Jae's displacement activity bears fruit; she's able to get into the files, at least in part, revealing more earnest information about Tierny's activities - namely that they suspected they were being followed and that someone had tried to get into their effects!
Most recent upload: 2 weeks prior; approximate
duration of memory storage: 3 months
Decrypt time stamps: failed
Sort: least recent to most recent; Filter: unavailable
[?? | ?? | ??] Study.
[?? | ?? | ??] Rest.
[?? | ?? | ??] Assisted in recalibrating scan field
stabilizer. Output stable. Recommended re-applying
for upgrade funding due to repeat incidents of scan
field destabilization.
[?? | ?? | ??] Anomalous access attempt detected;
report to supervisor?
[?? | ?? | ??] Study.
[?? | ?? | ??] Rest.
[?? | ?? | ??] [some repeat study and rest logs have
been removed from this search]
[?? | ?? | ??] Study.
[?? | ?? | ??] Rest. Someone is following me?
[?? | ?? | ??] Study. Anomalous access attempts grow
more frequent.
[?? | ?? | ??] Rest. Someone attempted to bypass my
storage unit’s biometric lock.
[?? | ?? | ??] [File corrupted]
Log end.
Vorza can't determine a cause of death, but his interest prompts Lunar-17 who notices a nearly invisible, almost surgical wound stretching across one segment of Tierny's abdomen. What's more, her mystical training helps her to identify its cause, likely a powerful spell called slice reality, which would have severed sensitive internal mechanisms at an atomic level. It's probably also responsible for the damage to the plinth.
However, the Vesk warrior does find a surprising amount of gear secreted on Tierny's person, all stashed in a commercial null space chamber attached to a novelty key ring. Inside there are two cellular stimulant spell amps, a chemalyzer, 2 commercial smoke grenades, a commercial irising shield, commercial carbon skin armor with a darkvision visor, an antiquated shock pad that plays theremin-esque melodies, an akashic download spell gem, a breaching gun, and a commercial starfall pistol with a commercial silencer. There's also a handful of burner credsticks totalling 200 credits.
***
Before you can depart, a booming voice suddenly calls out from... somewhere, bouncing off the nearby statuary in a melodious disharmony, but heavily cloaked in static. "You have no idea what you're involved with. Thus, I give you a final chance. Stay out of it!"
Four staticky images of a masked humanoid in a heavy hooded coat suddenly stand a few yards away from you all, spread out in all directions as though they've been watching you from the shadows. Two anacites flutter around the shadowy figures in a protective formation. The world around you feels horribly unreal, as if you've come unstuck in some way from time or the decisions that brought you here... But the staticky ones seem even less real than you and your friends.
Jaedana
Lunar-17
Anacite (Orange)
Trevor
Staticky Duplicates (ROYG)
Anacite (Red)
Vorza
A rippling unease makes Jaedana want to run. Instead she snarks off a belligerent snap "Giving us a final chance, seems like you should be giving us a chance, not Attacking!" as she ducks next to the cube, pressing her back to it for some protection, even though they are surrounded. She brings up her rifle as she moves, aims and fires at the nearest 'real' thing.
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"It's a trap!" Lunar-17 declares. She draws her pistol and fires a wild shot at Jaedana's target, taking a moment to reload afterwards.
Jaedana hits the flitting anacite dead center, nearly sending it crashing to the floor while Lunar-17 adds her own suppressing fire to the soundscape.
The anacite zooms in for a close up of the group, emitting a shrill trilling noise that seems to turn the innards of organic and android alike.
Jaedana DC 13 Fort or Sickened 1
Lunar-17 DC 13 Fort or Sickened 1
Anacite (Orange) -6
Trevor DC 13 Fort or Sickened 1
Staticky Duplicates (ROYG)
Anacite (Red)
Vorza DC 13 Fort or Sickened 1
Taking a brief moment to center himself, Trevor questions his companions. "Any idea how to shut off that distortion?"
Trevor pulls out his pistol and follows the Jaedana's lead, "One at a time!"
Trevor's sonic blast shakes the anacite apart and it crashes to the floor! Undeterred, the shadowy duplicates make their assault. They slip around and away, hoping to keep you at bay within the quantum field. Their movements aren't identical, but they are perfectly in sync. A foot lifts, no matter the angle, it descends. Eyes flash, realities turn sharp.
Neglected, the other anacite flies forward directly into Trevor's face, stinging for him with an unpleasant hypodermic.
Jaedana DC 13 Fort or Sickened 1
Lunar-17 -8, DC 13 Fort or Sickened 1
Anacite (Orange)
Trevor -8, DC 13 Fort or 2 Po
Staticky Duplicates (ROYG)
Anacite (Red)
Vorza DC 13 Fort or Sickened 1
Vorza scowls and brings up his hammer and shield before striding up next to Trevor. "People who give orders should do so from the back," Vorza grunts before swinging his gravity attuned weapon.
