lucetilogs | MISSION #11 - Droid Sabotage

Who: Field Leader: Steve Rogers; Security: Alia Shepard, Sophie, Rogue, Greg Lestrade, Gai Tsutsugami, Masaomi Kida, Leonhardt; Stealth: Trafalgar Law, Fujiko Mine, Nara Shikamaru, Albert Silverberg, Loki; Technicians: Donatello, Artemis Fowl II, Daisy, Tony Stark; Programmers: Robert Hastings, Pascal, Doctor “Eggman” Robotnik, Raine Sage
What: MISSION # 11 - Droid Sabotage
When: September 21st-23rd
Where: Malnosso Facility C-342
Summary: A mutual friend of MARS and Luceti has made arrangements for a select few of Luceti’s number to even the odds against the droids.

Excitement was not how the mission to disrupt the production of Malnosso droids started. On the first day, the selected participants were brought in by bus to a small laboratory in the middle of the forest. There they were greeted by a voice that should be familiar to them due to a recent message over Luceti’s journals. That voice belonged to the woman they knew as Rem. She stood before them with her customary cigarette.

“This is quite a momentous occasion. So momentous, in fact, that it makes fraternizing with the Organization almost worth it. We all have a long few days ahead of us and while I’m sorry to say I can’t go once more unto the breach with you -- the rogues don’t take too kindly to Lucies like me,” she gave a bitter cluck of her tongue and fluttered her large wings, “but I will be keeping tabs from a remote location. You have some time here to get your schemes in order but once you’re inside, we can’t extract you until your twenty-four hours are up. So be careful, dears. Believe it or not? I’d hate to see your smeared and smudged all over their factory.

Most of you will be focusing on getting your brainiacs into the code room. Watch out for Kidston -- she’ll do whatever she can to keep you out. She’d burn the wings off her own back to protect her precious droids. But the rest of you will have to put your infiltration and disguise skills to the test while you distract the rest of the facility. Plan carefully and do what you must. However high the cost, remember that the prize could very well be an end to droid abductions as you know th--”

A soft beeping interrupted her speech. Rem tapped ash off the end of her cigarette and swore somehow rather elegantly before touching an earpiece and presumably activating a communication device. As she walked off, her words could still be heard: “Damnit, you ungrateful blue toad. My life went much smoother before I ever crossed the rubicon and gave you my num--what am I wearing? Ugh. Nothing, dear Biliruben. It’s causing quite a stir with the volunteers...”

Following her address, the participants were introduced to two other individuals: a technician and a programmer, and both were accomplices of one Biliruben. The technician was a younger man named Thoxus Brinn, a pointy eared fellow adorned with piercings from the tip of his ear to the bottom of his chin. Even so, he was surprisingly knowledgeable and incredibly jovial, possessing a knack for math-related jokes. He no doubt inspired many groans from the Lucetians in the hours to come. The programmer was a woman of indeterminate age. She was, as they found out, actually an android. Not of Malnosso design, but from another world. Her small wings gave her away and her designation was merely The Eighteenth. Often impatient, she created an impression of barely disguised indignation at having to work with Lucetians. Though if anyone cared to ask, it was revealed she simply didn’t like dealing with biological beings.

For forty-eight hours, these two would be their primary guides: instructing them in the schematics in the physical design of the droids as well as their programming. It was grueling work, but important information would be gleaned from it:

The base code for the droids programming is heavily encrypted and self-erased with even the mildest of tampering. However, the code’s higher level programming language is very easy to learn and implement. Though the droids possess no less than a billion lines of code, each piece of it is easy enough to read and understand for a proficient programmer. The Malnosso devised a very sophisticated language which allowed the droid’s programming to be wildly efficient. In combat situations, they can extrapolate millions of potential reactions from their target. It is estimated that in any given combat scenario, they have a total of two minutes and forty-three seconds already plotted out.

Their primary power source is a continuous Shift, which uses a single battery, possessing less electricity than a car battery, that was cycled infinitely into itself for a power source that never expired. This, along with the computer processor, is tied into a chip made from an unnamed element that was native to this world. This element is incredibly versatile, able to be altered into the shape of nearly any composition. More importantly, the element can be used to produce and stabilize artificial Shifts. Embedded at the heart of the chip is a single piece of this element, no bigger than a grain of sand, that makes the whole thing work. Only another Shift can alter these ‘chips’. The cultists can do this with ease.

The droids are constructed from a unique metal alloy that combines titanium with a diamond-based metal. This makes the droids incredibly difficult to damage, explaining their superiority in combat. This alloy is made in the same facility where the droids are themselves assembled. The technicians are encouraged to introduce impurities or imperfections to make them more vulnerable.

Unfortunately there is little information on the new variation of droids. The facility they were being manufactured in had been closed down after a recent breach in security. They have yet to find out where they are currently being manufactured.

