Abyssnet VortexEye Forum post: The Delver's Guide to MALware Hunting

So you're doing it, committing to a full deep-dive past the limited faculties of your Neuroframe's Net Access and creating an Avatar to explore the depths of the Net. This little handy guide of mine is to talk about one specific threat you'll face. The MAL, and more specifically... MALware.

Dive deep enough, and you'll find them no matter how much the Framework and NeoCore Sentinels try their best to eliminate them. Fortunately for you, MALware hunting is a lucrative business if you're willing to share the Warpcode you harvest off them.

Now, step one is to ensure you're only connected to whatever Net-Port you're using for the dive. Do not stay connected to your fridge, lighting or anything. Or else the MALware could creep through your tether and become a Gear-Glutton by corrupting those appliances and slaughter you in the physical world while your Avatar suddenly has to deal with the fact that it no longer has a brain feeding it Warp Energy. It's a slow death, and a painful one.

You can never escape.

Now, while we're on this topic, let's discuss the three Variants of MALware.

Data-Devourers: These MAL are the ones you should be facing off, you'll find them in various forms. Sometimes animalistic, other times as living embodiments of stuff. Really, they can be anything. You'll want a great DataShield to act as a buffer, because if they hurt you and draw Warpcode off your Avatar they'll heal from any damage you put on them while growing stronger.

Fractured: Rare, but sometimes you'll find someone whose been turned into a digital MAL by way of suffering too much damage to their Implant. This is why you don't overexert your Implant past its limits.

Gear-Gluttons: This is the form MALware takes when they inhabit a physical form. Upload them into any tech and they'll rearrange its structure like magic to become the MAL we all know and hate.

Breachers: I know I said we'll be discussing three, but Breachers are by all means a rumor. They're the supposed MALware created by fragments of The Allseeing breaching out of the net. Some say that they can take over an Adapter's body and even pretend to be them, it's probably all bullshit, but hey, sounds cool.

October 14th4:32 AM

Diana

Children… being hosts of other consciousnesses, made to turn into MALware. It was Soul Killer all over again, but this time in Warpcode form. I said my words quickly, electricity tingling through my aching body. "We're not letting them die!"

Maiden met my eyes, then nodded before turning to Starlight and Mirage. "One of you needs to safely return the children's minds back into their brains, remove all neural connections on a software level from the Frames. The other needs to move all the MALseeds to—" she scrounged under cabinets and yanked out a cube, quickly hooking it up to the console "—to this containment unit. From what we're seeing, it's Iron MALware with a few Bronzes. Seraphim will keep them asleep in here, but I can't send her into those Frames without risking her becoming MALware."

Starlight nodded excitedly. "Oh, I'll put their minds back in their-"

"No." Mirage interrupted. "I'll handle that, it's fine surgery that takes experience and I'm still Silver. Starlight's Gold, she'll be the least likely to be corrupted if she handles the Seeds directly."

Rubbing her face, Maiden turned to me and Ripley. "You two, disconnect every piece of tech not vital to those kids, physically. I'll create a local Datashield isolating them into this room, but you two have the most important job."

Ripley already sprinted into motion, reaching for various scanners and cameras in the rooms with his claws, they shot out of him with thin golden wires and in moments rendered them inert. Hastily, I shouted. "Can I… overload them?"

"No, even destroyed tech can still be used if a part of it is connected to the mainframe. You have to sever any physical access points!" Maiden's arm burst into wires as her mind disappeared into a realm of code.

Ripley called for me. "You can feel electricity right, just snap anything connected to an outlet!"

So just like when I went paranoid over being spied on in my own house… I cast my senses around, there were so many outlets. Any one of those could allow MALware to burst free into the physical world.

———

Ripley

Elsa shouted in my ear as I tore out a soldering iron from its port. "Shit, one's awakening! I cleaved the mind back into their brain but the Frame's corrupting! Disconnect it!"

A shift of visuals in my lenses oriented to point at a Dreamframe's central computer sparking with Iron light. With my claws sharpened, I sprinted over and tore out the wires, as the metal of the computer began to melt.

Frighteningly quick, the various components of it shifted and condensed into an insect-like shape. Wires formed musculature, metal segmented and every leg formed into a sharp claw. It pounced towards me, the birthed MALware immediately being driven by predatory instincts. I whacked it away, its metallic carapace denting as it bounced across the floor.

"Don't let it touch any tech! Especially not the other Frames!" Elsa shouted, and the insectoid robot almost seemed to want to prove why that was the case. It flung itself into an unused operating bed, iron veins growing over everything metal and ripping free as the insect tripled in size.

Diana landed over it, electricity storming in her arm and sent a dangerous overload of lightning into it. The MALware burst to scrap and the various components of it bubbled into molten goo with a few Iron Shards left in.

