Eclipse Phase: Phantasmagoria IC

[SaturnSolaris]

You each get a IM, through the mesh at 00:00.

"Hello, this is Erebos, I work for Dusk. I have some work for you, meet me in Ilmarinen, at 18:00. Morph brokerage has already been covered, if they try to charge us twice let me know. I'll handle it."



Ilmarinen is located on Greymere, in the Neptune Trojans. Ilmarinen is aligned with the Argonauts; it is arranged in a hybrid beehive/cluster formation, partially dug into, and, protruding from the surface. It is the largest habitat in Neptune's Trojans, with a population of 7,350. Like many transhumans this far out in space, most of Ilmarinen’s inhabitants are heavily modified or inhabit exotic morphs. Vacuum- and cold-tolerant morphs prevail, and many sections of the habitat are unlivable for baseline transhumans, (bring your vacsuits.)



Beehive Habitats, are tunnel networks carved inside of asteroids and moons.

Cluster Habitats, are microgravity habitats consisting of interconnected modules.

[Kaworu]

The task of arriving at Ilmarinen was not that hard for Sławomir, as he was already there. He was working on some computational biology project with his fellow scientists. So he just went to sleep at 0:30, thinking where he should exactly be at 18:00 the next day - he could always ask later, after all that what instant messaging is for.

The next day he woke up early, got some breakfast with a compulsory comfurt, then worked on his scientific project some more. Before he was aware, it was 17:00 already. So he bid farewell to his colleagues and went to more-or-less geographical centre of the habitat, wondering where exactly Erebos could be.

[SaturnSolaris]

You get another IM, at 16:00. Which contains a 3D digital map of Ilmarinen, and a marker for where you're supposed to be going.


"Sorry, it was a long day, I forgot to mention WHERE, to meet. There's a bar in Hab C, called The Heron, meet me there."



Egocasting to Ilmarinen is a bit of a surprise to anyone who hasn’t done their research. They have a high-grade egocaster and deluxe facilities for fabbing and personalizing morphs, but every morph available for rent or purchase has vacuum and low temperature adaptations at minimum. The ability to tolerate hostile environmental conditions is considered a requirement here; they charge you for these mods and won’t let you sleeve if you aren’t willing to accept them.

Also, if you’re here for more than a short visit, most locals think you’re both cheap and foolish if you don’t upgrade to better temperature and vacuum tolerance or just go with a synthmorph. The few visitors who arrive by spaceship are also expected to have the same adaptations. The general opinion seems to be that anyone who lacks these adaptations is too foolish to survive here and will be too much trouble to deal with.

Ilmarinen is sterile, if you approach it from the outside it's mostly geometric, spherical structures, the "glass" structures covering most of the cluster habitats are made out of transparent numina and metamaterials. When you actually get inside, all these rules make sense. By the standards of the rest of the system, Ilmarinen is a place that’s remarkably casual with pressure and temperature. The people here make certain that any place containing delicate possessions or plants have stable and well-protected environments; most of the locals really like plants. Major portions of the habitat, however, have an inert atmosphere, no atmosphere, or are extremely cold. Most locations that don’t contain anything too delicate are designed to drop pressure or temperature if it’s convenient or useful.

Ilmarinen has seven habitat modules, six set in a hexagonal formation, with one in the center. Some of these habitats, have separate, smaller modules attached to them. The tunnels, are mostly used for mining materials, but there are research and residential modules dug underneath of the rest, with a tunnel network connecting each habitat. Along with the typical, arterial floatways on the surface, with residential modules attached to the arteries.

Habitat C, is the third habitat module starting with A, clockwise around the outside, with G being the center habitat module.

The cultures and morphs, living in Ilmarinen however, are vibrant to say the least.The situation gets even stranger when you start attempting to describe exactly who lives here. You almost never find anything like this sort of eccentric diversity in the inner system. You’ve got hackers, makers, techies, brinkers, semi-professional conspiracy theorists, radical morph hobbyists, mystics, and poets. The locals largely divide themselves into subcultures that are often fractious, cliquish, and sometimes impressively hot-tempered, but outside of these divisions, the locals cooperate quite closely with one another. It’s easy to see why: anyone who doesn’t feel like being social can find their own rock to live on, either alone or with a few dozen like-minded fellows. Ilmarinen is where the more social and cooperative elements of our oddball and reclusive Neptunian Trojan culture end up.

[Eonn]

Phoenix egocasts in to the hab as soon as he receives the message. There wasn't much important for him to be doing on the barge, after all, ant there's always something exciting about a clandestine meet up. He requests to be sleeved in the weirdest morph the broker has on hand, and kicks back to see what they bring him.

[bc56]

Slake is lucky enough to be in the area, lying low in a small habitat not too far away. Within a few hours, he's comfortably booked passage on a spaceship headed for Ilmarinen. He arrives somewhat later, enters the station, and makes his way to C hab, and the bar in question.

[jolinaxas]

After reading the messages, Yui hastily made arrangements for the egocast, and informed the militia of her absence.

While she'd sent ahead a biosculpting profile to ensure the borrowed body at least superficially resembled her current one, it took her a while to acclimate to the new morph, especially the slightly "plastic" feeling that came with the (apparently) compulsory vacuum sealing. With her solid rep, acquiring something like her standard loadout was fairly easy, and she checked the pockets and compartments of her smart vacsuit nervously on the way to the indicated habitat.

