(taps forehead) can't steal what already belongs to you [Midweek 3]

[okanetendo]

I don't know what you did or how you did it, you have to teach us that trick

But it's probably a good thing you did because hooboy is Erebus dirty



Okay backing up. Nabiki Tendou here... or Faith Maxwell. Or the Operator. I infiltrated as an office lady with ambitions of selling out The Company, like you do when The Company has a glass ceiling... until whatever stupid brain trick Naoki pulled got my head out of her ass.

Anyway if you heard from an Operator, that was her trying to set up a black market. For cheaper than the Company.

In the course of her social engineering for salable secrets she found some memos indicating something interesting. A good... wanna say dozen... of the cows were intended to be charity. Sent to Piratetown.

...RR. I meant Ridge Rock. It's Piratetown on the CB radio.

There's no way Faith or her career at least is gonna survive pointing this out unless she - we - make Erebus' blatant theft go public in a big, big way. And it'll help Piratetown survive stealing them back.

I think Sheriff Stick Up Her Ass is hidebound enough to be a Key to this little Lock. Give her evidence and let her make the biggest bust in Martian history. Given enough protection.

So. What are our options?

Comments

[razorblade_empress]

At least this version of the sheriff's probably approachable - the Infiltrator in her role last time was... not.

Has Faith had to deal with this one before?

[okanetendo]

With the Sheriff? Faith's a company girl doing invisible infrastructure work, she's not untouchable but she's pretty insulated from the Law. She mostly knows her from memos as 'who not to call when you want a problem solved cause she's "nosy,"' which makes me instantly respect her.

With Corp gonna Corp? Constantly, but I think this is the first time she's realized just how dirty her dayjob is. She can live with her night job being grubby, but this-

[razorblade_empress]

I was thinking the first one, but good to know either way.

A sheriff who's "nosy" seems like she could be useful here, if she can be diverted from the cattle thieves long enough.

[okanetendo]

If all else fails I could turn myself in... to her, and only her. Tell her I'd love to be able to stand trial.

Saving that as my Hail-Mary play, though.

[razorblade_empress]

I think ideally, you'd want this info spread as far and wide as possible as quickly as possible - the fewer targets Erebus has to deal with, the better it is for them.

[okanetendo]

Yeah, no, I've got an idea.

Think I'm going to call the Skipper of Piratetown and send them a very long resume. It's a risk for him, but if anyone would know who to tell...

[razorblade_empress]

...It'd be a politician, especially one from "Piratetown." Yeah, that sounds good.

[reallymean]

Was their destination designated by higher-ups on their homeworld, or were the cattle sent by other concerns or private citizens?

[okanetendo]

Charities from Earthside, of course.

Does Erebus strike you as doing anything for free, your Majesty?

[reallymean]

For free? No. But I'd be a terrible ruler if I didn't understand the power publicity, both good and otherwise.

Can you get the names of the concerns that did send the cattle? If there's evidence of the intended diversion, they might be quite interested, both in it and in the resolution of current events - and if they're wealthy enough to send livestock to another planet so early in their people's forays into space travel, they're wealthy enough to cause problems for the de facto rulers of this colony.

[okanetendo]

You wound me. Of course we copied the memos. And signed for them.

And hey, you’re preaching to the choir. You can’t buy good customers, but you can damn sure sell them.

[reallymean]

Good. That's one line of defense for our friends and their cows.

The general public offworld might be another - I suspect Erebus doesn't have half so strong a powerbase on Earth as they do here - though they might be more interested if we could get some footage of the state of affairs in Ridge Rock, and of the abuses committed by Erebus security.

a little later

[okanetendo]

Gelus Vitae's spokewoman is one of ours, right?

[reallymean]

Felicia Wheeler? I don't believe she's a Traveler.

[triggerhappytraitor]

If we can let the locals know the situation, that should be able to get things started.

Especially if you can get evidence that we can share.

[okanetendo]

Sharing this evidence is fast becoming her big concern. As well as not being discovered as the leaker.

You provide the Internet drop-box, she’ll give the paydata. May as well pay Faith for it and help protect her after we’re gone, too.

[triggerhappytraitor]

I can provide an untraceable, invisible, nearly undetectable pick up of anything physical, if she has it.

Or arrange for a pair of armored heroes to very viably break and enter.

[okanetendo]

...Ooh, are you that mysterious armored fella wandering around outside the domes?

I’ve always wanted to be kidnapped; why should Akane have all the fun? Gives Faith a good sob story afterwards, she can live off the insurance.

I can imagine my lines now. “You don’t understand, they had battlesuits and guns, I had no choice!”

