Strangers in a Strange Land

GretelOstrich · Mar 21, 2015

@Usandru

2

Your escape goes well for all of two minutes. As you reach the outer perimeter of the salvage site, a small craft comes screaming at you from around the wreck on an attack vector. You barely have time to dodge as it makes its attack…

4

Combat Exoskeleton (+++)
Attack: +6 [Kinetic]
Defence +2/+5 (Armour, Kinetic Barriers)
Mobility: +5
Assets:
+2 Combat VI
+1 Improved Computer

+1 I am an Eva Pilot (Broken)
+2 Mecha Piloting - Professional
+1 Tactics - Trained

Opposition

VX-34 'Arix' Light Transport (+++)
Attack: +4 [Kinetic]
Defence: +1/+3(Armour, Kinetic Barriers)
Mobility: +7

[25 + 18 -> 43] vs [15 + 4 - 19]

Inaccurate autocannon fire and small-calibre rockets kicks up a storm of dust and shrapnel all around you as the transport makes its first pass. As it booms overhead, your barriers are only slightly drained and rapidly regenerating. You switch to the 40mm, and bring to bear, preparing to compensate for evasive action…

...and watch in amazement as, instead of using the multitude of wrecks as cover, the pilot pulls into the vertical, obviously attempting an Immelmann manoeuvre, bleeds off all his energy, stalls out, attempts to level out…

...and then you start putting 40mm through his barriers and, soon enough, the hull.

The smoking wreck of the transport crashes into a significantly larger wreck of an old freighter and promptly goes up in a fireball of cooking-off rockets.

1

For a moment, it seems like your luck is turning, as you pass the perimeter and start looking for a good hiding spot, but as you quickly discover, the wrecks in this area are not the best place for such - most of them have been stripped clean of anything of worth, including large sections of their hulls, leaving them dangerously unstable.

You frantically search for some cover, while trying to keep track of arriving ships. There's no sign of Rei and as time passes with no safe location to be found, you realize that you woke a hornet's nest - you spot a trio of gunships, as they fly overhead, a kilometre above and at high speed, going for the salvage site you left.

Your omni-tool comes to life with the sound of your ringtone, just five minutes later, as you see what looks like an acceptable hideout. Someone's trying to call you and it's… your (former) boss?

Do you want to answer?

Usandru · Mar 22, 2015

Plan
~~Aneta~~Mirage Flame:
Panic
Nononodon'tfreakout
Hide from rain! There has to be something or whatever!

Invocations
(Negative) Just As Planned (1) +0 (gain 1 Doubt)
Stealth: Trained +2
Infantry Combat: Trainee +1

Method
Don't panic! All that experience in VR shooters non-professional military training has to be good for something! Stay frosty and get under some cover to avoid camouflage being further compromised, or failing that, stay in the shadows and don't move.

Most of all, avoid the blue woman making a connection with Monika! You're an independent and completely non-related crazy person under a camo cloak.

Aneta just barely manages three seconds of desperate searching for cover before she screws up even worse. Her movement under the cloak managed to get it caught under her foot, and in a single beautiful motion she manages to lunge towards the nearest overhead cover and out of her camouflage, losing her balance and smacking hard into the pavement, bruising her hands and cheek as she scrapes along the ground.

At least it doesn't start to rain even harder.

Gingerly, she picks herself up and looks around, assessing the damage - it stings, but it really is just scratches - and if anyone spotted her.

Remarkably, no one seems to have. Not even Monika's new friend.

Turning off the camouflage function of the cloak, she pulls it up over herself like a giant blanket, winces at the stinging pain in her hands, and contemplates her next move.

Assuming she isn't paralysed by embarrassment anyway.

~~Monika~~Blue Eyes:
Go with the unknown alien lady to her house! Aneta can handle herself.

Invocations
Charm: Professional +4
Bluff: Professional, Improv +4
Pillar: I make this look good (2) +2

Method
Keep up the charade of being just a tourist who lost her stuff and go with Neyria to her home. Once there, get tourist brochures, city maps, addresses for police stations, public libraries or any other extranet access points.

Deftly ignoring Aneta's actions with the ease of long practice, Monika happily accepts Neiyra's invitation, and instantly switches over to cautious, slow, probing smalltalk.

It is excruciatingly difficult to keep things to topics she's comfortable bluffing about, away from any sort of differences she can't - as yet - account for, and yet engaging enough to not put Neiyra off from helping her.

The stakes aren't as high as some of her other jobs, but it might well be some of the hardest smalltalk she has ever done.

She thinks she more or less managed to get away with it, as the pair walks along to the nearest public transit, thankfully silent now, both of them lacking any obvious new topics of conversation.

Or, well, so she thought.

"So, tourist, right? Anything you're looking for here?"

~~Mirosława~~Razor Thunder
Avoid trouble.

Invocations
"I can change this world." (Broken) +1
Mech Piloting: Trained +0/+2

Method
Lie to the aliens who probably can't even understand you! Say that this is kind of a LARP thing and all those guns are totally fake and ask if they couldn't perhaps, maybe go make-out somewhere else? If they leave, leave soon after and find a better hiding spot.

If they don't, leave quickly before the police arrives.

Somehow. Somehow. Mira manages to say something and the aliens don't run away screaming or seem particularly disconcerted any more.

In fact, they adjust their clothes as though there was no problem whatsoever with someone spotting them just after… after pawing at each other! And then they both walk up to the mecha and start talking excitedly.

Mira doesn't understand a word of it, of course, though they clearly seem to have understood her.

She is left with the choice between trying to do Monika's job, or running away.

Perversely, she suspects that the former is the better idea, no matter how much she might instinctively prefer the latter...

Usandru · Mar 22, 2015

MightyDwarf said:
@Usandru

2

Your escape goes well for all of two minutes. As you reach the outer perimeter of the salvage site, a small craft comes screaming at you from around the wreck on an attack vector. You barely have time to dodge as it makes its attack…

4

Combat Exoskeleton (+++)
Attack: +6 [Kinetic]
Defence +2/+5 (Armour, Kinetic Barriers)
Mobility: +5
Assets:
+2 Combat VI
+1 Improved Computer

+1 I am an Eva Pilot (Broken)
+2 Mecha Piloting - Professional
+1 Tactics - Trained

Opposition

VX-34 'Arix' Light Transport (+++)
Attack: +4 [Kinetic]
Defence: +1/+3(Armour, Kinetic Barriers)
Mobility: +7

[25 + 18 -> 43] vs [15 + 4 - 19]

Inaccurate autocannon fire and small-calibre rockets kicks up a storm of dust and shrapnel all around you as the transport makes its first pass. As it booms overhead, your barriers are only slightly drained and rapidly regenerating. You switch to the 40mm, and bring to bear, preparing to compensate for evasive action…

...and watch in amazement as, instead of using the multitude of wrecks as cover, the pilot pulls into the vertical, obviously attempting an Immelmann manoeuvre, bleeds off all his energy, stalls out, attempts to level out…

...and then you start putting 40mm through his barriers and, soon enough, the hull.

The smoking wreck of the transport crashes into a significantly larger wreck of an old freighter and promptly goes up in a fireball of cooking-off rockets.

1

For a moment, it seems like your luck is turning, as you pass the perimeter and start looking for a good hiding spot, but as you quickly discover, the wrecks in this area are not the best place for such - most of them have been stripped clean of anything of worth, including large sections of their hulls, leaving them dangerously unstable.

You frantically search for some cover, while trying to keep track of arriving ships. There's no sign of Rei and as time passes with no safe location to be found, you realize that you woke a hornet's nest - you spot a trio of gunships, as they fly overhead, a kilometre above and at high speed, going for the salvage site you left.

Your omni-tool comes to life with the sound of your ringtone, just five minutes later, as you see what looks like an acceptable hideout. Someone's trying to call you and it's… your (former) boss?

Do you want to answer?

Asuka hisses with frustration as she sees the message.

Nothing good happens when people message you unscheduled during a situation like this. Nothing. It's inevitably some kind of fucking disaster.

And where the hell is Wondergirl? So slow!

But she can't just ignore these people. Her crew stood by her, and the boss... she might not like the boss much personally, but she gave her a chance and a job.

Fuck it. There's nothing for it.

She's just going to have to save these people.

She opens the channel.

Plan:
Start moving back towards the site as she gets in touch with the boss-lady.

Assets:
No assets declared yet, because talking will happen imminently and there is no concrete challenge yet.

GretelOstrich · Mar 24, 2015

Usandru said:
She opens the channel.

The channel opens.

"Langley. What did you do?" She says not sounding angry, at least not overtly. "I have nine dead Blue Suns, a crashed Blue Sun gunship and three more Blue Suns gunships unloading even more Blue Suns and these ones are very much alive. What, in goddess' name, did you do?!"

You quickly realize why she doesn't sound angry - it's because she's too busy trying no to panic.

Usandru · Mar 24, 2015

MightyDwarf said:
The channel opens.

"Langley. What did you do?" She says not sounding angry, at least not overtly. "I have nine dead Blue Suns, a crashed Blue Sun gunship and three more Blue Suns gunships unloading even more Blue Suns and these ones are very much alive. What, in goddess' name, did you do?!"

You quickly realize why she doesn't sound angry - it's because she's too busy trying no to panic.

"They showed up and wouldn't take no for an answer." Asuka declares, a note of indignation in her voice before she quashes it.

"Since they were there for me, I beat them and ran away from the site. I've, I have someone coming to pick me up. Today. I figured- they'd follow after me and I'd run them a chase around the scrap mountains..." She explains, fumbling a bit as the panic infects her.

"I've turned around, coming back. If- if you need help. Just tell me where to go."

GretelOstrich · Mar 24, 2015

Usandru said:
"They showed up and wouldn't take no for an answer." Asuka declares, a note of indignation in her voice before she quashes it.

"Since they were there for me, I beat them and ran away from the site. I've, I have someone coming to pick me up. Today. I figured- they'd follow after me and I'd run them a chase around the scrap mountains..." She explains, fumbling a bit as the panic infects her.

"I've turned around, coming back. If- if you need help. Just tell me where to go."

"Right." she says, calming down from the verge of panic. You hear the sound of a chair being moved. "They have no witnesses, so they'll likely ignore your crew. Most of them fled, anyway..."

You hear her inhale deeply, then slowly exhale.

"They... they'll be coming after me. Security is unreliable, they'd get wiped out if they fought Blue Suns, so they'll let them do whatever they please, or... or help them. I need help. I need you to get me out of here."

Panic seeps back into her voice with the last sentence, and she goes quiet for a moment, maybe trying to calm herself. After a moment, you hear omni-tool keystrokes and soon enough, a prompt about an incoming data transfer pops up on yours.

"Security map of the site and access to the security system. I- I marked a rendezvous point near the perimeter, there should be some cover, there. Their gunships are on the ground, but... that won't last long if they don't find me. G-get there, quickly."

Usandru · Mar 25, 2015

MightyDwarf said:
"Right." she says, calming down from the verge of panic. You hear the sound of a chair being moved. "They have no witnesses, so they'll likely ignore your crew. Most of them fled, anyway..."

You hear her inhale deeply, then slowly exhale.

"They... they'll be coming after me. Security is unreliable, they'd get wiped out if they fought Blue Suns, so they'll let them do whatever they please, or... or help them. I need help. I need you to get me out of here."

Panic seeps back into her voice with the last sentence, and she goes quiet for a moment, maybe trying to calm herself. After a moment, you hear omni-tool keystrokes and soon enough, a prompt about an incoming data transfer pops up on yours.

"Security map of the site and access to the security system. I- I marked a rendezvous point near the perimeter, there should be some cover, there. Their gunships are on the ground, but... that won't last long if they don't find me. G-get there, quickly."

"Alright..." Asuka breathes out as she flicks through the new data, moving essentially on auto-pilot, letting the VI correct for her.

"What gear do you have? Protection?" She asks as she starts going through the camera feeds and the stocks of equipment.

"It's not gonna end once we link up. We'll be playing until Wo-- until Rei shows up. Don't have anything to use to leave until then."

