The Lane Hackers | Internal Comms

[JonahC]

His raptor-like gaze staring into the darkness of his small cell, a man sits on his bunk contemplating the changes his life has taken these last several months, and nursing several bruises, not the least of which is the rather large bruise to his ego. He sits in the dark thinking:

" I have been seconds from death every day for what seems like an eternity. I have finally earned the promotion I have wanted for months now, I put all the credits I have earned into a Sabre, and then what? It gets destroyed the first time I take it out for a joyride! If it hadnt been for the quick thinking of Nicole, I would likely be on my way to Attica about now. But now I am down to my last few credits. The Sabre is gone, and my Scimitar is in dire need of repair. I could go raiding in my Bactrian again but, the firepower of that Sabre, *sighs* I definitely need another one. I suppose there is nothing to it, my trusty Bactrian will have to do until I get some more credits. But that can wait until tomorrow. Today, I am free from duty!"

He leaves his cell and heads over to the Mactan Bar. In one of the corridors he passes a man called Diavalo *shivers* "Something is off about that guy, he gives me the creeps," he thinks. Finally he makes his way to the small, fastidiously cleaned tavern. As he enters he thinks to himself:

"I had really hoped there would be an exotic GC girl visiting here to flirt with, or at the least a fiery tounged Maltese. No one here but the bartender. And my this place is WAY too clean. If Krimmler or Nicole were to see some of the places I used to play music in....*laughs* Nicole would probably faint from the smell."

"Yoshida, pour me something that burns on the way down!" he says with a smile. The bartender complies with a knowing smile, and as he sets the drink down on the bar he says, "Mr. Orlov, I hear you could use a few credits." Mr.Orlov appears momentarily taken aback, but recovers quickly, "You heard about my little mishap already I suppose, but really, how could you know anything about my finances?" Yoshida smiles and says, "Mr.Orlov, I may not get out to the lanes as much as I used to, but I am still twice the Hacker you will ever be." From anyone else these would be fighting words but from Yoshida they were taken as they were given, as a friendly jibe. "I really couldnt argue with that, could I?"

"As it happens, I have a way for you to make a few credits. Are you interested?" "Of course I am," Orlov replies. " Well then, the captain of the Stack Overflow recently caught a bad case of lolwuts while visiting Fort McMurray. His hold is full of missile tracking software that was ordered by the Outcasts, as well as several copies of Assasins Creed 45, which is all the rage on Malta. This captain is looking for someone to make this delivery while he recovers. You would also be loading up with Cardamine while there on Malta and bringing it back." Orlov considers this for just a few seconds and says, "Sounds like a good deal to me, I will take the job." "Good, good. Then get yourself out to Fort McMurray and make that delivery." " I will leave presently." replies Orlov. As Orlov approaches the exit of the bar, the bartender speaks again with no malice in his voice, "Oh, and Mr.Orlov. If you lose that ship or that cargo, I would reccomend you find a very deep hole to hide in. Good luck."

An undetermined amount of time later:
...hack.initiated...decryption.in.progress...
...Specialist.Orlov.recognized...transmission.encrypted...
...uploading.data...

Orlov reporting in a successful delivery of missile tracking software, and Assasins Creed 45 copies to Ibiza Base.

I was also able to return without too much incident with a full, undamaged cargo hold full of cardamine.

It has been a pleasure visiting planet Malta. I have often wanted to follow the cardamine pipline to its source, and what a lovely experience it was. Hopefully I will get the chance to do it again soon.

...encryption.in.progress...hack.terminated...