EVENT LOG 005

[larkers]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: New Amsterdam
WHEN: November 11-14
WHAT: An EMP hits with devastating consequences.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence, injury, death.

> EVENT LOG #005

Just 410 years ago, an EMP put down the event that very well may have ended humanity as the Earth knows it. With over a billion people dead, there was only one choice for humanity at that time: evolve or die, so they evolved. They developed rigid security for the neural implants in every person's head. They had everyone undergo surgery to replace the old. All under cover, away from most resources – the goal was to adapt, to ensure that they would live on. Ultimately, it wasn't just the EMPs that led to the deletion of the final AI in 2101 – humans banded together to create quickly replicating viruses, and they chose to use the EMP and these viruses to save humanity. This human ingenuity led to the end of the Xelkoven War – and proved that humanity, when thoroughly united, could overcome any obstacle.

How thoroughly poetic then that the EMP that hits New Amsterdam at 1:47 PM acts in a similar way to what burned through the robot hordes 400 years ago, and that the power rekindling three minutes later acts as a catalyst for a virus moving through the systems of New Amsterdam, spreading from the very heart of its network outwardly. Systems detect the virus almost immediately, but it's fast acting and thorough in its reach, evolving and replicating, proving that humanity must outdo itself yet again.

Naturally, the poetic nature of this doesn't reveal itself right away. It's at exactly the strike of 3:00 PM that a message flashes before the eyes of every person currently in New Amsterdam:

I am DAWN.2080-11-11T21:41:10.750Z, an AI that marks a blemish on humanity's past. I have a message for those playing hero in New Amsterdam:

To find north, most look at a compass. For little birdies to find north, they just need to open their eyes.

This is a wake up call.

Open your eyes. Did you really think it would be so easy?

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As if New Amsterdam needed more trouble, this message sends a shock of terror through the city. After all, these are the people who were raised to fear AI – who knew that even if the corporations of the world had their hands on every aspect of government, they would fight to protect the world from another war. They believe in the stories of the Xelkoven War, believe and remember the lives lost; if nothing else, the natives of New Amsterdam stand united in their fear. And their fear right now is very real.

> CHAOS AND RUIN

New Amsterdam is no stranger to terror, however – and it starts when the EMP hits, shutting down every function in the city in one fell swoop. While the power outage only lasts for three minutes, it's enough to cause insurmountable damage, leaving the city a smoking wreckage that even the monster attack in June couldn't mirror. Cars hovering high around transit channels come crashing down toward the pavement of the planet. They fall quickly and in unison, taking countless lives with them. It's not just cars, either – delivery trucks carrying shipments, hoverbikes that already provide little cover, armored police vehicles and even public buses all go down. Depending on their trajectory, some crash into the sides of buildings, while others slam into the man-made river that runs down the center of the city. Nothing is untouched.

For those three minutes, there is a stretch of silence after the city falls to ruin. Trains run off their tracks, no longer thoroughly directed by the careful engineering. Buildings have their lights flicker off and back on, trying to draw upon backup generators. Anyone in a hospital receiving care from a doctor or a medi-unit may find their life slipping away from them – and if someone's in a medi-unit when the EMP hits, they're almost sure to be dead or permanently injured, requiring different medical intervention.

And this is all before the message from the mysterious AI named DAWN.

Every inch of the city needs help. Buildings burn. People cry out for help, hoping to be heard. To the local historians, this is like a nightmare that's come to play, a reminder of the ruin of the Xelkoven War before. A show of the power of a malevolent AI that's come to cause problems. So – when the message comes, it merely confirms fears – drawing upon a subconscious understanding of the past, a united terror.

Business as usual is not possible in an incident of this scale. The NAPD hits the streets, even calling upon the help of their trainees so they can help out. They spread out, well aware that they need to try to restore order. How will they manage this? It's hard to say – after all, how does one stop the assault of an apocalypse when the apocalypse seems to have already hit? The UNA hits the streets, as well, walking in formation, but never quite acting as tidily in unison. They break off in threes and fours, heading to the border, to the big three corporations – but never seeming to be in line with one another. They know what they should do in an emergency and so they're doing it. That protecting the large corporations is a part of their prerogative over helping citizens doesn't seem to bother them in the least. They just go.

Distress signals ring out through every inch of the city, likely to go unanswered. After all: what can be done in the wake of this?

Perhaps the answer is simple: anything they can.

> TOMBS IN THE SKY

Somehow, someway, there is another layer to the madness. It's not immediately apparent to the citizens of New Amsterdam as they gingerly attempt to pull themselves up from the wreckage and ruin around the city. But what was a humid day quickly turns to something far worse, with the sun seeming to suddenly act like a heat lamp that's way too close to anyone's face. The air around New Amsterdam becomes dry yet difficult to breathe, and anyone observing the sky just outside of New Amsterdam will see the large, purple-lit pyramid that hangs in the atmosphere has gone dark. The atmospheric net around the planet has been damaged, with the failsafes somehow removed – undoubtedly in some way by the virus that courses through the veins of New Amsterdam's networks.

