06-06-2016, 08:20 PM
Hiro tugged Madotsuki out of the arcade going haywire, and patched into the EPD Local Alert broadcast. "We have a situation at the.....Gendoorian Shopping Complex, Tier 2! Station House Sigma, can you send a response unit? Possible malicious AI has infected the arcade!" They ran out through the fleeing crowds, most of the customers that were in or near the arcade joining the mad rush outside.
Once they hit the street, they paused for breath. Hiro watched as a nearby squad of troopers hurried in, several servo-droids behind them bristling with all sorts of interface equipment designed to seek out malicious code and eradicate it. Could this have been some kind of attack? Everything had been going fine until the trenchcoated man, Marcus, had arrived. He was tied to this Skynet, somehow, and from what Hiro had seen already, it was nothing but bad news. Unfortunately, the Skynet issue would have to wait. He had another job to do.
He looked over at Madotsuki, the girl trembling slightly and hugging herself over her sweater. "Hey...M. Jeez. Sorry. I was really trying to let us have a good day, but it just seems like everything went wrong. I've been put on assignment by the EPD, and I probably won't be back for a few days. Umm...Here. Take this." Hiro reached into his pocket and produced a copy of his apartment keycard. It would let her in and give her access to the elevator and their now shared apartment. "You can help yourself to anything in the fridge or cabinets, and I'll be back soon. Then maybe I can try and make this up to you. You....you probably wanna head home now, after all this. I do too, out of necessity. Gotta get ready and leave for my assignment."
He stepped into the street and waved down a taxi, which didn't take too long. Several had been lining up outside the shopping complex when they saw the influx of displaced tourists and patrons streaming out, and were making a killing on short fares. The bright yellow hovercar stopped in front of them and Hiro climbed into the front seat, with Madotsuki hopping in the back. He gave the address of his apartment complex to the driver and the man took off. They all sat in relative silence while Hiro went through the records of the past Dante's Abyss contests. A few particularly brutal kills from the tournament version made him wince, and he was beginning to have slight apprehensions if this was what past years were like. This was supposed to be just a simple retrieval, though, but Hiro was pretty much sure that it would turn out to be anything but. Best to go prepared then.
They eventually arrived back at the apartment building and Hiro exited the taxi, ignoring the lobby droid's greeting. He ruminated on what the next few days were going to be like as he took the elevator back up to his floor and headed back to his apartment, swiping his keycard and shouldering his way into the sparsely furnished abode. He went to his office, pulling the datastick and the broken square Marcus had given him out of his jacket. Sitting down at a bare desk, he laid them both on the table. No time to puzzle this mystery out. He would have to wait until he got back from the Danteverse. Besides, the specialist equipment he'd ordered for this specific job hadn't arrived yet.
He went over to his computer and set a few programs to run automatically while he was gone, mainly information gathering ones and code decompilers for other projects he had on the back burner. The Dataverse's programming language was starting to become easier to understand, but he still had a ways to go before he got back up to his previous level of software mastery. The programs he had running were essentially strip mining the Dataverse for any pertinent construction or development files. He'd have the chance to peruse them when he got back. He also took a few moments to compile his roommate's information into a bare-minimum Prime registry report, and sent it over to his liason at the EPD. Madotsuki should have no trouble relating to her status as an unregistered Prime.
Now....to get ready for his mission. His katana was in it's sheath, the self-repair functions completely charged. His twin tanto were strapped to his shoulders, one jutting above each arm for quick drawing potential. The sleek leather kimono jacket he wore hung easily over a blue silk work shirt, and his black skinny jeans were heald up by his belt, which also had a couple pouches for holding essentials, like his cigarettes, a couple canisters of medi-gel, an energy drink or two, and emergency foodstuffs (Jerky. A lot of jerky).
On his hands were his black haptic gloves, arachnoweave threads and circuitry connecting them as his interface for the large pair of goggles strapped to his head. Shiny and reflective, they overlaid a constantly updating HUD over Hiro's field of vision, and fed enhanced directional audio into the pair of earbuds plugged in his ears. Top of the line in analytical and scanning hardware, Hiro felt near deific with the amount of information they fed him when he chose to use them to their fullest potential. Everything was set.
His boots made soft sounds on the floorboards as he crossed out into the hallway, and headed towards the door. One last look around the apartment before shutting it closed again. Within minutes, he was out on the street, unlocking the building's storage units that also served as a garage for small vehicles. His black cyberbike, now modified to include jet thrusters and antigrav repulsors, sat there waiting for him.
