Zero Ground 7

"What is it, brother?" The Hell Baron Calaxis asked as he stared at the screen in front of him where the appearance of Rajar's headless body was displayed. They were inside a luxurious room presumably one of the hotel suites in Tagaytay. Behind him were two commanders from the Black Marionette Legion. Each face has a vertical yellow paint. They stood motionlessly like mannequins from a store.
   "Have you heard? The rats has made their way here and massacred many of our troops." Rajar says, anger mixing in his voice.
    "I heard about them." Calaxis says grimly. "And their arrivals too. Word travels too fast among the Legion."
     "If that is so, you already know why I've called." Rajar says. If he ever had a face, he would have grinned.
     "Yes, to discuss about that. But I have no slightest idea of what would you have me do."
     "They have captured one of the strategic key locations of this city. The Precinct has fell under their control."
     "Haven't you assigned half of the Legions to the that area?"
     "That's the problem. The defenders has 'chickened' out. The remaining ones have retreated."
     "What would you do to the deserters?" Calaxis asked, interest mixed in his voice.
      "Nothing. We cannot lose more troops against this rodents. They have killed too many of our troops." Rahar says. "And we cannot send more Demons to that Precinct. They have the advantage of shelter and the armaments inside it. It would be a suicide."
    "You're asking for my suggestion?"
    "No," Rajar says. "But I would like to instruct you to lead an ambush against them." Suddenly, another transmission appeared on the bottom left corner of the screen. It displays Kelaes. "Kelaes," Rajar says. "Capture the Humans hiding inside that mall located south of your location. Bring them to the Municipal Hall located in the center of this city. Calaxis, you and your forces hide in waiting and ambush any Protectorates that would show up in the vicinity of the area. Good luck." And the transmission died down.
    Calaxis grinned widely.
                            #

The Precinct was a bloody mess. The wooden desks inside were strewn around, papers from cabinet files were scattered across the floor stained with blood, bodies of numerous men and women in blue were lying down on the white tiled floor, missing a limb or two. Spent bullet casings and bullet holes showed an indication of a brief battle that had taken place inside and the odds were shifted to the attackers' favor, leaving the defenders to their gory deaths.
   Blackshot was soaked in dark crimson blood. He walked across the tiled floor, leaving prints of blood. The monitor screens that were supposed to be connected to the CPUs were shattered. That was their primary objective: to connect to the Precinct's main system and hack the CCTVs to gain information but the problem was they don't have any computers to begin with.
    "Confessor," Blackshot called as he glanced behind. Jemwolf approached him with emotionless face. "We have a problem. Seems like the Demons are playing Scorched Earth tactics."
     "I don't think so, Commander." Jemwolf replied. The Paladin-Confessor walked past him. He ignored the bodies and ruined desks around him as he reached for the blue wooden door ahead. The vertical fluorescent light on the upper left side of the room flickers as he reached the door. "Come inside." Jemwolf beckoned as he turned the knob open and disappeared in the shadows provided by the room.
     Blackshot followed without hesitation. Before he could even stepped inside, Jemwolf had already flicked a switch open and the whole room illuminated. He was greeted with a view of a room with white walls smeared in red handprint. A white board was standing on the left side. Banks of computers were attached on the walls. Ignoring the corpses of two policewoman, the room was not a shattered mess unlike the area before it. Blackshot walked inside. He watched Jemwolf flipped the black office chair upright as he plopped in front of one of the screens. He powered it up and was greeted by a screen of black with green letters scrolling across it.
    "I'm going to hack into the city's mainframe to access the CCTVs." Jemwolf then turned to him. "I need a wingman."
     Blackshot nodded. When it comes to hacking, Jemwolf is the best Protectorate for it despite the fact that he was born in an era where computers do not exist. Blackshot would be the second best. He flipped the seat and sat on it. He activated one of the computers and was greeted by the same view Jemwolf have on his display.
    "Before we start," he paused as he glanced at Blackshot. "Have you positioned the sentries outside?"
