Brotherhood of the Machine (IC) [PG/14]

[Ryudo Lee]

The food sample came up completely clean, which would rule out any food or drink based delivery systems.

The Brotherhood squad were moving away from the restaraunt for the moment.  They hadn't yet stopped anyone.

[Catffeinated]

"Well, I think this is it." Gordan said to himself as he came across a small clearing. He opened up the scanned version of the map and studied his surroundings, "Well, this isn't really detailed enough to tell, is it now..." He frowned, "Ya know, I didn't think I'd be first... might as well wait..." He said finding a nearby log and sitting on it.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx stalked Gerald all the way to the designated site. Well, Jexx thought, Wha'dya know? He actually made it. I guess that means he's at least halfway trustworthy. Jexx continued to watch Gerald, until he sat down on a log.
   A smile spread on Jexx's face. It was one of the widest he'd ever made. It didn't have any evilness or phsychoticness too it. Instead, it was a smile like a pyromaniac who just found the motherload of fireworks, or a troublemaker who just found the ultimate prank.
   Jexx silently climbed around the braches until he was positioned right above Gerald, then shifted a little to the right.
   Then Jexx dropped down. He landed right next to Gerald on the same log, in perfect sitting position, while at the same time shouting,
   "BOO!!!"

[Catffeinated]

"HOLY!" Gerald said, jumping up, pulling out his gun and aiming it at Jexx's head all in one fluid movement. "Oh, that's right, no battery..." he sighed and put away his gun, "Still, good thing it was just you... Now, two questions, one: Is this the clearing you were talking about? and two: May I please have my AIs back in me, or at least Omega?" He asked in an annoyed, yet still somewhat polite manner

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx would have answered Gerald's questions, But Jexx was too busy literally rolling around in the grass laughing so hard he felt like he was gonna blow chunks.
   After a solid minute of this, Jexx finally calmed down enough to shakily stand up. He had laughed so hard his cheeks hurt like hell, and a pale red blush was even just barely showing through his solid-black fur, save for his markings.
   Jexx caught his breath to say, "Yes, this is the clearing I was talking about. You see, I was testing you. And you passed, since you got here by yourself. If you had gone somewhere else, though, you would have failed. And I would have killed you. But we needn't worry about that, you got here. As for your AIs..."
   Jexx unslung the laptop off his back. "I'll let you talk to both of them. Fair?" Keeping the wireless transponder in his pocket, Jexx opened the laptop instead, showing the screen to Gerald.

[Catffeinated]

"Yeah, perfect, but, umm... What am I looking at? I don't have a port, so I'm gonna need something to help me." He said bringing up Omega's script. "I knew I forgot something..." he said to himself typing franticly on the laptop.

[Azlan]

Thinking the better of it, but shrugging anyways, Morgan turned around and moved to the side of the street opposite and away from the direction the Brotherhood was moving.

Morgan signaled to Victor quickly, hoping the mercenary understood special forces military hand signs... he gestured for one to Victor to follow around wide, keep our eyes open, shadow, do not engage and do not be seen... avoid.

Morgan took the direct route and shadowed them, but remained careful not to be seen.

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Huh? I thought they could just show themselves, since they are the laptop now..." Jexx said, while Gerald was typing. Suddenly the screen snapped on, showing a very disgruntled-looking red dragon, and a very disgruntled-looking blue cat.
   "Aha! There they are! Say 'hi' to your master, constructs!" Jexx said cheerfully. The two 'constructs' just glared at Jexx.

[Tapewolf]

"Do you require any help, Exo?" asked Dorcan.  "If we assume that the Brotherhood detected Gerald's signal, they are liable to send some kind  of task force to investigate, at the very least, so we are going to have to start packing this lot up again with all due haste, especially if we plan to do so before nightfall."

He looked around, trying to get a sense of how much daylight they had left.  Subjectively it would be even less owing to the canopy of leaves above them.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

The doctor is feeling a little better after some rest, and goes on to pack the medical kits and the her scanners and testing equipment. 

"Please, Mr Mister finish packing up the food and kitchen gear, We maybe less noticeable in town, and the food seems to check out safe."  says the Doctor 

PBH

[lucas marcone]

Josh was feeling proactive. He started loading up most of the more suspicious looking equipment: guns, communicateors, computers. he hoped if the brotherhood stumbled apon them he could pass things off as a camp site/hikeing. He turned his attention to Exo. "You may want to disengage that command post. maybe we can pass this off as a camp out if we get caught."

