The Campaign Builder's Guild

[ic]You guys scurry off to the Hotel. With your security clearance, you are allowed to park in the private parking garage out behind the building. Several employees immediately greet you and shuttle you upstairs to the medbay. Once there, a Salarian doctor looks you over, runs a few tests and applies several doses of antibiotics, vitamins and medi-gel. He tells each of you, with a good night's sleep you should be back to normal.

After a few hours with the good doctor, you take the elevator to your room - each of you were given a private suite on fourth to highest floor. The rooms are identical and contain a large bed, a a holo-screen, a desk, a computer and an en-suit jacuzzi, which can be filled with a variety of substances, both legal and not.

After a night of luxury, you awake in mid morning, just as the doctor ordered. A bell boy comes and serves you a three course breakfast tailor made for your individual biologies. While eating breakfast, you skim the latest news headlines and see you've made the top story on several extra-net websites but, luckily, all of it was blamed on intra-gang violence - no one is the wiser to your presence.

The concierge took the liberty of reserving a state-of-the-art conference room for you, where your allies and yourself can convene and decide where to go from here. [/ic]

[ooc]The Doctor rolled amazing and managed to heal everyone back to full![/ooc]

[ooc]Re: Steerpike and CC- Haha.[/ooc]
[ic] Lini had plans for the night. Much had happened during the day that she needed to follow-up on. And there was also business to do. She did none of it.

Lini looked at the room, head woozy from the medications the Salarian doctor injected her with. It would take her a good nights sleep to fully recover, even with this great medical treatment. The Doctor had access to some of the immuno-suppressants that could only be acquired on Armada ships, but medical technology could only do so much to heal--the body needed to do the rest.

Lini went into the room and sat on the foot of her bed, staring at the dark holo screen. She hung her head, then got up and looked at the jacuzzi--which happened to have a steam-bath and a freeze-bath setting, both of which were very useful for Quarians.

She fiddles with the switches and turns on the freeze bath, making sure to set it for only five minutes before it auto-switches to steam--to decrease the chances that her body would go into cold-shock. The system worked as advertised and she shut her eyes as the steam came on. The system beeped after a further thirty minutes and she got up, then headed to the bed.

A clock by the bed indicated it was several hours after the galactic standard dinner time. She put a hand over her stomach, which indicated no need for nourishment, and she sighed. Then she lay down and slept.

Morning
In the morning, Lini sleeps in until someone comes to get her.

If she does make it to breakfast--she only skims the headlines and goes straight to the extranets and the crimenets to see what the criminals and hackers have to say about what went down yesterday. She also googles any recent news on the Tsar and to see if there is an obituary for the Volus who she shot and for the Volus who Eclipse took out (to double-check that her earlier googling of his identity was correct). Then she looks to see if there is a police report for T'Kin's stolen automobile.[/ic]

[ooc]Use Computer This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+10 : 4 + 10, total 14 ; Gather info This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+6 : 13 + 6, total 19 ; Galactic Lore This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+10 : 2 + 10, total 12[/ooc]

[ic=Medical Treatment]Sal enters the medical center cautiously, well aware that she had been part of a clean up squad in similar locations before. After visually scanning the room for several minutes she relaxes slightly and reluctantly surrenders her weapons.

With a wince, she lifts herself onto a cold metal table so the doctor can commence with the examination and treatment of her nasty, though non-life-threatening injuries. The exam itself takes more time than she would like. "I'm not some doll for your amusement and I ain't a test of your damn skills, either." She snarls, "just patch me up the quickest way you can. I don't care a unit how it looks."[/ic][ic=All The Comforts of Home]That evening, in her private room, Sal amuses herself for a while with the sort of pay-per-view vids that would make some uncomfortable  and others blush, at the loudest volume setting. She lights up a single cigar she had stowed away in her dress and liesurely smokes it while typing out a message on her omni-tool.[/ic][ooc]This is being sent to Nani by Sal but it isn't encryped in any special way so anyone actively monitoring Sal would be able to intercept a copy of it without and problem.[/ooc][ic=Message to Nani]hey babe, I really need my things right away if we're gonna get on with all this. its all stashed at my apartment, under the bed. i know you have the key because i gave it to you but i wouldn't doubt that scales somehow got himself a copy too if you lost urs. have someone bring that to me here by morning and i will be happy. bring your ownself and i will make sure you leave happy too ;) -sal[/ic][ooc]Unless told otherwise, I'm going to assume that Nani doesn't dignify the message with a response but does send someone to do this little errand. It will be good for Sal to have her proper weapon and armor back. She'll still be keeping at least the pistols, though. I'd assume she can only reasonably carry one rifle, right? (I think it's mounted on the back of her custom armor when she isn't carrying it in her hands. Maybe there's room for two? It woukd probably be a hassle, anyway.

