London 2056 - A CyberPunk RP [Game thread - Started]

Generic NPC 22 · Sep 2, 2015

London 2056 | The Dusty Miller
Double Double Toil and Trouble
Officer Elliot Aubergine

[hr]

The massive man nodded gratefully as he accepted his phone from the bartender. As he tucked his phone back into his jacket, Dimitri noticed the flash of a badge, the numbers #667 and the surname Aubergine were visible in the darkness thanks to the new style night glow badges that the new officers were being issued. Was this the man that Bartender was supposed to meet?

"I know you were supposed to meet my brother, Edward, in regards to the missing person's case that you filed with London PD but unfortunately been called off to another case." The man stated before offering his hand in greetings, "I'm Officer Elliot Aubergine."

There was a slight hesitation as the man took a sip of his drink, a dark and bitter stout. It was clear to Dimitri that this man was either a non-drink or an infrequent drink from the way Elliot's face grimaced slightly in response to the flavor of the dark liquid in the pint glass that sat in front of him. He was nervous. His eyes darted from patron to patron to patron to see if any of them could be listening in on the conversation.

"I'm not sure if I should be sharing this information with you but Edward insisted upon it." Elliot prologued, his fingers spinning the glass on the table and forming a series of spiral lines cast from condensation, "The case that you filed in regards to Mel... you should forget about it. Digging into it any further would be a bad idea."

This was sort of an understatement. The fact that Gungnir was involved in the cover up of the victim was bad enough. It meant that one of the Corp Heavy Hitters was involved which multiplied the danger factor to the nth degree. Still there was something that had been bothering his brother and so he relayed the question to the bartender.

"Just out of curiosity. Was she involved in something big?" Elliot asked before elaborating on the question, "It seems to me that for something like this to happen, with the players involved, it would have meant that she was involved in something more than a little bit of back alley fixing."

A crumb? Was Elliot hinting at something. The Officer pulled out his phone and started typing out a message. Dimitri's quick eyes saw that it was to Edward. Hitting the send command, the man waited... and waited... and waited... and waited until an error message popped up on the display.

"Could I use your phone please?" the frowning man asked as he turned to Dimitri.

[hr]

London 2056 | Gungnir Safe House #2
Palace Sky... This is London PD Come in...
Lieutenant Charlotte Sorrowfeld

[hr]

"Sorrowfeld: They're going to hit Buckingham Palace. Get your contacts in Gungnir and the local police to ignore the car we came in on: We can't afford traffic stops." Mister Adler barked as he passed her on his way towards the garage before mentioning something about ensuring that the prisoner didn't die. The sound of tired squealing out the garage signaled the exit of both Karine Asagi and Karl Adler.

"Pssh." Charlotte pssh'd before walking to another room, a Command and Control center of sorts and pulled up the controls to the communications terminal. As the communications terminal fired up, invisible data tendrils snaked out of the system, following data pathways towards their intended destinations. Only...

"What in the bloody fuck?" The Lieutenant cursed as she attempted to establish the communications links once again.

"IRINA! Get over here!" Charlotte called out as she ran a diagnostics on the system and found that both the communications terminal registered as being in perfect working order.

Waiting for the Cat Eared Hacker to arrive, Charlotte pulled out her mobile and started dialing the number for the London PD dispatch.

The sound of Irina entering the room caused the Gungnir consultant to turn around. She showed the message to Irina. The Feline-esque VidCaster blinked a number of times before she pulled out her phone. Getting the number for dispatch from the hated Lieutenant, Irina waited before seeing the message appear on her phone.

"Think that hacker is behind this?" Charlotte asked, her eyes narrowed in the direction of novice hacker/master VidCaster.

"That's... that's impossible. You can't just knock out GCP." The Minor Hacker blurted out as she pulled up an application on her phone. It seemed that she was right. The majority of data passing through the Grid was flowing without obstruction. It was only in the case of communications packets to certain destinations where the data connection was being blocked. Someone had knocked out communications to London Law Enforcement.

"Ed! We're gotta go! Get the Sky Hopper ready!" Charlotte yelled down the hallway before addressing Irina in a I-Can't-Believe-I'm-Asking-For-Your-Help tone of voice, "I need you to find a way to restore communications with London PD. Tell them what's going on. Make sure the asshole in the Interrogation room stays alive."

With that, the Lieutenant exited the room and started heading for the upper floors of the Safe House. Inside the upper floors was a hanger that houses a small quad rotor craft. Using near friction-less bearings and magnetic acceleration to drive the rotors, the Sky Hopper was one of the safer and more nimble craft available to Law Enforcement. The only downfall was the fragility of the craft as it had been designed for quick transport and observation rather than combat.

Sargent Aubergine had already started the launch sequence when Charlotte entered the bubble cockpit.

"We need to track down Mister Adler and Miss Asagi and provide them with an escort." The Lieutenant said as she flipped a switch, turning on the craft's lights and sirens. With that the craft exited the building and screamed along the route that Karl and Karine were likely to take.

"Palace Sky! Palace Sky! This is London PD Sky Hopper #227." Charlotte started repeating into the microphone as she tried to reach the soldiers that guarded the palace.

[hr]

London 2056 | Gungnir Safe House #2
Rory Was Here...
Irina Rostikova

[hr]

Irina was alone inside the Safe House's Command and Control center. The others had left her there. Looking at the communications terminal, she noticed a Grid jack as well as a Cyberdeck sitting nearby, an inch of dust having gathered on the object. Picking the item up and brushing the dust away from the Deck's chassis with her hand, the Hacker noted that the Deck was rather new despite having sat there for so long. Thankfully, someone had thought to install a number of Daemon programs, infiltration protocols and most importantly the Finger utility.

Restore communications? Given her understanding level of hacking knowledge, that seemed unlikely. There was something else that she could do to assist them...

Plugging the deck into the Grid Terminal, she ran another optical data line to the top of her tail where another data port was located. Leaning back in her chair, Irina closed her eyes and accessed the Grid.

----------------------------------------The Grid----------------------------------------
London Grid - Port 000.000

The Grid rendered itself in no time thanks to the multiple 1000 GB fiber optical lines that connected the safe house to the Grid network. It never ceased to amaze Irina how wondrous the digital version of London was with its skyline that reached ever higher. The only problem was the typical user. A walking Penis brushed past her and immediately went erect causing a sensation of revulsion to crawl up her spine. All around her was the cast of the Jersey Shore repeated ad nauseum with a smattering of classier avatars.

For Irina's part, she'd chosen the form of a woman clad in black that hefted a large axe. A bow topped her head that had the appearance of cat ears, in homage to her physical form.

"'Rina!" A voice called out to her from the ether, "Where've you been?"

"Sorry Itami." The Young VidCaster apologized to the tech from Zibatsu Corp, "Problems?"

"Well..." The tech paused before addressing her, "We found this package installed inside our network while we were doing a routine network scan. We can't make heads or tails of it and were wondering if you could have one of your contacts look at it."

A package materialized in front of her before she took it into her possession, a copy of the package being copied onto the Cyber Deck's storage.

"Sure." The VidCaster stated, "I've got some business but I'll pass it on."

With the communications connection severed, Irina realized that her suspicion had been confirmed. It appeared that communications had only been blocked for Law Enforcement. While this left Law Enforcement crippled, it did not draw any attention from the public who was still able to communicate as they always did.

"

Code:

Location: London Grid | Traffic and Safety

" The VidCaster murmured to herself before she found herself suddenly in a different location. In front of her was the data node for London's Traffic and Safety department, the very same department that was in charge of maintaining the CCTV feeds from all around London. The Node looked like a cheaply made building that was dwarfed by all the other Londonian governmental departments. They liked that. It made them less of a target.

Walking through the doors, a bored looking tech monitored her entrance into their networks.

"Sorry Miss. Visiting hours are..." The Tech started to say before the VidCaster interrupted him,

"I'm helping with the investigation into this morning's bombings." StripKitty stated.

The Tech looked doubtfully at the scantily clad avatar, never noticing the Daemon that was behind him. The Succubus v 3.67 wrapped her arms around the tech and severed his connection from the Grid, locking him out for 15 minutes.

"Right." Irina said as she accessed the CCTV's terminals, scanning the Grid for and signs of the CyCorp trucks that would be transporting the next batch of bombs... only there weren't any. The only thing that was close were a set of H.A. Dynasty trucks?

That was them. It had to be. Accessing her communications link, she attempted to connect to any of the others enroute to the Palace.

"Shit." Irina cursed as she pulled up the CCTV camera and noticed a car driving at well above the posted speed limit as well as a Light Quad Rotor moving in front of them to divert traffic. As they drove through the city a number of advertisements flashed in the screen... a number of Zibatsu Corp advertisements.

Opening her communications link, she connected to Computer Tech Itami once again.

"Hey, Itami. I need access to the Advertisement array." Irina said. Sensing a bit of hesitation on the other line she added, "NOW!"

"Okay... okay" The Tech stated as he forwarded the appropriate permissions onto her account.

Watching the CCTV displays, the Advertisements alongside the car and quad copter changed and displayed an image of Irina.

"Karl, Karine, Ed!! H.A. Dynasty Trucks. They're in H.A. Dynasty Trucks!!" Irina's image called out through the advertisements.

[hr]

London 2056 | Buckingham Palace Route
It's still a landing...
Sargent Edward Aubergine

[hr]

The group was almost to the Palace when a familiar visage started to replace some of the advertisements along the side of the road. The pilot of the Sky Hopper, Sargent Edward Aubergine, could only grin at the sight of Irina having performed a rather major looking hack. He was practically tickled when she addressed him over the ad system.

"Karl, Karine, Ed!! H.A. Dynasty Trucks. They're in H.A. Dynasty Trucks!!" The ads stated as the Sky Hopper blew past them.

It made sense to Edward in a way that the Neos would use a different Corp for the next drop. The authorities were already on the look out for CyCorp trucks, with the sheer number of those running about the town, they had hardly enough man power to check another set of transports.

"Palace Sky! Palace Sky! This is London PD Sky Hopper #227. Requesting permission to Palace Airspace. Over!" Charlotte repeated into the communications mic, attempting to reach Palace Sky.

Blowing through one last intersection, Buckingham suddenly loomed ahead of them... and hell did as well. A number of alarms started blaring as Palace Sky's defenses tracked the fast moving craft and opened fire.

