Cracker-Toa
Mr. Ajij Bonar Kawilarang
Written by: Null Kit
Once you hit a certain degree of noteriety and influence, having the latest firewall-updates on your Commlink can only protect you so much from ne'er-do-wells looking to pilfer your data for personal or ideological gain. Having an in-house Spider solely for your home and personal electronics is an expensive and bureaucratically laborous solution, that many might consider overkill for anyone short of an extraterritorial corp's CEO. But for Raleigh's own Jean-Claude Daemonis, whose decades-long schemes have led to his increasing involvement in the city's underworld, having a top-of-the-line Cyberdeck and one qualified to use it as his 24-hour beck and call makes for a very wise investment. Ajij Bonar Kawilarang, alias Cracker-Toa, is the first and current holder of this position, acting not only as JC's cybersecurity specialist but as his shadowrunner and, occasionally, as a model for his fashion company, Beyond Romance. Unusually for a decker, Cracker-Toa is a fully licensed and registered security-spider, and spends most of his week performing legitimate work as a matrix security specialist.So he's bringing a registered 'deck on runs? Seems risky.
Nope, whole different set of hardware when I'm freelancing. Same specs, more or less but a different manucaturer (Ares Firewatch 2.2 if you're curious) and OS-fork. It's no Fairlight, but buying a second one is a tad excessive even for my employer.Whilst work for his primary employer - both legal and extralegal - take precedence, Cracker-Toa is availible for hire as a Decker for Shadowruns. While his custom coding is slapdash and his experience in criminal dealings is found wanting compared to others on this cache, it can't be denied that he is fully qualified to put the bleeding-edge hardware and cyberware at his disposal to a more-than-adequate degree provided you can pay his steep 'consultation-fees' and stomach his inability to keep his swolen ego or income in check.
For those wondering about the shade being thrown: Cracker-Toa foiled a few of Null Kit's early attempts at peaking into Jean-Claude's data-trails, and they've taking swipes at eachother since. There's some twisted respect between them and their respective employers have made it pretty clear what the consequences will be if they start bricking eachother's hardware, but neither of them are quitting this feud any time soon, so best not to get between 'em.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
It should come to no surprise that Jean-Claude has spared no expense in providing his spider with the latest in direct neural-interfacing systems and cerebral enhancements to optimise his capabilities in the matrix. Unlike other deckers, much of this expense has gone not just to preserving holistic integrity but to also ensure minimal aesthetic disruption, even going so far as to have his datajack fitted with a short-Range-High-Density InfoLink so that it can be implanted subdermally and still directly connect with his electronics via a magnetically-attached datacord.
No interest in the MCT Biolink?
My employer considered it, until he learned of how it was developed, and then promptly forbade its implantation in his staff. Seems he has lines he won't cross, or at least he has standards he won't forego.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Owing to recent correspondence from Jean-Claude himself making his waning tolerance for the doxxing of his employees quite apparent, the rest of this article will be written not by myself but by one of his other subordinates, who has been briefed on what information he can and can't share with the shadows.
Null Kit backed off and shut up? Somebody check if Dunkelzahn's risen from the dead.
...ADP Key Detected
...Cross-Platform Network Established
...Provisional Compiler Privileges Granted
Written by: Nocte
Ajij Bonar Kawilarang: Born: Raleigh; parents Indonesian migrants — corporate citizenship granted thorugh the Horizon megacorporation. Upper middle-class upbringing, nondescript, but had high marks in matrix-technology and software programming at Horizon's "Bit by Byte" education program. Fast-tracked into a career in cybersecurity; registered as a Junior Spider then had the appropriate augmentations attached at 22. Took a second job as a rookie model through one of Jean-Claude's side companies. At this point, he didn't know who he was modeling for. Ego inflated and curious, Ajij began using his newfound skills and hardware to bypass his cyberdeck's data-tracking algorithms to access illicit databases. Some information was covertly disseminated to the public and others sold to datamongers, but most of it was simply read and deleted for little reason other than to sate his curiosity. Eventually, he began to pry too close to the sun and began to dig into Jean-Claude's information itself. He ignored the obvious honeypots but his intrusion was found before he accessed the not-obvious honeypot. By the time Ajij knew he was found, someone was already knocking at his door. Ajij did well, though, but he left breadcrumbs and — even worse — he left breadcrumbs for someone who has spent a not insignificant amount of money to ensure his privacy. Time from intrusion to collection in a specially-outfitted vehicle: twenty minutes. Mansfreid hit traffic.Didn't try and make a break for it when you realised you got rumbled?
No point, even if I could've made it somewhere safe it'd only be a matter of time before someone realised I was missing, and learned later on that JC already had an extraction-team on standby. 'Sides, if you think Jean-Claude's the scary one, you haven't met his butler.
You're seriously pullin' out that cliche?
It is not a cliche. Mansfreid was one of my CQC trainers.Mansfreid brought him back to Jean-Claude's Raleigh manor; instructed to wear a Faraday hood and to sit in a wheelchair, Ajij was eventually wheeled into the interrogation room, then had the hood removed. Mansfreid, Jean-Claude, and another Decker who is no longer in service interviewed him. I watched. Jean-Claude read off every personal detail from Ajij's life, down to the name of his favorite childhood toy. Then the fun began. "I value my privacy more than your life, so tell me why I should spare your life for this intrusion." Jean-Claude's affable tone did not match his smile. Ajij began rambling — there may have been hysterics — and after half an hour, Jean-Claude allowed him to stop. They negotiated a new contract at that point and then Ajij was placed into my care. Temporarily, at least; SoCo enjoyed the week-long stay at the manor while I educated Ajij, now Cracker-Toa, through what his new employer expects from him. And by educated, I mean we went on a series of increasingly more dangerous shadowruns designed to push his limits; I was his partner on the last of the seven runs. It was adequate. We'll see if he lives longer than the last Decker. Until then, he lives in the lap of luxury as one of Jean-Claude's personal staff, wearing metaphorical golden handcuffs.
Provisional Compiler Privileges Revoked
Hope it's worth being under the thumb of someone like JC for the rest of your life. Then again, it's not like other Shadowrunners don't sell out to the megacorps on a regular basis, so it beats working for Lofwyr at least...
Assuming it's okay to ask, how far did Cracker-Toa get into cracking the corp's data anyway?
About as far as you did when you tried, but he was tracked significantly faster.
SCORE ONE FOR NULL-KIT!
Well, that silence was nice while it lasted.
Employment
Currently employed by Jean-Claude Daemonis as a model and in-house matrix security specialist.
Personality Characteristics
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Loathe as I am to admit Cracker-Toa's skills as a decker are far from being carried by his expensive hardware. Though seemingly incapable of remaining subtle beyond what the current mission parameters (and Jean-Claude's obligations) demand, he has been more than able to compensate through utilization of social-engineering to get where his coding skills cannot, and has earned a reputation as an efficient and lethal cybercombat specialist, even if none of those skills have transferred into competence regarding meatspace-combat.
Children
Pronouns
He/Him
Eyes
Hazel
Hair
Black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Tanned
Height
6'4''
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