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

[Tapewolf]

"No, but I can always learn," replied the doberman.  "On the other hand, that's just the sort of distraction I'd like to avoid if I'm actually going to, like, guard the place..."

[lucas marcone]

"Just what i wanted to hear."Josh replied "Hmmm looks to be getting on tward dusk....oooh that breeze felt good.. pack up any electronics....feels like rain."

[Ryudo Lee]

The rifles were brought to bear, even the enforcer had unslung his rifle and was aiming right at the forehead of 'Jerome'.
"Don't move." One of the zealots said.
The other zealot moved around and made a move to start searching 'Jerome'.
"You don't belong here." The other zealot said. "We don't buy your story.  If there were any drug smugglers around here, we'd know it.  And if the feds were sending someone here, they'd have notified us ahead of time.  We are in command here.  Now tell me, who are you, where do you come from, who sent you, and what are you really up to?"
Now there were two rifles pointed at his head while the third zealot started patting him down.

[lucas marcone]

Josh was listining. he wispered just loud enough so that his voice didnt carry further than 'Jerome's' ear. "hay man, play possom act like youre sick long enough to throw them off then when they bend over to check you. run." Josh's voice was calm in an attempt to keep 'jerome' calm as well.

[Tapewolf]

"What are you saying?" burst out Dorcan, overreacting slightly like a good little incubus.  "Did you not hear the guns?  Are you trying to get his head blown off?"
It only occurred to him afterwards that Josh might not even know about guns, let alone recognise the sound of a safety being flicked off.

[Azlan]

'Jerome', still smiling continued to speak undaunted, "As I said, "enforcer", I am here following up on leads of drug smuggling.  I was not aware that I was required to 'clear' my operation through the Brotherhood, we have no such procedure in the department... but, granted this was a spot of the moment thing, as my informant 'Chaz' on the southside came through with some breaking information and I did only drop an email to the chief and a quick passing in the halls to wish him well on his vacation... regardless, I am on official business and this is who I am working for..."

'Jerome' shows them the ID, even allows them to scan it (as the verification goes straight to a 'legal' page).

He observes the Brotherhood for a few moments, "let's go ahead and call my boss, I'm sure the chief won't mind being disturbed on his vacation... not at all, even if he is, I'm sure your boss will cover for you when the chief blows his top... he really needed this vacation to blow off some stress..."

Despite their actions, he was unassuming and pleasant.

*Note: He will not allow them to take the ID or anything from his person, of which there isn't much of anything.

[Catffeinated]

Gerald took an abnormally long path to the camp, he kept having the feeling someone was following him, Could just be that Jexx guy, but I could be wrong... for about 15 minutes he was taking a seemingly random route, every once in a while he even doubled back. Finally convinced it would only be Jexx, he headed back to the camp.

By the time he got back he heard guns being readied. Gerald instantly assumed the worst and took out his gun, forgetting there was no ammunition in it, again, he slowly entered the clearing, careful not to step on twigs or wildlife that might give away his position, when he noticed it was through their communicators, he smiled and let out a sigh of relief as he put away the gun, Thank god.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx followed Gerald from the treetops, observing as Gerald constantly going in seemingly erratic directions while even occasionally doubling back. Either he's a highly alert person, Jexx thought, Or I'm just losing my touch. It better not be the latter. But, eventually, Gerald did make it to the encampment, somewhat restoring what little trust Jexx was starting to give to Gerald. Jexx also noted that Gerald, again, drew his gun, forgetting that Dorcan still had the power pack. Still a bit on the absent-minded side, though. Jexx thought with a touch of amusement.
   Jexx dropped down nearby and headed back to Mobile Ops to check the recent going-ons. Climing into the van, and taking assesment of the recent footage and communications, Jexx's face fell.
   "Oh, this is not good. Not good at all." Jexx said. "Morgan's about to get into a fray with the Brotherhood...and I'm not there?!? Unbelievable!"

[Ryudo Lee]

The zealot looked at the ID and handed it over to the enforcer.  The zealot patting him down straightened up and took a step back.
"He looks clean." He said.
The three exchanged glances, and then looked squarely at 'Jerome'.  The enforcer handed him back his ID.
"We will be keeping an eye on you.  The people in this town are our eyes and ears.  We protect them after all, and keep this place clean of the magic scum.  If you do anything funny, we'll come down on you like a ton of bricks." The zealot said.
The enforcer walked out, and the other two followed.  They turned a corner and headed off, continuing their search for whoever put those cameras on the tower.