For the same forty-eight hours they had, the group was given full access to droid data, comfortable quarters, regular meals, and any other comforts that could be made available. Participants who are not scientists were instead supervised by a Malnosso security officer named Foreman Zapha, an incredibly strict woman who does not tolerate imperfection. By the time she was done with the security and stealth experts, they’d be able to blend in with the Malnosso without issue.
This includes instruction on such elements as:

Facility layout, including access points and significant time spent familiarizing the participants with detailed floorplans.

A brief jargon tutorial, where Zapha goes over terminology typical to the Malnosso presence in this building.

Feather First Analysis (FFA): A security protocol based on identifying an individual’s unique wing make up, called a feather bio-print.
Chief Programmer Kidston: The head boffin at the facility. She is well-known for her commitment to the rogue cause and it is her feather bio-print that accesses the core server room. However, Zapha warns the participants that she is likely to self-sabotage her own pair of wings and risk a death penalty should she even begin to suspect that someone is going to knock her out and drag her to the security check.
J.J. Kelms: A VIP who is touring the below-ground facility around the same time as the mission. ‘Kelms’ is an assumed name for someone who is supposed to be part of the core Organization’s upper echelon and he is being wined, dined, and recruited over to the rogue splinter cell.
Narrow Creek Mountain: The name of the resort and vacation complex that comprises the facility’s above-ground presence. Although higher-ups in the Organization suspect it to be a front for rogue activity, it remains a highly popular vacation destination and pulls in a number of high profile visitors on a monthly basis. At the time of the mission, the center is hosting a well-known bubble fiction convention.
Enclosure-Con: A fan-convention for all things related to the genre of bubble fiction, a category of television shows, movies, comics, and other media that romanticizes and fictionalizes what it must be like to live in the Malnosso enclosures. Although the fiction very rarely gets it right or uses actual names or events from actual enclosures, those involved in the genre have highly involved fictional versions that are very popular with most audiences. Notable titles include the blockbuster Barcoded trilogy; the long-running soap opera, Of A Feather; a gritty and bloody graphic novel called I, Resident; and an up and coming young adult series, First Draft Chronicles. An up and coming movie called Two’s Company will have a never-before-seen trailer at the convention, depicting a comical situation where two very different enclosures are forced to live together and learn to get along. It appears as though a large majority of the fans are large-winged.
Lucies: It turns out this is apparently a derogatory term used by beyond-the-barriers society to refer to those individuals who were born in the world and who possess large wings. Zapha does not explain the term’s origin.
Free the Test Subjects Association (FTSA): A protest group that is actively engaged in trying to dismantle the enclosure system. They are known for their dramatic stunts (such as kidnapping high-ranking Malnosso representatives and forcefully tattooing barcodes on their neck). A very vocal contingent is on-site protesting Enclosure-Con for ‘glorifying and exploiting’ the enclosure situation.

An overview of the building’s security system. The rogue Malnosso facility uses an outdated protocol generally seen as barbaric by the bulk of the Organization’s cells: FFA, otherwise known as Feather First Analysis. In a world where magic and Shifts allow hostiles to readily alter their own eyes and fingerprints, wings are found to be the only trustworthy identification method. As such, they are prime targets for security checks. Each participant (scientific and supportive) is given a single feather that Zapha assures them possesses a valid DNA code for entrance to the facility. She also alerts the participants that random electronic sweeps are made throughout the building and so each participant had better hold onto their feather -- to lose it means to expose the entire operation.

Building upon this last point, the core processing room for the droids’ source code is protected by a more advanced piece of FFA technology. A single feather is useless to access this room and instead the infiltrators will need to bypass the full-wing scan set up just outside its door. Zapha explains that there are only roughly two options available: find the Chief Programmer and use her (or more accurately, her wings) to access the room or force the room’s door and incur a response from the building’s security team.

----

On the third day, the participants are separately escorted to the facility at different times. The facility itself is built into a mountain and most of it exists underground. To outside eyes, it’s merely a mountain resort, with ski lifts and tourists. On the inside, it is far more complex and insidious. This is no 9-5 job in play here. Those who work here, live here and have barracks where they sleep. Its primary purpose is for droid construction. There will be no kidnapped victims here. Though the complex has its own security guards, it is primarily maintained by a staggering number of droids fitted for a wide variety of roles.

The participants will need to organize themselves into teams. While one group intends to escort the technicians and programmers to where their work can be completed in the core code room and assembly line, another group will be responsible for choosing and carrying out a secondary objective that will serve as a distraction tactic. There are three options:

Destroy Resort - 90% success chance

Pros: Cripple facility by drawing attention to it, effective and quick
Cons: Cost of innocent lives, frames the FTSA as terrorists

Ruin or Disrupt Enclosure-Con - 80% success chance

Pros: Easy, accessible, non-violent.
Cons: Nothing gained, further villainizes and marginalizes the efforts of the FTSA, could take considerable time.

Kidnap Bureaucrat - 50% success chance

Pros: Cripple organization with ransom, obtain information, keeps all activity out of the public eye.
Cons: Very dangerous, jeopardizes mission, time-consuming.

