[Quadros]

It's only the first part, the rest comes tomorrow, or next week.
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Mr Anorexia had never really been one for thinking about SPAME. Funny how things turn on you like that. He dived sideways as more bullets chewed up the street towards him, and got in cover behind the first thing that came to hand, a box of mum jokes that the n00b hadn’t even had time to open. He knew it was a n00b, because he didn’t recognise the body staring sightlessly towards the sky, or the name on the tag on his bloody chest. ‘What the fuck is going on here?’ he thought, as more bullets crashed into his crate. He knew he shouldn’t have come in. As soon as he saw the SPAME he should have known to just turn around and driven to YouTube or somewhere. I mean SPAME had always been a dive, but craters and bodies? That was new. Even more, Quiet? SPAME was never quiet, yet the run down streets had been empty. He’d finally found someone, a n00b, walking brazenly in the open. How the fuck did that not send alarm bells ringing? How did it take the n00b aiming a ban-gun at him for him to realise something was very, very fucking wrong?
A splinter of wood slipped across his cheek and dragged him out of his reverie, and also alerted him to the oh-so-vital fact that his cover was pretty much gone. He threw himself down a back alley that hadn’t seen light since the last time Tempest had seen pussy and ran through the maze of backlogs, trying to lose his attacker in the underbelly of SPAME. How did the n00b have a ban gun? Sure as fuck the Admins hadn’t okayed it, and a mod wouldn’t just shoot at a member like that. Another bullet tore a chunk out of the wall beside him, and Mr A realised his only hope was to find help. He found his way back onto a main street, doubled back out, circled and found another as his attacker maintained his relentless pursuit. He finally found an empty street, collapsed behind a burnt out car, and fought his breathing down. Once he’d gotten over the ‘holy crap I’m being fucking shot at’ panic, he edged his way out of cover.
His attacker was waiting for him. There in the middle of the street, a cocksure smile on his mouth. Mr Anorexia sank to his knees, and looked at him pleadingly.
‘please’ he moaned, hoping reason might just save his sorry ass. The n00b’s smile transformed to a grin, and he raised his gun.
Then his head exploded. He sank to his knees, the ban gun dissipating, and collapsed on his front. Mr Anorexia looked around for the source of the gunshot responsible for the n00b’s sudden demise, but only found a familiar voice of steel on the wind.
‘Freeze! Put your hands on your head and don’t move! We clear?’ Mr A made to reply but evidently the last question wasn’t addressed to him, as two more familiar yells rose up from the surroundings.
‘Clear!’
‘Clear here’.
Only then did the first voice reveal himself. Derelict strode out from one of the buildings, his ban shotgun at his shoulder scanning the surroundings despite the clearance. With him came Gizzalove, carrying a portable computer screen, and Assassin. Both had ban guns, as did the rest of the squad, But as Grue, Deadhotkiller and Captain Bob aimed theirs down the street to cover, Assassin pointed his at Mr A’s head.
‘Read it’ Said Derelict, as Gizzalove thrust the screen in front of him. A garbled set of letters crossed by a black line blared out at him, and after Mr Anorexia read it out, and relogged his personal details, the detail relaxed and fell back to their original building. The person responsible for the shooting, it turned out, was Quadros, whose ban gun took the form of a long barrelled sniper rifle. Princess Ert, the other sniper, also joined them from her perch across the street. Only Britshit, manning a heavy machine gun, and his loader Hulabalooza, maintained battle stations, covering the street from a window.
‘Sorry about that’ said Derelict, offering him his flask. ‘We had to be sure. Some of them were here for a long time, and fairly active.’
‘Them?’ asked Mr Anorexia, now even more confused than before.
‘Hackers’ said Quadros, as if that answered every question. When he saw that it didn’t, he rolled his eyes and continued. ‘Hackers broke the security mainframe, gave themselves full mod clearance, ban guns, the works. A concerted effort, we reckon over a hundred, with innumerable bot support.’ He waved down the next question and continued. ‘When Dave and Kwanza saw what we were dealing with they gave all loyal members mod status and we started to fight back. Still it may have been too late. We think we’ve suffered a forty percent loss in the first six hours. SPAME’s fucked to shit, the GF is pretty much one big fire fight, but we’ve managed to lock down one forum and we’re working out of that. Codename’s Barricade. You’ll be safe there, it’s got the strictest rules and the toughest security.’
‘The elite forum?’ asked Mr A, thrilled at the opportunity to see the fabled high end of explosm. Ert didn’t share his enthusiasm.
‘Fuck no. The hackers gave themselves modship, and the first thing they did was fuck over the elite forum. Most of the elites are gone, either dead or wounded. Coffeeguy’s banned, Sugabe’s banned, Android’s to’d for three days (“and fucking pissed off” Assassin added with a chuckle), We don’t know about Seb. He was hit pretty bad, but his IP’s still intact. They’re trying their hardest to keep him here. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg’
‘Shit’ said Mr Anorexia. It didn’t quite seem to fit the magnitude of the situation.
‘Shit indeed’ said Derelict. ‘DHK, get on the comms, tell Dave we’ve picked up and verified Mr A and are en route to the Barricade. We also need Dave to redeploy us once we’ve dropped off and restocked.’
‘Wait’ said Mr Anorexia, ‘why is Dave in charge? This is Rob’s kind of gig, where is he?’ For the first time, the SPAME veterans looked something other than confident and cocksure. They looked down, and shuffled their feet. Finally Quadros spoke up, the bitterness edging his voice like it always did when he had to admit he was something other than a god.
‘We.. erm… we don’t actually know. No one does. He’s missing in action.’

