Heroes of Millaine IC 2 - Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 4

Bastion's distraction gave Declan the perfect opening, allowing him to smash the GunMode nanomorph to its constituent nanites.

Maestro straight ignored the attack on his mind like he always did, it wasn't even a thing anymore. I'd say he should take Second Chance against mental attacks just to make it official but let's be real it'd probably be a waste of a PP. In response, he basically just started trying to shake the thing apart telekinetically. It damaged the pack some, but the Active Crystal nanomorph remained annoyingly invulnerable.

Sean leaped on the nanomorph's back, rending its remaining weapon with his claws. He caused substantial damage, but the nanites just took a moment to reconfigure to repair the worst of it. The PackMode struck back with its stinger.

The Active Crystal nanomorph executed a sort of spinning slide around Sean, getting him more-or-less in line with Declan and Maestro, and pointed a hand. A circle of what looked like little LED bulbs appeared on its palm, flaring star-bright as it fired a corkscrewing octet of powerful lasers at the three Heroes. If they didn't get out of the way, the beams would blast right through them to hit their allies beyond.

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PackMode:
Move: Dazed.
Free: Nanoupgrade. Nanoforge Bullets gets Targeted Shapeable Area and Variable Descriptor 1 (Energy).
Standard: Attack Sean with Stinger at (1d20+10)[15]. On a hit, Fortitude ((1d20+14)[18]) DC 20 vs. Progressive Impaired/Disabled/Incapacitated. Miss
End of Turn: Regen 5/10.

AC Nanomorph:
Move: Behind Sean.
Standard: Attack Sean, Declan, and Maestro with Nanoforge Bullets Lasers. On a hit, Defense DC 29+Multiattack vs. Damage.
Sean: (1d20+14)[22]. Defense: (1d20+8)[14]. Hit. Bruised and Staggered unless Interposed/rerolled.
Declan: (1d20+14)[20]. Hit
Maestro: (1d20+14)[15]. Defense: (1d20+11)[23]. Miss

All PCs are on turn.

[manwithaplan]

Pulling Sean out of the way of the beam, Bastion was now in a perfect position to fight back. He lunged towards the Nanomorph with his fists raised, throwing one punch and then a second. Then, he lashed out with one of his legs in an attempt to trip the robot onto the floor.

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Free Action: Switch back to Deflect.
Standard Action: Computed Tactics on the Nanomorph, Power Attack 4. Attack (1d20+12)[17] for DC 27 Damage and DC (1d20+12)[24]+Multiattack Trip. Deflecting.

Status: 2 Bruises.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan braced for the laser as if preparing to recieve a tackle: the diamond layers reflected and refracted it in a pretty (and kind of out of place) light show, whittling down its energy and leaving him with only a singed shoulder.

He grunted to ignore the pain, and swung the Stunhammer down to smash the last EquipBot to bits.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: Uh...actually I'm not sure if I'm still within Close range. Either move or power up.
Standard: All Out Power Attack on PackMode at (1d20+12)[30], crit on 31+, Toughness DC 32 vs Damage and Will DC 27 vs Dazed+Vulnerable/Stunned+Defenceless [/Incapacitated, Cumulative].

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 5

The Nanomorph blocked Bastion's punch with one hand, and deftly sidestepped his trip attempt. But Declan's Stunhammer came in with another devastating blow to its last piece of equipment, leaving it vibrating weirdly as it struggled to maintain its shape. Sean quickly capitalized, grabbing the pack by two of its arms and forcibly ripping it from the Active Crystal robot, hurling it into a wall to explode into a cloud of metallic dust.

Maestro, meanwhile, focused his technopathic abilities, trying to get access to the Nanomorph's combat code. The problem with hacking a nanotech construct this advanced was that there were way too many individual computers that you had to hack; however many you compromised, there would always be more to pick up the slack. But if you compromised just the right ones at just the right time...

The Active Crystal Nanomorph's weaponry had been destroyed...but it was undamaged. And, frankly, SIDE's battle was going roughly equally well...which meant there were more enemies nearby than allies. With the dispassionate fearlessness and coldly calculating tactics that comes as part of the package when you invest in robot minions, the nanomorph flowed forward to get between the main bulk of the group and Maestro, and hurled out its arms to unleash a concussive wave of electromagnetic energies in all directions.

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AC Nanomorph:
Move: Between Declan/Sean/Bastion and Maestro.
Standard: Energy Blast, Variable Descriptor set to electromagnetism. Maestro Counters at (1d20+15)[29] vs. (1d20+14)[21]. If he fails, everybody give me Dodge DC 24 for half, Toughness DC 29/22 vs. Damage, Strength or Dodge DC 24/17 vs. Grab. Bastion, additionally give me Fortitude DC 24/17 vs. Entranced/Stunned/Transformed (All traits except physical armor set to 0), Limited to your powered armor. If Maestro's Counter fails, you get a Hero Point for your Performance Issues Complication.
Sean: Dodge: (1d20+10)[12]. Toughness: (1d20+14)[15]. Strength (half DC): (1d20+14)[22].
Maestro: Dodge: (1d20+11)[21]. Toughness: (1d20+11)[18]. Dodge: (1d20+11)[30]. Countered!

All PCs are on turn.

[manwithaplan]

"Hm."

The Nanomorph didn't seem to have a power or ability that Maestro couldn't just say no to, if it was apparently convenient for him. Taking advantage of the moment, Bastion raised his guns and went to fire a volley into the back of the machine.

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Okay, this time I'll hit, I promise!

Standard Action: Autoguns on Nanomorph, Power Attack 4. Attack (1d20+12)[31] for DC 27+Multiattack Damage.

Status: 2 Bruises.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Nice!"

