James: No Man's Land

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James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: GIRLS Hanger, Merctown
Time/Date: 12:00:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
James has spent what feels like a month in the hospital. The whole while, no one could tell him why he was there. The last thing he can remember is a heavy impact on his neck from behind before falling unconscious.

When James is finally released from Merctown Hospital, the air is colder than he remembers with a heavy cloud cover. Winter time in the dry plains. Outside, James sees a large hovercraft parked to the side with a pair of Defender's vehicles in the opposite space. Ontop of the large hovercraft, a girl hops hops down from it and heads straight towards him.

"Hey! Knew you'd make it. Your crew is already gone." She says with a smile. James feels the presence of a tall man behind him and turns to look.

"Sharee, manners. Name's Brooks, that's Sharee. We're associates of your fellows. Figured we'd make sure you were safe considering they went international." Brooks states and nods towards the hovercraft. "Want a lift?" He asks, leaving James to look between the two and their vehicle, and the Defenders that could probably also give him a lift if he asked.

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Underguard

Re: James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: GIRLS Hanger, Merctown
Time/Date: 12:05:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
James meticulously scans the woman, who is a humanoid d-bee with black eyes and an oddly cheerful face. "They took off on a large aircraft a couple days ago. Not really sure where they went to be honest, we didn't have time to catch up after that whole stint." Sharee answers as James repositions to see them both. The larger man is intimidating but obviously human and claps James shoulder after James accepts the ride.

"Sure, plenty of room." Brooks offers and leads James inside a rather large craft, far better than he's seen most mercs operate out of. "Got this baby on a mission a few months back." Brooks offers. As James walks the interior to the cockpit, he can see colorful artwork lining the walls. The cockpit seems to fit at least four human-sized creatures comfortably.

Sharee jumps in the pilots seat and takes off. Brooks then turns to James and sighs. "So, since your crew is gone, I'll get you up to speed." Brooks starts. "You got knocked out by an android and nearly died. We, along with your crew, helped corner and destroy the fucker. They were helping us look into the systematic murders in the city that were the result of this android. Now they are fuck knows where and off the grid, and we still got some issues to deal with and we..." He pauses, glancing to Sharee and giving her a soft look as she pilots before turning back to James. "We could use help, if you are up for it. Or, we can just drop you off at the hangar and go about our merry way." Brooks finishes.

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Re: James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: GIRLS Hanger, Merctown
Time/Date: 12:20:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
James watches as the behavior of the two softens a bit as he voices his desire to help. "Sweet. Alright. We know that the murders that took place were done mostly by that android that got trashed. The Defenders have the scrap of it, but we don't know more. We had to evac the scene pretty quickly. I want to go check out the lab we found. See what else we can find out." Brooks starts, pulling out a small datapad.

James sees Sharee lean back from the drivers seat with a smile. "It's in the Warrens. It's been a couple days so things should be calm, and since you were never their originally when the fenders had the place on lockdown, no one would think twice about you." Sharee says, rearing the vehicle into the Warrens.

"Worse case, it's a dead end. It's not the only lead we have to go on but it's one the of bigger ones." Brooks adds while the craft comes to a stop outside the Hangman's Hotel and Tavern. Brooks turns to James and clasps his hands together. "I'm not a quiet kind of guy, and Sharee is better at machines and vics than most but can't use a gun to save anyone's life." Brooks states

"Hey!" Sharee yells back, Brooks just rolling his eyes and scoffing.

"Anyways, this is a map of the Warrens. The highlighted building is the one in question, supposedly there is an underground bunker to it. It's midday, which means most degenerates are sleeping or something, so the streets shouldn't be too crowded. Think you can handle this?" Brooks asks, motioning to the door.

NML Map01.png
Underguard

Re: James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: The Warrens, Merctown
Time/Date: 12:30:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
Brooks nods and James gets to work, settling back into the life he knew so well; one that covets infiltration, subversion and perception. He is easily able to patch and encrypt the radio frequencies used by Sharee and Brooks before not so gracefully, and while sitting in front of Brooks, attempting to plant a bug in the vehicle. Brooks picks it up from where James had planted it with a raised eyebrow. "We aren't going anywhere." He states, putting the tracker on the nearest countertop.

