hexarchate_rpg | should we help or hinder the assassination of Jedao?

zuhrovet posting in

[In the current move, Flute has just informed the team that they are to accompany a group of Lanterner assassins to a conference where the Lanterners will attempt to assassinate Jedao. This post is for reactions and plans, both in and out of character.]

Sasha's quiet as the group heads from the Catastrophe Axe back to the Cantata. She wants to have a cup of tea and spend a few hours working her way further into the Axe's grid, but work comes before play, and figuring out how to handle Flute's instructions will be a fuck of a lot of work.

Once everyone's safely on the Cantata and the lock has closed behind them, she starts issuing orders. "Grid, please ask Sulen to meet me in my office in twenty minutes, and inform everyone there will be a team meeting in the common room in one hour. Reshad, I'll want you in the meeting with Sulen."

She pulls her memory stick out of her pocket and gives it to Alaric. "Find Aymad, stick this in the minigrid--not in the main one--and see what you can find out about the watchers in Flute's system in the next hour."

Then she turns to Seyli. "I know you want to yell. Go ahead and do it. You've got twenty minutes." [These are heptarchate minutes, so it's more like ten minutes in our calendar.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

yhlee

[Yes, I assumed y'all would have a setup like that. I mean, not that I know anything about real-life hacking besides having read two books on the subject, which is not the same thing, so I apologize to any real hackers who are reading my handwaved GMing on this topic.

Let's call the two security specialists Spider (patient, predatory, prefers a labyrinthine defensive approach) and Firecracker (more flamboyant, more of a risk-taker, although this may be a ruse in itself). The memory stick code looks like Spider's work.]

From:

zuhrovet

[We upgraded our test systems at the same time we acquired a less-opinionated printer, even!

Has Sasha encountered either of these people, or their work, before?]

From:

yhlee

[Maybe the question should be, from an RP standpoint, would you rather one or both of these people be people Sasha has encountered before in some security conference or other context, for extra drama points, or would you rather they be strangers?]

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha pokes around the other moths in Flute's fleet, checking whether they're equally well protected.

[Maybe Sasha met one or both of them during her rebellion training? If it was early, they might be inclined to underestimate her skill.

vass,

pengwern, I am thinking that one entertaining way to try to get into this network would be to leak some information about Mikodez, on the theory that this is information lots of people in the rebellion will want to look at. Do either of you want to play out a scene where you run an errand to Flute's moth with a strategically insecure device, or should I just assume it happened?]

From:

yhlee

[Let's say that Sasha met Spider during her rebellion training, and that Spider did, indeed, go by Spider as her nom de hacker. Based on their actions, Sasha thinks it's likely that Spider does, in fact, underestimate Sasha and thinks that Sasha is too hot-tempered to really understand security.]

From:

zuhrovet

Oh, fuck Spider, Sasha's going to bind her up in her own little webs and let her choke on them. [Sasha's 1337 h4x0r name is usually Salad, should this become relevant.]

Sasha plays with the watcher code from her memory stick, trying to work out how it authenticates and reports back. She's also poking around the security in Flute's fleet: whenever you lock a grid down, there's somebody who decides it's too much of a hassle and starts looking for shortcuts, and she would like to identify that person.

From:

yhlee

[Hahaha, so noted!]

It takes a bit, but Sasha hits pay dirt, because of course humans are predictable. There's one person who's been loosening the security, and based on the pattern of Space Internet lookups--shooter games, cheerful porn, silly bird memes, and op-ed articles on the merits of different firearms--it seems likely that this is one of Flute's infantry, possibly even former Kel.

From:

zuhrovet

Why can't anyone in the heptarchate have a normal, decent hobby, like compulsive gambling? Sasha wonders. She carefully and quietly works her way into this person's messages: she wants to see how that part of Flute's grid is protected.

Meanwhile, she prints a variant of the fitness trackers with some built-in photo and video storage.

From:

yhlee

Flute's grid protection for personal messages is pretty strong but, again, not insurmountable with patience. It looks like she has some kind of rule imposed on work accounts vs. personal accounts, and this individual has (predictably) not been great about keeping the two separate. The personal account is more easily broken into and involves a lot of "if you don't forward this message you will be cursed" chain-letter memes as well as some kind of passionate mailing list discussion of min-maxing characters in one of the shooter games that this individual likes.

