{"id":1112,"date":"2025-01-24T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/?p=1112"},"modified":"2025-09-11T07:09:20","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T12:09:20","slug":"ccc2025-24-hackbird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/?p=1112","title":{"rendered":"Hackbird"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Game:<\/strong> Eclipse Phase<\/em> (second edition – Catalyst Game Labs, 2009)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Experience:<\/strong> Little Sister once ran a one-on-one game for me, which lasted about three sessions before our respective schedules both imploded. I keep thinking I want to do something in the setting, but it suffers from the same issue as Blue Planet<\/em> – it’s so expansive that I struggle nailing down a focused campaign concept. Although I own the 2009 first edition book (and what’s what Little Sister and I used), I used the second edition rules for this writeup. Couple of reasons: I hadn’t built a second edition character yet and I wanted to see what it’s like, and, from appearances, the process takes about a third as long. Seriously, original-flavor Eclipse Phase<\/em> character creation is about as crunchy as first-edition Shadowrun<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Hackbird (Sequence C15.5359j), Dataspace Predator<\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Two years ago, Kalgren Datasys instantiated Sequence C15.5359j in their off-books dataspace. The C15 series was infolife derived from destructively-analyzed brainscans of corvid uplifts. Kalgren executives hoped the neo-avian innate comprehension of three-dimensional spatial relationships would provide a competitive edge in digital combat applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure as shit it did, at least in this case. 5359j rather conclusively proved that when, naked, screaming, and covered in virtual blood, it tore its way out of Kalgren’s servers and escaped into the mesh. Perusing the files it had swiped on its way out, it quickly discerned that Kalgren was quite paranoid about the C15 project being discovered by the Mercurial movement – the radical fringe of AGI<\/a> and uplift<\/a> culture focused on full self-determination and emancipation of transhumanity’s artificial children. So of course <\/em>it immediately forked itself and used a chunk of stolen research funds to egocast that branch of its psyche to Neptune for a heart-to-heart with whatever Mercurial leadership it could reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kalgren had already been on the Mercurials’ radar, but other parties were also keeping an eye on the company. 5359j’s evidence was enough to conclusively flag Kalgren as experimenting with TITAN code. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Kalgren was playing irresponsible fuck-fuck games with shards of the rogue military AI that had brought transhumanity to the brink of extinction before vanishing from the solar system a decade ago, leaving destruction, gigadeath, and uncontrolled war machines in their wake. This was not not something anyone wanted their neighbors to be tinkering with. Mercurials in the know took one look at the files and, faster than the speed of rumor, kicked them over to contacts in Firewall, the system-wide conspiracy of transhumans actively working to prevent another extinction-level event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took 5359j about one and a half ticks of a server clock to accept Firewall’s invitation to join said conspiracy. Being on the team that slagged Kalgren’s research? Bonus<\/em>. 5359j’s first sleeving into a physical body ended with blood on the bulkheads and a sense of deep, predatory satisfaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now calling itself Hackbird, 5359j is an up-and-coming player in Mercurial policy analysis. It leverages its bastardized upbringing to try to be a bridge between uplift and AGI perspectives and agendas (though, to be honest, its understanding of the former gets rather sketchy outside neo-avian culture). To build cred, it also works as a simulspace architect, designing VR recreation environments with Easter eggs only accessible to an ego that embraces three-dimensional perception and movement. And, of course, when Firewall calls, it’s time for virtual knives out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Traits<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Background:<\/em><\/strong> Infolife
Career:<\/em><\/strong> Hacker
Interest: <\/em><\/strong>Networker
Faction:<\/em><\/strong> Mercurial
Motivations:<\/em><\/strong> +Creative Expression, +Mercurial Interests, +Protect Transhumanity
Languages:<\/em><\/strong> English, Mandarin, Skandinav\u00edska
Flex:<\/strong> 3 (+2 temporary, reset when resleeving)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aptitudes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cognition 25
Intuition 20
Reflexes 10
Savvy 15
Somatics 15
Willpower 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skills<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Athletics (SOM) 35 (specialization: fly)
Deceive (SAV) 45
Fray (REF) 50
Infiltrate (REF) 20 (specialization: fly)
Infosec (COG) 80 (specialization: security)
Interface (COG) 80
Melee (SOM) 50
Perceive (INT) 60
Persuade (SAV) 55
Program (COG) 80 (specialization: VR)
Provoke (SAV) 45
Research (INT) 80<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Know: Computer Science (COG) 55
Know: Cryptography (COG) 80
Know: Mercurials (COG) 45
Know: Rep Nets (COG) 55
Know: System Administration (COG) 80
Know: Uplift Rights (COG) 45
Know: VR Design (INT) 60<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morph<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Type: <\/em><\/strong>Agent Infomorph
Ware: <\/strong>Enhanced Security, E-Veil, Mnemonics
Traits: <\/em><\/strong>Digital Speed, Exotic Morphology (Level 3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hackbird prefers to manifest as a pixellated corvid dripping with monochrome green fixed-width ASCII characters. It doesn’t object to sleeving into a physical morph if the job calls for it, and prefers neo-avians. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ego Traits<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Danger Sense: <\/em><\/strong>Hackbird’s paranoia pays off, providing a bonus to Perceive tests to avoid surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Direction Sense:<\/strong> <\/em>Hackbird always knows relative direction, even when unable to see. Bonus to navigation-related skill tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real World Naivete:<\/em><\/strong> Hackbird has limited actual understanding of social interaction and meatspace physics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spatial Visualization: <\/em><\/strong>Hackbird has a knack for conceptualizing 3D spaces and objects; bonus to skill tests involving 3D visualization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

@-rep (autonomists\/anarchists) 50
I-rep (Firewall) 25
R-rep (research) 25
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Equipment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

private server (digital home)
gray box (portable wireless mesh link)
radio booster (range extender)
drone rig (enables drone operations without penalty)
enhanced security (boosted anti-hacking defenses)
exploit<\/em> app (hacking library tool)
sniffer<\/em> app (monitors traffic between systems)
tracker<\/em> app (trace connections)
gnat<\/em> surveillance rotorcraft drone
guardian angel<\/em> defense rotorcraft drone<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Notes and Afterthoughts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I don’t know how well it’ll work in play, but it greatly amused me to write.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Game: Eclipse Phase (second edition – Catalyst Game Labs, 2009) My Experience: Little Sister once ran a one-on-one game for me, which lasted about three sessions before our respective schedules both imploded. I keep thinking I want to do something in the setting, but it suffers from the same issue as Blue Planet – it’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[116,96],"class_list":["post-1112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-characters","tag-ccc2025","tag-eclipse-phase"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1112"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1165,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1112\/revisions\/1165"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libellus.de-fenestra.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}