James sheepishly departs, easily able to blame his misstep on the concussion he received earlier. Walking casually by the place against the wall, James first cases the property. He finds no surveillance or any visible security system installed on the house, but does see a cellar door that leads below and a front door.

When he doubles back, he demeanor changes entirely and the spy vanishes, darting into the shadows of a nearby house. James finds the front door to be slightly ajar and, upon opening it, finds an emptied house with blood stains in varying corners of the main level. No weapons, no food, no signs anyone actually lived in the house though.

Heading back outside and circling around, James finds the cellar door to actually have an electronic security lock that James is quickly able to hack through. He hears a large clank and the hatch loosens, allowing James to open it. Inside is a dark hallway that smells of smoke and is layered with scorch marks. The walls appear to be more technologically based than the wooden house that is above it, though the burn marks on the walls have melted any circuits that might've ran through them.

James take a step inside and the hallway goes on for several dozen feet, little to no ambient light and scorched walls run the hallway. The smell of smoke only getting stronger.

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Underguard

Re: James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: The Warrens, Merctown
Time/Date: 12:35:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
James investigates the entryway to the cellar, finding no traps or the like. The door seems to be technologically advanced with an advanced security lock that is disabled entirely and locked open. Upon entering, he finds the place devoid of any sort of systems of surveillance. The hallway is dark but obviously constructed with expensive materials (alien steel almost) that goes about thirty feet before stopping at a pair of sliding doors burnt and disheveled; it's a destroyed elevator shaft. Peering down, the spy can see the shaft only went one level lower, but can see absolutely nothing else in the darkness below.

The drop is about twenty feet, but is easily scalable by the spy should James chose too.

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Underguard

Re: James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: The Warrens, Merctown
Time/Date: 12:45:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
James can't tell if Brooks and Sharee are receiving his radio signal or not as he continues. Unlike most Earth-made Elevators that use a pully system with cables to help lower or raise an elevator, this one seems to lack those entirely. Resigning to use his own Rope, the spy finds a notch to tie too and begins his slow descent. As he kicks over the ledge, his foot hits a loose piece of metal that falls quite suddenly and rather loudly down the remainder of the shaft. The bang and clank echoing, with each impact making the spy wince as he was trying to be as silent as possible. When it reaches the bottom and the echoing fades, James remains still and listens. The silence is just what James is comfortable with, and his sharp ears do not hear any other movement.

Continuing his descent slowly, he reaches the bottom. At the bottom he can now clearly see and feel the demolished elevator that goes just a little further down than the door but is in crumbled pieces. James finds carbon scoring and scorch marks lining the shaft wall; thick enough for the spy to rub a finger on it and pull up some residue.

The lower level, past the doorway, is a single but large room. What may have been in here is anyone's guess as the entire place is thrashed. There is a large terminal on the back wall that has obvious damage from weapons fire and an explosion. Several tables and what could be lab equipment is crumbled and scorched. To the spy's trained eyes, it looks like someone was tying up loose ends, destroying evidence and the like. It is hard to tell if everything is destroyed or non-functioning without more scrutinizing.


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Underguard

Re: James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: The Warrens, Merctown
Time/Date: 12:55:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
James is able to traverse the crumbled room slowly and quietly. It looks like the ceiling could completely collapse, taking the house above with it at any point so he will need to move fast. Figuring the computer is a decent place to check, he searches what's left of a large and very alien computer. Burn marks have welded parts of it together and incinerated others, but the spy finds what appears to be a black box, or solid state hard-drive that is relatively intact. The spy knows the value of such a potential find and that almost anything else in here is moot to what could be on that hard-drive.

Taking his queue to leave with a potentially valuable score, James hears some of the debris start to crumble as he ascends through the shaft. There is a sudden thud and a plum of smoke that follows him up from the lab below. Still, James makes it to the surface with the hard-drive in hand.

Back to Brooks and Sharee, or does the Spy have other things in mind?

