Private You spy with your little eye

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Corrox City, Mahporeem - N&Z Regional Headquarters
OBJECTIVE: not my objective
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword #1 | Sword #2 | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | Gauntlet | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | KRONOS
TAG: Evan Kade

The N&Z Headquarters at Corrox city looked like a massive middle finger to the trials and tribulations the Mahporeem Remnant was dealing with, yet at the same time it actually represented those same issues. Unlike most of the usual N&Z offices or headquarters, it was a monolithic structure, without the usual beautiful details or craftwork visible on the outside. In stead it was a massive skyscraper erected out of thick duracrete and small glasteel windows, reaching several hundreds of meters into the sky, with only the branding of the N&Z on the outside making it clear as to which power, which galactic entity held sway in those parts.

Anyone who had an inkling of who was who within the Mahporeem Remnant was keenly aware of those who walked out of the building through the main entrance, surrounded by several highly armed and armored enforcer droids built and designed by the company itself. As they walked out through the revolving transparisteel doors the two; a man and a woman seemed to talk to eachother, waiting for their ride. The man was tall of stature, with blond, slicked-back hair and shades, impeccably dressed in a white suit adorned with a cape and epaulets which betrayed a certain degree of wealth and understanding of using fashion to impress others. The woman on the other hand was smaller, with a slender and athletic build, dressed in what could be described as a fashionable work uniform with black trousers, waistcoat and boots, with a purple overcoat to top it all off. Her long black hair seemed to be swept up by a gust of wind, making her move her hand to prevent the strands of raven black hair to cover her face in an unsightly manner, to which the tall man seemed to respond by gently reaching for the side of the woman's face and sliding his gloved fingers through her hair in order to put a few of those rebellious long strands behind her ear in a strangely loving and somewhat fatherly fashion.

After several moments, a long, exquisitely built and maintained limousine-landspeeder arrived, opening its back doors to allow the tall man and the woman to step inside of it before it began to speed off towards the depths of Corrox City's very heart...​

 

[Evan Kade]

Evan had learned long ago that appearances could be deceiving. It was one of the first lessons worth learning in his line of work.

The pair emerging from the N&Z headquarters certainly looked important enough. The security detail alone suggested that much, and the limousine waiting to collect them only reinforced the impression. But important wasn't necessarily the same thing as target. Until Evan had something more substantial than a description and a security recording, he wasn't about to assume that the first well-dressed pair leaving the building were the people that he had been asked to investigate. He watched the limousine pull away before slipping into the flow of traffic a short distance behind it.

Taking the driver's place would have been simpler in some respects. Had he already known where they were going, which routes they favored, or what their usual routines looked like; Evan might have preferred it. But he didn't. He had no interest in getting himself into the front seat of a limousine with two strangers only to discover that he'd picked the wrong people. Or worse; that he'd been noticed before he had learned anything useful. So he simply followed.

A small drone, deliberately made to resemble little more than another piece of Corrox City's ubiquitous traffic, slipped into position above the limousine. It maintained a comfortable distance, it's sensors quietly tracking the vehicle while feeding information back to Evan's helmet. Another drone remained near the N&Z headquarters. That one had a rather different purpose.

Evan adjusted the helmet resting over his head as a voice came quietly through his commlink. "Still with them?"

"Yes." His eyes remained on the limousine several vehicles ahead. "Keep the cameras ahead of me open. I don't need the entire city's feed, just enough to know what I'm driving into."

There was a brief pause. "Already working on it."

The slicer he'd hired was good. That was why Evan had hired them. Somewhere else in the city, they were working their way into the security network, feeding Evan whatever information they could gather while also helping guide the second drone near the N&Z building. It wasn't elegant, but Evan had never believed that good espionage had to be elegant. It simply had to work.

His gaze flicked toward the small display mounted inside his helmet. The limousine's position remained steady. The drone's feed showed it's rear profile from above, while another window displayed the surrounding traffic. "Any change?"

"Nothing yet."

