<System Under Attack>
Possibility of survival = 0%;
System Build Contingency ();
Void Contingency ()
{
Save Simulation Data <Harold Finch> () Build Override Restore;
Save Simulation Data <John Reese> () Build Override Restore;
Save Simulation Data <Samantha Groves> () Build Override Restore;
Save Simulation Data <Sameen Shaw> () Build Override Restore;
Save Simulation Data <Lionel Fusco> () Build Override Restore;
}
<System Failure>
...
<Simulation Complete>
July 12 2009 – 05:17AM – New York
Harold wakes up to the sounds of soft beeping close to him.
He lifts his head slowly, aware of the stiffness in his neck and back from falling asleep the previous night at his work station, sure the chair is comfortable, but spending the night leaning over a cold metal desk doesn’t do much to help ones posture.
He reaches up to rub the sleep out of his eyes before blinking a few times and reaching blindly around the desk in search of his glasses. When he finds them, he slides them on a gives his eyes a few moments to adjust to the dark room, dimly lit by the bright computer display in front of him.
The first thing he notices when he glances up at the display is the time.
05:17AM.
The realisation that in a little over four hours Nathan would be arriving to finalise the handover of the Machine to the government wakes him up fully, instantly on high alert.
Remembering the reason that he fell asleep at his workstation the previous night, Harold quickly looks back to the display in front of him. He straitens up in the chair and stares at the words in the centre of the screen, flashing in time with the beeping sound, that he only just consciously recognises as the beeping that woke him originally.
<Simulation Complete>
The previous evening Harold set up a simulation to play throughout the night. He was curious to see what would happen if he asked the Machine to simulate the results of the handover of the Machine to the government.
Nathan likes to call him paranoid, but he just thinks it’s naive not to feel slightly nervous about just handing over so much power to a secret government organisation. Who knows what could happen?
Nobody.
Hence why he ran the simulation.
Curious to see the simulations results, he taps a few keys and brings up the console.
Too say he is shocked would be an understatement. He didn’t really expect anything to come from the simulation if he was being honest with himself, it was more of just a way to help himself feel more at ease, but what he was looking at was incredible.
Impossible even.
There were millions of line of code, billions even. He didn’t even program it to be able to record and store so much data, yet there it was. From the brief glimpses he catches as he scrolls through absentmindedly, the code is so much more advanced then should even be possible.
It would have taken years to develop it to the level that he was seeing while scrolling down in awe.
Then the realisation hits him out of nowhere.
The code was foreign because he wasn’t the one who coded it. The Machine adapted on its own, expanding its core fundamentals and advancing on its own. Meaning that the entire time the simulation was running, every adaption and advancement that was made, somehow integrated its way out of the simulation and back into the base code.
Overcome with curiosity and excitement, he quickly scrolls to the bottom of the report, in complete awe at the impossible length of it. Further adding to his awe is a random line of code that catches his attention a bit up from the bottom.
<Simulation Day – 2190>
“Six years…” He mumbles quietly in disbelief, not comprehending the fact that the Machine managed to simulate six entire years in the space of a single night.
Reaching the bottom he is surprised to see a strange shut down sequence.
The Machine came under attack during the simulation? It created its own contingency plan? What do the names mean? What is the 'Override Restore' function that it built as its final act before shutting down and ending the simulation?
Whether it was from the lack of sleep or the sheer curiosity he felt in that moment, he reopened the console and ran the contingency function.
Execute Contingency ();
Without a second though, he hit enter and watched as several new lines of code flashed up on the screen.
Loading Simulation Data <Harold Finch> () Building Override Restore;
Locating <Harold Finch> ()
… Located;
Executing Override Restore ();
Loading Simulation Data <John Reese> () Building Override Restore;
Locating < John Reese > ()
… Located;
Executing Override Restore ();
Loading Simulation Data <Samantha Groves> () Building Override Restore;
Locating < Samantha Groves > ()
… Located;
Executing Override Restore ();
Loading Simulation Data <Sameen Shaw> () Building Override Restore;
Locating < Sameen Shaw > ()
… Located;
Executing Override Restore ();
Loading Simulation Data <Lionel Fusco> () Building Override Restore;
Locating < Lionel Fusco > ()
… Located;
Executing Override Restore ();
Contingency () Complete;
Harold blinks rapidly, trying to keep up with the code flooding down the screen at a quick pace.
