Idiotic Word Games

[awitchdidit]

[Sent after very carefully setting up Psychic Protection II to exclude Kinji, just in case.]

While we're sharing information, our inestimable communications analyst Kanji Tatsumi has shared an intercepted communication from some of the locals searching for Dara. It's couched in confidential terms, but frankly it's barely encoded...unless the obvious cipher is a decoy. Here's the message in its entirety, with the obvious code words conveniently emphasized:

"OPERATION COLORLESS GREEN critical update - Suspect operatives from WESTMOST KOREA GARDEN who knew FURIOUS IDEA are protecting it from ALEXANDROS. In addition, further information about HEARTBEAT discovered. Will dispatch SILENT CHARIOT with further details.

"Urgently request communication to FLYING RAPIER under ATHENA GIFT protocol."

Most of these are simple: COLORLESS GREEN is the operation name, which means FURIOUS IDEA must be Dara. COLORLESS GREEN IDEAS SLEEP FURIOUSLY probably refers to the particular intelligence she has and that certain people want.

WESTMOST KOREA GARDEN would normally have me cracking into an atlas, or craving kimchi, but I think I can get it from context. Munghungwa Dynamics is Dara's former place of employment, if I'm not mistaken. They're a century or so's romanization drift from what I know as Korea's national flower, the Mughungwa, or Rose of Sharon. Either that or this is about mung beans, which are still culinarily Korean/Chinese and still making me hungry.

ALEXANDROS is a Greek word meaning "Defender of Man". This almost certainly refers to the ESDF. Likewise, ATHENA'S GIFT could be said to be wisdom...or the more specific mythological reference, the Shield of Aegis. It's...it's AEGISCorp. Very obviously.

HEARTBEAT would seem to indicate Doki Doki no Gakuen, the school at which the previous Jaunt in this world occurred...and where people met Dara to begin with. While that might be interesting, it could more metaphorically refer to S. Tech or the Emodriver frames. We should still probably check in on our alma mater.

The only one I'm stuck on is FLYING RAPIER, but that's likely a warship, perhaps the (Prince) Valiant? Or maybe the Aurigans' Sword of Empire?

The most interesting word here is SILENT CHARIOT, though...the "Auriga" constellation is of course referred to as "The Chariot"...and therefore a silent chariot would be an Aurigan spy.


Given this and other revelations, I think we need to speak to "David Texxant" at the earliest possible opportunity. And while we're at it, we need to make sure to investigate Munghungwa if we want to find Dara.

Of course, if I'm entirely off here, anyone is free to correct me. The more brains are on detective work, the faster it goes, after all.

Comments

[razorblade_empress]

I don't mind talking to him if no one else wants the job. He seemed to at least tolerate me.

[awitchdidit]

If he actually is a double-agent of some sort, we'll need a way to secure him if he tries to bolt. Even just turning him back into Kinji would likely work, wouldn't it?

Assuming it actually is him again.

[razorblade_empress]

Memory restoration's not currently in my skillset, unless someone wants to give me a crash course in doing it. Or if someone else wants to do it instead.

[thornsofmalkav]

I can teach it... but I already used up my Jaunt's worth of it. Not that it mattered in the long run.

[Somebody sounds pretty damn bitter about something.]

[crouching_sin]

I can do it... though I think we might want to try that on Katsuragi.

[awitchdidit]

I'm not sure which is more dangerous, but getting Katsuragi on our side is the more likely to derail whatever horrible things the ESDF is doing, so we should stick with that plan, I think.

[thornsofmalkav]

He's already investigating Takumi for me. I guess I should have figured he was already someone else's spy—this definitely wasn't his first rodeo.

[awitchdidit]

Now that's a horse of a different color.

[razorblade_empress]

Yeah, about that guy - did you know he's telepathic too? Because he is.

[helborn]

Booooooo.

[thornsofmalkav]

[Enjoy the mental version of hysterical laughter.]

[crouching_sin]

If it's The Chariot, I suppose we know who the other Arcana this match is, then.

This was sent out from EDSF space? Or towards it?

[Private, Protected]

I didn't share everything on that last message - but 'Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously' is a passcode. The Admiral used it when raising my clearance.

'Computer. Raise Lieutenant Adam Caine's clearance: authorize Admiral Sara Hildegarde Smith Caine, code Sierra Charlie Proxima mark Three One Two Fiver. Passcode: Colorless Green Ideas Sleep Furiously.'

That's what she said. I didn't want to spread passwords around.

[awitchdidit]

I'm not entirely sure. Kanji has more details about the message's circumstances.

[Protection II from here on]

We'll have to remember it then. If they're stupid enough to use metaphor as a cipher, they're stupid enough to re-use passphrases taken from famous books.

[crouching_sin]

I'll have to ask him.

Sara was talking about needing to get a backdoor line of communication to the Princess. I suspect the Sword of Empire is the 'flying rapier', and she's using some kind of AEGISCorp-related communication channel.

Which also might mean they're supplying things to the Aurigans, or at least have a business contact or some sort of connection.

[Private]

I'll keep an eye out for more.

[awitchdidit]

From what I've seen, I wouldn't put it past them to try and play both sides of the conflict against each other. They are weapons manufacturers, after all.

[truerevelation]

...who're you calling inestimable?

But. Uh. Thanks. Happy to help?

[crouching_sin]

Kanji - was this going out of EDSF space? Or into it?

[truerevelation]

Ah, man. I'd have to go back over the data to see if I can get a destination - all I know was it was comin' from onboard the Valiant.

[crouching_sin]

If you do get a destination, let me know - but knowing it was outbound confirms that there's someone spying. And using some sort of protocol related to AEGISCorp.

I can't do much hacking from my current position, unfortunately. And this overlay's known to be... hm. Not the sharpest in terms of academics, let's say.

[awitchdidit]

It means your skill is beyond our means to calculate. As I thought, your eye for patterns and numbers and my eye for words are an unbeatable combination.

[truerevelation]

Oh. Uh, then ... thanks? I mean, sayin' 'eye for numbers' is a lot. It's all just cheesing it with skills I've picked up...

[awitchdidit]

Skills you've learned, Kanji. You've got the benefits of more than one lifetime of training, to be sure, but the skills are still yours.

[seestheworld]

Heartbeat could be the Phileon, too, given what we've heard about it.

And on that note, I did some more Sifting this week. Sento can probably corrobrate this or not once he's back to himself, but...

The Phileon was the seventh of seven prototypes, which started development some time after the Battle of Tharsis. They were developed in secret before the Core and Phileon were demonstrated and sold to the ESDF. The projects were called TRAVELLER, MAGUS, ENIGMA, TIARA, LIONHEART, PALADIN, and ARCHER, the last of which became Phileon. All of them showed promise, but Paladin turned out to be a catastrophic failure.

The ESDF wasn't directly responsible for it, and didn't provide much oversight, but there were a few highly placed observers.

Dara was smart enough to hide her true reasons, but there were some private emails with a Lin Xiao that indicated that she was having increasing moral reservations, which eventually resulted in one message that just said "I need your help."

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah, I can corroborate that too, at least when it comes to the prototypes. Charlize was part of the team on them, although she only took engineering lead on ENIGMA and ARCHER. She was second on MAGUS and TIARA, though.

... don't tell the Phileon, but she's actually kind of sad ENIGMA wasn't chosen. That was her favorite.

But she had no clue about Dr Eskandar's reservations. At all.

[seestheworld]

Dara can be a good actor when she wants to be.

What did ENIGMA do?