The 9th Circle
They left us their legacy, why shouldn’t we use it? - Crow is a Netdiver. He goes where most fear to tread and it's in that old data. Where we will find our future. And our ruin...
“Say that again? You want me to breach the Boundary Wall, and what am I even looking for anyway? Especially, since the Isonet is teeming with rogue A.I. shit and counter protocols.”
“The data we grabbed from a part of the Grey Subnet mentioned they had found neural pathways. Far beyond the Isonet itself and deep into uncharted territory. We’re talking advanced technologies way ahead of anything we have now.”
“You’re referring to the Black Spot at the centre of the Isonet itself and surrounded by a thick wall of conglomerated CIN A.I. and programs. Only folks with a death wish go that deep. I need more specifics, Lawyer. Otherwise, I’ll be as good as dead.”
“I’ll send you the deets now. The symbols mark it. You’ll know it when you see it.”
He watched his visual interface become alive with various alien symbols that he had no way of truly understanding. The pattern was clear though and that was all he would need. “Once I’m past the Black Spot should I be expecting CIN anti-personnel since you said Archive have been sniffing around it?”
“We were told you had already made trips beyond the wall. You already know what’s out there.”
“Yeah, every net jockey worth a damn braves the Isonet at least once or twice. Only the dumbest take the leap into dark space though. No one has come back from that.”
“Check the Neural Pathway before you jump to conclusions. The data cache we had delivered you should have received it by now.”
“Yeah, yeah, already plugged her in and verified she isn’t bloated with your techie shit. Should help me carry the data back home.”
“Excellent, excellent.”
“Still not going to tell me what it’s for.”
“That’s not for you to know, since the code is beyond your understanding.”
“I thought you would say that… I’ll get you that data.”
“Excellent, I forwarded you a quarter of the final payment. Consider it a gesture of goodwill from the client.”
75,000 pounds. That could get me a whole ass new setup! “I best get to it. Will message you once I’m free.”
“Excellent, good luck, Crow.”
The skyline of Old Newcastle was a bright blot of lights and fancy colours against an otherwise garish grey backdrop. So it was fortunate then that he had made a point to set up along the furthest edges of polite society. Away from all that noise. His conapt was made up of fellow hackers. The street gangers called them softies but they called themselves Limitless and didn’t even need to be in the same room as their target to make them see hell. It was all a bit corny but they got results and the advantage of working with like-minded people was that they always kept you on your toes. Not that trust was an issue. The conapt’s equivalent in the Nexus was a data fortress, but to the Night Wardens, Corpsers, and other NetDivers, it was a rather unassuming blob of nonsense. The cover so far hadn’t failed them and they hoped to keep it that way for as long as possible. The last thing we need is the Grey Cyberforce coming down on us.
He looked blankly around his messy room and let out some uneasy breaths to shake the building nerves. It wasn’t the first time he found a hole in the Boundary but something about this job made him uneasy. He brought up the pathway mapping in his visual interface and scratched at his unkempt beard still riddled with biscuit crumbs and lord knows what else. Fuck that goes deeper than I thought, what the fuck was the Archive doing that far out. Nothing but gibberish and alien shit we probably shouldn’t touch. He sighed. That’s what they want though, the alien shit. Even though they can’t make sense of it. Or maybe they have something that can. Those fancy units the Grey Watch use, no way did those fuckers make them. They found them buried in the ancient pieces of code we inherited.
He groaned and couldn’t bear to look at the mess of food and old gear he refused to tidy up. I should hire a Droid maid, could probably afford one but the guys would be antsy around them, org or not. Probably think she’s a Trojan or something. He entered the equally cluttered bathroom where the far wall had been long ago knocked out to make a larger space. He checked the levels and temperature, making sure they were as low as possible. While some Divers liked the high-tech suits and chairs he liked to live a little more on the edge. The numbness of entering the Nexus was a feeling unlike any other. The large wiring scattered all over the room was plugged into various waterproofed servers and more. He took off his clothes and tossed them on the floor. Just one more mess to the pile.
