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

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sean and Declan

General Traver gave Sean a glare at his reproachful question, but when Declan followed up, Sean could smell an initial flash of anger, but it kinda flared up and quickly simmered down (though didn't go away entirely). Externally, he blinked, and cast a canny look between the two of you. "You boys tryin' to get a rise out of me?"

"Look here. No, not just anyone off the street can use them. They do need an activation code. You're correct that the code isn't tied to a specific individual, and there's a reason for that. We don't want the suits to be restricted to a single specific soldier. The suits have nanorepair - if our guys get injured on the battlefield, we want another soldier to be able to suit up. If we need to add firepower to a mission, we want to be able to put some guys in the reserve suits. Just put a small group of peoples' biometrics in, maybe? Sure, but then what happens when a bunker buster hits one of our bases in the middle of the night, kills or injures everyone authorized, and now we have a dozen privates facing a Haptaran raiding force with weaponry that can beat them back and no way to use it? I'll tell you what happens. We lose the base, we lose the soldiers, and we lose the suits anyway."

"Those suits were secured in an armory with limited, logged access secured through biometrics, card swipes, and passwords. No, we don't require every person to enter individually, take exactly one item, and exit. That would be nonsense. Yes, the suits can go dark. These are military assets for use in special forces operations. You think Haptarus can't detect an Ilessian GPS signal?"

"Far as checking on them, we conduct visual inventory sweeps daily - in the morning. On account of the fact that if someone's trying to steal something, it's a good bet they're going to try it at night. Did we think that maybe these things should be checked after use? Of course we did, that's the squad's responsibility, and the logs are reviewed by admin at the end of the day. The squad didn't seem to notice anything, and the log indicated all the suits were checked back in over the course of the day."

"When security fails, you can always look back and say 'if you had just done this, that wouldn't have happened'. But every improvement to security carries both a monetary cost, and a cost in ease of access. And possibly a cost in other forms of security - everything we add that lets us track or manipulate the suits remotely is one more point of potential vulnerability against a hacker or a technopath. It's easy to come up with a solution to a single breach after the fact, that's not what security is. Security is trying to anticipate all the possible ways things can go wrong, and then prevent as many possibilities as you can afford. So don't go mistaking the fact that someone managed to beat our security for the notion that we don't have any, y'hear?"

"It does, however, further suggest that a member of the squad is responsible," Ash said in a very neutral voice. "Since it does seem that the security's primary weakness would be against the people who are authorized to access the suits in the first place, yes?"

"I wouldn't call it a security weakness that the people who are authorized to use and access the suits are able to do so," Traver responded a bit testily. "But sure, they would be in the best position to take one if they wanted to. I just can't see any of them wanting to. And before you ask," he grumbled, giving the two of you a bit of a glare, "yes, they receive mandatory psych evals every six months. None of them threw up any red flags in their last ones."

"And those were how long ago?"

"They were due for their next ones. They'd have been part of this month's combat readiness evaluation."

"I see. So any major life events that might have triggered a behavioral change, which occurred in the past six months, could have gone as-yet unnoticed. Although we also can't rule out the possibility that if any of them were able to conduct this operation without raising the suspicions of the rest of their squad, they might simply be a skilled enough liar to slip through evaluation."

Traver gave a resigned sigh. "Sure. I guess."

"Good to know," Ash said, his voice still utterly neutral, before he looked to Sean to answer his previous question. "We do have people working on trying to exclude possibilities based on footage around the time we lost that suit's GPS. It's a bit of a process to match up physical locations from various camera angles to GPS coordinates, but the techs expect they'll have it ready within the hour. I wouldn't necessarily exclude the one who wasn't there quite yet. Certainly, 'I'm the only one who wasn't actually here' is a good alibi...but all things considered, I would call it so good as to be suspicious."

Sebastian

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Yeah her Empathy's Permanent so if he has any significant emotion changes it wouldn't hurt to note them.

Although you asked Patty the question, Sinna quietly answered, "We were prepping for comred yesterday." That was...pretty much all he had to say. You knew how hectic things were during preparation for combat readiness evaluation. If a suit had gone missing during that time somehow...yeah, the squad would absolutely be the most obvious suspects. Frankly, obvious enough that it kinda vindicated your point by itself.

Seydou had been silent up to this point, but after you kept arguing, she kinda snapped. "Alright.
You think someone here could have done it, Sebastian? Fine then. How about you?"

"Woah, hey now," Sinna said reproachfully.