From:

zuhrovet

Everything old is new again. Whoever set up this message system restricted the types of associated files heavily, but they weren't nearly as cautious about individual characters, and the full old-fashioned character set includes all sorts of commands, some ordinarily used to construct new glyphs, some with broader applications. Sasha embeds an appropriate set of invisible commands in the subject line of one of the chain letters and forwards it from this personal account to a set of targets that include's Flute's accounts.

From:

yhlee

Sasha hits pay dirt. Flute is very meticulous about keeping personal and business accounts separate. The personal accounts mostly seem to include photo albums and videos of her family (looks like some kind of group marriage) and the family kids, as well as a very large, enthusiastically annotated collection of foreign music space mp3's.

Flute has auditing notes on her current mission that indicate that, if she survives this, she's going to protest the poor state of preparedness in the rebellion and propose reorganization within Personnel, given their failures. Sasha is able to break past the crypto using the invisible commands as a lever. Flute's files are extremely well organized and cataloged; she probably would make an excellent librarian. What does Sasha want to prioritize reading and/or extracting?

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha's looking specifically for Flute's orders. She's interested in whom they came from and how they were phrased (both because she wants to understand the scope of Quill's organization, and because she may want to forge more orders, later). She also wants to know more about what the rest of Flute's team will be doing while the Lanterners are attempting to assassinate Jedao, and what contingency plans are in place if the attempt fails.

From:

yhlee

The dismaying thing about Flute's orders is that even Flute does not know who, exactly, they came from, although it does seem that she has worked with this entity before and considers them reliable. There is a certain amount of bureaucratese, but behind that, the intent is fairly simple:

Facilitate the assassination of General Shuos Jedao by supplementing the historical attempt on his life. There is inherent risk in the mission, but above all things, avoid being outed as out-of-timestream agents, even at the cost of the assassination's failure, which at least will leave us no worse than our starting position. The worst-case scenario is Jedao himself becoming aware that he's a target of interest to out-of-time powers. He is to be assumed mentally unstable.

The rest of Flute's team will primarily be offering realtime surveillance support to the Lanterner assassins--acting as handlers, if you will. There's a backup plan to vent atmosphere in the entire section of the conference where Jedao is present; this will necessitate sacrificing the Lanterners, and a great many bystanders, but can be made to look like sabotage by a third party.

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha runs the orders through her textual analysis program, to see whether they match Quill's style. She makes local copies of the surveillance plans and that backup plan, and cautiously extricates herself from Flute's system. She doesn't attempt to break a mug, or punch a wall, or even shout, though eight spheres of hell, Flute was going to let Sasha send her people into that section. With no preparation and no warning.

Sasha goes to find some tea and a ration bar, because maybe it's better not to take stims on an empty stomach, and it's going to be a long night.

From:

bariolage

Ione wasn't actually in the common room before, but she is now, about sixty seconds or so behind Sasha.

She had been in her own quarters researching, but Cantata isn't that big, and even if you have your senses dampened down as hard as you can sometimes it's impossible to not feel things. The kind of emotions that might inspire punching walls and breaking mugs often reverberate if they're not behind strong mental shields are difficult to set aside. And Ione hasn't entirely adapted to the people she's with, so her natural impulse when feeling things like that is to make sure no one is dead.

Instead: Sasha the boss-lady, sans anyone bleeding out. This may be a positive start, but when the mission commander is reverberating-angry ... not really.

Knowing that Sasha is likely aware of her capabilities and, if she's up to paying that close attention probably knows why she has turned up, Ione moves close enough to be in conversation range without crowding: "Are you all right?"

[Note that

zuhrovet was consulted OOC before determining that Ione could feel that without physical contact!]

From:

zuhrovet

"Of course." Sasha slides the galley cupboard door shut, with perhaps more force than necessary.

Ione seems friendly, and sweet in her own odd way, and eminently breakable. Some of that has to be an illusion. Sasha knows that, of the two of them, Ione has spent much more time around people actively trying to kill her. But she wasn't Sasha's responsibility then, and the danger wasn't from her own side.