Unfortunately, he hit nothing but air, holding up his solar shield in preparation for future attacks.
Resisting the sonic shriek, Lunar-17 fires two shots at the anacite in Trevor's face, reloading in between.
A dull ache starts to form in her guts. She is uncertain if it is because she is in a life or death situation or cause this field is messing with her physically. One at a time..." she repeats before turning her laser rifle on the one attacking the human and fires off two quick shots.
"Jaedana, Lunar-17, any progress on getting rid of whatever this is?"
Trevor steps back and takes another shot at the remaining anacite. "I don't think killing this will fix our current situation."
In a hail of shots, the other anacite is blasted apart, Jaedana is even able to scorch one of the nearby duplicates with a snap shot, but their retaliation is fiercer, once again in unison slicing away at the reality of your minds and bodies! Vorza's shield saves him from the worst of the attack, but Lunar-17 is badly injured and in need of a medpatch!
Jaedana Sickened 1
Trevor -10
Lunar-17 Dying 1
Staticky Duplicates (ROYG) (Orange -1)
Anacite (Red) -3
Vorza -2
"Hey! Shoot me, not them," Vorza shouts as they pull out a commercial medpatch, breaking the seal and then slapping it onto the nasty wound that Lunar-17 was sporting. "Bah, they don't understand that I'm the bigger threat here. But, someone deal with that plinth?" He asks, before striding towards the anacite, struggling against the pull from the plinth.
Jae considers for a moment that running would make the most sense. Her people were proud but their ships were their lives so cutting out was always an option. But getting this crew of unknowns to see that seemed impossible at this time, so she did what she was trained to do. Aim, shoot, shoot, Aim, shoot, shoot, until you were dry.
"S@%&. Vorza, I've got Lunar, go be the bigger threat." Trevor pulls a syringe and injects Lunar-17.
Jae coolly dispatches one of the duplicates while Trevor and Vorza clamber over one another to get Lunar-17 back on her feet!
Jaedana Sickened 1
Trevor -10
Lunar-17 -11, Wounded 1, Prone, Disarmed
Staticky Duplicates (OYG) (Orange -1)
Vorza -2
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Lunar-17 sits up woozily, holding her head. "Ugh. I hope I didn't brain my damage," she says a she downloads healing energies into her body. She stands up and retrieves her gun.
The destruction of one of the duplicates doesn't seem to daunt the others. Indeed, they don't so much as switch targets, continuing an assault that almost seems pre-programmed, or preordained.
Jaedana -6, Sickened 1
Trevor -10
Lunar-17 -1, Wounded 1
Staticky Duplicates (OYG) (Orange -1)
Vorza -7
Vorza grunts as he's struck again by some mental spike, growling and looking at perpetrator. "That is it. <Burn, and die in agony!>" He shouts in Vesk, as the solar manifestations he has suddenly shift from ultraviolet to infrared, and he fires off a tight beam of fiery energy at his foe. The first misses, but the second is much more accurate!
After injecting Lunar-17, Trevor curses his mistake, "Damn it. Wrong vile!" Fortunately Lunar-17 had it under control and came to of their own accord.
Turning his attention back to the battlefield, Trevor calls out an attack order, "One at a time, clockwise!"
Trevor flips a switch on his pistol which emits a whirring noise followed by a beep moments later. A small shockwave carries a deep thrum when he fires.
Jae keeps up her relentless shooting. In her mind she is counting down with each firing, and knows she will have to reload any second now.
Lunar-17 takes cover and fires two wild shots at the designated foe.
Vorza shatters green with a single solar pulse, and Trevor's quick to call out the rest of the targets, dropping one quickly and freeing up Jaedana to finish off the last one with a precise blast from her laser. Each of the duplicates shatters like a dropped comm screen around where their wounds should be, and then vanish as if they had never been. A staticky hum outlives them, but only for a few seconds before silence is the victor.
Jaedana -6
Trevor -10
Lunar-17 -1, Wounded 1
Vorza -7
"Hopefully we're safe for now. Let's take some time to patch ourselves up." Trevor glances at the anacite debris. "I don't suppose anyone can recover that thing's memory? Maybe we can trace the command source."
"Those attackers were not real, I mean they were, but not, you know what I mean. Do you think we should linger here?" Jae says as she reloads and looks down into the well.
"Tierny has paid us from their corpse, it would be disreputable to not attempt to complete the job," Vorza grunts as he flexes his shoulders. "As it is, the likely cause of someone wanting them dead probably stems from their work. We should investigate their office on campus and see what we can dig up of their recent research."