The squad wearily plodded through the defensive cordon of the Debate Zone, now renamed the Barricade, and nodded to the guards. Sarathy and SoulInferno, both manning the machine guns on the entrance, checked their log stats and pointed them to the rendezvous point where they met the liaison officer, Mechanical Karasu.
‘Boss wants to see you when you’re done here’ he said, handing derelict an update. ‘News ain’t great. JoshE’s squad got ambushed, pretty much ripped apart. Sanlands made it back, with Peli, though we doubt he’ll make it, he was hit pretty bad. They’d reported decent retrievals as well. Still getting nothing from Showcase, and J-Rex just got back with what remains of G&S. Apparently it’s shit in a can down there, he couldn’t hold it.’ Indeed, the area that the Games and Surveys forum used to occupy seemed to be entirely collapsed, and ominous black smoke oozed from the buildings. The cordon in that area seemed to be under constant attack. Derelict pitied the poor bastards defending it. That said, he pitied everything about this sordid mess. He looked up as Mech returned with a new sheet of paper and barked orders into the troops milling around the re-supply and hospital areas.
‘Derelict! Relaps! Quadros! Sanlands! DHK! J-Rex! Britshit! Hula! GSOM! On your feet, report to the main command for briefing!’ Derelict moved up to the command section, and dipped inside past the guards outside. The section, as it was, used to be a discussion on the existence of god, and was suitably entrenched for the admins to commandeer. The command staff were grouped around the logistics table, but Dave and His lieutenant, Wyatt, turned when the whole squad was assembled. Relaps, one of the only elites to survive, a gifted scout. Quadros, a fantastic sniper with a knack for headshots. Sanlands, fast shooter who had proven he could look after himself despite the odds, and protect others in the same circumstance. DHK, a first rate communications officer. J-Rex, A good leader and a specialist in room to room clearance. Britshit and Hulabalooza, a crack heavy weapons team who knew exactly how to use and abuse fire patterns and cover arcs. GSOM, a decent all rounder Hardened in the brutal General Forum battle. All in all the cream of the forces. Derelict groaned silently. This mission was going to be brutal. Dave addressed them.
‘As I’m sure you have noticed, you are gathered here as the elite soldiers of our defensive force. As I’m also sure you have noticed, Rob is missing. Can you fill the dots? If not, here’s the deal. If the hackers find Rob, they’ll have everything. Basic programming code, full mod tools, forum shut down protocols, site destruct sequences. We’d be fucked. I need you to track down and bring in Rob. Wyatt will be leading this mission, he has full details.’ Wyatt stepped up, bringing a site map into view.
‘Last post reports place Rob commenting on artwork in the Showcase. As you know, We’ve had no communication with Showcase since the attack began, but we think odds are Rob went to ground in the fan art thread, since that’s the closest group of members in the vicinity. We’ll move into the showcase through the G&S, and will then push up through Showcase from the south. The plan is to rendezvous with Rob and whatever fan art elements exist, and then to loop round straight through the General Forum and back here as a diversion breakout attack is staged in the G&S by Intransit’s forces. One last thing. Whilst we need to save him, the number one priority of this mission is to stop Rob’s information from falling into the hacker’s hands. Therefore, if there is a real and distinct likely hood that Rob will be irretrievably captured, we have specific permission to terminate his account. Let’s move out.’

[Shmuh]

Holy shit. This is one story in the hisory of explosm that actually made me become immersed. You really know your shit, Quaddie. Keep going.

Also, what about Matt? Or Kris?
I BETTER STILL BE ALIVE >:0

[spaj]

Hey, that was quite fun to read actually.

It's almost like an actual action drama, only the names have been replaced.

More?

[Captain Insanity]

Having read soem of your other stuff I'm not that surprised by your A-Grade skills, but this is actually a kick-ass story. Now I'm not saying your other stuff isn't as good but this is the sort of story I like, great work, looking forward to the rest.

From a critique perspective, nothing I can see to improve it besides more.

[Spoons]

I like it! Really interesting!

[Coconuts]

Wow! that's really good. It's interesting to read stories like this because it's actually about people on our forums. Good job and: [NOTE: I AM A RETARD]!

[BKS]

Posted in the other thread, but still: "Nicceeee"


I still think it needs more Spamers, but keep up the good work!

[letteratlantic]

When are you going to write more?

[GSOM]

This story is good because I'm a decent all rounder Hardened in the brutal General Forum battle.