ElectricMonkey

In Nova Prospekt, Vasily Ryadkov, the hammer teams biochemical specialist stands before Jakob. "I've been studying that sample you got from Pocket D. since it came in, " he says, "and it makes no sense. The vodka's swimming with bacteria which should have been killed by the alcohol - and when I tested them in culture, they attached to organic matter, but neither took up nutrients or reproduced. I know it sounds crazy, but it's almost like undead bacteria. On top of that they appear to be harmless gut flora. I'm at a loss as to why anyone would do this."

"I might just have an answer," replies Jakob, "The airwaves have been full of talk about some bacterially borne nano-plague. How soon can you prepare a sample for Boris to look at?"

Jakob rises to his feet. "Ac you know, my team - *ahem* - my team has been looking into the radio anomalies detected since before the invasion. It appears as if the Rikti have a number of forward posts throughout the city from which they are able to weaken our infrastructure, including the war walls and teleportation grid. We have yet to locate any outposts, but we are working on it. The base with the gate Drade found might well be one."

Jakob enters unarmoured, wearing instead a pressed maroon jumpsuit, and a scarlet beret. Setting his data pad down on the table, he takes a seat and waits for the meeting to commence.

((Hmm... I lost my last post for some reason. Anyway - IC mission, gather at GG at 8pm tonight))

Friends of the workers. As you may or may not be aware, Jakob and Boris have been investigating the Rikti teleport jamming, and our data is currently being analysed by Portal Corporation. We expect to have results tonight, that could hopefully point to a Rikti forward post within the city, and are looking to assemble a team to take it out.

Jakob flips open a data bad of his own and clears his throat. A slight flicker of irritation crosses his mind as he catches sight of Perile's look. Something about her seemed to suggest she regarded the assembled citizens as a group of fumbling children - which would be bad enough if she saw herself as a guiding parent, rather than an amused observer.

"Zhe Workerc...*Ahem* the workers have completed our initial survey of teleportation grid interfence. We found a number of interesting spikes in King's Row, Steel Canyon and Talos Island, and have forwarded the data to the specialists at Portal Corp. It's too early to say yet, but we could be looking at the first clues to forward posts in these zones. I'll bring an update on the findings as soon as I know.

Jakob enters and takes a seat. He makes a quick hand gesture and his tactical armour gently loosens as it powers down.

"I think it's interesting to note how much the Rikti appear to rely on local resources", says Jakob, " we know that attacks on the pylons around the crashed ship disrupt their efforts temporarirly, that they've been recruiting via the Lost, and that even their bombs gather materials from the Earth before exploding. How much of this was developed solely for their stranded troops after the first war, and how much is due to a desire to avoid inter-dimensional supply lines, I cannot say. It's also worth noticing that they have been unable to reach Independence Port in the same numbers that we've been seeing elsewhere in the city -perhaps they are using beachheads other than the one in White Plains. Do we have any reports from the Sewer team that can confirm or deny this?"

Jakob frowns uncomfortably. "Zhe vorkerc - ", he stops, glancing at Xander, then continues, speaking more slowly and deliberately. "The Workers would do what we can to help, but we simply don't have the manpower to vet or watch those who may still be our enemies. I don't like the situation - especially considering the kindness America has shown me since the end of the cold war - but it's a question of simple practicality. May I suggest that those who are vouched for by Freedom Corps use our facilities in Kings Row and Galaxy City whenever practical, so as to free the better equipped groups for the more...ah, sensitive casualties?

Jakob coughed. "If I may, I'll deliver my report now. Ve're a cmall group - vizh only three frontline kombat perconnel, co I'll be brief. Ac I told Dr. Rickman, our leader, Red Commissar, is overceeink zhe defence ov Galaxy City. I have vizh me a plan chowink zhe propoced lokationc ov auto-centriec and obcervation pointc, if anyone needc to cee. My own team ov engineerc vill be accictink in zhat endeavour, and attemptink to defear zhe kurrent interference affektink zhe city'c communikation and teleportation gridc. At precent, ve are modyfink mediportc to inklude an automated ctimulant delivery cyctem, allowink a redirekted hero to regain concioucnecc and eckape or aktivate a dictrecc beakon. Ultimately, ve hope to identify and overkome zhe cource of zhe jammink."

