[OverdrivePrime]

After a week of settling into Whitefish and having all of the fun that comes with moving to a new location, you find yourselves in the Apollo boardroom at Paradigm Logistics.

Knute Olmstadt, one of the senior staff members, presents an operation request that is a candidate for AST – Aria Sensitive Talent. Gugnir Development Enterprises, affiliated with a Tribe Morrigan quiet culture has, must to its embarrassment, had a shipment of highly sensitive research equipment go missing, along with the driver and the driver’s bodyguard.

Gugnir Development normally tracks its shipments movements via a GPS transmitter in each of its in-house fleet of trucks, and apparently the locator simply stopped transmitting at 8:57 PM Mountain Time when the truck was thirty miles South of its destination – Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Gugnir has cautiously disclosed that the equipment is a prototype device which attempts to replicate the abilities of Himsati Mystech devices using bleeding-edge mortal technology. The device, which they have named Merlin, is the meat of a project to scan the life-energy of any living thing and gauge its strength remotely. Such a device could differentiate humans from Himsati creatures, or even determine if an animal is the real deal, or a shapeshifted immortal.

Gugnir normally has a highly-secure information structure, but unfortunately, the Merlin device was also shipped with the computer that it was tied to, which contains a vast amount of information on Himsati capabilities.

Gugnir insists that this operation, if undertaken, be absolutely secret. They are outsourcing aid in this case to avoid censure from their parent quiet culture, and are attempting to avoid embarrassment for tribe Morrigan. However, any unauthroized mortals exposed to the device need to be made silent, preferably through unremarkable means that leaves the exposed mortal unaware of the device and the data that goes with it. Serious injury or deaths of incidentals in this mission would be considered highly regrettable and likely result in a termination of Gugnir's contracts with Paradigm Logistics.

Mission Priorities
#1: recover the data
#2: ensure that the data is unexposed to the public
#3: recover the Merlin Device
#4: recover the driver (Darren Brown) and bodyguard (Kenneth Smalls), preferably unhurt
#5: recover the truck


Known Contacts

Gugnir Development
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Sebastian Kane, Project Lead for Gugnir Development
Male, 5'-11", 190 lbs, 39 years old, European descent, Pale complexion, short brown hair, blue eyes.
Married (Bridgitte Kane), 2 children (Michael 10, Julie 7)
Distinguishing marks: achne scars on right and left cheeks
Home: Colorado Springs, Colorado
<Photo attached)

Darren Brown, Driver for Gugnir Development (Missing)
Male, 5'-10", 170 lbs, 26 years old, African descent, Medium brown complexion, Short black hair, brown eyes
Single, no children.
Distinguishing marks: cross tattoo on right bicep, Superman shield tattoo on left pectoral
Home: Colorado Springs, Colorado
<Photo attached>

Kenneth Smalls, Security for Gugnir Development (Missing)
Male, 6'-1", 210 lbs, 32 years old, African / Western European descent, Light brown complexion, bald, brown eyes
Married (Teresa Smalls), three children (Tomas 9, Anita 7, Martin 4)
Distinguishing marks: brand on left deltoid from Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, broken chain tattoo encircling both forearms.
Home: Manitou Springs, Colorado
<Photo attached>

Any questions about the operation?

This post has been edited by OverdrivePrime: 29 October 2007 - 02:55 PM

[Fugu]

"How many hours - days? - have they been missing?"

[Tannim]

"Any large deposits in accounts in the subjects or the spouses of subjects? Any large purchases or a series of purchases that would be beyond the scope of their normal influxes of cash?"

"Also, could I get a smoothie? Something citrus-based?"

[OverdrivePrime]

Smoothies are cold brung.

Fugu, on Oct 29 2007, 05:00 PM, said:

"How many hours - days? - have they been missing?"

The disappearance happened six hours ago. The truck was late to its delivery site in Cheyenne (another small Gugnir Development facility, used for prototype testing) five hours ago, and Paradigm was contacted two hours ago.

Tannim, on Oct 29 2007, 05:50 PM, said:

"Any large deposits in accounts in the subjects or the spouses of subjects? Any large purchases or a series of purchases that would be beyond the scope of their normal influxes of cash?"

