[1300 local time] Not everyone can sleep... [mini start] * Ichigo , having been given access to the largest MG database in the world, just couldn't go to sleep. Not when there was so many new shiny things to look at. * LordFate logs on, once he gets back to the hotel. There are lots and lots and lots of MG's on record - nearly a thousand in total, though more than 30% of them are deceased, most of those in the Ningyo War. * Kasumi 's icon - a pistol crossed with a rose like an X - pops onto Fate's EI's screen, with the text "Still up? - Bob-omb" * LordFate 's icon - a picture of a sunset - replies, "Yep." * Ichigo is busy combing through Ladies power lists trying to find a pattern that fits the attack. So far not much besides Spear and Flare. "You had mentioned looking into leads before. I think. Memory is a bit fuzzy, tired. Did you want an assist?" "Wouldn't mind. Looking into the Belgians, in particular the official titles of the men found dead, and trying to comb the Security databases for known contacts. Looking into the HWGC employees and the contracts they have with us and with foreign powers. Looking for any unexplained crimes involving odd damage, and doing a quick scan for what kind." "Finally, if you could help me get the interface clearance so my EI can get the H-1 EI to listen to it the first time I tell it to, I'd appreciate it." * Ichigo has a cute little chibi Queen icon. "Tell your EI - Wyrd, was it? - to reroute all input to the H-2 EI automatically. I've got mine set to mirror until I get authorization." * Ichigo sees people online and presses the button marked Talk and her voice pipes out over whoever's PDAs are online. "Hi guys! Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" "That's what I've got now. The H-2 EI is being obstinate. Ah well, if you don't have clearance yet, I'll talk to Royal or Shihei-san about it later." "Sleep is overrated." Sleep is awesome and good for you! "Then why aren't you sleeping?" * Ichigo giggles as she rolls over onto her back, holding the PDA up. She's currently laying on her bed with her three air conditioners cranking and wearing her PJs with a print designed to look like a traditional MG fuku. Because! I uh... was looking at stuff... * Kasumi opens up a data conferencing window, and starts plugging searches into it, along the lines of what Fate mentioned. * LordFate is still in text-and-icon mode, so isn't showing up video or audio. He is logged in as Lord Fate. Basic information on Global Harvest is remarkably easy to turn up. They seem to be a services and security outsourcing firm that has become a primary supplier for Tokyo-Earth when the Hierarchy needs to build or do something in a remote or underdeveloped region of the world. Considering how much the SDF is deployed on peacekeeping and peacemaking expeditions, they can make a lot of money in a busy year. * Ichigo is using audio/video and sending to everyone, just cause. * LordFate has Wyrd forward what it's gathered and he's pruned so far, as well. What sort of services? "AFP. BBIAF - will catch up." Bibby-aff? * Ichigo punches buttons looking more closely into what GH does. A recent example was the Mongolia deployment, where they built the SDF's headquarters, and housing, did maintenance, ran the cafeteria, operated supply convoys and pipelines, and provided occasional force-protection patrols. * PrincessRoyal taps in, with an icon of an ace of spades with an eye embedded in it. "Well, well. Good morning, you guys. What happened to sleeping?” "I'll get to it." "Eventually." "I might ask the same of you, ma'am." I'm uh... sleep chatting. Why does the SDF need security? "Call it military training, Fate." "Can't do everything by ourselves all the time, Snow." "Interesting training. Didn't realize I'd been engaging in it. ;)" But don't you have bigger guns? "Security's rarely about who has the bigger guns, Chi." "It's usually about who has the best surveillance capability." "More eyes are always better. But more people means more chances for treachery." ... But I thought we were the best. It does more than just government infrastructure. They have about 40% ownership in a pacific-rim shipping firm, several construction firms, and a chemical production firm. * Ichigo idly looks up who all they work for besides the Palace. * LordFate notes a cross-reference pickup Wyrd points out. "...Interesting." "It seems the last Ningyo War involved cooperation from a shipping firm. Probably just coincidence, though." Their subsidiaries are widely active in Japan, Korea, and South China, and HWGC itself works for the Japanese government. This isn't