Quest Deep Periphery Quest (Battletech Sandbox Empire Builder)

[ShadowArxxy]

A Cat Of A Different Coat

Michelle Carter was easily underestimated for being sincerely warm, friendly, and vastly more forgiving than anyone expected. But she was also the head of the most powerful organized crime syndicate in Griffin's Roost, and one did not rise to such a position without leaving a trail of bodies. It was simply that none of Carter's could be provably linked to her.

"Are you familiar with Rudyard Kipling, by any chance? An Old Earth poet from the early industrial era, one of rare talent and great insight. This one is from, 'The Jungle Book', the actual book and not the movie and cartoon adaptations that followed in the information age. It's really a pity it's so poorly known."

She closed her eyes and softly recited from memory,

The stream is shrunk - the pool is dry,
And we be comrades, thou and I;
With fevered jowl and dusty flank
Each jostling each along the bank;
And by one drouthy fear made still,
Forgoing thought of quest or kill.
Now 'neath his dam the farm may see,
The lean Pack-wolf as cowed as he
And the tall buck, unflinching, note
The fangs that tore his father's throat.
The pools are shrunk -- the streams are dry,
And we be playmates, thou and I,
Till yonder cloud - Good Hunting! - loose
The rain that breaks our Water Truce.

The young woman having lunch with her boss tensed, paled, and then slowly nodded. Two hours later, she was reporting to Janet Chambers in person.

Michelle Carter was not a nice woman. But she was a Griff through and through -- and a mother to boot, although she rarely let that impact her business dealings -- and there were lines she would not abide crossing. For the duration of this crisis, the syndicate would officially unofficially cooperate with the authorities.

 

[kelgar04]

Hunters - Omake

Senior Agent Sidney Riley and Inspector Tomoe Gozen entered the conference room it was filled with counter-intelligence agents of various departments and police of various departments all were sat intently. They both approached the podiums all eyes following them to the podium were intent.

They both stood behind their respective podium and he scanned the crowd of police officers and agents sat on the rows. They were the task force assembled to hunt down the mastermind of the attack against the Royal Family and deal with the rogue elements that could be used in a similar attack. He had been put in charge and Inspector Gozen was made his second in command

"Ladies and gentlemen," He said, "You're all here because you are impeccable agents and officers as well as trustworthy and well thought of."

He scanned the room and nodded as he saw the determined looks on each of their faces, "we are going to hunt down the vindictive sons of a bitches who took thought it would be a bright idea shot at the Royal consort and their daughter. We are also going to deal with the groups who could make up a possible source of manpower for them."

He looked at Gozen and gave a small nod and she spoke up, "Since this is a joint effort by the Police and Counter Intelligence you will be broken up into joint teams each will be given your tasks by Agent Riley and myself. So far we have eight possible teams and your personnel already assigned."

She paused and consulted her notes, "also this does not leave this room this comes under official secrets and will see any of you in a cell with my boot print on your backside but Michelle Carter and her syndicate are offering unofficial cooperation with the government to catch the perpetrators."

He looked around the room as Gozen finished, "We will assign teams in a moment. However, any questions before we proceed?"

He saw a young police officer raise her hand, "Any chance we have surviving gems?"

"Unlikely," Gozen said, "the sweeps and trials were quite through though we need to keep an open mind."

An agent raised his hand, "what about the dracs?"

"At this moment we are unsure," He said, "But we are not ruling that possibility out we are dealing with deep cover infiltrators who saw an opportunity and took."

He scanned around the room, "No more questions? Good now as to teams...."

Several hours later

Sidney and Gozen sat in the secure cafeteria going over their notes so far they had Alpha, Bravo and Charlie teams assigned to hunt down possible masterminds under the codename Isu they knew was out there. While Delta, Echo and Foxtrot were going after the various groups they believed had contact and were asserts for Isu. They also had one team called Golf and Whiskey who they were using as a backup team for either group though they would be assisting them in analysing and compiling data as it came in.

He leant back and took a drink out of his coffee mug and looked at the clock, it was already late.

