RNG

[Maric]

((OOC: It should be noted that I can hardly remember a thing from 1995 and was certainly not very much aware of technology trends or cultural norms at the time.  So how much of this is accurate to the time period is anyone's guess.))

Vincent was doodling over the paper in front of him more or less at random.  It was the way he usually rested his mind after concentrating for long periods of time.  "Hey, Vincent!" his roommate Paul called from down the hall, "Where are you?"

"I'm plotting to kill Professor Johnson," Vincent said, as Paul stepped into the dorm, "You want to help?"

"Maybe later, Microsoft's calling you downstairs," Paul said.

"Microsoft?" Vincent said to no one in particular as he got up from his chair and walked out into the hallway.  When he reached the bottom, he picked up the phone.  "Hey, it's Vincent Key, who is this?"

"It's Jeff," came the voice of Jeff Biggins, the leader of the Microsoft Emergency Response Team.  "It's an emergency, we need you jumped into Wolfenstein 3D immediately."

"What's going on?" Vincent asked.

"The internet is down," Jeff said.

"So?" Vincent said, "Nothing ever works the first time.  They'll probably have it up in a few weeks."

"No, it was up, but now it's down.  And the Microsoft HQ is sealed up," Jeff said, "And technically the internet's working fine, it's just that no one can get into any of the GAMEs it's attached to."

"What?" Vincent said, "There's, like, a hundred GAMEs on that network, isn't there?  How could someone be blocking access to the whole thing?  Not even Nintendo has those resources!"

"We don't know!" Jeff said, "Just jump in and help us find out."

"The coordinates for Wolfenstein aren't installed on the PC-GAME system at my college anymore," Vincent said, "But I've still got the disc.  I'll be there once it's done installing."

"We can't wait," Jeff said, "Most of the rest of us are about to jump in right now!  I'll take the other three guys ready and jump, you meet up with the other stragglers and head out with them."

"How many people will I be waiting for?" Vincent asked.

"I think just two," Jeff said, "Including some freelancer Microsoft hired to replace Mike."

"A freelancer?" Vincent asked.  That wasn't Microsoft's style at all.

"Apparently she's got a good track record, plus we're really short on time and it's really important we find out what's going on in there.  Speaking of which, I can't talk any longer.  The dev team will connect Wolfenstein to Flight Simulator, and we'll jump into Realspace inside the HQ from there.  Meet us in Flight Simulator, alright?"

"Got it," Vincent said, but Jeff had already hung up.  Vincent hung up on his end and headed into the basement.  The walls and ceiling were bare, and hanging down from above was the huge and slightly menacing downloader cannon of the PC-GAME system.  The barrel pointed at the center of the room, silent and motionless.  Vincent found the computer the cannon was connected to and powered it on, while looking around the cluttered desk for the Wolfenstein 3D disc.  He didn't like the feel of this mission.  It wasn't the usual in-GAME operation.  It was something with Realspace consequences.  It reminded him too much of his time with Nintendo.

"I hope this goes well," Vincent said, finding the Wolfenstein 3D CD and sliding it into the computer.

[pendarious]

Harry was kicked back at home watching T.V. and enjoying some pizza from Pizza Hutt. He was a fairly laid back guy when it game to his life outside of Microsoft. He was watching a showing of the TRANSFORMERS movie and was enjoying it. Though he was 22 years old he still had a love of cartoons especially the Anime that came out of Japan.

He had just taken another bite of pizza when the phone rang "Fuck" he grumbled around the food in his mouth as he quickly sat the slice back onto the plate he had sitting on the tv dinner tray beside his chair. He got up and walked over to his phone to pick up it up "Allo?" He questioned rather irritably.

"Hello Harry it's Jeff.....listen we need you to jump into Wolfenstein 3D now..." Harry cut him off here "let me guess there is some glitch that you guys are callin us in ta fix?" Jeff sighed "NO it's worse than that The NET's been severed from MICROSOFT HQ we can't access it so wer'e going to meet up in Flight Simulator and return to reality at the HQ" Harry sighed "Allright"

He put his pizza into the fridge and went to his "Office" which was a large room upstairs where he kept his computer and the downloader cannon. He soon booted up his computer and was waiting for Wolfenstein 3D to load up.

