As the time approached, every six weeks, to create the next subchapter's missions, I would look up the general scheme for the subchapter, written up months before in the overall story outline, then sit down and write out a very rough sequence of how five missions and four events for each of the three mission-enabled orgs would go. This became my guide as I wrote the missions, one-by-one (through chapter 11.2, I wrote them in the order Zion-Mach-Merv; starting with 11.3, I decided to try mixing up my thought process to a less Zion-centric approach, and did them alphabetically, ie Mach-Merv-Zion). Once all the missions for the upcoming subchapter were complete, I filled in the rough sequence document with the vital details from the missions. This version of the subchapter's plan became the reference document that LESIG and I would use to plan and run events throughout that subchapter.

I'm inserting these subchapter planning documents here in chronological order. In some cases they have more notes and detail than the versions I presented to LESIG. These versions were completed before the start of each subchapter, and thus don't tend to include changes made to event plans after the subchapter went Live--which in some cases were substantial--or the outcomes of the events themselves. They also don't include the numerous events conceived by LESIG. So, while generally more detailed and up-to-date than the overall story outline document, these do not necessarily reflect the story as it actually happened, but only the initial plan for each six-week section, prior to its actual implementation in the Live game.

These begin at chapter 5.2, because it was at that point that I really began trying to put events and missions together in sequences throughout the duration of a subchapter; this turned out to be complicated when trying to handle a story from five playable points of view, so I had to start writing things down. Cypherites and EPN did not have their own missions, but in each subchapter we would adapt some of the Zion events for EPN, and some of the Machine events for Cypherites; as time went on I also tried more and more to come up with at least one or two event plans specifically for CYPH or EPN each subchapter.

For 8.2, I wrote up an additional document for others on the project, called "implications," which I'm inserting here after the 8.2 mission/event plan.

5.2 will be the first concrete attempt at advancing the story simultaneously through events as well as through critical missions. I've tried to leave the connections between the missions and the events rather vague, to give us a good deal of flexibility in the design of the specific events connected to the missions.

For the most part, the mission/event relationships here involve 4 Anome vial-swigging bosses: A (m), B (f), C (f), D (m). I don't want to give their names ahead of time, since those could potentially leak as spoilers. Besides being admin-buffed as usual, they will have abilities that are essentially tweaked versions of the Assassin's abilities: a single-target zap, an AOE that hits for a percentage of the target's max HP, and a version of the ever-popular "meatwad."

New Anome mission/threat NPCs are introduced. They are labelled "Unlimit" NPCs, but I don't call them by that name specifically in mission text, because the 5.3 cinematic will feature Anome actually declaring the name Unlimit--kind of awkward, I know.

Since Cypherites and EPN don't have missions of their own, they don't have specific "required events" in the schedule below. However, I think that they could head up most of the Machine (Cypherites) or Zion (EPN) events described below, if they wanted to, and we could work out some RP way in which the information found is shared with the related org.


7/13

5.2 cinematic: flashback of Unlimit fighting at Aqueduct; Niobe trapped and dazed in construct

Crit 5.2.1:

Zion - Effectuator is getting network interference while trying to track down Niobe. The player finds that it's a new bunch of tough NPCs, apparently working for Anome.

Merv - Someone is slowing down the search for Niobe's prison construct by blocking network ports. Player investigates and links the interference to Anome's goons and a hacker named "A."

Mach - Investigating the nature of the new NPC threat. They work for Anome, and appear to have a code signature showing similarities to the stolen "cheat codes," but with data corruptions.


7/13-7/19

[Because it is not too unlikely that the patch could slip a few days, we might not want to schedule the below events before 7/15.]

Required Events:

Zion - Defend "network hubs" from Anome's goons

Merv - Recover "data" that will lead to one of A's computer centers in the next crit

Mach - Fighting Anome's goons, somehow obtain a name: "B"


7/20

Crit 5.2.2:

Zion - Isolate the code signature of Anome's enhanced soldiers. Signature is similar to the cheat codes; the Effectuator's research also indicates that a cheat code was used to create Niobe's imprisoning construct.

Merv - Tracking "A." Indications that hardline junction boxes are involved in the network trouble. Obtain data from Anome's people with "a list of locations."

Mach - Tracking "B." Indications that those who have ingested the cheat codes obtain immense power, but it changes their RSI code to such an extent that they can no longer jack out. "B" is elated by power, however, and past caring about the mundanity of the real world. One of B's old friends is trying to arrange a meeting with her somewhere in Lemone.


7/20-7/26

Required Events:

Zion - Anome sighting.

Merv - Taking out "A," who confesses that they are indeed targeting hardline junctions.

Mach - Hunt down "B," probably starting in Lemone.


7/27

Crit 5.2.3:

Zion - Recapturing and repairing hardline junction boxes. But at the end, there's one left that's proving problematic.

Merv - Anome leader "C" is distributing a virus that allows her to send Anome's soldiers through computer and phone lines directly into sensitive areas, including bluepill businesses, and the Effectuator's operating centers. By the end of the mission, you learn C's name, and obtain a "list of bluepill targets."

Mach - Data collecting on the code signatures of Anome's soldiers. Indications are that most of the soldiers you encounter did not actually ingest cheat codes, but appear to have been exposed to them in diluted form. The codes are also having unexpected effects, and seem to have been altered from their original codebase. Hint that hardline junction boxes are involved in Anome's operations.


7/27-8/2

Required Events:

Zion - Obtain data pertaining to the last hardline junction box (Effectuator reveals in the next crit that it's a list of Anome's operatives who were involved in its sabotage).

Merv - Track down and eliminate "C."

Mach - Protecting hardlines from Anome's men; players hear of name "D" as directing the attacks


8/3

Crit 5.2.4:

Zion - Finding and fixing the final hardline junction box.

Merv - The junction boxes are clear, but Anome's goons are attacking the remaining network hubs. Clear them out.

Mach - Tracking "D," the players put pressure on one of D's crewmembers. Turns out that D was a Machine operative who went over to Anome's side. His crewmate reveals their hovercraft coords to the player, and the Machines destroy the hovercraft. But although his body in the real world has been destroyed, D's RSI remains active inside the simulation.


8/3-8/9

Required Events:

Zion - Retrieve Niobe from the Ueno building.

Merv - Meet with Niobe (this occurs after the Zion event).

Mach - Terminate D's RSI.


8/10

Crit 5.2.5:

Zion - Wrap-up with Effectuator, Ghost, and Niobe. Niobe declares her determination to see Anome's threat ended.

Merv - The Merv is very interested in the mutagenic effects shown by the cheat codes. He has the player track down an empty, discarded cheat code vial, in which some residual code remains...

Mach - Investigation of the cheat codes and their altered effects. Various speculations: Anome may have obtained 39 vials total; Antlia may have ingested a vial; the codes seem to have mutated since Niobe consumed one; Anome may be hatching some scheme against bluepills citywide



5.3 is currently scheduled to start on August 17th.

8/24

5.3 Cinematic: Anome distributing vials to followers, "Unlimit" name officially announced


Crit 5.3.1:

Zion: Pendhurst-Amaranth's representative Brenda Utley contacts Zion about helping them put a stop to a series of mysterious incidents at their plants that have been hampering production of their popular consumer products, including "Tastee Wheat." The player investigates, and finds that Unlimit is up to no good at a PA facility.

Mach: Uncover Anome plot to tamper with Aqueduct control facilities in Tabor Park. Romantic suspected between the Unlimit coordinating the attacks and a certain Zion operative.

Merv: Merv scientists synthesized their own cheat codes based off the residue recovered from one of the vials, but testing on Exile and redpill subjects yields disappointing results: no effect was seen on the Exile, and the human was reduced to a sort of feral state, but with no exceptional powers.


8/24-8/30

Required Events:

Zion: Unlimit attacking warehouses

Mach: Somehow get the name of Unlimit boss "G" behind the Aqueduct control attacks. (As will mostly be found out in the crits, G was dramatically saved from death and awoken by this certain Zion operative. She fell in love with him, but he was already involved with another woman, and rebuffed G's advanced. G became obsessed with winning him over, and as this failed, gradually obsessed with killing him.)

Merv: Fighting a gang the Merv has tested the synthesized codes on? (Do we have redpill gangs? If not, for some reason it works on this Exile gang when it didn't work on the Merv Exile in the crit?)


8/31

Crit 5.3.2:

Zion: More investigating for Brenda: food supplies at PA warehouses are being poisoned. No direct Unlimit connection found.

Mach: Meet G's Zionite connection. Leads to information on the saboteurs, and their attack is foiled.

Merv: The Merv decides that they'll need to capture a live Unlimit boss (someone who drank a vial). After hacking into an Unlimit mail server, the player finds out about "I," an Unlimit commander who appears to have an obsession with Persephone.


8/31-9/6

Required Events:

Zion: Unlimit boss "F" at P-A Southard plant (steals floorplans for certain warehouses). "F" admires the "purity" of energy, and is disgusted by food "slop" and the sweaty, dirty nature of human existence.

Mach: G, low on manpower, is tracked down and eliminated.

Merv: trying to find "I" (or tracking to find where he hangs out)


9/7

Crit 5.3.3:

Zion: Foil a food poisoning attempt at a PA warehouse by Unlimit.

Mach: Unlimit are attacking power stations, causing blackouts throughout the city. The player foils one such attack, and helps protect civilians from fires and looting in the blackout-affected areas.

Merv: The Merv decides to use Persephone as bait to capture "I." Persephone requires a certain amount of convincing.


9/7-9/13

Required Events:

Zion: "F" found and defeated at PA's DT HQ. "E" spotted nearby.

Mach: attack at power station, "H" mentioned as being involved in directing the attacks

Merv: Persephone as bait to trap "I," doesn't quite work. "I" doesn't actually encounter Persephone here.


9/14

Crit 5.3.4:

Zion: Tampering of PA's "Aqua Gulp" bottled water products investigated, linked to "E." Name of bluepill (E's stool pigeon) found.

Mach: "H" is an ex-Zionite who suffered from extreme paranoia. The player tracks H down, discovers that H thinks the Assassin is out to kill them for "stealing his powers," and uses this knowledge to push H to the brink of insanity.

Merv: "I" almost caught again, but panics and flees when he sees Persephone in the flesh.


9/14-9/20

Required Events:

Zion: E in Bathory Row, found through stool pigeon. "E" is an ex-Zionite who talks with a California surfer accent/dialect, and who views Zion as tragically stuck-up. Many of E's friends have died while on Zion operations.

Mach: Take out H, preferably by manipulating them to suicide.

Merv: "I" can't keep away from Persephone, this time he's caught.


9/21

Crit 5.3.5:

Zion: Brenda alerts player to plot to tamper with city's water supply. Player investigates. Sudden and mysterious disappearance of Brenda. Player attacked by PA security when tracks down Brenda's cell phone.

Mach: A city-wide hunt for Anome ends up going awry. The Machines decide that they must begin work on an Anome kill-code.

Merv: Some trouble getting fluid samples from "I," eventual success with Persephone's help (no, not like that :p). Analysis and decompilation of corrupt Unlimit code begins.


Chapter 6.1 is scheduled to being on 9/28 (5.3 is a shortened, five-week subchapter, because 5.2 got us a week behind Walrus' schedule :p).

10/5

6.1 Cinematic: Anome's follower Caboclo dissents about killing bluepills, mentions Anome's tragic bluepill life. Anome blasts him to pieces. Elsewhere, Sati makes a sunset from the balcony of the Oracle's apartment while a commando spies on her through high-powered binoculars.


Crit 6.1.1:

Zion: Tracking contacts from Brenda's cell phone. Initial contacts haven't seen her in a while, some suggest perhaps she went on vacation. One mentions a message from the board saying some top Marketing positions had been reassigned. Overhear suspicious conversation about "her" and some kind of directive "straight from" the Pendhurst-Amaranth (aka "P-A") "head branch office." [It's hard to fit into a summary like this, but as the Zion crits continue with much snooping and investigating around Pendhurst-Amaranth offices, there will be many overheard conversations and hacked computer messages chronicling the ongoing, significant, and aggressive change in corporate direction at P-A, including expanding into and monopolizing new markets, investigating the financial benefits of perpetual martial law, cutting research positions and increasing security and marketing, etc, etc, corruption of politicians, lucrative government contracts, even defense contracts. If you want to tie into specifics of this type for any of the events, I can dig up more details from specific crits.]

Mach: Machines need an Anome kill code, but must find some relevant code to base it on. Internet spiders detect a cryptic bulletin board post mentioning Caboclo. It is traced to an Unlimit, Meillak, an old crew member of Caboclo's in Zion. He appears to be trying to pass on the results of Caboclo's research into Anome's bluepill past. The operatives recover Caboclo Message 1, which reveals that Anome's mother didn't thought the Matrix, and everyone in it, was unreal--including her son, who she abused. [The Machines retrieve one of these story items in each 6.1 crit. Their text was written by Paul.]

Merv: First batch of cheat code synthesized from Beirn is ready for testing. Give some to a Blackwood, kill rioting Blackwoods demanding the miracle drug for themselves, then check back on the test subject: he's now got female face and hands, and green dreadlocks. The operator is worried.


10/5-10/11

Required Events:

Zion: Players have to talk their way past security at the head P-A branch office. Once they get in, they discover that certain files are missing--possibly Brenda Utley's employment records.

Mach: Attempting to locate and interrogate Meillak. He can be spotted, but must escape before being caught. May use hacking methods to escape (see later Mach crit notes).

Merv: "Testing" another batch of the codes in some way. Lots of possibilities, simple ones including meatwadding the subjects, or slapping different RSIs on them.


10/12

Crit 6.1.2:

Zion: Break into P-A computer system and track who last accessed those files. It was done by a low-level clerk. File a fake case at their grievance office to get his supervisor's name. Hack their network again, find the supe's name, and notice that they are listed as working at P-A's Southard division.

Mach: A Merv coder program who was working on synthesizing cheat codes from Beirn is angry with the Merv for slighting his work with the corrupt code, and reveals to the Machines via a spy (and the operative) that the Mervs are working on a cheat code, and have an initial batch under guard. Machines follow the tip, but suddenly all Merv programs in the area, and the traitor, die, with no trace of a cheat code found; the Merv was on to them. Machines find another posted message about Caboclo, and retrieve Caboclo Message 2: Anome's mother continued intermittent abuse of her son, would shape up when threatened with losing custody of Anome by her husband and therapist, but then would go back to abusing him.

Merv: Another code batch, this time the lucky recipients are a power-hungry Chopper, and a Demon Army member who, along with his buddy who you have to kill, worships you like a salvation-bringing god. They get put under observation together, and when you go to check up on them, you find that they've switched aspects of their RSIs--the chopper now has the Demon Army build, facial tattoo, and legs/boots, and so forth.


10/12-10/18

Required Events:

Zion: Trying to investigate at P-A Southard, get in fight with guards. One named "(J)" transforms into an Unlimit, blasts a bunch of operatives, and escapes.

Mach: Raid the Mervs, destroy most of their cheat codes, and close the loophole allowing them to compile them.

Merv: Fight off the Machine attack on the codes; manage to safe two of them.


10/19

Crit 6.1.3:

Zion: Snooping through P-A records for information on J. Electronic records have been deleted, have to dig up the hard copies in the archives. These refer to P-A security office records. At the security office, find which branch he reported to, go there, and retrieve a high-level security pass for P-A's Downtown HQ among his personal effects. It's becoming clear that Unlimit has infiltrated Pendhurst-Amaranth; to what extent is unknown.

Mach: Machines create a kill code based on captured Merv cheat codes, and inject it into the operative's RSI. Operative battles Unlimits, but no effect from the kill code is seen. Another bulletin board post leads to a simulacrum, to a trio of computers with auto-shutdown BIOS triggers: operative must decide which one to activate based on a few cryptic clues. If they pick the right one, they get Caboclo Message 3: Anome's mother jumped from a bridge when he was six, trying to pull Anome with her, telling him it wasn't real, and that she was going to a real place. Orphaned into the social welfare system, Anome, full of his mother's talk of the unreality of the world, was found and awoken by a Zionite.

Merv: The Merv decides to use the RSI-sucking ability of the codes to bring back the Twins, who've apparently been floating about in pieces in the stratosphere since Reloaded. He executes one of the codes, and Twin body part fragments start showing up. You snatch the feet and legs from some Machines who had just found them, take them to the Effectuator, and he combines them into a walking pair of legs. It's a start.


10/19-10/25

Required Events:

Zion: J encountered and taken care of at P-A DT HQ. "J" is a sadistic punk on a real power kick. At some point, we need some sort of fairly definite indication that Brenda is being held at the DT HQ to appear.

Mach: The Machines determine that the only way to get a basis for a Anome kill code is to get a code sample directly from the man himself. Anome, on some business in the city, is found, and operatives must goad him into interlocking them so they can get close enough to get a tissue sample from him.

Merv: The legs help lead operatives to two hands, probably in the possession of some opportunistic treasure-hunter.


