And We Get To Ascend! (Season 1, Episode 0.3)
Lextrin Qualit at a quiet spot out of the limelight
It looks like the data from Kuron has some interesting parts. Seems like the client, this Marine Major, seems to think it might be a human trafficking situation because, as the pics show, a very beautiful young lady. That's possible, but that wouldn't explain why Kuron was dragging a heavy tail.Was that fact related to the missing daughter or is it related to something else Kuron got herself into? And who ordered the surveillance - government? agents? mafia? someone else?
Lots of questions. Let's dig more into the socials and other online info I got from Ayisha. For a 17 year old, the Major's daughter is fairly savvy at information security - the stuff she's got up is mostly some of her friends and stuff of no particular notice. One of her friends recently asked her if she had a new boyfriend. She said 'One of the choices around here? Hardly!'.
Is there a boyfriend? If so, she's been pretty good about hiding it. No pics, but I'll need to go image by image to see what I can pull out from small details and to see where the pics were taken. No sign of the boyfriend - if he exists.
On the other hand, what do we find out of locations where the daughter took pictures? No luck there either, but I did see one image with a bit of background clutter which turned about to be a transit ticket for some sort of ship. A quick poke around and I got the name of the ship and where it is docked: The Celestial Elegance at the Omid Nassirian High Port, docking bay Aleph Three. Even better, I found out the filed time of departure: 0400, 4.5 hours now.
The daughter might be running away. She might be with some sort of alleged boyfriend. She could have been picked up by some bad actors, but with having a ticket, I'd have to assume they'd take her off the ship or try to take the ship.
I looked up what was known about The Celestial Elegance - A fast, luxury vessel with a lot of automation. Crew won't be too large, but the security could be really ugly. Doesn't say if she'd be armed, but to be honest, the folks who can afford 500 ton luxury vessels for a single client or a small group... I'd bet on some sort of armament. Probably not something I can easily go after myself.
Let's so who I can call up. First call, Ayisha. She answers and I explain I think there might be a hostage situation or even something more sinister and I need a good cracker to handle the security systems and comms jamming and the like. She seems skeptical - she likes breathing. I reply that she shouldn't 'feel embarrased just because it is too much of a challenge for you' and then she gives me a really icy look... but said she'd come along just to prove the point. Which is exactly what I had hoped.
I'd need a few more for the team. None of my underworld folks were answering - sometimes they can't and other times they just don't want to. One of the people I met through the Consulate, however short I was there, was a cop named Selenium Optatus ('Sel') who followed cases related to smuggling. He was home, and we talked. He told me there have been some human trafficking rings kicking around, tied in with organized crime and the 'Pirate King' (self-styled, of course). He wanted in, but a man had to survive so there was a gratuity for his help. Fine.
One more call... a former Navy medic now working as a medic in civilian work. I talked to Eko Belardo. He still kept himself in good shape and he'd got another kid coming. I told him I needed a trailer in case things go astray and some injuries incur. He indicated he would travel armed. He figured if these folks are kidnappers, being unarmed wasn't a survival tactic.
Time to grab gear and head for the High Port. I called the Consul Phlandem Catricou.... well, now he's something even more elevated, but when I told him I was trying to catch a missing daughter on a ship that may be imminently leaving from the High Port, he arranged with flight control for a priority launch and a no-fuss entry (no customs). That's some kinda clout. Good thing he liked me when we worked together.
Lextrin, Eko, Ayisha, & Sel debarking onto the High Port
Sel had a few words with the Officer of the Port who met us on debarking. I don't know what he said, but the Officer got him access to the cameras for the docking bay for The Celestial Elegance and otherwise an absence of official attention. We got some VIP passes. We got one warning: If we make too much of fuss on the Port, there would be a severe response.
Normally, I'd call letting a bunch of randos into your station poor security, but that's the kind of thing that happens in a system where you are rich or almost nothing and where corruption rots everywhere. At least this time, it is useful for us.
Lextrin, Eko, Ayisha, & Sel in a room not far from the docking bay Aleph 3
We'd tap into system comms with The Celestial Elegance so Ayisha could see what she could do.
Meanwhile, we cleaned and prepped our gear. I checked my Boersma 6.5mm Short Carbine, my Bradley 10mm Snub Semi-Auto, a hand stunner, and I make sure my plate-over-ballistic weave armour wasn't chaffing and that gear is easily to hand. I watched Sel settle his Heller 10mm and then he hauls out a Craymore Submachine Gun - same rounds as his pistol and, in a jam, he could snap the pistol mags into the Heller. But he might not have any need to reload; His current mag is a dual rotating feed system thatd holds 74 rounds.
I watched Eko - he checked out his med kit, his armour, and a bog-standard 8.5mm P1 service pistol and a jam stunner. I never liked the P1, but when you go into danger, average gear that you are well trained with is better than great gear you haven't trained with. Hopefully he won't need to do any shooting. Maybe nobody will.
| Name | Selenium Opstat (SEL-en-ium OP-stat) | Nationality | Prismatan | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicknames & Aliases | ? | |||||||||||||||||||
| Career(s) | Law Enforcer (Detective, in 4th Term) | |||||||||||||||||||
| Biometrics | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Species | Human | Gender | Male | Age | 31 | |||||||||||||||
| Skin | Black, buzz cut small beard |
Eyes | Brown | Size & Weight | 1.9 m, 74 kg | |||||||||||||||
| Attributes | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Muscles | +1 | Hardiness | 0 | Agility | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Intellect | +1 | Knowledge | 0 | Gravitas | +1 | |||||||||||||||
| Contacts Target Values | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Legal | 5 | Criminal | 5 | Family | 3 | |||||||||||||||
| Talents | Reader (+1 on any interaction task) | Burdens | Seen Too Much (Must save Intellect -1 facing horrible things/people) | |||||||||||||||||
| Skills | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
This gets us part way to the attempt to breach The Celestial Elegance. If Ayisha can get some interiors, that would give us a better situational appreciation. Of course, if the dive into the ship's systems leads to an alarm, the situation could become dire... stand in for episode 4...
Also of note: None of the dice rolls kicked out anything that was going to shake things up. I guess the dice are waiting until we'll get in the soup and then they'll start ratcheting things up every turn....
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