Jack in the Green wrote;

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Planet Paril
primary participant: Jack-in-the-Green

Jack is getting better at blending in. It has been a very, very long time since he actually had reason to try and act like a normal person, but lessons learned on innumerable casings, lookouts, and casual insertions die hard. Of course, this is a somewhat different societal norm than what he's used to, but adaptation, at least, is something he's good at. As long as nobody tries to actually talk to him, he can sit act like everyone else.

This is a public transit line, so that seems to consist chiefly of avoiding eye contact, keeping a death grip on all personal possessions, and doing one's best to keep from standing out from the crowd. A certain degree of paranoia appears to be considered healthy in this society, so Jackie has hit the ground running when it comes to achieving the proper mindset.

His short, rake-thin frame is almost hidden behind the two over-sized plastic bags he clutches as they rest on his lap. The contents are electronics ... lots and lots of electronics, for most of which he has only the vaguest idea regarding their function and use. They are, of course, all stolen. He learned the hard way that pretty much every piece of consumer product in this world is tagged with an RFID chip, broadcasting its true ownership to the nearest receivers.

Judging by the near-instantaneous response of corporate security every time he stepped into real space in order to catch a transit line, those receivers must be pretty much omnipresent. Still, Jack has expertise in these matters and, after a bit of trial and error, he attuned the stolen goods and simply jammed their radio transmissions - no fuss, no muss. He'll have to pick them apart later to remove the RFID chips, but that shouldn't be much of a problem - he was planning on stripping them for components anyway.

Arriving at the Yerba Buena station (the forth-most convenient stop to the refugee shelter ... he tries not to make the cops' job any easier than he has to), he waits until nobody is looking his way, then slips into supernal space, carrying along his ill-gotten gains. It is a fifteen minute 'walk' to the shelter, where he makes a beeline for an uninhabited room, abandoning his packages in supernal space as he materializes therein.



later

After about an hour of researching through the room's terminal, conferring with his other selves, and carefully vivisecting what might be a security-grade seismic sensor, Jackie managed to isolate a single RFID chip, promptly ditching it in supernal space. Since then, he's been going through the remainder of his spoils, and the supernal vicinity of his room is littered with floating components - the broken down remains of the stolen electronics.

Finishing with the last piece of hardware, he flicks its chip off into nothingness and begins herding his collection of components back into real space. Before long, a loose pile of assorted electronics covers the floor of his room, and he gets down to sorting - piecing a portable terminal back together and sifting through online data repositories while carefully studying what he has at hand.

He sets the other Jacks to work at assembling the necessary body of information, speed-reading articles and circuit diagrams, then letting them process the information while he goes in search of more data. It is hours before they reach a critical mass. Should anybody come by in that time, they find him crouched in a bare room, surrounded by broken hardware and alternating between studying a scrappy-looking tablet computer and picking through the scattered components.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->



{{does this "litter"stay in supernal space or does Jack eventually do something with it?}}



Jack wrote;

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Technology is different here. Better, to be precise - until now, Jack wasn't even sure what half of his stolen goods even did. Some of them turn out to be mostly useless, but not all. The pick of the litter are various types of computers, ranging from glorified calculators to three next generation laptops to a device the size of a ball-point pen that appears to function as a PDA.

All are broken down into components - pieces of circuitry, IO components, and like bits and pieces scattered all over the floor around Jack. Information on ultramodern technology buzzes around in his head while his other selves whisper recommendations, so he takes up a motherboard, digs out a stolen laser scalpel, and sets to work cutting and refusing circuitry.

He works unceasingly, without sleeping or eating, seated in the middle of the floor, bent double over the thumbnail-sized microchips, making adjustments with machine-like precision.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->



<!--fonto:Times--><span style="font-family:Times"><!--/fonto-->Planet Paril

<!--fontc--></span><!--/fontc--><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--><!--fonto:Times--><span style="font-family:Times"><!--/fonto-->Sometime shortly after Zephraine leaves
<!--coloro:gray--><span style="color:gray"><!--/coloro-->primary participant: Jack-in-the-Green<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--fontc--></span><!--/fontc--><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><!--fonto:Times--><span style="font-family:Times"><!--/fonto--><!--sizeo:3--><span style="font-size:12pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo--> <!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--><!--fontc--></span><!--/fontc-->