The parcel under her bed, which she placed before the mission in case she needed to have her things delivered like this, contains her custom armor and rifle along with the standard thermal clips and a small box of her special cigars.)[/ooc][ic=One of Those Days When You Don't Wanna Wake Up]When Sal's food is brought to her in the morning (along with her requested items, carried by a cute maiden, if Nani was kind) she tells the bell boy to bring her some extra asari-safe nuts "for later". While the others are checking on general headlines and other important things, Sal uses her omni-tool to connect to the extranet and look up any information she can find on less-than-savory clubs on the Citadel, particularly looking at names of employees (especially dancers and heads of security) when they're available. She doesn't expect that she'll find anything but hopes to come across the name of an old girlfriend or a one-time partner or coworker that could be of use for information or at least locating other connections. Recon and intel wasn't her thing but when someone was as old as her, had held as many jobs, and slept around as much, they got to know some interesting people that could turn up just about anywhere.[ooc]I don't expect much will be readily available. The people in these positions, especially the dancers, probably change often enough that even the venues that keep up an extranet site (likely not a lot) and would care to give any of this information (narrows it down more) wouldn't bother.

Use Computer [blockquote]Rolled 1d20 : 4, total 4[/blockquote]
Galactic Lore [blockquote]Rolled 1d20 : 2, total 2[/blockquote][/ooc]

[ooc=To Lini] Your diligence has revealed that an agent of the Special Tasks Group was recently murdered on Romanov and a small space battle was fought between two unknown parties in the planet's orbit. Rumor has it, a Salarian Frigate fought a small contingent of Pirate Vessels. The battle was inconclusive and both sides broke orbit roughly an hour after the fight began. A contact of yours in the Migrant Fleet mentioned the Salarians were probably after information on the Tsar's newest hobby - Pirate Ship construction - and fought the battle in the skies to give a covert-ops team the time to infiltrate the Tsar's palace and retrieve their fallen comrade. You also find out, via your google-foo that the Tsar has made quite the enemy of the Volus by hacking into their vast market data bases and thus becoming wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice. [/ooc]

[ooc=To Sal]Nani sent an Elcor escort to deliver your goods in the middle of the night. He was quite dashing and very romantic... For an Elcor.

You don't find much on the extranet, it seems the bar owners are becoming better at hiding the information. You have been to the Citadel many times before, you remember meeting a Valarie Flora York, who ran a small strip club. She was a proven contact years earlier, probably still reliable now. She hates phone calls and email though, she only talks in person. [/ooc]

[ic=That Night]
Unlike most of the others, Kai had come through the day of fighting with little more than some bumps and bruises-- most of which were probably self-inflicted from his mad dashes to cover. There's one particularly sore bruise on his shoulder from where he slammed into a door frame while fighting in the apartment building. He makes a mental note to keep his armor with him at all times now. Damn the tailored suits-- most of them are going to get ruined in these fire-fights, so who cares how well they fit.

Kai makes full use of the amenities available to him, quite pleased with the results of the day. He has a good, expensive meal, a fine bath, and even a few hours seeing his sore muscles soothed in the hotel's spa. Later into the night, he stays awake, pondering the next courses, the odd statue still with him. He writes out a quick message to Nani using his secured Omni-Tool.