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Underguard

Re: James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: Outskirts, Merctown
Time/Date: 1:10:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
James tries to uplink the drive to his own personal computer's drive, however when he does so, James notes that the drive has over four terabytes of information on it. While computers found in officers and corporate centers often have five times that, the personal computers sold to travelers on the market rarely have over a few hundred gigabytes. What's more is that this drive is encrypted in an alien tongue and cipher that James hasn't encountered before; not of this world. It would make sense that it belongs to an alien.

James can be confident, given enough time, he could crack the hard-drive himself but it would take a considerable amount of time and a secure place to work. Either way, James fails to copy the drive, though he did learn some things in the meanwhile and returns to Brooks and Sharee.

Both of them show obvious signs of disappointment that nothing was found but accept James's word at face value. Brooks glances down to Sharee and nods. "Sure thing, hoss. That lead's dead now. Fuck. Sharee, what else we got?" Brooks asks, climbing into the vehicle with James and Sharee in tow.

"Still got those murders. We don't know exactly how they were connected. I'm sure we can dig a little more and find out something. The fenders are cool with calling this case closed but I'm not." Sharee answers through gritted teeth. The Spy's eye sees someone who has lost someone, and recently, and wants payback in Sharee. In Brooks, he almost sees an overprotective big brother; a gentle but brutal giant.

"Right, the murders. Well, your GIRLS had more intel on that after we swapped notes, so it'd be in your comp. Look-" Brooks stops and turns to James while Sharee drives. "I get it man, fresh out of the hospsis, big brute and weird looking girl pick you up to rummage through rubble." Brooks says and Sharee laughs

"Okay that does actually sound bad." Sharee quips through a snort.

"Anyway, I mean to say, you don't gotta trust us or even show us your group's mission reports or whatever you have. We've got a personal stake in this, that's what matters. So, you tell us what you need to piece the puzzle together, and we'll help you. When the time comes to ice the top dog behind all this, you help us." Brooks says, leveling with James and looking him eye to eye. James then remembers that Brooks is possibly the only one he can remember to nonchalantly pick up his tracker he placed like a piece of gum under a table; there could be more to Brooks than meets the eye.

Sharee pulls up to the hanger during Brook's leveling and parks, opening the door outside. Brooks looks to James and nods towards the door. "How do you wanna play it."


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Re: James: No Man's Land

Post by Underguard »

Conditions wrote:Location: Outskirts, Merctown
Time/Date: 1:20:00 PM; December 29th, 111PA
Environmental Conditions: 42°F (0°C); Light wind, Cloud cover outside as far as the eye can see.
The Paranoid One wrote:"Okay, you're right. I don't know either of you at all and have no idea what your involvement in these murders are." He pauses again to weigh his lack of options one more time before continuing, "I am really not the trusting kind but you didn't need to lead me to the building so I guess I don't have much choice but to trust you...a little." The spy pulls the hard-drive from his backpack and but still doesn't hand it over. "I found this before the building came down. I tried to break the encryption and copy the data but I need a bigger system to do it. It's obviously alien made which makes sense as the bunker under the building seemed to be made of alien materials."
Brooks just listens with a straight face as James lays it out and makes no effort to make a move for the harddrive James is holding, nor does he do much more than glance at it briefly. At the end of James explanation, he nods. "Nice score, I used to know a guy that could've helped you crack that but," Brooks pauses before sighing and shrugging.
James wrote:"Like I said, I'm sure I can break the encryption if I had a little time and a bigger drive. I can do it at the GIRLS compound or elsewhere if you have a place. I'll share all the data but I keep the drive and a copy of the data for myself and the GIRLS. Does that work for you?"
"Consider it a deal, then. We can use your hangar; we have a sleek ride but our living arrangements aren't exactly five star." Brooks says and he gets out of the craft with James and Sharee in tow, standing before the GIRLS Hangar. James is able to access it without issue and finds it undisturbed.

Sharee and Brooks follow James inside with both of them finding a place to sit in the commons, Sharee plopping on the couch. "So, we cool to chill here while you do your techie techie stuff?" Sharee asks, looking for a remote or controller for the Merctown net connection.

"And you can consider us on-site security while you work." Brooks adds with a grin.

Skills are your friend, go into as much detail about describing your hack on the drive with your skills as you want. You will be writing for several hours worth of time (depending on rolls, could be more or less)

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