Victoria Romero - a new home

[Frostpfote]

Sender: Victoria Romero

Recipient: Log:Temp.Infodump

Subject: A bit of information

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Even though the Technocracy does their own research on my background, I'll write a summary of things here, even if it'll most likely be a bit tainted by my view.

I was born on Rochester station in New York. Both of my parents had been Hackers themselves even before they met for the first time. Born into a family such as this determined that I would follow in their steps, learning how to code and writing my own programs as soon as I could read. Most of my early years was spent on Mactan, where I got to enhance my skills alongside some of the best Hackers the Sirius sector had to offer. I did get myself into trouble with the authorities on occasion, but cleansing my official records of such minor offenses was a rather easy feat.

My parents both retired from their lives as criminals once I got my hand on my very own "Transgressor"-class bomber. Most of my funds went into customizing it with a more powerful engine and long range scanner arrays that most likely count as top of the line equipment to this very day. While the civilian sector often finds itself content with the stock models they buy off vendors, a Hacker's relation to their ship goes far beyond that. It's a blank canvas that waits to be altered, improved and expanded upon, turning each vessel into a unique and highly specialised tool for whatever the pilot intended it to fulfill.

I rarely engaged in open combat, knowing that these brute tasks are better fulfilled by Rogues, Outcasts and other groups with a more hands-on approach. However, experiences are there to be made, and so I found myself accompanying groups of raiders within Liberty. A vessel was stopped, threatened, and we demanded the usual bunch of valuable cargo or credits. Perhaps I have double standards in those regards, but I never intended for the victims to be hurt physically, even if they wore corpo badges. They're merely part of a system that exploits the lower class, and I was the one to lighten their bank accounts. The hard working individuals wouldn't feel a thing if they cooperated, and it was the corpos that ultimately noticed the impact in their monthly revenue.

I won't claim that I was able to abide by the Hackers' standards and keep utmost secrecy of everything. It was … a rush of adrenaline everytime we successfully 'subtracted' some credits for those that needed it far more then Universal, Ageira and the likes. I had noticed a steady decline in my overall health, making me feel even more addicted to these highs caused by doing, in my eyes, the right thing. At some point however, the burdens of this seemingly never ending sickness became so overwhelming that I simply had to get myself thoroughly checked after denying it such a long time.

You can imagine my face when instead of receiving some pills I was told to enjoy my last few months. It wasn't a bad case of the flu, or an irritated nerve, but something much more … terminal. A case of extremely aggressive cancer that had spread itself across my entire spine, having reached a state that made it financially irresponsible to treat just to save a singular life. I tried to shrug it off, but it changed something for me. Rather than fighting for those that needed it, suddenly it was me who needed help. I began wiring my cut of the payouts towards buying small amounts of medication and the beginning of my new project.

Knowing that every day in your life is suddenly so much more valuable really makes you think twice about what you do. For me it enhanced my interest in artificial intelligences, and the rare cases of these developing a sense of self-awareness. If my current body gives up on me, perhaps a new one, entirely void of the limits a biological vessel puts on you might provide a glimmer of hope to beat cancer in a more unusual way.

This intense focus on my own survival was perhaps what got me in the most trouble I've ever been. The greed of fighting for, quite literally, my own survival, made me greedy. Always trying to catch up with another convoy, intercept another transport with valuable goods et cetera. The LSF might not be good at enforcing the law fairly, but they certainly know how to take advantage of an opponent that gets comfortable, or overconfident. It is what eventually happened to me. We were attempting to ambush yet another convoy on the lane between the New York jumpgate and planet Houston in Texas, given the decent distance from West Point. An unflagged shipment eventually came through in an armored transport - nothing unusual at all, these are usually high value targets that use slightly more advanced methods to mask their shipping details.

Upon stopping the transport however, our systems were suddenly jammed by the transport itself which should usually only be lightly armed. A group of ten LSF fighters emerged from the North Dallas Debris Field, something I would have picked up on if I had paid enough attention before our scanners got jammed. My escort of a group of Rogue fighters was quickly dispatched, leaving only me. I was sure that I was done for upon my ship alerting me about at least three target locks on my vessel. However this wouldn't be the end of it, as I received a transmission from one of the snubcraft, threatening me with termination should I not accept the deal he was about to propose. My life in return for a list of shipping details of Xeno convoys which the LSF had tried to track down for a while.