"I'm not...I don't want to...but I mean where has he been!? I know we've all been kinda on and off base this whole leave. But we've seen each other when we were here. Or met up. Or hung out. I've seen everyone else at least a few times since we got back. Everyone but him. He wasn't here yesterday, he wasn't here earlier this morning. And the- I mean..." she met your gaze, and while she was angry...there was also regret there. But after a moment she said what she had to say anyway. "The attack was in his hometown. If you're trying to support a Defiant attack, doesn't it make sense that you'd want to attack Dreamers close to home? And I don't...I don't think Sebastian would but then our attorney literally just said that the best way for a criminal to escape justice was to get the investigators to fixate on a false lead, right? And he's the only one who thinks we should act in the way that will get them to fixate on us? That's-"

"Seydou!" Sinna, finally cut her off, his voice sharp and loud. "This is Sebastian we're talking about. But even if, for some incomprehensible reason, that isn't enough for you, he wasn't here. It would make no sense for it to have been any of us, sure, but he's the only one it literally couldn't have been."

"It wouldn't be beyond Sebastian's skills to set one of these suits up for remote control."

"Seydou, stop, please. Sinna...she's not wrong that it does look suspicious," Vonda said quietly. Sinna opened his mouth to retort, but she held up a forestalling hand and looked at you. "I'm not saying I think you did it. I don't think Seydou's saying that either. But she's right that it is kinda odd. And she's right that you haven't been around all this time. I'm sure you have your reasons and I imagine they have nothing to do with this. But...it would probably be for the best that our attorney knows why, so she doesn't get surprised by anything while she's trying to defend us."

Patty, who had been quietly listening to the discussion and observing the interactions with keen attention, gave Vonda an agreeable little smile and said, just as cool and calm as you please, "As a rule of thumb, it's good to assume that the more I know, the better it is for all of you. Is there anything you would like me to know, Sebastian? We can speak privately if you would prefer."

Bette, whose eyes had gone kinda wide when Seydou had exploded and been darting worriedly between her, you, Vonda, and Sinna, chimed in with a little, kinda-nervous laugh, "Ah, we don't need to keep any secrets here.
Right, Sebastian?" Her emphasis on your name was somewhere between encouraging and pleading. She obviously really wanted this whole conflict to be put to rest ASAP.

Spoiler: Insight DC 20

Show

Seydou's words did have an impact. They're all trying to hide it, maybe even from themselves, but aside from Sinna (who of course knows exactly why you've been gone) some seeds of suspicion have been planted.
If you were to request to speak with Patty privately, those seeds would sprout. However...

Spoiler: Sebastian

Show

You are being subjected to an Evaluate attempt from Patty. If you wish to lie or misdirect her, you must make a DC 25 Deception check to do so convincingly. If you fail by three degrees or more, she might get some sense of the actual truth as well.

[Llyarden]

Sean was quiet for a few moments. "General, every day I leave my home I walk past a memorial commemorating the lives of people who died because the Ilessian military let a powerful weapon fall into the hands of murderers by trusting its security to the man most able to steal it."

"And now, less than a year later, there's going to be another memorial, in another city. And whether or not it turns out that your squad are responsible, the fact remains that the security of your suits yesterday was dependent on trusting the people who are, as Agent Ash pointed out, the most able to steal it. Maybe it's just because I'm a civilian, and I'm not cleared to know all your security protocols and that kind of thing, but it seems to me like eighty-seven people died -" a number which, Declan would know, included the nineteen Defiant "- and the military learned nothing."

"If a group of soldiers were locked out of the suits that could save their lives - yes, that's horrible. But everyone in Indelar knows that that risk is a part of their job. They accept it." The anger was gone from his voice now, replaced by a quiet sadness. "The people of Garden City didn't."

He paused briefly. "So, if all the suits were - supposedly - signed back in, who signed back the stolen suit? And who was the last person to sign anything back?"

[manwithaplan]

"Yeah, you're right, Vonda." Sebastian made quick eye contact with Sinna, shaking his head at his operative.

"My point isn't that it could be any of you, my point is it could be any of us. That includes me too. I won't take any defence of my possible involvement in this. I'm not going to defend myself, either. I'm going to willingly cooperate as a suspect of a crime, and the fact that I know I'm innocent is worthless to bring up until I can be verified by an outside force. Why would I be any less guilty than any of you?"

Again, he turned to Patty.

"But I'm working privately at the moment, Ms. Abel. I live for us army folks, but I have other responsibilities too. I don't want to keep secrets here, but just as much as I wouldn't disclose the security and defence programs of our equipment to my friends over the dinner table, it isn't appropriate for me to share what's happening with my other firm. I would rather be here, and I hope you all believe that, but I've had a lot of work to do in the west for a while now."

Spoiler

Show

Deception (1d20)[2].

[Hyperbolic sine]

Well, it wasn't like the jar hadn't any security either - or, well, it didn't, but still no one ever managed to steal a cookie without Grandma Reynolds knowing. ...but that was besides the point.

Declan peered at General Traver when he mentioned monetary costs, but in the end decided to let it go, taking a deep breath to try and calm down again.

"Has the squad been involved in some major event involving Dreamers?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sean and Declan

Traver let out a bit of a sigh at Sean's words. "I'm not saying there's no room for improvement.
But you're looking at it from the wrong direction. The people you trust with any given resource are, always, the ones most able to steal that resource. And generally speaking, those people get put in those positions because they have proven in the past that they can be trusted. There is no security that can completely prevent that. By adding more checks where more people are required to access and use the resource, you can at least diminish it, and that's why we have logs and cameras and reviews. But at the end of the day, in the military, somebody needs to be able to be decisive. We cannot function if every action needs three people to sign off on it."

