Darth Marsden
07-06-2008, 05:08 AM
...'cause it's been a while since we had one and I've another case of writer's meh.
You can write about whatever the hell you want. The only rule is that at least 5 people die in your story, one of whom is impaled on something. I'm in a macabre mood.
Usual awards apply - Side Splitter, WTF, man?, Teh Winnar! and any others I can remember from the last ones.
And... go!
Pineconn
07-12-2008, 10:01 PM
This is definitely the third one in the same year. I guess it's tri-annual?
I might write something, maybe not. My summer is busy (considering I just bought MP3:C today :D).
Darth Marsden
07-13-2008, 09:17 AM
It's an Annual 'whevever the hell I feel like it' Contest. As with most things I do.
I'll write a story when I can get in the mood. This probably won't be for a while though - I've had to scrap half a chapter from the novel I'm occasionally working on, and it's put me right off writing for the moment.
So when are you going to work on your fan-fic thread again? :p
If I've got the chance, I might whip up a story to go with one of my mux music albums, Terror of Time, Return of Terror, From the Ashes, or Space Madness.
Trevelyan_06
07-15-2008, 03:56 PM
Here's mine. Hope we're still doing this. Sorry it's so long and probably still has some spelling and grammar errors floating around. Enjoy!
The safety lecture always bored the hell out of Billy. It was pointless, how much harm could come to you when you were in VR? Besides, this was the 8th time he’d been to Family VRactions. He was ready to go. His 14th birthday had finally come and the first thing he joined up for this vacation was paint ball battlefield. All those other summers he’d been pissed that he could only play that sissy water gun fight sim. Finally he could take part in something mature, another 2 years and he could do airsoft sims, then two more and he could do real battlefield sims like the soldiers.
An hour after the lecture had finally gotten through; Billy was having the time of his life. He hadn’t been shot once by the opposing force yet, and he’d taken out 4 of their guys. The heads up told him that only 1 of his squad was done and they’d already taken 4 of the 12 waypoints. At this rate his squad was going to shot up the ladder quick. A beep in his HU let him know that the two members of his fire team were in position. They were going to storm another waypoint and hold it. Steeling his nerve he topped the fox hole he was hiding in, and froze. Everything went fuzzy for a second and then he was staring at a tank. No fair. The other side wasn’t supposed to have tanks, and this one was going to make a mess when it fired….
Guardian was an AI watchdog. It monitored all of VRactions mainframe and sims. From the spa treatment sims, to the kiddie sims, down to the monitoring of the actual bodies hooked up to the VR tanks. It noted the incursion of the unauthorized program into the paintball battlefield and immediately tried to pull the sim. It was frozen out by powerful coding for a mere 2 seconds, an eternity in computing terms. Helpless, it watched as the tank appeared in the sim, traversed its turret and fired. It calculated the trajectory of the shell and scanned the “projectile” it fired. It knew what was coming before the bodies fell through the air, broken. Without emotion it noted the three alarms it received warning of three massive heart failures and did what it was suppose to. For the first time in its 8 year history, VRactions mainframe went down, triggering emergency disconnect of all users and a call to the local police.
Detective Smith hated these tourist trap VR places. They grew up all over the place. Anyone with enough money could slap together a mainframe, some VR tanks, a little software, and they thought they had a VR resort. Didn’t matter that this one was suppose to be one of the top ones, just meant the shit they sold was a little better. He never understood why Joe Blow American paid his hard money so his family could waste their vacation in a VR sim doing the shit they could do in real life, for cheaper. Just a natural reaction to the internet he supposed.
That’s the other thing he hated about these places, they didn’t really sell anything that you couldn’t get on the internet from your home anyways. The internet was one big VR. Sure, most homes didn’t have full VR tanks, meaning whenever you were hungry or had to piss you’d need to disconnect and take care of that yourself, instead of a machine doing that all for ya. Still, some families freaked at the thought of little Timmy and Susie on the big wild web where they might see porn or something along those lines. It’d be too hard to set up the filters that came with the damned VR headsets, so they took the kids to these places, which took care of that stuff for them at a huge markup.
“And that it what happened,” the knight said. “I’d also prefer that you don’t smoke, as it’s bad for your health and the health of those around you.” Smith sat there a minute and looked at the knight. About as default a picture of a knight as you could get. Shiny grey armor, broadsword sheathed at his hip, even a full visor helmet with a plume coming off the top. Of course, he wasn’t really a knight, just the avatar of the AI watchdog that had triggered the shut down and the call. In a way the knight was the VRactions building.
“I don’t believe that you are in a position to prefer anything”, Smith said quietly. “Seems to me that you are currently sitting in a police VR containment van outside your building. In a way, you’re outside of your body, how does that feel?”
“I don’t understand that question,” the knight looked confused, as much as an AI could look confused, “My consciousness remains unchanged, and I have seen the outside of the building as well as had it described to me. Of more immediate concern, I believe is the three dead children and the hundreds of sick individuals. The quicker this is resolved the sooner operations can resume and amends can me made with the patrons.”