[Catffeinated]

"Hu... Ok, now I'm even more curious, why is one of your guys over with the Brotherhood? I'm assuming this 'Morgan' person is one of you..." Gerald asked as he approached the van, "I'm guessing he's at that city... never been there myself, but close to it." He started to stray from the subject, "Still, I've heard weird things about that place..."

[Azlan]

Unphased by the attempt at intimidation, Morgan gave the Brotherhood types one of those annoyingly creepy smiles as they left, "Have a wonderfully happy and cheerful day!  If you'd like, I can help you search for whatever it is you are looking for."

*Note: no nanites are on the business card (from the chief, they all are in him) or anything the Brotherhood has touched or examined.

[lucas marcone]

"We're not the scum....that gear head better not come face to face with me or bya all thats holy I"LL...!" Josh took a second to check his anger. "whoo.....This can't be good for my heart." He said passively.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Calm down Josh.... They can't hear you, and if they did we all would on the chopping block" says the Doc from the back of the van.  "Uncontrolled anger aids the enemy and can get you killed"

PBH

[lucas marcone]

" I'm chill I'm chill. Just riddle me this.... How do we plan on winning? Obviously a small splinter cell can't just bomb the tower and untrance the town folk without being viewd as terrorists... We have to war with them as much with politics as we need to with things that go boom." Josh looked hopeless.

[techmaster-glitch]

   "I'd beg to differ on that," Jexx said. "Most people already know the Brotherhood are nothing but assholes, but join them out of fear anyway, and are never heard from again. If we go 'boom' on the Brotherhood, and make sure it is properly publicized, it will show people that the Brotherhood isn't quite as invulnerable and strong as their propaganda makes them out to be. The Rebellion might even get an influx of new recruits.
   "Plus, you missed this, but back at the warehouse, before you arrived, Jackson confirmed that the Brotherhood already has a stranglehold on the governments. Politcs, at least for now, is a definate 'no-no' for us."
   "But then again, I'm just in this to make the Brotherhood go 'boom', regardless. And to get back what they stole from me." Jexx's expression went very dark then, his mind filled with thoughts of revenge.

[Catffeinated]

"Ok, would somebody please tell me what you're trying to do? I'll try to help." Gerald sighed.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx snapped out of his black mood and turned to Gerald. "Actually, I think we might still be debating what we are going to do." Jexx paused for a moment. Then Jexx finally concluded that it could't hurt too much if Gerald knew a little more of the specifics.
   "To be quite honest, we're just a ragtag band of random people and bots. To put it bluntly, the rebellion had been spying on each of us not already with them, and called us all together at the same time. Then the Jackson Phoenix himself put us all into our group, and sent us of out here with pretty much nothing but free reign and the objectives of freeing this town and removing the Brotherhood presance from here. We weren't even assigned an official leader, but we all seem to take orders from Exo here," Jexx said, giving the mountain of a bot a good clang on the back.

[Catffeinated]

"Well, that explains why your here in the first place, but what's your mission? If you don't mind me asking." Gerald asked, "But whatever it is, I want to see if I can be a part of it too." He added

[techmaster-glitch]

   "I just said; our objectives are to free this town, and remove the Brotherhood presance. Permanantly, if possible. How we accomplish said objectives is up to us." Jexx gave a serious look at Gerald, something Jexx doesn't do often. "The people here are under mindcontrol by the Brotherhood."


EDIT: OOC:
Crap! I've got to go to the B&N Harry Potter book release party. Prolly won't be back at all tonight.

[Catffeinated]

"Mind control?" Gerald smiled, "Impossible! Neural suggestion or mental reconfiguration, maybe, but mind control? Free will is too strong to be manipulated, so they must be allowing this to happen." His face returned to it's serious state, "Do you have any idea how they're doing this?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

"You clear Morgan?" Victor radioed from the cover position he'd taken up.

[Tapewolf]

"Mind control isn't too difficult with magic," Dorcan pointed out.  "With technology?  I don't know enough about that.  It had occurred to me that the townsfolk were being teleoperated from the tower, but I'm not so sure now.  Looking at what we know, it seems more likely that the implants are controlling their moods rather than their thoughts per se.

