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Exodus (commeuneplume x mowgli)

commeuneplume

Temptress Too Long

Exodus

a roleplay by: commeuneplume & mowgli



Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.
J. Robert Oppenheimer







  • The year is 2962. Earth is virtually uninhabitable, ravaged by years of overpopulation and rapidly fading resources. The Government set out on deep space missions in all directions in 2817 to attempt to locate another viable planet to begin re-population efforts. Over the passing years our scout ships located many candidate planets that, upon further exploration, eventually proved to be non-viable for long-term population.


    Humans are forced to live in small, single person pods and bound by government to a strict regimen. Human to Human contact is expressly forbidden, except for the annual Festival of Light. Since personal contact is taboo, the government was generous enough to allow small pets to be adopted. Dogs, cats, birds, things of that nature.



    Only a very small percentage of the population is allowed to procreate, in order to keep the population from growing too rapidly, but to not allow the species to die off.



    Each "pod" is outfitted with:



    1. Personal Work Platform (This allows each citizen to work. The tech-savvy ones that have accessed the "deep web" have formed social groups for communication).



    2. Training Chamber



    3. Nourishment Station







 
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KORA AMBERLY





Damn-it.


Kora cursed aloud, sitting up from her training station, she unfastened the cord from the nape of her neck with a counter-clockwise twist. A click, hiss and 3 consecutive even tones from her terminal let her know she was successfully disconnected, and that her results had been uploaded and averaged in with her previous scores.



Sighing, she stared at the blinking green screen. "
Course complete. Total score - 892. Average clearance rate - 68%. Thank you." A monotone female voice repeated back the results of today's training test, and the monitor continued to flash requesting Kora's confirmation with a quick fingerprint scan.


Obliging the artificial intelligence, she pressed her right pointer finger into the socket, a flash of blue light, then yellow, then green signified that the station had accepted her fingerprint. Kora sighed heavily, lying on her back in her unmade bed. Training sessions always took it out of her, but this one seemed especially difficult.



Her eyes fixed on a window and focused on the night-time that was settling in the sky. Kora thought of the term sky, and used it loosely. The pollution was so terrible that she only ever saw hazy grey clouds floating out her window, above her building and the hundreds, if not thousands, that decorated the landscape around her.



The soft reds and blues of neighboring buildings, and the rhythmic dull flash of the neighboring watchtower spotlight soon put its hypnotic spell on Kora, and she was fast asleep.



-----



She was alerted to the start of a new day with her typical alarm, her cats. All 5 of them. Groaning, Kora found herself to be in the same position she'd fallen asleep in, both legs dangling off the bed, one arm tucked under her head, the other draped across her torso.



"Okay - OKAY." She sat up, her joints stiff. Maneuvering herself off the bed, she moved to her nourishment station, lit up a red button above the coffee pot and reached in a high cabinet for the cat food. While human contact was forbidden, except for procreation selection and the annual Festival of Light, the government had placed little restrictions on adopting animals.


The food reached their bowls with little soft tinks which sent the cat's into a meowing frenzy. Kora laughed lightly, petting one of them as she moved to make her morning cup of coffee. Sitting in her government issued, padded, terminal chair she brought her knees to her chest, holding the hot cup in both hands taking in the aroma and warmth.



When she sat in the chair, her terminal read her body signature, and began to boot up automatically. "
Good morning." The same, monotone female voice stated.


"GW-8167-K. Anderson." Kora gave the PC her login credentials, which were run alongside a voice matching program, which were approved and her screen emitted a soft blue with multiple icons. Setting down her now half empty mug, Kora's fingers began to fly on the keys before her.


After a few minutes the three-screens before her went black and white lettering appeared.



DW-8167-Rogue - Command:/_ Prompted the screen.


Kora, many years before had gained access to what was known as the Deep Web. It was a place where many citizens collected daily and discussed life outside of their pods. For the most part, it was jovial. People shared descriptions of their pods in different cities but for the most part, the world seemed to be shrouded in grey clouds, its citizens trapped in pods, being tested for recruitment.



