Digital Seed - Season 1, Pilot (Cyberpunk M&M PbP)

[Evil Ujio]

Digital Seed

Prologue

Freedom…

Century City was a marvel to behold, a true wired city of tomorrow, where man and machine coexisted to create a new society, a society of the future where being a thinking being was quickly become less and less unique. Where the idealism and fears of yesterday are replaced by the cold, harsh reality of progress, yet somewhere in this mess the soul of humanity had waned. Where exploitation of the artificial was simple a way of life; man had created life in his image and had put it to work to make his life easier.

He would soon find peace…

The core of the city was a concrete, steel, and glass jungle of wealth and corruption, where the true power behind the purely figurehead mayor dwelled. The mountain fortress of VSC Tower loomed over the city like a brooding giant, as if to survey to his claim on the land and the fearing masses that huddled below. Aerodynes glided through the night sky, many of them hired security forces to aid in the defense of the wealthy corporate entities that crowded into the core. Living in the shadow of the core was the Gray City, the wasteland of human refuse and poor that made up the majority of the cities vast populace, but even they were wired, and technology marched ever onward.

The light was coming faster now…

But this summer night was like any other in Century City, cool and almost calm, almost peaceful. But those that knew the way of things could see the calm was artificial, enforced by an omnipresent police force under the pay of whatever agency could afford to hire them… sadly there were few “good cops” left to protect and serve. But perhaps the people had long given up on a just system, and instead turned to heroes in the shadows individuals whop for whatever reason have taken the law into their own hands, who work both for and against the corporate machine, in a battle where the only true currency was information…

Could she forgive him for what he had done?

October 12th, 2032
Century City, 0900 local time

The pulse of the city beats at a constant rhythm, things change, the news is plainly ordinary with traffic reports, local crime reports, and of course the vivacious weather android Suzy-9, tings are as they always are, plastic, digital, and clean. Covering the dirt and grime that lies just under the skin…

Give a brief intro of your character and what they are doing at this time in the morning, if anything… and I will take it from there. It can be assumed that you all know each other and have either worked together or know of each other’s work and have decided to join forces… either way I encourage you to have fun.

 

[Elfy]

Kirala

Kirala’s dark blue sedan rushes through the streets of the Grey City as she rapidly nears the Water Margin District with three security cars hot on her tail. Her four male passengers wear ski masks and hold handguns while she herself wears what appears to be light clothing on the outside, but in reality is reinforced with space-age materials that form a protective layer underneath. Her passengers nervously look about though the polarized windows as they are driven quickly through the streets and zip around other vehicles, make quick turns, and otherwise are driven with great urgency. She takes a suddenly right turn and quickly goes up an on-ramp and onto a freeway. She calls out to her passengers, "Grab your tails!" as she presses a button and guns her engine. Her sedan experiences a dramatic boost of speed from its now active supercharger and the car practically flies down the freeway as she skillfully weaves it through traffic. Still, while she is rapidly putting distance between her and her pursuers, she isn’t fast enough to outrun their radios. A light security helicopter suddenly rises over the side of the raised freeway and attempts to position itself in her path and open its guns on her.

Her passengers cry out in surprise while she pouts and says, "Oh, poopie," as she presses another button, sending another surge of raw power through her sedan’s engine that forces everyone’s head back against their head-rests as nitrous oxide further boosts the already supercharged engine’s power. With her sudden burst of speed, she manages to rocket under and past the helicopter just before it can bar her path and bring its guns to bare. She zooms down the freeway, outrunning the pursuing helicopter, and powers down her supercharger as she takes an off-ramp into Water Margin District.

She quickly weaves her way though several side roads and alleys before she pulls into a warehouse where another car is waiting with a single driver. She pulls over beside it and finally stops. Her passengers get out and one tosses her an envelope. She **Purrs** while smiling and gives him a wink. She flips though it quickly, revealing it to be cash, and then puts it in her glove compartment. While waiting, she quickly presses a series of buttons. One button rotates her license plate to a different one, a second button changes her car’s paint job from dark blue to dark red, and a third button depolarizes her windshields so that they can easily be seen though from the outside. After they shut her car doors and remove their merchandise, or more accurately their ill-gotten gains, she turns around in a 'U'-turn and then drives out of the warehouse. Hardly a moment later, she drives past two security cars driving fast down the road – possible in pursuit of her, but with her car’s 'make-over', she goes unrecognized as they drive by obliviously. She smiles as she vocalizes a cute little **Myah** noise of happiness.