"Shit!" Elsa shouted. "There's like, 40 of them here! A few Bronzes too! Starlight?!"

"They're very hot to touch! I'm doing my best, I got 4 in containment!" I heard them shout using my head as a communication highway, while I got to tearing shit apart. Metal flew to the ground, and I quickly moved from one piece of tech to the other. Biomonitors, Shard Operating tools and chairs, especially the combat Shardware connected into analysis consoles and other outlets.

"One's escaped! Camera!" Starlight pointed me to a camera melting down as it sucked wires from the wall and turned into a snake-like monster of metal. If I had my Arachnodyne, I could have torn half of this place apart in a minute. Instead, I shot my Livewire claws into it before it could infect something else.

I yanked it into my grip, stomping my foot onto it as I ripped it in half.

"Attack their core, Ripley!" Diana shouted, as she shot electricity into various mechanisms and tore them out without a touch. She was telekinetic too?!

But yeah, core! I felt it, a vibrant node of Iron settled right behind the lenses it took from the camera. I sent a claw through the glass and speared into it. The MAlware immediately began to melt. With my thoughts thrown around in every direction, I multiplied them.

Thought Multiplier: 'Shardware' X 'Frequency Sync'

Diana

One second, Ripley had torn a metal snake in half, the next he zipped halfway across the room with his claws and took out another MAlware as it began to form. He moved inhumanely, crouching low and bursting forward with startling motion as metal flung into the air.

"Diana!" Starlight boomed from a nearby speaker. "All the scrap on the floor, collect it! Also, destroy this speaker, pretty plea-"

I listened immediately, sending a shock from my hands into the speaker and commanding it to fall down. Then I called it into my hands, before extending my Electromagnetic Domain through the entire room. There was a lot of scrap on the floor, and it was growing rapidly at the pace Ripley was working at.

If a MALware awakened and touched even discarded metal, it would assimilate it — circuitry or not. As much as I wanted to unleash electricity into everything around me to call it up, there were too many kids here trapped within their inert bodies.

They'd die… so I reached for the metal I'd already charged and sent it flowing across the room. It was slow, and took a lot from my mind, but when they touched another piece of scrap it connected my telekinesis to it. Slowly, I began to condense them into a ball.

Soul Resonance quivered my attention behind me, as a dog-like MALware burst from a refrigerator I'd missed. Ripley tackled it moments before it could impact me, his leg powering a sudden burst of force that crushed its torso-contained core. He tossed it's remnants back towards me, and I quickly pooled them into the growing sphere of metal.

Ripley

"What's the progress looking like?!" I shouted out loud.

Elsa got back to me quickly. "Only three kids left, Starlight's moved about half of the MALseeds into the cube and I'll join her as soon as I'm done!"

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Starlight then appeared in my view, a large fishing pole much bigger than her body holding a strung up octagonal shape of fizzing Iron code. "Turns out I'm a natural at this!"

She poked the MALware in her grasp, it snapped out of it's seed looking like an octopus as my head shrieked in pain. "Did you just awaken a MALware inside my head!"

"Oops." Starlight chimed, before poking the MALware again — in an instant, it evaporated into thin lines of muted gray. "There, it's all-"

"Wait, you can destroy them?" I rasped, my eyes burning. "Forget about containing them, destroy them!"

"Oh, okie-dokie!" Starlight disappeared from my view, and quickly I sensed one wild frequency of code snapping away after another.

"Wait!" Elsa screamed in my head. "Don't have her interact with-"

Starlight screamed, and I called the Fishhook immediately to see her gripping the arm of a Bronze mantis-like shape of malicious Warpcode that she was trying to fling away. She had a cut on her finger, it was already healing but there was an unmistakable Golden light flickering in the mantis' body. That Gold shattered along with the Bronze, and Silver was born as a result. The Mantis howled, a greater insight bearing in its gaze as it turned to look at me.

It was in me. Starlight weaved a golden net over the mantis, trying to fling it out of my body but instead it shrunk and wormed deeper in. I shivered, something deeper than flesh inside of me felt twisted as Silver veins erupted on my left Claw. I fought back with an eradicating pulse of Gold, but a change had already occured.

My left ring finger sprouted legs like a centipede. The launch mechanism activated without me telling it to, sending the corrupted finger up into roof where it crawled away like a pesky spider — before tearing off the Livewire connecting it to me.

Then it snuck into a vent. Oh fuck. Pulling up a map, that vent was connected to the room where Dogwhistler's thralls were contained, there was a lot of combat Shardware in there.

My Arachnodyne was there.

Elsa shouted in my ear. "You two! Get that MALware, if it kills any of the bodies there, it could create a lot more of its kind! We're almost done containing the rest, leave it to us!"

Diana turned to me, but I had already shoved the door open. Hurrying up the staircase, I hooked my claws into the above railings and shot up into the next level. When I burst through the door, there was a clump of metal growing in size.

