PLOT SIGN-UPS: UEAI INVESTIGATORING

[initiates]

WELCOME TO UEAI INVESTIGATION.



Per this post, the chance to go on missions to start filling in the timeline gaps relating to the UE – the UEAI in particular – is now available. There are a number of locales you can select from and some information to use as prompts for your excursion – but please note, this IS NOT information the characters know beforehand! These time jumps are pretty blind ouside of date/location, so characters won’t know exactly what they’re getting into until they’re there!

This is a good time to mix up and get some interesting cr combinations going, or send some already well-working teams back to work! It’s up to you how many you want to work with at once, but we ask that there be no more than eight per location, especially since these are designed to be small, more sneaky-like jobs. Of course, sometimes it’s hard to be sneaky when you wind up in the middle of a war or killer party.



Your characters will be in control of how long they stay and how they gather the information. They will be given a diamond drive with an upload of AI that can be plugged in to computers and other such compatible electronics that you may find in order for it to begin downloading and deciphering the sequence of events that follow, which opens up more potential dates to tag. So each subsequent mission is prompted by the ones before them!

Those who sign up will receive their calls to get to the Transporter icly by Blue via their ic inboxes or it can be handwaved/oocly pinged if no inbox is available. You can choose when to go icly -- from now to January 23.

A post to collect what data and inventory of what damages may have been done (are YOU a bad enough dude to punch a president?) will go up and be linked here and those signed up will be pinged of its presence. ETA: Post is up and HERE.



Here’s how it will roll:

In this post, there will be a top-level comment to confirm signed-up teams. Use the rest of this post to plan/call out for partners, share powersets or other things you think might be useful for you! Let a rep from each agreed-upon team comment in the sign-ups, and you will be given the background information of a scenario you and your team will be going on! You won’t know what it is before you sign up, and remember, your characters won’t know at all until they get there!

You will also be given a list of potential findings that you can choose to succeed or fail in obtaining. Both failures AND successes will have a role in how things cascade later on, so don’t assume flawless victories is the way to go! But don’t assume they’re NOT, either.

These sign-ups will remain open up until the actual 23rd! Because we are a game that is all about backtagging. Our only request is at that point, you have a decision for what you succeed/fail to get in advance so we can advance.





BULLET POINT SUMMARY ACTION:

• There are a number of missions available to help AI fill in the timeline
• Characters will NOT know what they’re diving into until they get there, but PLAYERS will know in advance!
• Groups should be no larger than 8
• One rep from each group should sign up in the comment (LINK)
• Characters will be contacted icly to report for their missions, but players can determine what ic date to go/how long they spend on mission
• A post to collect what successes/failures groups make will go up as things get underway

If you have any further questions, please ask in the question thread below!

THANK YOU AND GEAR UP

Comments

FINALIZED GROUP SIGN-UPS

[initiates]

Respond to this post with the names of characters in your group and you will receive your mission/goals!

Re: FINALIZED GROUP SIGN-UPS

[quackery]

Julia Hoffman and Ahiru for one!

MISSION DATE 2219: TO THE MOON AND BACK...AND TO THE MOON AGAIN

[initiates]

AUGUST 8, 2219.
Your location is the moonbase just before going out of function (less than six months). The layout is exactly the same, but its functions are not! This is a live, albeit sparsely staffed facility. Mistaking you for support staff, you’ll be reminded that today is the day the gravity generators are disengaged and powercells removed, to be prepared to follow zero-G protocols.

Because your VR disguises only take care of your physical appearance, you won’t have the scan-chip access that you’ll see other staff members waving at door sensors to get in and out...fortunately, you’re in one of the main hallways, so you have plenty room to explore and perhaps pilfer one of your own.

People you talk to here will range from morose resignation to hot-under-the-collar cynicism, all pointing to the fact the joint committee of nations funding this base are now pulling back, dissolving, most because of seemingly petty political reasons. They talk about the potential advancement of food harvesting and human wellbeing through their isolated, sterilized research, and how this environment promotes unbiased scientific research. That hell, even their IS/AI systems are developed quicker than in Earthbound R&D, where lobbies and other stakeholders are breathing down your neck! At least here you can turn the screen off, they will joke.

The easiest way to get around unfettered is to push the role of janitorial or gofer. You could route data tablets or drives to other wings of the facility on behalf of another researcher (access codes/scan keys and everything!) or be granted access to clean areas by absent-minded staff members who know to get out of the way of the floor polisher.

