006 [video/public]

[otakuro]

[Saturday night, the screen flickers on to display Atsuro wearing a fatigued expression. As he begins to speak, he pauses, then turns aside to yawn momentarily before facing back to the camera again.]

...Sorry about that.

But, uh. Guys? ...We've got a problem. Again.

[In lieu of giving any explanation, he simply readjusts the COMP so the camera is directed at his computer screen: playing in what seems to be fast forward is a video of a horde of smiling, overly cheerful yellow creatures in a strange black and green world, running rampant in every direction and chowing down on electrical wires and large floating images of the typical 'folder' icon. Occasionally, they freeze, shudder for a moment, and explode into ten new smiley faces.  After a few moments, Atsuro comes back into frame, though he leaves the video playing in the background.]

...That's not what's actually going on, before you ask.  It's a cutesy little representation, but... you guys get the gist of it. I thought it was just my PC at first, but it's looking like slow COMPs aren't going to be the worst of our troubles if this goes on. The network already looks to be pretty badly compromised.

If you've accessed the network in the last few days without a bunch of firewalls, you're probably infected. ...Actually, you might still be infected even with the firewalls. I don't know what's going on, but these aren't like any viruses I've ever dealt with. I haven't slept in like, 24 hours [he checks the clock at this point] ...30 hours, and it's like Hercules against the Lernean Hydra. Clear one and three more files are infected before I'm done - and the original file still isn't totally clean. ...I'd almost think they were learning if I didn't know any better.

[He pauses awkwardly at this point.]

The other thing is... I know this is a little bit private, but could you guys who aren't... totally organic check in? Since our COMPs are basically wired to our brains through the nanomachines, and your brains are... computers, I think, uh.  You see where I'm going with this.

[He leaves it hanging there.]

Someone should probably do something. ...Who's even responsible for keeping the network running, anyway?  Why hasn't the government said anything?

Comments

Video

[terminally_clever]

[If Atsuro's been awake for over 24 hours, Fumi looks like she's been dealing with this for at least twice that, and probably straight through. There are dark bags under her eyes, and if it's possible to look even more stoically irritated with the world than usual, she's somehow managing it.]

Yes, Kihara. I'm already aware of everything.

[otakuro]

Wow.

[Atsuro has to pause for a moment to appreciate the perfect picture of exhaustion before him.]

I feel like I should have rubbed some kind of makeup under my eyes, but this was probably a losing competition from the start.

Did you start looking into this as soon as the first reports about slow COMPs came in?

[terminally_clever]

Of course. It's my job. What kind of amateur do you take me for?

[TIRED AND CRANKY]

[otakuro]

And...

[He doesn't really need Fumi to answer, given that everything is still crawling with viruses. He asks anyway.]

How's your progress? Any clue how to take these things down?

Video

[all_wound_up]

Signore Atsuro, non so cosa c'è di sbagliato! Per favore aiutatemi!

[Well, there's your answer about the robots, Atsuro.]

[otakuro]

Um.

[A long, awkward pause as Atsuro blinks at Nano and massages his ears for a moment.]

...

Haha. No, but seriously, how are you holding up, Nano?

[all_wound_up]

Was geschieht mir?

[otakuro]

[Atsuro's right eye twitches a bit before he groans and covers his face with his hand.]

Guess that answers that.

I think the virus went for your communication centers first, Nano. ...What about writing?

txt

[badluckhealer]

Failure to sleep at any point during a 24-hour period may negatively impact your cognitive abilities, which would be bad.

[Formal or informal, Aggie, pick one.]

[otakuro]

Failure to deal with this ASAP could result in permanent damage to the electronic infrastructure that this city runs on, which would also be bad.

Not that I'm responsible for that, but. Sometimes, you've gotta do what you've gotta do.

Thanks for the concern, though.

[badluckhealer]

I am not

[...WHAT AM EMOTIONS...]

I was merely stating the obvious. One person working on this alone in such conditions is inefficient.

[otakuro]

Hah, sure. I'm hoping we can get a few of us with some knowledge of programming together to do something about it...

Not that I'm really the most qualified, either, but...

[video]

[greatseal]

Well, there's three real options for the Government. They haven't noticed yet, they don't think it's a problem, or they're too overwhelmed trying to fix it to comment...

But thanks for letting us know so quickly, Atsuro-kun. I'd better go check on Labrys. [Nano's already shown off what's happening to her.]

[otakuro]

...Judging from what Fumi said, I'm going to guess they're too busy to say anything. Still, though, it's not like everyone is a programmer who needs to be working on this - they could have had the PR rep make an announcement.

Who's Labrys? A friend of yours?

[greatseal]

I'm sure they'll say something soon. It's only just starting to get obvious to everyone who isn't a programmer or a robot.

And, yeah. She's Aigis' sister. You remember Aigis, right? [you know, that robot girl that showed up in her memories from time to time...]

[otakuro]

[Aigis Aigis...]

Oh! ...Right.

[Not that the details had ever been known to him, but...]

Wait, how does an android have a sister? Do you mean they were part of the same production unit?

[Video]

[justanoutsider]

...What are they? Bugs?

[otakuro]

Computer bugs, yeah.

[...A short pause. This person's manner of dress was... slightly anachronistic. Atsuro hazards a question.]

...Not to be rude, but... you know what computer viruses are, right?

[justanoutsider]

[He slips a small, lopsided smile in return. It's almost sheepish, but not entirely so.]

No, unfortunately. This technology is still foreign to me, I'm afraid.

Video

[electricyousei]

Ruri appears on terminal for a second, she looks distracted, her eyes glittering gold as the flick all around.

"Omoikane has been screaming about this virus since it hit, but so far the Nadesico is uninfected. I haven't been able to leave though since I've been dealing with the virus. If you need a rally point to clean your hard drives though I think we can manage that for now."

[otakuro]

"You mean your huge spaceship is fine? That's good news."

Who knows what would happen if a battleship got infected with these things?

"If we link our stuff up into its systems, though, won't we potentially be compromising it?"

[electricyousei]

"I can create a virtual terminal for you to set up into. It'll have the full software suite but at first sign of infection it can be terminated. That and since it won't have a back path into the main computer grid it should be all right. Once you are confirmed clean then we can link you to more secure set ups."

She lets out a breath.

"The main reason we're not infected is only dumb terminals are facing outside as opposed to anything having to do with Omoikane's CPU."

video;

[trainwrecking]

This wouldn't be the first time the government didn't say anything... I want to hope something is being done, but I don't know.

[He sighs.]

I want to help, but I'm... uh, I'm not a programmer. Is there anything I can do for you guys?

[otakuro]

...Um.

[Atsuro pauses for a moment or two before smiling a bit ruefully.]

Honestly, I'm not even sure what programmers should be doing to help out right now. I'd joke about buying us food, but that's probably not appropriate...

[trainwrecking]

I don't think it's inappropriate. It might actually keep energy up if you'd want something like that. I, uh... I know how all-nighters and sleep loss can hurt progress and morale.

[People get nasty when they've been a bad situation for too long, especially without sleep or nutrition...]