Dr. Edwin Forester PhD (Tesla)

Weight: 160

Apparent Age: 75+

Archetype: Combat Decker

Preferred Weapon: DAOD Assault Pistol

Runner Song:

Bio: Well first off let me tell you that I really think this article will not be live for very long since I am reporting on the legend himself, there is nothing that happens within the matrix without the master himself approving in some manner. It was dumb luck that we tracked his name down and thats only do to Tesla slipping up back in the 2050’s when he signed in at his friend Edgar’s granddaughters school to pick up the sick child as a favour for his close and dear friend. Well he can’t really sign the register Tesla and I guess old habits die hard and he signed his real name or so we think, this slip up aloud us to track down the movements of Edwin Forester that remained and do to some photographic recovery software and physical comparison we were able to conclude that Edwin and Tesla are one and the same. Though again this might just be another alias and his true identity is still unknown to the all but his closest and oldest friends; again this decker is the worlds best out classing the likes of every other decker to exist.

         According to our records that we where able to uncover on Tesla as his alternate name Edwin he was quite alive during the previous century and I would change his apparent age to close to 200 if I could, though again I have no verification and it seems that genetic immortality drugs are quite older than we thought prior. This man was around for when the computer age was in it’s infancy and helped design the entire system that we now take for granted this can explain why they haven’t designed a system that Tesla can’t hack. Though did you also know that he holds multiple advanced degrees and one doctorate in Nuclear Engineering as well as many in other scientific practices. One of the scariest records I found on Edwin besides his age is that according to the declassified military records from the Second World War Edwin was actually part of the Manhattan Project and this could also have been when they where working on the genetic immortality project as well as their are still many documents missing and many assumed to have been destroyed. Edwin has had his hands in the events of history and has helped redefine the landscape we call the nation, he as well helped advance computer science and pushed the technology leaps and bounds beyond what anyone would have ever imagined.

        Though I can be pulling at straws here and Edwin Forester could just be a distant relative that Tesla adapted the name or was named after and his birth records where lost during the great information crash of 2029. The only reason I am reporting on this hypothesis at all is do to the likeness to the Edwin from the Manhattan Project it is spooky how similar they look and with many of these old timers being far older than we ever imagined it wouldn’t be a far off conclusion. Now all the spooky history stuff behind us and focusing on the events of the current age, Tesla is quite skilled and this man has been lurking within the shadows for quite sometime, some call him a next generation runner and well that couldn’t farther from the truth; this man is blatantly from the age of the criminal elite and has never left the shadows. He has only adapted and grown throughout the years, for Tesla every day is another blessing and another day for him to further his skills and create complete havoc within the new information network the Matrix.

         This is the man that helped the Howitzer with his project that would cripple the world wide web and this is the man that helped create the likes of the Banker, Misfit, Gigabyte, Samhain and others that hold the status of being the best in the game. He has designed so many software and hardware systems that his virtual thumb print is in every computer world wide, he even helped the government to secure their network after the information crash and thus ceremoniously crashed it hours later as a warning to cease their supposed traitorous actions. This is the man that has brought down more corrupt politicians, terrorist cells, criminal agencies and devious bankers than anyone else ever; Tesla might seem to be a white hat hacker and maybe he started out this way, but in reality this decker is quite a black hat and does everything he does with a specific purpose in mind. What that purpose is unknown and only Tesla knows when he will cut the worlds throat again and create yet another world wide blackout.

          Though for every evil dealing this decker has had he as well has done much good for the world in bringing vital information to the people, crashing vital infrastructure that would cause military assaults to fail. He has even locked Seattle down a few times, by shutting down all the draw bridges and turning the power off to the city for days. This might seem to have been a terrorist style attack and officially it was, but for Tesla is was a show of power that he built this system and he can crash it with a few clicks of his digital keyboard. Tesla would grind Seattle to a halt during the days of the broken arrow scare when a nuclear warhead was stolen from Fort Lewis and the military was slow to act. His quick thinking would allow the government that he physically despised to track down the warhead and capture the Russian terrorists that where planning on starting World War Three. This was something that Edwin could not allow and now knowing his past I can understand why (Another check mark in the column for him being the Edwin from the second World War.), this man would single handedly save the world from utter destruction; though according to the reports from the military and the cities government during this time Tesla would as well create some serious havoc and unleash multiple virus programs into the fragile systems, for what reason is unknown.