He took off onto the invisible highways that served as Coruscant's streets and made his way to the gate to the Endless Dunes. Carrefore, and the Danteverse, awaited him.
Once they hit the street, they paused for breath. Hiro watched as a nearby squad of troopers hurried in, several servo-droids behind them bristling with all sorts of interface equipment designed to seek out malicious code and eradicate it. Could this have been some kind of attack? Everything had been going fine until the trenchcoated man, Marcus, had arrived. He was tied to this Skynet, somehow, and from what Hiro had seen already, it was nothing but bad news. Unfortunately, the Skynet issue would have to wait. He had another job to do.
He looked over at Madotsuki, the girl trembling slightly and hugging herself over her sweater. "Hey...M. Jeez. Sorry. I was really trying to let us have a good day, but it just seems like everything went wrong. I've been put on assignment by the EPD, and I probably won't be back for a few days. Umm...Here. Take this." Hiro reached into his pocket and produced a copy of his apartment keycard. It would let her in and give her access to the elevator and their now shared apartment. "You can help yourself to anything in the fridge or cabinets, and I'll be back soon. Then maybe I can try and make this up to you. You....you probably wanna head home now, after all this. I do too, out of necessity. Gotta get ready and leave for my assignment."
He stepped into the street and waved down a taxi, which didn't take too long. Several had been lining up outside the shopping complex when they saw the influx of displaced tourists and patrons streaming out, and were making a killing on short fares. The bright yellow hovercar stopped in front of them and Hiro climbed into the front seat, with Madotsuki hopping in the back. He gave the address of his apartment complex to the driver and the man took off. They all sat in relative silence while Hiro went through the records of the past Dante's Abyss contests. A few particularly brutal kills from the tournament version made him wince, and he was beginning to have slight apprehensions if this was what past years were like. This was supposed to be just a simple retrieval, though, but Hiro was pretty much sure that it would turn out to be anything but. Best to go prepared then.
They eventually arrived back at the apartment building and Hiro exited the taxi, ignoring the lobby droid's greeting. He ruminated on what the next few days were going to be like as he took the elevator back up to his floor and headed back to his apartment, swiping his keycard and shouldering his way into the sparsely furnished abode. He went to his office, pulling the datastick and the broken square Marcus had given him out of his jacket. Sitting down at a bare desk, he laid them both on the table. No time to puzzle this mystery out. He would have to wait until he got back from the Danteverse. Besides, the specialist equipment he'd ordered for this specific job hadn't arrived yet.
He went over to his computer and set a few programs to run automatically while he was gone, mainly information gathering ones and code decompilers for other projects he had on the back burner. The Dataverse's programming language was starting to become easier to understand, but he still had a ways to go before he got back up to his previous level of software mastery. The programs he had running were essentially strip mining the Dataverse for any pertinent construction or development files. He'd have the chance to peruse them when he got back. He also took a few moments to compile his roommate's information into a bare-minimum Prime registry report, and sent it over to his liason at the EPD. Madotsuki should have no trouble relating to her status as an unregistered Prime.
Now....to get ready for his mission. His katana was in it's sheath, the self-repair functions completely charged. His twin tanto were strapped to his shoulders, one jutting above each arm for quick drawing potential. The sleek leather kimono jacket he wore hung easily over a blue silk work shirt, and his black skinny jeans were heald up by his belt, which also had a couple pouches for holding essentials, like his cigarettes, a couple canisters of medi-gel, an energy drink or two, and emergency foodstuffs (Jerky. A lot of jerky).
On his hands were his black haptic gloves, arachnoweave threads and circuitry connecting them as his interface for the large pair of goggles strapped to his head. Shiny and reflective, they overlaid a constantly updating HUD over Hiro's field of vision, and fed enhanced directional audio into the pair of earbuds plugged in his ears. Top of the line in analytical and scanning hardware, Hiro felt near deific with the amount of information they fed him when he chose to use them to their fullest potential. Everything was set.
His boots made soft sounds on the floorboards as he crossed out into the hallway, and headed towards the door. One last look around the apartment before shutting it closed again. Within minutes, he was out on the street, unlocking the building's storage units that also served as a garage for small vehicles. His black cyberbike, now modified to include jet thrusters and antigrav repulsors, sat there waiting for him.
He took off onto the invisible highways that served as Coruscant's streets and made his way to the gate to the Endless Dunes. Carrefore, and the Danteverse, awaited him.
![[Image: MZSDl2O.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/MZSDl2O.jpg)