Technobabel
A MEGA BYTE BLOW-OUT IN 21ST CENTURY
BOSTON
He awoke in a body bag, his brain fried,
a
black hole where his memory should be. If not for the cool carbon-fiber blade concealed in the bones of his arm, he would’ve been dead for sure. But Michael Bishop—a.k.a. Babel, messiah of the Matrix—is back in the game.
Renraku Computer Systems has defied the accords of the
And
a doorway to the future—and signs of a corp war looming on the horizon—one that could destroy the technoworld and beyond...forever.
FLESH CRASH!
"What do you want?" I ask as the ghoul and I circle each other, each looking for an opening. He doesn’t reply, only snarls and bares his teeth at me.
My mind races, looking for an explanation of the attack while I defend myself.
The ghoul steps in at me again and a jab of my blade keeps him at bay. I hear one of the other warriors cry out in agony and the sickening sound of splintering bone. I look toward the sound and away from my opponent. Only for a split second, but it is long enough.
A wiry body crashes into me and bears us both to the ground, pinning my arms. I struggle to bring my arm-spur to bear against the savage ghoul, but I don’t have the leverage this time. He knows to avoid it now. The cold concrete floor comes up in a rush and the wind is knocked out of me, leaving my sore lungs gasping for breath. Something hard and metal hits the side of my head. I taste blood in my mouth and see stars before everything fades and goes black, like a computer switched off. Total shutdown....
SHADOWRUN :
31
TECHNOBABEL
Stephen Kenson
To Christopher, for everything
There are many people who helped in the creation of this book who I would like to thank. Thanks go to Bob Silverman for helping me make the jump to doing this novel; Mike Mulvihill for giving me a shot and developing some great Shadowrun storylines to work with; Donna Ippolito for giving an untried novelist a chance; my fellow authors Mel Odom and Jak Koke for their invaluable advice; FASA’s extraordinary editorial staff for making me look better than I am; my family and friends for putting up with me and encouraging me; and, lastly, Tom Dowd, Paul Hume, and Bob Charrette for creating such a cool world to play in. Thanks, everyone, I couldn’t have done it without you.
The
year
is
2059
. . .
Magic has returned to the world after an absence of thousands of years. What the Mayan calendar called the Fifth World has given way to the Sixth, a new cycle of magic, marked by the waking of the great dragon Ryumyo in the year 2011. The Sixth World is an age of magic and high technology.
The age of Shadowrun.
The rising magic has caused the Earth to Awaken. The ancient races have re-emerged, throwing off their human guises. First
came
the elves and dwarfs, born to human parents. Then came the orks and the trolls, some born
different
like the elves and dwarfs, others transformed, twisted from human form into their true selves as the rising magic activated their DNA. Dragons and other creatures out of fantasy appeared in the skies and in the wilderness. Unknown to the people of the twenty-first century, some of these folk and creatures out of fantasy recall an earlier world where magic reigned supreme, long before the earliest of recorded history. They know secrets that make them powerful in this new Age of Magic.
The Sixth World is a strange blend of the arcane and the technological. The march of technology has become a race. The distinction between man and machine is blurred by the power of cybertechnology. Machine and computer implants are commonplace, a mating of flesh and machine. People of the Sixth World are a new breed; stronger, smarter, faster.
Less human.
The Matrix has emerged like a phoenix from the ashes of the old global computer network. A virtual world of computer-generated reality, a universe of electrons controlled and manipulated by those with the fastest cyberdecks and the hottest new code. In this world is stored all of the information hidden behind powerful data fortresses just waiting to be liberated by pirate computer users, deckers, who glide like shadows through the corporate and governmental databases.
It is an era where information is power, where data and money are one and the same. Multinational megacorporations have replaced governments as the true superpowers. In a world where cities have grown together in sprawling megaplexes of concrete and steel, walled-off corporate enclaves and arcologies are the modern castles from which corporate executives control masses of wageslaves for the profit of a lucky and ruthless few.
But in the shadows of the corporate giants there are the SINless. Those without System Identification Numbers are not recognized by the machinery of society, by the bureaucracy so massive and complex that nobody understands it completely. Among the SINless are the shadowrunners, traffickers in stolen data and hot information, mercenaries of the street—discreet, effective, and untraceable. They are the agents of the corporations that battle for power and control in the concrete jungles.
In the depths of the Matrix, strange new forces stir, beyond the knowing of any of the millions of people who access the vast network each day. The dealings of a powerful inventor from a forgotten age of magic and a multinational corporation with dreams of domination over the world market draw the attention of powers unknown to either. A new faction has entered the struggle of the Sixth World that is neither magic nor machine, but something else
entirely ...
The
Matrix
is
a
computer-generated,
symbolic
representation
of
the
grid,
the
world
information
network
.
Instead
of
dealing
with
messy
manual
commands
and
procedures,
the
cyberdeck
lets
the
user
perform
apparently
real
actions
in
cyberspace
and
then
translates
them
into
system
operations
.
A
person
in
the
Matrix
reaches
out
and
touches
the
symbol
representing
a
file
.
The
deck’s
software
knows
the
user
wants
to
open
that
file
.
The
machine
performs
all
of
the
operations,
freeing
the
user
from
the
tedious
task
of
having
to
enter
those
commands
manually
.
Matrix
imagery
is
imposed
on
the
user
by
the
grid
in
a
"
consensual
hallucination
,"
to
use
Dr
.
Hikita’s
term
.
It’s
no
more
an
ultimate
reality
than
an
animated
vid-chip
.
These
are
computer-generated,
graphic
images
.
The
systems
and
the
functions
those
images
represent
are
real,
but
the
images
are
just
that
.
They
have
no
reality
.
—Dr. William Spheris, noted expert on Matrix design, from a tridcast interview on
People
to
People,
June 12, 2049.
Not
real?
Not
real
!
?
Looks
to
me
like
the
doc’s
never
done
a
run
.
I’m
tellin’ you,
when
you’re
dartin’
through
the
peaks
of
Mitsuhama's
L
.
A
.
mainframe
shaggin’
combat
systems
that
are
doin’
their
bangest
to
roast
you
alive,
plus
you’re
prayin’
to
Ghost
your
deck
doesn’t
melt
in
your
lap
cause
you
got
stupid,
and
you
looks
up
and
there
in
front
a
you
is
Death
himself
jacked
in
by
the
corp
to
rip
your
soul
...
babes,
that’s
reality
.