Talia and Ghostwire quietly slipped out of the inn.
As soon as they arrived outside the inn, Talia adjusted her undertaker hat even as she lowered her head while covering her face properly with her black scarf. This way, it was even harder to recognize her.
Ghostwire instinctively did the same thing to hide his appearance.
Talia looked left and right, then randomly choose to walk left as Ghostwire followed. As she walked, she deliberated in silence before suddenly asking.
"What do you think?"
Ghostwire silently looked at her.
Used to his reticent nature, Talia was calm as she continued walking. "How do you think Parasite's NetRunners were able to isolate the LAN?"
Ghostwire's face turned serious under his undertaker hat as he thought seriously for a few seconds before answering. "From what I know, multiple technologies exist to isolate a Local Area Network (LAN) and prevent digital communication from leaving the internal network".
Ghostwire's dull gray eyes narrowed slightly as he deliberated seriously before he continued. "I believe the most secure method is physical isolation". He paused. "But logical methods using devices like firewalls and VLANS are also widely used for network isolation".
Ghostwire didn't explain what physical isolation meant as he was 100% sure that Talia knew what it meant.
Instead of explaining it, he finally understood the true nature of Talia's question. This was a test from her; she wanted to know if he would be able to make the right deductions to create a plan to break the LAN net.
As soon as he realized this, he became even more serious as his back straightened immediately.
Physical isolation is also known as air gapping, and it involves completely disconnecting a system or network from all external and untrusted networks, including the internet, which in this case is the global psionic network.
It runs on dedicated hardware like routers, switches, and cables, but with no physical connections to other networks.
This meant it didn't make use of connections like Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or even Bluetooth; every information exchanged through the internal network is sent through cables and monitored.
By creating a net using physical isolation, data exit becomes impossible.
Data can only be transferred in or out manually via USB drives or other portable media devices which is strictly controlled and screened for malware to maintain security by the enforcers, which in this case was clearly the Zmer gang.
Afterall, these parts of the Wastes was mostly their active territory.
Ghostwire's brain whirred. 'There's an 80% chance that the Zmer gang isolated the LAN using physical isolation, but…' he frowned. 'Parasite is engaging in trafficking, meaning he and his gang needs to communicate with the outside world'.
'Afterall, for him to have a warehouse, he definitely has an external sponsor. He also likely has external clients that patronize him'.
'He can't keep his sponsor and clients in the dark, which creates a contradiction if they really used physical isolation'.
'But it's not a rule to isolate a LAN using just one method'. Ghostwire's gray eyes flashed. 'They may have mixed a combination of methods to not just isolate the LAN, but to also enable them communicate with their sponsor and clients'.
The other isolation methods that he knew of flashed through his brain. 'They must have used logical isolation'.
'If they did, it can either be through firewalls, VLANs, ACLs, and a client isolation or guest networks'.
He squinted his eyes as he revised his existing knowledge on networks.
A firewall is a key security device positioned at the network perimeter of a network like a LAN or any other type of network. They monitor and filter all incoming and outgoing traffic based on a predefined set of security rules.
For example, you can configure a firewall to explicitly deny all outbound connections from the isolated LAN segment to the psionic network.
'The chances of them using a firewall is small'. Ghostwire thought and the reason was simple. 'It's too easy for an F Rank NetRunner to bypass a firewall'.
As for VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks), they segment a physical network into multiple logical networks. Devices on different VLANs cannot communicate with each other unless specifically allowed by a router or firewall rules.
'A VLAN can work together with physical isolation… but with Firewall Bypass, competent NetRunners can also circumvent this…'
As for Access Control Lists (ACLs), they are rules configured on routers and switches to control which users or devices can access specific network resources, providing an additional layer of control over data flow.
As for Client Isolation, they prevent devices connected to the same Wi-Fi network from communicating directly with each other, though they can still access the psionic network.
Ghostwire's eyes squinted even further as he directly eliminated Client Isolation and ordinary Firewalls, and then, his eyes finally relaxed.
Noticing this, Talia smiled. "You seemed to have discovered something".
Ghostwire nodded seriously. "I believe that the Zmer gang isolated the LAN through physical isolation. But to engage in trafficking, they need to communicate with their sponsor and clients, which is why I believe that they mixed it up".
"I am 70% certain that they mixed in the method of using VLANs or ACLs with the physical isolation to keep us boxed in".
"It's a risk, but if I was Parasite, I'll place a NetRunner active in the base with the physical isolation setup to manually monitor the network inflows and outflows".
"This is to prevent an external NetRunner from hacking the system and sending a message out".
"And since I know that the threat, Talia is an F Rank NetRunner, I'll put an F Rank NetRunner there to negate her threat".
He looked at Talia again. "This is what I think".
Talia curled her lips slightly. "Good deduction. This is what I think too, but their mistake is thinking that I'm still just an F Rank NetRunner".
Talia continued walking as her gray-green eyes gleamed with ambition. "This is our chance".
She calmed down and looked at Ghostwire again. "So how do you think we should go about it?"
"We find the base where the physical isolation setup is". Ghostwire answered immediately, then he thought some more before adding seriously. "Network signal is generally easier to find uphill compared to downhill".
"The network signals travel best with a direct line of sight to the cell tower, so my guess is we should search uphill".
