*Launch Day

-Chat Window Opens-

17:50- JayGrove: Hey man, you got a minute?

17:50- RavStar: Of course, what’s up? Haven’t talked to you in a bit.

17:51- JayGrove: You were one of the ESO Beta Testers, right?

17:51- RavStar: Yes, I was, why?

17:53- RavStar: Jay?

17:54- JayGrove: Me and some fellows grouped together about halfway through the Beta to try to investigate a little bit, because we were becoming suspicious of a few things we heard were occurring. They appear to be modifying the Default SDK from the VPon-3, making a custom variation they’ve codenamed the “Full-Immersion Script”. We don’t have the details of what exactly it is, but we’re a bit concerned by the title and the nature of it. As a friend, I want to recommend you not load up ESO during the launch, but it’s up to you.

17:55- JayGrove: Crap! I have to go, please don’t load up that game!

-He goes offline-

Receiving a phone call from one of the members of his group, Jay answers it.

“Hey Greywing, what’s going on?” He asks. It’s not too normal to receive a random phone call, unless it was important.

“I think you should come to the place, there’s another thing we’ve found about ESO,” He replies.

“On my way, give me five or so minutes,” Jay states as he shuts down his technology, hanging up the phone and grabbing his keys. Galloping down the stairs, he opens the door, and heads into his vehicle. When he turns the ignition, he checked the time, 17:58, 2 minutes before ESO’s launch. Deciding it’s better to be quicker than usual, he puts the car into reverse, pulls out of the driveway, and starts heading in the direction of the meeting area.

After about ten minutes, at about 7 minutes post-launch, Jay pulls up at the meeting area, an abandoned building out-of-the-way from the normal City Operations. Seeing the other cars, he decides to head to the door. Upon arrival, he unlocks the door with his key, located on the same keychain as his car. Entering, he sees the worried looks of his fellows, and locks the door behind him.

“Hey guys, what’s wrong? I was told to come,” Jay asks to them. In response, he gets thrown the final blueprint of the in-game menu.

“Look at the Miscellaneous Section,” Greywing states, noticing Jay’s confusion. Jay looks through it, and looks at it confused for a moment, before gasping in understanding.

“Wait, the login button is missing? Why is that?” He asks.

“We have no clue, but it could have something to do with the Full-Immersion Script. We were able to get a copy of the code by running the game on a test dummy a little bit ago, and extracting the data from there, and we find no mention of logging out anywhere there either, but we did find some interesting variables involving the death of a character, though we haven’t looked into them much yet, as we wanted your input,” Another pony says, this one by the name of Yuki Toris. Jay trots over to the examination table, where a paper copy of the script is located, and looks through it, noticing the unusual variables himself.

“I see. Well, we’ll have time to analyze it soon, for now w-” He begins, before a booming knock at the door interrupts his thoughts.

“Virtual Defense Corps., this is the Equestrian Intelligence Agency, open up now, or we shall open it for you!” A mare yells from the other side. Jay, nodding at his compadres, heads to follow the instructions given, the others guarding the varying places inside the building.

Opening the door, he greeted to a suited mare, a holstered pistol to her side, and an armored transport vehicle on the road, guarded by the motorcycles of the Royal Police. She grimly look at him, before inquiring: “Are you Jay Grove, the leader of the Virtual Defense Corps.?”

“Indeed, I am, though I knew not we were of any word of mouth,” He says, a bit surprised.

“News travels fast through our network, we were able to track your connections as you’ve been looking into ESO. You see, we’re of similar goals, I was assigned to look into this game as well, for fear there’s something more going on. I’d like to propose to you, that we join forces, share our resources, and look into this together,” She explains.

“Why is it such a huge deal at this time?” He asks.

“Will you allow me to come in, to explain?” She inquires.

“Even if I said no, you would, so be my guest, madame,” He responds, granting her entry. She trots in, and Jay motions for Greywing to pull up some chairs. As they get settled, the pony clears her throat.

