Sea of Stars - IC III

[Leon]

++Not Confident of any degree of Success++
++I would have better luck in expediting Data removal++

[PotatoGolem]

I suppose that's my cue. Praetorians! Fall back, double time! He turns and looks back. Do try not to get yourself killed, Anika. Awfully hard to make new old friends, what? With a chuckle, he ignites his jump pack and leaps away. Once he makes it back to the lift, he starts helping the Praetorians and Rings ascend with his jump pack and power board. He then waits at the top for Anika and Ravia to come back into view.

[Haval]

To Ravia, 'I assume it's a matter of finding the right wire to cut, but let's not push our luck then. Come help me with the data stacks. I'm not going to leave anything behind if I can help it.' Anika will do her best to mentally do the count in her head. They would only have so much time to get out of here.

To Macharius, 'I will work on that.'

Spoiler: ooc

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Going to leave any roll to Ravia with Anika assisting

[Destro_Yersul]

With the careful search operation very rapidly and forcibly turned into a smash-and-grab, the team set about stripping the lab as fast as possible. Several of the rings grabbed armloads of tech and damaged components and ran for the lift, while Granos oversaw the lifting operation on the much heavier datastacks. Unfortunately, there was no way to tell which ones had valuable information on them, and there wasn't time on the countdown to get them all, even with Echo's clever solution to boosting them up the ladder. At the very least, the navigator's implant would give them a perfect reconstruction of the scene as it was. That wouldn't save whatever was hidden on the lost stacks, though. There were simply too many of them, and they needed time to get clear as well, so they couldn't cut it too close to the wire.

Working quickly, Anika ripped out wires, lugged servers, and piled armloads of material into the makeshift harness. By the time four minutes had passed, she had saved most of the stacks. There was maybe time to grab one more, but she risked cutting it very close on the timer.

[Haval]

Anika is fully aware that she's not much of an athlete and will regretfully leave the last the last few datastacks before heading for the elevator. She had no idea how big a bomb Thule had left behind and she had pushed her luck in staying this long.

[Blarghy]

Kennoch wasted no time in waddling hastily back to the lift, his voidsuit clanking all the way. He and his personal guard didn't stop there; once they'd seen the lesser Rings bring their hopefully-useful cargo to safety, the Navis made for a shuttle. A large explosion in the hive would presumably draw attention from the Arbites, even if they investigated more slowly than they might at the higher levels. While Echo had full confidence in his Captain's ability to explain this situation to the authorities, he also preferred to hear about it secondhand, back aboard the Sting.

[Destro_Yersul]

Anika was the last one out. She made it to the platform and started up as a muffled boom echoed through the hall leading to Thule's shop. A wash of dust and grime billowed out of the open doorway. The walls rattled, and the lift creaked and swayed over the drop into the ventilation shaft. It kept rising, but halfway up the winch whirred, clicked, and went dead, the lift jolting to a halt. Anika couldn't quite reach the safety of the upper platform, and the winch was emitting some extremely distressing strained metal sounds.

[PotatoGolem]

Macharius springs into action, firing up his pack's thrusters to fly down to Anika and lift her out. He hands her the power board to hold on to as a sort of aerial life preserver as he pulls her to safety. I did tell you not to die, old sport. Falling to your death now would be quite insubordinate, hoho!

[Leon]

++A smaller boom than i was expecting but no reason to tarry now++
++Any amount of Boom will drawn unwanted attention even down here++

[Destro_Yersul]

The jolt of Macharius landing on the platform was too much for the tormented winch. The whole lift shuddered, and then the winch gave out with a crack and the lift plunged down the shaft. Macharius was able to grab Anika and rocket the pair of them back to safety, leaving the lift just as it began to fall. The echoing rumbles of the bomb detonating were now joined by metallic bangs and shrieks as the platform smashed past the stilled ventilation fan in a shower of sparks and clanged its way down the shaft.

The walls hadn't stopped shaking, though, and as the rumblings grew more violent it became clear that the bomb must have damaged something structural to this sector, and the weight of the city above was straining to settle. The group made a rapid escape, followed all the way by the sound of thousands of tonnes of metal and ferrocrete settling behind them.

Only once they were again safe did they have a chance to examine the materials they had taken from the now-buried workshop. The datastacks did indeed prove to contain notes and records of the people Thule had done work for, mostly codified. It would be exceptionally difficult to work out who all had done everything. There were also several video files, probably taken from picters he'd installed around the area, and audio from hidden vox pickups in the shop. Put together, a hidden clue to the stalker's identity was almost certainly here. The trick would be finding it.

[Haval]

Anika will spend a few panicked moments looking around for something to hold onto. If neccessary she only needed to hold onto something for long enough for one of the others to come down to get her. Assuming the ceiling wasn't about to collapse on all their heads anyway.

When Macharius arrives she'll wrap both arms around the power board even as the floor collapsed beneath her. 'Whatever would I do without you?'

To Ravia, 'I'm more worried about how much collateral damage we managed to do. But if Thule managed to set his bomb next to anything load bearing I'd say we don't want to be anywhere near the mess.'

