Tommmo
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This really isnt a proper fanfic, I was looking for a way to pass a couple of minutes so thought I'd open up a blank notepad window and jot down a lil dramatic rendering of events in the real life half-life story...ok ok, be gentle! I'm not a writer by trade. 
Source: The Incident
The phone rang, a sharp precursor to the nightmare headache that was to become a nightmare month. Gabe picked up the mobile on his bedside table. It was Doug. "Uh, we may have a problem", he said, in a voice uncharacteristically laden with ominous foreboding. 10 minutes later, Gabe was in the car with a foot hard down on the accelerator and a mobile glued to his ear as he listened to the chaos unfolding in the Valve office.
****
It had all begun in the last week or two. His suspicions had already been aroused by some unusual activity on the network but he'd ignored the signs and taken it as a signal for another late-night coffee before continuing coding. Half-Life 2 was the most anticipated game of the decade - every gamer worldwide wanted a piece of the action, and it was set to be spectacular after the past few years of work they'd put into it.
Gabe opened up an edit copy of the source and tried to work out a few more of the bugs that all seemed to be appearing in the weeks leading up to the release. Just his luck. They were already way behind with the schedule, and they'd never make Gold for the September deadline without putting in some serious overtime. The firewall icon started blinking again, incoming traffic. It'd probably be more email. The processor began croaking of its own accord even though he hadn't touched the keyboard for a few minutes. A hack attempt?
He was way too tired, and mistook sensibility for paranoia as he turned off the monitor and left for the night. He glanced at his watch, walking out as the cool night air hit him in a refreshing blast after the stuffy elevators and corridors of the building. 1:20 AM. It hadn't been so hard at Microsoft, but he wouldn't trade his Valve position for anything - the people were great, the offices had a fantastic atmosphere and he loved what he did; how many people can say that about their employment?
It felt good to get some sleep that night, melting easily into unconsciousness as his head hit the pillow. Sometimes in his dreams he was Gordon, although it usually scared him into thinking about the amount of time he'd been devoting to the project. Tomorrow was Saturday. Maybe he'd spend some time with the family, get away from it all for a couple of hours.
Doug's call the next morning shattered any plans he'd thought up for later. It was going to be a very long day. Pushing 80 on the highway, he could hear muffled shouts from the office as his distressed colleague explained what they knew of 'the incident' so far over the cellphone. His head was a blur of confusion and shock. A couple of words registered and hit home. 'Hack', 'leaked', 'source gone, probably more'.
Pulling up outside the office, he slammed the door and jogged into the elevator. It seemed like an eternity before it reached his floor, and ran into the lobby. He was just in time to hear a stressed tech examining a log exclaim, "Jesus, the bastard got the entire source. The whole directory's uploaded!" Rick walked over to Gabe as he entered the room, wiping a sheen of perspiration from his forehead.
"I assume you've heard." "Yes," Gabe replied, "But only one or two details. Talk to me Rick, what the hell happened here?" "In a nutshell? We're not 100% sure. But we do know that they compromised a machine somewhere on the network, managed to upload themselves over a gig of data at least. Source is gone."
In a daze, Gabe's mind rushed back to the blinking firewall; in an instant he knew the computer which had been compromised. Walking over to his workstation, he opened up a log of its outgoing files. There was a dull sense of shock as he realised the working build had been transferred, the computer's hard-drive sucked dry of files from a night of uploading.
"Get someone from Vivendi on the phone, they ought to know", Gabe said, turning to Rick. "And what are they going to do? Help turn this into a PR nightmare? You realise we've got to get the feds in - try and hunt it down before it gets out." But they both knew that the file had begun to spread, like a virus weaving its tendrils through the Ethernet.
Over the next 24 hours, there was a sense of disbelief in the online communities. Gabe logged onto a few forums and saw the first postings of what they were calling a 'beta' copy of the game.
One site decided to dare and post screenshots, and others followed its example. The IRC channels began to swell as people signed on to see for themselves if the rumours were true. And the trail of the hacker began to blur as the file spread, slowly at first but with ever gathering pace.
Half.life.Beta-Anon.rar - the first filename that was to plague Valve for some time to come. After speaking to a clueless representative from the FBI about the network hack that had taken place, Gabe realised that time was against them and the authorities wouldn't have enough leads to get anywhere.
