Important Events
This page features summaries of important happenings within the Matrix, along with my thoughts on them. Where appropriate, photos can be found on the event photos page.
CodeMason Party (23.07.05 MCT)
I had the pleasure of attending the CadeMason Party tonight. It all went down at Club Sanguine in Moriah, and drew quite a crowd. Starting from 2100 MCT and running till God knows when, DJ King kept us entertained with a great mix of music across many genres. There were competitions, including a TV theme competition in which people had to send King an instant communiqué as soon as they guessed the programme to which the tune belonged. It was great to hear some music from my old pre-Redpill days – it really takes you back. Sadly I wasn’t in time to get the answers right, but in the general Matrix trivia quiz that followed I was the only person to correctly recall the Bluepill surname of Cypher: Reagan. I’m very surprised no one else got it, given how much he’s been discussed recently with the Cypherites running amock.
The third competition was terribly convoluted, and I didn’t guess the names of the songs or artists, let alone the title of the film constructed from the words. I left a short while later, which was just as well because everyone had obviously had a little too much to drink by that stage and started chasing each other around Moriah and Mara in nothing but their underwear to Benny Hill music!
Photos pertinent to this event can be found on the event photos page.
A Tangled Web
I was here and there through this event, so I didn’t personally witness everything that happened. What I have gathered, though, is that there were four main things going on: the continued investigation into the Masked Men, dealings with the Red- Eyed Agents, Morpheus wannabes and more intrigue within the crew of the Novalis II – a ship that’s getting a bit too much attention for my liking.
On 01.07.05 MCT my operator managed to intercept a number of communications. As was later explained by Agent Gray, the Red-Eyed Agents – strange characters who first appeared before I was freed from the Matrix – are responsible for the inordinate number of helicopters navigating MegaCity’s airways. They were searching for certain operatives whom they termed ‘potential carriers’. I can only assume they were referring to the killcode still in Neurophyte’s possession, because when she cropped up two days later and asked to be taken to the Pyramid Monument again a whole hoard of the imposter Agents turned up, and were quickly dispatched by her new powers. An evidently tougher Agent with a particular designation (and apparent allegiance to the Merovingian) then revealed himself, but was also destroyed. From what I’ve heard, the same thing happened the next day, only the special Agent was a lot tougher, and it took the Assassin to kill him; he and Neurophyte almost killed each other as well.
Around the same time, I engaged in battle with the mysterious Assassin, the dude who killed Morpheus. No one who faught him was particularly successful, but we did our best to bring him down before he vanished again. Then on 14.07.05 and 15.07.05 MCT I was witness to code bombings in Mara, around the central hardline. Two different redpills with a shared striking resemblance to Morpheus were walking around, planting code bombs, waiting for them to go off and then walking away. This continued in a path through Mara and into Tabor Park where I lost track of them. On both occasions a short while later the Assassin showed up and followed the trail of the two men: Sonho and Muma. This guy has an annoyingly tough kinetic shield which can align itself to a particular organisation in an instant. During his first appearance he was always ‘aligned’ to the Machinists, so I was completely unable to attack him, reduced to just following him around. The next day, however, was a different matter, so I along with other Machine operatives attempted desperately to bring him down. No matter what we did he seemed to take very little damage. That didn’t seem to matter, though, as by the time we took the fight to Tabor Park the Assassin had obviously had enough of my pestering and started to chase after me with his Steps of Death, a powerful attack that leaves people dead in his wake. Thankfully I avoided him, but I could tell this wasn’t over, at least from his perspective.
The Masked Men, it now seems, call themselves the Cypherites. I didn’t personally see them up to much in the past few weeks, but I know they’ve been active from other sources. All organisations were undertaking their own investigations into their operations and the structure of their command. We’ve known about Gemaskeerd and Enmascarado for some time now, but it turns out they’re not particularly high up the hierarchy. The murder of Vashuo, a member of the Novalis II crew, while on a mission in the Matrix led to the discovery of a traitor aboard that same ship: Toorima. It was uncovered that she is also Veil, a much more high-ranking member of the Cypherites. Her fate is uncertain, but she’s now in the hands of Zion.
Meanwhile, Enmascarado turned up at Mara the other day and dared Niobe – the insufferable little tart of a captain, and Zionist to boot – to come out and fight him. The stupid woman fell for it, and the Cypherite summoned the Assassin (through the well-timed use of a code bomb) to attack her. He dealt a fatal blow to her and she vanished, but then he turned upon Enmascarado and took care of him as well. Sadly, the dude’s RSI was rigged such that when he was killed everyone around him was infected with a fire virus, which would slowly eat away at a person’s health. I managed to escape the devastation, and the virus seems to have died down now.
