Network; @LaurelWreath

[booksandbathtubs]

[Ratio appears on the screen, holding a letter in his hand before turning towards the camera.]

Good evening. I'm Dr. Veritas Ratio.

It seems I've been given an assignment by the Powers that Be of this city. They'd like me to investigate the power called "Umbra". In their letter, it's mentioned that this was possibly used by the Fractured during their recent engagement with the residents.

If anyone who participated in that fight is willing to provide me with any information for this research, please reach out here. If you would prefer a private channel, feel free to contact me here.

Also, this letter mentions something regarding the Nightglow flowers. If you have any experience with these, I would like to speak with you also.

And I'm sure someone will ask, whoever sent this didn't sign their letter.

[He ends the video after that, the feed cutting off.]

Comments

[booksandbathtubs]

There's been plenty of questioning and mental debating.

Let's say that whatever I gather will be edited as I see fit.

[lunardreaming]

Fair.

The people that sent you this really didn't even sign their letter? Huh. That's shady. Or they're in danger, or they're scared of the Fractured.

[booksandbathtubs]

I have experience working with the 'man behind the curtain', so to speak.

Or all of the above. I'm interested to find out why they want this information. But, my interest in learning this is higher.

[lunardreaming]

Guess I can't fault you for wanting to learn. I'm in the same boat.

I fought against the Fractured a bit. Got into their programming, managed to copy some. I can send you what I got, if that'd help.

[booksandbathtubs]

You're welcome to read my report once it's complete. I prefer people learn from my work.

Send it my way. But, how were you able to get in and copy it?

[lunardreaming]

Got a piece of tech called a cyberdeck implanted in my brain. Lets me hack stuff without needing to physically connect. For lighter hacks, anyway. For deeper stuff, hooking up to the actual system works better.

So while a friend fought the Fractured, I dug into its coding. Couldn't get much-- cyberdeck's not working at full power. But even a piece could be useful, I think.

[booksandbathtubs]

[Ratio is intrigued by the idea of this 'cyberdeck' and the abilities it grants Lucy. Sounded like something only a talented hacker (See, Silver Wolf) would be able to do from behind a keyboard.

He'd love to get his hands on one.]

Have you taken a look at the code? I'll take the raw, but I'm curious what you may have found.

[lunardreaming]

[ Lucy sends over 089182.txt, a paste of the small amount of code she'd managed to capture. ]

My best guess is that the Fractured were... being corrupted by a form of Bios gone bad. I've never seen corrupted code like this before, but when I was diving for it, I could sense its Bios. It felt oily.