10/26

Crit 6.1.4:

Zion: Trying to get a working P-A DT HQ security pass based off of J's cancelled one--there's a bluepill who can make a working copy, but he requires updated data from the P-A employee database. Break in, get the data, return to the bluepill, but then hit by an Unlimit ambush that kills the blue, showing that Unlimit is at least monitoring secure P-A networks. Backup plan: hack employee database, replace J's deleted record, should reactivate his old security pass. Pose as an IT worker and get P-A's clerk away from their desk by claiming to have to run a virus scan. Hack is successful and the pass is reactivated.

Mach: Anome kill code engineering begins, requiring signficant System resources; since it will be so costly, the Machines must make sure that they can deliver it to the target reliably, so they don't have to compile another one. Suspecting Caboclo's research is leading to something, they pursue another bulletin board post to a simulacrum, who is ambushed and terminated by Unlimit: Unlimit has found out what Meillak was up to. Meillak, running out of time, leaves messages via a hacked level 255 Agent, and hacked SWAT programs, resulting in bluepill casualties. Persevering, the operative finds Caboclo Message 4: Young Anome thought he would find mom in Zion. Grew up, buried the trauma, but now it's coming out due to the liberating effects of the cheat codes; he's getting back at bluepills for what his mother did to him.

Merv: Secure the head and torso from a gang of Mockingbird's Crushers. With the hands, the Effectuator combines these into a floating Twin upper body. You lead this half to the leg half, who was being uncooperative, but who is excited to "see" the upper body. Lead them both back to the Effectuator, who combines them together into one whole Twin (the halves remain there afterwards as inert, empty shells). The Merv uses the last remaining cheat code. Twin halves being led around the city should help spice up Halloween...


10/26-11/1

Required Events:

Zion: Use the security pass to get into P-A DT HQ and rescue Brenda. She drops some mention of suspecting that this all comes from someone on P-A's board of directors.

Mach: Meillak hadn't counted on secure redundant system in the Agent he hacked; his hack origin was traced. Machines use this to locate him, but he flees, and is killed by Unlimit. His dying message is a single word.

Merv: The single complete Twin helps hunt down his brother's legs and feet, no doubt in the possession of some unscrupulous scrounger.


11/2

Crit 6.1.5:

Zion: Brenda says this all comes from an Unlimit mole in control of the P-A board. Hunting for the mole via an unwilling informant pointed out by Brenda, who sees the light after being threatened with having his stock option revoked, the player comes across some clues to their identity, then crashes a board meeting and must rub out the mole before Unlimit forces flood the area--but which board member is it?!? OMGz!

Mach: Another bulletin board post, but a red herring. Trace the network origin, find Meillak's base; cryptic messages, mysterious cyphers, a hacked level 100 Anome Simulacrum follower, Unlimit on the hunt, eventually come across a message from Meillak, who anticipated and accepted his demise, and Caboclo Message 5, which reveals where Anome can be found, and that Caboclo, writing this after his mangling at the hands of Anome, wanted release from his pain.

Merv: The Twin is ailing without his brother around. You find the two hands, but they're inert--as if they've already been copied into a larger shell--and indeed they have, by Silver, no less. Silver is uncooperative until the full Twin shows up and points out that Silver is breaking the terms of their old agreement. The player leads the collected upper body back to the lower body, where they are combined into the other full twin for a strange reunion of multiple Twins and Effectuators.

11/16

6.2 Cinematic: Anome is killed: shot between the eyes (with the kill code, we presume) on the Creston Heights building by an Agent posing as his mother.


Crit 6.2.1:

Zion: The Machines want to meet. Ghost meets with Pace to arrange a full meeting later. Pace says that what the Machines want to talk about is access to the Zion mainframe, so that they can use their data-processing capabilities to detect threats that could arise from Zion's population (such as EPN, Unlimit, etc) before they turn into a real problem. Ghost is worried.

Mach: The Machines want to meet. Mirror of the Ghost/Pace meeting above. The player also has to take out a few remaining Unlimit, and Gray mentions that they will whither and die without the presence of the cheat codes.

Merv: Profits are down in Richland, and the Merv wants to know why. Flood has heard that the Bag Lady was dropping hints lately, and sends you to talk to her. She says that she's heard the Elements are up to something, and suggests checking up on Silver. With the Twins' help, you track down Silver again, and he says his spies show Mercury is behind it.


11/16-11/22

Required Events:

Zion: Ghost and Pace meet again to discuss the Machine agenda. There is subtext in these missions about Pace being a little fascinated with the reticent Ghost, and Ghost being wary of a sex-bomb Agent (he was happier when they all looked like tax collectors).

Mach: Another Ghost/Pace meeting; here they discuss Anome--origins, ramifications, etc.

Merv: Trail a worker from Mercury's building in Uriah to the Tabor Park subway.


11/23

Crit 6.2.2:

Zion: Full Zion/Machine meeting with Gray, Pace, Niobe, Ghost. Niobe has a counter-demand: access to the Machine databases for access keys, bluepill information, surveillance scans, and police records (would have been useful against P-A, for instance). Gray stalls.

Mach: Mirror of the Gray/Pace/Niobe/Ghost meeting, although first Gray has you hang with some Zionites (as a Zionite) to get impressions on their take on the Machine request (not favorable). After the meeting, Gray says he's sent Zion's counter-demand up the chain, although he has his doubts about it.

Merv: With the Twins, confront Mercury. He says his men are just using the subway to get parts for his inventions, and says that you should be checking up on Thallia, seeing as the Blackwoods have been mugging everyone in Magog lately. Investigating, the player finds a message that seems to be about a meeting of Blackwoods in Magog, but it goes nowhere. Confronted again, Mercury says he'll help get real dirt on Thallia, and will set something up with Flood.


11/23-11/29

Required Events:

Zion: Niobe meets Brenda Utley. Brenda is now on the P-A board, and is well on the way to leading the company back into the public's good graces, and greater-than-ever profitability...and power.

Mach: Gray talks to the Architect about the Zion counter-demand. The Architect says no--it isn't as though Zion has much choice.

Merv: Mercury sets up "proof" of Thallia's involvement when suspicious Blackwood forces are rounded up in Magog.


11/30

Crit 6.2.3:

Zion: Shimada shows up, meets with Ghost. EPN says they can provide the Machine database information that Zion wants; all they want in return is safe passage for EPN hovercraft through Zion "tunnelspace." As proof, they get you access to what seems to be a Machine database, where information is retrieved that appears to show that the Sentinel task force on permanent standby for an invasion of Zion is now more than twice as big as the force that attacked Zion's dock at the end of the war.

Mach: Veil tells Pace that the Cypherites can get information from Zion's mainframe. They lead you to a computer center where you are able to access simulacra of Morpheus and Niobe, with dialog (voice clips) you haven't heard before, but which sound genuine: Morpheus talking about the Machines hiding something about Neo, and Niobe saying she'll be damned if she'll see Morpheus' work ruined because the Council is scared of the Machines, and congratulating someone on killing the Assassin. However, pesky EPNs put a damper on the fun. Gray feels the Cypherites may have access to useful data, but worries that their susceptibility to EPN attacks could make them a liability.

Merv: It takes some doing, but you manage to get the Twins' hands on Thallia, who promptly blames the whole thing on Mercury and Raini, saying that both subway lines out of Tabor lead to Raini's neighborhood of Apollyon, and adds that Mercury has never got over Raini, even though she dumped him a long time ago. Mercury calls Thallia a liar, and defends Raini vigorously. Flood is suspicious.


11/30-12/6

Required Events:

Zion: Ghost and Shimada meet and discuss or work on Zion/EPN cooperation.

Mach: Pace and Veil meet and discuss or work on Machine/CYPH cooperation.

Merv: While spying on Raini and/or the 5 Points gang, the players are ambushed by commandos.


12/7

Crit 6.2.4:

Zion: The player meets the Kid, who is going to provide Zion with access to another Machine database as a show of EPN's capabilities. However, Cypherites interfere, and apparently delete whatever information the database had contained.

Mach: The player meets Cryptos, who reveals that EPN claim to be using "Code Pulse Devices" to mine data out of the simulation. Cryptos gives the player a tip on where more info about these devices can be obtained, and, after thrashing a bunch of EPNs, the player manages to capture code that compiles into one of the devices. Gray confirms that the device is probably capable of getting EPN access to privileged Machine data. (Cryptos' exact description was: "it looks like a small, timed bomb. When it detonates, it sends out a pulse of customized code that permeates the locality, and sends back data to certain receivers. They seem to believe that they can use these devices to wrest specific data out of the simulation.")

Merv: Flood sends you after Raini, but her network's OS is so old that the hacks you'd use to trace her through it aren't compatible. He resorts to paying Nicky G. for information; Nicky is able to hook you up with the location of Raini's latest party. You and the Twins confront Raini, threatening her with telling the Effectuator where she is if she doesn't cooperate. Raini says that Thallia and Mercury have been "running distractions with the Blackwoods in Mara." Flood sends in the Effectuator anyway as punishment; Effy immediately starts hitting on her and telling her everything he's been up to since he last saw her--ie, since she finally ditched him the last time. Malphas declares that some torture of Mara Blackwoods should clear things up.


12/7-12/13

Required Events:

Zion: Niobe and the Kid, two exciting people who were made for each other, come face to face for some kind of meeting or operation.

Mach: Gray and Cryptos together for some kind of shindig.

Merv: Interrogate Blackwoods in Mara. This leads to the revelation that Anti M. is behind it.


12/14

Crit 6.2.5:

Zion: Ghost/Niobe/Gray/Pace meeting round 2 to discuss Zion's counter-demand, although the player has to rub out a few Cypherites sniffing about first. Gray says that Zion has no choice but to meet the Machine demand in order to preserve the Truce, as otherwise threats to the entire System will continue to spawn from Zion's unmonitored population. He points out that Zion would surely lose a renewed war against the Machines. Niobe says that Zion is keeping its part of the truce agreement, and they expect the Machines to do the same. This stonewalls Gray. Afterwards, Niobe says that while Zion won't get the information they wanted from the Machines, getting it from EPN might be too costly. Ghost says the Machines have apparently decided that Zion is a threat, and that while the Machines can probably be trusted to stick to the terms of the truce, "the honeymoon is over."

Mach: Mirror of Ghost/Niobe/Gray/Pace round 2. After the meeting, Cryptos calls for help against a large-scale EPN attack, giving the Machines information on where the EPN group can be found. The EPN group is wiped out by the Machines, and a Code Pulse Device is found, but not anything that would indicate the immenent attack Cryptos claimed. Gray asks the player to bring him the Device immediately, and the player finds Gray in a meeting with the Architect; as they enter the room packed with Agents, they hear the Architect ordering increased surveillance of Zionites in the Matrix, and covert infiltration of the caves by human operatives.

