[jaunt] very early in week 3, before the attacks

[claudiometer]

[Today in unintentional livestreams, have a view of Liminal Space at the moment, more specifically the wooden-horse figurehead at the front of the boat Claudia and company entered onto.]

Oh for fuck's sake it's a motherfucking Trojan.

[some time later]

Okay, now that I mean to be here, some actual explanation.

A Trojan, in computer land, is a type of virus that gets you to let it in under false pretenses and uses your processing power to do its own shit. They don't usually propagate themselves like this, but I think we can chalk that up to Grid weirdness. They do make heavy use of anonymizers, which explains the grey lights and blurry faces.

Jules and I are gonna work on how this spreads, what it's doing, and how to stop it. Until we have answers, do not Interface anything or anyone you haven't had on your person or in your line of sight at all times - safest way to keep from catching it.

I've made a few Interface-proofing kits if you want to keep exploring without getting ambushed. Not sure how well they work on dataspikes [or why anyone thought Combat Interface: The Utility was a good idea, but that's a rant Claudia will save for another time], but they can at least save you an Interface ambush. I don't have a whole lot but I plan to work on 'em over the week, when I'm not working on the code.

Comments

[butthemiracleneverhappen]

Didn’t we have enough of Greeks bearing gifts in Achaea? [she says, cackling in the background.]

Subtle you are not, little miss 00001, but I appreciate your confirmation nonetheless.

[claudiometer]

Anonymizers don't usually propagate themselves like this, which is the weird part, but I was already thinking on malware lines before this little tidbit. At least this gives us a place to start with the specific code, once we get to digging. The horse heads could easily be a Mei-level pun, though, so I wouldn't count either of 'em out on that front.

I wonder if this is what ROSE meant by 'define your parameters carefully.'

[vrepit_no]

How do we generate an antivirus? And can it be done to not harm the host program.

[Matt and Jean are too precious to him to be harmed okay. ]

We need to get the word out.

[claudiometer]

Lucky for you, the first part's what we're here to find out. [Or... you know. Not so lucky, considering.]

Hadn't realy planned on getting the word out like this, but at least now all the investigators know. We can go from there.

1/3

[vrepit_no]

Lucky for--

2/3

[vrepit_no]

[Quiznak. ]

Done!

[vrepit_no]

[Commander voice activated.]

Right. You're going to need one to try your fixes on. I'm the most dangerous of the three I know about. We're going to want to do this in a controlled environment. I can't control the Trojan at all, so I can't stop him from making an appearance or attempting to break his way out of liminal. You'll need to sedate and restrain me before he shows up, which is probably when I sleep. Take my disc beforehand so you don't have to fight him for it.

[claudiometer]

I'm not hosting the 'festivities,' in that case. Last thing I want is this crap getting anywhere near the Liminal Intranet servers. I'll see if Jules can set something up - any preferences?

[private, double protected]

Sorry, dude. I thought Pidge had already said something, I know she was trying to figure out how to break it to you after chasing you the other night.

Seriously, if there's anything we can do to make this as not-awful for you as possible, just say the word.

[vrepit_no]

....It'll help if the lighting is in blue or green. Rounded architecture would be better than dharp angles, but I'll take what I can get. And if I can administer the sedation myself before the restraints are in place. Other than that, just keep everyone away from him as much as you can while he's there.

[Private: Double Protected]

I'd rather know. Don't let Matt stay in liminal space when he gets tired. And don't let him in there with that program, no matter what he says. I'd rather Pidge weren't in there with him either. When it's me, that... might be helpful. But not when he's there. Tell them it's my order if you have to. I don't want to be responsible for injuring them. Not again.

Private

[verdeleonessa]

Shiro, I'm sorry for not saying anything. I didn't want to... well, I knew you'd have questions and I didn't want you to know what went on.

[bite_the_hand]

Wait, I actually know what that is! ...Oh. Oh glitch.

[While at first a little excited - Eren feels like he has to ask Claudia what something is every time she has an important announcement, so this feel something like a small victory - his mental voice quickly switches serious and worried instead as the meaning of the word really hits him.]

I can let the programs in charge here know what we're dealing with. What should I tell them for how we figured this out? I doubt everyone would believe me if I said it was a message from the Variables' Users. [He also doesn't understand what horse-boats have to do with anything, and doesn't want to look like an idiot by asking when he finally sort of knows something.]

[claudiometer]

Some of us have dealt with similar code before. It's entirely true, and believable for local circles.

We're gonna work on how to counter it, since we haven't seen this specific thing before.

[bite_the_hand]

I'm just not sure the Colossus programs will believe it. Even the stuff they have direct proof of from the Grid has been hard for them to process. I don't want them to not take the warning seriously just because they can't calculate the explanation. ...I'll think of something to tell them while I'm on my way back to Gemini and let you know what I come up with.

You're analyzing Captain Shiro's disc now, right? How's he doing? I tried talking to him over the Network but he seemed, uh... really, really sedated.

[claudiometer]

It's a place to start, at least. And Pidge did track Shiro after he went missing, so we don't even have to drag the network into it.

He's hanging in there, for the most part.

[private, double protected]

He agreed to be restrained for the duration, so Trojanface can't hurt anyone. He's... taking that about as well as someone who has 'restrained and sedated' trauma is likely to. I think it helps that he got to design the chair himself.

I think he'll be more fine with this, since it's helping, than the alternative.

[verdeleonessa]

Of course it's a Trojan. Why couldn't it be something else.

[claudiometer]

Something else would be too easy. And possibly thrust upon the environment by our hosts, considering last time.

Not sure if any of 'em have been here, but I'm not ruling that out regardless. Anyway, at least we have a place to start now.

[private, double protected]

Shiro's gonna help us out with code to look at. He doesn't mind if you're there when he's awake, but he doesn't want to risk fighting you again.

[verdeleonessa]

Yeah, definitely. I'll get to my laptop and dig out every bit of information and code I can find on Trojans. Even the variations I've seen while traveling in space.

[private, double protected]

I'll definitely be there. When he's grey though, I'll return to Jauntside and try to track Matt's location.

[claudiometer]

There's enough of us with malware experience to get to the bottom of this, I'm sure.

[private, double protected]

Good call. Sucks that you're on brother-locating duty again, but good call.

[photonicfighter]

I was going to ask what you meant by 'Trojan'... thank you!

And I would be very happy to take you up on one of those Interface-proofing kits! I still have work to do. I can't just... not work.

[claudiometer]

Soon as I have one available, I'll let you know.

[photonicfighter]

Excellent, thank you. And good luck with your work.

[awitchdidit]

That's the most sensible computer terminology I've ever heard. Even if it should be "Greek" if you wanted mythological accuracy...

We should probably be very worried about Malik, I assume.

[claudiometer]

Yeah, well, not my fault the name that stuck to the horse was the place it got sent to, not the one that built it.

At this point I figure he's gonna take whatever risks he deems necessary and figure out the consequences later.

[awitchdidit]

Yeah, that's all of us, isn't it? I am suddenly glad I never learned that trick, though, even if it was more a matter of pride on my part than safety's sake.

[claudiometer]

The real trick might be convincing the locals to stop using it until it's safe.