[IC] Meaningless Code: The Server After the End

[Yomojo]

@Patches @hefewy @Ryougu @Polaris North
"Good idea, being surrounded isn't exactly my favorite position to be in. I'll go ahead and make sure the East doesn't provide too much resistance. Nazir, Coleander, you two push East. Boreas, keeping guarding us from the main hoard coming in from the West. Hueco, keep keeping an eye on things." VAC calls out to each of his team members. If none of them were the team leader, then why not have everybody be the team leader? As long as none of them were idiots, it should work fine.

V turns his attention back to his screen, swinging it over to point to the East. Focusing his efforts only on the spacefillers in the one direction, he starts doing some real tampering. Tapping furiously at the screen, he throws a flurry of cyber-attacks at the viruses blocking the way East. Messing with mobility, senses, communication and other permissions, he moves on to the next function just as they start trying to fix the one he just broke. To the rest of the group, it would look a bit strange. The ones coming in from the East would slow down a bit, and exhibit jerky movements. They were having to focus so much energy on combating VAC's rapid-fire hacks that their physical presence in the server was having to slow itself down. Distracted as the Spacefillers were, they'd provide an even easier target than normal.

"Heads up, I'm not putting as much effort into the invisibility, so the Spacefillers behind us might be able to load your graphics back up again. I'll delay it as much as I can, but the ones further back are probably going to be able to see you pretty soon." the hacker informs Nazir and Hueco "Which means more pressure on you, big guy." he offers, turning his attention to Boreas. "If you start feeling overwhelmed, I'll turn some attention to you. Nazir, provide a bit of cover fire to our generous protector once in a while too, and Hueco, make sure to keep him in good shape. Everyone good? Let's go!" VAC exclaims, turning and pointing his finger Eastwards.

[Polaris North]

Nazir nodded at Hueco and then shot the Spacefillers that were too close to the drones. Once that was out of reach, he turned his attention back to the other viruses. They managed to smack him twice but it didn't really hurt and he swiftly dealt with. Oh my, oh my, there was quite a number of them now. Destroying them one by one isn't very effective. It would be a slower rate of fire if he switched though but it would be more effective. If he fired any faster with these guns, it would overheat...

Unless...

He cleared his area, enough time to get himself down. Tubes appeared and then began sucking the broken cement that was everywhere at the time. It finally filled and the tubes retracted. He grinned before firing two relatively big rocks, at least bigger than his bullets, and it barreled towards the viruses. The ones that didn't disappear was pushed back, giving them more time. Then he heard VAC giving out orders. At least the ones from the North was slowed down momentarily. "Roger that." He muttered.

Nazir started walking towards the East, shooting the last two rock bullets that he had which had the same effect as what happened in the North. He spun his pistols and then began to aim and shoot again. He would occasionally look back at Boreas but he would retreat from the front lines first before checking back. At least the ones to the East were slow thanks to VAC so it made his job easier.

@Yomojo @Patches @hefewy @Ryougu

[Ryougu]

Boreas listened attentively to Hueco's information. As the rest of the group headed east, he lagged behind a little. Once he deemed the others to be at a safe distance, he interrupted the circling swing with a sharp jerk in the opposite direction and cut off the electricity. Repeating this proces, Boreas swung the barbed wire whip back and forth, creating an S-shaped danger zone that struck at his own armored sides. It was a little less refined, but it made moving backwards a little easier now that he didn't have to worry about keeping a circle of maiming angled properly.

Once he rejoined the group, he gave a quick shout. "Don't we have anything big to take care of the lot of them?"

[Patches]

@Yomojo
Thanks to VAC's efforts, the viruses that made it past Hueco's defenses would be slowed down enough to allow the group more time. While the viruses were very single minded, like insects. Their intelligence was far from the sentients that made up the coded minds of the AIs. They did however rely on some unknown form of communication that AIs and Aegis didn't quite understand; "lead" viruses would relay orders for instance to the lesser ranks.

So we're going to be more visible to them... Right. he nodded, he made sure to pay attention to each and every viruses in the area. He once kept track of every little book and word in his library, he still did today, keeping track of a few viruses was no problem. Further from here... There's a big one. Not big enough to be a ransom level though.

@Polaris North
Turning the code that made up the environment and turning it into ammunition? What an odd ability... Hueco thought to himself, as Nazir began to mow down numerous viruses. The larger, slower bullets proved to be more damaging than the ones from earlier.

Get ready, Attacker. Hueco warned his comrade, An Overwrite type is just down the way... Think of them as shock troopers of sorts.

@Ryougu
If we had some crowd control we should be able to take care of them Hueco said, But in the meantime, we have to concentrate on what we're going to do about the Overwrite that HIVE is picking up... We can just slow down the Spacefillers right and keep them from progressing?

[Yomojo]

@Patches @Ryougu @Polaris North
"Uh, yeah, I can keep slowing them down, if that's all you want me to do." V shoots up to his comerades, taking but a second to look up from his holoscreen. Doing this much work on this many viruses, even though they are just ransoms, was taking all of his attention. He was continuing to walk East, but he was barely looking at where he was going, trusting his team to take care of him while he was doing his thing.

"An Overwrite, eh?" VAC muses, pulling up a file on the virus type, minimizing it to one corner so he could continue his virtual assault on the swarm. "Well, worst comes to worst, I can forget about these chump viruses and focus my attention on the big guy, if he comes too close. You'd be amazed what I can do if there's only one thing I have to do it to." he shouts up at his squad mates over the gunfire and sound of disintegrating viruses, not even looking up from his screen this time.

"Speaking of which, I think we're coming to a point where we should probably make a decision. Do we go for a tactical retreat and try to lose them, or do we find a good place to make a stand, and try to outlast them? Hueco, what does it look like, are their numbers starting to dwindle a bit? I'd check, but I've got a lot on my plate right now." the voice comes out again above the furious sounds of fingers on a keyboard. It didn't have to make that sound, of course, but VAC thought it made him sound more like he was doing things. Silent hacking, he had found, sometimes went under-appreciated, due to it not really looking like he was doing much.

[Polaris North]

It was working pretty well; it was at least more effective than attacking them one by one. A Spacefiller charged at him and he sidestepped before attacking it with only the blunts of his pistol, allowing some form of resting for the weaponry. It would certainly overheat if he just kept at it. Stomping on the Spacefiller with all of his might, it disappeared into pixels. The tubes went down once more to gather broken cement and Nazir took the chance to evaluate the situation. It wasn't going any better, but at least they were alive.

"An Overwrite you say? Well now, I got my work cut out for me." He said with a rather lighthearted chuckle as the tubes retracted into his pistol and he shot yet another volley at the incoming Spacefillers. He would rarely take on Overwrite type Viruses by himself. Actually, he'd rather not. He was used to there being another Attacker in the team after all. The Spacefillers would surely be a hindrance when it came to taking down that Virus.

"If I may say something, I think we should retreat to a more secure place. With Spacefillers coming at us from every side, I doubt we can hold them back while also attacking the Overwrite." He pointed out before being smacked by a Spacefiller which he quickly attacked back. It didn't really hurt all that much and he decided to shrug it off.

@Yomojo @Patches @hefewy @Ryougu