Static on the Wire

Static on the Wire by Brom
Thread 1 Thread 2 Thread 3 Thread 4 Thread 5 Thread 6
Discussion

73-6 is here to kill everyone.

Main characters

73-6

Reconstituted asset belonging to the Bureau of Domestic Defense. 6th and latest in the line of created intelligences occupying the 73 body.

Monica

73-6's handler on field operations. Protective of her takeout.

Sara Dalton

The brain of a retired US Marine field medic in a robotic chassis. Lived in the Hab-Block with her roomate, Keisha, until it was destroyed. Currently residing in a Bureau Outpost.

Keisha Chalthoum

Sara's roomate and DJ at a nightclub called "Piston". Sharp-tongued and strong-willed to a fault.

Penelope

Field Agent for Tribranch, a rival to the Bureau. Like all Tribranch agents, uses stims to enhance combat capabilities on-mission.

88-11

Another reconstituted asset of the Bureau. Has very little sense of self-preservation because he basically just want to die and stay dead.

Dartline Alchemist

A mysterious man with a rocket launcher and a contraband visor. Works for the Fantoma Vengadores and destroyed Sara and Keisha's home.

Supporting characters

14-1

A retired Bureau field agent with years of experience and a Sniper Cannon on his shoulder, here to help 73-6.

Casely Barduk

An officer in Fantoma Vengadores overseeing the hab block where Keisha and Sara shared an apartment, and Keisha's ex-boyfriend.

Mr. Chatreet

Was really looking forward to a nice cup of coffee and a quiet evening in.

Deneb

An malignant AI once created for a video game called "Blastlands" that has gone rogue, taken rule over an entire sector of Deep Net and warped it to its liking.

Plot Summary

This article contains spoilers! You were warned.

Thread 1

The story starts on a dark night with 73-6, a "reconstituted asset", infiltrating an apartment skyscraper. He's an assassin of the Bureau of Domestic Defense, a huge corporate agency dealing in private contracts, sent to neutralize agents of a rival and equally huge PMC called Fantomas Vengadores in order to send a message of intimidation.

As 73-6 proceeds through the corridors, stealthily disposing of the guards and reporting kills to his handler Monica back in HQ, he finds a liquid Shell upgrade. Ingesting it allows a choice of a new perk:

• Wetwork: enables stealth killing with bare hands;
• Stealth: an ability to create sounds in remote corners for distraction;
• Tech: knowledge about hacking simple computer systems via a terminal device (the upgrades picked by voting will be marked bold, like so).

Using his newfound power, 73-6 cuts power to the whole hab block and heads further. After a short but heated battle in the kitchen 73-6 obtains another bottle of Shell upgrade, which provides the following choices:

• Wetwork: an ability to magnetize himself, thus increasing his weapon carrying capacity;
• Stealth: a perk which essentially works as a built-in silencer for any firearm, but with a cooldown;
• Tech: improves 73-6's hacking ability.

73-6 finishes with the upgrade and proceeds to get shot. Having survived and dealt with the remaining guard, he attempts to leave the building, but the wound is too severe and he faints. A short time later his unconscious body is discovered by Keisha and Sara, who share the room through which 73-6 tried to escape. They decide against calling the police and Sara treats his wounds.

The agent wakes up in the morning. He and Sara have a chat: it turns out Sara knows a thing or two about the Bureau from her past military service (which got her into the gynoid body she's in). Their conversation is interrupted by a Fantomas officer searching for an assassin agent from last night. 73-6 hides in the closet, and a second before he's discovered the officer gets kicked out of the room by Keisha. The HQ pulls a file on the officer and reveals that he's Casely Barduk, a high-rank Fantomas. 73-6's mission is switched from waiting for extraction to eliminating Barduk.

He locates the room where his target is stationed. On his way he bumps into a female operative Penelope from yet another corporate private agency, TriBranch Services, also on a mission to kill Barduk. The two assassins make a wary truce and team up. 73-6 and the Tribranch proceed to Barduk, but Penelope gets a bullet to the leg and is immobilized.

Barduk and his goons, still oblivious to the assassins' presence, sit in the next room behind a reinforced door. A gunfight ensues, and the two agents decide to kill Casely at the same second so that it's their bosses' problem who's to claim the credit for eliminating him. 73-6 pockets another Shell upgrade, but it's the injection type and he can't install it by himself.

73-6 decides to bring Penelope back to Keisha and Sara for leg treatment. Just as Sara is about to start, Monica comes through and informs 73-6 that other factions have pulled reinforcements and specifically snipers to his location, and they're after him. The HQ is preparing extraction, but it's not going to be anytime soon.

The four people lock down their apartment, bar the doors and prepare for assault. Sara helps 73-6 install the Shell upgrade, which offers:

• Wetwork: a short reflex boost paired with immunity to pain;
• Stealth: a perk which essentially works as a built-in silencer for any firearm, but with a cooldown;
• Tech: improves 73-6's hacking ability.

