[Cyberia] Re: Cyberia: Down the Rabbit Hole

[Cyberia GM]

"Stack overflow imminent.  Process ID 7540 utilizing 97% of available
memory."

Now inside the portal, she could see the daemon in a labyrinthine series of
corridors engraved onto the back of a larger construct.  Bull-headed
creatures labeled <<microTaur 2.3>> chased the daemon as it attempted to
make it's way back to Dot's avatar, carrying a shining payload that could
only be the code to the portal.  But it was obvious that it wouldn't make it
before it was either caught, or crashed her system...

+++++

Dot canceled program 7540, in bits, replacing what she could with faster
code.  Hoping to retrieve the data, and sweating a little.

Even as Dot patched the code, the dawning realization that she had subtly
been slowing down as her memory was leeched hit her like lightning.  As she
backed out of the process, her speed returned in fits and starts, allowing
her to proceed faster and faster.  But would it be enough?  Though the
daemon seemed to be running more efficiently, the microTaurs were clearly
corrupting its memory segments.

"Program integrity 50%... 45%... 40%..."

"Download proceeding.  10MP of data incoming.  1%... 2%... 3%... 5%..."

The numbers seemed to mock her, the candied voice of the AI ringing with the
studied pseudo-sincerity that only a machine could manage.

Her choices seemed equally grim- take her chances continuing the patch-
hoping that she could grab the data before the microTaurs were done crashing
the program.  Or cut off the tranfer, hoping that she could salvage the
unlock code from the portion of the data that had been downloaded...

Dot refused to surrender, continuing her patch, crunching numbers, replacing
code, working fast.