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KDF and allies search for the clues about the new Rhombus Group…
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Shift Time: Sunday, Jun 27, Alpha -1
Audience: KDF and allies
Event Type: Social RP, possible combat
Starting Point: Starship bridge
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GM: @gulremal
Mission Log
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:<FX> Last time, the team has to fight off the blockade of the Holy Order of the Kinshaya, who were searching for the “Rhombus criminals”. They fought alongside the crew of the Snap Dragon and other assorted local mercenaries. With the Kinshayan ships destroyed, their forces on the ground were cut off from the reinforcements and they were taken down after a short but brutal skirmish, as Kinshayans fought to the death and had no care for the collateral damage. Even from low orbit, the fires raging in Paradise City can be clearly seen…
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Shlaak: Nimbuss sstation has confirmed the desstruction of the Kinsshayan vessselss, they are ssending the payment to all participating partiess.
T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris checks if she can reach Bara and her ship.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: looks at the fires on the viewscreen What a disaster…I cannot believe such maniacs still exist.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:<FX> After a short while, T’Vek successfully establishes link with Bara.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:<Bara> apperas on the main screen, shouting to someone to her right, you can see the silhouette of her bird of prey in the background, though it’s somewhat tilted Stop looting the goddamn corpses and get to the fires! I need some muscle to deal with the rubble! MOVE IT! turns to her PADD Oi, you are alive, that’s good news!
[Local]Egzo@HF_Mud:“Same.”
T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris nods, “Good to see you well, Bara. How’s the situation on the surface? Aside from looters…”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Bara: Those crazy birdmen trashed the place hard something explodes far to her left We’re trying to contain the damage here in the romulan quarter, bastards started trashing everything in their way once we started pushing them back. I don’t need to explain the water and firefighting services quality in slums, right?
[Local]Egzo@HF_Mud:“Nope. Onna desert world, too.”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Bara: In any case, they damaged one of the landing struts on the Barut, but no critical damage to the ship its- OI THAT SHIP IS STILL INTACT STOP STEALING THE METAL PLA- connection cuts off
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: sighs Sounds about right. You’d lose decals if you fly too low in some places…
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Shlaak: Captain Claw ssends her regardss. They are leaving for the time being, but sshe ssayss you’ve got drinkss on her next time you’re at Sshangdu.
Egzo@HF_Mud nods. “I’ll hold ‘er to that. Oh, and speakin’ of…”
Egzo@HF_Mud turns to the ‘guest’. “I heard somethin’ about ‘workin’ for us forever if we helped’…”
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:“I would be content if he aided us with our search for the new Rhombus Group. On the subject of which…do we have any leads as to where we should search next?”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Slade: “I’d start with the Vault. It was our- their last caper, and they never returned from that place. Aside from that, I could use all the info you have on actual places that the new Rhombus group attacked.”
Aestae Vali@crystyl nods, “That we do. Been doing some digging on the side and things are pointing to the Vendor Sector”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: raises eyebrow Oh? How’d you figure that out?
[Local]Aestae Vali@crystyl:“After the Rommies kicked them out of the vault, they tried hacking their way back in. Signal points back to that sector”
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:“The sector is not far from where we are now, relative to the Expanse. It would be a good place to search while we are in the region.”
Egzo@HF_Mud nods to that bit of Vulcan logic.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Do you have those comm signals available? Maybe I can help with reducing the search radius.
Aestae Vali@crystyl tosses over a PADD with all the details, “Of course”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:takes the PADD and moves to the free console
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Time to earn my keep…copies the data and starts working Wow, they really hit all these places in such a short time?
[Local]Aestae Vali@crystyl:“Apparently so”
[Local]Egzo@HF_Mud:“Whoever these guys are, they’re goin’ hard.”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: This is insane…old Rhombus operated from a refurbished T’Varo… it would take them six months just to travel to all these locations… ah I see, they used the regular message traffic to embed the virus…whoa, what is this? Hells balls, someone used Karna’s old infiltration program, but they added some serious steroids…
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:turns to Aestae Am I crazy, or is this some AI level shit?
T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris raises a brow, “You do not believe a biological individual to be capable of writing the program?”
[Local]Aestae Vali@crystyl:“That’s my theory” she nods, “Was hoping you’d have more insight on the likelihood”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Hey, I was a tech support, not master programmer…this stuff is waaay above my paygrade. BUT! more furious typing They used the basics from the old program as a base, and with this, I can track actual transmissions. Most of these were fake, as they expected someone would trace them. But all the “real” ones contain the full program, and I can isolate those…there!