Plan:
Hook up the Combat VI to the security system and get real-time positioning data on whatever the cameras can see. Set them to track movement.
Use the network access to remote boot the engineering exoskeletons, and give them simple movement paths, using them basically as decoys.
Turn off the exoskeleton K-barrier to hinder track-by-eezo radar. Keep it primed to go back up the moment there's enemy movement in the wrong direction.
Put in an order for a shuttle ticket to orbit and compose the following message and send to the Blue Suns:

Code:

"Hey dummkopfs.
I've already left shit mountain. You can have it since you like the taste of it so much.
You fit right in, since your entire outfit is too shitty to even figure out that I'm an independent.
You can bill me for that gunship at 0000-fuckyou-nevergonnahappen
See you never, arschgeige."
[attachment: screenshot of shuttle ticket]

Link up with boss lady, and run away.

Assets:
I'm the Best (2)
I am an Eva Pilot (Broken)
Mecha Piloting - Professional (8)
Infantry Combat - Trained (4)
Tactics - Trained (4)
Bluff - Trainee (2)
Charisma - Trainee (2)
The sweet, sweet rage of the Blue Suns (priceless)
The security system
The area map
The dummy exoskeletons
The souped up personal exoskeleton

Method of Invocation:
There are essentially three things going on.
Asuka is trying to use her immediate assets to make a stealthy link-up with boss lady and exfiltrate. This is a straight military thing, and while she's only vaguely competent at infantry scale operations, she does more or less know the principles, and with her vast sensor capability and being in an exoskeleton, her Eva piloting experience isn't completely wrong.
The second thing is maintaining battlefield awareness and control. This is mainly the sensor system, but also the dummy exoskeletons, which are there to distract and make noise, both literally, and also figurative noise in the decision-making process of the Blue Suns, making them second-guess their information.
The third thing is to manipulate the Blue Suns more directly. By sending them a fake, insulting message infused with all the smugness possessed by Asuka Langley Sohryu, Ace Evangelion Pilot and Supreme Best Pilot, she hopes to distract them from the fact she's doing something incredibly stupid, like picking up her asari boss she has only known for a few months and not actually going on a shuttle into orbit to wait for Rei.

Virtue:
By doing something incredibly dangerous for no reason other than to protect and stand with her boss, who she has worked for and agreed to protect, Asuka fulfils her "We Stand Together" virtue.

GretelOstrich · Apr 2, 2015

@Usandru

Code:
Plan:
Hook up the Combat VI to the security system and get real-time positioning data on whatever the cameras can see. Set them to track movement.
Use the network access to remote boot the engineering exoskeletons, and give them simple movement paths, using them basically as decoys.
Turn off the exoskeleton K-barrier to hinder track-by-eezo radar. Keep it primed to go back up the moment there's enemy movement in the wrong direction.
Put in an order for a shuttle ticket to orbit and compose the following message and send to the Blue Suns:

Code:

"Hey dummkopfs. I've already left shit mountain. You can have it since you like the taste of it so much. You fit right in, since your entire outfit is too shitty to even figure out that I'm an independent. You can bill me for that gunship at 0000-fuckyou-nevergonnahappen See you never, arschgeige." [attachment: screenshot of shuttle ticket]

Link up with boss lady, and run away.

Assets:
+2 I'm the Best (2)
+1 I am an Eva Pilot (Broken)
+3 Mecha Piloting - Professional (8)
+2 Infantry Combat - Trained (4)
+2 Tactics - Trained (4)
+1 Bluff - Trainee (2)
+1 Charisma - Trainee (2)
+2 The sweet, sweet rage of the Blue Suns (priceless) [15]
+1 The security system
+1 The area map
+1 The dummy exoskeletons
+2 The souped up personal exoskeleton

Method of Invocation:
There are essentially three things going on.
Asuka is trying to use her immediate assets to make a stealthy link-up with boss lady and exfiltrate. This is a straight military thing, and while she's only vaguely competent at infantry scale operations, she does more or less know the principles, and with her vast sensor capability and being in an exoskeleton, her Eva piloting experience isn't completely wrong.
The second thing is maintaining battlefield awareness and control. This is mainly the sensor system, but also the dummy exoskeletons, which are there to distract and make noise, both literally, and also figurative noise in the decision-making process of the Blue Suns, making them second-guess their information.
The third thing is to manipulate the Blue Suns more directly. By sending them a fake, insulting message infused with all the smugness possessed by Asuka Langley Sohryu, Ace Evangelion Pilot and Supreme Best Pilot, she hopes to distract them from the fact she's doing something incredibly stupid, like picking up her asari boss she has only known for a few months and not actually going on a shuttle into orbit to wait for Rei.

Virtue:
By doing something incredibly dangerous for no reason other than to protect and stand with her boss, who she has worked for and agreed to protect, Asuka fulfils her "We Stand Together" virtue.

(Asuka has gained a Plus)

Opposition

Commander
+3 Infantry Tactics - Professional, Airborne

+1x6 Light Infantry Squads
+2x3 A-61 Mantis Gunship
+2 Site Security [7]

[19 + 16 -> 35] vs [17 + 5 -> 22]

The groundwork goes smoothly - you have full access to the security systems and send the exoskeletons to start running interference on the Blue Suns. You buy the ticket and quickly send the message to the Blue Suns.

Oh, they're angry, as you can tell from the security footage. Not enough to do something gloriously stupid, but their commander's a bit off balance - he might get sloppy…

Angry or not, they're not as stupid as the first group - as you approach the site, running from cover to cover, you see the gunships circling above the hulk and the security footage shows that they've set up a few lookouts, a mix of site security and Blue Suns - the positions aren't bad, whoever's in charge knows what they're doing. The rest, however, are off running after your boss...

[16 + 5 -> 23] vs [6 + 11 -> 17]

...and they're getting close. While some of them are acting as lookouts, most of the Blue Suns are searching for her, making up for their unfamiliarity with the terrain with numbers and the site security helping them, the spineless traitors. With the VI on overwatch and the exos making noise, however, she's doing a decent job evading them. This might just be a clean getaway.

You arrive at the rendezvous point. The boss is almost there, even as the Blue Suns get dangerously close. She jumps over the fence, a brief burst of biotics decreasing her mass and allowing her to easily sail over it. She lands, sees your mech and starts sprinting towards it…

[3, 17]

...the bark of an assault rifle echoes over the site and a burst cuts through the running asari's shoulder. You hear her scream and see her stumble forward, and almost collapse, but somehow, she manages to stay on her feet, puts up a biotic barrier and keeps running towards you.

The gunships are vectoring in on the position and you see Blue Suns and security personnel running towards the fence, some lining up shots. They haven't noticed you, but this'll last for maybe a few more seconds.

Usandru · Apr 8, 2015

"Shit."

The worst thing about being the one in control of the situation was that Asuka knew how risky taking action would be. Like it or not, the odds were against her. Her exoskeleton was good, but it wasn't quite her Evangelion, and multiple gunships were above what her unit was rated for. They'd run her shield down and then perforate the comparatively fragile metal and ceramics superstructure, likely killing her in the process.

At least, that was what would happen on paper. But Asuka had at least one thing going for her.

She was the best. These guys? These guys sucked.

So now was just the question of how to deal with them...

Plan:
Acquire the attention of the Blue Suns by blowing one of their gunships out of the sky and then being a gigantic pain in the ass.

Assets:
I'm the Best (2)
I am an Eva Pilot (Broken)
Mecha Piloting - Professional
Infantry Combat - Trained
Tactics - Trained
Mechanical Engineering - Trained
Bluff - Trainee
Super Exoskeleton
Element of Surprise
The incoherent rage of her enemies
Planning
Environmental advantage

Method of Invocation:
Line up a shot against a gunship, preferably one that's in the middle of turning and presenting the nice, broad, less armoured side. Aim for something that will likely blow it up. Fill the air with Mass Accelerator fire, sweeping across the skies towards the other gunships if the first one catches on fire and starts moving erratically. Hold this for five seconds, then switch to five seconds of fire against the infantry to make sure they've gotten the message. Play jeering music on the exoskeleton loudspeakers and signal all the security cameras to follow the infantry or gunship and blink whatever lights they have obnoxiously and creepily.

Run away by walking backwards towards cover for a few more seconds.

Get the boss into cover and on a path moving further away. Break from cover towards a different area, distinct from where the boss is going. Take potshots at the Blue Suns while running, keeping their attention.

Once separate from the boss, use cover and LOS-breaking in combination with the security cameras to ambush the gunships with burstfire and fading back into the endless wrecks before they can break the exoskeleton K-barriers.

Try to remain close enough to the boss to intervene against the infantry.

GretelOstrich · Apr 10, 2015

@Usandru

Plan:
Acquire the attention of the Blue Suns by blowing one of their gunships out of the sky and then being a gigantic pain in the ass.

Assets:
+2 I'm the Best (2)
+1 I am an Eva Pilot (Broken)
+3 Mecha Piloting - Professional
+1 Infantry Combat - Trained
+1 Tactics - Trained
+1 Mechanical Engineering - Trained
+1 Bluff - Trainee
+3 Super Exoskeleton
+2 Element of Surprise
+1 The incoherent rage of her enemies
+1 Planning
+2 Environmental advantage

Opposition

Commander
+3 Infantry Tactics - Professional, Airborne

+1x6 Light Infantry Squads
+2x3 A-61 Mantis Gunship

[19 + 1-> 20] vs [15 + 17 -> 32]

Method of Invocation:
Line up a shot against a gunship, preferably one that's in the middle of turning and presenting the nice, broad, less armoured side. Aim for something that will likely blow it up. Fill the air with Mass Accelerator fire, sweeping across the skies towards the other gunships if the first one catches on fire and starts moving erratically. Hold this for five seconds, then switch to five seconds of fire against the infantry to make sure they've gotten the message. Play jeering music on the exoskeleton loudspeakers and signal all the security cameras to follow the infantry or gunship and blink whatever lights they have obnoxiously and creepily.

Run away by walking backwards towards cover for a few more seconds.

Get the boss into cover and on a path moving further away. Break from cover towards a different area, distinct from where the boss is going. Take potshots at the Blue Suns while running, keeping their attention.

Once separate from the boss, use cover and LOS-breaking in combination with the security cameras to ambush the gunships with burstfire and fading back into the endless wrecks before they can break the exoskeleton K-barriers.

Try to remain close enough to the boss to intervene against the infantry.

(Invisible Castle was down at the time of writing this, so I can't link the rolls like I wanted to.)

[Asuka gained 1 Doubt for "I'm the Best"]

The gunships approach and you fight for a good shot at one's side, but none of them turn side on to you. One turns, giving you a firing angle on its side armour, but it's less than ideal. You don't think you'll get a better chance, however, and pop out of cover, aiming for what looks like a weak point.

Just a second too late.

Moments before you move to fire, you see the chin-mounted gun start swivelling towards you and then the whole gunship turns, presenting its strongest armour to you - you fire, anyway, hoping to punch through, but your burst just bounces off of the thick, sloped armour. The other two gunships break immediately, giving you a shot at their sides, but the one you attacked isn't giving you the opportunity - it hits your position with autocannon fire and a barrage of rockets, forcing you to dodge, or be caught in the fire.

You do exactly that, still catching a rocket and a dozen shots on your barrier, noticeably reducing it. It's regenerating…

...but the other gunships don't let it. You have cover between the first and yourself, but the other two have manoeuvred around it, into perfect firing positions. You return fire, but they're moving too fast and too erratically to get a good shot in, and their fire power forces you to move or die, moving from cover to cover, dragging the fight away from the salvage site, as your barrier rapidly erodes.

The distractions have proven to be ineffective, but the boss calls and tells you the Blue Suns have broken pursuit.

Their infantry is now after you.

Not that they'll get to you fast enough - a gunship zooms at high speed around the wreck you took cover behind, firing its autocannon continuously. Its in sight for a mere moment, but your barrier was on the brink of collapse - it finally fades.