The closest thing to a remedy will be some version of Reshad's plan. They'll have to fuck up the Lanterner attack, and the attack on the station too, and somehow extricate Jedao without making themselves a target. So many threads to follow--and every strand a wire, and every knot a burning star.

From:

hoardingpearls

Reshad noticed when Ione hustled past the hallway she'd just happened to be traversing, and she noticed again when the distinct sound of a cupboard being closed with what one might politely term "authority" reverberates from the direction she went. Voices: Ione and Sasha? The latter, angry.

She goes, curious and concerned in equal measures, and stops in the doorway, hands visible, face open. "Is something the matter?"

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha takes her tea, now fortified with jam, and her ration bar, and walks out of the galley and into the common room proper. The common room has multiple exits, and the fact that Reshad is blocking one of them does not in any way constitute a threat. Though Sasha can move her anyway. Hypothetically. "Sit, please. Both of you. Grid, please ask Seyli and Sulen to join us, and display the text tagged white-eight-white on the main screen."

Sasha makes herself sit, unwraps her ration bar, and counts to sixteen. Quill's orders appear on the screen, in tidy, even columns. "I uncovered more information about Quill's instructions, and Flute's contingency planning."

From:

hoardingpearls

Reshad sits, the deliberate care with which she'd entered the room extending to that motion.

As she reads the orders, her eyes widen and her lips tighten - appropriately into a flat slash of an expression, rather than a smile.

"Nasty, Flute," she mutters. "Not even a warning for your allies.

But discussion can wait until the others answer the summons. "Tea?" she offers, rising again, heading for the galley. Sasha already has some, but Reshad wants something to do with her hands.

From:

zuhrovet

Sasha unwraps her ration bar, listening to Reshad's movements in the galley, but carefully not turning. She adds a secondary display with a map of the conference section where the attacks will take place, beneath Quill's orders and Flute's annotation. Then she breaks her ration bar into small pieces and eats them, alternating with sips of tea. This is another cricket and lime leaf bar; it tastes oddly sharp with the jam, but then, Sasha's not eating ration bars for the flavor.

[Does the plan to vent atmosphere depend entirely on software/Spider & Firecracker, or will there be physical bombs?]

From:

yhlee

[Entirely on software and Spider & Firecracker. It's probable that Flute couldn't manage a reliable physical bomb setup in the time available.]

From:

kese_seyli

"You paged?" Seyli asks as they enter the room and takes stock of Sasha and Reshad and determines it's casual enough they can drop down into a chair. It's not like anyone seems to stand on any kind of formality around here. They haven't noticed the screen yet.

From:

bariolage

Ione sits, though there's an air of unconvinced about her facial expression when she looks at Sasha for a moment that she's not trying to hide. Ione Does Not Believe You. It doesn't last, though, as she is instead now sitting, reading what's up on the screen before her.

Her brow furrows and she squints, and then looks over her shoulder to Reshad: "Surprise me," is probably a request and not a specific kind of tea. She does not realize the dangers yet of telling a (former) Shuos to surprise her. Seyli, or their entrance, gets a weak smile.

From:

zuhrovet

"Right," Sasha says. This is going to be a long and ugly conversation; no sense delaying. "Grid, please play the summary I'm about to make to Sulen; they can listen as they walk. And tell Alaric we'd like him up here, as well."

She straightens, and tries to speak slowly and carefully. Her hands are empty, but she's counting her points by tensing her fingers. "I took a look at Flute's records, and I learned three things. First, her orders definitely come from Quill, but she has not connected the source of those orders with Personnel. Second, Quill specifically stated that the worst-case scenario is for Jedao to become aware that rift travelers are interested in him. That makes me think perhaps we should prioritize sharing that information with him. And third, Flute has a contingency plan, if the Lanterners' attempts to kill Jedao fail. She's going to vent the atmosphere from that segment of the conference."

"For rapid decompression of a room the size of an auditorium, you're looking at a hole perhaps so by so"--Sasha shapes a square in the air with her hands, perhaps half a meter on a side--"with just a few minutes before losing consciousness. They're looking at a software solution, not explosives, so to get that area of exposure, they'll have to override the emergency airlocks."