03-06-2017, 11:30 AM
Carmelita made her way through the bandit camp, seeking out the copper pipes that peeked out from the ground emblazoned with glowing blue runes. She had determined that these pipes were responsible for carrying the steam to operate the gates, and now sought to trace them back to a valve or some other sabotagable structure.
The inspector was well aware that whatever she did had to be reversible. In order to prevent the bandits from escaping when she made her move, the gates had to be prevented from opening, but if she intended to wait for some of the bandits to be out on a raid so as to split their forces she needed to be able to open the gates for the bandits’ return, so as to ambush the remainder.
There was a lot of muttering and grumbling to be overheard as she walked unseen through the tunnels. With the loss of bandits in the Tangled Green and the recent friendly fire from the misunderstanding with the lionesses, the Silver Hand were feeling understrength. Small arguments were growing into grudges, annoyances picked on rather than ignored, and every so often Carmelita would see a bandit glance over their shoulder as though expecting a knife.
After half an hour trying to decipher the odd layout of the pipes, Carmelita realised that they weren’t laid out in a linear fashion. She’d identified a wall through which a corner pipe ran, only to find the other side of it had nothing more than a hubcap, glowing with runes. Following the direction of the hubcap had led to another, leading her to suspect that the steam was being transported magically between them. In order to identify the correct pipes, she needed to extrapolate their paths and connect them up in one big map. It took her half a day.
Once she’d identified the correct pipes, she found that a second set of pipes led up to the walls. A valve she’d ignored, tucked away behind the stairs as it was, turned out to be the trigger for an emergency flare. Two things to disable.
In the end, Carmelita identified the valves she needed to turn when the time came, down by the boiler. When it came to it, she’d need to lock the workshop down tight, stealing the centaur’s key from where it was hidden in the ceiling and closing the valves to prevent the gate from opening or the flare ignited.
Returning to her hideout, Carmelita thumbed down the list of preparations she needed to make. The care of Malon and Sera was restoring the elderly and sickly to health, at least enough to be able to walk, and with the lionesses and more dangerous equipment out of the way, all that was left was to sabotage the gate mechanism and flare, and steal the keys to the vault. Those last steps would have to be performed very close to each other, and Carmelita knew that she would have to wait for the perfect time to strike.
She was pondering where Scar kept his key when Al3x rang.
“Al3x?”
++Hey boss. We’ve got news.++
Carmelita looked at the AI’s avatar, displayed on the surface of her eyepieces.
“What sort of news?” she asked.
++Chip’s been working really hard, so she’s taking a sabbatical. We’ve got a couple of new tools to play with, some of which will be useful to your current mission. Finally, Chip’s brother’s picked up on something in Coruscant, and has volunteered to carry a tablet so you can conference call.++
“Okay, starting from the top. Chip’s hooked up to the recall, yes?”
++I made certain.++ Carmelita couldn’t help but notice that Al3x seemed to be slightly affronted by her question, but merely blinked.
“Then that’s fine. She’s still a young woman, no need to lock her up just because it’s a dangerous world. Still, maybe I should give her some firearms and physical training, just in case. Anyway, next question, what tools are new?”
Schematics appeared on her eyepieces, videos of tests of a small, handheld shield device appearing in front of her eyes.
++Here,++ Al3x began, ++You can see a one way shield. Chip didn’t name it, so I’ve taken to calling it a SuCC-S, an acronym for SupraPol Cooperative Containment Shield. It’s designed for use by multiple people, so that it can be used to create protective cordons or defensible locations.++
“If it’s designed for two or more, how can I use it on my own?” Carmelita observed.
++That’s where these little guys come in.++ Carmelita suppressed a sound of endearment as a collection of cute drones appeared on her eyepiece, trundling slowly around an empty warehouse. ++This is the Police Containment Drone Squad 001. We’ll probably make more squads as SupraPol grows, but suffice it to say that we can deploy these guys to your quantum beacon at a moment’s notice, at least until you run out of juice. Each of these guys has an inbuilt SuCC-S, allowing you to protect yourself and allies. Your personal SuCC-S is currently carried by PCD 001.01, also known as Boop.++
“These guys aren’t sentient, are they?” Carmelita asked. “Cute as they are, I can see them getting beaten about quite a bit.”
