//------------------------------// // Chapter 32: I need a miracle // Story: The Hacker Pwny // by Chetzi //------------------------------// I held my laptop in my arms as I walked down the hall. On the screen was multiple blue lines dashing across the screen. To most, those lines would be nothing more than gibberish. But it was simple really. I couldn't hear what they said over the radios, but I could measure how much network traffic there was. And it was clear that they were panicking. The blue lines zig-zagged up and down the screen, showing all the channels being sent through radio waves around me. I smirked and headed toward the engine room. Twilight was walking backwards, looking out for anything following us. I could guards stomping through the halls above and below us. They did just as I planned. I knew they wouldn't go through this hall, not when there's no 'official' route. I crouched down near a ventilation shaft opening, and ripped off the cover. This is so cheesy, nobody would ever think of it. I mean, seriously, almost every spy movie ever has done this. I could squeeze through the vents, with my thin body type. Twilight, on the other hand, couldn't. She wouldn't be safe out here. I told her, "You can return to your friends. Just teleport home." She understood the impasse, and disappeared in a flash of purple. I took a deep breath in, and exhaled. Looks like I'm doing the rest of this mission solo. I got down on my arms and crawled into the vent. My elbows scrapped against the vent's metal walls and sections that got welded and bolted together. It stung as I crawled through. There was at least a cool breeze going through it. A soft whirring sound could be heard, most likely from a nearby fan. I came across a fork in the vent. I didn't know which way to turn. I reached my arm into my pocket, and pulled out my phone. "Chuck, send an echo wave out for for directions and record the results." I told him. "Got it." Two low beeps sounded, and two bars grew on a graph on my phone. The bars showed how far the echo went. On the left way, the end was only about ten feet out. Must be a dead end. The right way returned a distorted sound wave that I couldn't decipher. If I had to guess, I would say that there's a vent covering at the end of the right way making the echo bounce off in unpredictable ways. Right way it is. I shoved my phone back into my pocket and continued to crawl back down. I heard muffled chatter from the rooms around me. The metal vents felt like ice on my skin. I must’ve travel about fifty feet or so, until I reached a vent opening. This reminds of Deus Ex: Human Revolution so much. I pushed the vent out, it was bolted down. I felt around the corners of it, looking for a loose part. The top right screw was a little loose, so I put all my strength into making that screw move. I kept on twisting and pushing, and it snapped off. I continued to push on the free corner, until the force snapped off the other screws. I the cover slide a few feet into the room. I poked my head out. The room was clear, and it looked like some kind of server room. There were rack-mounted servers dotting the walls. This must be the main server room. The soft whir of computer fans filled the silence. I pushed myself out of the vent and went down the row. The main engine room shouldn’t be too far from here. I turned a corner, and bumped into someone. We both fell backwards. I scrambled back upwards, ready to knock him out with a snap to the neck. He looked to be about eighteen or so, and fairly weak. A pen was resting on top of his ear and a clipboard was in his hand. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, just business casual clothes. “Wait wait! Not the face!” He said as his hands waved in front of his face. He looked away from me. I put my fist down, he’s not worth it. I turned away and walked down the row. The guy ran up to me as I walked away. “Who are you?” “That’s none of your business.” “B-but please! I promise not to tell!” “Kid, don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to.” “I know! You just seem so... familiar.” “I’m nobody. Maybe one of the last good humans there are.” “Wait, misanthropic, introverted, trying to save Equestria, you’re not... dylansl?” My hands tensed at hearing that name. How did he know? I’m a ghost. No one knows me. There are only rumors of me, and those are usually only known in small hacker groups. “That depends on who’s asking. For you, the answer is no.” “Bu-but I’ve always wanted to meet you!” A fanboy? Never thought I would ever have those. “And