Eclipse Phase: Glory

[Joose]

So..?

[Dog Pants]

Okay. I remembered Bey while I was spazzing back a few days ago and wished I'd checked him out in Locus, but it was too late by then. This ties in with the fork she sent to that Indonesian hab near Earth though. The Titan tech she has came from near Earth too. So how does all this tie together, and how do we use it to work out where she's gone?

I'm wondering if those psychos were someone else masquerading as terrorists. They attacked this guy's labs, and he's tied up in this somehow. Reports said it was ballsy even for them, so I'm pretty confident there's another actor out there. Is he connected to the tech, or does Yu need him for something special like everyone else we've visited so far? Could be both - it could be some kind of broccoli tech (by which I mean biotech which could help create better food sources).

FJ, can you find out if there are any hydroponic or agricultural habs around here?

[FatherJack]

I guess that's research again, or if not can try my R contacts:

Research 75:
Roll(1d100)+0:
38,+0
Total:38

yes thanks, Lum - i think i manage this one on my own

I'll do a Researcher-rep one in case it digs up anything more specifically relevant:

R-Rep 60:
Roll(1d100)+0:
24,+0
Total:24

Ramu remains sulkily silent.

[Joose]

There's plenty of hyroponics habs in and around the area, but you would expect there to be: having your own small hydroponics set up lets you produce your own food, helps with oxygen production and has the bonus side affect of being kind of pleasant, so its fairly common practise for any decent sized hab to have some ability to grow plants. So the short answer is yes, there are; there are almost as many hydroponics set ups as there are habs. If you mean larger scale agricultural set ups for trade or research, then not really. There are a smattering of small private labs, but most of the big ones are in or close to Locus, with Xiu's Greenhouse being by far the biggest. The trojans are a bit tucked away for hypercorp interests, anarchists that like their privacy tend to be further out on the rim and those that don't have no reason not to all work together in places like Locus.

[Dog Pants]

Hang on, I just re-read the info on him. He's another fucking hacker. That all fits in then but it doesn't help us find her.I need to re-read the info we have when I'm not in the canteen at work.

[fabyak]

Sorry, not been on this thread for a bit and now totally forgotten what's happening. Will post once I've reminded myself

[Dog Pants]

Right, time for a recap. Reading back through all these posts I've noticed the shade of green I use for DCOM changes every time I post.

Yu was investigating military hardware recovered from the wreck of an Earth orbit station, destroyed in the Battle of L4. - It was recovered. I don't think she has it. She's still looking for it here somewhere.
She sent forks to Vishnukam around Earth orbit. - Presumably this is where the trail starts for the hardware. It's in roughly the same place.
At Vishnukam she spoke to the Air Marshal and checked out the White Khanhs - This has got to be about finding where the tech went. Did the gang steal the tech?
She said she was following up a lead when she arrived at Locus. - Probably still looking for the hardware then. She must have got the lead from Vishnukam.
She sleeves in Locus in a Ghost morph. - She's expecting trouble. Someone's beat her to the hardware.
She visits the Barrows. - Criminals live here. We forgot this bit. Related to the White Khanhs?
She pulls a favour from Mason Wang, who designs her two custom AI. One to move a morph, one a hacker.
..and Morteza Bey, who is a pro hacker (and broccoli farmer).
Bey's labs have recently been hit by an Exhman attack. Which is unusual for them.
A few days later she heads to Casa Arturo.
She borrows the Keysrah, a stealth ship, from Shoggy and takes off with Bey. - She has a team and a ship, she's going after the tech.

So, I reckon we need to rewind a bit. Lets see what we can find out about weapons tech found after the Battle of L4. Someone naughty has got that tech and she's after them. It might be the White Khanhs, but I reckon they're the ones who attacked Morteza because they know he's involved. So we might have three parties. Four including us.

Here we go then. Military hardware / Battle of L4. I'll take some time since we're at a loose end, and help Ignacio with the research.

Research: 30
5, 6: 56 Failure!

@-rep: 20
2, 0: 20 Success!

G-rep: 20
5, 0: 50 Failure!

And the White Khanhs / Air Marshall.

Research: 30
3, 0: 30 Excellent Success!

@-rep: 20
4, 6: 46 Failure!

G-rep: 20
7, 0: 70 Severe Failure!

Well now. Crowd sourcing works.

