Once a hacker, always a hacker.

((This is Gustavis's story from the beginning to the present, told out of sequence a la Prophet Without Honour. EDIT: I think I'm going to repost this story when it's complete instead of in parts.))

January 13, 29459, Omni-1 Entertainment District

Disarray.

An alarm was blaring somewhere in the background as Darius ran through the streets of Omni-1, Entertainment District. All he could do was run, as a Reform agent and two Omni-Pol officers chased him.

He was only thirteen years old.

“What now?” he thought to himself. Darius did not recognize where he was, not having explored much of Omni-1 during the time at the orphanage. All the buildings seemed to look much the same…

As he ran, he began to hear the muffled sounds of trance music pumping from a nearby edifice. As he turned a corner, pushing through a crowd, he saw the bright sign that hung over the entrance of one of Entertainment’s most famous nightclubs: Baboons.

Darius knew he had to get in there somehow, for his pursuers would probably not think to look in there, given his age. He took a glance at the bouncers, two burly Atrox. While not usually very intelligent, the Atrox species was renowned for its prodigious strength. Darius gulped, for he did not think it would be a good idea to be on the receiving end of their clubs.

A quick glance back changed his mind.

“Damn it,” cursed Darius under his breath as the Reform agent and now four Omni-Pol officers pushed through the crowd and were just a few meters away from Baboons.

Darius glanced at the Atrox bouncers and suddenly had a stroke of luck; some kid was discovered using a fake ID and the Atroxes were forced to remove him. Darius charged past the Atroxes, who looked at each other for a second and then chased after him.

Trance music. Clothes of all styles and colors. Colorful, flashy lights. Baboons was packed with people that day, and Darius began to push through the crowd. As he looked back, he saw the Reform agent talking to one of the Atroxes, as the other ran towards him. Scared, Darius began to shove through the crowd more quickly, up a slope next to the DJ, and into a room behind the DJ, which seemed to be a VIP room of sorts. There was a Party Mixer there and a few people, all laughing as he brushed past, a kid somewhere he wasn’t allowed.

“Hey kid, come back when you’re a little older!” shouted a man in a Miiir suit. The others guffawed and giggled as Darius ran into a room within the VIP room, containing a drink dispenser. He crouched behind the drink dispenser, as the Reform agent, the two bouncers, and two Pol officers came into the room.

“Official Omni-Tek business, citizens. Carry on,” one of the Omni-Pol officers said as the table full of people stared at them, now no longer laughing. Darius peeked from behind the dispenser, staring at the Reform agent as she walked towards the room within the VIP room.

‘There you are,” said the lady through a fake smile while looking at Darius. She was an Opifex female, pale but beautiful. The Reform agent was wearing a standard black Omni-Tek suit, with the Omni-Tek logo in white on the right breast.

“Please, come quietly. We will not hurt you. Omni-Reform protects its citizens, and we just want to help. You will learn to be a better citizen through our Omni-Reform Juvenile Rehabilitation Program.”

Darius was slightly scared, and did not know what to say. As the Reform agent helped him up, he looked around the table, his eyes pleading for help.

“They won’t help you, Darius,” the Reform agent said, catching his eyes. “Everyone here will behave as outstanding citizens, unless they want to have a little chat with Reform, too...” Her smile turned slightly into a smirk, her eyes full of malice.

Darius stared around the table, mouthing the words Please help…

As Darius looked around the table, none of the citizens seemed to want to interfere. But wait…

He glanced at the man who had remarked on his sudden entrance earlier. He seemed to be reaching for something.

KZZZZZZZT. Darius jumped and looked behind him as the two Pol officers fell, obviously stunned by something the man was holding. The other patrons screamed and ran out of the VIP room.

“Get him!” shouted the lady as the Pol officers twitched on the ground.

The bouncers charged towards the man, who zapped one of the bouncers, ran towards Darius, grabbed his arm, and began to wave his other arm in front of him.

He was casting a nano.

The next thing Darius knew, he began to feel strange and disoriented, and everything around him was blue. He had heard of this before… seen pictures and diagrams of it…

Darius was in the Grid.

“Come on, kid!” said the voice of the man, coming from a strange, blue, upside-down pyramid. As Darius looked around in awe, he noticed more of these pyramids gliding along to what were marked exits within the blue world of the Grid. He began to follow the man-now-turned-pyramid, and saw him gliding towards an exit called “Newland.”

April 26, 29475, Newland City
Large house near the Basic Store

Gustavis was panting hard. He was holding his Manex Catastrophe submachine gun in his hands; a gun that fired slowly, but packed quite a punch.