"FUCKIN' ASSHOLES!" Ed cursed as he attempted to evade the Anti Aircraft fire to no avail. A salvo of gun fire chewed through one of the rotor housings.

"We're hit!" Ed reported the obvious. Despite the fact that the caustic Lieutenant wanted to say "no duh," she kept her mouth shut as the Sargent attempted to reach for the eject level. Another salvo of gunfight chewed through another engine and caused the small aircraft to spin uncontrollably. There was a loud crash as the flaming Sky Hopper impacted against the ground.

Diablo1099_v1legacy · Sep 3, 2015

Streets of London (Mid Chase): Viscus

After Irina was able to convert the advert array to communicate with Karl, a loud screeching noise could be heard as tires skidded along the well worn London tarmac.
The new driver was quickly starting to gain on Karl's vehicle as StripKitty repeated her message:

"Karl, Karine, Ed!! H.A. Dynasty Trucks. They're in H.A. Dynasty Trucks!!"

The significance of that message was lost on Viscus but at the very least it confirmed that his target was in the area, the Mission was far more important then anything else.
More interesting however was the aircraft in the sky above them, a London PD Sky Hopper, but for what reason.
Using his Cyber Investigation system, he attempted to hunt down some kind of dispatch order, only to halt once he saw the aircraft get shot right out of the sky and crash into the road in front of him.

Code:

[That is...Unexpected]

Taking calculated movements, he was able to drift his car around the ruins and quickly get back on track after Karl's vehicle, starting to gain on his target.

As the distance was closing, Viscus attempted to send a corperate message to Karl, only to be greeted with the following message:

He tried it a few more times before having to resort to a more "Hands on Approach" to getting Karl to pull over, namely attempting to overtake him to force him to a halt.

FalloutJack · Sep 3, 2015

Wakefield calmly listened to every detail spoken so far by Ira. However, a few things stuck out in his mind as his friend and client went on. The Bee, for one. There were rumors, here and there... People in Cyberware cases he'd handled sometimes mentioned the Queen Bee. He, she, they - or whatever - were a thoroughly ambiguous and hard to determine lot or person. Could the purpose of the Queen Bee simply be to set people up and push people around like pawns in some intricate purpose? He shuffled that away for the moment as something else caught his attention that made him frown.

"Hold on a moment, Ira. What weapon are you talking about? I think you'd better start from the beginning, what it was that this Bee told you. If we can prove that you were pushed into this without any knowledge or understanding of what was going on, we can prove you to be an innocent bystander to the whole affair, perhaps Liam Vaughn as well."

Though, what the Bee had about the weapon was actually quite important...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Isaiah was back in his room now, just checking on it, on his favorite killing machine. He unpacked it and looked it all over, making sure again that it was completely serviceable. The kind of versatility of this thing was a marvel. It was quick, quiet, and fired with great accuracy. You could use it anywhere, and pack it away easily. Such an elegant weapon as this... They would never have suspected it, not when it's so perfect at setting up others. And the best part, the most-wonderous part of all, was how the shell casing got in that garage. Once the patsies went to trial, the prosecuting attorney would probably get some information about said people being hired by the big corps in order to put pressure on the other, all the while turning their credibility to shit. It was brilliant, and the puppets don't even know they're being made to dance...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"I should probably drive. You'll want to focus on coordinating security, and getting everything ready to intercept that drop."

"If that's what you want."

So, she'd let Karl drive while she decided to take care of things. There was just one problem... Along the way, she was getting interference. Her secure line wasn't getting so securely through to the Buckingham forces. Neither was Central's. It was a real problem. Asagi put the information needed into a data dump and updated here and there while trying to press it in through different relays. It seemed like interference was lessening as they closed in on the target, which meant that whatever was interfering in-transit to the Buckingham Security servers had less and less when she updated and sent through more secure relays. It was aggravating, though. She was not a cyber-combat specialitist. She dealt more in the real world and had that feat as a secondary optional weapon, using cyber-combat programs devised by Central when necessary, and it wasn't necessary at this time. Then, as this Sky Hopper appeared overhead, an advertisement suddenly flashed...

"Karl, Karine, Ed!! H.A. Dynasty Trucks. They're in H.A. Dynasty Trucks!!"

"Son of a *****..."

They'll stoop to any low, won't they? She should've guessed. Her connection was starting to get clear, but with Buckingham Palace on alert status on its own...oh god. There were the guards and there were turrets. They would see the speeding vehicle-

"KARL, GET DOWN!"

Her Majesty's Royal Guard, capable of standing still for DAYS if need-be, had classically-styled assault rifles with bayonets. The front gets had turrets mounted on the posts at either side of the doors, and regular implemented similar machines at other spots along the fence. At the same time as her attempt to duck and shouting for him to do same while attempting to pull him down, the nearest ones of all of these things fired upon the car, destroying windows and the engine block, and - Asagi remembered hearing the scream next to her - Karl's arm! Because of his proximity, Viscus' car took a few bullets as well, but the larger problem was that he read-ended Asagi and Karl's car, sending them both into a spin and skid that swung Viscus' car into a pole not far from where the other car stopped. Structurally, he would be okay unless he caught a bullet somewhere.

-BUCKINGHAM CONTROL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! This is Operative Asagi! Didn't you get anything from me or Central?!-

-Negative, Asagi. A high-level jam on communications and the appearance of a helicopter determined an imminent threat and we went on alert status. Are you injured?-

-Not as much as you're going to be if you don't take this data-dump and deal with it NOW! And get a medic in here!-

In an instant, they learned everything. They knew it was the Dynasty logo vans, they knew there would be people with explosive prosthetics that they would want to save, they knew that the people in the area had to GO right now! Lethal Sky Hunters and turrets immediately fired at the cabs of the vans while any personal around either guarded the gates or moved civilians back as a the on-call palace bomb squad set up trigger jammers and prepared to save some lives. Asagi remained in the chewed-up car with Karl, who had gotten worse than her. She'd only been winged in places, including her own arm, but the damage was superficial, except for one in her side across the rib. Her armor had taken care of that, but the impact hurt. The main issue she had was having been smacked into parts of the car by the crash, as someone had rear-ended them during the whole situation.

"Don't worry, Karl. I've got a medic coming. You'll be fine."

Texas Joker 52 · Sep 3, 2015

~ Karl Adler ~

As soon as he got behind the wheel and Karine was inside, Karl gunned the engine and sped out of the garage with a grim expression on his face. Given the devastation of the diner earlier with just one human bomb, and the amount of destruction they managed at both company headquarters the day before... There wasn't time to observe traffic safety laws. If he got arrested for his reckless driving, then they would have to wait until they stopped the strike at Buckingham Palace.

Or tried to, at any rate.

He spared a quick millisecond glance at Karine before gluing his eyes back on the road. It looked like she was focused on something, but he had no idea whether or not she was getting through.

"Son of a *****..."

He glanced over at her, before sparing another glance at where she was aiming her gaze: At an advertisement screen, this time with text aimed directly at them.

///Karl, Karine, Ed!! H.A. Dynasty Trucks. They're in H.A. Dynasty Trucks!!///

After swerving to just miss an incoming car, horn blaring behind them, he shook his head.

"At least they aren't content to just pin the blame on CyCorp. Hopefully this means the Dynasty will be just as eager to help us stop them." he told her.

Karl couldn't help but get more and more aware that they were starting to approach Buckingham Palace when he heard the sounds of heavy gunfire and alarms. He looked up just in time to see a Sky Hopper get shot out of the sky, spinning wildly as it crashed some way's away from the Palace Grounds.

"KARL, GET DOWN!"

He hesitated for just a split second as he saw the Palace Guard take aim at them with their rifles, before he swerved to put Karine out of their line of fire. He wasn't quite quick enough. Raising his left hand to shield his face, he felt the rounds tear into his augmented arm and shoulder, with one hitting him right where machine met flesh, and another grazing just over his left brow. As armor-piercing bullets hit the engine block, the car sputtered out and started to skid, only to get rear-ended and spin out.

All Karl noticed was the sudden and overwhelming pain that radiated from his arm, and he screamed. As his mangled arm twitched unnaturally at his side, he reached over with his right hand and clutched at it, before he clenched his teeth and started to squeeze and twist. The sound of harsh metal shearing was drowned out by his second scream as he promptly ripped the ruined limb off, dropping it at his feet on the floor of the car.

He had never felt pain quite so excruciating. Later on, when he had a chance to clear his head, he would realize that the pain receptors of his arm had overloaded themselves and were creating a feedback loop, which was always a risk whenever an augmented limb was damaged to that extent. But he couldn't think clearly now. All he thought about was the fact that he wanted to curl up and hide, or else he'd be in more pain.

"Don't worry, Karl. I've got a medic coming. You'll be fine."

He was dimly aware of Karine's voice as he hunched forward in the driver's seat, forehead resting on the wheel as he clutched at his shoulder and whimpered quietly in German. His body shook like a leaf, and he could feel a cold sweat start to drip from his face. But he remembered that they still had a job to do, and forced himself to speak.

"Guh... Go." he gasped weakly before taking a moment to swallow hard, "I'll catch up. Stop them."

Lifting his head to look at her, he gave her a smile that was meant to be encouraging, but turned out to be a pained grimace.

"Don't... Get blown up." he ground out.

Knight Captain Kerr · Sep 4, 2015

"They didn't find the weapon that did it but whatever it was cauterized the wounds, there wasn't any blood. Didn't leave any shell casings at the scene either, though the casings at the garage might be from it. The two victims were facing each other when they were killed, both of them were found lying on their backs. Bullet didn't exit through the back of their skull either, if it even was a bullet..." said Ira explaining what he knew about the murder weapon.

Ira paused, thinking over the information he had read earlier. He started to shake his head and spoke up once more. "It's so obvious, it wasn't a gun that killed them. There were markings on the walls all around the room, all of them at the same height. Like whatever it was jumped up from the floor between them and shot out... something. Maybe it was a laser, I mean that would explain the cauterization and why the cops didn't find any casings or shrapnel at the scene."