the same one though, is it? What happened to that one? Not clear. I'll have Wyrd do some more digging. But no, not the same name. Hmm... I don't see anything so far that would indicate why these guys would be interested in any sort of biological. Do we know what part of the company the guys we found work for? "Those involved with the last war were taken care of pretty thoroughly." * Ichigo pokes around the files for that info. "The main company continues under a slightly altered name, though." Universal Shipbuilding turned into Universal Shipping after the war. They still operate a major port in T-E. Golden Sunrise Shipping is totally separate, though they do use USC's port facilities some. "The nature of the package is of great interest. I do like the idea of pretending we have it on an underground market to see what we stir up." "That's a little premature still, I believe." I think we'd have to know what it is first though. Or at least what they were calling it. "At this stage, you're right, ma'am. It would take about a day and a half for a traitor out to make a quick buck to leak such information." "Not to mention we'd have to get more details out of it first. This is too complicated to run an operation like that off hand, especially if there's something really fishy going on." "True. Giraffes don't dine on lima beans." "Sorry. Little one got into the freezer. USC? Interesting that turned up." "Little one?" "You've met them." "The smaller of your little friends, yes?" * Ichigo giggles. "They're so cute." "Oh." "Greetings, Royal-sama." So... why is everyone typing? Isn't talking faster? "Hello. Another insomniac, eh, Bob-Omb?" * Ichigo suppresses a yawn and rolls over to her side. * Kasumi puts what she's found on Spear so far up on the conferencing window. "Military conditioning. z_z" "Heh. That's almost exactly what I said." I'm used to late nights from school. Lots of projects and club activities and things. * Kasumi tosses a search into who's running USC and HWGC into the window. Spear appears to be just another Lady - not a lot remarkable about her. No military deployments, no major disciplinary problems, competent in her position. She likes the nightlife, and prefers to socialize with normals rather than MG's. When she gets off duty we should probably go talk with her. Find out what she was up to last night. "...interesting." Probably shouldn't all go at once though. Don't want her to think it's anymore than routine checking. "You should just go make friends with her, Chi. We don't want to 'question' her at all, in anything that even resembles an official capacity." Ooh I can do that! * Kasumi tosses the results of the more in-depth search - checking for common company, and tracking that company, see if there's any results there, and getting the usage logs for her equipment and power usage at her home to see if she was there - detailed as she can get. Maybe if we find out where she likes to hang out I can happen to be there... Oooh, I can wear a disguise too! "Don't bother." "That, or we could still come up with something by making up some false evidence or leads that would put her there, or somewhere else worth investigating." "Faking a charge?" There are no records of associates - this isn't a criminal database. And network logs seem to indicate that if she was home last night, she did nothing at all online and did not watch or listen to any media programs. "No, nothing so strong." Just an inquiry. "That defeats the purpose. We do -not- want any leak that the thought of MG or Ningyo involvement may have occurred. Because if it did, such leaks would spook whoever was involved." "Not on this." Well what else happened last night that we could use? "We can pretend there was a report of someone matching her description involved in something else last night." "And the last thing you want is the evening newsblogs spreading rumors that MGs have gone badly enough criminal to hurt Security." * Ichigo pulls up the news to look for something that could work. "Fake an event." "After we talk to her, we can tell her she's cleared on that." Well so then what? We're just trying to see if she lies about where she was last night? "And yes, what Bob-Omb said. We're supposedly in H-2, it's possible enough that something could have happened that didn't leak into the newscasts." "If nothing else it would give us an opportunity to check her out." "True." There were three serious assaults, a few bar fights, and much assorted street crime. Nothing stands out as easily usable. "I think the friendship angle might also work out, but it's too long-term. Even Snow wouldn't