[ooc=Note]
"Nani. We found a small stockpile of military-grade gear. Useful for weapon caches. More than glad to donate it to the cause. Got any caches on the Citadel if we need them? ~Kai[/ooc]

That taken care of, he looks closely at the statue, trying to discern why it is valuable. Specifically, he looks for any hidden catches or containers in it, wondering whether or not it contains something of value, rather than having any value in and of itself. [note]Taking a 20 on Perception, for a 21 to examine the Statue. Also a Gather Information to find out any potential buyers for it. This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+9 : 14 + 9, total 23[/note]

Failing that, someone wanted it. That means that someone is willing to pay for it, and credits are far more useful to him than this tacky statue is. He does a short bit of extra-net searching and digging-- as well as calling a few contacts-- to see if he can find anyone particularly interested in the statue.

That done, he decides its about time to turn in for the night.[/ic]

[ic=The Morning]
Kai hates mornings. He is forced to endure them often, due to his nature, but he still hates them. When he wakes, he showers and gets some food and tea in him, though he is barely able to form sentences. Coherent words-- short of profanities-- are nearly beyond him. He generally communicates in grunts, growls, and other monosyllabic expressions. Right around the second hour of being awake, his body seems to wake up with the rest of him, and he can present and maintain some form of civility once again.

He'll be the one to take it upon himself to fetch the others-- calling their rooms to ensure they are awake and ready to meet in the conference room to discuss their next steps. He intends to be the first in the room, worrying over a sudoku puzzle while waiting for the rest of the team.[/ic]

[ooc]Nani replies, stating that if you need to resupply or gain access to military-grade equipment, you should talk to Blood Jackal. You have been given a 10,000 credit advance to spend on mission related activities. [/ooc]

[ooc=The Statue]After looking the statue of over several times, you come to realize the head actually screws off! You slowly turn the head, expecting a trap but none is present. As the head comes off, it reveals a tiny compartment, inside of which an even smaller data chip lies. You take the chip and plug it into your omni-tool, curious as to what it contains. Surprisingly, there is only a rudimentary security lock - a 6 digit password. You quickly break through the security measures via a simple algorithm. The data chip is loaded with information and design specs for a new FTL and sub-light engine, which if you're reading the specs correctly, rivals even the best engines the Asari military utilize. Unfortunately, it appears the creator went to great lengths to only include data about the engines, it looks as if this is only a small piece of a much larger whole meant to design a completely new class of ship - a ship that could, potentially, be of great interest to many different concerned parties... [/ooc]

[ic]Once in his room, Archimedes attempts to stave off the incipient anguish of a brutal headache gathering behind his eyes by rebooting the data cache using his Omni-Tool and, if necessary, the hotel computer.  Once he's restored power he attempts once again to undelete the files that were being wiped.  He checks the room service menu for any stimulant dermal patches, nootropics, dopaminergics, or other cognitive enhancers and, using some of T'Kin's winnings, purchases a suitable cocktail, if available.  He's developed a significant resistance to most smart drugs due to his upbringing, but in high enough doses they still aid in concentration.  He'll also add a low elimination half-life sedative to induce a brief, deep sleep when he needs it.  Later he'll be writing up an exhaustive report to T'Parn; he'll likely be staying awake most of the night.

When it is time for him to sleep he doses himself with the sedative, puts on an audio book of Shelley's Prometheus Unbound, and covers his eyes with a sleep mask.[/ic][ooc]Use Computer: This dice roll has been tampered with!
Rolled 1d20+13 : 5 + 13, total 18

Let me know if I have to make any rolls for the drugs, if they're available.[/ooc]

[ooc]It appears with all the different hackers you've encountered, the information has been corrupted :(


As you try and salvaged a few bits of uncorrupted data, you keep finding a single term referenced over and over again - August 21st.  [/ooc]

QuoteA contact of yours in the Migrant Fleet mentioned the Salarians were probably after information on the Tsar's newest hobby - Pirate Ship construction - and fought the battle in the skies to give a covert-ops team the time to infiltrate the Tsar's palace and retrieve their fallen comrade. You also find out, via your google-foo that the Tsar has made quite the enemy of the Volus by hacking into their vast market data bases and thus becoming wealthy beyond the dreams of avarice.

