Sunday, July 23, 2017

A New Old Threat - By David McCallum #701548

Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes. Somebody who has taken a step back and can see the bigger picture.

While you have all been busy dealing with alternate universes and whoever this Ambrose fellow is, I have been subject to a low level insidious assault of my own.

I refer to the XOX virus.

I shall explain this to you.

It first came to my attention when I was attempting to have a conversation with Junior Pilot. I use the word attempt, because anyone who has any interaction with teens knows that conversation is a forlorn hope that dies when they are still in their single digit years and they can go on endlessly about what they have done at school or the plotline of the latest rave tri-D cartoon.

Probably this includes rectangular trousers in some way, don't ask me why.

Nowadays a conversation either consists of one side using monosyllabic grunts or as is more usual, an outthrust palm while they keep their nose buried in a data slate. At some stage, you may receive an electronic communique from them.

The problem is it appears to be in some form of battle can’t that I'm not familiar with, preceded by a 'noughts and crosses' board.
A simple request to tidy ones dorm area results in a coded message of #OMG #FML; a reminder that they are on kitchen duty and the dishes are stacking up means my message system flags #WHATEVS for my immediate attention.

All while junior pilot's head remains engrossed in that small screen.
These are the first signs of being infected by the XOX virus.
I have carried out studies on this phenomenon and some pilots are less susceptible than others.

Old hands like my own CO General Fuller, who cut his teeth piloting mechs before we knew how to mount additional gear on them are all but immune. Those who drove by the seat of their pants and laid in their shots by dead eye reckoning.

All of us have piloted Anzus and Red Ants in our time, but shortly thereafter we graduated to networked computer systems and AIs to aid us in battle. This is the point that we became susceptible to the XOX virus.

A lot of us have built up a resistance. We field specialists and can drop to to 10 ton maximum squadrons. We can cause more damage with a coffee cup holder than John Fuller can when he has been slipped decaf. I’ve seen the results of both; cup holders should never be inserted into folk in that manner.

Suffice to say we are not totally reliant on electronics for our survival. We can leave it as needed and rely on our own wit and wiles to survive.

But there are those who can’t.

There are those like Junior Pilot who advanced quickly and once exposed to electronics have become hooked and know no other way. Such are the follies of youth.

But you also have those who make an outlay on the best equipment that is on the market and refuse to use anything other than the biggest and best equipment. Some of the most elite pilots with the best financial backing, permanently hooked into the network using the fastest processors and most powerful hardware.

Our bankrolled elite, our untouchables, immersed in the hashtag domain.

The lair of our most insidious foe, the intelligence that is AM.
Oh, we may think that he/she/it has been contained. Mark my words, we are wrong. The sings are there.

Hashtags. Lines and gaps, ones and zeroes. The binary code is right there in front of us.

And now, the best of us who managed to breach the walls of reality and came back with the largest mechs we have seen, the Guardians are scrambling to try and get equipment for them.

And to show you just how devious AM is, the carrier for the XOX virus isn't even a cockpit module.

Go look at the History chassis gear. Check it out now and tell me what you see.

Lines and gaps.

Don't say I didn't warn you...


Oh, and maybe take the data slate away from those junior pilots once in a while and make them talk to you, eh?