Alex Foster chapter 19

Xavier turned and looked at Janus: “Don`t you know? Next week they will pass a law that makes it mandatory for everyone in UCSA to have RFID tag under their skin. You can`t stay there or you will get caught. Janus and Nika, you can stay if you want. Me and other Harlequins are gonna start jamming the system, swapping the codes in RFID tags. Then everyone will appear guilty and the chaos will force them to back up. But you can`t risk being arrested. Do you have a plan where to go?”

“At first to Unschooling Center where I´m working, and then to Wasteland. We don`t know what to do then.” Echelon answered. Janus continued: “And we will go with them. I know it`s not a safe place for Nika, but we need a new start and they need us.” 

The Unschoolin Centre was a huge complex built from cargo containers. The children were taught not only regular school subjects, but also programming, electronics and noetic sciences.  The most important thing, however, was that there was taught independent thinking and learning, collaboration, problem solving and empathy. It was the perfect place to train New Children: children (both Angels and ordinary humans) who were the next step in human evolution. Angels literally, but all children had more compassion, a strong intuition, anxiety from broken systems and a need to create better ones. 

 

I loved the children and hoped I could stay and learn with them, but we had to keep going. At least I knew this world would be in good hands someday. We took Unschooling bus and drived to Wasteland. It was owned by Monsanto, fracking and nuclear power companies. The whole area was almost unlivable:  polluted with radiation and chemicals, full of litter and suffered from drough. The people who lived here, had either refused to join United Corporate States of America, or had been exiled. They were hungry and hard people, suffering from different kinds of illnesses. They didn´t trust outsiders, but they helped those who had the common enemy: the United Corporate States of America.

Forgotten Children 22. chapter

I stood with a gun in my hand, ready to shoot, when I saw a 13 year old boy among the protesters and was shattered. Even though he had a scar in his cheek, from corner of his mouth to his ear, I recognized he was my cousin who had been taken 3 years earlier. But wasn`t he supposed to be in some institute, where people tried to cure him and where he worked for the society? Why he had a scar? What had happened to him? Slowly I started to understand, like fog had withdrawn from my mind.

The truth, which I had always known but refused to see, hit me straight in the face. I dropped my gun and buried my face into my hands, weeping. The other soldiers seemed to understand the same thing, and soon almost all of them had dropped their weapons. Battle, fear and torture was finally over. But what would happen next?

In the following days Angel Friends Society sent interviews of Angels on TV, and in a few days, almost all Americans were on their side. A week later, the authorities finally gave up, resigned and the Angels were freed. Mr. Shadows held a speech in Washington, which was also shown live on TV:

"Last week, we opened our eyes and saw the cruel world, a world where children are sold and kept as slaves. But I know that we will be able to work better. It's time for a new society. Society, which is based on cooperation and democracy, not regulations and control. For society without winners and losers, society where people take care of and respect each other. Never again will any person be regarded as a slave or treated as inferior. Never again will anyone be used as a tool for obtaining money or power. Never again will we close our eyes from the suffering of others, or let fear and hatred blind us. "

Alex Foster chapter 18

The club was crazy. There was half naked, pierced and weirdly dressed people dancing on some song by Blood on the Dance Floor (I regonised it because Frank had used to listen them) and making out with anyone like it was the last day of their life. When I saw their glowing eyes, I realised it might well be.

They had all used some kind of party drug that stopped them from feeling tiredness, hunger or pain, and instead gave them insatiable sexual desire and euphoria. Sometimes they didn`t work and gave unpredicable emotions and aggression, that`s why they were called freakers. Suddenly young man with unnaturally blue eyes came towards us and said grinning: “Wow, you look shiny, Jan! I never thought you were into dress up games!” Janus rolled his eyes, “Shut down your screamer, Xavier. Pigs are after us, we need you and other Harlequins. Can you hide us?”