With his new hacking skills, 73-6 performs wicked tricks like pulling the feed from security cameras, stopping the elevator between floors and disabling Sara's vocal inhibitor (much to her elation). Then he goes off to take out as much enemies as possible before they reach their improvised bunker.

On his errand, while eavesdropping on the mooks' conversations, 73-6 discovers that the reinforcements aren't there just for revenge and competitor elimination, but also some kind of plans that 73-6 and Penelope must've stolen from Barduk's hideout. After dealing with foot soldiers, the assassin returns to Keisha and Sara's apartment. It's obvious he'll have to spend another night at their place. 73-6 joins them for dinner and he and Sara talk for a while, cosily sharing stories about their lives before they get sleepy.

An unfamiliar reconstituted asset is lying on a deck chair on a sunlit beach, wearing a panama hat and talking to a girl. Monica calls him on the comm, saying that this is the time when she really, really needs his help.

Thread 2

The night passes uneventfully, except for the arrival of 14-1, a "retired" Bureau agent, to the scene. 14-1 calls when 73-6 and Penelope are dividing their arsenal and briefs the agent. They decide that Penelope is going to handle the kill-team sweeping the building down from the upper floors and 73-6 will retrieve a briefcase from some Fantomas leader's apartment. One group hug later, the team splits, casually discusssing 73-6's infatuation with Sara and Pen's personal preferences.

Once near his target, 73-6 bypasses an automated turret by hacking its IFF remote lifted from a killed guard and gets inside the apartment. With 14-1's sniper support he qietly takes down another couple of guards, checks the bedroom and finds nothing. Luckily, more goons enter the apartment, and after a short interrogation the agent discovers the briefcase location.

The briefcase turns out to contain Fantomas signal flares. The plan is to fire them from the roof, wait for the Fantomas aircraft to arrive and steal it to get out. There's also a fat stack of cash inside too. Monica suspects there would be, but 14-1 deftly hints 73-6 not to mention money he'd inevitably have to give up to the Bureau. 73-6 follows the advice.

Then he hacks into the Fantomas comm channels from the officer's terminal and helps Penelope by deafening the kill-team near her with a wave of loud feedback noise. Finally, he cleans up and proceeds to regroup with the TriBranch agent. Penelope handled her part just fine; the two change into some of the less-bloodstained Fantomas suits and get up on the roof. A few minutes after the flare is fired an aircraft arrives. 14-1 swiftly takes out the pilot while Penelope and 73-6 get rid of the rescue team.

73-6 gets into the pilot's seat. The next moment Penelope points a gun at his head and reveals she just got new orders: the Bureau agent must not get out of there. Eventually 73-6 convinces Penelope that she has a better chance defecting to his employers and risking vengeance from TriBranch than she does trying to dodge 14-1's sniper cannon once she carries out her orders.

73-6 takes off when suddenly 14-1 locks Monica out of their comm channel to have a little private chat. He shares some advice on how to "retire" from Bureau and stay alive, then signs off. Getting out of the Bureau loop becomes something of a long-term goal for 73-6.

The same night a group of Fantomas breaks into Sara and Keisha's apartment to neutralize them, but Sara wakes up before it's too late thanks to the autoturret hacked by 73-6 and to her being a war veteran in a robot body. Just as they finish off the Fantomas goons, an unknown high-class agent hired by the Fantomas takes out half of their apartment wall with a rocket launcher. Keisha and Sara retreat deeper into the building, then Sara finds the communication software that 73-6 neglected to erase from Keisha's computer and wakes him up. 73-6 gives them an address where he can pick them up, but the girls would still need to get there by themselves. They crawl on the massive suspension cables over to the next building - a garage. Keisha hijacks a van, but as they leave the building a Fantomas guard beckons them over. Keisha successfully bluffs her way past him and the guard backs away.

73-6 is at the mentioned place, as promised. As per the Bureau procedure he blindfolds the girls and escorts them to their base of operations, outpost Jericho.

ITQ Guide

A list of secure communications over the wire with Inside the Quest, sorted by the threads they ran concurrent with.

Thread 1:	[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Thread 2:	[11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19]
Thread 3:	[20] [21]
Thread 4:	[22] [23] [24] [25] [26] [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33] [34] [35] [36] [37]
Thread 5:	[38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43]
Thread 6:	[44] [45] [46] [47] [48] [49]

Gallery

Official

73-6 Concept Art

CIVILIZED DISCOURSE

Sara Concept Art

Monica Concept Art

Ever wonder what's under the trenchcoat?

Sara shows off the goods

Fanart

73-6 By OVERLORD

73-6 By Toxoglossa

73-6 By Idiom Alpha

Sara Dalton By Pudding

By LimeBreaker

By LimeBreaker

By LimeBreaker

By OVERLORD

By Coda

73-6 gives Dale a scare By LionsPhil

By Archivemod

By Pudding

By LonelyWorld

By Toxoglossa

By LawyerDog

Cathage and Penelope By LimeBreaker

By TestPattern

Penelope

By Arhra

By Archivemod

By Existential_Maggie

By FRACTAL

Sev looking very kawaii By FRACTAL

Sev and Maroon looking even more kawaii as a team By FRACTAL