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                           An Exercise in Deceit
                                by Splice

When I arrived in Memphis from Chicago about 2 and a half years ago,  I
began calling out to some local boards and getting the feel of Memphis.
I called the usual systems, CCI, USS Enterprise and the like.  I didn't
think that much of Memphis, but because of my employment I was forced to 
move here,  so I was determined to make the best of it.  Unfortunately
for me,  I broke into the local hacker/phreaker scene at about the same 
time that an apparently infamous member of it was making his exit.

Immortus was apparently a moderately well equipped hacker and phreaker,
but one who had quite an attitude.  He frequently changed aliases and 
it was just assumed that when I came along, I was Immortus under yet 
another new name.  I grew very tired of being called Immortus, and even 
more tired of people discriminating against me and even locking me out of
their systems because they thought I was someone who I was not.  I tried
to do everything I could to prove to these people that I was not who they
seemed to think I was, but it proved futile after a short time.  It turned
out that Immortus had been the guy everyone loved to hate, and that I 
had become an extension of that.  I soon found out why.

I called up Immortus near the middle of 1993 after finding out exactly
who he was (and after being totally fed up).  We talked for a few minutes
and he seemed happy to finally meet himself.  It seemed as if he was 
almost glad that his "legend" lived on in the scene through me and that
everyone hated yet subtly feared me because they thought I was him.  He
told me he had not been telling anyone who called him that he was Splice, 
but did say that an enormous number of people did in fact call him and ask.
He also told me why he had dropped out of the scene (supposedly for one
unsuspectedly large phone bill), and then told me that he was getting 
prank called almost twenty four hours a day.  I almost felt sorry for the 
guy... here he was, getting all these calls all because of me.. or was it 
because of him?  In any case, we talked for a little while longer and I 
found out exactly why people were shunning me.  This guy was a major 
asshole.  Nothing I said was correct, linguistically or otherwise, and if
I disagreed with him I got a dissertation on the finer points of whatever
subject we were discussing.  It was like talking to a wall.  He knew the
acronyms and terms of the h/p world, but that was the extent of it.
People had no real reason to fear this guy at all.  The most he could have
done was prank them back and maybe correct their grammar every so often.

Anyway, this all drew to a close after I put up my system, High Voltage, 
near the beginning of 1993, and convinced most everyone but a few die hard 
fanatics that I was who I said I was... talk about trust in the scene. 

In any case, it had been about two years since anyone had accused me of 
being Immortus, when, a few days ago,  after I vowed to destroy the lamer 
boards of this fine city, I was accosted by a sysop, who shall remain 
nameless (Imperial, Robert Hess), of just such a board, which shall also 
remain nameless (Pyrotechnic Suicide).  I was informed as to what my true 
identity was and that, hey, afterall, it was no secret, and everyone knew 
I was Todd.  Needless to say, I was pissed.  I thought that after a year
and a half of being me, everyone might be familiar enough with me to know
and maybe even -trust- me a little bit.  I guess I was wrong.  Following
below are the actual message exchanges between me and Imperial which 
occurred in e-mail on a local 901 system called The Nucleus:


͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       1/8  
                                                    
 Subject  Board Crashing                                                
 From     Imperial                                                      
 To       Splice                                                        
;
You know you are pretty Funny TODD!!!!!!...  What is the matter did the
Twinkie Delivery truck not come at its schedualed time this week.. or is it
SRH <Sperm Retention HEadache>????  Yeah you can crash jack and shit..  and
geuss what.. Jack just left town./.....  Later Fucker!!

The Imperial
EXiLED

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͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       2/8  
                                                    
 Subject  tsk..tsk..tsk..                                               
 From     Splice                                                        
 To       Imperial                                                      
;
Frankly, you are not the first to chomp on the little bit... it's an
interesting theory - one worth actual merit if only it were correct.
you are however the first person to chomp on that bit who's named robert/paul
hess.. forgive me, i cannot as of yet distinguish between you and your
father..  however, you do have an assuredly nice house in the hills on the
quiet little street of olivia.. nice fixed rate FHA loan too if i might add..
and, just out of curiousity, why would you possibly think that by may saying I
was going to eliminate "k-rad lamer boards" and the like, that that meant you?
nevermind.. dumb question.

Splice [NuKE '94]

ps. which looks better after your name? an internationally recognized virus
writing group or a local anarchy/moderate h/p group? hmm?
"EXiLED" should be.

