Matrix Online: Chapter 11.1: Fractures
Matrix Online: Chapter 11.3: Overrides
The E Pluribus Neo expedition to the Machine no-fly zone reached the outskirts of the area, but found heavy Sentinel patrols around the zone's perimeter. The Kid left old Zion, heading to the zone with reinforcements for the expedition.
Zion found that the device they'd recovered from the thief stealing from Wright Research was tracking the biological interface program.
The Machines confirmed the identity of the female intruder as the ex-Zionite researcher Danielle Wright, thought to have been killed by Sentinels shortly after the end of the Truce. Agent Gray was uncertain how Wright could still be alive, but confirmed that she is not a member of the "Oligarchy," and the old termination order for her remains in effect. Operatives sent to execute the order found that it would be no simple matter, as Wright seemed to have full command of Oligarch simulation override codes.
Merovingian operatives encountered a cascading series of glitches centered on the white hallway connection to the Merovingian's chateau construct. Malphas said that the source appeared to have been internal, but undetectable, which suggested that it might have been the interface program.
Zion followed a series of coordinates given out by the device they'd found with the strange Wright Research thief, encountering override activity, and then Danielle Wright herself. Wright removed the overrides the Zionites had found, and departed. When Zion regrouped at the device, Wright suddenly reappeared, destroying the device,which she claimed as her own work.
Cypherites located Danielle Wright and scanned for her broadcast signal, but to their surprise, they found no trace of a connection at all.
Machine operatives snuck into an EPN meeting attended by the ex-Machinist and recent EPN convert, Dislodge, hoping to obtain intelligence on the E Pluribus Neo expeditionary force that has advanced to the no-fly zone. Dislodge, realizing that something was amiss, made a break for it, but was forced to reconstruct by Machine operatives guarding the exits.
Merovingian operatives searching the chateau for the source of disruptions there encountered a training simulacrum, behaving slightly irregularly. The simulacrum engaged the operatives in combat, but eventually stopped fighting, looked around, said "where," and fell inert. Operatives concluded that the simulacrum had been controlled by the interface program. Flood was skeptical.
Cryptos summoned Cypherite operatives to the rescue of a Cypherite team that had been ambushed downtown. Veil, arriving at the ambush site on her own, found a Pluribus Neo operative there, along with the remains of the Cypherite team, and an override program. She took some time in relaying this information to Cryptos, who quickly had a search run for EPN activity in the area, leading to a facility where EPN was trying to decompile the data they had captured from the Cypherites, having to do with Cryptos' research into formulating a counter-agent to override codes. The Cypherites eliminated the EPN operatives and recaptured the data.
Zion operatives on the trail of the interface program hunted down guard programs from the Merovingian's chateau, where the program had recently appeared. The chateau guards behaved oddly, and a data transfer from the proximity of one of them led to a home computer, with a message saying only "this isn't."
The Kid and his reinforcements met up with the EPN expeditionary force and entered the Machine no-fly zone, seeking answers on the mysterious area, and the dangerous Oligarchs who seem to have a connection with it.
Danielle Wright agreed to talk to the Machines, provided they would tell her why the interface program was created, and do it in the presence of their operatives, who would serve as what she called "witnesses."
Merovingian operatives defending chateau guards from Zionites encountered Danielle Wright, who mentioned that Carlyne, who had helped Zion, had been more useful than he'd intended. Thinking over this remark, it occurred to the Merovingian that Wright could have been in close physical proximity to Carlyne in the Real when she somehow deactivated his RSI in the Matrix. The Merovingian dispatched a flotilla of the General's Sentinels into the no-fly zone, said to be Carlyne's home.
Machine operatives and Agent Gray met with Danielle Wright in the One Zero construct for an exchange of information. Gray told Wright that the biological interface program had been created to assist in control and monitoring of humans who had been unplugged from the Matrix. Wright told the Machinists that she was able to survive the termination of her body by entering the Matrix as a "complete consciousness," totally independent of her physical form.
E Pluribus Neo operatives, following a finding from their expeditionary force indicating an Oligarch connection to an Ouroboros computer, infiltrated the company and captured data that they hoped would improve their understanding of the Oligarch network's strange protocols.
Zion operatives hacked their way through the white hallways, looking for signs of the interface program. Bypassing attacks from Exiles and one of the Twins, they reached a white room, where they found Danielle Wright. A conflict ensued, ending when Wright left, saying her target lay elsewhere.
Merovingian operatives entered the Hel Club in response to a distress call from Flood, who claimed that Exile programs had attacked him there. The operatives subdued the inexplicably hostile Exiles, and found a cake vendor program in the club's upper level behaving oddly. The program moved, and even spoke, saying "i'm not." Investigation of the program was interrupted by Wright, who entered the club, looking for the interface program. Wright began using override programs to rid herself of the Merovingian operatives blocking her path, but a flood of cake vendors, duplicating out of control across the entire club floor, forced an end to the battle.
Operatives responded to hostile override program activity in Chelsea, located just south of the Hel Club.
Overrides and rumors of Danielle Wright and the interface program increased in Richland, with override activity eventually coming to center around Debir Court.
Seraph directed Zion operatives to an apartment in the area, previously occupied by the Oracle, where they found a computer hosting a short message: "not here."
Machine operatives overcame difficulties, including overridden programs, two disabled computers, and a lost black cat, to find Danielle Wright in Mara. Wright commented that, in the right hands, the interface program could be an elegant control mechanism.