you just did. I have a mission to do, now go away before about thirty thousand pounds of metal gets rained down onto a city full of living animals.” “I can help! Please! I never liked the idea of killing. I’m only here to keep the network intact. Not once have I ever touched a gun.” “Point me the right way toward the engine room and don’t tell anyone.” “Just head down to the right, the next door holds the control panels for the engines. though you need a cardkey to get in-” “I think you’re forgetting who you’re talking to.” I went through the door out after I said that last sentence. If he knows who I am, I need to cover my tracks a bit better. Maybe switch pseudonyms. That last thing I want is an army of fanboys following me around. I walked down the right side of the hall. It was only maybe five or four yards until I came across a door that held a bright yellow sign with the words, ‘ENGINE ROOM’ on it. I put my ear to the door. I could hear the guns being loaded and charged. Along with disorganized running. They’re still getting ready. I need to strike now. I reached into my pockets, pulling out the three makeshift smoke bombs. I held them between my fingers on my right hand. One between each finger, with the exception of my thumb. I put my hand behind me, positioning it in such a way that makes it easy to snap it forward. My left hand rested on the icy doorknob. I slowed down my breathing, time seemingly slowed down as a result. One wrong step, and it would be all over. I raised my right hand, and threw down a bomb. Yellow smoke exploded into the air. I turned the doorknob and threw the door open. In one swift motion, I smashed another bomb onto the floor in the middle of the room.I ducked back behind a wall as gunfire burst into the room. The steel walls should be bullet proof, in order to prevent air from escaping. The wall became dotted in dents as bullets rained down on it. I juked left, facing the door, then rolled in the room. The gunfire died down to about three guns, the rest must be reloading. No one could see anything. The best I could do is guess where the control panel might be. Since there was still gunfire, I was crouched down. My hands felt around in front of me. I felt something inclined, and covered in buttons. This must be it. My fist slammed on the buttons. An alarm went off. “Attention all personnel, the main ion reactor is over heating. No current solutions available. abandoning ship is advisable,” a male synthetic computer voice loudly said over the blaring alarm. Heh, stupid A.I.s. I knew exactly how to stop it. The alarm screeched, and smoke still filled most of the room, but I could still see people running out as the smoke cleared. I looked around on the terminal controlling the engines. A U.S.B port was on the side. I dug my flash drive out of one of my pockets, then jammed it into the port. My personal network tunneler hack loaded into the system. I gained remote access to the cameras and information center. I looked through various cameras. People were rushing through the halls and being trampled on. The took escape pods and parachutes to the the the ground. The heat in the ion drives to rose to dangerous levels. I should stop that. My hands dashed across the keyboard as my eyes were glued to the screen. The red bar kept growing. The bar represented the heat in the ion drives. If it crossed the yellow line near the top of the screen, the ship would explode, And the debris would surely destroy Manehatten. My hands clicked the keys all over the keyboard at speeds that few could do. A closed fist went sailing toward my jaw. I flew to the left, and skidding on the ground. I scrambled back, grabbing my makeshift neuroparalyzer squirtgun. A foot stepped from out of the smoke, and I squeezed the handle, causing a small stream of green liquid to shoot out. It struck the leg, but didn’t do anything. The rest of the man became visible as the smoke cleared. “Heh,” the man chuckled as the harmless liquid dripped off his leg. “You got to do better than that.” He hunched over, and charged at me. His arms were outstretched. He looked to be about thirty or so, and well-built. There’s no way I could beat him in a fair fist fight. I examined my surroundings, nothing more than a square room with a terminal on a wall. My eyes darted to the screen, the bar creeped closer and closer to critical levels. It was clear that the man didn’t want me to get any closer to it. Oh, fuck my life. I ducked, and used the guy’s momentum against him. My hands grabbed onto his torso, and I pushed