"Gozen," He said, "We should call it a night we have had a busy day and got another one tomorrow."

She looked up at him and then looked to the clock, "Yes let's call it a night."

She starts to pack up the said, "come on let's go get a drink there is a police bar down the road."

He nodded and the left to go get a drink.

 

[Vilegrave]

He scanned the room and nodded as he saw the determined looks on each of their faces, "we are going to hunt down the vindictive son of a bitch who took a shot at the Royal consort and their daughter. We are also going to deal with the groups who could make up a possible source of manpower for them."

Minor thing but i will point out that IC they shouldn't know yet that there's only a single person who planned all this, they caught the 5 who were manning the gun/actually fired the shot so now they should be looking for groups/organizations that could of caused this.

Other than that it's a great omake, really like how your laying the foundation for everything

 

[kelgar04]

Minor thing but i will point out that IC they shouldn't know yet that there's only a single person who planned all this, they caught the 5 who were manning the gun/actually fired the shot so now they should be looking for groups/organizations that could of caused this.

Other than that it's a great omake, really like how your laying the foundation for everything

Ok altered it somewhat to try and better separate IC from OOC knowledge does that better fit with IC knowledge?

 

[Bear Ribs]

Given that it's established that Grifftigers have "I can't believe it's not mind reading" powers I have to wonder how the rebels thought this was going to work out for them. Perhaps they've come up with a way to mask their intentions?

 

[Vilegrave]

Ok altered it somewhat to try and better separate IC from OOC knowledge does that better fit with IC knowledge?

Michelle Carter and her syndicate are offering unofficial cooperation with the government to catch the perpetrator(s)

Any chance we have surviving gem(s)

with deep cover infiltrator(s) who

Yep other than these minor corrections to fit the changed circumstances everything looks good

 

[kelgar04]

Yep other than these minor corrections to fit the changed circumstances everything looks good

Thanks alterations done.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Turn 22 - Parliamentary Procedure

Your husband and your youngest daughter are both in medical comas. Both are expected to live. Neither will ever be the same.

Willis is paralyzed from his mid back down, the doctors worked a miracle to prevent systemic organ failure and his death, but unless some of the Star League era treatments hinted at in the datacores actually pan out once the Genome Project is complete he’ll never walk again, and will be on some level of artificial life support for the rest of his life. This doesn’t get into the burns, scarring, and other damage he took.

Sarah has lost one leg at the knee, the other right below the hip, one hand, had to have one ovary and her uterus removed, is blind, missing part of her nose, and will require extensive reconstructive surgery of her jaw before she’ll be able to eat normally. Not to mention the massive scarring and burns.

You want to simply rage.

You want to simply cry.

But you are Queen. You have a planet to lead. And you have a piece of murderous scum to catch.

You’d gotten initial reports from Janet already. The 8cm laser used in the attack had been from a batch that had been set for scrapping 20 years ago. According to the paperwork it had been picked up from the depot by a bonded transportation firm to be transported to the disposal site. According to the paperwork it had been melted down at the disposal site.

However, the driver of the truck which transported the batch of scrap material that day was killed in a ‘botched armed robbery’ a week after the event. And the manager who signed off on and verified the destruction of the laser died in a boating accident a few days later while on vacation.

Janet was waiting on forensic accounting analysis of their bank records. Both men had been single, neither had families. She was expecting results in a few weeks.

The weapon mount itself was familiar to many of the old-timers in the AFGR, indeed you recognized it yourself when you saw it. It was intended for the lightest class of autocannons for field deployment as AA mounts. This particular design had been retired just before you entered the military due to how ineffective it was against modern ASFs as it completely lacked any sort of assisted targeting or powered tracking, being a simple pintle mount with recoil compensation.

This particular example had been fabricated from scratch, however, as it lacked any serial numbers and there was ample evidence of ‘field expedient’ construction techniques. Whoever had built this had known precisely how to build it, and had done so from sheet steel. Chemical analysis was ongoing on the steel, welds, and everything else about the mount.