Todd (Lockheart) and Jaime (Shaheen) from LMP (Logistics Master Planning) have been running a comprehensive search of their accounts. At first blush, they have detected nothing out of the ordinary. The largest purchase either Mr. Brown or the Smalls family made recently was a washer-dryer set, purchased with Teresa Smalls' Sears card five weeks ago.





Also in the room with you are two support staff from each group and the directors of each group:

Logistics Master Planning: May Hanscher
Supply Chain Engineering: Ashok Salaj
Global Logistics: Hanna de Guere
Logistics Organization Design: Mason Harding
Business Case Development: Tony Yang

[Barak]

"We'll need a comprehensive list of anyone not previously named that was aware of the shipment and it's specific content. Anybody with access to the GPS device information can and should be assumed to be aware of the route taken, obviously. Has a search been done on Gugnir's computer system to try and detect any unusual activity that could have been related to the trucknapping? Also, whose decision was it to ship the computer with the data with the device?"

[KidDoppler]

"Here's a basic question that is probably dumb: Are we looking at a mortal enterprise interested in getting their hands on this stuff, or a not-so-mortal group? If they're not so mortal, it seems like geographic constraints would not really be a factor. If mortal, I think we can focus somewhat on the location... though a helicopter or jet could get damn far in six hours..."

"Whatever the case I think we need to get a few personelle down into the field to surrepticiously do some scene investigation. Thoughts?"

[OverdrivePrime]

Barak, on Oct 30 2007, 07:37 AM, said:

"We'll need a comprehensive list of anyone not previously named that was aware of the shipment and it's specific content. Anybody with access to the GPS device information can and should be assumed to be aware of the route taken, obviously. Has a search been done on Gugnir's computer system to try and detect any unusual activity that could have been related to the trucknapping? Also, whose decision was it to ship the computer with the data with the device?"

"It was Mr. Kane's decision. Gugnir wanted the device tested as soon as possible, and only one truck (out of three) was currently available. Getting those names of others aware of the shipment is a good idea and shouldn't be hard. The list should be short - Gugnir is a very small operation, 40 people all told over three facilities - one in Cheyenne, one in Aurora, and one in Colorado Springs.

"After the meeting MLP support staff will get on tracking that down. Also it'd be good to get people on the ground as soon as possible."




At your disposal is a small jet, similar to the Lear jet. A jet helicopter is in the budget for next year, but not available yet.

[sarabethv]

*trying hard not to smile at the fact that the guy's name is Knute and actually listen to what is being said* *debates just how much damage can be done to Mr. Kane for his stupidity without loosing us the contract*

"Can I get a topigraphical map of the area of disappearance say 100 mile radius as well as the area it was supposed to go to? I assume that would be within the 100 mile radius since it was missing for only an hour, but I'd like that to be 100 miles in either direction of the two farthest points. Also a geographical map showing camp sites and towns and GPS satellite maps for the area and flight logs from the towers in the area? I'd like to check out the site and I will need some equipment."

*looks to team leader Tannim and says in a very low tone* "Sorry, I hope I didn't step on your toes, although with our respective sizes, you probably wouldn't notice."

This post has been edited by sarabethv: 30 October 2007 - 09:32 AM

[Forger]

"Whatever we do, we should get some folks on the ground there right quick. My group could be there relatively quickly and examine the area, look around for any evidence that the shipment was hijacked."

"Unless somebody's got something else in mind..."

[OverdrivePrime]

Knute nods and says, "We use Google Earth with an in-house topo plug-in for most of our mapping needs, but..." he types some coordinates into the computer connected to the projector, "here is the site of the disappearance. Interstate 25 and Nunn Road, just outside Wellington, Colorado.


The satellite map of I-25 & Nunn Road.

He pulls the projection back and says, "As you can see, a 100 mile radius from Wellington will get you a lot of places - Denver, Cheyenne, Sterling, Boulder, Laramie... lots of airports, train depots.