Merv: Anti M. proves difficult to locate. Flood has the Twins beat information out of Mercury; all Mercury can tell you is that his contact with Anti M. was only through Thallia. Thallia is confronted, and hooks you up with the location of Anti M.'s "good friend," Beryl. After threatening Beryl with revealing the affair she's having with Anti M. to her boyfriend, Argon, Beryl gives Anti M.'s location, on condition that M. won't be hurt. M. is found, and says it was strictly business; she was hired to organize Blackwood operations in Mara that would distract any operatives watching the area; she wasn't told why this was important. Who hired her? He called himself the General.


~~~~~~~~~

As usual, the dates above may be subject to change, but that's the schedule we're shooting for. The winter holiday event will probably hit somewhere in mid-December. Due to various real-world holiday happenings, 6.3 will not be out until mid-January.

These dates are approximate, with one week of push-back. Could end up getting pushed back more...grr...


1/18

6.3 Cinematic: Sati abducted by commandos; Seraph falls in river; Agents dump the captured cheat code vials in river, one gets hung up on pier


Crit 6.3.1:

Zion: With Blackwood help, fight to get to the Oracle's apartment. Niobe gets there as well. The Oracle refuses to leave. Niobe declares that Zion's primary objective is to keep the Oracle safe by guarding her apartment; secondary objective is getting Sati back.

Mach: The player tracks the signal of the helicopter that took Sati, finding a wiped computer, then an active computer guarded by commandos. The signals indicate that the helicopter is being controlled remotely. The player plants a virus Pace gave them in the computer, which re-routes the helicopter to a Machine pad, where the Machines inspect it. No trace of Sati, or indication of where she might have been taken, is found. Gray says that it is likely that she has been taken out of the main Matrix simulation, and that the simulation could suffer detrimental effects if they don't get her back soon.

Merv: The Merv wants to make sure Seraph is really gone, so the player goes off to kill Blackwoods and bluepills in Mara, while fighting off Zion and Machine operatives. Seraph does not come to their rescue, and Flood starts to think that maybe Seraph really is gone.

1/18-1/24

Required Events:

Zion: fending off Exile attacks in Mara

Mach: hunting through pvp archives (find commandos in one of them)

Merv: mock funeral for Seraph in hel club


1/25

Crit 6.3.2:

Zion: Fight through Mervs in Mara and find the Oracle alone in her apartment. She says the Merovingian has already been there, and left after he found out that she'll need more convincing before she sees things his way. Oracle suggests tracking where the commandos have taken Sati. Player follows reported path of the helicopter and finds commandos, who shut down a computer before the player can get to it.

Mach: The player is sent to interrogate Exiles who might know something about Sati's abduction. First Owl Bangheart, who is back after the Merv got him, but pretty much a vegetable. Then Sister Margaret, who says that she knew nothing about it, other than that she's heard the Element family was involved. Thallia says the General only contacted Anti M. directly. Anti M. says the General sent her money and instructions, both of which she was unable to trace. She thinks that he isn't in the Matrix at all.

Merv: The Merv decides to confront the Oracle. The player carves a path through Zionite defenders. The Merv reaches gets to her apartment, but the Oracle refuses to cooperate. The Merv threatens that she will pay for her stubbornness. It is not explicitly stated what he asked for, but there are a fair number of hints (the mission title is "They Can Only Be Given," for instance :p). Malphas says that the Merovingian is determined to get what he wants from her by whatever means he can, but that is it very difficult to outmaneuver someone who can tell the future.


1/25-1/31

Required Events:

Zion: tracking helicopter movements

Mach: break into and search Merv org area

Merv: super-sneaky spy mission: catch a glimpse of an Elite Commando


2/1

Crit 6.3.3:

Zion: By tracking helicopter patterns, the player locates several commando groups, and manages to plant a tracking virus in their computer before they can shut it down. This leads to another commando gathering point, where the player encounters an elite commando. The elite commando doesn't show up on the operator's screen at all (the operator thinks the player is making it up). Stuck, the player visits the Oracle, who says that the General is holed up, and that they need to come up with a way to lure him out.

Mach: The Machines decide they need to consult the Oracle about Sati. The Oracle says they have to look not for Sati, but for where she went. Gray says they should find out how the commandos are getting in and out of the Matrix. Hunting commandos, they find a shut down computer, then an active one, but it shuts down just as the player arrives, and then they get jumped by an elite commando who appears out of nowhere. Operator thinks the player is hallucinating. Gray says that the locations of these computers correlate with commando activity, and that they must have something to do with how commandos are getting in and out of the Matrix.

Merv: The Merv decides to get a "termination code" (that's what the Oracle called it in Enter the Matrix when telling Ghost/Niobe how Rama-Kandra betrayed her to the Merovingian in exchange for Sati's transport into the Matrix) for the Oracle's current shell. Malphas thinks the best place to start looking is certain Exiles who are known or suspected to have extra-Matrix contacts: the Bartender (has some kind of deal with Deus Ex Machina that established Club Noir as a "neutral zone"), Hypatia (has a large information library, plus rumored connections with the "Archivist Society"), and the Network (supposedly feeds media streams to the Architect). The player confronts them, but generally speaking they aren't interested in killing the Oracle, and don't know where to get a kill code for her anyway.


2/1-2/7

Required Events:

Zion: pressing the General's buttons

Mach: scan hot access point -- development of code to close access points

Merv: one last Exile contact attempt


2/8

Crit 6.3.4:

Zion: The player has attracted the General's attention enough to merit an ambush by elite commandos. The Oracle says that the General, an old military program, misses war, and took Sati to push the Matrix back into all-out war. She says that to get under his skin, you need to show him that it isn't working, and suggests having Niobe and Agent Gray have a nice big hug. That isn't...feasible, so an enthusiastic Pace and mortified Ghost are got together for a televised embrace as a backup plan. The player is supposed to meet Ghost afterwards, but this meeting is interrupted by an elite commando ambush, and a broadcast from the General, in hologram form, accusing Ghost of being a fool of the Machines, and warning him that the General is going to make him learn his lesson the hard way.

Mach: The player goes after the commando access points armed with a program that can shut them down. After shutting down a few, the player gets reinforcements from Pace, who casually remarks that the General has been trouble ever since he wouldn't stop attacking Zion's dock at the end of the war. They had to remove him from command, and gave him another one afterwards, but he took his Sentinels into Exile, and this was before they were equipped with override triggers, so he's been able to use them for his own purposes. The player shuts down another access point, and Gray says that this will make it harder for the General to move his forces around inside the Matrix.

Merv: The Merv decides to try making a deal with the General for an Oracle kill code, since the General seems to get around pretty well, and obviously isn't friends with the Oracle. The Merv also says that he can give the General just what the General needs, without saying exactly what that is. The player goes after commandos, and finds some shut down computers (access points), as well as a nasty elite commando ambush, which Flood accuses the player of having made up as an excuse.


2/8-2/14

Required Events:

Zion: the General and Elite Commandos picking off operatives defending the Oracle

Mach: track Elite Commando access point - scan - development of access point hack

Merv: Elite Commandos, El Generale--not listening yet


2/15

Crit 6.3.5:

Zion: The General attacks the Oracle's apartment and, in a hologram broadcast, wonders if she's told them about him yet, and says that he's going to put an end to the lies of the Matrix. Niobe is among the Zionites rushing to rescue the Oracle, and the General then ambushes her, his hologram broadcast accusing her of betraying him to the Machines, and tauntingly telling her to jack out before the System crashes, so that he can hunt her through the tunnels "again." The player then gets lured into a third hologram broadcast addressed to them, where the General reveals that he led the Sentinal attack on Zion at the end of the war, that the Machines stripped him of his command when he refused to accept the truce, and that he's been trying to restart the war ever since. Niobe says he's due for another ***-kicking, and the Oracle warns that it's going to be messy, and that he won't give up Sati willingly.

Mach: The player plants a special tracking virus in a commando access point. After some help from the player in stopping commandos who are trying to purge the virus, the virus succeeds in locating the General's Sentinel staging ground on the Earth's surface. The player also retrieves some data about the staging area's code name and strength level. The Machines dispatch an auxiliary contingent of the Sentinels watching Zion to attack the General's base, mentioning that the Sentinels will resume pursuit of terrorist hovercraft after the Exile is taken care of. There are also some reports from Machine spies in Zion, whose infiltration is proceeding apace, except that they're having trouble finding out where a lot of Zion heavy machinery has been going recently, and that they're finding that many freeborn Zionites refuse to trust anyone with jacks (or is it plugs? oh well).

Merv: The Merovingian decides to get the General's attention by sending Persephone to one of the access points, knowing that the General watches these systems, and that he has in the past had Persephone under surveillance (that old Live Event post I did with one of the General's probes following Persephone into the Hel Club before it lost its signal). Persephone acts indignant in being used in this way, but eventually decides to cooperate because she thinks the General may have his uses. The player meets Persephone and the Twins at an access point. An elite commando appears, and Persephone hands the player a letter to give to the commando. Shortly thereafter, the General via hologram broadcast says that a deal may be possible (again without saying exactly what was offered); he'll get back to the Merv, and in the mean time declares a cease-fire with the Merovingian's Exiles. Flood is indignant at being kept waiting.

3/8

7.1 Cinematic: Seraph climbs out of the river, thrashes and "exorcises" a redpill. He tells the two other redpills with her that they need not fear him, but that there are others "like her" who should.

World: The weather now has a distinct yellow/orange cast to it, with fast-moving clouds and periods of relatively heavy rain.

Crit 7.1.1:

Zion: Trying to find Seraph, the player comes across a string of comatose bluepill and redpill bodies, and jumpy police (SWAT) on the case. Bluepill witnesses give vague descriptions of the attacker: "kung-fu outfit," "in white," "fled at high speed," "slimy," "hippy glasses," "strange hand motions," and reveal some characteristics about one of the victims (quiet, calm). Oracle is consulted and says that Seraph is key to getting Sati back, and that he's doing what he's doing (attacking these bluepills and redpills, she presumably means) for a reason.

Mach: Gray says that to stop the General and rescue Sati, they'll need a way to detect the General's Elite Commandos. The Machines have stored a copy of the holographic broadcast the General sent to Ghost (in 6.3's Zion mission "Steely Embrace"); he says that the broadcast came from outside the Matrix, probably from the General's base, "Stalingrad," and that although the Machines know its physical location, they want to find its network address. The player locates a commando access point, and plants "a variant of the Procurator virus," which obtains Stalingrad's network address. At the debrief with Pace, she demonstrates that the Machines can alter the General's recorded holographic broadcast, and says that they can now use the General's network, and his connection to his base, against him. A hackable computer has a report, in the same format as previous spy reports from Zion, about Davot's ship that was hijacked by Veil and sent to ram the Zion dock: Zion disabled it with another ship's EMP, but its impact with the tunnel wall near Zion, and its own EMP going off, short-circuited some of the dock's outlying system for a while, although there were no casualties.

Merv: Malphas and the Effectuator meet with a two-way holographic broadcast from the General, who gives them the network address of some of his men in need of transport. The player goes to activate the terminal to which the Effectuator will route the commandos, but Machines interfere. A backup terminal is used successfully, and a platoon of commandos appear. At a debrief, the General's hologram says the transport was satisfactory. Malphas says that the General will soon have to start fulfilling his side of the deal.


3/8-3/14

Required Events:

Zion: Chasing Seraph--players may catch up to him briefly, but he will not stop to interact with them.

Mach: Now that the Machines know the network address of Stalingrad, they force a transmission to the General in the Real, possibly ordering him to surrender; this irks the General, who replies in a 2-way holographic broadcast, threatening Gray with the destruction of the Machine Sentinel fleet in the Real.

Merv: The Merv meets with the General, who tells the Frenchman that to make an Oracle kill-code, they will first need a cheat code vial. The General gives the Mervs a tracking code that can locate cheat codes.


3/15

Crit 7.1.2:

Zion: The player researches a redpill who Seraph attacked: they are suffering from amnesia that starts at the same time in their past as an unexplained incident that resulted in a change in their behavior (according to acquaintances), and goes up to the point where they were attacked by Seraph. Their government file contains no record of the incident. Also, there is a reference to "Danielle Wright" by a bluepill, in connection with a new network interface system a bluepill company is working on. (It is not mentioned in the mission, but this is the "Wright" of the "Wright Research" company in Downtown, a brilliant ex-Zionite scientist who lost faith in Commander Lock's vision, and left to begin a business career in the Matrix, working with Silver, but still generally sympathetic toward Zion operatives. She is the inventor of the EJP. Wright's own dream is humans taking over the Matrix from the Machines.)

Mach: Pace explains that since they've mastered the commando network, they can now find access points just by scanning for them from any point on the network. The player does this to find an access point, and thus an Elite Commando. Along the way, they encounter a holographic transmission from the General to his men, telling them to hurry up: the Machines are shutting down too many "lines." Also, a Machine computer has some cryptic data about the Sentinel force sent against the General's base--basically that they haven't encountered any hostile units, and are slightly ahead of the projected schedule as they home in on "Stalingrad." A commando computer shows that Stalingrad has beefed up its defensive capabilities a bit since 6.3. Data is extracted from the Elite Commando; Pace says it will be used to help develop a code to disrupt their stealth function.

Merv: The tracking code has led to the Uriah wharf, where rumor has it that the Machines lost a cheat code vial while disposing of them in the Aqueduct. The player is sent in to track it down. After fruitlessly questioning bluepill workers, they visit Mercury, who says if anyone would know, it'd be the local gang, the Choppers. The Chopper leader Jack the Hack, after the player routs a few of this boys, says that the only thing he can think of is that there used to be a bluepill who hung out at the edge of the pier on his lunch breaks, but was recently seen running off suddenly, and hasn't been back. He gives a description of the guy, which Flood checks against their data, coming up with a name, Jason Hernandez. Visiting his nearby office, you find out that Jason Hernandez hasn't been at work in a few weeks, that he has tended to hang out with a club/casino crowd, and that he has sometimes gone to visit relatives in the International District.


3/15-3/21

Required Events:

Zion: Contact is made with Seraph, who this time is willing to talk, briefly, saying that a veil has been lifted from his eyes. (Also this week, there is a widely seen but not officially recorded Morpheus appearance in richland that I'll be doing solo.)

Mach: Use the "stealth disruptor" code the Machines have developed (this is all role-play, rather than an actual game tool/weapon) to capture an Elite Commando.

Merv: Locate Jason Hernandez, using his co-workers' clues from the 7.1.2 crit if desired. The cheat code vial is obtained from him.


3/22

Crit 7.1.3:

Zion: The player researches more Seraph victims, a bluepill and two redpills, finding that they all have similar memory gaps beginning with an unspecified behavior-changing incident in their past. The behavior was either aloof, cold, or somewhat confused; one requested extended sick leave in Zion. Another remembers having seen an Agent watching them as they patrolled back alleys for Slashers, one of their last memories before they awoke from Seraph's attack. The Oracle says Seraph is close to reaching his goal, but that it won't work out like he thinks it will. The Oracle's Zion guards speculate about the Morpheus sightings.

Mach: The player helps test the scanning routine developed to detect stealthed Elite Commandos. Gray explains that the scan requires a significant amount of power, so they can't run it all the time. After some tweaks and adjustments (the operator gets frustrated with the bugs in the Machine routine), the kinks are worked out, and the routine succeeds in allowing the operator to see the Elite Commandos on his screen. Along the way, the player comes across a holographic message from the General to his officer, telling the officer that the Machines may have a way to detect him, and that he should abort "the operation" immediately. Pace says that the "Morpheus" reported obviously can't be the dead Zion captain, but that they are looking into it very carefully.

Merv: The player uses Elite Commando assistance to foil Machine efforts to capture the cheat code vial from Merovingian labs, where it is under analysis. Malphas mentions that he thinks the Elite Commandos are capable of speech, but that baffle mechanisms built into their masks confine the sound of their voice to special closed-frequency transmitters. Various NPCs mention rumors of Machines working to defeat Commando stealth, Morpheus's possible return generating talk in the underworld, and Seraph back but not quite himself. Analysis of the cheat code shows that it is mutated even more than previous cheat code samples, and must be used quickly; it has been put in a "secure archive" for now. One of the Twins says that they haven't seen Seraph since he lost his wings, and that they're due for a "rematch." The General, in the flesh rather than by hologram, meets the Merovingian and says that they will need a program capable of crafting a kill code with the captured cheat code. This program is named The Apothecary, and the General does not know their current whereabouts.


3/22-3/28

Required Events:

Zion: Seraph is encountered again, a little more talkative. He doesn't explain what he's doing, but says that he's almost done. If the Mach event has already occurred, players could help him attack some overwritten blues/reds; otherwise, they might try to stop him, assuming that they can't be sure yet that he's attacking these people for a really good reason.

Mach: Cryptos, while out on some sort of field operation with the Cypherites, is found by Seraph, who attacks him, then performs an odd "exorcism" (Swirling Ki Summon?), crumpling Cryptos to the ground and ending the fight. Cryptos' RSI changes: his glasses, necklace, and mask are torn off, his cassock darkened, and his eyes blackened, with a golden code glaze. Seraph leaps away. Cryptos is left unable to walk, extremely disoriented, and apparently blind. He tries to talk, speaking haltingly but in his usual warm manner, before Machine error messages come out of his mouth. It is clear that a Machine program, now damaged by Seraph, has been in control of him. Veil is shocked and disgusted, and has him forcibly jacked out.

Merv: The General briefs operatives: The Apothecary was used by Rama-Kandra when he needed a kill-code for the Oracle previously. The General directs them to the White Lotus Hotel dungeon, where they are given an old code trace of The Apothecary by the Spinnerettes leader, the Black Widow (live admin version, non-hostile).


3/29

Crit 7.1.4:

Zion: Niobe is alarmed about Cryptos--and Seraph's other victims--being Machine sleeper agents, and orders a complete security audit for Zion. The player is called to assist against a widespread commando attack, but then the General boasts to them in a holographic recording that it was just a diversion. The Oracle is under attack in Mara. The player hurries there, and finds her, Seraph, and a bunch of dead commandos. Seraph explains that after climbing out of the Aqueduct, he found that he could see Machine programs in the minds of humans, and felt he had to remove them; now he is finished, and will protect the Oracle. The Oracle says Seraph will be all right.

