6178/In Soviet Russia Computer Hacks You

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
In Soviet Russia Computer Hacks You
Date of Scene: 11 May 2021
Location: Lounge - Playground
Synopsis: Daisy and Nadia hack the recovered Soviet computer drive and it's a lot. A lot of what remains to be seen however, just what is this mysterious 'Katyusha'?
Cast of Characters: Daisy Johnson, Nadia Pym-van Dyne




Daisy Johnson has posed:
One good thing about being this underground is that sometimes you don't notice how late it is, or how many hours you have spent around work. Small blessings in what was otherwise a rather bleak time for SHIELD. But for Daisy that was enough. First because she was armed with coffee and chocolate. Second because it was time to get crackin' on a certain data drive brought from Russia. And third because uh ..., well see the first reason.

"No, don't connect the drive in yet, McFly." Hackers and their cute nicknames. But this one was eager to get into hacking. Because Russian tech? They expected it to be craaazy. "In fact.., I don't even think you *should* be here for this. Clearance, and you are still on probation right?" that makes the young man look dejectedly at Daisy, sigh, but go back to his station.

"Yet someone else should be..." Someone who would have knowledge about Red Room tech. And with Natasha being unavailable at the moment that meant turning to someone else she knew already. A message is sent over to Nadia on encrypted channels, over at the Titan's tower.

<Come to the Playground. It involves your red sister.>

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Connecting the drive is likely to be the first challenge, its ports do not appear to be USB, any variant thereof or any other widely used interface for that matter, all the more reason to call a talented engineer.

It doesn't take Nadia long to reach The Playground. Truth be told it is probably not the first time she has been there, it never really was explained how she appeared on the SPOT team's quin jet when they were disembarking over Greenland and she has avoided the question in spectacular teenaged fashion. In the end though it is generally easier to just give her access to places so an eye can be kept on her since it is almost impossible to keep her out if she is determined to get in.

"Hi Daisy!" Nadia calls out as she enters through the door, for once. "What's up? Natasha's okay right?" Her expression betrays some concern, Natasha got really banged up on that mission after all.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Heya, Nadia." Daisy looks up from her perch near her work station, she looking over the curious ports. Some tools are on the table, she most likely prepared to dive into starting to crack the drive and see about making some kind of compatible connector. But nothing like talking with someone who had EXPERIENCE with this kind of tech.

"Good that you could get here today." she tapping the table where the drive is at. "Need your help in checking a few things, related to Nat." but then she chuckling a touch at Nadia's question. "We are talking about Natasha, she is tough. She's been recovering." then she stage-whispering, "Some people even brought her ice cream."

"So, this type of drive.." She gestures to the one on the table. "Is it any familiar to you?" She questions, lifting it up to show the connector.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"I generally drop whatever I'm doing for things involving the elite Soviet spy organization that ruined my childhood and wants to reclain me." Nadia replies far too cheerfully. "And Nat, too. Wait she got ice cream?! That stuff is sooo good!" She adds before wandering over to look at the tools that have been laid out and the drive itself.

She looks at it from one side and then the other, then walks around it, "Huh, this is really weird." Is the initial conclusion of the super genius teenager. "Wait... I think I saw something kind of like this in an old book once but not nearly this advanced from when the USSR was doing their own internal computer development during the Cold War... Elbrus or something. It probably won't work with any of our tech though we can probably hack the cable." There is a pause before she asks "Got a knife?" Entirely too pleased with her pun. Some wicked individual has apparently introduced her to puns. "We should be able to piece together something with a USB connection on one end and theirs on the other so it can connect to our computers."

"Hmmm" she gets down close examining the ports on the actual drive, "Give me some needles or thumb tacks and a soldering iron and I think I can make this work." With all the confidence of MacGuyver.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
A solemn nod is given about the talk of ice cream. "Yes. And I didn't even get to taste it." a crime! But then she smiles at the young, ex-red room teenager and nods her head towards the drive, approaching it with Nadia and folding her arms together.

"Well, this isn't exactly the Trisk. But we can still manage those..." a pause, "Hopefully..." but some search around the room produces the needed tools for the job. She even gets a knife for their troubles!

"Basically what we need here is an adapter so we can connect it to our ports." Then she sliding down to her chair while letting Nadia go ahead with the McGyvering. "In the meantime I will work on creating a secure environment for when you get it done." full confidence that the young genius will get it ready to go! "Wouldn't really do well on connecting it to our mainframe just to find out it had some super virus ready to destroy our servers..." so she works on creating a SEPARATE workstation from the main core servers.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Yes," Nadia agrees as she starts soldering things together in roughly the shape of the port. "That would be bad." The speed and focus with which she works is remarkable. At some point during the process she reaches in to her pocket and produces a full sized toolbox from which needlenose pliars and a magnifying glass are taken as she proceeds with the smaller detail work of bending things into shape and filing off excess bits of metal from her jury-rigged connector. "Have to hand it to them though, being completely non-compatible with other modern computer technology is not a bad security measure."