"On our side are the dimensions of the Merlin device itself - roughly the size of a sub-compact car, and weighing some 3,500 pounds. Anything that big can't be carted around without notice. However, if a thief was only interested in the data, the computer hard drives, and the hard drive from the Merlin could be taken anywhere with only cursory questions."



FYI - It's about 3:30 in the morning, you were paged and awoken at 2:30, and the meeting started at 3:00. You were all awakened about a half hour ago. Apparently this is the penalty you pay for 5 hour standard work days that start at 11:00 AM.

[Forger]

"Alright. We're gonna need to track this gear. Dowser would be the best serenade to use here... "

Kvaran glances around the table hopefully.

[KidDoppler]

I take a long look at the maps.

"Here's what I figure. If the thieves were heading toward Denver, they'd have jacked the truck before it got there, not after. And I doubt they'd be heading to Cheyenne, because first, who the hell goes to Cheyenne, and second, why would they bring stolen materials closer to a base of operations of the people they stole it from. I think they tracked either west, into Rocky Mountain National Park, or east, onto highway 76/80. They could also be heading towards Salt Lake City, which is accessable via country highways. Then again, they could be immortal and poof into some strange alternate dimension. Then, we're just fucked."


"I say, unless S... I mean, For... I mean, Kvaran has something with this Dowser idea, we get people into the nearby towns, on the street, casually talking to people to get some kind of lead. If they haven't dumped the device, it would hopefully be noticed, and we could tell where it was heading from there."


I look around. "Orrrrrr, should we just attack the darkness?"

This post has been edited by KidDoppler: 30 October 2007 - 01:02 PM

[OverdrivePrime]

Up until the point that its signal disappeared, the Gugnir truck with the Merlin device made good speed and no stops except normal ones at traffic lights prior to getting on Interstate 25. The truck's speed slowed somewhat while traveling through Denver. This corresponds with a light traffic jam due to a sporting event. After that, the truck traveled without incident, at the company-perscribed 4 miles per hour over the speed limit.

[Forger]

I suppose we should keep in mind the possibility that something happened during that traffic jam, but first and foremost, wether we can track this thing mystically or not, we should get into the area and try to find something giving us a clue as to whats up.

[Barak]

I stand up and start to pace.

"This is all peripherancial. They have had six fucking hours. I have no transprotation magical songs, and I can get shit moved in 6 fucking hours. Who, what, when, why and how, people. We know the what and the when, and the why is pretty obvious. Who and How is what matters, here. Backtracking can give us a pretty good list of people who had the knowledge, and from that we can figure out who had the reasons, and the means. Then the how becomes obvious, and the new where. Then we can hit there, and recover. Hitting the trucknapping spot 6 hours too late will give us little, if anything. But feel free. Maybe one of you has a magic sniffing song or something."

Lighting up a new cigar from the stub of my old one, I go on.

"Me, I'll sit here on my ass and let the computers sniff out who knew, and who looks iffy. Then, I'll hit their spot fast and hard, get back our shit, and fuck 'em up."

[OverdrivePrime]

(OOC - it's still summer of 2006... this is the level of tech)
Knute looks at Mador with some alarm and then brings up another screen, this time a technical spec of the GPS transmitter used by Gugnir Development on its trucks:

The transmitter. It should be noted that Gugnir's engineers have tweaked out the sample rate on the transmitters and have boosted it to one sample every 30 seconds.


"Keep in mind that GPS tracking is not a continuous feed. A very fast stop, coupled with a very fast acceleration would show up as only a minor blip or slight slow-down on the GPS trajectory map. There are some three dozen spots where the trucks speed slowed or sped up by a few miles per hour, mostly in Denver."

[sarabethv]

"Theives, at least human ones, always leave evidence at the site of a crime. Topography is important because they would want to hide the thing quickly. Oh, and ____ (I've forgotten kidD's name in the game), going the way they don't expect you to is the oldest game in the book, and they have six hours head start, so they could be on the other side of Cheyenne, and why the hell there? Well, cause everyone with any sense whatsoever is going to say; 'why the hell there?' Since everything went bye bye, I think we should definately search the area, maybe find the truck and drivers and the raped Merlin."

*to Knute* "Any idea why they would choose a spot so close to civilization?"

