User blog:El Alamein/HAL 9000 vs. Anonymous



DISCLAIMER: THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION.

The grand finale to El Alamein's First Official Season comes in a clash not of blades or bullets, but in the ultimate battle of the masters of technology! HAL 9000, the maniacal computer whose calm, collected intellgence and supreme control of spaceship Discovery One terrorized the American astronauts on board, turns his attention to Anonymous, the mass Internet hacking group notorious for their abilities to take down entire corporations to prove points or demand changes in the way our world is run! Blood will be spilled, but not necessarily in the physical sense, as two of the most collected computer wizards fight it out to decide who is deadliest!

This season, we've seen 14 other warriors come to victory over their foes:

'''Battlefield: Vietnam, the Persian Archer, the Byzantine Cataphract, the North Vietnamese Army, the Joker Gang, the Landsknecht (in my single most popular battle of the first season), the Malmedy Survivors, the Saxon Huscarl, RSV 123's Army, the American Minutemen, Smaug the Dragon, and Dracula's Hunters! Lewis and Clark and Paul Revere secured a mutual victory in the first draw battle of any of El Alamein's battles! '''

But now, the battle will be fought much differently:

The Situation
The year is 2001. The American space voyage to Jupiter onboard Discovery One has run into problems as HAL 9000, the autocomputer in charge of keeping the ship on track, short-circuits and goes berserk - several of the astronauts have been killed and only Doctors David Bowman and Frank Poole remain to monitor the ship from the inside. The Internet group Anonymous has responded to their pleas for assistance, and will put their best to work to try and get into HAL's mainframe. And so, the ultimate virtual battle is set to begin.

HAL 9000
HAL 9000 (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) is an artificial intelligence machine from Arthur C. Clarke's Space Odyssey series, made famous by Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film adaption of 2001: A Space Odyssey. HAL assumes complete control of the spaceship he controls on its mission to Jupiter and initially functions flawlessly. When the two astronauts not in suspended animation, Frank Poole and Dave Bowman, order HAL to shut down his listening functions, it complies, but uses its visual scanners to read the lips of the two men and discovers they plan to shut him down in order to complete the journey much more smoothly. Although HAL keeps his demeanor the same, speaking softly and in a conversational tone of voice, it goes berserk, ignoring the orders of the crewmen. When Frank tries to fix a unit on the ship during a spacewalk, HAL cuts off supply to his oxygen tank. Dave tries to rescue him, unaware this was HAL's doing, and is denied access back into the ship while the astronauts in suspened animation have their life functions terminated. Dave eventually forces his way into the ship's emergency airlock, and makes his way to HAL's memory core. Although HAL pleads Dave to turn back and confesses his fears, Dave disconnects HAL and ends its reign of terror aboard the ship, heading to Jupiter himself.

Victory Conditions:
HAL must kill Bowman and Poole and resist Anonymous' attacks long enough until it reaches Jupiter successfully/

Anonymous
Anonymous is the term used to describe a large, multinational group of computer users who are skilled in their abilities to manipulate the Internet in drastic ways to prove a point. Created in 2003, it is dedicated against the ideas of Internet censorship and surveillance, and has attacked several important corporations and even governmental websites digitally. There is no defined set of leadership or ranks among the group, so it literally assumes its name "Anonymous" as there is no way to determine who belongs to the group. Many of their activities have been associated with protests: the SOPA (Stop Only Piracy Act) was reacted by attacks on several US official websites, participated in the Occupy Wall Street Protests, supported the Kony 2012 movement while accusing the way it was being run as propaganda, and (possibly most famously) took down the PlayStation network. They have even come into conflict with non-government organizations like the Mexican Los Zetas Cartel, although nothing escalated out of that specific incident.

Victory Conditions:
Anonymous must shut down HAL's mainframe and return it to its docile state to allow the progress of the Discovery One mission to continue.

X-Factors:
Since no weapons edges can be given, consider these X-Factors when casting your vote:

Skill with Technology - which team is able to use their technology in a more skillful manner?

Cyber Dominance - which team is more dominant on the cyber battlespace?

Computer System - which computer system is superior - HAL 9000 or the computers and programs of Anonymous)?

Psychological Warfare - which team is more susceptible psychologically to the other group's attacks?

Dedication to Cause -  which group will be more relentless in their attacks because of their dedication?

Passive Defense - which group will be able to defend more successfully against the other's attacks?

Aggressive Offense -  which group will be able to send more successful attacks against the other's defenses?

Battle:
To be written

Expert's Opinion:
To be determined