[SaturnSolaris]

Anybody egocasting to Ilmarinen is going to notice a few things.

A. Erebos arranged for the exact same morph for each of you, that you had previously; and, apparently has a dossier of all of the enhancements/implants you each possess.

B. He has apparently been planning for a couple of days, because any enhancements/implants the morph may have been missing have been implanted.

C. He did handle morph brokerage, because you aren't asked to pay for ****. They carefully get you resleeved, then rush you out of the facility as quickly as possible. In fact, they're oddly quiet towards each of you.

The egocasting facility is fairly large, of minimalistic design and state of the art. It is sterile, and smells of ozone and chemicals that you can almost taste. Lined with multiple rows of high quality egocasters, fabbers, and healing vats. Cleaner swarms and repair drones work around the clock to keep the facility free of any contaminants, and perform maintenance on equipment. Personnel bustle around the facility, checking fabbers and healing vats, receiving egocasts and resleeving people, among other tasks. Several of the healing vats, are currently occupied by morphs in different states of gestation; a rack of synthmorphs lines one of the walls. You hear everyone as they are working, talking, the tapping of screens, drones soldering, mechanical noises as fabbers follow their designs.

You are each asked for proper identification, which I'm going to assume you have and provide. They do physicals, and ask you questions to check how you're adjusting, and that's it as far as conversation goes.

[Eonn]

Phoenix rolls out of the egocasting facility (literally, as a hoop rolling down the street) feeling off. While it looks enough like his morph, under the hood he can feel the differences. It should go away after awhile though, it always does.

Either way, adventure is at hand so Phoenix makes his way to the Heron.

[King539]

Huiqing was already on Ilmarinen, for reasons of his own. He had been working on a case involving the murder of an argonaut biohacker (The murderer was a disgruntled research partner), and had also heard rumours of a Firewall async expert that he wanted to consult. The rumours turned out to be false, and he was preparing to leave when he received the message.

He made sure to arrive at the Heron an hour before the necessary meeting time, and made sure to watch everyone who entered and left while he enjoyed a pseudo-glass of pseudo-whiskey.

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM was there with Huiqing, following along to Ilmarinen because they were companions and they had been so for years now, with only a few times of separation.
SAM had found no issues in re-morphing into an Infomorph upon arrival back when both Huiqing and SAM itself had been egocasted here.

With a small AR illusion use, SAM appeared as a small cartoonish catface, neither male nor female in appearance nor tone of voice, with a mild digitized flair to the speech.
"Huiqing, please remember to not drink too much. I know you always say no, but I shall offer it again. Should I do some Psychosurgery to help you with those really bad memories of yours that traumatizes you so?" SAM asked, the cat-face emote hanging just about in face-height to the left.

[SaturnSolaris]

Ilmarinen has multiple ports for ships to land and load, or offload. All of the ports are located on the outer habitat modules, so as not to potentially damage residential modules linked to the arterial floatways, or center module. For those who land at one of the ports, docking procedures are fairly normal.

1. The dock's manager or A.I. hails inbound ships.
2. The ship's pilot or A.I. answers and states their business.
3. The manager or A.I. sends guided docking procedures.
4. The pilot or A.I. enters the docking procedures, and then activates autopilot, the ship guides itself in and docks.

Afterwards, passengers disembark and personnel begin loading, and/or unloading the ship. All of the commercial ports are like larger three-dimensional hangers for multiple ships to dock, and lack atmospheric control, except through the airlocks attached to the ship. However, there are personal ports for residents, as a number of residents own personal ships.

Anyone coming in through transport, will be guided to Habitat F. The sixth habitat clockwise, starting with A, with G in the center. You will have to travel through arterial floatway to G, and again to C.

As you pass through F, you will find that it is the "industrial" habitat. It has several stations for fabbers, cornucopia machines, tool shops and facilities with specialized equipment beyond your normal utilitool. There are multiple projects in different stages of repair, mostly damaged equipment, "metal" crates line the module in stacks. It is oddly empty, and silent, however that has more to do with the time of the week, (it's the weekend.) While many inner system habitats, among others, have people working high hours, through the week several outer system habitats still hold to the concept of off days. With skeleton crews and A.I. working to keep everything running, except in the case of jobs of the most importance.

Passing through the arterial floatways things get more lively, as people mingle between their residential modules. Through the "glass" surrounding the floatways you see people of all ages playing outside the habitats, using their implants and zero-g to full advantage.

Habitat G is the agri-hab growing various forms of plant life for sustenance, using hydroponics. Attached to this module, are modules for various other services, such as water, and waste disposal. Habitat G has one of the highest concentrations of people still working, making sure everything is functioning properly so that the rest of Ilmarinen runs. Attached to Habitat G is also one of the highest concentrations of residential modules. It is a bustling center of activity, as people enjoy their time off.

Habitat C is a commercial center, full of stores, bars, clubs, performers, etc. Getting to The Heron isn't hard, since you have coordinates and your muse can more or less set up GPS directions and overlay these in your visual field. You have to weave through people to get there, but for anyone who's been in a higher density habitat it's really not all that bad.

It's all . . . pleasant, if a bit dull.

[Eonn]

Phoenix snakes through the crowds with practice ease, following a mostly transparent map which overlayed his vision and guided him to the bar. There was nothing like a scum ship to get one used to crowds, after all, and with the line guiding him to his destination like an old fashioned GPS, he had no worries he'd quickly reach the Heron.

