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Bits and Pieces from the Netrunner Trivia Collection
#21: Rache Bartmoss

by Jens Kreutzer

"Rache Bartmoss, the World's Greatest Netrunner, is dead!" Well, that explains why there is a Bartmoss Memorial Icebreaker. But who is (or rather, was) that guy anyway? The quote cited above comes from R. Talsorian's Rache Bartmoss' Guide to the Net, and we need look no further for the answer.

In the introduction (p. 2), David Ackermann gives us some more information: "We know you're going to find Rache's unique perspective entertaining, but do keep in mind that Rache is, amongst other things, a borderline sociopath, a certified (if brilliant) paranoid, and a generally rude and vicious individual. His opinions of people and places around the world are almost uniformly negative, and he isn't afraid to scream them at anyone who'll listen. So if any of you are offended by some of Rache's tirades, keep this in mind: Rache is now a frozen piece of near-dead meat sitting alone in an isolated life-support chamber buried in a cellar somewhere."

His opinions can be found on Netrunner cards, too: Here is a list of all Bartmoss quotes as found in the flavor texts, interspersed with some comments on his character. Let's start off with some quotes that show how knowledgeable Rache is about the Net:

Hunt Club BBS

"The Hunt Club got its name from the original programmers, who were self-described 'hunters,' corporate programmers who moonlighted as freelance counter-intrusion agents."

This goes so far that he shows only contempt for people who are not at home there:

Skullcap

"Just the superficial sort of icon that someone grounded too far in 'realit' would think up. TURN UP THE FEED, YOU WIGGLY MEAT THINGS! THIS IS THE NET! NOTHING'S REAL! YOU HAVE NO HEAD!"

His experience allows him to defy danger and even get his own kind of use out of obstacles meant to stop him:

Nerve Labyrinth

"If you're authorized, it's a smooth ride through; if you're not, you get the brain-twist of someone else's idea of normalcy." –Spider Murphy

"But it's a great training ground for navigating wilderspace." –Rache Bartmoss

Spider Murphy is a close associate of Rache's. We'll hear more from her below. There are two quotes that illustrate Bartmoss's twisted sense of humor:

Force Shield

"Never use 'em; don't need 'em. My brain's been smoked so much that my myelin's vulcanized. That's why my ears are always dirty."

Self-Modifying Code

"Now, if I just could do this with my DNA … on the fly … while eating."

Living dangerously and trying to remain the cutting edge have taken their toll on Bartmoss's psyche. He is probably experiencing hallucinations (or has "become one with the Matrix"?):

Romp through HQ

"I love the sound of screaming crystal. Sadly, I seem to be the only one to hear it."

Years and years of battling deadly corporate ice have made him somewhat of a disillusioned cynic, too:

misc.for-sale

"Why throw it away when you can convince some half-brained weef to use it for creative suicide instead?”

The last quote tells a story of his living on the run as a hunted individual and hints at Rache's ultimate fate:

Armored Fridge

"I also once shut off the hot-water line to my dishwasher and hid in there while it was running, but I'll never do that again."

That time, hiding in the dishwasher may have saved his life, but one day, a piece of black ice must have got the better of him. Spider Murphy speaks about that in Rache Bartmoss' Guide to the Net (p. 4-6):

"Rache Bartmoss got tagged. I don't know who or how. He won't talk about the incident. But Rache, damn him, is a survivor, and now he's paying the price.

"But I digress. Before I tell you of his death, I should tell you of his life.

"Rache Bartmoss is perhaps the only 'runner I ever met who used his real name (that's right, folks, Spider Murphy is a nom d'electrique). I know this, because my father was the one who wiped his SIN [State Identification Number] off the system. He told his bottle about it that night while he sat in a drunken stupor; I chanced to overhear. As it happened, I had heard of Rache Bartmoss on the street, so when Dear Old Dad the Corporate Puppet killed his SIN, I tracked him down to warn him.

"When I finally found Bartmoss, I was surprised. He was seventeen, and but for the acne, he looked more like twenty-five. He'd been running the Net for thirteen years (!), and had a full set of high-quality 'trodes and a library of software the likes of which I'd never seen. I was thirteen at the time, running the Net for four years, but in the first ten minutes I knew that Rache's skills were of a different order of magnitude. I knew then that he had a long career ahead of him, because even when he lost his reflexes, his experience and his uncanny sixth sense would keep him on the edge.

"I think Rache first used his real name because, when he was four or five, he didn't know any better. By the time he knew it was a stupid move, he was good enough that it didn't matter. He stuck with it as a conceit, a way to flaunt his skill at the megacorps and Netwatch creeps. He gave them his name, for goodness' sake, and they still couldn't catch him.