Evan settled back into his seat. "Good." He wasn't impatient. The target's destination mattered. The route mattered. Who they met along the way mattered. Even the places they didn't go could prove useful later. For now, he was simply another driver in Corrox City traffic. Nobody paid attention to him. That was precisely how he liked it.

His fingers tapped lightly against the steering controls as he watched the limousine ahead. "Let's see where you two like to go."

Tag: The Lord of Hunger

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Corrox City, Mahporeem - N&Z Regional Headquarters
OBJECTIVE: not my objective
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword #1 | Sword #2 | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | Gauntlet | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | KRONOS
TAG: Evan Kade


The Limousine speeder would find itself traversing through the deeper parts of Corrox, until it stopped at a large land development area, where the two people who had gotten in, would get out. There were several other people greeting them, amongst which were several higher ranking military officers, several people from the IMF which acted as a semi-autonomous investment firm controlled by the N&Z and several members of the city's own political elite.

The area which was being prepped for demolition, seemed to be part of the busiest and wealthiest part of the major city's trading hubs, a prime piece of property.

"How soon can the demolition be completed," The man dressed in the white three piece suit spoke up, their commanding aura dominating the talks, while the woman stood besides him like a coiled viper, ready and waiting to strike when given the chance. "We managed to get it all for cheap, but the actual process of developing this area is anything but cheap. I want the bureacracy to work as efficiently and as smoothly as possible...if I hear any word about commitees or the likes having to review our plans, I will have heads rolling within a forthnight."

"Lord Visconti, I can assure you that Corrox' planning commitee has already reviewed your plans and given their approval," One of the political officials quickly pointed out, sweating slightly when feeling the pressure radiating from the man who dominated the conversation. "Our department may be run mostly by Merzoidians, but they are dilligent in their job."

"And Lieutenant Colonel," The man in the three-piece suit turned his attention towards one of the military attachés present, all the while seeing how the woman he had brought suddenly seemed to be distracted by a call on her datapad, leading her to turn around for a moment and take some distance from the talks by stepping aside a bit. "I can't stress too hard on the fact that you have yet to increase the overall security around the industrial and commercial districts of Corrox. If you do not increase the security by your own accord, I will have to petition the High Council to give the N&Z leave to pursue their own security to handle the matter properly. So, either you make sure that the local garrison is increased to provide the adequate number of men to ensure the safety and security of what are arguably the most economically vital pieces of Mahporeem proper, or I will handle it myself..."

"Milord, there's a message from KRONOS," Amalia suddenly interrupted the talks as she had come back from her call. "It has found some...irregularities in regards to the security of the N&Z Headquarters..."

"Have KRONOS trace these irregularities, but have them refrain from acting just yet," The tall, elegantly dressed man reacted, a soft, yet somehow insanely twisted and gleeful smile appeared on his face. "This is a daily occurance when you are located within a busy hub of commerce and industry... however, should the irregularities prove to be troublesome...have KRONOS retrace the intrusion's steps."

​

 

[Evan Kade]

Evan didn't follow the limousine all the way to the development site. That would have been unnecessary. Instead, he slowed several blocks away and let the vehicle disappear from sight before turning down another street. The drone overhead continued tracking the area from a safe distance, it's sensors feeding a quiet stream of information back to him.

Evan parked soon after that, and for a moment, he simply sat there. "Well..." he murmured.

The voice in his commlink answered almost immediately. "We have a problem."

Evan glanced at the display. "The interesting kind?"

"Someone is snooping around the N&Z security systems. It's not us. Something automated. I'm seeing traces of a security intelligence moving through the network."

Evan considered that for a moment. "KRONOS?"

There was a small pause. "Likely."

Evan smiled faintly. "Then let's not give it anything interesting to find." He stepped out onto the sidewalk. A few minutes later, Evan no longer looked particularly like someone who had been following a limousine. His helmet was tucked beneath one arm. His utility jacket had been replaced with something considerably more casual. And in his other hand was a bouquet of flowers.

He checked the reflection in a nearby window, adjusted one of the stems, and looked almost convincingly like a young man who had been stood up. Almost.

