Eclipse Phase: Glory

[Joose]

Alright gentlemans, lets do this thing!

I have character sheets completed for all you guys now. I have a brief list of questions for background that I will be PMing to you in a moment which I'll need before the game gets going properly, but for now:

For whatever reason, you are all on or very near Titan (the place, not the scary AIs that ate the Earth. They are TITANs, not Titans). A Firewall Proxy called Professor Ming has contacted you (through the usual encrypted and secure channels) asking you to meet him in his office at the TAU (Titan Autonomous University) Department of Computational Archaeology, where you will meet the other members of the sentinel team he is putting together. You will also be given details of your first assignment.

Is there anything any of you want to do before heading that way?

[fabyak]

My chappie will scowl at things, other than that he's good to go!

[Dog Pants]

Not a thing. No ties, no farewells. I doubt anyone would even notice I was gone.

[Joose]

I think this thread may have slipped FJs attention, but lets start and retcon anything FJ wants to do if required.

You follow the directions Ming gave you to his office, which leads you via the main TAU building complex to a smallish shielded garden dome on the edge of one of Titans methane seas. You find Ming relaxing on a comfortable looking park bench in a clearing, offering a good view on one side out through the domes shields into the alien landscape and the seas themselves, with the other three sides surrounded by thick undergrowth. The narrow path you took through the carefully cultivated bushes is the only obvious route in and out. Its private and pretty.

Ming himself is in a Menton morph, and looks at a glance to be late middle aged. When you get closer you realise that he has an air about him similar to a well restored classic car: he isn't as young as he looks, he is just very well maintained. You don't know how old he actually is without looking it up, but getting close to or exceeding three figures wouldn't surprise you. He is dressed in a modern suit that is stylistically based on an old earth style three piece suit, and has even got what appears to be a pocket watch on a chain in his waistcoat to complete the old academic look. As he sees you approach he gives you all a big friendly grin and offers a handshake, but is good natured about it if any of you don't take it. He gestures to some of the other park benches that are arranged in a small semicircle, all facing out to sea.

Greetings, greetings! Can I offer you anything to eat or drink? The coffee they produce here is really quite terrible, but there is fruit grown in this very garden that is exquisite. Please, sit if you wish. May I welcome you three to our little club, you come highly recommended by my colleagues but I understand that this is your first official engagement for Firewall? Oh, don't worry, you can talk freely here, I have taken necessary precautions. Probably more than necessary, but I have been doing this a while and developed quite a healthy paranoia. Forgive me, I am babbling. Maybe we should start with some introductions.
I, as you may know, am Professor Magnus Qiao-Sen Ming, and along with my public role as the Chair of Computational Archaeology here at TAU I less publicly function as a Router for Firewall. I will be your main contact for the organisation, passing you tasks, information and organising resources, as well as taking your mission reports and requests. Please understand that Firewalls resources are limited and stretched, so although we will of course do what we can to help when it is necessary, I should remind you that resources you use will go unavailable to other Firewall teams, so we would appreciate you sourcing things for yourself where at all possible.
And yourselves? A brief introduction and description of what skills you bring to the team?

[Dog Pants]

Since I'm in a slightly beaten and somewhat shoddy synth morph I'll decline the invitation of refreshments, or indeed a seat since it makes me look a little ridiculous. If it was in good condition the synth shell might be intimidating - it's large and cadaverous looking with the dents and scrapes of combat - but the wear also betrays that it's quite cheap, and it seems to have been given a minor paint job by some teenage anarchist.

Greetings Professor. I am DCOM. Unfortunately that is the designation of this morph really, Disposable Combat Operations Mechanoid, but I like the acronym. I primarily bring a little resilience to the team, but I suspect I was procured because of my negotiation skills. I find there is some overlap, anyway.

[FatherJack]

As much as an uplifted neo-hominid might sound like a monkey wearing smart business attire there is something about her expression and her bearing that suggest a high level of confidence in her intelligence.

Her face is close to that of a human female in her mid-30s with high cheekbones and a slightly protruding perioral area but it's her flat small nose with its upturned nostrils which mark her lineage - however she does nothing to hide them, even tilting her head back a little as if in defiance.

Her face is framed by long black hair tucked behind her ears, she's slim and not very tall with human-looking hands covered by gloves, but her feet are large four-toed paws in what look like specially-made shoes which look to grant a high degree of flexibility.