At that moment, Ghostwire's eyes widened as he realized something. Going left from the inn led uphill!
'Is this why she took left? Then, I thought it was a random decision'. He looked at Talia. "Is this why we're going uphill?"
Talia's smile widened. "You finally noticed".
Hearing her confirmation, Ghostwire's face turned solemn as he felt that there was still a lot that he needed to learn before he could get to her level.
They continued uphill.
…
30 minutes later…
Talia and Ghostwire were on a plateau overlooking the Wastes. They hid behind a cluster of trees and thick brown grass, and just ahead of them was a large compound with three metal buildings and a cell tower.
This was the hidden base of the Zmer gang that was hidden uphill, and it was also where the physical isolation setup was erected.
The base had a shimmering grayish white membrane that covered it, hiding it from the outside world.
This is an advanced application of a NetRunner's Ghost Line ability, and this is what prevented the tramps in the Wastes from discovering it.
Ghostwire had a solemn look on his face as he stared at this hidden base.
At first, he didn't discover the base. Only when Talia told him to use his Ping Scan ability did he discover the massive compound that was hidden in plain sight.
"Do you know what to do?" She asked.
Ghostwire instinctively opened his mouth to answer, but then he stopped himself and thought carefully about the question before he answered. "Yes, I need to cause a distraction right?" He looked at Talia.
"Yes". Talia nodded. "I need a distraction that's loud enough to keep their attention and the attention of the standby NetRunner away. I need just 2 minutes to hack their system and send the message to the Collective".
"Understood". Ghostwire nodded seriously, then he silently pulled out his Rifle and laid belly-flat on the ground before aiming at the hidden base ahead.
Since the base's invisibility was an advanced application of Ghost Line, Ghostwire knew exactly what to do to break it down as he silently adjusted the mode regulator of his Rifle to the slot with the image of 0 and 1.
Neon green ADE silently appeared and flared around his body.
Ghostwire took a deep breath, then he calmly pulled the trigger.
BAM!
An illusory green bullet left the muzzle of the Rifle, and within a second it struck the distant barrier of the base.
The code attack infected the very nature of the barrier's existence, and then, it silently crumbled…
The hidden compound suddenly became visible.
WOM! WOM! WOM!
Loud alarm sounds immediately started reverberating around the base, and at the same time, Talia's body turned faint and ghostly.
Neural Projection!
As soon as her body turned into a digital ghost, she disappeared.
Ghostwire was unfazed as he switched the regulator of his Rifle back to the first slot with the image of a hammer, and then he pulled the trigger, unleashing a barrage of kinetic bullets at the base.
…
Inside the base…
WOM! WOM! WOM!
Amid the loud alarm sounds, militants dressed in dark green uniforms and a red head tie immediately charged out of the base, locking on the unknown assailant in the distance.
Inside a cyber-lab in the base, a short man who was about 5.1 feet tall stood up and glared angrily at the holographic screen that was in front of him. "Which bastard dared?!" He roared.
The screen of the smartphone that he held briefly lit up with a notification, but he didn't notice it.
Neural Projection!
Neural Projection enables NetRunners to interact with digital ghosts and networks, meaning that in an environment with the right digital overlays, so long as it was in the line of sight of a NetRunner, a NetRunner could engage in teleportation!
NetRunners through Neural Projection could engage in instantaneous jumping between digital ghosts and network signals by expending ADE.
In a city, so long they had ADE, they could keep on jumping between smartphones and computers while hiding.
Due to the distance, Talia couldn't see the NetRunner in charge of the base, but with Ping Scan, she was able to detect the smartphone with the highest specs in the base.
With simple deduction, she could tell that it belonged to the NetRunner, so she jumped into this man's smartphone.
As soon as Talia invaded, she hid herself.
Ghost Line!
She didn't stop at that. Since Ghost Line was a temporary invisibility, she also created an identity spoof on the spot so that she wouldn't leave any traces in the course of completing the mission and leaving.
Mirror Mask!
After that, Talia didn't stop; she knew exactly what she had to do.
Firewall Bypass!
The level 1 Firewall Bypass could brute-force low-tier security. It gets the job done, but it also alerts the cyber police.
But at E Rank, this skill levels up to level 2 and it adds an element of secrecy and insidiousness to it. It's no longer brute-force but silent infiltration.
While the NetRunner in charge of the base roared orders at the militants, urging them to capture the daring assailant alive and bring him, unknown to him, the isolation system was already being hacked!
Tick… tock!
Time moved.
10 secs… 20 secs… 1 minute…
At 1 minute, 18 seconds, the NetRunner suddenly received a ping.
DING!
He looked at the holographic screen, and his eyes widened as horror appeared in her eyes. "WHAT?!"
"HOW???"
On the screen, it showed that a message was just sent outside of the physical isolation barrier, and he didn't approve any message!
Instinctively, this F Rank NetRunner sat in front of his computer as he engaged in cyber defense measures, but he saw no traces- no bug, no virus, not even a trace of an invading signal.
The deed was already done.
He couldn't even decipher the contents of the message, all that he saw was the name of the receiver blinking on his screen.
[Receiver: Freegrid Collective]
This NetRunner blinked and almost fainted in shock.
"H-how?!" He stammered; he was horrified.