[Day: Wednsday, October 22nd, 2081. Time: 3:00 p.m.] [This morning, you arrived at your offices to see a message waiting for each of you. It seems Lydia wants to take the time today to run over some acquired data on various terrorist organizations you and your wards will be facing. So after giving your wards some work to keep them busy for the next however-long-this-takes, you begin to gather at the appointed place, Briefing Room #1, at the appointed time, 3:00. Lydia hasn't arrived yet.] [Session Start!] (Do you want the kiddies out of here?) * Roseli is in briefing room #1! She's seated at the conference table with a mug of coffee and is presently stirring cream into it. A pair of sunglasses lay neglected nearby. * Gottlieb is seated at the conference table looking over files. ( Hmmm.... Nah, stay here in case your guardians reiterate stuff to you later. ) * Heinrick sits at the table as well, rolling two medicine balls in his right hand. [I guess I should describe the briefing room, huh? Well, it looks like a classroom: There's a door with a window at the end of both sides of the room, and a chalk board on the north side. There's also a video projector overhead, and a holoprojector in front of the large desk in the center.] * Roseli taps her spoon against the edge of her cup with a tink and has a sip. She considers it for a moment, then nods to herself and has a longer swallow. [There's eight long tables in two columns down the room, each large enough to fit three people if necessary. It's kinda like a school science lab.] * Gottlieb crosses something out on one of his files, in pencil, and scribbles in a meticulous correction in the margins. (Ah, that is different. I'm used to conference rooms having one rather big table.) (Me too.) * Roseli swivels her chair to look out one of the windows. "Hm." [You can see a nice view of the garden if you look out the windows. Beyond that is the track, and beyond that is the grassy field before the woods.] * Gottlieb is sitting at the same table as Roseli, then! Being neighborly. Possibly also the same table as Heinrick, if Heinrick is also feeling that way. * Heinrick is feeling neighborly enough. They're colleagues after all, right? (Why *would* you cram three people at a table if you don't need to, though? A conundrum!) [You already knew about that from the last session, though. The only reason to bring it up again is that now the grassy field has something in it: A bi-pedal bot, all black, but with red speed-lines. It sports two gattling guns on the sides of its body where the arms might be on a person, and paces back and forth in a tireless patrol.] (Because they might need the other table for stuff!) (There are... a lot of tables, apparently.) (Ah, 8 table.s) (Heinrick's at the one next to you guys then, no need to crowd.) (Ha, thanks. ;P) Nice day. Oh? I have been a bit busy with paper work to really appreciate it. * Gottlieb hrumphs at the file before actually looking up and out the window. "Eh? Oh. Tolerable, I suppose." * Roseli shrugs, then looks at Gottlieb. "Don't like being out?" ( "I've seen better in my day! Way before your days! Whippersnappers!") In fact, I quite enjoy the outdoors. Then 'tolerable'? ( Damn it. What kind of a day *is* it, then?) ( Days weren't blue in my days. They came in all different colors. And we liked everyone of them, dagnabbit!) ("It doesn't hold a candle to July 14th, 2035!") ( So, GM. Roseli just made you have to give a weather report. <.< ) ( Sorry, doing a lot >.> ) [It's bright and sunny out! Not a cloud in the sky. Okay, three clouds in the sky, but they're small and barely noticable.] * Gottlieb shrugs. "A tad bit too warm. Too easy to get dehydrated while exercising. Could be a little less bright." Tolerable. Right. But not bad overall, therefore: Tolerable. * Gottlieb nods. ( And I'lllllllll brb! ) * Roseli has a long drink of coffee. You're picky. You could always wear sunglasses. And keep a water bottle with you at all times. * Roseli grins and slides her sunglasses one seat over so they land in front of Gottlieb. * Gottlieb puts down the pencil and leans back thoughtfully. "Oh, I wouldn't object to going outside on a day like this. I simply have my own categorization system, so to speak. " Interesting. I've never found myself to "categorize" weather at all. * Gottlieb waves off the glasses with a small smile. * Roseli swivels so she's facing Gottlieb. "Well, share." I find that specific categories for all things make life much easier. ( Back ) Not so much in the sense that one must always live by them. But so that one can be aware of their existence. * Roseli gulps down more coffee, her metal bracelet flashing in the sun. So how many kinds of days? * Gottlieb tilts his head and thinks for a few minutes. (argh phone) [Not long after, Lydia enters the room, wearing a skirt-and-blazer type suit, as usual, and carrying a small disk. "Good afternoon. I hope I didn't keep you waiting."] Not that long. (Do we call that a skazer?) ( Beats me. I don't know what those things are called. ) * Heinrick puts the balls in his pockets and nods. "No, not at all. I presume this is important?" [Lydia makes her way up to the front desk, starting the holocomputer and popping the disk into it. "In a manner of