Welcome, General [Solo]
Nov 20, 2021 5:09:37 GMT
Post by Kiyo Hokichi on Nov 20, 2021 5:09:37 GMT
Kiyo was sitting in her crappy apartment, in the crappy area of the city, with a glass of potentially off milk and her most prized possession, her laptop, balanced precariously on her legs. She was hunting down some weird code, chasing it across sites and different networks. It was strange, the fact that she was even chasing it was strange enough, but it was also intriguing and exciting. Kiyo hadn't seen anything like it before, it was mutating almost, a strange virus of sorts that sorted through whatever it was looking at. Combing through networks, searching, looking for something. Kiyo wanted to know what it was after. Was this just some hacker using a programme to look for something specific? If so, what was so important that they would spend the time to build something so complex? Kiyo needed the answers. Perhaps they were looking for government secrets, but why they would be hidden on such public networks was beyond her.
So, she spent the next few hours keeping tabs on it, tracking it, trying to catch up to it to get a peek at it. Kiyo had entertained the thought of it being another person for just a second, but it was jumping through networks faster then any human could, it had to be a programme of some kind.
It wasn't until it jumped through a loop that Kiyo was finally able to get at it. She intercepted it as it got onto the same network as her and as soon as she knew it was latching onto her laptop she disconnected it from the network, trapping the code on her system.
It's movement pattern had suggested a computer worm, but it hadn't been replicating like one, just moving through networks like a worm would. It didn't leave a trace behind as it jumped from system to system, almost as if it was removing itself from whatever it was infecting. It would infect, search, find a breach, move on, repeat. But there was barely a trace of an infection left. Kiyo only picked up on it by chance. It also didn't appear to be malicious. Kiyo was sure it had gotten into all her files by now, but checking through the basics, nothing was getting modified or corrupted. No exfiltrating or backdoors that she could see, which meant she didn't have what it was looking for, or it wasn't designed to do anything. It was just wiggling its way into everything and staying there.
But now she had it, and she could look at it. Find out what it did, what it was for. It didn't appear to be self deleting while it was still on a computer, which was helpful, no worrisome time crunch. She had the chance to sort through it properly. She ran a scan on her laptop, looking for a source file, a payload, any kind of code related to the malware. The scan only brought back one file.
WELCOME_GENERAL.XROS
Kiyo had never seen that file extension before. She furrowed her brows as she ran through her options. Whatever this was didn't seem malicious. It wasn't doing anything at the moment, but there could be something waiting to be activated. She chewed on her thumbnail as she thought. Her laptop was her livelihood, the only way she earned money. She grabbed her phone from the floor next to her, quickly swiping through to her bank app. Could she afford a new one if this fried it? Probably, if she could survive off instant noodles for the rest of her life. Wasn't anything new, really.
With a heavy sigh, she re-ran the scan, just in case. When it came back with just the one file, she deleted it from the laptop. Perhaps it'll still be running around when she can afford to lose some tech. She triple checked she removed the malware, made sure there were no other modified or new files not picked up by the scanner, and ran it a third time.
1 RESULT
WELCOME_GENRAL.XROS
Crap. Was her laptop gone for already? She turned the laptop off to reboot it in safe mode. She ran the scan a fourth time, the file came up again. She deleted the file, checked for anything else, and ran the scan again.
1 RESULT
WELCOME_GENRAL.XROS
Well... Looks like she didn't have a choice. She tried to open the file in a coding program, to see if she could access the code without running the file. But nothing registered the extension, it always opened with garbled nonsense that looked nothing like sensible code. She tapped her fingernails against the edge of the laptop. She didn't really have a choice... It wasn't leaving her laptop. She might as well open it, right?
She could also connect back to her network and see if it would leave on its own, but that was the less fun option, honestly.
She didn't have a choice.
She ran the file.
Her laptop screen went black. Kiyo felt dread crawl up her spine at the idea her laptop had died for good. "God damn it." She mumbled to herself, pressing a few keys and the power button to see if she could get a response. She flinched in shock as the screen flashed at her in response to the power button being pressed. The screen flashed black, white, blue, green, purple and cycled through several times before settling on a fuzzy, staticky, grey. Text slowly typed itself out onto the screen in white.
