2909/A New York Minute: Insane in the Drone brain

A New York Minute: Insane in the Drone brain
Date of Scene:	14 August 2020
Location:	Rise N Grind
Synopsis:	Quake is accosted by mystery drones. McFly hacks 80s SHIELD tech.
Cast of Characters:	Bobbi Morse, Daisy Johnson

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Bobbi Morse has posed:
Armillaria ostoyae, also known as Armillaria solidipes, is possibly the worlds biggest thinking organism, a fungus that stretches across 3.4 square miles in Oregon. It is a very simple life form, but when combined in to a massive network it can perform amazing feats of logic and computation.

That made it a wonderful candidate for an experimental AI weapon in the 80s. Unfortunately, it would make arbitrary decisions when moving the gun targeting mechanism and was eventually mothballed. That is, until, Agent Harry Franks, aka the Faux, stole it. He tried to sell it on the black market, but in 2020 there are significantly more advanced AI range finders on sniper rifles. Mothballed once again, but not dead.

Somehow this project had found its way in to drones that were roaming the city, tapping in to communications, the stock exchange, hospitals, the power grid, and the stock exchange. Drones are starting to be a common sight in New York City, though these ones are decidedly menacing in their nature.

They certainly have decided they have an enemy, the only humans to identify their activities thus far: Quake, Mockingbird, Falcon. They were declared an enemy of the network.

A seemingly solitary black drone lowers down from the sky and scans across the glass windows of the 80s themed bar as 'Take on Me' is playing on the jukebox. There's a very different groove going on in the network mind of the drones. Quake. Identified.

*&#$ -- Threat identified, subject 3: Quake. Terminate --

Twin miniguns deploy from the sides of the quad-rotor drone and begin to spin up, targeting Daisy Johnson at her most vulnerable, with her hacker friends.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
'The 80s live again!' - That was hacker Sherman Leeds, codename McFly, motto. It was no wonder that whenever they met there had to be some kind of 80s theme going around. And this time it was the Rise N Grind... Daisy always accepted with a bit of a complaint but to be honest she had quite the liking for the 80s even if she hadn't lived on them. But then again Daisy had been so focused in the past for so long that it was a natural thing to her.

McFly had known Daisy when she was Dark Skye, and for him she was still Skye even if he had turned into a whitehat after the organization had been taken down. One of the good guys that fought the good fight. And right now they were sitting down on an outrageously purple booth, computers up. "Aren't these the same songs over and over..?" Quake is telling McFly with a quirked brow. Her eyes do turn up to the window though... Did she notice a glare? She was getting jumpy with those damn ghosts going through walls as of late but ....

"Get down!" No hesitation, Daisy throws herself across the booth to get McFly down on the floor.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
Vrrrrrrrrrssh the miniguns tear across the horizon of the bar. Mirrors explode, upholstery sends tufts of material every where. Wood cracks and spinters tear about the room. People duck and scream but their voices can't be heard over the minigun. Bullets fall in and endless mass down on to the walking path. People outside sprint for their lives.

The miniguns continue to spin even as the last bullet has left. It slowly flies in to the room, turning its guns toward the booth where Quake was last scene before the destruction started. It seems unaware that it is no longer firing bullets but is acting like a wary hunter unlike its last two encounters with SHIELD agents.

During this moment people begin to scatter out of the 80s themed restaurant. It is very 80s for a killer robot to attack though. It hovers before Quake with its guns trained on her, glowing red hot from the heat generated by its first attempt to assassinate her, but without any actual bullets it is seemingly harmless.

*&#$ -- Arsenal depleted, deploy hunters --

As the miniguns spin down there's almost an eerie quiet broken only by the sound of more drones approaching from the outside.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
While the miniguns are tearing through the coffee Daisy makes sure to keep McFly down on the ground, one hand just briefly seen reaching up and dragging her backpack down from the table before said table is riddled with bullets... And there goes her laptop too... She liked that one. But fine, they want to play hardball.. She can deliver. Inside her backpack are her gloves, she slipping them on and when those bullets finally stop coming it's time to go.

"Hey." She calls out to the drone, hoping it focuses on her and lets the people get out of the place. She nudges McFly with a foot. Run, you fool! "You missed me, Maverick." because it's an 80s theme bar, only 80s movie references allowed.

She extends her hand up to the drone and focuses. In reality it isn't too different from what she did when disassembling that weapon during Bobbi's training course. A bit more complicated maybe but ..., same idea. Time to break the thing down to pieces...

Bobbi Morse has posed:
*&#$ -- Error. Error. Structural tortion. Error. Error --

The drone begins to shimmer and shake in the air as it falls apart. The pieces disassemble before her eyes and it clatters to the ground like so many pieces of lego. The distant sound of sirens can be heard, the police are getting faster at responding to attacks in NYC as part of their "Never again" initiative.

Two drones lower from the sky and look in to the bar. One extends a rod that starts to glow as it powers up its beam weapon, while the other deploys an arm with some kind of net that it begins to spin. Two little red dots fix on Quake as they target her.