[Catffeinated]

Omega continued to stare at Jexx , but eventually looked away, turning her back on the screen, Mars just released a puff of smoke with a tiny flame coming from it. "If he wasn't your friend, I'd..."
"Mars, calm down. Listen, I need to get an encrypted data package delivered to the surveillance vans giving this location... I need it to be delivered quickly and safely."
"Got it, I could use a 'Delivery Man' AI to get it there, he'll self-destruct if it's not delivered to the right place within five minutes."
"Use encryption code 'Shadow', destination: my laptop, alarm on delivery, priority: Urgent, self-decryption on comfirmation: on." Gerald turned to Jexx, "This ok?"

[Kryptic]

Baiye looked up from her small portion of desert - frankly, she was rather full - and started to help pack up with the others. It seemed insane how so much STUFF had gotten everywhere in just the few hours that they had been there.

The silver-haired girl paused for a moment - as if she was scenting the air like a bloodhound. She shook her head, and thought nothing of it. She fingered the "key" to Gerald's computer in her pocket, and got back to work, rolling up the wires that had lead out of the vans.

"Baiye? I wanna go home."

"Not now, Gid. You know that."

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Um, you want to use them to send the location of this new site? Gimme back my map and mingram, dammit." Jexx said, setting the laptop down on the log, and plucking the minigram and map from Gerald's pocket. Activating the minigram, Jexx showed the map to it, which then prduced a small 2-D holographic image of the map. A few button presses later, and a single flashing red dot appeared on Jexx and Gerald's current location. Finally, Jexx reactivated his microcommunicators.
  "Jexx calling Exo. Exo, come in. Gerald and I have found a suitable replacement site. I am sending you a map with our current location labled to the main command console via minigram. Our current location is the new site. Do you want us to return to Mobile Ops Alpha?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

Nodding to Morgan that he understood, Victor cut into a alley nearby, using intersections to keep a tail on the patrol.

[Ryudo Lee]

The patrol turned a few corners and then stopped for a moment.
"See anything?" One zealot asked.
"Nothing." The other replied.
The enforcer remained silent.
"Maybe we should check with the police.  Maybe they saw something." The first zealot asked.
The enforcer started walking, and the zealots followed.  They turned another corner and were heading directly to the police station.

[Paladin Sheppard]

"Morgan going by the map they seem to be headed to the local cops"Victor said over his radio implants as he kept watch on the patrol.

[Azlan]

Roger that Victor.  Likely they will find out about my 'cover' self.  I may have to confront them and bluff my way past this.  I'm going to stay near the police staion when they enter and listen to what goes on in there.  If it looks like they will be seeking me out, I'll 'run into them' conveniently as they exit.  Keep near to cover me in case this turns ugly.

Morgan followed them and hovered a safe distance away, using his enhanced and directed hearing to catch conversation from inside the station.  His nanites stood ready to capture coversation with the police chief and monitor the implant for any level of activity.

[Arcalane]

Exo strides back over to the command van and fiddles.

"Morgan: Data: Secure. You also overestimate the Brotherhood's long-term planning capacity. Whilst the machine behind the scenes runs smoothly, their command structure leaves something to be desired. Data is sparse, but it seems only recent that the cells have formed into a larger organization. With all of them under the mindless sway of Mother, they have little... creative flexibility to work with. They are but drones - whatever force leads them is not of them and guides them, all of them following the prophet or such blindly."

It mutters as the camera feeds go out.

"Status Request: Diagnostic unshielded electronics. Both cameras dropped out at the exact same time - down to the millisecond. Only an electromagnetic pulse would have that kind of timing precision."

It then pops it's head out of the van just as it recieves the map on the command console.

"Chances of Brotherhood inspect out this far are limited, and any force that could be mustered to this location at short notice would be sorely outgunned, and have little chance of approaching unnoticed given the Brotherhood's notable lack of stealth. Calculated chance of physical security breach is well within safe limits. Return to main site but stay alert. Suggestion: Deployment of cameras along any major forest pathways as precautionary advance warning, however."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx listened to Exo's voice eminate from his microcomm, and watched Exo's face on the minigram. "Return to camp. Got it." Then Exo said to deploy cameras.
   "Um, that might be a problem. I don't have any, I just got the map, this minigram, the laptop with the two AIs, and, of course, my handcannons. Oh well. Nothing can be done about that." Jexx shut off the minigram and placed it in his pocket. The map he handed back to Gerald. Jexx then walked over to the log with the laptop, closed it, and slung it back over his back.
   Winking and Gerald, Jexx said, "You know the drill." With that, Jexx jumped up and disappeared into the trees again.