++No, they’re programmed to work off hive programming. No sentience, just automated movement. You’ll be responsible for directing them beyond their standard programming in the field.++
“Right, I can see how they’d be useful. Now, is there anything else?”
++No, just Chip’s brother.++
“So what’s Nimo found?” Carmelita asked. It had been a while since she’d saved the elder tri-eye, and was surprised to hear he’d been looking to pay her back for the help.
++There’s reports coming in from across the Omniverse of some strange robots that have been doing damage. An academic in Coruscant seems to believe he knows what they’re up to and has been calling in primes to help. We’ve actually received a request ourselves, but the wording was so non-descript that I thought it non-urgent. If he’s nervous enough to be asking a lot of people…++ Al3x trailed off.
“Then there might actually be something to worry about. Mierda, talk about bad timing.”
++Chip did say Nimo’d be willing to take a tablet in so you could video conference.++
“Right,” Carmelita agreed. “Can you put me through to him now?”
++The great and almighty switchboard operator will deign to fulfil your request. Here we go!++
Al3x’s avatar vanished off her eyepieces, to be swiftly replaced with a stock picture of Nimo. The maroon furred tri-eye’s voice quickly came to the fore.
++Inspector?++ Nimo asked.
“Hey Nimo. What’s this about an academic?”
Nimo quickly summarised the information he had gathered while he’d been laying low, and Carmelita quickly agreed that this was definitely something worth looking into.
“You said you’d be willing to go and organise a video conference? I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to have to stay undercover, but having a proxy present with a Dataverse connection would be splendid.”
++I can do that. Mind if I use this as an excuse to get some ‘less legitimate’ paperwork filed?++
“I’d rather not, but I will give you monetary compensation and list you down as an official contact.”
++Sweet. I’ll call when the meeting starts.++
They said their goodbyes, and Carmelita headed out to see Malon and Sera. Hopefully they were nearly ready to act...
The inspector was well aware that whatever she did had to be reversible. In order to prevent the bandits from escaping when she made her move, the gates had to be prevented from opening, but if she intended to wait for some of the bandits to be out on a raid so as to split their forces she needed to be able to open the gates for the bandits’ return, so as to ambush the remainder.
There was a lot of muttering and grumbling to be overheard as she walked unseen through the tunnels. With the loss of bandits in the Tangled Green and the recent friendly fire from the misunderstanding with the lionesses, the Silver Hand were feeling understrength. Small arguments were growing into grudges, annoyances picked on rather than ignored, and every so often Carmelita would see a bandit glance over their shoulder as though expecting a knife.
After half an hour trying to decipher the odd layout of the pipes, Carmelita realised that they weren’t laid out in a linear fashion. She’d identified a wall through which a corner pipe ran, only to find the other side of it had nothing more than a hubcap, glowing with runes. Following the direction of the hubcap had led to another, leading her to suspect that the steam was being transported magically between them. In order to identify the correct pipes, she needed to extrapolate their paths and connect them up in one big map. It took her half a day.
Once she’d identified the correct pipes, she found that a second set of pipes led up to the walls. A valve she’d ignored, tucked away behind the stairs as it was, turned out to be the trigger for an emergency flare. Two things to disable.
In the end, Carmelita identified the valves she needed to turn when the time came, down by the boiler. When it came to it, she’d need to lock the workshop down tight, stealing the centaur’s key from where it was hidden in the ceiling and closing the valves to prevent the gate from opening or the flare ignited.
Returning to her hideout, Carmelita thumbed down the list of preparations she needed to make. The care of Malon and Sera was restoring the elderly and sickly to health, at least enough to be able to walk, and with the lionesses and more dangerous equipment out of the way, all that was left was to sabotage the gate mechanism and flare, and steal the keys to the vault. Those last steps would have to be performed very close to each other, and Carmelita knew that she would have to wait for the perfect time to strike.
