Matterhorn had never lost control like that before, that pony didn’t deserve that painful end, but in the end that’s what he got thanks to his loud mouth and lack of restraint. He thought back to what he’d said though, and it was true that he and Riot actually shared a genetic template, but they were nothing alike in reality.
At least, Matterhorn hoped so, as he’d never really questioned his relation to the rest of the series of agents he belonged to before.
How this pony knew this wasn’t obvious though, but if he had to venture a guess, it was likely that Riot’s followers knew of his origin or some warped version of it, as in the game of mercenary work you didn’t get rich off the proceeds by being truthful.
“Matterhorn?” came a small voice. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Lucky.” he responded blankly. “General area is clear, I don’t think anyone heard that little exchange.”
“Anything else you wish to report?”
“No.”
“You’re not going to brush what you just did under the rug, you know. We’ll talk about it, just not here. Luna needs to know about that.”
“So she can put me back into that room again? Box me up until I turn into a blank slate, like when you met me?” Matterhorn said defiantly. “As far as I’m concerned, anyone who looks upon Riot favorably is a liability and should be dealt with swiftly and harshly.”
“That’s your template speaking instead of your own brain again, isn’t it?” Lucky sighed. “Try not to let the situation cloud your judgment, we’re to eliminate him with as few casualties as possible. Clear?”
“Clear.”
Lucky sighed thankfully and offered Matterhorn an apologetic smile. “By now our friends will be jacking into the local Subnet and taking him for all he’s worth, just a little more, stay focused on the mission.”
“Should we lay low for the time being?”
“Let’s make our way toward the building they saw the transmitter on, no doubt if they screw up or get found out they’ll be in no state to fight back. It’s way too quiet around here for there not to be something afoot.”
“So this is their Subnet. It’s a lot more green than I was expecting, normally these places are a bit more city-like.” Access said, peering out at the endless expanse of glowing and polygonal digital trees.
The only clearing within view was one straight ahead of them and even then it wasn’t that large. It would be safe to assume that much of the Subnet would be like this, putting them at a major disadvantage as they’d have to rely on scanning software rather than their own brains this time around.
Reaction speed mattered the most in the Net, followed by the speed of your deck, and then finally, what software you ran. Everything else was secondary and the few runners that ignored this rule rarely lasted long, ultimately ending up as charred lumps of burnt flesh, roasted alive by some black system’s ICE.
Curiously, there was a walled off section within the clearing that was rapidly coming into view, evidently that represented the higher security area of the system and would likely hold what they were looking for.
If only they could get past it.
“There’s a runner around here besides us, Access, I can feel it.” Sheet Rock said, cautiously hiding behind the treeline. “Few programs around too, I imagine most of the activity is beyond those walls.”
“Too big to physically look over as well, someone really put some effort into securing the place.” Access nodded in agreement. “If I had to guess, it’d be a dweller. I’m surprised Riot managed to convince someone to stay jacked in at all hours of the day.”
“Probably not politely if I had to guess, let’s look around a bit.”
They trudged into the clearing, and started to probe the wall for weaknesses using some simple scanning programs so as not to cause too much noise. If there was a dweller here, they’d be watching the place like a hawk and anything untoward would draw their attention.
Dwellers weren't like normal runners, they kept their avatars unloaded until they detected something they couldn’t deal with using the sheer will of their minds or the system and its resources they were connected to.
They were for all intents and purposes, living programs that only served to defend the system they were charged with custodianship over. Such an existence was beyond saddening for most, but those runners with little in the way of interest in realspace, money, or stake in society often welcomed such a job.
“Smooth data-walls all the way around, Sheet, no way we’re getting through this quickly.”
“Any code gates? Anything we can hack through?”
“No, they’re either well hidden or non-existent.” Access sighed. “Why bother with an external access point if you’re gonna disallow access outright?”
“Probably signal matching at play. Unless our decks match a certain set of access codes, we’d get dumped out somewhere they would expect we could do the least harm.” Sheet Rock offered as she tapped at the mile high walls. “Everyone, whether they be corporate or some foal with their first Cyberdeck does it that way.”
“I’m going to see if I can probe the wall a little deeper, there’s gotta be a way to get through. There’s no way they didn’t put some sort of fail-safe in just in case one of them lost the proverbial keys to the kingdom.”
“We have a comm link with Gray and the others if we need it if things get hairy too.” Sheet Rock said reassuringly. “I wonder where they’ve gotten to, I’d have expected to have heard from them by now.”
“Probably busy.” Access said dismissively. “If they get into trouble we can support them from here anyway.”
Access summoned another of his scanner programs in the form of a small wind sprite, more effective than the simpler programs he had employed before, but had the drawback of being more likely to draw the attention of any sysops or dwellers within the system.
He set it loose and it slowly made its way around the structure, intently scouring each and every inch for even the smallest of weaknesses. The sprite did two full scans of the structure before it vanished in a flash of light, the results of its scans transmitted to Access’ deck.
A growl of annoyance was loosed from his lips as he read. There was no easily exploitable weakness in the walls, none at all, and worse yet it appeared that defenses had been shored up very recently.
Whoever this dweller was, they knew someone would be coming, either out of paranoia or simple coincidence. Sheet Rock however didn’t believe in coincidence and pushed Access aside, she’d seen too many security systems as a Runner for this to be this mere coincidence.
“Let me try something else from my bag of tricks.” Sheet Rock said confidently. “We’ll crack this thing open for sure, no system has beaten us before and this one isn’t about to either!”
“There are ways through, but none of them are quiet, Sheet..”
Gray nervously paced about the room, sometimes muttering to himself on occaision. Clearly he wasn’t completely confident in the plan for one reason or another, but when pressed he insisted that he was fine and that it was just his nerves.
“These ponies your friends have allied with, do you know them?”
“Probably not. Access’ attention span reaches about as far as a neural cable does, and Sheet Rock doesn’t trust very easily unless it’s in service to Access.” Scarlet remarked through a piece of dry bread. “I’d be very surprised if their backup is anyone we don’t know, they’re very independent but kinda stupid at times.”
“I suppose all we can do is wait for them to show up and hope they don’t take our heads off. Only one of us is armed, that being me, so I hope you’re good with your hooves.”
A set of voices, slightly muffled from the thick steel separating them could be heard outside arguing between themselves. A stallion and two mares if Gray had to guess, it was hard to tell over the dull hum of the ventilators in the shack’s ceiling. Whoever they were, they were getting closer, and quickly.
Gray unholstered his revolver and ordered Bulwark and Scarlet to get behind one of the tables in case of a shootout. Neither of them had weapons anymore, owing to them being taken by Riot’s cronies.
“I’ll have someone retrieve your weapons if they are able to, for now we better hope whoever is on the other side of that door is friendly.”