Generic NPC 22 · Sep 5, 2015

London 2056 | London Grid
When I was just a little girl...
Irina Rostikova

[hr]

Irina Rostikova the Professional VidCaster, Novice Hacker and noobish mother, stood in front of a terminal belonging to London's Department of Traffic and safety. Even as she accessed the terminal, attempting to locate the point of origin for the H.A. Dynasty branded transports that were about to unleash Hell upon the people visiting Buckingham Palace, she could not keep her eyes off of a live feed. The feed's source camera was focused upon the wreckage of the Quad Coptor that had been piloted by Lieutenant Sorrowfeld and Sargent Aubergine. Though the sudden loss of the Lieutenant would fail to cause the Cat Eared VidCaster to lose any sleep, the Sargent seemed like a nice enough fellow, despite his rather fervent display of Fan~~Girl~~Boy-ism.

There was a sigh of relief when the Sargent shoved the canopy door open and started waving his badge in the air at the approaching guards. The Lieutenant soon followed, her hand pressed up against a gash on her forehead. With the Gungnir Security Consultants out of the way, Irina could focus on the task at hand.

The query she started on the Traffic and Safety database was rather broad. As it ran, it began mapping all of the freight trucks that had the H.A. Dynasty logo located on the truck. It was at that point that the trouble began.

Database Error said:

"Shit." The Novice Hacker cursed jabbed no on the virtual keyboard and refined her query, restricting the search to within the last 5 hours. Standing there she waited once again.

Database Error said:

"Goddammit!" The CatEared VidCaster cursed even louder this time as she tried to think of an additional filter to use on her query.

Looking at the CCTV feeds, she noticed a Freight Truck park on the street, its H.A. Dynasty logo shining grimly in the afternoon gloom. Zooming in, she added the truck's license plate to the query and started it once again.

"Irina..." Said a Neither Masculine or Feminine voice from behind the Novice Hacker, "Funny, I thought that those 'consultants' from Gungnir would have disappeared you by now. Either I've discounted your 'l33t haxx0ring' skills or your luck. Given we both know that you're practically a computer drone, I won't discount your luck next time."

Turning around, Irina Rostikova's eyes focused upon a dark and ever shifting mass. Every so often, the shape of a stock Avatar would come into focus only to be replaced by another milliseconds later. That was the purpose of the obfuscation program that strange hacker was running, to obscure his or her identity and location.

"Who are you?" The question was simply blurted out.

The Hacker laughed in a rather amused tone. Did the woman really thing that the hacker's identity would be given out so freely or was it just another stupid sound bite that the Corps had force fed the VidCaster?

"If you're really expecting me to answer that question, you're going to be disappointed. I'm not one of those people who gives out their identity and their plans right before I kill you. I'm not one of those villains that is going to give you the opportunity to defend yourself or expound on how shitty your skills are." The Hacker stated as he rez'd an offensive Daemon, a Hellhound.

Hellhound Daemons were a particularly nasty piece of Blackware. In addition to a trace feature, they had the ability to start messing around with the power grid in the immediate vicinity of the target, meaning once the Hellhound tracked down its target, it could fry the brain of the target.

Backing away from the rez'd Hellhound, Irina took a brief glance back at the Traffic and Safety Terminal. The query was only 75% completed and would require another 2 minutes or processing time. Turning around, the CatEared Hacker got a face full of Hellhound as it lunged at her, its teeth trying to since into her digital flesh.

The Hacker laughed as he ran another routine and suddenly the Law Enforcement Channels crackled and came to life.

[hr]

London 2056 | Buckingham Palace
I asked my mother what will I be...
Lieutenant Charlotte Sorrowfeld and Sargent Edward Aubergine

[hr]

"... Ma'am are you..." The soldier's voice came in and our as the ringing in Charlotte's ears fluctuated. She turned towards the source of the voice and saw a female guard, a bullpup style assault rifle hanging off of her shoulders. The woman was looking at her with a rather concerned expression as the guards lead both the Lieutenant and the Sargent towards a makeshift command post. With the bombings of CyCorp and H.A. Dynasty there had been an increase in security around the city. The guards at the Palace had received warning about the impending attack but apparently had not received information that Charlotte and Edward were on their way.

"Ma'am? Are you alright?" The female guard asked again, getting only a terse nod from the Police Lieutenant.

"Char?" Edward called out, pointing towards a pair of parked transports in the distance, the H.A. Dynasty logo was painted prominently on their side. The fact that the human bombs had arrived was not the concerning part, the presence of civilians was.

"Tell your Commander to clear the..." Charlotte started to say before a sudden burst of static interrupted her. Pulling her mobile from her pocket, she tried to mute the device only to find that it had started playing music.

Another noise in the distance... screaming... the sound pulled Charlotte's attention back towards the cargo trucks. The rear doors had opened and people... the patients that had been taken from the city's hospials... spilled out into the road. Their confused voices were barely audible but the Lieutenant could detect the panic ran through their bodies.

A number of Good Samaritans had run towards the bloody and confused kidnapping victims.

"Get those people out of the area!" Sargent Aubergine bellowed as he started running towards the trucks.

Another noise... this time whirring. The Combat drones that had been deployed in front of the Palace had started to move. A light breeze had brought the scent of plastic explosives to the robots who detected the threat. Moving forward, the drones stopped for a moment before their tri-barreled machine guns started spinning up.

The machine guns opened up just as the Neos' victims came into range. The sound of empty shell casing hitting the ground was drowned out by the sound of gun powder being ignited and the screams of the witnesses. The high velocity shells, designed to pierce moderate level armor, found human flesh to be of little resistance.

"Goddammit! CEASE FIRE YOU ASSHOLES!!" The Sargent screamed as he pulled out his Mini 50 Anti-Material Revolver from its holster and took aim at the closest combat drone. The handheld guns report was minuscule compared to those of the mini-guns attached to the drones but the effect was much more noticeable. As the slug left the barrel of the revolver, the solid fuel cell ignited and sent the solid piece of depleted uranium through the target's chassis.

Behind him, the Sargent heard the yells of the guards ordering him to stop. To them, the victims couldn't be saved. Nothing could be done except to save the historical landmark. The orders turned into exclamations of panic as the guards realized that their targets were not going down despite having been hit multiple times. The augmented legs that had been installed kept them moving towards their intended targets.

A drone advanced, it's cannon cutting down civilians and tourists, victims and innocents. Sargent Aubergine took aim once again and fired before he spotted the silhouette of a young girl. The man recognized her from the picture in Irina's file as being Sienna. Despite the wall of bullets that had been unloaded at her and the others, she had yet to be hit.

The Mammoth Officer didn't hesitate, he simply started running towards the little girl.

[hr]

London 2056 | Buckingham Palace
Will I be pretty, will I be rich...
Sienna Rostikova-Cray

[hr]

Darkness. Cold. The pained groans of strangers. These were but a few of the things that greeted Sienna Rostikova-Cray when she awoke. They'd been packed in some sort of vehicle, the way the space in which they'd been confined moved had confirmed this. The little girl tried to sit up and felt a wave of nausea hit her like a brick wall. The fact that she suffered from regular bouts of motion sickness did not help with the post surgical nausea.

Surgery? Yes, the young girl had been operated on. The fact that she had feeling in her legs, when there had been none eight hours ago, confirmed that she'd had augmentations grafted to her ruined legs. She sat up again, this time a bit more slowly, and managed to prop herself up against the metal walls of the vehicle. Reaching down, she felt the cold metal augmentations. It was a strange feeling. On one hand, her hands registered the sensation of touching cold metal. On the other hand, her new legs registered the warm touch of her fingers.

The vehicle hit a bump in the road causing the others to groan a bit more loudly. She wondered if Mister Charles was among those who had been crammed in the transport with he.

"Mister Charles?" The young girl managed to croak.

No answer from the others. Where ever he was, Sienna hoped that he was okay. She found herself missing him. He'd been nice to her. The Doctor, Mercy, had been nice to her as well. Strangely enough, Sienna found herself missing her mother most of all.

She felt the truck come to a stop. The others began to whisper to themselves, wondering what was in store for them next. The only hint of what lay beyond the transport's double doors was the sound of gunfire and something slamming against the ground. They'd soon find out though. The doors need only to open... and open they did.

The light from the gloomy afternoon cut through the darkness blinding the inhabitants of the truck. Outside, the sounds of screaming, of gunfire, of explosions and music filtered in through the opening.

Music?

With the doors of the transport fully opened, Sienna could see the others who, like her, had signs that they'd recently been operated on and, like her, they were all moving towards the open door and some, like her, were doing so against their will. If the sounds that had filtered their way into the truck had been horrible, the scene that greeted the young girl was even more so. A man pushed his way past Sienna only to have his arm severed by a large caliber bullet that caused the limb to explode before it fell to the ground. The man screamed in pain but his legs kept propelling him towards the line of soldiers that were firing upon the victims of the Neo-Luddites.

"I must run. I must run. I must run away!" Sienna thought to herself, as she was partially successful in the endeavor. She was running but she was running in the direction of the danger. Try as she might, she could not get the legs to change direction. The music kept playing in the distance, drawing the victims ever closer.

The first of the victims reached the line of soldiers and exploded, bathing both the victims and a number of soldiers in fire and shrapnel. A second, a third, a fourth. Many followed the same suicidal march towards certain death, even Sienna.

"Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!" Sienna commanded her legs to no avail. A pained grunt caught her attention as a man whose sheer size blotted out the sun scooped up the little girl and started running away from the bloody mayhem. The man was bleeding from a gash in his arm but it didn't seem to slow him down.

Another explosion, this one closer, threw them both to the ground. Sienna felt the wind knocked out of her as the man landed on top of her, his weight threatening to smother her. Sargent Aubergine grunted again as he picked himself off his prize, the daughter of Irina Rostikova.

"Are you okay?" The man asked gently, a strange thing given the intensity of the violence that had been unfolding all around them. He was trying to calm the girl. He must have had children at some point in his life for it was only the voice a father could manage.

The little girl nodded at first until she felt her legs trying to pick her up off of the ground. It was only the presence of the Sargent's weight that kept Sienna from resuming the death march that so many others had embarked upon.

"I... I can't control the legs!" Sienna yelled as she tried to pull them off of her some how. A sharp pain ran up her ravaged nervous system as she did, causing her to stop.

"Sh sh shhhh. It's okay. I'm here to help." The man said as he examined the legs that had been installed on the little girl.

Augmented legs, like anything electronic, required a power supply, which usually lasted for a year before it needed to be replaced. It was obvious to the Sargent that if he disabled the power supply to the girl's augmented legs, she'd be safe, in a relative sense of the word. They were in the middle of a scene that included any number of exploding augmentations and slugs of lead flying at super sonic speeds.