Declan attacked with a wide, easy to dodge swing, then used its momentum to get even closer to the AC nanobot and...headbutted it, trying to break its stance and give an opening for Sean to deliver a decisive strike.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: Nah (unless it has moved out of close range again).
Standard: Accurate Attack to Aid Sean at (1d20+17)[26] That's a +5.
Free: Switch to Counterattack.

Regenerates a Bruise, Regen 2/10.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Round 6

Bastion's autoguns hammered home, blasting dozens of holes in the nanomorph's back and causing its entire body to vibrate weirdly as its internal systems were disrupted. The nanites making it up were already flowing to repair the damage, but for the moment in was vulnerable.

Declan's head-butt had little practical effect, but it did distract the robot for long enough for Maestro and Sean to strike. Maestro hammered it with a blast of telekinetic force, spraying more nanites around, and Sean attacked with claws fully engaged to try and tear it apart. However, at the last moment, the Nanomorph managed to throw itself aside, Sean's rending claws only causing superficial cuts.

The Nanomorph focused its attention on Declan, making a series of quick, precise strikes, as it analyzed his diamond structure for weaknesses to exploit.

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Active Crystal Nanomorph:
Move: Staggered.
Standard: Attack Declan with Algorithmic Assault, Power Attack for 4, at (1d20+10)[15]. On a hit, you're immune to the Damage (Toughness DC 33 if anyone Interposes), Will DC 28 vs. Weaken All Defenses. However, this triggers a Counterattack at (1d20+16)[19]. On a hit, Toughness ((1d20+15)[34]) DC 23 vs. Damage.
If anyone's defenses are Weakened by at least four points by this attack, it will attack that target against with Extra Effort at (1d20+10)[14]. On a hit, Toughness DC 33 vs. Damage, Will DC 28 vs. Weaken All Defenses. That target gets a Hero Point since it has to buy off the Fatigue. Nothing happens at all. The first two rolls already assured that, but literally every roll here insists that precisely nothing happens to anybody as either a direct or indirect result of this attack. It was a complete waste of all of our valuable time and my typing up a result flag this long is only wasting it further.
End of Turn: Regenerates a Bruise.

All PCs are on turn.

[manwithaplan]

"...I think it's vulnerable to bullets."

The Bastion moved, and all of a sudden he was upon the Nanomorph, firing a point-blank volley of shots directly into its form.

"Take away your equipment, and you are nothing more than atomically versatile garbage."

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Move Action: Run to Nanomorph.
Standard Action: Aim at him.
Surge - Extra Action: Autoguns at Power Attack 5. Attack (1d20+21)[39] for DC 28+Multiattack Damage. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

Status: 2 Bruises, Fatigued, Exhausted next round. Deflect up!

[Llyarden]

As the nanomorph dodged aside from his claws, Sean followed it, leaping past it with his claws out - and then turning when he landed and springing directly at the nanomorph, abandoning his sharp claws in favour of raw physical power.

Spoiler: OOC

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Move: Meh.
Standard: Reaming Claws on the nanomorph, all-out attacking for 5: (1d20+15)[32]. DC22 Defence vs damage on a hit.
Extra Effort: Brutal Throw on the nanomorph, power attacking for 5 as well: (1d20+10)[24]. DC34 Toughness vs damage and DC 19 Strength or 17 Defence vs grab. Mostly to see if it has some degree of insubstantial / entrapment immunity because science!

Status: -5 defence, fatigued next round.

[Quellian-dyrae]

The Nanomorph reinforced its damaged structure as Bastion unloaded another spray of bullets, and this time they splattered harmlessly against it, the restructured bonds of the nanites rendering them impervious to even Bastion's powerful weaponry.

But the reconfigured structure left its movements somewhat more halting, and those reinforced nanomolecular bonds did precisely nothing to keep Sean's indestructible claws from shearing right through them, carving great rents out of the robot's physical structure.

So when he came in with his full strength behind his follow-up body-blow, the Nanomorph's disrupted structure was in the process of reconfiguring into a more stable state. Sean's blow hit the badly-disrupted machine like a meteor, and it exploded immediately into a spray of tiny, shimmering motes of glassy dust.

The other Active Crystal Nanomorph went down seconds later, a flurry of blows from Wilhelm's Jet Blade damaging it severely before Waterworks smashed it to dust with her crushing tendrils.

SIDE's fight wasn't quite over, but the disciplined teamwork of the SIDE elites was more than making up for the superior technology of their opponents. SIDE was playing a bit of a defensive game, but they were grinding the Nanomorphs down steadily.

That game became significantly more offensive when the Heroes of Millaine were freed up to join the fray. It would not be long before nothing was left of the robotic defenders but a thick film of shimmering dust on the floor.

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Battle over! Everybody take a Hero Point!

[Llyarden]

"Right," Sean growled, when the last robot disintegrated, brushing stray nanites off his clothes. "Now time to hope that these things still have information in them." (Fillmore was a technopath, after all - it would seem odd if he hadn't made some effort to erase all the data that they held.)

He left that particular issue to the people more qualified than him to deal with technological stuff, and instead started prowling around the room, trying to catch any stray scents that Fillmore might have left behind.

Spoiler: OOC

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Scent tracking, something I always forget I have: (1d20+20)[28]

(I'm fully expecting him to have teleported so he doesn't leave tracks, but hey maybe I'll find a secret room or something.)

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Hah! That was easy!" Declan gleefully remarked once the fight was over.

Then, his usefulness having expired with the last nanobot, he waited for the others (and SIDE) to do their things, and gazed at the layer of dust covering the now almost empty lab.