Mach: Gray explains that Cryptos was overwritten years ago by a Machine program, whose purpose was to form a group that would help stem the increased tide of redpill awakenings made possible for Zion by the Truce. This group became known as the Cypherites. Pace and the player meet with Veil, trying to make sure that, in Cryptos' absence, the volatile Cypherite controller will continue to direct the organization in a way acceptable to the Machines. The player's operator is so upset over the revelation about the Cypherites that he can hardly form coherent sentences. At the meeting, Pace confides to the player that she isn't getting anywhere with Veil, and some of the Cypherites, jumping to the conclusion that she's conspiring to wipe them out, suddenly attack. Veil keeps her cool, saying simply, and very bitter-sweetly, that she sees how things are now; she then more or less dismisses the player and Pace. Gray says that as long as Veil stays within certain bounds, it's more efficient to leave her in charge than to try to replace her. The player is called away to quell a sudden Elite Commando attack. The operator badgers Gray into running the scan routine, and more Elite Commandos are found, with Merovingian Exiles. Gray says that the Commandos may have had Merovingian assistance in getting into the Matrix.

Merv: The code trace leads to Jade Moon gang members. Flood sends the player to the Jade Moon gang's overseer, Dame White. The Dame says that it's been "ages" since she saw The Apothecary, and that the player will have to ask Lo Ruhamah, in the Barrens. (Lo Ruhamah is the Pandora's Box collector stationed in the Abandoned Subway in Rogers Way; in the fourth box arc, she helps the player track down the Antediluvian, although it appears that she herself may have done some work for him.) The Dame hints that she, the Black Widow, The Apothecary, and Persephone were associates of some kind in the Dame's younger days. Flood sends the player to Persephone, who hands The Apothecary's code trace to the player, saying that a) Dame White "did what I used to do for humans in the pods," and is jealous of Persephone's relative youth and success, and b) Lo Ruhamah is an ancient, exiled monitoring program, still trying to carry out her old function, clinging to gathered information. The player takes the code trace to the south Barrens. There is a small puzzle here; when solved, the code trace is taken, and Lo Ruhamah appears, saying that The Apothecary is still used by the Machines, and that getting them from the Machine mainframes to the Matrix will require the Trainman, who "has retreated deeper into seclusion."


3/29-4/4

Required Events:

Zion: Morpheus appears in Richland and delivers a cryptic message to whoever is around to hear it--something about Neo being alive and held captive by the Machines; he does not move, or otherwise interact with anyone, and quickly jacks out after delivering the message.

Mach: The Machines attack commandos, but the attack is disrupted by Merovingians.

Merv: The Trainman, who does not actually appear in this event, is traced to the Abandoned Subway in Rogers Way, where he evidently has an interface with his private subway construct. Notice is left that the Merovingian requires his immediate presence. Tracing the Trainman should involve some sort of puzzle, ideally utilizing the subway system somehow.


4/5

Crit 7.1.5:

Zion: Seraph is found fighting Elite Commandos, and says that his odd new (temporary) vision allows him to sense the stealthed soldiers, and that the Oracle has told him he must pursue them, to rescue Sati. The operator gets a mysterious golden code beacon directing the player to more commandos--this is from Seraph, although that isn't stated conclusively in the mission. The beacon fades after the commandos are defeated, and the player goes to a scheduled meeting with Agent Pace. In a pre-meeting briefing, Ghost says that scans of the "Morpheus" RSI have been inconclusive--they can't tell where it's coming from, but it certainly isn't a regular redpill signal; there is a lot of corrupt data. Pace very briefly dismisses the idea that either Morpheus or Neo are alive and being held by the Machines, and says that the overwriting of humans was done to ensure the stability and safety of the System, and was not prohibited by the Truce. Tyndall worries that this explanation isn't going to sit well with many in Zion.

Mach: The Machines realize that they now have to move against the Merovingian. Data captured from a combined Merv/Commando force indicates activity at the Abandoned Subway in Rogers Way. In Barrens, the player finds Mervs, Elite Commandos, and Beirn, who snidely remarks that "he" has already reached the Lucero subway. Gray orders the player to retreat, saying Agents are being called in to deal with the ex-Unlimit officer. At a debrief, the player is told that: 1) the General is the main target, not the Merv, 2) Beirn was preserved by and now works for the Merovingian, and 3) although rumors of the Trainman have persisted, he has not been sighted since the beginning of the Truce; if he is returning to active duty, the Merv may be planning a critical program transfer. A Machine computer shows that their Sentinel force is closing in on Stalingrad. Also, a spy report from Zion says that the security review ordered by Zion's commanders prevents further investigation for the time being.

Merv: Malphas discloses that the Trainman, always paranoid and egomaniacal, retreated to his private subway construct when the Truce was made. The Merv got "his assistance in the Assassin affair," but after that, the Trainman vanished altogether. Malphas theorizes that the Trainman resents having been forced to release Neo when he had him captive in his subway station, and that the Trainman sees the Truce as evil, because he has a deep-seated fear that humans will one day destroy the Matrix. The Trainman emerges from the Abandoned Subway, but his signal is immediately lost as a result of heavy Machine scan activity. Flood mentions that the Machines can now scan for Elite Commandos, and packs the player off to south Barrens, where they find a wounded but still sassy Beirn in a room with a couple dead Agents; this scene takes place just after the Beirn encounter in the Machine crit. Beirn says the Trainman made it out through the Lucero subway, and the operator has Flood scan the rest of the city for him. He's found hiding among dead Crossbones in Moriah, and angrily demands to see the Merovingian immediately. You catch up to Malphas, the Merv, and Ookami, with the Trainman in a secure room next door. Malphas says that the Trainman is more unstable than ever, and will have to be watched carefully. Malphas also describes Seraph's encounter with Cryptos. The Merv congratulates the operative, then rants about the persistence of Morpheus rumors. Ookami says that the Trainman is afraid, and can't be trusted. The Trainman is annoyed at the player nosing after him, says he knows what he's needed for, shows paranoia about the possibility of capture by the Machines, and curses the Merovingian for breaking their "deal" in which "the fly man was supposed to be the last."

4/19

7.2 Cinematic: Heavy firepower destroys the initial wave of Machine Sentinels reaching the General's "Stalingrad" base.

World: The sky goes from a yellow/orange to more of a red.

Crit 7.2.1:

Zion: Ghost tells the player to give Seraph whatever assistance they can in order to locate Sati. Meet Seraph and the Oracle, then go commando hunting with Seraph. However, he finds that the "impression" of Sati he can read from them indicates that they have not been near her recently. A Zion guard hints at "big stuff going on back home."

Mach: The player fights off commandos, runs a search on one of their terminals, gets reinforcements from Pace, then whups commandos defending a command terminal and runs an "override script" giving the Machines control over the General's helicopter fleet. Gray says that for the time being it will be more efficient to leave them following their regular movement patterns, but no longer transporting things for the General. He invites the player to back him up at a meeting with Veil, where he wants to direct her to follow System requirements, but she stalls, saying she'll need time to get the other Cypherites to cooperate. Afterwards, Gray says that although the Cyphs have some conveniently placed spies, the security alert in Zion, and Veil's reluctance to share information, have reduced the info the Machines are getting from them to a mere trickle, and that they may have to consider "liquidating our investment in the group" if the situation can't be improved.

Merv: Malphas says that although difficulties arose between them, the Apothecary still owes Persephone a favor. The player gets a letter calling in said favor from Persephone, who while handing it over makes it clear that the favor is now owed her by her husband. The player delivers the letter to a dismissive Trainman, then confirms delivery with the Merv, who chuckles about Persephone's manipulations, and about the Apothecary's lack of a sense of humor.


4/19-4/25

Required Events:

Zion: Morpheus encountered; speaks somewhat more at length and excitedly about recovering Neo, etc

Mach: recuperating Cryptos encountered: can see only code, bitter against the Machines

Merv: Trainman brings the Apothecary into the Matrix, probably with Machines in hot pursuit


4/26

Crit 7.2.2:

Zion: Seraph wants to try commando hunting again. After thrashing a batch of them, he senses something nearby. Tyndall confirms Nabonidus beacon signal activity in the area. The player follows Seraph's gold code signal and finds a static-covered "Morpheus Signal" that looks like Morpheus, and says a couple things about returning Neo to Zion. Tyndall says that they've finally been able to get a clear reading, and should be able to pinpoint the signal quickly whenever it reappears.

Mach: Again beating up commandos and exploiting their network, this time with the aim of hacking the closed radio channels the Elite Commandos rely upon for communication (via muffled speakers in their masks). A perky backup-supplying Pace mentions that although the Cypherite situation hasn't improved, it hasn't gotten worse, either, and that she thinks they'll work things out. The Machines execute their Elite Commando communication disruption routine, and the player finds a bunch of them who don't support each other effectively, and are easily stomped. Gray disses the General's network security.

Merv: A fascinated Flood introduces the player to the Apothecary, who bluntly demands a sample of the target's code. The operator suspects that the Apothecary will kill them all. Malphas says that fortunately the General has Sati, who the Oracle has spent years stuffing with handcrafted code in the form of cookies, for reasons unknown. and that they can get a code sample from her. The General says this has to be done quickly, and that his own men will handle the code extraction. They bar the player from seeing Sati, although it's possible that some may catch a glimpse of her two rooms away, depending on mission area configuration. A blood-drinker says that they won't tolerate the "Ward" remaining in the General's grip much longer. The player delivers the extracted code to the Apothecary. Malphas, supervising, admires the Apothecary's expertise and artistry, suggesting that the player make a study of the "Ars Moriendi." Flood comes close to waxing poetic over her.


4/26-5/2

Required Events:

Zion: Discussion with the Oracle and Seraph about life, the Matrix, and Sati

Mach: hacking the General's hologram

Merv: Merv wants to test preliminary Oracle kill-code concoction; General (hologram) suggests Agent Pace as target; player hits Pace with Oracle kill-code derivative; Pace collapses, is removed by Gray


5/3

Crit 7.2.3:

Zion: Seraph has sensed Sati's recent appearance in the city. He and the player follow his perception of her signal through a bunch of Elite Commandos to a Merovingian hideout, but the path ends there. The operator is shocked at one of the Mervs mentioning a kill-code hit on Pace, looks into it, and says that it didn't kill her, but put her "out of commission." Tyndall explains that since Seraph has come back, the Oracle has allowed Zion to keep her under guard at locations outside of Mara, since the Debir apartment had become too hot a target. Consulted, the Oracle says that they'll need Sati back in the Matrix in order to rescue her, and that the Machines will have a hand in forcing the General back into the simulation.

Mach: Gray says that an analysis of the code used in the attack on Pace corresponds to code found in the cookies she sometimes gives to redpills, and sends the player to gank a Merv and steal their cookie. Lab techs babble about the sophistication of the code in the cookies. One mentions that Pace is an experimental program, and that the source of some of her core routines is highly classified. Gray says the code also bears the hallmarks of the Apothecary, a kill-code manufacturer recently stolen by the Merv. He sends you to question Dame White, known to have some past history with Persephone and the Apothecary; the Apothecary was exiled once too, but the Machines took her back. The Dame (hm I forgot to include her usual two weird bodyguards, oh well, maybe they're off playing chess) drops a very dense bit of dialogue, including: 1) Persephone was her apprentice, 2) emotions were involved in their job at the pods, 3) contrary to regulations, outsiders sometimes got involved with the humans she worked with, leading to illicit affairs, love triangles, revenge, and this led to her and Persephone "hooking up" with the Apothecary. Gray says this suggests that the Apothecary owes Persephone a business favor. Lab completes analysis, and finds that the code used in the Pace attack was an Oracle kill-code made by the Apothecary. The convalescent Pace insists on seeing the player, saying she just wanted to see their face... And that she is recovering speedily, that they'll soon "have to" let her resume "field duties," that it will be good to get back to work, and that she'll be fine--"better than ever." Gray says that they must consider shifting their offensive focus toward the Merovingian.

Merv: The Apothecary complains that the cheat code is old, and that she needs an injection of "fresh" code to bring it up to par. The operator thinks she's definitely going to kill them all. The player has to beat off some Machines who are getting too close to her. Flood sends them to check on Beirn, who's supposed to be giving the Apothecary a transfusion of his cheat-code-laced blood. The player arrives in the middle of a bitter spat between the Apothecary and Persephone, who claims the Apothecary is delaying. Beirn say he thinks he could take her if he had to, but just then Machines burst in; Beirn and the Apothecary "kill" the nearest ones, the player takes out the rest, and comes back to find the Apothecary agreeing to fulfill her obligation "and nothing more," and Persephone vowing to talk to her husband about this. The Merovingian finds the spat regrettable, but says he thinks the situation can still be resolved to his satisfaction, so long as the Apothecary completes her work. "And then..."


5/3-5/9

Required Events:

Zion: Morpheus appearance, makes syntax error (repeats same line four times in a row)

Mach: Gray, leading operatives against commandos, encounters Seraph; slightly frosty convo between the two as Sati's safety discussed

Merv: Spying on Agent Pace; behavioral changes observed and reported: empathic in a manipulative, aggressive way


5/10

Crit 7.2.4:

Zion: It's commando hunting with Seraph, who has again detected Sati's presence in the Matrix. He and the player come across a non-hostile commando. He passes you a thank-you letter (to him) from Sati. Seraph leads to the letter's origin point, filled with commandos, but Sati's signal has again disappeared (there is a "ERROR/TRM" computer in the area, which is what the General's deactivated access points say). Just then, Pace arrives, saying she was investigating a report of commandos in the area, congratulates the operative on their "efficiency," and cozily remarks that it is "much safer when we cooperate." Ghost theorizes that the General's ranks may not be as united in his support as had been assumed. The operator uploads a copy of Sati's "Thank you" letter to the player at the end of the mission (can be traded).

Mach: Gray sends the player to terminate the Apothecary, who proves elusive, leaving a trail of Machine bodies and deactivated commando access points in her wake. Gray explains that she can terminate a "lower-level RSI" with a movement of her hand, although this doesn't usually result in permanent deletion. Pace shows some impatience in her usual backup-providing role, saying she wishes she could go eliminate the Merv forces with the player. An Agent reminds the player that Morpheus was confirmed terminated long ago. Although the Apothecary gets away through the General's network, the player confiscates the remains of the cheat code vial she'd been using to make the kill-code. Gray says that they need to shut down the General's network for good. He also says that Seraph's insistence on rescuing Sati before the General is dealt with shows that his logic routines may still be impaired by his dunking. Pace says that if she'd been there, the "traitor" (Apothecary) wouldn't have got away.

Merv: The Apothecary, found hip-deep in dead Mervs and Machines, insists on adequate security before she can finish her work. The General delivers a unit of commandos for the purpose, saying he can only spare them for a brief while. Flood decides to throw the commandos into the face of the growing Machine offensive to buy some time; the player wades through dead and dying Machines and commandos, searching for the misplaced cheat code vial, but has to give up the search when the Apothecary is again attacked. Again found in the midst of dead Mervs and Machs, the Apothecary says she's finished her part of the kill-code, that the Merovingian clearly can't protect her, and that she wants to be transported out of the simulation immediately, as is her right based on the contract she signed with the Merovingian. Flood regrets the loss of "the only professional I've had the pleasure of working with recently."


5/10-5/16

Required Events:

Zion: Morpheus RSI/beacon signal has become highly erratic; traced to relay point in Real in need of maintenance; traced from relay point back to origin point in Matrix--ie simulated

Mach: Machines use data captured from progress in Stalingrad to track down General's primary Matrix command center; big battle; more data captured; General hologram orders commando retreat

Merv: Merv sends Apothecary off under commando escort "to Trainman," tips off Machines; Apothecary deleted in battle by either Machines or Mervs


5/17

Crit 7.2.5:

Zion: The player joins Seraph as he has located "Sati." She stands very stiffly, then deforms into a bizarre noodle-limbed creature: Sati's child body stretched to the size of an adult skeleton. Seraph says it's a trick by the General, but that the vision granted by the codes the General stole from the Machines will be the General's own undoing. The General's hologram appears and taunts the player. The player follows Seraph to a building filled with the bizarre Sati clones, where, while the player puts the others out of their misery, Seraph manages to befriend one. This one leads the player to a computer with data on it. Commandos try to interfere, but the player gets the data, which turns out to be Sati herself, and hands the disc to Seraph, who takes it/her back to the Oracle. The Oracle says that Sati will be just fine, and will have the weather back to normal in a jiff. Niobe, also there, says that it's time to find out who's behind the simulated Morpheus.

Mach: The player plops a virus into a commando mainframe, destroying the General's network and shutting up a pesky static-ridden holographic broadcast from him that popped up at the last second. A computer in the area shows Stalingrad's defenses at very low capacity. After this success, Gray sends the player after Pace, who undertook a meeting with Veil on her own initiative. The player arrives just as the two women are putting the final touches on an agreement whereby the Cypherites will resume surveillance in Zion for the Machines, in return for payment. Machine/Cyph bystanders explain that a dead Cypherite there had got a little too fresh with Pace. Gray is pleased that Pace's "specialized liaison programming" has helped her find a solution to the Cypherite issue. He also warns that Zion is on edge and must be handled carefully, that the General is on the verge of absolute defeat, and that further action against the Merv will be necessary. Pace preens herself on her coup, saying she thinks the Cypherites can be very useful as long as the right approach is taken. A Machine computer has a message from the Sentinel force, saying they're about to undertake a strategy designed to exhaust the enemy's resources; another Machine computer has a brief spy report from Zion, saying that it's still tough to get intel due to the security revamp, but that movement of men and material out of Zion may be accelerating.

Merv: The General requests several "time-sensitive" troop transfers from the Merovingian. The operator theorizes that Flood had a crush on the Apothecary. The player checks over the troops in the city, helping them beat off a Machine attack so that they'll be set for transport. Flood then sends the player to hurry the Trainman and the Effectuator along; the operator is puzzled about the Trainman's involvement, since he handles transport between the Matrix and the Machine mainframes. The Trainman says he knows places in the Machine mainframes the Machines themselves don't know about. The Effectuator thinks the Trainman's a little weird, but that they'll have the commandos "safely stowed" where the Machines can't get them, while telling the General that the Machines deleted them. The Twins argue about who's behind "Morpheus": the Machines, or EPN. The Merv complains about his wife not being satisfied even after he arranged for the Apothecary's disposal, and says that the General will learn an important lesson about war, but not just yet, as his ignorance will still be useful for a little while. Flood confirms that the kill-code has been completed by the Merovingian's technicians.

5/31

7.3 Cinematic: Overwhelming waves of Machine Sentinels destroy the General's squiddies and rip apart his Stalingrad base. The camera pulls back to show the scene displayed on a video screen, and the back of a man's head in silhouette watching it, as a tiny bug-like robot zips past. The General and his remaining commandos flee through the sewers of the Matrix with Agents in pursuit.

