A Time for Secrets

Ashe's eyes got a little wider with each bit of Kesslan's statement. She was quite impressed with what they seemed to have picked up.
"Wow, that is quite a haul. Will we be intending to hang on to it all? Well, I guess that's kind of a stupid question, isn't it? It's not like we need the money..." She let the thought trail off, reaching up with her hand to brush a strand of her hair from in front of her face. She tucked it back behind her pointed ear, accenting the ear on that side of her head. Despite that Metahumans make up 10% of humanity, seeing an Elf in person is still not terribly common. Which is strangely misleading, considering their overabundance on the Trideos.
"Umm... I just did a little mental scan of what you told me, and I didn't hear you mention anything magical at all. Is it possible that you haven't searched everywhere? I mean, that was a fairly complete list of Military Gear, but I didn't hear any books of Spell Formulae, Focus Materials, Lodge Materials, or Orichalcum. I realize that magical beings and awakened people are rare, but they tend to show up in a relative overabundance in special operations units. And even an Adept would be interested in Orichalcum." She looked at Kesslan, wondering if there was any chance that he had missed it. - Even Kesslan would enjoy having some Orichalcum added to his guns, since that would help him channel his magical abilities in their use. She mused, considering his Adept nature. He was a powerful creature too, and she was distinctly interested in seeing him get the best use of his abilities that he could.

Kesslan shakes his head "No, nothing I'm aware of. IF it's there, it's not on the manifest. Either they were going without magical support or their support was bringing everything they needed with them. Not sure any of it would necessarily be of any use to us anyway, I don't know about you but the spirits I follow are not those of your kind. Few metahumans connect with nature to begin with and though I was raised by humans I was born in the wild, not the cities. The forests still call to me more than your walls of stone and steel." not that he seemed to mind living among them much, or perhaps he simply didn't show it when he did. It wasn't like the group had been together all that long just yet. As it was even the astral now hid his true mood, Ashe had seen his true form there earlier, but now that form was gone replaced with a mask. The Jaguar shifter had learned to hide his spots at long last from the eyes of the world, or at least try to. He looks back to Ashe a moment with the one thing he couldn't hide about himself however, those feline eyes of his. Even in human form that was one indicator he just couldn't hide, but then every shifter species had something. With some it was the eyes, others it was unusual skin tones, or appearance of hair, feathers or other features that just.. didn't fit on a human. The eyes at least could be explained away as biomods most of the time, or hidden with contacts, but he'd yet to do so. "If such things you seek, then we will have to head in to one of the cities around here."

"It can wait. I do want some magical stuff, but it isn't anywhere near as large a concern as some of the other things that we are here for. At the moment, I can manage, nicely, with what I have available to me. Besides, I don't think I have the time, at the moment, to really be able to take in bonding any new magical instruments. That will just have to wait until later. In the mean time, I need to spend a bit of time doing physical work, to tire my body out enough to return to sleep. I really need my sleep. So, is there something that I can do to help out? I don't know how long I will be useful, but I want to offer up whatever I can." She smiled pleasantly. It seemed like she didn't realize that the mere thought of her doing physical labor, especially in those clothes, was a fairly absurd thought.
Ashe looked around, trying to make sense of the work that had already been done, and what might be coming up. She raised her eyebrow slightly, noticing that Kesslan had already opened most boxes and confirmed their contents, as well as having done an initial cleaning of the floors. Her eyes tracked about the visible space, taking in the general organized disarray being fostered so far. Eventually her eyes returned to Kesslan's.
"Oh, my goodness!" She said, excitedly. "I see that you've changed! That is wonderful news, in many more ways than one! Congratulations!" She said, leaving little doubt as to what she was referring to. Kesslan knew full well that Ashe should have complete, and unfettered view of the Astral, and that she would, as soon as she looked, notice immediately. And there was no doubt that this was indeed good news.

Kesslan glances over towards Ashe, confused a moment before understanding finally dawned. He still didn't understand metahumans even after years of living among them but he was learning none the less. "It seemed... prudent. Your kind hunts mine in many places of the world, thus when one has become the prey one must learn to hide. So too when one is the predator, it is best to hide lest your prey come to learn the danger it is in before you pounce." he pauses a moment before adding "I'm.. not quite sure when it happend though. The time seemed right and.. it came to me. Even all the way here, so far from where I was born the spirits of my kind still speak and help guide the way." he gives a slight shake of his head as if shaking off the conversation itself before turning to regard the contents of the aircraft. "This place would work well, but I worry we would come into conflict with whom ever owns this area. So too a clearing as this is good to land in, but is very exposed. We do not know the nature of those we seek, and if they are able to hide from one such as our employer, I would wager they have access to satellite surveillance at the very least."