The prisoners are imbeciles. Radicalized drunks who have been indoctrinated with the idea that they need to get all asians killed in order to prevent the Kuritans from winning by any means necessary. Said philosophy coming in second place to their need for more booze.

All of them were suffering from delirium tremors due to lack of alcohol. Your heart bleeds for them.

All they’ve been able to tell your interrogators about the person who recruited them was that they were either of caucasian, african, or hispanic (each of the survivors described this person differently) heritage, were between 5 foot 10 and 6 foot 2, were male, was either bald (the idiot who described the caucasian) had long braided hair (the one who described the african) or a military buzz cut (the hispanic). All three agreed that they wore glasses. All three described the exact same voice.

Once the DTs faded, Janet intended to sweat them hard for anything else she could extract from them.

The weapon evidently was transported via the freight elevator, and looking over satellite images the box that had covered it appears on that roof for at least the last 18 years. The building is actually owned by the Crown following the Gem Conspiracy and had been on the market for resale for at least a decade.

The box had been disguised to look like part of the HVAC system. Interviews with the building inspectors from the initial takeover of the property reveal that none of them were HVAC experts. Moreover they tell investigators that similar boxes were present on most of the high rises in Griffsport at the time.

Janet had already investigated, and found a half dozen more 8cm and 5cm lasers in similar mounts on multiple other buildings, all under coverings mimicking HVAC equipment. The latest of them appears to have been emplaced less than three years ago. In several instances there is evidence that somebody involved in this attack had known about HVAC replacement and servicing schedules, as on the three instances where major HVAC replacements were carried on on buildings which had these mounts in all cases the box in question had vanished a few days before the work had begun, only to reappear a few weeks after it was completed and signed off on.

Parliament was still meeting. And a proposal comes across your desk that makes you blink, and almost start crying again.

A bill concerning improvements to the healthcare system, emergency response, and trauma care. Effectively it would finance the addition of satellite trauma care centers at every hospital on the planet, each equipped with the latest equipment. Trauma specialists would receive an additional ‘on-call’ stipend from the state in exchange for their agreement that when needed they’d be transported to these satellite centers to provide critical trauma care. In addition mobile trauma centers based on the concepts used in the AFGR’s MASH units would be procured for civilian emergency services in order to improve response times and get patients the critical care in the first hours after an emergency that could be the difference between life and death.

[] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.
[] Reject - -5 support in Commons and Lords

QM Note - 10 vote threshold for next update, GO

 

[kelgar04]

[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.

 

[Ridli Scott]

[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.

 

[Thors_Alumni]

[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.

 

[edofthesquid]

[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.

 

[Jarow]

[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.


Expensive, but worth it (especially if Parliament pays any, assuming that's not just our money they use)

 

[kelgar04]

Hunters part 2 - Omake

The secure conference they commandeered was alive with activity as the two reserve team went through records and scanned information brought in by the other teams. Sidney was reading a report from the teams going after Isu while Gozen was talking down the phone at Delta.

"I don't care who's turf you step on," Gozen said down the line, "I want to know who Isu was able to smuggle half dozen more 8cm and 5cm lasers onto various buildings without us even getting a whiff of this I want a warrant for the HVAC company and a computer tech to tear their system to piece for any shred of evidence comprendo? Good."

She put her phone down and Sidney asked, "Tough customer?"

"Delta Team lead needed a firm hand," she said with a shrug, "this is a counter-terrorism nightmare."

"Aye," Sidney said rolling his shoulders, "if DEST could have grabbed this hardware from disposal sites...."

They both shuddered and Gozen shakes her head, "anything from the bank accounts?"

"The bank accounts in question are playing hardball we are going back overall transactions but it will take time," he said with a shrug, "same with the disposal records of the lasers we are having to trace back through it to see who said what and we are depending on peoples memory here which is notoriously unreliable."

"What about the drunks who your boss is sweating?" she asked.