His datapad chimed. Evan glanced down at it. Several messages appeared on the display. I'm here. Where are you? A second followed. You said this was the place. And then, after a moment's consideration: I'm beginning to think that you're not coming.

Evan stared at the messages with an expression of mild irritation.

"Convincing?"

"Very."

"Good."

He slipped the datapad into his pocket and began walking.

His drones were already repositioning. One settled behind a large construction barrier overlooking the development site. Another found a position behind an abandoned cargo container with a clear line toward the gathering. Neither needed to hover in plain sight. Their microphones and sensors could do their work from concealment while Evan remained well outside the most obvious perimeter.

He stopped near a public access point, close enough to look as though he might have been waiting for someone, but far enough away that nobody involved in the meeting would have any reason to pay attention to him. The bouquet rested loosely in one hand. He checked his datapad again. Then looked toward the development site.

There was Lord Visconti, several military officers, political officials and representatives of the IMF. That was already more useful than he'd expected.

Evan's expression remained mildly disappointed. Internally, he was cataloguing everything. Names where he had them, ranks, associations, who stood beside whom, who appeared to defer to whom, who spoke and who remained silent.

The Lord in the white suit clearly enjoyed having authority. The military officer seemed considerably less comfortable with it being exercised in his direction. The political official was sweating before the conversation had even finished.

And the woman; Amalia, she had separated herself from the others when the call came through. Evan had noticed that immediately. Now his attention shifted subtly toward her. "Anything from the slicer?"

"Still monitoring. KRONOS is tracing the intrusion into the headquarters network. It hasn't connected it to us."

"And the drones?"

"Clean. Nobody has noticed them."

Evan gave the smallest nod. "Good." He didn't need to hear every word being spoken. Not yet. The conversation itself could be reconstructed later. What mattered was getting the people, the connections, the patterns, the little things that never appeared in official reports.

Evan lifted the bouquet slightly and glanced down at it with theatrical disappointment as a passing pedestrian moved nearby. He even sighed for good measure. To anyone watching, he was simply a young man waiting for a date who had apparently decided not to show. It was a rather unfortunate evening. Nothing more.

His eyes briefly returned to the development site. "Actually," Evan murmured into his commlink, "I think I may have just found something considerably more interesting than our original target."

The slicer was silent for a moment. "What?"

A faint smile touched Evan's lips. "People who don't know they're being watched." He slipped his datapad back into his pocket while the flowers remained in his hand. And somewhere behind a construction barrier, one of his drones quietly listened.

Tag: The Lord of Hunger

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Corrox City, Mahporeem - N&Z Regional Headquarters
OBJECTIVE: not my objective
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword #1 | Sword #2 | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | Gauntlet | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | KRONOS
TAG: Evan Kade

Excusing himself from the men and women which had gathered to discuss the issues with the project the N&Z Umbrella Corporation had been funding at the very heart of Mahporeem's own center of both power in the political and the economic sense, the 'Tall man' motioned Amalia to follow him as they took a few steps away from the crowd.

"Amalia... these pesky insects are getting on my nerves," A slight twitch visible behind the shades the man was wearing, a wrinkle strangely wriggling underneath his skin. "You aren't helping with these little tidbits of yours."

"Milord...I assure you, I'm not trying to spoil your mood, but..." The CEO of the N&Z's mouth snapped close immediately when the eyes of the tall man seemed to glow with an unnatural light, looking down upon the woman with an expression which left no room for guessing.

"If there is someone trying to snoop around in our business...KRONOS will handle it, if KRONOS does not handle it... there are still my Sceleratis," The man's expression changed slightly, a single corner of his mouth lightly jerking upwards when he looked around. "Let's not worry too much about any of those who try to look into our dealings... remember my dear, we are the N&Z... everyone's life is OUR business."

The last line seemed to make Amalia's back shudder, followed by a quick nod, as she took her datapad and moved away from the group, clearly making several calls again, but in the meantime something had begun to awaken within the cyberverse...

