@abel.navigator

[adsero]

Hello everyone,

Unless I’ve missed something in the past hour or so, it seems like our network hasn’t been compromised by whatever has caused this massive security failure. I have at least five messages in my inbox that I’m certain aren’t for me, but everything seems clean here.

I think, as the group of people with the (apparently) only properly functioning network (and various talents, in a manner of speaking), we’re obligated to use it to organize ourselves and assist. The entire city is facing more problems as a result of this breach than I’ve ever seen before from one event. If you’re not particularly interested in helping those that could be trapped in cars or victims of accidents right now, consider that the external temperature has been rising. I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m personally certain that once it gets around 55C I’m going to start dying.

The network has apparently been used before to coordinate teams of Displaced, let everyone know what’s needed and who to meet with, and I suggest we do it again. I’ll keep an eye on this and provide hotlinks to pertinent discussions, so anyone with particular skills or interests can volunteer themselves.

Stay safe everyone. Don’t spend too much time in the heat without decent protection, you can only help so much if you pass out in the middle of it.

Comments

[verselet]

If that is strictly their only goal, then yes.

But it’s a message to us directly. The farce of an AI is a strange one in that sense. I simply feel that there is more to this than we’re truly discussing.

The mention of north, for example. Are we to head somewhere?

[ex_dictator317]

I never did have the patience for riddles.

North could mean North America.
There was a message sent to me earlier. Something meant for Gill-Jade's eyes, not mine.

[ message.txt ]

Shot down by "unidentified assailants."
How much do you want to bet those assailants have something to do with DAWN?

[revlon]

[ She feels — breathless, for lack of a better word. This revelation sends her reeling a little because it was only a month ago that she was grappling with the grief of knowing her war hadn't done any good for the generations after her own. That the losses only mounted to an astronomical scale.

And now this? ]

As far as anyone knows, the North American continent was destroyed in the mid-21st Century — it was deemed a "necessary sacrifice" to bring about the end of World War Three.

There shouldn't be anything out there. If that report is legitimate, then it completely contradicts every historical account available in this reality.

[ And if Gill-Jade and the UN are corresponding about it, what other documents exist regarding these recon missions out into the wasteland? Can she access them through her own work? Bloody hell. ]

[verselet]

[Hm, well. Basically: yikes.]

Secrets care very little for historical accounts. Especially the well-kept ones.

This may also be something of a new development; there's no date to speak of. And if we're flirting with the idea of AI life existing in this world, hiding out in a place where no one can feasibly survive nor visit seems like the best course of action.

If "north" truly refers to this, then we have a lead -- one difficult to chase, but there all the same.

[revlon]

You're saying it's possible the unidentified assailants aren't human?

[verselet]

I am certainly saying that it isn't impossible. I assume we know nothing of that region, especially if our prior assumptions are proving to be incorrect.

[ex_dictator317]

If it's irradiated like the UNA believes, an AI is our more likely bet.
Most humans couldn't survive that environment.

Gill-Jade and the UNA obviously have more information on North America than we do.
It's worth looking into. The only problem is getting on hands on those files.
It'll be a pain in the ass.

[revlon]

I do work in City Hall so I may have access, but it's hard to say with the databases locked down as they are. @ardyn.sky may have better luck if my clearance isn't enough.

@ardyn.sky

[daemonized]

Is this a call for me to do a little bit of snooping?

[revlon]

Only if you're so inclined, Mr Sky. I wouldn't presume to dictate where your priorities or curiosities lie.

But you do know our governor better than most.

[daemonized]

Well, I don't know if I would go quite that far.

[He just absorbed a few, that's all.]

Hard for me to not be curious about life on a continent where there was supposedly none before, especially if it might be related to all this nonsense happening outside. And if the government has already done a little bit of digging, then there must be a trail to follow. Let us see where my clearance may guide me. Not too far off the beaten path, I hope!

[revlon]

[ Oh, yes. Absorbed. That's all. ]

Well, as we'd discussed, she's hardly at work as it is. That might make it more or less suspicious, depending on how you tackle it. But I'm sure you're quite capable.

[ex_dictator317]

People like to hide the truth.

It looks legitimate enough to me. The question is what we're going to do about it.

[revlon]

I'm all too familiar. Especially when it comes to history being narrated by the victors until it's the only truth we know.

[ As it so often is. ]

We can try to look into it. UNA information is extremely privileged, but if we can get our hands on further correspondence on Gill-Jade's end, we may have something. I have it on good authority that she's barely in her office these days.

[impede]

Farce or not, we are the ones who would be less frightened by the aspect of an AI. Perhaps even more believing that they could still exist. We have no way of knowing how impossible that is, or how possible it is.

[verselet]

I've heard mention of AI being of our number. Strange to use their claim as an AI themselves as a way to instill fear, if they know this to be true.

At any rate, I think the focus should be more on what this message is trying to say, rather than who it comes from. The latter can be tackled when the former is solved.

[impede]

That's assuming they know.

I can tell you that the tone of this doesn't match the notes I was left with when I was first dropped off. It's far more dire.

[verselet]

I think you're correct in the assumption that they're not the same. We seem to be dropped off with care. This rings with a small note of pretentiousness, and that's not accounting for all the lives shot out of the sky.

[The crashing of hovercars, like thunder. V will remember that sound for a long while to come.]

[impede]

Or the environmental devastation that follows. They ensured both quick and slow deaths, knowing that the efforts the people of this world are making would be quickly reversed.

[verselet]

That rather sounds like wrath to me, don't you think?

[impede]

Wrath is almost too simple. This is sadistic. Cruel.

They're trying to speed along a world's death, when that world isn't ready to move on. Not yet, anyway.

[verselet]

Wrath often takes the shape of vengeance. If it is an AI, this would fit the bill, wouldn't it?

That or someone using it as a facade, or a convenient story to perpetuate their own actions.

[impede]

What does an AI gain from choosing to destroy a world?

[verselet]

I'm not an AI. I only have speculation, and nothing more.

But "destroying" a world is different than than making it inhabitable for organic life. Maybe that's the aim.

[Honestly he doesn't know, he hasn't any experience in robots or the like.]

[impede]

I'll have to think on this some more.