be able to get close enough to her to get anything real in any sort of workable timeframe, unless we had something else going on too." Unless this really is bigger than it appears. Then we just may end up wishing we went that route. "Fake a enthusiast who used a replica of a spear she's famous for. Set the time for the explosion, ask her where she was then, and ask her if she had any links to the enthusiast." "What I'm saying is that we can work both." It'd be best not to be confrontational with her in any case. At least not at first. * Kasumi pulls up some more specifics on Spear's powers, looking for something that's easily replicable. "We wouldn't need to be confrontational with the investigation angle either." No. "This is a low-key way of asking her where she was while throwing her a red herring." Still she's innocent until we can prove something. She was a good match but not perfect. We can't just fault her for having an active social life. "Who's faulting her? As I said, we're not going to be pulling her in." Spear apparently has one type of spear, though she is able to summon it in any metal she wants, and summon it to her hand, or flying straight in front of her at about 1.78 km/s. I'm just saying. "I'm quite aware, Snow." "Her power set doesn't even match well enough to suspect her, really." "I have to say, I'm not sold on the idea of her being prime suspect or anything." "Not unless medicine balls count as spears here in T-E." I'm not trying to say you were. I'm sorry. I don't want to argue, please. "Neither am I. It's best not to leave that to assumptions, though." "If she was, we wouldn't be trying to be quite so subtle about it." It'd match for attacking the car. As something punctured it. "There's a possibility that she could make the spear out of uranium, and it could get melted down." And something like that could've hit Jump. "Again, I don't think it's likely, just possible. We can ask her if she's given out her weapons out at all, as well." "Not from her wounds. They looked impact-generated. Well, except for the head wound." "No, that's no good, either. Who would be able to throw them like that?" "Anyone with strength powers, likely. And there are a lot of those in T-E." * Kasumi tosses a search for open cases with unexplained damage into the window, results organized by type of damage. That brings back a lot of vandalism reports - there are a few larger things, but nothing that really matches the sort of cannonball damage you saw this morning. * Ichigo pulls up the files on the two identified men, hoping to determine where in the company they worked. HWGC's personnel records are not public. A search of their net site does not find any reference to these two men. Bleh, is there anyway we can get access to these records? "I wonder if we should push it. Though I think that issue would be better handled in person at their office." "Not legally in most countries, but we are H-1; Princess Royal, can you get us access?" It'd be worth knowing though. We want to go after them prepared. Otherwise they can just deny all involvement. "Let me see what I can do." "Good point." "Okay." "Oh, into HWGC? They're not a government agency, so it'll be a bit harder than just tapping a req for access." "Like I said, not legally." "I am not sure what H-2 is allowed to do under T-E's laws, regarding hacking secure private industries." Don't we have people that do this sort of stuff? "I personally can't get it in, but I can see if I can connect with anyone who's got the skills." "If any of you have any hacker friends..." "I will look into it, but my contacts are liable to be expensive, if they can do it at all. The only upside is they will not connect me to T-E, let alone to H-1." "A very attractive upside." "I've got some small skill in forcing my way into things like this. Not enough to rely on. However, if we go there in person, and get a hold of one of their PDAs and get access to their network..." "It is worth noting I dare not use this avenue often, lest the alteration in my patterns of activities become slector mesha ltet." Still if they're hiding anything, then that would just prove that our search was justified. "...sorry, wrong language. Lest it become obvious I've got a more permanent employment than usual." "Ah. Yes." "... the H-2 network will get everything and anything we want out of them." "Bob-Omb, perhaps you and I should work together on this. Wyrd is a very skilled autonomously-operating EI; if we can find a way to let him jump EI nodes into software underlays not originally designed for him, he could be our mole. How's Glitch at things