"...we're not going to get charged with destruction of evidence, are we?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Wilhelm looked at Declan a bit curiously at his question, seeming like he wasn't sure if he was joking or not. "No, of course not. Although I'm not entirely sure how we're supposed to get evidence from this stuff now," he admitted. He sounded...more curious than frustrated at that, though. Which may have something to do with the fact that several helmets seemed to be facing in Maestro's general direction.

Maestro just made a casual gesture, streams of nanite dust rising up from the floor towards him, gathering in clusters or orbits as he telekinetically collected the nanites. Piecing together useful information from this stuff would be a puzzle even for him, but he was Maestro Mentallo; he could handle puzzles.

Fillmore's scent was all over the room and the house, but there didn't seem to be any more secret passages. Sean also didn't detect any other human scents in the basement area. It took some doing to judge the most recent scent trails, but Sean's nose was keen enough to pull it off. And best he could tell, Fillmore actually hadn't teleported out. There was a trail to follow, for a time at least. Best he could discern, Fillmore had taken a vehicle through the city, but once he had left the city proper, the vehicle had...changed in some way (Sean could still smell traces of many of the materials that had made it up, but the scents were subtly different, like base elements had been reconfigured into different forms, and they also seemed somewhat denser) and taken flight. That was about where Sean lost the trail - a scent trail passing through open air just wouldn't stick around for this long. But it was clear enough to Sean ((Sherlock Scan)) that Fillmore had avoided flying as a means to avoid attention within the city, but swapped to high speed flight once he was clear to make better time and presumably minimize the chance of being tracked. His efforts to avoid drawing attention were likely part of the reason he had left his nanobots behind. Even for robots made out of morphic nanotech, they were still made up of a lot of total mass, so bringing them along may have attracted notice. He didn't smell any traces of other robots, and based on the scent markers, it was fairly likely that the vehicle had transformed into a suit of powered armor before taking flight.

SIDE processed the rest of the scene without further trouble, though in all likelihood, it would fall to Maestro to piece together any electronic evidence from the nanotech.

--

It was only a couple days after the raid. All was pretty quiet on the Millaine front. Maestro was still working on trying to recover information from the nanotech, and SIDE still going over the physical evidence from Fillmore's home. It was a fine spring day, a perfect day, one might even say, to do some...house cleaning.

Granted, that might be less about the day, and more about the mess that had been made in the Arbera region.

That morning, in the small town of Garden City, fairly close to the border between the Arbera and Estruan regions, there had been a Defiant attack. That alone wasn't super-strange. Even the fact that one of the Defiant had been in powered armor wasn't especially odd. What made it a national story, was that it wasn't the usual old-model armor the Defiant usually got their hands on through their shady military connections, or even a typical modern suit. The Defiant had been equipped in a suit of cutting-edge, top-of-the-line military powered armor with all the trimmings, an ADE-class suit, and had taken it on a merry joyride through town.

It had been a bloodbath. The suit was military, not SIDE, but power detectors were standard on ADE suits. The attacker had been able to fly through town at supersonic speeds and unload on any Dreamer he encountered. You'd think with that sort of precision targeting he wouldn't have needed to cause collateral damage, but evidently his missile fetish disagreed. Now, if this had been a major city, especially in the Arbera region, a single suit of even ADE armor could only have done so much before getting put down by a heroic response.

This wasn't a major city. This was a small town, with a single Hero and less than a full Combat Unit of SIDE forces. The Hero, an energy controller with the power of holy fire, wasn't weak by any means, but she also wasn't particularly experienced - Garden City had never really faced anything that even rated a military-grade threat. She and the SIDE forces alike had fought bravely. None of them had survived. Three more Heroes from nearby towns had also come to fight, but they hadn't coordinated and by the team each new one arrived, the armor's nanorepair systems had regenerated the damage inflicted by the last. It wasn't until all three Heroes from the nearest city (Ellerfall) got word of how serious it was and attacked together that the Defiant was finally brought down, and even then, one of them had been badly injured and the other two had been forced to resort to lethal force to finish off the fanatical attacker.

In all, four Heroes, ten SIDE agents, nearly a hundred Dreamer civilians and twice as many Sleeper bystanders, had been killed over the course of the eighteen-minute rampage. Hundreds more were injured, and property damage was being calculated in the millions.

It wasn't the sort of massive-scale Defiant attack that Holtz had warned of, but it was still the single worst Defiant attack since they had launched a missile into the heart of Millaine. Needless to say, the military was getting bombarded with demands from all corners to find out how such a powerful asset had gotten into terrorist hands.

This was why Declan and Sean were currently on a video call with Air Force General McAllen. There had been no small talk over cookies this time. "-suit was traced back to a base in Ellerfall. We've got a full ADE squadron on leave there. The suit was a reserve, so it's not keyed to any specific individual, but there's a select list of people who could have accessed it. Mostly the operatives, their immediate COs, and their PEs. General Traver is in command of Army forces there, and he's opened an IIN investigation, but the people want answers fast and frankly so do I. I've been hearing good things about what you two have been doing to root out the Defiant in our bases in the Verdania region. I'm officially requesting on behalf of the Ilessian Military that you deploy to the Ellerfall and assist the IIN investigation by whatever means you see fit to uncover the identity of the traitor or gave a terrorist access to a top-level military asset. Any questions?"

Meanwhile, elsewhere, Bastion was on a phone call of his own. "So you need to get here, ASAP," Sinna concluded. "I bought you some time, but according to the records you're still working here as a PE, independent contractor or not. If you don't get to base within the hour, you're going to be at the top of the IIN's list."

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Bastion, take a Hero Point for your Codenames are Serious Business Complication.

[manwithaplan]

"Don't worry, we've got plenty of time."