Photos pertinent to this event can be found on the event photos page.
A Minor War (30.06.05 MCT)
The powers that be within the ranks of the Machine and Merovingian operatives had decided to declare a temporary truce, in order that they may combine their forces and deal an impressive blow to the overwhelming number of Zion operatives active at the time. This would send a message back to the Zion High Council that they cannot do as they will within the Matrix, at least not without serious repercussions.
Around 21.00 MCT those Merv and Machine operatives willing to fight for the good of the Matrix surged into Camon Heights in a series of well co-ordinated waves. I was among the first to charge, despite this being my first all-out battle. The Zionists, I’m happy to report, were taken off guard and were quickly engaged in combat. Most of their kinetic shields wore down in no time and the majority of our forces engaged them in melee combat, while those of us with more experience at coding took on the Zionists whose shields were still active.
From there on out the event was a blur of motion, and my memory of the incident is a little hazy. I know I certainly took down a number of Zion operatives, but had to use the emergency jack-out procedure myself a couple of times as well. Eventually, though, the Zionists stopped jacking in again and only Machinists and Mervs were left in front of the church. At this point, however, a Merovingian operative went rogue and attempted to harm members of my faction. In the ensuing confusion both organisations entered battle with one another. Eventually the mess was sorted out, and the culprit brough to acount for his actions. Sadly not everyone caught on as fast as others, and long after I had stopped attacking Mervs I found myself being pinned down repeatedly by a certain member of the Codemasons. I gather she has been reprimanded now, but I warn her to remain wary should we meet again.
Photos pertinent to this event can be found on the event photos page.
Choice and Consequence
This was an event with very a mysterious background to which I’m still not privy. The Novalis II is Zion’s first new hovercraft (not counting their hoverbarges) since the truce, and it’s crewed by a right bunch of characters. The pilot, Neurophyte (Anne Simpson in her pre-awakened life), was sent on a mission to the outskirts of Zero-One by herself. The goals of this mission have not been made clear to everyone – even most Zion operatives – which just goes to show how conniving they are. Whatever the case, she somehow got her hands on what’s been dubbed a ‘killcode’, a piece of program code able to cease the awareness (kill, if you will) a certain type of program. Before she could get back to Zion she was badly hurt, and instead attempted to get the code to Zion operatives by jacking into the Matrix through an outdated and crude insertion point.
Her residual self-image was not, however, stable upon entering the Matrix, as the killcode had managed to embed itself in her mind. This caused her both to be unable to move, and also to flicker in and out of visibility. Confused and desperate for help, she succeeded in releasing a rather vague description of her location, so that operatives of any organisation could reach her both in the Matrix and in the Real. A great many operatives congregated on top of the Kalt Towers in Kedemoth, determined to be the location where she would reappear. When she appeared there was a clamour of voices as people shouted out answers to her bizarre questions. I myself was there, and could see how disoriented she was. Obviously she needed to trust someone, so she’d allow them to help her in the Real. Before my faction and I could answer her questions, though, she was whisked away to the pyramid monument in the Downtown district. It is my belief that Zionists had help from knowledgable sources, because they managed to reach her and gain her trust long before anyone else had even entered the park!
We were initially worried by the prospect of Zionists getting their grubby mitts on the killcode, but thankfully the human mindset saved the day and they opted the spare her life rather than get at the killcode; the two options being mutually exclusive, apparently.
At the same time as the struggle to find Neurophyte, other operatives were engaged in a battle against the ever more aggressive ‘Masked Men’. A couple of their bases had been uncovered, along with at least part of their motives. I and others see an almost religious devotion to the ‘teachings’ of Cypher in these people. I have no complaints with his goal to give up life in the Real and return to the Matrix for good, as at the time there was no need for him to work with the Machines. However, this lot have killed hundreds of operatives – irrespective of affilitation – and that is unacceptable. Quite how they intend to get their bodies back into the power plant with the Machines as pissed at them as Zion is beyond me.
I and other operatives were informed, shortly after losing Neurophyte, that a Masked Man going by the name Verborgen was loose in Moriah Projects. My captain, Solarcode, tracked him down first and succeeded in removing his mask. Once his RSI was identified he was taken away, and no doubt awaits a terrible fate at the hands of my… employers.
Photos pertinent to this event can be found on the event photos page.