         We have confirmed that he has even stolen the Presidents nuclear codes and can override any launch protocols for the big one, though independent systems such as the ones launched in Detroit on New Years Eve where out of his ability to override seeing that they were not connected directly to the network he designed; though according to Tesla he has documented readings of the passwords being entered and voice recording of the late president Johnson giving the command to launch; this is something that needs to be taken with a grain of salt seeing that it is coming from Tesla himself. This man has had such a major impact in the world both the legal and criminal world that we have to thank him for the advancements he has given us; though I would use that sparingly as with Tesla nothing is free and everything has a cost that we might not want to pay down the rode.

         Now we know that Tesla was once a total freelance operator and wasn’t part of any team, the only man that he would work with on a regular basis was his closest friend Edgar Grayson also known as the Phoenix and according to the records from back then the two where as thick as thieves. This could be how the both would come to be in the Devil’s Rejects and as well the Mariners back in the 2050’s and again today. The records and reports from the early days show that Tesla was married to Edgar’ sister and vice a versa with Edgar being married to Edwin’s sister. The two men would unknowingly court the young women and it wasn’t till one faithful Christmas Eve in 2005 that both men would meet and their friendship would instantly form. The Graysons and the Foresters would become quite close and so would the kinship between the two legends before their time, it would be the events of the Great Tragedy that would bring an end to Tesla’s family and yet spare he Phoenix’s.

        Tesla would survive the events of the Great Tragedy of 2018 and have to watch as his wife and children’s lives where stolen from the magical onslaught that ravaged all of North America he wouldn’t have enough left of his family to properly bury as they where all rendered to ash, even the wards of his brother-in-law and friend would not be enough to spare his loved ones. Leaving his only living relatives being Edgar’s wife and children thus creating a even closer bond between the two men. Tesla was devastated during this time and we can only think that it was those events that would lead him to drinking to cope with the pain of loosing his wife and three children. Though for Edgar it was also a hardship seeing that he lost his only sister and his two nieces and one nephew this would churn within Edgar’s heart and soul, both men would be forever changed and the need for justice and vengeance would be the driving force to throw both of these men directly into the world of the criminal. Though we know that both where not clean even prior to the tragedy and this was only an excuse for both men to take action.

         During those early days both men would continue to masquerade as working class stiffs supporting themselves and their families during the day and once the sun would descend beyond the horizon Tesla and Phoenix would emerge from the shadows to help restore order and seek justice for their fallen loved ones, Now this is where things get foggy as the records from this time are hectic and with the information crash as well as the master of the matrix himself altering the documents that did survive, we really loose any vital information about there actions. Tesla and Phoenix both being educators at the local high school in Lynnwood and Tesla teaching at the college some evenings would seem to make things easier and you would be wrong. Yes I can locate Edwin and Edgar and their mundane lives but not there counterparts actions come the shadowy evenings they were just that good at staying off he radar and Tesla was just that good at erasing it if they faltered.

          Though both men do show up again many years later during the days of the Next Generation when they would join the Mariners and create a level of chaos that was never seen before. These men where able to continue to live their double lives or we assume that Tesla had a double life as we know Edgar did. I am still searching through employment records of the school systems to see if any teachers photo’s matches Tesla, so if their are any of Edwin’s students out their from the era of 2049 to 2060 please come forward and you will be compensated for your official statement. As much as Tesla was part of the Mariners he was still very much a freelance operator and was still very much fighting the war for justice for his beloved and his children that would never get a chance to grow old. He would help support the Mariners the best he could through his decking and even according to one lost shadow beat episode engage the enemy directly in physical combat showing that Tesla was far more than keystrokes and data crashes this man was fully combat trained and capable much to the surprise of the guards who thought they had captured the infamous and legendary Tesla (I will be keeping this episode in hard copy and will make copies available upon request for a small handling fee).