Bastion's suit roared across the country-side, every panel and joint flipping open to reveal an auxiliary force generator. Even a few weeks ago, the 'Flight Mode' modification had seemed like a bit of a joke. But now...

"What's my role on-site at the moment? And...where should I put my gear? With the job we've done to this suit, it's going to stand out."

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Flight 10, but it's Concentration, but I have my big Mobility score. How long will it take to get to base?

[Llyarden]

Sean was pretty good at self-control. It was kinda his thing. That was why he could land blows powerful enough that his targets physically couldn't stay conscious, no matter how much pain-resistance-training they'd been put through, without leaving any permanent damage - as more than a few Defiants who'd confronted him during his and Declan's investigations, confident that he wouldn't be able to fight them at full strength, had discovered to their cost.

So it was something of a testament to just how angry he was that his eyes were currently shining amber, his claws extended to their full length. How could they let this happen again?

"Yeah," he said aloud, in response to Gen. McAllen's request for questions. "I'm guessing there's all kinds of checks and records that say who took the suits out, to prevent this kind of thing from happening. First: what are they? And second, if you know - what happened to them?" He could've gotten the same information from Gen. Traver, and he fully intended on doing so. But there was no harm in confirming information from separate sources.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan was...not as good at Sean at self contro, but he stil advanced in leaps since a few months prior: in fact, he was still in the room listening to General MCAllen, instead of already on his way to Arbera...but his fists occasionally creaked by how strongly they were clenched.

"I take it General Traver is above all suspicion?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Bastion

"You're still listed as my PE, just under contract rather than wording directly for the military," Sinna said. Once the squad was back on active duty, that might have to change, but for the time being it was fine. Sinna was plenty capable of handling his suit's routine maintenance. "You don't have to worry about acting like you've been here. We've all been pretty much on and off the base since leave began. I didn't specify exactly where you were, but I did point out that you've got family in Garden City, so you can play it however you like. Drop the suit at my place if you want. Bike's in the garage."

Sean and Declan

"I'm not completely certain on what the Army's specific security measures are," McAllen answered. "But if they're anything like ours at the Air Force, access would be restricted by card swipe, password, and biometric scan, all of which would be keyed to a specific individual in the database. And all military computer and security systems run through a private network. The connections are hard-wired and encrypted, and the server rooms are guarded, secured, and projection-blocked. Since the Verdania breakout nobody wants to use the term impossible, but it's improbable that an outside thief gained access. As to why we don't have the thief's name on a computer, that I don't know. General Traver or perhaps the IIN investigators might be able to tell you that."

Your past experience dealing with the military's Defiant problem suggested that the Army security for assets that valuable would be similar - which was a big part of the reason that Defiant were almost (emphasis on almost) never able to get their hands on really serious hardware. That being said, powered armor and fighter jets were two very different beasts. In the Air Force, you'd need to access a given jet's hangar to access that specific jet. Powered armor was generally kept in an armory, and once it was open, you only needed to sign out the suit and sign it back in when you replaced it. So it was possible that someone could access the armory, take a suit, and falsify the check-ins.

Even so, that didn't explain everything. There were regular inventories, and frankly even without them, ADE suits weren't like mixed in with a bunch of crates or whatever. They would be displayed prominently and with plenty of space to suit up - and thus to see them. If one was missing, the next person to go into the armory would have noticed at a glance. And whoever had accessed the armory would still be noted in the database. So there had to be more to it than just falsifying the checklist.

"Nobody is above suspicion. It's probably somewhat more likely that one of the operatives did this, and more likely still that it was one of their PEs, than that it was a general, so my instinct would be to check them first, but if they all check out, their COs are next in line and up through the chain of command. For what it's worth, I've known General Traver for over twenty years, and I've never so much as seen a hint that he has any problems with Dreamers. A few months ago I would have said there was no possible way he could be involved. But after reading the reports of all the Defiant and Defiant-sympathizers you two have been clearing out of our bases in the Verdania region...well, I just wish I could still say that with any conviction."[/COLOR]

[manwithaplan]

37 minutes after the call...

Sebastian Steel was doing what Sebastian Steel did! He was on his back, half of him obscured underneath Sinna's bike, a toolbox by his side.

"My boy knows how to do routine maintenance, but can't swap out the oil on his ride?"

The mechanic slid out from underneath the bike with a canister of old oil that, quite frankly, looked perfectly fresh. But he seemed to have decided it wasn't good enough, and then-

"Oh, whoops!"

He'd spilt it on himself. Not only that, but he'd spilt it on himself while wearing a uniform he had taken from Sinna's garage floor. An old uniform which definitely hadn't been washed in a while. Oh well, he was in a hurry. And besides, it was nothing that a few wax wipes couldn't fix. And he had a few on him right now, actually, so all he had to do was scrub a little...

[Llyarden]

Sean nodded. "What about the Defiant that actually piloted the suit? Are we going to be able to get access to that kind of information?" He wanted to know what of the suit's data had been recovered as well, but that would probably have to wait until they were speaking to Gen. Traver. Speaking of which... "Oh, by the way, what does General Traver think about us getting brought into this?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"I see. Hopefully he's not involved." Declan didn't really like suspecting a General. But after all he'd seen...as Allen said, it wasn't impossible.

And perhaps because he wasn't in the state of mind for completely clear thinking, or perhaps simply because a investigator he was not, he didn't have any other questions. He just wanted to find that m**********r as soon as possible.

Spoiler: OOC

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Ready to move on whenever.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Bastion Sebastian Steele

Your little, ahem, accident in Sinna's garage aside, the trip to the base was uneventful. When you arrived, you were directed to the squad's barracks. You passed a pair of suits hanging around outside, near the barracks, keeping an eye on it but keeping their distances. They turned inscrutable gazes on you as you walked past them towards it.

