Matrix Games

The Matrix Online: The Sentinel

September 22, 2005

If you click on the Sentinel pyramid logo at the top of the paper, it brings up: To: Zion Council
From: Operative (redacted)
Re: Captain Niobe’s discovery

No doubt exists that Morpheus’s killer is a program in the “employ” of the Merovingian. As she tells it, Captain Niobe and her crew fought her way to the Merovingian’s suite and learned this at swordpoint – but lost the advantage and barely made her way out.

As important, she learned this Exile’s nature. The Assassin is composed of flies – swarming, crawling, seething flies. It’s some sort of programmer’s joke (he is a program involved in disposal of the Matrix’s simulated waste products).

Unfortunately, this means gunshots and physical blows are completely ineffective in harming him. Word on the street is that insecticide (there may be a connection between The Corrupted which plagued the Matrix some time ago and The Assassin) slows him down.

Conceivably coders could assemble a more effective insecticide and we can take down this vermin permanently.

I continue my inquiries.

/end message

Litter Crackdown

Mystery Leaflets Plague City - by Sentinel Staff Propaganda leaflets have been found littered throughout the city, and nobody (neither city officials nor the Sentinel staff) knows what the cause is, although the recent helicopters are suspected. The article reports cryptic messages that refer either to the underground music scene in the city, or to the "'Redpill' culture now in vogue." Messages include: "Neorealism: Danger is a willow that regrows after the cut." "Do not trust the Frenchman." "The Agency of Order may trick some again." "Lifelines, severed, one by one. The mind marooned, the body will waste." "Help is coming. Look to the skies!" If you click on the word "Frenchman" within the picture on the front page, it brings up the following encoded message: Well, bon vivants, they’re in a tizzy.

You’d think they’d thank the guy who took down the biggest pain in the database we’ll ever see. The Morph-dome who was unweaving their digital tapestry with code-bombs. The wrecker of the glorious green haven we call home.

Instead, they’re joining with the fungus-eating troglodytes (okay, I know, you do too, but you also know the taste of mousse that’s like eating a chocolate cloud, thanks to your wise choice of affiliation) to squash this clean-up artist like a bug. Or bugs.

Okay, sure, the Merovingian told The Assassin to stop Morpheus. But he didn’t say to kill him. The idea was to rescind Mr. Diction’s account – burn out his jacking-in chips with feedback scripts. That’s what was in the bullets we gave him.

Instead, the slugs contained kill codes that messed with the RSI reconstruct failsafe. Who put them in there?

The Machines. Who else? Oh, they’re denying it, but they always lie. Remember the decades you spent living their lies? They haven’t changed.

So maybe The Assassin doesn’t have the special aura you and I and the rest of the elite do. More like an aroma, that guy.

But he’s our buzztard, as the saying goes. Don’t let the softies and the suits take him down. The Merovingian does the hiring and firing around here.

bon jour,
Flood

Garbage Strike Threatened

by City Staff City sanitation workers threaten a strike unless safety measures are taken to protect them from a serial killer with a "porcelain mask" known to lurk among dumpsters. The killer has murdered four waste-removal truck drivers in the last four months. This is obviously the Assassin, and I believe this goes along with my theory on the "Smart Plastic" story from the April 18, 2005 Sentinel edition, where the Assassin is using the encoded plastic to track people since the flies that make him up can read the information very quickly. Murdering garbage truck drivers would give him access to a lot of garbage if he suspected sensitive information would be found in a certain truckload.

Fly In My Soup

by Andres Bonifaciaeo In this article, Andres describes the memorial service for a couple of the sanitation workers, Edruder M Pomsheur and Phom Reu Desid. During the memorial service, Andres noticed a "Redpill" hipster group hanging around a phone booth near the church, clearly bothered by the fact that they all own cell phones but still feel a need to hang around phone booths, "because they live in a different world than we do." Fighting broke out among the Redpills (shots fired), and once it died down, those in the memorial service come out from hiding to find the Redpill crowd almost completely gone, a few left looking up at the sky. Andres asked one whether a helicopter scared them off, and he responded, "he needed no helicopter." Andres asked who, and the Redpill didn't answer. Frustrated, Andres left, concluding that Redpills fight for fun and treat life as a game (and perplexed that there were no bodies or blood after all that shooting).

Personal of the Day

"Hammerline, don't join Niobe's vendetta.
She's headed for a fall.
I don't want to lose you. Love, L." This personal ad is probably from Commander Lock, referring to a new love of his named Hammerline (obviously having moved on when Niobe went back to Morpheus in M3).

News Briefs

Noise Pollution Study - City University is conducting a noise pollution study focusing on aircraft due to the reports of increased air traffic around the city. This clearly refers to the General's helicopters. Fragmenting Bullets - Authorities are reporting and investigating an alarming increase in the use of "fragmenting hollow-point" bullets, bullets that fragment and spread as they penetrate the body, severing blood vessels and leading to quick death. This could be referring to the Assassin's "kill code" bullets. If you click on the phrase "'hollow-point' bullets" in the original brief, it brings up the following encoded message: Ciao, Rossopillolas. A new threat to the Matrix is upon us. It is up to you to contain it. We cannot count on the cowboys and cowgirls of Zion, nor the sybarites who follow the Frenchman. You, enlightened combattente, are the true keeper of the peace. It is time again for action. So saltare il fasso.

The Assassin is a disposal program with an interesting past. He worked in the hard world, through mechanical proxies, as well as in 01 and in the Matrix. All processes produce waste; his function was to remove it.

It is an offensive joke that it was he who terminated Morpheus. The Merovingian fancies himself a wit. Do not be troubled by his lies; although we found Morpheus vexing, we did not order this. Morpheus, after all, found and trained the One. His role in saving the Matrix is respected. We are grateful to Morpheus.

Beware the Assassin's bullets. They contain kill codes, at least some of them. RSI reconstruction may be prevented (you have noticed trouble with the system lately; we believe it is the Assassin's effect).

We believe Morpheus truly dead, by the way. He is nowhere in the Matrix we can see. His body has not been accounted for in the hard world, however. Perhaps it rots, which is a shame.

We devise kill codes of our own - in insecticide form. Enough applications will kill The Assassin, so it will take heroic effort from you and many of your comrades. Obtain them on missions.

We must act, human with machine, to preserve our world. The Assassin ha i giorni contati!

Pax tecum!
Agent Pace Monument Graffiti - Pranksters sprayed graffiti of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics on the Azimuth monument. Officials describe it as a lame pun, and they coated the monument with wax compound to facilitate future cleanup. Club Sanguine [inside], the popular nightclub, has reopened with new management after a closure due to the death of the previous owner. Clubs are popular hangouts for exiles and redpills, so it's likely that MxO players would have known what caused the owner's death when this article came out.