Uplink
Chapter 3 - Furries and Cybercrime
Half an hour later he walked down stairs dry and dressed in his school clothes. The mirror in the hall caught his eye, he glanced in it. His eyes, one green one blue, were not as blood-shot anymore. His hair was sleek and well placed again and his glasses were perched on the end of his muzzle as usual. Yup, you heard right, muzzle. Miles Kjeller, is a fox, common red. Orange fur, bushy tail, you get the picture. Don't panic though, not a quadrupedal fox. Anthropomorphic, not heard of it? Let me explain.
An anthropomorphic animal or "anthro" or "furry" is, basically, a cross between a human and an animal. i.e. Take Miles, he is furry, has a tail, pointy ears, but he has human expressions, walks on two legs, speaks human. Furries would fit in very well, if it weren't for the fact that humans seriously disliked them. Furries were smarter, more agile and generally friendlier, but all the anti-fur propaganda of the '90's and the '00's put a bit of a sting in the advancement of their race. Originally genetically engineered in the early months of 2008, based on popularity from the "furry" community (a group of humans who had "fursonas" on the internet and went to fur-cons, etc. Just generally liked furries even they weren't real), the first few real Furries were made. The successful ones had their DNA replicated and modified further, there were now anthropomorphic versions of most major animals on the planet. Ranging from Canine to Feline, Equine to Avian. Furries were now all over the place, and several years of cross-breeding had produced a few...interesting results.
The year is 2108, the 100th anniversary of the furry and the advancement in technology had been immense over the last 50 years. Inventory, Credit, all of these. World poverty had been wiped out, theft had all but disappeared, in a physical sense anyway. The only major physical crimes remaining were murder, assault and sexual-abuse. The crimes of 2108 were almost all digital. Fraud, record modification, hacking. You had to be really careful who you told what.
Miles was one of these "cyber criminals" however, never having been caught, his record was clean, or relatively clean anyway. Three cups of coffee and a slice of toast later he was sitting in the mini-van getting driven to school. Miles sat in the middle of the van, minimal jostling, away from the rowdier kids at the back and far enough away from the adults at the front he could get away with quietly using his PDA to surf the 'net. No new emails, no new posts, he chuckled to himself and signed onto a website called "SlaveHack". An online game played my many people across the globe. A hacking simulation, almost, you had a "computer" on the "internet" which stayed online 24/7, you could download files from "servers", steal money from "banks" hack other "computers". It was all in good fun, Miles was one of those members that was powerful and feared. He also had a team of other hackers at his back, Shockwave being one of them. FYDAH, the name had been thought up while the other members were drunk and I am not going to repeat its real meaning. Only three members, but one of the most feared groups in the game. FoxBoy, ShockWave-Eternal and phatboy, all three were uplink agents too. But nobody else knew that.
Nothing new on here ether. He switched off his PDA and put it in its pouch. He didn't like having his phones in Inventory, he couldn't hear them ring.
An anthropomorphic animal or "anthro" or "furry" is, basically, a cross between a human and an animal. i.e. Take Miles, he is furry, has a tail, pointy ears, but he has human expressions, walks on two legs, speaks human. Furries would fit in very well, if it weren't for the fact that humans seriously disliked them. Furries were smarter, more agile and generally friendlier, but all the anti-fur propaganda of the '90's and the '00's put a bit of a sting in the advancement of their race. Originally genetically engineered in the early months of 2008, based on popularity from the "furry" community (a group of humans who had "fursonas" on the internet and went to fur-cons, etc. Just generally liked furries even they weren't real), the first few real Furries were made. The successful ones had their DNA replicated and modified further, there were now anthropomorphic versions of most major animals on the planet. Ranging from Canine to Feline, Equine to Avian. Furries were now all over the place, and several years of cross-breeding had produced a few...interesting results.
The year is 2108, the 100th anniversary of the furry and the advancement in technology had been immense over the last 50 years. Inventory, Credit, all of these. World poverty had been wiped out, theft had all but disappeared, in a physical sense anyway. The only major physical crimes remaining were murder, assault and sexual-abuse. The crimes of 2108 were almost all digital. Fraud, record modification, hacking. You had to be really careful who you told what.
Miles was one of these "cyber criminals" however, never having been caught, his record was clean, or relatively clean anyway. Three cups of coffee and a slice of toast later he was sitting in the mini-van getting driven to school. Miles sat in the middle of the van, minimal jostling, away from the rowdier kids at the back and far enough away from the adults at the front he could get away with quietly using his PDA to surf the 'net. No new emails, no new posts, he chuckled to himself and signed onto a website called "SlaveHack". An online game played my many people across the globe. A hacking simulation, almost, you had a "computer" on the "internet" which stayed online 24/7, you could download files from "servers", steal money from "banks" hack other "computers". It was all in good fun, Miles was one of those members that was powerful and feared. He also had a team of other hackers at his back, Shockwave being one of them. FYDAH, the name had been thought up while the other members were drunk and I am not going to repeat its real meaning. Only three members, but one of the most feared groups in the game. FoxBoy, ShockWave-Eternal and phatboy, all three were uplink agents too. But nobody else knew that.
Nothing new on here ether. He switched off his PDA and put it in its pouch. He didn't like having his phones in Inventory, he couldn't hear them ring.