There were of course, the conspiracy theorists. Folks who thought that their pets were cyborgs, or that the coffee was poison etc, etc... Kora tried not to engage these individuals. She was already struggling with the new training requirements and since she was now 27, only had 2 more recruitment phases to go before she was removed from the pool.



This morning she was engaging in a regular conversation with fellow citizens. These particular people lived in New York, where Kora resided, and were discussing their excitement for the upcoming Festival of Light. One woman was even recruited and was looking forward to getting to Exodus.



Just as she was typing a reply, letting them know she was logging off, her screens went black again. She blinked, brow furrowed and tapped one key. Then another. After a few more keys, she bent her body down to check the power lights.
All operational... she thought to herself.


When she sat back up, her eyes fixed on the tall red letters that had appeared on her screen. She gasped, even shrieked a little as she fell backwards grabbing for her desk at the same time. She was unsuccessful in preventing her fall, and the remaining half-cup of coffee went right down with her, spilling all over her.



THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL -was all the screen said. The red towering letters seeming to burn into her grey eyes. Snapping out of it she panicked, pulling the main power plug from the wall. Looking to the screens again, the words were gone, the hum of the computer silent.


She sat on the floor, covered in coffee, he cats lapping at puddles around her legs.
"What THE fuck..."


 
Special agent Daniel Raines paced furiously around his small, blandly decorated pod, mind racing. Upon completing a full circuit around the room he stopped and stared intently at the monitor of his terminal in the alcove that held his PWP (personal work platform). Shaking his head he started making another loop, at this point threatening to form a rut in the carpet. His dog Bruce, a black lab, gave a soft whine as he stared worriedly at his owner.


Surely this isn't possible! How could anyone, even the government, be able to keep something like this under wraps? He thought to himself, pausing his perpetual motion for a moment to light a cigarette. He breathed deep the sweet nicotine, and soon felt its calming effects gradually come over him. After a few more loops he slumped into his government issued office chair and ashed his cigarette into an old coffee cup. Looking at the screen of his terminal he reread, possibly for the thousandth time a decrypted, high-clearance government e-mail he had discovered on the deep web.


Agent Raines, a government employee, was strictly forbidden to access the deep web; which in itself should not exist to begin with. No citizen was allowed to access it, but government workers had advanced monitoring devices installed at their terminal to further discourage internet lewdness because of the often times sensitive nature of their work. However, Raines was talented with anything electronic in nature so from early on he taught himself how to manipulate his terminal how he wished. His hacking talent allowed him to access the deep web on a regular basis, which he considered to be one of his only pleasures in life. He longed for human contact, something else that was strictly forbidden, save for a few special cases and the annual Festival of Light.



While on one of his usual browsing binges he came across an encrypted government cyber signature that was vaguely familiar to him. Being a naturally curious person Raines investigated, he had never seen a government signature on the deep web before, let alone anything with such heavy encryptions. After several hours of probing and maneuvering, he managed to decrypt the file. It turned out to be a long elaborate message to a high ranking military officer, detailing a directive concerning Exodus.



What Raines discovered utterly shocked and terrified him. The message described a timeline of events from the discovery of Exodus to near present day. In this timeline there were stats and figures detailing early colonization measures that were taken, including the effective enslavement and mass murder of the native peoples of the pioneer planet; of which there were supposed to be none. On top of that, along with various other questionable acts and downright crimes, was information on a possible expiration date for earth. Along with this apocalyptic prophecy was a plan to deal with the general population in case of such an event, which more or less was essentially protocol for abandoning the majority of the human race to die on the unsaveable planet.