He peered behind the corner and slid his head back just in time to avoid a plasma burst from a nearby attacker’s weapon. The tall Solitus man was wearing a black suit, and seemed to be wielding a Nova Flow MK IV Assault Rifle. The man fired a few more bursts and ducked behind the overturned table he had been using as cover.

Gustavis peeked out from behind the corner, firing a few rounds at the table. He figured that the bullets from the Manex could probably penetrate the table, and was hoping to catch his attacker.

“Die, bitch!” The man rolled out of his place of cover and unloaded towards Gustavis.

Time seemed to slow down all around Gustavis, allowing him to easily dodge the plasma. A lamp shattered behind him, and the table holding the lamp broke in half. The previously clean white walls of the large house were now riddled with plasma burns and bullet holes. As a Fixer, Gustavis could run quite quickly when needed and, thanks to nanotechnology, was able to boost his dodging abilities greatly. He leaned to his right as a plasma burst narrowly missed his shoulder, and fired a burst of rounds from his Manex.

A yell of agony, a thud, and then a gurgling cry of pain. Gustavis walked up to the dying man, now bleeding profusely from his side. As the floor under the man turned into a pool of blood, Gustavis glared at the man with a look of deepest loathing.

“You’re gonna pay for what you did to her, you f*cker. You hear me? I’m gonna kill you, again and again, and again. Run if you want to. Change your name. I’ll find you again. You can’t run from me, and you will suffer for the rest of your life. I’ll make sure of that.”

He aimed the Manex at the man’s head, who looked at him with pleading eyes.

He squeezed the trigger.

March 15, 29473, Newland City
Backyard 12

Gustavis awoke with a gasp.

As he sat up in his bed, panting, he looked around the familiar brown walls of the apartment that he lived in. There were a few portraits hanging from the walls, such as one of Omni-Tek’s CEO, Philip Ross. Political differences or not, almost everyone Gustavis knew agreed that Ross was a great man with a brilliant career. There was also a portrait opposite it of Henry Radiman, the wise Council of Truth leader. It was thanks to these two, mostly, that tensions between the Clans and Omni-Tek had been kept in check, and thanks to the Tir Accord, Rubi-Ka was quite peaceful lately.

As Gustavis reached for the lamp by his bed, he glanced into the mirror near his closet door. A young man of twenty-seven with short, spiky black hair and green eyes stared back at him.

“Mmmm… something wrong, babe?” yawned a voice behind him.

He turned towards the voice, looking down at the only woman that had ever made him feel different… made him feel like a better person; made him feel like nothing mattered but her.

“Just a bad dream. It’s nothing.” Gustavis forced a smile as he looked into the pale, attractive face of the Opifex woman he had fallen in love with.

“You wanna talk about it?”

“Maybe tomorrow. Good night, hun,” he whispered and then kissed her soft lips.

Gustavis turned the lamp off, slipped back under the covers, and closed his eyes. It wasn’t long before he drifted back off to sleep.

((Wow, this is awesome :D ...I can't wait to see where it goes! :) ))

((Thanks. More coming soon. :) ))

The next morning, Gus woke up, looked to his side, and noticed Alessa had already left. She usually got up very early for some exercise. Fixers always trained to keep their breathing in check and to run as fast as possible without getting tired. Coupled with their nanotechnologies, they were able to cover long distances in a very short while.

Gustavis took a quick shower, and dressed in his usual Steel-Ribbed Armor; it was a very flexible blue and brown armor, which insulated the wearer against energy attacks. Beneath the layer of insulation was a layer of steel ribs, which would protect the wearer against most projectile and melee attacks. It was best to have some kind of armor at all times on Rubi-Ka, even some light padding under your clothing. Also, Steel-Ribbed was usually used by the Smoke Loungers, a syndicate made up almost entirely of Fixers.

He pressed a button on the wall near his bed, and a panel opened. Gustavis waited as a long rack stretched out from the wall, full of his favorite submachine guns of the day. On a planet like this one, it was always best to have protection. Gus looked at each gun, considering their stopping power.

The Manex Catastrophe: a slow-firing gun that packed a strong punch, and had a huge capacity for ammo. The Mausser Particle Streamer: a submachine gun with twin chambers of Sub-Space Invigorators, which gave it a good firing rate. The Suppressor: a twin-barreled submachine gun that fired off many rounds per second, although quite inaccurate compared to some of his other choices. The MTI Zdrastvuite: also known as the “Russian Good Day,” this popular submachine gun was lightweight, allowing someone to carry two of them without having to worry about losing accuracy for dual-wielding.