speaking. Originally, I was going to wait to do this until you were well into your training, but on second thought, it may be more beneficial if you know the type of enemy you're going to be facing beforehand."] [Within seconds, a semi-transparent green screen pops up between you and Lydia. Ooooooh.] * Heinrick nods and strokes his chin. "Seems reasonable. It would help focus training as well." [Lydia nods.] Understatement. We're going over terrorists? [Lydia nods. "To be more precise, the most active groups in the past several months. Naturally, there's no guarentee that they'll still be active by the time you're ready to face them. Nor should you expect them to be your only opponents, as there's still five months until you're scheduled to go active."] ( Sure is a lot of activity though ) About that, are these groups more international or do they focus their attention on Germany in particular? ["Both."] ["Particularly..."] [She types in a few buttons, and a picture appears on the green background: Arab militants in a desert, armed with semi-automatic rifles and wearing white turbans. "This group. Turkey symphathizers."] * Roseli nods. (back) * Gottlieb rubs his chin and nods. "Hmm." ["As you know, the war with Turkey and the Middle East over the Byzantine Empire came to a ceasefire almost five years ago, and the Byzantine Empire remains a sovereign nation."] Right. (Turkey and ALL of the Middle East?) ( A good chunk of it. ) ( Iraq, Iran, etc. ) (Like the Six Days' War!) (And we saw how well that ended!) ["But many Arabs are not satisfied with this arrangement. Terrorist attacks are most frequent in the Empire itself, but they've been targetting the countries that supported it during the War, which includes Germany."] All right. This one is? Who exactly funds them? ["Your guess is as good as mine. If we knew that, we could cut off their source of income. As for who they are... if you mean what country of origin, they're a mix of supporters from the Middle East."] Are there any Middle Eastern countries not involved in this? Wouldn't be officially government. Maybe offshoots or private. Possibly. But that should be our first priority. Anything else is auxillary. * Roseli brings her coffee up to her lips. "Would be a political nightmare." And swallow. ["Officially, none of them are involved in terrorism. Officially."] * Gottlieb hrms quietly. * Heinrick sighs deeply and puts his hands up in the air. "Of course. As to be expected. And unofficially?" ["Their weapons are pretty high grade, and they have access to some bots, if slightly outdated. In other words, they have to have some pretty heavy backing."] * Roseli nods. What targets have they hit or threatened to hit thus far? ["Embassies, subways, shopping districts... mainly anywhere they can either send a political message or kill as many people as possible."] Universities? I assume you have case studies and reports for us. [Lydia nods. "There, too. And yes, but not with me. I'll leave it to you to decide what to ask for once we're finished here. You'll get your information by tomorrow morning."] Hn. Very well. What sort of intelligence is being utilized to anticipate their next strike? That goes as a general question for these groups. ["What I can tell you right now is they're well trained and well armed, not to mention fearless and sometimes even suicidal. Luckily, they don't have any paranormals in their midst that we know of, so they'll probably be realitively easy to handle compared to some of the other groups."] ( Beats me >.> ) (Do Guardians get bonus points for stumping the GM?) ( No, you generally get something bad to happen to you ) ( o/~ ) (And this differs from usual MC how?) ["We have a team of specialists who gather our intelligence, but regarding this particular group, it's complicated."] ["Since they're mostly normals, it's mostly Section 1 that deals with them. Any intelligence we get comes from them, and there's usually not much more than the basics for a particular planned attack."] [Lydia leans forward. "By the way, Section 1 is against us, too."] So pleasant to know all our efforts are an uphill battle. [Lydia nods. "Yes, well, we do what we must."] A goal gained through struggle is made richer than an easy one, for we end up with the struggle as a sign of victory as well as the goal. ["Most everyone is against us. And they will be until we can prove the project is effective."] ["Until then, we can only play with the cards dealt to us by those who would just as soon see us fail."] * Roseli shrugs with one shoulder. "That's pretty normal." She finishes off her coffee and sets the mug on the table. [Lydia hits a few keys. "Moving on...." She frowns, as the next group to show up is a number of people in dark cloaks that cover their entire bodies save their faces, which you can't make out, surrounding a pentagram on a stone floor. They each carry a torch, and have both arms upraised. "The Cult of Belial."] ( That get through? ) (yeah) (Yes.) (Yes.) ( Woot ) * Gottlieb raises an eyebrow. * Roseli raises an eyebrow at the same time. "Satanists?" * Heinrick hmms at that and leans forward. "Now then. This is interesting." ["No, but close. Different demon. Usually these kinds of groups are just harmless teenagers being