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RP Promised Land: Espionage - Chasing Dawnlight

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On the train

Once she was on, Nicky made her way to the bathroom and locked the door so she wouldn't be disturbed and called in to Newhouse. "I'm on the train, and it sounds like there are already a few rumors going around about what these guys are carrying. They are also very well armed, and blatantly open carrying." She let out a sigh and played with her hair a little. "The good news is they're taking a car to themselves so we don't have to worry much about civilians. Any further orders?"
 
Dining Car

The sight of the glowing powder would've caused Ayla's heart to explode if she wasn't already distracted with Newhouse contacting her. She grabbed her cup of probably illegal joe and made her way into the crowd to blend in before getting out her communicator. "Yeah, I'm in the dining car." She tried speaking at the same volume as the dull roar around her. "Got this cup of what I hope is coffee and a probable heart attack on the horizon if I take more than a sip of it. You want one?"
 
On the Road

"Got some homeless guy keeps going around, but I'm about to give him a show tjust in case." Brigid replied to Newhouse quietly. She smiled at Squeakies and took her hand gently. She moved the other girl's hand to her mouth and kissed her fingertips gently. Finally she slid one of her fingers into her mouth slowly sucking on it. As she slid the finger out her mouth made a slight pop.

The Doctor climbed out of her seat and into Squeakies lap, straddling her with a big grin on her face. "Brigid, love. How far are you willing to take this distraction?" She whispered into her ear seductively before nibbling her earlobe. Pulling back a bit, she reached a hand behind Squeakies head and pulled her into a hard, almost desperate kiss like they were old lovers who hadn't seen each other in years.
 
On The Road

Squeakies was a bit shocked at first, but settled into the passionate kiss with Brigid on her lap. She let her hands roam over Brigid, but staying proper for now to size the woman up. This sure made the waiting more tolerable. It brought back ole times in 'Ground Hog'. At times been hole up for days on end with quick trips out of the tank for the call of nature. Maybe after they finished the mission they would get together and see just how far this would work out. But for now, she was going to enjoy the moment. Willing and ready.
 
She's talking to all of you. You're on conference call:

There was a sort of... Uncomfortable moment going on here. Maybe less uncomfortable for some, but... Well. Multiple agents speaking to the same person meant that the others were hearing what was going on in the truck as well. On Newhouse's end of things a few things seemed to happen all at once, making it sound like she was on speaker phone. She did say something about confirming with the client when the package was identified... There was at least three voices there.

"Are they doing what I--" a man's voice, slightly slurred.
"... Probably." Newhouse responded to him.
"For someone who says she's not a fucking pimp, this sort of shit happens in your department, Jeanne." A more feminine voice, raspier than Newhouse's.
"Just shut up and let me do my job, then you can get him some sleep." Newhouse snapped back.

In the truck, there was a slight thunk on the windshield as the homeless man slapped a soggy squeegee to the windshield, standing up on the front wheel. He'd definitely seen something going on in there, but was pointedly looking the other way. Cover maintained! With minimal loss of dignity to boot! Probably because you're both in to this, albeit with a reaction drawn from behind the scenes.

"If they're doing something to the coffee, try and get a sample. One of us can do something with it, I'm sure." A slight biting noise from the raspy woman, Newhouse seemed to be generating more work for someone. "But if they're in their own car and openly carrying, you're probably going to get shot on sight... Recommendations are to try and disconnect the car, get someone else to deal with the guards, or neutralise them through some sort of poison. What are these rumors, though? We still need to confirm the package?"
 
First Car...

Alistair groaned, both to play the role of the overworked analyst, as well as at the situation he found himself in. He was being scrutinized by everyone on the train. Though this was good in no one would attempt to bother him, though he couldn't move without being spotted. He sat on thought for a few minutes laying out his options.

He finally formulated a plan. As he now knew what Mal ware the hacker on the other end of the line was using. He locked down his datajockey with several layers of firewalls and a device of his own design. He plugged in his IP scrambler. As the train rolled through, his datajockey would piggy back off of the closest unlocked network, via phone, tablet , etc and use their IP address. This would register to any hacker watching that he was never in the same physical location at once. After this activated he got to work.