The other two gunships swoop down from above, firing off a salvo of rockets. You try to dodge, but there's just too many rockets in the air and you just a second too late - explosions rock the exoskeleton, as shaped charges detonate, punching through the armour. You black out for a second as the suit is knocked to the ground and when you come to, the pilot pod is filled with smoke from burning electronics. Alarms blare from every direction, practically every screen blinking red. Sensors are down, leaving you with just visuals, communications are down, damage to all limbs, left arm is gone, barriers are down for good and a stream of molten metal burned right through one of the power cells.

It can still move. Barely. And you're not injured.

You manage to stand up, but it seems like wasted effort as a gunship hovers just a few dozen meters away, preparing to deliver a coup-de-grace. You see the other two at the edges of your peripheral vision.

The centre gunship explodes into flaming chunks as something smashes through it at high speed.

The other two react quickly, turning and burning their engine to move away, but not quickly enough. A high velocity round punches through one, then another, easily punching through the armour your weapon failed to even scratch, just minutes ago.

The dust and smoke from the centre gunship's crash slowly settles, as a humanoid shape slowly strides forward. It's almost eight and a half meters tall, protected by dark-grey ceramic armour plating, sleek and dangerous - a true military machine, designed for combat for the ground-up, unlike your clunky exoskeleton. Crashing through a gunship seems to not have even left a mark.

Rei has arrived.

Enemy infantry is still present in the area and may still be converging on your position.

Usandru · Apr 10, 2015

"Sohryu." The commline crackles. Asuka almost cries in relief. As though the weight of the world has suddenly left her shoulders.

The concern in Rei's voice is thick. Her inflection is so full of emotion that it pains Asuka to remember that she once called the girl a doll.

"...Hey, Ayanami." She croaks out, hobbling closer to her monstrous machine in her own broken down wreck.

She can't even be bothered to rage at the unfairness. She just...

...she just feels so tired.

***

Rei Ayanami is surveying the area with one eye, while keeping the majority of her attention on Asuka Langley Sohryu, the only other person that she knows of who remembers. Her stomach clenches with emotion as she sees the scarred machine, the hobbled, patched together thing the other girl is using.

It's not fair, a strange thought whispers in her head.

Almost mechanically, she locks her sensor systems onto the copious eezo radiation of the infantry, and swivels her main accelerator cannon to casually annihilate a squad not cowering beyond line of sight. The large cannon roars.

"I have a transport in orbit. We can extract." She says to Asuka.

"...alright." Asuka replies. Rei flinches minutely as she listens to her. She should not sound like that.

"Actually... hey, there should be a woman. Somewhere around here... I worked for her. Help her out, 'kay, Wondergirl?" She asks. Rei nods in affirmation though no-one can see it.

"I will. Patch her through to me. I will pick her up after mopping up." Rei says.

A few minutes later, she has killed all the Blue Suns, and the three remaining living beings, two cradled in the great hands of Unit 00, are moving towards the shuttle port.

None of them intending to ever return to Korlus.

GretelOstrich · Apr 12, 2015

Usandru said:
Aneta just barely manages three seconds of desperate searching for cover before she screws up even worse. Her movement under the cloak managed to get it caught under her foot, and in a single beautiful motion she manages to lunge towards the nearest overhead cover and out of her camouflage, losing her balance and smacking hard into the pavement, bruising her hands and cheek as she scrapes along the ground.

At least it doesn't start to rain even harder.

Gingerly, she picks herself up and looks around, assessing the damage - it stings, but it really is just scratches - and if anyone spotted her.

Remarkably, no one seems to have. Not even Monika's new friend.

Turning off the camouflage function of the cloak, she pulls it up over herself like a giant blanket, winces at the stinging pain in her hands, and contemplates her next move.

Assuming she isn't paralysed by embarrassment anyway.

<"You okay?">

<"'s fine."> Aneta muttered, as the rain soaked the camo cloak.

<"Okay. Great. Still following, right?">

<"Yeah. She, uh, might notice me without the cloak, though."> even though she somehow managed to not notice her when she fell <"I'll have to stay at a distance, not sure if I'll be able to get on the bus with you.">

Plan
Aneta
Go sulk for a few minutes
Be very depressed
Look at the pretty storefronts
Be even more depressed
Follow Monika
Hope no-one sees the assault rifle

Invocations
Stealth: Trained
Cyberbrain

Method
Keep following Monika and Neiyra, but stay out of sight at all times, maintaining over a hundred meters of separation until they have to get on the public transport. Don't get on the same transport, unless they're large enough to avoid one another. Use cybercomm to keep track of each others' location.

Deftly ignoring Aneta's actions with the ease of long practice, Monika happily accepts Neiyra's invitation, and instantly switches over to cautious, slow, probing smalltalk.

It is excruciatingly difficult to keep things to topics she's comfortable bluffing about, away from any sort of differences she can't - as yet - account for, and yet engaging enough to not put Neiyra off from helping her.

The stakes aren't as high as some of her other jobs, but it might well be some of the hardest smalltalk she has ever done.

She thinks she more or less managed to get away with it, as the pair walks along to the nearest public transit, thankfully silent now, both of them lacking any obvious new topics of conversation.

Or, well, so she thought.

"So, tourist, right? Anything you're looking for here?"

"Not really? I just like seeing new places, meeting new people, y'know?" she sighed "Time allowing, at least. Haven't had much time to travel, lately."

Plan
Monika
If she buys it, continue as planned.

Invocations
Charm: Professional
Bluff: Professional, Improv

Somehow. Somehow. Mira manages to say something and the aliens don't run away screaming or seem particularly disconcerted any more.

In fact, they adjust their clothes as though there was no problem whatsoever with someone spotting them just after… after pawing at each other! And then they both walk up to the mecha and start talking excitedly.

Mira doesn't understand a word of it, of course, though they clearly seem to have understood her.

She is left with the choice between trying to do Monika's job, or running away.

Perversely, she suspects that the former is the better idea, no matter how much she might instinctively prefer the latter...

"Why can't they just go away?" Mira complained loudly in the confines of the cockpit as the two blue women chattered in excitement in some alien lanuage she couldn't understand.

They understood her, though. Maybe they knew English?

She should just run. She would really like to just run, but she acted as if she was doing something completely innocent, here and running in her heavily armed mecha would run contrary to that.

As much as she hated it... she had to be Monika.

She inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled, then popped the cockpit open and leaned out.

"So, uh, I hear you talking, but I actually can't understand a word you're saying." she smiled, sheepishly and chuckled "I'm guessing you're talking about my suit, though?"

Plan
Mirosława
Be Monika

Invocations
Infantry Combat: Trained
Mech Piloting: Trained
Vehicle Repair: Trained

Method
Use experience in piloting mecha, repairing vehicles (including mecha) and combat training (which included dealing with mecha and working with mecha) to join the conversation. It's probably an antique to space aliens, but antiques can still be interesting!

Team Polandball

GretelOstrich · May 26, 2015

2nd Quarter, 2280

The first three months of 2280 have been rather turbulent.

January opened with increased pirate activity in the Attican Traverse targeting human colonies and shipping, followed by an increase in Alliance Navy presence in the region and increasingly inflammatory and bellicose rhetoric from the Alliance and the Batarian Hegemony. Alliance officials repeatedly accused the Hegemony of funding the raids, while the Hegemony accused the Alliance of imperialism and attempts at blocking batarian expansion into unclaimed space.

The end of February brought a disaster in the Alliance's peacekeeping efforts in war-torn Australia ended in near-disaster, when during an attempt at capturing a local warlord known as 'Lord Humongous', SSV Gettysburg, frigate assigned to provide close air support, was shot down by a barrage of smuggled disruptor and high explosive missiles.

The frigate's crash devastated the city, but the crisis was far from over - the ship's radiator systems were destroyed, but the fusion reactor was not and could not be shut down before overheating and causing a detonation of the ship's antimatter stores. Utter catastrophe was averted by Rei Katsuragi, one of the mercenaries hired to support the operation - she recovered coolant from the local spaceport, buying the crew time to shut down the reactor and defended the crash site from the remains of the warlord's army until reinforcements arrived.

Colonel Sophia Perrault, the officer in command of the operation was blamed for the failure, and discharged from service. The Hegemony had used the incident as further propaganda against the Alliance, calling them 'too incompetent to keep their own homeworld at peace'

The situation escalated throughout March, culminating in batarian fleet assets being deployed to the very edge of the Skyllian Verge and the Alliance Sixth Fleet, led by the dreadnought SSV Everest being deployed to Elysium. The situation is tense, Alliance and Hegemony frigate squadrons often present within light second of one another. The Citadel Council is currently attempting to mediate de-escalation.

@Daraken

Despite the galaxy being on the verge of a major war, the centre of galactic government has been as calm as a densely populated city of thirteen million can be - there haven't been any major incidents and you've settled into a routine with your team, mostly pulling guard duty and - more recently - VIP protection. Orvide doesn't seem to be lacking in contracts.

As for your team, you've been getting along rather well. You've fallen into a leadership role, and you've been working together well in day to day duties, getting along both on and off duty.

As the fourth month of your employment with Orvide begins, you receive a message on your company mailbox - looks like the boss is looking volunteers for some currently unspecified assignment. No details, but the message mentioned it'd involve running security for some lab. Supposedly elevated risk and double pay for the time of the mission - i.e. a month.

@Jemnite

Khar'shan was never the best place to be human and with human-batarian tensions flaring up, it'd worse than ever, with the local government actively encouraging action against the human minority. You've managed to get through the recent months without a scratch, but you had to rely on your powers to evade some thugs, on a few occasions.

Unfortunately, it attracted attention, though perhaps not of the wrong kind. You find a hand-written note slipped under your door - in English, a popular human language. It details a meeting location - mid-day, fairly public place, though with a few spots where you can't easily be overheard and in a neighbourhood mostly inhabited by the human minority.

@Usandru

The near-disastrous conclusion of the Australian peacekeeping mission has left you with recognition, a few favours from the Alliance and, apparently, a tiny fan club which has been spamming your mailbox with question about you and Unit 00.

It also left you without a job.

However, soon after extracting Asuka and her boss from Korlus, you receive a message from a potential employer - they're offering a fairly enticing contract, 160,000c for what's effectively guard duty for a small human colony in the Attican Traverse. They're concerned about the recent batarian activity and want to shore up their defenses. Contract length is three months, advance payment of 10,000c, the rest after the contract is concluded.

The money offered is… well, it's not outside a small colony's price range and the mission is potentially dangerous, but hundred and sixty thousand for a single mercenary…?

Alternatively, Asuka's former - and now unemployed - boss still has some of her own connections. She offered to help find something, while she's still with you.

@Kei

The place the two of you find yourself in is a heavily populated, bustling, chaotic and run-down city, a familiar sight at first - crowded, the people here mostly working class, the streets lined with street traders' stands, armed thugs and paramilitaries milling through the streets without fear of police, the government too weak, too corrupt or too far away to enforce any sort of regulation. Not unlike some failed state. Or Roanapur.

Except... the vast majority of the people here are aliens, and even the seemingly poorest seem to have equipment that even the richest people on Earth couldn't buy.

The area is some kind of an apartment complex, the left side of the boulevard lined with evenly spaced doors, holograms hanging above, some displaying alien script, some in latin alphabet. The right side opens to a vast cavern, letting you get a look at the vast city built into its walls and rising from the bottom in a forest of towers climbing towards the ceiling, each as tall or taller than Earth's greatest skyscrapers. A few are dark and uninhabited, but most are lit and alive. All look rather run down, however.

For all the technological feats, the lighting in this section is depressingly brown and brown.

Usandru · May 27, 2015

@MightyDwarf

Aneta
Surprising no one, Aneta resumes her stalking of Monika and Neiyra rather more sullenly. It's clearly one of her special skills, because Monika starts getting annoyed at her despite their commlink being silent.

Predictably, this is when things begin to take a turn for the worse. Distracted by her misery - as well as the rather beautiful city, softly illuminated in ways she had not realized were possible - Aneta forgets that a key part of stalking people is not looking like a stalker. Also, not walking around with guns on open streets. That part is very important.