"Operative Cavill is the one who logged into the armory during the instance when the suit was returned, but the camera feeds show operatives Drechsler and Holzer, and Engineers Yamada, McCleary, and Jennings, all were in and out during that period. Based on the timestamp of the log, Engineer Jennings was the one to check the suit back in, but on checking, the serial number of the suit he put back was not the same as the one he checked in. Our guys have determined that at least two other suits were checked in under incorrect serial numbers over the course of the day, one by Operative Levitt, and one by Engineer Otis. There's also log entries indicating that one of the suits was checked out, check in by Engineer Yamada under the wrong serial number, checked back out under the correct serial number later in the day, and then checked in under the correct serial number by Operative Levitt. Our working theory is that at some point our suspect verbally misidentified some of the suits while passing them off to other people, and they didn't double-check the actual serial numbers when checking them back in. Unfortunately, there is insufficient camera coverage of the common areas of the barracks to determine when these handoffs happened."

"Come to think, the RFID system should have flagged any inconsistencies there and output a warning. And logged them as well, so admins would have seen the inconsistency too even if the warning got ignored for some reason."

"Hm. So that might have been spoofed. I'll get some people looking into that."

In answer to Declan's question, Traver responded, "They're ADE soldiers, so they fight their share of Haptarus' Dreamers. Operative Joubert lost her arm to a disintegrator a few years back, and it isn't like they haven't lost some prior members or other soldiers to Dreamer hostiles over the years. But that's part of the job.
I don't know about any personal experiences they might have had with them, you'd have to get that from them.
I will note, two members of the squad are Dreamers themselves, and I haven't heard any indication that anyone has a problem with it."

Sebastian

Patty's face offered no indication of how she felt about Bastion's explanation. A couple of the others seemed a bit uncertain at the fact that you weren't going to say anything, but most of them seemed to accept your explanation as sufficient and move on. "I would advise against that. It seems to me that you are putting more trust in an investigator you never met than the people you know and the attorney whose job it is to advise you. I expect you are projecting the trust you have towards an ideal of law enforcement onto people who I can assure you are going to be perfectly fallible humans. The Ilessian Constitution affords every person accused of a crime the right to an attorney, immediately after establishing that the ultimate goal of our justice system is to get to the truth. If it was only the guilty who needed a professional defense, if the only thing defending yourself could do is impede law enforcement, we would not have enshrined that right in our Constitution."

"Investigators are people, and people have bias. Instead of assuming that investigators would always put forth sufficient effort and possess sufficient mental rigor to determine the truth, the framers designed a system where one side can aggressively seek to convict, and one side can forcefully defend. In that opposition, both sides can test each other until the truth comes out."

"However, it is your choice. If you wish to forego a legal defense, you may do so. However, if that is what you are doing, I must ask you to leave here so I can prepare a defense for the rest of my clients."

Several of the other squad members looked to you with imploring gazes, silently requesting you to stay. Sinna, though, clapped a hand solidly on your shoulder in a clear show of support. Whichever course you chose, he'd back you on.

[Llyarden]

Sean frowned slightly. "Isn't there some sort of protocol to make sure you check the serial number on gear you check back in - if for no other reason than to make sure you're not mixing broken gear up with working stuff?" He suspected there was such a protocol (though at this point the cynic in him wouldn't have been entirely surprised if there wasn't), but it was worth getting confirmation.

"And, uh, tech really isn't my thing, but if I understand you right, you're saying that at least some of the squad's suits' RFID chips were rigged to broadcast the wrong identity? Maybe all of them, unless the thief had some way of guaranteeing that they could play their little shell game with exactly the suits that they'd messed with. Don't the suits have...diagnostic tests or something to pick that kind of thing up?"

[manwithaplan]

"What I was saying was, I don't want people saying I'm innocent just because they know me. I'm not...I..."

Sebastian stopped and sighed, looking around the room for a second. Sinna was whirling about trying to back him up, he'd seemed to upset most of his friends, and even the Bastion Investigation was at risk. Maybe...just, maybe...

"I...I don't think anything is wrong with preparing a defense. While I don't believe anybody should be above suspicion, you guys are as close to that as I can imagine. I want you to know that nothing you've said to me has upset me, and I hope none of you will be upset today thanks to me. With that..."

He stood from the table with a nod.

"On this occasion, I will be extricating myself. Good luck, soldiers."

Sebastian made his egress from the room, heading straight for the armory.

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Mmh."

Well, of course it wasn't going to be that easy. But for a Defiant to remain dormant for so long while trusting their back to a Dreamer...it was odd, very odd, especially considering that they burned such a perfect cover to let someone go on a rampage for - as much as simply thinking that made Declan want to punch himself - only twenty minutes.

