by Cosimo Yap
Alan, scan the statue, Eve sent.
Alan did so. Oh shit.
“Excuse me,” Alan said, “but I just received an important message regarding the player. Can we have a bit of privacy?”
“Yes,” the guide said, stepping out of earshot but within line of sight.
Kitana looked at Alan. “What? Is Thiago in trouble?”
“No. It’s the statue. It’s a mech,” Alan said. “They turned the Statue of Liberty into a giant, fighting robot. She has to be the boss guarding the Control Point.”
Kitana turned her gaze to the 150-foot-tall statue. “Her armaments?”
“I have no idea, we’re too far away. I don’t even know what metal she’s made of, just that it’s definitely no longer bronze, iron, and steel,” Alan said.
“I’ll handle it,” Kitana said.
“If it were just the guards and the defenses I’d trust you, but we’re talking about an unknown enemy. And where is your sword? We have another thirty minutes before the operation begins. I can take down some of the defenses—”
“I will handle it,” Kitana said. She walked back toward the guide.
Alan turned to follow her, then froze. He looked across the island at a security checkpoint. He jogged toward the checkpoint, ignoring the cries of their guide to wait up.
“Sir! I didn’t expect to see you here,” Alan said.
Icewolf looked at him. He was with three others in power armor, and a guide. “I didn’t expect to see you here either, Alan. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
Alan glanced at the guide. “About that…”
“Don’t worry, he’s with us. Speak,” Icewolf said.
Alan looked back—Kitana and their guide were still pretty far behind.
“The Control Point has a three-anchor shield system,” Alan said. “Essentially, all three anchor points must be destroyed within five minutes of each other. Otherwise, they’ll keep each other up, then recharge to full after a few minutes.”
“What? No one said anything about—where are the anchors?” Icewolf asked.
“Here, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Kitana was going to handle the shield here, Thiago the Federal Reserve, and I was going to hit the NYSE.”
Icewolf looked up at the Statue of Liberty for a moment, then glanced at the time. He nodded. “I have a team raiding the Federal Reserve as well; I’ll put them into contact with Thiago. Take Kitana, handle the NYSE. Coordinate with me.”
“I’m planning more of a stealth approach, and Kitana sticks out too much,” Alan said.
“Are you sure you can handle the NYSE yourself?” Icewolf asked. “If what you say is true, we’ll all fail if you do.”
“I got this,” Alan said.
A siren began wailing, and red lights started flashing. The four laser turrets on top of the fort whirred to life.
Alan’s guide caught up, whipping her head back and forth as the patrols of soldiers began running around.
“Sir, everyone, please make your way back to the ferries. We have reports of assaults on Control Points throughout the nation by the Legion of Man; thus for your safety we advise—”
The guide stopped mid-sentence, cut in two by Kitana.
“What? Where’d your sword—”
“She talked too much,” Kitana said. She sheathed the blade.
“Fuck, I told everyone we were starting at 11:12 am EST, who was early?” Icewolf wondered aloud. He gestured to the body of the guide and his three guards stepped around it. Icewolf examined the body for a second, and then it disappeared.
A useful ability, Eve sent.
I have a theory, Lambda sent. Alan relayed it. “It’s 11:14 Game Standard Time right now. Maybe someone set their in-game clocks wrong?”
“Shit. Well looks like everyone needs to begin the operation now,” Icewolf said. He opened his menu and sent a mass message. Alan received it. It said: Go now. The mission has started.
Icewolf began issuing orders. “Alan, take the stock exchange, my team can handle this.” He entered a command on a tablet, and a series of explosions began, rocking the island. Smoke, debris, and chaos filled the air. The laser turrets were destroyed.
The Statue of Liberty whirred to life, standing up. The torch in its right hand transformed into a massive laser blade, the tome in its left a bright shield.
Icewolf stared.
“I’ll handle it,” Kitana said, sprinting toward the statue.
Alan ran the other way, back to the ferry building, invisibility activated. He leapt onto the first ferry that left, past the clamoring tourists all insisting they be the first off the island. A few even leapt into the bay and began swimming.
He watched the Statue of Liberty as it attacked Kitana. She weaved from side to side, evading blows, deflecting a few. She raised her sword.
Then they were through the blue shield that defended the island and Alan could see no more.
***
Kitana stared up at the giant mech. She wondered what idiot had decided to turn the statue into a weapon—it might look cool, but she could spot a dozen weaknesses when it moved. The problem, though, was getting to those critical points.
Anytime Kitana approached Lady Liberty she was forced back—the mech’s reach was too long. With her agility enhancements, Kitana was barely able to dodge out of the way. The few blows she’d been forced to block had already broken her left arm.
Kitana smiled. Finally there was an enemy worth fighting.
Then a dozen EMP grenades were thrown onto the battlefield, disrupting the mech. Kitana looked back at Icewolf.
Icewolf gave her the signal to attack.
Kitana frowned, but followed Icewolf’s commands. She began pouring power into Murakumo. It wasn’t the fair fight that she wanted, but it was a fight. That would have to be enough.