When you got to the barracks, the squad (all six of the operatives, and the other five PEs) was already gathered together in the little mess room, seated around the table, on which was a roughly three-quarters clear tray of doughnuts and three pots - two empty and one nearly so - of coffee. There was a strong vibe of tension in the room. Tension and anger. A few of them were speaking quietly with one another. There was a twelfth person there as well, a pretty, auburn-haired young woman in a very nice suit (quite a bit nicer than the suits you passed outside, as it happens), who was sitting at the head of the table, an expensive-looking briefcase resting against her chair.

"There he is!" Sinna said a bit bombastically as you entered, and the tension in the room lifted a little bit, the squad giving you a chorus of greeting and a bit of friendly ribbing about not having been around much since leave had started. The soldiers were pretty much just as enthusiastic about it as the PEs. While in general the operatives were on friendly-enough terms with each other's PEs, you had gained a bit of popularity among the soldiers after taking out Sinna's technopathically-controlled suit.

While the greetings went on, the stranger stood up and walked over to offer you a handshake. "Mr. Steele, I take it. Thank you for joining us," she said in a friendly, professionally polite voice, with maybe just a hint of reproach. It was like, she didn't actually say the word finally, but you kinda knew it was there. "If you'll take a seat, we can get started. I'm here to represent your squad in this investigation."

"My name is Patty Abel."

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MWaP, please let me know Bastion's current emotional state. If he's trying to conceal or suppress his emotions at the moment, you can avoid doing so with a DC 20 Deception check. This is a Permanent Senses power, so it's not inherently noticeable without power detection.

(And yes this happens whether or not he accepts the handshake).

Declan and Sean

"I would imagine so. I haven't gotten into the details of the investigation personally, but I would assume that information is available and can see no reason for them not to share it." There was a slightly conspiratorial edge in her tone, as if to append "if they know what's good for them" to the end of that statement. It was probably a safe bet that if the IIN were less than forthcoming or cooperative with you, a word to General McAllen might go a long way towards clearing up any such hassles. "When I mentioned to Travers that I intended to contact you he didn't seem particularly enthused, but he didn't object. I don't think he'll have a problem with you specifically, more than the expected problem any general would have with knowing that the soldiers under their watch need to be investigated in the first place."

[manwithaplan]

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Quietly confident in himself and his brains.
Stoked to see the team and that they admire him so much.
Vaguely nervous about what's about to happen.

"The man is in." His response to Sinna, along with the following table-wide salute, was quiet and professional enough to be a bit amusing in its own right. Sebastian seemed to be having a little fun with the situation.

"Good to meet you, Patty. Hope I haven't done anything wrong," came his words as he looked her in the eye. Then he went to take his seat next to Sinna.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Bastion

Spoiler: The Squad

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First and foremost, just to be clear, nobody in the squad has ever expressed any particularly anti-Dreamer sentiments.

Operatives

Rafe Drechsler: Probably the most serious and disciplined member of the squad. It wouldn't be correct to call him the unofficial leader...buuuut he sometimes acts like he is. The others occasionally deign to go along with it on account of the fact that he's got a keen tactical mind and somewhat infuriating tendency to be right. On the flip side, he tends to get saddled with a lopsided volume of the paperwork when it's required. While he loves working with the squad, you know he has his eye on a leadership position eventually.

Vonda Joubert: Unmitigated badass, and in an ADE squadron that's saying a lot. She lost an arm to a Dreamer with the power of disintegration a few years back, and it did not slow her down (it didn't hurt that it's since been replaced with a cutting-edge cybernetic arm). Even without cybernetic upgrades, she's probably the best suitless fighter in the squad and an expert in hand-to-hand combat. She's confident but not cocky, the sort of soldier who will take on anything without a flinch when called for, but never takes unnecessary risks. She's married and has two children, and was extremely happy for the extended leave giving her more time with them.

Azhar Levitt: Dude's a genius. Not Maestro level, but he's got three PhDs to his name and is a Elderage alum. Big strategic planner of the squad, and does a lot of custom programming for their suits. Has a somewhat annoying tendency to stick his nose in the business of every PE but his own. Kinda quiet in general, but when you get him talking he uses a lot of words. Extremely calm and rational, and doesn't talk about himself too much. You actually don't really know what's been going on in his personal life recently.

Sela Holzer: A Dreamer herself, with the power of possession. Azhar programmed her suit with some advanced AI functionality; one of her common tactics is to possess a major enemy, let her suit keep fighting autonomously while she acts like the enemy's still helping (subtly keeping it from having any significant impact), and then "turning" on the enemies when she sees an opportunity to do the most damage. Very outspoken against the Reclaimers in general and the Defiant in particular; her younger sister was killed in a Defiant attack several years back.

Bette Emmett: Newest member of the squad, and was only deployed on a couple missions with them before they were called back on leave. She's still kinda finding her place, and has proven herself to be a bit overconfident and overeager, but she's proven her competence. She's a first-generation Ilessian, her parents having emigrated from Eskavie not long before it fell to Haptarus, so this fight is personal for her, and she was kinda peeved about being called back from the front so quickly. She has an older brother who's a Hero in Arbera, but your understanding is that they don't talk much.

Personal Engineers

Arthur Otis: Arthur's very laid-back. One might call him lazy, except his work always seems to be top-notch, so perhaps he's just good. Casually friendly with a very chill demeanor. He's said multiple times that he's in a band, and he does play the guitar pretty well, but you've never met them or heard them play or anything, so...jury's out. He's actually an independent contractor himself, and possibly part of the inspiration behind your whole legal setup. He's often said that this is just a temporary gig to build up the capital and rep to open up his own mechanic business...but he's also been saying that for years and is one of the longest-standing PEs in the squad, so it's probable that he enjoys the camaraderie too much to pull the trigger on moving on.