It was time for Valve's support of the fans to pay off. "Ever have one of those weeks?", began his community appeal. "Well, this sucks, but I can't imagine a better group of people to help us take care of these problems than this community." And so the trump card was played.
Over the next few weeks, there were further leaks, patches and modifications as the hacker released further files from his stolen upload. Gabe's only consolation was that a very skilled and devoted community had begun the hunt for the perpetrator. Hundreds logged onto the IRC channels and pored over logs of those first few hours, more effective than the police could ever be. Others delved into the shady world of the Internet underground.
Nicknames of individuals and hacking groups surfaced from time to time.
The online world was made aware of the fact that Valve wasn't going down without a fight as websites received legal documentation ordering them to take the material down - and the hacking community opened its eyes with the blog posting of a certain Mr. Toshok, who after a visit from the FBI was heard to raise the alarm that 'the wolves are circling'.
Gabe himself wasn't filled in on any of this - the police liked to keep to themselves, it seemed. Until one sunny may afternoon when he picked up the office phone to hear the first positive news in weeks. "Mr Newell? Yes, we are currently in contact with the German authorities who have arrested a suspect. No, we don't know too much - supposed to be associated with virus writing, some part of an obscure group."
With a smile upon his face, Gabe asked, "And you're sure he's the one that's caused all this?” "Him, amongst others. These hacking groups aren't usually limited to one country, and we're looking at bringing one or two individuals over here too." Putting the phone down, Gabe continued editing the netcode, this time in a greatly improved mood.
The sun was shining outside, and he could tell the saga was drawing to an end. In a spontaneous burst of energy, he pushed the keyboard back and stood up to address the room around him. "Alright people, listen up! Its finally over. The feds claim they're bringin 'em in as we speak, so its time to bury all of this and put it in the past. Lets make this game!" He was received with weary smiles all round. Everyone was tired, but inspired by this news. As the sun began to set on another day, Gabe grinned. Turning to Rick, he chuckled: "Smell that? I think its a release date."
HALF-LIFE 2: COMING AUGUST 2004?
**Disclaimer: Any resemblance of characters depicted herein to real life persons is completely coincidental. The poor writing was my bad. **
Source: The Incident
The phone rang, a sharp precursor to the nightmare headache that was to become a nightmare month. Gabe picked up the mobile on his bedside table. It was Doug. "Uh, we may have a problem", he said, in a voice uncharacteristically laden with ominous foreboding. 10 minutes later, Gabe was in the car with a foot hard down on the accelerator and a mobile glued to his ear as he listened to the chaos unfolding in the Valve office.
****
It had all begun in the last week or two. His suspicions had already been aroused by some unusual activity on the network but he'd ignored the signs and taken it as a signal for another late-night coffee before continuing coding. Half-Life 2 was the most anticipated game of the decade - every gamer worldwide wanted a piece of the action, and it was set to be spectacular after the past few years of work they'd put into it.
Gabe opened up an edit copy of the source and tried to work out a few more of the bugs that all seemed to be appearing in the weeks leading up to the release. Just his luck. They were already way behind with the schedule, and they'd never make Gold for the September deadline without putting in some serious overtime. The firewall icon started blinking again, incoming traffic. It'd probably be more email. The processor began croaking of its own accord even though he hadn't touched the keyboard for a few minutes. A hack attempt?
He was way too tired, and mistook sensibility for paranoia as he turned off the monitor and left for the night. He glanced at his watch, walking out as the cool night air hit him in a refreshing blast after the stuffy elevators and corridors of the building. 1:20 AM. It hadn't been so hard at Microsoft, but he wouldn't trade his Valve position for anything - the people were great, the offices had a fantastic atmosphere and he loved what he did; how many people can say that about their employment?
It felt good to get some sleep that night, melting easily into unconsciousness as his head hit the pillow. Sometimes in his dreams he was Gordon, although it usually scared him into thinking about the amount of time he'd been devoting to the project. Tomorrow was Saturday. Maybe he'd spend some time with the family, get away from it all for a couple of hours.
