Move 1 (Chapter 1.1)

[yhlee]

Time: CLASSIFIED
Place: CLASSIFIED

The tan-skinned woman, your contact in the resistance, doesn't introduce herself, but she has that efficient way of walking that suggests some form of military training, and she leads the twelve of you to the hangar where a trademoth awaits. The moth is painted with some kind of stylized insect symbol. "Technically this is a reclaimed pirate vessel," the woman says abruptly, "but we prefer to call it an entrepreneur. We've named it Wasp, mainly because the technicians couldn't be bothered to repaint it."

She faces you fully, unsmiles. "Let me be frank. In an ideal universe we would send a fully integrated team that had trained together. We don't have that kind of luxury. The twelve of you are the people available for this particular mission, so we're sending you."

The woman's expression smooths out a little. "We have been informed of an opportunity to recruit a Nirai defector, who is going by the name Remi, from a certain time period in the heptarchate. Not only are Nirai valuable because they can always tell what the date is--useful when you're time traveling, as you might imagine--this one claims to have invented a method for detecting rifts and predicting where they will take us, possibly even generating them. As some of you know from personal experience, rifts are unstable and figuring out where they will take you is not...exactly a science. That being said, there's always the possibility that Nirai Remi is a heptarchate agent. Stay alert."

She continues giving you details: the twelve of you will be crewing the Wasp, which is thankfully largely automated, to go through a rift and recover Nirai Remi on the other end from Station Moongray. Her briefing materials include some photographs of Remi, a handsome young man with curly hair and striking ice-violet eyes. Apparently this isn't the first time he's run into trouble with heptarchate authorities, and he's much more interested in continuing his research than getting into yet more trouble.

Remi will be expecting you. The woman is happy to leave the details of his retrieval up to you. In particular, there hasn't been time to do a thorough reconnaissance of Station Moongray, as there's some concern that the particular rift leading to Remi's time and place is unstable and may dissipate soon.

[GM notes: At this point, you should feel free to ask the NPC questions about the mission. You should also feel free to organize yourselves either in-character or out of character--is there going to be a command hierarchy? who will specialize in what roles aboard the moth or during the retrieval? cover stories and identities?--and discuss preliminary plans. You can also talk a little bit about how your character ended up here, if you like. It's fine to have multiple threads going for simultaneous conversations. Given that this is a forum RPG and we're mostly in different time zones, some of that is inevitable. If you have any questions, feel free to ping me--I'll be watching the threads.

Once the characters get underway, there should be plenty of room for interaction and flirting and whatever you like--this is mostly to get us started.--YHL]

Comments

[smokedetective]

Ashari stands leaning against a large crate, sticking close to Sulen. As the woman speaks, they inspect their nails, immaculate in spite of the disaster that was the past couple of weeks. This was perhaps the second- no, third. Definitely third to last place they wanted to be. Accidentally falling through a time rift had been torture enough. Falling further into a rebellion they didn't particularly want to die for was even worse. Ashari sighed. Neither the clothes nor the accommodations were up to their standards, but weren't the worst they'd ever put up with. At least the "entrepreneur" ship seemed to be more their speed. Still, their only real solace was the fact that their old friend, Sulen, had somehow ended up not only in the same place, but on the same team. It was a stroke of luck the like of which they hadn't seen before, but they weren't going to question it. Yet.

Despite the reminiscing, Ashari carefully listens to what the woman had to say. Their life had always depended on having all of the information, now more than ever. The whole Remi situation sounds too good to be true, but they're stuck here, so there's no point in arguing with the mission itself. They don't like it, but they'll deal. Running out of hangnails to scowl at, they push off of the crate and lean against Sulen, using their friend's shoulder as an armrest.

Once the woman finishes talking, Ashari elegantly raises a hand in a parody of their student days and doesn't wait for the go ahead before they say, "Hello? Yes. A couple of questions. One, exactly when and where will we be going? Two, will we have the resources to fit in, or will we need to improvise? And three, who"--they turn to cast a dispassionate glance at the rest of their new team--"are all of you?"

[OOC: I'm figuring we'd all better introduce ourselves and get some information before arguing over the command hierarchy, though that should be fun when it happens. :))]

[venndaai]

Sulen doesn't mind being used as an armrest. There's a comforting familiarity to it. The entire rest of their life might be gone, but at least Ashari can be counted on to act like this is just another garden party.

"Those are questions I'd like answered as well," Sulen says. They're nervous, though this doesn't show on their face. This mission sounds like it's going to involve a lot of unknown variables. Not least of which is the Wasp. Sulen is not comfortable in civilian moths. Especially when they can't pull up the specs to reassure themselves that it isn't going to suddenly decompress mid journey.