[Joose]

Your online research into the Battle of L4 doesnt turn up much of interest, but a contact of yours turns out to be a bit of a Fall history buff, and gives you a bit of detail.

The battle itself centred around a military satellite based in an Earth-Moon Lagrange orbit at L4 during the Fall. The exact cause of the battle is not clear (although theories range from a communications mix up to secret alien invasion, so its likely that the real cause is known and its just lost amongst the bullshit. Such is the case with many things about the Fall) but what is known is that the Yokyai Kong, a Thai-led southeast Asian evacuation fleet from Earth, recovered a bunch of the tech there on their way out. The Kong hoped they could put it to use battling the TITANS, and brought it to Vishnukam to study. Unfortunately they went missing (along with a bunch of other stuff) during the Oxygen Deck Riots.

The Oxygen Deck Riots (a matter of public record, you don't need to do a search for this) were a minor but tragic incident sparked by the Thai government’s controversial decision to forcibly upload a significant number of refugees in order to relieve the resource pressures that were threatening the habitat’s functioning and existence. Due to massive overcrowding, the station’s life support systems were in danger of failure and thousands faced starvation and lack of basic amenities. For people who had only just escaped Earth with bodies intact, this was too much. They gladly heeded the call made by a group of hard-line Lao Buddhist monks to band together and take action. A flash mob of refugees detained in docked ships cut through the airlocks of the axial docking facility, boarded Vishnukam, and stormed through to occupy the habitat life support facilities. They barricaded themselves in and and demanded the fleet officers abandon the plan. The government responded by sending in troops who slaughtered the protesters. This sparked days of riots and conflict aboard the habitat and refugee ships, fueled by rumours and fears among the refugees that the Air Marshal had ordered them liquidated. Thousands died.

Your research into the White Khanhs is the other way around: None of your contacts are much use but you get a fair amount off the Mesh.

The Khanhs started out as a Hanoi Triad and had a controlling interest in a number of the scum barges and refugee ships that became part of the Yokyai Kong. Much of the military and government hardware that went missing during the Oxygen Deck Riots are thought to have ended up with the Khanhs. Following the riots they formed a protection pact with the officers of the Kong, acting as informants in return for being allowed to continue their criminal activities.

For years they have continued as a fairly standard Triad, doing the normal criminal activites: drugs, prostitution, smuggling, protection rackets and so on. They have small cells of members throughout the system, travelling mainly via a darkcasting setup: essentially off the grid egocasting. Its thought that the darkcasting is done from thier safehaven, a small self sufficient Hab they made out of parts stolen during the riots. They have changed MO somewhat in the last year or so. They started being linked to random acts of violence, which came to a head just over a year ago when a member of the Khanhs known as Dexter Vo lead a coup, taking over leadership of the gang. The gang has grown increasingly interested in attrocities and less into their criminal activities, meaning they have lost much of their old territories and influence to other gangs. Rumours about of Vo and his closest associates acting more like a cult than a gang.

Shortly after you cast your social networking net for information on the Khanhs, you receive a text only message from someone called Patrona Vasquez.

Greetings. I understand you are searching for information on the White Khanhs. I have reason to want them found, and information that might help in doing so. What I do not have is the resources to track them down myself. If you are willing and able to do this for me, I am willing to help you do so. Contact me at this address if you wish to proceed.

[Dog Pants]

I don't like where this is going. Whatever this tech is, if the Khanhs have it and they've gone kill-crazy then they might be about to open up something bad. I'll respond to Vasquez.

We may be able to assist each other. Please continue.

[Joose]

Good to hear. My name is Patrona Vasquez. I am a freelance magistrate, I work on a contract basis for Nomic. Several months ago I was sent to enforce a routine collections operation with the White Khanhs Gang. They had been contracted to supply a number of kidnapped personality forks to a third party and had failed to deliver, and it was my role to enforce this contract or recover assets from the Khanhs to make up losses, as agreed in their contract. My team and I traced Dexter Vo and a couple of his inner circle to Olympus on Mars. It should have been a simple operation. Three of my team were captured and I was forced to watch their Mesh feeds as the Khanhs ate them alive. We later recovered the remains of the bodies. Their cortical stacks had been popped and destroyed.

The contract in question was written off by Nomic as the expected cost of chasing the gang further was considered greater than simply paying off the third party ourselves and, officially, that was considered the end of it. I am sure you can understand why I have a personal interest in pursuing Vo.