Looking at the upper portion of the augmentation, the Sargent spotted the access panel for the left leg's battery pack. This was the good news. The bad news was that it had been welded shut. Looking at the young girl, Edward Aubergine pulled out a knife.

"Sienna. This is going to hurt you like nothing else has. But it has to be done." Mister Aubergine said, waiting for her to nod before he rammed the point of the knife into the edge of the access panel. He was right. The pain was like nothing else Sienna had felt before and so she screamed. Her hands squeezed tightly into the Sargent's arms, trying to pull the knife out of her leg, her nails digging in and drawing blood. Despite her cries, the Sargent was unrelenting as he pierced the weld and started prying the access panel free.

CLING CLING CLING!!

The access panel was tossed away and the battery was exposed. As the Giant Police Man ripped the battery out of her left leg, sienna lost all sensation in that leg.

"That's one." Mister Ed said as he started working on the right leg, "You've been such a brave little girl. I promise I'll tell you..."

Sienna never heard the rest of the sentence as the Sargent suddenly covered her with his body. The sensation was familiar. It was like... CyCorp. The child of Irina Rostikova couldn't get the ringing out of her ears... or the taste of blood ouf of her mouth. Unlike her daddy, however, the Sargent was able to move after the explosive blast.

The man had taken the brunt of the blast when he'd covered Sienna's body with his own. The left side of his face was a bloody mess. His left arm was a mangled mess of exposed bone and flesh. Ever so slowly, he pried the remaining battery from Sienna's right leg before throwing it away.

"All done." The Sargent said as he picked the young girl up and started carrying her.

"MISS ASAGI!!!" Sargent Aubergine called out to a woman he spotted in the distance. He started limping towards her. From her position, Sienna could see that the man was leaving a trail of blood behind him. A transport exploded not too far from them, taking out a number of the Neos' victims. It appeared that the attack was being held back as the soldiers had started aiming for the legs, immobilizing the victims and detonating the legs at the same time.

"Miss Asagi." The Sargent said as he closed the distance between he and Karine, "T... take her."

With one swift motion, Edward placed Sienna gently on the ground and started running directly at Karine... or rather at the figure behind Karine. Line an American football player, the giant police officer hit the man behind the military operative and started pushing him backwards... farther and father away... until...

BOOOOM!

The Sargent was no more...

[hr]

London 2056 | London Grid
Here's what she said to me...
Irina Rostikova

[hr]

She recognized the song. She knew that song. Every time he hacked, he would play that song. He claimed it helped him focus and to remove any worry as to what would happen if he was caught.

"Whatever will be, will be," Talasian had told Irina when he allowed her to witness his hack on CyCorp's Personnel Database.

"Tal. What... why?" StripKitty could only ask in disbelief. The man laughed at her.

"Ahh. So you figured out who I was, did you?" The man known as Talasian, Irina's hacker contact, asked rhetorically as he dropped stopped the obfuscation program revealing his avatar, a cybernetic demon, "Do you know what people tell me when I tell them that I know you?"

The CatEared VidCaster was silent.

"They tell me, 'Sorry, not interested.' Then they hang up on me. Me? The man who pulled this whole hack off can't get a decent enough job because I know you." The demon said, his voice sounding rather incredulous at the idea, "You're a plague to us all. You're a fraud, a fake, a media whore and we all know it. Just because you cater to the lowest common denominator doesn't mean that you're not despised by the people you emulate. That's all you are, Irina, an emulation, a corrupted copy, analog to the real thing and you know what? I'm tired of working for you and tired of being ignored because I know you. So... I guess what I'm saying is... I quite."

The Hellhound attacked, Irina summoned her succubus to intercept but could only watch as the Hellhound's Anti-Daemon routines cut through the Succubus quickly, causing the program to de-rez.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.

It was Talasian this time, singing the final chorus of the song that he so loved. Looking back, Irina saw that the query was finished and she had the origin of the H.A. Dynasty trucks. The Hellhound lunged at her, this time the woman was ready. The blood covered hound slammed into her Shield as she retreated to the terminal.

"Irina?" Talasian said as the CatEared hacker started the log out process, "Say hello to Felton would you?"
[hr]

London 2056 | Gungnir Safehouse
Que Sera, Sear...
Irina Rostikova

[hr]

There was a sharp inhalation of air as Irina's conscious returned to the realm of the living, the conscious, the normal. She blinked a number of times as she looked about, her eyes focusing on her surroundings. She was back. She was alive and best of all, she had the information she needed.

"Tal, you asshole. I'm gonna kill you." Irina said as she noticed a headline scrolling across a live television transmission. With the recent attacks being pinned H.A. Dynasty and CyCorp, their stocks had started to take a dive. People had started dumping their stocks as quickly as possible.

"Ahhh... you're awake little kitten." A voice said behind her. A voice that she'd heard but never so calm. A voice belonging to the Former prisoner, Felton Billings.

FalloutJack · Sep 5, 2015

For a moment, let us detract from the action, and instead move in on the operations and investigations of CyCorp and the Dynasty themselves. They had been hard at work, with a team of people working hard to examine all record and sources possible surrounding he bombings. Toshiro and Ari Asagi were working hard on the CyCorp team, and finally...they found something, as one of their former co-workers coordinated with them.

"Look, there. You see, he walks into the room, he is out of sight, and...BOOM! No delay, no nothing. He must have-"

Toshiro: Another angle. Any angle! I want to see him when it happens...

None of the lobby cameras have him. Toshiro is grumbling now, thinking, when...

Ari: Toshiro, the lobby desk clerk. He's facing that way.

Toshiro: Hmmm. He might be on record.

A quick tap of the keys and they have lobby security records from the floor staff's eyes. They've got it! They can see...

Toshiro: It's as I feared. Identify this man. His whereabouts will be unknown...but not for long.

The H.A. Dynasty will have found this out too, or will soon...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"They were definitely bullet wounds. They matched the caliber of the bullets with their shells when they extracted them from the bodies."

This was getting stranger and stranger. The Queen Bee had given him information about the double-homicide and the methodology that the police didn't have, among other things. He and Mr. Vaughn had been made suspects, but now with this information, they had a case that could swing favorably in their direction. In fact, it could blow the whole thing wide open!

"Tell me, did you save this message? If we can establish that your only real connection to this case is an anonymous tip that led you to investigate this, rather than be the instrument in question, we can get you out of this and then maybe show the world the indicators of this strange weapon. Because, as of now, it looks like an assassination and setup to take the fall. I know that similar has been done in regards to the bombings already. You haven't seen the news, but it's pandamonium out there."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

He was cybered up and the pain receptors were looping sensations of agony onto him again and again, so he pulled the damaged limb out to stop it. Asagi looked at her own slightly-damaged arm, some aspects of the mechanism exposed. She wasn't sure if she could do that with herself. Back in reality, Karl was still in pain, but it wasn't a malfunctioning pain anymore. It was real.

"Guh... Go. I'll catch up. Stop them. Don't... Get blown up."

"Don't worry about me."

She was on the move in an instant, heading for those now-disabled vans as Neo-Luddites were either dead in the front seats or trying to get the hell out of dodge. Anyone surviving that immediate mess were captured, as per the plan she set in motion before communications failed. Military men and women had them disabled and dead to rights in minutes if they managed to flee the Buckingham area at all. The net had been perfect at least, but the calamity was just getting started. Music had begun to play, and the vans opened up.

The music... The aug-bombs are being drawn into action by a musical trigger!

They'd jammed all known trigger frequencies for explosives that they hadn't thought of something like this at all. They were on a suicide march... Drones had already begun to move in addition to the Sky Hunters already in motion. They were the BIG Sky Hunters, with the HEAVY machine guns. She saw as Ed saw, and he had fired while Asagi had shouted at the Buckingham Guard.

"The legs, you idiots! Target augments only!"

It was cruel, it was horrible, and she would feel wretched about it later, but it was the correct assessment to the situation. However, in the midst of her and the Guard taking action, she had missed what Ed was closer to see...until the explosion drew her attention and she saw...oh god, not this. He'd been brutalized by a misfired explosive augmentation, but he held Sienna in his arms as he approached her, calling out her name. Ed let Sienna go and then ran...past her? She looked back, then jumped away as there was an explosion and...

But...that was a...

She hit the ground and tumbled. Asagi wasn't in bad shape, not as bad as Karl or the poor victims - some of whom might've survived by their bombs breaking, not exploding, from gunfire - and...certainly in better shape than Sargent Aubergine. She crept over low to Sienna now, taking hold of the girl.

"I'm so sorry about this, Sienna. This was never suppose to happen..."

-Central, do you read me?-

-We do, but barely.-

-Communications black-out. Only our channel is on for now. Pull the plug on everything else in my area.-

In cyberspace, after his confrontation with Irina, Talasian would find the cyberspace equivalent of blast door shutters coming down in areas, with signs like "By order of the Military" and "We apologize for the inconvenience" on them. They were cutting off the Buckingham Palace area, music and all. Nothing would function now, except for Military and Palace Guard encryption code. He would have to leave it, which was of no harm to him. Damage done, and all. Maybe not to the extent that the Neos desired, but like Isaiah said, it would be better to distance from them, anyway. On Asagi's end, there was an automated message playing now, instead.

"This is the London Militia speaking. A direct attack has been made against the Government itself. This area is under military control until further notice. We repeat..."

Asagi didn't like it, but they had really pushed them, this time. More than riots, they had turned people into bombs and sent them against Queen and Country itself, one of the most-important places in Government around. There would be anti-riot mech-suits in key positions, set to isolation mode to prevent cyberware infiltration and given strict orders to protect designated areas. And about now, Karl Adler's office would be getting information similar to that of what Elise Pitt would find out herself in her office, the same thing that Asagi has just seen when Ed Aubergine charged whoever was behind her: The bombers were people who had every right to be there, normal for their surroundings, and they died in the explosions as the bomb vests on under their clothes went off. That hadn't been an unfortunate victim of the Neo-Luddites that Ed caught. That had been a tourist, and he had been gunning for her.

Texas Joker 52 · Sep 5, 2015

~ Karl Adler ~

Karine seemed to look down at her own arm for a moment, and he noticed that she was hurt too, though thankfully not to the extent that he was. He suddenly hoped that she was better at bearing pain than he was, but at the same time hoped that she didn't have to very often. It was a strange conflict, and combined with the agony he was still in, he needed a moment to process the fact that she had replied before stepping out.