     "Yes, sir. Jeth is in charge of guarding the Mess Hall. He was with JP. JJ and Strike Team November were guarding the room outside and Strike Team Juliet was barricaded outside the Precinct."
      "Finally, some good news." Jemwolf muttered as he kicked the ground and let the chair wheel him to the nearest computer machine with six sets of small monitors. He flicked a red switch, pressed three buttons and turned a dial in a clockwise motion. The screens immediately crackled to life, displaying the important rooms of the Precinct.
   In the Mess Hall, JP and Jeth can be seen chatting with each other while chomping on hamburgers and chicken legs. The entrance displays the rest of Strike Team Juliet, aiming outwards. The third screen shows them working in the computer screens. The fourth screen displays JJ and Strike Team November posted just outside of their room. The fifth and sixth room shows the briefing room and the garage, bloodied and ruined as if a wild animal was set loose and rampaged. Strike Team Oscar on the other hand, were sent to perimeter patrols just outside the Precinct.
     "Oscar Team Leader, report." Jemwolf says over the earpiece. Blackshot could hear it but he ignores it as he typed in strings of code.
     "Protectorate Stonesharp, reporting in, sir. We detected no Demonic activity so far."
     "Good." Said Jemwolf as he wheeled to his previous place. He typed in a series of codes and the computer chimed. "I'm online."
     "Me too." Blackshot says as he typed in another set of codes. "Firewalls are activated, IP VPNs are online as well. That should hide our digital print."
     "I'm going to install Tor 3.0 in my computer. I suggest you do the same."
     "We ain't gonna browse the Black Net, sir." Blackshot says.
     "I said Tor 3.0, not the older versions, you idjit. But regardless of the version, it still allows us to browse the surface web while maintaining anonymity. Anyway I'm going to pass a program to your Tacticomp. The Demons will have a hard time tracking us down. 1.0 and 2.0 doesn't have that feature."
     "What do you mean?"
     "Hell has hackers too. The Unknown Global Hackers Group created 'this' to aid Ordo Militae of the Church and the Security Watch when it comes to tracking down Demonic targets or cultists in the Black Net. 1.0 and 2.0 are vulnerable to the Demons' supercomputers but the 3.0 was impenetrable. So yeah."
    "Frickin awesome." Blackshot muttered as Jemwolf opened his chest compartment and retrieved a wire of USB port. He connected it to his bracer and the bottom left side of the computer. He tapped the screen four times and then typed a few letters in the computer. It chimed once more and Jemwolf grinned. "Tor online." He typed a couple of strings and then he informed Blackshot that the Firewall and the IP VPNs are in place.
    While Tor's newest version itself has a VPN program built in, it doesn't hurt to add more VPNs to it to confuse any Backtracking programs to find them. Even Reverse DNS poisoning would make it impossible for them to be found.
     Blackshot's Tacticomp mounted on his bracer chimed. He mimicked the same course of action that Jemwolf did as he installed the program and reported that it was installed.
     "What would happen if I spammed the net's traffic?" Blackshot asked, grinning.
      "What do you mean?"
      "You know, Denial of Service attack?" Blackshot was referring to spamming the system's main network by pinging it with multiple computers, a resource available to him.
      "Don't try anything stupid. We're only here to access the CCTVs. We are hacking it because we do not have any password to the mainframe system."
     "But that would disable the security!"
     "And so the computers around us. So, no you can't."
     With a grunt, Blackshot typed in a series of codes.
     "-ping -l 650000 -w," he typed aloud before hitting enter. The computer replied with a response that satisfies him. "The net is online, sir. I've pinged 192.0.0.1"
    "Why are you pinging your own computer?" Jemwolf asked.
    "I connected it to the net. I want to make sure if my computer is inside or not."
     Jemwolf shook his head as he typed more. Blackshot typed in 'dir' and the words 'C:/', 'D:/' and 'E:/' appeared. He typed in 'mount E:/' and pressed enter. He typed in 'dir' again and a list of programs crawled downwards on the screen.
    "Looks like somebody's playing Battle Chess in their lunch time!" Blackshot exclaimed as he rubbed his palms together.