[ic]"YUMI, TNX 4 THE H1NT; LK M3 UP NXT 71M3 U G0 0FF SHP. K33P UP Te GD FGT" Lini types back to her friend in the migrant fleet. Information about the Tsar/Volus rivalry was useful to have. Lini waits for the meeting to start. In the meantime, she starts uploading the list of all the people the Asari bedded to several news tabloids, forums, and gossip columnists. Information like this wanted to be free. She also added a few notations in the Asari's log about the Tsar Who Looses Agony, commenting about how the guy's name likely came from his multiple venereal diseases and linking up a log of his visits to the planet with the times in the log that he visited the Asari as proof. Lini writes and posts from many IPs under about 3 logins, one of which was her usual contact to news reporters of whom she was an infrequent source. She also has a script to write in different styles just to ensure that patterning doesn't track her as the one source.[/IC]

[ic]Once in the meeting room, you are confronted by a hologram of a rather rotund Drell bearing a very stern grimace. He looks at each of you as you take a seat around the V-shaped table then coldly states, "What the hell am I paying you for? Do you know how many police officers and free lance "journalists" I had to pay off to cover your asses!? All this better be worth it..."

The Drell is interrupted by a very cute Asari, dressed in a fairly conservative asari-dress - "What our employer means to say is, we need a full report. Right now."

[ic=A Cranky Boss]
"We stumbled into something more than just a missing Volus who owes you money, sir," Kai begins to explain politely. He glances to the others at the table. He hadn't yet informed them of what he found in the statue itself-- he had been waiting to do that in the meeting here. So it seems the statue itself hadn't been very valuable, as he expected. Unfortunately, the Volus who knew where to find the chip had been summarily removed. He might have been useful in finding the rest of the plans.

Kai brandishes the data chip. "We found plans in T'Kin's apartment. The plans are of a sub-light and FTL capable engine. If the details concerning its abilities are true, then this engine is the most powerful ship engine in all of Citadel space." He pauses, hoping the full impact of his words have been understood to this point. "But the plans are incomplete. They only contain information regarding the engine schematics-- worth plenty on its own, of course-- but this is part of a larger ship design. I have a very bad feeling that these plans may be involved in this so-called "pirate fleet" being constructed. If the rest of these ships have capabilities on par with the capabilities of this engine, then a sufficient number of them in the hands of pirates could cause a great deal of harm. It's hard to say, but I think these plans might even rival or surpass what the Asari currently consider "ships-of-the-line". Ships like the Destiny Ascension, for example. We all know the ship was badly damaged during the Geth attack on the Citadel. These ships could potentially be even worse than the Geth that attacked."

He flips the data chip idly between his fingers. He looks at the others. "And my best guess is that some... Tsar political figure is responsible for a not-insignificant amount of firepower being sent to retrieve this chip. This came from T'Kin's apartment-- our Volus' local contact-- where we encountered Eclipse, Blood Pack, and a group of Tsar-backed Volus. They all were after the 'Thorstad', and I think that this is it. Or part of it, at least."

He looks back to the rotund Drell, locking eyes with the hologram. "My informed opinion is that our Volus plans to make himself very wealthy in the Terminus systems by constructing and either using or selling some of the best ships in known space. I believe the Volus is at the site of where these ships are in production-- assuming he himself is not the Tsar in question. While trying to recover T'kin's data files, our tech specialists butted heads with a skilled hacker, who requested a meeting on the Citadel. We see it as a wise idea, giving us either access to a figure who may know more about our goal, or a figure that could direct us to more of these plans-- which I believe should be quite valuable on any market. In any case, we have a great deal of data on our hands, and we have not yet finished cataloging every stray line of data we recovered. There is still much more information for us to identify-- which we hope to finish on our way to the Citadel in order to meet this new contact. It is very possible that we may find more direct leads from T'Kin's files, but it seems foolish for us to pass up this new lead while we spend time sorting through the Asari's... sporty, social life."

