Pacem Per Tyrranidem

A hacker discovers a Reptilian conspiracy. She can't beat them, but she does join them. Mature.

Four in the morning was a terrible time to be awake. It was when Alyssa worked best. The noise from outside her windows, the endless waves of the city's shore, was quiet, reduced to a ripple when a wayward car meandered through the tight streets. Anyone with sense was sleeping, but Alyssa was searching.

But it was alys_null who was really searching. Alyssa was the young woman, the stringy dark hair, the hunched back, the salty noodles and empty soda cans congealing behind her keyboard and around her monitor. Alys_null was her on the inside, the more accurate approximation of who she was. Alys had no creed and she was not fed by ego. She wasn't looking for fame. She wanted a challenge, and here she had found one.

A program on a computer, an average node in a banking network, was running a peer-to-peer file transfer. Each chunk of the file was copied and sent, and once the 'received' message from the computer at the other end came through, the chunk was deleted. The same program was running on the other computer. The file was stuck in constant motion, scrambled between the two computers.

Incident Report XJA-0425-22

Stranded on an alien planet, a lone explorer devolves into a saurian beast. Explicit.

INCIDENT RECONSTRUCTION LOG

XJA-0425-22

TEXTLOG 01 E.D. 14-02-2553

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Crash site was 60 31'12"N, 113 02'45"W. Traveled at walking pace for 2.5 hours (approximately 12 kilometers) north by northeast. Currently within natural rock formation providing protection from elements. Supplies very limited and possibility of repair minimal. Please send rescue immediately.