Zora Möller: Swimming in Scum

[Brennor]

You find yourself on the Scum Barge Ecstatic Metamorphosis. You originally embarked on this ship because your cell has some upcoming plans and you need to acquire some supplies to make them come to fruition. These Scum Barges are the perfect place for you to acquire what you need to make the corps listen to you.

Ecstatic Metamorphosis

This Scum Barge was previously a colony ship, but is now a gigantic floating city that lazily wanders space from port to port, and is run by members of the Scum Faction -- basically a nomadic black market where anything goes. This particular ship has a central cylinder that is rotated giving light (0.4G) gravity. The rest of the ship is without gravity. Parts of the ship are open bazaars, others are non-stop nightlife and there are even some areas where you can seek out some rest or privacy. This ship is also accompanied by a swarm of smaller craft as it goes about its business.

These anarchists fully endorse full personal control over one's own body and mind and wholy embrace body modification and experimentation. There are no police and very few restrictions. The only rule is that you can't do anything to endanger the ship itself. Anything else goes.

People come here to party, for vacations, to buy and sell illicit goods. You can find pretty much whatever you want here and it is possible to do so and do it without people finding out what you've acquired.

Since you've been on board, you've seen what you believe is the entire cross-section of Transhumanity. Members of all factions, all types of morphs and even all ideologies have been encountered.

At the same time everyone receives an encrypted message via the mesh (basically an email directly to your brain). Your notifications pop up and after all security codes are entered and checks are successfully passed, the following appears in your view when you open it:



Firewall can't come right out and say that bad things are happening, in case the message is intercepted. But you know that the following are code words. An "Art Dealer" is actually a weapons dealer, and a "masterpiece quality artwork" is actually a weapon of mass destruction. So this message is saying that Firewall learned that someone on this scum barge is attempting to sell a weapon of mass destruction and they want you to prevent that from happening.

Also included in the message is a link to a simulspace, which is a virtual reality that you can access via the mesh. In this case, this is a hidden simulspace with passcodes, which you now have. Provided you enter the simulspace, you see a simple conference room with a round table in the center of it, with four comfortable chairs arranged around it. There are no decorations, just simple grey walls with a simple flourescent light above the table.

At this moment, no one else is in the conference room. You do have a date and time contained within the encrypted message though. That meeting time is 2 hours from now.


Only Muskrat should be posting to this thread...

[Muskrat]

Zora frowns when she sees the message, feeling some annoyance. She doesn't like getting sidetracked and this mission will divert her from the reason she originally came here. And if she gets too diverted for too long and too far, she'll have difficulty explaining things to her comrades in her cell, since her involvement with Firewall and its missions is supposed to be secret. She sighs, running her fingers through her hair, realizing that Firewall wouldn't contact her unless something was important and that this needed to take priority over securing any supplies her cell needed. And a half-truth about stopping a capitalist arms-dealer--libertarian socialists like her disliked all capitalists, but arms dealers were the bottom of the barrel even of that lot--would satisfy her comrades. No need to explain about Firewall.

She checks into the simulspace. She has two hours to kill. Well, she might as well spend that time productively and see if she can't track down what she needs for her cell in the mean time. She can pop back into simulspace when the time comes.

Display

I hope I'm getting the details right here--that my cell refers to my cell of fellow anarchist saboteurs and that involvement with Firewall is secret.

[Brennor]

OOC

Your interpretation of the anarchist saboteurs is correct.

Zora was sent to this specific scum barge to get the supplies her group needs. She knows precisely what she needs and that she'll be able to get it here. However, she doesn't know where on the barge she'll have to go to get those particular supplies.

So, the first thing she does is get into contact with the @-list social network on the barge. Her @-rep rating is still strong after the last attack her cell made was linked to her. Doesn't help with some things -- security forces don't like finding out about that, but here it should be just fine.

She sends out a query for some materials, hidden in a segment of code so that it'll be blocked from those who are snooping the channel and aren't well-versed in the terminology won't pick up on. That should prevent the most casual of observers.

OOC

This calls for a network test. First test of the game!

We'll be using your @-rep -- lucky for you, your @-list rep is your highest. We'll be doing a Networking Test to find/acquire the items. Networking Test is a test with a 60m interval, so it'll take you at least 60m to track down what you need and possibly longer to actually physically acquire the items.

Since you've actually got credits to spend on procuring the items, we'll knock the difficultly down a step, so instead of being a challenging favor to procure, it'll be difficult instead.

Your @-rep is 60. Difficult is -10. We'll be testing against 50:

1d100: 44
Success! Barely.