As soon as possible Anika will try to get to somewhere where she can investigate the evidence they'd recovered.

Spoiler

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Tech-Use vs. Int 53
(1d100)[70]

[Leon]

++Thule likely wished to leave the Hive quaking at his passing++

[Blarghy]

Kennoch didn't have the skills for breaking codes and ciphers, but he diligently put himself in charge of audio and video records. With cords running from the MIU in his skull to a series of dataslates and stacks, and the lens of his Memorance Implant hovering above screen after screen, he tried to piece together some information. He sorted images of visiting clients by person, referenced the dates to make timelines, and paired the still-shots to their audio files from the vox. Kennoch made a separate collection with the clearest and most direct picts of each person who came to the lab, plus of course, a pile all its own for any instance of the Stalker. He used his own data, too--the records from his Memorance Implant--of the entire lab. By the end of his work, Echo was conscripting junior officers to help him build a to-scale model of Thule's workshop and position simple miniatures of him, his clients, his servitors, and finally his killer, to demonstrate the movements of each person during their encounters, conjoined with their vox records. The Navigator then presented his findings to the rest of the command staff for further analysis.

Spoiler

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Trade (Remembrancer) (51): (1d100)[97]

[PotatoGolem]

Macharius knows when skills are out of his wheelhouse, and using technology certainly fits that bill. However, what he is good at is telling other people what do do. As such, he directs all non-essential tech-adepts and junior officers to assist the tech team in their work, so as to make the task more manageable.

[Leon]

On returning to the ship Ravia will deposit anything she was carrying related to the off ship excursion including the Bucket of Thule and disappear back to what she was doing prior to leaving. She will leave skull on station if anyone wishes to speak with her about anything.

[Haval]

Anika will spend some time accessing the recovered datastacks so that she could have all the relevant files in the same place before she passed them onto Echo. There was every chance that some of the data had been corrupted due to the way that they had recovered it and she'll do her best to clean everything up. She would just have to hope that Thule had known what he was doing.

Unfortunately there was a lot of data to work through. To the others, 'I believe that this is why the Administratum exists. Throw enough personnel at a research problem and they'll turn something up eventually. Of course we can't guarantee that the evidence we're looking for is even here.' Anika is well aware of how much of the datastacks she was obliged to leave behind. 'I believe I might take all this back to the Sting. Perhaps Hannabel's 'friend' can help us out.' Anika continues her habit of never saying Galimina's name where someone not in the loop might hear about it. 'Failing that I suppose I could see how many Tech Priests I can gather up.'

Before Anika returns to the Sting she will call ahead. 'Hannabel, I think we're turned something up. The Stalker decided that her Heretek associate was better off dead in case he talked to us, but this person liked to record the people he was meeting with. Perhaps our new friend would like to review some of the footage.'

[rax]

"Did she now? That does sound interesting," Hannabel replied. "I'm sure our friend will be able to help with that if I explain the urgency of the matter. Hells, I'll dig into it myself if she won't. Going stir crazy up here anyway..."

[Destro_Yersul]

Anika did her best to clean things up, but if they were missing or corrupted there was only so much she could do. Even without whatever had been on the missing servers though, there was a lot to go through. Fortunately for Echo's side of the work, everything was time-stamped, so putting it in chronological order was easy, and searching up the most recent recordings turned up a few clean images of the Stalker from before the cameras went down. You couldn't see her face, not entirely, part of it being covered by the suit, but she looked like a younger woman. There was enough for him to put together complete reconstructions of the event, as well. Echo got a pretty good idea of the Stalker's capabilities.. and that gave him some cause for concern. The suit must have enhanced her capabilities far beyond normal. The servitors had been armed with heavy weapons, and there were a handful of bullet holes in the walls, but no blood splatter. She had danced through the gunfire without ever being hit. She had also, as far as he could tell, torn the turret apart manually. There wasn't enough shearing to suggest primarily blade damage, and even the finest sword would have had trouble enough with the armoured turret anyways.

So, they had a baseline comparison point, some worrying conclusions, and a huge backlog of files to get through. Which was where Anika's trip to orbit came in. Galimina was more than happy to assist, once Hannabel brought the question to her, and was uniquely suited to rapidly assessing data. They armed her with Echo's findings, and set her lose on the stacks. Within the hour, she'd come back with a conclusion.

"This is your culprit, I am certain," she said, her head pivoting to the smile plate. In her hand, she held up a slate, displaying a recording from the workshop's picters. It showed a woman wearing leathers and furs, and a hood against the damp of the underhive. She was alone, bringing no bodyguards, but walked with a dancer's grace and carried a sword at her hip. Despite this, she seemed ill at ease with her surroundings, unused to descending to the Hive's depths, if she could help it.

"My facial recognition patterns had some difficulty confirming it, as in the original image located by the Fate-Haunted One her face was much obscured, but I have taken comparisons from multiple angles and scrutinised the smallest details." She switched to a frown, and continued. "I believe, though, that this may complicate matters. The woman in this photo is... influential. If you take this evidence to the Scintillan authorities, they will ask where you got it, and that may implicate me. I wish to remain hidden, for now."

