[PSIGN] IC: Don't Fear the Reaper

[kinem]

Location: BOSS Command Center, Verdas City, Bellune.
Time: 0855 hours, Monday, 6/12/3098

As Major Robert Clay - a sandy-haired, slightly portly young man in a dark green uniform - waits in the briefing room for the assigned operatives to show up, he strokes a handheld tablet computer, scrolling as he reviews once again the operatives' profiles. He frowns, still unsure if he made the right selections; there are yellow flags in these profiles. Yet in these troubled times, even BOSS's resources are stretched, and these people had track records of success in the field that were impressive; he could count himself lucky to have secured them for the difficult mission ahead. He shakes his head and drinks from his coffee cup, wishing the bad feeling in the pit of his stomach would go away.

[Aeryk]

At 9 on the dot, Dagoth opened the door to the briefing room, quickly scanning it before pocketing his sunglasses and resting his eyes on the Major. He wore his black trenchcoat loosely, revealing normal, comfortable looking civilian clothing, as well as a small backpack over his shoulder. His jet-black hair was neatly and tightly combed back into a short ponytail, which matched a well-groomed, short length goatee. His face easily adopted a heartfelt looking smile, creases already worn into a clearly expressive visage, though he was only 30. Closing the door softly behind him, he strode forward and extended his hand, "Major Clay, I presume? Nice to meet you. I'm Dagoth, though I suppose you already know that," he says, nodding to the tablet. "This is the first time I've actually met BOSS personnel face-to-face!"

[kinem]

Major Clay touches the corner of his screen, minimizing the window he was looking at, and sets the tablet down. He then stands up and shakes Dagoth's hand.

"Hello, Dagoth. Yes, this will be an unusual operation. Please, have a seat.

I won't get into the specifics of the mission until the others arrive. I will say though that it's an important one, and politically sensitive. If you do well, you will be well rewarded, I'm sure. I'm not the one who negotiates terms of employment, but I understand that has been taken care of. I don't know what your fee is and I don't want to know.

But ... You may have to go alone undercover on this one. That's why you were chosen, Dagoth. I hope ... well, that you are just the man we need.

Of course you will have to plan your course of action with the rest of the team. Undercover work is not their forte, but they each bring unique skills to the task."

[Hjolnai]

Eric Carter walks into the room. Most of his clothing is quite formal - black coat and trousers, white shirt with a vest underneath - but he wears an incongruous straw hat. He silently takes a seat, and the hat dissolves into ectoplasm and vanishes.

He says only one word, in a questioning tone: "Requirements?"

Spoiler: Mechanics

Show

Eric manifested Ectoplasmic Creation to form the hat earlier in the day. The power can be dismissed, which he did.
Power points spent: 1.
Power points remaining: 124.

[Llyarden]

Caul is the next to enter, an umbrella tucked under one arm, carefully closing the door behind him. He gives a brief glance around to the others in the room and frowns. "I presume, Major Clay, that you are aware I prefer to work alone?" he points out, voice virtually emotionless. He hasn't met this particular man before; his limited dealings with the BoSS normally went through a different agent. The fact that this Clay - or whoever was giving the orders around here - had managed to go through a different channel to get ahold of him suggested that this was important to say the least.

[byzantineblue]

Sally enters the room a minute late, dancing over to a chair. She's only a little taller than five feet, but she gives the appearance of being taller as she slides into a chair and smoothly crosses her legs. "Good morning, gentlemen." She glances from face to face, her expression half condescending and half curious.

[Aeryk]

"But ... You may have to go alone undercover on this one. That's why you were chosen, Dagoth. I hope ... well, that you are just the man we need.

Of course you will have to plan your course of action with the rest of the team. Undercover work is not their forte, but they each bring unique skills to the task."

"Certainly sir. Sounds like it's right up my alley." Dagoth manages to say, just before Eric walks into the room. He momentarily gives a blank look at the man in the strange straw hat, but recovers himself quickly and decides to join him at the table. He doesn't have an opportunity to engage in conversation before Caul also enters.
~Lively bunch~ Dagoth thinks to himself sarcastically ~Not much for conversation it would seem~
He maintains his calm, smiley demeanor and decides to just wait for the briefing when Sally walks in. Her seemingly chipper and more expressive attitude is a welcome change, and he meets her gaze, gracing her with a quick wink as she takes her seat.
~Hmm, interesting~

[kinem]

"Good morning, Eric, Caul, Sally. Help yourself to coffee or a lumzenge if you like" Major Clay says, gesturing at the coffee pot with its styrofoam cups and a nearby bowl of the nutrient lozenges.

"Yes, Caul, I know you'd prefer to work alone. So would I, on some days. It's not an option this time.

Before the briefing we'll wait for the final team member, who I think will play a vital role in this." He smiles briefly, as if at some inside joke.