Unless...unless there were, in fact, no Defiant.

"Are there coutermeasures against external influence, General? If it was someone in the squad to physically steal the suit, is it possible they were acting under some kind of suggestion?"

After all, without their armour Sleeper soldiers were, no matter the training, easy prey for a powerful Repentant.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sean and Declan

"It's in the handbook, sure," Traver answered Sean's first question with a bit of a cynical edge to his voice. He knew as well as you did that just because something was protocol doesn't mean it always happened, even in the military.

"I can't say for sure, but it would explain the discrepancy, anyway."

"It's also possible that the reader itself was tampered with," Ash noted. "And there would indeed be diagnostic tests that could detect such things - which the squad would have been the ones performing. If you know who is testing something and when, it isn't particularly difficult to conduct sabotage so that it doesn't get detected.
And if you are the one running the tests, it's trivial." The IIN agent spoke with the voice of first-hand experience.

"The whole base is covered by an infiltration power suppressor," Traver said. "Which would make any sort of mind control, mind reading, shapeshifting, illusion, concealment, or similar powers difficult to use, especially long-term. We've also got various power detectors throughout the base.
So it would be tough, but truth to tell, I'd consider it more likely that some Dreamer - or maybe some piece of Dreamtech - was powerful and subtle enough to get a suggestion through our security than that one of our guys would have done something like this of their own will."

"The squad's also trained to resist mind-manipulating powers, but of course mundane defensive techniques only go so far. If they were caught without the dampeners in their suits...well, any power strong enough to hold out on base would probably be strong enough to punch through even an ADE operative's resistance, I imagine."

Sebastian

The declaration got you some looks. A couple of them seemed annoyed, and Seydou still seemed suspicious, but most of them were mainly looking at you with concern.

Sinna gave the group a shrug, and stood up as well.

"Really, Sinna?" Rafe asked.

Vonda just gave a resigned sigh. "Would you try to talk some sense into him, at least?"

"I'm not sure he's wrong, guys," Sinna replied, following you out.

The armory was being guarded by two IIN agents, who stepped into your way as you approach. "Woah. You guys can't be in here. If you're done talking with your lawyer I'm sure Agent Ash will want to speak with you."

[Hyperbolic sine]

"I see." Declan said. "Don't know which would be worse, though."

He then glanced at Sean to see if he had further questions.

[manwithaplan]

"Thanks for staying with me," Sebastian had quietly said to Sinna.

"I bet I could figure out who did this, but these suits won't want me trying that."

---

"Alright, that's fine. We're done with our lawyer. Would you be able to take us to Ash?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

The guard tapped her ear and spoke into a commlink, "We've got two members of the squad here saying they're finished with their lawyer and ready to see you."

Over with Declan and Sean, Agent Ash tapped his ear and said, "Alright. Agent Kellins, if you could go escort them, please." Then he looked to Sean and Declan. "Sounds like a couple of them are ready for their interview. You with me?"

"I'll leave you to it," Traver said, heading off.

Either way, he'd head off to the room they had set up for the interview. Back at the squad's barracks, the agent said, "Agent Kellins will be here shortly to escort you."

Another IIN agent arrived about a minute later. "Come with me, please," he requested, leading the way.

The base didn't really have a typical interrogation room, but the IIN had repurposed a conference room in one of the admin buildings. It was brighter, more comfortable, and less intimidating than a normal interrogation room would have been, but whatever.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Kinda soft-cut to the interview room, but I didn't know for sure if you all planned to go there, so if not just let me know what you're doing.

[manwithaplan]

"Hey, wow, men."

Sebastian waved to the three fellows at the other end of the table with as much respect as he could.

"I take it you're Ash. And then we have two Heroes of Millaine here. With all due respect, that's a whole lot of ordinance for one rogue. I'm Steel, and this is my operative, Cavill."

[Hyperbolic sine]

At the mention of a lawyer, Declan frowned in a mix of annoyance and resignation. "Yeah."

---

"Reynolds." he introduced himself, despite it being clearly unnecessary, then looked around the room in search of something that wasn't there. He glanced dubiously at Sinna and Sebastian. "I thought you had a lawyer?"

Not that he was going to complain.

[manwithaplan]

"She preferred 'attorney', I think." Sebastian said it with a smirk.

"Ms. Abel rubbed us the wrong way. I know we're her client, but she seemed more interested in diverting your attention elsewhere than producing a defence. It was uncomfortable."

"Well, that...and honestly, I think you'd rather have me looking into this on the computers than in there trying to cover myself. I bet I can find your man. But Cavill and I understand there's an investigative procedure and we'd like to cooperate with you."

[Llyarden]

"That 'one rogue,' Mr Steel, is responsible for the murder of more than three hundred innocent people," Sean said softly, eyes flashing. He let a tense pause hang in the air for a moment or two before continuing. "However, since you weren't even here when it happened, as far as I'm concerned, you seem like as good a person as any within the squad to look over the suits. Actually, I was already planning to ask you. Assuming you don't mind, Agent Ash," Sean added, apparently as an afterthought.