They wait for the contact to respond. If the destination is a time period that they're well read on, at least they will know something of what to expect, will feel like they have a bit more control of the situation. They turn their head slightly to observe the rest of the team, automatically looking for everyone's signifiers. A bad habit, somewhat akin to a compulsion, but every bit of information helps. It's a ragtag group. What brought them all here?

Sulen will feel much better once preparations for the mission begin and they have something to focus on, though their anxiety over the Wasp probably won't recede.

[lookingforoctober]

"Elesa Avery, historian and adventurer," she says in response to the question. "Call me Elesa. I'm not from around here."

She keeps it quick, because the question isn't one that she considers especially important under the circumstances. Introductions always make her impatient. But she does think that they should be symmetrical, if they're happening.

"And you?" she asks, pointedly.

[yhlee]

The woman nods. "You are to set out within the next day--sooner if preferable, to the rift coordinates given in the briefing materials. It should take you five days to reach it. As for Nirai Remi, beyond his coordinates, you are picking him up in High Calendar Year 361."

[GM's note: For reference, the massacre at Hellspin Fortress is in Year 853. Ninefox Gambit's events take place in 1251. So 361 is during an earlier period of the heptarchate.]

Her expression turns sardonic. "As for resources, we've installed a matter printer in the Wasp so you can produce clothing and other basics as needed, but it's...an antique from the time period, so its output may be...interesting."

[lleullawgyffes]

"Eshegen Virmad," Virmad says, barely catching himself before he accidentally said "Rahal Virmad". Now that he knows he'll be working with this people, his instinct is to look around at the group and check everyone's signifiers; he notices Sulen surveying the group for what he suspects is the same purpose; a glance at their signifier confirms his suspicion, or at least doesn't refute it. Interesting. The others are...quite a mix.

He hesitates, not sure how much other information about himself to reveal. But then, if the asker and the other probably-(ex-)Rahal are as close as their body language suggests, they'll find out soon enough anyway. Their rebellion contact seems confident enough that their conspiracy is safe in this company, anyway. "I'm a student of...doctrine...s."

[Can I ask in particular what our nameless contact's signifier is?]

[lookingforoctober]

Elesa stares at the picture of Nirai Remi, because it's the easiest thing to understand about the briefing, which seems a bit more faithful to the name "brief" than she would prefer. She's feeling overwhelmed, being tossed in with strangers for a mission that seems simple on the surface but might easily end up being anything but.

One question seems obviously important, though, so when the time for questions arrives, she makes it her first: "How much time is there before the rift closes? Can that be estimated, or should speed be our highest priority?"

She grimaces in anticipation of the answer. In her opinion, speed is a particularly unfortunate necessity for a mission that would be best done quietly. Speed equals mistakes, mistakes lead to attention.

And attention makes it that much harder to get away, back to this time period with their prize Nirai defector.



When there's an opportunity, she has a few obvious questions for her fellow teammates, as well.

"Does anyone have skill with flying a ship? Or taking care of whatever else needs doing on a ship? Even if it's an automated ship, someone should..." She shrugs. From this phrasing, the others might accurately presume that this is not where Elesa's skills lie.

And, "Actually, what is each of you best at?" A bit blunt, but this is not a social situation, it's a mission.

"My most relevant skill is--" She shapeshifts into the form of the person next to her, and tilts her head to the side as she waits for the change in expression that is surely coming.

Usually, she'd be more circumspect, but she trusts the contact that brought her here and introduced her to this team. Plus, the resistance knows what she's capable of. It was her ticket in, the thing that made her useful enough to recruit, so it's probably in some file that's going to be provided to the team anyway. And the way this team was put together, she figures being circumspect is just going to cause more problems.

What they really need is instant trust. Elesa doesn't have it; this is the best she can do.

[venndaai]

Sulen is mentally going, "Aaaaugh!!!" but their somber, attentive expression doesn't change.

Auuuugh, what was that?! Well, the woman who recruited them to the rebellion did tell them that they should expect to see a lot of strange things...

"That's an interesting talent," they say. "I'm guessing you're not from the Heptarchate?" Unless this is some kind of Shuos trick. Sulen wouldn't put it past the Andan either.

[smokedetective]

Seeing the shift, Ashari grins, and it does a good job of hiding just how hard they're trying to figure out just where this exotic effect is from. "Well I'm jealous now. That's quite the neat trick. I'm afraid I can't bring anything quite like that to the table. I think I'm best at... hmm... color coordination, probably. And my greatest weakness would have to be monochromatic color palettes. What can I say? We all have our downfalls."