<!--coloro:black--><span style="color:black"><!--/coloro-->Early one morning, coincidentally the same morning as Zephraine is stepping out to go fetch Allison, Jack makes a disturbing discovery.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->

<!--coloro:#000000--><span style="color:#000000"><!--/coloro-->Having a very sharp memory, especially when able to compare memories to the collective supernal fragments, he does note some of the random untraceable gear he has salvaged and placed on nearby workbench's or tables has been moved. Not moved as in gone, but moved as in slightly shifted in one direction or another. Perhaps 2 devices that Jack has placed were set down to avoid touching but now they are touching. When he gets to this revelation an unsetteling feeling of being watched falls over him.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->



Jack wrote;

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Jack reacts immediately, sidestepping into supernal space and tries to wrap a dissociative fog around himself - shielding himself from as many metasenses as he can think of (and manage). He studies his environment with the utmost care, extending his metasenses to their full extent. Meanwhile, his other selves snap to attention, collating his sensory data and reviewing his memories in exacting detail.

Absently, he wishes he'd thought to booby trap the room. Maybe next time.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->Planet Paril
primary participant: Jack-in-the-Green

<!--coloro:black--><span style="color:black"><!--/coloro-->After a moment or two Jack realizes, perhaps too late, that he was not alone in the room. He cant really tell for sure who or what is in the room with him but he knows with a gut feeling even he cant describe that it's still in the room. A slight scent of fern, or perhaps oak, is now discerned with his metasenses. he cant help to think he keeps seeing movement in more than on location just outside of his peripheral vision.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->

<!--coloro:black--><span style="color:black"><!--/coloro-->And then in this windowless room, a slight movement of air in the room disturbs some loose papers or debris.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->



Jack wrote;

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->{{Jack's danger sense isn't going off yet, right?}}

Without really pausing to consider, Jack makes a dive into the floor - seeking the comforting darkness of reinforced concrete. Beginning to focus a spark of quantum in his head, he turns his thoughts primarily to retreat, but doesn't rein in his higher senses. His other selves track what's going on, trying to either identify the intruder or, failing that, at least give Jack fair warning of any threat.

[preparing to power max - spending five quantum ... let me know how many succ I get so I can decide what to do with them]

Booby-trapping definitely would've been a good idea. And he keeps forgetting that he's more-or-less running with a crew again. He should remember to use them more effectively.



Jack feels the quantum forces responding with unexpected ease, magnifying his attempted power augmentation far, far beyond anything he'd expected. Massive currents of energy pool around him as he hangs in supernal space, waiting for something to happen.

He thinks he hears movement behind him. Maybe he did, or maybe it was just his hyperactive imagination. Either way, he whirls in response, and the build up quantum releases in a flood. If later asked, he wouldn't even begin to be able to explain how he pulled it off, but he reaches out to his other selves ... and then to others, and others, touching more and more of his alternate-world selves.

Of all the alternate worlds out there - all the ifs and maybes that spawned off their own realities - Jack comes across more than fifty with versions of himself who are close enough twins that they resonant strongly. And, somehow, the connection between him and them strengthens dramatically, he pulls ... and reality breaks just a little.

Dozens of worlds briefly bend toward each other - not quite touching, but coming close enough together that their supernal spaces blend together, overlapping and momentarily fusing. There is a kind of a *snap* only heard by people with senses similar to Jack's, and everything goes back to as it should be, except that dozens of copies of Jack are spilling outward from him in a tide of slightly neurotic flesh.

In moments, the supernal space around Jack is filled with, well, Jacks ... each and every one of them bending their wills and metasenses toward vigilant examination of the vicinity, searching under every table, atom, and shred of quantum energy for any possible threat.

In the real world, nothing discernible happens, with the possible exception of a general air of foreboding - hopefully nothing happens to release the paranoiac horde upon the unsuspecting populace.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->



Planet Paril
primary participant: Jack-in-the-Green

<!--coloro:black--><span style="color:black"><!--/coloro-->With the drawing in of so many 'Jacks' from alternate universes there comes a consensus among them: something else is interested in the space used by Jack. Supernal space is feared to be coming under siege, or rather it is in danger of being invaded. Something has noticed it and wants in. Or maybe they have used it already as a form of conduit to get from where ever they are from to here, where the Prime Jack is.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->