Either he's innocent - and he may even find something the IIN haven't found yet - or he's part of all this and he'll get stressed with me looking over his shoulder - and maybe give us a hint of where to look if he tries to cover something up. Either way it works to our advantage.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Spoiler: Sean

Show

Ash is wearing a poker face, but you can smell that he's initially pleasantly surprised when Steele says they forewent counsel. However, it's almost immediately matched by suspicion. That suspicion deepens significantly when Steele offers to check out the computers and such for them. And flares into a sort of dumbfounded annoyance when you say you were going to ask him to do just that.

You also notice that Operative Cavill feels a very fleeting flicker of kinda-angry-kinda-hurt surprise when Steele says he bets he can find your man, but it vanishes quickly, kinda like he initially took the words a certain way and then either realized or convinced himself they meant something else.

Spoiler: Declan

Show

Your gut doesn't give you any particular distress when Steele offers to examine the suits and Sean supports the idea.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible," Ash replied with his usual professional neutrality, though also with a hint of finality on the words emphasized by the fact that he didn't offer any explanation for it, just moving on. "We do, of course, thank you for your cooperation. But the best thing you can do to help us is answer all of our questions completely and honestly. Now," he set an active crystal device on the table and activated the recorder, "for the record, you are waiving your right to have an attorney present for questioning?"

"That's right," Sinna said, without hesitating.

Ash waited for Steele's answer (if he didn't agree to that, he'd ask him to leave until his attorney could be present), and then said, "Alright. Let's start with the easy one. Were either of you responsible for the theft of the suit yesterday?"

Spoiler: Insight DC 20

Show

Ash's face is tilted just a bit to the side. He's watching Sean's face in the periphery of his vision, presumably watching for his reaction to their responses.

"Absolutely not."

Spoiler: Sean

Show

And even knowing that question was obviously coming, he still feels kinda offended to even be asked.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Just to make sure it's clear, ya'll are welcome to argue or interrupt Ash if you want to push for Sebastian to examine the suits. I moved things a bit further just so there was at least a little more meat on the post, but just because he says the matter is settled doesn't mean it has to be.

[manwithaplan]

Sebastian nodded.

"Indeed, we are choosing to speak here without an attorney."

...

"Not responsible."

[Llyarden]

Sean glanced sideways slightly at Agent Ash when the suggestion of allowing Steel to examine the suits was shut down, raising an eyebrow slightly. I guess someone didn't get the 'whatever means necessary' memo. He didn't confront Ash immediately, though - not while Steel and Cavill were still there, and definitely not while the interview was being recorded.

"Well, that's the easy question done," he remarked aloud, once both Steel and Cavill had spoken. "Now, yesterday you were preparing for the...uh, combat readiness thing, right?" he asked Cavill. "Would you mind going into a little more detail as to what you were doing? And, obviously, if you know one of your squadmates was around at a certain point," he added, "that'll make it a lot easier to start corroborating things."

He'd have to ask Steel about his whereabouts as well, but since there was definitely no way he could have physically committed the theft, Sean figured focusing on the person who had actually been on the base first seemed like a good starting point.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan stared at Sebastian in disbelief at his suggestion that they let him - one of the suspects - fiddle with the suit's computer. However, strangely enough, Sean didn't seem opposed, and even more strangely his gut hadn't started issuing any ominous feeling.

And he even refused to be defended from the attorney. Either he was the most defiant Defiant ever, or, well, he was innocent.

"Well then. Who do you think is responsible?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Short version is, it's a full systems test. Making sure all the suits are in full repair, no glitches in the programming, all the power cells are charged, amfabs functioning, and so on. And stress testing, basically putting the suits through high-intensity usage and trials of our own devising, basically try as hard as we can to break them. Plus some sparring, to make sure we're in top form and further stress-test the suits."

"Eh...honestly, I wasn't paying any attention to who was where when. Eleven people testing ten suits over the course of twelve hours...it gets a little hectic, I'm sure you can imagine."

He met Declan's gaze squarely when he asked his question. "Honestly, some outsider. Maybe a Dreamer who can get through our securities. Maybe the Defiant have some grand-master thief. ...Maybe a mind controller, I guess.
But I've worked with the people on this squad for years. None of them would do something like this. None of them have the motivation. We've got Dreamers on our squad, and we all trust and care about them as much as any of our comrades."

"That's not as much a defense as you might think, Operative Cavill. Hatred is rarely rational; it's entirely possible to hate a group while liking certain members of it. As for your squad not having motivation..."