    "Oh please, focus on something important." Jemwolf says as he installed an IP Scanner program to the computer. He typed in 'mount c C:/' and entered 'dir'. He typed 'ipscanner.exe' and pressed enter. A graphical interface appeared on the screen with nothing but a black screen and a white horizontal slot where they could enter commands. He typed in 'Scan' and waited as the yellow bar fills itself up to 100 percent.
    "What did you find?" Jemwolf asked.
     "I found the program for the CCTVs in the External Drive but I couldn't access it."
     Jemwolf cursed as his screen goes black. "Wait. I'm gonna try and use nslookup in the computer. Older version of CMD prompt has it." He says as the screen returned back to its previous display. The IP Scanner didn't work because it does not scan the home IP.
    Rather than waste time, he began typing with speed. He pressed nslookup and let the program scan his computer and the network server it was connected in.
     "195.78.45.4" Jemwolf says as he typed in his Tacticomp. "You still have the tcping program I've sent you back in Detroit, right?"
     Blackshot nodded.
     "Open up another computer and install it in."
     Blackshot did what he was told, repeating his actions he did earlier with his previous computer. Jemwolf was busy scanning the IP Address with his Scanner program and the result have brought him with satisfying results.
    "Port 80 is where the SMTP servers are usually located. Port 443 is where the Firewall was connected along with Port 136, Port 125 and Port 178." He glanced at Blackshot. "Eliminate the Firewall Ports with your tcping. I'm going to install Telnet 2.0 that I've found from one of those Hacker Groups we've defeated in Ireland."
   "Yes boss." Blackshot says as he typed a series of codes in the computer. He hooked up his Tacticomp to the computer, activated a program in his small computer above the bracer and suddenly, his vision became black as he connected with his digital avatar inside the computer network.
    "I'm online, sir." Blackshot says as he unconsciously typed 'north'. He typed 'look' and within a second, the view stretches out in front of him.
    He was standing in a gridded ground in white lines. The sky above him was also gridded in white. There are no clouds nor sun but just the empty space of the night. Blackshot's appearance inside was that of the Master Chief's, a video game protagonist from a 2004 Xbox game. It was programmed with a firewall and  IP VPNs that makes the avatar impossible to be tracked down.
    "Scan." He typed. Had he not typed it anytime sooner, his avatar would have been eaten by a Trojan Worm. Green lines outlined it. It was long and big and disgusting, showing a mouth with sharp pointed teeth.
     "What the hell is this thing doing in here?!" Blackshot asked aloud but the question is not directed to Jemwolf.
      "What is it?"
      "A Trojan Worm!"
      "Somebody's watching porn, no doubt." Jemwolf says as he focused back on his work. "Destroy the firewalls, now."
      "Consider Troj Wor." He typed and the details of the enemy scrolled across the screen. It was a Level 1 Virus and can be killed with any weapon. He installed an Antivirus to his digital avatar in the form of an small pistol. He typed 'kill troj wor' and the avatar complied.
    Raising its pistol, the avatar opened fire at the worm. It received three hits that resulted in 30 damages each. The worm strikes back, attempting to devour the avatar but the program jumped to the left, evading the attack. It aimed at the worm while midair and fired. The worm disintegrated slowly.
     'North,' he typed three times, and the avatar jogged to the north, walking past abandoned digital structures. The streets, just like its real world equivalent, was empty but he ignores it as he typed in 'scan'.
   A Warrior wearing Trojan armor appeared from his right. It was armed with a short sword and a tall shield.
   "Kick." He typed and his digital avatar sprinted and sent a flying kick at the Trojan Warrior. The virus raised its shield just as expected but Blackshot's finger was quick as he typed in 'Kill Troj Warr'. He installed a Data Blast Program to his avatar, allowing it to shoot light out of its hand. He typed it as the avatar sent bullets after bullets at the Trojan Warrior. The avatar stretched its left hand and fired; a blast of light obliterated its shield. The avatar raised its pistol and shot the Trojan Warrior in the face at pointblank range.