"Virgil," Phoenix says after a few minutes of traveling. "What can you tell me about this place we're heading, the Heron? Anything interesting about this hab as well, like rumors that've cropped up recently?"

[King539]

Huiqing sighs in response to SAM's request and takes of sip of his pseudo-whiskey.

"My answer to that remains what it always will be: No. I need my memories, and I need my thoughts. "

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM's floating Cat-face Emote made a sigh-expression before returning to passive-normality. "Very well. But, next time you drink, I will ask again, it is our little ritual after all, and you seem to respond in a positive manner most of the time, so it's not like it is damaging to you. However, I would still implore to us discussing even just a mild dampening on the harsher parts of the memories. no deleting or editing. Just giving it a little distance, as if observing it from afar, rather than having to relive it all over and over." SAM replied and made a wink-expression with a mini-thumb sticking up before vanishing entirely. "I will return to standby defensive mode. Please call on me if when needed." SAM added as the last illusive AR additions faded away, leaving no trace of the cat-face emote or anything else that did not belong.

[jolinaxas]

"Uh, yeah. Aiko, can you forward them my Ego ID info?"

Her bedraggled-looking muse forwarded the information alongside current vitals, bowing constantly in AR. Simultaneously, she asked for local room sensor data so Yui could make sure there weren't any superficial issues with the morph.

"I'm guessing that at some point, I'm gonna stop feeling like my tongue got shrink-wrapped? This bio-vacseal stuff is wild."

When her attempts at small talk ran into the wall of whatever op-sec concerns Erebos had drilled into the body bank technician, she stretched and removed herself from the slab. A quick ping to the local mesh, and Yui loaded up the guidance data to get to the Heron in Hab C. Used to cramped passage through the Dharma Chameleon's tin cans, she managed to get through the denser crowds despite some lingering reacclimation issues.

"Guess I should see what we're doing before I start to hog the fabber printing a Freezer..."

[SaturnSolaris]

The Heron is a higher class bar, it's fairly quiet in contrast to alot of the clubs in Ilmarenen which are usually blasting edm or the latest synth-pop. This is a place people go to, to have some drinks and get away from the noise.

They have a decent selection of beverages and liquor, including a number of non-synthetic alchohol selections.

A man walks into the bar at approximately 17:00, he has long black hair and a pale complexion, he's tall, skinny, and has a heart shaped face with slight features. He's wearing a high quality black smart vacsuit, with red highlites. He walks into the bar, buys a couple glasses of whiskey, and then sits down at a booth.

Several other people walk into, and out of the bar, and a number of regulars sit on stools at the actual bar.

The Herons patron is a Neo-Avian, who handles the bar and the establishment has an elegant white geometric design, inspired by cubist paintings. The stereo system is playing what could best be described as triphop, in the style of Portishead.

At 17:30, you get a message from Erebos.

"I'm here, sitting in a booth. I'm wearing a black smart vacsuit."

[Kaworu]

Sławomir entered the bar, aided by his muse and AR in the task of finding it. He looked around, found his contact and went to him.

- Welcome. I'm Sławomir, but you probably know that. I assume we should wait for others before we will discuss the aim of this meeting?

[jolinaxas]

Yui looked at the corner of her vision at the incoming message.

+Right, coming up shortly. Still in the body bank's complementary "hey don't be naked" vacsuit+

Wandering over to the table, she noticed someone else had arrived before her.

"Hey. So are all those glasses for you, or...?"

[SaturnSolaris]

"They're for me, but I'll order a round when we get everyone here. I find that drinks help when we're talking about X-Risks and possible death."

He smiles when he says that, but it's more nervous than genuine.

[Eonn]

Phoenix snakes up to the booth next.

"Hello everyone." He says in a synthetic voice with a wave of one of his four hands. Until anything important starts happening his gaze scans the room, always on the look out for interesting morphs or bodysculpting.

[bc56]

-Slake here. Just arriving, meet you inside. Look for the pint-sized red gargoyle.- Slake enters the bar and moves over to the table where Erebos waits, trying to draw as little attention as possible, despite the bright red coloration projected from the chameleon displays covering his morph. He sits down. "What news from Dusk?" He keeps his simulated voice low, and constantly uses his morph's advanced hearing to keep an ear out for trouble. He also scans Erebos and the other people present for weapons using t-rays and tries to gauge their emotions using his enhanced smell.

[SaturnSolaris]

"The usual honestly, paying our own money to save the Galaxy from themselves. It would help if so many people weren't so dedicated to trying to get the bottom dime off of whatever TITAN tech they find."

[Eonn]

"So, same **** different day?" Phoenix says. "Anything new from the gatecrashers? I'd really like to get my hands on an alien morph."

[jolinaxas]

"I think they already make those. The probe jokes are funny for about ten minutes, and then it just sits around in the body bank taking up space."

She nervously tapped her fingers on the table.

"We waiting for anybody else?"

[bc56]

"You didn't call us here to reminisce and joke around. What does Dusk need?" Slake wants to get to the point. He's been waiting for a new mission for a while now; his regular routine was getting boring.

[Kaworu]

- I also would prefer us to move into the details as soon as possible. There no need to keep us in suspense. - claimed Sławomir.

[SaturnSolaris]

Erebos frowns, does some quick calculations in his head, looks at each of you, does a few more calculations. Then says,

"I'm not really reminiscing, I answered a question . . . two questions. You should get some manners, instead of rushing me, we have a few stragglers."