Finally, he laid eyes on the one submachine gun that he felt would serve him best that day: the Mausser Chemical Streamer. This gun was actually just a modified Mausser Particle Streamer, stripped of its large propulsion chamber and heavy cooling system. A compression chamber for chemicals was added to the gun, allowing for extra damage. The only downside was that it had a somewhat shorter range than the original Particle Streamer, but that didn’t matter much most of the time.

Gus picked up his Mausser Chemical Streamer, checked to see if the safety was on, hit the release button, checked to see that the magazine was fully loaded, reinserted the mag, pulled the cocking lever backwards, and let it slide back into place with a satisfying clack-clack!

Gustavis walked outside, into the city of Newland.

The city of Newland was a beautiful place. Although not as clean as the Omni cities, Newland offered a lovely view of the horizon, was quite peaceful, and had a beautiful lake outside the city walls. As fun as it was to swim in the lake, though, sharks were rumored to reside in the lake. This prevented most people from swimming out too far.

Gustavis smiled as he looked up at the giant radar dish just outside the backyard containing his apartment, Backyard 12. He slung his submachine gun over his shoulder as he passed by a table near the dish, which was a nice place to stop and relax every now and then. It was also a good way of meeting people, as many Rubi-Kans from all sides of the now-peaceful conflict would stop by from time to time. He ran down a small slope diagonal to the table, passed the Whom-pahs, and began walking towards the Bronto Burger by Neuters ‘R’ Us, a local nightclub.

“Welcome to Bronto Burger. May I take your order?” asked the cook at the Bronto Burger stand, with a glazed and bored expression.

“One Bronto Burger, please,” Gustavis told the surly cook.

“That’ll be 29 credits,” the cook responded as he readied the burger. Gustavis reached into his pocket, took out his wallet, and gave the cook his money.

“Thank you, come again,” said the cook as he handed Gustavis his burger a few seconds later.

Finishing his “breakfast” for the day, Gustavis made his way back to the Whom-pahs, and entered the one labeled “Borealis.”

Borealis. The one city where anyone - no matter if Omni, Clan, or Neutral – were welcome, and free trade was common. This city was created by Omni-Tek as a mining town, and was founded as the Neutral city of Borealis itself around 22950, at the end of the first Rubi-Kan war, with Omnis and Clansmen defecting to escape the harsh realities of war.

As a city with high suppression gas levels, it was improbable that any acts of violence would occur within its walls. Gustavis looked around at the Borealis Militiamen stationed in the city, and smirked as he thought of how they’d probably never have to fire the weapons they held.

Making his way down the street, Gustavis turned a corner, passing a few kiosks owned by Traders trying to sell their merchandise to people. Shouts of “Want To Sell” and “Want To Buy” were heard all over the city, as people went about their daily business, buying and selling.

Turning right from the main street, Gustavis walked around until he saw a couple of familiar faces. A bald Solitus man with a neutral expression was talking to a skinny Opifex man with black markings around his face and orange-ish eyes. Gustavis smiled as he walked towards them.

“Sirocco, Ofoz! What’s up?”

February 24, 29482, Orbit around Rubi-Ka
Battle Station #150-174

Gustavis was sweating as he gripped his Blinded Blackbird tightly in his right hand, and his Enchanted Waterfall Eye Wind Onehander in his left hand. As he paused for a breath near Point C, he inserted a few more shotgun shells into his Onehander. Peeking around a corner, he saw the coast was clear, and ran up to the terminal at Point C. Beginning to “cap” the point, his heart jumped as three people rounded the corner, but fortunately, they were Omni.

He could not move for the duration of the “cap,” and was happy to have backup as two Clanners rounded the corner and began to engage the Omnis. There was an Adventurer and a Fixer attacking the Omnis, who were two Soldiers, a Martial Artist, and Gustavis, a Fixer.

Looking down the sights of his Onehander, Gustavis aimed a careful shot at the Fixer’s head. He coupled this with a few bursts from his Blackbird submachine gun, and “flinging” his shotgun up a bit, took a shot at the Fixer. Letting out a few bursts from his Perennium Beamer, the Fixer managed to hit Gus a few times, but his Heal over Time nanos were constantly working on his wounds.

Taking another aimed shot from his shotgun after avoiding a few more bursts, he easily dispatched the Fixer and turned his attention to the Adventurer, who was holding his own with the other Omnis. One of the Soldiers was dead, and the Soldier and Martial Artist looked like they were having trouble.

Adding his own damage to the bunch solved that.

Panting, Gustavis began to run to the Middle Point, rapidly talking over the comm channel known as “BSTL5.” When he got there, though, the Omni forces once defending the middle were dead, and a Nano-Technician launched her “nukes” at Gustavis, rapidly killing him.