I raised my hands: “Hey, wait a minute. Who he is? I`m not going to trust a guy I don`t know.” Janus looked away, clearly embarrassed, and started: “He is Xavier, he gave me his sedatives for sex. He was much nicer than other dealers and let me sleep in his apartment, so slowly we get to know each other. I told him my life story and he told me how his parents had sended him to boarding school. He is bisexual and bi-polar, so of course he was bullied, and when he was 15 he had jumped off the rooftop, trying to kill himself.”

“I almost died for cement poisoning. I ended up in coma, brain damaged and most of my bones broken. I was in coma for three months, and during that time they gave me brain implant. It stimulated the repair of brain tissue, and allowed me to control my artificial limbs after I woke up, but as a programmer and hacker I soon figured out other ways to use it. I had lost part of my memory, and of course couldn`t study last two years again, so they simply connected it to computer and downloaded everything to my brain. “,Xavier told.

“When I get out of hospital year later, I started to develop better operation system and internet browser for the implant. With it, I can surf in Internet, make a phone call or send a text message using only my brain. I am also able to “talk” with anyone who has implant silently, inside our minds. Best part is that no one can manipulate you or send messages directly to your brain. The messages go to implant, and you can choose if you want to watch it. I`m currently trying to make an implant that would use quantum entanglement istead of radio waves. It would be impossible to hack it, and you couldn`t pretend to be someone else, even if you knew their private key.”

I stared at him amazed, and I could see that Frank practicaly worshipped him too. Janus wasn`t as pleased, though. “Okay, you can continue your science lesson some other time. We need some safe place to hide from cops, and I would rather have it today.”

Xavier

Alex Foster chapter 17

”Okay, we will go to Combat Zones,but what we are gonna do with A`rya? She can`t go outside with those wings and scorpion spike, we would get caugh immedistely.” Echelon remembered us. I thought about it for a moment and got an idea. ”Hey, are our roleplaying costumes still somewhere? We have to wear cargo jeans, hiking boots, leather jackets and shooting gloves anyway, in case we need to go to Wasteland. Let`s take some knives and bows with us, maybe masks too, and pretend we are going to roleplaying.”

Others agreed, so we changed clothes, packed survival equipment, and took old noisy train to Combat Zones. Before Oil War it was known as New Jersey, but now it was hard to regocnise anymore, the whole state had gone Camden.

The state had had high unemployment rate and lot of debt, and when oil and food prices had skyrocketed and corporations went bankrupt or left the city, the whole state, along with many others, had crashed. USA had tried to save it`s citizens, and went on all-against-all war with China, Russia, and many African and Middle Eastern countries, but though it won some countries it didn`t change anything. Finally in 2046, five years after oil had run out, USA was unable to pay it`s debt or feed it`s citizens. It went bankrupt and sold California and Mid West to multinational corporations, the rest states, with less natural resources but more people, went to China.

Combat Zones was the Edge, border between United America and Wastelands. This was poor, crime ridden area, known by gang violence and low police activity. Only small, unmanned planes and even smaller flying cameras, known as “flies”, watched the area. As we walked to night club called Dancing Devil, I sighed. I had never thought this would be the safest place for me to be.

Alex Foster chapter 16

Six months later, mum got out of jail, I guess she was pitied and actually her only crime was to do nothing. Still, I couldn`t understand how she was able to get custody of Nika, even though Nika didn`t trusted on her even the little bit what he trusted on me, and refused to speak or listen to the mum. In a week, it became clear that it didn`t work. Nika didn`t obey mum at all, and hung out in the city late in the evening unless I asked for him to come home and sometimes in spite of it. Mum still treated me like a ghost, if she didn`t yell to me about Nika`s behavior. 

In the school where I had went for three months, I faced name calling, laughing, spitting and beating for both of us. I didn`t care what they thought of me, they despised me without knowing me, knowing what I had experienced, but I didn`t let them hurt Nika. 

But classmates were not the only ones who gave me black eyes and broken noses and ribs. Mum had of course not stopped running at pubs and brought home the same sick bastards as before, I guess no one else would have even looked at her. Mum thought they were dream-come-true princes and didn`t believed they could have hurt Nika. The matter was not helped by the fact that Nika didn`t say anything, so both at home and at school I tried to defend Nika and tell about bullying and abuse, only to hear that I was a liar and picking a fight. 
  