[Tapewolf]

"This might be a silly question," asked Dorcan, "but for the purposes of keeping a watch, how many of us need to sleep?"
He was a bit alarmed by Exo's suggestion that they stay put in the face of an impending attack.  Leaving in a hurry would probably mean abandoning half the camp, but on the other hand, they should still be able to escape with their lives.

[Ryudo Lee]

The zealots followed the enforcer into the police station building and approached the front desk.  Without hesitation the desk officer buzzed them through, and they made their way to the chief's office.  An officer was there making a report, but quickly vacated the office once he spotted the enforcer.  The chief stood and saluted the enforcer and zealots.
"Good evening sirs.  How can I help you?" The chief asked.
"There might be a chance that some bad people are in town.  Have you noticed anything suspicious lately?" One of the zealots asked.
"There was a fellow who came around here, claiming to be from the feds.  Said his name was Jerome Allard.  Says he was looking for people smuggling drugs through town." He said.
The zealots looked at each other and then back to the chief.
"Did he say where he was from?" One zealot asked.
"No, but he did say he was staying in the Comfortable Inn." The chief said.
The chief produced the card that 'Jerome' had given him and handed it over to the enforcer.
"He gave me that.  It looks legit." The chief said.
The enforcer looked over the card and nodded to the chief.  He made a hand-signal to the zealots and they exited the building.  They walked off down the street and headed to the hotel where this stranger was apparantly taking up residence.

[Note, any leftover nanites on the card would not be able to penetrate the enforcer, but he wouldn't notice them.]

[Azlan]

Morgan signalled to Vic to circle back before the Brotherhood exited the police station.  Morgan circled back to the Comfortable Inn.

Change of venue, relocate to the inn and secure a support position here Victor.  Base, I'm going to have a conversation with the Brotherhood now.  I'm hoping for a lack of hostilities, but if this does become dangerous, Vic and I will head to point L as in Lima and circle back to base after your teams have swept the area for Brotherhood sniffers.  Vic and I can lose any tails and we will take whatever steps necessary to eliminate any tracing that may occur.

Working on careful timing, Morgan intercepted the Brotherhood as they were entering the building, a considerably vulnerable spot as the doorway restricted retreat and was a restriction against weapons fire.  Using subtle psychic influence, i.e. projecting oppressive surface thoughts from himself, he attempted to utilize a small, low-level intimidation effect aimed strictly at preventing the Brotherhood from pushing fully into the lobby, keeping only the enforcer inside and the two zealots outside.


Note: this is an attempt, it doesn't really cause an issue either way... except that it is fun

[Catffeinated]

"Never used one of those things... sorry." Gerald said to himself starting his walk back, this time a little faster than before, the path he took fresh in his mind. A few seconds later, he stopped, Hmm... better take another way back, just in case. He opened up the picture of the map, chose a new route, and continued on.

[Boog]

"I don't require sleep, but if I am to be on my feet all night I'll need to replenish my boiler with water during that time," Mister replied to Dorcan, "If I could be afforded a firearm and a hip flask I would be happy to take watch duty."

[Azlan]

'Jerome' smiled at the Enforcer and extended his hand, "Top of the evening to ya lads, I'm Jerome Allard, Narcotics division.  I've been sent here to follow up on some leads that suggest some drug smugglers are hiding here in between runs.  They also may be looking to expand into this area and are checking things out, this means they would likely have arrived fairly recently or moving in soon.  Have you noticed anything unusual fairly recently?

[lucas marcone]

"I could help on gaurd duty." Josh proposed determined to actually make a diffrence for the better in this mission. "Though I......nah nevermind..."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx, like last time, stalked Gerald as he walked through the forest. But Jexx was confused when Gerald pulled out the map, and walked a different direction. Jexx's eyebrows furrowed. Oh, he better not be heading someplace other than the camp. I was just starting to put some trust into that guy.

[Tapewolf]

"My race does not need to sleep," said Dorcan, "so I can help guard the base myself.  I'll need a companion though," he admitted.  "'Cubi have short attention spans, possibly because we don't usually sleep.  It might be best if there were someone to ensure I keep focused."

[lucas marcone]

"Can you play cards? If so it could be a very entertaining night. I usually play for keeps."Josh smiled an evil smile.