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM noticed Huiqing was neglecting the Overlay-timer that SAM had send his way as a reminder of the meeting time being there. So SAM just settled in and made the flashing 17:00!!! flash more and more insistently in Huiqing's Field Of Vision until he finally reacted, or at least stopped ignoring SAM's persistence.

[Eonn]

Yeah, relax!" Phoenix says after sending his muse on a hunt over the mesh for a new liquor simulation. If the others were going to be drinking, he didn't want to be left out. "It's not like this is life or death, or time sensitive, or something."

The Slitheroid then tapped what would have been its chin if it had a true mouth. "I suppose that does mean we have some time to burn. Anyone up for a game?"

[King539]

Huiqing waves away SAM's message, walks over to Erebos, and sits down across the table.

"I'm here. What did you want us for?"

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM's lil' catface emote popped up again and made a 'tsk tsk' at Huiqing, as if to scold him for being rude, before vanishing again, although SAM did tap into comms-frequency with everyone else so it could follow along in the conversation and actually ADD it's own comments as well.

[SaturnSolaris]

Erebos puts a flat, white cylinder on the table, and two black pods next to it.

"I got a message from our straggler, he's running late. As for time sensitivity, that was ruined for this mission a while ago. Would any of you like a drink, alcoholic or otherwise? SAM if you want, that white cylinder is a holographic projector, the two pods are speakers, they're all linked. You can occupy those for the purposes of this meeting."


You know this man's face, you've seen it before, although younger. At first, it's like an itching at the back of your mind. That weird feeling, when you meet someone you swear you've met before, but you can't remember when, or where. You try to figure it out and then it hits you.

That whole event runs through your head. Cognite cut the lights, then blasted open several entrances as they assaulted the facility. Automated turrets they activated, started mowing down subjects. There was to be no survivors, however all of the subjects had been infected by Watts-Macleod and they put up more of a fight than was expected. Like, animals backed into a corner.

Some subjects cowered, or panicked; while others tried to escape, or cut a wave of carnage through the Cognite kill teams. The rest is kind of fuzzy, but you remember trying to escape, and the dead bodies, gunshots and fire going on throughout the facility. You remember getting near an exit as reinforcements came in, "Erebos" dropped from a vent shaft covered in blood, slightly wounded. He began to attack the reinforcements, and you took the chance to exit and escape. The weird thing is though he just had a knife, but the personnel were screaming about their heads.

Some people who were subjects in Project Futura got out relatively normal, or, at-least normal enough to act it. Other's though they didn't fair as well, they were broken, or turned into cold-hearted monsters. You know "Erebos," because he was a member of the "Lost Generation," he was one of the later a true, psychic, sociopathic monster. The mental image echoes to "Erebos," covered in blood, coldly killing Cognite personnel during the clean-up effort. He was laughing as they screamed, and the screams ring in your head.




Erebos' morph appears to be a modified Menton, that's been mildly personalized, maybe a Futura. However, there's some missing "watermarks," for that morph design. You know it's special, but you just can't place the exact model/design, it could be as simple as it's just a designer Menton.

[bc56]

"I'd take you up on that offer, but as you can tell, I don't drink." Slake is referring to the fact that he's sleeved in a synth. "Time sensitivity's blown, I assume it's an old case dredged back up?"

[SaturnSolaris]

Erebos frowns, and sighs.

"It's not so much, that it's an old case. As, it took a while for the Argonauts to contact us about it. When they did contact us, it was actually for consulting before I managed to talk them into letting Firewall handle the case."

[jolinaxas]

Yui raised a hand towards the slitheroid.

"What game are you thinking?"

After ordering whatever passed for whiskey here, she figured she might as well entertain herself while she waited for the latecomer.

[Hemnon]

SAM

Finding the offer appealing enough, SAM accessed the Holo-projection Access Node and manifested from it as a vague-humanoid with no features but a bluish-tinted upperbody (the lower fading into digital motes and haze) with a non-specific gender, no hair, the eyes a pair of white orbs. Basically the most bogstandard holo-visual of an Infomorph.
"Thank you for the offer, I shall indeed take use of this to facilitate better communication."

[Eonn]

"Cards perhaps?" Phoenix says with a shrug. With the help of a common AR program, he conjures a deck of playing cards viable to anyone with the same program. He gives the deck a tap and it shuffles itself. "How about poker, scum rules? Who would like a hand?"

[jolinaxas]

With a thought, Yui loaded in her card program as well, letting Phoenix "deal".

"Which swarm? On the Dharma Chameleon, flushes with all primes are their own thing. Not sure who started that one, probably the Défi collective, they're huge math nerds. On The Stars Our Destination, they probably think poker is a tool of the oppressors and don't play it. You know how it goes."

[SaturnSolaris]

"We could play Russian Roulette."

Erebos grins, "Any other takers on drinks?"

[Kaworu]

- Well. I could drink a glass of orange juice... - Mr. Grodzki admitted. He did not play cards, neither was he drinking alcohol, but he guessed he could spend some time with the guys before rushing into the mission.

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM's hololithic form made a curious-frown expression. "Would that offer include an XP sense-simulation of drinking said offered drink, mayhaps?" SAM asked intently, having quite the interest in XPs primarily with a focus on Food and Drink.