What we need from you: Who will be on which team? How does Team A choose to get into the code room -- will they risk trying to subdue Kidston or will they force the doors? Which distraction option will Team B choose? How will they go about enacting their plan? Use this post to plot oocly. Each player will get a chance to vote for one of the three options here, which will ultimately decide what is done on the mission. A random number generator will determine the success of the selected diversion.

If everything runs smoothly, the participants will be collected and returned on the 22nd in the late evening. However, if the mission is compromised then a strike force will start a calculated sweep of the building and the participants will enter a combat situation. Foreman Zapha has darkly informed the groups that should this happen, it is unlikely that the Malnosso will provide support within the building itself until the mission’s deadline. However, regardless of whether the diversion succeeds, the droids will be sabotaged for the foreseeable future.

Should the diversion fail, the participants will be returned individually over the course of the next week, suffering from the typical kidnapping effects. Although their sabotage of the droids will have succeeded, the rogue organization will be more on guard in the future and may be potentially brutal to those returned (at the discretion of the individual players).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Here is somebody who is a veritable expert at wearing lab coats in any and all situations. (He even has experience with carrying weaponry under one, now!) Isn't it lucky that he just happens to be in the area?

... Well, okay, that's more caused by him anxiously ducking into various rooms for moral support before this thing. He's, quite honestly, rather overwhelmed. Seeing Don attempting to brain a lab coat is a welcome distraction.]

... Hello, Don.

[Yes. Robert. Get in here and fix this.]

[In an exasperated tone:] Ronald, what do you do to this?

[There's an immediate part of him that thinks "generally I wear it", but that won't help. Instead he studies the lab coat itself, sizing it up against Don's frame.]

Are you... enquiring as to how to wear the lab coat properly? [There is protocol on wearing it, but he's not sure how much it applies here.]

... Yes.

[Sure. If there is a way of wearing a lab coat that makes you look like an imposter, Don wants to know so he can not do that.]

[Luckily for everybody involved, lab coats do not have a significantly detailed list of fashion faux pas associated with them. You pretty much either wear them or don't. (Also there's enough leeway that even wearing them "incorrectly" won't necessarily look wrong.)]

There is little to it, in all honesty. The garment is typically buttoned or otherwise closed at the front - it is rather ineffectual at protection otherwise, of course - though many of my colleagues wore it open when it was not in use...

I suppose that, due to the setting, it might be more feasible to button it.

[Now that Robert's noticing the rest of Don's gear though, it suddenly seems to be more of a logistics issue... hmm.]

[Yes, exactly. Noticing where Robert is looking, Don points emphatically at his belt. How is he supposed to reach his gear with all these buttons in the way?]

[Hmmmm.]

Leaving one's lab coat open, as I noted, is not an entirely abnormal thing...

... Alternatively, you could close only a single button, and thus continue to have access while still maintaining a more professional demeanour? [It's a thought, anyway.]

[Come over here and do it, scientist. You're the one who knows about being professional.]

[Oh, alright. He likes doing things for you anyway, Don.

Carefully taking the lab coat in his hands - it's slightly foreign, the material different from his own familiar Randi Institute's standard-issue lab coats - he deftly does up a single button, around hypoplastron-height on Don. Some smoothing of material into place, and Don is looking classy. Or as classy as Robert can make anybody look, anyway.

Though his belt is visible, it's subtle enough as to not scream "look, this is ninja gear" and yet it would be much easier to access than if the lab coat was fully buttoned up...]

... Does this work?

[Don rolls his shoulders, seeing how the lab coat sits as he moves, then reaches experimentally towards various pouches of his belt. It will do, he supposes.]

Yes. Thank you.

[It could be worse. ~~And Don looks nice in the lab coat, Robert thinks.~~]

... Is there anything else I can be of assistance with?

[Not really. Aside from the clothes-wearing nonsense, missions like this are what he's been trained to do. He's not too worried about his part in it.]

I'm okay. But... you?

... Anxious. [He admits this with no small amount of hand-wringing nervousness.] I... I know I am capable of programming like this, b-but... the mission is so dangerous...

[He looks up at Don, eyes over-bright.]

What if I were to... jeopardize it?

[He, of all people, knows how poor his lying and stealth skills are. While he's improved the latter at least, is it going to be enough for this?]

[With their departure looming so close, Don has just two pieces of advice to give.]

Have confidity. Act like you being there. And when in doughnut, talk science.

[These are surprisingly good pieces of advice. Especially the final part - if there's anything Robert can do, it's talk science.]

... Understood.

[This mission is important. He won't let himself fail.]

[Don squeezes Robert's shoulder, and gives him an only-slightly-strained smile. You'll be fine.]

[And now, he should be heading for the departure point.]

[So should Robert.

Returning the smile faintly, he catches Don's hand in his - once, the most deviating from "professional distance" that he's been so far - and threads their fingers briefly. Be safe. I love you.

Then he lets go and steps away to gather his things for the mission.]

MISSION #11 - Droid Sabotage

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