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βπ π§πππππ£ π π₯π, ππππ ππ‘:ππIt's a strange feeling to say the least... That feeling of being... Undead? A ghost? A dead woman walking? Or maybe I'm the odd thing out.
The non-ghost. Something like that...Delilah couldn't do any better to describe the absolute fatigue that overcame her aching body as she removed her experimental cyberdeck from her head. The ache was otherworldly. It made her feel immobile while simultaneously numbing her limbs just enough to feel weightless. She wanted to say that it wasn't abnormal, and for the most part it wasn't. Delilah had felt like this beforeβ within her vast experiences spent in the simulation it was nothing newβ but she would never get used to it. Her eyes floated down to the cyberdeck held in her limp arm hanging off of the side of her chair, then to the viral override units that lay atop her desk entirely out in the open. Somewhere inside herself, Delilah fought her own war.
But now wasn't the time for a fix. With the muddied fog that lined her thoughts, Delilah recalled Campbell's precarious scenario. She had been in and out of Labyrinth all evening, monitoring all sorts of media outlets, surveying what security resources she could tap into around Central Square, and maintaining communications with Campbell's newfound recon team. The thought of Campbell's distant campaigners forced the sluggish Delilah to bring up her comms on the monitor array before her. Within seconds, she had patched herself into Mackwell's Victory Ultra, whether such a feat could be accomplished with ease or required an override of the vehicle's simple AI was irrelevant.
"How's it going, Chauffeur? Are you in your tin can?" Delilah paused, calling out one last time with a
"Hello?" Delilah heaved a heavy breath as she pushed herself up from the slumped position in her chair so that she could better access the array before her. While she was at it, Delilah brought the cyberdeck back up to her head and began fixing it to herself.
The queen was ready to be re-crowned. Patching the communcations link into her Labyrinth connections was an easy feet, and soon Delilah was catapulted back into the nauseating neon cyberscape.
This time the moment of static crackling followed by Delilah's synthesized voice came through the driver's prism helmet. Whether Mackwell was aware of Delilah's connection to his internal headset wasn't entirely known to her. She had managed to pick up most of the crew's signals in a scan blast she'd sent out when they were all in close proximity of her equipment. Campbell had Delilah on comms for a reason, and she assumed that was it.
"Come in Chauffeur!" As her second try to establish a connection with Mackwell failed, Delilah could only assume he had taken off the stuffy helmet. Seconds later, she amplified her volume all while surging through Labyrinth to bring up as much relevant information on their location as she could. Soon enough, the nearly inaudible static that may have been emitted from the interior of the helmet was now just loud enough to be alarming to someone not expecting it.
"Come on. Don't leave me all by myself. I'm here to help, you know... If you could believe that. Driver-boy?" Delilah spoke while she scanned over the slew of information beginning to surround her. It was remarkably easier than the layman would expect for a cyber jockey to exploit simple vulnerabilities in the Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics. By the time Delilah had jumped through the Cyberscape to the
Old Rail Stop, she had already found her way into a number of the few remaining surveillance cameras that were operable in the area as well as the Rail Stop's electric grid itself. Unfortunately, her view was rather limited as any electronics in the nearly abandoned structure were either bordering on broken or the voting machines and any cameras she found were away from the Rail Stop.
What kind of dead project would have cameras inside it anyways?"Well that's interesting... These voting machines are definitely... different than the ones over in Central..." There was a knowing tone to the electronic voice transmitted through Mackwell's helmet. Only Delilah, however, would know that her 'knowing' tone was complete bullshit. The differences in the machines' ICE were easy to spot, but unless she cracked through them, any software differences wouldn't be known. Finding out if the hardware had been tampered with would be even more of a pain. Delilah supposed that was why Campbell hired other people as well.
"And they're set up awfully. Isn't there supposed to be a standard number of machines per voting zone? I'm counting only three in there..."A rattling of the fabric of Delilah's cyberscape shook her to a pause. She had set an alarm to pull herself out of whatever sort of slumber, altered-state, or Labyrinth she was in so that the team could confer. The clowns at the Old Rail Stop would have to wait.
"Shit. I'll be right back. The boss needs meβ probably..." She jacked out, leaving Mackwell as quickly as she had joined him.
As the queen removed her crown, she stumbled up from her chair towards the office door. Just a moment later, Delilah flung it open to enter the main floor of the team's suite. She stood out immediately. While most of the team was dressed formally for the event, Delilah spent most of her time behind as many closed doors as there were available to her. As such, she was wearing nothing more than her usual t-shirt, leggings, and skirt. The girl hadn't even had shoes on, though most of the team had probably expected that already. Delilah had a habit of claiming that she 'worked better in Labyrinth in socks' despite the cyberdeck rendering her entirely unconscious and unaware of her body.
Those hacker types always had their damned superstitions. She was no exception."Get ready for the big moment, big guy. Everyone's watching, and I mean not just the people out there. Despite the strain it caused her to use her cyberware in such a sad state, the struggling Delilah was momentarily surrounded by miniature holographic fireworks. The hologram fizzled out seconds later, however, as if by malfunction.
All's quiet with the other guys," she said, almost entirely speculating.
"But something is definitely screwy with the machines. Both mechanical and software issues? Not quite sure yet."
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