Maiden's shielding disks, Shriekstone-based Shardware, and… my Arachnodyne was feeding into that growing sludge of metal that hardened. It resembled a monkey but with four tails, four tails made of my fucking limbs.

Diana had just barrelled through the door behind me when I'd activated Hypermind. I was tearing what was mine off its stupid body.

———

Diana

Ripley had thrown himself above the numerous bedded patients when I entered, his Gold accelerating at a pace I'd seen only once before. The R0N1N. His limbs buckled and tore into the half-sludge ape-like MAL. Metal tossing to the floor as he unleashed a razing assault from his claws like a wild beast.

I moved into position, grabbing my Leizhou and charging it up. I waited for an opening as Ripley dodged under a tail-whip from four directions with frightening precision, then I shot. The blue streak struck into the MALs arm, and I tugged at it with my domain.

It snapped free like I wasn't even there, Silver energy unmoved, resolute and hardened. Like Earth. I'd never seen Ripley so pissed off before, he moved maniacally as he bounced off the wall and struck a kick into the MAL's side. A gray haze interrupted his blow, and I felt a wrapping of electromagnetic force toss him aside.

Two tails scythed from opposite directions to pincer him, a death blow.

I switched weapons.

Ripley

Fast as I could be, I had a serious lack of weaponry. No Arachnodyne, no chain-blades, and my smg was never going to get through that MALware's plating. Only my Claws were effective, but this was a Silver-Grade…

Just one Grade below the one that tore our club apart… as for its Tier, I had to guess it was Tier I. But a MAL was never fit to compare against a human.

Two of my own Arachnodyne struck from my sides, but then a thunderous blow impacted it from the back. It was like a shotgun blast that crumpled through it's back and flung it's weight onto me. We impacted a wall, and barely milliseconds passed before fangs mercilessly aimed to rip into my throat.

I lodged my fingers in between, hearing the scrape of metal blur out my raging heartbeat as I dragged the claws down it's jaw and gullet. MALware weren't built according to engineering, they were chaotic mechanisms that perverted all sense and logic to just be machines of predation.

I tore out down to it's abdomen — what would have been fatal for a human — but before I could grab it's Core, a sonic barrage of weight and pressure slammed me into a wall. I engaged my knee's mantis-blades, keeping me upright as blood trickled down my ears and vertigo tilted my sense of space.

My ears were ringing.

I wasn't sure what attack was coming next, but I felt electricity burn into my Shardware. The mechanical ape was torn off me, Diana yanking it by one of it's tails. A second one dug into her leg, a third pierced her arm and the fourth went for her head.

I dove myself right into that mess. Just barely keeping her from dying as it instead pierced my left forearm, electricity consumed me and fed me a bright rage. One I wielded whole heartedly as I cracked the flooring beneath us with a violent sonic pulse.

We crashed back into the wall, and I switched Modules.

Hammer Module Selected: [2B] Overclock/Overclock

Some of Diana's Fire remained in me, and that was what I needed. My fist cracked into it's chest, then again and again as long as it's shielding was inactive. I punched so hard, the wall behind us broke even though it's body hadn't and we barelled down into the staircase.

It's tails flipped us over, leaving me stuck in the rubble before Diana came launching in again as she wrapped her arms around it's neck and sent a shock of lightning through it. That lightning surged into me as well, but I let it spark my nerves into action.

With her still gripping it, I leveraged my strength to tear one its arms off and throw its body away. Its claws palmed the concrete of a wall, before that haze encroached over its body as a veil, then it glided up the surface.

Like… like the wall was made of ice. It curved around the roof and struck from its tails. Javelin-like shots with thin gold wiring launching down at us, Diana took one of them through her forearm while dodging the other, Hypermind let me swerve against both.

That was my fucking signature attack!

Thought Multiplier: 'Arachnodyne' X 'Monkey'

I didn't know a whole lot about monkeys other than when I watched Tarzan with Elsa, but just being able to visualize their capabilities helped. It sure moved like one, long limbs stretching it across the staircase as we half-chased it and evaded it.

Swinging around a railing, Diana took what had to be the third arm impaling and shocked it once more. That was the moment it's shielding went offline.

I struck it with my claws, digging into it's chest — but without even moving, it's body glided backwards… the fuck was this? Some zero-friction movement appliance of Shriekstone?

I had to figure that out.

Another sonic wave erupted from it's body, my ears were already ringing enough, but Diana flinched back and it's shielding returned. We were both in terrible shape, exhausted and facing an enemy that didn't care how much we damaged it.

Wires and plating refit to mold over all it's wounds, but we wouldn't stop.

Diana

Seriously, what the fuck was this thing made out of! What was Ripley made out of to be able to actually dent it? My arms sealed up and my ears stopped bleeding soon enough, but he charged through even with mangled limbs. The higher the Grade of the MAL, the more intelligent it was, now I could see it.