By now the restaurant has cleared out, McFly getting far enough away to look back and see why his friend hasn't run for her life.

--+_^&&*#+!@ -- $% <0NN3<710N |0S7. %$% N3VV 7HR347 D373<73D. N34R F|337 D3P|0Y3D --

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Turns out that McFly, like the movie he based his name from, is no coward nor he wants to be called a chicken.. So when he sees that Daisy steps forward towards the drones with her hand pointing at them it means he also rushes back into the room. His laptop is still there, miraculously untouched by the earlier minigun.

"They must be using some kind of radio signal. I will try and tap into them!" he shouts out.

As for Daisy, when she sees the weapons starting to glow she dashes towards the window and jumps out from it. No point in letting more destruction happen inside this 80s bar. And now she is in defensive mode, a barrier surging in front of her, prepared to withstand whatever punishment they throw her way..

Or at least that's what she hopes.

"I will keep them at bay. Though you'd better be quick, think there's more coming."

Bobbi Morse has posed:
The break for the outside with quaking shield turned out to be an excellent choice. The drones have never encountered Quake tactics before. The beam weapon, a smaller less deadly version than the giant one that attacked Falcon lets out a burst of energy that reflects off of Quake's shield like light through a prison. The surrounding buildings get a large radius circular burn mark. The drone backs off while the other moves to flank Quake and toss its net at her.

A police car pulls up with a skid and the police jump out. One takes a shot at the drone with the net. It hits and the drone starts to leak a fluid. It turns to assess the police car and officers.

McFly finds a massive signal, not just two drones but at least half a dozen in the area. The security is laughably absent, this is 80s technology after all. However, what he finds inside is a massive network of processors linked across the city.

--+_^&&*#+!@ -- <0NN3<710N 3574B|15H3D, UN1D3N71F13D N0D3 --
-- Tr$ns7atin4
1. Tic Tac Toe
2. Chess
3. Global Thermo Nuclear War
4. S>H>I>E>L>D>

A drone is hovering in the air outside. It has as large dish pointed down at the area. One of the police officers has his radio out and says to his partner, "I'm getting no signal, not even on my phone." Down the street in either direction are four more drones, two each direction, swooping toward the location. The beam weapon on the drone's rod begins to power up again.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Oh shit, don't think there's an actual person behind these. It's like .., code. But .., they are talking here about nuclear war, and SHIELD!" McFly's voice is heard from within while he frantically works with his laptop, having wisely chosen to duck under a table to keep out of sight.

As for Quake..., she is sorta busy now. What with dodging laser beams, then another drone trying to rope her into a net like she was in some Gladiator movie. It's time to get another trick out though. She pushes down with her hands, suddenly gaining altitude as she moves out of the way of the beam. Hands extend forward while she is falling and she starts to quake through that drone, an attempt to crush it down. "You need to turn them down! Can't you deliver new instructions to them?!"

McFly looks doubtful but hey.., here goes nothing.. He chooses option number 1. Tic Tac Toe. Then broadcasts that command to the area.

Meanwhile Daisy lands down on the ground, a knee down and she looking around. More drones coming? Might be more than what she can handle.., maybe.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
-- Are you ce7ifie4 to acce3s SHIEL% file?

Of course McFly presses Y.

-- Fuds transferred
-- Constru+tion Qu600 increas#d
-- Drone 718 depl&yed
-- New threXt detected: NYC Polic3 force
-- Targeti_g NYC police force
-- Targe=ing thread P: Quake
-- Funds tranZfe^ed
-- Life suppo!t of target ;7 terminated
-- NetwYrk expa>ded
-- Encryp}ion stream 2 h4ck 3% complDte

The network is a hive of activity. The logs spew past at rapid speed. There seems to be no immediate response to him being logged in to the network.

The drones have become more adept at flying and as Quake lifts up, so does the beam weapon drone. The net drone picks up its missed throw but is limping in its motion as it leaks. The manoeuvre pushes the beam weapon drone down and crushes it in to the ground as it fires. An arriving police car gets a beam through its car hood and engine in an fiery explosion. The police officers dive out of the car as the car rolls to a burning stop.

One of the approaching drones changes direction and little missiles deploy from its sides and fire at the first police car. One of the officers says, "Oh SHIT!" and they both dive out of the way as their car is hit and explodes.

A second drone breaks off to attack the police, deploying two miniguns and begins to shoot as they take cover behind the destroyed cars. The other two drones focus on Quake, one deploys a harpoon and starts to circle around her, while the fourth drone begins to emit ear piercing siren sounds from a speak embedded in its center.

McFly moves back to the menu and picks 1 for Tic Tac Toe.

X|_|_
_|_|_
_|_|_
-- Choose a square unidentified node; followed by a blinking cursor.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Ooops wrong move! And that means that McFly needs to go back to square one. And that means going to the previous menu. "It's built off of some ancient BBS system and .... hold up." because McFly is a master where it comes to these! He begins typing furiously now while continuing to attempt to hack into this 'mainframe', choosing option 4 in a frantic search on how to turn off or otherwise divert the threat assessment.