Ashe nodded, listening to Kesslan's explanation of the change. She had noticed, but it had been a surprise. For the moment, she was usually able to see through his disguise, but someone who was less familiar with him would unlikely be able to do so. Or, at least, less likely.
"That makes sense. Well, umm... Both of those statements makes sense. I agree that it was a prudent change. I also agree that it may make sense to find somewhere other than here to lay up. I think Eleanor made a fairly good choice in where to lay us up for a short time, but now we need to sit down and figure out where we want to stay for the long term.
"As far as a Hacker goes, we can hire one. Also, I expect that Eleanor will make a perfectly capable Hacker for the more simple stuff we need. She is, after all, an AI. Ask them to do simple hacking is like asking you to go out for a jog. At least, that is how I understand it." Ashe said, grinning. She would prefer to hire a professional, if for no other reason than she prefers to have professional "sneak" specialists do her shadowing and infiltration. Hacking, in that regard, is no different.
"That said, and I can't speak for her, but it takes a level of skill and specialization to "buy" us an island, and cover the tracks. Eleanor, are you up to that sort of thing?" Ashe asks out loud, wondering if Eleanor was listening.

Nods in partial understanding of what Ashe was talking about, but in all honesty the Matrix was something he still barely understood. He could use it, more or less but a lot of 'common sense' things about the matrix he just didn't get. But then he was that way about Metahumanity as well, small wonder however given his true nature. "I've.. not worked with an AI before." he admits openly. "Perhaps why I'm hesitant to rely on one when I don't know.. what they do or cant do. Things like that. If nothing else though we definitely need some place to hold up even if we have to pay rent but we'd best do it on the sly side. Once who ever it is realizes we are poking around they'll be wanting to shut us down."

LT took stance with his new sword. It did not much look like a No Dai Chi. A larger version of a Katana made to knock off horsemen from there steeds. In Lil'Tiamet's hands it seemed more like a Katana to a humen or elf but it was still huge. A Swift command from his pan via skin link and the swords Ruthenium Polymers Made it Virtually disappear. Virtually because the the blades Edge was still some what visible. The technology that made the massive blades length (and the handle, sheath) seem to disappear would not last long on the lasers edge. Do to usage. The note from the broker had been clear. What LT wanted was impossible, but it also stated that this same broker was sure that LT would be happy with his purchase, none the less. It essentially was a tall order, a wish. That someone had made come true, for the right price of course, and he wondered who that was...

He swung the blade (balanced nicely) which seemed straighter then the blade that was being mimicked. It was more shaped like a Ninja-To which anyone who new there blades, knew that just could not be. So yeah he swung his mostly translucent sword and enjoyed it. But did not feel he had the strength of will to make it his yet it would have to wait...

Next he examined the Laser he ordered. This was a nice piece of work he wondered what job did to get his hands on it. The switch for High velocity made him smile. Job Had put him in his young place. apparently The Ex-mosad (or mossad)Agent was still very much in touch with his old contacts... LT Sent a message again to his father figure.

Message to: Job

Thx sir i never said thx the umm party me and my friends are having well i needed this stuff, and my acquaintance got his order thx for that too. Enjoy your cut you earned every bit. LT out.

End Message:

Then LT Asked the AI "Uhhh? EL" he asked more the called said Through the sub-vocal using his skin link to pretty much mute himself to all but the AI even driver whom he had no doubt would find out later "Is there any place close by that I could put in some work, you know some target practice. Without drawing to much attention?" He Did not ask or say anything to the AI until he needed this favor. He was a little spooked by it. But he did not doubt its sentience, and was not rude just never said anything after hello? But he needed some help on this one. He wanted to blow off some steam and there was nothing more fun to LT then playing with his toys, and he had new toys to distract him from his problems...