He glowers at the spaces where the duplicates had appeared. "And maybe next time, our mystery friend will have the courtesy to show up in person so I may meet their face with my hammer."
Examining the well, Jaedana actually discovers tracks! Though by their age, whoever left them hasn’t been here in some time, they still lead the way twenty feet down the well into a maze of various infrastructure. The trail soon goes cold when the 20-foot-wide tunnel splits off into a half-dozen narrow spin-offs, some of which are dead ends or meandering maintenance tunnels leading to a waste treatment facility and a condenser station as well as a host of other smaller locations.
***
High-speed automated trains connect Polytechnica’s scattered campuses, so it only takes a few minutes to get around. Tierny worked in the Central Archives - a complex of servers, museums, and other archives that acts as reference libraries for Polytechnica’s analysts and researchers. Central Files collects digital and hard copies of physical media—antique scrolls, vintage vids, and starmetal circuitry etched in ancient stone—plus enormous virtual libraries explored by immersive viewing pods. Nanopress, paper, and other physical media are stored on the ground floors; specimens are contained in basement levels, and holoprojector chambers on the upper levels connect to an extensive virtual library, with digital copies of all records and objects housed within.
That said, public access to everything except the virtual library is restricted. Scholarly attendants and librarians manage the many collections and conduct research with guidance from their peers (and Insight Array). Staff are mostly anacites, androids, and SROs living in the utilitarian "ports" nestled alongside the curve of the main campus, with a few organic transplants ensuring you don't all totally stick out while they're visiting or assisting with research part-time. Still, it doesn't take long before you're clearly being observed, even if only as curiosities.
Trevor looks around, paying attention to anyone paying attention to the group. Spotting someone likely to work here in some capacity, Trevor approaches, adopting the demeanor of someone harmless and just a little lost.
"Hi, hi. Excuse me, I'm a little lost here." Trevor is sure to glance around and keeps his arms and hands open, generally viewed as a calming posture. "My friend Tierny asked me to meet him here. Is there any chance you can point me toward his port?"
Vorza has never actually been inside Polytechnica before today. He expected more glass cases full of displayed antique media. He does his best to try and gather information about Tierny's work port.
Jaedana foes with Vorza, attempting to gather information about this amazingly cluttered and busy space. "Too many people" she says, but with a tone that could be excitement or could be dread.
Trevor gets more than a few odd looks at how he refers to Tierny, particularly since by now rumors of their shutdown have begun to spread, but Vorza's more forthright approach bears fruit. "Tier-99 Professor's postgrad would know better than anyone what they were at work on. Erudite-Collaborator -Eruco for short- likes to spend time in the rock garden near the vending services. Not that they eat, of course."
***
Eruco greets you all with a respectful sorrow that can't quite breach into solemnity. "I was afraid misfortune was coming for them. They'd been acting erratically for the last few weeks, believed there was some sort of mysterious stalker following them." More regret fills the anacite's voice as they continue, "A part of me wondered if they were perhaps suffering from a faulty set of assumptions, but there was that attempted break-in..."
"Did they tell you anything else about the stalker, or what they were working on? What about the break-in?" Trevor does his best to remain polite, but focused on the task at hand.
Jae gives the postgrad a look of sympathy, and leaves the smooth talking to Trevor. Instead she keeps an eye out for drones, projections, toxic elementals or whatever will try to kill them next.
"Oh well security chased whoever it was off, so they didn't get anything," Eruco explains. "Tierny insisted that the relic we were studying be moved to a higher security location anyways. It was a strange transistor, though I don't think they told me everything they suspected about it. Now it's in Archive 404 with some other First Ones pieces. If you want to learn more about that then you should start your application soon; it can take some time to get clearance," they warn.
Hopefully some good luck, if the relic is still secured.
"How do we start the application? Surely we could speed things up, since this is a murder investigation."
"Ah, yes, Archive 404. We should get right on that paperwork," Vorza says, before whispering to the team away from Eruco.
"If we do this the 'proper' way, I can almost guarantee it will be stolen out from under our noses before we get through half the forms. We need to slip in and secure it. Before our friends from before clean up and leave us without a trail to follow."
"I suppose you could go to Central Circuit Processing if you wanted to expedite the paperwork or check in on the start of the investigation or-" Eruco catches on to Vorza's ushering. "Oh, that's- that's fine too..."
***
Getting down to the appropriate level will require overriding or otherwise accessing an elevator to take you all the way down outside of public areas. It might also be a good idea to learn more about the defenses before you trigger them from either hacked databases or alternate intelligence...
"Friends, I must admit something - I am, what you might say, designed for more of a 'smash and grab' style of taking things without permission, da?" Vorza comments to the group. "But I know sometimes, it is preferable to commit less violence. So I think that perhaps if anyone knows how to make sure the security defenses won't blow us all into tiny, tiny chunks of burning meat, that would be good?"