[kinem]

Major Clay taps the table impatiently as the last chair remains empty.

Soon his cell phone rings. He looks at it, and presses the screen to take the call. "This had better be important! ... What? Why? ... Hmm. See that you do; you know this is top priority. ... Yeah, thanks."

He hangs up with a grave expression on his face.

"Unfortunately, the other agent who was supposed to join us today is engaged on other urgent business. I have requested a suitable replacement, but for now, the team will consist of the four of you. I believe that together you do have the necessary skills, but to be honest, until we round out the team any margin for error has been unfortunately reduced. Let me explain the assignment, and then if any of you prefer to back out, I'd rather hear that now than to send a person into the field who is not ready for the pressure.

I'm sure you've seen the stories on TV about the troubles in Histria. Though Histria is nominally independent, it's a protectorate of Bellune, and torn by rebellion. It's partly about the lume, of course; we can't let the Histrian supply fall into the hands of the Asanians.

The rebels have sometimes resorted to terrorism, attacking lume mines and Bellunians.

Recently one terrorist has become quite notorious. They call him the 'Iron Reaper', and he led the attack which killed several diplomats along with their families. That attack was a new low since it was the first to target families with children. As a result, even the main rebel group - the so-called 'Histrians United For Freedom' or HUFF - has denounced the Reaper and declared that they have no connection with him.

You may have heard that Bellunian forces have engaged the Reaper, trying to defend lume shipments from his attacks. Those battles have gone poorly for us. Our soldiers shot at him and they even tried light anti-tank weapons, but he wasn't hurt much if at all. This Reaper carries a gun, but mainly he attacks with a scythe-like force field with a long reach, as it's been best described.

Our psions have tried to locate him with remote viewing, but so far without success. That means he has access to some kind of barred mind ability, either on his own, from a powerful ally, or from a barred mind ring such as our top diplomats wear.

We have reason to believe that he also has some kind of inside information from either a Bellunian or Histrian source. In particular, he has been able to target lume shipments reliably, and those diplomats. And ... Recently his group looted a shipment of light anti-tank weapons.

Your assignment is to find and kill or capture the Iron Reaper. If possible and just as importantly, find out who he works for. Of course, while minimizing friendly and civilian casualties. I figure that a team of highly skilled and psionically gifted individuals may succeed where our regular forces have failed.

Now, maybe he is really just a Histrian rebel. But none of the other rebels that we know of have shown anything close to his level of capabilities and of violence. So I'm going to throw out some other possibilities for you to chew on while you conduct your investigation.

The Asanians are an obvious possibility. Those communists would love to kick us out of Histria. Honestly if I had to guess I'd say it's them, but on the other hand, jumping to conclusions is foolish at this point.

I mentioned he seemed to have inside information on us. Well, there are those within Bellune who think we should take a more direct role in Histria and who would even like to impose martial law here in Bellune if they could. I don't rule out that such a conspiracy could be behind the Reaper.

Who else? Well, there are violent fringe groups worldwide. For example, the Quantum Killers believe that there are parallel worlds, and since one cannot experience being dead, those that die in this world live on in other worlds. Therefore they have no compunction against killing and no fear of death. A group of them could conceivably have financed a scheme to profit from stolen lume while maintaining a cover story of Histrian rebellion.

In a similar vein, the Psi-lipcists believe that only the psionically gifted are actually conscious. More common are Psi-supremacists who think psions should rule us all. A group of these radicals might resort to any scheme that could sow the chaos they need for the political changes they hope to see.

So ... are you in?"

[Aeryk]

Dagoth stands up, saunters over to the coffee and pours himself a cup. He pockets a lumzenge and pensively mulls over the details of the briefing. The mission sounded dangerous. Likely more dangerous than anything he had attempted before, and now he would have to work with this... motley crew. But he certainly wasn't one to back down from a challenge, and to turn down employment from BOSS could have more far-reaching consequences on his reputation and future employment. Dagoth knew he would do the job of course, but he needed more details first.

"I know from your earlier comment, sir, that you aren't the one to ask, but I for one would like to know just how much is in it for us. Second of all, if we do this, what kind of resources are going to be available to us from BOSS's end? Finally, do we have any additional intel on this Iron Reaper, like a possible location perhaps? Or video footage to review? I just want to have an idea of how deep the pile **** I'm about to step in is before I commit."

[Llyarden]

Caul raps his fingers against the handle of his umbrella as Clay gives his speech, frowning more at the 'urgent business' of the other agent than anything the Major is saying with regards to the mission. Typical unprofessionalism. Perhaps it is a good thing he is otherwise engaged. Although if one member of Clay's selection has proven unreliable, how trustworthy are the rest? He nods in agreement, though, with the man who had already been here - presumably a BoSS agent himself given that he called the Major 'sir.' At least someone else in this room appears competent at first appearance.