"Don't worry about me."

"No promises." he said hoarsely.

As she went to take charge of the situation, he took it as a moment to catch his breath, and was dimly aware of a wet feeling against his hand. When he pulled it away from his shoulder, he saw shining crimson blood on the heel of his palm. Tearing off the top few buttons of his shirt, he noticed that one bullet managed to hit him right where the synthetic aug met organic flesh, and he was steadily bleeding from the hole.

"... Well now. That would probably ruin my day if it hadn't been already." he murmured dully as he tugged his shirt back over the wound to cover it up.

He forced himself to slide across the center console of the car onto the seat Karine was in previously, then stumbled out of the open door. He nearly fell face-first onto the street, but caught himself with his one hand. Staggering up, he bumped back against the car and panted. That was when music started to play, broadcast over every nearby speaker.

He looked wildly as if to find the source of the music, despite the fact that he could hear it from everywhere, including from inside the car he was leaning against. Why was there music? Was there some hacker involved, playing this song? Was it caused by whoever was behind this attack? But he could also hear the start of gunfire, and a few rumbling explosions.

Karl spared a single glance at the other nearby car, this one severely dented in the front, before he rushed around the wreckage to find Karine. What he was greeted to was the sight of dozens of people, all with fresh augmented limbs, marching towards their deaths, drones opening fire on them and causing a few of them to go up in fiery blasts.

When he spotted the lone Military Operative, he inhaled sharply. She was joined by Sorrowfeld's partner, horribly mangled, as he carried Young Sienna. All the while, another one of the human bombs shuffled towards Karine from behind. The German Businessman started to rush forward, calling out for her to run, when Edward Aubergine handed off Sienna and tackled the unfortunate bastard like a Rugby pro. Only to go up in flames as the augmentations detonated.

Karl slowed down when he reached the two, and he panted heavily, face pale and hair hanging down into his eyes. By the time he reached them, the music was quickly cut off, once again replaced with static or silence.

"Is Sienna alright?" he asked, before glancing at the column of smoke where Ed had been and murmuring, "Oh good Christ Jesus..."

Swallowing hard, he turned to her, saying, "We need to get out of the path of these explosions. We don't want Sienna getting caught in one. Or you, for that matter."

Knife-28 · Sep 6, 2015

"Understandable; a new career can often lead to a difference in opinion." Selene said, only to be met with a head shake from Kaz.

"It wasn't even that, it was just that between their shit and my shit, we slowly stopped hanging out together and... dropped out of contact." Kaz clarified, pausing only to try and find the right words.

"Was there any particular reason or reasons for Isaiah's disdain towards corporations and figures of authority? Something like a tragic incident that happened in his past? Or was it simply that he hated them?"

Kazuko offered the CyCorp security woman a shrug in response, trying not to acknowledge the irony of her asking him if there was a tragic incident behind Isaiah's disdain towards the megacorps.

"I dunno, we were all dumb, stupid teenagers back then, when we started. Full punk, Rad Rock listening, leather wearing, 'fuck the megacorps' sorta dropkicks. As you can see, I didn't quite grow out of that last faze." He added, nodding towards the jacket draped over the back of the sofa beside him before returning to the topic at hand. "Isaiah, he wasn't any better or worse then any of the rest of us. I mean he didn't like people, at least not initially, but he warmed up once you got to know him. As for the corporations..." Kaz offered another shrug. "If there was anything behind it besides stupid teenage rebellion, he didn't say anything."

Idly, while he waited for Selene to write what he said down, his gaze drifted to the list of names, and he spoke again.

"I dunno, alot can happen in seven years... and I guess he would be that list for a reason."

Diablo1099_v1legacy · Sep 6, 2015

Outside of Buckingham Palace (Post explosion): Viscus

The crash didn't faze Viscus any, but he did stay inside as the terrorist attack went on ahead, there wasn't much he could do to stop it and unless it was a CyCorp building, he didn't really care too much. (Hell, maybe CyCorp could get a contract to help rebuild the place!).
The door of the car flew off it's hinges when Viscus kicked it free, getting out of the car no worse for wear aside from a few bullet holes around the chest of his coat.
Examining the area, he saw that the method used in the attack was the same as the one at CyCorp: Suicide Bombers controlled remotely via leg augmentations, the signal seemingly coming from the music they had played over the hijacked communications network.
It was clear that this group most likely behind the bombings, which did help narrow down his search quite a bit.
With his new target in mind, his priority shifted from Karl Adler to this terrorist organization, while taking down an entire organization was a bit more then he might have expected, he burned entire unions to the ground in the past, the only difference is they would actually be able to fight back.

It was then a secondary concern kicked in: the preservation of CyCorp employees, enough have been lost this day and the death of a general manager would be harder to fix then just the lay people.
Before long, he made his way over to the group around Karl Adler, the tall figure glanced at the group before stating

Code:

[Karl Adler and associates? It would appear that you have information on the events that have occurred here. In the interests of public safety, I suggest you share it with me. That is...an order...]

Too bad they didn't make Augments for social skills (Or at least didn't install Viscus with them)

Evrant-Knight · Sep 6, 2015

"It wasn't even that, it was just that between their shit and my shit, we slowly stopped hanging out together and... dropped out of contact." Kaz said with a head shake, correcting Selene on the matter of losing contact between him and his old gang members.

"Fair enough, it was merely a theory after all."

"I dunno, we were all dumb, stupid teenagers back then, when we started. Full punk, Rad Rock listening, leather wearing, 'fuck the megacorps' sorta dropkicks. As you can see, I didn't quite grow out of that last faze." Kaz later remarked, pointing to a leather jacket that was hanging on the back of the sofa beside him.

"Isaiah, he wasn't any better or worse then any of the rest of us. I mean he didn't like people, at least not initially, but he warmed up once you got to know him. As for the corporations..." He added with a shrug. "If there was anything behind it besides stupid teenage rebellion, he didn't say anything."

"Understood Kaz. Well I must admit this has been an informative discussion, some of which will no doubt prove valuable to the investigation. Anyway, I must be off, got to check in with CyCorp and see if they've dug anything up on Isaiah." Selene added as she stood up before digging something out from her suit jacket pocket. It appeared to be a business card of some sort.

"Should anything else come to mind, or if you just want to chat, here's a number you can reach me with." She said, placing the card down on the coffee table beside her.

"See you around Kaz, and, be careful out there." And with a suggestive smile and a wave she left the medium sized apartment and headed back to her car. Just before she drove off though, there was a blinking light on her dashboard, which usually meant that she'd received a message. Normally on occasions like this, a notification would have been sent to her mobile as well, but she heard nothing.

Connecting her phone, Selene viewed the message, all it said was the words "Isaiah Kaligian" followed by an image of a Bee. Attached to it were two images, judging from their location, they looked as though they were aerial shots. There was only a single person in both images, if Selene hazarded a guess, the man in the image was Kaligian himself. This had to have been the work of Queen Bee themselves.

Selene then drove off, en-route back to her apartment, she put in a secure call to CyCorp's intelligence gathering department.

"This is Operator Dumas. Requesting an update into the enquiry I made into one Isaiah Kaligian. Also, I've just received some images of possibly Kaligian himself, need to know if they're genuine, and if so, where they were taken."

Generic NPC 22 · Sep 6, 2015

London 2056 | Buckingham Palace
"Whatever will be, has been"
Charlotte Sorrowfeld

[hr]

Actually, Viscus, they do make Augmentations for Social skills and have for some time. Unfortunately, the giant machine-man would have more than likely looked rather ridiculous with a pair of Breast Implants installed on his chest. But this was neither here nor there. The more important thing was that the attack on the Palace had been stopped, for better or for worse. The cries of the wounded and dying filled the air coming from both soldiers, civilians and victims whose augmentations had not exploded. Those who had witnessed the horror of the day would suffer nightmares from the attack for years to come.

Even still, that was neither here nor there. What was most important to Charlotte Sorrowfeld was the loss of her partner, Edward Aubergine. Did he know what he was doing? Was he aware that the person who had been attempting to sneak up on the military operative wearing a concealed bomb vest? Elliot would have to be notified. Arrangements would need to be made for Edward Aubergine.

"Looks like we stopped them." A soldier next to her said as he, like her, surveyed the day's carnage.

"Did we stop them?" Charlotte asked rhetorically, "No. They achieved their goal."

The soldier gave the Lieutenant a quizzical look as she walked away, not bothering to explain her comment. The destruction of Buckingham Palace would have served no purpose to the Neo's cause. However, the public execution of several dozen augmentation patients at the hands of their augmentations was a far better message. When news of this got out, people would start looking at augmentation users with more suspicion than they already did. With the possibility of explosives being hidden inside of Augmentees, travel would be restricted to them for some time, at least not without some form of enhanced security. Of course, with the number of protests likely to come from the Pro-augmentation lobbies, it would be some time before things would normalize for augmentees.

Looking at her mobile, Charlotte noted that she no longer received a GCP signal to her phone. It was just as well since today's attacks had also demonstrated how ill prepared London PD was in the event of a Hack. Unable to communicate, they were unable to coordinate among themselves and stop this from occurring.

Looking in the distance, Charlotte saw the little brat named Sienna Rostikova-Cray, the very girl that she'd been contracted to kidnap from the hospital. The fact that she looked even worse than when she'd been picked up, cause the Lieutenant to feel a twinge of guilt. Only a twinge however, she'd been duped by someone else, the one who was responsible for not only Sienna's kidnapping but the death of Sargent Edward Aubergine.

Putting her mobile away, she walked towards Miss Asagi, young Sienna Rostikova-Cray, Mister Adler and the machine that was talking to them.

[hr]

London 2056 | Buckingham Palace
"Whatever will be, has been"
Sienna Rostikova-Cray

[hr]

Sienna held only Miss Asagi in a vice like grip. Between the fact that she'd narrowly avoided being exploded and the fact that the man who'd saved her had exploded, it was understandable that the girl might be a bit traumatized, especially in the presence of the giant Machine-Man that had appeared in their midst, his cold emotionless voice talking to the others.

Code:

[Karl Adler and associates? It would appear that you have information on the events that have occurred here. In the interests of public safety, I suggest you share it with me. That is...an order...]

The Machine-Man said in a voice that caused the girl to simultaneously cringe as well as attempt to hide herself behind Miss Asagi.