She speaks succinctly and precisely as if used to public speaking. Despite the clipped precision her accent is difficult to place and she places unusual stresses on syllables and pronounces others so softly that words sometimes sound incomplete or missing.

Professor. I am Usagi Keroro, mobile scientist. I am fascinate with new forms of life natural and unnatural, alive or dead. It sometimes gets...messy. I have helped police forensically with such messy cases in past. Recently I lecture here in TAU Xenobiology department - the students very much like to hear about messy parts. I ran into Firewall operatives after helping some colonists out with a particularly nasty infestation. Of course I not tell students about that part.

She'll gladly accept some fruit, although I wouldn't advise proferring a banana.

[fabyak]

Unlabelled appears to be positioning himself in such a manner so he has the sun evenly across Olympian morph and continues to stand where he is, not looking at anyone or achknowledging their presence

...

[Joose]

I am sure you will get to know each other better in the coming days, but I fear time is against us, so to business.

Firewall needs you to find a missing agent, Tara Yu. To the best of our knowledge, Yu was most recently investigating the current whereabouts of military computer hardware recovered from a station in Earth orbit that was destroyed during the Fall, in the Battle of L4. Yu has been missing for over a month now. Long silences are not unusual during some of her undercover research missions, but she missed her last scheduled check-in. Last we knew, she was on Locus. We need you to track her down, ascertain her status if alive, recover her cortical stack if dead, and if necessary continue or assist her search for the missing hardware.

Any questions so far?

Heres some more info on Locus, all of you will have heard of it and there is a decent chance that at least some of you will have been there before. Its a well known place.

[Dog Pants]

Who and where, specifically, was her last check-in? Did she provide any information to her contact point?

[Joose]

Her last check in was to myself, via encrypted mesh communication. It was on her arrival at Locus, minutes after leaving the ego casting station she had arrived at. She did not say much, just that she was there following up a lead. This is not uncommon, many Crows prefer to keep mesh communication minimal even when encrypted. I would not have expected more until her return, where she was to give me a full report in person.

[Dog Pants]

I take it we can assume that you do not possess a description of her morph then. Please continue.

[Joose]

I am afraid not, but I can give you the date and time she checked in with me, which being just after she left the station should make it easy enough to track down what morph she sleeved into. Assuming of course that she has not re-sleeved in the meantime.

I suggest you try and retrace her steps. Where she has been and who she was talking to may lead you to both her and the hardware. Begin with investigating via the mesh, as I would not want you going all the way to Locus only to find there is nothing there for you. I suspect it is highly likely that you will be heading in that direction anyway however, so I have organised for transport there to be available to you if required. I am afraid our budget will not stretch to a further 3 ego-castings that distance, but the transport ship is quite fast.

I wish there was more information I could give you, but that is all that is available.

He hands over a smallish device that resembles a handheld radio to whoever is nearest (if there are no objections I have randomly selected this to be DP) after checking a small display on the side.

This is a QE communicator. It is a direct and completely secure line back to me and me only. I don't know if you are familiar with them but it can be used for instantaneous communication from literally anywhere, and require a kind of fuel in the form of Qubits. The level remaining can be seen on the display here. It is set up for voice or text communication only and is has approximately 2 hours of Qubits remaining. Use it sparingly, but keep me updated with any progress or requests you may have for support.

[Dog Pants]

Thank you for the advice. Do you object to us performing our mesh research in your garden?

Assuming he doesn't I shall set Ignacio digging about for information on her at Locus, and I'll focus on the Egocast records. Locus is Anarchy isn't it? I've got a basic standing with them, but if anyone else is better suited then by all means take over.

[Joose]

Be my guest. I have to get going, but feel free to use this space for as long as you need.

He gives you a small, polite bow and wanders off up the path you came in down, pausing only to pluck what looks like a small purple apple from an overhanging tree. He munches on it as he goes.

Locus is Anarchist/Argonaut, so @-rep would be the one to use for that. This is probably a good time to briefly go over the two different ways you can get at information in EP:

1) Searching the Mesh. This is roughly equivalent to googling for something, and just takes a research test. For particularly complex things it might take a second research test (which you can boost with appropriate academics skills) to interpret the information you find.