Out loud, he says "Further to Mr...er...his -" he waved the umbrella to indicate Dagoth "- question, have any of your people theorised how he is accomplishing this little trick of not being hurt by things? It seems like something that would prove...awkward for us."

[kinem]

"I'll answer as much of it as I can" Major Clay says.

"You'll have the use of your usual special equipment, of course. Beyond that, BOSS will consider any reasonable requests.

In terms of manpower, we could assign additional troops to back you up, but I am reluctant to do so both because catching this guy requires an element of surprise - his attacks have not been against troop formations - and because I don't want to lose any more men than I have to, and most soldiers lack the level of combat skills you guys have. But if you make a case for it as your investigation proceeds, we certainly have troops on the ground you could call on.

As for where to find him, I think the best bet is to follow the lume. The most vulnerable point has been trucking the lume from the mines to the port. He doesn't attack every shipment, and sometimes other rebels get in on the act, but it's been a common target.

We don't have video and I'm not sure it would help if we did. We do have eyewitness testimony, and you're going to love this: It's contradictory. Some say he's tall, short, fat, thin, bald, hairy - what have you. Frankly this is no surprise to me; I myself own a hat of disguise and if I were a terrorist I'm sure I'd wear it on the job.

As for his not being hurt, all we can do is speculate at this point. It might just be that he has potent psionic protections - fire resistance, inertial armor, force screen, that sort of thing. It might be something else. He's called a Reaper; maybe he's some sort of weird undead monster. Your guess is as good as mine."

[Hjolnai]

Eric sits in deep thought, considering the problem.

"Possibility: Non-physical presence."

He pauses for a while, and just as it seems he is finished speaking, more words come forth.

"More information required. Observation vital. Objective... acceptable."

[Aeryk]

Eric sits in deep thought, considering the problem.

"Possibility: Non-physical presence."

He pauses for a while, and just as it seems he is finished speaking, more words come forth.

"More information required. Observation vital. Objective... acceptable."

Dagoth nods in agreement to Eric's statements, but inwardly says to himself, ~Great. He's a frickin' robot. *sigh* At least they seem interested in the job. This certainly isn't something I'd want to do on my own.~ Then a glance at Sally, ~I wonder how she is?~
He takes a sip of coffee, waiting to see if anyone else has anything to say.

[byzantineblue]

Bounty hunting missions are Sally's favorite. She gets to play the horror movie monster and hunt this iron reaper down. "Sounds fun. He's not going to have a physical presence for long, that's for sure," she grins, seeming to be genuinely amused by the situation. She finishes putting sweetener in her coffee, carefully lays the six empty packets to the side, and takes a sip, still smiling angelically.

[Hjolnai]

Eric stops examining the texture of the wall, meeting the eyes of each other team member in turn.

"Caul. Sally."

He pauses as he looks at Dagoth.

"I'm afraid I didn't catch your name."

Another pause, as he changes focus to address the whole group.

"As I'm sure you already heard from Major Clay, I am Eric. Metacreativity is my discipline, although I have some skill across all of them. As I was trying to say earlier, incorporeality has been observed in the past, although as far as I'm aware human application remains purely theoretical - a possible explanation. Ordinary psionic defenses remain a possibility, as Major Clay said. Until we identify the defense and its counters, it would be unwise to engage."

After so many words, Eric seems to be running out of steam. He pulls a small tile from his pocket, staring intently at its every discolouration and running his fingers over it to feel the texture.

"What abilities will you provide?"

Spoiler: Power use

Show

Eric manifests Broker, which has no Display, so it's not obvious. He doesn't actually need it to speak in complete sentences, but why make the effort when he's so accustomed to using psionics for every aspect of life?

Power points spent: 1.
Power points left: 123.

[byzantineblue]

Sally glances at Eric, remembering the autistic friend she had when she was in grade school. "I provide the ability to cut people to ribbons. Also to catch people who are trying to avoid being cut to ribbons. And to defend myself against the people I'm cutting to ribbons."

[Llyarden]

Caul looked over at Eric. "I eliminate targets. Preferably at considerable range. I can also infiltrate target locations if necessary." He paused for a minute. "Incorporeality alone is merely a limited defence; I myself can damage incorporeal targets albeit with reduced efficacy and I presume others of our skill are capable of doing so."

He turned to Major Clay. "When do we leave?"

[kinem]

"This morning. The plane's ready at your convenience, from Brennet base, which serves BOSS as well as the regular air force" Major Clay responds. "The trip should take about three hours."

[Aeryk]

"Dagoth", Dagoth replies to Eric warmly as he extends a hand to shake, "Pleased to meet you."
He listens to the others' explanations of their abilities and seems genuinely impressed.
"My ability is to appear harmless..." Dagoth says, spreading his hands open at his sides, "and then to harm. Ideally without leaving a trace."