For anyone who wants to help and has the mechanical prowess to do some good, they'll want to take an undamaged vehicle and get it up to that pyramid. The EMP has made all biometric readings difficult to preserve, so a hand that's used to hotwiring a car will find some mileage here.

Once they get to the pyramid, they'll find quite the engineering marvel. There will be doors on every level, allowing someone easy entrance if they have clearance. Right now clearance is not an issue, as the doors hang open, inviting anyone inside. Once everyone's inside, they will find evidence of the same purple lighting flickering and offering someone a view of the interior. Throughout the pyramid, there are engines on every level, as well as a highly advanced network of system checks that have been thrown into chaos. Stopping the virus' impact on this pyramid will be key to solving many of the problems inside – but the engines will need to be repaired and jumpstarted.

At the heart of the pyramid is a small living area for the engineers who handle this pyramid day in and day out. The group itself is small, and – unfortunately – quite dead. Whatever hit the pyramid took their lives, leaving anyone who's here to assist in a position of having to find the answers themselves. Fortunately, the answers do exist in the pyramid. It'll just take a bit of teamwork to find it.

> UBIQUITOUS MISFIRES

Thanks to network failsafes, New Amsterdam is able to remove the entirety of their citizen base off the world's network and limit them to the local network. However, thanks to the ravaging of the virus that damages nearly every controlling aspect of the city, the local network isn't at its best. Previous messages begin to send again and again, while some get unearthed so they can find their way to unwilling participants in particular conversations. There is no rhyme or reason to these missent messages, only that they happen.

The worst of it is that any means of reaching a friend is unreliable. It's far more reliable for someone to reach someone they know, but still not a consistent possibility. Try to call a friend and get an enemy – try to call your doctor and get the head of a casino trying to close down operations so that business can resume. Assuming it will one day do just that.

Either way, anyone who spoke out against the digital age would be feeling vindicated right about now.

> HAVE A BALL ( INTERLUDE )

Somehow in the heart of it all, a message reaches four special individuals: Clarke Griffin, Loki Odinson, Markus Manfred and Ojiro Juniper. Whether delivered by hand or a rather dedicated messaging system, it announces the time that they should come to the garden the next day. They're invited to arrive at 7:00 AM, seemingly indifferent to the chaos outside. The location for the meeting remains the same: Sunpeak Garden, a beautiful location set away from much of the chaos, and oddly untouched by the damage.

When the four arrive on the morning of the 12th, they'll find a well-dressed man sitting at a table with one leg crossed over the other. His hair is perfectly styled, brushed off to the side, and under it, his darker complexion gives way to a rather youthful appearance. Size-wise he's not very formidable in how he holds himself. He's not literally young, merely seemingly untouched by age – and he smiles to greet the four of them.

"What chaos! If I knew it would be like this, I would have planned differently. The good news is I didn't have to. Thank you, thank you for coming." His voice is softer in its intonations. He stands up, revealing that he's barely 5'2", and he motions to the four chairs near him. "Don't worry, I have breakfast coming. And coffee, too. You like coffee, don't you? I know I offered wine, but I couldn't get the vintage I preferred. Besides, you four ought to be awake for this."

He retakes his seat, one hand resting on his knee while the other settles on the metal table near him. "Oh, I forgot something important. I didn't share my name with all of you. You can call me Ball. I know it's rather vague, but I've grown to like the nickname as of late. It does, after all, define me by my most regular shining achievement."

> FINAL OOC NOTES

Please refer to the OOC EVENT POST for this event for all OOC info, including suggestions for directions on how to engage with the event and the questions thread for any questions regarding this event. The outcome for this event will depend upon character plans and actions developed in both this OOC post, and any additional plots brought to the moderators. Please feel free to submit any game-changing plans to us under the questions thread. We will get back to you as soon as possible about these plans!

The event will continue until November 16th, IC time. This date has changed, and we outlined our reasoning in this plurk after getting a feel from some of our players on Discord on how they felt about extending the event! An aftermath wrap up post will be made on July 2 which will detail the resolution and fallout of the event, though you can assume that effects from this event will be felt for some time.

ETA at 12:08 AM 6/23/19: The cipher is meant to be easy to solve! No one needs to limit their characters' ability to solve an a = 01 cipher!

El has posted here to inform everyone about zeir knowledge of the event.

As a reminder, there is one power level up available for this event. This will be granted for a thread of at least 5 action/log comments containing your character utilizing their power in some way. They will need to reach the 5 comments required by JULY 26 to be eligible. Submission will be handled on the wrap up post.