I am happy to provide you with all the information I have on the Khanhs, including an approximate location of their safe haven, the Song Hai Flower. All I ask in return is payment in kind: Any information you have already gathered on them along with any further information you get as a result of my help. I am particularly interested in any details you can give me of the gangs composition now; what their fighting strength is, how many individuals are on the Flower and details of them.

Of course, if that information were to include footage of their deaths and evidence that any and all backups of Vo had been eliminated I would be especially pleased.

Let me know if these terms are acceptable to you and I will have my Muse forward all my research immediately.

As you are probably wondering, Nomic is a "freelance judiciary AGI", a well known and well respected private court. Basically, she operates as an entire legal system by herself. She settles legal disputes, enforces various contracts between people in situations that would not otherwise be covered by a single legal system (a bunch of anarchist Brinkers dealing with inner system hypercorps would have a bugger of a time getting anything agreed without systems like this). It says a lot that despite the fact that she is an AGI, and despite the fact that she is suspected of tinkering with her own programming (really, really, super controversial after the Fall, which was basically caused by the TITANS. The TITANS being a bunch of AI's that were able to make changes to their own programming) she is still well respected and used by an ever larger amount of people.

[fabyak]

If Unlabelled can hear that, he'll look interested. If not he'll just look. At DCOM. And not blink

[Dog Pants]

I'm afraid we do not have a great deal of information on the Khanhs at the moment, which is why we were searching. We are investigating a possible attack on Xiu Labs in Locus - you may have seen that news already, attributed to Exhumans. We think that the Khanhs are still nearby and they have something we want. Since I expect recovering what we want will require a certain amount of horse, we may be at a mutually beneficial purpose. I predict that you are going to tell me that the Khanh's safe haven is in the Jovian Greeks. If you can get us to within a few kilometers, we can do the rest.

[Dog Pants]

If Unlabelled can hear that, he'll look interested. If not he'll just look. At DCOM. And not blink

I'll relay it to you guys if not. DCOM doesn't blink either.

[Joose]

Yes, the attack on the Greenhouse does seem to fit with their recent MO, though I have no idea what they would have against botanists. It appears it was thought to be Exhuman due to the bestial nature of the morphs used. That the Khans are using such unusual morphs is troubling. When I fought them on Mars, they were mostly in Fury morphs. It is likely that they egocasted to Mars though, so these morphs may be their preferred choice for their home patch. Considering what they were like before, I would advise extreme caution.

I think our aims are compatible. I shall send you over all the information I have on them immediately. Please inform me of the results of your work.

Along with that message she sends a burst of data. A hell of a lot of it, much of which seems irrelevant to you or are things you already know. You can do a research test to sift through and try and find anything of interest to you if you want.

One thing does jump out: Details of the Song Hai Flower. The Flower is strongly suspected to be their base of operations, safe house and hub for their darkcasting network. It is a bit of a space-junker, made by collecting bits and bobs together, mostly loot from the riots. Its basically a prefall freighter with a habitation ring (spun for gravity) near the front, an operations centre (the bridge basically) stuck on in front of that. In the middle, wedged between the freighter and the ring, is a utility bay. At the other end from the Ops centre are the engines. Part of the freighter has been converted into a crude hydroponics bay. It was boosted out of Earth orbit ages ago, and the file includes a predicted flight path which does indeed put it in the Greeks. Its not an exact location, but its certainly an area of less than a few km.

[Dog Pants]

I'll share the info. I'll also relay it to Ming.

We have our lead. I understand why Yu took the precautions she did. She may yet still be alive and undetected aboard the Song Hai Flower. We should expect the worst, and we will likely have it harder. If you have any means of inflicting damage on the Khanhs I would advise you to ensure you are equipped to do so. Also make a backup.

We may consider assembling a team of our own. Wong could prove to be a useful hacker if he is keen to join Firewall. Shoggy may assist us in travelling to the location if he can recover his ship.

I'll set Ignacio on the data and see if I can help him:

Research 30:
Roll(1d100)+0:
40,+0
Total:40

[FatherJack]

I know getting a bit over the roll doesn't necessarily mean a fail as Joose explained owning to modifiers we might not know about, but I'll give it a go as well for expediency rather than wait to find out.

Research 75:
Roll(1d100)+0:
59,+0
Total:59

[fabyak]

Blimey, don't think I need to get involved in that one!