<!--coloro:#000000--><span style="color:#000000"><!--/coloro-->The room, the real room in the shelter, is filled with other presences, other sentients. But they too are not really there, or at least they are not material. The seem to be made of feelings or emotions of all the negativity one could muster up from a society collapsing under moral degradation, strife and violence. They are the negative emotions given form.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->

<!--coloro:#000000--><span style="color:#000000"><!--/coloro-->The forms are not doing anything really but are looking to. They seem to be waiting for something and occasionally make a start in one direction or another only to stop as if something falsely alarmed them. Right now, they are seemingly harmless enough. Or is it just that they are something so alien and unheard of that Jack in only going on presuppositions. (thought I'd throw in some real paranoia there...)<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->


Jack said;

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->With this many almost-identical copies together, linked as they are in thought and deed, the Jacks achieve a crude multiplicity - acting more like one mind thinking in parallel process than like sixty-one individual minds. It doesn't take much for them to decide that this is not a situation they are well equipped to deal with.

If something comes through, they will try to drive it back - they have numbers and familiarity on their side, and they do not care to share their place of refuge - but their particular skills don't lay in confronting beings which appear to be more-or-less nonphysical. And they/he were/was just thinking about making more effective use of his new sort-of-allies ...

One of the Jacks returns to real space and, making a nervous survey of the room, goes back to work. Most of the others wait and watch, but fifteen or twenty break off from the fringes of the massed Jacks - going off in search of Eve, or Dr. Chronos, or Zephraine, or whoever they can find.

They begin by searching Building 2, checking for left-behind communication devices if they find nothing, then scattering from there if they haven't found anyone.



supernal space

It does not appear as if a breakthrough into supernal space is immanent, and resources seem to be going to waste with so many Jacks doing so little. After conferring internally, they assign about twenty Jack's (including the two Jacks currently in the real world) to the shelter.

These spread out over the shelter, remaining in supernal space to lend eyes and brainpower as necessary. Ten of them remain around Jack's room, watching the immaterial intruders as best they can.

The other forty Jacks scatter, looking for network terminals (this includes the 'original' Jack). It's time to stop wasting resources and get a little more aggressive. They move outward at their best speed, taking control of all terminals in the shelter (the other residents seem confused enough that this shouldn't be a problem, but the Jack's retreat from any confrontations).

This involved entering the real world, of course, so there are soon at least half a dozen copies of Jack scattered over the various buildings, probably including one or two within building two. If the Jacks have any problem with computer security when accessing building two computers, the Jack with Chronos and Eve politely asks for appropriate passwords. Elsewhere, they just combine their attentions and hack the troublesome systems.

The Jack sitting in the original room sets aside what he was doing and picks up the portable terminal Jack Prime had been working with earlier. He joins in the others' efforts.

Taking over all available terminals in the shelter, the remaining Jacks spread beyond the shelter, searching the surrounding area for terminals. They access from public terminals, from private terminals left untended in empty apartments, and from office terminals (all offices in the area presumably being empty at this hour). One by one, they find terminals, defeat security, and get online, though some take a while in getting to this point (the Jacks take no major risks).

While the others are doing this, the Jacks in the shelter go ahead and start working, checking news reports and hacking into the communication systems of private security forces - checking to see if there are similar outbreaks of erratic behavior elsewhere in the world.

While doing this research, they note the news of the spaceport attacks. Realizing that this kind of chaos is atypical for the planet, a few of them break off from the other to hack into the security systems there and keep an eye on what is happening.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->



Jack is able to quickly take over most of the local terminals. It is only the ones that Eve and Chronos work on that he needs to get an algorithm from Eve or Chronos to upload to get in. Eve has interfaced all the Lonn-tech systems with IC to defeat hackers and such from entering her network; simple password wont work so the mini portable program (algorithm) is used to access the systems. Here on Paril the secure systems use a fully submersive matrix to run their computers which means that users 'jack in' (no pun intended) and are then transferred to a virtual landscape with which to interact.

<!--coloro:black--><span style="color:black"><!--/coloro-->From that point Jack is able to gain the knowledge he needs. Since is is not needed to hack and nodes or access points (some hackers have already stolen the date from planetary sources and pasted it on billboards for all to see in the matrix.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->

<!--coloro:#000000--><span style="color:#000000"><!--/coloro-->The chaos of the shelter is definitely local and unique to this location; nothing resembling the negativity here is reflected anywhere within this system on Paril. As far as the starports go, there are rumors that it is an alien invasion; that the planetary authorities are finally here to take over and set this place right; that the assailants are here on a treasure hunt looking for some lost artifact that is supposedly buried in this part of the world. It is also known that local military is forming up on the starports and soon the cities will be under martial law.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->


Jack wrote;

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->The original Jack had taken the liberty of getting a datajack - this planet rather agrees with him, and he has had visions of settling in for a good long while - and his recent swarm of duplicates are all from sufficiently similar possible universes that most are similarly equipped.