He made a disgusted expression, "If they have anything I'd even consider remotely reliable I'd be surprised though it doesn't hurt to try at this point I think our best bet is to follow the Lasers and the HVAC company down the line same with the chemical analysis from the lab on the mount."

She shakes her head, "so we need to wait for the labs to get back while the field teams work on chasing down the HVAC company and the disposal site?"

"Yep," Sidney said with a sigh rubbing his eyes, "it will be slow going we will have to see what comes through. You heard anything from Michelle Carter yet?"

"Nope though my people in the PD have seen her people prowling about," Gozen said with a shrug, "If we hear anything Intel will probably be the first people she approaches."

They both sigh and get back to hunting these people who struck at the Royal Family.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Given how close Janet is to the Royal family, it's not surprising that she's almost as enraged as the Queen herself is. While she has recused herself from direct control of the investigation, she has made it very clear to her people that they are in Maximum Evil Lawyer Mode.

For all that the vast majority of the public supports outright lynching everyone involved, Maximum Evil Lawyer Mode is kinda scary.

You’d gotten initial reports from Janet already. The 8cm laser used in the attack had been from a batch that had been set for scrapping 20 years ago. According to the paperwork it had been picked up from the depot by a bonded transportation firm to be transported to the disposal site. According to the paperwork it had been melted down at the disposal site.

However, the driver of the truck which transported the batch of scrap material that day was killed in a ‘botched armed robbery’ a week after the event. And the manager who signed off on and verified the destruction of the laser died in a boating accident a few days later while on vacation.

Janet was waiting on forensic accounting analysis of their bank records. Both men had been single, neither had families. She was expecting results in a few weeks.

Bonded transportation companies are required to perform strict background checks on their drivers; that's the entire point of a bond. The Evil Lawyers don't even have to lift a finger on this one; the moment the official report comes out, every single customer of that firm will no doubt cite the incident as cause to terminate all business contracts.

Given that tacit threat, the company is quite literally falling over itself to cooperate.

The prisoners are imbeciles. Radicalized drunks who have been indoctrinated with the idea that they need to get all asians killed in order to prevent the Kuritans from winning by any means necessary. Said philosophy coming in second place to their need for more booze.

All of them were suffering from delirium tremors due to lack of alcohol. Your heart bleeds for them.

Needless to say, all of the prisoners have to be kept in a special unit with hand-picked guards to prevent them being lynched.

Janet had already investigated, and found a half dozen more 8cm and 5cm lasers in similar mounts on multiple other buildings, all under coverings mimicking HVAC equipment. The latest of them appears to have been emplaced less than three years ago. In several instances there is evidence that somebody involved in this attack had known about HVAC replacement and servicing schedules, as on the three instances where major HVAC replacements were carried on on buildings which had these mounts in all cases the box in question had vanished a few days before the work had begun, only to reappear a few weeks after it was completed and signed off on.

The sheer scale of this is breathtaking, enraging, and a lot of other -ing words.

In unrelated news, a curious number of polite yet very intimidating concerned private citizens take up a peculiar hobby of HVAC inspecting.


[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.

 

[Joyousmadman]

[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.

 

[kashim3]

[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.

 

[Ridli Scott]

I was wondering, aren't' the large lasers 7cm instead of 8?

 

[ShadowArxxy]

I was wondering, aren't' the large lasers 7cm instead of 8?

There are very few canonical statements of lens size for BTech lasers. Intek Medium Lasers are stated to be 8 cm on the Crusader but 4 cm on the Axman; Martell Medium Lasers are stated to be 6 cm.

The distinction for Large Lasers is supposed to be that they're gamma-ray lasers, and their physical size is canonically all over the place, with various specific designs being described as exceptionally bulky or exceptionally compact. The Defiance Thunderbolt large lasers were stated to be compact due to using fiber-optics, and were sliding towards becoming Lostech by the Third Succession War.

 

[Bear Ribs]

[X] Accept - an initial 20,000 cost and ongoing +2000 upkeep, gives +5 to Health rating. Increases Approval cap to 105. Cost may partially be borne by Parliament.