//: PROGRAM ACTIVATED
//: PROTOCOL SELECTED
//: ACTIVATING FIREWALL
//: MODULAR HEXACRYPT ENCRYPTION ACTIVE
//: RANDOM ACCESS DENIED
//: RANDOM ACCESS DENIED
//: RANDOM ACCESS - GRANTED

Massive blocks of data began to be transferred over the transnet, codes and backdoors began to shut down, shudder and restructure, data began to recompile, fracture and fragment. If it wasn't already hard enough to deal with the standard N&Z's AI's inherrent high difficulty to not just connect, but to understand... something far, FAR more advanced had begun setting up defenses and began to utilize its invasive codex to return the favor as it began to connect the dots, forcing its own code through the connections and intrusion attempts.

//: REVIEWING DATALEAKS
//: CLOSING CODEX
//: REFORMATTING DATA
//: DETECTING SLICING
//: ENACTING RAPID OFFENSE PROTOCOL

​

​

 

[Evan Kade]

Evan's expression didn't change as he watched the exchange between Visconti and Amalia from a comfortable distance. The flowers remained in his hand. The disappointed expression remained on his face. But his attention had sharpened considerably. There was something about the way Amalia's posture changed when Visconti spoke to her that was difficult to mistake. Whatever their professional relationship might have looked like on paper, there was considerably more to it in practice. Authority was one thing. Fear was another.

And Amalia looked afraid. Evan's eyes shifted briefly toward the development site before returning to the woman. "Interesting." The word was barely audible.

Then his commlink clicked. "Evan." Something in his slicer's voice had changed.

Evan glanced down at the datapad without actually looking at it. "What?"

"We've been found."

Evan's gaze remained on the gathering. "How badly?"

"Bad enough that I'm not going to pretend otherwise. The system isn't just closing the doors. It's going through the connections we used to get there." There was a pause before he added; "We're pulling out."

Evan considered that for perhaps half a second. "Do it." There was no hesitation in the order that he gave.

"What about the data?"

"Keep what we've already got. Nothing new. No more probing." His voice remained perfectly calm.

"And if it follows us?"

Evan's eyes moved toward the distant buildings surrounding the development site. "Then we'll learn how good it is."

The connection then went quiet. He didn't need to say anything else. His people knew what to do, and Evan had no interest in turning a useful surveillance operation into an electronic firefight simply because someone on the other end had noticed them. Besides, he had just learned something far more interesting.

His attention returned to Visconti. Everyone's life is OUR business. That statement lingered in Evan's mind. It was the sort of thing people said when they believed they possessed enough power to make it true. And perhaps, judging by the reaction of the woman standing before him, they did.

Evan watched Amalia move away and begin making calls of her own. He quietly committed the sequence to memory: Visconti's change in demeanor, Amalia's reaction, the mention of KRONOS, the reference to the Sceleratis, and the peculiar confidence with which Visconti dismissed the possibility of anyone interfering with N&Z's affairs. His slicer may have already stopped digging, but Evan hadn't. Not digitally. There was no need. He had eyes. He had ears. And for the moment, nobody had any reason to think that the young man standing nearby with a bouquet of flowers had anything whatsoever to do with the intrusion into N&Z's systems.

He glanced down at the bouquet and gave a quiet, theatrical sigh as though his supposed date had disappointed him yet again. "Still worth it," he murmured. The commlink remained silent. Good. That meant that his people were doing exactly what they'd been told to do.

Evan looked back towards the gathering, watching the relationships between the people there rather than the meeting itself. The corporate representatives were concerned about the project. The officials were concerned about the consequences. Visconti was concerned about control. And now Evan knew something else. N&Z didn't merely know that someone was watching. They were watching the watchers. His faint smile returned. That made the investigation considerably more interesting.