Unfortunately, she remembers this because a pretty blue space woman wearing what looks like very thin, very light power armour and carrying a futuristic gun at her hip shows up and looks sternly at her.

Aneta adopts her best "deer-in-headlights" look, and with a terrible fake smile tries to mumble something about 'it's just a replica' as she lightly waves the Seburo C-30 in a hopefully non-threatening manner.

The presumably blue space police officer woman looks terribly unconvinced, and starts saying a lot of things that Aneta inconveniently can't understand.

Aneta desperately attempts to babble some things in the absurd hope that this will somehow help matters, but she rapidly realizes that it won't, and negotiations - such as they were - break down soon after. Aneta chooses the only sensible response to the horrible situation and runs away.

Unfortunately this does not work either. The blue space police officer woman follows after her at a good pace, and clearly having an actual idea of the city layout she manages to herd Aneta into a one-way street.

Fortunately, said one-way street is covered. With speed and grace that belie the fact she stumbled on the cloak hardly half an hour ago, she wraps the thermoptic camouflage cloak around herself, cyberbrain interface activating it with but a thought. The blue space police officer woman looks appropriately shocked for a second, allowing Aneta to derive a smidgeon of dark satisfaction, before the woman does the worst possible thing. She places herself in a manner that makes it almost impossible to leave the one-way street without touching her.

Then she activates one of those omnitools that Neiyra also had. Aneta's cybernetics and other networking accessories immediately pick up the start of some sort of comm chatter. Doubtlessly reinforcements.

Almost casually, she examines the signal, and while she has no means to listen in or otherwise decode it, she is almost startled to realize how easy it would be for her to simply... ruin it. So she does, blaring out a signal of her own that casually disrupts whatever the woman was doing.

The shock of it conveniently startles the woman out of her position, and seizing the opportunity, Aneta slips out and vanishes into the night. Claiming, if not a victory, then at least a draw.

The sense of success immediately crumbles when she realizes she is out of network range of both her friends.

Monika
Being the only actually competent person she knows, Monika can already feel a headache forming as she leaves behind Aneta and her ineffectual support to keep up with Neiyra.

Luckily, being the only actually competent person she knows, Monika performs to spec, successfully managing to juggle having lengthy companionable silences and smalltalk where she doesn't reveal that she has no idea what is going on, and soon enough they're at Neiyra's apartment where she gets to borrow a computer, and Neiyra even offers her a fold-out bed for the night.

Even more fortunately, the space internet turns out to be pretty simple. All in all, Monika feels pretty good about calling her part of things a resounding success.

Mira
After some fiddling with their strange futuristic devices, the two alien girls become comprehensible. And excitable. And curious.

Really, really curious.

Still, as long as it's just technical specifications things are simple enough, and when they ask for a few more complicated details, she manages to spin a yarn about the mech being based off a human show, where she weaves in a few of her old cases and some of the more high profile police actions she's read about in the past as plot and episodes.

To Mira's mild shock, it seems they buy it.

But it doesn't make them go away. Rather, they become even more curious.

And then they start hitting on her.

"Want to come with us and have some fun?"

"You're really cute once you get out of that mech..."

"You know, I've never melded with a human before..."

If she wasn't a full-body 'borg, her face would be burning by now. Instead she gets to turn off that system and just feel mortifyingly embarrassed. She figures that's an improvement. Somehow.

Luckily, the conversation shifts.

"So you're visiting Thessia, right? That's pretty far. Your Earth is like, almost on the other side of the galaxy. Isn't that almost a week of travel by the main mass relays?" One of the girls say.

"...Faster than light travel is impossible!" Is what Mira finds herself unable to avoid exclaiming at the ludicrous statement. She realizes her mistake the moment she finishes speaking, and remains convinced that turning off her ability to flush with embarrassment was the correct decision.

Alas, it is too late. The figurative cat is out of the bag. The two girls are staring at her with eyes full of incredulous disbelief. Mira squirms under their heavy gazes. She really hadn't planned on blurting something like that out. Even if FTL is absurd.

Monika is going to laugh at her and then kill her.

Still, she might as well just spill the beans in this case. Maybe she'll get lucky and they'll believe her?

***

As it turns out, they do very much believe her, and after a bit of hashing out details, the two girls enthusiastically drag Mira with them to an apartment complex with integrated vehicle garage, where they help her stuff the mech into a private vehicle booth and then bring her up to the apartment owned by one of the girls, Yrimée, and proceed to get in touch with Monika and Aneta.

Thus does the long first night end.

The following three months see the three Polish women alternate between frentic studying, painful waiting and frustrating work. Yrimée and her friend - possibly lover, none of the three are totally sure - Rahiel do a lot to help out, letting the humans sleep on surprisingly comfortable inflatable beds in Yrimée's apartment and paying for their basic living expenses. Soon enough, all three also get budget omnitools on Rahiel's dime.

Monika and Yrimée soon enough judge the three more or less capable of faking being 'normal' humans, especially on Thessia where many of their mistakes might be attributed to 'being human' rather than 'being weird'.

In the meanwhile, the threesome has not been totally idle. Aneta has adapted surprisingly well to the sleek space future, and has discovered that the structure and refinement of interstellar computing and programming lends itself extremely well to crosscompatibility, meaning it won't take much work for her to repurpose some cyberbrain software to interface with local technology. Monika has been hard at work trying to figure out how to get 'close enough for government work' identities for the three, helped by Rahiel. She's also managed to just about keep Neiyra in her list of contacts, though their interaction has been sporadic.

Mira, unfortunately, has had more trouble. Being cooped up with at least one asari girl and Aneta at almost all hours of the day turned out to be rather wearying, not to mention her lack of any immediately applicable skillset. Ultimately, she spent most of the quarter tinkering with omnigel and prosthetics maintenance, ever so slowly getting cabin fever.

Something has to give.

By the turn of the third month into the fourth, the question of identities and long-term prospects is brought up. Monika and Rahiel have narrowed down four major options for the first:
-Exploit the thermoptic cloak to access a Thessia government database or the Systems Alliance Embassy and insert the relevant documentation directly
-Make a deal with a shady extranet purveyor of identities that seems reasonably on the level.
-Find a powerful Matriarch to sponsor the acquisition of identities
-Make do without identities

As for what to do after that... opinions are vague and mixed.

Turn 1 End

Aneta gains...
...Cyberbrain/Omnitool Interfacing Software: Trainee
...local notoriety as "unknown human with a gun"
...+1 NEET level (total NEET level: distressingly high)
...general Mass Effect familiarity

Monika gains...
...small list of contacts on Thessia
...somehow, a credstick with 100 credits
...Asari Culture and Society: Trainee
...the distressing realization that she's on a planet full of people that are a lot like her, except they've been doing the same things she does for up to twenty times as long

Mirosława gains...
...Nanofabbed Prosthetics: Trainee
...cabin fever
...+1 NEET level (total NEET level: "she's just having a rough patch, she'll be back to work any day now")
...general Mass Effect familiarity
...an unconscious unease about being surrounded by three very pretty, very... flirtatious women. Also Aneta.

Daraken · Jun 5, 2015

Flynn Walker

Taking a sip of his tea, Flynn nodded at the excitedly talking quarian sharing his table. These weekly meetings with Kei'Rala were quite relaxing, and the alien always had such interesting stories to tell. And complaints to share about bigoted people, but that was fine. Flynn was used to people unloading their troubles onto him. And what a change it was, that he could understand at least some part of the quarian's technical blabber. To think but a season ago, Flynn had no idea of the concept of electronics and had assumed Burroughs was some helpful spirit living within his Gauntlet. Yes, such amazing wonders this world had to offer. If only he could share it to those back home in Tokyo...

As Kei'Rala's impromptu lecture winds down, Flynn gives him a honest smile. "Fascinating as usual," the Samurai comments without a shade of sarcasm. "Though I think I only understood about a quarter of that." Shaking his head, Flynn pulls out a data module and hands it to the quarian. "I'd like to request a favor of you, Kei. I'm sure you noticed in our first encounter my rather...unique armor and gear. I've replaced it something more modern, but it was an experimental unit I had acquired. Perhaps there's something you can learn from it? My Gauntlet too, though all I can spare for that are some basic specifications Burroughs created for me."

The beep of a message on Flynn's omni-tool interrupts the conversation, and after a quick check the Samurai frowns. "Sorry Kei. I'll have to cut this short. Seems like a job has come up." Leaving behind a credit chit to cover the meal, Flynn gives the quarian a nod. "But if you have some free time, we can go over the equipment together. Who knows, we might find something surprising."

---

Complex Action
Orvide Security Job: Lab Security

Invocations
Infantry Combat: Professional
Tactics: Professional
Orvide Security Team (Falis T'Rura, Galellix Kerdos, Jaellix Kerdos)

Method
On the surface, the job seems simple enough. But there were more than a few signs that set off alarm bells. The fact that the job was voluntary for one. And of course the increased danger mentioned in the summary, coupled with double pay. No, there was something going on. And like the old masters said, the great demon Murphy was always waiting to strike. Of course keeping the team on 100% readiness was impossible but there were always things you could do before hand.

Setting up an efficient patrol pattern, establishing firing lines and basic defenses, all simple tactical preparations that could be done immediately. Additionally, making sure that the team was well aware of the possible dangers, even if everything seemed routine and tiresome would be important. Flynn was team leader after all, and that meant being responsible.

---

Project
Reverse Engineering

Invocations
Computer Science: Trainee
Kei'Rala (Gratitude, 1)
AI Burroughs/Gauntlet COMP
DEMOuntable Next Integrated Capability Armor (DEMONICA)

Method
The DEMONICA and Gauntlet are both unique, originating from Flynn's original dimension. While the technology of the Citadel races seem to be much more advanced, the fact that both pieces of equipment were developed from an unknown techbase means there may be hidden advantages compared to modern designs. Between a quarian engineer, an AI VI created to interface with the COMP and DEMONICA, and a warrior with the practical knowledge of using them, any secrets or replicable design features are sure to be ferreted out.

GretelOstrich · Jun 6, 2015

@Daraken

Complex Action
Orvide Security Job: Lab Security

Invocations
+3 Infantry Combat: Professional
+3 Tactics: Professional
+3 Orvide Security Team (Falis T'Rura, Galellix Kerdos, Jaellix Kerdos)

---

When you volunteer, the rest of your team does, as well. Soon enough, you're briefed on the details - the contractor is InGen, a minor company specializing in planetary exploration, who found some unusual, non-Prothean device in the Attican Traverse. They brought it back for study to their main offices on the Citadel, but before they bring it on-board the station proper, it has to go through initial quarantine and safety testing. Generally, these last around a month and are conducted in an isolated facility - a small station near the Citadel.

Officially, they're shoring up security in case the device proves dangerous. Unofficially, they're paranoid and want someone more professional than security guards on site, in case of industrial espionage or sabotage.

Aside from yours. there are four other teams on site. You'll also be working with a few of Orvide's infosec experts. The mission commander is Nialla D'Ren, a fairly experienced leader, specializing in security operations such as this.

[17 + 9 -> 26]

Your expertise, combined with that of your teammates lets you quickly assess the facility's defensibility - it's decent, though designed more to keep things in, rather than out - there's little to no external defences, for instance, but the hatches are heavily reinforced, making containment easier. You familiarize yourself with the terrain, find the best patrol routes, identify chokepoints, potential threat areas and escape routes.

New Asset
Home Ground Advantage

Complication [4]

Two weeks pass by, slowly and uneventfully, with only two days of leave. However, as dull as it is, the assignment looks like easy money.

...until the power shuts down.

Your squad is about to go off-duty, when all the lights suddenly go dark, briefly casting everything in total darkness. Backup power kicks in almost instantly, blue emergency lights coming to life, providing dim illumination. Shrill alarms begin to blare soon after and the station VI loudly implores everyone not to panic and remain where they are.

Commander D'Ren is on the company channel almost immediately. "All squads, the station just suffered a major power failure - the main reactor is down, we're down to backups, we're out of contact with half the station. No idea what caused it - Walker, get your squad to the reactor room and assess the situation. And move it. Everyone else, round up the civvies, get them to the safe zones and keep the mall commandos from hurting themselves."