[KidDoppler]

"You can call me Doppler, Kid Doppler, Kid, Greg, Hey Monkey Guy, or whatever combination thereof you wish."

I shrug. "I've never tracked thieves before. Only seen it in the movies. I could sue them later, if you'd like."

[Barak]

"So fucking what? That just makes my point stronger. It's been 6 hours people. If we are to recover the data in a timely fashion, that simply extend the possible extraction points for the hot items. Which, in turn, extends the leeway time they have, the possible points to investigate.. everything. Geography ain't our friend here, people, psychology is. Find out who could and would, and you know who did it. Given that, with our capabilities, we can then find where."

I pause, and puff on the new cigar, and shake my head.

"By the way, forget about item #4. Unless we are dealing with extremely incompetent people, or very life-conscious ones, Misters Brown and Smalls are long dead and disposed of."

Turning to Sara, I continue.

"You do bring up a good point, Sara. But, again, it just exemplify that going after the "where" is tangential. 6 hours is just too much, at least in this situation. Who is what matters."

I then turn towards whoever represents Gugnir and go on.

"And what the fuck? The trucks are bugged, but not the sensitive material? Wasn't there any bugs on the Merlin?"

[OverdrivePrime]

Knute looks a little surprised, "Uh... I'll have to analyze the data on that and get back to you."

One of the other support staff - Molly (Isenberg) from Global Logistics speaks up, "Maybe they've got a hand-off point in one of those towns nearby. None of them are really huge... Wellington and a lot of the other places are all-but shut down after 9:00. There are lots of truck stops and plenty of places where the freeway comes close to a rail line."

[OverdrivePrime]

Barak, on Oct 30 2007, 02:53 PM, said:

"And what the fuck? The trucks are bugged, but not the sensitive material? Wasn't there any bugs on the Merlin?"

Ms. Isenberg continues, on Barak's point, "The Merlin seems like a spy device. If I had a spy device, the last thing I'd want is for it to constantly announce its presence with a signal powerful enough to talk to a satellite. If it's got anything on it, I imagine it might have a passive transciever, but something like that has an extremely limited range. The best I could imagine would be something like 100 feet."

This post has been edited by OverdrivePrime: 30 October 2007 - 01:59 PM

[Barak]

I look directly at Ms Isenberg.

"That's.. correct, assuming the device is tested, stable, and situated. This ain't freakin' DisneyWorld, people. We don't get to erase two, three people's deaths as operator's error. We're talking world-shaking operation with each move. Then we're talking a goddamn truck with one goddamn guard. And that's it! I can kill two people and take their ride before you sneeze, Ms Isenberg. I know non-Immortals who can do the same. Entrusting such vital informationm in the care of two people with one gps tracker in the truck is rather clueless to me. Damn glad I ain't Tribe Morrigan, though, as I'd have my head between my legs right now.,"

[Forger]

Looking at Barak in a somewhat confused manner...

"Sooo, you recommend hanging out here and smoking stogies until a computer tells us the most likely person to have had a motive to do this shit, and in the meantime yelling at the guys who have the problem we're supposed to fix as if they're retarded children?"

"Is there something stronger than nicotine in there?"


"Yeah, we've gotta have people doing the kind of analysis you're talking about, IN CONCERT with people on the ground doing grunt work. Neither avenue of attack is going to be effective alone."

"Now, I'm going out there to start looking around. I'll keep in touch with you guys and expect that ya'll will do the same. We're gonna need as much info from as many different sources as possible to narrow this down as quickly as we can. "

"Additionally, I doubt that berating these people is going to be effective at running this operation in anything resembling an intelligent manner. "

[Tannim]

I nod at my boss May, smile at Forger, and roll my eyes at Mador's diatribe. I leave the room.

Further action PM'd to ODPizzle.

This post has been edited by Tannim: 30 October 2007 - 02:18 PM

[Barak]

"Nah, berating those retards will be as effective as scouring the miles of roads you are talking about, friend."

Putting out my stogie in as obvious a fashion I can, I go on.

