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

[gravemistake]

Well, he's not.

[He's got the poor employee pinned up against the wall, and though he struggles, he really has no hope of freeing himself against Gabriel's strength. It's very easy to fall back into playing good cop-bad cop with Jack, and perhaps he gets some pleasure out of watching Jack fall into the routine as well.

He can't help but grin a little, which of course will do nothing to put their temporary captives at ease.]

I'm a little more of a wildcard.

[personalwar]

[ Setting them further ill at ease isn't the worst idea, and so Jack doesn't take any issue with Gabriel's methods. It's possible there's a time when he might have wrinkled his nose at it, but even back during Overwatch's heyday he wouldn't have considered anything they've done here thus far to be that out of line.

It's part of why he's here at all. He still believes that Gabriel is capable of going too far, and while Jack himself has crossed plenty of lines since taking on the mantle of Soldier: 76, he doesn't generally take lives. He's just rougher around the edges, for better or worse.

His fixes his masked gaze on the woman employee, staring her down even if she can't see his eyes. He can see her squirm under the scrutiny. ]

What do you know about the implants that the UNA soldiers get? Ever heard of ALIGN?

[gravemistake]

[Gabriel still has a solid hold on the man, and he recognizes that they can perhaps use the woman's reluctance to get her coworker injured to squeeze some answers out of them. At the very least, they should be able to get something out of one of the two.

The woman doesn't answer right away--to Gabriel, it's more than enough indication that she has heard of ALIGN, but is reluctant to divulge, which means they need to squeeze a little harder.

Gabriel does. Against the wall.]

Sounds like she might know something. What, did they make you sign an NDA?

[personalwar]

[ The added pressure causes the man in Gabriel's grasp to squirm and gasp, fighting to try and get free even though there's no way he's ever going to pull that off. Not that he knows that. He might assume Gabriel has prosthetics that are granting him that extra strength, but otherwise they have no frame of reference for these kind of enhancements.

Jack follows up Gabriel's words with his own, planting both of his hands down on the counter as he leans in closer to the woman. ]

Is putting yourself in danger worth keeping it? How much loyalty do you really have to a company that's making you work under these conditions?

[ She's backed herself up against a wall, eyes darting nervously to look anywhere but directly at him. But she doesn't talk.

Jack curls one gloved hand into a fist and slams it down onto the counter. ]

Tell me.

[ He doesn't fully realize it, but his chest has started to glow blue, only somewhat visible through the layers of clothing he's got on.

And then, after just another moment of hesitation, she starts talking.

"We don't deal with UNA implants here. Please, you have to believe me! They don't tell us anything more than what we have to know to do our jobs." ]

[gravemistake]

[See, Jack is much better at the talking part. Gabriel is more than content to squeeze the man against the wall while Jack uses that as leverage. He watches intently, much more focused on the questions being asked and their answers than he is on the weakly squirming man in his grip. Jack starts off easy, but then very quickly gets agitated.

Were Gabriel less trained, he might have flinched at that fist on the table. As it stands, however, he can tell something is different. The woman hasn't answered just because Jack is scarier than he was a moment ago.]

Well. That's interesting.]

Where do they manufacture the UNA implants?

[If they can't find them here, they'll just go there, instead.]

[personalwar]

[ The employee jerking around futilely in Gabriel's grip finally speaks up, perhaps to take some of the heat off of the woman Jack's needling.

"We don't know exact locations, okay?!" To his credit, he manages to work up some righteous anger in his tone. "They're developed in UNA military compounds -- that's all we're allowed to know."

Jack doesn't remove his gaze from the woman, but he does register everything that the man says. His hand splays out on the counter as he leans in closer to the cowering employee. ]

And what makes their implants so different from the civilian models?

[gravemistake]

["They don't tell us anything about the software."

Gabriel frowns at that answer, of course, but he's more focused on Jack, and the intensity with which he's asking the questions, and how their captives are suddenly providing answers. He's pretty sure it wasn't his threats of violence that were doing it, if the blue glow from under Jack's collar is any indication.

He loosens his grip a little bit, allowing the man's feet to touch the floor.]

I think that's all they know.

[Any further pushing will just net them false information, a desperate attempt on the part of the employees to make them stop, he thinks.]

[personalwar]

[ It's always about not crossing that line. If you push too hard, people will start to say anything they can just to get you to stop, and Jack knows that Gabriel's all too familiar with striking that balance. If he's calling it here, then Jack isn't going to argue the point.

He glances over -- not that he can make real eye contact when both of them have masks on, but the sentiment is there.

There's nothing more to be said to the two quivering employees, and so with a curt nod Jack turns on his heel and heads out of the room, back the way they came. Their work is done, and now they only need to worry about extraction.

It's only as he's walking out of the room that he notices the blue glow at his sternum, which quickly fades. He knows what the glow indicates, but it's going to take him a minute to figure out what had triggered it. ]

[gravemistake]

[And just like that, they're finished. Gabriel knows they don't want to overstay their welcome--they're already pushing it just by breaking into this place, so they need to get out before any authorities can get here. Hopefully the employees are a little too shaken to react right away, giving them a little head start.

Gabriel has most certainly noticed the blue glow, and he gives Jack a knowing glance. He's got a feeling he knows what happened, and he's very certain Jack isn't going to like it.]