Eclipse Phase: Phantasmagoria IC

[bc56]

"I assume you want me for my infiltration skills. There are a few things I need that can't be so readily fabricated." Slake comments. "Do you have blueprints for the vessel, or even better, a simulspace replica? I'd like to know the lay of the land and run some sims before we get there."

[King539]

Huiqing looks with poorly-disguised interest at Nyx as she enters before turning back to Erebos and letting him brief them.

"It looks to me like the two main suspects for the attack are Go-nin and the Exhumans. Would that be correct?"

[SaturnSolaris]

Erebos sighs, then looks at Slake.

"Slake, we've already accrued several favors, and payed several credits, to get some of you the morphs you're wearing for this mission, to borrow the anti-matter courier for this mission, and to bribe for time in Habitat F to produce any gear you need. We've blown our budget at the moment, so tell me what you need, and I'll tell you if I can get it. As for a display of the ship, it's attached to the specifications I sent you."

Then switches to Huiqing.

"Yes, Go-nin and the Exhumans are the two most likely, "suspects.""

[bc56]

"I was mainly referring to the ship blueprints, but I could use a COT. I can fab the rest of my gear." Slake mentally calls to Conscience. Display the ship blueprints. As the image appears in his vision, he glances over it to determine the general details.

[jolinaxas]

"Got it. I'm cheap to fab for, some plastic spray weapons and a few bits of investigative tech. The vacseal job we needed to sleeve in a biomorph here will be plenty helpful in a holed ship."

She forwarded her requests to Erebos and pondered how to best use the intervening time, the simulations he'd displayed running through her head.

[Degenerate]

Hutch listens intently to the ongoing conversation.

"160 days to get to the ship? How do you know anything will be left by the time we get there?"

[SaturnSolaris]

"Yui, you should be able to fab you're own equipment. I was more talking to Slake, because I thought he was asking for something specific, and rare."

Erebos pulls up a map, centered on The Oppenheimer. He highlights nearby habitats, including Eris.

"The Oppenheimer, stopped about 2 months away from their destination. For most craft, that's about a 4 months journey from Eris. The surrounding Habitat's are on average, at minimum 6 months away, and usually more. There are craft that can cover these times, in half, or a quarter of the standard time. The Oppenheimer is a fairly large ship, it would take a while to dismantle it. So, it should still be there when you get to it. It is possible, that whoever . . . whatever, attacked the ship, erased the data on the ship and covered their tracks. But, you should be able to hack into the system and find archived date, it may be missing in some places, but we should be able to put together an idea of what happened off of that. There were also several passengers, who likely recorded events. It may be possible that, that information was "wiped" as well. However, we have you "Hutch", and Huiqing here, who are experienced with investigations, you should be able to find some clues."

[Eonn]

"Sounds like a relatively straight forward mission." Phoenix says. "Go to the place, get the thing, come back sort of thing. Once question though, for the fabber. How much material we going to be able to print, and we going to have access to 'fun' blueprints?"

The scum already has a shopping list of toys in his head for the mission, besides his usual kit. Knowing how much he'd be able to actually print would help him pare down his list.

[SaturnSolaris]

"You should have enough materials to replicate the gear you had previously, plus maybe one or two items, depending on the size, and materials required. Any restrictions on the cornucopia machines and fabbers are set to "disappear," for the time we have allotted. But, that depends on what you consider fun. Slake, you should be able to make a COT. If not, come to me, I have a couple and I can loan one. I'm not leaving here anytime soon."

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM was using the holoprojector's sensors, as well as it's basic-link to gain observational info on everyone present without making the 'stares creepily' part, since there was no use or capability of doing so, since the holo-image was turned to focus on Erebos, while every sensor possible as well as Huiqing's own sensory perceptions were used (if allowed, since Huiqing could very much shut off access to his mesh and own sensory perceptions if he wished).

SAM wasn't particularly secretive about it, so anyone able to notice that they were being observed, somehow, would clearly notice SAM's focus.

[King539]

Huiqing allows SAM access to his enhanced senses, but messages them to ask why they need them.

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM returned the message with a response about creating a psych profile of their Teammates, just like the one SAM had made for Huiqing a good few years back.

[Kaworu]

Sławomir still was unsure about his ability to bring a value to this mission, but diceded he would go out of pure duty. Maybe there was some kind of biological factor behind this, but it seemed unlikely for him. Still, he was not only a geneticist, but also a chemist, doctor and he even had some IT training. He prommised himself that he would do anything to help other Argonauts.

However, as his skills were... of different sort, he stayed quiet where others were talking about infiltrations and equipment they were about to bring with themselves.

- I have a fabber. I could share - was all he had said.

[SaturnSolaris]

"Are there any more questions, or matter's any of you would like to discuss? Erebos asks, and waits for an answer. He finishes his glass of whiskey, which has been sitting there since before he started his briefing.

[King539]

"I do not think there is anything else I need to know."

Huiqing then stands up and walks away quickly, queuing up orders for one of the public fabbers.

[SaturnSolaris]

Spoiler: Huiqing

Show

You get a message about 30 minutes after leaving, from Erebos.

"I'm going to assume you recognized me, it's good to see that you lived. I will remain quiet about your origins, so long as you do the same for me. Eventually though, they will figure out who and what you are. I hope that they're understanding, some people react with fear, even panic, at the thought of Asyncs. The Lost Generation isn't exactly loved, Cognite ran a good PR campaign. Not all of us are monsters, some, like yourself, managed to escape fairly normal."