Eventually the finished connection cable is held aloft triumphantyly to show off her handiwork, "Ta da!"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"It very much prevents hacking on-site." Daisy says in agreement of it, the sound of that keyboard clack-clacking heard, "So the only solution was to actually bring the device back, which is a lot more dangerous, considering where they had to go to get this.." she had a read a bit on that particular mission...

Eventually the sound of those keys stops being heard and she leans back, looking rather pleased with herself. "Alright, secure connection is prepared too." she giving a thumbs up to Nadia, "And good job with that." she reaches over to start doing the final preps, connecting cable to the drive and then to the USB port she has prepared for it.

"So, how have things been going with you, Nadia?" She asks, engaging the drive in and waiting to see what pops up.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"It was craaaaaazy." Nadia draws out the word for emphasis. She glances left and right for a moment checking who is around since it may have been left out of the report. "I was there. It was, it as a lot. There's an evil me named Otchaya now." This does not seem to be a joke.

She walks over to where Daisy is, watching her work. "I don't even know everything that happened down below, I was too busy rescuing Ying, but they were doing some really terrible things and I'm glad that place is gone."

Once the connection is established and SHIELD's advanced analysis programs go to work it is quickly established that the drive's structure is not FAT32, NTFS, or any of the like. The code is identified as a derivative of El-76, a Russian codebase with syntax based on the Russian language unlike the vast majority of modern code that centers around English due to US computing dominance. It would seem the challenges of this device have only just begun.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Otchaya, eh?" That has Daisy quirk a brow about it but then she nods, her eyes drifting back to the screen and what she is seeing there. A smirk. "Oh, cheeky. But expected they wouldn't use the standards.." and then in proper hacker arrogance she cracks her knuckles and rolls her neck.

"Alright, time to play." And while Russian isn't her language Daisy is quite the prodigy where it comes to coding languages, no matter the syntax! So she gets to work on it. "El-76..., these guys went all in with the protections. The problem is it's all Russian based. And we have been studying them for .., well.., ages."

Again that sound of the keyboard is heard as she gets to work on trying to crack through the code. Of course that with it being very different from the norm it will take a while more. "Where was this retrieved from exactly?" She questions.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia seems surprisingly upbeat for someone who recently learned she has an evil clone, but then she's seemingly always been this way much to Natasha's bewilderment. "Greenland." She answers when Daisy asks where the device was acquired. "Apparently they took over tunnels dug by the US military under the ice during the Cold War, something called Project Iceworm. Buut Captain Marvel destabilized the ice sheet and it caved in crushing the base, so they're probably destroyed or buried forever." Probably.

In the end code is code and even the different linguistic syntax isn't enough to stop a code genius, particularly with advanced SHIELD cracking programs, not to mention advanced dictionary software to draw on. The thing about Russian, it has basically been the number one language to translate in the spy trade for decades.

Eventually a list of files scrolls across the screen seemingly forever, if forever is a minute or two. It's very DOS-like text scroll at present but nothing a GUI and other utilities can't be cobbled together for.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
A nod of understanding is given as Nadia explains about how the drive was recovered, "Alright, so we should expect some juicy military secrets in here." hopefully. Eventually as the defenses start to crack she lets out a grin, "Et voila.."

"And that's a lot..." Even as she chuckles briefly. "So old school that it's cutely quaint. But sometimes that's the best kinds of protections..." she sighs though, "A nightmare to navigate ... Let me just ..." and she begins to 'conjure' up a gui to go with it, another screen on the side to help on the translation of some terms. A glance to Nadia, "If you see any familiar terms let me know." she pointing at the list of files showing up on screen.

"Yet most of this will have to be brought up to either Morse or Coulson."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia leans closer and squints at the file list. Russian is her first language which helps, it's a massive list. "That's a lot of files." the mistress of the obvious states. "Hmmm this looks like a lot of administrative reports, logistics and things." It is perhaps lucky for Nadia she has recently been forced to become familiar with administrative logistics running her own lab, despite it being her least favorite thing.

"Like the title of that one," She points. "Is something about supply lists and this one looks it relates to accounting or maybe money laundering and ...a Katyusha is a rocket isn't it? Or I guess it is also the Russian equivalent of Catherine, but the way these titles are using it, it almost seems like an organization name. Like none of these base admin files look like naming schemes the Red Room used..." She seems to be genuinely puzzled.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"They might be in code. It's something we will have to figure out once we start looking at the actual contents." Daisy notes, looking thoughtful, "It all seems very tame for something under such security. At least at a first glance so ...." and then she grins. "I hope you are ready to dig deeper."

And dig deeper they shall.

Didn't she say it was a good thing they were underground? So they can't see the morning light coming up when they realize how many hours have passed by... And then there'd be reports to prepare for the higher-ups. Ugh..