[triggerhappytraitor]

The centaur said armored Rider was with. But I have my own armor as well.

[[And while he knows he's not so good at acting... he can follow Sento's lead well enough, he's pretty sure. ]]

[okanetendo]

Centaur.

Subtlety, thy name is Traveller.

[triggerhappytraitor]

[[Riders gotta be Riders~]]

It was for a distraction, so we were going for the opposite of subtle.

[okanetendo]

I wasn’t complaining - just imagine me rolling my eyes.

Actually, you know what, maybe I can make it so you don’t have to imagine too hard if you can teach me to think it at you.

what's up guys

[carbonatedscientist]

I'm up for a little bit of a performance, should it come to that.

[Hello, he's been mentioned.]

And it's all a matter of thinking very hard, I've found. Focusing on the image that's to be projected.

Oh hey~

[triggerhappytraitor]

[[Ah, there you are]]

If you wouldn't mind. My acting skill... is limited.

[carbonatedscientist]

Whereas I've been hamming it up for the locals already.

I think I can handle it.

[okanetendo]

Looking forward to it. Always liked a little drama in my life.

[leftbehindagain]

We have some different network tricks than you guys do, so whether it can be taught depends on what's already in your arsenal. [And is doomed to be lost to them come Moebius, but that's not something Naoki's going to drop on these guys. Besides, if it can help them in the meantime, they should have it.]

Does your group have people who can share their memories on the network?

[Given the brain-computer business, he's pretty sure that's a yes, but it's better to double-check.]

[okanetendo]

A few. I'm better at liminal side, but network side seems like stuff I should brush up on anyway.

[leftbehindagain]

That's a good start.

Do you, that you know of, have people who pry into other Travelers' minds, or failing that, their private conversations? It's an ugly necessity for de-infiltrating. [If anyone's been caught snooping on conversations, he suspects mind-reading wouldn't be much of a leap away.]

Private, unsecured

[okanetendo]

It's possible. I'm not someone who can, and frankly I shouldn't be trusted with it. But what else does it involve?

make that double-protected

[leftbehindagain]

That's it, as far as I can tell. De-infiltrating someone is finding the piece of their mind that's still there within an infiltrator and giving it control again.

Actually getting someone out of the infiltrator and into their own body is considerably more difficult, without resorting to killing the infiltrator. But sometimes it's more useful to be in control and still able to access local stuff without raising suspicion.

thank u naoki

[okanetendo]

...if you've got time, I'd be forever grateful for a run down of more advanced messaging.

[leftbehindagain]

Advanced in what sense?

Bern already knows these but uhh... how I advance Bern psi skills??

[okanetendo]

Like what you're doing right now. Telephony rather than text. It's part of what you need to know to send memories, right?

gearing toward sensory eavesdrop/image projection seems the most logical?

[leftbehindagain]

...You know, I'm not even sure if half of us would qualify this as livestreaming. After a while I think we just expected the network to carry tone instead of just text. But yes, that is part of sharing memories, that and backreading the network.

Livestreaming's basically treating yourself as the camera - or microphone, or whatever sensory input you're trying to share with everyone. We have at least one person who tends to use it to yell on the network directly. [Less so than Eren used to, but that's definitely happened.]

I know it's possible to project an image of yourself onto the network too, and use it more like a video call, but I've never seen much point to doing that.

It does at that, and Berne doesn't have Image Projection

[okanetendo]

...Let's start with basic image projection. Photography, with the mind's eye as a viewfinder, yeah? That's how I've heard others talk about it.

Send me a psychic Polaroid? Might help to know what it feels like.

[leftbehindagain]

It might, at that.

[The view she gets via the network is one of the Gelus Vitae establishments, most likely the one in the city. Naoki hasn't really strayed far from the bar, but then, they're good sources of information, and cows aren't his strong point.]

[okanetendo]

Aha. I think I got it. It's not just thinking loudly - it needs texture, if that makes sense.

...you'll pardon me if I try this on the incriminating evidence, right?

[leftbehindagain]

I certainly won't blame you.

[dino_zarf]

You mean someone already had the same general notion we did and it was Ereberus that got sneaky?

[THat's... interesting...]

It took me a while to figure out pulling people out of overlays, but they're always there underneath.

[okanetendo]

...criminal minds think alike? Don't look at me.

Of course, this means we can turn the screws on The Company in various interesting and diverting ways.

[dino_zarf]

Usually the idea behind a life of crime is getting to be creative. But I guess "Give people something to provide food long term" make sense.

Always up for a bit of turning the tables on shady companies.