Agent Ash gave a little sigh, and said in a near-monotone, like reading from a list. "Operative Joubert lost her arm to a Dreamer power. She also has a family who could be threatened. Operative Holzer lost a sister to the Defiant and has been extremely outspoken against them, and with her power of possession, would know exactly how to effectively use an enemy against itself. The possibility of a false flag operation can't be ignored. Engineer Otis works for a contracting company which might pay well for a sampling of such advanced military technology - that then opens up the possibility for that company to have ties to the Defiant, or possibly, for this attack to have been staged as a cover-up, although that would seem extremely short-sighted. And Engineer Steele here recently left the military to join just such a company, only to be immediately accepted back into his former squad, in what if I may say is a highly suspicious piece of bureaucratic maneuvering. Engineer McCleary's father was laid off just a few months ago because his company hired some Dreamers that could do the job better, which historically has been noted as a catalyst for eventual Defiant radicalization. Engineer Dunn's father was badly injured by a Dreamer-assisted brigand attack several months ago. Engineer Jennings broke his father's back in a rage twelve years ago and hasn't spoken to his family since. According to SIDE's file on him, analysts say he fits the profile for potential radicalization as a Defiant Repentant."

He dropped the monotone, his voice growing more intense as he said, "Our problem is not figuring out which member of your squad has the motivation to have committed this heinous crime, Operative Cavill. Our problem is narrowing down which one did it when more than half of them have potential motivations. So tell me, were you simply lying to our faces when you said they had no motive, or do you simply not know your squad as well as you think you do?"

[manwithaplan]

"Look at him, Ash. Look where he is. He knows."

Sebastian made solemn, apologetic eye contact with Sinna. And then he pressed on.

"This team has six operatives and six engineers. Right now, five of each are in a room with Patty Abel, and they are in universal agreement about what happens next. In the name of increasing the efficiency of the investigation, they will politely be informing you that it is in your best interest not to pursue any of them as suspects, because they have known each other for a long time and are perfectly aware that none of them could have committed this crime. Operative Cavill and I chose to leave that room. Obviously we disagree with their method. My mind is made up about that. Cavill is finding it a bit more difficult, but again, here he is. Here we are, among a team of brothers and sisters who are claiming that they are above reproach, and...we're turning our backs on them. Or at least, we are as long as they keep saying that."

"I don't know who's responsible. I didn't know almost any of the leads you just mentioned. But..."

Again, he looked at Sinna. It was like he wanted to stop and say sorry.

"We are not here to deflect the blame from Joubert, Holzer, Otis, McCleary, Dunn, Jennings, or myself. Nobody is above reproach. In saying that, if you are asking who we believe the culprit is, as part of the investigation...I really don't know. I don't know which of them is more suspect than another. I haven't even been here. And, again, I haven't had an opportunity to investigate the problem myself. Which you really, really want me to do."

[Hyperbolic sine]

"Operative Cavill, I'll admit that having Dreamers in the squad lends some of the credence statements such as yours usually lack." Declan said, though without conceding the point. "But not enough. You should listen to your PE. No one's above reproach."

Indeed, no one. You never know how small of a push you need to turn a hero into a mass murderer.

"And you heard Agent Ash, they all had motive. You might be in for a nasty surprise."

Then, he turned to Ash. "Can you call the whole squad here? Even if their lawyer is planning on stonewalling, I have a way around that," - he glanced at Sean, since his nose was a vital part of that - "but doing it one by one is a waste of time."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Cavill didn't even flinch at Ash's list. There was a flicker of surprise when Ash mentioned McCleary's father's layoff - she had mentioned it in passing but not any details about it - and...well, his reaction to hearing about Dunn's past couldn't quite be termed surprise. He hadn't known those details either, and they were shocking to hear, but they were also well within the bounds of what he had imagined. "Neither, Agent. Because I know them as well as I do, I know that those facts do not rise to the level of motive to commit a crime like this. I understand that because you do not know them as well, you have to consider every possibility. But if you did know them like I do, you would know why none of the above is anywhere near sufficient reasoning for them to betray their country and their team."

"That said, I am not saying that they or anyone are above reproach." He glanced at Steele and added with good-natured reproachfulness, "And I'm not having trouble making up my mind, thank you." Turning his attention back to the investigators, he continued, "Like Engineer Steele, I believe it is in everyone's best interests for us to speak frankly, answer your questions honestly and completely to the best of our ability, and trust you to do your job and come to the correct conclusions. We know that we didn't do this, so we are happy to answer whatever questions you have and otherwise assist the investigation in any way we can. I am absolutely not saying that you should not put all due diligence into investigating each and every one of us exhaustively. I am simply saying that I cannot conceive of anybody in our squad of committing this crime. I expect your investigation will bear that out; but again, that doesn't mean I think you should just take my word for it and move on to something else. It just means that my answer to your question," he nodded at Declan, "is 'somebody else'. And none of the hypothetical motives you listed, Agent, make me feel less confident in that answer."

Ash listened to Cavill's spiel impassively, just silently filing it all away. He glanced at Steele and said, "No, I really don't," before looking to Declan. He hesitated a moment, there were some good reasons to speak to suspects individually, but it wasn't like they hadn't already had a chance to get their stories straight if they wanted to. And in cases like this where you were looking for one guilty party out of a group of suspects, having them all in the room to contradict each other could be useful. You could always speak to them individually thereafter. He nodded, and said into his commlink, "As soon as they're finished with their lawyer, send the entire squad in together."