Daisy speaks up. "They have a way to turn off the targetting systems. I have seen the specs." because yay for sharing information about a certain targetting rifle chip earlier from Bobbi! "Get into the SHIELD option and ...." a pause as she rolls on the ground, away from the harpoon but then is taken by those ear piercing siren sounds.. It makes her grit her teeth but she has a way to counter this.. Ears start to bleed but she focuses and begins absorbing those sound vibrations, snuffing them down to nothing.

"... access code is Johnny 5" 80s and their great password securities. But again, based on a movie! Is it a trend?

Bobbi Morse has posed:
As McFly tries to leave back to the main menu, it interprets his input as his move in Tic Tac Toe

X|X|X
X|X|X    O
X|X|X
-- You have lost.

So it cheats, who would have guessed?

The leaking drone finally hits the ground as its quad turbines shut off and it goes dead from leaking the fluid.

The beam weapon begins to power up again as if it could still fly, but it is squished on the ground. The beam fires again and explodes another shop window in its path. The siren effectively eliminated, the drone does not know this though as it continues to circle applying its attack. The harpoon narrowly misses, it has been learning from its fight with Falcon and its first encounter with the three of them. The harpoon.. this time... retracts and reloads as it circles to take another shot.

Twin missiles fire from the third drone toward Quake. The twin minigun drone strafes past shooting at the two sets of cops, then hangs in the air and shoots down the street as another cop car starts to approach. They skid and turn off the main street wildly to avoid getting shot.

-- Code accepted: Johnny 5
-- Raw access granted
-- 001 100 101 100 111 010 111 101 011 101 100 000 100 010 010 110 111 101 001

The translated user interface disappears as McFly gets access to the stream going on underneath the 80s style Bulletin Board System. The data is unintelligible though, but it seems his inputs are going IN to the stream now.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Ufff, this is starting to get hard for Quake to dodge and weave past all the attacks. With siren-drone now just a voyeur she can focus on the others. First, making sure civilians and cops are safe. And no more nice Quake.. the ground under her feet appears to shake as she stands back up to her feet, frowning. "I don't know what you guys want but ..., time to pay."

She sends a focused shockwave through the air in the direction of the ones with the miniguns and then uh ..., missiles?!

Blocking them with a barrier could cause them to explode in the middle of the street.. No good. So she tries some finesse, using those vibrations to start lifting up the missiles, or in this case to divert their flight up into the sky so they can explode at their own leisure without hurting anyone. Her eyes are wide though.

"Have you got into the system?! Start injecting shutdown protocols! At the least it will confuse them enough to stop targetting us." then the reply from McFly. "Doing all I can!" while he types on his lil laptop at a frantic pace, injecting his code in.

Time is ticking though!

Bobbi Morse has posed:
The missiles shoot skyward and hit the jammer drone hovering above in a spectacular fireball. The remanence of the drone drops to the ground. Immediately all the emergency calls are going out to police, DEO, SHIELD, all the fire responders the city has at its disposal.

The shockwave hits the hunter drone with the miniguns and tears the guns off, while simultenously knocking it back through the air. It recovers through and rises back up menacingly. The minigun arms wiggle a little as it attempts to redeploy them. The drone, disarmed, recognises its damage and flies off down an alley way.

McFly types furiously in to the BBS software's interior stream, injecting an endless stream of random numbers to mess with its communications.

--+_^&&*#+!@ -- $% 7HR347 D373<t3D, 3+73RM1N473 --

The sonic weapon seems to be failing, so it begins to start cycling its intense frequency attack. The harpoon drone breaks off its attempted attack on Daisy and turns to face the destroyed 80s bar. It hunts in to the joint and spies its target underneath a table. The harpoon shoots and McFly lifts up his laptop //just in time//. The harpoon spears through his laptop just as his code goes out.

The missile drone swoops in for another attack, then wildly veers off course and smashes in to a building. The beam weapon drone explodes. The harpoon drone starts to fly upwards and hits the roof over and over again until it shuts off and drops to the ground. The drone emitting the intense sounds expands its circling radius until it crashes in to a building and tumbles to the ground deactivated too.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
With a sequence of fireworks sponsored by exploding drones it does seem like the threat is coming to an end. Or at least for now.. But much will still need to be studied back at HQ.. Yet her focus is on survivors and making sure everyone is fine.

Daisy dashes back through the window she originally vacated from, vaulting in and past the debris of the destroyed drone. Some worry is there for McFly but once she peeks under the table she lets out a sigh of relief. "There you are, McFly." she extends one hand. "Good job with the hack."

"I will need you to come with me." Back to SHIELD! Because they will need to go over that code to find out more about those drones.

And now that comms are finally working she can reach the other Agents. << So, Bobbi. What more can you tell me about those drones you were looking in? Just got a small armada of them targetting me in Manhattan. >> Oh great..., more reports to write. An Agent's work never stops.

Bobbi Morse has posed:
The drones were rather single minded. Quake, then the police, then McFly. Luck, perhaps, that no one else got hurt.

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