 

[threshel]

Kluge

"Yes, fifteen minutes, please." Kluge smiled from behind the mismatched lenses of his sunglasses. He'd gotten the call right on schedule. These guys may be brutes, but they were puctual brutes. The pretty asian girl behind the counter smiled back and took his money, then handed him a token. He nodded his bald head, and made his way back into the dimly lit interior, amid the loud music that was supposed to cover the cacophony of twitching, kicking, and tourettes-like barks that emitted from behind the privacy screens that shielded nearly half the booths. A young asian man caught his eye, but Kluge waved the attendant off, mouthing the word buffer. The attendant nodded, and left him be. Kluge idly wondered if he was the pretty girl's brother or husband. Husband, probably, he thought, they don't look enough alike.

Kluge sat at the booth, fed the slot it's token, and jacked in. He remained as still as he could while he waited for his brain to adjust to the flood of information. His toes twitched, and the ringing in his ears picked up. His bio-buffer took care of most interface problems, but public nodes nearly always had filthy signals. At least he didn't need the straps.

While he could net from nearly anywhere, one did not conduct this kind of business over a traceable, identifiable transceiver. Kluge was about to conduct one of his favorites: digital fencing. He took a few nanoseconds to steal a succession of nodes, and set up a bounce routine to throw off traceback. Then he sat on the last node until the serial numbers started to pour in. As each poured in, he sent a forged bank request for authenticity and when the stolen property alerts came down the line, he piggybacked a virus on the acknowledgements that would change the numbers in their database then self-delete. Not only would that serial number never generate another alert, but the security forces would be tearing off to some cross-town bank looking for the thieves. They would find bewildered bank employees, but no criminals. The trick was completing all the numbers before the security forces and bank employees figured out they were being duped. Beads of sweat broke out on his face as his eyes REM danced beneath their lids. The guy feeding the optical scanner was competent, at least, and the numbers were coming at a brisk pace. They were done in nine minutes. Kluge acknowledged completion and the transfer of payment to his placeholder account, then backed out of his node chain and built another to launder his payment. That took five minutes, but was largely a routine process.

Even with the shades, Kluge squinted with the transition to morning light outside. He grinned in spite of it. He jacked back in through his transceiver, and walked down the street to a noodle vendor for a hot cup.

 

[Evil Ujio]

Kirala

Kirala eases by the security with no fear of reprisal, they continue past in a blur as a security robot patrols the street corner, ever alert as citizens of the Water District walk briskly in the morning rush, the streets were filled with bikers, rickshaws, and classy sedans.

Kirala hears the persistent sound of an incoming message on her cell phone, from a contact she knew of as Kitsumi, the same one that had set her up with this just completed job. Kitsumi was a fox moreau with some nebulous ties to the Brass Orchid; he was smart, charming, and utterly mercenary and had a gift for hearing about the right jobs for the right people.

Kluge

The old vendor, Grandpa Hun, had run this business for years and his stand gave off the appearance of a rickety bamboo contraption that was straining under the bulk of Grandpa Hun had some of the best noodles in all of the Water District. He smiled a two tooth smile to Kluge, “Morning, shall it be the usual,” already spooning some noodles into a bowl for the skillful hacker.

A holographic display just under the sign for the noodle stand displayed a news feed from the local Century City Morning Crew. They were rattling on about the traffic and the upcoming Presidential elections in November between incumbent President Dana Lewis and Democratic hopeful Theodore Williams.

 

[Elfy]

Kirala

As she drives down over the various roads of the Water Margin District, passing by the various pedestrians, Kirala reaches over and presses a button on her stereo system and Hispanic flavored music starts to play over her sedan’s quality speakers.

She thinks.oO("Alimento ahora,") as she notices several restaurants coming up, but then her cell phone rings a silly little melody of cat meows. She exclaims, "Myooo?" and then pulls it out of her jacket pocket and answers it, "Sí. Hola."