They'd already given the team their name. Their mannerisms would give away other details, they were sure. Ashari didn't want to share anything else, not until they got a better feel for who these people were.

[zuhrovet]

Sasha's staring right at the woman who briefed everyone, waiting for answers to her questions, so she doesn't see the shift. She flips a card over her shoulder at Elesa, though.

It's plain white, thick paper impressed by physical type, and reads:

zuhrovet, sikandaret [sasha]
information security and retrieval
cryptanalysis

[yhlee]

The woman's mouth twists. "We think the rift will stay open for two weeks--pardon me, two six-day weeks--on this side. It should take you no longer than five days, going at safe accelerations for the Wasp's engine to handle, to reach it."

[yehan]

Yehan is glad for once that her face rarely shows her emotions accurately; still, she can't help her eyes widening at the abrupt shapeshifting. She wavers awkwardly, not sure if she should jump in, then clears her throat.

"I'm Yehan." No need to give these people more information than necessary yet. And certainly no need to tell them she's a former Shuos--she's all too used to members of the resistance being disappointed that their Shuos isn't an "action" Shuos. Better to stick with what she could do. "Linguist by training. I can do some cryptography in a pinch. And any trouble with local languages--which could include the high language depending how far back we're going--I'm the one to go to." She isn't sure if stating how many languages she knows would be too much, but she decides that the others can find out as needed.

[slybrarian]

Alaric catches the shape-shifting out of the corner of his eyes, and can't help himself. He reaches behind someone else and gives her a tentative little poke. "Is that a physical change or just an illusion?"

[pengwern]

Mikodez had decided on the way over that using his signifier to secure the heretics' sympathy was utter rot. He might still pay special attention to the crew on this trip, but he certainly won’t do it as a second year Shuos cadet.

The first person to speak had to be an Andan, from that exaggeratedly inflected voice, but it was harder to determine if the person next to them was faction affiliated. The third, a foreigner but still capable of exploiting exotic technology? He would have to see how persuadable they were. The pranks he could run with a double, let alone the evasion of any agents on his tail.

He has a full array of false faction identities after attending that seminar last month, all ready to go: Rahal Irmgar, Kel Pengwern, Shuos Qitian, Nirai Astralabe, Andan Rambutan, Vidona Feargod. While he didn’t have the foresight to bring those IDs along, their personal details are easy enough to recall. The Vidona was Actsy to their friends, if any of those exist for Vidona, and the Nirai had had a heretical parent. Now that was a possibility, if they ever reached Nirai Remi, as long as no Rahal appeared for a scrying.

The woman did say heptarchate. How heretical could it be to forge a Liozh identity? (Very.) Mikodez tries to remember what he could of them. A few essays, their last heptarch’s execution, another video of Heptarch Henezda’s speeches that dragged on and on. Go with Liozh Zedokim as a placeholder name, and could he pull off their official braids and uniform, best to study a few cadets on outreach first, and his gaze catches at a figure off to the side, hidden between two lights.

Something about the way they brush their hair back to look straight at him --

[zuhrovet]

Sasha says, "Yes, I have six questions! What is Remi's local time? How much subjective time should we expect to spend in the rift? How far is the rift exit from the station? Are there maps of the station and its environs available for download? What is our cover identity? Do we have local contacts other than Remi on the station?"

She pauses, looks around, and adds, "Seven. Please tell me one of us is a licensed pilot?"

[yhlee]

"Remi's local time, High Calendar Year 361. Subjective time in the rift, perhaps ten days, based on our explorations. It should give," and the woman's mouth quirk, "the lot of you time to acclimate to each other. The rift exit is three days from the shadow. And that's part of the problem--the Nirai station has been studying the rift, so you'll probably be seen as you enter." She pulls out a slate, fiddles with it. "I've transmitted maps for your immediate perusal; you can find them in the Wasp's mothgrid as well."

EDIT: [sorry, forgot to reiterate this for your reference]
[GM's note: For reference, the massacre at Hellspin Fortress is in Year 853. Ninefox Gambit's events take place in 1251. So 361 is during an earlier period of the heptarchate.]

She shakes her head, sighs--the first expression of frustration she has shown. "We originally had you down as interdimensional black market traders, because even Nirai researchers are interested in exotic booze, and the Wasp has some of that in its cargo holds, but...it's not ideal. As for local contacts, there is a rebellion agent codenamed Yellow monitoring that side of the rift. In case of emergency, you may contact them for assistance from the Wasp, but we prefer that you not blow their cover unless you have no other options."