"Public safety? I didn't know that CyCorp was in the business of Public Safety," A woman's voice said from behind the Machine-Man. She seemed familiar somehow. Had she and Sienna met? Whatever the answer was, the woman wore a Policeman's Badge and was to be respected. Her father had taught her that much, "I think that CyCorp is more in the business of covering their asses and making their investors happy. I suppose they aren't too happy at the moment."

The Police woman nodded in the direction of a sign that displayed a stock ticker. The Stock market had opened just after the bomb assault on Buckingham. Between the rumored attack on CyCorp executives and the presence of bombs that had been crafted to look like augmentations, which had been already well documented on Social Media, the stock values of augmentation related companies were in free fall. This wasn't the strangest part of the day, however. The absence of a Corp Public Relations Army was quite strange. Absolutely strange. The only exception seemed to be from a small company called Zibatsu Corp, which was spinning the hell out of the situation as being due to the irresponsibility of Corps like CyCorp and H.A. Dynasty. As a result, Zibatsu's stock was on the rise.

Texas Joker 52 · Sep 6, 2015

~ Karl Adler ~

One of the many occupational hazards of being a General Manager in a corporate powerhouse like CyCorp was that one tended to travel sporadically to other headquarters, inspecting the employees and work that fell under their particular purview. In Karl's case, that meant giving a once-over to the various research efforts and production issues that would come up from time to time. One such trip took him to the U.S. arm of CyCorp, and there he heard some particularly disturbing rumors about a corporate hatchet-man meant to keep middle-management in-line.

A man who had been so addicted to augmenting himself, by the time he had finally died, his body and the programs meant to maintain it simply kept running. A cybernetic zombie. It was a cautionary tale if he had ever heard one, to never go too far in pursuit of immortality at the hands of technology, and to always know one's limits when it came to interfacing oneself with machines.

Still, he had waved off stories of "The Grey Death" as nothing more than superstition and rumors.

It had taken him a few moments to remember those rumors when he turned to face the mechanical voice that spoke behind him, because the ghastly figure that had uttered those words fit the description of "The Grey Death" to a tee.

Code:

[color=gray][Karl Adler and associates? It would appear that you have information on the events that have occurred here. In the interests of public safety, I suggest you share it with me. That is...an order...][/color]

He could hear Sienna whimper and try to hide in Karine's arms as she spied the skeletal man, and Karl deliberately stepped in-between the two, blocking her view of "The Grey Death". As it was, he was in dull agony, bleeding, and exhausted. So he wasn't in any mood to be cowed by some Terminator wannabe.

"If you want information from me, then you'll damn well wait until I'm ready to share. If you hadn't noticed, we've all nearly been blown to kingdom come, and some of us weren't so lucky. So until we've had time to treat the wounded and start to figure out exactly what's been going on, I'll be in no condition to give you anything except for a difficult time." he ground out through clenched teeth.

"Public safety? I didn't know that CyCorp was in the business of Public Safety. I think that CyCorp is more in the business of covering their asses and making their investors happy. I suppose they aren't too happy at the moment."

Turning to see Sorrowfeld step up from behind the cybernetic zombie, Karl frowned and bit back a string of unflattering German. The woman had just lost her partner. Regardless of what he meant to her, friend, lover, absolute pain-in-the-ass, he had no doubt that she still felt something regarding his death.

"You're only half right. CyCorp wouldn't be happy about this, and for more than just the business and stock ramifications, but the higher-ups would certainly focus more on that. The fact is, for the past few days, we've borne witness to some of the largest acts of terrorism since the turn of this century. And innocent people were the weapon. It's hard not to care about Public Safety in that case." he told her, before staggering a little.

He forced himself to sit, before glancing at "The Grey Death" as he started to pant softly.

"Look: If you want information, make yourself useful. Get some medical techs together so they can start to aid the survivors. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon." he said dryly as he motioned to what remained of his left arm with a bloodied hand.

FalloutJack · Sep 7, 2015

"Is Sienna alright?"

Surprised that Karl would walk into what was effectively a warzone, Asagi just looked at him for a second and then nodded, silently. She wasn't going to be in great condition for a while, but 'survival' had at least been achieved. God damn it all, she could kill those Neos...

"We need to get out of the path of these explosions. We don't want Sienna getting caught in one. Or you, for that matter."

"Remind me to lecture you on the importance of spotting irony later."

She said this, giving him a look that said 'You shouldn't be here like this and you know it.'. He should have stayed still, stayed behind the remains of the car or just out of harm's way somehow. Up until a couple minutes ago, this place was all explosions and mayhem. He couldn't afford to take such chances with his life when that was her job, her training, her responsibility. She wasn't so much as mad at him for it as mad at the idea that he would throw a little common sense to the wind by following her unarmed. Before we could continue with that, however...

[Karl Adler and associates? It would appear that you have information on the events that have occurred here. In the interests of public safety, I suggest you share it with me. That is...an order...]

...robot secret service walked in. No, that wasn't what this was! It was some kind of an electronic-voiced augmentia-man that had little-to-no humanity left. Wow, holy shit... He may've been obscured a bit, but she could still see that he was ALOT missing, the veritable poster boy of what the Neo-Luddites were afraid of! Certainly freaked the hell out of Sienna, who took refuge behind her while another woman spoke up - Charlotte - denouncing CyCorp and this unidentified machine. Karl had nothing better to say to him...it...whatever. Finally, Asagi herself spoke up.

"Whatever your name is, CyCorp man, here's some relevent information. You're standing in a containment zone and surrounded by both military and Buckingham Guard, addressing an Operative who is more than a little short on patience this very moment. It has been a helluva day, and you will wait your turn. Now, get your lack-of-face out of ours or I will put a shotgun to it. If you want someone to question, go find some surviving Neo-Luddites and deal with them."

Of course, if the auggie went for it, he'd have to convince the on-site military presence to let him have some time. As it stands, they would take them, they would take any scrap of information they could beat out of them, and they would take any intel they have on the Post Neo-Luddites and overturn every rock they can hide under for them. The Luddies had made one terrible mistake: They'd overplayed their hand. Yes, they achieved their goal, but they themselves would never reap the benefits. They were now terrorists and traitors to the crown. There was no saving them, and Karine for one was looking forward to a world without them. Medics were heading this way now, since they noticed a man with ONE goddamn arm standing around. Karine turned to Sienna now.

"I just want you to know, your mom helped me find out about all this, helped me find you, so if you could...cut her some slack, okay?"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

There was a pause - She was on hold! - before a CyCorp representative took her call.

"Apologies, Miss Dumas. We're all very busy at the moment. The bastards made 'em walk to Buckingham Palace and try to blow everything up. We're having to spin this one hard to save face here. Please hold."

A bombing at Buckingham Palace?! Made 'em walk? That could only mean they remote-triggered augmentia to march on the gates and explode... A new representative answered this time, one that was a little more collected and had her answers.

"We have some information that you requested. The image files you sent us are considered a match by our recognition software. Isaiah Kaligian is an outspoken hater of corporations and corporate practices, unapologetically denouncing large-scale businesses of any kind 'because they hold too much sway over everything surrounding them'. In the past, he had gone so far as to publish Economics Anonymous and The Shadey Business Manifesto in protest to corporate practices and influences. Past law infractions minor, but always in association with his personal motivations. Little to no political leanings, believing that solving his own issues with the world will leave the rest to clear themselves up. It is currently unknown what he does for a living, but we can give you his general last-known whereabouts based upon the images supplied."

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Hey, Kazuko! Here's something from the old memory bank! About those images you received now, the ones marked with the Bee in reference to Isaiah. It looks like a street you know in the general area of hsi favorite off-the-beaten-track hotel, the Royal Refuge Inn. Just think. If this picture was him - and it DOES look like him - and he's here in town, you could go there and see him!

Knife-28 · Sep 7, 2015

As Selene spoke, Kazuko was struck by the... finality of how she spoke about Isaiah. She didn't outright say that he was the bomber, but to Kaz, she seemed to think that given all the information she had, his former mate and (very literal) partner in crime was the best lead. Once she finished talking, Selene stood to leave, a fact Kaz was more then a little relieved about.

"Should anything else come to mind, or if you just want to chat, here's a number you can reach me with." She said, dropping a business card next to bottle of wine she had bought him. "See you around Kaz, and, be careful out there."

And with that, she left. The smile she had flashed him dominated his thoughts for a about a minute, before all the blood rushed back to his brain and threw it into overdrive analysing his brush with CyCorp. Kazuko Wright's first feeling was guilt. Guilt that he had, more or less, likely thrown Isaiah under the bus if only to buy himself some brownie points with CyCorp (not even, that, with Selene, his brain corrected.)

His second feeling was fear, as a glance the bottle on the table cemented the fact that, yes, he had just spent the last hour speaking to Selene in his apartment. That thought obviously ran though to its logical conclusion (the source of the fear) that CyCorp knew where he lived. If they knew that how much else did they know? Obviously enough to suspect him of the bombings, despite the fact that he had bled for them in the past, as much as it had annoyed him at the time to be working for the very people he wanted to take down, now he was absolutely furious. All his careful work, all his acting to get on CyCorp's goodside had all been for nothing!

And they knew where he lived. Kazuko looked around at the four walls that had been his home for the better part of the last half-decade swore. On the bright side, maybe he could find an apartment that wasn't on the 6th floor this time...

As London was swept up in what people were already calling 'The Worst Series of Attacks on British Soil in the Twenty First Century', Kazuko got his affairs in order, showering, first of all, then packing up as many of his belongings as he could and moving them to his car. What little furniture was his could wait. While he had drifted apart from his old gang mates, he still knew people, one of whom had a truck and owed Kaz a favour.

So, it wasn't until he was overlooking his hastily emptied apartment and went to send a message to said mate that he found the message waiting for him in his inbox, courtesy of the near mythological 'Queen Bee'. Royal Refuge Inn was where Kazuko had spent the other half of his adult life, and that fact, in addition to some combination of a guilty concious, the want to get as far as humanly possible from his current abode and the desire to know just why the Bee had sent him pictures of Isaiah (even if part of him, as much as he denied it, already knew) spurred him to get into his loaded up car and go pay a visit to the Royal Refuge Inn.

It was only then, as he listened to the radio and waited in the incredibly congested traffic, that he learned of the attack on Buckingham Palace, which added just that slighter touch of urgency to his driving.