***
The ferry made its way back to the city. Alan received a message from Thiago.
Thiago: Got Icewolf’s message, comparing plans. Can you start now?
Alan: No, I have to be in range, in line of sight.
Thiago: Hurry.
Alan sighed. Eve calculated the fastest route.
He stormed the helm of the boat and took out the two guards with his blades. He eliminated the helmsman and steered the ferry to shore. As it was about to reach the shore, he received a message:
Defend New York (Rank B quest):
New York City is being attacked by the Legion of Man! Report to a nearby United World Government outpost to aid in the defense.
Rewards: War Contribution Points
Penalty: ???
Our chances of succeeding have fallen by 5%, Eve sent.
Overhead, Haxlardian dropships flew by, headed toward the Control Point. Alan notified Icewolf.
As soon as Alan reached land, he abandoned ship. He was only a few blocks south of the Federal Reserve. Cops and other military personnel were running about. Whatever bombs Icewolf had set up weren’t only located on the island, but were in the city, too.
Pedestrians wandered the street, wondering what was happening. Smoke rose up into the air. A loudspeaker blared a warning, telling everyone to get to bunkers that had been constructed within old subway tunnels.
Alan reached the Federal Reserve Bank, known as the largest gold repository on Earth. Alan wondered if there were Administrator vaults that now held more. He met up with Thiago on the roof of a skyscraper across from the Federal Reserve Bank.
“Are you ready?” Thiago asked, as Alan stepped out onto the roof.
“Give me a second, I need to hack in,” Alan said. He looked around the roof—there were maybe five mercenaries equipped in basic power armor.
“Well hurry, Icewolf’s party is taking all the heat right now,” Thiago said.
Alan looked down at the entrance to the Federal Reserve. He entered Cyberspace, hacking into the two laser turrets that stood guard at the entrance.
As this mission relied heavily o
n hacking, Alan had devoted most of his Computational Energy to maintaining units: six elite marines, four sword guards, and three medics. That left him 160 energy to work with; 60 with divided mind active, but he figured he would make do.
The turrets’ defenses were trivial—an energy shield and a handful of basic marine units. Alan activated divided mind, sending Eve to hack one of the turrets with half his forces, and Lambda and the rest to hack the other. Once each AI had control of a turret, they began to open fire on the United World Government forces standing guard.
Pandemonium ensued, people running around like chickens with their heads cut off, senseless and frenzied. Half of the guards were eliminated before they realized the problem was their own guns.
A man in a black suit stretched out his two arms; arcs of blue-white electricity came out of each and struck the laser turrets, disabling them. Thiago killed the man with a headshot.
A surge of bandits in power armor stormed the building, eliminating the rest of the outside guards. A handful of nearby players tried to assist the UWG forces and were quickly eliminated by Thiago.
“Go, Alan, we have this handled,” Thiago said.
“Good luck,” Alan said as he descended the skyscraper’s stairs. He activated basic invisibility and made his way through the crowds of people to the New York Stock Exchange.
The building was being evacuated, people streaming out into the street, blocking the entrances. Alan wasn’t sure how he was going to get through undetected.
Use a grenade, Eve sent.
People are panicked, they won’t notice you pushing through. Just go. They’re too concerned with their own safety, Lambda sent.
Alan followed Lambda’s suggestion, pushing his way through the crowd and into the building. A few people glanced his way when they were pushed by an invisible force, but most kept moving forward, not even glancing back.
Eve mumbled something about bonus xp.
Alan proceeded through the doorways that he had placed bugs in, and was at the entrance to the main server room in minutes. Two guards stood by the entrance.
Invisible, Alan began the hack. He backed up as far away from the guards as he could.
In Cyberspace, his combined forces had a little over 1,500 damage per second, which meant it would take around ten minutes to take down the shield.
Thirty seconds passed.
On the security channel, which Alan had gained access to the previous day, someone said, “There’s someone hacking into the main server. Stop them now.”
The two guards looked around.
One said, “There’s no one here. The attack must be coming from off-site.”
“This is supposed to be a closed system. Hold on, we’re bringing down a sweeper team.”
Alan notified Eve that soon she would need to stop attacking the shields to help him activate his armor’s advanced stealth field. Because he still didn’t meet the armor’s requirements, he needed her help to operate the armor.
The sweeper team arrived: two additional guards with a portable scanner. Alan activated the advanced stealth field.
“Nothing here,” the scanner team reported.
“Damn it, the hack is still happening. Shields at 50%.”
“Activate the defenses.”
In Cyberspace, four squads of units emerged from the shields; each squad containing an elite marine and three regular marines. Eve and Lambda each took on one squad while Alan commanded the rest of his units to destroy the remaining two.
The sword guards charged forward, deflecting basic laser fire from the marines with ease. Their armor class was too high, and only the elite marines were able to damage them.
Alan focused down the elite marines, then finished off the rest of the enemy units. He brought the sword guards that were damaged back to his medics, which he kept way back. Once all of his units were healed they resumed taking down the shields.
He looked over at Eve and Lambda—they had taken out the enemy programs with ease.