Doug's call the next morning shattered any plans he'd thought up for later. It was going to be a very long day. Pushing 80 on the highway, he could hear muffled shouts from the office as his distressed colleague explained what they knew of 'the incident' so far over the cellphone. His head was a blur of confusion and shock. A couple of words registered and hit home. 'Hack', 'leaked', 'source gone, probably more'.
Pulling up outside the office, he slammed the door and jogged into the elevator. It seemed like an eternity before it reached his floor, and ran into the lobby. He was just in time to hear a stressed tech examining a log exclaim, "Jesus, the bastard got the entire source. The whole directory's uploaded!" Rick walked over to Gabe as he entered the room, wiping a sheen of perspiration from his forehead.
"I assume you've heard." "Yes," Gabe replied, "But only one or two details. Talk to me Rick, what the hell happened here?" "In a nutshell? We're not 100% sure. But we do know that they compromised a machine somewhere on the network, managed to upload themselves over a gig of data at least. Source is gone."
In a daze, Gabe's mind rushed back to the blinking firewall; in an instant he knew the computer which had been compromised. Walking over to his workstation, he opened up a log of its outgoing files. There was a dull sense of shock as he realised the working build had been transferred, the computer's hard-drive sucked dry of files from a night of uploading.
"Get someone from Vivendi on the phone, they ought to know", Gabe said, turning to Rick. "And what are they going to do? Help turn this into a PR nightmare? You realise we've got to get the feds in - try and hunt it down before it gets out." But they both knew that the file had begun to spread, like a virus weaving its tendrils through the Ethernet.
Over the next 24 hours, there was a sense of disbelief in the online communities. Gabe logged onto a few forums and saw the first postings of what they were calling a 'beta' copy of the game.
One site decided to dare and post screenshots, and others followed its example. The IRC channels began to swell as people signed on to see for themselves if the rumours were true. And the trail of the hacker began to blur as the file spread, slowly at first but with ever gathering pace.
Half.life.Beta-Anon.rar - the first filename that was to plague Valve for some time to come. After speaking to a clueless representative from the FBI about the network hack that had taken place, Gabe realised that time was against them and the authorities wouldn't have enough leads to get anywhere.
It was time for Valve's support of the fans to pay off. "Ever have one of those weeks?", began his community appeal. "Well, this sucks, but I can't imagine a better group of people to help us take care of these problems than this community." And so the trump card was played.
Over the next few weeks, there were further leaks, patches and modifications as the hacker released further files from his stolen upload. Gabe's only consolation was that a very skilled and devoted community had begun the hunt for the perpetrator. Hundreds logged onto the IRC channels and pored over logs of those first few hours, more effective than the police could ever be. Others delved into the shady world of the Internet underground.
Nicknames of individuals and hacking groups surfaced from time to time.
The online world was made aware of the fact that Valve wasn't going down without a fight as websites received legal documentation ordering them to take the material down - and the hacking community opened its eyes with the blog posting of a certain Mr. Toshok, who after a visit from the FBI was heard to raise the alarm that 'the wolves are circling'.
Gabe himself wasn't filled in on any of this - the police liked to keep to themselves, it seemed. Until one sunny may afternoon when he picked up the office phone to hear the first positive news in weeks. "Mr Newell? Yes, we are currently in contact with the German authorities who have arrested a suspect. No, we don't know too much - supposed to be associated with virus writing, some part of an obscure group."
With a smile upon his face, Gabe asked, "And you're sure he's the one that's caused all this?” "Him, amongst others. These hacking groups aren't usually limited to one country, and we're looking at bringing one or two individuals over here too." Putting the phone down, Gabe continued editing the netcode, this time in a greatly improved mood.
The sun was shining outside, and he could tell the saga was drawing to an end. In a spontaneous burst of energy, he pushed the keyboard back and stood up to address the room around him. "Alright people, listen up! Its finally over. The feds claim they're bringin 'em in as we speak, so its time to bury all of this and put it in the past. Lets make this game!" He was received with weary smiles all round. Everyone was tired, but inspired by this news. As the sun began to set on another day, Gabe grinned. Turning to Rick, he chuckled: "Smell that? I think its a release date."
HALF-LIFE 2: COMING AUGUST 2004?
**Disclaimer: Any resemblance of characters depicted herein to real life persons is completely coincidental. The poor writing was my bad.
**
