This is Rom from the Packrat Sprawl making waves and coming to you live and direct from the underground Runners’ tunnels in the city. It is 2:57AM and I am right beneath the Newsfeed building. I am with Shu today on a run. We have business at the Newsfeed. I got my handheld and a laptop and guess who is going to be zipping the Newsfeed in another few minutes. But we got some logistics to get out of the way first before we can make that happen. Come on, lets get to it.
Rom checked the Runners’ GPS on the monitor on the wall as Shu synched his handheld to the GPS system. They were looking for the Administrator’s console. Shu would be going into the building and Rom was going to setup on the roof. Zipping the Newsfeed was not an easy task. It could be done remotely but Rom wanted to make a game out of it and do it onsite. He had zipped the Newsfeed before sending nonsense images, white noise and static over the satellite. He had a little bet with Anj, the leader of the Packrat Runners and the Processing Center at the Packrat Sprawl. Anj didn’t think he could actually get the zip done from the Newsfeed building. Anj bet him 5000 credits, a good amount for a homeless youth that Rom would get caught and have to teleport out before he could get the task at hand done. Rom gave a counter offer of a week’s leave from his job at the Processing Center and a dose of neurocyne, the psi inducer drug that controlled the aegis or manifestation of psychic power. Anj had easily taken the bet.
“Shu, you got the Admin console?” asked Rom as he pulled his handheld out of his pocket and looked at the display. It had a layout of the Newsfeed building on the 50th floor, right below the roof.
“Why do you need me in the building? I could get caught. The Admin console is on the 5th floor, isn’t it?” asked Shu a little worried about his part of the task.
“No one is going to be in the building at this time of night. Maybe the guards are roaming the halls but that is it. I scouted the location on the Runners’ GPS, we should be clear right about now,” said Rom as he looked at the time on the handheld which was ticking down the seconds to 3AM. His handheld chimed as it hit the target.
“Okay, lets get this done.” Rom teleported out with Shu on his heels. They arrived in the basement of the Newsfeed building which was right above where they had been in the Packrat tunnels.
—-
Shu nodded then jumped again, arriving at the door to the Admin console room for the satellite feed on the fifth floor. He could hear footsteps down the hall. Shu dove for the door and put his hand on it using his psychic power. He phased through the door arriving inside the room which was dark. The lights of the terminals and a few monitors their glare blazed through the room. He tapped the side of his head at his jack and used the nanomachines in his blood to send a message to Rom’s handheld. He tapped out a code with his index finger like Morse code at his temple and Rom’s handheld woke up as he materialized on the roof.
Rom immediately put the handheld down and knelt, opening the laptop. He needed Shu to set the Admin console to remote which would allow him to hack into the Newsfeed. He would use the RAT Mole system, a remote administration tool to get right inside and infiltrate the Newsfeed.
Rom received a sending from Shu who had flipped the switch on the Admin console. ** You are all set. The terminal machine name is GFYA9456772A19. Zip away! I am out.**
Shu vanished from the Admin room and appeared next to Rom on the roof. Shu leaned down and stared over Rom’s shoulder.
“Let me show you how its done.” Rom opened the Mole system and started in on the hack. First he had to log into the remote tool. Rom entered the machine name as Shu repeated it to him again as he read it off his handheld. The remote tool logged into the machine. The system message read “connecting” as the contact was made.
“I’m in,” said Rom as Shu watched him work.
Lino Dejarre, the Emperor of the Pacific Territories was in the royal palace in the City. He was in his office. He had just come back from his tour on the battleship Escalon with the rest of the Psi Faction crew. He had requested some time off from being a clandestine psychic operative to handle some business he needed to attend to with the Parliament. Mr. Stuart, the lead minister was in the office with him. Lino was reading over a bill that had just passed the day before. Lino was not pleased with the bill that had been introduced by Kitazawa which gave the Zone Police permission to round up homeless kids from the streets of the Echelons and send them to work camps in the kedek mines for hard labour. The bill had been introduced twice, the second time there were some riders attached that made it so the bill had to be passed if there was going to be infrastructure spending on road projects and a stipulation that extended the position of Commander Ima, the leader of the Esset battlefleet.
Lino furrowed his brow as he looked up from the edict slapping it down on the desk. “This will not do. I cannot sign off on this, Mr. Stuart. This is just wrong. Where did this bill come from with these riders attached?”
“This is the second time that Kitazawa issued this bill. He had one of his minions introduce it again after there was a change in the language. The rider about the war with the Atlantea Federation made it so that the ministers had to vote on it or we would be in breach of military law,” informed Mr. Stuart.
“We need funding to continue the war but I will not sign off on this. Commander Ima is currently deployed with the 6th battlefleet on their way to Londes, the Atlantea Federation homeland, to strike their fleet at their home base. I cannot pull him back mid mission.”