“Now that I’m talking to all of you, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nightlight, head of the ESO Investigative Unit within the Equestrian Intelligence Agency, tasked with researching the dark rumours that have sprouted up with it. Due to lack of probable cause or evidence though, the launch has gone through, and we didn’t, and still don’t, think we could gather enough material in time to try to figure out what we need to do. Due to such, we tracked the connections regarding a group, your group, who identified as the ‘Virtual Defense Corps.’. Because of lack of anywhere else to turn, we decided to take the risk to come to you,” She briefly explains to the group of ponies gathered.

“Madame Nightlight, we would be honored to assist. We actually have something that needs some thorough investigation, a full copy of the Full-Immersion Script, which I assume you’ve heard of,” Jay relays.

“Indeed we have, and attempts have been done to try to find as such, to no avail. If you would honor our request by coming with us, your research in tow, we can head to the Headquarters, where there’s more resources to do what we shall need to,” Nightlight replies.

“Very well. Greywing, gather the documents, Yuki, gather the testing dummy. Torn Soul, would you mind transferring the computer data to a flashdrive?” He delegates, also talking to Torn Soul, the last member of the group, for the first time since he arrived.

“Glad you finally remembered me,” Torn replies, rolling his eyes. Everyone goes to work, and Nightlight pulls Jay to the side.

“You seem to be too willing, why is that?” She inquires.

“Because I have a friend in that game, and I want to see him come out of it,” He responds.

After everything is packed up, the time now being 18:35, the group starts riding to the headquarters of the EIA. As they approach the main road, they start to see and hear numerous sirens and the like, from ambulances and police alike, causing a bunch of slow traffic.

“What’s going on?” Jay asks Nightlight, who’s listening to her earpiece.

“Multiple deaths have started to pop up at random, all users of the VPon3, all playing ESO, from what we can tell. There’s only approximately 10 so far, but the numbers are starting to rise. They’re currently looking into the cause of death,” Nightlight explains, as she orders the crew to go faster, activating their sirens to clear the streets.

“Jay, do you think they may have to do with the Full Immersion Script?” Grey asks him.

“I have no clue. We haven’t looked into the unknown variables yet, of course, but it’s definitely possible. Once we make it to the headquarters, we should be able to look into it with some experts in the field,” He responds.

“Very well. What’s the ETA on the arrival, by the way, Madame Nightlight?” Grey inquires.

“Well, we don’t know how many more emergency response vehicles we’re going to run into, but it shouldn’t be too much longer,” Nightlight replies, before conversing once more on the earbud:

<-------------------->

Nightlight: “Update me, what’s happening?”

Respondent: “20 confirmed, we’re still unsure why. Autopsies are being run now, but it’ll take a bit to get results. We have one witness stating she tried to remove the headset, and her son stopped breathing, stopped housing a pulse. She’s still in questioning though, we need to ensure we get the proper information from her.”

Nightlight: “Removing the headset?”

Respondent: “Yes, it seems to be locked onto their head, from our observations thus far.”

Nightlight: “Alright, keep me updated. We seem to be 5 minutes off from the Headquarters now, we’ll speak again there.”

Respondent: “Roger that, ma’am. Looking forward to your safe return.”

<-------------------->

They eventually arrive at the EIA, and get escorted into a room dedicated to the investigation of ESO, not too impressive at the current point, due to lack of belief of necessity, but enough for function. The VDC set up their own material, and make copies of the Full-Immersion Script, and the in-game blueprint to distribute. Everyone gathers in a separate room, made into a meeting area.

“Good evening, today is the first joint meeting between the EIA and the VDC, to attempt to try to understand what has started to occurred, and to try to find where to go from here. Let’s start by quickly introducing ourselves, then the VDC have something for us to look at. Sound good?” Nightlight explains and inquires, leading to a group nod.

“Let’s start with my crew. My name is Nightlight, like I’ve mentioned prior. I’m the head of this investigative unit,” She states, and Jay looks her over for the first time in some time, noticing her midnight blue coat, and naturally contrasted purple mane, partially covering the relatively small horn.