"Dude. Go out and find one. Why are you asking me?" A smooth electronic voice echoes out of the speaker system in response to LT's question. "If you want, I expect that Ashe can order you a computer which will compute your random requests on your every whim..." The voice continued, nearly immediately.
"Hey. Don't go volunteering me up to do work for LT. He's a big boy, and his commlink works just fine. Once we have a mailing address to send things to, he can do the ordering all by himself." Ashe responded loudly, making sure that LT and Eleanor were quite able to hear her. She turned back to Kesslan's conversation with her, rolling her eyes at the humorously amusing intrusion.
"Well, she is part of the team. We haven't really asked her yet what her specialties, other than driving, are. She clearly knows her way around the road, and the air... But perhaps her skills are multifaceted.
"Eleanor, could you spend a few moments and tell myself and Kesslan what your skills are? We are considering some tasks that we need taken care of, and we are wondering if those are within your purview." Ashe asked, letting her eyes wander a bit, not really sure where she should fix them. Since, basically, Eleanor was the plane.
"Well... What is it that you two have in mind?" The smooth computer voice responded. Surprisingly, the voice didn't really sound like a computer generated voice. It was melodic, and smooth, and decidedly feminine.
"Ugh... I am too tired to be able to remember this succinctly... Kesslan, can you tell her what we need? I don't want to look like my tongue is hanging out of my mouth..." Ashe said, suddenly grinning at the end of the statement at the obviously funny image that she was seeing in her head.

Kesslan doesn't have to think too long to come up with a response to the question. "Well, we need some one who can hunt around for some suitable land where there would be a clearing, or a clearing could be made large enough for the aircraft, preferably with some place to hide said aircraft in. We'd also need to be able to at least set up the tents, though if it's going to be something that's around for any serious duration we'd need to be able to bring in some extra building materials. Most importantly however, we'd need to be sure that we were not bothered. Somewhere at least a little isolated, which is hard to do around Japan, thus why I suggested looking around at the various small islands off the mainland. Finally we'd need some way to cover up any financial tracks we leave behind be it renting or buying flat out. Maybe under a shell company? I'm not quite sure what we could bill ourselves as to a public front however. Private security consultants would be a little too blatant I think, in this day and age. I suppose with some of the diving equipment that's here we could try to bill ourselves as a 'diving adventure' company. There's plenty things around here that tourists may be interested in. The only problem with this that I see, is that I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not particularly familiar with diving."

"Forget i asked LT out." LT Grunted in his com for everyone to here... At this point LT was done asking anybody for favors. He would go at it alone wherever He wanted, and heck with all of this. He moved off into a space where he felt comfortable turned off his new com. And started firing his new toy... maybe no one local would notice since the talking radar had a attitude of its own...

"Ashe was correct and appropriate in her considered response. These things are all fairly simple portions of what I can do. However, she was also correct that I will not be as good at them as a seasoned professional. Every biped learns to "walk", but their abilities at "running" are vastly varied across species, and individual." The smooth female computer voice responds, apparently choosing not to craft another response to LT as he stalked out of the plane. It's certainly hard to tell if the AI understood humor in the same way as normal metahumanity, but it would be hard not to laugh at her response to LT.
"Which of these tasks would you like me to take care of? And which will you be attempting to hire a professional for? Also, how will you be locating this professional?" The smooth feminine voice continued, finishing off her thought.
"Oh, uh, well, if you don't mind, I think this conversation can function perfectly well without me. As long as the three of you are comfortable without me," Ashe said, looking at Kesslan and Sam. "Then I will retire to my makeshift mattress, and attempt to finish out tonight. I expect I will be right as rain by tomorrow." Ashe said, smiling. Despite her obvious fatigue, she still managed to hold her body in proper posture, and it was equally baffling that her clothing had managed to un-wrinkle somehow, without any washing service around.
Ashe turned and walked around a stack of crates, the top one open with brown shredded packing paper hanging out the sides. She was likely returning to the "Office" room which had been somewhat appropriated as her bedroom for the past day.

Kesslan needs a moment to think about that before responding. "Well, could you help us find some one suitable? I'm not really familiar with the matrix, much less how to tell if a hacker really is any good or not. I'm having a hard enough time understanding Metahumanity as it is, and well.. AI's like you I'd heard of, but know nothing of beyond the debatable versions shown on the Trid." he notes. "Your the first AI I've ever encountered to be honest, but I would assume that as an AI you could do a good job of figuring out if some one had the skills we would need? Or at least would stand a good chance?"

BANG

Sam sits up straight "what in the hell was that" hops out of the truck and looks around and sees that no one is freaking out so he walks over to where he sees a couple people gathered together. as ashe leaves he looks at kesslan.

"so whats our current plan of attack?"

"Not a plan of attack exactly." Kesslan notes to Sam. "Gotta get ourselves a hacker and then try and track down the target as well as find a more permanent place to setup. We've got everything we need to build a temporary base of sorts, we just need a suitable place to setup. I'm not sure the best way to go about that however. I speak your kind's language but.. your concepts of laws are still confusing to me."