Diablo1099_v1legacy · Sep 7, 2015

Outside of Buckingham Palace (Post explosion): Viscus

"I think that CyCorp is more in the business of covering their asses and making their investors happy. I suppose they aren't too happy at the moment."

"You're only half right. CyCorp wouldn't be happy about this, and for more than just the business and stock ramifications, but the higher-ups would certainly focus more on that. The fact is, for the past few days, we've borne witness to some of the largest acts of terrorism since the turn of this century. And innocent people were the weapon. It's hard not to care about Public Safety in that case."

Code:

[That is...Correct. I'm sure you of all people could understand that rampant terrorism makes conducting business extremely difficult. However, I will venture a guess that my employers are still more content then yours, Officer Constance Sorrowfield...]

Viscus replied, after all, it wasn't on him to stop terrorists, only the ones that made the mistake of trying to take on CyCorp.
Meanwhile, London Law Enforcement were barely able to stop one of the most important landmarks in the entire country from going up in smoke.

"Look: If you want information, make yourself useful. Get some medical techs together so they can start to aid the survivors. I don't plan on going anywhere anytime soon."

Code:

[That is...Unfortunate. I plan on us leaving the scene within the next 10.3 minutes. My mission is not one of a medical unit. Despite what you might believe, I'm not the "Bad Guy" in this situation. I have been ordered to seek out the party involved in this attack and the one that claimed several CyCorp employees, another terrorist attack that Law Enforcement here has notably failed to prevent...]

"Whatever your name is, CyCorp man, here's some relevent information. You're standing in a containment zone and surrounded by both military and Buckingham Guard, addressing an Operative who is more than a little short on patience this very moment. It has been a helluva day, and you will wait your turn. Now, get your lack-of-face out of ours or I will put a shotgun to it. If you want someone to question, go find some surviving Neo-Luddites deal with them."

Code:

[...So it was the Neo-Luddites...Thank you, Karine Asagi]

The Machine then calmly said as it glanced at the child behind Asagi.

Code:

[...What about her? Does she know anything of the Neo-Luddites?...]

he then asked, not really seeming to care too much about the mood of the conversation.

Generic NPC 22 · Sep 8, 2015

London 2056 | Buckingham Palace
"Vending Machine versus Little Girl... ROUND 1"
Sienna Rostikova-Cray

[hr]

The adults were speaking about things that Sienna was unaware of having occurred. Things such as stock prices, terrorist threats and Public Safety were outside of the realm of information that a child the age of Sienna would willingly consume. Many of the things went over her head except for a few very major details.

1) She'd been kidnapped by a bunch of men, operated on and had almost exploded.
2) The unknown man that had saved her had exploded after giving Sienna to Miss Asagi.
3) The Massive Machine that spoke to them looked like he could take out the entire block if he exploded.

It went without saying that the child that clung to Miss Asagi had been traumatized by the entire ordeal. Her second helping of mental and physical misery in just as many days. After all, she had witnessed the death of her father.

Miss Asagi turned to look down at the clingy girl and spoke gently.

"I just want you to know, your mom helped me find out about all this, helped me find you, so if you could...cut her some slack, okay?" Miss Asagi stated.

Sienna could only nod as she took in the information that had been given to her. Her much reviled mother had helped Miss Asagi stop this incident and save Sienna? Her mother, whom her father had mentioned time and time again as having no interest in a child, had made steps to ensure that Sienna had not been a victim in this bomb plot? What Miss Asagi had stated went against everything that Sienna had been taught about her mother, Irina Rostikova. Was it possible that her father had been lying about her mother the whole time?

The problem with lies comes not when they're told by a liar but when they're told by someone who, to your knowledge, had never lied to you. In this case, was Miss Asagi the one lying to her or had her father, Nathaniel Cray, been the one who'd been lying the whole time? It was a lot for a child to contemplate, especially after what the young girl had just been put through.

"Okay." The girl said meekly as she looked up at Miss Asagi, her mind pushing out the events and clinging onto the relief that she was safe. Looking around, she spotted another familiar face, this one male. Hadn't he been at the hospital with Sienna's mother? Was he the one that had promised to get Sienna augmented legs? What was his name? Mister... Mister... Mister...

"M... Mister Adel?" Sienna chimed to the CyCorp business man, "I... I might need some time before I try out augmentations again."

This was either a quip or a child stating the obvious. Speaking of Augmentations, there was the Tin Man to consider. He spoke again, his neutral tone invoking none of the nuanced emotion that a normal human voice does when communicating.

Code:

[color=grey]"[...What about her? Does she know anything of the Neo-Luddites?...]"[/color]

The Massive Machine Man stated coldly, indicating that he'd like to ask the child some questions.

Let's strike that comment about the Terminator invoking no emotion in his speech since his voice did invoke the sensation of terror through the child's bones.

"Uh uh!" Sienna uh uh'd loudly as she shook her head at the Machine Man indicating either she knew nothing about the Neo Luddite Terrorists or she refused to speak to the walking talking vending machine... of what was assumed to be used girl's panties.

[hr]

London 2056 | Gungnir Safe House #2 | Command and Control
"Felton versus Feline... ROUND 1"
Irina Rostikova

[hr]

"HERE KITTY KITTY KITTY! HEEEEEERE KITTY KITTY KITTY!" Came a mocking voice from the Command and Control center of the Gungnir Safe House. It was only through sheer luck and the fact that Felton Billings was using his off hand to use the pistol that Irina was able to retreat from CnC without the addition of a bullet chewing its way through her body.

Still groggy from her Grid session, the Novice Hacker felt light headed as her body struggled to remember how to move around in actual space rather than a digital one. While Felton was armed, Irina had the advantage of being able to stealthily move about the Safe House in a quick manner, not that her rapid breathing didn't give away her position when the former prisoner got too close.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

The sound of gunfire startled the scared kitten and caused her to almost jump through the ceiling before the realization that the Prisoner was targeting the communications equipment of the Command and Control center came. Rushing around a corner, the StripKitty almost received a face full of lead as she peaked around another corner.

"I SEE YOU!!!!" Felton called out gleefully. Despite the pain that he must have been going through, he was some how able to sound rather chipper as he moved through the complex with murderous intent.

More shots followed by a series of clicks informed the scare woman that it was time to move as the Neo dropped the empty clip and slammed another one into the pistol's receiver. If there was another thing to be thankful about, reloading a pistol with only one good hand was rather difficult. Opening a door, she slipped into what appeared to be a bunk area and came face to face to face to face with herself... or rather a bunch of herselves or rather a bunch of posters of herself in several revealing positions. Normally she would have found the predicament rather awkward but given that there was a Psychopath with Murder on the Mind looking for her, the presence of so many images of her was rather unnerving.

Turning around, Irina heard the tell tale footsteps of a man with a limp, causing her to back away from the door. Just in time as Felton decided to shoot through the door. A cloud of wood splinters exploded into the room as Irina's stalker fired blindly, causing the Feline VidCaster to hit the floor and roll under one of the beds.

The door opened slowly and Irina's murderer entered the room.

[hr]

London 2056 | Buckingham Palace
"End of Round 1..."
Charlotte "The *****" Sorrowfeld

[hr]

"[...What about her? Does she know anything of the Neo-Luddites?...]" The Tin Man asked motioning towards Irina Rostikova's little whelp of a child.

Normally, a machine attempting to bully an young girl wouldn't have phased the ***** in the least, in fact it would be rather amusing to see this Viscus attempt to interrogate the girl without further amplifying the PTSD that she was going through at the moment. It would be amusing to see this Viscus attempt to question the girl without Miss Asagi or Mister Adler attempting to intervene and break a few of those bolt on augmentations that the pint sized ED 209 sported. However, Lieutenant Sorrowfeld was disinclined bear witness to this at the moment considering the sacrifice her idiot partner had made in order to save this cowering little child.

"I would say yes. They're the people that did a bunch of horrible shit to her. Anything useful? Doubtful considering that they had her locked up in a truck." Charlotte stated as she gestured towards the flaming wreckage that used to be the H.A. Dynasty transports, "Speaking of which, nice work on those trucks Agent. I'm sure we couldn't have pulled anything off of the GPS Boxes on those trucks."

The comment was out of line but Charlotte didn't care. It was highly probable that the Neos had removed any GPS recording gear from the trucks during their prep for this little operation. It was also highly probable that the Neos' hacker had removed the data they would need to trace the point of origin for these trucks. Even if they were able to track the Neos back to their home base, it was highly probable that the Neos would have high tailed it out of there before the authorities came in to perform a sweep.

There was a beep on Charlotte's phone. It appeared that the GCP network lockout had been lifted and that she was able to receive data normally.

Charlotte frowned and alerted the others.

"We've gotta get back to the Safe House. Looks like your hacker's gotten herself into a bit of trouble." The Lieutenant said as she secured a London PD squad car that had arrived on scene.

bluerocker · Sep 8, 2015

"Just out of curiosity. Was she involved in something big?" Elliot asked before elaborating on the question, "It seems to me that for something like this to happen, with the players involved, it would have meant that she was involved in something more than a little bit of back alley fixing."

"Could I use your phone please?" the frowning man asked as he turned to Dimitri.

Dimitri seemed hesitant to lend the officer his phone, but decided, given that anything particularly incriminating remained within his arm, and gave the police officer a surprised glance, [color=3897e0]"Not to sound rude, sir, but it is a little disconcerting to know that your people's private network has locked you out. I thought that network was one of the best in London?"[/color]

Elliot scoffed at the notion that London Police Department had anything close to having a secure network. It was a miracle if the Officer was able to get his work issued laptop repaired in a timely fashion. Accepting the device, he dialed the number that would connect him to Edward.

The Police Officer frowned once again as he looked at the same message on Dimitri's phone that had appeared on his phone. Something was up if all communications were being this sketchy. Pausing, he dialed another number. This time it went through.

A woman answered the phone, that much Dimitri could hear.

"Hey Deb, it's Elliot. You haven't seen my brother around have you? I've been trying to get ahold of him and something's going on with his phone or something."

The woman jabbered for a bit.

"He hasn't? Are you two... okay?" The Officer asked concerned. If there was one thing that the Bartender could smell from a mile away, it was marital issues. More than one patron had attempted to drown their shitty marriages in a bar. It was a practically a time honored tradition.