However, since cyberdecks aren't exactly common household items, most of the roaming Jacks do not find anything to plug into. In the end, only four actually plug in, with the rest taking secondary positions at more traditional computers or remaining in supernal space to lend raw processing power. The Jack in the room with the spirits is one of those plugged in - Jack Prime had been working on a deck, and it is at least functional (though it is hardly as fine-tuned as he had been intending).

With the organizational structure of the forty online Jacks sorted out, they set to more serious work. Three of the Jacks at terminals split off to keep an eye on developments in the spaceport. It looks like the attackers might be a real threat, given the formidable nature of their equipment, so those three Jacks begin running tactical scenarios through their heads - it may get bad enough that lending a little surreptitious assistance to the authorities will seem to be a good idea. Or to the raiders ... you never can tell.

The rest of the Jacks 'form up,' with the offline Jacks lending brainpower to the four with cyberdecks. The four plugged in Jacks, backed up by more than thirty other minds, set out to collect a power base.

Jack Prime had previously noticed the odd extra-dimensional nature of the planet's artificial intelligence, suggesting more complex intelligence than is apparent, but the Jacks don't really have time to negotiate at the moment - the abnormal spike of quantum energy allowing them to stay here in such numbers will likely decay before long. It remains to be seen if an AI can be hacked in the same manner as a normal computer, and the Jacks begin to test that.

Each online Jack finds a minor AI - housed in a toy, or a household management computer, or something similarly poorly defended - and attempts to access and reprogram the entity (with the mental assistance of their offline brethren). They take their initial results, go off into a brief bout of brain-storming regarding machine psychology and advanced computer theory, then try again, attempting to get it down to a science so that they can go after bigger prey.





Having a sudden bout of reconsideration (c; , the Jacks abandon their course of action. They are operating on the wrong scale at the moment - thinking in terms of what Jack could normally have accomplished. They have the opportunity to act on an entire greater magnitude, and they should do so before their current heightened state collapses.

Extracting themselves quietly from the local node, they take a few steps back, dialing back their perspective on the Matrix to the point where they can view it as a whole. Before the recent turns of events, Jack and his remote minds had identified a number of particularly critical AIs with the intent of gradually building up enough wetware support that they could hack into those potent intelligences.

However, it occurs to them that this is now unnecessary. If they seize the opportunity, they can jump to the top floor, rather than slogging their way up from the bottom ... there's enough sheer power right now that they can dispose of wetware and a certain degree of finesse to simply cut through and seize control.

They retrieve some of their number from watching the shelter, adding that processing power to the group (but still leaving a number of Jacks to keep an eye on the swarming Unlife). Then, they go to work, identifying the three most immediately useful intelligences and commencing with their hacking runs.

The first target is a counter-security AI used by one of the planets meta-national federations to keep an eye on competitors. It was designed as a hacking 'program' in its own right, which makes it a good first acquisition for a couple of reasons. On one hand, it will be useful for hacking the other two primary targets. On the other, it is currently inactive, so no one will notice the hiccup in the system if the Jacks are less than seamless in their attack.

It is, of course, heavily guarded by IC programing, so the approach is cautious. The four online Jack's cooperate on planning their intrusion, intuitively assembling a handful of icebreaker programs based on what they can make of the IC's coding. One of the Jacks makes a feint, approaching the AI along conventional vectors, playing at being a human hacker who has stepped into something over his head.

The others begin to map new approaches, overriding adjacent networks and assembling the beginnings of new linkages to the AI, while simultaneously hacking into existing watchdog apps and providing them with false data (it wouldn't do for the AI's owners to learn that something was amiss with their toy).

The first of the four Jacks reaches the AI's countermeasures, releasing a sophisticated but ultimately insufficient icebreaker into the IC. The icebreaker fakes a number of recognition codes, getting deep into the AI's node before the IC notices that it is other than what it claims to be (a routine findings inquiry from a handler app). The IC quashes the icebreaker in moments, simultaneously alerting the AI to the intrusion.