In would be another twenty minutes before they actually arrived (during which Ash questioned Cavill and Steele on various background details about the squad), filing in with military precision and taking seats. Notably, they didn't seem to shy away from sitting around the two that had come early; if any of them were angry or offended at the two for breaking ranks, they didn't show it. Their attorney greeted the investigators politely, shaking their hands. When she reached Declan she gave a big smile. "Mr. Reynolds! They called you in for this? Wow. ...I hope you don't end up regretting saving my life," she joked with a kinda smirkish grin, before taking a seat.

Ash glanced sidelong at Declan and Sean. Declan had requested to speak with the whole squad, so for now he let him take the lead.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

I figured to jump to the squad all being there. If you guys want to do more before they arrive, feel free. Otherwise, assume that over the course of the wait Ash asks enough that you guys know the contents of that Squad spoiler I had posted for Bastion previously.

[Hyperbolic sine]

When Patty entered the room, Declan suddenly realised why the name Sebastian uttered earlier was kind of scratching at the back of his head; he was always better at retaining faces than names, and this was no exception. He returned the handshake with a troubled smile, and replied with an "I do, too." and a conflicted twinge in his voice.

Why the hell is she always involved with Defiants?!

Once everyone was settled, he took the time to stare, in silence, in the eyes of each of the squad members, until his frown suddenly turned into a smirk.

"Heh. A hundred dead Dreamers, I hear. Must be feeling great, ei?"

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Spending one Cleaning House Success. Intimidation (1d20+22)[36] to provoke what I assume are going to be feelings of outrage...unless, of course, you're a Dreamer-loathing Defiant . Hoping Sean can pick up some kind of satisfaction spike or something.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Sean could smell a note of subtle concern from Patty as Declan replied to her joke...much more seriously than she expected. It didn't show on her face, though.

The response to Declan's words was fairly predictable. You didn't need Sean's senses to read the anger and disgust on the faces of the squad, nor to catch the glares that several of them were now shooting Declan's way. Now, of course, Patty had warned the group not to speak without her approval. And being a disciplined military squadron, they of course obeyed their attorney's advice to the-

No. No, actually, they pretty much just all started talking over each other to express their displeasure at the question. Levitt didn't actually speak, though he looked just as offended as the others.

From a more strategic perspective, Sean could smell the anger and disgust on all of them. Levitt's and Otis' seem somewhat muted, but still there and still sincere - they might not get quite as worked up as the others, is all. While it's certainly possible that a Defiant could have intentionally worked itself into such a state knowing what Sean's power is, he doesn't get the sense that any have. A more likely explanation is that being questioned by Dreamers produced the same feelings of anger and disgust that the others feel from the suggestion that they might be happy about what had happened. While that could produce a false positive to Sean's senses, though, his instincts are keen enough that he can be fairly sure it's not that either.

Patty opened a mouth and raised a hand, as if to try to quiet them all down, but she suddenly squeezed her eyes shut and started clutching at her head in apparent agony, a quiet, startled cry escaping her lips.

The only other anomaly in the responses was Engineer Jennings, and it was an anomaly in the opposite direction of what they had been looking for. The stench of anger, of utter berserk fury, radiating from him would have made an APEX monster stand up and applaud. He was keeping it just barely in control. And you didn't need Sean's senses or Patty's overwhelmed empathy to know it - he hadn't spoken either, and his face was twisted with a fury than even had the teammates sitting nearest him edging back with concern. There was a high-pitched grinding sound, and two chunks of the metal table crumpled and tore away in his hands, as if it had been tissue paper.

The team quieted down (Sinna and Holzer checking if Patty was alright, Ash eyeing her with some concern and asking if she would like a glass of water). In the sudden silence, Jennings looked pointedly at Declan. "You are making me angry," he told him in a too-quiet voice, thrumming with tension. "I am going to ask you not to do that." Declan's gut voiced immediate and strident agreement with that suggestion. If they continued trying to provoke Jennings, there was no question that he would lose control of his power and go berserk. Declan's gut instinct also warned him that trying to provoke any sort of fear reaction would also have no effect other than burning off yet more of his very short fuse.

He dropped the chunks of metal he had torn from the table. They had been compacted down to barely the size of bullets. Not even large-caliber bullets.

Patty held up a hand to forestall the concern, taking a shaky breath and collecting herself. Sean could smell that she now had a pounding headache, and Jennings' continued anger wasn't exactly helping matters, but she was no longer completely incapacitated with pain.

[Hyperbolic sine]

Declan tried to keep a neutral expression throughout the squad's outburst, though his eyes widened in bewilderment and concern when Patty was almost knocked unconscious for no apparent reason. And as far as Jennings was concerned, it was just as he was exp- no, who was he trying to fool; that had been a mistake on his part, pure and simple.