POSSIBLE DATA-GATHERING TARGETS
• Three R&D branches with three different rooms housing their topic-specific data: Human wellness, Agriculture, and Information systems. Each of these rooms require level 3 security access, and each has a computer the AI diamond drive can plug into. A full data download of each will require 15 minutes – you can also choose to allow AI to use any one of those ports to effectively download the entire base’s data, but that will take close to 2 hours, and you risk being caught by security midway for how long you’re lingering (remember, there are security cameras here!).
• Talking to people. As mentioned above, they have a lot of feelings about what’s going on here.
• Private rooms. Some researchers, but not all, have their own data saved that isn’t on the main servers. Data drives, tablets...things that aren’t compatible with the diamond drive entry plug. These are items you can steal...if you can find them. A lot of these researchers sure are messy. Be careful not to get caught red-handed!

Soldier Blue will send you your target date to IC inboxes. If none is available, please consider the data sent as a handwaved action. You can choose when to ICly go, and report what outcomes you have once the Collection post is live!

If you have other questions, let me know!

[alittlesweptup]

Charlie Cutter, Chloe Frazer, Nathan Drake and Victor Sullivan are totally all for this!

MISSION DATE 2780: RAGING AGAINST THE MACHINE AND PARTY ALL THE TIME

[initiates]

JANUARY 13-15, 2780.
You arrive in an area that used to be part of the Ivory Coast, but who needs names when you’re part of the UE, right?

WRONG.

The venue you’re in is hosting a three days-long concert/protest sponsored by a trio of university groups. Bands/artists performing include: The Glory for All, Maria Maria, Tuesdays with Lorie, Cole, Starjammers, Lemmin and Lyme, Backseat Drivers, The Keep it Up Kids, and more. The genres span all sorts, many fused, but all with similar messages: rebellion, identity, and empowerment.
You will be patted down before entering the shabby concert venue -- this is way out on the outskirts of any towns, away from heavy security, but they’re paranoid about getting caught...at least until the drinks and drugs start flowing. Petitions will be passed around calling people to call out the government for cultural cleansing and the standardization laws going into effect, taking away previously government-sanctioned tribal lands.

As for the people you’ll find here? Lots of angry, cynical kids and retirees mad about the United Earth, mad about how laws are turning land into cookie-cutter plots for everyone, regardless of history or cultural/family/religious value. They ask if you’ve been chipped, and suggest you visit one of the tents outside the main floor if you need one removed.
Midway into the second day, a police bust descends from land and sky, drones and cops pushing in to make arrests and fight back angry, drunk kids. Violence will be rampant.

POSSIBLE DATA-GATHERING TARGETS
• The people themselves! There’s soapboxing going on far as the eye can see, and you can get your fill of the venom and misery these folks are chock full of. You’ll hear details of grand conspiracies, anything from turning people into mindless robots to initiatives to altering everyone’s appearance to look exactly the same! By the way, have you read this book? It’s called A Brave New World. We think the UE government is following it as a guideline! Here, have a drink, let me tell you all about it…
• The data chips. There are tents set up outside the main venue where people who were chipped can get them removed...but not professionally. So it’s kind of gross, what with untrained pre-med students cutting up people at the neck and using tweezers to pluck them out. You can collect a few (unsterilized) chips and bring them back with you.
• The music. You may not recognize a lot of the languages, with some even being in old tribal tongues, but this is an era of technology, and people will be more than willing to give you copies of the lyrics. Even the tabs for the songs!
• The A/V system. This will be the only terminal where AI can be effectively plugged in – it’s a computer that’s operating the speakers and lights, and since it’s pulling double duty as someone’s personal grad school paper-writing machine, AI could pull up more than just commands for laser lights.
• The cops. They’ll be carrying communicators and have small handheld tablets to scan/upload ID data for those they arrest should they get the chance. These can be pilfered, as well. Watch out for their tasers though.

Soldier Blue will send you your target date to IC inboxes. If none is available, please consider the data sent as a handwaved action. You can choose when to ICly go, and report what outcomes you have once the Collection post is live!

If you have other questions, let me know!

[givetheslip]

Altaïr and Maria plz.

MISSION DATE 2893: IN PRISON, BREAKING BAD GUYS

[initiates]

JULY 24TH, 2893.
You port into a windowless room laden with cameras on the ceiling and every wall. There is a heavy, steel door that locks from the outside. Right away, your presence will trigger motion sensors and alarms to go off. Luckily, you won’t have to wait to try and bust that door down; guards will pour in, armed with tasers and guns that fire rapid, tiny, sharp bullets.

Should you manage to leave that holding cell, you’ll find yourself tasked with navigating a labyrinth of blank-walled, steel hallways. Don’t idle long; more guards will be coming in waves as you press on.

