[History 101; 2029] The Crash of '29 and Echo Mirage

Wyrm Talks

We're going to diverge from our normal format and discuss the United State's involvement in the Crash of '29, and their response. It's a large topic, so in the next post, we'll discuss what the rest of the world had going on in response to the Crash.

By the beginning of 2029 three major companies had joined the US Army in producing state of the art cyberterminals. These three companies (Fuchi Industrial Electronics, RCA-Unisys, and Sony Cybersystems) however applied ASIST (Artificial Sensory Induction System Technology) to there 'terminals and made great leaps towards tempering the psychological effects on their users.

They had advanced the original design so much that they were able to bring these to market. Not on a wide scale, of course, but every government and megacorp wanted to get their hands on a 'terminal to get the edge in the intelligence game.

And then February 8th happened.

An unknown computer virus was found to be inside NASA's satellite systems. Upon initial inspection it was immediately apparent that it was a virus, the likes of which had never been seen. This program was aggressive, unpredictable, adaptable, and highly destructive. The virus quickly disabled the systems of Harris-3M’s Halo, Angel Station, and Nerva stations, while more than half of the other stations suffer fatal system failures. In the majority these cases, all onboard were killed. And then the virus attacked earth

Within seconds the virus deftly bypassed NASA's firewalls and infected the system. This virus seemed to be driven to infiltrate a system, propagate itself, deleting all the files it could, crashing the system and then physically destroying it by causing catastrophic hardware failure. It was destructive, and it kept spreading.

Within minutes, this unknown virus had infiltrated, crashed, and destroyed huge portions of the internet.

FastJack described his experience that morning. I believe it's important to learn from our elders, so here it is.

The real-world impact was immediate and devastating. I remember waking up one morning and the power was out. I got dressed and went outside, but my car wouldn’t start. On the walk to the café the traffic lights were out, and there was a jam—peoples’ cars had stopped, and they just abandoned them in the road. At the café, maybe the lights were on, but the register was spitting out noise and the cashier couldn’t take any orders. The café’s television wasn’t getting anything but static, and then the screen started flickering and something inside it began to overheat. Stomach rumbling, I went outside, heard a plane overhead, watched it fall into the distance—and then explode as it hit the horizon.

That was day one of the Crash.

The United States was the first to respond to this foreign threat, and they did so almost immediately. The CIA, NSA, and IRS had pooled their resources the year before to train a cadre of "cybercommandos" to make the most of the new cyberterminal technology. They were still in the early parts of testing and evaluation when clearance from the President came through. But, they were all veterans of various military institutions and programs.

With less than seven months of training on the cyberterminals under their belt, the team of forty-seven went into their sensory deprivation tanks, jacked in, and bravely fought against the virus for thirty-two seconds. In a little over half a minute, forty-three member had flat-lined, two were rendered (permanently) comatose, and the remaining two were only able to survive by physically pulling their plugs from their heads. They later developed severe psychological issues including an unwillingness to go back into the tanks, and were considered unfit to continue the project.

The fight against the virus wasn't a complete wash though. From data derived from the fight, and the existing profiles of the survivors, analysts were able to figure out that a cyberterminal user was fast enough to keep up with the ever adapting killer virus. The also found that the original team members were linear thinkers. Y always had to follow X, and Z was after Y. They needed non-linear thinkers with a flare for improvisation. With the right kinds of programs, and the right kinds of users, the virus could be fought.

So the President authorized the draft of hackers, maverick programmers, computer scientists... and really anyone with the technical knowledge and professional knowledge to stand a chance. Eventually thirty-two members of draft graduated from the brutal boot camp with their sanity intact.

While the team members were training, the technical team was putting together new programs based on the first incident report. They also worked tirelessly to figure out where the psychological issues were coming from. And by the middle of the year they had an answer. The second generation cyberterminals featured ASIST, SOTA optical chip technology, no longer required a sensory deprivation tank, and were now the size of a desk.