like that?" "I've been working on Glitch. He's better than he was, and good at finding, using, and incorporating new modules. I haven't found a hacking module I like for him yet, though." "Show me Wyrd's functionality and I can probably incorporate it into Glitch. I'm not good enough yet to make something that complex from scratch though." * Ichigo just looks confused at all this. What uh do you guys hack? "Wyrd's not much of a hacker, either. I couldn't afford the one I wanted, not with the anonymity I required." "I'm sure we can get one from H-2 to adopt." "A universal interface would be possible to do. What do you want Wyrd to reside in?" "I'm not sure I follow." "You want to get Wyrd resident on something in the HWGC networks that normally doesn't support an EI, right?" "And 'hacking', Chi, is the process of electronic breaking-and- entering into secured computer systems and networks without the proper authorization." "Ah, no, I more meant that most EIs need the underlying software to have permissions and some specifics for the particular EI. But that would be even better, yes." Yeah I know but uh... why would you do that... before we were working here? "I usually hired others to, actually." "You're referring to the authorization and compatibility modules resident on the devices." "Yes." "It would be far simpler to get a PDA from them in person and copy those, then use that." But uh... it's wrong, isn't it? "It would, you're right." * Kasumi starts a search for a PDA registered to the HWGC network that's out in the city, in a bar or club, preferably. "Chi: Many would agree with you that hacking is wrong, yes." "It is certainly illegal for private individuals to perform." * Ichigo frowns. "Royal-sama. Is our next step looking into HWGC?" The T-E public datanet is a wide, busy place, and Kasumi's search disappears into the nether. It looks like this search could take a while. After talking to Spear? * Ichigo yawns big. "Hm. Who on H-1 is skilled at breaking and entering, or shoplifting?" * Kasumi lets the EI know to mark the results high-priority when they come. "Princess, you have dossiers on all of us, I assume. Do any stand out to you?" "I can in a limited fashion. Breaking is easy. Entering is the little ones specialty - there's nowhere they can't, or won't go." * Ichigo giggles again. So cute. "So if we send in a little one, could it pick up a PDA? The easiest place to find stray ones would be there. "They could not. But they could make a tunnel for Millimeter, if he we inclined to, to bring a PDA through." "Hmmm." "Can Millimeter shrink objects along with himself?" "I do think we should look into HWGC next. As for the other..." "We can say an enthusiast of Spear did something, and just ask her some questions in a non-confrontational manner. The Belgians we're going to want to lure out with a promise of completing the deal, though that needs more planning as it stands." When did anyone agree to any of that but you, Kas? "I think we'll get the Belgians' buyers more than the Belgians, but we'll see." "Exercise care with the Belgians. Diplomatic immunity, political relations, etc." "Yes, Royal-sama. More planning is required. ^^" "You three should get some sleep. I'll keep working on this and report when we meet up in person. Keep your EIs online, and I'll forward everything I find to them for them to sort for you." Anyways. *yawns again* We'll talk to Spear and then figure out how to approach HWGC from there... Don't you ever sleep, Fate? "All too often." "I'll believe that when I see it." Well you should do that now too. "We'll see." * Ichigo snuggles down into her pillow and yawns again. Pretty please? For me? "I've got some other duties to take care of. I'll contact you all later this afternoon." "Yes, ma'am." * PrincessRoyal signs out. Bye your Highne-- Aww she left. "If you like, I can send one of the little ones to keep you company. If you've got ice cream, they're harmless as long as they get some." "No, but I appreciate the offer." * Ichigo 's vid window shows her at an odd angle and it's fairly easy to tell she's finally fallen asleep. Those still curious enough to watch would get an odd angle view up her nose. "Good luck, good night. I'll leave Glitch's remote up keyed to you if you need to access anything on him." "Thanks. Sleep well." * LordFate goes back to sending Wyrd trolling up and down the web, gathering such info as he deems useful and sorting it. ...not all of it seems to make sense in conjunction. * Kasumi changes mode to listening- she's not active anymore, just logging. [end mini] Session Close: Sat Jun 10 17:42:30 2006