Vorza considers if there's anyone in the underworld who could help here...
Jae settles down in an available space, folding her legs under her as she takes out her terminal and starts to slip into a world of electronic ones and zeros. "I'll try and track down purchases and such to see if we can find out what they have in there..." the young woman knows enough about worlds not in her ship that money trails are usually the most easy to follow.
Jaedana quickly discovers that the defenses of the Archives are Not trivial, and quickly has to close her link to avoid being immediately traced for her attempted intrusions! Vorza has a little more luck - he's heard of a high-rolling vesk fence and socialite who pays big credits for First Ones relics, and who is rumored to have winkled something right out of the Archive before!
She infamously never talks business on traceable media, but she can frequently be found at Magenta Amusement Orbital Plate - a hovering casino that slowly hovers in the thermosphere above Striving.
"I think that perhaps we need outside assistance for this. Lucky for all of you, I am well connected," Vorza boasts. "I know someone. But we'll need to go to Magenta. And perhaps also agree to some...extra-legal procurement on her behalf. It will be faster than filling out paperwork, at least." He looks at the group to see what they think of this plan.
Jae makes a screeching sound, a mix of fear and annoyance, at almost getting caught and looks pretty embarrassed about the whole thing, so nod quickly at the new plan "Good, wiz, all that, won't we have to pay her for information though?"
A smooth slab of oily steel shimmers with a sheen of colorful light as it glides through the air, its colossal face cutting through the haze like the prow of a mammoth barge. At all hours of the day and night sleek VIP shuttles and bulky hoverbuses ferry patrons up to the Magenta docking platform, where grand archways open into a wonderland of thrills and material excess.
Inside, high rollers and thrill seekers are shackled by their enjoyment to the wheels, tables, and arcades of this massive amusement complex, testing their luck, or hoping to win their way into the VIP area. Behind a translucent wall of shimmering pink energy is a sparsely populated section with a few roomy booths large enough to seat an entourage. Beyond are private rooms veiled by ornate floor-to-ceiling screens embedded with jewels and glinting with kaleidoscopic holo patterns.
Trevor scans the room, making note of security guards and exit paths in case things go bad.
"So Vorza, who are we looking for?"
"High rollers table. Let's see..."
"Hmm, I think you'll know her when you see her. Vesk, like me! I am certain she will be impressed with my charms, but do step in if I find myself tongue-tied by her own radiance."
Vesk uses their knowledge of the underground to find the people needed to help set up a meeting with the vesk contact. "This may take some time. Perhaps you can see what First Ones artifact might entice her enough to sponsor our venture?" He asks the team.
"Like you, okay" Jae doesn't know anything artifacts, so keeps an eye out for someone like Vorz.
"Thank You Moonshot!" rumbles the hulking bouncer outside the VIP, another old friend from the Veskarium. "Been more than a few cycles. Keepin' 'em polished?" Her laugh is almost infrasonic. "Look, I can get you in. VIP is a bit of a judgment call, right? But I gotta warn you, Vazylyza isn't even gonna hear a pitch unless you've already got her attention. Just being in the VIP's not gonna cut it, but maybe an introduction from another whale? Or hey, one thing that will always catch her eye is if Lady Luck seems to already be on your side. She'll gamble with interesting people she doesn't know."
Jae gives Vorza a quick look that screams 'I am not interesting'.
"Vazylyza needs the attention of a practiced and interesting gambler. This is good, for we have such individuals here. More than capable of achieving high scores and prizes," Vorza says, clasping the bouncer's arm in a friendly Veskarium greeting.
He turns to the rest of the party. "So, we go in, we make ourselves be very, very charming. Gamble well, or we can find some other high roller that takes interest with us and we can get in with them to introduce us. I am...not so much of a flatterer. Let's head in, see what can be done."
Vorza, given the opportunity, settles in to the VIP area and works to assist the other party members with their tasks.
Scanning the room for an appropriate game, Trevor spots a table playing a poker variant and points towards it. "Let's try that table. I'll have to familiarize myself with the rules but at its core, it's a social game."
Before joining the table Trevor spends a moment observing the game and trying to identify player tells. After a minute of watching, and having drawn some glances from the player, Trevor sits down and joins the game.
Jae is fascinated. Not at the games, well they are cool and all ya, but at the amount of people wasting their hard in bits for what looks like little chance. There are machines look like they are designed to keep you on the hook, like one of those vids with 'fishing' shows, but only let one of the Big wins happen here and there, making those Wiz and Bang so all see and want.
She stands, arms crossed, watching the people and machines, looking for patterns. "Maybe that one with go Big in a minute or so" she points at a particular mass of machines, where the people are looking discouraged and someone just got up.