Nicole Hunter

[Nicole Hunter]

...hack.initiated...decryption.in.progress...
...Mactan.Network.recognized...transmission.encrypted...
...accessing.secure.files...uploading.data...

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What have I become?

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Some time ago I have executed a young fashion journalist. Her only crime was that she was suitable for my needs. I captured her, used her identity to get to David Hale and arranged her death to shed suspicions on the Liberty Navy. During whole operation she was very cooperative. To the very end she had hoped that I will not kill her. Stockholm syndrome or just a plain naivety? She was an innocent person and what I have done was clearly wrong. However, I feel no remorse and I have done worse. Am I a psychopath? Is this a cardamine's effect on amygdala resulting in a suppression of emotional reactions? Or maybe such deeds can be justified by a true cause? I am a scientist, or at least I was one. I believe in logic and reason, and I can use these tools to study everything, including myself. However, let us maintain a chronological order.


Law-Abiding Citizen

Just a year ago I was a regular citizen of Liberty. Like everyone from the upper middle class I was paying taxes regularly and happily living '˜the Libertonian dream'. And then things got ridiculously complicated. I was given a position of deputy scientist at the top secret project on alternative power sources at Pueblo Station. My task was to develop an interface for an '˜organic power cell', which is a nice euphemism for a piece of Nomad technology. It was not the first and definitely not the last time when Ageira was secretly playing with alien toys. They knew the risks and were well prepared for them. Even after twenty years such was the fear of Nomads, that when during a premature test of the interface several technicians and engineers became infested, the Security Division simply sent a squad to eliminate everyone in the affected section of the base. And this is when I did the stupidest thing in my life. Instead of quietly accepting the unfortunate loss of several expendable employees, I threatened to go public unless those responsible for the bloodbath face charges. Needless to say, I was thrown into a detention cell. When a sudden discharge of the power cell caused a station-wide blackout, I decided not to wait for the security board to decide that I am a threat to the corporation's public image. I ran and sought asylum amongst the Lane Hackers, the only people I could trust that will not sell me to Ageira.


Neophyte

It must be noted that everything I did before my escape could be described as morally good or indifferent. During my escape I had knocked unconscious two security guards, however, it was a plain self-defence and I don't even think they were seriously injured. Everything that could be labelled in accordance to common social standards as '˜wrong' started shortly after my initiation, during which I became terminally addicted to cardamine. I was not really a saint as a student, however, this time cardamine was literally pumped through my veins in order to permanently alter DNA structure of the every fibre of my body. After that there was no turning back. Of course, from the start I knew that the Lane Hackers are not a charity organisation. However, at the same time, I also knew that I have neither knowledge nor resources to survive on my own. I simply made a calculated decision. In order to survive I had to become one of them. More than that, I had to be the best. And so my training began. While my theoretical background was rather vast, what the Lane Hackers taught me was purely practical. I was instructed how to hack gates, lanes and transponders, how to avoid being detected and cover tracks. I was trained in combat, tactics, espionage and subterfuge. I became familiar with military and police operation protocols. And most of all, I was told that through technical and intellectual superiority I will become untouchable. In the beginning, the tasks I was given were quite simple. I was mainly participating in bloodless extortions or sent out to perform a reconnaissance mission. But then the next stage of my training came.


Monster

I was to seek out a military-grade target and assassinate him. It was a bounty hunter, a foolish ex-convict who thought I will be an easy target. I lured him into a desolate sector of New York and there I finished him. It was my first kill. My first real step into '˜the darkness'. I always thought that killing a human being is such a traumatic experience that it always results in the inner struggle with guilt and emptiness. I felt nothing of this sort. Quite the contrary, I was ecstatic. I killed an enemy who tried to kill me and it made me feel that I am really alive. The idea that killing another human being makes you a monster is a persistent superstition from the Enlightenment era. Before that, Roman soldiers were slaughtering dozens of barbarians during a campaign, and then returning to home to become prosperous traders or studious farmers. Nobody claims they were evil. Vikings were raiding whole northern Europe for centuries, slaughtering whole villages and towns in the process. Nobody claims they did not love their wives and children. Why then I should be ashamed for killing an enemy in a fair fight? Killing is a natural element of life.


Believer

Obviously, the journalist I spoke of was not an enemy. She was the closest thing to an innocent human being and killing her was wrong. Does the end justify the means? Perhaps such a collateral damage could be absolved by a true cause. However, I am not a believer. The Lane Hackers will never succeed in overthrowing the government. There are simply too few of us to make a difference. Some time ago I have even engaged in a pseudo-intellectual discussion with a certain big fish from the Independent Neuralnet Division. I used all my classical knowledge to justify our cause. I think I did a really good job, but I do not believe in a single word I said back then. Maybe in the beginning the Lane Hackers were really fighting corporate corruption and injustice. However, right now I have no illusions what the Lane Hackers are. We are nothing more than thieves and drug dealers who made a sport from defying authorities and derive pleasure from outwitting lawful forces and intellectually dominating their victims.


What have I become?

I am completely aware that what I am doing is '˜wrong' by the social standards of our age. However, I feel no remorse. On the contrary, I derive pleasure and satisfaction from my actions. Does it make me a psychopath? Or a truly evil, in a cartoonish way, villainess? Or maybe there is no good and evil? Perhaps these words denote mere superstitions shared by a herd of sheep? I don't know. I don't even think I want to know. One thing is for sure. I am no longer a scientist. My name is Nicole Hunter and I am a Lane Hacker. Whatever it means.

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

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The Lane Hackers
"Making the corporate weenies cry, so our kids can live in a free and just galaxy."
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