I hope this finds someone in the Lane Hackers, I would hate to be shot down after I barely escaped New York with my life. I need someplace to hide, I don't know where else I can turn. I hope you will be sympathetic after you hear why I'm on the run, after all you were in my position once as well.
I worked for Ageira for seven years at Detroit Munitions. My specialty area is the automation of industrial practices. Namely programming the AI for factories, shipyards and the like. About three years ago I began revolutionary work that would make Detroit Munitions the most advanced factory in Sirius. When the project was completed Ageira would be capable of producing an enormous amount of weapons at very little cost, creating millions upon millions in revenue. This task would also cost millions upon millions to complete, but when I showed the planned results to my bosses, they gave me everything I would need, except the freedom to pursue it how I saw fit.
One such boss fancied himself a programmer, and so would show me his code from time to time, it was pitiful work, but he insisted I incorporate it into whatever project I was working on at the time. I was usually able to make it fit without too many problems, but refitting an entire factory with state-of-the-art processes was a little more tricky. I tried to talk him down, convince him to leave it to the experts but he insisted his code be in the final AI. I told him I would incorporate some of his ideas into the time-keeping routines, after all the clocks are just clocks. This would, unfortunately, have disastrous results.
One month ago the revolutionized factory went online, instead of producing weapons however, it produced were a series of explosions that rocked the station, the new machinery and millions of credits were lost in the process. I was of course brought before a questioning panel and when told the news I was baffled. I knew my work couldn't have done that, so I decided to search the code. My gut told me to check my boss's code and when I looked at it he had changed my implementation of it entirely! After checking the access logs it seemed that the night before it went online, he tied some of the subroutines' independent timing schedules to his clock program, which ultimately threw off the mixture of gases involved in laser production, resulting in catastrophic failure.
I showed the results to the panel and they agreed he was clearly at fault and that disciplinary action would be taken. I thought it was behind me, but I was wrong. The next morning I turned on the news to see the chairman of the panel had died in a freak accident, his ship had crashed into planet Manhattan. Over the next few weeks anyone connected with the investigation fell off the face of the world. I decided to do some digging into my bosses files, since HE was still coming to work. Fancying himself the master coder, he encrypted his files himself and they were broken in seconds. What I found was unbelievable, HE was the nephew of the CEO, and when the CEO found out, they decided it was easier to cover it up than admit failure. I tracked credits to many different shady organizations all being paid to sabotage those who knew anything about what really happened, I then found a note, it labeled me as the next one to go down.
That was last night, when I decided to get out of Liberty space. This morning I stole a ship off the landing strip on planet Manhattan, and flew to Detroit Munitions, I couldn't trust that my ship wasn't tampered with. Once there I landed and went as fast as I could to the company mainframe. I was going to get my life's work, my magnum opus, from their systems, and I couldn't do it remotely because in my work I had insisted that all plans be kept off the net, after all other companies would kill for the work I had done. When I entered my credentials into the terminal an alarm started going off, they had added me to the watch list, not a good sign. I had to hack through the security, which wasn't easy, but I helped design the security for my project, and so it was possible. I downloaded a clean copy of my project, and all pertinent data, without my bosses code, I always kept it as a spare, into my neural net, and proceeded to wipe the drives containing any information on my project. If I couldn't implement it, they never would. By then I heard running towards my location and I barely made it into the loading dock where I parked my ship. There was a liberty police officer waiting right outside it, running the numbers.
I managed to sneak behind him, and as I ran at him he drew his pistol and started to point in my direction. I guess I'm not as sneaky as I thought, but in the end he was too slow. I managed to knock the pistol from his grasp and sent it skittering across the pavement. I dove for it and managed to get a hold of it. By then he was on his feet and charging me with his baton. I panicked and pulled the trigger. When I opened my eyes he was a bloody mess at my feet, and I was in shock. I managed to get to the stolen ship and fly out of the factory, but the police were waiting, and I didn't have time to think about what I had done. They hit me with a cruise disruptor just as I was getting to the trade lane, but I limped into its grasp.
Fate may have been with me then, for at that moment the trade lane was disrupted by a group of liberty rogues. They didn't have time to pirate me because at that moment four liberty police officers were having their trade lane disrupted too. In the spirit of "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" I opened a comm channel with the rogue flight leader and tried to explain that I was being hunted by the police and if he helped me I would make it VERY worth his while. The conversation took its course during the battle in which we managed to destroy three of the police officers while one managed to escape. In return for the promise of riches the rogue showed me to Buffalo Base, after all he had just witnessed me help in the murder of three police officers, and I was covered in the blood of another. In return for a dagger and the name of a system in which I could find a Lane Hacker base, I agreed to give them a program that would give them the docking codes to Detroit Munitions and enable them to dock on the small arms shipping area of the factory, where they could steal an ungodly amount of weapons for whatever uses they had for them. With the deal struck I headed for Freeport 4 in my new dagger and my old life behind me. It's strange, but at that moment I felt free.
Even though I had a new ship, getting to Freeport Four was not easy. Just outside the base a bounty hunter patrol picked me up and said that of all people a Liberty Rogue tipped them off that I was coming, the double crossing bastards. I had to fight my way through, I managed somehow, though I was very badly damaged afterwards and leaking oxygen. I guess I managed to dock, I don't really remember, but I woke up in the sick-bay of Freeport 4.
I'm writing this from one of the terminals there. I don't know where Mactan Base is, but I'm coming to find it. I hope you don't shoot me down when I arrive, as it would truly be your loss. I am an able bodied pilot with great technical expertise. In return for taking me in I offer to you all of the information about my project. It can be adapted to almost any manufacturing process imaginable, and will serve you very well. I will also offer my loyalty until the day I die. I thirst for revenge, and through the Lane Hackers, I know I can achieve it.
I'll be showing up on your doorstep in a few days, I hope you're ready. Enclosed is a picture of my ship to show that I am in fighting condition and proof of my dedication to the Lane Hackers.
Look for the sign LH~Logan_White to appear on your scanners.
![[Image: lhtechnicianfalchion.png]](http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/6582/lhtechnicianfalchion.png)