 

[Evil Ujio]

As she drives down over the various roads of the Water Margin District, passing by the various pedestrians, Kirala reaches over and presses a button on her stereo system and Hispanic flavored music starts to play over her sedan’s quality speakers.

She thinks.oO("Alimento ahora,") as she notices several restaurants coming up, but then her cell phone rings a silly little melody of cat meows. She exclaims, "Myooo?" and then pulls it out of her jacket pocket and answers it, "Sí. Hola."

“Hola chica,” Kitsumi says with a bad Spanish accent, “girlfriend I got something absolutely fabulous for you, once I heard it I knew it would be just purrrrfect for you,” he says accenting the purr.

“Get your crew together, and meet me at my club as soon as possible, I got a client you just have to have to meet, okay?” just as Kitsumi finishes her sentence a black sports sedan slides out in front of Kirala’s vehicle, blocking her path.

The door swings open; it is Detective Takashi, one of the actual few good cops left on the force and a constant thorn in Kirala’s side. He has never busted her for anything yet, but she suspects he knows that she is more then just a pretty face.

 

[Elfy]

Kirala

Kirala quickly slows to a stop while she replies to Kitsumi, "Oh. Hello there. Ummm...sí. Kirala must go now...bad company. Bye Bye." She hangs up and puts her cell phone back into her jacket.

She pushes a button and it lowers down her electric window on the driver’s side. She pokes out her head and says to the aggressive driver with a cute little smiley face, "Oh, you are a bad driver, no? You might cause an accident. Myooo?" Hispanic music continues playing while her engine idles.

 

[Karl Green]

Mr. Black

Harô Najema awoke slowly to the buzzing of his alarm "…ya, ya… I'm up… blast should not have had those extra rounds last night… heads going to play for that all day…" he mutters to himself. Slowly he draws himself up on the bed and shuts the buzzing off.

Looking around at his small apartment he thinks back over the last little job that he had. Bunch of suits with too much time on their hands. First thing he starts his morning exercising and stretching to get the feelings back into his limbs. Then to the bathroom to shower and shave, feeling a bit better for it. Glancing at his reflecting in the minor, his steel-gray cyberreplacement eyes looking back at him. Finally cleaning his Colt-Miltz 11mm Heavy Pistol, disassembling and putting it back together in less then five minutes.

Finally some stim-coff and tofu breakfast and Harô is starting to feel human again.

 

[threshel]

Kluge

"Yes, the usual, please." Kluge gave the old man a smile as he accepted the cup and sticks. "It smells good today." He paid, and swiveled around on the stool to lean his back against the counter. Blowing on the noodles to cool them, he watched traffic, while keeping an ear on Gramp's holo.

Through his transceiver, Kluge checked his mail and opened a chat channel, then began browsing the net as he ate.

 

[Evil Ujio]

"Yes, the usual, please." Kluge gave the old man a smile as he accepted the cup and sticks. "It smells good today." He paid, and swiveled around on the stool to lean his back against the counter. Blowing on the noodles to cool them, he watched traffic, while keeping an ear on Gramp's TV.

Through his transceiver, Kluge checked his mail and opened a chat channel, then began browsing the net as he ate.

The bowl of noodles is tasty and warm as Kluge sets to eating and enjoying the insipid morning show. Grandpa Hun smiles and attends to another customer, showing them his two tooth smile as he fixes another bowl of noodles.

Kluge gets a digital voice message from an unknown contact, a female voice, “Morning, impressive job with the banks this morning… any chance your skills would be for hire?”

Haro

Haro notices that there is a message on his machine. The morning is cool in Century City and beyond the sound of the city, muted through the walls, it seems somewhat peaceful and almost beautiful.

Kirala

Detective Takashi leans into the window flashing his badge, “Kirala, why am I not surprised to find you prowling the streets. I mean a car chase with one of the best drivers I have ever seen with a sedan similar to this one… just happens to evade capture…”

He pauses for effect, “But I am not saying that you were involved or anything like that, I mean not someone as innocent as you but if you happened to see anything, it would be in your best interest to let me know.”