Snippet #2296325

Bern, Switzerland

Lan stepped off the train, his soul feeling heavier as he shouldered his pack. Guilt had plagued him since leaving his London flat. In his pocket was the unbroken cell phone, his last line to Julia. Julia who had been an innocent in the war, but her brother had served loyally and faithfully. He had done everything that Lan had asked of him…. Lan took a deep breath as he went through customs.

“Enjoy your visit Mr. Guy Fox,” the customs agent said as he dutifully waved Lan through the gate.

Seven years prior…

“Alright Alpha team, we’ll wait for the signal from Engineer Gordon. One he’s secured the network ports for us, we’ll go in and begin data mining. Remember we’re looking for the heads, employee data is of no use to us. Find any trade agreements or anything that looks like insider knowledge. Also look for anything that looks like it may be ISI payroll or anything that suggests that the ISI has been harassing employees.”

In the small room, five pairs of eyes watched and waited as the mission brief was given by a voice recording done by MisterX, the main coordinator for on-site and on-line attacks. A man tapped the keyboard to stop the file.

“I’ll be the first responder, once I’m in, use the bots to take down the network. We should have the main servers and the security rooms down for the next 10 minutes while the Engineers take over the physical network and install our switches.”
“Switch the switches, eh?” one of the techs joked as he checked the voice chat, “All Engineers are on-line and live. They’re going in now, oh I wish they wouldn’t babble so… I can’t get a word in edgewise.”

“This is Engineer Gordon- Codec- You’re clear, we need security down and blackouts ASAP….”

“On it Engineer Gordon- you heard him! Lets go!” MasterCodec grinned as his fingers madly flew across the keyboard as his team of five raced to turn of services electronically.

“… This is Engineer Gordon! Where is our backup?! Codec! Why isn’t security down? Oh god… it’s a tra-“
“Hang in there Gordon!” Codec called over the mic, madly typing away. “Damn, damn, damn!!! Why aren’t the elevators jamming? Is this video looping? Pax, cut the line to the cameras, they’ve been tampered with! Focus all efforts on getting the Engineers out! Jane, I need a power outage for the surrounding six blocks. The Engineers can hoof it in the tunnels as long as we can get them there.”

“Mr. Codec?” a small voice broke in, “My brother will be ok, right?”

Codec didn’t want to look into the eyes of the little girl who adored him like wise older brother. How did one comfort a child with the grim reality that her brother, Engineer Gordon, may not live out the night? What would Mentor say?
“Have faith, little one… We’re doing all we can.”

“Codec, I heard the Engineers had some trouble, I took the liberty of hacking into the ISI lines of communication and seeing if I can issue out a few false commands to redirect them to the floor of the building over.”
“Thank you London,” Codec sighed and smiled to the live child next to him. “It’ll be ok…. An angel appeared.”
“Don’t make me blush Codec,” a voice on the other line said very firmly, “Or you won’t have me next time.”

Lan stepped out of the station and squinted allowing his eyes to adjust to the night. His journey wasn’t over just yet. He had tickets to go to the town of Worb, there he would find a peace for now. But the commuter rail station was a few blocks over and the train was not for another hour yet, so Lan went to a small coffee shop that served the later patrons and pulled out his laptop from his pack.

He took a deep breath before logging on.

Login information….

Lan’s fingers shook as he cleared out MasterCodec and entered in a new name

The Lorax

Logging in…. Connection Established….. Welcome

The Lorax: My name is Lorax… and if you are reading this, then the unthinkable has happened. Our Vows have been Broken. Our Colors have been changed. We have become Legion, but without purpose or Commander. Or Codex by which we all once swore to.

My name is Lorax, and if you are reading this- please. Remember MeinMentor.