If you’ve the ear for it, you’ll hear faintly European accents peppered in the voices of the guards ordering you to freeze, hands on the wall, etc. These men carry small handheld communicators – these all have auto-access to various locked rooms and corridors, but any prison cells will require not only the scan-in, but keying in numbered codes.

Congratulations: You are officially escapees, and efforts to detain, question, and imprison you are immediately in effect!

POSSIBLE DATA-GATHERING TARGETS:
• The security communicators. Not only does this have maps and scan access to various doors/levels of this facility (of which there are nine surface levels, four sub-levels requiring password access), but user data and lists of current and upcoming inmates. This is a stealable item.
• The security guards. If caught and roughed up just right, you can find out there’s no civilization for miles and miles, fighting back is useless, etc etc. Some may threaten to send you to the lab floors – the aforementioned sub levels. You don’t wanna know what they do to people down there, they’ll warn.
• Guard terminals. There are two on each floor where cameras are surveyed, daily tasks are logged and other things scanned. There are computers here AI can be plugged into to start downloading data.
• Prisoners. Should you press a guard for passwords or pinch the data at a terminal, you can peek in on prisoners. They are a diverse group, some looking terribly out-of-place – some too young. The information they have is narrowed down to Please help, I’m only a [occupation] I shouldn’t be here, I never meant to [steal? cut someone off in traffic? ask the wrong questions?].
• Lab sub-levels. Getting in here will be a super toughie. Not only will you need a guard’s device, but you’ll have to hit up a terminal and sync it up to grant access to the sub-level elevators! But should you manage this, you’ll find yourself in a sterile, nightmarish set of research and experimentation floors. Some of the people in here have certainly seen better days. AI can be plugged into one of the research terminals here to crack into even more sensitive data, but guards will be rushing in en masse, with threat of heavy military presence on the way.

Soldier Blue will send you your target date to IC inboxes. If none is available, please consider the data sent as a handwaved action. You can choose when to ICly go, and report what outcomes you have once the Collection post is live!

If you have other questions, let me know!

[individualist]

ignoring the account Gin Ichimaru and Rin Asano!

MISSION DATE 3000: SHOULD OLD ACQUAINTANCES BE BLOWN UP

[initiates]

JANUARY 1ST, 3000.
It’s a chilly, drizzling day, but you wouldn’t know it by the sound of the crowds. Welcome to the UE tricentennial! The city around you is massive and densely packed, people everywhere, bright colors and buildings decked to the nines in festivity. There’s a parade going down a long, four-lane street: it’s two-tiered, and I’m not just talking balloons. Small, low-noise drone planes have floats mounted on them, too! There are building-sized screens draped over the sides of said buildings flashing more inspiring images of progress and unity and all the great thing that come with being a single, United Earth! YAY!!

It’s a shame explosions further down the street break up this joyful moment, isn’t it? Or maybe that’s to your advantage...Either way, chaos ensues. Panicked crowds surge and swirl, dealing with barriers and a security presence that seems to have come out of nowhere. Hell, even the drone planes shed their trappings and go into all-out crowd suppression mode. And not everyone being ushered around is taking it lightly: Fights are starting to break out, seemingly harmless spectators suddenly whip out guns or grenades and a little battle has really broken out.

POSSIBLE DATA-GATHERING TARGETS
• Spectators: Of course, you’re not going to hear much bad mouthing just up and prompting! In fact, trying to goad any negativity out of them will be met with hesitation, somewhat frightened reactions...Keep prodding, and someone may send a cop after you. Most of what these people have to say is oh how marvelous this all is, they really pulled out all the stops, isn’t it great to have the day off! and so on.
• Local businesses: Storefronts are open to give people shelter from the crummy weather, but aren’t selling too much! There are ATMs or even a cashier computer terminal or three to plug AI into...or one of the many computers on display in a tech store!
• Rioters: They’re violent and ready to die before getting captured, but if you can detain one before they can swallow their suicide pills or shoot themselves, you’ll meet a lot of resistance before they begin sputtering about how they haven’t seen their families/loved ones in years, how everyone’s been brainwashed, etc etc.
• Phone/mobile devices: A ton of these will be scattered and lost in the chaos and can be pilfered. They can be taken back to Exsilium proper or AI can be plugged in to download their content.

Soldier Blue will send you your target date to IC inboxes. If none is available, please consider the data sent as a handwaved action. You can choose when to ICly go, and report what outcomes you have once the Collection post is live!

If you have other questions, let me know!

[controlledvariable]

Team pretty ladies and shady dudes:

Stephanie Brown, Belle (OUAT), Saul Goodman, and Mr. Gold.