[SaturnSolaris]

"It would include that. So that's one XP, one orange juice, and one whiskey"

A few minutes later, a servitor drone comes to the table carrying the tray. Everything is on it, plus a few extras. Erebos shoots the XP software to you SAM.

[Eonn]

Phoenix leans back in the booth, trying to show as much surprise as he can with a robotic face at Yui's reply.

"Well, usually when people ask me what I mean by scum rules, I just make something up. I'd like to think that I'm leaving dozens of very confused individuals in my wake, but I suppose you know enough that you aren't going to fall for that." He then deals out two cards to everyone playing, beginning the first hand.

[SaturnSolaris]

"I linked "scum rules" to no, or, made up rules pretty fast. People actually fall for this?"

Erebos scowls, " I guess there are plenty "suckers," out there.

[bc56]

Slake takes the cards and sits up a bit straighter in his chair, changing his morph to a more neutral gunmetal grey in color. "Amazing how despite all our progress, so many people still fall for the same old tricks, isn't it."

[Hemnon]

SAM

"There's a sucker born every day. Or so says that old earth euphermism." SAM added rather randomly for all the know. That oddity with AGIs after all tends to show in all kinds of moments.

[King539]

While the other people begin their game of poker, Huiqing drinks his glass of whiskey and watches. And thinks. And wonders.

[Degenerate]

At 1815, Hutch approaches the table at a rapid pace. A frustrated look upon his face.

So sorry I'm late, I had to finish up some work at home."

"Hope I haven't missed anything important. If you would be so kind as to catch me up."

He pulls out an empty chair at the table and lowers himself into it with a sigh. He then has Starsky access the bar's menu and orders himself something as close to bourbon as possible and something light to eat. He then looks around the table expectantly.

"Well"

[Eonn]

Pheonix is looking rather frazzled by the time Hutch arrives. Despite the perfect poker face provided by his synthetic morph, he plays rather carelessly often times refusing to fold when doing so would be best.

"You kept us waiting, does that mean you're planning on buying a round for the table?" He says after slamming down a pair of twos. "Read 'em and weep."

[Degenerate]

"Sure, order what you want."
"Are we waiting on anyone else or can we get this moving?"

Hutch eyes the room now. He is looking for any shady characters, especially anyone he may be currently hunting.

[jolinaxas]

As soon as replacement cards were dealt, the scum swore loudly in Japanese.

"Trying for the flush. Serves me right. Pair of twos, though? That's salt in the wound."

She raised her container of whiskey.

"If you're offering. Don't sweat it if your rep is tight."

[SaturnSolaris]

"Two pairs of Two's? I have a Straight, so I guess you win? I did this earlier, but, I better double check."

At the same time, a woman walks into the bar. She walks straight towards the booth you are all sitting at. She looks very similar to Erebos, almost a carbon copy, down to the black and red smart vacsuit.

Erebos intercepts her, before she pulls up a seat and sits down. He turns his back on you, so that you can't see their faces.

"I thought you were still handling the Argonaut's?"

"I handled that about 30 minutes ago, and then I ran down here."

"So, what? You're joining in on the briefing, or are you just hanging around?"

"I think you can handle the briefing. I'm just going to sit down with you all, till you get done. Maybe get some drinks, and some food."

"Fine."

The woman, finishes pulling up her seat. Then Erebos, uses a series of nanodetectors to scan the booth and the surrounding area. He makes a couple of passes, until he's satisfied with the results and then, pulls out two, flat black canisters from inside his vacsuit. He puts them at either end of the booth, turns them on, they begin producing white noise. Then he turns on a specialized hive, an engineer swarm sprays out from the hive, and builds a privacy screen around the booth.

Erebos, then sits down, and sighs.

"Sorry, this is Nyx. She's a fellow proxy, and, I guess you'd call her a sister. We're cloned from the same genetic material."

[SaturnSolaris]

"Now, for the briefing. Approximately a year ago, a destroyer named "The Oppenheimer", owned by the Argonauts and headed to the Kuiper Belt, left Ilmarinen. It had some pretty serious tech on it, including a lot of military hardware, and was being protected by the Medeans. Ten months into their voyage, they disappeared, they never contacted Ilmarinen, or Markov after this point. That was two months ago."

Erebos shoots each of you a video, of a destroyer floating through space. The engines are off, if it wasn't for the movement, and Erebos pointing it out you'd probably miss it.

[bc56]

Slake knows where this is going. "It's turned up? Or are we looking for it?"

[SaturnSolaris]

"It's been found. The Argonauts started to get worried, the captain of The Oppenheimer, one miss Emily Siess, was supposed to contact Ilmarinen, however that never happened. So, a joint effort between Ilmarinen and Markov began to try to find The Oppenheimer. They eventually found it, that footage is from them, using a long-range sensor. That breach in the hull, was from a high-energy concentrated explosion as far as we can tell, however, with the weapons they were armed with, including anti-matter missiles. They should have been able to fight off any pirates, or craft that attacked them. With the Medeans on board, any breaching efforts would have been met with extreme prejudice; no one should have been able to take that ship."

Erebos shoots you a more detailed video, this one is much closer and from various angles. There's no power readings from the reactor, there's debris from the hull breach, and there are several dead bodies floating around the ship. As well as dossiers on the dead Medeans, ship specifications, armaments, etc.