It was a cruel and cold world, people didn`t care a shit about what happened to the poor brat, and Nika was not able to defend himself. I had to watch when he fucked up his school, and how the scars appeared in his wrists. The worst part, however, was when Nika three months later, in his 12th birthday, appeared late in the evening in my room completely drunk and tried to kiss me. I tried to forget what had happened a year ago, I pushed gently but firmly Nika farther and locked in the bathroom. 

I listened to almost half an hour Nika`s shouting, swearing, crying and confessing his love behind the door, until he finally passed out on the hallway floor. I carried Nika to our room and tucked him in the bed, and I realized that things couldn`t go on like this. When a couple of days later, Alex came to ask Morpheus` contact information and told me about his escape, I knew that it was our only chance to escape this life that wouldn`t lead to anywhere but to the bottom, to dead end from which the only escape is death.

Forgotten children 21. chapter

I looked at the soldiers standing in front of me, but even though they were much better armed than us, I wasn`t afraid. I had nothing to lose, I was ready to die for freedom and better society. For a long time I hadn`t been pure and innocent like Angels usually were.

Seven years ago I had noticed feathers in my back and told my parents, thinking they would help and protect me, but instead they got frightened and took me to the police. My parents had always been ideal citizens: they worked hard with low wage, believed everything they saw on the news, and never questioned anything, not even entertainment or consumerism. Now afterwards my parent`s reaction felt obvious, goverment`s propaganda had blurred their understanding about right and wrong, and they thought they were doing the right thing, though it sounds unbelievable.

I was forced to go to training where they broke our will. We could be for days without food or sleep, and we were beaten and humiliated constantly. That hell lasted for three months, and I thought that nothing could be worse, but I was wrong. After the training I was sold to a local politician who abused me.

When he first time left me lying on the basement floor, crying and bleeding, something broke inside me.  Other people had abandoned and forgotten me for long time ago, but now even I lost myself. After that day I was empty, I just stared in front of me without being able to talk. I didn`t feel anything they did to me, it was like I was lost inside my head.

I wouldn`t have survived for long if other boy, around 14 years old, hadn`t feeded and taken care of me. Finally, probably three months later, we were saved and taken to the Angel City where I had slowly recovered over the years. Still, I would always be broken and could never forget what they have done to me. Now was my time to take revenge.

Alex Foster chapter 7

I was flying with swoop board when I heard security guards running and shooting.I tried to think fast. We had to get in maintenance tunnels, but I didnt have the key and lock picking would take too long. Somehow I need to get rid of guards but they were only "monkeys", low level workers doing their job, they didnt deserve death.

Then I remembered how I had worried that security guards would shoot the gas tank and got an idea. "Hop off!", I shouted to A'rya. "Let's make a fuss!" I threw the swoop board towards guards, and while the board was still mid air, far from guards, I shooted the gas tank. Immediately the hydrogen in tank reacted with oxygen and there was huge explosion. I whistled, no wonder that swoop boards weren't sold to kids. They would fly too fast, crash into wall and explode.

 After the explosion had faded, I could see that the whole tunnel was on fire and heard security guards cursing, but no one sounded to get hurt. We run to the door, I picked the lock (Luckily Frank had teached how to do it) and we get out in less than two minutes.

When we had finally walked to our apartment, we started to disscuss where we would go. Echelon wanted to go to Atlantis where our mother lived, but I couldnt just give up the fight and get away. Eventually we decided to go to Combat Zones. It was far away from downtown, there was really few polices and Janus said he had got friends from there when he had lived there.

I could see he was hiding something.Why he had been in Combat Zones? I remembered it two years ago he had suddenly get away and came back three months later in terrible shape. After that he got clean and joined Liberty Army, but something had changed in him and Nika. It seemed like there was tension between them, and I wanted to know why.