[rax]

"Who?! Who is she? You must speak her name!" Hannabel hissed, staring intently at the image.

[Haval]

On Scintilla Anika will watch the footage of the Stalker at work. 'That is not someone I want to meet in person. Maybe if Felidae was still with us.'

On the Sting Anika will be in the room with Hannabal and whatever recaff she was able to scrouge up. 'Telling the Commissariat might not be neccessary, but I would be happier knowing why she has been behaving like this. I would be especially happy knowing that she wasn't going to visit one of my family at some point.'

[Destro_Yersul]

To Anika, the woman looked oddly familiar, though she couldn't quite place her. The reason why was explained a moment later, when Galimina answered Hannabel's question.

"Lady Kindjal, the younger. The great-niece from Thracian Primaris? She has attempted to disguise herself using clothing to which she is unaccustomed, but it is her."

[rax]

"I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" Hannabel exulted. "The old hag is up to something and this is part of it!" she declared confidently.

[Haval]

Anika rubs her eyes at the sight. 'I suppose that explains the auspex readings. The Kindjals have a pet Jokaero in their house to build her tech for her.'

To Hannabel, 'But for what purpose? Is there any chance she's acting for herself? I can't see anyone who does this being the most well adjusted person.'

To Galimina, 'How easy would it be to doctor the evidence and pretend we found this information through Thule? For all everyone knows perhaps Thule had a backup camera.'

[rax]

Spoiler: Destro and Haval

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OOC: Hooray! Back to spoilers!

"Do you remember I told you that the Countess is a survivor? She's been around a long time - longer than anyone has a right to, really. I don't know this "niece" of hers, but I'll wager that whatever's driving her to kill is tied up with some need of the Countess'," Hannabel replied.

[Destro_Yersul]

To Galimina, 'How easy would it be to doctor the evidence and pretend we found this information through Thule? For all everyone knows perhaps Thule had a backup camera.'

"The concern is primarily the timeline. It is easy to say you got the evidence from Thule's shop - you did, you have the originals, despite a conspicuous smoking crater where the workshop used to be. The activities of the Fate-Haunted One can be replicated if necessary. No. My fear is that a trained investigator will look at the collection of datastacks, and ask how you got through them so quickly. How you found the evidence that was there, amidst a filing system you did not create or understand, without some sort of assistance. Given an unsatisfactory answer, it is my belief that the more suspicious of minds will begin to fill in the blanks for themselves, and they will not like what they find."

[Haval]

Spoiler: Destro and Rax

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'A member of the highborn training a member of their family to be an assassin? It's unusual but not difficult to believe. But it raises the question of what motivates the elder Lady Kindjal in the first place. Unless you have something specific to suggest on that matter?' Anika doesn't really expect an answer and moves on. 'The question is really what we intend to do about it?'

To Galimina, 'And we don't want anyone who knows what they're doing to be looking at us with suspicion. I quite agree. That just means that taking this to the Commissariat isn't really an option. Perhaps I could see if I can talk Macharius into dueling her in a public setting.'

[rax]

Spoiler: Destro and Haval

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"Assassin sounds so cool and professional, but I believe you've observed earlier that the killings weren't quick and clean, but quite savage?" Hannabel answers. "I think this smacks of anger or desperation, rather than cool premeditation. If I was to hazard a guess, I would say the Countess is trying to stave off her inevitable end, and the killings are somehow connected to that."

[Haval]

Spoiler: Rax and Destro

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'You make it sound like the niece is an extension of her aunt's will. What are the chances that she's not? I realise she's the heir but there's only so much bad behaviour that that excuses unless she stands to benefit from it herself.'

[rax]

Spoiler: Destro and Haval

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"I...I don't know for sure that any of my suppositions about the Countess' niece are true," Hannabel admits. "I don't know her, but I do know the Countess - much more than I'd like to," she sighs.

"Lady Vanhal - Anika - does the name Belisarius Cawl mean anything to you?" she asks with sudden intensity.

[Haval]

Spoiler: Rax and Destro only

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Anika has to think for a moment. 'Cawl the Wandering Magos? I've heard it's just a story, or at any rate it seems a little implausible if it's not. He's supposed to be some prominent Tech-Priest from the Scouring who appears in council records in connection with Guilliman, but what he was doing there I couldn't say.' In the case of Cawl Anika preferred to treat what she'd heard with some scepticism. 'The most entertaining part of the story is all the people who show up claiming to be Cawl in later eras. I'm not sure even one of the Mechanicus can live that long but I can't say I've ever been in a position to confirm it. All in all the story is about on the same level as the one about Vulkan still being out there somewhere.' Anika will watch Hannabal with curiousity. 'I really should ask where you heard the name? Or have you been reading historical works without telling me.'

Spoiler: ooc

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Obscure enough to be worth a roll

Scholastic Lore (Archaic)
vs. Int 53
(1d100)[37]