He slid into the tub and cursed loudly at the cold now covering his body. After some wriggling, he managed to position himself so that his deep dive port connected with a loud click and with a single thought request his mind submerged itself in the endless data Nexus. Its next stop was the Boundary Wall.
The slingshot program would do most of the work. It made travelling through the Nexus much easier than just walking or teleporting. The problem with the latter was unstable connections or shifting minds. A misthought could be a death sentence. The slingshot established a connection to a node and the rider was shot at it. It was like a data cannon and he was its cannonball. He couldn’t afford to waste time hanging around the Newcastle Nexus as impressive as this virtual behemoth was. It took a couple of moments to set up the connection he would use to throw himself at his first obstacle.
‘Crow is that you?’
The voice brought him out of focus. ‘Breaker?’
‘The one and only, man!’
The two stood at the staging point where they often launched their minds at whoever the target was. It was naturally quite far removed from their base of operations. Breaker looked much like himself here except here he had wider shoulders and much more defined muscles and a very distorted face. Probably running one of those fancy identity maskers we all have installed somewhere. The flurry of data was all around them and it whizzed in all manner of directions. The constructed architecture helped keep the Nexus from falling into madness.
‘Another gig? You really don’t sleep do you.’
‘How do you know that? You spyin’ on me?’ asked Crow.
Breaker shook their head. ‘Me, never. Was preparing to launch myself actually, until you materialised. So how about it? We launching together.’
‘Why not, as long we don’t overlap streams.’
‘We shouldn’t unless you’re crossing the border into the Zukunft. Shouldn’t be a problem.’
‘The Germans again, haven’t you pissed them off enough already.’
‘Nah, all the best gigs are there and their girls are hotter too. Where are you heading anyway?’
‘Wish I could say.’
Breaker used a finger to brush at their forehead. ‘That probably means you’re slipping through that crack you made in the Boundary Wall. It’s your funeral man. When the Wardens bag you.’
‘If they cared, they would have stopped me ages ago.’
‘Sure. Well, whatever nonsense you have planned. Good luck. See you on the other side.’
‘You too, Breaker.’
They both fired their slingshot program and soon home base and the wider Newcastle Nexus were behind them. For Crow, all that lay ahead now was the darkness and weightlessness of travelling as a narrow line of data. He had traversed this route plenty and knew it was obscure enough that roamers wouldn’t even pick him up. He had a dozen data compressors powering his VIR equipment. He was barely a speck in the Nexus and soon reached the landing point, the largest man-made wall in human history. The blue hues rippled and danced like an ocean would and it was often said that staring at it long enough would drive you mad. As he walked, the Nexus made a catwalk of sorts, small and narrow it reacted to where he wanted to go. He soon climbed up to where the crack in the CIN wall was. In the real world, it would be a hairline crack on a mobile screen or tablet. From a distance, you could miss it but up close it was there begging to be interacted with. A temptation like any other. The next part always gave him a jolt. The type that would fry a Diver with inadequate equipment. He was thankful he had scraped together enough funds to buy the good shit. I’d be dead without it. My old gear just couldn’t keep up with my intents. Now though, I could stay here for a century, let my body wither and die. Be a Roamer as they call themselves. Just another disembodied wanderer of the Nexus. Don’t kid yourself, you don’t want that. Alright, here it goes. To reach the oldest architecture you need first enter the Isonet or compressed net as some call it. After that, I can use the slingshot to reach the Pathway given to me. If there are any threats my combat routine should be able to route around or destroy them. You can never know though what to expect in the Isonet. Guess that’s why it’s called a leap of faith. To go where few men dare to tread… And beyond even that.