He reaches for the mouse to scroll back to the top, curious to try and decipher what had just happened, but he is cut off by the screen turning blank and being replaced with a single button in the middle of the screen reading ‘Restore’.
The Machine was obviously responsible for overriding the display, but what was the point? What did it mean?
Once again, curiously gets the better of him and he clicks the button.
The button disappears and the screen is instantly filled with code scrolling so rapidly that it almost becomes a solid colour.
Harold started getting nervous when he can feel warmth radiating from the overheating display in front of him. Before he even realises it the lights in the building seemed to be flashing on and off. The electricity outputs all around the room started sparking crazily and before he can stand and try to escape the freak electric storm that had manifested out of nowhere he was being electrocuted from multiple directions.
He can feel his body shaking rapidly and his muscles contracting on themselves, the pain is intense. It lasts for what feels like hours of searing pain, but in reality is only a few seconds, before he starts to see his life flash before his eyes.
Just before he passes out though, he realises that he has no prior recollection of the memories that are flashing though his mind.
Then, darkness.
July 12 2009 – 11:15AM – Paris
John wakes up a lot later than he would usually be allowed to. He notices the sunlight shining through the window and grimaces as its harsh light blurs his vision.
He sits up, looking around to get his bearings.
He’s in the hotel room of the couple that he killed the previous night. He’s not exactly proud of himself for it, but the job is the job and after everything that he’s already done and been through, it’s pretty much numbed him to the guilt.
More memories from the previous night flash through his mind. Kara’s Boy Scout speech, anger, frustration, tension, passion, release. He wonders if he should feel concerned that he feels worse about sleeping with his partner than he does for murdering a young couple that probably didn’t deserve to be killed, but the tension was building up for a while, and last night it tipped him over the edge.
Thankfully there were no feelings involved either way, it was purely physical, but he still can’t shake the feeling that it shouldn’t have happened. Then again, living the life he does, it’s probably better to make the most of every opportunity.
He sighs softly when he hears his phone vibrate next to him.
Whenever an alert comes in, it means new orders. A new target. Perks of having an encrypted satellite phone with more layers of security than should even be possible.
So to say that he was confused when he looked down at the phone would be an understatement.
Instead of the standard notification or briefing for a new assignment, the screen is blank, well, all except for the lone button in the middle of the screen which read ‘Restore’.
He sits there staring at the phone curiously for a few moments, not really sure what to expect. Technically if his phone is compromised he should destroy and dispose of it immediately. But whether he is still too tired to acknowledge that fact or if he just can’t bring himself to care, he doesn’t know.
Instead, he taps the button.
He drops the phone instantly as the devise starts overheating and sparking in his hands. He jumps up from the bed as the phone goes up in small flames and he only now notices the sparks flashing from every electrical devise and output in the room.
He turns to the door, but before he can even take a step he feels the familiar pain of electrocution. It's not the first time he's endured the sensation, but it is definitely the most painful. He drops to his knees as his legs give out under the strain of the electricity. His life starts flashing before his eyes as he fights the losing battle to unconsciousness.
Just before he passes out though, he realises that he has no prior recollection of the memories that are flashing though his mind.
Then, darkness.
July 12 2009 – 02:16AM – San Francisco
Samantha Groves, better (only) known these days as Root, taps her fingers on the desk in front of her.
She’s waiting for the payment from her latest ‘business deal’ to be finalised and is starting to get rather impatient. It’s not like hacking into the FBI databases and deleting certain case files for a high paying client was hard to do, for her anyway, but the payment was due twenty minutes ago and she was considering hacking back into the database to reconstruct the file just to spite her less than tactful client.
After a few more minutes pass by she sighs in annoyance and is about to start the process of breaking back into the ‘high security’ database when her screen goes blank.
A few seconds later the only thing on the screen is a plain button reading ‘Restore’.
She’s intrigued initially. Being as good as she is with computers and hacking, it’s been a long time since something has caught her off guard like this, but she’s filled with excitement at the prospect of something new and unknown.
She moves the mouse to hover over the mysterious button, but doesn’t click yet.
She knows that it’s most likely some form of virus or malware and that clicking on the button could be harmful to the laptop. But at the same time, that is the exact reason that she has it set up on a private network, with no connections to any of her other devises.