[mercuryhatter]

Istradez is very uncomfortable, but his face is smooth and blank to anyone not looking too closely. And they shouldn't be, with the unobtrusive place he's chosen to stand and the retiring way he holds himself. Despite all that, he's having a damnably hard time not staring directly at what really looks like, if he didn't know better, himself, only younger than he had ever looked with that face.

They did say there had been time travel, he supposed. Still, of all the inconvenient coincidences... At the very least, he is going to have to come up with a false name on very short notice, just in case, or this was going to come to a head far sooner than he'd like. With the rifts, this person could be anything, really, and he didn't have enough information yet.

"Vauhan Imsayed," he says carelessly, throwing out a name from another branch of the family to have a modicum of cover for the family resemblance, should it come up. "In any case, I suppose it shouldn't be difficult to infiltrate an unknown station, steal a twitchy Nirai, and presumably, get back out again before time and space collapse around us." He says this all with the most delicate trace of sarcasm he can muster, redirects his gaze to the photos so that he has something else to look at. "I can help with infiltration, at least." He directs this at the person with the vaguely nauseating shapeshifting abilities, since she asked, and wonders how many of the others can do similar things-- especially the ones it isn't easy to peg as faction-affiliated.

[I don't get Internet in my apartment until this Wednesday, so until then please excuse my phone-posting: dreamwidth is a lot harder to use on mobile than tumblr, lol. If I miss anything with multiple threads going on, please feel free to let me know OOC if you need to!]

[lookingforoctober]

"How are you with Nirai?" Elesa asks, in response to the comment about infiltration directed at her.

Someone is going to have to make contact with their defector, after all, and since they seem to have plenty of people on this team, her first thought on the matter is that it probably shouldn't be Elesa herself for cultural reasons. So...

[vass]

[OOC: psst! top right-hand corner of the page, look for "Reload page in style: mine site light". If you click on one of those it'll take you to the same page in a different style, and maybe you'll find one of them easier. "mine" is whatever you chose for your own Dreamwidth, "site" is the standard one, "light" is the most stripped-down one.]

[smokedetective]

At the mention of infiltration, Ashari grins. "Oh, infiltration! Maybe I could help, too. Maybe they need the station redecorated. Or, if we're going with the smuggler-trader idea, I'm not too bad at negotiations. And, if it comes to that, we can always see how the station is faring on the courtesan front and offer to make up for the possible shortage, if there is one."

They check their nails again, more out of habit than actual need. "Just some ideas, of course. Nirai usually aren't much of an obstacle, so it can't be too difficult."

[venndaai]

[OOC: Quick note on something I should have brought up earlier: Sulen likes to scry the signifiers of strangers, but I want to leave it up to other players how much they play along with that. I was thinking that almost all of the time, if they concentrate, they can at least see the basic faction emblem (fox, hawk, rose, etc) but not in every case; that in many cases they can see the exact details of the signifier (kniferose burning, etc); and sometimes if they put a lot of effort into it they can do a reading on someone and see a collection of images that can be interpreted into information. That way other players can control how much they want Sulen to see?

Lleu could do this the same or different since our characters are from different times and might have learned different techniques.

Please let me know if you have suggestions or problems with this, I know it's clunky. And sorry if I should have put this somewhere else.]

[zuhrovet]

[I have no idea how signifiers work for the non-faction-aligned, but my guess is that as a Nirai dropout Sasha scries as something like Broken-Winged Moth. Could be something from her home planet if you prefer.]

[talifabian]

A dark-skinned man wearing a long, bright yellow tunic with widened cuffs, holding a small white dog, jumps as Elesa's features blur and change. The terrier jumps out of his arms and sniffs her curiously, ears pricked, before losing interest.

"Well, I suppose I should be grateful that we ... of the hexarchate aren't the only ones drawn to lost causes like moths to a flame," he says to her. "I'm Ankat. If you want a wall broken down, I'll either get through it or split my forehead open, and I've a most unfortunately thick skull." He nods affably to the rest of the team while he speaks, before turning to face the contact. As he shifts, those who can read body language see the broken knife-shards of Kel body language that are his legacy of service.

"This Nirai station; what kind of security should we expect on-station? Any swarms or warmorths in the vicinity we should be concerned about? Lastly, you say this was a pirate vessel is there anything" (a shark's grin splitting his face) "exciting left aboard?"