[N2O]

Seig hell! Akiola cursed mentally to herself as she waited against a wall in ambush, wondering just how far she'd have to go in this damn dungeon before finally jumping to FS and bumping into both of Microsoft's lackeys. The next time she ever takes up another MS contract she'd be sure to throw punctuality out the window. Everything about this mission bothered her. She wasn't looking forward to finding out exactly what the "we don't know" was behind the broken network connection. She hated the uncertainty but most of all Akiola hated working as a team. If she cared for teamwork she wouldn't be a damn freelance GAMER. The swastika-shaped room she'd just come through didn't help improve her mood.

At the fork she turned left and opened a door. Down to just three bullets, Akiola hoped this left door was enemy free...Blazkowicz help her if it was right door instead. There were a total of eight guards hiding in the alcoves of this room. Her eyes caught the two guards before they even came out of hiding. It sucked that she was down to 3 bullets but Akiola felt confident. This was more than enough to take out one guard and she only needed to take him out and then reload off the ammo he drops and then take out the other guard.

She ran behind him, deftly avoiding the other further away in the distance, and shot all three rounds into his body. You're cutting it close girl. She thought to herself as she picked up only four ammo. As the second guard closed in as another four came out of hiding and ran towards her. Cursing mentally to herself, she wished she had just gone out of her way to grab the chaingun instead of heading straight for the rendezvous point. Speaking of, whoever choose this room as their meeting point was going to meet the end of her fist after this was all over.

She ran behind a pillar and stared down at the pistol in her hand. Taking out those guys wasn't going to be easy and there still remained one guard in hiding she was completely unaware of. Peeking from behind the pillar she fired at the closest guard approaching her. Now she had only two bullets left. Scheiße!   

[Maric]

Vincent rested one knife-clenching hand against the door, his pistol held in the other.  He had a machine gun slung across his back, but he'd yet to fire it.  He was doing his best to conserve ammo for that.  He'd jumped into the GAME late, so he hadn't bothered with the chaingun.  Harry or that freelancer had probably picked it up already.  Bracing himself, he pushed the door open, swinging the pistol in front, preparing to fire a shot inside to get the guards to spring out from cover.

When the door opened, he saw that someone had already started a gunfight inside.  A surprised guard turned to confront him, but Vincent jabbed the knife into his gut and then again into his throat, pushing him down and hiding behind a pillar as another guard turned to fire.  Vincent fired blindly, probably using a bullet or two more than was absolutely necessary, but the guard went down and Vincent was safe.  For now.  Peering around the pillar, he could see other guards shooting at another GAMER, hopefully part of his group.  Well, unless the GAMER died.  Then hopefully not part of his group, because Vincent didn't want to sit around and wait while they pushed through from level one again.

He switched to his machine gun, took a deep breath, and then burst out from behind cover, opening fire on the guards.

[N2O]

Not a moment too soon just as a guard was about to come around her hiding spot, she heard a machine gun and guards dying. Although she was grateful to whoever the GAMER was that just saved her, she was going to play it cool. It was probably Harry or Vincent. Akiola waited until the rat-tat-tat sound of Vincent's machine gun fire subsided. Strange? Why was it taking so long before he finally stopped shooting...unless there were more guards. He was taking care of the ones in hiding. Well! she thought to herself, maybe I'd play nice after all. 

She put her pistol away and strutted out from behind her pillar, "Took you long enough," she said coldly as she looked him up and down then stared approvingly at his brown leather trench coat, "Cool trench, so you Vincent or Harry?" and thanks for saving my ass back there went spoken.

[pendarious]

Harry was settled nicely into a niche he'd found in the room he lloked around with his Mauser and happened to see some guards get ripped apart by a machine gun. He chuckled and then put the rifle away. Now he was walking with the MP 40 machine gun in hand. His long black coat billowed out as he walked.