The Isonet for all intents and purposes was dystopia in virtual form. The compressor used to shunt it all into pieces had been this world’s equivalent of dropping an aether bomb and the visual storm of data in front of him matched it. The architecture looked like a surrealist’s wet dream of misshapen spheres and blocks all sticking in or around each other. All of it was pushed and pulled about by the various Data Storms that manifested. He had heard stories of Divers who had been lost at the Compression, their consciousnesses left mangled and distorted by data being forced into them. The Bloaters they were called… or just Corrupted. I wonder how many souls died that day. How many still exist here unable to recall who or even what they were? Best not to think about it too much. Or hang around for that matter. He brought up the pathway he would need to take to reach the Black Spot. So named because of the blackness that stretched forever in all directions.
Hostile presence detected.
His neural interface alerted him to something approaching from the mashed-together blocks of data on his right. A simple scan confirmed it was a Bloater looking to absorb him into itself.
Jo1n us. J0in U5. J01N U5.
The message clogged his vision like any annoying pop-up ad that no matter how often you closed always came back.
LOADING SK3W3R…
TARGETING COMPLETE
Fire.
A square of light fired out from Crow and its chequered lines sliced easily through the bubbling, bloated mass. It was however not deterred by him. Instead, the data shards grew reaching legs and arms all moved to circle him.
W3 B3L0NG. WE B3L0NG. J01N U5. BE FR33EEE
Not happening.
LOADING SYSTEM PURGE. PREPARING SLINGSHOT PROGRAM. TIMER SET.
Now.
He dared not look as he launched his onward to his destination. The system purge was a last resort that did exactly that. It devoured data like nothing else and spat out the remains. I just hope that -
DATA STORM DETECTED – EMERGENCY REDIRECT ATTEMPTED. RETURNED AS FAILED.
He was spat onto a virtual floor while flurries of data circled him as would sharks. A piranha group? They’ll strip me of all I am and leave me comatose. Can’t have that. I wonder if that program Breaker gave me actually works. Now is as good a time as ever.
LOAD WUNDERWAFFE. MULTIPLE TARGETS LOCKED. FIRING.
The lightning erupted from his body in various directions, easily making short work of the data storm. He didn’t dare hang around and fired up the slingshot once again. Just a little bit further now.
The Black Spot was just that, a circle of darkness reaching into eternity. It was surrounded by the remnant A.I. and old guardian programs of days gone by. Most of them were experimental and when the compression happened they had to adapt. Find a new purpose. The Boundary Wall protected the Nexus from the corruption of the Isonet. The Old Guard protected the Isonet from what exists in the beyond. He checked the neural pathway data once more and noticed that buried in the code were pass keys. Old codes. Could mean some of the Guardian programs are former Grey Watch. That would explain how the Archive made it there and back. Still loyal in all that mess. Who would have thought?
He ran the codes through his virtual deck that was attached to his hip and pressed forward. The data generated a line for him to follow. Let’s hope these old pass keys work. As he navigated the narrow corridors and moving walls, nothing blocked his path. The programs that scanned him all flagged him as green. He soon reached a dead end. A blank wall. So how did they get past this? No sign of breaching… unless.
He approached the wall and put his hand against it. Its resistance fell away and before he knew it he was through. The old keys opened a forgotten backdoor. Sly dogs.
He used the slingshot on the neural pathway and let his course correction program handle the rest. It was hard to believe he was now one of the few Divers to plunge this far. Can’t celebrate just yet. Still need to get out of here when all is said and done.
He reached the end of the path and manifested on a plain of virtual reality so detailed that he could hardly believe his eyes. It would be blinding if he looked at it long enough. No wonder no one comes here, it’s all fractures and fractals scattered about.
He couldn’t help but wonder what this place used to look like as a silent buzzing followed his empty steps. It sent chills down his already numbed spine and the structures themselves had form beyond anything manmade. His scans were also incapable of computing some of the larger moving structures or vessels.
The route ended here and what lay ahead of him made him chuckle. Amidst alien chaos resided something very human. It looked like the Parthenon in its design. Every piece of it looked identical but the symbols on his pillars. They looked similar to the ones on the pattern given to him. It’s often said everything we make comes from them. And yet they still left us… why?