~Okay, weird,~ he thinks of Eric, ~but he has a pretty methodical way of breaking things down, I'll give him that.~
As for this Caul fellow, Dagoth could certainly understand the desire to work alone, which he himself preferred as well.
~Even so, he can provide cover. I don't think we'll be stepping on each others' toes too much, so that's good.~
Sally on the other hand seemed to take things a little lightly for Dagoth's taste, but he'd dealt with worse.
~I think this group can use a little extra pep anyway. And she'll probably keep the heat off me with all that flair. At the very least BOSS wouldn't hire anyone incompetent. We just need a little time to figure things out and establish our team dynamic.~

Dagoth looks around the room, then says to Major Clay, "Well, now that we've all been briefed and made each other's acquaintance, I for one am ready to go."

[byzantineblue]

Sally takes a long sip of coffee, then slams it down dramatically as she stands up. "Right, let's go. No point sticking around here forever."

[Hjolnai]

"Dagoth", Dagoth replies to Eric warmly as he extends a hand to shake, "Pleased to meet you."
(Snip)

Eric looks wierdly at Dagoth's hand, before shaking with a surprisingly firm grip.

***

As the others seem to be ready, Eric stands without a word.

[kinem]

"Good luck to you" Major Clay tells you as you leave his office.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Location: Brennet Air Force Base, Verdas City, Bellune.
Time: 1000 hours, Monday, 6/12/3098

The base is on a small hill, and a few clouds streak the blue sky. You see three planes flying in formation a few miles away.

After passing through security and having your identities verified, you are greeted by Mike Quick, who identifies himself as a BOSS agent. He's bald, tall, and thin, and appears to be an older gentleman, but spry enough.

"Good morning. This way" he says. "BOSS runs a research program here, you know. There have been breakthroughs recently in robotics and artificial intelligence. We're working on something that might one day help keep our boys out of harm's way. And our girls, of course, Sally! Would you like to see it before boarding the plane?" From his grin, you can tell that he hopes you will.

[byzantineblue]

"Sure we would," Sally chirps, although she's a little annoyed at being singled out.

[Llyarden]

Caul frowned, but eventually supposed that there was no immediate hurry to their mission. "Lead the way, Mr Quick." Though the lack of professionalism this 'Quick' displayed was troubling. Where did the BoSS find all these people?

[Hjolnai]

"Indeed."

This project might be outside Eric's particular expertise, but he sees no reason not to have a look to satisfy his eternal curiosity. And if he gets the chance to show off his abilities there, so much the better.

[Aeryk]

"Sounds good."
Dagoth is definitely interested, and if BOSS isn't going to rush him, he might as well take in what he can.
~It'll be interesting to see what kinds of things BOSS researches. I wonder what kind of advances they've made?~

[kinem]

"Excellent." Mr. Quick leads you through a long corridor and through a door marked DANGER - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.

Inside is a large room filled with many tables and shelves full of electronic and mechanical gear and parts, as well as four people working on something making whirring noises. "Leave your luggage over there" he says as points to a nearby corner, and he tells the workers "Never mind us. Just giving these agents a quick tour."

"Look at this" Mr. Quick says as he picks a box off a shelf. Inside is a small round ball; upon closer inspection, it resembles ...

"A cybernetic eye" he explains. "It can be implanted to cure most forms of blindness, and is powered by nutrients in the body. Capable of providing infrared night vision. And it's just one of many body parts we can now replace or enhance cybernetically. We can even enhance the body much as certain psionic items do. As of yet, high cost prevents widespread use, but I'm sure you can see the potential! But that's just the start."

He puts it back and leads the way to an unmoving roughly humanoid metallic construct which has wires and gears showing in various places.

"This robot is a prototype; of course it's still being worked on. We've built several already; you might see an operational one working security on the airfield. Note here, this is a built-in sonic weapon. It can be tuned either for nonlethal crowd control or to emit a deadly focused beam. The body incorporates nanotech parts with self-repair capabilities. The artificial intelligence is the real challenge, of course; it has to distinguish friend from foe rather reliably! We've got that solved ... ah ... almost perfectly. It currently depends on a psionic item for core power. Questions?"

[Hjolnai]

Eric examines the robot intently.

"Unorthodox. A.I. controlled psionics. Raises philosophical questions."

[kinem]

"Indeed it does.

I must clarify: When I say we have achieved all this, I don't just mean the team here at the base. We collaborate with many researchers both at other BOSS facilities and at universities and private companies. But it's an integrated effort. Most of the details are classified, but I don't think it'll be long before the public begins to hear of it. I'd say Bellune is one step ahead of the other nations at this point, but some are not far behind." Mr. Quick replies.