Merovingian operatives had to deal with dominated Hel Club Exiles and hostile Zionites in order to locate Seraph near Debir Court, trapped by an override program.
Advanced fighter craft struck without warning in the Machine no-fly zone, attacking both the E Pluribus Neo expeditionary force, and the General's Sentinels; the groups retreated with heavy losses. EPN reported that the Kid's hovercraft had managed to damage one of the attackers, but was then shot down, and the Kid injured.
Cypherites found the elusive operative who had been handling pill programs for Zion, and discovered information that could be used against him.
Cryptos distributed prototypes of his anti-override routines to Cypherites, who tested them against overrides in the Mara area. Operatives reported only a few cases of the routines successfully blocking override effects, and Cryptos admitted that there was much work yet to be done.
Zion, Machine, and Merovingian operatives clashed around Debir Court, as Agent Pace and Ghost, separately, led operatives in attempts to clear out powerful overridden programs.
Zion and Merovingian operatives fought for control of the building where Seraph was trapped by an override code. Merovingian operatives succeeded in eliminating their enemies, and secured the building for the Merovingian.
The Merovingian and his operatives interrogated Seraph about his activities, and about the override program. Seraph's answers suggested a larger plot behind the program's movements, and he said it was "remembering." Before he could be questioned further, a metallic coating appeared over his body, and engagement protocols failed throughout the entire Debir area. Without saying a word, Seraph battered his way through the operatives and past the override program, which seemed to have no effect on him. Once outside, he received combat assistance from EPN and Zion operatives, and jumped away into the sky.
Zionites looking for the cause of bluepills dropping dead across the city found Danielle Wright, examining a bluepill whom she addressed by a reference number - 0026:05:0149:032 - before the bluepill dropped dead. A red pill trace program run on another such body turned up a pod location at which most of the adjacent pods were empty. Suspecting that Wright was systematically eliminating the people housed in that ring of pods, Zion tried to locate a survivor inside the simulation, but found their home guarded by Machines.
The Machines surrounded the pod tower with a heavy Sentinel guard, and took one of the surviving occupants of the devastated pod ring, Imelda Kroller, into protective custody after discovering that the biological interface program had moved into her body in the pod, where it took over her somatic nervous system. As Wright closed in on Kroller inside the simulation, the Machines suddenly lost contact with her pod's reporting system; Kroller's RSI said "impossible," then vanished. The Machines reported that her pod had obeyed an unauthorized request to reinitialize her RSI.
Merovingian operatives used the reference number Wright had let slip to Zion to track down Kroller's pod: the number was Machine pod serial format, with the third part, 149, indicating the ring in which that bluepill's pod had been situated on the tower, likely the same ring in which Kroller's pod was located. Persephone overrode the Merovingian's plan to hunt down the local pod caretaker program, saying that she, a caretaker program before her exile, would handle it herself. Persephone succeeded in taking control of Kroller's pod, forcing it to relocate Kroller to a safe place inside the simulation, but was heavily damaged by Machine defensive routines while doing so.
The Merovingian, irked by his wife's headstrong behavior and apparent lack of consideration for her own preservation, received some good news from the General, who reported that his men had located and salvaged an unusual android body from the wreckage of an advanced fighter craft they had come across on their way back from the Machine no-fly zone.
E Pluribus Neo operatives located and defended a denizen of pod ring 149, Daryl Chester, from Danielle Wright, but after a long chase through the city, during which Wright's progress was slowed significantly due to attacks by Machine operatives and others, Wright caught up to Daryl and crushed his RSI.
Cryptos and Veil accompanied Cypherite operatives during some R&R at Club Noir, briefly interrupted by an EPN attack.
Persephone had Merovingian operatives help her reach a Machine control terminal, where she made another attempt to save Imelda Kroller by manipulating the woman's pod controls. Machine defenses prevented this, however, and Persephone, still very pale from her previous attempt, was wounded by a Machine counter-attack, escaping thanks to valiant defense by some of the operatives. Afterwards, she and the Merovingian held an angry exchange of words in which he accused her of acting foolishly and irresponsibly, and she rejected his callous attitude toward the lives of the humans plugged into the Matrix.
The Machines, having re-established their connection with Kroller's pod, located her RSI in Club Kaos. Kroller proved unresponsive to all but direct visual stimuli; eventually, operative movements caught her attention, just as Danielle Wright arrived outside the club. Kroller uttered the words "oh god," but followed the body of operatives outside. A savage exchange of hacks between Wright and the operatives followed, with Wright just managing to crush her attackers. Wright then approached Kroller and compressed her RSI, apparently killing her. Wright told the reassembling operatives that by doing so, she had released the interface from Kroller's body, back into the simulation, where she had no doubt she would catch it eventually.
EPN operatives fought Cypherites, obtaining information about a Cypherite plan to put those bluepills who'd survived Wright's attacks on ring 149 firmly back to sleep, since some of them had begun showing increased signs of rejecting the simulation since the attacks.
The Machines have their hands full trying to deal with her and protect themselves. The Cypherites, thanks to Cryptos' research, manage to compile a few prototype versions of their override immunity codes, and have some success in using these to protect against Wright's programs.
The biological interface program's movements through the channels of the simulation gradually become less erratic. Strange text output is found on terminals across the city. This culminates, for the Merovingian, in his own (or the player's, anyway) terminal being overridden, with the words "Wake up" left behind. For Zion, who has received help from the Morpheus simulacrum, their search ends with a terminal displaying the words "Knock, knock" and leaving an open connection...
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