02B- TTO Office

[Robot Master]

"I am suggesting we go to the public restroom, scan for bugs. I will sit in a stall while you get into the ventilation system and follow the vents down to the environmental control room. You access the environmental control terminal, patch the connection to me. Ripley, Coza, and myself will hack into the system via the environmental controls and gain access to Jakuta's information." Oriole replies as he enters the lobby.

"Ace, great job working on the octomorph. I've never seen a box like that, but I'm pretty sure that it will be a very important part of our investigation. Make sure you don't talk to us in the lobby." Oriole pauses. "I'm in the lobby now. How long until you are out of the offices and in the lobby?"

((ooc: What do I roll for scanning for sensor dust and/or listening devices in the restroom? I also will want to check the area around and just inside the vent shaft))

[Dom]

With Oriole's electrical sense, he detects a small sensor in the vent access. It has an electronic lock which checks for the vent being opened, as well as sniffing out foreign materials introduced to the vent. Oriole vaguely remembers an incident in a Lunar-Lagrange Alliance government office was infected by a nanoplague by an extremist synthmorph faction. The nanoplague was distributed through the ventilation system, and when it went active it consumed all the biological material in the office, including biomorphs, in a matter of minutes. Since then, stricter security measures have been taken by government groups to prevent such attacks.

[OOC] Give me a roll for Hardware: Electronics. You can use Profession: Security Ops as a complementary skill. Or you can use a Covert Ops Tool, which might either trigger a silent alarm or log it as an event. To see which of the two happen, roll Hardware: Electronics with a +30 bonus; success means the event is just logged, failure means that it triggers the silent alarm.

---

Ace receives a reply from a criminal contact, part of the nano-fabricator gangs. His name is Diederick Meier, a member of the Night Cartel. "So, Matthew, I heard you are looking for a man named Riveira. Just so happens I may have some information on him. How about we meet up- right now I'm at a bar in Noctis City. I'll be here for about an hour, so drop in before then, eh?"

[DancingWarPanda]

Khalil moves to the bathroom after Oriole and waits for him to get past the electronic sensors. You know Jakuta's terminal may not be connected to the rest of the network. What do we do then? Do you need any help with that? You could try using my covert ops tool to make it a bit easier.

[Robot Master]

"If Jakuta's terminal is not connected to the network I'd be surprised, but if not we might be able to take a look at Aghassi's terminal as well. Either way we'll see if the terminals are accessible first before we mettle with access privileges. I have the required programs to spoof I.D.s and other access protocols." Oriole emits over the band with a nod. Shaking his head at the request for assistance, he cranes his head to the right to take a look at the electronic locks. His wrist opens, and a covert ops tool makes itself available. With his other hand, he sets his white noise generator on top of one of the toilets in the stalls.

"If this sets off an alarm, I believe the term is "haul ass", gentlemen." Oriole adds. "...but I've disabled one of these before."

HardwareElectronics (30+20)[Profession:Security-Ops 45-complimentary]Rolling 1d100:

(3): Total = 3

(notes: I am going for the silent deactivation, rather than the disabling via Covert Ops tool. I will also moxie if it means changing it from failure to success. I am also NOT taking time, due to the possibility of someone suddenly needing the restroom.)

[Dom]

Oriole disables the electronic lock momentarily which gives Friction enough time to enter the vent before the lock becomes functional again. Ripley sighs with relief “If the alarm had gone off, we’d have been in serious trouble. Nice job.”

[DancingWarPanda]

Khalil sends an emotive to Oriole of a thumbs up. Good job, i'll move forward and set up a link. Give me a moment to move through the vents and you should see the connection pop up. Khalil opens up the plans of the building in the corner of his vision and follows the map to his destination.

(I'm guessing I have to roll Infiltration right?)

Infiltration 40 + 20 chameleon skin and smart clothes so it doesn't clash
Rolling 1d100:

(100): Total = 100

[Robot Master]

Oriole nods to Friction and moves into the stall. Checking the cleanliness of the stall first, he sits down and keeps an ear tuned for the sound of someone entering from the bathroom door. Folding his arms, he lets out a sigh of relief.

[Thank you, Ripley. While the good news is that we're close to the lobby doors, the bad news is that there's really only two ways out of this restroom and one of them is the ventilation shaft...which has relocked itself. I assure you that your self is in very capable hands. How's everything going on your end?]

"Ace, how's everything going on your end? We're in the restrooms." Oriole emits.

[Moondog]

"On my way out now. "

Escorted outta the lab by his new eight-limbed friend, Ace pauses just long enough to nod and smile at the very helpful receptionist before heading on out the door, and strolling his way back to his 'cycle.

"Joe, inform Mr. Meier that I'm on my way to meet him, but unless there's only one bar in the whole place, I'll need more information, if you'd be so kind. "

"Very good, sir. I've recorded the latest episode of Galactic Geographic for you."

"You're a pal, Joe."