Another armoured figure enters the room, with buckled plates still glowing from rikti plasma and vents issuing oily black smoke. The helmet is removed, revealing the face of a man in his late forties with a neatly trimmed beard. "My name ic Jakob Ivanovich," he says in a heavy Ukranian accent, "I am here to reprecent zhe Vorkerc ov Eactern Europe - Ve are affiliated vizh zhe New Heroec Union, and I have already precented my report to Dr. Rickman."

I'll try to be on time this week. Hope to see you at 12

Ok. Thanks for letting me know, and sorry for my lousy timekeeping

My 41st level BS/DA scrapper Mormaer is up for that if there's room.

OOC: I don't have broadband any more, so I'm going to have to leave the game. A detailed IC post is to follow, but I'm posting a brief summary of the IC mission now.

Red Hammer, Crucifix Blade and Arctic Princess raided a meeting between a representative of the council and the Freakshow. The negotiators were captured, but not before the Freakshow leader could activate his communicator and alert hidden freakshow troops. However, the freakshow were quickly cut down by an unexpected wave of Council soldiers, who then started fighting with the COuncil soldiers already present. As the raiding party tried to escape, the incoming soldiers converged on them, trying to kill the prisoners.

The prisoners were secured in the Nova Prospekt base.

IC: Notice on GoD-net

Comrades, I require your assistance. As you may know, I have a contact within Requiem's faction and he has alerted me to a meeting between a Council Officer and a representative of the Freakshow to negotiate an alliance. While the contact is undoubtedly seeking to further Requiem's interests by divulging this information, the value of the contact, and the risk posed to the city of a Freak-council alliance are too great to ignore. I believe Requiem is expecting the officer to be eliminated - if we can capture him alive, he may possibly yield valuable information from his own faction's intelligence. Furthermore, I have attempted to determine additional objectives that can reduce the effect of this action on Requiem's position in the civil war.

The estimated threat level of these operatives is 32. All heroes interested in participating are to meet with Red Hammer under the Galaxy Girl statue at 2000 hours, British Summer Time, on wednesday the 28th of June.

OOC:

Since Dr. temporis says we can run player mission's while he's put the overall plot on hiatus, I plan to run my turncoat twostep missions at the time of the cancelled meeting (wednesday night, meet at GG statue). While it's going to be based around my two missions, I'm planning a fairly open-ended scheme, and will do any missions the team members think can be shoe-horned into the arc.

IC 26/06/2006 0600 hours

Jakob rolled from the camp bed he had set up in his King's row workshop and rubbed his eyes. All around him was chaos. Half assembled prototypes lay amid mounds of blueprints, technical papers and intelligence reports. Around him other members of the Red Hammer team were sleeping or stirring from their slumbers.

As Jakob stumbled towards the washroom, he got a sudden tingle down his spine. Something's not right. With a soldiers trained eyes, he scanned the room and lighted on what had struck him. Amid the clutter of the workshop lay an empty bunk.

A sudden footfall came from behind Jakob. He spun to see the creature emerge from around a corner. It was pale, huched and drawn, and shambled forwards peering at him through tiny red eyes. "Lenin's beard" muttered Jakob, "have you been working all night, Boris?"

"Of course, " grinned Boris, "You know what I'm like when I get my hands on a meaty problem. And I think I've cracked it-"

Jakob cut him off with a wave. "Boris, I'm just up and you haven't slept. You can tell me about it, but over coffee."

Shortly afterwards, the two men were sitting in the cramped kitchen with a jug of freshly brewed coffee between them. Jakob drank deeply, while Boris neglected his mug, preferring to gain stimulation from the sheafs of papers he had collected. He was already gesticulating and talking at machine-gun pace.

"As you may know, there are certain similarities between dimensional travel and teleportation - indeed some teleporters are known to use dimensional shortcuts. So I took teleport blocking as a starting point With this data from the PPD, and the devices we captured from the Council, I've been able to find a way to build on the teleport blockers already in existence. With my new prototype, we should be able to detect and intercept any specified teleportation. After that, portals are really just a matter of scaling up."

"Could this device override the Council's emergency teleporters?"

"Well, in principle, but we've not done any tests yet. Besides, this is really a stepping-stone to - "

"Then we should start production immediately. We need Council prisoners."

Jakob looked grimly on as Boris explained the production requirements. We need to move quickly, Requiem's already started fighting back. Hopefully he won't anticpipate this particular move, but even if he does, there's ways to hurt him. The only question is how to avoid giving the game away.

Brickstown security is the warden badge.