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: types and the main screen turns into map of Vendor sector, which then zooms to a small section of it That’s the best I could do with the available data. It’s still a lot of space to cover, but if we corroborate with known space maps, only two systems of note are…Hadrian and Pilatus systems. those systems get circled
[Team]Nadum@gulrema:if anyone wants to do some background checks for these systems in your files, gimme a roll
[Emotes]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:rolls 71 (1-100)
[Team]Egzo@HF_Mud:Not really my field… ah, good roll.
[Team]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:Yaaay!
[Local]Aestae Vali@crystyl:“A lot less space than we were looking at before!”
[Emotes]Aestae Vali@crystyl:rolls 41 (1-100)
T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris looks up from a console she was tapping at, "Interesting. The only notable information I am able to find involves a rescue mission for a Starfleet vessel by the name of USS Nobel. I am unable to -
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:- find specific details, which appear to have been classified by Starfleet. Given the location, I surmise it likely pertains to Romulan affairs."
[Local]Aestae Vali@crystyl:“Don’t know much about the area, not a region I’ve been active in. But we’ve got it flagged as possible site of battle between the Romulans and Borg back in '09”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Borg? Who do you think won that one?
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:“Could the program have been modified by Borg methods and not an artificial intelligence?”
[Local]Egzo@HF_Mud:“Borg ain’t the big bad they used t’be. Onna OTHER hand, Romulans keep bitin’ off more than they can chew, thinkin’ they still ARE, so…”
[Local]Aestae Vali@crystyl:“I certainly wouldn’t rule it out”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Wouldn’t surprise me, but I just fear the possibilities.
[Local]Egzo@HF_Mud:“Well sure, that’s just smart”.
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:“The Vault has been rumoured to conduct experiments with Borg technologies as well.”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: I mean, this virus is very sneaky, what happens if it gets out of control, or turns back to Borg? Or both?
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:“All the more reason to stop this new Rhombus Group, then.”
[Local]Egzo@HF_Mud:"‘Fore they wind up as Rhombus of Borg or somethin’."
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Uh. Okay, I’m going to disassemble what we have on this virus, and see if I can come up with some defenses. It’s main strength is it’s stealthiness, but it’s not so strong if you find it early.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:- before it infects everything. to Aestae I surmise you have some serious cyberwarfare suites?
Aestae Vali@crystyl snorts, “You’d think, but no. OSN keeps the fancy toys in house, I’ve just got a recycled Cardie junker here”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: scratches head That could actually work to our advantage…this virus is very complex, whoever created it planned to hit only places with highest security…it could have issues with older software…yes, we could make this work.
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:“What exactly are you planning?”
Egzo@HF_Mud looks interested in that question also.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Well, once we find the new Rhombus group, I doubt they’ll go down without a fight. They’ll most likely try to infect our ships to either disable/destroy us or give them time to run away, right?
Egzo@HF_Mud nods. “Fits their pattern.”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: This virus is sneaky bastard, but if it’s detected early - and that means as it’s delivered by comms - it can be purged before it spreads to the rest of the ship systems
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: starts pacing back and forth These guys will try to hit us with the best stuff they’ve got, but such software has it’s flaws. It’s designed for attacking databases - places with high comm and data tracking. So it’s easier for high tech virus to sneak in, simply due to traffic volume. It’s different with starships, where comms are rare- so if we combine that with slower software, the virus will have harder time to sneak in, especially if we know exactly what to look for.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Of course, once they figure out their sneaky toy isn’t working, new Rhombus will switch to standard cyberwarfare software, but by that time you guys should have the combat advantage…well, unless they have some serious military hardware too. But you folks can bring reinforcements, right
[Team]Nadum@gulrema:anakin and amidala meme Right?
[Team]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:Hehe
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:“Out here, it will be difficult to call upon our forces from the Zenas Expanse.”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: That’s…unfortunate. I can check with my old mercenary groups, see if any of the guys I know are around and spacebound."
[Local]T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris:“If there are others seeking the Rhombus Group who are more reasonable than the Kinshayans, they may make for excellent allies as well.”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: I’ll stay away from that for obvious reasons, but good idea.
Egzo@HF_Mud grunts and nods.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: You guys don’t want Starfleet involved, right? I mean, starbase Sierra isn’t that far from here…
[Local]Aestae Vali@crystyl:“Honestly, if there’s trouble stirring that close to their doorstep I’d be shocked if they weren’t already looking into it”
T’Vek of Vulcan@anncaris nods, “Given the records involving the USS Nobel, they may already be involved in some capacity.”
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:Spade: Might not be bad to at least check with them, if anything so we don’t end up in their crosshairs. But anyhow, I’m not a people’s person, I’ll get to code crackin’
[Local]Egzo@HF_Mud:"Me neither. Lemme know when ya got someone t’ cut or somethin’ to shoot.
[Local]Nadum@gulrema:-- SCENE END –
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