“Kitazawa knew that, your Majesty. There is no way around it. The only option you have is to veto the bill and I assure you that I will put in a formal reprimand to Kitazawa that this type of tactic cannot be used to tie the hands of the Emperor. It is against Parliamentary protocol. Do you want me to censure him? I can put a block on his voting and those that support him.
“Turn on the Newsfeed. Isn’t there a vote going on right now?”
“No, the vote is over. The Newsfeed should be broadcasting the war council meeting,” said Mr. Stuart.
“Nevertheless, I want to see the Newsfeed coverage. Censure Kitazawa and I want that entire cadre of ministers written up. They cannot hold the government hostage like this.”
“Yes, your Majesty.”
Mr. Stuart bowed to Lino and took his leave after turning on the Newsfeed monitor on the wall. Lino watched the monitor for a moment and sat back in the chair watching the meeting.
Rom loaded up the program to take control of the Newsfeed. The Mole system was engaged. Rom put his handheld down on the roof and crossed his legs settling in. They would be here for the next 15 minutes as it would take the system about 2 minutes to load the zipping files into the Newsfeed’s programming system.
“Do you have the Selector Programming key we need to load the timeslot?” asked Rom as he looked at Shu who took his handheld out of his pocket.
“Let me get that for you. Acolyte catalogued the keys the last time he infiltrated. We should have the complete schedule lineup for each weekday. What channel do you want to zip, the main Newsfeed station or one of the sister sites?” asked Shu.
“I want to take out the war council meeting which should be going on now on Newsfeed 4. The Parliament needs to know that I am onto them. That minister Kitazawa who put in the bill to round up the homeless kids in the Echelons put a rider on the new bill. His actions will cause the Emperor to get involved. Kitazawa is crazy trying to pull something like that. He has much as tied the Emperor’s hands,” said Rom.
“You seem to have it in for Kitazawa by your tone. What did he do to you?” asked Shu.
“There was a psychic sent after me who killed a Zone Police officer’s wife and son. The officer thinks this Kitazawa hired the murderer or has some connection to that killing.”
“When did you start kissing up to Zone Police officers?”
“No, this one has my back. It is Xander Storm on curfew patrol.”
“You best be careful about that or he will haul your arse in. I can see your aegis sparking even now. If they catch you with your aegis lit up on the street they will arrest you. It is illegal to have your aegis active on the street. There is some type of law.”
“Yes, I am aware of that. The government experimented on me and erased by memory. It was only recently that I was able to get my full memory back and remember my hacking skills. The government really screwed me up. Ever since then I have been having problems controlling my psychic power. The aegis just goes off at random.”
“Is the program loaded yet?”
“Give it about 5 more seconds. The screen should confirm the payload is ready when the satellite accepts the packets.”
“The zip will send nonsense images and interrupt the broadcast, correct? I have never done a zip before,” said Shu.
“I have done this multiple times remotely just never from the actual location. Doing it this close to the Admin console we should be able to hold the zip longer. Instead of a few seconds we should be able to get at least 5 minutes out of it.”
“You are zipping that one channel only?”
“No, we will lead off with the war council meeting then the zip will cascade to all 40 Newsfeed stations and take them out one after another. We should hit them all.”
“That will be righteous. I am going back to the Sprawl. I want to watch the zip on the monitor feed Acolyte has up in the ready area.”
“Yeah all 50 of those televisions will zip at the same time. You go watch. I have everything setup here. Bring Anj with you. I want to see the look on his face when I zip all 40 stations at once for 5 whole minutes. He is going to lose the bet,” chuckled Rom.
“I’ll make sure he sees it,” said Shu and vanished.
Rom hovered over the laptop for another minute as the payload confirmed it loaded. He looked down at his handheld and waited for it to tick down to 3:15AM when the zip was scheduled to occur in the broadcast system.
Lino sat back staring at the war council meeting and turned the sound up with the remote. Anis, his cousin and the Viceroy, was on the screen talking from his location in the Jannassee Islands. Lino listened intently for two minutes and then the screen went to static.
“I wonder what is going on? The Newsfeed is never off the air,” said Lino and flipped to Newsfeed 2, the music station. A music video was playing.
Rom pushed the button on the program and the zip executed. He sat back and watched the window on the livestream of the Newsfeed 2 station over the gridscan.
Lino’s eyes got wide as a loud buzzing hit the Newsfeed 2 station and white noise and nonsense images flew across the screen: an eyeball, a skateboard, a picture of a dog in a skirt. There was a snippet of music, a blaring sound a dolphin flying through a hoop, then Lino caught the logo for the Packrat hackers. He brought his hand up to his forehead and started to laugh. He turned the sound down to stop the annoying buzzing.
A knock came on his office door as Mr. Stuart ran into the room and called out to him. “Something is wrong with the Newsfeed. I was watching the war council and then the screen went to static. The Newsleed is never off the air.”
“Be calm Mr. Stuart. Turn around and watch the nonsense. It will do you good,” chuckled Lino..
