The Second Crash

Let’s go back for a moment to 2055. Back then, and for quite a few years after, it was never clear how or why the otaku  appeared, but they did and adamantly believed in the existence of something they called the Deep Resonance (a Matrix -dwelling quasi-deity or demiurge, in their eyes). These prodigy children were our future (we call them technomancers  now), and they had a key role to play. In addition to this, unknown to all but a few of us, we had several AI’s  on our hands: Mirage , birthed from the ashes of Echo Mirage ; Morgan, a rogue AI created within Renraku  who escaped as soon as she could with a decked named Dodger ; and Deus , another AI created within Renraku in an attempt to have a pet intelligence to heel, and built using code ripped from Morgan (who henceforth became Megaera , poor broken thing).

Now, to most people none of this meant a thing. Like dragons , none of them (otaku, AI’s) had ever really touched our lives. They would, however, in a very real and brutal way – not once, but several times – between 2059 and 2064.

### Deus’ Agenda

In December of 2059, the Renraku Arcology  in Seattle  went offline for no apparent reason, shut down and otherwise cut off from the rest of the sprawl and the Matrix. Renraku sealed off the area, offering inadequate explanations of malfunctions. As time went by, more and more people (Matrix denizens and regular folk alike) realized that something quite serious was going on in there. It wasn’t revealed until later, after General Colloton  and UCAS troops were called in to take over and begin liberating the arcology, that the AI Deus had taken control and was busily experimenting on its captive audience for its own purposes.

It was a long series of ugly, gory and heartbreaking skirmishes, as well as many a Matrix battle, that eventually saw the end of Deus’s stranglehold. Those who wanted to capture him afterward were disappointed, however, to find that he’d slipped their carefully prepared trap. As it turns out, he’d downloaded himself into the heads of many of his victims, released into the world after they had all been freed. These became part of the Network , which also contained Megaera thanks to the last fight between her and Deus. This would be very important later.

### Perfect Storm

A confluence of actors and events that contributed to the second Crash came together right at the point of Novatech ’sInitial Public Offering . The corporation, deep in debt and hoping to score big enough to dig out of it, had made all the necessary arrangements for its stock to go public. The Boston  Exchange, which had hosted the East Coast Stock Exchange since the Great New York Earthquake, upgraded itself in order to handle the projected high amounts of traffic on its grids from the IPO.

   Deus wanted to take advantage of what promised to be the highest-Matrix-traffic-ever event (how often does a megacorp  take its stock public?) in order to upgrade himself and become a god in the Matrix, purging himself for the remainder of Megaera’s code at the same time.

Meanwhile, Pax  – a formerly devoted otaku servant of Deus – had become twisted through listening to something she’d called the Dissonance , an anti-Deep Resonance phenomenon. She was also undergoing Fading, meaning she was losing her otaku abilities, but she wasn’t going to let them go without a fight. Pax would sacrifice anyone and anything in order to maintain them.

As it happened, Pax partnered up with the radical Norse  cult Winternight , which was happy to help destabilize the Matrix, which they viewed as the primary tool of their enemy Loki . Not only did they plant a home-grown mega-worm but also stole nanotech weaponry from an AA-rated eurocorp called Zeta-ImpChem as part of their plan to bring down Deus and the Matrix. The stolen nanovirus was accidentally released during the infiltration of a Swiss extraterritorial corp zone, killing everyone present but allowing Z-IC to identify the weapon. Z-IC also discovered a work code egg in the nearby mainframe, thus getting the word out regarding Winternight and its potential plans – too late.

Pax and Winternight succeeded. The Dissonance worm triggered on schedule, wrecking havoc as it plowed through the Matrix. The worm’s viral tidal wave struck the Boston ECSE shortly after the launch of the IPO – and right after Deus had erupted into the middle of the virtual trading floor and began his aggressive upgrading. Add in a few key EMP strikes on major Matrix nodes to this massive upheaval and you can see why the whole thing melted down spectacularly and brought everyone and everything along with it. Even the Shadow Matrix  was not completely immune though it was able to sever itself from the rest of the Matrix before too much damage had been done. But it was too late for the rest of us, especially in North America.

As you kids say today, it was completely glitched.

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