World: The weather returns to normal. The General's helicopters are replaced by news choppers, and his commandos no longer appear as enemies in standard Zion and Machine missions.

Crit 7.3.1:

Zion: Zion tracks the "Morpheus Signal" RSI broadcast of Morpheus again, and runs a trace through it to try to find its source. The trace leads through a bluepill office to a mysterious computer room where the player finds a blank disk, a computer with Morpheus quotes from some of his old speeches (that were chopped up into the speeches the broadcast RSI has given), and a recently used computer. Cell samples are scanned from dead skin cells in the keyboard, in the hopes that this will help track his RSI.

Mach: The player is sent to delete one of the few remaining commando units. A computer in the area has a message to the General, giving orders to the commandos to hold their ground as part of a delaying action. Scans detect Merovingian programs along the General's projected escape path through the city. The player is ordered to eliminate all but one. The player hauls him off to Agent Pace, who "will handle data extraction." Pace says it "should not be overly...difficult," and send the player to pick up some reinforcements while she gets down to business. A computer in the area has a report from the Sentinel strike force confirming destruction of Stalingrad, saying that losses were 36.03% higher than projected, and "Pending Task: Elimination of terrorist hovercraft." Pace comes through with the General's coordinates, the player gets there, and fights through some Mervs to a computer-secured door with unusual code. They get an access code from the guards and use it, but the operator reports "the whole area just blinked," and the computer readout resets, although the door is now unlocked. The player enters and finds a confused bluepill thanking them for fixing the jammed bolt, and then getting confused and demanding to know where their secretary is. The operator says that the Mervs "changed something" and that the door is now just a normal door, and wherever it used to go, it isn't going now. Gray says that it seems the General has gained access to the Merovingian's "back door" system, to which they will have to gain access.

Merv: The player meets up with the General, who asks them to take some commandos and meet him at a rendezvous. Flood has you get the commandos deleted as an "accident," because they're too hot to try hiding from the Machines just now. Then you catch back up to the General, being attacked by Machines, and tell him the Merv wants to talk. The Merv tells the General that the only way he can ensure his safety is to get him out of the Matrix, and to a hiding spot near the surface in the Real. The General agrees to go along with it, saying that although it's risky, the Machines probably won't expect it.


5/31-6/6

Required Events:

Zion: the actual "Morpheus" simulacrum--not a broadcast--is found and escapes, but not before Zion obtains a full scan of the RSI

Mach: working on hacking "chateau" door when general reappears, pursued to train

Merv: general may take some convincing, but has to agree to give Merv the program for converting sentinels between Matrix and the Real; program is retrieved from one of his few remaining data repositories just before it is destroyed by Machines


6/7

Crit 7.3.2:

Zion: Recent readings of the RSI signature are pursued. The player finds an odd chunk of corrupt binary code, and a large amount of data from a database. The corrupt bytes are back-traced to a deactivated and abandoned commando access point. The operator wonders why the Machines didn't remove that one. Niobe is very suspicious of a connection between the Morpheus RSI and the General, and says that if the General is behind it, it should be found and disabled. Initial analysis of the database information indicates it is an insurance claims database (ie red herring). It isn't mentioned in the mission, but the corrupt chunk of binary code contains the bits seen in the early Morpheus broadcasts' character details. The binary itself is garbage, and I don't think decodes into anything (though I could be in trouble if it does :p).

Mach: Armed with three viruses from Pace, the player sets off to stick them in the "hacked switch hubs" near train stations through which the Trainman controls his network. At the Tabor hub, the player finds some annoying Demon Army members, one of whom initially sounds like he knows something, but goes hostile once taken outside, claiming he's lured the player into an attack by his "brethren." Elite Commandos guard the Camon hub. 5 Points partiers cavort around the Apollyon hub, saying the Trainman lets them chill there. The implanted viral routines begin returning data mapping the Trainman's network. Gray says that with this information, they should be able to intercept the General if he tries to make a break for it.

Merv: Flood doesn't like the name "The Real," and says "The Sludge-Pit" would be more accurate, for instance. He sends the player to collect some commandos and take them to the Trainman. They're dropped off with the cranky Trainman, and the player is sent off to bring the General himself in. The General says he'll go, since he needs to make sure the Trainman has the transfer program configured correctly anyway, but that they'd better take separate routes. He gives the player a commando, saying "maybe you can draw some of them off." Flood doesn't care what you do with the commando, and tells you just to get over to the Trainman. At the Trainman's pad, attacking Machines have to be beaten off, and then the General refuses to leave the Matrix, saying that he has some "unfinished business" that "won't take long." The Trainman says the General is endangering them all. Machines ambush the player outdoors throughout this mission.


6/7-6/13

Required Events:

Zion: (before Mach event) morph sim--talks on its own in semi-broken Morpheus-like speech patterns; gen appears and yells at it, leaves in a huff; sim disappears

Mach: general drags feet at station with trainman, caught in Machine attack, shoved into train by trainman, trainman flees machines on foot, horribly wounded, stumbles through door into white room (or other train station that might sort of look like his construct? hm) where he collapses, apparently lifeless

Merv: merv transfers oracle kill-code through a zion network

6/14

Crit 7.3.3:

Zion: The routing information of the kill-code shuttled through Zion's network was deleted (inside sabotage), but their recent security revamp keeps high level backups of admin access logs, which preserved the network address of the saboteur's system. The location is populated by Zion operatives, who seem friendly and cooperative. One happens to mention that they haven't seen {random name x} around lately. Tyndall checks on {x} and finds he's using an outside communication relay, which is against regulations. The player finds {x} and works their way to the terminal {x} is using to host the comm relay, finding a log on it of the "friendly" Zionites at the previous location reporting to {x} that the player is on his case. The Zionites in the area go hostile. The player defeats them, and they're arrested on their ships. Their full chat log is analyzed and shows that they didn't know who was on the receiving end of the kill-code, except that it was supposed to be an undercover Merv op on the Oracle's Zion security detail. The player checks on the Oracle and scans her current guards, who check out okay. The Oracle says she hasn't noticed anything amiss. Her second message talks about the Morpheus broadcasts using cut-up lines from old Morpheus speeches. Seraph promises to check each guard until the kill-code is found. One of the guards has a crazy theory about the Merv using the Morpheus RSI to assassinate the Oracle. Tyndall says they'll be code-screening all Oracle guards until the kill-code is found, and that they'll do more checking on the captured crew to see if they can find out more about where the kill-code went.

Mach: With the General gone, the Machines want to make sure his Morpheus sim isn't a threat. Increased activity has been detected at areas Morpheus frequented before his assassination. The player is sent to a warehouse, where a helpful security guard captain gives them the name of the person who deposited a suspicious box of tools recently: "Joshua Maston." One guard jokes about "glue terrorists" that were supposedly using the warehouse a couple years ago. Machine records show Maston is a Zion operative. The player pays him a visit, finding him and a "Flyer," along with some pals. The Zionites flip out when the Flyer is picked up, and a fight follows. ("Flyer" was used in the old "hunt for morpheus" crits in chapter 1.) The player finds that Maston carried papers with an address; they go there and find one of the posters Morpheus used to go around posting. Gray runs a code trace that takes the player to another warehouse, where they find the Morpheus sim. It utters a few hacked-up Morpheus lines, then keels over. The operator says it shut itself off. Gray says it may have the capability to simulate jack-out and reconstruction, but that anyway they now have a complete scan of its RSI.

Merv: Flood sends the player to collect some data sent back by the undercover Merv assassin in Zion. The player finds the Zion facility on alert, which makes getting the data a little tougher than expected. Flood says Zion must have found out about the kill-code being sent into their network. The data the player retrieves contains the address of the place where Zion is currently holding the Oracle, and Flood sends the player in to identify the Zion guard captain on duty. With that accomplished, the player breaks into another Zion facility to swipe the captain's files; he should have a roster of the guard detail. Flood says it should be easy, since "our inside team" who got the kill-code in has already cracked the necessary terminal for you. Hostile Zionites appear once the player gets their hands on the data. Flood says the insider network sabotage team has been caught, and makes hasty arrangements to deposit the roster with the assassin's backup contact. The player finds them by whispering a password around at an Exile party; the contact is a succubus (see Zion 7.3.4), concerned that this is blowing their cover. If you check carefully, you'll notice a nearby party guest acting suspiciously after you talk to the contact.


6/14-6/20

Required Events:

Zion: merv spy somehow found and taken out, kill-code not found

Mach: active morph sim tracked down and interviewed/interrogated; somewhat anti-machine but Gray determines its merely rudimentary capacity for free thought prevents it from posing a significant threat, while it is useful for pacifying/distracting Zionites

Merv: (after Zion event) key found at Mahath Tower construction site (Lamar neighborhood, east edge of Downtown) must be recovered (possibly involving the Landlord?--either comes to the Merv to tell him he heard Merv was gunning for the Oracle, and might be interested in this key, or someone else comes and tells him that, and it's the Landlord who has the key)


6/21

Crit 7.3.4:

Zion: The player follows up on a contact used by the spy, hoping to find the kill-code, but finds them (a succubus--see Merv 7.3.3) dead, and the General's hologram shows up and gloats. Seraph (whose RSI is back to normal in this subchapter) asks for a meeting, and says that even though his ability to detect commandos is fading, he felt them just now, after an absence of weeks, and he's sure they're somewhere in the city. Shimada asks for a meeting, requesting that Zion allow EPN to help guard the Oracle. Zion Command is reluctant to do so, but the Oracle insists. There's a big pow-wow with the Oracle, Seraph, Niobe, the Kid, and the player. Niobe tries dissuading the Oracle, but she stays firm. The Kid says they're just there to help, and that nobody wants to see any harm come to the Oracle. EPN guards are already in place.

Mach: Gray says that the fact that Zion had data on the Morph sim weeks before they did, and that they know more about the assassination plot against the Oracle, illustrates the problems inherent in the Machines' appalling lack of data from Zion. He sends the player to meet with a Zionite who claims to have information to sell. The informant says to check out a certain EPN operative who's managed to dig up dirt on what the Machines are looking for in Zion, and gives them the address of the EPN's cover business. The player gets backup from Pace, who says she was monitoring the conversation, and she's certain the informant is trying to look like she knows more than she does; Pace's second message says that she's checked the records, and 82% of the double agents they've used have at some point offered false information. The player and followers beat up a bunch of EPN and get to the target, who says that yeah, the Cypherites are in Zion looking for missing supplies and workers. An annoyed Gray says that this is just going in circles, and evidently neither the would-be informant nor the EPN had actual useful information. He says that even after Pace's agreement with Veil, intelligence reports on Zion from the Cypherites have not been up to par with what they were under Cryptos, and that since reports are coming in that Cryptos has at least in part recovered from Seraph's attack, it's time to encourage his resumption of Cypherite leadership. Gray meets with Veil and Cryptos, where Veil assures him that they'll give the Zion affair top priority, and that she's sure they can find something useful for Cryptos to do now that he's feeling better. Cryptos' own replies are roaming and ambivalent, although he says that he is "not predisposed to be uncooperative." Gray isn't entirely pleased, but says that this was the most he could do without risking a backlash from the Cyphs against Machine control.

Merv: Malphas informs the player that Mahath was the site of the Architect's building destroyed in Reloaded, where the Keymaker died; this key he had just finished ended up not being needed to kill her old shell (between Reloaded and Revolutions). The key will be given to the assassin. The Merv contacts the General, who appears holographically, and asks for a squad of his best men. The General agrees reluctantly, as long as they're used to kill the Oracle, and returned intact. He says that since the Trainman is gone, someone will have to configure the transfer program on alternate hardware. The player goes to the Trainman's workshop, and eventually digs up the transfer program from some uncooperative Hel Club NPCs; one of the computers in the area shows that some numbered things (possibly locations on the Trainman's network, hm?) are offline or in need of maintenance. The transfer program is handed off to the Effectuator, who promptly uses it to summon two dead Elite Commandos. Effy blames it on an unintuitive program interface, and says he needs to go check on something, but not to worry, he'll have it all sorted out. The player has to go configure a computer to initiate the proper transfer. Machines attack right before this can be done, but after they're beaten, four commandos are brought in successfully, with another wounded, and one dead. Flood is annoyed with the Effectuator's bungling, but says there are more commandos where those came from (I wanted to leave the number of commandos brought in somewhat open, because later missions/events may need more than five).


6/21-6/27

Required Events:

Zion: the key teleports the user to the door nearest the Oracle's location---key and kill-code given to elite commando sniper who warps into her epn-guarded location; oracle detects him; kid reacts and jumps in front of her, taking the bullet (reconstructs, seems like no permanent damage)

Mach: Cryptos/Veil--Cryptos feels sufficiently recovered to take Cypherite command, Veil may resist a little; in the end, Cryptos re-establishes his leadership (Veil still 2nd in command)

Merv: (day before Zion event) commando squad in the city, hunted by seraph; mervs have to slow seraph down so that at least one commando gets away for a while, to keep seraph busy


6/28

Crit 7.3.5:

Zion: Seraph has tracked down the last of the Elite Commandos, just as his ability to see them finally fades completely. Ghost arrives wanting to deliver an important message, but Pace shows up at the same time, saying the Machines were also tracking the commandos. She slyly refers to having an intimate catch-up conversation with Ghost. Ghost says Pace is there as a distraction, and the player should get in touch with Tyndall immediately. Tyndall says that contact with the (randomly named) captain of the hovercraft Pelageus has been lost, except for his emergency beacon. The player finds the captain and his crew alone, but just as the captain warns that a Cypherite traitor was in his crew, and that "they think I know something about the--," he and his crew all drop dead. The phone rings--it's Veil, teasing. Tyndall says that they happened to have another ship near the Pelageus; they get a reading on the pirates' hovercraft signal, and the player tracks down the Cypherite crew in the city, forcing them to reconstruct as the Zion ship moves in the Real. The Cypherite craft gets off with the Zionite ship in pursuit. Seraph had mentioned earlier that the Oracle wanted to talk. She says that she isn't sure what to say to make the player feel better; "they won't get to you like they got to those poor people on that ship"; she also says that she could say it's all for the best, but people tend to take that the wrong way. Zionite and EPN guards in the area are arguing: Zion says the Cypherites don't really care about EPN, and have always been after Zion, while EPN points out that they've taken the hits all this time while Zion's been hiding behind the Truce. Tyndall reports that the Cypherite hovercraft was damaged, but hasn't been captured yet, although they caught one female Cypherite on foot near the Pelageus. (I don't have any particular plans for these Cyphs.)

Mach: Gray sends the player after the commandos that have re-entered the Matrix. After defeating some easily, thanks to their anti-commando routines, the player comes across dead commandos, then Seraph, Ghost, and Pace, who got there *real* fast. Seraph says that fortunately, the commando assassination attempt on the Oracle was prevented. Ghost curtly thanks the player for their interest. Pace says she'll handle Ghost, and dismisses the player, telling them to report to Gray. Gray informs the player of the Cypherite hijacking of the Pelageus, and sends them to Veil to ask for an explanation of the operation. Veil angrily replies that she nearly lost a ship and crew trying to get data for the Machines, and that they have no right to question her methods: "Tell me we're endangering the Truce? Don't make me laugh." She excuses herself, saying she has some phone calls to make. One of the Cyphs with her says "Your war never ended, pal. They just told you it did, and you bought their story." Gray says that he's informed that Cryptos is back in command of the Cypherites, although Veil controls many of their day-to-day operations. Gray is concerned that the Machines will be blamed for these extreme Cypherite actions. The player responds to Seraph's invitation to see the Oracle, who says that most everyone wants to save lives, but they disagree on how to go about it--that they see the differences rather than the similarities between humans and Machines. She adds that if there's one thing she's learned from all this, it's that you can't save someone who doesn't want to be saved; it's all well and good to give someone a choice, but then you have to live with the consequences, and if you don't like their choices, you've got to work on changing their mind, which is about the toughest thing there is.

Merv: A frustrated Merovingian sends the player off to set up a relay with the General. Flood explains that they had a relay in place, but it stopped working--the Machines probably found it--and that although they're working on a permanent relay that the Machines won't be able to get at, for this they'll just have to rig up a temporary one that will probably be detected and shut down shortly afterwards. He sends the player to a small data center, where they send an encoded message to the General on a low-bandwidth channel that's supposed to be "below the radar." Nevertheless, Machines attack the center just after the message gets out. Next, the player has to set up a receiver, and because this is a rush job, Flood sends you to a bluepill company, to put a script in place that will hijack their receiver/transmitter. It's a TV station, and the bluepills inside have conversations and data on their computers, including news of another Pendhurst-Amaranth stock split, an intrepid reporter trying to turn the coincidence of both Anome and his mother falling from buildings into a theory on jumping being hereditary, and one who wants to cover gun control, saying that firearm-related deaths are up 89% in the last two years. Once the right computer is found and the script put in place, the player returns to the Merv as the meeting starts. The Merv berates the General for the commando's failure to kill the Oracle, and says that he's assuming direct command of the General's Sentinels. He orders Malphas to "initiate the override program." The General begins to retort but is cut off mid-word. Malphas explains that they inserted "override routines" when they transferred the General and his commando programs out of the Matrix, and that they are now "programmatically compelled" to obey instructions from the Merovingian. The Merv says that although the General has been disappointing in the past, as the head of an obedient squadron outside the Matrix, he may have his uses.

7/12

8.1 Cinematic

An undercover Cypherite hovercraft winds through a new tunnels system, following directions from a Zion traffic controller. They enter a large chamber coated with EMP devices and are directed to cut engines to go through the shaft below. The crew panics and guns the engines, fleeing. Their path is blocked by a heavily loaded hoverbarge. They send a report to Cryptos that they've found "it" just before an EMP goes off, sending both craft plunging into the bottom of the tunnel.

Cut to the Architect in his control room. He informs Agent Gray, on a monitor, that Zion has broken the Truce. No more awakenings are to be allowed.