"Rache also experimented with everything. For a while he even went legit, writing software. He worked with some of the best companies, always using his real name. As I understand it, the companies took him under the proviso that he wouldn't run against their own systems. Knowing Rache, he promised, with full intent not to double-cross his employers or go snooping around their closets. And, knowing Rache, his promise lasted for about two weeks. I noticed that there were occasional serious breaches of security wherever he worked, starting about a month after he signed on. Another two months, and the corps would finally figure out he was raping their systems in the name of his peculiar brand of justice, and he'd have to disappear. He always knew when he'd been found out, and made good his escape in good time. I put him up more than once, but when I did I made sure I had my phone service cut off.

"After the dust settled, he'd manage to clean his record after a few runs and hire on somewhere else.

"Once he worked for a year at a smaller firm, CCI Development, which didn't have any skeletons in the closet. Things worked fine, and the company came out with some innovative new products, including the Demon series and a powerful new database system. Unfortunately, Bartmoss dropped a few surprises into the database code, including a full-blown 'political' movie. When word got back to the company, they fired him. Within a week, their entire computer system had fried its own brains, and the company went belly-up. Rache himself sold the source code to the demon programs to several software houses simultaneously and made enough money that he never had to work again. Of course, each publisher thought they were getting exclusive rights, so they all wanted his scalp, too. They just didn't understand that Rache doesn't believe in exclusive rights.

"Rache Bartmoss is the wild card of the Net. To my knowledge, he never took any drugs, but with all the wiring inside his skull, I'm sure it messed with his mind somewhat. He tried every single interface that I ever heard of. It's a wonder he didn't go psycho on us. My guess is that he had a special sense for the Net, an instinctive understanding, and that the wires in his head therefore seemed natural to him, hooking him up to the Net as they did.

"Rache Bartmoss is, without a doubt, the best netrunner I have ever encountered. He could almost be called a wizard. He achieved this partly through a very Net-oriented perspective of life and reality. To him, the Net was the real world. Rache has never believed in borders, discrimination, travel restrictions, secrets, conventions, rules, or anything inhibiting free and total communication. Intrinsically, that's exactly what the Net is like. The Net itself allows anything, and it's only the megacorps and Netwatch that make the Net a dangerous place, and for these sins Rache Bartmoss became the self-sworn avenger of the Net. I tried to explain once that Netwatch was there specifically to stop people like him, but he truly couldn't understand why anyone would think that someone like him should be stopped.

"Sadly, folks, he did get stopped. Rache Bartmoss, somehow, had his heart stopped. Maybe he got careless, although Rache was nothing if not paranoid. Personally, I think it was sheer bad luck, coincidence of cosmic proportions. It's possible it was even something as simple as heart failure. Any number of Black ice programs could have done this to Rache, although it was probably a combination of several (Rache could have handled just one or two, no sweat). Then again, it may have simply been adrenal overload. Such is life on the Edge …

"But, since Rache ran the Net for days at a time (and all at light speed), he still manages to survive. He's out there now, still hooked in to the Net. His life-support machines, sensing that his heart had stopped, cooled him down to prevent decay. Super-cooled him, in fact. Rache took a lot of precautions with his meat body to ensure its safety. He also had a lot of money to take precautions with.

"Apparently Rache forgot to tell anyone to get his body should he be killed, because he's been in cold storage for the last year. In his cryogenic condition, his brain is able to continue to operate at slow speeds, super-cooled hydrogen conductivity and other science too close to the Edge for my understanding. He's out there, somewhere, folks, a frost-covered chunk of frozen meat, his brain permanently hooked into the Net.

"Over the last ten months, a constant slow stream of data has been trickling into a buffer on my system as Rache's sluggish brain dictates his life's memoires before the power company shuts his system off and he fades into a stinking death wherever he is. I've even been able to talk with him, using a specially adapted modem with a slow transmit speed, but as he has been most concerned with completing this guide, I've kept my questions to a minimum.

"Rache knows he's dead. Since his body is no longer working, his cyberdeck has ceased its sensory editing functions, and every so often Rache's manuscript is interrupted by a complaint about his situation. He knows he's dead, the premier 'runner of our age, and that simple fact, my friends, is why he wanted to release this guide …

"He knows what it's like; and he's trying to save us from it."

Rache Bartmoss' Guide to the Net has copious information on the world of Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0., the roleplaying game by R. Talsorian Games that lent Netrunner its background. It is a good read, and though you'd be hard-pressed to find the actual book, you can still buy it as a PDF scan at rpg.drivethrustuff.com these days.

As a footnote, I would like to mention that Netrunner has a number of concepts and cards that hint at Rache Bartmoss's story. Bodyweight Data Creche lets the Runner run for days on end without jacking out, which reminds me of Rache's state of cryogenic suspended animation. Lucidrine Drip Feed also pokes fun at living online exclusively for an extended period of time and finally realizing that the girlfriend is gone and the dog dead. Emergency Self-Construct, on the other hand, could well reflect what Rache has become.