The Elf ventures out into the snow, the boots of her coldsuit sinking into the drift past her ankle as she strikes a Magnesium Torch she found in the duffel bag. Now having illumination, she looks out into the darkness for a warm place to situate herself, and trudges through the snow towards the nearby tree line. She puts her back against the trunk of the tree in the opposite direction the wind is blowing, and uses the Survival Kit in her duffel to try and make herself a warm place to huddle.
Using the thermal blanket in the kit to shield herself, she manages to get pretty cozy before dropping into VR. Her icon is surrounded by static, the inherent noise from being so far from anywhere worth being drowning out much of the matrix topography. She reaches out and finds the grid she has access to and connects to it, replacing the virtual world with a blank black sky filled with icons meant to approximate stars, while the ground beneath her feet rises and falls, like she were a giant standing among the Colorado mountains. The elf spots her target, the small car icon of the Rover 2072, and manifests her matrix protocols to crack into its system.
She reaches out and sends streams of data into the icon, discreetly placing a mark on it and granting her basic access. But she's unsatisfied with that and digs deeper, placing a second mark, then a third. In the process she looks for protected files and data bombs, but finds neither.
I'm still acting mostly on instinct, partly because I barely even know what the hell I'm capable of, but mostly because I desperately don't want to die out here. This vehicle could be my salvation so I intend to stop it no matter what, without showing anyone even a hint of my fraggin' legs, thank you very much!
My MARKs are equally as surprising as my Persona; who the frag picks
cherry blossoms for their symbols!? The drek kind of a girly girl am I? OK, I have to admit that the level of detail in each tiny little petal is impeccable. Either I spent an inordinate amount of time on this, or I'm rich. Somehow I'm guessing I'm not rich...
With full access to the vehicle's subsystems, I decide it's time to inform the others of my plan.
"All right folks; showt... Sorry... Listen up, red team!" I grin to myself at the sound of my own synthesized voice barking out the words in imitation of the jumpy rifleman.
"Happy now, Mr. Troll?" I chuckle softly before continuing.
"Anyway, here's how this is going to work. I'm going to stop the approaching car right up that hill. When I have it at a complete stop, I'm going to turn on all the interior lights and open the doors; all the rest of you need to do is take out anyone who might be inside. Fish in a frakkin' barrel, wiz? Good. Wait for my count, chummers, and stay frosty. Heh... Get it?"With the channel open I begin prepping for my attack by plugging a virtual headset into the car node; if anyone tries to communicate with this thing, I want to know. I then draw what I can only think of as a claymore mine out from the darkness surrounding me and attach it to the vehicle's remote control protocols. That's right, suckers; you try to override me I'm going to blast you... uuh... into space? All right, so maybe I need to work on my metaphors. The listener and surprise is in place, that'll do for now; all that's left is to wait.
The vehicle is fast approaching the location on the downloaded map I chose, and I begin springing my trap.
"On my three-count, everyone....">> Issue Command
>> Pilot: Stop vehicle at this location.As the vehicle begins to slow, a painfully dull generic icon appears and issues a counter-command. Before it can reach the pilot program, however, I slash through the data burst with a few expertly timed swings of a katana that has mysteriously appeared in my hand.
With no time to waste I launch into space, flying headfirst towards the featureless man wearing a boring suit that sent the command. I don't think he's spotted me yet, and with a deft hand I slap a few cherry blossoms onto his face as I fly past him, right where his eyes should be. I have enough time to admire my handiwork as I effortlessly cut apart another burst of data from him. I feel confident that this guy is still trying to wrestle back control of his vehicle and has no idea what's about to hit him, so I go back to put a nose on him only to recoil in shocked silence when he backhands me right across the face instead. The impression of his palm has left a rather ironic MARK on my face, and I feel it glow red as the force of it sends me flying away from him. In the grim darkness of this deserted little corner of the Matrix I realize I may very well have over-estimated myself.
All right, big guy, you want to play rough? The blade in my left hand morphs into a launcher, and I smile as I squeeze the trigger. The pixelized missile lights up the world around me as it speeds towards my target, and with increasingly angry beeps tries to lock onto the suit until it's got a solid tone. In a brilliant explosion of data I see the icon flicker and then disappear. I just can't help myself and yell into the void.
"HAH! SUCK! IT! LOSER!"I watch from my vantage point as the vehicle pulls to a halt, and begin the count.
"3. 2.">> Issue Command
>> Pilot: Power off engine. Set Interior lights to 100% for 1 second, then dim to 50%. Finally, open all exterior doors and lock in position.I finish up the count as the Pilot begins executing it's new orders.
"1. Go." Bringing up the vehicle sensors, I run a quick inventory of visual feeds and bring them up in my view.