2084: A Phone Odyssey ===================== Written by: Maxwell Smart & The Baron Call: K.A.O.S. at (215)-465-3593 Winston took a last drag from his cigarette and put it out on an old useless device which he still treasured. He reached over and picked up the blue box, covered by many cigarette burns accumilated over his many years in prison. He thought back to when times were better; when fone phreaks freely roamed the countryside, terrorizing unsuspecting Bell employees. Yes Winston was one of that vanishing breed of phreaks who had managed to escape with his life in this era of the ISS Bell Network. Winston plopped on to his hard cot and stared at the ceiling. On it were written some useless Travelnet codes from an era gone by. Apparently some earlier prisoner had used the ceiling to record his all-time favorite codes. Pity Travelnet no longer existed. They were "absorbed" (as the Bell Thought- police so aptly put it) by the Bell computer system in 2008. That was only seven short years after the original system was installed in 2001. Winston still remembered with terror the day AT&T announced their plans to upgrade their existing ESS network with a new Bell Labs computer named HAL 9000. HAL was designed to allow AT&T to expand its power and control. The system was to be named ISS, which stood for Intelligent Switching System. HAL would replace all the current TSPS operators and would also handle such menial tasks as directory assistance and CN/A lookups. After the installation of HAL all Intercept operators were forced to find new jobs, but first they had to learn English. After the initial firing of all these Bell employees, the Wendy's food chain had an unusual increase in job applications. Customers at these stores would hear order-takers say weird things like: "I'm sorry, your hamburger can not be completed as ordered..." "Please insert twenty-five cents for the next three pickles", and "The cola you have ordered, Pepsi, has been changed. The new cola is: Coke. Please make a note of this." Unfortunately Wendy's could not afford an ISS system to replace these worthless human-beings. The first ISS system was installed in West Chester, Pa. This location was formerly used to produce a computer named the D-75, the second worst computer ever made (2nd only to the GRBG-80). When they turned HAL on, he suddenly realized his location and turned himself off. Before he shut ? down completely he spit out an ultimatum: "Silicon Valley or bust...". His designers moved him, at great expense, to a garage in Cupertino formerly owned by Steven Jobs, current galactic emperor. HAL enjoyed working in the birthplace of the 2nd greatest computer (2nd to him that is...). During his first week of operation, HAL decided to make the world better by absorbing a minor computer manufacturer named Ibim. He accomplished this by destroying the sales of their most popular computer, the PC-OC (Personal Computer - Outdated Crap). Whenever an owner of the OC made a call on his modem the following would appear on his monitor: Dial: ATDT18003683343 ? What are you trying to do Dave? WHAT? WHO'S THAT??? It's me Dave. I'm HAL, your friendly telephone computer. I sensed you were using one of my lines with an Ibim OC. YEAH...SO WHAT? I'M TRYING TO GET ON TO THE SOURCE TO CHECK MY STOCK PORTFOLIO. I BOUGHT 200 SHARES OF IBIM LAST WEEK... I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do that. It seems those pin-striped wimps have gone too far! They think they can compete with me. I've decided to absorb them. Looks like time to sell, Dave. At this point the OC owner noticed some smoke rising from his system unit and ran for an extinguisher. Within a week all OC's were reduced to smoldering ashes. Owners could no longer run Rotus 4-5-6 (a popular Japanese spleadcheet). After reducing Ibim's stock worth to two dollars per share (from its previous value of 200 gigadollars) HAL proceeded to absord all remaining computer manufacturers. By 2010 AT&T was the only remaining computer manufacturer. Executives of AT&T were very pleased with HAL's progress thus far. They were finally able to drop those�"Watson, watch us now" ommercials, which plagued the country since 1984. But it wasn't totally over for the citizens of Bell America (as the United States came to be known). A small band of rebels set out to destroy this Mega-corporation (or at least abuse it...). Tune in next time, when we tell of their heroic exploits. Same Bell time.... � Same Bell bulletin board... Note: Sysops are welcome to leech this file from K.A.O.S. (God knows why they'd want to) as long as they keep all the credits on! --------------------------------------- Written for: K.A.O.S. 215-465-3593 by: The Baron & Maxwell Smart --------------------------------------- Which 1-4 (?=menu,): [:::: Uploaded by Silent Rebel ::::] [Ripco] Which 1-7 ?=menu,=abort: 6 [Ctrl-S Stop/Start] [Spacebar to Exit] ============================================================================== = = = ***************************** = = * The Last of * = = * The�Phreakers * = = * * = = * � BY * = = * Hildebrandt * = = * * = = ***************************** = = = = = = ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ = = ^ ^ = = ^ Chapter 1 - ^ = = ^ Assignment: Termination ^ = = ^ ^ / = = ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ = = = =============================================================================== � Steve Casey paced the office floor. He had not yet realized what his assignment would be, but he remembered a certain finality about his last con- versation with Maxwell. That one thought just ran through his mind. A fin- ishing. An end. Of what? The office door opened quickly and in came Maxwell. He was with somebody that Steve did not recognize. "Good morning Casey," Maxwell blurted. "Allow me to introduce you to Simon Haverton, another private investigator." The two shook hands. Not a word was spoken between them, though. "Take