[What this means is that Zion and the Machines are again at war.

What the Cypherites found, as will be explained in the initial crits, is "New Zion," Zion's answer to the continual threat of extermination by the fleet of Sentinels watching "old" Zion. This is where all those shipments of men and materials have been going. "New Zion" is a new city/base in a mixture of natural and artificial caverns farther from the Machine City in terms of longitude and latitude, and much farther below the surface than the old city. The location is shielded from scans and drilling by natural formations of solid bedrock, ore-heavy layers of earth and minerals, lava and ducts of superheated air, and, most importantly, arrays of EMP clusters drilled into the long winding tunnel walls of the few available access points, and finally a vertical tunnel section completely covered by live EMP fields; entering craft must kill all systems, drop through the fields, then restart systems in free-fall in the large subterranean chasm below. Outgoing craft are lifted through on massive mechanical winch systems. Abundant geothermic power sustains the base.]



World

- Went through all the neighborhood and intro missions, Lock's initial voiceover, signpost ("i") NPCs and so forth to take out references to being in a state of Truce. (There's still the Oracle's lines in the introductory movie, but ah well.)
- Chance of Agent attack in a restricted area now goes up rather than down with character level.
- Always a chance of a level 100 Agent attack against Zion operatives outdoors in Westview, INT, and DT.
- RSI updates for the two primary story characters for each org.
- There's a new, decidedly Machine-oriented collector, Codebase, behind the Uriah SW hardline, who slips in a few suggestions about working for the Machines.
- Machines and Zion are now opponents for each other in standard missions.



Crit 8.1.1

Zion: Ghost explains about New Zion, and the Machines declaring that Zion has broken the truce. The player is sent to check Zion network facilities that have reported trouble: the first is dead, the second has a battle going on between Zionites and Machines (well, dead NPCs, some live Zionites who will follow the player and fight, and hostile Machines). The player is then packed off to see Niobe, who says it looks like the Machines are going after Zion's network interfaces; they thought they were secure after the recent security overhaul, but the Machines are going after them in a way that suggests they've found a security hole. Ghost says that a berth has been secured for the player's hovercraft in New Zion, and that a Machine attack on Zion now would make supplies tight, but would cost the Machines a lot of Sentinels with all the EMP-equipped hovercraft Zion has.

Mach: Pace explains a bit about New Zion, and says Zion is mistaken if they think it will let them attack the System with impunity. She says the Machines know more about Zion's network interfaces than Zion suspects. Gray sends the player after a network hub, that leads to another activity center. A hackable computer at the hub has a message intercept of a directive from Lock, saying that hovercraft reassignments to New Zion are being given in order of captain seniority. Zionites killed, etc. Gray has the player over for a head-to-head, where he explains that they have to defend the System against Zion for the good of humanity.

Merv: Flood explains a bit about New Zion and the renewed war, and Malphas says that the Zion/Machine hostilities will give the Mervs opportunities. For instance, he sends the player to retrieve the chunk of "corrupt" code that Zion captured from the General--it's easy, because the Machines had just attacked and wiped out the place where it was being held. The Twins aren't pleased that they didn't get to kill anyone. Flood then sends the player to see what Exile business leaders Dame White and Mr. Black make of the new situation, to see "which way the wind is blowing." The Dame thinks she'll manage just fine; Mr. Black thinks all the chaos is bad for business. The Merovingian says that he on the other hand thinks this is the perfect time to look for unexpected opportunities. Persephone suspects that he's already up to something, and laments that he will risk everything on a roll of the dice.


7/12-7/18

Required Events:

Zion: emergency briefing, Q&A session w/ Niobe and Ghost

Mach: emergency briefing, Q&A session w/ Pace and Gray

Merv: emergency party with Merv and Persephone


7/19

Crit 8.1.2

Zion: Lab working on configuring an emergency firewall program has been sacked by the Machines. Player has to pick up a copy from Ghost and take it over to a new, hopefully secret lab. A hackable computer at this lab has a note about, well, basically no firm news on what the possible hole in Zion's defenses might be, what the Merv could be doing, etc. A tech is skeptical that there's a hole, and thinks the whole system is just too old and well known to the Machines. The transfer to the new lab seems to go okay, but Machines are detected later a little ways away; the player goes to head them off, and does so, until level 100 Agents show up just as the operator gives word that the new firewall has already been bypassed by the Machines.

Mach: Pace is standing on a mound of Zionite bodies and gives the player some viruses to go insert into the Zion network. Gray says that they already knew a lot of Zion's network structure, and they can now exploit this relatively easily. But the first location has only a wiped, useless computer, and some Zionites who plead with the player to think about what he's doing. Gray says such tactics are futile, and it will only facilitate Machine progress if Zion chooses to cripple their own systems. The computer at the second location is a better target, but the third is completely dead. Gray says that apparently Zion has begun to realize the vulnerability of their situation, but it won't matter, and peace will soon be restored.

Merv: The General's Sentinels are in danger of being found by increased Machine Sentinel patrols. The Effectuator remembers coming across some Zion tunnel map info when he was helping them with their networks and so forth back when Niobe was ganked by Anome. He points the player to a bluepill business, whose computer turns out to have what looks like a Zion network connection--the business itself being some kind of front. Flood can't tolerate the Effectuator running the show, and sort of mentally disconnects. The network connection leads to a Zionite installation, where the player downloads the tunnel mapping data they were after. The Twins are placing bets on what's become of the Trainman. The Merv is pleased, summons the General, and says he can help him evade the Machines, but that the General must agree to stay within certain designated areas, or he'll be shut down. The General, whose transmission is a little choppy, appears to agree.

7/19-7/25

Required Events

Zion: emergency network up-link established

Mach: attack on a redpill extraction point

Merv: Merv does a roll-call of powerful Exiles to take stock of his wartime power base (ie a parade of me showing up as various Exiles one at a time)


7/26

Crit 8.1.3

Zion: Comm systems impaired by Machine attacks prevent Tyndall from coming through clearly; at one point later in the mission you hear her say "Ardesh--." Ghost tells the player that their broadcast database is under attack by the Machines; this system helps manage and control redpill signals coming into the Matrix (sort of like air traffic control or something). Off the player goes to try to grab the broadcast data before the Machines can get it. They get there just in time, and the operator shunts the data over the network to a temporarily safe location. The operative runs there to collect it, then hustles it to the emergency up-link. The Machines have got a Special Agent (level 255) right at the up-link, but he's downed by Beirn who suddenly zaps in, tips his hat, and passes along a "Bonjour" from the Merv. The data is sent out of the Matrix through the up-link, saved for later use with a backup system, hopefully. (Which Zion sets up pretty much right away, I suppose. The story is that broadcast depth is now shallower, because they're running the broadcast control as a distributed system among hovercraft at broadcast depth, which is less efficient than the old system. That's explained a bit more in the next crit.)

Mach: Routine investigation of a computer theft that may have been perpetrated by Zionites or EPN desperate for computer gear is interrupted by Gray, who says that their viral routines have located Zion's broadcast signal control center. The player arrives there in the midst of a fight, but finds that Zion has just shunted the broadcast control data somewhere, and deleted the transfer log. The Machines have to take a few minutes to run a backtrace to see what exactly happened in the simulation when the data was shunted. They find where it went, but they're again a little behind Zion. Then word comes that an Agent sent to investigate an unregistered network up-link has just ceased function. Investigating the coincidence, the player finds a dead Agent, and a dead up-link terminal. Gray consoles the player over the loss of the broadcast data, saying that destruction of the control center will impair Zion's signal efficiency, at least. He says that there aren't many things powerful enough to have taken out the Agent, and that the incident will be investigated.

Merv: The General beams in with news that his Sentinel scouts intercepted a message from the Zion hovercraft "Ardeshir" about an emergency up-link Zion had configured, something to do with concerns about the security of their broadcast control database. Flood has the General disable the hovercraft with Sentinels, while the operative corners the jacked-in crew and demands to be given the location of the up-link. The surviving Ardeshir operative (random name) figures she doesn't have much choice anyway, because she needs the ship intact so that they can tell Zion about the Machines they've detected closing in on the up-link; she instructs "Spitz" the operator (:p) to give the General's squids the up-link coordinates. The player joins Malphas, who's monitoring the situation as Beirn is sent to the up-link to delay the Machines. A sort of concerned/annoyed Persephone is there with Malphas, too. Malphas says they're helping Zion in this case because it would be inconvenient if Zion lost this data, and thus the war, so soon. Word comes that Beirn has succeeded in allowing Zion to save their data. The player reports the happy news to the Merv, but the Merv broods over it, saying that it was too easy.


7/26-8/1

Required Events

Zion: Zion finally detects and goes after some of the (Cyph) spies who've been infiltrating (old) Zion

Mach: (Cypherite?) spy mission, find key to getting at recruiting data--a potential who's been approached by both sides, and reveals some information he got from an overly enthusiastic Zion recruiter

Merv: Merv surprised by lack of oomph in Machine response. Stages attack or demonstration to test it. Finds it somewhat feeble.


8/2

Crit 8.1.4

Zion: Tyndall says comms are mostly repaired, but broadcast depth is shallower due to the broadcast thingy. She sends the player to investigate a recruiting team manager (random name) who's jacked in, but not responding, and whose location can't be pinpointed for some reason. The player finds a journal entry from a few days ago in the manager's apartment (saying there are more recruiting volunteers, with more enthusiasm now, and that potential numbers seem to be up as well). Tyndall sends the player to the aid of a recruiting center that's just come under Machine attack; the center houses sensitive recruiting data. The player gets there, but finds that the data's been swiped. Tyndall sends them after a Machinist seen leaving the area just before the player'd got there. The player finds the Machinist, but just after they've uploaded the data, presumably to some Machine server. Tyndall says this is going to endanger the potentials they had listed in the stolen data, and sends the player off to report to Niobe. Niobe is in conversation with the Kid, who says that the Machines are just going to bulldoze through Zion if a second front isn't opened, mentioning that the "swarm of Sentinels they just sent at your new city isn't going to be the last." The Kid wants to hit Machine City directly. Niobe isn't too keen on it, telling the player that Zion can't afford to throw ships away right now. She adds that she appreciates the player's gumption, and says that even though things don't seem to be going well, fighting is better than giving in.

Mach: Gray sends the player after a Zion operative (random name) who has access to high-level recruiting data; the Machines learned about this from a potential who was told more than necessary by an overzealous Zion recruiter. The player tags the operative, and Exterminators show up to bag him. The location of Zion's recruiting center is extracted from the captured Zionite somehow (the operator makes it sound like some process so chilling you don't wanna know about it), and the player swipes the data. A hackable computer at the center has an intercepted message from Niobe, explaining about the distributed broadcast control system, and shallower broadcast depth. The player is pursued by Zionites, but gets the data uploaded before they catch up. Gray packs the successful operative off to see what that darn Veil wants now. Veil congratulates the player that the Machines are finally cracking down on Zion recruiting, and happens to mention that she's heard EPN has some idea about bombing the Machines' city, oh and that she's sorry to hear "about the squiddies from Stalingrad biting it outside New Zion..." Gray confirms that some Sentinels returning from Stalingrad were diverted to probe the New Zion's defenses, and appear to have been disabled, probably by concealed EMP charges--they couldn't get precise data due to "broadcast interference."

Merv: The Merv, still not satisfied with the Machine reaction to aggression lately, sends the player to Mara to find the Oracle. In Mara, the player corners a fidgety Blackwood who says ohh, sure, she's right down the street. Down the street the player finds Seraph, who stares them down a bit, then says all right, she'll talk to the Merv. Then there's a meeting between the Oracle and the Merv, with Seraph looking on, and the Twins patrolling the apartment, calling it a little "a little...homey." The Merv asks why the Machines haven't even made much of an effort to "obliterate" their enemies; the Oracle responds that "Power isn't everything," that there's more to the Machines than the Merv thinks, and that maybe he should take a look around with his new "outside" eyes. The Merv is left pondering what this might mean.


8/2-8/8

Required Events

Zion: compromised recruiting team/potential must be saved from machines

Mach: kill a bluepill potential, Navin Manohar, substitute partially overwritten bluepill in his place, rewriting his features (players must identify, gather, and administer necessary RSI pills) to match the potential's appearance

Merv: interrogates morph sim--morph sim will rehash the story Morpheus told Neo about "the desert of the Real," humans as batteries, and so forth


8/9

Crit 8.1.5

Zion: The player saves a recruiting team's bacon, and the team deputizes the player to help check up on one of the potentials whose identity has been compromised by the recent loss of data to the Machines. The player heads off, finds a bluepill, but not the right one; it's a friend, who says that "they" came and dragged the potential off, claiming she was involved in a terrorist conspiracy. Tyndall sends the player to raid the nearest federal detention facility, where the player takes out a bunch of confused SWAT, and some Machines, and finds the missing potential, who's pretty freaked out about all the killing. Niobe calls the player in, congratulates them on the rescue, but says that things aren't going well, and Zion is going to have to switch over to entirely new systems run out of New Zion as soon as possible.

Mach: Gray has the player check "Navin Manohar" just before the Zionite recruiting team arrives to have him pop a pill. Navin Manohar seems to be all right, and the player goes off to meet Pace to observe Navin Manohar's progress with the recruiting team. Pace says that it's going all right, they've taken the pill and...ahah, the hidden Machine program has locked the red pill's trace process, and is feeding back into the Zionite systems. She sends the player to go take out the extraction team before they figure out what's going on and unplug their systems. The player takes out the extraction team, and finds Navin Manohar out on the floor, next to a computer with data on it. The player brings the data back to Pace, who explains that the extraction systems rely on data processed by Zion's "core server farm" during the critical phase of the extraction procedure, and that although the interface to that system is protected, the feedback data they've captured should contain vital data on its "location and configuration"; "this could be the key to the Zion Mainframe." Gray says that further data will be required. A computer tucked away in the final area shows that the Machines have recorded three encounters with the General's Sentinels, but that they still haven't pinpointed their current location.

Merv: Flood sends the player to take orders from the Merv, who they find shacked up with Nicky G. The Merv's curiosity has been piqued by the Oracle and the story told him by the Morph sim (which of course he'd heard before); isn't it interesting, he says, that nobody really knows where Morpheus got all that information, and that he wants to look into it. He sends the player to ask Raini (from "Uranium") about the "form of fusion" mentioned by Morpheus that the Machines are supposed to get their power from along with the human bodies, and to talk to Silver about the energy potential of the human body. Flood says the story on Raini is that she was a program used in nuclear fission reactors, before the Machines decided to use human power instead. After a bit of work the player gets Raini to talk; she says that most people who talk up fusion are pipe-dreamers--that yeah, it produces more energy than fission, and less waste, but you need all this other stuff to set it up (Lawson triple product, plasma/magnetic containment), and she can't see why she Machines would bother with that over fission; it's not like they'd be worried about pollution from fission's nuclear waste. Silver says that it doesn't matter what sort of weird bio-mechanical fusion the Machines might have come up with; running it through human bodies, which are only 25% energy-efficient at best, means the end result must be a relatively inefficient system no matter which way you slice it. The operator observes that this fusion/human power system also leaves the Machines stuck with all the expense of maintaining the Matrix, the pods, etc. The Merv, after hearing all this, wants to know not only what the Machines are doing for power, but why, and subsequently gives orders for the General to send Sentinels to scout the fields and pods.

Most of the info I got for this crit on fission, fusion, and human energy potential came from these pages:

http://members.aol.com/Cappuccinno2...hem/energy.html
average 100 watts
max 4500 watts
max sustained 400 watts
http://www.ftexploring.com/energy/heatflow.htm
average 100 watts "heat flow"
http://expertpages.com/news/concept...gineering_8.htm
human energy efficiency ~ 5-25% (high end is professional athlete)
http://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001...elineLing.shtml
brain uses about 1/5th (20 watts)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power
fusion: Deuterium to Tritium (also protium--isotopes of hydrogen)
http://fusedweb.pppl.gov/FAQ/sectio.../part1-tech.txt
D very abundant, T made from Li (plentiful in oceans)
Reactors require vanadium--present in many minerals
http://www.eoearth.org/article/Nucl...ar_fusion_power
fusion in the sun--hydrogen fuses into helium
4 1H + 2 e --> 4He + 2 neutrinos + 6 photons = 26 million electronvolts (MeV)
http://www.123helpme.com/assets/16355.html
"fusion of a given mass of deuterium will be able to create over four times the energy produced through fission of an equal mass of uranium"
http://www.princeton.edu/~chm333/20...nfinement2.html
"Lawson triple product" - criteria to reach nuclear ignition (high temperature plasma containment--also magnetic)

8/23 (delayed to 8/24)

8.2 Cinematic

Zion operatives work frantically at a covert computer lab when Machine operatives burst in. They are cut down, but Agents follow. Transition to a flight of Sentinels through tunnels, knocked out of the air by a shoulder-launched EMP missile. Cut to a Sentinel flying across massive power lines headed into Machine City, scanning. Cut to the Merovingian, observing the readout on a computer screen, and laughing.



[Notes in square brackets below are not told to players directly, if at all.]


Crit 8.2.1

Zion: The operator mentions that Zion is working around the clock to transfer the Zion mainframe data to New Zion, but security measures in place in the mainframe, the sheer volume of data involved, and the dangers of transport through Sentinel patrols (crews have to delete their copy of the data at the least sign of danger) make it a painstaking process. A guard mentions that more Sentinels are being seen around the old city. Zion tries to fix the security hole that the Machines exploited (in 8.1.5) to get close to the Zion mainframe, but finds the Machine code involved in part of the red pill program too hard to modify. Alternate plan submitted by the Council, overruling Lock (who thought it too great a security risk): bring in Danielle Wright, "the foremost authority on Matrix interface technology." She invented the EJP while a Zion operative, but left shortly after the Truce began, citing "ideological differences." After leaving Zion, she founded what is now one of the city's largest tech companies, Wright Research, with a large skyscraper HQ in Vauxton (map landmark). Tyndall mentions that Silver has been known to associate with Wright, but that she herself is very secretive [hm, I'd probably have toned down that reference to Silver after writing Machine mission 8.2.4, ah well]. After some poking around a Wright Research office, Wright herself calls for a meeting. She says "I will help you--not because I share your commander's views, but because the red pill program is vital to the future of mankind." [Throughout these missions, Wright is very aloof, and calm, although she shows flashes of frustration when others aren't performing to her liking. Nothing seems to take her by surprise. She tends to refer to players formally by their bluepill last name, like an Agent.]

