Babylon 5: Outrageous Fortune

[Dr Simon]

[SBLOCK=Reveille]

Tribon City, an underground industrial complex dedicated to Q-40 production, with a nice sideline in drugs, illegal cyberware, people trafficking and any number of unsavoury activities.

According to Lauren's briefing from Knight, sat like a spider on top of this pile is Quentin Tryce, dealer in most things detrimental to health and the master of a vast information network. His collection of the dark secrets of others has kept him safe from interference for many years, but now, it would seem, he has overstepped the mark.

Lauren stands at the lowest level of Tribon, near the persistant drone of the Q-40 refineries. She has with her a set of schematics that are supposed to get her through ducting to Tryce's "Nexus", the heart of his domain. She also carries a datacrystal with a computer virus that Earthforce Intelligence is sure will shut down Tryce's network and neuter his main source of political power.

Tryce has ruined many lives. Payback is fully deserved. Knight had pitched this as a test, the possible start of further work of great importance. It felt more like a suicide mission.
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[Walking Dad]

Vurk looks at the communicator and tries to discern some new useful informations.

[sblock=ooc]
Technical (electronics & mechanical) +4, Computer +6
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[Dr Simon]

[SBLOCK=Vurk]
The communicator is the 2267 equivalent of a cheap mobile phone with only one number programmed into it. There is nothing that can be gleaned from the contact address alone, any further investigation would require a significant amount of time (at least a day) in an electronics/computer workshop.
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[Shayuri]

Ashley frowns.

"Is Carver one of Raive's?" she asks, somewhat rhetorically. Then she nods at Kevin. "Sethyk's taking us to see Quentin Tryce who's then supposed to connect us to Raive. There's something else though. Sethyk had this in the back room."

She shows the ranger the 'bug in the jar.' Lowering her voice she explains, "It's Shadow tech of some kind. Sethyk doesn't know. He got it from Raive...they both think it's Tal. I agreed to give him transport offworld in exchange for setting up this meeting, and giving us the Tal tech he had. So this is ours now, but there could be more."

 

[Dr Simon]

Kevin quirks an eyebrow.

"You know, I think technically I'm supposed to whip out my fighting pike and smash that thing to bits," he says with a wry grin. "But I guess if that's Shadow tech, and the Plague's Shadow tech.... We should get this to the ISA to study ASAP. Maybe we won't need Raive and his Tal tech... but then there is a damsel in distress to help. So I guess we go see this Quentin character."

OOC: Pushed for time at the moment, so feel free to add in any other interaction until my mext post.

 

[Shayuri]

Ashley chuckles nervously.

"That was my first reaction too, but yeah, for all we know this could be the cure. We still need to see Raive for more than the damsel though. Sethyk got this from Raive, and he supposedly got it from the planet's surface, I guess. That says to me that Raive probably has more, but worse...it says to me that the Shadows were messing around with the Tal for some reason. Why else would they have been down there?"

 

[Walking Dad]

Vurk looks up:
"Oh, it is shadowtech then...
The communicator is rather cheap quality, with only one number programmed into it. There is nothing that can do with the contact address alone, any further investigation would require at least a day in an electronics/computer workshop. Sorry."

[sblock=ooc]
will be back on Tuesday. Nice WE.
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[Dr Simon]

"Not to worry Doc," says Kevin. "I guess this Carver is some associate of Raives - didn't the girl give us a contact name for one of his oxygen runner friends? I can't see there being that many people worrying about some club singer. If we can get to Raive we can probably by-pass this trail." He looks at Ashley and his usually flippant demeanour becomes serious for a moment.

"Any idea how old this is? I mean, they told us in briefing that the Tal-Kona'Sha were only a bit younger than the First One races. I wouldn't be surprised if the Shadows weren't trying to interfere with them millions of years ago. If it's newer, like from the last Shadow War, then the ISA will definitely be interested. Maybe President Sheridan will thank us personally." He grins again.

*******

Sethyk leads you down to the lowest level of Tribon, where the Q-40 refineries give a never-ending pounding backdrop of noise and a pall of dust hangs in the already stale air. Here, beneath the vast over-arching pipes of the refineries, a sprawling lurker's market forms a patchwork of blankets between the makeshift buildings made from containers, or caves carved into the rock of Lison. The cascor seems oblivious to the sea of sentient poverty as he leads you to a dirty grey dome. Here he stops at a nondescript door and taps a code into the grimy alphanumeric pad. The door opens with a faint hiss, revealing a short air-lock type corridor beyond, ending in an identical door.

"Tchk, chk. Follow me," he says, having to raise his voice over the humming of the refineries, and steps inside.

[sblock=ooc]
Regarding Kevin's question, there isn't a way known to any of you to reliably date the Shadowtech "bug". Although it looks new, you know that their technology was so far ahead of anything in your experiences that this may not mean anything.
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[Shayuri]

The belly of the beast. Not for the first time, Ashley considered the possibility that this was some kind of a trap. Sethyk's reception had been less than warm, though he hadn't seemed -hostile-...just unconcerned. But what if she was misjudging him? Alien minds were so hard to read.

Then again, had she really ever thought this would be without risk? Dealing with black market tech runners on a non-aligned world? Of course not. This was as good a lead as they had towards something that might save Earth. It had to be followed, regardless of danger.

Besides, she had a Minbari and a ranger along. What could possibly go wrong?

(Ashley follows. )

 

[Dr Simon]

Kevin reaches inside his duster and pulls out his fighting pike, keeping the contracted cylinder tucked inside his hand. He glances at Sarhat and whispers something in the Minbari Adrenato language.

[sblock=Adrenato]
"If there's a fight, I'll follow your lead."
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The inner airlock door hisses open and Sethyk leads you into the dome. Your footsteps echo on the metal grille flooring.

A few meshwork steps lead down to the floor of a grand domed chamber, perhaps 100 ft. across at the diameter. Like much of Tribon's architecture, the metal gantries and service ducting have been left exposed, but from head height upwards, reaching almost to the apex of the dome, viewscreens cover the walls. These show hundreds of moving scenes, mostly one per screen but from time to time multiple viewscreens are used to expand a view to enormous size. This flits like some demented channel-hopper, showing now a brief snippet of ISN News (the foiling of a attempted terrorist bombing of a conference on Mars dedicated to curing the Drakh Plague), to local network news (a clampdown in security on airlocks leading to the surface), to a report on shifting politics in the Drazi Freehold, to Q-40 market reports, to secure-cam footage of locations in Tribon, and so on.

This dazzling visual display is the only source of light in the dome, and so you are lit by a kaleidoscope of flickering, ever-changing colours. Each screen has its own sound-track, turned down low but the combined effect is of a babble of competing voices.

"Welcome to my Nexus," says a voice from above, cutting through the din of a hundred intermingled commentaries.

A shape slowly descends from the roof, silhouetted against the screens of the far wall. It is a corpulent, pale-faced figure, barely recognisable as human rather than some maggot-like alien species. Almost totally wrapped in wires and tubing, some of which pulsate like peristaltic organs, the figure descends in its cradle of conduit like a cybernetic nightmare fallen angel, until it hangs about 10 ft. from the dome's floor.

"My name is Quentin Tryce. What can I do for you?"

[SBLOCK=OOC]
I'm assuming here that Sethyk is in front, followed by Kevin and Sarhat, with Ashley and Vurk behind them. Once you're in the dome there's enough space to position yourselves however you like.
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