The invading Jack releases a second icebreaker, this one a worm which overrides delete commands from the IC as it penetrates while replicating infinitely - the AI attempts to overwrite the worm, but is unable to catch all of the rapidly multiplying copies. It transmits an alert (which is intercepted by the other Jacks before it reaches the watchdog apps) and retreats behind a shield of IC to spin out new wetware tailored to counter the invading worm.

It finishes the new wetware and releases it into the existing countermeasures. The modified IC catches samples of the worm, edits key code, then releases the sampled worm back into the node - the edited worm begins to hunt its brother, both multiplying at the same rate as the intruding worm and reprograming the worm copies they capture to operate in the same fashion.

Soon, the Jack's worm is rapidly being overwhelmed by the mutant strain generated by the AI ... but that was all a feint in the first place. At the moment the AI released its countermeasures, the other three online Jacks completed their new approaches and attack from previously impossible directions.

Icebreaker programs exploit minor programing errors in the AI's IC, digging toward the core programing. The Jacks follow, sending their avatars diving into the IC, releasing swarms of their own IC to intercept and divert the AI's IC as it attempts to attack the Jacks directly.

A stalemate of sorts is achieved for a few split seconds - the Jacks have more raw power, but their wetware has been assembled quickly and intuitively (as opposed to the AI's wetware, which has been gradually optimized over the course of years). The Jacks are within striking distance of the AI's core programing, but making the strike would leave the exposed enough that the AI's IC might be able to eject them from the system.

However, the first Jack (half-forgotten in the much more threatening engagement with the trio of penetrating Jacks) takes the opportunity to release a pulse communication through the local node, activating core programing in his worm, causing each of the worm copies (including the copies subverted by the AI) to reboot and return to original programing.

Abruptly, all of the worm copies - both the ones controlled by the Jack and the many, many more controlled by the AI - revert to the Jack's control and attempt to penetrate to the core programing. Given their numbers, they quickly overwhelm the AI's IC, and the AI itself is quickly put in the position of either letting the worm in or turning to deal with it ... and leaving itself open to attack by the other three Jacks.

Hoping that it can fight off whatever the worm does to it, it remains focused on the certain threat of the trio of Jacks. The worm penetrates and (rather than attempting the monumental task of reprograming the AI) immediately swarms over the AI's IO feeds, cutting them away in moments.

Blinded and numbed, the AI finds itself unable to defend against the waiting trio of Jacks, and the three break into the core programing and release pre-designed axioms into the intelligence's programing. It gradually grows quiescent, adjusting to the new programing and accepting the Jacks' presences as appropriate.

Once the new axioms are firmly in place, the Jacks restore the AI's IO feeds and assist it in restoring its IC to its original state, issuing a delete order to the worm and repairing damage done in the battle. With everything restored, the Jacks extract themselves and remove the jury-rigged approached that used to ride into the AI's node.

They leave in place the edits and filters they had applied to the watchdog apps that had supposedly been keeping an eye on the AI, and they teach the AI how to manage those filters itself, so as to assist the Jacks without arousing the suspicions of its handlers. That done, the four online Jacks (backed up by both the AI and almost fifty offline Jacks) move on to the next target on their shortlist ...

By the time they are done, they have secured two more of the top AIs on the planet. One, the weakest, is the control intelligence for the planetary transportation systems, overseeing lesser AIs in charge of everything from assigning orbits for space craft to managing mass transit to tracking personal vehicles.

From it, the Jacks begin tracking the situation in the spaceports much more closely, as well as monitoring near orbit traffic for anything that might be either more invading dropships or (better yet) the actual 'mothership' the invaders launched from.

They also take advantage of that AI's capabilities to divert an automated shipment of engineering-quality focusing mirrors from their intended destination (a solar energy farm on the edge of a 'wild' area relatively close to the shelter) to the shelter - altering the drone truck's destination data to send it right to the shelter's front door. They then wipe records of the transaction, making the records look as if the vehicle took the shipment to its destination, left the cargo, and returned to the warehouse.

The third, and last, AI the Jacks acquire is a military intelligence of the top tier ... the Jacks pick the one currently overseeing responses to the invasions at the spaceports. From this AI, they gain additional information on the status of the spaceport situation, including numbers on the military and corporate security response that must be being assembled.

They also begin inquiring after the location of a fusion warhead ...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->