MISSION DATE 2976: GHOSTS OF CORPORATE PAST

[initiates]

MARCH 14TH, 2976.
This has got to be one of the fanciest-looking rooms you’ve been in for a long time, maybe ever. Very extreme business-chic with a heavy side of tech. Outside the wall-high windows, you’ll see a scene of dozens and dozens of glassy skyscrapers, all densely packed together and varying very little. Documentation/signage you can find gives you this building’s address somewhere called Financial City.

Move quickly -- cameras detected your presence in this private, executive suite and an alarm is humming.

You are on the 102nd floor of a 138-floor building...and every single floor looks exactly the same. Even more, it seems entirely vacant. Even as the alarm hums continuously, not a soul is in sight. Should you touch any of the windows, however, you’ll suffer a pretty hefty electric discharge! Should you try to leave doors at ground or roof level, the same will happen. On the horizon, drone planes are coming in, hailed by blinking lights on the roofs of the other scrapers.

There’s time to move, at least, so you can take to investigating all the workstations and cubes on the abandoned working floors. Problem is, every single computer you can plug AI into...has absolutely zero data on it! Set pieces. This is all just a massive display piece.

And that’s not all: The longer this goes on, with all the monotonous rooms and impenetrable exits, it’s very clear you’re in a very large cage.

Lingering for more than an hour and the drone planes will swoop in, hovering floor to floor to find and ping you with its sensors, triggering a lockdown of that floor. Steel panels over the windows and doors, sealing the entire floor up until 25 armed guards swarm in to capture or kill, if necessary.

POSSIBLE DATA-GATHERING TARGETS
• Various cubes, meeting rooms or exec suites will have documents lingering of project planning or data coordinating...whether these are accurate or just part of the pretend is unclear. These are able to be stolen or photos taken by your communicators.
• Utility rooms have access to circuit boards...and computer terminals! Snooping here will successfully get you to a place AI can plug into that actually has some substance. Be warned, though, the longer you keep AI plugged in, the faster security will swoop in on you, and you risk the power on the floor shutting down.
• Guards you subdue wear sophisticated computerized helmets, lined with neuro-circuitry. These can be stolen as well. Trying to get word out of the guards themselves, however, will prove useless. There’s something strange and glassy-eyed about them…

Soldier Blue will send you your target date to IC inboxes. If none is available, please consider the data sent as a handwaved action. You can choose when to ICly go, and report what outcomes you have once the Collection post is live!

If you have other questions, let me know!

[hornedomen]

Team Please Make Enemy Twerking a Thing That Happens members are:

Rosette, Chrono, Francœur, and a possible +1 for Maya.

MISSION DATE 2744: TALES FROM THE POST-IMPRESSIONIST CRYPT

[initiates]

MAY 19, 2744
It looks like you ported into a storage room. No windows, heavy, concrete walls, floors, and ceilings...shelves upon shelves upon shelves of archived artwork…

Wait, what?

Tall shelves are stacked like library shelves full of canvases encased in glass. Artwork from nearly every century is present, seemingly without any rhyme or reason to the order, but if you look a little closer and find the markers on each aisle, you’ll notice they’re being ordered by theme. Religion, religious insurrection, religious fervor...patriotism, anti-establishment, romance, envy, etc. Odd, right?

Odder: There are exits on parallel walls down this long store room, and these exits are actually little chambers where air temperature and quality is adjusted to match the next room you walk into. And so it goes, on and on and on...It’s like an endless rat maze, with no sense of making any progress. There’s literally nothing more than you, the art, and the stagnant air you’re breathing.

At least, until you reach an incinerator. It’s not in use, but it’s massive. The computers are here, and so is, perhaps, a way out if you’re feeling bold? Up a massive smoke stack. Going the ¾ mile up spits you out to an arid, empty landscape, not a soul to be seen.

This all assumes you’ll have the time to look about: Security measures are in place. The more you explore, the number of tiny security drones will rise, armed with tasers and bullets, quick as R/C helicopters, deftly zipping through the shelves, making a point not to hit the things stored there. They will be relentless, coming out of chutes in the ceiling and walls.

POSSIBLE DATA-GATHERING TARGETS
• The artwork. Not only are there works from the old masters and contemporary darlings, but more recent UE-era artists have work stored here! Modern cityscapes and portraits, spatterings of emotions and cautionary tales...Perhaps taking a few tablet snapshots of these things will be of use somewhere down the road.
• The incinerator’s computer OS. AI can be plugged in here to download as much as it can.
• The drones. Bust a few up, but maybe not beyond repair, and techies back in Exsilium may find something worth rebuilding and investigating!

Soldier Blue will send you your target date to IC inboxes. If none is available, please consider the data sent as a handwaved action. You can choose when to ICly go, and report what outcomes you have once the Collection post is live!