"Forgive me." he said, more apologetic than he thought he'd had to be. "But it had to be done."

"So, any of them stands out?" he then asked, turning to Sean.

[Llyarden]

If Sean was honest, this wasn't exactly how he would've preferred to interrogate the squad. Back before...everything...he'd have been fine with it, and completely confident that he could've detected any hint of strange emotions even in a crowd of complete strangers. But after Wilson, and Copycat, and Maestro, he...wasn't quite so arrogantly confident any more. With an individual or two - like Sinna and Steel - he was still pretty confident in his powers. But detecting a Defiant agent capable of tricking their longstanding friends and teammates, in the midst of a group...yeah, he wasn't entirely certain he could've detected them.

Declan trying to provoke the group got...a kinda confused look from Sean, which quickly metamorphosed into a concerned - and sympathetic - one, directed at the lawyer and Jennings pretty much equally. He answered Declan with a small shake of his head.

Since Patty was the squad's lawyer (most of the squad, anyway), he opted to wait until she'd recovered enough before he continued. "Okay. So, you guys work with these suits, and the armoury, and everything. You probably know more about them - and their security - than anyone, and I'm guessing you must have been trying to figure out how someone could steal a suit ever since you learned it happened." The innocent ones among them, anyway.

"So - how do you think someone would steal a suit from the armoury without being detected?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

Declan's apology earned little more than flat stares. Patty considered the question for a moment, and gave the troops a nod.

"It wouldn't be easy," Levitt said. "Of course, there are numerous Dreamer powers that could, theoretically, be used to achieve the goal. However, I would lean away from the idea of a Dreamer being involved for a couple reasons. First, and most obvious, is that the Defiant have rather limited access to Dreamer powers by their very nature, and their best source, the Repentant, have a tendency towards less controllable, less subtle powers. It's not technically impossible that the Defiant could hire a Dreamer for the task, but the probability is low for several obvious reasons. Second, our security against such powers is pretty tight; while I suppose a powerful enough Dreamer could overcome it, I am more doubtful that they could do so tracelessly."

"However, in my time at Elderage, I met several students who were gifted at the creation of Dreamtech despite lacking any Dreamer powers. It is certainly possible that a gifted Dreamtech inventor could develop the necessary tools to emulate the sort of powers that could do the job, and somebody that gifted would likely have the sort of technical skills and tactical cunning necessary to circumvent our security measures. Such an individual having Defiant leanings is possible; while I don't recall anyone in my time there of expressing that level of hatred for Dreamers, Elderage was a...very competitive environment, and the advantage that Dreamers gifted with genius or enhanced inventing received did create its share of resentment. While this is purely speculation, if I were you, I would investigate Elderage graduates with no powers and a facility with Dreamtech, perhaps one who was passed over by Dreamers either in or after college."

"I wouldn't...necessarily rule out a Dreamer. Defiant can become Dreamers, after all, and when they do they're likely to go Repentant as a matter of course. And there are...things that a skilled enough mind controller can do to get around suppressors and detections. They aren't fast or easy, but...if you know what you're doing, and you get your hooks in someone long enough, you can do some pretty messed up stuff, and it doesn't necessarily need your power to stay 'on' to work."

Emmett kinda blink. "Thaaat's not terrifying at all."

"And realistically, we can't ignore the possibility that we just ****ed up," Dreschler said grimly. "It gets pretty hectic during big prep sessions like that. And as much as I'd like to, I can't say with absolute certainty that every suit was be attended at every moment. Frankly, I don't know that it would take Dreamtech, or powers, or mind control, or treachery to have done this. It would have taken no small skill, and patience, and luck, and nerves of steel, but if in all the bustle we left a suit unattended for a few minutes, and someone had been stealthy enough to slip past security or maybe managed to get a uniform or something and keep a watch on us, I don't know that they couldn't maybe slip in and sneak it away."

[Llyarden]

Sean listened attentively to the suggestions, nodding along occasionally. "Could you guys wait a moment?" he asked, after a moment's pause. "Agent Ash, could I have a quick word outside?"

Once they had some degree of privacy (and Ash had had a chance to get any reports from his people, if such reports were waiting), Sean looked back to him. "So, to be honest, I don't think any of them did it knowingly and willingly. Which doesn't make it any less possible that it wasn't one of them that did it and just doesn't know it, but I had an idea."

"With what Levitt was saying in there about potential Dreamtech that could evade detection, it seems to me like if anyone was going to be able to put together a specialised detector to find traces of that kind of Dreamtech, it'd be the genius who regularly modifies the squad's highly-advanced suits."

"Also, more importantly, if we let him have access to one of the suits to borrow its sensor suite to customise, it'd let us see how accurately he follows the protocols for signing the thing in and out. Because...maybe it's just me, but a perfectionist like him not spending the half a second necessary to check the serial number of the suit he's signing back in seems...odd. Even if they were in the middle of this big evaluation."