In August, these 32 brave men and women, led by Air Force Major David Gavilan jacked in to fight the virus once again. This time the attack lasted eighteen minutes, but four members were killed due to lethal biofeedback from the virus. One of the earliest victims was Alice Haeffner, wife of future UCAS President Kyle Haeffner.

Echo Mirage had won their first battle against the virus. But the war was far from over.

Over the next two years, Echo Mirage continued to refine their technology and training methods. They went in time after time against the virus, and lost nineteen more team members in the first six months. After that initial rough patch, the casualty rate dropped to zero.

After two years Echo Mirage had all but purged the Matrix of the lingering Crash Virus and were disbanded on the recommendation (and paranoid fears) of the megacorps and governments. Echo Mirage had saved the world. But the megacorps and governments had just reason to fear these elite cybercommandos. They had proven, time and time again throughout their attacks against the Crash Virus that no firewall nor any security features could keep Echo Mirage out of their systems.

However, quite a few of those survivors of the project went out into the world to make their own fortunes. And some of them dropped off of the map. There were seven survivors of Echo Mirage. Four went on into the public sector, two dropped off into the shadows, and one never heard from again. Here's the run down.

Ken Roper and Michael Eld (Roper was a hardware tech. and Eld was a software tech.) left and formed their own company called Matrix Systems. Matrix Systems pioneering the miniaturization of the cyberterminal into what we would call cyberdecks today. They even went so far as to actually produce the first economically feasible 'deck called the Portal. Shortly thereafter, they both died under mysterious circumstances. Some point to Richard Villiers as the culprit, seeing that he swooped in and bought up Matrix Systems. Then merged it with Fuchi Industrial Electronics in 2034. Fuchi then released their flagship 'decks based on the Portal's technology.
Keith "the Suit" Hannigan (a hardware tech. for EM) left the program and went on to work for Fuchi. He doesn't much care for the actual 'decking portion of the Matrix, but loved working on the technology that made it possible. He was often quoted as saying "I make the rules. Living by them is the task of others." During his tenure at Fuchi he created the Prometheus 4000 (for those old enough to remember it). He was extracted from Fuchi and began working for MCT.
Maj. David Gavilan (team leader) left EM to join Aztechnology owned Acquisitions Technology. AT was one of the original intelligence gathering corporations a la Shiaswase's MFID on Aegis Cognito. He disappeared from his home and office in December of 2032, never to be seen again.
"Buddy" (no real name listed) was scooped of from the University of Washington to be a decker for EM. She did her job well, and diligently. But when the time came to separate she went her own way. And promptly found her way into the shadows. Unfortunately not much is known about her. It seems she was killed by Black IC in 2052
Erica Rutledge aka Static was the Chief of Hardware for EM. Once the project was canceled she struck out on her own, and went on the lam. It's believed that this frantic lifestyle was due, at least in part, to a paranoid belief that the megacorps were after her. We all owe Static a debt though. She was one of the original shadowrunners.

The one mystery that still remains is where did the Crash Virus come from? Who made it? And maybe most importantly of all why did they make it?

There have been several people who have tried to answer these questions over the intervening decades. The closest anyone has ever been able to come is one of three possibilities: an Aztechnology subsidiary called Acquisition Technologies, a research corporation called Gossamer Threads (whose shareholders included Fuchi and the great dragon Dunkelzahn), and the Ares inherited NASA Sattelite Network.

The world may never know the truth behind this disaster.

##Sources!

Virtual Realities pp. 119-122
Shadowrun 3^rd Ed. Core Rulebook pp. 28-19
Denver - City of Shadows pp. 73-75
Target: UCAS pp. 51-52
System Failure pp. 44-48
The Sixth World Almanac pp. 46-47
Corporate Download pp. 53-54
Clockwork Asylum
Echoes of the Crash
2XS
Pyschotrope

On the nest [History 101]...

Posted Apr 8, 2014, 7:57 PM UTC

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