Spoiler: Hutch

Show

You scanned the room, no one here is a person of interest. Other than the group you are sitting down with, no one here really seems all that weird or shady. The closest thing to bourbon you could order, however, obviously isn't all that close. There's not a whole lot of wood being grown that can be used to make the charred barrels, that bourbon was aged in. The hard water is easier to replicate, and that's what people focus on; but, all in all it doesn't taste that much different from any other whiskey, real or synthetic.

Spoiler: Slake

Show

Erebos has a heavy pistol on his side, it's holstered but visible. It's just a personal sidearm, in case something goes down.

[Hemnon]

SAM

Just before Huiqing left the connection area for the Holoprojector, SAM curiously asked.... with a very deadpan and thoughtless "Say, Erebos, did you spend all evening last night practicing this meeting?" Was all SAM managed to say before Huiqing had gone too far away and the connection to the projector was cut.

The moment they both left the privacy field and such, SAM would of course instantly activate the Radio Motion Detector, as it usually did.

[Eonn]

"Right, well looks like we're done here then." Phoenix says as the group begins to depart. "I'm going to go gear up at the fabber, maybe download a VR game or two for the ride over. See you all on the ship!" And with that, Phoenix slithers his was out of the bar.

[SaturnSolaris]

"Yes. That would appear to be so. I will be contacting you."

Erebos stands up and activates another specialized hive, this one sets a disassembler swarm to deconstruct the privacy screen. He then turns off the white noise generators, and walks off, with Nyx following him. She mentions something about not getting to order anything.

[Degenerate]

Hutch doesn't see any purpose to this mission. He will, however, keep that to himself.

"Well, I'll see the rest of you on the ship."

Having nothing else in particular to do, Hutch heads to the ship.

"Find out as much info as you can about our compatriots." Hutch silenty tells Starsky as he walks to the docking area.

[bc56]

Slake nods in farewell to the others and heads to the fabricators to make some equipment. He wants to make a COT, three more containers of Scrapper's Gel, and a spare length of fiberoptic cable

[Kaworu]

Sławomir simply went out of the bar, to gather his things and prepare himself. He was reading his scientific ebooks, wondering what wonders and dangers he might encounter.

[jolinaxas]

Yui quickly acquired a vac-jumpsuit more suited to her specifications and some orbital hash, dressed and smoked, and then sat down to watch the fabber lathe the smooth plastic of her spray weapons and nano-assemble the small shards and expanding freeze-foam ammunition they needed. She often let others queue-jump, figuring that the more specialized equipment some of her team members might need would take a long time anyway.

[SaturnSolaris]

You congregate in your respective spots, many of you at the fabbers in Habitat F. A few of your items are defective when you first fabricate them, but you're able to disassemble them and re-fabricate. Other than that, it goes off without a hitch. You work into the small hours of the morning, roughly at 5:00 to 6:00 hours, fabricating everything. Although, that distinction means less and less as you travel rimward, and further from the sun. Distinctions in artificial lighting being your main indicators of what time of day it is, without checking a clock. Habitat F is eerily quiet as you work, the lights dim with time being on an automatic adjustment schedule. Traffic is low, and no one bothers you as you work and wait, and work, and wait.

Erebos and Nyx walk out of an airlock at roughly 00:00. He sends you a message, letting you know that the fast courier has been docked in Habitat F, ready for your departure. The courier is docked to a loading bridge, with two airlocks, one at the entrance of Habitat F, and the other at the entrance to the courier. After, likely, multiple trips you get everything stored in the cargo bay and hull. The fast courier is pretty dull itself, a lackluster light grey interior with a simple, but functional design. The cargo bays have been modified a bit to make room for stasis pods, and it lacks bunks. You will be traveling at break neck speeds for most of the trip, so that isn't much of a problem. You'll likely want to either step in a pod, or, power down and strap yourself in for a large part of the voyage.

If anyone checks the cargo bay, you will find a number of cots for makeshift bedding, as well as a couple of portable fabricators, and a quantum farcaster. There is also a table and maker for dining in the main body of the craft.

As said the trip will take 160 days, you will be pumping antimatter to accelerate to the appropriate speed, then coasting to near the Oppenheimer, before the ship begins corrections and deceleration. All you have to do is tell the A.I. you're ready to head out.

[Hemnon]

SAM

SAM instantly accessed the Ship's network in order to much better explore on it's own by using internal ship-sensors, cameras, etc. Relaying any and all findings to Huiqing, of course.

[jolinaxas]

Yui eyed the courier warily.

"So we should probably wake up in shifts every once in a while along the way. Unless the infolife and synths want to go crazy without us."

She insisted on a final check of her data inventory, something her muse insisted was unnecessary and distracting. Maybe she'd stay defrosted for a week or two and really start working on some of that programming...

"Ready when you all are."

[Kaworu]

- I'm ready too - said Sławomir, looking at the stasis pods. Which one should he get? It was kinda childish of him, but as some people wanted top beds in bunk beds, he wanted the most "cool" pod - even if all were of the same quality.

[bc56]

Slake chuckles when Yui mentions sleeping. "It'll be a robot party, all night, every night." He gets ready to board, and begins studying the information on the target. He has no idea what they're walking into, and he wants to be prepared.

[Eonn]

"Hey, I'd be up for that." Phoenix replies to Slake as he boards the vessel. "No sense wasting that time, anyhow. I might just spend the whole trip VR gaming!"