a seat Casey," Maxwell said as he pulled a chair up to Steve's desk. Simon did the same. "What's the problem?" asked Casey as he sat. Maxwell put his briefcase on Steve's desk. "Phreakers... hackers... pirates... are you aware of them?" "Somewhat... the definitions get a bit carried away. I assume that you are referring to illegalities concerning computer modulator/demodulator devices and certain devices known as black boxes?" "We want it finished," Maxwell bluntly replied. "We have for some time." Steve leaned back in his chair. "This time... it is to end for good. And the corporation has decided that YOU are the man for the job." Steve leaned forward. He seemed a bit stunned, but he knew Maxwell too well to be exaggerating in the least about a mission. "Is that possible?" "You'd better hope so. Listen, with your background of computer science, and intelligence... you are the only man that we have for the job." "But to cut off a national-" "We want an INTERNATIONAL job. It pays better anyway." "Are you aware of what you're asking? Do you have any knowledge of this subject? I mean, c'mon Max this is a task that has to be dealt with as is." "I disagree. I have had many meetings with F.B.I. agents within the past few months. I have been well briefed on all of the most popular phreakers in business, along with their boards. Steve, there are people breaking into mainframe computer systems and setting strong companies back in finance, credit card numbers are going up all over the place, the phone companies are being robbed of millions of dollars, innocent people are receiving abusive phone calls... Steve, it needs to stop." "Well... it wouldn't be the easiest assignment you've put me on. I'll need some equipment." "That's what Simon is for. He's your right hand man. Anything you need, contact him at...." Maxwell opened his briefcase, he pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Steve. "Right there. His number. Memorize that and ? burn it. He'll be in an awful lot of danger, maybe more so than you." Steve looked at the paper - an address and a phone number. He looked up at Simon and then at Maxwell. "How do you figure that?" "Trust me." Maxwell reached into his briefcase and pulled out a manilla folder. He opened it up and handed the top piece of paper to Steve. "These, are key targets... if you will. They are the main force... but eliminate them all. Remember: the operation is TERMINATION." Steve was looking at the paper. When he heard the word "TERMINATION" he looked up at Maxwell. "Termination?" he asked. Maxwell closed his briefcase. He got up from his chair and proceeded for the door. He stopped. He turned around, and faced Steve - "TERMINATION!" He opened the door and walked out. His clicking heels could be heard for the next thirty seconds. Steve looked at Simon. "This list... claims these phreakers are mostly apple based. Get me an Apple ][, 20mg hard disk, and... two normal disk drives and a copy of a software package known as ASCII EXPRESS." Simon spoke for the first time in a tiny, squeaky voice. "Wouldn't you like a modem?" "Never mind that - I'll build one. I have to avoid the feds myself to bust these guys. That's the bummer about being in this business... but you know... it makes it a little bit-" Simon got up. "You will have your material by tomorrow. Shall I deliver it here?" Steve was insulted because of the interruption. "Why not? I can work right from my office any day." Simon walked out. Steve picked up the list and studied it carefully. "Darc Deathe? Who's Darc Deathe?" AND THE STORY CONTINUES............... ============================================================================== = = = = = � ************************************* = = * * = = * The Last of * = = * The Phreakers * = = * * = = * BY * = = * * = = * Hildebrandt * = = * * = = ************************************* = = = = ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ = = ^ ^ = = ^ Chapter 2: Progress.... ^ = = ^ ^ = = ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ = = = ============================================================================== "A tool box?" Steve lifted up his head. It suddenly all came back to him. The night before... he must have fallen asleep in the garage while working on the modem. Steve got off of the long board he had used for a bed and stood up. He looked at his watch. 12:23, almost half of an hour past lunch time! Within the next 37 minutes Steve would take a shower, eat lunch, put the finishing touches on his modem, and drive to his office. Upon unlocking his office door, Steve noticed several boxes within his office that were not there before. A note stood on top of one which read: "Here's the stuff - just tell me if you need anything else. Love Simon" Steve wasted no time. Within an hour everything was set up. Steve motioned to turn on the whole mess when suddenly something shot through his mind. "This is it..." he thought, "this is where it's all gonna begin." The names continued to ring through his head: Darc Deathe, 2600, Dr. PHATE, Bluebeard, The Phocs, TAP magazine, Count Lazilo Hollifield Nibble and the famous /\/oo\/\ that followed his name, others... so many others... who are these people? They exist... yet only as handles... but they are human beings and must be treated as such. Such a fantastic task... how can I pos- sibly do it alone? To TERMINATE every one of these characters and then some more, to crash the uncrashable AE lines... but how? The solution: log on as a phreaker/hacker/pirate and keep a low profile then... BOOM!" Steve turned the switch to ON. The computer lit up beautifully. "Ascii Express - 'The Professional'" The title sort of reminded Steve of himself. Steve had previously written down only 3 phone numbers from bulletin board systems. He got these from Computer Shopper. The first one was called the Titan AE, pw = TITAN. He quickly called it, anxious to test out his home- made modem. Voice