Unlabelled will continue to stare (in a kind of way that makes the staree wonder if he's trying to inflict some kind of massive injury through telekinesis)

[Joose]

I know getting a bit over the roll doesn't necessarily mean a fail as Joose explained owning to modifiers we might not know about, but I'll give it a go as well for expediency rather than wait to find out.

Its a good job you did, you wouldn't have found anything useful otherwise

The first thing you notice is that the ship is actually called the Song Cai Flower. This must have been due to a transcription error in the transmission from Vasquez, and isn't at all due to your GM being a spazz.

You also find a layout diagram of the ship:



The original maps key was spoilertastic, so here is a better version for you (with some descriptions in place. The descriptions are based on what you guys would recognise the labelled areas as):

1: Docking Spar (the bit you would dock a ship on to to gain access to the Flower)
2: Utility Bay (access to things like the life support, airlock to the solar panel, reactor and so on. Its a hub for everything to connect to everything else)
3: Reactor Module (a fusion reactor, provides power)
4: Life Support Pod (Condensers, filters, oxygen generators etc. Its where the air comes from.)
5: Solar Panel (The solar panel will provide negligible power compared to the reactor module, and its not clear from the designs why its there at all. You can to an appropriate Tech roll to puzzle it out if you want)
6: Greenhouse/Recycling
a: Recycling (converts waste into water and fertilizer, along with separating out rarer elements to stock the fabricators)
b: Plant Beds (literally rows of plants, grown mostly for food.)
c: Food Processing (vats for growing meat, dedicated fabricators for other foodstuff)
d: Engine Room (the place that makes it go. Probably not active since the initial burn to push it out to its intended final destination somewhere rimwards.)
7: Ops Centre (centralised control centre for everything)
8: Machine Shop/Drone Bay (Machine shop for repairs, drone bay to house small mining drones commonly used on ships/habs this size to harvest raw materials from passing comets/asteroids and the like)
9: Crew Torus (living quarters, probably some recreational space and medical facilities.)

The file also gives you an idea of numbers and a couple of names of known Khanhs members who are thought to be crew of the Flower. Due to extensive use of Forking and their darkcasting network the Khanhs were able to punch way above their weight as far as numbers are concerned. The territory they controlled was many times what a similarly sized gang without these resources would have been able to hold on to. Additionally, during the coup and the following change in behaviour a number of their old members have cut contact with the gang, although Vo seems to have been able to talk a reasonable number around. Vasquez has estimated, based on activity patterns and pre-coup known members, that there are more than a dozen but less than twenty members of the gang on the Flower, and that this makes up almost the entirety of the current gang.

In addition to Dexter Vo, the gangs leader, known members include Ji (Dexters protege and second in command) and two technician types (probably the people responsible for the darkcasting network) called Sit and Phuong Lê.

[Dog Pants]

I don't think going in there all guns blazing is a good idea. They outnumber us at least three-to-one, could very well be in combat morphs, and are probably better skilled than we are on average. We have surprise on our side, in that they don't know we know where they are, or that we're coming. Yu might have already done some damage to them. Yu and Morteza may be alive or dead in there, we don't know. So how do we do this?

One option I've thought of is a bit distasteful but gets the job done. Chances are these Khanhs are air-suckers (unlike me). If we hit their life support then we can just wait for them to die. They'll probably have vac suits, but if any decide to make a run for it I'll put a few holes in them. Then you guys can suit up and we can just stroll in and take the tech. Only problem with this plan is it'll also kill Yu if she's still alive in there. If she isn't, or if we kill her, then we can always grab her stack and get her resleeved. She might not be happy with us, but she will be alive. That's assuming the Khanhs haven't eaten her and destroyed it. If they have then at least we can tell her backup what happened.

A few problems with this plan:

How do we disable the life support without them just repairing it? I'm thinking shaped charges might be good, but I don't know how to do that.
What will they do if we do take it out? Chances are they won't just sit around waiting to die. We need to make sure they're stuck there. Maybe we also disable the docking bridge and engines.
How do we plant enough explosives on all these things without them noticing? If we can get reasonably close in a ship and hide it then we might be able to float over undetected, do our thing, then retreat to a safe distance to blow the charges. Again though, I'm no zero-g sapper and this isn't a bouncer morph.

Any suggestions from the group?

[Dog Pants]

Oh yeah, I'll get Ignacio to try to work out what the solar panel is for.

Hardware: Electronics:
3, 6: 36 Failure!

Oh Ignacio. You're just not that smart.