Cyber Wars 2.0 Chapter 3: Snake in the Grass
 

~Cyber Eden, Antartica~

The First Order man emerged from the frigid waters a moment later, and calmly pulled himself up onto the platform's support structure. Hiding in an alcove among the many borders, he then took out the wireless communicator and began working on getting himself hacked in, being careful to set up all the algorithms properly. Part of him felt this was happening too easily -- he fully expected to have been detected by some of the other security systems -- but on the other hand, success was success and couldn't be debated with much.

With luck, in a few moments he would be jacked into Cyber Eden, and could get on with his mission anyways.

As he finished with the last of the programming though, he spotted something move in the water to his left. Glancing down, he small a tiny fish swimming about in the ice, skittering this way and that as it weaved between the tiny little icebergs. Curiosity got the better of him for a moment, and he watched it move with an almost distant gaze, his eyes clouding over as he watched the sheer simplicitiy of it all...

The device beeped though, and that brought him out of the haze. Putting the last touches on his work, he nearly subconsciously adjusted his nanites' passive heating system, and upped the temperature a bit. In the back of his mind he felt the augmentations burning off more glucose and fat as they got to work, but the most immediate effect he felt was that the ambient temperature around him rose by a couple degrees. That should be enough.

***

~Moscow~

Wraith awoke the next day with a bit of a headache.

It wasn't a migraine headache or stress headache or anything, though: he just hated it when he left the blinds open. Sun hurt his eyes in the morning.

Or maybe it was the maid...?

Didn't matter either way. He got out of bed pretty slowly, not really feeling like approaching the day very much.

***

After showering and dressing, he headed towards his office to see if Wolf had sent him back a reply. A quick check of his email showed that he indeed hadn't. With a mental shrug he figured that he was just busy, and thought little of it as he sat down.

Running a hand through his still-damp hair, he sorted through the lists of items on the daily agenda and gave a long sigh. More bureaucracy and annoying little paperwork things to do... this part he hated most about command.

With an exasperated sigh he hit a button, closing the station down and dumping it back to the desktop screen. He sat back after that about thought over the email he'd sent Wolf... telling him about everything he'd talked about with the leads the day before, and of the First Order man. Part of him wondered how many First Order were still left in the world -- besides this one -- and admitted that there was most likely still quite a few. They'd be cleaning First Order up for a while, it seemed.

He absent-mindedly accepted the coffee and breakfast doughnuts the assistant brought in, and picked up the mug to drink... but as he looked at the desktop again, he felt boredom setting in already.

Sigh... come on Wolf, gimme something to read already.

"Wraith?"

He glanced up at the female voice. "Shahdee."

Sitting forward, he waved her in. "Come in."

She shut the door behind her and took a seat across from him. "Y'hear back from him yet?"

"Not yet," Wraith said before taking a sip.

"So... when're we leavin'?"

He finished swallowing and thought a bit before answering. "Either as soon as Wolf emails me back, or around noon. By the time we finish the flight it should be early afternoon there."

"Mmm..." she started, nodding. "Did he say anything else about what we'll be doing when we get there?"

Shaking his head, Wraith answered, "Mm-mm. But I think it's safe to say we'll get an earful once we are there."

"Hmm..."

They then sat in silence for a moment longer, waiting on Wolf's email.

...

It was a very quiet moment, to be sure.

"Status reports: Weapon system access is tied to the command center of the palace, no remote access could 'accidently' start a war. This being the most secure point in all of Eden with Firewalls all it's own. It would take a direct assault by Mastermind's Legions of old to get even one missile launcher to fire a live shot. Sensor sweeps are nominal and detecting on all spectrum of light, magnetics, and sonar underwater. Sonar did pick up a medium sized target moving to us but it was probably one of the seals that live around bay 36. Our orbital assets are online."

"Start the Hack" Raven said.

"I'll keep you advised."

________
The stationary AI satelites began their broadcasting. The meticulous machines began cracking encryptions across the satelites. Worming their way into the other satelites into their line of sight. They downloaded Eden firmware onto the machines slowly reopening their connection to the Cyberworld.

Something didn't sit right in the little droid's computing system. He rolled himself over to a terminal and plugged himself in to where the seal was before. After a scan of the area, he looked over at Raven, "Raven? Is is possible that a seal could just disappear from the waters? I took an extra reading of the area around the area that is in question, and for 10 minutes prior to time 1020 there were three blips. At time 1022, sensors are only picking up 2 blips, and it isn't because one swam away from the scanning range. In fact, the three were quite close to the scanning source, but now there are only two." He unhooked from the source and backed away a little. "I know I am new here... but being around my master... Monk... has made me weary of situations..."

Azrael knocked on Jax's door and yelled, "Suit up kid. We've got a game. Just came in."

Jax did indeed suit up. He tossed on black coveralls, followed by the neccesary padding and ballistics armor. Then he tossed the radio onto his back, and put on the little voice collar. He stepped out to see Azrael in a very similar set-up, except wearing a black t-shirt and black jeans underneath instead of coveralls.

They swung by the weapons locker. Azrael grabbed Betsy, and Jax paused momentarily. He put a Remington 700 sniper rifle onto a sling and tossed it onto his back. Then he grabbed an M4A1 and some clips and hurried to catch up to Azrael.