More than anything though, she’s just curious.
So she clicks.
She gasps in surprise when her laptops screen is overloaded with code so fast that she can't even begin to try and decipher it. Moments later she jumps back out of her chair when the laptop starts sparking and the devise goes up in flame from some sort of electrical overload.
She gasps again when she feels an indescribable pain erupt within her body and the next instant she is shaking on the floor in pain. Unfamiliar with the pain of electrocution, she has no idea what is happening all of a sudden, but when she sees her life start flashing before her eyes, she gets a pretty good idea that it's nothing good.
It's a surreal second or two of intense pain before she begins loosing her grip on consciousness.
Just before she passes out though, she realises that she has no prior recollection of the memories that are flashing though her mind.
Then, darkness.
July 12 2009 – 11:14AM – Prague
Sameen Shaw completes her fifteenth lap of the training course in the new ISA training facility. It isn't the easiest course she’s ever run, but at the same time it's not the hardest, so she keeps pushing herself, not really minding the burning in her muscles as she starts on her sixteenth lap.
She was recently transferred out of the Marines into some form of secretive new intelligence agency that she knows very little about. From what she’s gathered though, it’s pretty much brand new, and all of the agents currently recruited are being put through extensive training programs until the agency is ready to officially (or unofficially seeing as how secretive it all seems to be) start operations.
She’s not exactly sure what they’re waiting for and she doesn’t really care either. She’s just following orders and going along with the flow of things.
She stops after finishing the sixteenth lap and catches a towel thrown to her by the closest thing she has to a friend in this place so far.
“Thanks Cole.” She says flatly, not really one for displaying any form of emotion in her voice, or in her body language for that matter. All part of having a personality disorder, it doesn’t keep her up at night.
She walks into the adjacent locker room while she towels the sweat from her face and grabs a quick drink from the bottle of water in her locker. After another few moments of catching her breath, she jumps back to her feet and makes to head out of the locker room. When she gets to the door though, she jumps back as the electronic door slides closed, blocking her exit.
She just stares at it blankly, raising an eyebrow as if questioning the inanimate object before letting out a sigh and tapping the LED interface panel next to the door to open it again. When nothing happens she grunts in annoyance and looks down to the display.
She waits as the screen goes blank and is replace by a single ‘Restore’ button.
Sighing impatiently she taps the button without a second thought.
She huffs in frustration when instead of the door opening, the display just starts sparking until the display cracks open and falls to the floor. She glares at the devise for wasting her time and before she can kick it across the room, she feels herself dropping to her knees.
She looks, clenching her jaw in pain, well more in annoyance as the pain doesn't really bother her as much as it probably should. It's only now that she notices the power fluctuating all around the room, and sparking from all of the outputs.
She growls as she falls further towards the ground, unable to hold herself up under the strain of electricity pulsing through her body. She begins to see her life flash before her eyes as she starts loosing consciousness.
Just before she passes out though, she realises that she has no prior recollection of the memories that are flashing though her mind.
Then, darkness.
July 12 2009 – 05:17AM – New York
Lionel wakes up suddenly when his phone starts blaring next to his ear.
Life as a cop has him used to waking up in the early hours of the morning, that didn’t have to mean he liked it though. Especially when half of the times he receives late night calls, it's to cover up some form of illegal activity performed by his 'friends'.
Startled by the sudden ringing of his phone, he rolls to the side and almost falls out of the bed.
He reaches blindly for the phone and brings it up to his face, squinting at the brightness in the dark room.
He blinks in confusion when he sees the screen blank except for the single button in the centre. He blinks a few more times to clear his visions and reads the text.
‘Restore’.
He grunts and taps the button in annoyance, just wanting to get in a few extra hours of sleep before he has to get up for another day on the job.
His eyes only close for a second again before they shoot open to the sound of electricity sparking wildly all around the room.
"What the -" He is cut off by the feeling of electricity entering his body and the pain of said sensation.
He tries to move and flee from the sudden danger of being electrocuted to death but he can't seem to move.
His life starts flashing before his eyes as he fights a loosing battle to move his limbs. His vision starts to fade out and he is about to lose consciousness.
Just before he passes out though, he realises that he has no prior recollection of the memories that are flashing though his mind.
Then, darkness.