DIGITAL FRONTIER: LEGACY MODE - JAUNT INFO

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Digital Frontier: Legacy Mode
May 7 - June 16

In the Network, more than a dozen Systems flourish - independent nations connected by high-speed data lines, overseen by Programs - humanoid beings made of pure information, each with its own Purpose and Priority in the System.

Only twice in the history of the Network has a System fully fallen to viral corruption - first the ZODIAC, and then the Grid. Five cycles ago, an expedition from other Systems managed to restore the Grid under very strange circumstances - but the rest of the Network, unconvinced that the recovered Programs weren’t concealing viral influence behind their unnatural behavior and outlandish stories, has kept the Grid under strict isolation.

Until now. The Colossus, a System admired for its rugged survivalism and powerful military, is willing to take a risk on the Grid. The Colossus is sending its own team of soldiers and experts to attempt to recover the lost ZODIAC System. Their expedition travels on a large, encapsulated vessel called the Rejuvenator, specifically meant to be difficult to control, to have new Data and Programs uploaded to it remotely - but to be totally unable to send any data back without Colossus approval. If the mission fails, the Rejuvenator will never be allowed to return.

But all the fresh-trained Programs from the Colossus are untested. To give them the best chance at success, the Rejuvenator was sent first to the Grid, to take on a volunteer crew. If the ZODIAC Initial Probe fails, the Grid will remain under lockdown. But if it succeeds, and the Colossus Programs send back a positive report, the Network will consider opening their Ports to the Grid again, and letting its Programs rejoin civilization...

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WHAT HAPPENED LAST TIME

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The Travelers’ arrival to the Grid coincided with the release of a handful of Cryptos from self-imposed stasis. The Defenders got up in everyone’s business (especially these weird new white Programs with no Priority or Purpose), the Miners were quietly discontent, and the Cryptos immediately took off into the Grid to fulfill their own agenda: looking for their lost User, SAGE, whom one of their number believed was still trapped on the Grid somewhere. Rogue Automata corruption, including a strain that could be passed on with no outward symptoms in the corrupted Program, were a threat to everyone.

In between the exploration that slowly worked outward from the safe zone near the Partition to other parts of the Grid’s native system and attacks by Automata monsters, it turned out that Crypto who believed SAGE was still out there was right. More to the point, as far as investigators were concerned, it turned out they’d been dragged headlong into intra-Arcana squabbling - SAGE was in fact the Hermit, trapped on the Grid after trying to leave the Arcana’s game, and the Magician (who had snuck into Liminal Space prior to this, and was posing as a high-Priority Miner) had taken it upon herself to rescue him. This was not a popular move with most of the other Arcana.

The Revolutionary faction was created in the middle of the jaunt, when one of the Miners coded away its own Priority, but kept the Purpose of cooperative work toward a free and open Grid for all. Most Miners either joined the new rebellion or were re-factioned into the Cryptos, after stumbling upon secrets the Cryptos were literally hard-coded not to share outside of their own faction. The Defenders suffered some crippling losses as well, between Programs defecting to the rebellion and Automata corruption spreading all the way to the top of the chain of command.

SAGE’s containment unit was discovered and cracked open at the very same instant the Devil, who’d turned up to try to preserve zir old victory from the first squabble, revealed zir presence. At about this time, it also came up that the Automata corruption was in fact created by Devil and Lovers, with the Purpose of keeping any Crypto (and SAGE in particular) from leaving the Grid. In order for SAGE to leave the Grid, he was going to need a new body, which was cobbled together from spare parts by a Crypto mad scientist. (Some of those spare parts were from Lyall, which is why SAGE is now a wolf most of the time.)

Automata sabotage destroyed the ports out of the Grid; after the jaunt ended, the Defenders needed help from Revolutionaries and Automata (whose Purpose left them as the Arcana vacated the Grid) to clear the damage, since all other factions faced Priority restrictions on entering the area.