Irons and Bronzes rarely had a preservation instinct, but this Silver dodged and used the railings of the staircase to better reposition itself. I could barely keep track of it, especially when it started skating on the walls.

Not to mention those tails, they were Ripley's Arachne. I recognized that now, and were more than capable of ripping us to shreds. He launched five of his fingers out as it began to glide over the roof, succesfully hooking two of them in and halting it as those bladed mantis-like legs secured him in place.

"Electrocute my wires, now!" He screamed, and I took charge. Literally shocking my body as I grabbed the golden wires and sent a storm of electricity into them. Ripley screamed, but whatever I'd done gave his wires the strength to pull the MAL towards us.

Reacting, I shot up and met it halfway, grabbing onto one of it's tails and pulling the opposite direction. It snapped right off, and I charged it in a familiar fashion. The damned thing was already striking against Ripley, so I launched the javelin right into it.

It staggered back as scrap blew out from the impaling impat, and Ripley grabbed the Arachne-javelin and pulsed his Energy through it, immediately causing it to change shape. And turn it's tip into a blade. He dragged it down and deep into the MAL's body, to where I sensed the Core was by it's navel, but a vicious thrashing launched him aside as one of his arms tore off.

Coughing blood, I released all the force of the kinetic impacts I'd been taking into one last burst of movement as my Energy faded to embers. I yanked the impaled limb, and seethed out a cold gust of air as I turned my body heat into the last bit of electricity I could.

And commanded it to slice the blade just several inches deeper. The beastly machine tried to snap at me, but light faded from it halfway. A good thing, because I was already falling onto my knees as my blood went cold.

Metal bubbled and frothed around me… as the worst day ever finally came to an end.

———

Ripley

Oh thank fuck that thing was dead. Just barely nudging myself forward on sparking knees, I got ample sight to view the MAL's disintegration. From head to toe occurred an instant deneration of instruction from the warped metal as it lost shape and purpose, melting away.

And my Arachnodyne melted with it. Those beautiful angular joints all became synonymous to silver-colored sludge and my throat held back a gut-torn scream. My heart would need to be replaced after this… as only the Livewire, a few Silver Shards, and a pristine orb remained after all was said and done. I slapped my hand onto the sludge, Diana groaning as bits of it splashed onto her.

"Do you fucking mind, man!" She rolled away from me.

"I just had my damn heart and soul melt in front of my eyes, okay!' I protested, collapsing onto my knees.

"Then build a new one!" She groaned so easily.

"You have any idea how much it cost to make it!" I shouted, grabbing my broken left arm and… I didn't even have the Energy left to repair it so I just tossed it away. "Oh this day fuckin' sucked!"

"You're telling me?!" Diana met my gaze with tired silver.

"I'm not telling anyone, you bitch. I just-" I let my head fall into my knees, breathing steadily. "Okay… okay, Ripley. Here's what you're gonna do, you're gonna build new and better Shardware. One that a damn monkey can't break."

"This is why having a SIM is better." She said in delirium.

"Yeah, I'd rather have holes in metal than flesh. Unlike you, some people have sanity!" I retrieved my broken arm up to her as evidence. "I can just slap this back on!"

A bitter laugh of challenge echoed through her lips.

"True, but I can tear it off with my mind and zaps." She said with a hint of pride.

"Did you do any of that with the fucking monkey?"

"…not exac-"

"Point proven." I finished, resting my body on the floor as I collapsed next to her, her silver eyes reflecting my wounded expression perfectly to show just how… pathetic I looked at the moment. Like I was having a tantrum.

I coughed, trying to swallow some of the shame I'd brought upon me. "Besides… it was a family heirloom. It was my grandfather's and… my mom helped me make them. The Arachnodyne."

She looked contemplative, her eyes barely open before she smiled and gave the tiniest laugh. "Arachnodyne? Is that what you call it… I like the name. But… can't say I blame you in that case… just wish I could've seen what you could do with it."

"Oh, you will." I hurried on, doing anything to keep my mind off the loss. "Mark Two is coming right up, baby! Faster and stronger."

"Just don't let any monkeys steal it." Diana chuckled through her exhaustion.

"Yeah, and you better get some actual fucking armor on you." I grumbled, before conceding to give her some praise. "But… good fight… you're not half bad."

"Your ass kept on needing saving, Donovick." She pointed out, a drowsy roll of her eyes following. "Does that count for our exchanging who saves who?"

"My ass was missing half of my weaponry. Besides, I threw myself in there just as much as you did to protect your ass."

"I guess… I can give you that much." She sighed, before a hint of amusement came through in her smile. "Yeah. Good fight… not half bad yourself."

Then, for no reason at all, we both began laughing.

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