stupid. But the Cult of Belial is different."] The real thing. * Heinrick pushes his glasses up on his face. "Something to read up on, then." * Roseli pulls out a pack of gum and offers it around. * Heinrick thanks Roseli but waves his hand. ( I can't remember. Did I take any last time?) (Nope. Bad teeth.) (D:) * Gottlieb does the same. (That's what Gottlieb said!) * Roseli offers some to Lydia. [Lydia nods. "They've been active recently, primarily in kidnapping. All of the victims were teenagers or citizens in their early twenties. Most of them female. They're searching for virgins to use in sacrifices."] [Lydia declines!] Well then. Our best defensive measure is to make sure every woman in Germany has as much sex as possible. * Gottlieb snorts. That just means they'll aim younger. Indeed. But it would thin out the population we would need to protect. Mostly German victims? Any centralized region in particular. (s/./?) [Lydia ignores Heinrick. "We -- that is, Section 1 -- hit them several times over the past few months, but we can't seem to shut them down permanently. They'll lay quietly for a while, regroup, then start kidnapping all over again."] [She nods to Gottlieb. "Particularly in the southern part of the country."] Any chance they're going o ut of country? * Roseli unwraps a piece of gum for herself and gives a little snort-laugh. "Virgins in their early twenties?" she asks herself. ["Doubtful, but I wouldn't count it out, either."] * Roseli pops the gum in her mouth. "They *do* know magic?" Why Germany in particular then? [Lydia nods. "Yes. They haven't kidnapped any children yet, that we know of. And yes, it's quite possible."] You mention kidnapping, but only imply murder. [Lydia shrugs. "Probably because it's convenient. They can hide out while we have our hands full dealing with other terrorists."] *Is* murder, in fact, the result of these kidnappings? [Lydia looks at Gottlieb. "Sorry, I thought sacrificing implied murder."] It does *imply* murder. There are other uses of the word, though, and it does not explicitly state "murder". So thank you for the clarification. ["They're deffinately killed. The victims are painted with some markingings that presumably have meaning to the followers, then have their hearts cut... or maybe torn... out in the middle of one of these pentagrams."] ( markingings! ) So, somewhere out there, we have the recruiters stationed here. We presume. It would be seem fairly easy to sneak out of the country to lie low, though. * Roseli snaps her gum. ["Perhaps. But Germany is where they strike."] * Heinrick nods. "Indeed. I would avoid mere speculation for the time being." ["All of the kidnappings have been in our country, if not always our people. Sometimes they'll get a foreign exchange student or someone on vacation."] ( I have to leave in 15 minutes. For NEW YORK CITY. ) (NEW YORK CITY?!?!?!?!? Ahem.) (Get a rope!) ["We're fairly certain they intend to summon Belial in a bid for power, but we don't know if what they're doing will actually work or not. But we need to take it seriously, because if they do succeed in a summoning, it could be disasterous for the entire world."] And if they don't succeed, it is merely disasterous for all those sacrificed. ["Don't start, Doctor." Lydia punches a few more keys. "Moving on..."]] [A man appears on screen. He's wearing a plaid shirt nad some jeans, and really looks like a redneck farmer, save two things. One, he's got a Desert Eagle in his hand. And two, he has four eyes. His second set is in his cheeks, slightly further apart than the first, giving him peripheral vision of more than 180 degrees.] [Lydia frowns. "One of the most dangerous groups of all."] * Gottlieb raises both eyebrows this time around. * Heinrick pushes his glasses up with his fingers. "This is a group then? Most fascinating." [She hits a key, and the picture of the man minimizes into the upper left corner of the background, making room for a larger picture, a photo of the man with his hand outstretched, yelling something to several others at his side. Behind them, fires rage in an industrial complex.] ( Sight rolls! ) *** Dicesuke (akodomakot@ip24-252-56-222.om.om.cox.net) has joined channel #MC4 2d8 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Roseli (2d8) and gets a natural 8 for a result of 8. (Made.) 2d8-4 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Gottlieb (2d8-4) and gets a natural 10 for a result of 6. (Made) [Lydia sighs, rubbing her nose. "No, Doctor. He's merely the leader. A very dangerous man."] * Roseli waits. ( /em waits too, for Rowyn ) ( Eh, I can keep going. ) *** Heinrick2 (rowyn2001@71-215-190-126.eugn.qwest.net) has joined channel #mc4 (Did my dice roll ever go through?) *** Signoff: Heinrick (Ping timeout) ( No ) *** Heinrick2 is now known as Heinrick 2d8-6 * Dicesuke throws the bones for Heinrick (2d8-6) and gets a natural 13 for a result of 7. ["The man is Claude Sherman, American-born but living in Germany for over two decades. He was a subject in an illegal genetic modification program, along with several others in his group, some of which you can see here."] [You all notice the Zunkuft lable on the industrial complex in the background of the photo.] * Gottlieb 's eyebrows stay up. "Indeed? How