Project
Reverse Engineering

Invocations
+1 Computer Science: Trainee
+2 Kei'Rala (Gratitude, 1)
+2 AI Burroughs/Gauntlet COMP
DEMOuntable Next Integrated Capability Armor (DEMONICA)

[3 + 5 -> 8]

Unfortunately, while certainly unique, neither the DEMONICA, nor the COMP have any features that would be immediately advantageous to local technology. The DEMONICA's construction materials proved to be not very interesting. The COMP's hardware, at least, might have some development potential, and Kei'Rala has the equipment to investigate further, but actual development would require some better equipment and likely a few extra people.

The software seemed interesting. At least, until Burroughs dug up some of the actual code and Kei'Rala tried working with the language. It... did not go well. It doesn't compare very well with asari-derived languages, apparently.

New Assets:
Quarian Profanities: Trainee

New Research Avenue:
COMP Hardware

Daraken · Jun 14, 2015

Flynn Walker

Complex Action (Continued):
Orvide Security Job: Lab Security

Standing watch is never fun, especially after two weeks of boredom. Perhaps it had been hypocritical of him to lecture the others about staying alert when Flynn found himself nodding off, mind focused on other distant matters. The dimming of the lights and the shrill alarms is quick to put that to rest, the Samurai jumping to his feet in alert as boredom is washed away with adrenaline.

As soon as Commander D'Ren's ends his orders, Flynn is activating his own team's private channel. "You heard the Commander, move it! Assemble at checkpoint B-12, and assume we're going to be dealing with hostiles. Could be saboteurs, could be an accident. Doesn't hurt to be ready anyways."

Following his own words, Flynn unslings the Vindicator hanging off his shoulder, moving it into a ready position. And then he's off, eyes scanning the corridors ahead of him as he heads out to meet with his team.

Invocations
Infantry Combat: Professional
Tactics: Professional
Orvide Security Team (Falis T'Rura, Galellix Kerdos, Jaellix Kerdos)
Home Ground Advantage

Method
With a lack of any real information on the situation, there's nothing to do but follow orders and head for the reactor ASAP. While this could simply be some sort of research accident that damaged the power systems to the station, worse case scenario would mean an enemy attack trying to disable the local defenses. As such, Flynn and his team will proceed as if dealing with hostiles, though they're to take care not to set off any friendly fire incidents or provoke any of the local security by acting too hostile.

GretelOstrich · Jul 5, 2015

@Daraken

Complex Action (Continued):
Orvide Security Job: Lab Security

Invocations
+1 Infantry Combat: Professional
+1 Tactics: Professional
+3 Orvide Security Team (Falis T'Rura, Galellix Kerdos, Jaellix Kerdos)
+3 Home Ground Advantage

Method
With a lack of any real information on the situation, there's nothing to do but follow orders and head for the reactor ASAP. While this could simply be some sort of research accident that damaged the power systems to the station, worse case scenario would mean an enemy attack trying to disable the local defenses. As such, Flynn and his team will proceed as if dealing with hostiles, though they're to take care not to set off any friendly fire incidents or provoke any of the local security by acting too hostile.

[13 + 8 -> 21]

The team quickly advances through the corridors towards the engineering section. The dim lighting, while creepy, does little to inconvenience you thanks to your hardsuit's light amplification. Unfortunately, the security teams, equipped only with snazzy uniforms, armor vests and pistols are and it almost leads to a friendly fire incident, as a team of guards misidentifies you as "motherfucking commandos invading the station!" and almost opens fire.

Thankfully, the situation is quickly defused without casualties and you're free to proceed to the reactor room.

The main access hallway to the reactor is a wide corridor ending at an armoured double door. You arrive there just a few minutes after the encounter with the security team and are greeted by a worrying sight - what looks like the entire reactor crew, a dozen technicians and engineers, as well as a pair of security guards are camped out in the corridor, some of them injured, though none appear to have suffered anything life-threatening. Their injuries are unusual - burns, cuts, blunt injuries, but no gun shot wounds.

The lead engineer, a human, comes running up to you. "Oh, thank God you're here! Walker, right? I'm Nowak, chief reactor engineer, we got a really, really bad situation here!"

"We had a failure in the reactor's containment system. The magnetic field started to deteriorate fast and safeties kicked in - it's undergoing an emergency shut-down, so it wouldn't explode on us. Unfortunately, we also suffered a coolant leak, so it started overheating faster than it could shut down. We tried fixing it, but then all our maintenance bots went insane. Started attacking everyone and we had to run."

"I need your team to go in there and take out these bots. Otherwise, we're gonna have to evacuate the station before the reactor melts."

And you do just that - for unarmed and untrained civilians, crazed engineering bots are a deadly threat. For your team, they're less of a challenge than the training mechs, incapable of even getting through your hardsuits and so you deal with them in just a few minutes. The engineering team rushes back in and manages to hastily patch the cooling system back together, allowing the reactor to shut down safely.

The immediate danger is over. The station will remain on emergency power for a day, until main power can be restored.

Meanwhile, commander D'Ren has called your team over to 'field headquarters' - a converted storage room. D'Ren's command staff and the infosec team have set up a lot of computer hardware, eating up almost all available space. As you enter, the room is manned by a skeleton crew, with only D'Ren and two others there. She motions you over.

"Good job with those bots." she says "And you didn't hurt the mall commandos, too. I'd have hit them with some biotics, at least."

She clears her throat.

"Right. Anyway. Reactor containment failure, cooling system failure, bot rampage. What do the four of you make of this?"

Usandru · Jul 13, 2015

Asuka twitched awake, grasping wildly for her knife. She felt something, sensed something. Was there someone else? Was she in danger? Why wasn't she in her suit? She didn't dare take it off…!

There was nothing. Only Rei's soft breathing beside her, and the ever so faint hum of electronics.

Ah, that was right. Rei had picked her up. She was in the truck Rei was operating out of, sharing the bed. She was… safe.

Asuka looked at Rei. Her slumbering face was… gentle. Lying there, the other girl seemed somehow small, even fragile. So pale, so slight.

Asuka remembered. Of all of them, the only one that Eva had not broken was Rei.

Not fair.

Life never was.

Asuka sat there, looking at her fellow pilot. The clock ticking steadily.

She could feel the warmth. How long had it been since she'd touched another person? Three months? Over three months?

She couldn't remember. Too long.

"Goddamnit, Wondergirl." She whispered as she softly stroked Rei's shoulder. Fingers tracing it ever so lightly.

Asuka sighed as she regretfully pulled her hand away from Rei's shoulder. Why did it all have to be so complicated?

At least she barely had any time to feel sorry for herself.

Asuka Langley Sohryu sighed again, slowly lowered herself down in the too small bed, and tried to drift off to sleep, shifting slightly at feeling the warmth from Rei's back to hers.

For once, she didn't dream.

***

"So it's obviously a trap."

"Agreed."

Rei and Asuka were hunched around a small display in the driver's section of Rei's truck, staring at the suspicious offer Rei had received. Sixteen hundred thousand credits. Effectively a little more than fifty thousand credits per month, a sum somewhere around ten times more than Asuka had managed to earn.

"Who do you think is responsible? One of the governments?" Asuka asked, pressing a bit closer to Rei to get a better look at the text.

"Unlikely. They would make an overt approach first. Also, too swift." Rei replied, squirming slightly in her seat as Asuka pushed into her personal space.

"Mmmh, point. They're large governments and you're not that important. So private actor?" Asuka asked.

"Most likely." Rei said.

"Then, are we doing this?" Asuka asked, pulling back a little to look Rei straight in the face and plastering on a serious countenance.

"Yes." Rei replied, tone unconcerned as she began flipping through various legal documents.

"Gott im himmel, Wondergirl… okay. Alright. So how are we dealing with the trap?" Asuka asked, pushing a hand through her hair as she stared at Rei, who ceased skimming through legalese to meet Asuka's gaze out of the corner of her eyes. With a slight sigh - perhaps of exasperation, Asuka thought with a hint of annoyance - she put down the tablet entirely and shifted over to look at Asuka.

"They should not expect the full power of the Lambda Driver." Rei said, gesturing softly towards the rest of the truck and the giant mecha inside.

"Huh. What is that thing anyway? Is it…" Asuka asked, trailing off uncertain of what she was going to compare it to.

"It is eerily reminiscent of an AT-field." Rei replied. Asuka shivered.

"Shit."

"Historical records show no indications that the Angels were ever present in this world." Rei continued, picking up the tablet again and flicking to a collation of historical events going back hundreds of years, with not one mention of Impact or Angels or Evas. Asuka grimaced slightly as she took it in.

"Hm. Well, lucky them. Speaking of... um. How much do you remember?" She asked, looking warily at Rei, who stilled and made a complicated and slightly distraught expression as she put the tablet away again.

"Fragments. I... it was painful. Shinji, he... I'm sorry, it's not clear." She said, voice wavering ever so slightly. Her fingers clenched into fists.

"I... scheisse. Nevermind, W- Ayanami." Asuka said, hesitantly touching one of her hands to Rei's clenched fist, lightly brushing against it. An abortive caress. Rei started softly, fingers unclenching slightly.

"You remember something?" She asked, voice wavering faintly, a few fingers twitching up to brush against Asuka's as she shifted to give the other girl her full attention.

Asuka hesitantly curled a few locks of her red hair around a finger as she chewed on her lip, trying to come up with something to say. The words were stuck in her throat, raw and painful. Too clear, too vivid memories. She could feel a few tears gathering in the corner of her eyes, and her nose suddenly became runny.

With a vigorous motion she brushed her face with her sleeve and beamed a shaky but proud smile at Rei, trying to pretend nothing had happened.

Rei took a strong hold of the other girl's hand and squeezed it ever so softly.

"We should repair your exoskeleton with the advance payment." She said, picking up the tablet with her free hand and flipping to a military equipment provider's catalogue.

Asuka grabbed the tablet and gently pulled it out of Rei's grip. As Rei blinked in surprise, Asuka dropped it on the seat behind her, while her other hand returned Rei's squeeze with one of her own.

The words began to loosen.

"...I remember you." She said, smile almost cracking as she spoke, necessitating another wipe of her face.

Rei looked at her uncertainly. Hesitantly, she shifted closer to Asuka, as though trying to close a gap. Her free hand hovered as she tried to determine where to place it.

Asuka decided for her, as she brought her other hand up to entangle with Rei's. The painful smile widened.

"At the end. I... those fake Evas came, and I fought and... you were there. In the end. Or, or something like you. You were there. In the end." Asuka said. Squeezing Rei's hands. Her breathing had turned thick and heavy, tears and pain cloying in her throat, transforming into sobs.

Rei said nothing. How could she? Rei Ayanami knew of nothing between heaven and earth that might suffice.

She simply squeezed Asuka's hands, and did not let go.

In the end, despite the wet streaks down her cheeks and the unshed tears in her eyes, Asuka managed to smile.

"Don't make that face." She said as she looked at Rei. "It doesn't suit you at all."

Rei made no reply. She simply sniffled and rubbed her eyes with her sleeve. She didn't let go of Asuka's hands.

"Ugh. Why am I even saying any of this... stupid. Stupid. It's really..." Asuka said, face slowly colouring to match her hair. Her tears were drying. Her breath barely hitched at all. She didn't let go of Rei's hands.

"Thank you." Rei said, holding back sniffles for a moment.

"I-It's not like I said it for your sake or anything!" Asuka protested, face now entirely scarlet. She averted her face, looking at Rei only out of the corner of her eyes.

"Even so." Rei said, voice stronger again, the sniffles less frequent.

For a while, they just sat there, holding hands, listening to each other breathe as the pain and emotion faded. Slowly, slowly, ever so slowly.

"Sorry." Asuka said.

"Hm?" Rei focused on her again, her previously almost vacant eyes fixed straight at Asuka, who squirmed slightly under the gaze.

"Sorry for being mean to you. Back, you know. I shouldn't have been." She forced out, turning a little red again.