Smith sighed, these AI were more human than most people thought. This computer knew that if it was found guilty the penalty was deletion. It also probably knew that after this no-one would come back. However, it was pissed, it knew that it wasn’t the one that did this and it wanted the person that had done this. Typical desire for revenge, though it probably thought of it as justice. “Tell me again what type of tank it was.”
The knight looked surer of itself when on a topic it knew, ‘Unfortunately my scan must have been corrupted. Scans showed the tank to be a 1942 Nazi Germany Tiger I; however, the same scan showed it to fire a projectile that could have only come from a 120mm rail gun. Historical documents show….”
Smith cut the knight off, “Yes, I know Tiger Is fired an 88mm conventional shell. However, that type of projectile wouldn’t have been able to hide the code used to cause the system feed back which resulted in those heart attacks. And I know where such a contraption could come from, the Red Queen.”
The knight was indignant now, “That worthless gaming program could not have hacked my safety overrides. She’s merely a strange playground for weird adolescents and people who’ve never grown up.”
“You’re right” Smith agreed, “so why did a rail-tiger, which is the name of that tank by the way, appear in your sim and take out three kids? That shouldn’t happen, there are safety protocols, not pleasant getting hit by one of those shells, but it shouldn’t kill you. Hell, I’ve been in the middle of an A-bomb strike and I’m still around. That means someone hacked that tank along with the interface to get it into your program.”
A look of disgust passed over the knights face, “ First off, my safety overrides prevent all outside connections to the wider web and secondly you mean you participate in something so…” The rest of what it said was cut off as Smith dumped it into the file buffer. It’d be a little while before someone noticed and fished it out. A mean thing to do to an AI, but it was being a dick.
Smith was going to catch hell for doing that to the AI, but right now he had more important things to do. Sitting down in his VR couch he jacked into the web, and navigated to Wonderland Battles. Basically, it was Alice in Wonderland meets Saving Private Ryan. Huge battles being waged with WWII era vehicles that fired all sorts of strange weapons like rail guns, gauss guns, and even atomic shells.
The game loaded to the lobby, which looked like a mercenary’s bar, if mercenaries enjoyed the night club scene. These did. The lobby looked like it belonged in New York. Everything was lit by low lighting and done up in metal, leather, or glass. The floor was a huge checkerboard with a raised dance floor and bar in the middle. Booths that were more like private stalls lined all the walls. Right next to each booth was a door that would lead to the battle being hosted.
Smith had his own booth, and normally would have been dressed like an SS Tanker. Someone had to be the bad guys, as he often pointed out. However, today he was here on police business so his attire reflected that. He was wearing exactly what he was in real life. Black tactical pants with a button down white shirt, with everything covered in a black drover’s coat. His gun clipped into a shoulder holster that showed both in VR and real life, strictly against regs.
“We didn’t expect to see you so soon, Detective Smith,” a voice from behind him said, “we would have thought that you would have at least got a warrant, or else what you see here might not be legal.”
Smith turned to stare at two anthromorphic rabbits, one female and one male. The female had white fur, long blonde hair and was wearing dress pants with a white dress shirt and black tie. The male had brownish fur; black hair cropped in a military cute and wore the same dress pants with a red dress shirt and white tie. Both of them had a katana and a 9mm holstered on their belts.
“The white rabbit and the march hare.” Smith replied, “Just who I wanted to see. I was wondering if I might see the Red Queen. Judging by what you’ve said, you know the reason.”
“Of course,” the white rabbit purred, “first we’ll have to see the Mad Hatter and then we can go up.” The rabbits were the security programs for the Red Queen and the Mad Hatter her assistant. Smith didn’t know if the AI that was the Red Queen kept with the Alice in Wonderland theme, because it liked it, believed it, or simply as good business practice, frankly he didn’t want to know.
“And what do you two fur balls want?” the Mad Hatter demanded. Smith perked an eyebrow at this, apparently not all was right here.
“Now is that anyways to treat us?” asked the March Hare, “After all we keep you safe.”
“Of course there might be a reason he doesn’t want to see us,” the White rabbit offered.
The Mad Hatter looked nervous, “Don’t know what you two are talking about. Now I’ve unlocked the elevator for you to take Smith up to the throne room.”
“So you knew what we were coming for then” asked W.R.
“I know everything that’s happening here,” M.H shot back; “I’m the Queen’s assistant.”
“Well, you don’t know everything,” W.R. replied. With that she withdrew her sword and sliced the Mad Hatter in half. There was no blood as he was merely a program. His body slid apart and seemed to melt into the floor. “That was for playing around with my girlfriend. The Queen gave me permission, so don’t bitch when you come back.”
