The last weeks were unbelievably insane, the entire police force was nowhere to be seen. Undeads were roaming the streets burning cars that were left in the streets, drugging into the sewers people that were unfortunate enough to be in the street. These were weeks of mistrust where entire neighborhoods have barricaded themselves. Armed militias and gangs took over the power vacuum that was left by the disappearance of the knights. It was the atmosphere that has given raise to humanists in the city council and segregation of humans and metas has become the norm. In most places, being a trog was enough to shoot at you and being a stranger was enough to have you harassed.
As trade halted, bare necessities became in high demand and food struggles were not uncommon. Then one day the knights were back and they did not come empty handed. They brought food and clean water and offered them for free to anyone. Their agents braved the streets - and behaved politely, uncharacteristically polite, even to SINless people. To indicate their change of approach the knights have all carried a big red heart ribbon on their body armors. Could charity really save a city?
It appeared that peace and harmony had followed the knights wherever they went. Nobody challenged them even as they went deep into gang territory. The knights have even reached neighborhoods that they could not enter before the chaos. Shortly after the knights arrived to a new territory - it was reformed. Crime was eliminated, old rivalries were forgotten and everyone were going out of their way for the common good. You could even see humanist activists housing homeless meta’s in their own home and Rival gangs that peacefully surrendered their weapons to the knights without a fight.
Within a week the city was transformed from a dysfunctional hellhole into a prospering utopia.
At least on the outside it was as the food and drinks were all infected with nanites and the more nanites you had inside - the stronger her grip was. Yes, the entire city has gave in to an emerging AI goddess called Red, or the Red queen. But not everyone took part in the blissful utopia. A small fraction of the populace however, were immune, either because they already had nanites, or because their body filtered out nanites more aggressively than most. These formed a resistance, and were forced to remote locations outside of the nanite cloud that was now called Seattle. Red’s followers were continuously scanning the open spaces around Seattle looking for these rebels - whom they called followers of the Cat, without understanding why.
One night a bright flare lit the night sky. It was a massive shock-wave that briefly rendered the night into a day. It fired most of the nanites and instantly ended Red’s reign but it also fried most of the matrix infrastructure. It was only then that evidence of the horror started arriving. People reported about the feeling of helplessness, as they were trapped in their own body, unable to protest, unable to scream.
So here we are, the city is now managed by a government intervention force. The knights have become persona non gratta in the city, many of them were lynched in the first days after the blast, others have fled the city. Instead of Knights, Lone Star were called to keep the peace, but even they cannot bring order to many regions in the city. The matrix is being rapidly deployed, but coverage is still lacking. In the Barrens there is a new alternative network, salvaged from the lost computer age and maintained by a bunch of electronic geeks, scavengers and programmers in lost techniques, that call themselves the Brain eaters.
January 12th 2076:
@Kynos Ryan Marks leaves you a message:
“Kynos, still alive? If you aren’t then who is... you know what I am saying?
If you are alive I have a job for you, ping me for details.”
@Maxwell Grail have never came back, and while Amy has rendered the processing plant off grid for Red. You were safe but could not leave. Food was rationed but Grail had quite a stockpile and you survived. The drawback was that you had to watch Amy feeds for the first time, and kills the poor girl. Apparently she lacked the self control needed to restrain herself. The following days Amy was in a terrible mood and would barely talk to you.
One night as you were already sleeping she woke you up and said: “He came back... please Max, I am begging you to run! I need him to help me figure this vampire thing. I cannot go on killing people like that.”
@Wheely A persona nicked Casa approaches you in the matrix. Saying: “Wheely, heh... I heard you have some undamaged vehicles and drones. I need some package delivered and I need a wheelman.”
@Knockout ? (Raider Joseph’s char) When you arrive at home one night, you get a handwritten note under your door. “Name is Finestra... I was looking for you for a paying job.” Look for me at the Gates casino.
@Ayato - You are approached by a slick Yak lieutenant that everybody calls Ballz. He reminds you that your debit is due and that his boss is going to break your bones if you do not make the monthly payment next week. He gives you the number of a troll named Athos - saying that he might have works for you.
@Irris Your fixer Slim contacts you and places GPS coordinates of a casino in Bellevue called ‘the Gates’ the label say “Ask for Casa, free drink and a chance for job.”
@Nyx The last weeks were rough, you were captured by a bunch of mercenaries. You were placed in restraints, in a sealed locked box at the back of a bulldog truck. Then something extraordinary, happened the van stopped and nobody came for you - for many days.
Something happened to the mercenaries, eventually you were released from the box, barely alive. You were found at the parking lot of a casino named Gates and was quickly brought to a plain looking woman named Valentina. Apparently, Valentina runs the gates, and she seemed very sympathetic and friendly. She made sure that you were comfortable and even offered you a temporary job until you got on your feet - a casino hostess. In some very confusing days, she has made sure that you were well rested and well fed.
One day, Valentina asks you to take care of a very special guest that calls himself mr. Casa. No last name, just Casa. She instruct you to place him in a private booth that is easily accessible through the worker area and then adds: “His contacts are going to arrive and may not exactly blend in the casino so make sure that they are unseen as they enter and unseen as they leave. Oh, and give Casa whatever he asks for, make sure that he is satisfied from the service provided.”
@Nicole Your side business is booming since the flash, many people have problems with their cyberware. Nothing too drastic to resolve but the shockwave have taken some automatic mechanisms out of sync and has made ware glitchy. You make some good living fixing cybereyes, DNI’s and the sort when suddenly you notice that your 17:00 meeting is a woman that did not appear to need your services, she was in perfect health and was not augmented and wore an expensive suit.
“Oh... I did not come for a software upgrade, I came to offer you a job... if you are interested, my name is Fabiana Salvo, but my colleagues call me Finestra.” She said.