Chapter 2.2

[yhlee]

[Sorry I didn't get this out earlier, y'all. Happy summer/winter holidays!]

The Cantata emerges from the rift on an approach to the Lanterner stronghold called Autumn Pyre. The Cantata hums very quietly to reassure the mothlings, then falls silent; it's been impressed on the Cantata that discretion will be necessary. For their part, the mothlings have free run of an enclosure with Fluffy the Vraselian pseudo-dragon, and both mothlings and dragonet seem to be entertaining each other with games of tag and hide-and-seek. They are happy to play with any humans who stop by, as well.

Scan reveals that Autumn Pyre is heavily fortified by the standards of the day, mostly with invariant weapons like railguns and missiles. A few dozen moths are already docked there, and several more are patrolling the area. Two small Lanterner patrol moths, nearly identical, veer lazily toward the Cantata.

Patrol moth #1 hails the Cantata in several different languages, including the high language. For its part, it transmits the Lanterner emblem--a stylized yellow lantern against a blue background--and the speaker is requesting that you halt and identify yourselves. "This is the Lanterner Federacy in the year 852," the speaker goes on, "under the benevolent rule of the Honorable Aramis kae Pharon. Are you human? What are your hospitality requirements?"

[Feel free to take advantage of the between-moves planning post if you need to, and to make whatever preparations, including rearranging the Cantata's variable layout, you deem necessary.]

Comments

Re: at the dock - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

Flute doesn't keep the group waiting for long. She enters a few moments later, through the exit by which Reshad's people did. She's carrying a slate and a stylus, and there's a period-correct pistol at her hip, holstered for an easy draw. She's accompanied by a servitor bearing canapés and a pitcher of agua fresca.

"Apologies for the wait," Flute says without preamble. "I'm known as Flute. Introduce yourselves, please."

meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[zuhrovet]

Sasha hastily pauses her game and shoves her tablet into one of her pockets. It will continue monitoring the local grid, including the other intruder.

"I'm Vauri, and these are Eres"--nodding at Reshad--"and Seyli. I brought our calendrical expert in case you wanted him, and our newest recruit has some of our official merchandise."

[slybrarian and mafyyil, let me know if you want a particular fake name, or want to avoid multiplication of pseudonyms.]

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

[...given the possibility of many timelines, if you want to just stick to a given name or pseudonym and we'll all PRETEND that you have new pseudonyms in every place/time, I won't penalize y'all. Sorry I didn't think of this expedient earlier...

Of course, if y'all are enjoying the pseudonyms, by all means. XD ]

how many fake names does one team need?

[zuhrovet]

[I personally feel that an average of a new set of fake names per real-world year is fine, but I probably shouldn't be the gauge of these things.]

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[mafyyil]

"Helloooo!", Mafyyil smiles brightly at Flute. "My name is Tiad, very honored to meet you!"

[Mafyyil will enjoy the fake name thing because she can feel like a spy!]

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

Flute smiles with apparently genuine delight; if she's concerned about "Tiad"'s professionalism, she doesn't reveal it outwardly. "Honored to meet you too, Tiad. Your personal mods are quite attractive." This seems truly sincere, although Flute herself looks like an ordinary h*archate citizen.

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[kese_seyli]

Seyli takes the time to visually access the apparent and strength of Flute and any other staff in the room with an obvious once over.

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[hoardingpearls]

Reshad gives a mostly-correct Lanterner bow. "Vhi Eres. Call me Eres. Once our negotiations are complete, I am most interested to see your station."

The servitor and its canapes suggest an intent to do that negotiation right here. She ignores it unless it offers something, and then takes whatever is most decorative by her own standards.

"Would you prefer to see schematics first?"

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

Flute chuckles lowly. "Oh, if only it were our station. But our hosts have given us the run of this corner of it, of a certainty." She returns a Lanterner bow that is mostly-correct to the exact same degree.

The servitor will not insist that anyone take a canape, but Flute grabs a puff pastry of some kind and takes a bite before continuing.

"Pleased to meet you, Eres," she says. "Schematics first, yes. I'm most curious about how you plan on supplementing our offerings to the Lanterners."

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[zuhrovet]

Sasha takes a glass from the servitor. Strategic indifference to social norms is one thing; utter barbarism is another.

