20th March 2010. 8:00 CET.
A guy joined using the name "sim_sandas". I was busy trying to take out a couple of suspects, when I saw on main chat "HACKER ID 22!!!!"
Shit, I thought. I quickly did /admins to see if any of our dedicated, hard working admin team were present - none were online. I ceased chasing the suspects and alt tabbed to check MSN.
Curses! None online! I asked SugarD if any were online for him, and the response was negative. I sighed a sigh when you know there's a long road ahead of you. I knew the task. We had to kill the hacker. We had to make him reailse his hacks were worthless to the heart of Argonath, make him realise he could not beat a server full of dedicated RPers who despised and hated every hacker who set foot in their land. I knew it could be accomplished. Memories flooded back to me of Aragorn telling stories back in 2007 of him and Gandalf being forced to kill hackers in their earlier MTA:VC Careers - I knew this could be done.
I quickly finished off my suspects and alt tabbed once more to check for admins - none. I checked the ARPD & main forums, and to my short-lived relief, there was an admin browsing both forums! I rushed to send him a PM on both forums... to no avail.
I alt tabbed back in and found that a 10k reward was being offered to whoever killed him. I quickly realised what had to be done. I went to LSPD, I duty'ed. I didn't even bother with equipping myself with armour or heavy weaponry. I left the garage on a police bike and went to find the hacker airbreaking outside City Hall. This was going to be harder than previously thought. I stepped off my bike and seized a moment to try and pepper spray him - he stopped!
This didn't last long - he quickly air breaked to under the map! God damn! After 10 seconds he came back up. A number of players began spraying him with bullets, which had no effect whatsoever. After a few more airbreak incidents, I decided to try my luck - I pulled out my SMG, loaded with bullets. I took aim at my prized suspect, and shot 20 bullets into him. His flesh was penetrated. I had succeeded! He was down! He died! We all rejoiced to the fact that we, collectively, killed a HP/carhp/airbreak/teleport/speed hacker without the help of any admin intervention! And nobody at that moment knew the absolute pride I had running through my veins at the moment. All of my years in the SAPD, all of my months in SWAT, every time I went after a suspect, had finally paid off. I did a deed that saved the server, even if only temporarily, from a hacker.
Fast Forward 10 minutes later - he's back at LSPD. He had a moment of weakness and somebody took a shot at him - it killed him. He left. There was much rejoice and praise for those brave warriors who looked the enemy in the eye and said "I can do this. I can kill an invincible enemy." This is the true Argonath spirit, members not giving a shit about money, not caring about how many bullets they waste, but only caring about coming together and having a good time - yes, it was a hacker, but hell, we had a damn good time beating him.
Remember this story next time you go ingame - the Argonath community is not gone, the Argonath community has not had any set backs or failures, all we need is some large events that can and will get us all together on the one side fighting for the one cause - be it cops, criminals, drivers, medics, whatever. When something like this happens, we all realise who we are - we are Argonath RPG! And we TAKE NO HACKER PRISONERS!