Zora has successfully tracked down a supplier that will provide her with what she needs for the upcoming attack the cell is planning. It turns out the intel provided by other members of the cell was spot on and it was easier to find what she needed than was otherwise expected.

The only hiccup is that the provider want 1750 credits for the materials, but she has the credits on hand and has the directions to go make the exchange if she still wishes to.

Zora has his muse set a timer to display in his vision field as a countdown to the meet: 55m.

[Muskrat]

Zora thinks for a moment, then decides it would be best to meet the dealer after the Firewall meeting. She doesn't want to miss it--but would rather not be jacking into that particular simulspace in a public place. It never pays to be sloppy about security and she wants to take no chances, so she consults the mesh, looking for private quarters to hole up in while she goes to the simulspace meeting. She lets the dealer know she'll be by in a couple hours.

Display

I'm not sure what a scum barge would have in terms of private quarters. I'm looking for something like a motel room or even those little crawl-in rooms they have in Japan. Somewhere I'll be out of the way, safe from attacks while I'm in virtual reality, and the chances of people eavesdropping are minimal.

Also, what mission is my cell on? I know it's probably irrelevant to the adventure, but it would sort of help to know what it is and what I need.

[Brennor]

OOC

There are rentable rooms, most of them even have a door. You can find a place to berth for the duration of the meeting, or longer if you wish.

Cell mission: You are gathering materials to sabotage the fuel system of a new flagship starliner recently launched by Comet Express.

Zora makes a note to meet the dealer later in the day, and sends a message to setup that meet for a later time.

Then she heads towards the other side of the marketplace, the closest rentals she knows of are hanging off the other side, tucked away in a hallway off the corner. Moving through the crowds, she approaches the terminals that allow for room rentals and takes a look at the prices here. She's got several options, depending on what she wants, ranging from hourly rentals all the way up to monthly charges.

Muse countdown: 45m

[Muskrat]

OOC

As thehitcat said, it's good to have you back. I'm really looking forward to playing this game.

Zora grumbles to herself as she tries to decide what sort of quarters she wants. "Stupid, archaic, money-based economy. Charging people for shelter." Why couldn't people see that libertarian socialism and a rep-based economy worked so much better? She spent a lot of time dealing with a money-based economy in her various forays as a saboteur and Firewall agent, but you were never going to get her to like it. Finally, she decides on a day-long rental, with the option to renew. She isn't quite sure how long she'll be here, given the Firewall alert, so it seems like the safest way to spend her credits.

Once she's paid for the room, she looks around the immediate area, consulting the mesh as she does so, seeing if any of the local businesses might provide some entertainment for the next half-hour or so.

[Brennor]

Zora isn't happy with the need to spend credits to acquire a room. It isn't like this everywhere she goes, however, the residents of most scum barges like to feel something exchange hands or actually physically receive something. So, she's used to having to pay for things, even if she doesn't like it. It'll cost her 100 credits for the day's rental, but she'll have a safe place to go at least.

In exchange for her 100 credits, her muse is handed a digital key that will open the lock on a room (#82 -- 8th rack, 2nd room) in the corner of the marketplace.

It does not take her long to complete the transaction and then find the room.

Zora sends out a ping on the @-list, requesting information on the location of the varieties of entertainment in the immediate area. It takes less than a minute for a list of a dozen possible places to come back from the Anarchist's social network. The names of the places come back with some descriptions about them. Of these, the majority seem to be no more than places to get a drink. Apparently the scum like their drinks.

Muse Countdown: 42m

[Muskrat]

Zora isn't really interested in heading into a bar. She doesn't want to fuzz her judgement with alcohol right now and, with the meeting so soon, she's barely have time to strike up an acquaintance with anyone before she has to leave. She decides to take a walk around the area, checking out the local markets and just engaging in some people watching.

[Brennor]

There are plenty of people to watch as well as other activities to take part in, all attached to the marketplace. There are also quieter portions of the ship that harbor other activities as well.

Zora watches a variety of transhumans complete their various businesses, including several uplifts. The most interesting uplift she sees is a sentient dolphin buying some rather odd looking foodstuff.

Muse Countdown: 35m

[Muskrat]

Zora continues to roam the marketplace a bit longer, then heads back to her rented room, trying to give herself ten minutes to spare, in case something happens to hold her up. She's always been a stickler for punctuality. It tends to drive other people crazy in anarchist habitats, where most folks are fairly easy-going about such things, but it has paid off in her life as a saboteur and Firewall agent.