"Of course I can... Can you evaluate if a metahuman is a good runner? Being able to walk, and even run, qualifies you to evaluate the relative capacity of good runners, right? Well, it's the same for a hacker. I can walk, and even run, in the Matrix. I am therefore quite able to evaluate the capacity of another hacker." Eleanor said in her multi-tonal voice. She paused for a moment, as though she were "thinking". Perhaps she was doing some thing like that, although, what would we call it?
"I do not believe I have any one to recommend at the moment. Perhaps I can, how do you say it? "Put my feelers out"?" Eleanor said, cutting her pause somewhat short.
Ashe looked over her shoulder as she retreated, nodding to Sam as she disappeared in to the door of the small room. She didn't stop to do any more than nod.

LT
You quickly and successfully shred one tree to little more than toothpicks where you are shooting it. You stop holding the trigger down and watch as the tree topples, falling heavilly on several other trees. The large falling tree leaves a gaping clearing, similar to the one that you have landed in. The light streams in, causing a temporary spike in your eyesight's flare compensation, reducing visibility for a brief moment before returning to normal. You are so familiar with the visibility modifiers in your eyesight that you don't even notice it anymore.

"It would be appreciated if you could do that. Watashi may also potentially know some one, or at least be able to offer them much the same deal he did to us so it might help to touch base with him as well if you could?" Kesslan asks of Elanor. "Beyond that, the only other thing we could start doing right now is wandering around aimlessly in Japan with only a ten year old picture to go off of, of the target. Don't even have a name to go off of so it's gonna be a little hard..." he pauses a moment before asking "Elanor? If I send you the picture file, is there any chance you could also start digging around for any more recent photos, video or anything else of some one who might match the photo? We need some sort of starting point as we have no other leads than this person was last seen in Japan. We need something a little more solid to go on, like.. at least a city or something. From there we could try and narrow it down to where this person last lived ten years ago, or hopefully more recently than that and start tracking them from there."

LT was very satisfied with the high velocity Laser pistol. The idea was that he could dish out a whole lotta hurt. without the normal recharge time between shots. This particular red line would dump half or more of its charges with the pulling of the trigger if so desired. But that was not its only mode. So yeah he was happy. His work done he moved to join the rest of the group his anger (for no real reason infact) was all but gone...

He did not know where the anger had come from sudden feelings of rage and Fury... especially when the team had clearly been on the better side of fate... What LT did not understand was that he was just different... and what was the matter he got his order everything to spec., but something was churning inside of him. Perhaps it was feelings he'd buried long ago maybe... All he knew was that it was building up momentum... The death of the defenseless tree had help that out some. Staved off the fury eating at him. he felt like, like... Like he was burning inside...

"Absolutely I can do that. But, I have to warn you, I know of Watashi's skill. Watashi, for all the visual effects that he was able to put forth, is one of the most skilled AI cyber-hackers I have ever seen. Think, something along the lines of, umm... Well, think of a Panther, versus a two-legs human, in a foot race. The only chance I have of uncovering anything that he couldn't find would be sheer luck, or more time on the project. That said, I am happy to try." Eleanor replied, applying a strange modulation to her multi-tonal melodic voice. The modulation seemed to be somewhat similar to the way humans raise their voices, and lower them, during speech. Although, Eleanor's version was somewhat different, almost an artistic representation of what she knew was appropriate. Like she was sharing her amusement with someone equally removed from humanity, creating a sort of inside-joke, of sorts.
"In the mean time, I believe that I have located a suitable island for the team, and I have set up a... Umm... Corporation, dedicated to underwater adventure diving. For the time being, I believe that we have a believable front. Also, if you can take care of a few details, I can actually run a profitable business for the team, which would make this in to far more than just a front.
"I set up the pricing so that it will be FAR outside anyone's price range unless they have annoyingly large amounts of money to spend, or if they're doing corporate style retreats. Again, if you can take care of a few small details for me, I can actually operate this. Just buy me a human-sized submersible drone, fill it to the gills with communications and observations equipment, and make sure that it is seawater capable, and I will be more than prepared to lead an unlimited number of "excursions" for you." Eleanor responded, showing a clear amount of pride in her voice.
"Also, by the way, I set up a website." She added, almost as an afterthought.

Kesslan is given slight pause in that line, that.. was well and above what he'd expected, or even really wanted. Still... that wasn't such a bad thing really. "Uhh.. good work Elanor, didn't expect you to go that far but uhh, I don't see the harm in it at all." he says openly. "Who did you list as the staff and such? Just need to know who's having to play the public face of the company and such if it winds up coming to that. When we get into a major city I'll see about touching base with one of the major corps out there to pick one up, or a few for that matter. Figure it can't hurt to have a few spares. Just let me know if we need to order in more diving equipment or anything else. Maybe a boat or two?"