"They sent an anti-matter courier from Markov, to investigate the wreckage. This footage is fairly recent, and from that courier. In the mean time they contacted us, trying to figure out what in the hell did that to their ship. However, we came up empty, current information and logic states that this never should have happened. After some prying, we found out that the ship was on a path to Eris. Intended to wipe Go-Nin off of it's face, and reclaim the Discord Gate."

"We want boots on the ground. However, that's a pretty big distance to cover. The reactor on The Oppenheimer isn't working, it's either been shut-off or damaged, and there's no signs of surviving personnel so we can't egocast there, and if we could there's no one to receive the egos. We have acquired an anti-matter courier, retrofitted with stasis pods, from the Argonaut's for the purpose of this mission. Traveling there from here, should take approximately 160 days.

He shoots you a diagram of the Reactor, and various ways to fix it, or get it turned back on.

"If you accept, when you get there we need you to investigate the wreckage, then re-activate, or repair, the reactor and try to recover any footage of the event's as they transpired. The Argonauts probably could have handled this, but I have a feeling something else is going on here. After your investigation, I need you to send me the information, and I'll decide what to do from there. I know it's asking for a lot, but that's why I was so generous with morphs, and drinks."

[bc56]

"I like a good mystery. I'm in." This'll be a good chance to disappear temporarily too. It's hard to track spaceships in transit, especially if their missions are more secretive.

[Kaworu]

- Well, as an Argonaut, I am obviously in too, even though I am not an enginner and my actions there would probably be limited - admitted Sławomir - But as a doctor I believe I could be of use even if my more academic expertise will be kind of off. Don't you think?

[jolinaxas]

Finishing the last of her whiskey, Yui crouched forward, giving her full attention to the briefing.

"Space combat's not like simulspace games. Doesn't matter how well-armed you are, someone gets a lucky shot and you're holed. Granted, that's usually counterbalanced by the fact that it's really hard to hide anything in the cold black, and the Argonauts would have near-SOTA sensors. This info on the Argonauts' goal checks out? I'm not one of them, but what I do know is that direct, first-strike military action seems way out of their wheelhouse."

Knowing that time was limited already, she started drafting messages to her swarm's militia forum, making up some lie about heading to Earth Orbit to ask after something from her pre-Fall life.

"160 days, that's a while to be down. I need to make some arrangements, but I should be okay. Looks like I'll be loading up, full tac. This is no 'spy games' delicate thing. If we do encounter who did this, what are our standing orders?"

[Eonn]

"Hmm, wonder what could have happened?" Phoenix says, tapping a finger on his metallic chin. "Ghost ships sound fun though, so as long as I can make a backup before shipping off I'm game. Will we be receiving anything as far as weapons and gear go, or will we be expected to buy our own equipment?"

[SaturnSolaris]

Erebos smiles at you Grodzki,

"Mr. Grodzki, with your knowledge on genetics, biology, medicine, and lab work. If this happens to involve some kind of biological agent, or new morphs; you'll be the first to come into contact with it, and do research. You can also help out if anyone get's sick, or wounded."

"Yui, they'd have to have state of the art, (SOTA,) stealth capabilities to sneak up on it. If you look at the specs of The Oppenheimer, their sensors were indeed SOTA, and in several places on the ship. No one in the area should be able to have that kind of stealth capabilities, the Go-Nin Group isn't exactly loved by the Planetary Consortium. Since they're grouped with the Lunar-Lagrange Alliance; they have a contract with the Ultimates. The Ultimates might be able to produce that kind of tech, but Eris shouldn't have seen this coming. As you said, the Argonauts aren't exactly known for first strike military action."

He pulls up some simulations on what could have happened, and runs it through the holographic projector. He mostly hits the major ones, before giving it back to SAM. Naval battle between The Oppenheimer and various other ships, how close a ship should be able to get with the engines off, how close they could get if they shut the reactor down, etc.

"We ran over direct conflict, maybe another destroyer, or a fleet of ships intercepted them. Somehow the information leaked, and Go-Nin sent ships to intercept. But, there should be a lot more debris near that ship, more bodies, probably other ships. We ran over their stated intentions; going to Eris, blowing Go-Nin off of it's face. It checks out the Argonauts, and Ilmarinen were the first group to find the Discord Gate. Go-Nin assaulted them and took the gate, Exhumans assaulted Go-Nin and took the gate, then Go-Nin assaulted the Exhumans and took the gate back. Which leaves us with the Go-Nin Group still owning the Discord Gate, and Eris. A lot of people are still holding a grudge about that. The Oppenheimer was actually built for the express purpose of making Go-Nin wish that they had never taken the gate, and fending off the Exhumans. Maybe the Exhumans did this, if so, they've gotten a lot more dangerous."

"You're to assess the threat, try to get samples if you can. If you can take them, then wipe them out. If not don't waste your bullets, hide, it will take us a while to get out there and retrieve your stacks, or send backup, like an erasure squad. However, if it is some kind of ship, if you can mark it, so we can track it, that would help. You should all be able to make a backup before you leave. As for equipment, we should be able to "borrow" the cornucopia machines and fabbers on Habitat F."

"And I feel like I have to say this, due to shadier practices Firewall servers used to have. Any samples you get, will go to Firewall, specifically the Dusk server. Where it will be researched and then destroyed. As the old earth euphemism goes, we will not collect $200, we will not pass Go."

Erebos goes silent for a bit, taking a moment to breath.

"Now, some of you asked about news, and rumours. We can go over that if you want, or if you have any further questions?