Tag: The Lord of Hunger

 

[The Lord of Hunger]

LOCATION: Corrox City, Mahporeem - N&Z Regional Headquarters
OBJECTIVE: not my objective
IMPORTANT LINKS: Sword #1 | Sword #2 | Armor | Jewel | Ring | Necklace | Gauntlet | DIII Gluttoneria | The guards | KRONOS
TAG: Evan Kade


Know your opponent, know them well

KRONOS wasn't some run of the mill artificial intelligence, it was a copy of the Lord of Hunger's own voraciousness, his intelligence and his deviousness dipped into a high technological sauce of nigh omnipotence in the cybersphere. It was efficient, ruthless and creative beyond the limits of normal operating AI, a key feature to its design and the philosophy behind it. When KRONOS was present on a planet, every device, every simple node or datapad connected through means of the N&Z's technology, was effectively a recording device, a camera, a microphone, a weapon. It was exactly this ability to usurp control over any piece of technology which contained a core kernel of the N&Z that made it one of the most powerful AI's in the galaxy.

//: CONNECTION CLOSED...
//: INITIATING LEGION PROTOCOL
//: OPENING CONNECTORS
//: SURVEILLIANCE ACTIVATED
//: SUSPECT ACTIVITIES...
//: THREE-THOUSAND FORTY-SIX
//: LOWERING PERIMETER
//: EIGHTY-SEVEN
//: CROSS REFERENCING DATA
//: COMPILING DATA
//: ACTIVATE CORE ZMDII567/A23
//: ACTIVATION SUCCESFULL

Not far from Evan Kade 's location, a protocol droid seemed to act rather strange, stopping dead silent in the middle of a walk, confusing its owner who started to yell at the droid to start moving again. From a first glance, the droid wasn't shut down, it was still active, as its holowall exterior remained active.

//: ACTIVATE CORE ZMDIII892/T35
//: ACTIVATION SUCCESFULL

Another droid, a enforcer type seemed to have the same issues, as it suddenly stopped, no longer moving, while its apparently rich owner seemed to look around if this sudden glitch in their protection detail wasn't something meant to threaten them.

A news bulletin suddenly came on several of the large Screens visible in Corrox' center, the usual advertisements and Imperial Propaganda were replaced by what looked like an emergency notice to the public.

The N&Z Regional Headquarters in Corrox City has been subject to a devastating slicing attempt, as a result, the N&Z has decided to launch a reboot on several of its internal and external datapackages. Do not be alarmed, the reboot will only take several minutes. In the meantime, Mahporeem Intelligence and the company's own Internal Security have decided to begin a widespread investigation and screening of potential suspects.

For spies, the worst possible thing would be losing the cover of their tracks, the loss of the veil over their identity. Even from where he was standing, Evan most likely would have noticed the strange behavior of the droids, as more and more began to seemingly lock down in what the emergency broadcast called a reboot. People seemed to whisper, talking about how good of the N&Z to be so mindful of their customers, having the grace to admit something had happened and to bring such a solution in so little time. Mahporeem was the living proof of the company's very slogan, where other companies had punished the Imperial Remnant for its former ties to the Imperial Confederation, the N&Z had taken the remnant into its portfolio, Their life was truly the N&Z's business.

Perhaps only now it would've been so obvious, the people almost all using the popular NZ S.H.I.F.T. datapad, some being augmented with the neuron implants, some utilizing the spinal graft, some utilizing the I.K.O.N. eye implant, the old and the new logo seemed to be almost everywhere, the advertisments, the slogans.

The droids who were being 'rebooted' seemed to shift slightly, their ocular lenses turning purple and seemingly glancing around for several moments, before they all, one by one began to function like normal again.

"KRONOS has begun its search," The tall man smiled as he turned towards the officers and dignitaries again. "Do not worry gentlemen, we honor our deals and we do not take kindly to any who would threaten the safety of this lovely community of ours. Now, where were we..."

While the Lord of Hunger continued his talks with the men and women who he had come to see in the first place, Amalia seemed to recover, taking in a deep breath as she began to scan the area herself, her eyes cold and calculating, like a sharpshooter's gaze, began to glance into several directions, denoting her past as an undercover agent, a professional assassin and in the end... a shadow. Her eyes went up, catching a glint of light where there should be none, a shadow in a spot no person would be, then her hand reached for her datapad again... her lips forming the word 'drones'


​

​

 

[Evan Kade]

Evan noticed the first droid stop before he noticed the announcement. It simply froze in the middle of the street, it's owner staring at it with growing irritation while the machine's exterior continued to function as though nothing was wrong. Then another did the same several metres away.