She was pondering where Scar kept his key when Al3x rang.
“Al3x?”
++Hey boss. We’ve got news.++
Carmelita looked at the AI’s avatar, displayed on the surface of her eyepieces.
“What sort of news?” she asked.
++Chip’s been working really hard, so she’s taking a sabbatical. We’ve got a couple of new tools to play with, some of which will be useful to your current mission. Finally, Chip’s brother’s picked up on something in Coruscant, and has volunteered to carry a tablet so you can conference call.++
“Okay, starting from the top. Chip’s hooked up to the recall, yes?”
++I made certain.++ Carmelita couldn’t help but notice that Al3x seemed to be slightly affronted by her question, but merely blinked.
“Then that’s fine. She’s still a young woman, no need to lock her up just because it’s a dangerous world. Still, maybe I should give her some firearms and physical training, just in case. Anyway, next question, what tools are new?”
Schematics appeared on her eyepieces, videos of tests of a small, handheld shield device appearing in front of her eyes.
++Here,++ Al3x began, ++You can see a one way shield. Chip didn’t name it, so I’ve taken to calling it a SuCC-S, an acronym for SupraPol Cooperative Containment Shield. It’s designed for use by multiple people, so that it can be used to create protective cordons or defensible locations.++
“If it’s designed for two or more, how can I use it on my own?” Carmelita observed.
++That’s where these little guys come in.++ Carmelita suppressed a sound of endearment as a collection of cute drones appeared on her eyepiece, trundling slowly around an empty warehouse. ++This is the Police Containment Drone Squad 001. We’ll probably make more squads as SupraPol grows, but suffice it to say that we can deploy these guys to your quantum beacon at a moment’s notice, at least until you run out of juice. Each of these guys has an inbuilt SuCC-S, allowing you to protect yourself and allies. Your personal SuCC-S is currently carried by PCD 001.01, also known as Boop.++
“These guys aren’t sentient, are they?” Carmelita asked. “Cute as they are, I can see them getting beaten about quite a bit.”
++No, they’re programmed to work off hive programming. No sentience, just automated movement. You’ll be responsible for directing them beyond their standard programming in the field.++
“Right, I can see how they’d be useful. Now, is there anything else?”
++No, just Chip’s brother.++
“So what’s Nimo found?” Carmelita asked. It had been a while since she’d saved the elder tri-eye, and was surprised to hear he’d been looking to pay her back for the help.
++There’s reports coming in from across the Omniverse of some strange robots that have been doing damage. An academic in Coruscant seems to believe he knows what they’re up to and has been calling in primes to help. We’ve actually received a request ourselves, but the wording was so non-descript that I thought it non-urgent. If he’s nervous enough to be asking a lot of people…++ Al3x trailed off.
“Then there might actually be something to worry about. Mierda, talk about bad timing.”
++Chip did say Nimo’d be willing to take a tablet in so you could video conference.++
“Right,” Carmelita agreed. “Can you put me through to him now?”
++The great and almighty switchboard operator will deign to fulfil your request. Here we go!++
Al3x’s avatar vanished off her eyepieces, to be swiftly replaced with a stock picture of Nimo. The maroon furred tri-eye’s voice quickly came to the fore.
++Inspector?++ Nimo asked.
“Hey Nimo. What’s this about an academic?”
Nimo quickly summarised the information he had gathered while he’d been laying low, and Carmelita quickly agreed that this was definitely something worth looking into.
“You said you’d be willing to go and organise a video conference? I’m not sure how much longer I’m going to have to stay undercover, but having a proxy present with a Dataverse connection would be splendid.”
++I can do that. Mind if I use this as an excuse to get some ‘less legitimate’ paperwork filed?++
“I’d rather not, but I will give you monetary compensation and list you down as an official contact.”
++Sweet. I’ll call when the meeting starts.++
They said their goodbyes, and Carmelita headed out to see Malon and Sera. Hopefully they were nearly ready to act...