Seydou Yamada: A classic "squire" type PE, using the PE job as a stepping stone to an eventual position as a power-armored soldier or ideally an ADE operative. She's honestly hoping that when Rafe moves on she'll be considered to fill his position. This does mean she's a fully qualified soldier and skilled in the use of powered armor in her own right. She's been acting kinda weird around you since you took out Sinna technopathically-controlled powered armor with an inferior suit, kinda a mix between being jealous of you, worried that you might take "her spot", and wanting to grow up to be like you.

Brianne McCleary: An extremely thorough, detail-oriented mechanic - she probably has to be to keep Azhar off her back. Triple-checks everything, keeps extensive records, ready to answer any question about her work at the drop of a hat. The same laser focus applies to her personality as well. While she's highly skilled and extremely intelligent, she's not the very best at on-the-fly thinking. She can get flustered in social situations, and when caught off-guard with more personal questions has been known to go into impressive streams of babble. You're aware that her father was laid off recently, but she hasn't really talked about the details.

Meriel Dunn: Originally from the Estruan region, Meriel is the daughter of two caravaners. That implies exactly what you think about her personality. Very quick-witted and a confirmed adrenaline junkie; she's another "squire", although somewhat less focused on it than Seydou. But since she's a trained soldier, she has gone out with the squad on missions a couple of times. Not technically as combat support, she's usually assigned to hang back from the fighting and be available to provide cover or support if needed. But she has gone running into a PL 12 firefight to conduct combat repairs more than once. Ludicrously fearless. She's been slightly more subdued recently after she got word that her father was injured on the job. Evidently brigands (yes, modern-day Ilessia has brigands, the life of a caravaner is a little insane sometimes) with Dreamer support attacked his caravan and he got caught in a force blast. He survived, but he's been in the hospital for the past several months.

Rolph Jennings: Another Dreamer, with the power of berserker strength. The angrier he gets, the stronger he gets, but also the less inhibition and control he has. He joined the military mainly in hopes that more structure and discipline would help him control his power. You know that he's troubled by it in more ways than just fearing what he might do; he's "hurt people" in the past, although nobody's ever been able to get him to talk more on the subject. While his power fluctuates, it can set up a bit of a feedback loop, and he's actually shockingly powerful at max strength. There's some rumor that he was assigned as an ADE PE because if he were to go completely wild, an ADE squad is pretty much what you'd need to neutralize him with a low risk of casualty.

Patty gave you a little quirk of a smile. "So do I," she replied, half-jokingly.

Once you were seated and Patty had returned to her own seat, she said, "The first thing we need to discuss is what our position is on this investigation. The twelve of you are the prime suspects, but even if one of you did it, the other eleven would be innocent. I'm sure you all wish to find whoever is responsible for this. What my question is, is do we proceed under the logic that is might actually be someone here, or is our position that nobody here committed the crime?"

"Can you clarify the practical differences between the two?" Rafe requested.

"If our position is that it is possible that somebody here committed the crime, my goal is to first determine if that is true, second to figure out who that is so that I can focus my attention on their defense and the rest of you can get on with your lives, and third to ensure that they are treated fairly by the courts and that all mitigating factors in the situation are taken into account. That means we will want to cooperate with the investigation as much as possible and only impede their efforts if and when we feel that they are allowing their zeal to punish someone outweigh the necessity of finding the truth. On the other hand, if our position is that that nobody here committed the crime, that means the best thing we can do for their investigation is make them understand that they are wasting their time here so that they can start looking for the actual culprit elsewhere."

"And you will just take our word for that?" Sela asked.

"You're my clients. It's the investigator's jobs to be suspicious of you. My job is to use the information you give me to help find the truth, and ensure that you have good reason to give me information. I'll give you the same advice I give all of my clients: Ilessian law enforcement is good at its job. Very few criminals are good enough to actually get away with what they've done. Statistically, if you've committed a serious crime, it is in your best interests to surrender through your defense attorney so that you have the opportunity to negotiate a favorable outcome, than to expect that you'll be able to foil a dedicated investigation."

"Out of curiosity, how many of your clients have actually taken that advice?" Meriel asked, with a bit of a smirk.

Patty gave her a wan not-smile. "Very few."

"Honestly, it's kinda irrelevant, I think," Vonda said. "I can't even imagine anyone here betraying their team or their country like this, especially in a way that they would have had to know would lead to the deaths of so many innocent Ilessians. Far as I'm concerned, every single person in this room is above reproach."

"Void yeah! Seconded! So hard!" Bette agreed.

Most of the others chorused agreement. Azhar was a bit slower than most to do so, thinking on the matter for a few moments, before concurring. Sinna was...more hesitant. "Based on everything I know, all of my experience, I would say the same thing. I do not believe anybody here could have done this. But tactically, I think it might be a better move to act as if it is possible. At the very least, being helpful to the investigators may make them more inclined to believe us and as such clear us faster. And on the very, very, very off chance that due to some extraordinary circumstance, somebody here did do it," even with that much stipulation, he got some looks for even saying it, but far be it from Sinna to let what others may think of him dissuade him from doing what he felt was right, even when those others were his teammates and friends, "then it is better that we figure that out sooner than later."