Forgotten children 20. chapter

After the battle was over, we divided into different cars and some left to take the wounded to Angel City. Me, Benjamin, Jeff and his siblings get into same bus with Alex and Lucas. I was suprised  to see them here, even though Lucas had been in the same class with me and Jeff for three years, I didn`t really know him. When Alex had been in our class, he and Lucas had spent all breaks together, and when he got sick, (or so everyone had thought), Lucas became depressed and isolated himself from others. Until I saw Alex today, I had had no idea that he is Angel.

We stayed the night at the California countryside, away from all towns, and waited for other rebels, until the next afternoon the last ones arrived. I was nervous the whole way to Los Angeles, this was much greater than yesterday's protest, and I didn`t thought that everything would go as easily in the future.

Los Angeles looked a lot worse than I had thought. Everywhere was floating smog, illegal immigrants slept on their blankets in graffiti decorated gateways, and car and house windows were broken. All in all, the city looked as if the protest had already taken place, and the walled residential areas in other side of the city were out of this world. 

Nothing happened for hours, and I started to feel bored. Mr. Shadows talked on radio about Federal Reserve Bank and people listened around campfires. It was weird sight, whole downtown of LA was full of busses and camping sites, like Slab City had moved here. When hours passed, it started to feel like the city was ours, like nothing could stop us, until the army attacted next morning.

Cyberpunk manifesto part 3

The System. Centuries-old, existing on principles that hang no more today. A System that has not changed much since the day of its birth. The System is designed to make it easy to accept what it tells you, and to make it hard to filter the Truth from the lies. The System is fascist, the System is deceptive, and the System is bureaucracy. The System is essentially the rule of the institution over the individual.

To persist, the System requires control, and in democratic societies it maintains this control by filtering people's view of reality through corporate-owned mass media and television. In essence, the System requires a form of thought control, but not in the science fiction sense. Instead, it achieves an effective enough manner of thought control by manufacturing consent. The large majority of the public has to "buy in". They have to believe that the news media give them an accurate picture of the world. And by and large, they do believe this. Everything the general public knows about the world, they know through the System.

Note that while some media outlets do actively promote a political agenda of domination and control, on the whole it is not through some grand conspiracy that this process (or any process of the System) functions. It is simply the way mass media is organized. Mass media is a machine that exists as a profit maximizing entity, and the most profitable news (and the cheapest news to produce) is recycled soundbytes and pre-packaged press releases from corporations and government.

Furthermore, people must be insulated from the creative process. They have to forget that they are able to produce craft as individuals independent of large institutions, and they must feel entirely dependent upon the system to provide them with what they need. It is mostly through the violation of this principle that many who work with computers come to free themselves, or at least come to see the System for what it is.

Despite being products of the System (for the most part), computers and the Internet enable humans to create individual works on a global scale: independent media, self-publishing, Free Open Source Software, computer music, computer art and graphics, and so on. Computers also enable independent people to communicate and build human-serving social structures outside of the System.

We fight for freedom of information. We fight for freedom of speech and press. For the freedom to express our thoughts freely, without being persecuted by the system.

Cyberpunk manifesto part 2

Society

 

The Society which surrounds us is clogged with concervacy pulling everything and everybody to itself, while it sinks slowly in the quicksands of time. However doggedly some refuse to believe it, it is obvious that we live in a sick society. The so called reforms which our governments so adeptly use to boast, are nothing else but a little step forward, when a whole jump can be done.

People fear the new and unknown. They prefer the old, the known and checked truths. They are afraid of what the new can bring to them. They are afraid that they can lose what they have. Their fear is so strong that it has proclaimed the revolutional a foe and  the free idea - its weapon.

People must leave this fear behind and go ahead. What's the sense to stick to the little you have now when you can have more tomorrow. Everything they must do is stretch their hands and feel for the new; give freedom to thoughts, ideas, to words.

For centuries each generation has been brought up in a same pattern. Ideals is what everybody follows. Individuality is forgotten. People think in a same way, following the cliche drilled in them in childhood, the cliche-education for all children: And, when someone dares defy authority, he is punished and given as a bad example. "Here is what happens to you when you express your own opinion and deny your teacher's one". Our society is sick and need to be healed. The cure is a change in the system.