For some reason, I've been reading Erebos' voice as Lemy Kulmister's. Idk why, that isn't what I was going for, but screw it I'm just going with that.

[bc56]

"I assume you want me for my infiltration skills. There are a few things I need that can't be so readily fabricated." Slake comments. "Do you have blueprints for the vessel, or even better, a simulspace replica? I'd like to know the lay of the land and run some sims before we get there."

[King539]

Huiqing looks with poorly-disguised interest at Nyx as she enters before turning back to Erebos and letting him brief them.

"It looks to me like the two main suspects for the attack are Go-nin and the Exhumans. Would that be correct?"

[SaturnSolaris]

Erebos sighs, then looks at Slake.

"Slake, we've already accrued several favors, and payed several credits, to get some of you the morphs you're wearing for this mission, to borrow the anti-matter courier for this mission, and to bribe for time in Habitat F to produce any gear you need. We've blown our budget at the moment, so tell me what you need, and I'll tell you if I can get it. As for a display of the ship, it's attached to the specifications I sent you."

Then switches to Huiqing.

"Yes, Go-nin and the Exhumans are the two most likely, "suspects.""

[bc56]

"I was mainly referring to the ship blueprints, but I could use a COT. I can fab the rest of my gear." Slake mentally calls to Conscience. Display the ship blueprints. As the image appears in his vision, he glances over it to determine the general details.

[jolinaxas]

"Got it. I'm cheap to fab for, some plastic spray weapons and a few bits of investigative tech. The vacseal job we needed to sleeve in a biomorph here will be plenty helpful in a holed ship."

She forwarded her requests to Erebos and pondered how to best use the intervening time, the simulations he'd displayed running through her head.

[Degenerate]

Hutch listens intently to the ongoing conversation.

"160 days to get to the ship? How do you know anything will be left by the time we get there?"

[SaturnSolaris]

"Yui, you should be able to fab you're own equipment. I was more talking to Slake, because I thought he was asking for something specific, and rare."

Erebos pulls up a map, centered on The Oppenheimer. He highlights nearby habitats, including Eris.

"The Oppenheimer, stopped about 2 months away from their destination. For most craft, that's about a 4 months journey from Eris. The surrounding Habitat's are on average, at minimum 6 months away, and usually more. There are craft that can cover these times, in half, or a quarter of the standard time. The Oppenheimer is a fairly large ship, it would take a while to dismantle it. So, it should still be there when you get to it. It is possible, that whoever . . . whatever, attacked the ship, erased the data on the ship and covered their tracks. But, you should be able to hack into the system and find archived date, it may be missing in some places, but we should be able to put together an idea of what happened off of that. There were also several passengers, who likely recorded events. It may be possible that, that information was "wiped" as well. However, we have you "Hutch", and Huiqing here, who are experienced with investigations, you should be able to find some clues."

[Eonn]

"Sounds like a relatively straight forward mission." Phoenix says. "Go to the place, get the thing, come back sort of thing. Once question though, for the fabber. How much material we going to be able to print, and we going to have access to 'fun' blueprints?"

The scum already has a shopping list of toys in his head for the mission, besides his usual kit. Knowing how much he'd be able to actually print would help him pare down his list.

[SaturnSolaris]

"You should have enough materials to replicate the gear you had previously, plus maybe one or two items, depending on the size, and materials required. Any restrictions on the cornucopia machines and fabbers are set to "disappear," for the time we have allotted. But, that depends on what you consider fun. Slake, you should be able to make a COT. If not, come to me, I have a couple and I can loan one. I'm not leaving here anytime soon."

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM was using the holoprojector's sensors, as well as it's basic-link to gain observational info on everyone present without making the 'stares creepily' part, since there was no use or capability of doing so, since the holo-image was turned to focus on Erebos, while every sensor possible as well as Huiqing's own sensory perceptions were used (if allowed, since Huiqing could very much shut off access to his mesh and own sensory perceptions if he wished).

SAM wasn't particularly secretive about it, so anyone able to notice that they were being observed, somehow, would clearly notice SAM's focus.

[King539]

Huiqing allows SAM access to his enhanced senses, but messages them to ask why they need them.

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM returned the message with a response about creating a psych profile of their Teammates, just like the one SAM had made for Huiqing a good few years back.

[Kaworu]

Sławomir still was unsure about his ability to bring a value to this mission, but diceded he would go out of pure duty. Maybe there was some kind of biological factor behind this, but it seemed unlikely for him. Still, he was not only a geneticist, but also a chemist, doctor and he even had some IT training. He prommised himself that he would do anything to help other Argonauts.

However, as his skills were... of different sort, he stayed quiet where others were talking about infiltrations and equipment they were about to bring with themselves.

- I have a fabber. I could share - was all he had said.

[SaturnSolaris]

"Are there any more questions, or matter's any of you would like to discuss? Erebos asks, and waits for an answer. He finishes his glass of whiskey, which has been sitting there since before he started his briefing.

[King539]

"I do not think there is anything else I need to know."

Huiqing then stands up and walks away quickly, queuing up orders for one of the public fabbers.

[SaturnSolaris]

You get a message about 30 minutes after leaving, from Erebos.

"I'm going to assume you recognized me, it's good to see that you lived. I will remain quiet about your origins, so long as you do the same for me. Eventually though, they will figure out who and what you are. I hope that they're understanding, some people react with fear, even panic, at the thought of Asyncs. The Lost Generation isn't exactly loved, Cognite ran a good PR campaign. Not all of us are monsters, some, like yourself, managed to escape fairly normal."