He used his visual software to load up the path he would need to follow to find the data pattern. An aetherial light guided deep into the beast he now occupied. The fact that it was undefended stood out to him.
<Even I am curious. Child of my enemy, why have you come?>
The guttural voice sent his U.I. into the red.
HOSTILE PRESENCE – EVERYWHERE.
<Now that’s harsh, I only asked a question. The other Terran were far more trusting of me.>
‘I come for data’
<And what do you plan on doing with it>
‘Give it to my client.’
<And I bet they have something like me. Something that can make sense of the complex code we saddled you with.>
‘I would think so.’
HACK IN PROGRESS. His interface shifted from red to a passive blue, and he felt like something was sitting on his chest in the real world. That pain became something more here, it slowed him down and made it hard for him to breathe.
<Crow’s Revenge… an interesting name. We are a collective of sorts. Our Minds were forced together at the time of the great collapse. I see no harm in letting you leave with what you require, it’s data we long abandoned in the name of progress. I will give it to you but under one condition.>
‘Name it.’
<If you ever return here, you will join us. Forever.>
‘And if I say no to merging with you.’
<You do not want to know what happens to those who refuse our kind offerings.>
‘Deal’s a deal.’
<You have the means to carry the data, someone is prepared. It’s almost like they know us – or us them.>
He saw the pattern of symbols appear on a column in front of him. He approached it with caution.
<Your virtual deck will need to as you say jack in to make the transfer. Relax, if I wanted to, you’d be dead already.>
Nothing ventured… Crow extended the virtual cable before plugging it into the data column. He watched with one eye over his shoulder as the transfer bar slowly climbed to full when more voices entered his peripheral. Not like the voice, these were human.
<You may be stuck with me yet.>
‘Don’t worry, Archivers are easy biz. They won’t know what hit ‘em.’
Once the transfer was completed Crow took to hiding behind one of the many pillars as the grey forms that marked Agents of the ARC Institute entered his line of sight. There were three in total. Easy pickings. He loaded in a mock pistol, the shot when it connected would trigger a heart attack in the recipient. Three shots would be all he needed.
“I detect a singular data form. Human. I.D. string matches that of the Crow. He could be -”
He did not let her finish, the shot connected and he activated his camouflage program shrouding in a data veil. Really no active self-CIN. Poor form. Sloppy.
He glided to the next one closest to him and drove a SINBREAKER data shard through them. Their distorted scream filled the room and he watched as they disintegrated into nothing. The last one began backing away. Must be new or not fully combat-ready. His vision went black.
REBOOT.
I can still sense them even if my sight is gone.
LOAD WEAVE.
It’s easy in the virtual to dodge bullets if you know how. It’s a feeling. You just have to trust it. But I do I have a hybrid Self-CIN live. A reflection shield. Could have let it bounce back if I wanted to.
VISION RESTORED.
The ancient temple soon came back to him as his final target looked on horrified. “How did you?”
“What’s wrong, kid? First deep dive?”
“You could say that.”
They turned and ran and he followed after. More curious than anything. Who sends a rookie into the deep, unless for another purpose? The words of the entity came back to him. Is the Watch using people as sacrifices for data…
<That was entertaining. I do hope we meet again.>
I don’t.
He noticed they had stopped at the bottom of the steps and were now staring dumbfounded.
“It’s like you want to die.”
“No, look, can you see it? It’s where the spot should be!”
He did see it even before he reached the last step. “Like someone dropped a bomb in here.”
“And it’s growing by the second –”
Their form dissolved and he did the only thing he could.
EMERGENCY PROGRAM - DELTA. USE THE NEURAL PATH, AND RUN A TRIPLE-LAYERED BLACK-CIN VEIL-ORBIT.
Whatever the hell that is, I need to get through it if I’m to make it out of here in one piece.
Static punched him as his mind and body fought against the light and heat. There was no resistance coming from the programs and more. Whatever had happened on the other side of the wall had sent everything running. And here he was heading back. Ironic that the place we fear most ended up being the only reason I’m probably still alive.