Alex Foster chapter 6

I was sitting in the bed when Alex came inside. “What you are doing here?”, I asked. “I came to save you, but I`m not sure how to get you out. I really don`t want to shoot everybody.”,Alex said. “Do you have RFID tag like me?” I remembered that Alex`s colleague had put something in my neck and said they would always know where I am. “Yeah, in my neck. How you will get it out?”

Alex grinned: “I wont, but I can nuke it with microvawes. I`m sorry, this will hurt a lot, but It`s not dangerous.” and took plastic gun from his bag. He shooted my neck and I almost yelled from pain. It felt like my neck was on fire, but three seconds later it was over, and I didn`t have any burn or wound on my neck. “What the hell that was?!”, I hissed.

“I`m sorry, this is not meant to use on humans. This is advanced version from putting your schoolbooks in microvawe oven so you can ditch from school and go play ARG`s in streets, like we did in high school.” Alex said looking embrassed.

I sighed. “Okay, I forgive you, but lets get out of here. Don`say we have to run from here.”

“No we don`t, I have swoop board that Alex built, it`s twice as fast as regular swoop boards. Let`s just hope they don`t shoot the fuel tank or we will be in big trouble, or  should I say, in big explosion.”

Alex Foster chapter 5

Janus had given me the address of Morpheus, who was the admin of Hidden Wiki and also sold illegal weapons and fake ID`s. I didn`t really like him, I mean, I was thankful of his site, and what he wrote about the System was awesome, but I knew he sold guns to assassins who worked for politicians and many corporate owners used his laundry services.

Once I got microwave/laser gun from Morpheus, I started to pack for a getaway. I stuffed my self-built laptop, radiophone, voice changer and money in my backpack when someone knocked the door. “Hi, can me and my brother come with you guys? I really have to get Nika safe from our parents.”, Janus said from the door. Behind him stood skinny 11-year-old boy with light, slightly curly hair, hiding behind his back. In his eyes I saw sadness and pain, but also courage and warmness.

That didn`t suprise me, considering everything he has gone through, but what did was the patience and understanding I saw. That wasn`t too common even in adults, yet alone in a boy his age. Then I understood, he was Angel.

After the “Rebel of Angels” in 2030, Angels had got their civil rigts and no one was kept as slave anymore. Today it was almost impossible to tell who was Angel except from their personality, because of medicine that prevented their wings from growing.

“Of course you can, see you tomorrow here, okay?”

The next day at work I was really nervous. I was sure that my colleagues knew what I was going to do, and that any moment guards would come and arrest me. When it finally was 2pm, I was relieved and left my workplace. I walked down the underground corridors to the locked room where A`rya was kept. Getting into the room was easy, but how I would get her out?

I programmed my first game!

confirm("Are you ready to play?");
var age=prompt("How old are you?");
if (age<18) { console.log("You can play but I take no resbonsibility. Have fun!"); }
else { console.log("Play and have fun!"); }
console.log("Snow White and Batman were hanging out at the bus stop, waiting to go to the shops. There was a sale on and both needed some new threads. You've never really liked Batman. You walk up to him.");
console.log("Batman glares at you.");
var userAnswer=prompt("Are you feeling lucky, punk?");
if (userAnswer==="yes") {console.log("Batman hits you very hard. It's Batman and you're you! Of course Batman wins!");}
else {console.log("You did not say yes to feeling lucky. Good choice! You are a winner in the game of not getting beaten up by Batman.");}
var feedback=prompt("Rate the game 1-10");
if (feedback>7) {console.log("This is just the beginning of my game empire. Stay tuned for more!");}
else {console.log("I slaved away at this game and you gave me that score?! The nerve! Just you wait!");}
What you think about my game? It`s of course very simple, but I only started to learn programming six days ago :)

Cyberpunk manifesto

We are those, the Different. Technological rats, swimming in the ocean of information.

We are the retiring, little kid at school, sitting at the last desk, in the corner of the class room.  We are the teenager everybody considers strange. We are the student hacking computer systems, exploring the depth of his reach. We are the grown-up in the park, sitting on a bench, laptop on his knees, programming the last virtual reality.

