Part 40: Bits and Pieces
Part 40 - Bits and Pieces

After a very thorough sweep of the building and all the desk- and garbage-related goodies within, we've finally reached the server we were looking for. Time to install this bypass so that Blitz can advance on his end.

That is, if we can figure out how. With Decking 4 we could simply plop in the cable and move on right away. Unfortunately we slept through computer class and barely know our USB from our RGB, and as a result we're forced to take an unpleasant path indeed asking Blitz for help.










Heh, guess not. Though, you ever wonder if you could connect these cables if, say, you didn't have your thumbs attached? Just as a hypothetical scenario.




We're back in Blitz's cyberskin, now finding the path ahead clear. As a neat little touch, installing the bypass didn't cause the firewall to vanish but rather it created a new path which allows Blitz to literally pass by it.

Quite a bit going on in this next area. The door node for the bank's teller area is visible but blocked by no less than three obstacles of some vague cybernature. In addition there's a couple of small pod-like objects labeled "bits" which can be picked up. More on those later.

Heading further north leads to some more bits, a pair of unlabeled data nodes (one of which is the main objective but inaccessible), and finally the way ahead which is obstructed by a firewall identical to the one from earlier.

Let's just start from the things we're already familiar with.





Next up is the eastern data node which is not blocked off.







Say what, why would we of all people be on anyone's shoot on sight list? ...Alright, don't actually answer that.


[Blitz's voice falls silent. A few seconds later, a brief message appears on the screen of your PDA.]

Well ain't that something. But unless Blitz has been blabbering around again, a possibility we'd be an idiot to dismiss offhand, almost no one should know about this thing. Hmm...




[A few seconds pass.]


Wouldn't the original files still be in the possession of whoever sent them in the first place, I mean you would assume they simply sent a copy. Well whatever, if someone wants to kill us they can just go right ahead and take a number. Wouldn't recommend trying to cut in line either, there's probably a dragon back there somewhere. Hell, might be a couple for all we know.
Setting that aside, let's find out what's with those mysterious bits scattered all over the place.


Exactly what this business is supposed to represent in actual computer terms is beyond me. Either way, a number of detachable bits similar to this one are attached to sockets here and there. Picking up this one...

...causes a wall identical to the ones in front of the teller and objective nodes to block the path Blitz took to get here, effectively locking him in. As you may have surmised, we have a small cyberpuzzle on our hands. Each socket is connected to a nearby wall which vanishes when an activation bit is attached to that socket.

What we want to do here is to take the northernmost bit and plop it into the central socket here, clearing the southern path to another socket currently holding a bit...

...then pick up the bit from that socket which subsequently blocks the passage south...

...plop that bit into the northenmost socket which reopens the northern path...

...which then lets Blitz pick up the middle bit and carry it out in order to help open up the other nodes. You get the idea, this is by no means a difficult puzzle so I'm not gonna bother with a step-by-step guide of the whole process here.

A bit of bit playing later, Blitz opens up the path to the teller door node which takes three bits in total. This is entirely optional as far as our objective is concerned, but since it's there...








We'll ignore Blitz's griping and have him open the path to the objective node which only takes two bits rather than three, meaning that reaching it is only a matter of ferrying over a couple. One might say we're making progress... bit by bit.

Blitz hacks the node, we're returned to the world of flesh once again.





You should really know better by now, old man. Besides we just found out someone straight-up told this Plotz guy that we'd be here, so the real mystery is how we even got inside the building without anyone trying to stop us.



First things first, hacking the teller area door finally allows us to reach the tantalizing crate from earlier.

Within we find... a grenade launcher? Geez, this neighborhood is even rougher than expected if regular bank staff have to carry this kind of hardware. We've neither the skill or space for this thing, but it is a pretty sweet toy since it holds 6 grenades which only cost 1 AP to fire and to my knowledge they don't even hurt your own party members. Maybe we should invest a couple of points into Ranged Combat later, I bet carrying a grenade launcher works wonders for your street cred.

The actual way forward is through the door at the end of the northern hallway.

The room beyond is almost suspiciously empty. Bank lockers line up one of the walls but there's nothing for us to snatch which is just disappointing all around. Let's just move on.




Sure enough, we can see people in the adjacent rooms through the windows. All they'd really need to do to spot us is to very slightly turn their heads, so if we'll really be able to just waltz through undetected then these guys just might win the highly contested trophy for the most incompetent security guards we've met so far.
That said they clearly have stuff in those rooms with them, so their days may as well be numbered. But since we can't get in at the moment, our only option is to try and move forward through the door ahead and see what happens.

...Alright, this is now officially too easy. Something has got to be up, the last time we walked through this many empty rooms littered with waist-high cover was back in the Humanis compound and we all know how that return trip went.

Not much we can do about it though, so let's just stick to the plan.


Glad they had the sense to have a dedicated terminal for disengaging firewalls this time, nobody likes messing with cables.






Since this firewall was actually disabled rather than just bypassed, it's straight-up gone. Onwards!

Another pretty vast cyberarea, this is not making things feel any less ominous. The vault node is right ahead, but naturally the two other pathways come first.


Alas, the only thing in there are a pair of mysterious door control nodes which can't be interacted with at the moment. Really, at this point they might as well write "you're gonna have to fight your way out of here" on the screen and be done with it.

Guess we'll find out what they have in store soon enough as Blitz has reached the end of the road. The vault door node is hacked and we switch back once more.






Sure enough, the vault door opens without a hitch. Blitz is lucky these guys didn't get their security systems from the same place as a certain other "vault" door we were tasked to open... Actually thinking about it now, for all the stuff we've managed to piece together about the events of that unpleasant night, we still haven't even the faintest clue what exactly ended up frying Monika and Winters, and potentially those other vanished deckers as well.

As soon as we step inside, Hasenkamp walks on ahead. Also the doors kind of slam shut behind us. Surely nothing to be concerned about.

Well aren't we proactive all of a sudden. Planning something?






Next time someone tells you that you can't achieve the impossible, you just remember this moment right here.

















[There's a long pause, then a sigh.]



If it keeps him from complaining then Hasenkamp can play with his boxes all he likes. It's not like we would've gotten that safe open by ourselves anyway.


Now that's the first part of this entire plan we're 100% onboard with.

We'll just open the door here and...