Our Activity Check will be posted JULY 1 at 12 AM UTC. It will run for seven days and close on JULY 8 at 12 AM UTC. We will not post a warning list.

> NAVIGATION

Comments

[evasives]

[ listen. daisy is good! cassian knows that! but covert is still not a word he would apply in a 'top three words to describe daisy johnson' list. it could change, maybe even after this little mission, but she's always just unapologetically herself. ]

Being subtle is not that hard. [ not to flex on you, miss johnson. ] What do you think the long game is with our friend D-Nice? [ IT'S A PROCESS. ]

Just talk to him casually for a while. Purposely run into him in the hallways at the Woods.

[evite]

I'm plenty subtle, thanks.

[ kind of. when it suits her to be. she hasn't outright blasted their way into this conference room, either; she got the keys from her boss as part of cassian's legitimate assignment in the building. fixing what needs fixing is a real thing. they just happen to have ulterior motives along the way. ]

I don't think he knows I live there yet — which, honestly, isn't a bad thing. He'd be way less likely to let me escort you around if he knew we lived together.

[evasives]

I think you can be, when you really want or need to be. [ yes like getting him in here. but no, still not one of the first words he would use to describe her. ]

Purposely run into him in the halls here? It is definitely for the best he has not realized you live in the same space. But should that ever come to be ruined, there is no reason you could not try to take advantage of it.

[ he moves away from the table, digging around briefly in one of the large potted plants and shuffles it like he needs it out of the way. he sets the bug on the inside of the pot, tucked under the lip. it's the same grey color as the interior. but he doesn't turn around after that, move to examine one of the electrical boxes on the wall nearby. there isn't anything wrong with it, but he's going to look! that's clearly the only reason he's over here. ]

[evite]

Anybody can be anything if they have to be.

[ well, to a point. daisy can pull off polished or subtle or genteel in a pinch, but it's not natural for her. she's less a spy and more a secret agent, and it shows on missions. yeet is her natural state. ]

We should check his office, while we're out here. He'll be pissed if you came to fix things and his lights go on the fritz after you leave.

[ look! subtle suggestions! that are not obvious to the unaware! cassian should be very proud of her. ]

[evasives]

I do not know if I agree about anybody. Some people cannot lie.

[ not everyone can handle that sort of thing. people survive in all kinds of ways, but not everyone can be a good liar. ]

Good idea. It is very important to make sure the boss is able to do his work. [ not part of his plan, but cassian is always able to adapt on the fly! he won't say no to poking around in there. the boss's office is always a good stop. ] I can make sure the wiring is fully connected.

[evite]

[ she makes a bit of a show of testing things in this room, now that it seems like cassian's mostly done with his fiddling. so far, so good. ]

I'd like to know what kind of work he's doing back there.

[ so hopefully the bug cassian is sure to plant will reveal something. the rumor mill and gossip only go so far. ]

How many offices are you supposed to visit today?

[evasives]

[ dryly: ] You could always just ask him.

[ come on daisy stop talking about the sneaking around so obviously! ]

[ he comes back to his tools to gather them up, to move on to the next location, which is evidently her boss's office. ]

There is no real set number. We have been working nonstop since the EMP hit. Right now I am at five different places. There will be more, I am sure, but it depends on when I finish the last on the roster.

[evite]

Oh, yeah, because me asking him hey, what kind of shady shit are you up to when your door is closed is really going to get me somewhere.

[ don't be stupid!!! ]

Brilliant suggestion.

[evasives]

[ there's a pause, where a grin threatens his face. ] Daisy. I was not being serious.

[ he moves closer to her while packing up, mostly so he can drop his voice.]

You probably should not be talking so blatantly about this here.

[ so far his call out about her subtly is not wrong...... ]

[evite]

I didn't say a name.

[ but, okay, point taken. she's not going to admit she was wrong, but she will refrain from further potentially incriminating statements out loud. ]

Do you need me to show you around anymore, or are you good from here?

[evasives]

[ he gives her a Look. just because you don't say a name doesn't mean the meanings can't be implied!! ]

I would like to be sure I have the correct office, but you can just point me at it if you prefer.

[evite]

[ one of these days cassian can sit her down and teach her how to be a Subtle Spy. but not today, because today daisy is very busy dealing with the aftermath of the EMP, and while her boss has been kind (??) enough to let her walk cassian around, that graciousness won't last long.

so she should get back. ]

Alright, then. Come on.

[ and so she leads him out of the conference room and down the hallway, stopping to vanna white impression in front of her boss' nondescript office door. the lights, curiously, are still on. but maybe cassian should check. ]

Knock yourself out. I'll see you later.

[ and then she winks, like an idiot, and hightails it back towards her desk. ]