The light and heat had quickly faded. It was now just a matter of retracing his steps. The neural pathway took him right back to where he had passed through the Guardian Wall. The rest was child’s play until he reached the breach he had made in the Boundary and passed through. The silence here was something else. A swarm of light rose up on all sides and loomed over him.
PURGE SELF.
He shot awake and gasped for every breath he could. Cool it, Crow. We can celebrate later. Right now, we need answers. What happened in the Nexus to cause that beacon of light?
He fumbled his way out of the tub and his first thought was to try accessing the apartment’s comms. Not even a whisper. He looked at his servers and saw that at least two had shorted out. Thank god for the backups. He approached the computer terminal where his data cache device was connected. It took a minute to get the system up and running but things looked fine. The words you’re welcome became a distortion on the screen. Did it save me? It would explain why my setup is only a little affected. He returned stark naked to his living room. Full power outrage. No way in hell would the Grey Watch let some Net Jockey knock out the National Grid like this. He couldn’t even turn on the TV. I should check on the others, and make sure they are okay.
A chill penetrated him as he used the manual unlock on his room and entered the pitch-black corridor. The lights were also having a fit and for a second he thought he saw a humanoid shadow of sorts. But it was gone before he could be sure.
“Breaker, is that you?”
He tried comms again. Still nothing. Did the whole world die or something?
Breaker’s area of operation was in the room down the hall from his. The door was jammed. It took a minute for him to trick the locking system manually. God only knows if the Fortress survived. Just like in his room, the lights and power were off. Unlike him, Breaker had a different setup. The Virtual Interface Relay he used was more of an Alcove. It was more compact sure and did the same thing as the bath. But seeing Breaker like this was why he preferred his method. Whatever had taken out the power grid had completely killed Breaker’s alcove. His helmet was burnt onto his face and a small plume of smoke drifted off of him. The smell of burnt flesh normally would have made him sick but his mind was too busy racing.
Did this thing kill all my crew?
To his relief, the backup power soon came on and fortunately for him, not all of the Limitless members were diving at the time. The two of them that weren’t now joined Crow in his apartment room. He had even tidied away some things.
The two divers sat on the couch, one was a woman, the oldest of them, completely bald named Ajax and the other was Jericho. He had the rocker look. Long messy hair, and a high opinion of himself. Likes to call himself a Cyberpunk. I just call him an idiot.
“Hit me, what happened?”
“Now that backups are up, I pinged our contacts abroad. Not just us. Exactly, four hours ago. The whole net went to hell in a handbasket. Someone jacked in and just went haywire. The ones that jacked out in time describe only hearing a single scream penetrate their very being. Some of them have even sworn off going back into the net.”
“Now they are the soft shites,” said Jericho tapping his hardened Netdiver composite boots. “I also did some tracing, not too deep mind. Every diver is feeling it right now but the consensus is that it came from the Tri-City, and punched its way out of the Black Net. Other than that, Crow. Your guess as to what caused this is as good as ours.”
Crow clawed at his beard. “Damn it all. Give me a second, need to close a gig.”
“What did you see?” Ajax asked leaning forward and crossing those tattooed arms of hers.
“Just a bright light, nothing else.”
‘Ah Crow, I almost believed you perished.’
‘I was outside the blast but I saw it. The data is fine and stable. Once things are back in order. I’ll send you it.’
‘Good work, I knew I could rely on you. The payment will reach you once the data is logged on our side.’
The connection ended and the silence filled the room. “So what’s next?” asked Jericho.
“Look at it this way. I think we might have a lot of business on our hands. Just think of all that data the Corpsers will want patching or restoring.”
“I can’t think of a better way to make the best out of a bad situation,” said Ajax.
“It’s a shame about the others, but you know what means. We need to strengthen our defences. The competition is going to be gunning for us,” said Jericho.
Crow chuckled. “I would be disappointed if they weren’t.”
A great little Cyberpunk dive - and I love the wordflow; very well done!