"Is there a screen we can put the schematics on?" she asks.

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

The servitor moves closer so Sasha can reach the glass more easily.

Flute's smile glints at Sasha. "Indeed, Vauri." She inputs something on her slate, and a screen rolls down the far wall, hiding the rough texture. "You'll want to connect to our mothgrid using"--she gives a set of credentials. Sasha will find that it will let her project to the room's imager and very little else, at least for the moment.

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[zuhrovet]

Sasha digs a glorified memory stick out of another pocket, inputs the credentials, and displays the body armor schematics on the big screen. "We thought we'd focus on individual supplies, since you're covering the big stuff. Seyli or our engineer here can walk you through the details."

[Sasha's memory stick isn't running anything malicious, but it has good logs; she's hoping to collect some of the silent watcher's code, so she can take it home and analyze it at her leisure.]

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

[Code collection noted. When Sasha gets home to analyze it, remind me that she will find a Thing.]

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[slybrarian]

"I think you'll find the power packs particularly compelling. They're compatible with standard Type A-, B-, and C-cell battery slots, but have noticeably superior characteristics," Alaric said. "Although personally I like the armor more from a technical standpoint, particularly the low-profile variant intended for VIP protection or covert ops."

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

"Your design, or merely your acquisition?" Flute asks, examining the schematics with a very interested eye. "The low-profile variant might indeed be relevant to our...specific goals in this time, especially since you had the foresight to concentrate on invariants."

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[zuhrovet]

"His design, based on components in our library," Sasha tells her. "I should warn you, our briefing was fucking incomplete. I assume somebody thought you needed more techs, or they wouldn't have sent us, but beyond that... It's been your standard hurry up and wait and who cares if you have the right equipment."

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

"I really must have you consult with my engineer sometime," Flute says with a respectful nod to Alaric.

To Sasha, Flute says, "I'm not surprised Personnel fucked this up again...unless it wasn't Personnel you ran into trouble with. Techs are, at least, less immediately suspicious than outprocessed Shuos 'infantry'...did anyone mention the assassination plan to you?" She's watching Sasha and Reshad particularly closely.

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[zuhrovet]

"Bright stars," Sasha says, with obvious sarcasm, "if I'd known you wanted Shuos infantry, I wouldn't have wasted nearly so much time finding someone who could debug the printer. Who are we assassinating?"

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

Flute continues to keep half an eye on Reshad, as if to see how she will react to Sasha's outspokenness.

"Well, we won't be doing the assassinating, but rather facilitating the Lanterners' attempt at same. The target is one General Shuos Jedao." At this point she's gauging you all for reactions.

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[mafyyil]

Mafyyil looks slightly disappointed. She has no idea who this 'Shuos Jedao' person is, but if assassinating them will help bringing the hexarchate down (or preventing it - she's still not sure how she's supposed to think about that), she would love to assassinate them herself. Fortunately, she figures out in time that it might be rude to say so.

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[kese_seyli]

Seyli is already tightly wound, trying not to shoot Sasha dirty looks, it wasn't like they didn't know they were playing inefficient! Still, with the name drop they go absolutely still as cornered prey. If they'd wanted to fucking die, they would have stayed in their own timeline instead of going through a rift.

They keep their mouth shut, but their eyes dart back and forth between Sasha and Reshad.

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

Flute's gaze flickers knife-swift to Seyli, assessing their reaction; then back to Sasha and Reshad, waiting to see what they say--or don't say.

"There is a plan," Flute says, very dryly. "We're not throwing you to the--foxes."

EDIT: please continue this thread in this new thread as we are getting very indented!

Re: meeting Flute - paging Reshad, Seyli, Alaric, and Mafyyil

[yhlee]

Flute's demeanor is unprepossessing, but the way she moves convinces Seyli that she's got hand-to-hand experience, and that she's at least comfortable with the holster, which suggests that she probably knows how to use that gun as well.

The servitor does not appear to have any weapons, although it's got the usual metal carapace armor of its kind.

What Seyli does notice is that the walls are weirdly pitted, and that it be pretty easy to hide laser emplacement apertures in the rough texture. Even though Flute is apparently alone (save the servitor), she could well signal for an attack if she felt threatened.