interesting." ["He and his followers believe that genetic modification is a horrible evil, and doesn't want to see what he calls a 'mistake that he made' repeated."] Great. ["So his group, which he calls the Liberators, have been targetting Zunkuft facilities for the past several months. They're extremely dangerous, and one of the chief reasons our Section was created to begin with."] * Heinrick looks up at Lydia. "I was serious. It is possible that they could have all had the same modification." He looks back at the screen. [Some of the sillhouetes. of the other people in the photo do look inhuman, but they're kind of blurry compared to Claude. You can't really make them out.] Regardless, I am certain they would be less than pleased to find this sort of facility. ["Doubtlessly."] ["They primarily raid Zunkuft facilities. They're very good at getting through surveillance, and at covering their tracks."] *** Signoff: Heinrick (Ping timeout) *** Heinrick (rowyn2001@71-215-190-126.eugn.qwest.net) has joined channel #mc4 ["They also possess strong combat skills. Sherman himself is an expert marksman."] * Roseli nods. "Funding?" ( *me actually leaves now. ^^) ["We have reason to believe Sherman possesses large resources on his own. Enough to fund his group."] ( orz ) (Bye Shar!) No idea how? * Heinrick nods. "There must be a trail somehow." ["If there is, we have yet to find it. They're good. They must have a professional on their side."] ( And his name is Lukas o/~ ) * Roseli nods slowly. (Lukas is a bot!) ["It may even be Sherman himself. We know he's very intelligent. He was both a scientist and an engineer for an illegal genetics company before going rogue."] Interesting. * Heinrick soaks it all in, quietly this time. ["His group is a mixed bag. Some are left over subjects from illegal experiments, like Sherman himself. Others are acquaintances. Some have paranormal abilities."] ["There are other, similar groups to his that are against genetic modification, but Sherman's is by far the most dangerous."] What can he do? Because of size or do the other groups not modified like Sherman's group is? (s/do/are) ["Sherman? For starters, he can catch detail. He's spotted and evaded every sniper we've sent after him. He's an expert marksman, as I've said. He's a scientist, specializing in genetic modification, so he knows where to hit Zunkuft. And he's an engineer who designs his own bots."] * Heinrick nods. "It won't be easy then." ["Simply put, the other groups are largely hate groups against genetic modification. Like this one..." She punches a few keys, and another picture pops up. There's a werewolf, a vampire, and a woman in dark clothes. "Sparticus, they call themselves."] * Heinrick smirks slightly. "Not that I expected it to be." ["This group consists entirely of paranormals. It differs slightly from the others in that, instead of hating genetic modification for what it is, they hate it because they feel threatened. In other words, they're jealous that normal people have a chance to get the powers they take for granted."] * Roseli rolls her eyes. "How Roman." ["Regardless, it's our responsibility to deal with it."] * Heinrick smiles. "Actually, how very any nation that's in power at the time." *** Signoff: Keiko (Quit: Moving) Very well. So they are less organized than Sherman's group? [Lydia nods. "They're notable only because they're all paranormals. That in itself makes them a larger threat than normal."] You know who they are and what they do? Could use that. ["No. That will be one of your responsibilities to find out."] ["Eventually."] * Heinrick raises an eyebrow. "Oh? Do we at least have an id on those in the picture?" [She shakes her head. "No, this was taken from a video we intercepted on route to a TV station."] Hm, okay. *** Keiko (Mechalink@ip68-13-21-94.om.om.cox.net) has joined channel #mc4 ( Well, I'm out of stuff to say, soooooo... Wanna end? ) (Not even a "That's all the groups we have, good day"?) ("We'll keep you posted if anything else comes up?"_ ( That's not all the groups though. I just don't wanna go over the really minor ones :P ) ( Ok ok, you get ) (Haha, okay.) (Yeah, I'm good with this.) (That's fine. Just might want to wrap it up with an overview of what we get, instead of just dropping us off at "Session End") ["Well, those are the major threats we're focussing on for the moment. Any questions?"] I am assuming our eventual goal will be on the organization itself and not merely stopping individual acts of terrorism? Am I correct in that? [Lydia nods. "We have to mount a defense before a counterattack."] (Well, we're still going over in the library, so you can always rejoin and continue!) ( That is true! ) ( But not me. I gotta sleep soon. ) Information on any of them - names, pictures, history, abilities - would be good. Get it to us tomorrow? (Yeah, sleep is good over here.) Understandable. I am simply considering our long-term goals as well as immediate. (Rose is a neglectful guardian because her player sleeps. ;P) [Lydia nods. "What we have, yes."] (Evil! You're letting Ten run around wild out there?) (Eh, she can handle herself. And you.) * Roseli nods. "That's all I ask. Thanks." [Lydia nods. "All right, then. You're dismissed."] [Session End!]