Patty gave him a polite smile, but not an agreeing one. "That's a good position to take, and I'm sure a difficult case to make aloud. But in my experience, it doesn't quite work out like that. The most likely way for a criminal to escape Ilessian justice, is for the investigators to get so focused on a suspect that they can make a case against, that they stop looking further. And the fact is, they have enough evidence to make a case against someone here. Right now, expect that the central question of their investigation is 'Which one of them did it?' If our position is that someone here may be guilty, that's fine.
But otherwise, we need to dissuade them of that notion as strongly as possible, so that they can change the question to 'Who did it?' You see?"

Sinna seemed somewhat uncomfortable with that, but gave a little nod. "If that must be the case then...no, I cannot believe it was anyone here," he said, not without some hesitance.

Throughout the discussion, though, Seydou remained conspicuously quiet.

Declan and Sean

With a few final words, McAllen ended the call. A military chopper had been dispatched to pick you up (it was bigger than would normally be used to transport two passengers, but well Declan). But with size came power, and it did not take you too long to reach the base.

When you exited the chopper, you were met by two men, one in an officer's uniform with a general's markings, the other in a professional black suit and dark sunglasses. "Mr. Reynolds, Mr. Hyer," the first man greeted you with handshakes. "Honor to meet you. I'm General Marsden Traver."

"Agent Dennis Ash, IIN," the other man introduced himself, likewise offering handshakes. "We've been following your work in Verdania. Your assistance here is appreciated. Have you been fully briefed?"

Spoiler: Sean

Show

You actually get a pretty strong sense of genuine respect from Traver, but that doesn't strictly mean he's happy to see you. That said, he doesn't seem particularly happy to have Ash there either. Probably worth noting, you don't get any sense of fear, nervousness, dread, anything like that from him. Just unhappy is probably the single best word to describe his emotions, with a bit of an undertone of anger and shame.

Agent Ash's emotions don't say much. Pure calm professionalism, this guy. There's a hint of a positive reaction regarding you, but it's not really something you might call happy, or excited, or hopeful, or anything like that. Just a generally vaguely-satisfied reaction. If you were to put the emotion into words, "The arrival of these assets is a net benefit for my goals" would probably not be a bad description.

[Llyarden]

"General, Agent," Sean nodded, shaking the two men's hands in turn. "I wish we were meeting under better circumstances," he added quietly.

"We haven't been briefed, no. We know the suit was a reserve from here, and that there's an ADE squadron on leave here, but beyond that everything we know is from the news reports." He toyed with the idea of immediately pressing into questioning their hosts, but restrained himself - when all was said and done, having General Travers and Agent Ash on side would make everything a lot easier. "I imagine you know a lot more than we do," he settled on - though he definitely had a kinda expectant tone, maybe more than was entirely necessary.

[manwithaplan]

"I'm sorry, but I don't think that's real."

Sebastian sat still for a moment. Surrounded by heroes suspected of a crime, describing each other as above reproach and not capable of committing it. He wasn't Bastion today, but the nature of his mission was still on his shoulders.

"The idea that nobody here could have done it. It's a fantasy and it slows down the law. We are talking about my home, and we are talking about the Defiant. It's very important to me that this investigation is successful. I'm not an investigator. You might not like those men outside, but they are investigators, and given how frequently these things happen, I doubt it's the first time they've been in a military base, looking for rogues with ties to the Defiant. Sooner or later, they have to come across something. There have to be weak links letting this happen, and even some of the greatest Heroes in the country have actively joined an ongoing investigation into the matter. I'm not going to point at any military base in the country, or any team in any base, and say that it definitely wasn't one of those folks without evidence. That...that includes us. Someone, somewhere, is respected, disciplined, hard-working, and also committed an atrocity like this. It had to be someone. I don't want to upset any of you, because you're all very important to me, but that's not good enough for the IIN and that means it's not good enough for me. Apologies again."

Spoiler

Show

Should I keep giving you emotions?

Convicted.
Concerned (about social repercussions, mostly).
Vague, fleeting beginnings of suspicion.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan shook the men's hands after Sean, with a respectful nod in place of a vocal greeting. The flight had given him some time to calm down, but he certainly wasn't in the mood for advanced pleasantries.

"Have you already determined how security was breached?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sean and Declan

"We're pretty sure. Our tech guys are pretty confident it wasn't hacked or sabotaged," Ash answered, getting straight to business. "Nobody wants to use the word impossible these days, but there aren't any signs of it, anyway. And it probably isn't necessary."

"The squad was preparing for their monthly readiness evaluation yesterday," Traver explained. "Checking all the suits, conducting drills, running tests. All the troops were there, and...I believe all but one of the PEs. They were in and out of the armory regularly. Only six of them are in the logs as opening it, but protocol doesn't require everyone go in and out individually. Would be a waste of time. All of them are on camera going in and out throughout the day."

"My team went over the footage in both the barracks and the armory. We can see a suit is missing by the end of the day, but it's not clear who took it. On camera the suits look basically identical, and even trying to track who took then out and brought them back didn't work. The different PEs were checking the different suits, and the operatives conducting drills and tests. Whoever had a given suit last put it back, not necessarily the person who took it out. The camera coverage wasn't 100%, and we saw them take suits outside several times, for extended periods."

"Flight tests," Traver explained.

"And of course, the fact that they were taking the suits off-base for authorized reasons means they didn't get any pings from the RFIDs. They also apparently had cause to disable GPS tracking at various points."

"To test systems while in dark mode," Traver said, a bit defensively.

Ash shrugged. "And since these suits use nanotech, they're not physically difficult to smuggle. Shrink them down and stick them in your pocket. So, in all likelihood, a member of the squad used the fact that the suits were in-and-out, moving around, and everybody was too busy with their tests and drills for anyone to be paying really close attention to who had what, and smuggled one of the suits out."

"Or someone took advantage of the bustle to sneak one of the suits out under everyone's noses," Traver pointed out, but even he didn't sound like he believed it. Ash didn't even it bother responding.