    With the virus deleted, Blackshot typed in 'North' once more. Then he type two more until he saw a huge flaming wall that stretches from east and west. It stood, twenty feet tall, preventing access to any stray programs, hackers and malicious virus alike.
    "Scan." Blackshot typed and there, he saw a Trojan Worm speeding towards him. Blackshot typed 'Kill Troj' and instantly, the avatar raised its pistol and opened fire thrice. It dodged with a jump to the right, then pivoted to aim at the virus. It fired, and the virus was deleted.
    Blackshot installed the program to his avatar within a series of keyboard typing. He pressed enter and the avatar glowed; left hand increasing in size. He pressed north until the avatar was an inch close to the firewall. If the avatar touches it, the avatar would burn and get deleted.
   "-tcping port 443 -w -l 65500." He typed then the avatar started to beat the living sunlight out of the wall with its huge hand that had transformed suddenly to a ball of huge steel. The ping only took two minutes before the firewall finally gave in.
    "Port 443 is down." Blackshot says. "Run a scan to it again."
    Jemwolf did what Blackshot says and once the scanning is over, the list of open ports reported no Port 443 open. It only means that the port is down.
   Blackshot disconnected his avatar from 443 then moved on to Port 136. The scenery was identical to the last one with white grid line completing the view of the sky and the floor, rectangular structures abandoned at the mercy of loneliness and a few virus crawling around. Blackshot typed north thrice then curiosity piqued in.
    He approached one of the rectangular building, typed 'enter structure' and typed 'look'. He saw texts scroll across the screen as the avatar read chillingly horrifying reports.
    "It was September of 2017." Blackshot read aloud with Jemwolf suddenly moving beside him. "We moved in from the bushes towards the warehouse. The night was clear and the area was quiet. We opened the warehouse and we saw what looks like a lady in a blood stained white gown. Her long hair covers her face. She was standing on the top of a dead man. In an instant, they charged at us...she was here, behind me as I typed. I would like to--" Blackshot frowned because the text ended from there.
    Jemwolf moved back to his computer. "Ignore those files. We need to deactivate those firewalls."
    With a nod, Blackshot maneuvered the avatar back on track. On his way there, he encountered a lone Trojan Warrior. Blackshot typed 'kill' and the avatar started firing. He ordered the avatar to move closer and typed '-tcping Trojan Warrior -l 65500 -w' and the avatar endlessly crushed the virus until it was reduced into snippets of letters and numbers. He continued running north, but the avatar encountered another Trojan Worm. Blackshot typed kill, fired at the worm thrice, dodged then fired again. It dies.
   The avatar then started crushing the shield.

The process repeated until all firewalls were closed. Jemwolf scanned and the list of ports reported no firewalls present. With that, he was satisfied. He typed a series of codes and the computer chimed. Telnet 2.0 was online. He typed the targeted IP and within seconds, he was inside the server.
    "Port 67," Jemwolf says. "Fire the tcping at Port 67. Do not override it manually just like what you did with the Firewalls. It was far too dangerous."
    Blackshot nodded as he typed '-tcping 195.78.45.4:67 -l 65500 -w' and pressed enter. He typed the same thing to the other computer and within seconds, the Port died when Jemwolf scanned it to a separate computer that he had activated while Blackshot is jacked in.
    Jemwolf accessed Port 67 and suddenly, he was brought to a graphical interface of a website's log in security.
    Jemwolf uploaded a Bob the Ripper program to the computer. Run it as he typed the /index to the url bar along side the address of the website. Soon, he accessed the website's internal files. He navigated buttons after buttons until he found a string of MD5 Hash. He copied it and pasted it to the Bob the Ripper Program where he waited as the program decodes it. The computer chimed once more as he found the username and the password.
    He copied it and pasted it to the text slots. He pressed enter and within a few seconds, the Hacker Protectorates were rewarded with the view of the CCTVs connected across the cities.
    Jemwolf stood from his seat as he reached for the huge tv screens above the banks of computers. He switched each monitors on, greeted by a view of blue blank screen. Jemwolf sat and typed briefly and within seconds, the tv screens crackled to life as they began streaming data.
   "Bingo." Jemwolf says.