Mach: Gray says that although they haven't been able to pinpoint them, there are indications that the General's Sentinels are advancing toward "sensitive installations on the Earth's surface," and sics the player on some Mervs to show them the error of their ways, then to the Auditor, to "persuade" him to stop working with the Merv. The Auditor says he thought he could be useful to the System, screening Merv code for faults and errors, but that he'll stop if that's what they want. He isn't sure how he's going to explain this if the Merv asks. Hypatia is confronted next, since she's been offering "unusually...sensitive material to the highest bidder" (there was a Live Event a few chapters back on Vector where she did this) and has made offers of data to the Merv specifically. Hypatia isn't happy about the crack-down, says she won't be intimidated into self-censorship, her Bookwyrms get rowdy, the player beats them, and an Agent appears on the scene to sit Hypatia in the corner for a while. Bursting with this success, the player is sent to deactivate the "directed relay" the Merv has been using to talk to the General, which the Machines have finally tracked down after a "thorough log search." The player succeeds in deactivating the relay, but then the General's holographic projection appears, boasting that they have other relays, nyah nyah, and is the System getting desperate because it feels like it's running out of time? Gray sets things right by shrugging this off as a "lackey's bravado," and saying that the Merv won't be able to resist the Machines for long.

Merv: The General's Sentinel scouts are approaching the Fields to count babies. Local expert Persephone says that conception does not take place in the pods; the parents could be miles apart; their genetic samples are sent to the Fields, where they are combined and grown into children. Persephone thinks it's all very sterile; Flood is horrified by the "organic minutiae." While the scouts start their baby count, the player ransacks the local hospital records office for the "official" version of the birth rate in the simulation. Avoiding amusing run-ins with fed-up bluepills and a self-diagnosis terminal ("press 7 if you are questioning reality"), the player finds the official article: "The city birth rate was 1.5% in 1999, up a dramatic 0.001% from the previous year. City officials attributed the cause to improvements in dental hygiene, television programming..." Flood is becoming sick of numbers, passing along that the scouts have counted about 1 million fetuses in the Fields, and 3 million people plugged into the pods nearby. Armed with the 1.5% birth rate, the player questions the creepy Coroner about the simulation's death rate; the Coroner says the city's figure is 0.7%--half of the birth rate (and don't forget to factor in "0.6% infant mortality," of course!)--but since the simulation is supposed to a stable, closed system, deaths must equal births, or it all goes to heck--only, that isn't the picture the Machines want to show to the bluepills. How does the Coroner think the Machines are managing it? "Foreign travel, detention facilities, retirement homes, the suburbs... There are so many ways to make the undesirable simply...disappear." Flood dismisses this as "rampant paranoia." Malphas does some quick calculations: "Assuming a nine month gestation period, a Field of one million wombs yields 1.3 million humans a year. At a 1.5% birth rate, that would imply a population of about...88 million, after the Coroner's infant mortality rate"; he says this corroborates the Morpheus sim's account of other pods elsewhere, since there are far more than 3 million people in just the city. The General's hologram is telling the Merv that he can't try taking a power reading directly off the Machine power lines, 'cause they'd detect it and catch him; they're already buzzing his position. The Merv says well, of course we know that Zion has found more pods [they must have, using red pills to locate pod inhabitants during extraction operations], so we'll just have to look around for them, too; and isn't it funny how Smith, according to Morpheus, thought there were "billions" of people in the Matrix? What a sucker that Smith was.


8/23-8/29

Required Events:

Zion: EPN steals Merv's mapped data on Machine power lines [note to self: don't forget to plant cake vendors in the area that some EPN surely won't be able to resist]

Mach: hit on some kind of Merv operation (stored commando programs, Exile (neighborhood) contact ally, etc)

Merv: hit on some kind of Machine operation (anti-extraction team, the Network & Network Media, SWAT teams, etc)


8/30

Crit 8.2.2

Zion: [Note: throughout Wright Research facilities in this subchapter, there are messages all codes with the same method. They refer very obtusely to Wright's inside access to the Zion mainframe, her connection to Silver, and a few other things that she's involved in checking up on.] Wright gives Zion some prototype new red pills to test on operatives, to see if they prevent the Machine exploit. Ghost mentions that they know Wright has access to the mainframe, but they've never been able to figure out how she does it. The first test succeeds in blocking the exploit, but feedback makes the redpill test subject ill. A hackable computer alludes to more Sentinels close to Zion. The second test subject dies just as Machines burst in, killing most of the other Zionites, and nobody could tell if it was the pill that killed the test subject, or the Machines. Wright isn't very surprised that the Machines are trying to stop creation of the new pills. She says the next step, after making some code tweaks, is to test them on a bluepill.

Mach: Gray reports a sudden rise in "utility and service failures," and sends the player to investigate one of the reports of trouble. A landlord explains that the water's been running hot/cold/none/bursts, not only in that apartment, but in his other three properties, too. Gray says this will be looked into, and sends the player to check out one of a number of reports of sharply increased gang activity across the city; turns out a SWAT team's been taken out by nasty Hel Club ravers. Gray reports that the water utility superintendent, interrogated, revealed that the "utility worker's union" paid him to look the other way while they made "adjustments" to equipment. Sent to check one of many phone outage reports (problems extend "even to operative-tapped 'hardline' networks"), the player finds a broken Hardline Junction Box, fixes it, and has to endure another surprise taunting from the General's hologram. Clearly the Merv is claiming responsibility for this reign of utility terror. An almost flustered Gray refers to "...other difficulties," then mentions what may be a new direct threat: the Auditor's latest analysis has found a problem in operative code. The Auditor, secure under Machine guard, reports finding page faults "in pod energy generation control subroutine modules" with source code "of a unique Zionite/Machine synthesis," but similar to Zion's red pill program: basically, Zion's working on a new red pill. Gray says this is a little disturbing, 'cause nobody thought Zion could code like that, so the Man is gonna have to be on their case lickety-split, but unfortunately that means they'll have to let the Merv live for a little while longer, especially with the exploration of New Zion's defenses causing high Sentinel losses to uncharted EMP charges, general war with Zion, etc. But not to worry, the Merv's puny Sentinel fleet doesn't pose an actual military threat in the Real: "surface facilities within his short-term range have sufficient defenses to repel an attack."

Merv: The Merv is way mad about EPN stealing his map of the pod power lines! But they didn't cover their tracks, and he can trace the cake they ate, so it's time to get that data out of their hands, and give some payback. The player leaves an anonymous phone call about the EPN's location on a government terrorism tip hotline, then hurries off and gets there just as Machines are terminating the specific EPN the Merv's been tracking. He reconstructs, and even takes some RSI pills (NPCs who don't follow you physically choose a new RSI from their NPC type's random pool if used again in a later phase of the same mission), but they can still track him, he's gone back to HQ, they follow, waste a bunch of EPN, but don't find the data. Flood says the Merv's gonna be steamed; oh, and in other news, the General's pulled back from the Fields due to all the Machines buzzing around.


8/30-9/5

Required Events

Zion: Awakening and extraction test run to assist Wright (trace succeeds but pod extraction fails--one important implication here is that the red pills do have something to do with allowing the newly awakened subject to get free of the pod; hopefully this will sort of address the question some players have been asking about why would the Machines keep flushing awakened humans--like they seem to do with Neo in the first movie--now that awakenings aren't supposed to be allowed; wouldn't they just kill them as soon as they detected it, so that Zion couldn't rescue them?)

Mach: attack on Wright Research (a new admin-started mission will populate inside the Wright Research building, if needed)

Merv: Merv finds out about EPN plans to attack power lines


9/6

Crit 8.2.3

Zion: Wright says she needs Machine pod control code to fix the pills. She knows Persephone's kept some code from her old job, and even knows where it is. Hel Club Exiles are fought and the data obtained, but it turns out to have only "dynamic links" to the actual Machine code needed. These lead to a Machine facility, and another data capture (one computer has a partial government profile of Wright, in the style of the one you can glimpse at Smith's interrogation of Thomas Anderson in the first movie: "Date of Birth: 24 June, 1964 // Place of Birth: South Vauxton, Downtown, Capital City, USA // Mother's maiden name: Eleanor Morrell // Father's Name: Jonas Wright"). Wright completes the code. Lock calls and thanks her personally (you get to hear on speakerphone), saying that mankind owes her a great debt, and that they'll keep a berth open for her in New Zion. Wright declines, saying "Another nobly futile gesture from your Commander; he always was fond of those." If you talk to her a second time, she says "Jason was quite right to say that we haven't seen things the same way, [Mr.|Ms.] [player bluepill last name]. I lack his great faith in our ability to survive on our own." [There's an implication in various snatches of dialogue in these missions that Lock and Wright used to know each other well, although there's no indication that it was in any way a romantic relationship.] She also says "goodbye," with a certain finality.

Mach: The Machines are wise to ex-Zionite Wright's work on the new pills. Cryptos pops round to relate that Zion's already started distributing said pills. Gray's determined to get his hands on one, and sends the player to sack a Wright Research facility, but they find that Wright's orders to ship out the initial development batches have already been obeyed, and the place is dry. Gray has the player try hitting up a Zion extraction team for their red pill; this works (the player also confiscates their blue pill, but the operator says the Machines don't need those anyway: they have their own means of calming the citizens). The pill is submitted for analysis, a technician in a back room talks about Wright's invention of the EJP (which the Machines then "had to obtain from Zionite defectors"--oh, and one of her interface subroutines *might* have been "studied for the Agent Pace project"), and the pesky General sends his pesky hologram in again, but this time he helpfully tells the Machines where they can collect a nice juicy report, courtesy of the Merv, on EPN's plan to sabotage power lines leading into the Machine city. Gray says that so far, analysis of the new red pill program suggests that the author has close access to the Zion mainframe; since Zion doesn't like giving out access of that level to non-Zionites like Wright, could be that she's got her own means of accessing it. Hm... Oh, yeah, and they'll check on that Merv thing about EPN. [The unsuccessful EPN sabotage attempt on the pod power lines is assumed to take place between this week and next week's missions.]

Merv: The player walks in on the Merv and Veil, just as she's saying thanks, but no thanks, "I really don't know anything about it, and besides, we've got a pill problem on our hands just now." The Merv says this tells him two things: 1) the Machines don't know about EPN's sabotage plans, yet, since they'd certainly have told the Cyphs about it, and 2) EPN will probably be interested in that whole pill thing going on over at Wright Research. Time to check that out. Flood tells about Wright being ex-Zion, inventor of the EJP, and "she apparently decided that she wants to take over the Matrix from the Machines, and that the best way to go about that was to move into the city, start her own company, and get rich pawning watered-down modern technology off onto the public." Wright's security force is supposed to be human, but the operator detects programs in the area, and they turn out to be the Machines, invading the place. The player takes care of both Machines and Wright security, only to find evidence that Wright just stole data from the Merv [see Zion's crit of this week]. Now the Merv is really steamed, Persephone blames him for her data being stolen, and the Merv gives you a dire lupine to take with you. The Merv knows about the dynamic links Zion will have found in the data they stole, and figures what Zion wanted, EPN will want too; the dire lupine carries a copy of the stolen data, but with one link modified to point to a Merv program that will fire off a signal pulse when it's uploaded and scanned in a hovercraft. You truck the lupine over to some EPN, get him whacked, and Flood is confident that EPN will find the data on the lupine's body, upload it, scan it, and then the General will spot the signal pulse, track the EPN ship, and find out where they're going for this big power line ambush they're planning. [And it probably works out that way, since the Merv's report on their ambush finds its way to the Machines soon thereafter (see this week's Machine crit).] Oh, and also the General will probably be able to take a power reading from the lines while the Machines are busy with EPN. [He does.]

9/6-9/13

Required Events

Zion: (after Machine event) Wright is being harassed by the Machines, and breaks from Zion--says she believes Matrix should be left intact, but under human control; Wright disappears

Mach: Machines force Wright to jack out (by RSI damage, hardline, ?) in attempt to track where her RSI signal broadcast source--unsuccessful (even if they get her to jack-out, they find that her signal was too well encoded: "high order real-time variable encryption")

Merv: Locates more clusters of pods by extracting human and using red pill trace


9/13

Crit 8.2.4

Zion: The player is sent to help distribute the new red pills to recruiting teams. A Zionite guard refers to EPN losing some ships to the Machines in their unsuccessful power line attack, and refers to a rumor that the Merv tipped the Machines off. The recruiting team is happy to get the new pills so they can get back to work, but ask the player's help against Cypherites, who've been very active against Zion's recruiting operations since the new pills were developed. Another Zionite refers to more Sentinels around Zion, adding "Sometimes they take off as soon as they realize they've been spotted." The player happens to loot a blue pill from a dead Cypherite, and Tyndall sends them to help with an actual extraction. At the end of this mission you get to give either the red or blue pill to a potential. Giving either one will complete the mission, but the messages are written in such a way that it's sort of left for the player to fill in the blanks about what the bluepill chose, and which pill they gave them.

Mach: The Machines figure Wright couldn't have handled the biological interface part of her broadcast signal's encryption scheme on her own, and send the player to hunt up records on Wright's business partners. The operator mentions that Wright Research has been in an uproar since Wright's disappearance a few days ago. The Wright facility is abandoned except for a hardhat worker, who laconically reveals that the company has shut down their network, and work's been brought to a standstill; oh yeah, and everyone knows that Argent Biometrics handles variable encryption across a biological interface. The player runs into Wright security on the way out. Gray says that Argent Biometrics is a small bio-research company, less than three years old, with few clients and steady quarter-end losses. The player accesses a computer at a small Argent Biometrics office, coming up with just an address of a warehouse ("Lemone Warehouse King"). One of the bluepills in the office kind of goes postal when their computer is searched; the operator figures he was just a nut. This warehouse company is known for owning lots of square feet of storage space, but posting very small profits, and having had the original owner get locked up a year ago in racketeering charges, only to be found dead in his cell before he could be arraigned. The warehouse is abandoned except for a cardboard box containing a box which contains everyone's favorite mission prop: a human heart. At the heart's return address in Camon Heights, the player finds weird hostile Exiles, including one with a computer controlled "micro defibrillator"; when the player heartlessly (sorry) shuts it down, the Exile blurts out something about "Silver" before keeling over. The operator recalls an old rumor about Silver working with Wright, but says he'd dismissed it as false, since the same source [not named in the mission but: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-matrix...e/527124p1.html ] also said Wright was based in Tabor, and Silver in Achan. Gray says it's time to find Silver.

Merv: Malphas says that since the General was able to take a power reading off the Machine lines while they were occupied with the EPN ambush attempt, all they need to do now is figure out how many pods the Machines have, and then they can calculate their total energy budget--well, from the pods, anyway. The General's spreading out to look for more pods now, but with communication distance increasing, his signal's getting more erratic. The player has to track it down, and, after clearing away some Machines, manages to make out that the General's scouts have been finding more pods in a "rough grid pattern" about "every 100 to 150 miles," and that these pod clusters are only 1/10th the size of the 3-million-pod cluster near the Fields (ie, 300,000 humans per small cluster). Flood sends the player to Sunshine, "an insufferably cheerful program who managed the Machine's solar power operation before you vile humans shrouded the entire planet in shadow," to ask her about the total surface area the Machines might be using for their pod cluster grid. Sunshine is way excited that the Merv is sending people to ask her stuff! (her Phoenix guards are slightly less excited) and "guesstimates" (Flood's term) that considering that she's heard the clouds have cooled the Earth--"though not nearly as much as you'd have thought"--the ice caps must have expanded, and there's more glaciation in mountainous regions, and it's colder, and Machines wouldn't want to keep humans where it's so cold that they'd have to waste energy heating them, so, hmm, maybe 1/16th of the Earth's surface would be usable for pods? [Note that this 1/16th is of the total surface area, counting water--I don't spell that out specifically in the mission though.] Sunshine also muses that the humans must really have pulled a doozy with "that storm" [ie Second Renaissance's "Operation Dark Storm," where man blotted out the sun to try to cut off the Machine solar power supply] since it's still going after all this time. Malphas runs the numbers in that capacious dome of his: "1/16th of the surface... Clusters of pods 100 to 150 miles apart...containing 1/10th of the 3 million of the large cluster near the Fields... That works out to nearly 1000 pod clusters, and close to 300 million humans in them." But he says that would mean the 1 million fetus capacity of the Fields couldn't account for supposed the 1.5% birth rate. The Merv starts musing: even at 100 times the amount that the General sampled [from the 3 million pod cluster], that still wouldn't be... Oh well, we'll keep him looking until the numbers add up, n'est-ce pas?


9/13-9/19

Required Events

Zion: Showdown w/ Cyphs over batch of new pills

Mach: Silver found, spills his guts about Wright--get key to her RSI signal's encryption [[have silver say something about "phase existence"]]

Merv: (after Mach event) Merv punishes Silver for giving information to Machines w/o permission


9/20

Crit 8.2.5