The rest of the trip was made in silence and the two rabbits deposited Smith in the throne room and left. It was a rather simple room given what it was. It was the VR representation of the Red Queen. She apparently preferred a simple checkerboard floor leading up to what appeared to be a lazy boy recliner.
“I’m sorry you had to witness that,” the Queen said, “but the White Rabbit is very hot tempered and she does like to show off. I told the Mad Hatter it was dangerous to mess with her girlfriend. Silly boy doesn’t listen. I suppose you’ll have to arrest her now?”
“He’s only temporarily dead. You can bring him back anytime you want.” Smith replied, he hated how the Queen always danced around what you wanted to know.
“But if I don’t bring him back?”
Smith shrugged, “Technically they are all part of you. The law holds that an AI can delete any program that is actually a part of them. You know that as well as I do. You also know as well as I that you wanted that little scene play out. What are you trying to hide?”
The Queen sighed, “You never like to play real games. Just that silly battle stuff I put on. Very well, here’s what you seek.” With that she waved her hand and a video screen appeared in the air next to her. On it was what Smith took to be the real world location of the Red Queen. “As you may have guessed this is where my mainframe is actually stored, I won’t bore you with details you can get those from the police database. What’s more relevant I suppose is the dead tech impaled on the server rack.”
“Yes, I was wondering about that.” Smith admitted, “I was wondering more about why you’d showed me evidence that you killed someone. Just because I don’t have a warrant doesn’t mean you’ll get away with murder. You know how people are leery of AI’s even when they say they aren’t.”
The Queen roared with laughter, “Why would I show you a crime I committed? Last time I checked self defense wasn’t a crime. You see, I have to let techs into my real world location to fix things I can’t myself. This one apparently was also a player of Wonderland Battles. Thought he’d get back at someone who wiped out his army by hacking into the system. He spent tons of money on a neural interface. Thought he was going to be an ace hacker with that. Unfortunately, he was able to disable my security just long enough to fuck things up, but that’s all he knew how to do.”
When she paused Smith prompted her for more, “And then what happened?”
“You detectives never want to actually do any detective work anymore,” The Queen lamented, “Very well. What happened is that he programmed a hack that was too powerful for what it was intended to do. It would have killed anyone that it shot. Then, he hacked into what he thought was a battle taking place in the area that has VRactions in it, an urban combat situation.”
Smith’s stomach sank, “Only he fucked up and hacked into the actual VRactions mainframe. The only battle taking place on that mainframe at the time was the paintball one. So by accident he fried three kids, trying to pull a prank on someone who handed him his ass on this mainframe.”
“Exactly,” the Queen agreed, “I’ve placed calls to the local police, but let’s just say that where I’m at the police aren’t in a big hurry to respond to AI. It’s a pity because the costs here are so much cheaper than anywhere else.”
“So this whole thing was a mistake?” Smith asked, “Some stupid kid thought he’d get back at some other stupid kid, and instead he kills three other kids. Still doesn’t explain what happened to him though.”
“I can explain that. The neural interface he was using did not have any filters on it as it was bought on the black market and installed at a fraction of the regular cost. Apparently, the money he saved was spent on some rather high end hacking software that got loaded into his brain. It was able to override my security for 2 full minutes and write the hack. It also, before I could shut it down, let every line of my code go through his mind. No filtering, no bandwidth limit. He went insane and killed himself in the gruesome manner you see here.”
“All that because he lost a game.”
“Indeed.” the Queen agreed, “When you de-jack and write your report I would appreciate you getting someone to clean this mess up where I’m at. I have a fire system with an olfactory receptor to help me monitor for signs of heating plastic and smoke. Let us just say that smoke is not the only thing it can smell.”
Smith sat at home that night after he had finished his report and uploaded to his LT. He couldn’t get over the fact that the whole thing was a stupid prank gone horribly wrong. Three kids were dead, and an AI had lost its source of income. They were like anyone else, without money they had a hard time making it. The internet was hailed as the greatest thing ever when it was invented, but it had become just another way for humans to do horrible thing to each other.
Wow, that was intense. Nice read. Could have used some mroe detective work, but it was good. The somewhat dark future theme was used very well. :thumbsup:
Very nice.
A section from Terror of Time:
Jake and Dezda finally met back up with the Dimentional Tripper (DT for short) half way up the Tower of Terror and they notice that DT has two ugly-looking allies now. The troupe goes up two more levels seeing nothing until a short guy blocks their path. He starts to say something, but two uglies from the group starts to make fun of him. "You'll regret those words you bloody maggots!", the man of small stature said to them a split second before spears appeared in their heads, instantly killing them. DT sighed while saying, "So much for those charmed monsters..." Before anyone knew it, DT sliced the midget in half with his sword.
The next flight up, they were confronted by 20 bird demons. Dezda stepped forward and casted a fire spell on two of those monsters. The trio watched as the birds flew around in agony setting the others on fire until they all died.
Finally reaching the upper levels, they now have the chance to confront the CronodyneMage, Terror....
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