2) Using rep. This is basically just asking people, and thanks to the Mesh can largely be done via Future Facebook. This is a little more complicated, but can often get you information that just isn't there to find using a regular Mesh search. You start by working out what kind of favour you want (p289 of the main rules). In this case you are looking for information, so its either a level 1 or 2 favour (depending on how deep you want to go with your info probing). You need to find the right people to talk to next, which is a Networking test for the appropriate group. What happens next depends on who you are talking to: capitalist types might expect money for information, people using more experimental economies may want a favour in return, or might just give you the info for free if your Rep with them is good enough. The only other thing to take into account is that you are doing this search pretty publicly, and interested parties might notice. You can voluntarily take a negative modifier of any amount to keep things on the down low, meaning that anyone trying to notice you takes an equivalent negative modifier to their roll to spot you. Of course, the harder you make it for people to notice, the harder it is for your to find what you want. There's a bunch of other stuff about Rep levels and refresh times, but let me worry about that. Its all on p287-290 if you want a read.

So, I am assuming that Ingacio (Pants' Muse for those following along) is going to be doing a mesh search, so give me a Research roll using his skill for that. As for the Egocast records, do you want to do that Mesh (another Research roll using your skill) or via Rep (using your networking skills to see if you know a guy who knows a guy who works in the egocasting station she arrived at, or something like that)?

[Dog Pants]

Eeh. My Research and @-Rep are only 20, Ignacio's Research isn't much better at 30. I'll research, it's less risky.

4, 4: 44 Critical! Failure!

Eesh, nice Googling Ignacio. Can I do any better with mine?

1, 1: 11 Critical! Success!

Pfft, so much for the native infolife.

[Joose]

Ignacio doesn't find a god damn thing.

You, on the other hand, find quite a bit. Looking into her egocasting records does indeed give you a record of the Morph she was sleeved into. In addition to that, you notice that in the couple months previous to her going to Locus she sent several forks to a small Thai station in Earth orbit called Vishnukam, which is part of the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance. Judging from the very short stays she had there it seems likely they were to meet someone or do research.

The Morph she sleeved into was not a cheap, off the shelf job. It was a rather nice Ghost Morph, designed for stealth and combat, with an emphasis on stealth. Looks a bit like this:



I'm going to give you a hint here, as it is your first time doing all this research stuff: just because she went to an Anarchist ran station doesn't mean Anarchs are going to be the only people worth talking to. If the tech she was looking for was last seen in Earth orbit, that's probably in Lunar-Lagrange territory, which means C-Rep. If its tech, and its missing, it might have been stolen, which means G-Rep (people who steal things tend to be criminals). She was a Firewall Crow, so although Ming doesn't know any more doesn't mean she hasn't worked with anyone else in Firewall, which you would find with I-Rep. She came from Titan and was investigating missing tech, so she may have talked to science/tech types, meaning r-rep.

Point is: don't limit yourself overly. Not saying you will get anything from any of those in this case of course, but you wont know unless you try!

[Dog Pants]

I'll relate the information to the others.

It appears that Ms Yu was expecting some kind of action when she arrived at Locus. I wouldn't expect anyone to take such an expensive morph otherwise. I wonder if she has gone into hiding.

Rep seems like a risky business for me. I've not been a physical entity for very long and don't have much with anyone. My I-rep is only 10 and while my G-rep is slightly better a critical failure could lead to attracting attention I really don't want. Research is the better option for me, but the last one was a fluke. FJ, you look like a monkey in the know. Fancy seeing what you can dig up from Lunar-Lagrange? Might indicate why she's disappeared, or at least let us back-trace her movements. Sorry, long ranged information gathering isn't really my thing (although in retrospect I would have put much more into Research had I realised it didn't mean scientific research). I'm more of a face-to-face rustbucket.

[Joose]

Rep isn't your strongpoint, DP, that is true. Its worth mentioning that if you have a Rep of 20 or more you will get a +10 on getting basic information from your social contacts (gossip, stuff they wouldn't be suspicious about. "hey, you seen someone called Tara Tu recently?" for example) from that group, as that sort of information is a level 1 favour, and rep of 20-39 is level 2. It would still mean you are trying to roll under 30 if your rep was 20, but its worth considering.

[FatherJack]

I have good @, C, I and R rep, what do I need to roll against what?

Is it 2d10 to make a percentage, and presumably I have to get under the target as it increases with skill?

@=45: 9,4
C=45: 4,10
I=55: 10,3
R=60: 10,6

Is that 94, 40, 3 and 6? Nice.

Is this just something I do myself or do I have to ask my muse to post messages on my behalf?

[fabyak]

Will do a c rep and g rep search when i get to work. Eta: soon