         Now Tesla might not have been within the Mariners for long as he would teach the mighty Switch a few trade secrets before once again wondering off with his friend Edgar to cause further havoc. These men wouldn’t engage in the war of the shadows and that was a great deterrent for them remaining as Mariners seeing that the Dreamers where an issue and they where upset over the murder of Exodus; but it was the fact that the Dreamers where their students age and even would remind them of their own children and neither wanted to have a parent go through the pain and suffering of loosing a child as they had; the Phoenix’s eldest son had been killed during a botched robbery at the bank where he worked and his death would be all too fresh in the minds of both Edwin and Edgar also by this point the Edgar was a grandfather and Edwin a great uncle so killing someones child was not in the cards for them. Edgar would eventually slip back into the shadows only to emerge when Tesla needed help and Edwin would remain within the scene but work from the background continuing his onslaught into the enemies of America and Seattle, this would be when he would assist those that he he despised with his locking down Seattle during the Broken Arrow crisis and as well reaching out with his virtual hand to help locate the guilty Dreamers responsible for Exodus’s murder.

         Though for Tesla the nightmares that would haunt him from his past would keep this man knee deep into the bottle and during the 2060’s he would have to fake his own death in order to save himself from the steady assaults from Aries Arms when he would get blitzed and enter into their security network and ultimately crash the system as he flooded the streets with vital corporate information, weapon catalogues and schematics of their best sellers to the general population he would as well strike at the core of any corporations structure as he assaulted their financial records and would steal billions from Aries Arms in a matter of minutes he would nearly crash an entire mega corporation and grinded production to a halt costing tens of thousands of wage slaves their jobs. Tesla would in a few key strokes become public enemy number one and even the master himself was unable to fend off the level of pain that was coming for him each night, Tesla blames the scotch he was drinking and as well the report he read that exposed the connection between the UCAS, the NAN and Aries Arms; where some say it was a drunken bet with another decker, the truth is out there and well it’s anyone’s guess but after Tesla would rise from the grave like a new world messiah he would coin and trademark the phrase “Don’t Drink and Deck.” though this wouldn’t be the only time Tesla would suffer the issues of drunk decking when he would on a bar bet with a fellow runner bring another corporation to a grinding halt and almost send it into bankruptcy when he would unleash one of his mighty virus programs directly into the heart of Renraku corporation that would cause their internal security and artificial intelligence system to short circuit and go insane. We all know what happened next and how the company has yet to solve the problem all these years later, according to Tesla the virus will eventually kill the system and he has dubbed it the”Mad Computer Disease”

          Tesla might be a serious threat to the civilised world and this man should be locked away in a prison cell or even hanged for his crimes, but it is hard to hate a man that revels in chaos like he does and also one that has a very twisted sense of humour. This man has as well trolled many would be deckers and even would troll the entirety of the UCAS when he would hack into the Seattle World News satellites and pretend to be the President and claim that the nation would be adopting the mascot of the Platypus and that it would be lowering the legal drinking age to 18 as well as decriminalising marijuana so smoke’em if you got em. Well this would cause a great deal of stir and would send law enforcement agencies all over into a panic as kids nation wide would begin to crack a cold one and people where lighting up in public. It would force the President to go on the air and publicly denounce the statements, and yet their are some locals that still have a golden platypus hanging within their courtrooms. Tesla would eventually pirate into system again and yell “April Fools” though it wasn’t April and this would happen on August 13th 2070.

         So as much as he is a real threat this man is also well loved by his thousands of fans and many people say that if it wasn’t for Tesla we wouldn’t have the world we do today. He has proven that he is a true gentleman and besides being a drunk and well now we know a stoner it seems that he is to thank for without Tesla I wouldn’t be able to prepare this article with ease. Without Tesla we wouldn’t have the cybernetic, medical and technological  advancements we have. If it wasn’t for this man we might be living in a nuclear wasteland and it is because of this gentlemen that we must suffer through yet another season of Survivor Renraku. Well he can’t be all good, and for that I thank you Tesla; though this is where it ends; we are now entering into a new age and with the war with Britain looming and the return of the dreamers and the Mariners it seems that Old Seattle will once again collide with New Seattle and our future dangles on the razors edge. So I will end this with another famous Tesla quote “Time is simply a digital illusion, don’t be confined by the trappings of ones own mind; for we are only as good as we can perceive.”

Page Written By: Susan Nelson <Shadow Beat>