Rei stared at her like she had grown a second head.

"...E-even if it was partially your fault too! I mean, you completely ignored me when I tried to befriend you!" Asuka declared, squirming in her seat and glaring at Rei, who blinked and briefly grew distant as she drew on faded memories.

"I... yes, I suppose I did do that. I am sorry, it was unkind of me. I..." She said, forcing herself to make a small, pained smile, and a small, painful admission.

They lapsed into silence again, slightly more comfortable now. Holding hands more gently. Smiles given more readily.

"Would you like to be friends, Sohryu?" Rei asked. Asuka blinked, and smiled another small smile.

"Hmph! Well, if it can't be helped, I suppose we can!" She declared and squeezed Rei's hands again.

"Thank you, Sohryu." Rei said in a soft tone. Asuka's smile broadened.

"Hey, call me Asuka, okay?" She all but demanded, shifting her upper body closer to Rei even as her smile turned into a grin.

"...very well, Asuka." Rei replied with a faint smile of her own.

"Alright! And I'm calling you Rei. No way I'm calling you Katsuragi, eugh. Why did you even decide to use that name?" Asuka said, leaning back out of Rei's personal space and sticking out her tongue in mock disgust.

Rei looked slightly away, not meeting Asuka's eyes.

"I didn't want to use my own, in case someone might recognize it." She said, flushing a light red.

"And you thought calling yourself Katsuragi would help with that? Iiiidiot." Asuka grinned, pushing a pair of clasped hands close to Rei's forehead to flick a finger at it. Rei flinched and made a short mewl of surprise, before glaring balefully at Asuka.

"...my memories were fuzzy." Rei declared sulkily. Asuka stuck out her tongue again before smirking.

"Suuuuure. Memories were fuzzy. I totally believe you." She drawled. Rei made a slight 'tsk' sound.

"...I..." Rei began, before suddenly smiling softly, "...excellent. I am glad my explanation was satisfactory."

Asuka's expression morphed as though she had just swallowed something sour. After a deep breath, she schooled her expression back to her usual confidence.

"Geh. Okay, good one, W- Rei." She said with a slightly strained smirk.

Rei smiled and flushed slightly, squeezing Asuka's hands again, causing Asuka herself to redden.

"S-stop blushing! It's creepy..." Asuka weakly declared, squirming in place. Alternately looking at and looking away from Rei.

"...you are blushing as well." Rei said, smile growing larger.

"I-idiot! No way am I blushing about something like this! It- it's just the heat! Yeah!" Asuka said, raising her voice even as her face began resembling a tomato.

"...let us begin work. Asuka." Rei said, still smiling. Asuka deflated.

"...alright." She said quietly, hesitantly matching Rei's small smile.

Neither of them moved to let go of the other's hands.

***

Asuka's former boss, Taevyn, had decidedly mixed feelings on the entire situation.

On the one hand, she was out of a job and a significant investment had been lost, though her bank account wasn't in totally dire straits. On the other hand, she hadn't been killed by the Blue Suns. On the third hand, the Blue Suns had probably shown up because she'd hired Asuka. On the fourth hand, without Asuka she probably would be in worse financial straits. And on the fifth hand, without Asuka and her friend she would very probably be very dead.

Said friend was a rather curious fellow too. Another human, not too surprisingly, except for there being something very subtly off about her.

Or maybe that was just the weird mech she used, and the tiny extranet cult - or was that fanclub? - that turned up on extranet searches of her name.

She had to give the it to the girl though. The "Gettysburg incident" videos were very impressive. All in all, she definitely had to make a connection.

Her chance came as Rei came out of her truck, wearing some sort of maintenance overall spotted with grease, and carrying a small toolbelt that had evidently seen recent use.

Taevyn carefully approached her and opened up with a friendly smile and open body language.

"You're Rei Katsuragi? I watched the newsvid you're in. I expected you to be taller." She said, controlling her inflection to make the last part a joke. Rei simply looked at her impassively and nodded.

"Genetic condition." She said, shifting her expression to ask 'are you done?'

It was remarkably antisocial, Taevyn found. And her typical employees were the scum of the galaxy or batarians.

"...ah. Um. Right. Well, I owe you and Sohryu big for pulling my ass out of the fire there. The Suns weren't in a talking mood, not that I have any idea what got them so riled up. I don't know if my contacts are quite up to paying your costs, but if you want me to get you a contract for a few months of work, I'm sure I can set you up. Otherwise, I'll help out until I've got a new thing myself, yeah?" She forged on anyway, giving her pitch to the girl. A mutually beneficial arrangement with a helping of gratitude, while avoiding any strong commitments.

Rei just nodded.

"Perfectly reasonable." She said. At least she also seemed to shift her attention for a longer chat, Taevyn thought. She didn't quite look like she was judging Taevyn for wasting her time anymore.

Now she just had to provide a suitable topic.

"So... you're taking this sixteen hundred thousand credits job?" She asked. Rei nodded again.

"Correct." She said. The utter calm was actually rather disquieting, Taevyn found. For a minor PMC that kind of contract was kind of ridiculous. If it had been her getting a job with that kind of pay, she'd probably lie awake at night until she signed or fled for the hills.

"...you're not worried at all?" She asked carefully. It was hard to figure out Rei's tells. Who knew what she might react badly to?

"We are... adept at dealing with unforeseen circumstances and capabilities." Rei replied, her tone still quiet and neutral, except… there was a sort of faint amusement and exhaustion to it. Her expression had shifted slightly, a crinkling of the eyes and mouth. Like she was secretly giggling at someone. Or everyone.

Taevyn just smiled and carried on.

"Ain't that the truth... well, it's not like I wouldn't be tempted myself. Sixteen hundred thousand is a lot of money..." She said. Rei however seemed remarkably disinterested. Like the money wasn't really important.

"Quite." She replied. The conversation almost died. Taevyn grimaced internally.

"So... are we going there immediately?" She asked, trying to keep it alive, at least for a little while more.

Not to mention, she's a bit concerned...

"No. We will resupply and stock up on security equipment first." Rei said, again with an air of disinterest. But the explanation itself was enough for Taevyn to make a guess at what's going on.

"...so you really do expect them to be aiming for your mech. Well, no wonder. It might be worth more than sixteen hundred if they can replicate it." She said, thinking back to the vid of Rei performing feats she hadn't thought were possible while saving the Gettysburg. 'Unit 00', or whatever it was, was absolutely an amazing piece of technology, unprecedented as far as she knew.

Rei however just shook her head.

"They cannot." She said. Her words weren't backed by confidence. They were simply a statement of fact.

Taevyn felt chills down her back.

"Eh? You sound awfully certain of that..." She managed to mumble while she forced herself to keep her eyes on the human girl. Averting them would be… kind of pathetic.

"Yes." Rei stated.

Taevyn couldn't help but wonder what exactly was up with the two short humans.

"Hm. Well, it's your mech." She said, deferentially. At this point, she needed a breather. She was getting afraid she might say something foolish if she kept on talking. Fortunately, Rei had seemed plenty willing to kill the conversation so far...

"Yes. It is." Rei said, and that was that.

***

Taevyn ended up skulking around the transport ship for a few hours, avoiding the truck and Rei. Talking to the girl turned out to be far too exhausting.

In the end though, she slept on a small mattress in the truck, since she didn't know anyone on the small ship other than her two human saviours.

She therefore decided to go looking for Asuka and stick with her for at least a little while. Asuka scared her a little, but at least she was a comprehensible person.

Also, there was something she wanted to know pretty badly.

"What's with your friend?" She asked after they'd sat down around an impromptu table, cheap self-heating boxed space meals in hand.

"Eh? Rei?" Asuka said, glancing up from where she'd been poking suspiciously at some form of gel.

"Yeah. I just tried talking to her, and she was all..." Taevyn decided, very diplomatically, to not actually complete that sentence.

"Ah. She's probably just shy." Asuka answered, smirking slightly at some joke that Taevyn didn't get at all. As far as she could tell, there was nothing funny about Rei at all.

"Shy? Really?" She asked, trying to keep the incredulity out of her voice. Asuka frowned very slightly in disapproval, and nodded.

"Well, kind of. She's... not good with people, I guess? Well, there was a lot of trouble." Asuka said, shrugging as if to say 'what can you do?'

Well, she could answer the question more clearly, Taevyn thought, but she knew better than to say that.

"I see..." She said instead. Keeping it a very neutral statement, the kind that baits people into talking more. The kind Rei would just ignore.

Asuka, fortunately, was rather more talkative.

"Yeah, so she got that kind of personality. She's actually pretty intense, you just have to, like, peel off the first layer." She explained, waving her disposable knife in the air for emphasis. There was a rather pleased smile on her face as she mentioned peeling off the first layer. Taevyn got the impression she's a little proud of having done that, which was… interesting.

"Sounds like you have quite the history." Taevyn said. Asuka half-smiled and shrugged.

"Mmmh, yeah. We were both testpilots in the same program, more or less. Like I said, there was a lot of trouble." She explained, her tone turning slightly evasive. Taevyn nodded like it was a satisfactory answer and stabbed an unidentifiable chunk of nutrient cube with her fork.

"Testpilots? The two of you?" She asked. Who knows, she thought, it might lead to some useful elaboration.

"Yeah. She got pulled in first, then me. There was a third, but... I dunno. I haven't seen him in a while." Asuka replied. She started eating more as she did so, dragging out the answer.

"Sounds rough." Taevyn said. Asuka snorted with her mouth full of food, and spent half a minute coughing.

"You have no idea." She said. Taevyn thought her smile seemed unusually bitter.

She decided to shift conversation into safer territory after that.

***

"Asuka." Rei cornered her inside the truck and dragged her further into a crevice. They're alone there. Nobody else should be able to hear them.

"Yes?" Asuka asked. She gave Rei a dubious look as the other girl cautiously looked around to check that they were absolutely alone.

"How familiar are you with Metaphysical Biology?" Rei asked. Asuka blinked in surprise.

"Eh? You mean the science stuff behind Eva? I know at least the general stuff, but…" She trailed off with a shrug and a questioning look at Rei, who simply nodded.

"I see. You studied physics and engineering, correct?" Rei asked.

"Yeah. Hey, Rei, what're you up to?" Asuka replied, frowning.

"I wish to redevelop the field." Rei stated. Asuka blinked, then drew in a hiss of breath as the implications hit her.

"Oi, Rei! Have you seriously considered the consequences of that?" She whispered, mimicking the other girl by looking around the truck. If someone else heard about it...

"Yes. There is a miniscule risk of triggering Angels somewhere in the universe, and a small risk of propagating Project E into the galaxy." Rei stated. She kept her voice even, but one of her fists clenched tight as she spoke.

"...and you're seriously planning to do this?" Asuka asked, stepping closer to keep her voice as quiet as possible.

"Yes. I…" Rei started before trailing off, making a complicated expression.

"What?" Asuka asked, turning somewhat confused and uncertain. Hesitantly she put two of her fingers to gently touch Rei's shoulder, causing the other girl to freeze for a moment, before slowly relaxing.

"...I wish to understand my own nature." Rei stated, almost fearful. Her red eyes not quite meeting Asuka's suddenly widening blue ones.

"Eh? You mean- scheisse. Scheisse." Asuka whispered, her gentle touch turning into a grab and squeeze of Rei's shoulder, causing Rei to flinch and turn her head away.

"...if you are against it, I will stop." She whispered.

Asuka made a face like she'd been slapped out of the blue, and carefully forced herself to let go of Rei's shoulder, letting her hand fall limp to her side instead. Emotions boiling inside her, she grit her teeth and pulled in breath.

"...Asuka?" Rei asked. Her expression was afraid, yet her hand was held out towards Asuka, almost to stroking her cheek.

"...no. Do it. You want to understand, right? Do it. If the Angels come, we'll just kill them all. We did the last time, right? Even if we don't have Shinji…" Asuka bit down on her words, fist clenched, body tense, coiled and almost about to burst. Fearful and angry and...

Rei's hand drifted away from her cheek and down to Asuka's hand, grasping it, clenching it.