((Darn. I have to make a point of checking the website more frewuently, I'd have been up for that, had I known - Still not done the Hess TF, and I hear it's the best in the game))

IC Monday 19/06/2006 2030 hours: Bell Point hospital, Marigold Ward

Still wrapped in his blue and yellow scarf, Jakob talked excitedly with the nurse as he was led to Kata's bed. A male nurse, for once he thought I can actually talk to him without any rolled eyes.

"Hello, Kata." he beamed, arriving at her bedside, "Do you get the football in here? What a result! Say what you like, but Sevchenko's a hero in my book! But anyway, onto more important matters. How are you feeling today? I see you got our card - we're all wishing the best for you, Kata - we're looking forward to seeing you back in action. Speaking of which, I noticed your battlesuit was quite badly damaged - I could take it and have my crew patch it up for you, so it's all nice and shiny for when you get out. What do you say to that, then?"

Nova Prospekt, 17/06, 1200 hours

Jakob hunched over the Nova Prospekt communications array, a sheaf of papers in his hand detailing his researches. Anything connected with this Council informant had to be performed from a seperate, personal connection, the risk of discovery was too great.

He looked at the papers again. The second communication seemed to confirm his investigations were on the right track, but he was going to need help. He patched into GoD-net and left a message. "This is for the attention of all operatives involved in Earth-side operations. As you may be aware, my ongoing investigation into the Council requires me to work against the Vandal and Nosferatu factions. I have uncovered a number of promising leads that could help to frustate Requiem in the Civil war and direct his attention, but cannot act on them myself without risking discovery. If you have leads on the Council from your sources, I will attempt to use the intelligence I have aquired to advise on which incidents are most likely to harm Requiem."

IC 17/06 2.00 am

Jakob sat by Kata's bedside in the Bell Point hospital, looking sorrowfuly over her sleeping form. The doctors said she had sustained multiple broken ribs, and his own cursory analysis of her armour revealed extensive damage, but fortunately no penetration. None of the expedition had escaped unscathed - he thought of Volt Master, cut down mere minutes after gaining entry - currently recuperating with the help of GoD healing drones. As for Jakob, his damage had been relatively light, a few dents to the armour and nothing more. If only he had been in the right place to save them.

He looked on Kata's face once more. She looked to be in a deep sleep. He picked up his data pad and began to write the mission report, casting occasional glances at Kata in case she should wake up.

" Striga Island expedition formed 2200 hours, members were myself (Red Hammer), Arctic Princess, Red Commissar, Volt Master, Sword of Truth, Shadowe, Corpos and Suibaku arrived at landing zone on Vampyri Mountain 2210. Area between LZ and objective patrolled by numerous groups of Council sentries and Banished Pantheon monsters. After securing location, entry to objective was made at 2220, with the help of Shadowe's cloaking projector. Intially encountered light resistance, which was defeated with little difficulty. Following intial conflict, Volt Master was critically injured, apparently by a shot from a wounded soldier who had been presumed incapacitated. Volt Master was succesfully evacuated to obtain medical treatment. Expedition proceeded into the base and encountered an ambush apparently intended for Nosferatu troops. After defeating the ambush, Arctic Princess made her first attempt to gain access to the base systems. Although prevented from gaining access to the information sought, she was able to locate records on Requiem's actions against Nosferatu. Further progress was barred by a reinforced blast door until Arctic Princess was able to defeat security. Beyond the door, further Council troops were found guarding a series of prisoners in cruciform torture devices. Contact was made with the free clockwork of Dark Astoria to arrange an evacuation, but it became apparent that a teleport blocker was present and would have to be neutralised before evacuation could continue. Unwilling to risk harm to the prisoners by releasing them immediately, the expedition split. Myself, Subaiku and the Commissar remained to guard the prisoners from further Council interference while the others attempted to locate the base commander, who possesed the authorisation to access the control terminal in the torture chamber. Arctic Princess sustained her injuries in the process of defeating the base commander, and myself and Subaiku were dispatched to assist. Requiem forces returning from a raid against nosferatu necessitated a redeployment to the torture chamber, where with the aid of the keycards taken from the commander an injured Arctic Princess was able to release the prisoners. Shortly after, the teleport blocker was destroyed and the Dark Astoria Clockworks were able to evacuate the prisoners. Prior to team evacuation, the command centre data banks were raided and demolition charges were set. Although the team's charges were sufficient only to destroy the data centre, a self-destruct mechanism was apparently initiated."

