The Sylvan Syndicate ~Incomplete~

A Lost Connection

The footsteps approached at a fast speed, barely enough time for Yvonette and I to get ourselves composed. "Gamemaster! Ah, hello Miss DeLaRue. Gamemaster, we've lost connection to the servers on the East Coast!" My face remained impassive but my mind turned to turmoil. "How long ago?" Roxanne, the woman who was commonly known as my assistant, eyes moved down the tablet she was holding, "Two weeks exactly sir, just as protocol states." I spluttered out, "Two weeks?! Why was I not informed earlier?" Her face flushed and went red, "I followed instruction and protocol to the dot sir, two weeks at maximum were allotted to allow Party B, otherwise known as our contact on the East Coast, to resolve any connection issues." I turned away, knowing this was to spell sure doom. Our connection on the East side of the continent, was vital seeing as how Origin's old base of operations was there. However....it might have moved, but that aside. "Our connection was vital to keep together our eyes and ears everywhere. However if someone took out....if someone took out Cerrina (Sair-ee-nuh) then it could truly spell doom for us." Yvonette scoffed at the name, "Her? Seriously Corcius, I figured you'd hold yourself to a higher standard than that punk trash." I looked at her, mesmerized, "Y-Yvonette can you seriously say that? I mean...she might have been...interesting from time to time, but seriously, she had some skill. And if someone managed to eliminate her from the game...it's gonna shake things up." Roxanne was starting to turn away when I said, "Summon Marianna, Sorin, and FastForward to my office. I shall require their assistance in this case." Yvonette looked at me, "Marianna? What do you-" she cut herself off, quite obviously realizing what I had planned, and she wagged her finger at me as I turned to return to my office, talking the entire way. "I simply won't allow Marianna to go and venture into the HQ of that...that SLUT. I mean look at it Corcius, send me, send HiTech, send ANYONE but Mari." I looked at her as I preformed the proper security measures to enter my office and said, "Marianna is a woman now, of her own volition Yvonette. If she accepts this job then I'm afraid I'm going to have to let her go with them. Plus, she's with someone you know quite well! FastForward!" Her face turned into a pout of sorts and a hard look, on most it would've appeared gruesome, but she managed to make it work. "I- you-" her words were lost as the door swished open, and the footsteps signaled the approach of a small cluster of people, specifically the people I had requested. "Now Yvonette, if you don't mind..." I trailed off, unspoken words obvious in my actions, "Well...I never!" and she stormed off with that. The first one to approach me was FastForward, he was far, but not too far ahead of the other two, and whispered, "This has to do with Origin, doesn't it?" I nodded, and said, "Not a word to anyone else. Right now this is just about a loss of connection code." He looked as if he wanted to say something, but the other two had just approached earshot. "Hey GM." Marianna beamed, "Gamemaster, what's up?" Sorin said lightly. "I'd suggest we best speak in here, yes?" We entered the room, and I shuttered the blinds and dimmed the lights. I quickly pulled up on the large holo-screen behind me, a brief statement of the mission. They read over it rather quickly, their eyes scanning it. "So....you want us to do some recon work on a girl we lost connection with, because she holds some valuable info." Marianna stated quite matter-o-factually. "Yes, quite precisely, and if you cannot come into contact with Cerrina, then I'd suggest you head for her HQ, which is quite popular, the Elizabeth Park." I smiled lightly at them. "W-wait, you mean THE Elizabeth Park, in Connecticut. You do know what you're talking about, right?" I nodded curtly, "Quite far-fetched to hear I suppose, well allow me to explain. We are based in and around the Chicago area. Central. Meaning we are not privy to either side of the continent. So it is vital to have eyes and ears on both sides. Now, how this relates to the Park is that, Cerrina has some real connections out there in the world, be it through force or friends, she managed to procure an underground lab, and she wanted it under the Park. Don't ask me how or why, she just managed to make it so, that's Cerrina for you." Now that that was out of the way I could move on, "Now the hard part is going to come in two portions, the first being FINDING the entrance to her base, the second being determining the situation once you find out what happened....we don't have internal access to her servers so all we can see is the outside, and the outside is dark. I suspect they might've been killed, through Legendary mode in the Anilus (Our VR devices) or in a real gunfight, or whatever. Two weeks is a long time, however, I am hopeful." They all turned and looked at each other and then, FastForward spoke up and said, "And who do you suspect to have done such a thing? The Twins mayhaps? Or another Organization we've not learned of?" I pretended to ponder it, while searching for a retort, I did NOT want to explain the whole story of Origin here and now. And then a brilliant idea came to mind, "The King of Madness." Everyone looked stunned, even FastForward who was obviously trying to get me to tell everyone about Origin. "G-Gamemaster, that's a little....far-fetched wouldn't you say?" FF asked. "No, no I believe it fits quite well, it would make sense." Marianna piped up, "Excuse me, but who IS The King of Madness? He sounds a bit...made up if you would excuse my lack of better term." Everyone stared at Marianna except me, who went to work pulling up his file on the projected image. "Why Marianna, he's the only man to survive an encounter with the System." She gave him an even more lost look, so I took over, "Robert Ashburn, or 'The King of Madness' was a beta tester and pioneer such as I, who worked on Anilus technology, one day he was experimenting on himself with it, and when he tried to pull out, there was a glitch, and he was stuck in limbo for 4.43 minutes. What this means is that he SAW the System on the inside, he was the flowing code, he saw INTO the system, saw log files, saw EVERYTHING, he essentially had the power to look through whatever he wanted. However this came at a price, when he managed to get out, his mind was fractured. He went into Intensive Care for two years, then Mental Rehab for five. His mind, and he, are still fractured and crazy, not as much as before, but still. He's taken up hacking once more, and he's damn good at it for the crazy bastard he is. He would have the motive to take out Cerrina, and he'd have the power to do so." Marianna stared at me blankly for awhile and then said, "So, what are we waiting for? We need to get going if we're planning on finding out what the hell happened!" and with that, she ran out of my office to go and pack her bags. The two remained and gave me questioning looks, so I answered, "I'm giving you a week, your tickets were booked tonight, plane leaves at-" I was cut off by Sorin, "Wait...why not just Port there? She has to have some kind of Camera that can handle it, right?" With a wave of my hand I dismissed his thought, "I'd think the same if not for two reasons, one, we have no access to her encrypted cameras, and two, what if we port in only to be ambushed since they were monitoring the Port System. I just believe going in a plane and normality is much easier." He nodded slowly, "So the planes leaves...?" he trailed off, letting me finish, "Tomorrow. 7 A.M. First Class. Go and get packing, you have a lot to get done in one week." And with that, they left my office, and FastForward lingered on the doorway, almost as if he wanted to say something. He then shook his head and closed the door behind him, his footsteps echoing down the hall.

(Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXFK82TGh7c)