"Yes. I… you know how to be stronger than him, now. You accepted Eva. It would be possible." Rei whispered to her. Asuka choked out a laugh, angrily wiping away gathering moisture from her eyes.

"You sound so damn sure of that…" She whispered, and Rei squeezed her hand, half moving closer before stopping without quite touching.

"Yes." She whispered back. Asuka just stood there, making great heaving breaths, trying to pull all the emotion back inside, rubbing at her face with her free hand and arm.

In the end, she got her breathing mostly under control, and returned Rei's squeeze of her hand with one of her own.

"Scheisse. Okay, so we're redeveloping that field. What do we need to do?" Asuka said, stepping slightly back and flinching in surprise at Rei's teary-eyed expression.

"I will need to redevelop the first tools. It should be possible. The first principles were developed theoretically in the 1980ies, and this world has computing power equal to or in excess of the Magi, it seems. It will however take time and resources." Rei explained, sniffling a bit as she spoke, rubbing tears from her eyes with her free hand. Asuka made a slight smile and squeezed her hand again.

"Alright. I guess we'll need more space, soon." She said, glancing around the already tightly packed truck.

"Yes." Rei said, getting her sniffling under control, leaving her just with eyes more red than usual.

"Do you need my help?" Asuka asked quietly. Rei nodded.

"Yes. I would like for you to check my mathematics and experimental designs." She explained.

"Just so you know, I didn't do any actual research. Just undergraduate stuff." Asuka said. Rei nodded and smiled faintly.

"I know. Your file was provided to me." She explained. Asuka's eyes widened.

"...but those bastards never gave me yours!" She growled. Rei's smile twitched slightly.

"The file was classified beyond your clearance level." She stated, smile twitching again as Asuka continued growling insults.

"...cheating, lying, dirty bastards…"

"Yes." Rei agreed, causing Asuka to look up in mild surprise.

"Hm. Say… Rei. Weren't you really fond of Commander Ikari?" Asuka asked, tilting her head. Rei's smile faded.

"I… yes, I was. I am. He…" She said, faltering. Trying to put it into words, but finding them turning only to ash in her mouth. Asuka squeezed her hand and shook her head.

"Ah, you don't need to continue. I… well, I kind of get it." She said. Rei blinked in surprise and looked questioningly at Asuka.

"Well, just… a lot of things happened. Well, you know how it is." Asuka mumbled, waving her free hand as if to smooth things over. Rei paused.

"...I suppose I may know how it is, yes." She said, looking at Asuka who refused to quite meet her eyes.

"Yeah." She said awkwardly. Rei nodded.

"I am happy you are here with me, Asuka." She said, squeezing her hand again.

***

Major Action: Take the colonial guard duty job for ~~ONE MILLION DOLLARS~~ sixteen hundred thousand credits
-Pick up stuff for Asuka's exoskeleton and a bunch of security and anti-tampering gear on the way to the colony
-Stock up on a large amount of food and other essentials in the truck in case the trap involves no opportunity to resupply
-Place a "dead man's switch" on the Extranet covertly to contact the Alliance if Rei or Asuka don't disable it shortly after their tour of duty is up.
-Prepare an information packet that can be sent to the Alliance quickly with only a few minutes of Extranet access, in case an emergency message needs to go out.
-Get Taevyn to help reading the contract and figure out if there's anything sketchy in the legalese. Hire a lawyer she recommends too

(note, not invoking Assets yet)

Project Action: Redevelop Metaphysical Biology
-The key is redeveloping the tools used to measure souls. It doesn't have to be very precise or anything, but no tools currently exist at all, so no experiments can even be done. Fortunately the original tools were made in the 1980ies and 90ies, so Rei should easily be able to manufacture comparable or superior devices using native microfacturing technology and a lot of patience, which she has in abundance anyway.
-Rei also knows that she is not entirely normal, and that her genetics are most likely weird. This makes her a good benchmark for something being odd.
-The asari reportedly have a lot of unusual traits that might be explained through Metaphysical Biology. Luckily Taevyn is right there and can probably provide a few samples and readings once the basic equipment is developed. All in all, that should all be enough data for a simple research paper on the topic, and from then on, the field should begin to take shape.

Assets:
Samples of Rei
Samples of Taevyn
Samples of Asuka
Rei - Metaphysical Biology (Trainee)
Rei - Biology (Trained)
Quantum Computing Array
Asuka - Physics (Trained)
Microfacturing equipment
Mass Effect high school-quality science and engineering equipment (minor Credit cost)

Project Action: Develop Nerv PMC as a business/learn how to run a business
-Nerv is doing pretty well for itself, but that's mostly because Rei is cheating with a magic mecha. In the long term, it needs to graduate from doing odd-jobs into being a "real" PMC. That means stuff like maintaining contracts, knowing how to deal with accounting, doing paperworks, keeping things in order and also selling the PMC to potential clients and negotiating deals.
-Neither Rei nor Asuka really know anything about this kind of stuff, but luckily Taevyn is a small-business owner (former) and has a lot of know-how which is pertinent to running a PMC.
-The secret truth however is that a pair of fourteen year olds are just not going to be very good at making a business run, and ultimately, Taevyn is going to end up doing the job herself, despite not actually being in charge of the business, because Rei and Asuka are too scary for her to actually try to take over.

Assets:
Taevyn, Do Everything!
Rei - Information Security (Trained)
Excellent Reputation of Nerv PMC
Good Publicity from Gettysburg Disaster
Asuka - I'm the Best! (2)
Asuka - Bluff (Trainee)
Asuka - Charisma (Trainee)

General Action: Strengthen operational security as well as information control on Nerv PMC and the two principal actors within it.
-Rei knows her secrets and how to keep them, and she knows that secrets aren't kept without some effort to keep them secret. With a lot of publicity and two new potential leaks, it's time to plug the holes and make sure they all keep a tight ship. Asuka is fortunately familiar with security concerns even if she is usually flippant about them, and without the protective blanket of being part of the most powerful organization in the world with entire departments dedicated to handling security concerns for her, she should be a lot more receptive to the notion of loose lips getting people - in specific, her and Rei - killed.
-There's enough information out there on the Extranet that Unit 00 won't get away with not having any details divulged. If it can't be kept secret however, they can make a press release. Rei knows how to control what information goes into it, and Asuka isn't terrible with talking. As a further bonus, they can do it through the Alliance. As the hero of the day, they have a mutual interest in shaping the narrative, and an Alliance press release improves the publicity of it, and lends more credence to the information.
-It doesn't hurt that much to let people know the basics about Unit 00 anyway, because that just obscures the true nature and power of it, and leads people into making assumptions, which will get them killed.

Assets:
Rei - Information Security (Trained)
Unit 00 AI
Quantum Computing Array
Asuka - Used To This Shit
Asuka - Bluff (Trainee)
Asuka - Charisma (Trainee)
Controlled Release of Information
Systems Alliance Contacts With Good Intentions
Shaping the Narrative
Nobody Would Believe the Truth Anyway

General Action: [not used yet]

Daraken · Jul 14, 2015

MightyDwarf said:
"Good job with those bots." she says "And you didn't hurt the mall commandos, too. I'd have hit them with some biotics, at least."

She clears her throat.

"Right. Anyway. Reactor containment failure, cooling system failure, bot rampage. What do the four of you make of this?"

"Thank you ma'am," Flynn responds calmly, accepting the compliment with grace. It's not like the station guards nor the maintenance bots had been much of a threat, the former easy enough to talk down and the latter rather flimsy given its non-combat design.

When D'Ren asks of his opinion, the young Samurai is immediately reminded of something he had heard once from a Hunter in Tokyo before repeating it aloud. "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action. For all three failures to occur at once is...highly suspicious ma'am."

Folding his arms together, Flynn frowns beneath his helmet. "A sabotage attempt...or a diversion then? Is the device still secure, commander?"

GretelOstrich · Aug 1, 2015

Daraken said:
"Thank you ma'am," Flynn responds calmly, accepting the compliment with grace. It's not like the station guards nor the maintenance bots had been much of a threat, the former easy enough to talk down and the latter rather flimsy given its non-combat design.

When D'Ren asks of his opinion, the young Samurai is immediately reminded of something he had heard once from a Hunter in Tokyo before repeating it aloud. "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action. For all three failures to occur at once is...highly suspicious ma'am."

Folding his arms together, Flynn frowns beneath his helmet. "A sabotage attempt...or a diversion then? Is the device still secure, commander?"

"The device is secure." she says, as she sits back on one of the desks "The preliminary research data... not so much."

"Someone broke into the research team's database and made a copy of the data - they clearly had access to more than just the bots, because all the security recordings were deleted. My guess is, they were trying to force an evacuation and would've jumped in with a ship and grabbed the device - it'd be trivial, whether it'd have stayed on the station, or were jettisoned."

"Or, well. That's my guess at least." she shrugs "I'm assuming batarians or something, someone who doesn't want to mess openly with the Citadel, but still wants the thing."

"Luckily, you neutralized the bots, so we didn't have to evacuate. Normally, I'd hand this over by C-Sec by now, but uh... well, did anyone mention that our employers are paranoid fucks? Well, they are and they don't want C-Sec involved because it's a conspiracy. Or something. Basically, we have to find the infiltrator before they try again and we have to do it on our own. I ordered a station-wide quarantine, but I can only keep it up for two days before we get sued."

She stand up.

"Walker, I literally have no-one qualified for this. Literally no-one eeexceeept for Falis, there."

Your asari teammate balks at that. "Commander? I mean, I've been in the Nos Astra police, but that was only twenty years and a century ago."

D'Ren shrugs. "That still makes you the best qualified team for it. So you're on the case. Make Orvide Security proud! And stuff. Any questions?"

GretelOstrich · Aug 9, 2015

@Usandru

Major Action: Take the colonial guard duty job for ONE MILLION DOLLARS sixteen hundred thousand credits
-Pick up stuff for Asuka's exoskeleton and a bunch of security and anti-tampering gear on the way to the colony
-Stock up on a large amount of food and other essentials in the truck in case the trap involves no opportunity to resupply
-Place a "dead man's switch" on the Extranet covertly to contact the Alliance if Rei or Asuka don't disable it shortly after their tour of duty is up.
-Prepare an information packet that can be sent to the Alliance quickly with only a few minutes of Extranet access, in case an emergency message needs to go out.
-Get Taevyn to help reading the contract and figure out if there's anything sketchy in the legalese. Hire a lawyer she recommends too

(note, not invoking Assets yet)

"stuff for Asuka's exoskeleton" will require some details, but a professional hardware and software security package costs 2,000c - it's rather expensive stuff, but more or less intrusion-proof, unless you're dealing with high-end military intrusion packages.

The other preparations are easy enough, and soon enough, you have a truck stuffed full of supplies, a ready dead man's switch and a highly compressed data package, that can be sent in sent in just a few seconds, even via an absolutely bottom tier extranet connection.

Taevyn investigates the contract and… finds nothing sketchy, which she actually finds somewhat suspicious - it's a backwater colony, so they're unlikely to have any half-decent lawyers, so she'd expect there to be something sketchy by accident or incompetence.

Project Action: Redevelop Metaphysical Biology
-The key is redeveloping the tools used to measure souls. It doesn't have to be very precise or anything, but no tools currently exist at all, so no experiments can even be done. Fortunately the original tools were made in the 1980ies and 90ies, so Rei should easily be able to manufacture comparable or superior devices using native microfacturing technology and a lot of patience, which she has in abundance anyway.
-Rei also knows that she is not entirely normal, and that her genetics are most likely weird. This makes her a good benchmark for something being odd.
-The asari reportedly have a lot of unusual traits that might be explained through Metaphysical Biology. Luckily Taevyn is right there and can probably provide a few samples and readings once the basic equipment is developed. All in all, that should all be enough data for a simple research paper on the topic, and from then on, the field should begin to take shape.