"So am I late for the Party?" He asked as he rounded the corner to where the other two GAMER's were. He was grinning as he asked. His cheerfullness had come from enjoying blasting apart several germans on his way in.

[Maric]

"I'm Vincent," he said, slinging the machine gun back over his shoulder and pulling out the pistol from his coat.  "This is Harry," he said as Harry stepped into the room, "And I'm pretty sure the party's just getting started.  According to the plan, the devs at Id Software are opening a portal to the internet in every boss chamber in about an hour and a half.  I say we find Hans, kill him, and then just wait out the clock.  Flight Simulator and Wolfenstein weren't built for the Internet, so we can probably bring anything we find from one to another, but...I can't imagine we'll be able to use it in Flight Simulator."

[N2O]

At Vincent's introductions Akiola acknowledged Harry with a nod as she mentally complimented him on his badass look. These boys were definitely packing some heat. After Vincent summarized the situation and explained his plan, she regretted all over again not retrieving that damn chaingun when she had the chance. All the same, Akiola was confident they'd be more than a match for Hans.

[pendarious]

Harry chuckled "well this'll be interesting" He hadn't played this game in ages so he was sure that this could actually be a bit fun. He did however wish he'd picked up the chaingun since he'd had no problems avoiding the bastard who carried it. On the other hand he didn't know how well this woman would work with a team. Still it should show off her skills.

[N2O]

She shrugged casually, "between the both of you, whoever has the chaingun, Hans is all yours."

She planned on conserving her energy for whoever or whatever it was that was behind killing the network and sealing off Microsoft's head quarters. Off the dead soldiers, she picked up whatever ammo was left, gearing up before they had to leave the room.

[pendarious]

"Don't look at me I didn't get it" Harry stated shaking his head. He did wish he had but at the same time he didn't want the movement penalty. He was content with his speed while carrying the MP-40 or the Mauser that he had. He sighed shaking his head. He had always believed the chain gun though an awesome and powerful weapon wasn't entirely worth the speed reduction.

[Maric]

"What?  Really?  None of us got the chain gun?" Vincent asked, and smacked his forehead.  "Great.  That's going to make Hans...Tricky.  Does anyone know where we can get one along the way?"  He glanced over his shoulder towards the exit.  They should probably get moving.  Whatever was happening in the Microsoft headquarters was probably getting worse by the moment.  Emergencies usually did.  Wouldn't it be funny, though, if they spent the next four hours fighting through Cyberspace, uploaded into the Microsoft HQ, and it turned out normal law enforcement had been able to break in and neutralize the threat the old fashioned way?  "Alright, there's three of us.  We can probably take Hans without the chaingun if we have to.  Either way, we should get moving."

[N2O]

"Great.  That's going to make Hans...Tricky."

Akiola scoffed and almost wanted to congratulate Vincent because 'make Hans tricky' definitely wins the award for biggest understatement of the year. Her only weapons wear a pistol and knife so she had meant it with certainty when she said Hans was all theirs.   

Does anyone know where we can get one along the way?

She lowered her goggles and placed it over her eyes. It served as her HMD, augmenting her virtual reality so a complete map of all levels and items showed. As detailed as the map was, unfortunately the only enemy presence it offered seemed to be limited to boss room locations. Her hand rose to touch two fingers to the side of her goggles in order to blow up the map so Vincent and Harry could see the same display she saw of their location and where they needed to be.

"As you can see," she said officiously as she pointed to a small gun icon. It was the only one in red, the rest were scattered all over the map in black, "the chaingun is terribly out of our way. Going to get it would put the speed of our emergency response in vain."   

"Alright, there's three of us.  We can probably take Hans without the chaingun if we have to.  Either way, we should get moving."

"Agreed."

[pendarious]

Harry shrugged idly as he began walking along "I did grab the sniper rifle on my way in so I suppose that would help a bit" He couldn't remember very well the damage ratio for the sniper rifle against Hans but he did know that the rifle was definitely an effective weapon.

He had watched the map display and shook his head with a faint smile. "I wonder what's going down at microsoft anyway. After all they don't usually bug us unless it's big." A faint laugh escaped his lips as he made this remark.