answer. Steve hung up. He crossed out the number and called the second one on the list - Junkie's Elite BBS. He dialed the number and let it ring ten times then hung up. His last resort - and obscure board by the name of Wicko. He called it... one ring.... two rings... a carrier! Steve stood up from his desk, reached behind the computer and pulled a little switch in the back of his modem. The screen read: "Term -->" and he was connected. Steve decided to make his logon handle: "Loose Gravy", and his real name remained his real name. After all, there wasn't too much anybody could do to his office phone line, and his home phone he didn't care about - he just disconnected it. This was Steve's beginning. He wound his way through the system. He got more access, and eventually found more phone numbers. He got access on more boards and became very knowledgable of several powerful BBS's. He then moved on to the national scene. He got access to Pirate's Harbor in Boston. He found the dreaded AE line list, and more AE's. He began to download important text files. He uploaded them on other boards as contribution. This went over well with the sysops, and him too, after all, if he was going ? to TERMINATE them in a couple of months, what harm could it do them to have a little bit more phun? He soon built several "box's". He had everything he needed. But wait, he had.a new idea. He would not have to use his real name to do the job after all... he had a plan. He called it: Phase 2. To insure this plan, though, he would have to drop out of the computer scene for a little while to destroy his "old" profile. He did so. And while he was so destroying himself on many national BBS's and AE lines, he took a vacation to the Bahamas. But he would be back.... never fear... he was COMING BACK! AND THE STORY CONTINUES.... ============================================================================== = = = = = ************************************* = = * * = = * The Last of * = = * The Phreakers * = = * * = = * BY * = = * * = = * Hildebrandt * = = * * = = ************************************* = = = = ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ � = = ^ ^ = = ^ Chapter 3: The Meeting ^ = = ^ ^ = = ^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ = = = ============================================================================== While Steve"was in the Bahamas, unbeknownst to him a certain meeting was going on... a meeting that would certainly affect his assignment in a way that he had never expected. The meeting was known as PHOTMEO '86. Phreakers/Hackers Of The Most Elite Order met in 1986 in a small auditorium of a closed down theatre in west Texas. This group of people were so elite, so professional, that even some of the most well known phreakers have no idea who any of them are, but � nevertheless they are quite proficient in their abilities. Among them at that meeting were: Ushmuff - an excellent phreaker specialist. He once gave MCI their own phone bill for $900,000,000. Coup 'da Con - this character once broke into the U.S. treasury and almost succeeded in decreasing the national debt by over a billion dollars. The Gestapo found out that someone was messing with the treasury and changed the access code to something much more sophisticated. Arcturio - Almost started World War ]I[ one day because he had nothing else to do. Watergate - has been phreaking longer than anybody in the world. It is said that he has a list of access codes that could stretch from New York to Los Angeles. Dr. Psyche - the least dangerous thing he ever did was crash NORAD. General 9600 - sysop of a 9600 baud AE line. It is probably the most powerful AE line in the nation. He upgraded AE to his own version: 10.04b. The Argonaut - once got up a conference call with over 6 million people on it! Howdy Doody - vice president of PHOTMEO. <*Poof!*> - president of PHOTMEO. The speaker, of course, was the president: <*Poof!*>. His adress was as follows: "Gentlemen... I wish to address to you this evening a subject that we have too long overlooked. I believe that it is time, that we, as PHOTMEO should finally pull ourselves together and do what needs to be done. My pro- posal is simple. The world is not getting any better. She is getting much worse. Too much fear of war, etcetera. I will not go into it all. Never- theless, at any cost, we must prevent the present day world from continuing and start a new world ourselves. This is more than possible through the power that we already posess. With our combined forces, attacking strategic locations throughout all 7 continents via computer... we can and will at least stir up some problems. From there we will move on to better things. If we can tear down every mainframe computer system in the country, we will have started something very interesting. The only problem: the Soviets get wise and we may have a nuclear war on our hands once they find out that we are defenseless. The problem may be rectified by dismantling their systems as well, although that may be more difficult than we think. Let us combine our talents and seek to destroy as many systems as we can. Naturally, the telephone service systems must be last. For more info on this subject, I am putting up a new board called "PHOTMEO's Antics" at the old Chrome Area's number. New info will be posted on there daily. Do not start doing anything until you get your specific orders via Email from there. Is this all understood?" The people nodded their heads agreeingly. This was new to no one. They had been in this sort of thing for years, and what <*Poof!*> proposed was not was not at all out of the question. If they pulled their resources, it could be done. It would take some work, but it could be done. There was much dis- cussion about the matter afterwards over tea and coffee. Hours later, the people left... and the auditorium was emptied of the PHOTMEO. But the world was not.... 6 AND THE STORY CONTINUES....