Assets:
(prerequisite) +3 Samples of Rei
+1 Samples of Taevyn
+1 Samples of Asuka
(prerequisite) Rei - Metaphysical Biology (Trainee)
(prerequisite) +1 Rei - Biology (Trained)
(prerequisite) +2 Quantum Computing Array
(prerequisite) +1 Asuka - Physics (Trained)
(prerequisite) +1 Microfacturing equipment
(prerequisite) +1 Mass Effect high school-quality science and engineering equipment (minor Credit cost)

Project Difficulty: Moderate (15+ to progress, 1 Turn)

[11 + 11 -> 22]
The project is a resounding success.

Despite the difficulty of the task, Asuka and Rei, armed with an array of tools that would make the original GEHIRN scientists sick with envy and a small set of samples, put together a set of prototype soul-measuring devices. Test scans on Taevyn, Asuka and finally Rei go well and you have enough data to put together a research paper that might even pass peer review, if not dismissed outright… assuming it ever sees the light of day, that is.

Taevyn was initially confused as to why you needed the sample from her, but after a moment of hesitation (and terror, for some reason?) she agreed to help.

Project Action: Develop Nerv PMC as a business/learn how to run a business
-Nerv is doing pretty well for itself, but that's mostly because Rei is cheating with a magic mecha. In the long term, it needs to graduate from doing odd-jobs into being a "real" PMC. That means stuff like maintaining contracts, knowing how to deal with accounting, doing paperworks, keeping things in order and also selling the PMC to potential clients and negotiating deals.
-Neither Rei nor Asuka really know anything about this kind of stuff, but luckily Taevyn is a small-business owner (former) and has a lot of know-how which is pertinent to running a PMC.
-The secret truth however is that a pair of fourteen year olds are just not going to be very good at making a business run, and ultimately, Taevyn is going to end up doing the job herself, despite not actually being in charge of the business, because Rei and Asuka are too scary for her to actually try to take over.

Assets:
+3 Taevyn, Do Everything!
+2 Rei - Information Security (Trained)
+1 Excellent Reputation of Nerv PMC
+1 Good Publicity from Gettysburg Disaster
+2 Asuka - I'm the Best! (2)
+1 Asuka - Bluff (Trainee)
+1 Asuka - Charisma (Trainee)

[20 + 11 -> 31]

While Rei had a mercenary license and NERV was technically a PMC, it lacked a lot of things that an actual PMC had.

Like more than one employee.

Taevyn identified three things that had to be done: set up an internal structure and rule set for the company, start finding some long term contracts (three months on a backwater colony doesn't count even if it isn't a trap) and hire some more people.
The first and second objectives were achieved - as Rei is the nominal owner, Taevyn dragged her into helping her with all the paperwork involved. Guidelines, organizational structures, security regulations are created, somehow managing to take up a notable amount of disk space on a datapad, despite being text files. At the end of it, however, you have a solid framework for expanding NERV and Rei picked up some things on management.

For the second objective, Taevyn draws on NERV's good reputation and the publicity from the events in Australia and scouts a few potential employers, bringing Asuka along for the meetings. This goes rather well, and NERV has a few potential contracts lined up for the next quarter. An eezo refinery security job, an auxiliary unit contract with the Alliance, security job on an Alliance colony and a few others. All at least a year-long.

Finally, there's flunkies. Taevyn thinks you need a general administration and accounting team to handle day to day operations, a lawyer and some extra muscle. For now. Long term, you'll need a PR team, an IT team, a logistics department and Goddess knows what else, but you probably don't need it, just yet.

Mercenaries
Newbie - 1,000c/month
they're super-cheap, but their skills and equipment are poor. But hey, they should be fairly impressionable. Also, possibly dumb enough to try something...

Professional - 4,000c/month
you get what you pay for - professional mercs, with good quality gear and either a few years of experience as a merc or a military background. Tend to be loyal as long as you keep paying them and don't give them suicidal orders.

Expert - varied
at this level, they can dictate their prices so it depends on whom you contact.

Lawyer
Law School Graduate - 3,000c/month
someone who can prevent you from accidentally running afoul of the Law and possibly win a court case. Just… don't expect anything amazing.

Professional - 8,000c/month
a lawyer with several years of experience and can get you out of hot water in an emergency. Also, provides a +10% bonus to legal company income from tax dodging.

Accountants
Accounting team - 3,000c/month + 1,000c up front for equipment costs
A couple of accountants is basically all you need at this stage, especially as modern accounting relies heavily on VIs.

Rei gains:
Management, Trainee

Asuka gains:
Business Negotiations, Trainee

Taevyn gains:
The slightly uncomfortable realization that she's working as a secretary for two vastly younger humans…
...and the depressing realization that it's better than her previous job.

General Action: Strengthen operational security as well as information control on Nerv PMC and the two principal actors within it.
-Rei knows her secrets and how to keep them, and she knows that secrets aren't kept without some effort to keep them secret. With a lot of publicity and two new potential leaks, it's time to plug the holes and make sure they all keep a tight ship. Asuka is fortunately familiar with security concerns even if she is usually flippant about them, and without the protective blanket of being part of the most powerful organization in the world with entire departments dedicated to handling security concerns for her, she should be a lot more receptive to the notion of loose lips getting people - in specific, her and Rei - killed.
-There's enough information out there on the Extranet that Unit 00 won't get away with not having any details divulged. If it can't be kept secret however, they can make a press release. Rei knows how to control what information goes into it, and Asuka isn't terrible with talking. As a further bonus, they can do it through the Alliance. As the hero of the day, they have a mutual interest in shaping the narrative, and an Alliance press release improves the publicity of it, and lends more credence to the information.
-It doesn't hurt that much to let people know the basics about Unit 00 anyway, because that just obscures the true nature and power of it, and leads people into making assumptions, which will get them killed.

Assets:
+2 Rei - Information Security (Trained)
+3 Unit 00 AI
+2 Quantum Computing Array
+1 Asuka - Used To This Shit
+1 Asuka - Bluff (Trainee)
+1 Asuka - Charisma (Trainee)
+1 Controlled Release of Information
+1 Systems Alliance Contacts With Good Intentions
+1 Shaping the Narrative
+1 Nobody Would Believe the Truth Anyway

[15 + 14 -> 29]

The press release goes well.

It's nothing as dramatic as a press conference, or anything - the Alliance military runs a tech journal and after making a few calls, you get in contact with the people running it, arrange an interview and give them some data to put together an article about Unit 00 and its history. Both go well and spark some discussion on the extranet, but no-one questions the information, let alone figure out the truth.

...aside from that one crazy guy, who is disturbingly spot on in his crazy ramblings. You can probably safely ignore him, though.

Internally, you establish a strict set of rules, guidelines and procedures to maintain operational security. Asuka is quick to follow them. Taevyn isn't sure what the point is, but decides that she better follow them, if she wants to keep her job and stay on Rei's good side.

Gains:
Control over the Narrative
Good OpSec

Usandru · Aug 9, 2015

MightyDwarf said:
"stuff for Asuka's exoskeleton" will require some details, but a professional hardware and software security package costs 2,000c - it's rather expensive stuff, but more or less intrusion-proof, unless you're dealing with high-end military intrusion packages.

The other preparations are easy enough, and soon enough, you have a truck stuffed full of supplies, a ready dead man's switch and a highly compressed data package, that can be sent in sent in just a few seconds, even via an absolutely bottom tier extranet connection.

Taevyn investigates the contract and… finds nothing sketchy, which she actually finds somewhat suspicious - it's a backwater colony, so they're unlikely to have any half-decent lawyers, so she'd expect there to be something sketchy by accident or incompetence.

Asuka's exoskeleton needs to be repaired, and to have various components refitted so it works with Unit 00 and the secure Nerv comms.

The security package is acquired and installed for 2000c.

Transport is arranged to the colony world.

Daraken · Aug 10, 2015

MightyDwarf said:
"Walker, I literally have no-one qualified for this. Literally no-one eeexceeept for Falis, there."

Your asari teammate balks at that. "Commander? I mean, I've been in the Nos Astra police, but that was only twenty years and a century ago."

D'Ren shrugs. "That still makes you the best qualified team for it. So you're on the case. Make Orvide Security proud! And stuff. Any questions?"

Flynn just stares wordlessly at his commander for a moment. Ask him to kill stuff or find some lost heirloom or even escort some civilians past demon-infested wastelands, sure. But a criminal investigation? That was a new one. Of course the problem now was what to do? Sniffing around the scene of the theft was obvious but then... Well, Flynn would just go to his old fallback. Talk to everybody and see if anything interesting pops up.

"Ma'am, I'd like a list of names of everyone on station and the authorization to bring them in for interviews. We'll check out the crime scene first, then see if anybody is suspicious or has something relevant to say about the theft."

Turning to Falis, Flynn gives her a nod. "You'll have the team's backup Falis, but you're going to need to take lead here. Investigations isn't my area of expertise either. I think I could help with the interviews though, I'm pretty good at reading people."

Kei · Aug 14, 2015

The place was like a certain godforsaken Thai city. Just with much less charm.

And with a lot of aliens. A lot of aliens.

At least that's what Koko and Sofia assumed they were. After all, they were looking at a dark and danky setting - a space station, perhaps? - filled with thin grey men with big eyes, blue-skinned girls with huge breasts, bodybuilder-sized dinosaurs, something that looked like a mix between a cat and a bird in armor, and the occasional human.

Who might even speak English or any other language commonly known to most humans. One could be optimistic about it.

Either way, they needed to figure out what the hell they were supposed to do from here on out, because Kansas this ain't.

General Action: Ascertain Situation

Koko and Sofia have no idea where they are, what they're doing here, or why there are weird people with four eyes and blue skin walking around. They need to figure out general information, methods of research, possibility of communication, and so on and so forth.
Operational security is probably required. This place looks like science fiction Roanapur, so while intimidation and shows of strength - and just keeping safe in general - is probably a social currency, there's no need to stir up the hornet's nest and attract the ire of some budget balalaika. The instrument, of course.
Basic necessities are worth figuring out. Little things like food, water, shelter, and money. Best get to it.

Assets
Koko: Tactics - Professional (8)
Koko: Charisma - Professional (8)
Koko: Discernment of the Poor - Professional (8)
Koko: Negotiation - Expert (16)
Koko: Business - Expert (16)
Sofia: Tactics - Trained (4)
Sofia: Infantry Combat - Expert (16)

General Action: Identify Movers and Shakers

As previously mentioned, this does not look like a nice place. The existence of organized crime is almost certain. If Koko and Sofia intend to last here for any appreciable amount of time, it's time to figure out who are the big people around here, and what to do and not to do here.
Finding ways to squeeze into their good favors is probably a good idea. The actual squeezing itself doesn't need to be done now, but it's better to be prepared.
Probably shouldn't be done until ascertaining situation is complete.

Assets
Koko: Charisma - Professional (8)
Koko: Discernment of the Poor - Professional (8)
Koko: Negotiation - Expert (16)
Koko: Business - Expert (16)
Sofia: Infiltration - Professional (8)

Complex Action: Recruit Ally

Finding someone familiar with the place who can help will get both of these goals accomplished quicker, and they can be used as a local contact who might be a loyal early supporter. The trick, of course, is to find someone who actually looks reasonably competent, but down on their luck.
Koko will probably be doing most of the work here. Sofia can help try to identify possible candidates with good combat skill, but it's mostly Koko who will be sweet-talking people into providing help.
Probably shouldn't be done until ascertaining situation is complete.

Assets
Koko: Charisma - Professional (8)
Koko: Discernment of the Poor - Professional (8)
Koko: Negotiation - Expert (16)
Koko: Business - Expert (16)
Sofia: Infantry Combat - Expert (16)

Strangers in a Strange Land

GretelOstrich

Usandru

Usandru

GretelOstrich

Usandru

GretelOstrich

Usandru

GretelOstrich

Usandru

GretelOstrich

Usandru

GretelOstrich

GretelOstrich

Usandru

Daraken

Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens

GretelOstrich

Daraken

Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens

GretelOstrich

Usandru

Daraken

Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens

GretelOstrich

GretelOstrich

Usandru

Daraken

Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens

Kei

absolute disaster of a person