“My name is Gruffy Hunt, I’ve been a detective for some time for the EIA, and have always been intrigued by the nature of puzzles and mysteries, which is why I was asked to lend my skills to this operation,” The second pony states, an Earth Pony of green, with a dark green mane to boot.

“And lastly, myself. My name is Wavy Oceans,” The last pony says, a mare of a wavy blue mane, a greyish blue coat complementing the mane, a pegasus.

“A pleasure to meet you all,” Jay states, smiling. “My name is Jay Grove, I’m a fairly fresh graduate from highschool, and have been focused on ESO with these fellows since halfway through the Beta. I think I speak for all of us when I say it’s a pleasure to work with fellows of investigation,” He continues.

“I concur with Jay. My name is Grey Wing, and I hope we can work together to solve what’s going on with this game,” Grey, a winged stallion of grey fur with a slightly darker mane upon in, stated

“Greetings, my name is Yuki Tori, I was a fellow of Jay, graduating alongside of him, and I also hope that our combined efforts will bring light to this darkness,” Yuki, a horned mare of a light yellow fur, with a mane of a variety of the spectrum, stated.

“And last, as-per the norm, is myself. The name’s Torn Soul, I was brought on through a mock application of sorts. I’m glad I was able to come on the team though, so I can help figure all this out with you lot,” Torn, a black-furred Earthpony, with a Whitish-Grey mane, says in greeting.

“Very good, there will be plenty of time for us to further get to know each other later on. Now, for the reason of the meeting. Jay, would you like to take over?” Nighlight asks the implied question.

“Indeed, Madame,” Jay says, before clearing his throat, and adopting a serious expression.

“Me and my fellows, known as the Virtual Defense Corps., have been, as you know tracking ESO since the middle of its Beta. Upon the launch of the game, my fellows here loaded the game up on the test dummy set-up in the other room, and managed to get a copy of a controversial script, known as the Full Immersion Script, for full analysis,” He begins, distributing as such.

“As you’ll find within the script, there is no mention of the ability to log-off, a function mentioned within the original version of it, the SDK of the VPon-3. We also see variables we weren’t able to identify the usage of, given the limited time of it being within our possession before we came here. I think it’s worth looking into, in an effort to find what the modified script is doing to our fair players,” He further explains.

“Alongside that, from the game resources lay the blueprint for the in-game menu of such, which is here,” He begins the second and last point, distributing that as well.

“Within this blueprint, under the Miscellaneous Section, shows that this was definitely no accident, and that something is going on further than the critics of the conspiracy mentioned. I think we all, as a team, can discover what such is, and eliminate it before much more harm is brought upon people,” He finishes, to the light clapping of hooves.

“Thank you, Sir Grove. Now, the meeting is dismis-” Nightlight begins, before the door is forced open, an Earth Pony in detective garb rushing in.

“Ma’am! The results of earlier have been found! The device, under circumstances we don’t completely understand yet, is emitting microwaves to the brain of those playing ESO, leading to their deaths!” He exclaims, to the shock of the ponies in the room.

“Did the witness’ testimony shed any light on one of the circumstances?” Nightlight inquires, to the nodding of the detective.

“Indeed, ma’am. While we haven’t been able to test it ourselves, more witnesses have come forth sharing the same story. Removing the headset yields death to the player,” The detective responds.

“Send a PSA out, quickly, attempt to stop ponies from attempting to do so, and inform CMSgt. Tri-Shadow that it would be in our best interest to start setting up emergency hospital establishments, we don’t know how long this will last, and the ponies under won’t last forever without proper nutrition and the like. Tell him that I shall send him a signed authorization request with further details soon, but that I find we need to begin to do so before I get the time to do so,” Nightlight relays to him quickly.

“Yes, ma’am!” He exclaims, before galloping out of the room, to head back upwards.

Nightlight sighs, looking back towards the rest of the people within the group.

“Mares and Gentlecolts, we have a long road ahead.."