“Our defense programs were destroyed,” someone said over the security channel.
“What the hell? Those were rank D programs!”
They think rank D is powerful? Alan thought to himself.
“What do we tell the higher ups? The general wants a status report!”
“Tell him we need cyber security experts here, and fast. We’re about to hit the first circuit breaker, the S&P is down 6%. Down 7%; all trading has been halted for fifteen minutes, but someone is still hacking into the system and they aren’t slowing!”
Alan checked in on Kitana and Thiago:
Alan: My anchor is at 10% shields, we’ll take it down soon. How are you guys doing?
Kitana: We’ve taken ours down. It keeps recharging, but I am destroying it. Additional reinforcements arrive every few minutes, but they are being dealt with.
Thiago: I need a few more minutes.
Alan waited, and had his forces stop attacking the shields when it reached 500 energy. He listened in on the building’s security channel.
“What’s happening to the markets? How have they dropped 7%? That’s billions of credits lost, trillions of dollars.”
“I don’t know. A number of companies bailed this morning, dumping all their Earth investments, buying up commodities and stocks in off-world companies. Then the Legion of Man renewed their assault, with new reports of attacks coming in every minute. Investors have to be scared. We could see an unprecedented Level 3 drop today; if the market goes down by 20%, we stop all activity for the day.”
“But the government is winning the war, right?”
“It doesn’t matter who wins, it’s all about perception. If the UWG wins the war, but all that’s left is a worthless charred mess, of course any Earth company is a bad investment.”
“But is my money safe?”
“Sure, you’re in-game and have credits. You’d be even better off if you invested in gold like I told you to. I’d hate to be someone still holding onto any dollars or other Earth currency, though.”
“What if the stock market does shit the bed, what do we do then?”
“We find jobs off-world. Don’t worry, Steve, the government will bail out the banks. They always do.”
“I’m not so sure about that. Haven’t you heard about the UWG’s debt problems? A buddy in the marines tells me he’s owed three months’ back-pay. And I hear someone’s hitting the Federal Reserve as we speak.”
“Wait, they are? If that gold is stolen then the UWG better pay up for the gold it loses. Shit.”
Thiago: The shield will fall any second now.
Destroy and deactivate that shield, Alan sent.
Eve and Lambda attacked the shield—it hovered at one energy for a moment. The two streams of light that emerged from the top of the shield thinned, then vanished with the shield.
They were in.
The inside of the shield was a fairly standard base set up, with two barracks, an energy pylon and an advanced shield generator at the center.
All right, first thing we do is lift that trading halt, Lambda sent. He ran to the center of the base and manipulated a console that appeared.
“Hey, Bill, what are you doing? The market is supposed to be halted, why is it open again?”
“I don’t know, it did it on its own. I didn’t touch anything.”
“Shit, we’re done for. Tell the general we need the best security analysts they have yesterday, and to order everyone to stop trading. Look, the markets are already panicking from the sudden restart! We don’t have control of the servers—idiots, stop trading!”
Alan glanced; the market had fallen 8% now, and was continuing to decline.
Activating the salami slicing program, Lambda sent. He took out what looked like a data chip and attached it to the console in Cyberspace.
Salami slicing? Alan sent.
Hey, it’s a standard term for this kind of fraud, Lambda sent. You cut away such a small amount of the salami that no one realizes you�
�ve stolen any. All we’re doing is rounding down transactions to the thousandth of a credit and putting all those extra little slices into our pantry. A thousandth of a credit isn’t much, but millions of transactions take place a day, maybe billions on a day like today.
And the other programs? Alan asked.
I’m activating them, not that they’ll do much, Lambda sent. Credits are like your beginning cryptocurrencies, every transaction can be traced. A footprint anyone can follow. Even though I can create fake purchases, people will see where the credits are going and can get the Administrators to reverse the charges.
Do it anyway, Alan said.
Your wish is my command, Lambda sent. There, we have ten billion credits spread throughout a couple hundred fake players, guilds, and companies. Happy? We won’t get to keep any of it, and if the Administrators trace it back to us it means penalty points. They don’t like people messing with the Market.
“Hey, Steve, we have reports of investment companies’ orders bugging out. They say they bought 100 million in power crystals and it just vanished.”
“Tell them we’re hacked, and to deal with their own god damn problems! I told them to stop trading!”
He didn’t, Lambda sent. I stopped that message from ever getting out.
Alan watched as the financial markets continued to struggle and chaos reigned. Numbers swam in front of his eyes. Every indicator of the stock market was red.
Now for the nail in the coffin, Lambda sent.
Alan received a message, though he didn’t bother looking at it. He knew the contents.
The markets began a free fall. Down 10%…11%...12%, and sinking.
“Holy shit, Steve, do you see this message?”
“No I don’t, what’s it say?”
“It’s a publishing of the United World Government’s books, from some whistleblower. They’re in a bad way, seems like they’ll be bankrupt in a few years if this analysis is right.”
“Let me look at that. There’s no way this is right, this is a practical joke; it has to be, right?”
Alan received a message from Icewolf:
Icewolf: Stop, the market is low enough now.