After a moment of gathering myself and arguing with the officer I eventually agreed to the deal, never planning on actually going through with it. Some might argue that there is no honour amongst thieves, but if I have to decide between Xenos and the LSF, then it's clear to me who's going to be left behind. No need to say that the officers didn't take it lightly once they received encrypted coordinates to West Point Academy itself, and I was sure that I would have a much more difficult time going forward. Despite being prepared in some way, I found myself … outclassed for the first time in my life. The sheer amount of agents sent after me ramped up exponentially with each passing day. With my physical state deteriorating more and more it made for an unhealthy combination of circumstances. I tried to make steady progress on my AI-project, but that was often cut short by LSF operatives homing in on my location.

I'll continue this when I have more time on my hands.

-Victoria

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[Frostpfote]

Sender: Victoria Romero

Recipient: Log:Temp.Infodump

Subject: A bit of information

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This is part two of my little writeup, I hope it fills any blanks there may be in my history.

Things didn't exactly go well once I was on the LSF's hitlist. A growing paranoia formed itself, causing me to check the corners of every room I stepped into, inspect my ship before each take off to make sure it hadn't been sabotaged, or be suspicious of everyone that acted even remotely out of their way around me. I wasn't able to raid transports anymore, given that Rogues and others treated me almost like bait, knowing that if they weren't around me the LSF would probably turn a blind eye on them until they located me.

Some weeks after the incident I had finally completed the first phase of my project, namely a partially functioning artificial intelligence able to perform basic tasks and communicate with me on a somewhat fluent basis. Compared to what awaited me though, this was the easy part. The next step would be to further enhance the AI's abilities and eventually induce a sense of self-awareness. I was able to find at least -some- information on how much more intelligent people went about this task before me, but those were often groups of very talented coders with a metric ton more cashflow backing them up. My list of tasks grew more and more: Survive; Learn; Progress.

I was around 22 by the time I had to turn my Transgressor into my main residence. Despite the lack of credits I was able to make it rather liveable aboard the ship, even accounting for my growing disability with physical movements. The cancer hadn't been kind to me at all, turning a regular day into a mission filled with challenges to overcome and struggles to be had. I used to be set on staying within Liberty, given that this was where my parents lived and where I had learned the location of valuable hideouts over the years. Yet at some point even decisions believed to be set in stone have to be reconsidered. Diminishing progress on my project, growing pain due to the tumors and the lack of knowledge to complete my goal in time were the main reasons that cultivated my interest for the Technocracy.

What I didn't expect was how difficult it would be to gather information about the organisation. Few reports about encounters with their members had ever been published, with even less of them containing more information than a simple scanner signature in the distance. I would usually indulge in the occasional mystery hunt, but in this case time was a finite resource which I was running low on. Inverness could be isolated as the home system, with a rough estimate of where the main base of operations of the Technocracy was located. My parents had grown accustomed to the lack of communication from my side, luckily being very understanding of the matter. I hadn't planned on saying goodbye forever, and I still intend on meeting them again when the situation has calmed down.

The journey to Inverness was rather peaceful, all things considered. I didn't run into anyone actually, although I have to mention that I wasn't exactly keen on that either. Around three days after my departure from New York I had arrived in Inverness, with a desperate desire for some shut-eye. Freeport fourteen was the perfect location to rent a room with a -proper- bed and located far enough outside the LSF's direct grasp to be a little less paranoid. Coincidentally I found two members of the Technocracy chatting outside of the Freeport. It was definitely a surprising turn of events considering that I had expected to be searching for an encounter for at least a few days before establishing first contact.

Bandit and Yoruha were the two individuals present. Another hacker with the callsign 'Firebolt' had found her way there shortly after, being on the lookout for some anomaly that I still couldn't wrap my head around. Once the initial confusion had worn off we were able to have a decent conversation, setting ourselves up for a future meeting with relative ease. Both were quite wary of me, but that's to be expected from their position. Trouble with the LSF alongside a dying interest in the Technocracy never pairs well, but Bandit seemed almost unreasonably understanding of my current situation.

I suppose this is where I can end the tale. With this you know pretty much everything there is to know about me. Should there still be questions left unanswered I'll of course get to them in due time.

-Victoria

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