him over me as he ran into me. He soared overhead, missing me. He did a half spin, and shot a fist at my stomach. I doulbed over on the floor. He kicked me in the shin. “How pitiful,” were the words he said. I tried to do a sweep kick, but his strong legs didn’t budge when I made contact. I coughed, and said, “Hey buddy, fuck you.” He reached down, and grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. His arms pulled me up, until we were face to face. My legs dangled in the air. Breathing was hard. “Say that again, and I’ll rip that smug mouth of yours off.” “Fuck. You.” His eyes showed extreme anger. His left fist smashed into my jaw. Then he ran me into a wall. My lip was bleeding, and my left eye was in a lot of pain. My right hand secretly reached for my last smoke bomb. “Fuck... you...” he kept on smashing his fist into my face. I really need to stop getting beat up, it can’t be good for my face. There was a pause in the punches, as he reeled back to hit me even harder. I covered my face with my right hand, the smoke bomb nested in my palm. His fist dashed forward, hitting my hand. The bomb exploded, and he was blinded. I poured out my neuroparalyzer juice into his eyes in the confusion. He screamed with rage as he covered his eyes. At least the chemical compound stung like a bitch. He spun toward me, his eyes red and a look of blood rage imprinted on his face. He did a roundhouse kick to my head, I dodged just in time, but he did an uppercut to my jaw, followed by a flurry of rabbit punches to my head. I became stunned, and he kicked me in the chest. I flew backwards a few yards. I’m sure he must have broken a rib bone with that. I cluchted my chest in pain. A trail of blood poured out of my mouth. I wiped it ouff and stood back up. “You idiot. Can’t you see that this ship’s going to blow? I’m trying to stop that! Let me fix it. I just need to get to the console over there,” I told the man. “Ha! You’re the one who made it do that. I’m not going to trust you to turn it down. We’re all gonna die. And I’m bringing you with me, hacker scum.” He dived at me, hitting me in my chest. “Oof!” He got me in a headlock, pounding his fists into my skull. He then slammed his foot into my left leg, causing it to flood my body with pain. My leg bent in a odd way, that told me it was broken. Then, a female voice, that I recognised as Cortez said, “Hands off the nerd!” With the small amount of energy I had left, I turned my head over to the door. Cortez stood there, with a pistol in her hands. The guy let go of me, and I stumbled away. The best I could do was limp. The man picked up an assault rifle from the ground in one swift motion. They aimed their guns at each other. It was a stand off. Cortez said, “How about a fair fight? You put the handgun down, and I will also.” “I agree,” said the attacker. I started limping over to the terminal, but the man pointed his weapon at me. “Move, and your brain will be all over the wall.” This isnt good. I need to stop the ion drives from overheating. I quietly told chuck, “Chuck, estimate until how long it will be until the ion drives go critical.” “You have about three minutes and four seconds before we turn into grilled paste,” Chuck told me. Cortez charged at the guy. He punched her, but cortez dodged to the right, followed by a sweep kick. Like lightning, the guy jumped backwards, and completely avoided the kick. “Not bad,” Cortez said, “what can I call you?” “Shark,” was the reply. Oh great, a cheesy pseudonym. Chuck said to me, “Dude, the engines gonna blow in less than two minutes.” Cortez rolled forward, and Shark dived past her. They both turned and did high kicks. Their legs were locked in a power struggle. Cortez twisted her standing leg, and spun around, using the foot she had in the air as a pivot point. She kicked Shark with her other foot. She then jumped off his chest and landed on two feet. Shark stumbled backwards. I yelled at Cortez, “Hurry! The engines are about to blow! Knock him out already!” The two exchanged blows and very hits were made. They were both fast. I was in no condition to fight. “Oof, you want to fight this guy?” Cortez yelled back at me. “Nah brah, I’m good.” I replied. Movie-like fight moves were done at extreme speed. They did various spins and jumps that I could never pull off. The moves were effective, maybe a bit flashy, but still hard to pull off. The time we had left before the ship blew, was approaching quickly. The fight looks like a stalemate. This won’t end well. I need a miracle. No, I need a lot more than a miracle.