When they got to the hangar, Azrael noticed something new on Jax.

"What's that? Left hip."

Jax put aside his rifle for a moment and pulled the new "sidearm."

"Tazer. I figure we can use all the intelligence we can, so it makes no sense to kill absolutely everyone. I also have handcuffs in my equipment pouches."

The two sat there waiting for the rest of the team loading clips then putting said clips into guns or into some form of pouch or harness. Azrael's clips were especially large, putting tiny missile-like .50 cal bullets inside. When the sickle magazine dangled out, it was almost as large as the gun itself.

"Oh Crap! He's right. Release the Predators I want a full sensor sweep of the exterior, top to bottom. If there is a crack, I want it documented.

~Eden platform~

The real world faded away into a blur of pixels and white, and the First Order man found himself jacked into Cyber Eden a second later. He appeared in the middle of an empty street, somewhere in the busier section of the world, and stood looking around for a moment as he got his bearings.

A quick check with his augmentations found that his real world cloak was still engaged, and a quick check of the road signs showed he was just a couple blocks from his target.

Calmly, he started towards that goal, ignoring the odd looks he may receive from Eden's inhabitants.

Crow flipped open his communicator. "Bobbie, on authority of the Archon, activate the Wednesday program."

"What!?! Why!?!"

"We may have a spy. i want the Wednesday Program activated."

"I need the pass code for that."

Crow transmitted the appropriate code.

"It's activated."

"May we find nothing."

~Cyber Eden~

20 minutes later

There was a man working alone in a private studio, an AI whose past was quite disreputable -- which could be evidenced by the numerous amounts of illegal information packages strewn about the many computers in the studio.

He was busy going from console to console doing something when his buzzer sounded. Pausing for a second, he stopped what he was doing and went down the flight of stairs, and into the foyer where he pressed the comm. button. "Who is it?"

"Lazarus."

"You're late."

He opened the lock and stepped aside as the first door opened, then the second, and in walked the First Order man. "Couldn't be helped; they changed the password."

"Probably 'cause of the lockdown," the loner said.

"Hm." First Order came inside and closed the door behind him, then walked around the man as he backed up into the room. "I have something to say to you before we get to business."

***

WHAM

"AUGH, son of a bitch!" he yelled after his head bounced off a workstation. "The hell was that for?!"

"I was told there'd be no UNSC involvement," First Order calmly replied, walking into the room. He went between a few of the consoles, looking at them like he was curious about their contents.

"There wasn't supposed to be," the man rebuted, rubbing his head. "Why, did a SWAT team catch up to ya or somethin'?"

First Order shook his head. "No. Characters from my Father's past."

He was touching one of the monitors with his hand, but suddenly stopped and faced the man. "But it's not important anymore."

"Tell that to my head..." thought the man.

"I'll deal with them when the time comes. Have you assembled the docket on Senator Rossum's security arrangements?"

The man stood tending to his head for a moment, then reached for a folder on a desk and handed it over. First Order took it unceremoniously and opened it right away, to glance at the contents. The AI watched him read it for a second, then noted, "Y'know, one of these days I'm going to have to ask what you do with all this stuff."

Satisfied with the AI's handiwork, First Order closed the folder and looked him straight in the eye. "It would be wise if you never again entertained that thought."

He then walked past the AI without a second glance, and headed straight for the door and the real world, leaving the AI with a cold feeling in his gut. ...If you could call it that for an AI.

***

As First Order stepped out onto the street he took a look around and immediately noticed a commotion, with Eden's security forces scrambling about doing something. Inwardly he figured it had something to do with him, which made it all the more important he hurry up and leave.

But to do that, he still needed to go a while to get back to a logout point. Tucking the folder into his kimono, he then headed down the street, back the way he came. At this point it would be smart for him to stick to the alleys and side streets... police had a thing about not liking citizens that're armed to the teeth.

Ryan stepped into the hangar, suited up in what he'd worn in the previous mission. Simple and light body armor over top of some normal combat clothes he still had from a few years ago. Not really much, but that was how he like going out.

On top of that, he had the same rifle as before, which had a lot of custom parts on it. Ryan, having nothing better to do, had had some fun with his freedom and set up an old M-16 body with things like newer more adjustable sights, extended clips, a more comfortable stock, and, all around, stuff that made it much easier for Ryan to use. Maybe not the best ever, but Ryan loved it as it was.

His other equipment included a standard pistol and knife, but also a small rod in a small holder on his left thigh. It was basically a compressed bo staff that he liked using when things got a little too close. Not much overall, but it was enough.

Nodding to Azrael and Jax as he sat down, Ryan started checking to make sure he had everything he would need. He didn't know quite how much ammo he would be using on this mission, but he really hoped he would be bringing enough.

"Please... if it is not too much to ask, what excatly are you doing to counteract this threat? What is this Wednesday program? Is there anything I can do to help?" The small droid felt a little guilt for asking all these questions, but he was sent here on a mission, and with the high hopes of doing some good, so he made sure to get his name out. "It might be wise to send some security to the spot in question in the real world. We may find this missing... seal..."