"You could do something like that with drugs," he mused.  "Probably nano-devices as well.  Do you suppose that's why the implants are on the neck?"

[Catffeinated]

"Teleoperated implants?" Gerald grinned, "I could try to hack it through a third party computer, if detected, I'd bug out ASAP. If I get in, I could try to block communications or fry the implant, though I wouldn't recommend that." he added with a grimace, "That might not be pretty... As for the location of the device, it's probally to tap into the nervous system via the spinal chord, possibly granting indirect access to the mind."

[techmaster-glitch]

   "I doubt hacking would work. So far, we've only had evidence that the transmitter itself is just that; a transmitter. I don't think it has any recieving capabilities in the first place. Even if it did, the Brotherhood are almost certain to keep it separated from their main lines. Basic hacker security one-oh-one. Best way to protect something is to completely separate the system that it is on.
   "In any case, it looks like our only option may be infiltration of the Tower itself. Once we're inside, we can wreak havoc until we get to the transmitter. Then we blow it, and the whole damn Tower if we can, sky-high. It's like Phoenix said; 'we want to hit them where it hurts; inside the Towers'. As for how you can help out, I'm not thinking of much, except cannon fodder." Jexx grinned. "No, I'm just kidding!"

[Catffeinated]

"That pretty hard odds we'd be facing." Gerald pointed out, ignoring Jexx's joke, "What if we hit the power plants and any back-up generators, then go in, that'll take care of automated defences." He shruged, "But then, those are bound to be guarded as well. To me, that's the ideal way, at least as I see it."

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Actually, I've already been thinking up a way. After all, I did break into a tower by myself before. Granted, that was a long time ago...but I think I can still do it! I'll climb to the top of the tower undetected, (yes, that's possible), use a terminal to try and shut off the security...hey, I might even be able to use a virus that Baiye makes to do that...The doors will unlock, and I'll get back down to join you in storming the place. The reason I failed last time was because there was just too many of them for just little old me, but with all of us?" Jexx motioned around to everyone in the group. "I know we can take them. Someone might get hurt...but that's why we have a medic...Hey, I'm getting another idea..." Jexx regarded Gerald. "The automated defence are still going to give us some grief. But what if...when I go to shut down the security, I also upload Mars and Omega into the Towers' computers, and they can take over the auto-Ds and use them against the Brothrhood? They'll start blasting up the turrets pretty quick, but that also gives us a chance to thin out their numbers! You and Baiye might even be able to stay behind and coordinate both our attack and Omega and Mars."
   Jexx turned to the group. "What does everything think about that? Sound like a plan? It's exactly the same one as the plan I used to break into a Tower before, and it would have worked if only I had some people on my side.  Now we have more skileld people and disposable resources than I could ever have hoped for. I know It will work! Besides, this is exactly what Phoenix wanted us to do."

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan looked appalled.  "I'm not a footsoldier," he said.  "Nor do I have the time or inclination to become one.  If the rest of you wish to storm the tower I'd be perfectly willing to help monitor the situation, but I do not think it would be a good idea if I joined the attack myself."

[Catffeinated]

"I like it, Omega could siphon information from their databanks, Mars could take control of the automated defences and lockdown, I'll need some time to modify their programing code though, Omega's not fitted for cyber combat yet. I might still be useful on the Field... or..." Gerald's face brightened up, "I could make copies of the original files, modify them so they're suited for cyber combat, and leave them inside the tower's computer network. Then, that guarantees another soldier, as well as electronic backup!" He smiled, "The modifications won't take long, I have a subprogram for electronic stealth and data combat, so all I have to do is incorporate that with Omega II's files, as for Mars II, his original has been ready at design to do just that. They shouldn't be detected until Mars II takes over the turrets, even then, Omega II shouldn't be detected unless they do a very detailed scan. May I have my laptop, please?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Sure." Jexx retrieved Gerald's laptop newly-rigged with a manual key activation lock, courtesy of Baiye. Jexx handed the laptop to Gerald, then turned to Baiye. "I think you can give Gerald the key to turn on his laptop now."

(OOC: Caff, we may need to be letting up on our posts a little...I don't want to piss anyone of again.)

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"we still need to "catch" a test subject/Victim for an isolated room so we can block the control signal or removed.  Do we even know the control signal range from the Tower?" Asks the doc

PBH