"Their mistakes are done. The miles you'd cover are too long. However, the number of people aware of the shipment and of it's content are limited. That limitation are our strenght. Any asset expended on the current expense of highway, looking at possible trucknapping point is a crapshoot. Narrowing the possible leak points from Gugnir, including weak hacker points, is the way to go. That's just me, of course. I could be wrong. Perhaps finding a bent bladegrass on highway "whatever-the-fuck" is the way to go."

[KidDoppler]

It's moments like these I wish I had Discharge, just to stir things up, I think to myself, smiling at my new friends.

"Enough arguing. Let's go get stuff done. If it's a waste of time, it's a waste of time. But I think myself and perhaps some of my team could go into nearby towns and scout around to see if anyone has seen our truck, or a strange, compact-car looking device. If it gets us no leads, so be it. But we'll be nearby, and have cell phones or whatever, and if someone here finds or figures something out useful, well, we'll be that much closer to where we need to be."

I turn to Knute: "How soon can you get a handful of us quietly out onto the streets of the nearby towns?"

[sarabethv]

I sigh as Tannim and Barak do the "guy" thing. to Ms. Isenburg; "even if the streets are closed at 9 pm, I assure you that small town folks know every move everyone makes after the sidewalks roll up - that's why they have curtains. If it had been a large city, the likelihood of someone seeing - or us finding someone who saw would be very very small."

To Barak: "If they were dealing with people that it would be disasterous to kill, and I think that may be the case, they would insure that they didn't see or hear anything, but leave them alive and dumped. But crooks are stupid, hell most people, including me, are stupid and the fact of the matter is, that there is always something, a smell, a sound, something that will give us a clue."

To Greg: "Come on Gregg Monkey boy Doppler, even lawyers and old ladies need excercise. That legal mind of yours should help us quite a bit, or did you buy into the crap?"

[Barak]

Shrugging, I add "Give me one reason to keep those two alive. I'd have killed them fist thing if stealing that rig was my operation. And I hate killing people."

[Fugu]

As I follow Forger from the room, I have a thought and turn to the staff. "Doesn't the government or somebody have satellite footage of like everything? The images from six hours ago are probably still around. Are we badass enough to get access to that sort of thing?"

I shrug and catch up to Forger.

"Hey, I agree that we should get out there as fast as possible, but shouldn't we coordinate with the other groups? Maybe we go to the last known position of the truck, the spy group goes... I don't know. Somewhere useful."

[OverdrivePrime]

Knute looks over to the Global Logistics director, Hanna de Guere, who nods back at him. He clears his throat and says, "Well, we're about 800 miles as the crow flies from Wellington." Our jet can get you down into Fort Collins by 5 AM, but the airport won't open until 6."

[KidDoppler]

"Does that mean we can't land until 6? Also, is there an option of landing somewhere other than a main public airport? I mean, I don't know if the people we are trying to track down are similarly tracking us, but if they are we should be more sneaky."

[OverdrivePrime]

Knute frowns, "Unfortunately, our plane is more the business kind of jet, rather than the special forces kind of jet. This is new ground for us. I suppose we could talk the pilots into landing it on an open strip of road, but they're not going to like it."

[KidDoppler]

I turn to my team: "Hey guys, any of you able to... you know, move us there quickly?"

[Forger]

OOC note... haven't actually moved yet...

"Ummm, I can get some folks there somewhat more quickly... though the Ley network is screwy and we'll still be a distance away from the actual site. It would be helpful to have an exact GPS fix on its last known location, a GPS transmitter so we can then find that spot when we get there, and OOC: assuming someone DOES know Dowser someone or something that has had close and intimate contact with the machine in question..."

[Fugu]

"Landing on an open strip of road sure sounds inconspicuous," I mutter. Then in a normal tone, "I can, you know, warp, too. Though I've never gone so far before."

This post has been edited by Fugu: 30 October 2007 - 03:12 PM

[Lokan]

"We have enough people that we can go at this from multiple directions. From what I've heard there are two leads to follow at this point. Both are of the gather information variety. 1. Find out how by whatever information we can find at the possible sites of the disappearance. 2. Find out who by following the information of who knew about the transport.