In a spontaneous bout of rage and desperation he created a secure server and broadcasted a message across the deep web to anyone that had low security protocols in his geographical area. In large red letters he typed:






THEY'RE GOING TO KILL US ALL





Attaching a link to the lettering that would ping their I.p. address and connect them to a rudimentary chat server where they could communicate. The signal would broadcast to any one active on DW for 24 hours within a mile. During this time they would be able to do nothing else on DW unless they had considerable hacking skills. He just hoped someone received it; something had to be done.
 
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KORA AMBERLY



Panting, Kora plugged her terminal back into the wall. Those same letters, tall and offensive against the black screen still burning.
Maybe I can reset something... she thought to herself, and began typing command prompts, with no luck. Without warning, the letters disappeared and lines of green text began appearing it took her eyes a moment to focus and realize what was unfolding before her. It's a chat room...


What's going on?


Is this a joke?!



Who did this?



What do we do?






Frantic text flying across the screen.
Were these, other people? In their pods, just like her? She didn't type anything for a while, she let the text unfold and the panic escalate. She stood behind her chair, one arm folded, the other shakily holding another cup of coffee. They're going to kill us all...the words flashed over again in her mind and she tried to decipher exactly what that meant, what it all meant. Suddenly, she sat, fingers over her keys...


Kora's fingers pounded on the keys below her.
Everyone else just calm down for a second, dammit! Who organized this? Make yourself and your intentions known, now. It takes a lot of tech savvy to organize something on this level and unless you're going to communicate back to us, we can't help you. Enter. After a while, there was no reply.


My name is Kora Amberly... she typed into cyberspace. Let me know how to help...





For what seemed like ages she paced in her pod. It had been several hours and she'd tried, unsuccessfully, to get back to the main server. Her clock signaled it was time for her daily training, glancing over at the bench, the various apparatus she had to hook up to herself and sighed, running her fingers absently over the port in her neck. She was nervous, and did not want to submit to the training, afraid to miss anything that might unfold on her personal terminal. However, if she didn't, her name would go on a list for insubordination and, if there was something ominous going on, she didn't want to bring additional focus to her.



Reluctantly she plugged in, laying down she closed her eyes and was whisked away. Today was a stealth training, her favorite. She instantly felt relieved, and knew she would pass this exam with flying colors. Behind her eyelids, the mission briefing began.



Welcome, Kora. The familiar monotonous tone of a computerized woman announced. Today we're visiting the historic Smithsonian Museum. Sadly, all artifacts in the building were lost during a riot in 2821 which burned the building to the ground. Your mission today is centered around stealth. There will be armed guards and various alarm systems protecting a large safe in the belly of the building. If you're able to reach the goal, you will then have to pick the lock of the safe without detection. Successful completion of this task will drastically increase the percentage rate of the user towards possible recruitment. There are no do-overs.


The voice continued for a few additional minutes and the former Smithsonian began to materialize, large skeletons of dinosaurs loomed over her, various jewels and ancient artifacts sat pristine in glass cases. She began making her way though the large room, deep red carpet blanketed the ground beneath her feet as she walked, soundless. After some time she'd made it past multiple armed guards, disarmed alarm systems and sneaked past hundreds of cameras.



Kora stood before a large safe. She was in a grey, square room only slightly bigger than the safe itself. She knelt, trying to decide where and how to start working on the mechanics when suddenly
{creak}. Gasping slightly, she turned her head, seeing nothing. Must be my imagination she thought, turning her attention to her arsenal of supplies. {creak} behind her again. This time, she got a sinking feeling and shimmied herself between the back of the safe and the wall, listening.


This time, she heard real footsteps, and her heart rate quickened. The room was dark, the doorway back lit by soft sconces on the hallway outside. Glancing down, she surveyed her tools, eyeing a large pick, she lunged forward in an attempt to arm herself, and a figure appeared in the threshold to the room. Because of the lighting, the figure was completely shadowed, but she knew for certain her face was clearly illuminated.



"Kora?" a male voice asked, slightly frantic. "Are you Kora Amberly?"


@Mowgli
 

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