My finger hovers over Enter. Three days of planning, fighting, holding. Gone with one keystroke.
I hit Enter.
The message sits there. Cursor blinking in the empty reply field.
Ten seconds.
Twenty.
[SKriLLa] clean reversal. no loose ends.
[SKriLLa] invite me when youre ready
Not gloating. Not condescending. Just a veteran operator who's been through this a hundred times before.
The weight lifts. Not all at once, but enough to breathe.
I switch to #crew.
That's it. No speeches. No second thoughts. We've already had that conversation.
I switch to #mp3 on EFNet.
The channel looks the same as it has for three days. Locked down. Invite-only. Fourteen users, all bots. My bots—ska|ghost, spacegoat|daemon, steez|phantom—all holding @ next to their names.
I type the first command.
/invite SKriLLa #mp3
Two seconds. Three.
* SKriLLa () has joined #mp3
I type the next command.
/mode #mp3 +o SKriLLa
* SKa sets mode: +o SKriLLa
The @ symbol appears next to SKriLLa's name in my user list. He doesn't say anything in channel. Professional. Clean.
* SYN|agentsmith () has joined #mp3
* SYN|agentsmith () has joined #mp3
* SKriLLa sets mode: +oo SYN|agentsmith SYN|terminator
His bots start joining. His infrastructure. Back in place.
* SKa sets mode: -o ska|ghost
* SKa sets mode: -o spacegoat|daemon
* SKa sets mode: -o steez|phantom
Three days of holding ops, stripped in one command.
A PM window blinks.
[SpaceGoat] its done
[SKa] yeah
[SpaceGoat] ok
One command left.
/mode #mp3 -o SKa
* SKa sets mode: -o SKa
My name loses its @. Just SKa. Regular user.
That's it. Forty-five seconds from start to finish.
Another PM blinks.
[SteeZ] fast
[SKa] yeah
I switch to #warez. Same process. Invite, op, bots join, his bots auto-strip ours, de-op self.
Thirty seconds and it's done. Both channels back in SKriLLa's hands.
I look at #mp3. Still locked down. Still invite-only. Just bots now. But SKriLLa will open it back up. Remove the modes. Let the users flood back in. Restore the file servers.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Like we were never here.
A PM from SKriLLa.
[SKriLLa] remove your bots.
I switch to #crew.
* ska|ghost has quit IRC (leaving)
* spacegoat|daemon has quit IRC (leaving)
* steez|phantom has quit IRC (leaving)
* ska|shadow has quit IRC (leaving)
* ska|wraith has quit IRC (leaving)
* spacegoat|backup has quit IRC (leaving)
Six bots disconnect. Clean exit. No loose ends.
Another PM window.
[FLiPZ] server stabilizing
I check my own server stats. Load average dropping from 2.84 to 1.21. The CPU isn't fighting anymore. No phantom processes hammering cycles. No bots retrying failed connections.
I switch to #main on irc.goodmonin2ya.net.
They don't know what has changed. They just know it works again.
A month of planning. The surveillance. The bot coordination. SpaceGoat timing the splits down to seventy-three seconds. Three days of holding the channels against everything SYN threw at us.
Erased in under a minute.
Power doesn't fade gradually. It disappears the instant you let go.
But the weight is gone too. No more watching for attacks. No more defending against people who know every trick we've just learned. No more risking my school network, my community server, my entire setup for two channels I never actually need.
It doesn't feel like losing. It feels like breathing again.
Back on EFNet I type two more commands.
/part #mp3
* SKa has left #mp3
/part #warez
* SKa has left #warez
I check the server stats on our server one more time.
1:49am up 6 days, 15:25, 43 users, load average: 0.73, 1.52, 2.18
43 users. Up from 36. People coming back.
I open a browser window. Type . The SYN ASCII still sits there—the mark of someone who walked right through my front door.
I check my school email. Mr. Caldwell's warning still sits in my inbox. The district network flag. Lab access curtailed.
The servers are stable. The channels are gone. The war is won and immediately erased.
The war is over.
The mess isn't.