Mr. Stuart turned around as Lino pointed the remote back at the channel and turned up the sound. The crazy images and blaring noise filtered across the screen, the images changing every second to some other random picture.
“What is happening? What type of programming is that?” inquired Mr. Stuart. He was unsettled as he watched it. The ministers relied on the Newsfeed for the pulse of the public. Without the constant data and knowledge the ministers in Parliament were lost.
“Someone took over your Newsfeed,” said Lino and stood up seeing the appalled look on Mr. Stuart’s face.
“But what about the war counscil?”
“Oh, the meeting is still going on.”
“But we won’t know the outcome.”
“Rest assured, Mr. Stuart. The Newsfeed is still there. Newsfeed zipping is illegal. I have a feeling who is behind this. The zip usually doesn’t last this long. The Newsfeed usually cuts it in a few seconds. Who ever is zipping must be coming from somewhere inside the Newsfeed building. The zip has been going on for at least 2 minutes. They will shut it down shortly. Lets see if someone takes responsibility,” responded Lino and put his hand on Mr. Stuart’s shoulder.
Rom closed the cover of the laptop and stood up putting the computer under his arm. He put his handheld in his pocket.
Suddenly the door to the roof opened and two Zone Police officers and a man with a black headset came out onto the roof.
“Stop right there!” called out one of the Zone Police officers in uniform and pulled out a gun as he ran towards Rom.
“A little too late for that!” called out Rom and then grabbed the laptop to his chest and teleported away.
The zipping stopped and Mr. Stuart sighed as the war council meeting came back on the screen.
“I was worried there for a moment. I feel better now that the Newsfeed is back to normal,” said Mr. Stuart and started to leave. Lino stopped him and went to sit down at the desk again.
“This bill cannot go through. Tell Mr. Kitazawa I need to see him right now,” ordered Lino.
“Your Majesty, it is 3:20AM. Do you want me to wake him up?”
“He should be in his rooms in the palace. Call him. He needs to be in my face in the next 5 minutes or he is fired.”
“That is an elected position. He has to resign from his post. I can’t fire him.”
“But I can, Mr. Stuart. If he is abusing his position as a minister I can call protocol on him and dismiss him from his post.”
“He will retaliate and all those other ministers who support him will turn against your royal house.”
“You don’t play with the Emperor. Bring him immediately.”
Mr. Stuart got on his phone and called into Mr. Kitazawa’s assistant who woke him up. Kitazawa was standing in front of Lino 5 minutes later in a t-shirt and pair of sweatpants.
“Good, Kitazawa. I have some words for you,” said Lino as he stood up from behind his desk after Kitazawa came in. Mr. Stuart was standing behind him at the desk.
“Yes, your Majesty?”
“It has come to my attention that you are playing games. Answer me. This bill you proposed is the second time this legislation tried to pass my desk. The first time you were defeated. This time you snuck provisions in that had to be approved. I am onto you,” accused Lino.
“The bill required additional measures. We had the majority. It passed legally,” Kitazawa smirked. He knew he tied the Emperor’s hands. He just had to ensure Lino didn’t catch him abusing his position.
“It is by slim measure I let you keep your job, Kitazawa. I am on to you. Every step you take I am watching and so is Mr. Stuart. You tied my hands. If I veto this bill, the war council is disbanded and Commander Ima loses control of the Esset battlefleet mid mission. Don’t play with me again like this.”
“Yes, your majesty.”
“You can go.”
“Thank you, your Majesty.” said Kitazawa and walked towards the door. Mr. Stuart let him out.
“You let him off easy.”
“I want all the senior minister’s positions put to a vote. Call an election. Kitazawa’s district is changing in the Echelons. Only the City can vote but the voice of the Echelons is loud. His seat is in jeapordy based on what I saw of the analytics last week.”
“Yes, your Majesty. He may lose his seat.”
“Just get it done. You are dismissed.”
“Thank you sir,” said Mr. Stuart and left.
Rom arrived back at the Packrat Sprawl and went to the Processing Center to meet Anj.
“Did you see it?” asked Rom as he set the laptop down at the back table.
Anj pulled out a credit card as Rom held out his hand. “That zip went on for about 5 minutes. You impressed me as well as Faid. You won the bet.”
“Yes, I did,” said Rom and opened the laptop. “Me winning means I get a week off and you let me out on the street for the next week any time I want. You have me sequestered in the Sprawl because I am a Level 9 hacker. I want freedom to move around on my schedule.”
“You got one week. Anything goes. Then you come back in and have to follow the rules. Where are you going to go first?”
“Jester’s hacker guild is on my list. That is my first stop.”
“Alright, see you in a week and then I want you back to work. Nice job. Yout got some street creds now zipping the Newsfeed right under their nose.”
“You got it, boss. All Hail the Packrat Code!” Rom thrust his fist in the air and then took his leave to the streets.