"If you talk to him, let him know I called. Give the girls my love." Elliot said with a smile visible on his face and audible in his voice. Another possible hint that Dimitri unconsciously picked up. He knew over familiarity when he saw it.

Officer Elliot Aubergine handed Dimitri back his phone after clearing the call logs of the two numbers that he just dialed.

"Seems like Edward's wife is having issues getting ahold of him too. This case has me a little curious. I would have liked to talk to him to see what other information he could get from his contacts in Gungnir."

Dimitri gave a curious, but cautious, quirk of the eyebrow (one often practiced in the mirror off of shifts to express interest in a patron's tale, but not enough to appear more invested than the average stranger) at the mention of Gungnir's forces. He had just been told by the Bee that interconnection between the varying forces in power was a very likely, and possibly deadly possibility. Hell, it may have been to what lead the officer's brother to seemingly disappear. However, seeing as Dimitri was still cautious about the officer, he asked in a controlled tone, [color=3897E0]"While I'll admit to being thankful that you'd consider going that far for my case, sir, I cannot help but wonder what has gotten you invested thus far, especially after you told me to let the sleeping dog lie, as the phrase goes."[/color]

Elliot seemed to give the question some thought in a manner that was stereotypically uncharacteristic for a man of his... size. As much as the man was a strong, he appeared to have a working frontal lobe.

"It's just curious. Gungnir's dealing are the stuff of fairy tales among people like me. If what my brother said about Gungnir being involved in this is true, then I'd like to see who in the hell is involved. The last thing we need is even more ill will towards London PD." The man said.

London PD, at one time had been known as a rather effective policing agency. However, after the global economic crisis that left many a first world country in ruins, London became host to a number of economic refugees from Europe. With an increase in crime, the training program for Officers needed to be reduced which lead to many abuses. Accusations of police corruption as well as brutality made the news on a fairly regular basis for a time. It wasn't until the development of the drone systems that training time was restored and the London PD was on the shaky path towards having its reputation restored. It was companies like Gungnir, who often hired police officers for side work, that threatened this restoration.

"If we can't get ahold of my brother... maybe I should stop an informant that owes me."

Dimitri paused for another moment, and looked carefully along the bar to make sure no one in particular was looking, before opening his right arm's hand open to Elliot, [color=3897E0]"...I have an idea. But I need you to do something for me. Dial that blocked number again and send the call; but give me the phone immediately afterwards."[/color]

After being handed the phone, Dimitri, at least from Eliot's perspective, seemed stare very intently at the phone. In reality, however, the Blue Butler had taken on his guise in the Grid, his cybernetic eye working in conjunction with his arm's abilities to show a display of where the phone's signal was supposed to go - only to be cut off short by what "appeared" to be a 'wall' towards the London PD's varying phone lines. Even stranger, Dimitri's varying armaments had registered (though a quick search of angry message boards as well as easily accessible incoming call records) that there were multiple other calls going out to other military divisions - only to be blocked off in a similar manner to this one.

As the display flashed:

Dimitri handed the officer back his phone and allowed the smallest frown to cross his brow, [color=3897E0]"How strange...It appears that it's not just you experiencing this problem. There are blocked off connections all over, including to factions of higher authority than your own..."[/color]

Elliot found himself frowning that London PD's communications protocols were being jammed. He found it equally as disturbing that someone would be attempting to do so, whether successful or not, on other organizations within London. This pointed at something rather dubious in the works. It explained why he was unable to reach his brother, at least until the lockout had been cleared.

"I think I'll have to go check up on that information broker that owes me." Elliot said as he got up, "You're welcome to come along if you want since this involves your missing person's case."

Dimitri looked a little apprehensive about leaving initially and held up a finger indicating for Elliot to wait a moment before the bartender ducked behind the bar, presumably in an attempt to get leave. Elliot heard a bit of shouting between several voices, but after a few moments, the silver haired man exited again, in a different set of street clothes and with a wince on his face, [color=3897E0]"I'm going to have to pull a double shift this weekend but... Yes. I'm on board. Lead the way."[/color]

FalloutJack · Sep 8, 2015

This was huge mess. And on top of everything else, Asagi had a headache. Honestly, once this was all over - And I mean all over. - she, Irina, and Karl needed to go somewhere and get properly drunk. Right now, it seemed like Sienna was the only one being cooperative here. There was Karl "One-Armed-Bandito" Adler, standing there injured. There was Charlotte "The *****" Sorrowfield, who didn't look exactly sorrowful for the death of her partner. And then, there was - and intel just dropped this one on her - Viscus. Oh man, but did they have a history on HIM! Well, you wouldn't be surprised that if he could access enough info to call her by name that he couldn't do the same. She glared in irritation as the robo-man indicated that he wanted to question the little frightened girl for information. Charlotte seemed to give a reasonable enough account on the situation for now, however...she was still a *****.

"Speaking of which, nice work on those trucks Agent. I'm sure we couldn't have pulled anything off of the GPS Boxes on those trucks."

"I don't run the Buckingham Guard and I doubt those vans contained anything anyway. Instead, I'm going way over their heads for a play-by-play of theiir route."

Namely, she had sent out a few orders, and right now Central was processing the data from a satellite which could simply take the record of explosions at the edge of Buckingham territory and rewind until they knew where the vans came from. When they did that, there was gonna be a raid. Even if they found nothing, as long as they found the place, surveilance could still backtrack on them to find the bastards wherever they go. Government officials were already behind this, out of respect for Her Majesty. The Queen, of course, held no special influence over Asagi, but she was moral enough to just go with it, anyway. A police car had even just arrived with her bike on its back from the diner area.

"We've gotta get back to the Safe House. Looks like your hacker's gotten herself into a bit of trouble."

However, it looks like Operative Asagi wasn't going to be a part of that. It just never fucking ends... She turned to Karl and Sienna after unlocking her motorcycle, as well as the medical technicisns nearby.

"You two: Hospital."

Now, to Viscus...

"You: We will allow you to question prisoners under our guidelines because CyCorp AND the H.A. Dynasty are cooperating with investigations."

Finally, to Charlotte...

"You: Sorry about your partner."

She had already unleashed the venom onto her enough for now. Time to ride. Asagi revved up and got moving at an accelerating rate! Along the way, she got a phone call from...Elise Pitt? She answered.

"Ma'am, I am extremely busy right now. I think you know why."

"I understand completely, which is why this should be important to you. We finally found surviving footage that confirms our suspicions. I regret to say it, but it seems one of our own - our own people - blew himself up, a suicide bombing without motivation or reason. It's incredible...but what it indicates is that if there was no logical reason..."

"Oh yes, I know it, Ms. Pitt. I just lived it. I almost got killed by one. Not a haphazard lurching man with exploding augments, but a normal human being trying to sneak up on me. I don't want this to get out just yet, but I am convinced that the Neo-Luddites are a red herring, and your information confirms it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to see a friend..."

She hung up, but around this time...her parents had sent mail to Karl Adler, indicating just what Elise had said. A CyCorp man with no misgivings for the company or problems in his life...just walked in one day and exploded. No shouting, no reason, no nothing. He was just a walking bomb, and far more coordinated than what they had just fought off. Someone else was definitely doing this.

Texas Joker 52 · Sep 8, 2015

~ Karl Adler ~

When Karine had looked over at him as he had approached, the look in her eyes was plain: She did not approve of him getting so close to where there were active explosions. Had he been in his right mind, he would've wholeheartedly agreed. Not so much while he was exhausted, mildly sleep-deprived and more than a little high-strung.

"Remind me to lecture you on the importance of spotting irony later."

"Will do." he murmured quietly as he sat.

He watched, quietly, as she chewed out "The Grey Death" herself, and gave a small nod of approval. Now wasn't the time for questioning. Now was the time to lick their wounds and clean up this damn mess. As a few of the nearby medical tech's noticed him standing there, missing an important limb, he motioned with his remaining hand to Sienna, even as Karine addressed her.

"I just want you to know, your mom helped me find out about all this, helped me find you, so if you could...cut her some slack, okay?"

He watched as the little girl seemed to process this, and he couldn't help but frown as he felt that she was taking a little too long to accept this than he would have figured. But, who was he to talk about accepting that parents did, or didn't, love their child? After a moment, however, she turned to look at him.

"M... Mister Adel? I... I might need some time before I try out augmentations again."

Karl let out a soft laugh and smiled a little at her as he reached over and gently stroked her hair.

"Trust me, Young Sienna, I don't blame you in the least. When you're ready, feel free to talk to me, and I'll keep my promise to your mother to get you a new set of proper legs." he reassured her, before directing the medics to start examining her first.

As Sorrowfeld started to snipe at Karine, he actively blocked it out, closing his eyes and looking a decade older thanks to grime and exhaustion. Only occasionally would he flinch as a few of the paramedics poked at his wounds to examine them, giving them curt answers when they asked a question.

"We've gotta get back to the Safe House. Looks like your hacker's gotten herself into a bit of trouble."

His eyes snapped open when he heard that, and his head whipped around to look up at Sorrowfeld.

"What? Irina's in trouble? You don't think Billings..." he murmured, even as Karine jabbed a finger at Sienna and himself.

"You two: Hospital."

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on Young Sienna. Go, save Irina. We'll meet you at the hospital." he told her with a firm nod.

The German Businessman watched as the two ladies sped off to the Gungnir safehouse in separate vehicles, then he sighed heavily. It felt like the day was probably never going to end, and by extension, neither would the chaos that ensued around them. Still, if nothing else, he was going to be out of the line of fire this time, and he had a charge to take care of in the meantime.

So, even as he got an email notification from Ari and Toshiro at CyCorp, he turned to Sienna and gave her a mildly amused smile as he held out his hand for her to shake.

"You know, we were never properly introduced. My name is Karl Adler. I'm a... Recent acquaintance of your mother." he said politely.

London 2056 - A CyberPunk RP [Game thread - Started]

The Most Generic of NPCs

Doom needs Yoghurt, Badly

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom

All hail the Pun Meister!

New member

The Most Generic of NPCs

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom

All hail the Pun Meister!

New member

Doom needs Yoghurt, Badly

An Interloper

The Most Generic of NPCs

All hail the Pun Meister!

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom

New member

Doom needs Yoghurt, Badly

The Most Generic of NPCs

Queen of Cockblocking and Misery

Bah weep grah nah neep ninny bom

All hail the Pun Meister!