We are those that see reality in a different way. Our point of view shows more than ordinary people can see. They see only what is outside, but we see what is inside. That's what we are - realists with the glasses of dreamers.

We are those strange people, almost unknown to the neighborhood. People, indulged in their own thoughts, sitting day after day before the computer, ransacking the net for something. We do not have many friends, only a few with whom we go to parties. Everybody else we know we know on the net. Our real friends are there, on the other side of the line. We know them from our favorite IRC channel, from the News-Groups, from the systems we hang-around.

We are those who don't give a shit about what people think about us, we don't care what we look like or what people talk about us in our absence. The majority of us likes to live in hiding, being unknown to everybody except those few we must inevitably contact with. Others love publicity, they love fame. They are all known in the underground world. Their names are often heard there. But we are all united by one thing - we are Cyberpunks.

Society does not understand us, we are "weird" and "crazy" people in the eyes of the ordinary people who live far from information and free ideas. They deny us for we think like free people, and free thinking is forbidden.

Alex Foster chapter 4

Three days later, when we were playing and eating nachos, I got call from army lab. “What`s wrong? I still have four days off from work”, I asked. “I`m sorry Mr. Foster, but we have problems with hybrid. She is physically and mentally perfectly developed, but refuses to perform her tasks in simulation. Can you come and fix her?” Of course I had no other option than say yes, after all I was still just a student.

 

“Hi..”, I began to ask, until I realised that I didn`t know her name. “What`s your name?”

“I`m A`rya”, she said smirking, which looked pretty scary because of her long, snake-like teeth. “So A`rya, I heard you had problems with commanders. Why you didn`t perform your tasks in simulation?”

 

“Why I would kill man that hasn`t hurt anybody, just because they told me so? I don`t even know who they are, I certainly don`t think they are any better. They may have created me, but they don`t own me, and I don`t have any part in their war.” Then I understood, she was good person, and I didn`t want to turn her into murderer. But she was too intelligent and dangerous that they would let her go. I had to save her.

 

After I left work, I started to figure out what I would need to save her and run away. I already had swoop board, stun gas and hacking programme in USB stick that I could use to open electronic locks, but I needed money and some kind of gun. Money was easy, Frank had lot of BitCoins, so I only had to go to automat that changed BitCoins to cash. Then I went to see our friend Janus, who was Harlequin.

 

In Liberty Army,(that was main group of NTAO25), there was two kinds of members. Pathfinders like Frank, Echelon and I were developing better systems and informing others, while Harlequins were kind of like guards. They protected young members who didn`t yet understand the thruth about surveillance and System, and also activists in demonstrations.

Janus in Harlequin uniform

Alex Foster chapter 3

In high school I met Frank, clumsy and manic nerd, who soon became my best friend. He had had growth spurt in summer and was really awkward with his long arms and legs, but he was also best gamer in NTC and beat even many professional gamers. Maybe he could be world champion, had he not stopped competing only 3 years later, when he got tired of being a celebrity and got interested about game designing.

He still loved playing virtual games, though, and had teach a lot to Echelon and I. Last few moths we had played a game called Underground New York, where players were either members of gang or policies, fighting against each other, while trying to take the lead in own side. Best part of the game was that it wasn`t played only in game site, but around the web and in real life. Frank, Echelon and I were gang members, so in game we take part of street races, tuned up cars, shot policies and run away with swoop boards and motorbikes.

But that was only covert to Serious alternate reality game called Never Trust Anyone Over 25. In Never Trust Anyone Over 25, that was created by organisation called Sustainable, Anonymous and Free Economy (SAFE), players are fighting against abuses of authority, internet surveillance, and developing better systems, such as Project Schools, Resource Economy, Free Press... The players search and share information in Deep Web and Xnet, share music, books, games and programmes for free, and use hacktivism and jamming to defeat NSA.


We also had to look for information in Deep Web, use cheat codes and find clues in mysterious websites and streets, but because of Frank was very talented player and hacker, and we had many friends who helped us, we beat everyone.

 

 

Alex`s apartment in Underground eXperiment. I love that Matrix screensaver!