If you have other questions, let me know!

[revelation]

team goddamn magical disaster; madoka kaname, kyouko sakura, sayaka miki, oriko mikuni & kirika kure

MISSION DATE 2932: RAINFOREST CAFE AND SLAUGHTERHOUSE

[initiates]

December 22, 2832.
There’s not a whole lot of time to take in the scene before moving out of harm’s way becomes priority #1: You’re in a dense jungle that’s in the process of becoming the exact opposite. Massive, unmanned cutters and mulchers are blazing trails through the foliage, all snapping pincers and whirling blades, stacking logs and stripping leaves, ignorant of the wildlife it’s razing and outright butchering along the way.

These machines are indeed huge: nearly two stories, the biggest, and heavyset with wide treads and a nonstop, lumbering forward and changing course by way of the internal navigation computers directed by distant satellites.

Three miles out there is a command station, manned by a scant few employees better suited for an IT department than jungle destruction from the look. They are frail and cowardly, and will put up little fight, though they will blubber quite a lot about how their lives depend on this project.

That’s why they smacked the alarm, you see. Military copters are en route. So sorry.

POSSIBLE DATA-GATHERING TARGETS
• The tree-cutting machines. Each one is run by a computer terminal which AI is suited to plug into and override. Save those birds and bugs!
• The employees. As stated above, they’re pushovers, and will talk about how this is all to get more land for housing, how so-and-so’s mother was drowned in the last sinkhole incident, etc.
• The command station computers. Also something AI can plug into and download. Better be quick, unless you want to try your hand at dueling a drone copter!

Soldier Blue will send you your target date to IC inboxes. If none is available, please consider the data sent as a handwaved action. You can choose when to ICly go, and report what outcomes you have once the Collection post is live!

If you have other questions, let me know!

[debtor]

Team Adult Supervision Should Have Probably Been Required:

Allen and Arya for one, please.

MISSION DATE 3013: SIXTEEN BLOCKS FROM PLEASANTVILLE

[initiates]

SEPTEMBER 1, 3013.
A busy residential quarter is your backdrop: Dozens of cookie-cutter housing complexes on every square with next to no variation, save for the number of people coming in and out. Buses stop on every corner, and any number of same-uniformed men and women exit and bustle inside, only to rush on outside once again, taking places along the sidewalk. You’ll get no shortage of baffled, troubled looks...why aren’t you hurrying up? Get in place! No, not that place, that’s my place. Find your own! The clerks are coming to do the inventory!

Said clerks come in unmarked, silent-running vehicles, stopping at every corner to walk the streets flanked by guards to scan wrists, and take headcount. Empty spots come with lots of questions for family and neighbors. When an inadequate reason is given, people are ushered into one of the vehicles. No one dares speak a word while this is going on, so who knows where those people are going.

Do you stand in the line and risk capture, leaving those people to their lives, or do you sneak into the houses and get to snooping?

POSSIBLE DATA-GATHERING TARGETS
• Civilians. You won’t get much, however; they’re too focused on getting in order, setting their work things aside to go join the lines. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll step in line, too, they hiss.
• The homes. They all look basically the same, save for a little furniture arranged this way or that, but everyone has computers – at least three to a home – for AI to plug into and collect some juicy details. You can also pilfer work texts and other documents of the time, if you so wish.
• The vehicles. Should you be detained and get the upper hand, you can plug AI into the dash to download more! Juicy details have to be inside.

Soldier Blue will send you your target date to IC inboxes. If none is available, please consider the data sent as a handwaved action. You can choose when to ICly go, and report what outcomes you have once the Collection post is live!

If you have other questions, let me know!

Re: FINALIZED GROUP SIGN-UPS

[pactfulfilled]

Team Namco x Capcom.

Asbel Lhant, Cheria Barnes, Pascal, Emil Castagnier, Anise Tatlin, +1 possible Maya Fey

[pomerenian]

Ren and Aoba for one, please!

Re: FINALIZED GROUP SIGN-UPS

[selfequipped]

Kate Bishop
Kate Kane
Bucky Barnes
Noh-Varr

[boughtabookstore]

roslyn small & caspian!

[oldsoldiersneverdie]

Nathan Summers, Blue Beetle, and Ico!

Re: FINALIZED GROUP SIGN-UPS

[highfrequency]

Celena and Raiden!

Re: FINALIZED GROUP SIGN-UPS

[have_hat_will_travel]

Pidonus Marasia and Sesshoumaru for one! Because demon duo, what can possibly go wrong?

[braavado]

Korra, Usagi, and Seiya as one group, please!