The cyber defense event of the squad games wasn’t broadcast. As per usual, most of the involved teams just sat around and did whatever the task required in as little time as possible. This year was no exception, and most of Team Lambda was gathered in Mark’s lab. Mark was off-site along with Aaron and Michelle. The three of them were taking part in the event, leaving Jessica, David, Emilia, Allison, and Javon to loiter aimlessly while poking around the lab. They were under the supervision Rinoa, Mark’s Personal A.I. assistant.
Javon leaned on an unoccupied counter “This event is boring as fuck. What the hell am I supposed to do”?
“’Shut your mouth and quit your bitching’ will do for a start” Jessica replied. “It’s not like anyone else here has the expertise to handle this event. The next closest would be Emilia, and she’s not partaking for obvious reasons”.
Emilia groaned “I don’t see why the reason is so obvious”. She went to a storage rack and switched out her ‘normal’ arm for her favorite variable version. David merely sat at the main lab console and inquired as to the team status on the event.
“How goes things Mark”?
Mark replied over the comm-link “not too difficult, just bothersome and time consuming. What are you guys doing in my lab? Try not to break anything. Rinoa’s keeping an eye on things, but let’s not have a firefight or anything in there, ok”? Mark replied while working at the assigned task, which was to break through several layers of security while simultaneously defending against various cyber-attacks from another location.
“Oh, we’re fine, kinda bored honestly” David continued. “Emilia’s bitching about why she can’t change weapons, though she just switched anyways”.
Michelle followed up “Why doesn’t she listen. I told her not to switch unless we entered some type of combat status. Well, whatever, we’ll be done in like 5 minutes anyways. Just behave yourselves”.
It was Emilia who replied “Yeah, yeah, I heard ya. I’ll just…” Emilia paused over the radio, staring blankly at her right arm. “Uhm… I cant move my arm. What the hell”?!
In unison, both Rinoa and Aaron’s voices sounded over the comm-link <“Unidentified signals on multiple channels”>. Aaron continued “This is another attack, completely outside the scope of the squad games. I’m sure it’ll be noticed, but be on your guard everyone”.
Rinoa’s voice followed Aaron’s <<Item ‘RA 4’ of ‘Project Emi’ has been breached and is entering a combat state>>
“Isn’t that Ems’s arm?! But she just said…”
“That I couldn’t move it, and I cant release it either! It’s locked and switching on its own. I can’t even eject ammo. I have no control of it at all”! Emilia shouted to warn everyone.
“And you left the channel open again… This is exactly why I said not to equip a weapon. Rinoa, can you shut it down”? Michelle shouted over the comm-link.
<<Negative. I have been cut off from remote access to the ‘project Emi’ servers. I can attempt to initiate a secondary manual override.>>
Emilia struggled trying to hold down her arm, which was making clicking noises from changing ammo, along with rigid movements. “What the hell is a ‘secondary manual override? I’ve never heard of that”. She finished her sentence as her arm changed itself to shotgun mode. “Do something quick, I can’t stop this shit”!
<<Secondary override initializing…>> Rinoa called out just as the arm positioned itself towards Jesse, who was just looking down the barrel.
Jessica took to a flashing set of controls at the main console and proceeded to push several buttons and levers. Emilia’s arm stopped changing ammunition and started moving about in random direction, nearly hitting Emilia in her face. “What the hell is this”?! Emilia shouted.
“I think…“ Jessica muttered as she fiddled with the joysticks. “Oh, so that’s how that works”. As she spoke, she continued to repeat actions while watching Emilia. “Ok, I figured it out”!
Emilia groaned as her arm stopped moving. “What did you figure out? Hey, it stopped for now”.
“This…” Jessica moved a joystick and held a button, Emilia waved.
“What the fuck”? Emilia glanced back and forth between her arm and Jessica. Jessica moved another joystick and a different button, Emilia’s left wrist started to rotate back and forth in accordance with Jessica’s actions.
“You’re doing this aren’t you”? Emilia asked as she held up her wrist, which was still rotating.
“Well duh. Look, she’s remote controlled guys”! Jessica continued playing with various buttons and switches, and Emilia, who was utterly at her mercy, continued to move about and occasionally take off as the thrusters in her feet were activated.
“If I could kick your ass right now, I totally would…” Emilia roared.
Jessica simply continued to play with the controls in front of her, paying little mind. “you know, these short range signals are probably blocking out the radio signals you got before. If I stop messing with you, who knows what might happen. You know, that sounded… wrong” Jessica replied while flipping another switch.
Emilia nodded as she did an involuntary pirouette. Jessica continued “Oh, there’s another button here… ‘autonomous mechanical mode’? What the hell is this”?
<<Autonomous mechanical mode allows for the user to disable most of the electrical circuitry and allows movement using the mechanical components only. It is considerably harder to use, and far less efficient, hence it was implemented in the current versions of the equipment>>
Emilia frowned. “You mean to tell me that I can stop these types of attacks from happening by simply enabling that mode”?
<<That is correct>>
“Jessica, hit the damn button already! This shit is annoying! I’d rather be unable to move that forced to act under someone else’s will”.
“But, has this even been tested” David raised a perfectly valid question.
“Let me see that console” Allison walked up to the console. “Found it. Jesse, catch her”.
“What”? Jesse turned towards Allison in confusion “Catch her? She gonna fall”?
“Just do it damnit”! Allison ordered.
Jesse moved into position near Emilia who glared at him. Allison pressed two buttons in quick succession. Seconds later, Emilia stopped moving her cybernetic limbs detached themselves, leaving her powerless and ground bound. Jesse immediately caught her after muttering “oh”.
<<RA MK II, LA MK II, and F MK II are all offline and disconnected. All other parts have been disabled in storage until the disturbance passes>>.
Emilia was laid on the table in the middle of the lab and Jesse went to the storage cabinets to get her basic equipment.
Mark voice came across the comm-link, “looks like we’re done here. Did you guys fix the issue there”?
“Well, if a person can be considered an issue, then yeah, we did” Javon answered.
“That’s rude Javon. But the problem has been dealt with for now. Emilia’s laying down unequipped and all of her equipment is under lockdown” Allison answered.
“Good, seems all the various types of interference have stopped as well” Aaron commented.
In light of the fact that nearly the entirety of team Lambda ended up partaking in the cyber security event, under various and very real threats, and in addition to their official result, the team was awarded first place the cyber security event.
Team Lambda - First Draft
Following
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Ch 4 - Cross Training Ch 5 - Tactical Manouvers Ch 6 - Stupidity and Revalations CH 7 - Morning Semi-nudity Ch 8 - Run n Gun Ch 9 - Air Force None Ch 9.5 - Allison's Pilot Evaluation Ch 10 - Caged Fangs Ch 11 - The Calm(ish) Ch 12 - Destruction Incarnate: Jesse Ch 13 - Artificial Disturbance Ch 14 - Squad Games - Round 1 Ch 15 - Tic-Tac-BANG! Ch 16 - Bits, Bytes, and Bullets Ch 17 - Off Day Ch 18 - Beginnings Ch 19 - Outing Ch 20 - Date Ch 21 - Schemes Ch 22 - Live Broadcast Ch 23 - No Holds Barred Ch 24 - Playthings Ch 25 - The Fissure Ch 26 - Unbound yet Restricted Ch 27 - Truth Ch 28 - AdvanceCh 16 - Bits, Bytes, and Bullets
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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.042 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 02:37, Nov 10 2024