He looked over the report. A lot of stuff missing - some events he hadn't seen, and little mention of the information recovered. That could wait for another time.

IC: June 15th 17.00 hours

A small team of technicians, attired in olive boiler suits with the insignia of the Red Hammer team clustered around the pile of communications equipment. Russian voices rapidly argued back and forth.

"We've been going for hours and nothing! I say we take this thing apart and see if there's even anything inside."

"Gregori, you know as well as I do that the Ansible is not to be dissasembled."

"P'fah! Ansibles are science fiction, Jakob. This is a toy and nothing more. I think McAllister just wants to see how long we take to work that out."

"Come on, Gregori - you've seen the stuff that's been leaked to the web. McAllister's nothing short of a miracle-worker. If anyone can get supra-entanglement to work, it's him. Boris, is there anything we haven't tried yet?"

The wiry man called Boris looked up from a sheaf of papers. "We've tried every configuration I can think of. It doesn't make sense - with the exception of the link itself, the basic principles have hardly...wait a minute....This modulator isn't switched on..."

"It's there! We've got a signal! The Workers are on GoD-net!"

Jakob Ivanovich looked over his shoulder as he keyed in the last of the entry codes for Nova Prospekt. Knowing the task he was now engaged upon, he would have been happier with the Red Hammer battlesuit, but it was out of commission while upgrades for the coming conflict were being installed. Besides, as the doctor had made clear, the Council had far greater power than he had encountered so far, and the best course of action was to avoid behaviour they might find suspicious. Such as wearing an enormous battlesuit on an otherwise routine visit to the base.

Finding the base unoccupied, Jakob sealed the entrance and retrieved his cargo from a small satchel he had been carrying. A portable hard disc and a slim folder, marked "For the attention of Red Commissar" in Russian. Jakob opened the folder and read over his report one last time. Pages of finely typed Cyrillic print read:

Commissar, following your instructions I have consulted with other members of the Red Hammer team on our options for a secure connection to the GoD-net. While a more detailed technical report is forthcoming, it is believed that the equipment we possess should be capable of secure communications equivalent to most intelligence agencies. The points detailed on following pages list our capabilities, along with recommendations for both software and physical security. While we would require further details of existing GoD systems for compatibility reasons, the report also contains an analysis of the most likely anticipated modifications.

It should also be noted that we possess a limited capability for quantum-entaglement based communications. While this technology has not been thouroughly tested by any body whose research I have access to, it is predicted to have greater security than any conventional method.

Although my team can provide equipment that is theoretically secure, we do not know the extent of the Council's decryption capabilities. I predict that they will likely be in advance of that which is considered attainable by public bodies, and as such my recommendations are to consult further with the Guardians and to avoid interception by limiting digital communications.

Included on the disk is a full copy of the current report, together with technical data and schematics.

You should also be aware of the matter I communicated to you earlier. To recap, I had been indepently investigating a Council agent by the name of Ubelmann, following advice from an anonymous source. I have recently discovered that my source was in the employ of Requiem, and I had unwittingly aided him in eliminating a rival within the council. I have communicated this intelligence to the Doctor, and he informs me that he believes Requiem willbe strengthend by this development and our task made all the more difficult. However, in the hope that some benefit may come of this, I have retained the logs of all correspondence with this informant in an attempt to trace the communications back to Requiem. I include a copy of the logs on the disc, as well as the results of my analysis so far. This information has also been made available to Doctor Temporis.

If you wish to contact me, I will have my communicator open, or you can visit my workshop in person at the King's Row address supplied.

Jakob returns the documents to the folder, places the items on a desk, scans the bunker for bugs and then leaves, securing the entrance as he goes.

I'm fairly new, and I need every one past Synapse on Mormaer, my level 31 BS/DA scrapper. I'd prefer to do ones where I'd be auto-exemped since I want to pick up influence and I also don't want to push myself out of range of any story arcs or other cool missions my contacts may have.

You might also want to mention that you need an aoe attack to draw them out, preferably one that doesn't need to be targetted on a mob (you can lure wandering baddies into position to get off a cone or something, but it takes longer and I don't think anybody wants to spend more time grinding greys than is strictly necessary). Roughly how many bosses do you get in the cavern? I missed out on the trial and spent the time hunting in Grendel's Gulch, so my bar's almost full now and I want to know if I can top it off with the trial.