching him and gaining access to his files would be difficult if not downright impossible until he moved up the ladder of hierarchy among the employees. That was until the wrath of god demanded the nation be put in full alert. Suddenly every man and resources available were directed at this threat. Effectives were dispatched, and the Red Queen's attention was focused at an unprecedented 61.3 percent at that single event. Primary and auxiliary systems were operating far above their regular thresholds and the AI willingly rerouted RAM and processor use to localized systems on the coast of Jherrazad. Everyone watched the monitors as the angel erupted from the ocean. The readings were spectacular. 74.2 percent. Everyone around him looked at the screens with a cold sweat running across their forehead as the orbiting battlestation was vaporized in a single attack. 82.9 percent. The director was shaking. This is unprecedented he said. The vampire needn't be told twice to understand this was the best opportunity to act.
He calculated it. The Red Queen's reaction time for an internal security breach would be relatively quick; 10 seconds at the most under normal circumstances. Given the current strain on the system, it gave him as much as an additional ten second to act. 86.0 percent. Fifteen. He never hesitated and snapped the director's neck before ripping his throat with sharp fangs and proceeded to drink his blood. The others barely had the time to turn to look at the commotion before vicious snake-like familiars melted unto them. That took him 4 seconds. Fredrick reached for the director's pocket and pulled out two small devices before quickly walking towards the mainframe's door. He punched in the seventeen-digit combination without missing a beat. Memorized by heart by the man he had just killed. He entered the mainframe just as sparks erupted from the blood-littered screens. A number flashed across the top right corner in red numbers - 97 percent. The short circuit corresponded precisely with when he opened the inner-chamber of the mainframe at the fifteen second mark. System reboot and reconfiguration. This was perfect.
The mainframe was a dark room with emergency floorlight illumination. The room was a myriad of labyrinthine technological drives which slowly began to light up one by one in lieu of the restart. He inserted the object he had stolen from the director and manually tapped into her binary construct. He changed 20 variables and entered the command. The lights flickered back on and he pulled the device, discarding it on the ground before slowly stepping away from the console. There was a soft thud behind the vampire as the vault door shut. Regulation.
His ruby-red eyes scanned the room until a familiar holographic image came into view.