A smile stretches across his face. "That is what you pay us for, sir."[/ic]

[ooc]
Once we're done with the meeting, Kai is going to look into the possibility of patenting these engines. At the very least, he's going to look for an existing patent on them. If one exists, he'd like to try to trace it to someone in particular. If not, he'd be quite glad to patent it for himself... or one of his numerous aliases, at least.[/ooc]

[ic]Lini reports. "T'kin equals dead. Trail leads to the Citadel. We recovered weapons from an illegal stash and recovered T'kin's personal files and automobile. We identified a journalist and hacker who were attempting to access T'kin's files. Additionally, at least four factions were attempting to loot her residence- 4 independent Volus thieves, now three. Eclipse who previously were her bodyguards. A human who employs volii who may also have copied T'kin's files and who was also present at her office attempting to kill her before we arrived. Blood pack mercenaries. And an independent Volus. We would prefer only to discuss issues over secured communications like this. The journalist hacker is good. I and Archimedes can enter your systems; he can as well. Kai will tell the rest." F***ing bureaucratic b(#*shit. Lini goes back to toying with her OmniTool, intending not to speak again.[/ic]

[ic]The Drell's eyes sparkle at the sound of the Thorstad, "The Company could make a fortune selling hundreds of those ships to the Alliance... You have new orders - Find all of the Schematics of the Thorstad. Kill the Vollus if you need to but GET ME THOSE SCHEMATICS!"

The Drell bids you good luck and walks away from the Holo-Recorder. The secretary remains and asks, "Please forward all data you have acquired. As I mentioned in an email, I have given you a 10,000 credit stipend to spend on mission related activities. As you may or may not be aware, our company has many enemies - we request that you book transit on commercial airline TransGalactic, so as to not arose suspicion. We have already will paid off the flight attendants and personnel so we can sneak your weapons and other equipment on board. We've decided to use the label "Scientific Equipment: University of Honolulu" as a front for the boxes containing your gear. Note, each of you will be able to board the flight with only a pistol. We have not reserved a particular flight, allowing you control of when you leave Nos Astra."

She then smiles, giving a wink to Sal before logging off.  

[ic]Archimedes has remained silent throughout the debriefing, occupying himself with a particular intricate game of Zarathustra's Paradox with the Difficulty Setting cranked up to the "Lunatic" setting.

"I suggest we still leave immediately," he says at last.  "Unless anyone has any objections."  He turns to Kai, fixing him with his small, crimson eyes.  "If you don't mind, I'd like to have a look at those schematics," he adds.[/ic][ooc]Archimedes will take his Pinnacle Line Pistol onboard.[/ooc]

[ic]Sal enters the meeting room confidently, once again in her customized armor. Flecks of purple paint can be seen all across the dented and scratched metallic body. In this proper lighting it's apparent that the armor must have been quite impressive when it was new.

The sound of servos can be heard with each heavy step as the mechanized joints move, smoothly and naturally enhancing the asari's natural motion. Two rifles are mounted upon her back, one is the custom weapon she carried when the group met, the other is the more recent acquired Gorgon assault rifle. On each hip is a pistol.

She listens to the exhange with the drell with a cocky smile on her face. The smile fades when booking public transport is mentioned. Then, before the holo projector is deactivated, she lazily gives a salute with two fingers to the secretary.[/ic][ooc]Is the armor going to be allowed on the transport or not? Sal would probably know from past experience.

Armor or no, the Judgment pistol is coming on unless the mod on her rifle would allow Sal to sneak that into a carry-on.[/ooc][ic]"Damned Scales never seems to have all the information anymore," Sal complains. "I'd almost swear the fatter he get, the more his mind goes. Now he changes the mission without even mentioning how that relates to payment." Nani should have known some of this. She normally keeps the informants in line. Either we weren't told all the facts or someone worked very hard to keep their secrets.

The asari warrior shrugs. "It only really matters to you all, I guess. They've had me on retainer for years now." With that, her smile returns.[/ic]