Coming to in the Decontamination Room, Gustavis cursed under his breath as he began to run his ability-boosting nanotechnologies on himself.

“I hate this sh*t.”

March 15, 29473, Borealis
“Fixer Shop”

Gustavis looked around. A few creatures roamed nearby, blissfully ignorant of Gustavis and his strange interest with what seemed to be a pile of junk lying in front of him. The shacks surrounding this “pile of junk” were empty as well.

Figuring no one was nearby, he shrugged and walked up to what seemed to be an old, broken terminal among junk.

The terminal beeped and lit up. The old “Fixer Shop.”

The Fixer Shop was a terminal of sorts outside Borealis. It was quite incon****uous in its location. No Fixer knew of its origins. They only knew that it was there, and it had many things you could not get elsewhere.

Perfect.

He placed his NCU Hacker Interface in front of the terminal’s scanner, and the old machine suddenly lit up and emitted a humming noise. It sprang to life.

ICC cloaks, Hacker Tools, Cluster Bullets… those were only a few of the items you could find in the Fixer Shop. But Gustavis wasn’t after those items. Not today. He took a look at the list, and there was a Pick-a-Finger. Gustavis bought the Pick-a-Finger, and went back to looking through the list.

At last.

He purchased what seemed to be a guide for tinkering with certain electronics, made by Engineers, for Engineers. He opened the booklet and began flipping the pages. He stopped on page 140.

A blank sheet of paper… Or was it?...

Smiling smugly, Gustavis closed the guide, stowed it in his backpack, and began walking back towards Borealis.

Ofoz would be pleased.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Here’s what you asked for,” said Gustavis, grinning as he handed the guide to Ofoz.

“An Engineer guide?...” Sirocco raised an eyebrow, looking at Ofoz.

“More than that,” said Ofoz, grinning at Sirocco. He opened the Engineer guide to page 140 and removed the blank sheet of paper. He took out a vial containing what seemed to be a strange liquid, took one good look at the paper, and spread the liquid on it. As Ofoz began to pour the liquid on the sheet of paper, Gustavis stared in awe as words began forming on the paper. It reminded Gus of the old fluorescent marker, a relic from Planet Earth whose ink was invisible until exposed to ultraviolet light. Sirocco seemed unimpressed.

After a few seconds, the paper finished revealing the hidden message.

“Is that what I think it is?” Sirocco asked Ofoz.

“Yeah, it is,” Ofoz remarked, seeming both impressed and ecstatic all the same.

“What is it?” asked Gustavis. The handwriting seemed to be Smokey Willy’s handwriting, but he could never be too sure.

“Oh, you’ll see soon enough. Just make sure not to toss that armor you’re wearing. You might need it later…” Ofoz said.

“The Steel-Ribbed?”

Ofoz and Sirocco both smiled but said nothing. Gustavis blinked, and they were gone.

January 17, 29459, Newland
Bronto Burger

Darius was starving. He’d been in Newland for four days and hadn’t managed to get much food since then. He frowned as he looked at the people just passing through, buying food from the Bronto Burger but never once paying him any mind.

Newland was nothing like what he was used to. While the Omni cities all seemed clean and orderly, Newland was dirty, gritty, and full of people from all sides of the conflict. Sometimes there would be fighting between the Omni and Clan troops that passed through Newland, or between the rough mercenaries that lived in the town. There wasn’t a police force of any kind to maintain order, so sometimes the fighting would go on for days, or even weeks.

Still in his Omni suit, Darius had scraped off the logo to prevent getting involved in any of the fighting. There had been times where he’d gotten into fights with some of the mercenaries’ kids, but it was nothing he couldn’t handle. Most of them were cowards, trying to gang up on him. Sometimes three or more kids would come looking for him, but Darius always knew when and how to run or fight.

“Hey, kid, you ok?” It was one of the mercenaries. Darius backed away from him.

“It’s ok… I’m not going to hurt you.” The man took out a card from his wallet, bought a Bronto Burger from the chef, and offered it to Darius.

He paused to look at it for a while. I’m so hungry…

Darius suddenly snatched the burger, and took a bite out of it. “Th-thanks,” stuttered Darius with his mouth full. It sounded like “fanks.”

The man smiled and walked away. That was the first act of kindness Darius had ever seen in this town.

“Wait! Mister, what’s your name?”

“I am Paul, and if you’re looking for a place to stay we’d better get going. Some Omni soldiers were just coming through Newland, and you know what that means…”

Darius nodded. He stood up, finished his burger, and ran to catch up to Paul.