[center][img]https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/7f28c785-bb7c-4826-8dbd-4f45a4e28f0c.png[/img]
[color=Peru][b]The Great Artisan, Divine Mason, Builder of Civilisations
Level 5 God of Crafting (Masonry, Carpentry, Smithing, Alchemy, Armaments)[/b]
28.75 Might & 2 Free Points[/color][/center]

Teknall strode across his Workshop to the humming computer. This was the machine coordinating the scouting drones in the Submaterium of Mirus. That was one thing he had figured out: Heartworm's laboratory was almost certainly on Mirus, since that was where all its defences were. Heartworm had been resisting, unsurprisingly, sending out Sculptors and other creatures to destroy the drones. Heartworm was smart enough to arrange its defences to provide minimal clues as to its lab's location, but its physical defences were extremely porous.

Teknall reached out with a finger and touched the computer's terminal. Since the cartographic data was hyperdimensional in nature, the simplest way for Teknall to visualise it was to directly Perceive the data. He had been doing this at regular intervals, monitoring the progress of the scouting drones, ensuring that the computer was operating as expected, and checking for clues as to Heartworm's location. From prior data, Teknall had managed to determine the average hyperdimensional density of the Submaterium tunnels, and thus he was able to estimate his progress in mapping the tunnels of Mirus.

However, the density of Labyrinth tunnels was starting to diverge from what he had previously established for the Submaterium of Mirus. A few of the newer paths seemed less plausible than previously found paths. And the data tasted funny, which was strange, since data shouldn't have a flavour. Yet the cause of these anomalies eluded Teknall's grasp, seeming to writhe out of view whenever he might have gotten close.

This unsettled Teknall. So he decided to inspect the drones in the tunnels. He chose one of the drones and teleported to it. The tunnels seemed normal. The drone seemed to be functioning fine. But as he Perceived the surrounding tunnels, he noticed that something was wrong. The map in the computer didn't match the geography of the tunnels he saw around him.

Worried, Teknall teleported to several other points in the Well Labyrinth which had recently been mapped, and found that the map was inaccurate for those locations too. He stopped when his Perception noted something strange on the ground nearby. It was camouflaged in metallic paint matching the walls and it was barely larger than a pea, but its interaction with divine energy made it difficult for the god to miss. Cautiously, Teknall approached it, stooped down, picked it up with a pair of tweezers, and held it level with his eyes.

Heartworm had laid all manner of physical traps, all effective at killing individual drones but virtually useless at affecting the swarm as a whole. Heartworm had tried laying infohazards, terrible psychic influences dredged up from the Gap, but his system was smart enough to filter out such blatant non-data, so those had been no more effective than the physical traps. Yet this was different.

For one, it was not designed by Heartworm. Teknall always recognised the hand behind a creation, and the functional component of this thing had been made by Lazarus. That explained how the following properties had been implemented so effectively.

The chip had a set of sigils on it, which defined its function. This tiny little sigil responded to other sources of divine energy, in particular the siphons he had built into the drones. Via the siphons, it embedded a kind of secret message into the drones, encoded with offensive counter-data which subverted the regular functioning of the drones, intercepted transmitted data, and propagated on to the main computer. This falsified the data, compromising the integrity of the map, and it also granted remote access and control over the central computer. The digital virus, if it could be called that, was sufficiently subtle in its workings that it could work in secret, virtually undetectable.

Teknall would have been impressed with the cunning design if he wasn't furious at this significant set-back. He teleported around to a few other locations, collecting a few more of the computer virus sigils which had been scattered around, thus verifying that this wasn't an isolated incident. Slipping them into a steel mesh bag then into the safety of his apron pocket, he returned to his Workshop and stormed over to the computer. He laid a hand onto the terminal and focused.

[color=Peru]"Damn it!"[/color]

Knowing exactly what to look for had made finding it much easier, and Teknall was not pleased with what he saw. The virus had firmly established itself into the computer, was rewriting the map at will, and giving false navigational data to the drones. The map had been compromised. The computer would have to be reset, along with the rest of the drones. Not all progress would be lost, for Teknall could reproduce snapshots of the map from memory, but all data obtained since the virus was released would have to be discarded, and since the exact release time of the virus was unknown he'd have to assume a suitable safety margin.

He'd also have to modify the software of both the drones and the main computer to be inoculated against that virus. That should be a tractable task, given that he could reverse engineer the functioning for the virus from the collected sigils then design specific countermeasures. A generalised antivirus might be more desirable, but it would cost more than Teknall could spare, and since Heartworm had to outsource to Lazarus to create this virus Teknall doubted that Heartworm would be able to disseminate a new virus. But the updates would take time, as would resetting all the drones.

All up, this virus had cost Teknall precious time. Keriss and Tauga were en route to Heartworm's lair, and there was now a decent probability that they would get there first. Teknall didn't want to find out whatever scheme Heartworm had surrounding Keriss too late.

Teknall pressed a hand to his beak, rubbed his eyes and moaned in frustration. He couldn't afford set-backs like this.

But, perhaps, there was another way. Teknall only needed to meet Heartworm. Locating its lair would be valuable, but not essential. He had observed that the virus sent data. Teknall sat down in front of the computer's terminal, unfolded a board with an array of buttons labelled with many letters, and began typing words into the digital aether.

>Heartworm, this is Teknall. I know you're listening.
>I found the digital virus you got Lazarus to make for you.
>You've delayed me, but haven't stopped me.
>I can reset the drones, inoculate them, redistribute them across Mirus.
>I can still find you.
>You know I'm hunting you, but you probably don't know why.
>I need to talk to you about what you did to Vakarlon, and what you're going to do to Keriss.
>I'll get my answers one way or the other.
>I'm giving you the chance to choose how.

[hider=Hacker wars continued]
Teknall finds out that he's been hacked. With Lazarus' Secrets Portfolio, the virus was able to elude Teknall's notice until it had caused significant damage to the map (and until Teknall found the physical devices distributing the virus).

Teknall gets really annoyed at this. While he can recover and continue the search, he has been delayed sufficiently that even if he does this there is a reasonable probability that Keriss will get to Heartworm before Teknall's drones can find Heartworm's lab.

However, the virus also sends data, the receiving end of which Teknall assumes to be monitored by Heartworm. He sends Heartworm a message, saying he's caught the virus, telling Heartworm why it's being hunted, and offering to negotiate.

No Might spent.
[/hider]