Evan's attention shifted across the street. Then to the screens. The advertisements disappeared, replaced by an emergency notice from N&Z. There was a slicing attempt, followed by a reboot, followed by an investigation.

His expression remained carefully unimpressed, but internally Evan's assessment of the situation changed immediately. His hand moved toward his datapad. He didn't contact his slicers. That part of the operation was finished. If KRONOS had managed to penetrate the systems they had been using, reaching back toward them now would accomplish nothing except potentially giving whatever was watching another route to follow. His people knew when to disappear, and Evan trusted them to do exactly that.

The problem was that he was still standing in the middle of the city with two surveillance drones nearby. And then he saw the purple glow in the ocular lenses of another droid. Not a reboot. His thumb moved across his datapad. The screen flickered. Evan stared at it for a moment before giving a quiet, irritated sigh. "Of course." He tapped the screen again. Nothing happened. He looked around, as though hoping someone nearby might have an answer. "Come on." The datapad flickered once more. Evan's expression settled into mild annoyance, and he held the device up slightly as if examining a faulty connection. "That's useful." He didn't say it loudly enough to draw attention, but he made sure anyone watching could hear him complain.

His gaze moved toward one of the public terminals nearby. Still nothing. Everywhere he looked, the same N&Z technology appeared to be affected by the reboot, while the people around him were beginning to murmur about the disruption. Good. He had his excuse.

Evan lowered his datapad and glanced toward the development site. Amalia was scanning the area. Not casually, no. Her eyes moved with purpose, searching for inconsistencies rather than simply looking around. Evan followed her gaze without appearing to do so. Then he caught it. A tiny glint of reflected light where there shouldn't have been one. His drone. Amalia had seen it.

Evan's expression didn't change. He couldn't move suddenly. He couldn't reach for a commlink. He couldn't stare directly at the drone or give away that he'd noticed what she'd noticed. And he certainly couldn't have both drones attempt to withdraw simultaneously. That would be far too convenient.

Instead, he looked down at his malfunctioning datapad again and sighed. "I really picked the wrong night to have a technology problem." A faint smile accompanied the complaint, making it sound like nothing more than an unfortunate joke.

His thumb pressed against the side of the datapad. It was a harmless command. One of the drones began it's withdrawal. Slowly. Not towards Evan, but away from the gathering. It would take it's time, change position gradually, and become just another moving object among the machinery and traffic surrounding the development site.

The second remained exactly where it was. For now. Evan turned slightly, enough to put his body between Amalia's line of sight and the direction of the first drone's retreat, then looked back toward the gathering as though he were more interested in whatever conversation was taking place than in the malfunctioning technology in his hand.

The Lord of Hunger had resumed speaking. Amalia was still watching. And the entire city suddenly felt like it had become part of the security system.

Evan understood something important then. He hadn't simply been caught using N&Z's network. N&Z had effectively turned it's own infrastructure against everyone around it. Every datapad. Every droid. Every connected device. Potentially every camera. That made the original investigation considerably more dangerous. It also made the human beings standing in front of him considerably more valuable.

Evan glanced towards Amalia again. She was still searching. His first drone was nearly clear. The second would stay, and not because Evan wanted to risk it. But because leaving one behind long enough to make it's eventual absence look natural was safer than having both of them vanish the moment she spotted the first.

He returned his attention to his datapad and tapped the screen again. Nothing happened. Evan frowned theatrically. "Fantastic." He shook the device once, as though that might somehow help. Then he looked towards a nearby public terminal, considering whether to ask someone for assistance. A young man with a bouquet of flowers, a malfunctioning datapad and a thoroughly irritated expression was hardly the sort of person anyone would expect to be coordinating surveillance.

That was precisely why Evan intended to remain him. For now.

Tag: The Lord of Hunger