What can he say? Even though the Earth was practically falling to pieces, and science had all but plundered the natural world for all it was worth, leaving very little mystery to anything, growing up he had always had a fascination for nature shows. With different planets and various bioengineered fauna in the picture. . . it'd be criminal not to keep track of some, right?

"I don't doubt the case'll be useful. I've picked up a lead over in Noctis, contact of mine says he has some information. I'm on my way there no- did you say you were in the bathrooms? As in more than one of y- no, I don't want to know. Whatever it is you two are doing, be careful."

Ace shakes his head, wondering what in the sam hill two agents would be doing in a bathroom in a lab building. Before his over-active imagination can make anything of it though, the good detective carefully diverts his train of thought towards something less potentially painful.

(Sorry for the delay. Dragon Age II went and ate my attention up somethin' fierce.)

[Dom]

[OOC] Is Ace heading to the bar right now? If so I'll open a fourth IC thread.


Khalil enters the ventilation system at a fast crawl, his fingers become gecko-like with microscopic hairs which help grip the otherwise sleek metal surface of the vents. He moves quickly yet with surprising quietness. Having memorized the route he needed to take, he makes it to a maintenance access easily. He finds himself in a small janitorial area, a terminal being the only object that provides light to the area. Standing over it, he touches the terminal, and his Skinlink implant immediately connects him to the network. A cursory glance over the network data reveals that the system is in a state of disorientation, still processing what it should do regarding an electronic lock in the vents going momentarily offline. In this state of disarray, the network security will be less likely to spot Khalil as he hacks into its systems.

[OOC] Go ahead and give me an Infosec roll with an immediate +20 modifier. You can also get Coza, Oriole and Ripley to help for an extra +30 to the check.

[Moondog]

((Yup, on his way right now.))

[DancingWarPanda]

Khalil catches his breath as he taps into the network and begins working his way through its defenses. Guys I'm going to need some help to make this connection secure. Gimme a hand

Infosec 70 (with all modifiers factored in)
Rolling 1d100:

(21): Total = 21

[Dom]

With the help of Coza, Oriole and Ripley, Khalil bypasses security protocols and downloads the information which Murrak Aghassi had just sent to his personal account in the network. He also opens a secure wireless connection for Oriole.

Looking at the information from Aghassi, it is a simple text file but its contents chill to the bone.

----

To whom it may concern,

At 1837 hours, military sensors set up in the outer perimeters of the cordoned area known as the TITAN Quarantine Zone reported a strong spike in electromagnetism. This was followed by increased activity of nanoswarms and TITAN-created machines in the Zone.  This electromagnetic pulse temporarily disabled several civilian and military satellites which happened to be orbiting the area close to the TQZ. Thankfully, no habitats were affected by this burst of electromagnetic radiation.

The reasons for this event are as of yet unknown. There is also no clear location pinpointing the origin of the burst, except that it was somewhere close to the center of the TQZ, from the area known as the White Zone.

As a response to this event, the Tharsis League’s security branches went on full alert and begun to take defensive measures directed at the TQZ. This includes mobilizing the military to the TQZ, more contracts with Direct Action and Gorgon Defense Systems, and temporarily requisitioning the Maglev systems to assist in the mobilization.

News of this event are still out of the media channels though we expect this to end in the next hour. We are expecting panic and rioting in the streets. I hope that it does not come to that, as we have spread our security forces too thin by moving many of these groups to the TQZ.

There has not been this level of activity coming from the TQZ. I worry that this might be a portent of another TITAN attack, I will pray that this is not the case.

Murrak Aghassi

[Robot Master]

"Friction, Ace, that is some very unsettling news. EM Spikes may mean communication, and in our culture communication could mean many, many things. We cannot allow this to happen." Oriole replies with his typical, calm demeanor. "Thank you for the connection, Friction, I'm patched in and am now routing through the network towards Jakuta's terminal."

[Ripley? Please save that message of Aghassi's so that we can perform a data dead-drop to the organization. They need to know this.]]

((Getting into Jakuta's terminal))
Infosec 61+20 (Coza/Ripley assist) Total:80
Rolling 1d100:

(28): Total = 28

((Securing Friction's way out, by setting a scheduled test on the lock that will remove itself after completed))
Infosec 61+20 (Coza/Ripley assist) Total:80
Rolling 1d100:

(46): Total = 46

[DancingWarPanda]

Khalil quickly moves back through the vents to meet back up with Oriole while cursing under his breath. Can you guys believe this? There is a TITAN outbreak about to happen and they still haven't nuked that place. With all the money they have would it really break the bank to turn that whole area into a plasma scorched crater? So what's our next move? We still need to find our man and it doesn't look like we found much here.

Rolling 1d100:

(75): Total = 75

Infiltration 40+20

[Dom]

Oriole gains access to Riveira's terminal easily enough. He also sets up an escape route for Friction in the vents.

As Khalil tries to exfiltrate, he takes a wrong turn in the vents and realizes that it might give the monitoring systems a chance to detect him.

Infosec (75) Rolling 1d100:

(72): Total = 72