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͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       3/8  
                                                    
 Subject  Tsk Tsk Tsk                                                   
 From     Imperial                                                      
 To       Splice                                                        
;
Well sir frankly to be honest with you I must say that EXiLED is no 
Moderate H/P group.. sorry to say that there are two HQ's one here and of 
course one in Salt Lake.  Now that is no Local Afil My friend.. And as far 
as The NuKE goes.. funny but the first I ever saw of them was when your 
name showed up in a nice capture you ripped offa Datadisk of Neon Sins User 
list :).. Sorry fer the inconienence.. and as far as Pyrotechnic.. just try 
to crash it :)

The Imperial
EXiLED

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͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       4/8  
                                                    
 Subject  Affils...                                                     
 From     Splice                                                        
 To       Imperial                                                      
;

NuKE is the premier virus development group currently in existence.
It has surpassed Phalcon/Skism, ARCV, etc..  NuKE is responsible for such 
items as Virus Creation Laboratory, the NuKE Utils, the NuKE Encryption
Device (similar to MtE), NuKE InfoJournals, and scores and scores of other
irregular items...  The latest release is the MBC (Metric Buttload of 
Code generator), a virus production kit which will create an infinite 
number of strains all inherently different.   We are no fly by night flame 
war ansi/anarchy group.

As per your affil, it is local, but affiliations mean nothing.  Just 
because I am in NuKE means nothing at all about me...  NuKE has members 
on every continent including both poles... has nothing to do with me 
personally though..

As per your board, and trying to crash it:  Trust me my esteemed Quiver
running friend..  Your sense of security is false.

Splice [NuKE 94]
EXiLED should be.

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͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       5/8  
                                                    
 Subject  QUiVER                                                        
 From     Imperial                                                      
 To       Splice                                                        
;
WEll Todd..  Liketo see it done.. as per the afil..   All I have to is 
EXiLED is on its way..BTW: have you seen the todd fun packs if not you 
need to because they are great! hehhe

The Imperial
EXiLED

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͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       6/8  
                                                    
 Subject  Will you never learn?                                         
 From     Splice                                                        
 To       Imperial                                                      
;
Jesus Christ... I guess you kidz will just never learn a goddamned thing..
The plight of today's youth in america... blind stupidity.
You've all got me figured out.  Gee I knew it would happen sooner or later.

In any case, and in getting back to reality (ie what I'm currently planning):

Talk is cheap.  So far it's all you've done.  So far it's all I've done.
Things are about to change.  Prepare to react accordingly.

Splice

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͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       7/8  
                                                    
 Subject  So,that how it gotta be                                       
 From     Imperial                                                      
 To       Splice                                                        
;
Hmm..  I see well my friend if talk is cheap.  then name a place and time 
and I'll be there..  Or are you just one of these Information Superhighway 
Jokies hehehheh.. Big Joke Todd.. Like  I don't Know you Address, tele # 
and all that bullshit :). Cuz I do.. we all do :)..  I just think it is 
very childish to impress you or try to impress me, by typing hge shit 
out.. OHH. like we can't find that stuff out about ANYONE heheh.. 
Ok chump .. you called the call.. now name the battlefield..  CHUMP ! :)

The Imperial
EXiLED

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͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       8/8  
                                                    
 Subject  "meet me at the HAH" mentality..                              
 From     Splice                                                        
 To       Imperial                                                      
;
Oh no.. I don't resort to violence my friend..
And judging by the fact that you are still calling me todd, if i did
resort to violence i'm sure i'd have to give you some schematics beforehand 
to explain things...  grow up and find a new information source..
I haven't heard this todd shit since the middle of '93 and I'm not going
to put up with it now.

Splice..

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My very last letter was not replied to, and gladly so.  I feel almost 
ashamed for carrying on the conversation as long as I did and not just 
ignoring the guy completely.  I should have cut off this lame "meet me at 
the hah" type of messaging before it got started.  I blame myself for that, 
but my overall cheery nature won me over in the end.  For more information
on exactly who Imperial is, check out the EXiLED member listings complete
with addresses and phone numbers in the Files section.



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                                Post Script

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Two days after completing this article I once again logged onto the
Nucleus BBS:


͸
 Insanity Messages  General                                       1/1  
                  Date  3:07 am  Tue Aug 2, 1994   
 Subject  Todd                                                          
 From     Imperial                                                      
 To       Splice                                                        
;
Splice aka. Immortus.. aka TODD!..

The Imperial
EXiLED

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My cheery nature exhausted, I didn't reply.  I was, however, reminded 
of something that Alexander Pope once said... "A little learning is a 
dangerous thing."  Obviously, Imperial has learned very little.  Read 
about how I learned him a thing or three in the articles section under 
the heading "The Last Imperor".

                                                -Splice
                        
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