My thoughts on the matter (some of these thoughts are repeated from others, but maybe put together differently):
In reference to having people on the ground, we at least have people nearby to react quickly to whatever information we come across.

From the GPS tracking information, the systems has an internal motion detector for low power use. Most likely that is turned on by default for normal use. Get the data sent from the unit. It should have that information in addition to current location data. Internal motion detectors are based upon accelerometers and will therefore be able to tell us exactly when stops occurred. I'd also bet that the normal software used to interpret the information from the unit doesn't use all the information sent. The unit probably records and buffers all activity during the 30sec intervals and sends it all out at 30sec. If not, then we will have multiple places along the trucks route to examine just in case they grabbed the truck and continued before they were able to disable the tracking system.

In addition to the list of people who knew, we need the information on their background checks and activity in the past 6 months. Where have they travelled recently, whom have they met with. Its a lot of data, but I'd rather have it and it be useless, than miss something useful.

[EvilDespot]

"Dowser.... Dowser..." I mutter under my breath. Slowly, I start to hum a few bars of melody, very specifically avoiding using my vox. "I don't suppose it sounds something like that, does it?"

ooc: use 4 experience to learn rank 1 dowser

[jade_firefly]

Quietly chewing the end of one bunny-ear, I scooch my chair away from the table, tuck my legs up into it, and begin spinning in slow circles.

[OverdrivePrime]

EvilDespot, on Oct 30 2007, 04:43 PM, said:

"Dowser.... Dowser..." I mutter under my breath. Slowly, I start to hum a few bars of melody, very specifically avoiding using my vox. "I don't suppose it sounds something like that, does it?"

ooc: use 4 experience to learn rank 1 dowser

Forger notices that yeah, from what he remembers, Dowser does sound something like that. Coolness.

Chris, there is a voice from your past that is muttering something in the back of your thoughts about looking for a woman named Josephine. The voice is distant and weak, but seems pleased that you have remembered something of its life.

[Forger]

So... is there anything handy that we can use as a link to the machine that was lifted?

[OverdrivePrime]

"What sort of link would you need?"

[KidDoppler]

I chime in, "Maybe a tech or a designer or something... whoever who had the most direct contact with the machine. Or anyone you can think of that would have a special connection to it."

[OverdrivePrime]

Knute says, "Sebastian Kane has promised to put us in touch with any of Gugnir's people that we deem necessary. Most of the people that worked on the Merlin are in their primary development facility in Colorado Springs. The majority of them are former Air Force engineers and scientists."

[KidDoppler]

"Looks like we'll be taking a trip to sunny Colorado Springs, Colorado."

[OverdrivePrime]

The plane can make multiple stops, getting two groups down to Colorado or whatever by 6 AM (for the first group) and 6:45 AM (for the second group).


Hanna de Guere speaks up and looks around, "I'd like my group to get in and check out Gugnir's main operation and talk to their people. They'll need a ride to Colorado springs and some transportation when they're there. Ashok, do you want your people on the disappearance scene or what?"

Ashok Salaj looks up from his laptop and spins it around, "Yeah... they'll need to get down to Fort Collins. I've just arranged for transportation to be waiting for them in the parking lot outside. You guys can drive stick, right?"

May Hanscher finishes typing something, smirks to herself and then looks up at her team, "As for traveling, I leave it to you to figure out if you want to investigate on the ground or remotely and coordinate the inforation from the other two teams.

"The jet will be ready to leave in an hour and a half, so why don't we all break into our respective task groups to figure out what we'll need."

[Forger]

Before we all completely scatter... Cradle links! Lokan, Doppler. Lets get a cradle link between the three of us so all the teams can keep in contact and keep apprised of the stuff that each of us has found and or is doing.

[OverdrivePrime]

(This means that Kvaran, Lokan and Greg will be in telepathic communication with one another for the duration. Forger, I'm assuming that you took the resistance penalty to boost the area of effect to 5, which should be able to cover the whole area, so long as Lokan doesn't start heading north west, for some reason.)

[Forger]

Indeed!

[KidDoppler]

This should be interesting (do I really want to know what Kvaran is thinking?), but I'm all for it.

[Lokan]

Yup, I'm in for the link.