Foraminis [RP]

[[Desolate Divine]]

Name: Tommy Smythe
Location: Tommy’s Loft/Impact’s Lair
Affected RPers: None

[i]Hear our promise, New York City.
By year’s end, Demon’s run will control Manhattan.
The time for speaking and diplomacy is over.
We have tried since the first Foram appeared in the sixties,
With no change to show for it. No mercy given to those by the government, who are only the way they are because this same government failed them.
And whilst you may think being a bystander gives you innocence, it doesn’t.
You turned the blind eye whilst our brothers and sisters, YOUR brothers and sisters, were incarcerated, tortured and killed by our government, for the sake of your supposed safety.
The time for speaking is over.
The time for action is at hand.
Hear our promise.
Manhattan is ours.[i/]

This was about the fifth time I had watched this video, trying to find anything that could give me some idea of where to start looking. Some sound from outside like a jackhammer, or even a TV in the background. However whoever put this together was good. The room itself was well soundproofed, and the audio recorded and mixed well enough to not reveal anything but the dialogue itself.

On the screen was a man wearing a dark hoodie with a paintball mask. His voice had been changed in post production, and manipulated in other ways causing it to be way too difficult to reverse engineer without knowing the original process.

I looked at the other computer, which was currently running a program attempting to track down the source of this video. When it was uploaded, they used multiple private networks to shield their location, switching between them every few seconds, making it near impossible to track them down. However this was my day job.

I have had my eye on Demon’s Run for a while, and been waiting for them to post something again, be it taking credit for an attack, or just a general rant. I wasn’t expecting an all out threat.

After their last few videos, I created a script to analyse the videos for commonalities between them. They had used the same sets, as well as the same general editing style. And whilst their production was generally good quality, they didn’t strike me as the type of group that have enough funding for more than one set of equipment.

After analyzing the videos and doing some digging, I had discovered that the camera used was a Canon EOS70D with a Sigma 18-50 f2.8 lens. Whilst they had managed to have this not show in the metadata, the video itself had given enough information to discover that.

After that, I hacked into the servers of all the places Demon’s Run first upload. Usually this would be enough, however they were smart enough to delete the posts as soon as someone reposted it, usually minutes later, and delete all traces of themselves. The only way to catch the original upload, was to catch them whilst it was happening.

I created a program to watch these servers for data that attributed the camera used, as well as other commonalities in the video, such as the colour temperature and background frequencies in the audio, in the videos being uploaded, and track the locations if they got a hit.

When this video was uploaded, it worked. It recognised it during the upload and tracked the locations it was being uploaded from, recording them to a database. My computer was currently looking for some number pattern between the IP addresses used. The way I saw it is that most random number generators aren’t truly random and rely on an algorithm to determine the number. And with enough instances of the product, one can see patterns, and identify the source, or the next product. Whilst that would require a masters in mathematics and a solid few years for me, for my computer, a couple of hours would do.

I looked out the window and saw the sun coming down. Tomorrow was a day off, so tonight, I could work ‘til dawn. I made my way to the cupboard, putting my palm against the hidden biometric scanner in the wall, causing the false back to slide across, revealing my costume…

Name: Amy Richards
Location: Lower-east side Manhattan
Affected RPers: None

I watched the video on my phone, unable to help but grin at myself. Even though he wore the mask, I knew it was Cole speaking. The part that made it hilarious was how unlike him that script was. It was articulate, whilst the Cole equivalent of this would be ‘This is s***. You’ll pay for it.

I had my earphones in as I watched this at the local coffee shop, sipping my coffee. It was December 26th, and they were still pulling down the Christmas decorations.

We had made our statement. Demon’s Run will take over Manhattan by years end. And whilst that seemed like a bold statement, to take over one of the largest cities in the world, after announcing it to everyone, in the space of four days, we knew it was possible. We had planned and predicted everything. Now we just needed to watch the pieces fall into place.

I finished my drink, before putting away my phone, and walking out of the shop, towards my apartment, a few blocks north...