"Anyway. We're still running backgrounds, but so far there's no connection between the dead Defiant - that would be a Mr. Roman Kayode - and anyone in the squad. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything, as I'm sure you two are fully aware." In most cases, when Defiant or Defiant sympathizers smuggled weapons, they didn't use them personally or give them to friends. They got them to people who could get them in the hands of other Defiant, like the Zagner family at Target Sight.

"So," he continued with a sort of cheery voice that was not in any way reflected in Sean's sense of his actual emotions, "our best bet at the moment is to interrogate the squad, figure out which ones are the most likely suspects, and interrogate them until one breaks."

Sebastian

A brief silence fell as you spoke, the other members of your squad looking at you with varying degrees of surprise, confusion, and anger. Even Sinna looked a little shocked, but having already been leaning more towards assisting the investigation, he backed you up. "He's not wrong."

"The Void he isn't!" Meriel retorted.

Azhar held up a forestalling hand, and looked directly at you. "I understand that this is important to you, Sebastian," he said with a kinda slow enunciation, as if he were rapidly prototyping what he wanted to say between words - a sure sign that he was ramping up to one of his very thorough explanations. "And in the general sense, yes, you are absolutely correct. That the Defiant have been able to acquire such powerful weaponry from our military is shameful, and is also a simple fact. And the truth of the matter is that many of the qualities that make a good soldier also lend themselves to making a good Defiant. If you take their fervor and dedication, and redirect it to a positive end, they could easily present as the most staunchly loyal patriots. As such, you cannot assume that just because someone is a good soldier, that they cannot also be a Defiant. I would go so far as to say that no amount of respect among their peers, no number of citations in their record, would be sufficient to raise a soldier above suspicion in this manner of investigation."

"However, we are not here being asked to judge a hypothetical soldier, or even to judge one another's merits for the standpoint of being soldiers. This conclusion we have come to is not predicated on blind trust or loyalty. It is predicated on long evidence and deep experience. We have eaten together, lived together, traveled together, fought together, for months at the least and years for most of us. Vonda lost her arm to a Dreamer power," he said, looking briefly her way. "And when that happened, did anyone here in even the slightest wise suggest that they felt it was Dreamers in general to blame for that, or that it wouldn't have happened if there were no Dreamers, or anything of the sort?"

The question was kinda rhetorical, although Sela chimed in with, "Although I mean, to be fair, we all would have known that if we did say anything like that, she'd have used the arm she still had to punch us right in the mouth." There were a couple light chuckles, and Vonda gave her an agreeing smirk.

"And Sela and Rolph both are Dreamers themselves," Azhar continued, looking back at you. "Rolph's power is undeniably dangerous, and Sela's is, frankly, one of the creepier ones I've encountered. No offense."

"It's a fair rap."

"And I think you know as well as I do that nobody on this squad has ever treated them worse, has ever looked upon either of them as anything other than friends and comrades, has ever shown them anything but respect for their contributions. If one of us were some closet Defiant, there would have been something.
Even just some subtle nudges to see if anyone else felt similarly. But there isn't. There is simply no evidence to suggest that any of us would have been capable of something like this."

"Which means that, just as Ms. Abel says, it can only help the investigators to make that unambiguously and irrefutably clear. Because you are right, a soldier cannot be cleared based only on his or her record, and they do not know us. They don't have those years of experience that make it glaringly obvious that none of us could have done this, and they aren't going to be able to get that depth of understanding with mere interviews. Any time spent investigating us is time wasted, and so it is our duty to ensure they waste as little time on us as possible. Do you see?"

[Llyarden]

Sean...kinda glanced Travers' way as he kept making lamer and lamer excuses, eyebrow raised. So in short, you pretty much gave them the keys.

"Before we go straight in with the interrogating - the GPS tracking must have been turned off at some point, right?" he reasoned. "There must be some people you're able to exclude just based on them being accounted for when the suit's tracking was turned off. Besides the PE who wasn't there at all, I mean. I guess we can assume that he's not the one responsible. Or at least that he couldn't have done it alone."

Then he turned to Travers. "Also, uh...just to check I have this right, your cutting-edge lethal battlesuits are designed that anyone off the street can get in and pilot them - at best, maybe they need a code that isn't even unique to one individual - and no-one thought to check that they'd all been brought back last night?" And...yeah, his eyes definitely flashed amber there.

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian groaned inwardly. It had been a while, but these men and women were undoubtedly his best friends. But the fire within him, although subdued without his armour on, would not be extinguished - for the sake of truth, he couldn't resist making a stand.

"I see, Azhar. I see. Your point about Rolph and Sela is really good. It's certainly a long, long shot to put the blame on somebody here. But that's only meaningful in a context of urgency. Perhaps these men only have so long to find a culprit before the trail goes cold, and perhaps the day or several days they spend on us, short as they will be if there is a lack of evidence, will specifically be enough time to slow the investigation down just by enough to stop them from finding their culprit. Maybe. But their understanding of those sorts of pressures in an investigation like this have to be deeper than ours. We don't have a duty to help them be as efficient as possible - they know how to do that. If we have a duty to these men, brothers in service of the country no less, then it is trust and cooperation. You say that we are legitimately in a better position than them to see the lack of evidence of wrong-doing, and that could be a convincing factor, but..."

He turned to Patty.

"Did I mishear, or did you say they had some sort of evidence to bring against the team? Or one of us. Is that the case?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Especially after they'd been taken off base in dark mode?" Declan doubled down on Sean's words, the anger he managed to suppress threatening to come bubbling up.

"General, my grandma's cookie jar had better security than this, and you couldn't kill anyone with those."