292 Good Living

He hadn't yet named this place, but as far as he was concerned it didn't need a name, what it is should be self-explanatory. The nanites had already eaten half a mile into the ground, all of which was now part of the Collective, which essentially meant he had a million factories ready to start building under his very feet.

The standard of living in this place was stupidly high, what they'd stolen from the Biotechnica protein farms had been used to help build artificial greenhouses for almost any fruit or vegetable... More than that, the Collective was even able to 'grow' meat, from beef, to pork, to chicken, to fish. It partly reminded him of that ancient show, Startruck or something? Startrek? Hell, if someone wanted to they could have the Collective grow human flesh for them.

The few refugees brave enough to try their luck from NC had thought they died and went to heaven... Luxury apartments, any tech, the best food and drinks... The biggest problem his new settlement was having was people getting bored...

The Aldecaldos had dropped off Falco and Sasha after the attack on NC was done, but after a couple days the Nomad group started travelling again, deciding that paradise, or the closest thing to it didn't suit them.

Sure, they were planning to use the place as a hub of sort, but their decision still surprised him. His friends were pretty much all adrenaline junkies and couldn't sit still for long, so they'd begun heading out with the nomads to kill off any Raffens they find.

Rebecca especially, despite having access to infinite guns, ammo, and explosives looked ready to tear her hair out after a week... There were only so many movies, BDs, and video games you could play before that got boring too.

The only ones who were happy were Lucy, Kiwi, and Sasha, as they spent most of the time on the net regardless. Falco was also semi-satisfied building custom vehicles at his leisure. His current project was an attempt to recreate a classic Camaro. With the nanites basically 3D printing everything he needs, he'd probably be done before the week is up.

Is this was they call 'Suffering from Success'? Because it sure felt like it.

At least he was enjoying himself, that terraforming project had kicked his ass but it was done, a success too given the small bits of greenery growing around the sphere. Genetically modified grass and trees that are resistant to radiation, with access to water will do that.

His current relationship with his family aside, things were looking up... At least Bats was willing to occasionally speak to him...

-----------------------------

Ori was snoring at Rebecca's side at the entrance of the sphere, both lounging in lawn chairs with robots serving them drinks.

*Bang!*

The sound startles him awake as a Corpo spy hits the dirt half a mile away, courtesy of the sphere's inbuilt defences... That was the third one today and it was starting to get annoying to be honest.

"When will those schmucks learn to back the fuck up?" Rebecca grumbles while sipping her martini.

"When they run out of gonks to send." he shrugs.

"Well, it better be soon or we'll pay 'em a visit."

...

"Why're you out here anyway? It's not like you can get a tan." he shoots the question he'd been meaning to ask.

"A girl can dream, can't she? 'Sides, chillin' in the sun kicks ass when you got nothing to do."

"I thought you'd be happy with this? We reached the end game. Any cunt in NC would give their left nut to be here."

"Do I look like I got some to give? You can take the girl outta the game, but you can't take the game outta the girl. It's not like there aren't gonks to kill..."

Before Ori can retort both his and her eyes glow, indicating a call. They answer and Lucy's voice cuts through, sounding more worried than usual... "Guys? We got a problem."

"What's it now?" Ori sighs, "Someone try to print a living sex doll again?"

Rebecca snickers at the mention of it, apparently one of the refugees tried to hit on Lucy and got 'told off' by David. In a fit of spite they tried to print a 'Lucy' of their own. It kinda actually work, except the clone was braindead, that of course meant her heart would never start beating.

Lucy and David threw that guy outta the Sphere before he knew what was happening, which was justified. After that, a rule of 'no cloning' was implemented. Thankfully for some, he did allow 'lifelike' sex toys to be printed...

Lucy's face over the call grimaces, but she shakes her head and continues, "No... Every Runner around got a message from one Alt Cunningham, know who that is?"

"No?""Nope." both answer.

"She was a big name is the Netrunning scene but she eventually went missing. Rumours say Arasaka took her, and apparently they were right. They hit her with soul killer and stored her engram."

"Okay...? What's this matter?"

"It matters because her base programs were stuck in Mikoshi when we destroyed it. Apparently she suspected something like this would happen and created a timed message to be sent out to anyone who could listen... Also, she 'was' the Blackwall."

"Wait, what?" Rebecca questions, confused. "How? I thought the Blackwall was some kinda Netrunner boogey man?"

"Yes and no, it fucked up anyone who tried to go past it, but it also kept out rogue AIs... Without Cunningham, the Blackwall is deteriorating. Netwatch is scrambling to find an alternative, but AIs are already starting to come through. The main NUSA servers were hit by this and it shut down half of their energy sector, soon anyone entering the Net will be at risk of getting fried... It'd be like going beyond the Blackwall."

"So... Everyone's fucked, is what you're saying?" Ori mutters, wondering if he'd unintentionally brought about the apocalypse... The fact he had this line of thought before probably wasn't good for his mental health.

"... Basically. You seriously can't imagine how bad this is for everyone, any system connected to the Net is vulnerable. Security feeds, equipment, Cybernetics, broadcasts," she raises a finger at the sky, "I'm sure the people in the space stations are shitting themselves right now, a single AI in that place and they're done."

"And, what's this mean for us?" Ori asks, their systems were already pretty isolated. The only thing to worry about is the Collective potentially getting attacked. Knock a single line of code outta whack and bam, Gray Goo.

Lucy furrows her brows, a frown marring her lips, "I think it's best we disconnect everything from Net. Not one connection can be left with how quickly this is escalating..."

"What!? What about my shows!?" Rebecca protests.

"Forget about T.V! People will be lucky if they get to keep their lights on! You think news stations can continue with this shit happening!?" Lucy retorts with a growl.