You scanned the room, no one here is a person of interest. Other than the group you are sitting down with, no one here really seems all that weird or shady. The closest thing to bourbon you could order, however, obviously isn't all that close. There's not a whole lot of wood being grown that can be used to make the charred barrels, that bourbon was aged in. The hard water is easier to replicate, and that's what people focus on; but, all in all it doesn't taste that much different from any other whiskey, real or synthetic.





Erebos has a heavy pistol on his side, it's holstered but visible. It's just a personal sidearm, in case something goes down.

[Hemnon]

SAM

Just before Huiqing left the connection area for the Holoprojector, SAM curiously asked.... with a very deadpan and thoughtless "Say, Erebos, did you spend all evening last night practicing this meeting?" Was all SAM managed to say before Huiqing had gone too far away and the connection to the projector was cut.

The moment they both left the privacy field and such, SAM would of course instantly activate the Radio Motion Detector, as it usually did.

[Eonn]

"Right, well looks like we're done here then." Phoenix says as the group begins to depart. "I'm going to go gear up at the fabber, maybe download a VR game or two for the ride over. See you all on the ship!" And with that, Phoenix slithers his was out of the bar.

[SaturnSolaris]

"Yes. That would appear to be so. I will be contacting you."

Erebos stands up and activates another specialized hive, this one sets a disassembler swarm to deconstruct the privacy screen. He then turns off the white noise generators, and walks off, with Nyx following him. She mentions something about not getting to order anything.

[Degenerate]

Hutch doesn't see any purpose to this mission. He will, however, keep that to himself.

"Well, I'll see the rest of you on the ship."

Having nothing else in particular to do, Hutch heads to the ship.

"Find out as much info as you can about our compatriots." Hutch silenty tells Starsky as he walks to the docking area.

[bc56]

Slake nods in farewell to the others and heads to the fabricators to make some equipment. He wants to make a COT, three more containers of Scrapper's Gel, and a spare length of fiberoptic cable

[Kaworu]

Sławomir simply went out of the bar, to gather his things and prepare himself. He was reading his scientific ebooks, wondering what wonders and dangers he might encounter.

[jolinaxas]

Yui quickly acquired a vac-jumpsuit more suited to her specifications and some orbital hash, dressed and smoked, and then sat down to watch the fabber lathe the smooth plastic of her spray weapons and nano-assemble the small shards and expanding freeze-foam ammunition they needed. She often let others queue-jump, figuring that the more specialized equipment some of her team members might need would take a long time anyway.

[SaturnSolaris]

You congregate in your respective spots, many of you at the fabbers in Habitat F. A few of your items are defective when you first fabricate them, but you're able to disassemble them and re-fabricate. Other than that, it goes off without a hitch. You work into the small hours of the morning, roughly at 5:00 to 6:00 hours, fabricating everything. Although, that distinction means less and less as you travel rimward, and further from the sun. Distinctions in artificial lighting being your main indicators of what time of day it is, without checking a clock. Habitat F is eerily quiet as you work, the lights dim with time being on an automatic adjustment schedule. Traffic is low, and no one bothers you as you work and wait, and work, and wait.

Erebos and Nyx walk out of an airlock at roughly 00:00. He sends you a message, letting you know that the fast courier has been docked in Habitat F, ready for your departure. The courier is docked to a loading bridge, with two airlocks, one at the entrance of Habitat F, and the other at the entrance to the courier. After, likely, multiple trips you get everything stored in the cargo bay and hull. The fast courier is pretty dull itself, a lackluster light grey interior with a simple, but functional design. The cargo bays have been modified a bit to make room for stasis pods, and it lacks bunks. You will be traveling at break neck speeds for most of the trip, so that isn't much of a problem. You'll likely want to either step in a pod, or, power down and strap yourself in for a large part of the voyage.

If anyone checks the cargo bay, you will find a number of cots for makeshift bedding, as well as a couple of portable fabricators, and a quantum farcaster. There is also a table and maker for dining in the main body of the craft.

As said the trip will take 160 days, you will be pumping antimatter to accelerate to the appropriate speed, then coasting to near the Oppenheimer, before the ship begins corrections and deceleration. All you have to do is tell the A.I. you're ready to head out.

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM instantly accessed the Ship's network in order to much better explore on it's own by using internal ship-sensors, cameras, etc. Relaying any and all findings to Huiqing, of course.

[jolinaxas]

Yui eyed the courier warily.

"So we should probably wake up in shifts every once in a while along the way. Unless the infolife and synths want to go crazy without us."

She insisted on a final check of her data inventory, something her muse insisted was unnecessary and distracting. Maybe she'd stay defrosted for a week or two and really start working on some of that programming...

"Ready when you all are."

[Kaworu]

- I'm ready too - said Sławomir, looking at the stasis pods. Which one should he get? It was kinda childish of him, but as some people wanted top beds in bunk beds, he wanted the most "cool" pod - even if all were of the same quality.

[bc56]

Slake chuckles when Yui mentions sleeping. "It'll be a robot party, all night, every night." He gets ready to board, and begins studying the information on the target. He has no idea what they're walking into, and he wants to be prepared.

[Eonn]

"Hey, I'd be up for that." Phoenix replies to Slake as he boards the vessel. "No sense wasting that time, anyhow. I might just spend the whole trip VR gaming!"