[yhlee]

The woman's expression, when she looks at Ankat, is flickeringly ambivalent, as though she isn't sure whether to sympathize with him or stay away from him, as though outprocessed Kel are contagious. "Light security," she says. "Mostly robots--not servitors, presentients--and the occasional hired guards. The heptarchate is stretched thin, and--assuming our intel is accurate--authorities are not yet aware of breakthroughs recently made at Station Moongray, or they'd have stepped up security. Moongray is in an internal march, so there aren't any Kel swarms on patrol nearby."

She taps at her slate again, frowns at something no one else can see. "The Wasp is outfitted with some basic self-defense systems. I suggest that you don't get into a shoot-out with a swarm, but you should be able to handle yourself against any stray fellow pirates out there. Lasers, a railgun, and a small complement of missiles."

[You're unlikely to run into Kel out there, is what she's saying, and also if there are Kel you'll see them coming--Kel almost always travel in groups if given a choice, since formation effects are useless for Kel singletons.]

[pengwern]

Mikodez abandons the idea of chasing after the fluffy quadruped, or even cozying up to the shapechanger to ask if they could mimic him, too. Might be worth it to get a reaction from the one claiming his surname, even now avoiding his gaze, but the priority is the resistance contact. After all, she’s the only one who won’t be cooped up with him for the foreseeable future.

“Where can we go to ground near Station Moongray, and what systems are close by if we have to escape on some other vessel? I can manage a hopper, but nothing like this.” His wave takes in the trademoth. “Is the flaking on that wing really normal? Don’t suppose we can detour for supplies on the way.”

He wants to work up to asking about those other people available for missions, but is it more suspicious to inquire straight out, or will hiding those inquiries in whiny drivel set off alerts for those attuned to fox tricks? He can’t rule out the possibility of Rahal defectors in this bunch, especially Short Stoic and Humorless by that crate over there.

[yhlee]

The contact rattles off a list of stations and systems within a twelve-day travel radius on the other side. "The one I recommend most is Ostoya," she adds, "which is more loosely governed than other systems in that march, and therefore has the most opportunities for you to disappear or make slightly illegal transactions as needed."

[slybrarian]

Alaric looks around the room, wondering if anyone else felt as out of place as he did. Unlikely, given that they were all at least from the hexarchate. Then again you probably didn't join a rebellion if you felt in-place, did you? He'd have to look into that. He really wishes he had taken that elective in secret group dynamics instead of the easy one about influencing culture through cute animal images.

He raises a hand, hoping that's an appropriate way to get attention around these parts. "You say this 'Remi' is expecting us, but from the fact we're being sent at all, I'm guessing that you don't expect it to be as easy as just letting him onto the ship and coming back. Is there any reason to believe the authorities might be watching his movements?"

[smokedetective]

"That's an excellent question," says Ashari. "For that matter, who exactly is Remi expecting? How much does he know about all of this? Does he have names? Faces? Mode of transportation? Or was he simply told to expect... something?"

[after_almsivi]

As the hangar fills up with lively conversations, Kaliyan stands slightly aback and tries her best to assess the situation. She smiles at anyone who might catch her watching, before switching her attention to someone else. It doesn't take her long to realize that whoever her new companions are, they're clearly not soldiers. This is a civilian mission. An untrained and unorganized civilian mission. Wonderful.

What does that make her, she wonders. A bruiser ? A bodyguard more likely, though it would mean a pretty awful ratio of guards to bodies. Lucky her.

The hawk catches her eye, probably because the man couldn't make his Kel training more obvious if he tried. She suddenly realizes that she has been standing to attention since the briefing started, so clearly she's one to talk. She chuckles to herself as she tries her best to relax her posture.

She spots that the contact is currently unoccupied and she moves closer to the woman.
"I'm sorry, sir" she says, "but you did not tell us who's in charge."

GM: attention all players, OOC discussion before I respond to this

[yhlee]

[GM/OOC: Before I respond to this, I would suggest that a logical mission leader should have some kind of history with the resistance (so, not a newcomer) and, ideally, military, intelligence, or diplomatic background as well. Does anyone in the player group want to volunteer? If not, I'll assign someone based on GM judgment and/or hilarity.]

EDIT: Please respond here [OOC discussion post; this post is getting long!].

[venndaai]

"I can't pilot this ship," Sulen says. "Can any of you? Automated or not, we need someone who knows how ships work and how to fly it if things go wrong."

[smokedetective]

"Alaric," says Ashari, elegantly stretching a hand out in Alaric's direction. "If you can figure out how to fake damage, could you figure out how to fly this thing? Or at least figure out enough about it to stop it from crashing? I'm sure everyone will help as they can, but this seems like your speed."