WELCOME, GENERAL
Kiyo stared at her laptop, wide eyed, stunned at the sudden turn of events. Nothing else happened for a minute, two, then five and Kiyo finally moved. She pressed a key, to see if that would produce another response. The screen went black again before glowing a feint blue. The screen almost pulsed as binary code flashed across it. An image of a strange device grew larger and larger. It looked like it was coming from the screen and Kiyo instinctively reached out to touch it, and she could. She wrapped tentative fingers around the device, and pulled it from her screen.
The screen faded back to black, with one last message flickering briefly before the laptop actually died.
AMASS YOUR ARMY
"I need to stop staying up so late."
So, she spent the next few hours keeping tabs on it, tracking it, trying to catch up to it to get a peek at it. Kiyo had entertained the thought of it being another person for just a second, but it was jumping through networks faster then any human could, it had to be a programme of some kind.
It wasn't until it jumped through a loop that Kiyo was finally able to get at it. She intercepted it as it got onto the same network as her and as soon as she knew it was latching onto her laptop she disconnected it from the network, trapping the code on her system.
It's movement pattern had suggested a computer worm, but it hadn't been replicating like one, just moving through networks like a worm would. It didn't leave a trace behind as it jumped from system to system, almost as if it was removing itself from whatever it was infecting. It would infect, search, find a breach, move on, repeat. But there was barely a trace of an infection left. Kiyo only picked up on it by chance. It also didn't appear to be malicious. Kiyo was sure it had gotten into all her files by now, but checking through the basics, nothing was getting modified or corrupted. No exfiltrating or backdoors that she could see, which meant she didn't have what it was looking for, or it wasn't designed to do anything. It was just wiggling its way into everything and staying there.
But now she had it, and she could look at it. Find out what it did, what it was for. It didn't appear to be self deleting while it was still on a computer, which was helpful, no worrisome time crunch. She had the chance to sort through it properly. She ran a scan on her laptop, looking for a source file, a payload, any kind of code related to the malware. The scan only brought back one file.
WELCOME_GENERAL.XROS
Kiyo had never seen that file extension before. She furrowed her brows as she ran through her options. Whatever this was didn't seem malicious. It wasn't doing anything at the moment, but there could be something waiting to be activated. She chewed on her thumbnail as she thought. Her laptop was her livelihood, the only way she earned money. She grabbed her phone from the floor next to her, quickly swiping through to her bank app. Could she afford a new one if this fried it? Probably, if she could survive off instant noodles for the rest of her life. Wasn't anything new, really.
With a heavy sigh, she re-ran the scan, just in case. When it came back with just the one file, she deleted it from the laptop. Perhaps it'll still be running around when she can afford to lose some tech. She triple checked she removed the malware, made sure there were no other modified or new files not picked up by the scanner, and ran it a third time.
1 RESULT
WELCOME_GENRAL.XROS
Crap. Was her laptop gone for already? She turned the laptop off to reboot it in safe mode. She ran the scan a fourth time, the file came up again. She deleted the file, checked for anything else, and ran the scan again.
1 RESULT
WELCOME_GENRAL.XROS
Well... Looks like she didn't have a choice. She tried to open the file in a coding program, to see if she could access the code without running the file. But nothing registered the extension, it always opened with garbled nonsense that looked nothing like sensible code. She tapped her fingernails against the edge of the laptop. She didn't really have a choice... It wasn't leaving her laptop. She might as well open it, right?
She could also connect back to her network and see if it would leave on its own, but that was the less fun option, honestly.
She didn't have a choice.
She ran the file.
Her laptop screen went black. Kiyo felt dread crawl up her spine at the idea her laptop had died for good. "God damn it." She mumbled to herself, pressing a few keys and the power button to see if she could get a response. She flinched in shock as the screen flashed at her in response to the power button being pressed. The screen flashed black, white, blue, green, purple and cycled through several times before settling on a fuzzy, staticky, grey. Text slowly typed itself out onto the screen in white.
WELCOME, GENERAL
Kiyo stared at her laptop, wide eyed, stunned at the sudden turn of events. Nothing else happened for a minute, two, then five and Kiyo finally moved. She pressed a key, to see if that would produce another response. The screen went black again before glowing a feint blue. The screen almost pulsed as binary code flashed across it. An image of a strange device grew larger and larger. It looked like it was coming from the screen and Kiyo instinctively reached out to touch it, and she could. She wrapped tentative fingers around the device, and pulled it from her screen.
The screen faded back to black, with one last message flickering briefly before the laptop actually died.
AMASS YOUR ARMY
"I need to stop staying up so late."