Zion: The mission begins with Tyndall tersely informing the player that a hovercraft just detonated against Zion's main gate, and that everything there (where she is, at Zion Command, which is still in old Zion) is in an uproar. Ghost has more information, saying it was a Zion craft, but it wasn't responding with clearance codes as it approached the gate; it resembles a Cypherite hijacking, and could have something to do with reports of Cypherites gathering in the city. The player is sent to investigate these. Just as Tyndall is describing the city Cypherite situation, she ends abruptly with "Oh!" and the operator can't get her to respond. After the player defeats a group of Cypherites (noisy, and low rank), Tyndall is back in touch, explaining that there's a security alert in Command--a suspected saboteur [that's all--doesn't say if they're Cyph, male, female or anything else, so something more could be made of this character elsewhere if desired] was apprehended inside near the main lift, but no explosives or weapons were found...and then she's abruptly cut off again. The operator says all Zion lines are down, and sends the player to the source of a captain's emergency beacon, while he tries to patch through to New Zion's fledgling ops center. The captain turns out to be Niobe, who doesn't know exactly what's going on either, but says that ships near Zion are reporting that Zion Command's emergency evacuation procedure has triggered, and they're trying to get everyone out. Lock hasn't been heard from. Niobe sends the player to try to get through to Zion on an emergency relay nearby. Still no peep from Tyndall. The relay is abandoned, and the ping attempt to the backup receiver in Zion times out. The operator hasn't been able to get the New Zion ops center to validate his login, and says they'll have to go back below broadcast depth to get in touch with them. [It's going to be a little tricky to fend off player questions about this during the two weeks between the end of this mission and the start of 8.3. I guess we're just gradually going to have to give out that there's been a massive scramble to evacuate everything remaining in Zion, they're still trying to get the last of the mainframe data sorted out, swarms of Sentinels are accumulating in the area, Tyndall has been evacuated to New Zion safely, Lock hasn't been found, and a number of hovercraft have been lost nearby.]

Mach: Pace says analysis of Wright's signal shows she's jacked in right now from a surface lab somewhere above Zion, and sends the player to the signal's general location in the simulation to find Wright and run a close-range scan that will trace back to pinpoint her surface lab. Veil is with Pace, and was saying something about "we've done this kind of thing before" and "the other diversion is all set" as the player entered the room [this is a reference to the activities reported in this week's Zion crit]. The player finds Wright alone in her office, apparently waiting for them. The trace is run and she falls, dead. Gray explains that as soon as the trace pinpointed her jack-in lab, Sentinels swooped in, recognized (thanks to info captured from their red pill exploit in 8.1.5) the device she must be using to interface with the Zion mainframe, determined Wright wasn't needed anymore, and killed her jacked-in body. Gray hands a special computer virus to the player personally, explaining that Wright's device opens a connection to the Zion mainframe from a semi-random Zion terminal within the simulation; this is how she avoided being traced by Zion all this time. Off the player scoots with the virus to the mainframe-enabled terminal, with Gray motivationally pointing out that if the player fails to upload the virus at this terminal, they could try again at a different terminal, thanks to Wright's device, but "this would threaten synchronization with considerable forces prepared for deployment against Zion." After some bother with Zion guards and networks, the player accesses the Zion mainframe interface, and jams the virus home. Gray says that thanks to the Sentinels now converging on Zion, the havoc caused by sabotage, and this virus in their mainframe, the city of Zion is about to be destroyed. (This is old Zion he's talking about, not New Zion.)

Merv: The General is so far away now that his signal is pretty much unintelligible. Flood says the low-power transceiver we've been using to talk to the General, while great for avoiding Machine detection, isn't cutting the mustard at this distance, so we'll just have to borrow a Network Media dish from the Network for a bit; he's known to have a direct connection to the Machines in the Real, so we'll hijack that and point it at the General. After some hot action with computers and the Network's hired Corporate Security guards, this hack is accomplished, the General's holographic signal is located, and delivers its message coherently now (except that it kind of breaks up at the end, just as Machines spawn in all over the area and attack), saying that one scout found another set of human-growing "Fields" over 6000 miles away, before its transmission was lost, and this set of Fields had a 3 million pod mega-cluster next to it, too. Oh, and the scout had noticed that the power lines had been running the opposite direction from pod clusters [ie away from Machine city] for some time before it got to this second set of Fields. Other than that, all the scouts have reported finding nothing but mile after mile of featureless wasteland, with only the small pod clusters, power lines, and dead skeletons of (word lost) cities relieving [I suppose that's relative] the monotony. Malphas says that if there are maybe a few other Fields around the world, that would be enough to account for the 1.5% birth rate seen in the simulation, and would fit with the 300 million population estimate. Malph says they'll have to call the General back, since they can't really afford to have him losing more scouts flying over thousands of miles of wasteland. Malphas finishes off by musing that 300 million humans would just be enough to fill out the population of the United States of the simulation's time period [1999], but if people in the simulation believe they can travel anywhere in the world, then...hm... The Merv says that if the Machines really have only 300 million humans for power, he feels sorry for them, because based on the General's sample from the 3 million, 300 million gives them only enough power to meet the energy demands of the Machine city several times over [this is the only measurement I give--no wattage readings or anything real specific like that]--but that also has to run their Sentinels, their other defensive machines, the Matrix... This would explain why they've been less than spectacular against Zion so far, but not why they did better in the previous war; and it still doesn't explain why they insist on using humans for power, when they must have had other options.




[[wright underestimated silver, didn't think he'd be able to track her.

Roland, captain of the Mjolnir (aka Hammer)
crew: Maggie (dead), Mauser, Colt, AK
--Mjolnir (II?) was going to transfer Lock out
- still running jackouts through old Zion
- in destruction at end of 8.2.5, Roland's jack interface is fried, but he makes it out. Mauser was jacked in as well, fate unknown. AK (operator?) dead, Colt (first mate?) all right (potential LE character, duelist)
- Once she realized the Machines would be able to track her signal, Wright set up a shunt on her emergency jack-out, to kick her into the Zion mainframe instead of back into her body
- She knew that the Machines would send a virus into the mainframe, and counted on it opening access to broadcast control quickly enough that she could jack out into someone else's body before losing cohesion; she's skilled in "phase existence," ie prolonging your time between jack-in and entering the simulation itself, floating freely in the network as an avatar
- This worked, and she found Mauser
- Feedback from this override blew out the Mjolnir II's jack-in system
- Mauser/Wright can no longer jack in
- Mauser/Wright escaped the wreckage of the Mjolnir II and found Commander Lock (wounded) in the wreckage of Zion
- got Lock to her wrecked lab, buried old Wright body
- When EPN moves into old Zion, they find wreck of Mjolnir II, AK's body, but no sign of Mauser
- Then get emergency signal or puzzle or something leading them to Lock

]]


[[ Population:

>>>> new york (no not Chicago :p): 2002 six infant deaths for every 1,000 live births; 742 infant deaths and 122,937 live births. Any child less than a year old is considered an infant; life expectancy 77.6 years; death rate 7.2 per 1,000 in 2004 (not counting infant mortality, I take it; 2002 saw 59,651 deaths recorded in the city; 1.5% birth rate

>>>> 40% zion (now) freeborn (this was in a Cypherite report to the Machines found on a computer in a critical mission a chapter or two ago); Zion had a population of 250,000 at the time of Reloaded/Revolutions (according to a movie conversation where Morpheus said that the Machines were sending a Sentinel for every man, woman, and child in Zion, and confirmed that this meant they were sending 250,000); Zion freeborn pop supposedly equals 1% of total Matrix population; let's say freeborn pop...down a bit; used to be 45%; 137500 was 1%, ie 13,750,000 total pop; but Zion wouldn't have all of 1% anyway...; let's say they manage to get 5% of the 1%; total pop 275,000,000

>>>> 100 pods per ring (rough visual count from Neo's extraction scene); each tower at least 300 rings high (also checked against long-range view of pod towers behind Fields as Neo and Trinity fly off to Machine city in Revolutions); if each cluster at least 10 towers = 300,000 per cluster = nearly 1000 clusters across Earth's surface; 1/8th of our modern Earth's surface is estimated as habitable now (that's of the total surface area, ie including oceans); let's say 1/16th there; 510,065,600 km2 total surface area; 1/16th is 31250000 km2; 31250 km2 per cluster; square root = 175 km = 100 mls = shortest distance between clusters

>>>> (NY around 2000ish) 1.5% birth rate /// 0.6% infant mortality // 0.7% mortality // This means: out of 300 million, ~ 2 million *recorded* deaths per year, 4 mill births // with a 9 month gestation, you'd have 3 mill gestating at a time // 3 fields facilities? ][[[][][][ in 8.2.1 mish find 1, 1 mill, 1,333,333 is 1.5%, ~ 89,000,000 (not counting infant death rate) -> 88 mill w/ infant deaths--> vs Smith's "billions" :ppp

>>>> x10 mega cluster at fields (very rough estimate from that long-range view over the Fields in Revolutions) --> 100 pod towers (ahh this might have been a sort of math error on my part--I'd actually estimated about 30 towers in that Revolutions view...I think...got my tower numbers mixed up a little between the small and large clusters...or did I figure some of those towers in that shot looked x3 high as others?--anyway I still like the 10x idea, and the total pop numbers are still right--exact tower counts aren't mentioned in the missions--so nyah) -- > 3 million people if General does a quick count --> might think birth rate is 100x too high...except they know there are more than 3 mill just in city /// find second Fields "over 6000 miles" away


- Rough Matrix pop 300,000,000. That's about the 2007 population of the United States.
- Area radiating outward from main city in sim.
- Simulation becomes less detailed as you move outward from city; BPs less alert
- At extreme edges simulation is just memory manipulation of unconscious BPs
- Alert BPs orchestrated so that they make their way to detailed sim area, ie the city
- To balance out the birth rate, inefficient BPs are maneuvered to outlying sim areas, eventually terminated
- How to explain that Zion hovercraft don't go around world to grab extracted people? Trace fails? Those people inhabit outlying areas of the simulation and aren't reached by recruiters? That would sort of fit, maybe Machines would keep most active (high energy) humans closer to Matrix...if we're implying that the Matrix is run out of that one city.

- Oh, yeah. I was thinking there could be three Machine cities total, one for each Fields facility. But maybe we're in the "main" one, or at least Main as far as the Matrix is concerned.


]] 

I've attached the detailed summary and schedule for MXO chapter 8.2, which is going Live tomorrow (Friday the 24th). Key plot points, some of which I'll discuss in further detail after this brief overview:

A) The Merovingian, using the General's Sentinels, is discovering things about the surface of the Earth, and the Matrix, that have not been specified by us before.

B) "Danielle Wright," an old personality in the city, plays a key role. She appears to be killed by the Machines at the end of this subchapter, but I have a sneaky way to work her into the larger future theme of the game, which is going to be dealing with the question of inherent differences/similarities between Man and Machine (ie the Oligarch search for a permanent solution to hosting their minds, Trinity being an interface program between Man and Machine, Neo being a program, the Morpheus simulacrum acquiring a life of its own, Cryptos being now a weird fusion of Man and Machine overwriting program, etc, etc). The attached image shows Wright, and the uniform of her security team (that's the "W" Wright Research logo on his cap, matching the monument in front of the Wright Research building in Vauxton).

C) More details given on the workings of the red pill program, as Wright creates a new one for Zion.

D) I have a scheme for involving some of our generally offscreen old Zion movie characters--Commander Lock, and Captain Roland and his crew--in the story in a more active sense, starting probably in the next subchapter (8.3) as a direct result of the Machine destruction of (old) Zion that will be shown in the 8.3 cinematic.




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Detailed discussion:



A) Specifications and implications about the Real and the Matrix resulting from the Merv's exploration and research

You'll see a lot of numbers and calculations in the notes at the bottom of the attached story summary document. Basically the Merv is looking around, finding pods scattered around the surface, checking up on apparent Matrix birth and death rates, investigating the Fields, all in the name of trying to find out how much energy the Machines have. The actual details given may be summed up as follows:

- The Matrix may host 300 million humans in pods
- Pods have been found on the surface in two types of arrangements: the "mega cluster" of 30 or so towers, housing about 3 million humans in pods, situated next to the Fields (as seen in Revolutions), and smaller clusters about a tenth of that size (300,000 people)
- These smaller clusters are in a rough grid layout across the ruined surface of the Earth, about 100 to 150 miles apart
- The total of the power supplied by these 300 million humans, extrapolated from a reading the General takes at the 3 million mega-cluster near Zion and the Machine city, would only be enough to power the Machine city several times over, and this would also have to be used for all their other mechanisms (Sentinels, city defensive works, the Matrix, etc); this implies that they have very little power to spare
- The "Fields" between Zion and the Machine city (and right next to the "mega cluster" of pod towers seen in Revolutions) hold about 1 million growing fetuses
- There is another "Fields" complex over 6000 miles away, with a similar "mega cluster" of pods next to it
- The power lines from this far-distant set of Fields and pods, and other, small pod clusters in the area, are running in the opposite direction, ie AWAY from the Machine city we're familiar with
- The average temperature on the surface is a little cooler than it was before the eternal storm appeared, blocking out light--not enough that there are no longer temperate areas where the Machines can house humans in pods and Fields, but enough that these temperate areas are only about half the size that they were before the eternal storm
- The cooling has caused the polar ice caps to expand, and led to increased glaciation in mountainous areas
- The birth rate seen in the Matrix city is about 1.5% (similar to a large US city circa 2000)
- The death rate seen in the Matrix city is about 0.7% (again similar to a US city)
- The infant mortality seen in the Matrix city is about 0.6% (again similar to a US city)
- IF the Matrix is a closed system, death rate would have to equal birth rate--but nobody players know can account for this apparent discrepency


Reasons and implications of the above:

- If the total Matrix bluepill population is 300 million, ie just a little above the year 2000 population of the US, this implies that the Machines are not actually simulating the entire Earth in one-for-one detail. For this I was going off [[[what we were told]]] about the Matrix being more than just the city and the mountain range, but not exactly clear how much more, as well as population calculations based off of Zion building its population from "1%" of humans who reject the simulation.

Where I would like to go with this, if you're interested, is describing a system whereby the Matrix city is the focal point of the simulation, and as you move outwards from the city within the simulation, you are moving into areas that are simulated in less and less detail. The area that is moderately simulated is about the size of the continental US; as you move toward and beyond the periphery of that space, except for main tourist points such as major city airports, etc, fewer and fewer people seen are actual humans, but rather relatively simple Machine simulations of humans. Bluepills living in these outer areas are the less aware and less efficient, and are kept in a deeper state of general stupor, so they don't notice the lowered simulation detail. When a relatively active, aware human from the city voyages into outer areas, the simulation around them is raised in detail temporarily, but they are also increasingly tranquilized, so their recollections of their trip are somewhat hazy.

If a bluepill born in an outer, tranquilized, lower-energy district proves to have an efficient metabolism, their life is manipulated in such a manner that they migrate to the city. Likewise, humans born in the city who turn out to have low-efficiency metabolisms are shifted into outlying areas of the simulation. Those who are truly inefficient, a waste of resources, have their life in the simulation managed so that they eventually lose touch with any active acquaintances, are marginalized and forgotten, and then simply flushed from their pod to drown in the Machine sewers. These are the deaths that are not recorded by official government records inside the simulation, and which balance out the birth/death rates so that the total population of the Matrix remains steady at about 300 million, which is close to the maximum amount that the Matrix program and associated Machine infrastructure can handle.

The marginalization of inefficient bluepills in the Matrix simulation's geography corresponds to their vicinity to the Machine city housing the Matrix computers in the Real, where these low-efficiency types are moved to pod locations farther away from that city; this keeps the highest-producing human batteries closest to the Matrix computers, where they enjoy the lowest-possible network latency, and less energy is lost as it flows through the power lines into the city.

This has the benefit of explaining why Zionite crews, when they awaken a human, do not have to travel to a pod all the way around the world in order to wake them up: the humans they're finding are the active, relatively aware ones in the Matrix city, and in pods located close to Zion and the Machine city in the Real.


- The eternal storm darkening the skies must have some kind of continuing reaction to keep it going; what this is I don't think I ever want to specify. But, it is a good excuse for why the surface of the Earth, as we see in the movies, is not one big ice cube, as it would be if sunlight were really cut off entirely throughout the world (the initial [[[]]] drafts of the Matrix had Morpheus tell Neo that the average temperature in enternal-storm era Chicago was -80 degrees C, -120 with wind-chill, which is probably about right in hard science terms).

So, I'm allowing for slight cooling, as in a standard Ice Age. This would mean global temperatures an average of about 6 degrees C lower than they were before the eternal storm, sea level about 120 meters below what it was before the storm, smaller temperate zones, larger ice caps, more glaciers, and so forth. This does not clash with what we see of the outside world in the movies, where lightly clothed characters do not look uncomfortable just standing around, and where we see no ice or visible signs of freezing; it also fits in with that comment by Tank in The Matrix, where he tells Neo that Zion is located "deep underground, near the earth's core where it's still warm," which implies that at least a certain degree of surface cooling has taken place.


- There is probably another set of Fields, perhaps two, beyond what the Merovingian has found (for a total of 3, or possibly 4); this will fill out the population calculations concerning birth rates necessary to maintain the 1.5% birth rate that the Machines want to be able to show inside the simulation. Each set of Fields might have a pod mega-cluster next to it, but then again, in light of the "periphery" management of humans, perhaps not.


- There is probably at least one other Machine city, corresponding to the locations of the other Fields. It/they may be smaller than the one near Zion, and would not house primary Matrix systems (unless we want to get into a "multiple Matrix" scenario? I don't really want to go that route, although I suppose we always could if we're still doing this years from now and need a major new story angle ;). These cities would probably in essence be back-ups for the city housing the Matrix, so that if that city were somehow destroyed, let's say by a meteor from space, the Machine civilization would survive, although they'd have a lot of rebuilding to do.


- There is a question we may have to address some day, but not for a while I think, as to where on Earth Zion, and the Machine city near it, are located. One real question here is: is the Machine city from the movies the same as their original city-state, "Zero One"? In the Animatrix' "Second Renaissance," "Zero One" was shown in the Middle East, centered around the Saudi-Iraqi border. It then expanded, eventually having structures or outlying districts of massive Machine architecture stretching as far afield as Eastern Europe.

We really don't have to decide on this any time soon, but it might be worth starting to think about. My own inclination is to say that the Machine city that players know is NOT the old Zero One. Then we'd have to pick a location for our Machine city (and Zion, which must be relatively close to it). I'd kind of like to place it somewhere in the East, say around what would have been China, but who knows. At any rate, the main benefit of having it separate from Zero One, as I see it, would be that this would leave us free to develop other stories about the ancient, now mostly abandoned city-state of Zero One, and who knows what weird kinds of things could have sprung up there after the Machines left it--as they would have done because Zero One was designed for solar power, and really wasn't all that efficient or worth keeping once the Machines defeated mankind and could rebuild a more efficient city (or cities) at their leisure.