"Yeah, that makes sense. We should probably have diving equipment on hand for the fleshies who need to be using it... I like that. Also, spares for the submersibles couldn't hurt. As for buying it, this stuff is fairly routine, except for the submersibles. So buying it should be easy enough." Eleanor responded.
"I've put the coordinates up for the island on the HUD in the cockpit. But we can't really head over there until someone purchases it. I wouldn't mind taking care of that, but I know that I won't be as good at hiding where the money came from as a professional hacker. Let me know if you want me to move forward on this." She finished, basically completing the easy parts of her assignment.

LT wandered back into the makeshift camp... His mind clear... Moving over to kess, he said his com still off. "You know, I don't know what we're doing, but those leads my guy got us couple days ago before we got this great stuff. is still pretty good intel. That said intel like that has an expiration date. If you get me. This guy goes back under ground, who knows when he will resurface...." "Just saying we might want to get over there soon and check it out or split up and do two things at once... some of us set up base camp, some follow the leads. What'cha think?" He asked the shapeshifter. LT clearly now had business on his mind...

He tapped his com and pulled up the relevant communications recopied them and again sent them to the team...

Message to team:

This is all i got on the target. My guys fairly good with computers, and what not so we got an aged photo of the guy and a recent one from some camera footage We should probably act soon on this stuff though...

Attachments access here

End message:

"well if we got Intel lets get on the move." he looks around "um... anyone mind giving me a ride sheila is a little... noticeable, and we probably don't want that yet. I'll just grab some drones and then be ready we want stealth or armament?"

he runs to the truck real quick and hope starts grabbing drones for backup. he grabs both of the fly spys and and the stonebrooke smokecloud and walks back.

"so long as were looking for info and not a fire fight i think we ought to be good."

"Problem is." looking at Sam "That picture is from Tokyo i believe and they don't take kindly to people toting around drones in there streets we need to be discrete and ask questions out there feel me?" He said to his new teammate in a nice enough tone... This whole thing was turning out to be the weirdest run he'd ever heard of... Lots of nu yin changing hands, and lots of work going around... But the new people all the time was what was bothering him... He knew everybody had to work right? So no problem there... Its just when your doing something like this the less people that knew about it the better. Or was he wrong he'd never been on a long term assignment like this and was wondering what he did not know.. Maybe the more people that knew the better, get the word back to you quicker that way.... Nah if you make to much noise then the people hiding him might notice you... So many angles he thought... Then he came back to where he was. To the groups discussion on their next move...

Kesslan takes a brief glance over the information Ghost passes along before asking "Elanor, mind running a search on both the aged and present photo and see if you can't find any more hits on this guy? Even a tiny maybe could turn out to be important. As to who's to stay behind, well I suggest we leave Driver and Elanor here while the rest of us go into town. I'm pretty sure a rigger and an AI can take care of things on their end and they certainly have more than enough weaponry to take care of themselves while were gone between all the guns, ammo and combat drones. My comlink's got some pretty damn good range too so I think we should be able to stay in touch easily enough as well. That will leave the rest of us to go into town and check things out once everyone gets some sleep. Just keep in mind, while we have a lot of milspec hardware kicking around now, that ain't the sorta drek to be toting around when we go into town, so pack.. lighter." there's another slight pause before Kesslan adds "Oh, and Elanor, if you'd be so kind, could you gather up what ever passes for firearms and other related laws in Japan and send us a text based breakdown while the rest of us get some sleep? I think we need to know what would or wouldn't pass as legal around here, and I for one have never been to Japan before so I'm not familiar with their laws. The only thing I know about this place is it's not one of the friendlier places in the world for my kind."

"Sure, I can work on that while you sleep. As I mentioned before, I don't expect any dazzling new results. This Watashi that you were all working with is far more adept with the Matrix than I am. Perhaps, somewhere on the line of the difference between a human stalking another human, and a tiger stalking that same other human. The tiger will be far superior, almost despite the aforementioned human's skills.
"But, it is also possible that time, or luck, will yield me results. I will try." Eleanor said, reiterating her reservations about attempting to walk in the realm of the "real" hackers. She knew her strengths, and being a hacker was not one of them. Yes, it is a basic skill for "moving about" in the matrix; but she had not developed it beyond her natural capacities. As yet, she'd had no particular need.

"Ahh, now there's a task for which I am much more suited. I can assemble a comprehensive list at what ever point you're ready. When the sun rises is just about as good a time as any." She said in response to Kesslan's second request. Her voice indicated a clear satisfaction about the second task.