His goal was to go after the Mal ware directly. He attempted to instead of replacing the existing file, add a small amount of code. It would be to the effect of allowing a person a window, allowing him to watch as code was streamed through it, which intern would allow him to see how else he could get into the systems and monitor the security teams status.

His back up plan was to force in more code, allowing him a backdoor into the program. But, hopefully it didn't come to that. With fingers crossed he attempted to open the file and parse the code...
 
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Dining Car

Ayla tried to keep up her facade as she made her way to one of the bathrooms in a different car. "It's a 1 DA cup of really dark joe, I don't think they'll waste any premium grounds on it with that price but I'll see what I can do on getting you a cup later." As reached the bathroom, she locked and sighed, dropping the facade for a few moments as her dropped into a hush whisper. "Alright, I think we can make life a little easier if we can somehow get the some of the guards out that car and disconnect it behind them after we've made some distance from the station. We'll need to setup some sort of distraction first."

"Also you two," she tapped on her communicator a couple times. "I'd really like to not captured and shot because you two we're giving each other roadhead. Move the truck elsewhere if you have to."
 
Restroom

Nicky just ignored the two making out, she could do it better anyway, but it wouldn't lead to explosions and bullets if she didn't, and that wouldn't be any good. "Well~..." She looked around the bathroom before speaking, further taking a quick glance for listening devices and trying to hear if there was anyone outside, when she was satisfied it was clear she spoke again. "The rumor is that they're carrying people. One of the guys in cargo has a friend who saw." She sounded a bit skeptical herself, but she wasn't about to say there was no way. "It would explain why they're keeping a car all too themselves and they wanted to be the first on."
 
I didn't know the term Roadhead until just now:

As Ayla tapped her communicator, the slurred voice on speaker phone coughed to clear a throat.

"If they want to keep going, we can get some new drivers... You two have a camera in th--" A sudden cut off. Newhouse apparently turning off speaker to listen to what was going on.

"Failure to complete this job will result in a bar from future contracts." Newhouse said, halting momentarily to listen to some sort of argument faintly heard in the background. When she returned to her communicator she sounded icy. "None of you are obligated to participate in extra actions for my Associate at this time. Despite their insistence."

And then Nicky expanded on the rumors. More hushed conversations, followed by the faint sound of drunken shouting. The news had provoked some sort of reaction, to be sure. Most of Newhouse's parts were half audible, leading to the team hearing a lot of talk about 'subjects' and 'testbeds'. Serial numbers being confirmed, and a few continued references to 'the file'.

"It's not exactly as much as I wish to go on, however the client feels this is a matter of some urgency. The package is a prisoner. Female. Medical test subject. These guys are sloppier than I thought if they've been seen by the train's crew. Do what you need to do, but do not let any prisoners be harmed until you have confirmed which one is the target."

Hack the planet:

Alistair's modification of code went rather smoothly, and soon enough he was watching a continual stream of encrypted information being extracted by whatever their security team had installed. It seemed that most of their intrusion programs were set to give them access to several key systems around the train, most of the malware was already modified to encrypt what it was sending. It was increasingly likely that he would be instantly noticed the moment he tried to control anything his presence would be noticed, judging by the sheer amount of effort they'd put into this.

Although they probably wouldn't be able to pin down his exact location.

While the information wasn't readily readable, in a readable form: From the amount of information, and placement of the malware Alistair would be able to guess that they were viewing dozens of video feeds connected to Funky City Transit Authority servers. It would only be a simple matter to trace the data to locate where these feeds were being skimmed from.

The Hobo Life:

After the show being put on, it seemed that the homeless man was content to not disturb to ask for change. Whether that was a cover for plainclothes security or not was yet to be seen, but the two women in the truck weren't being watched anymore at least. Their communicator would ping up with a text only file:

So do you girls have a camera on that thing?
 
On the road(head)

Brigid ignored the comms at first, although she did turn hers off. She pulled back from the makeout session smiling. Her attention was focused on the well-built blonde. A hand started to make its way down Squeakies pants. Her other hand slid behind her and squeezed her butt. Before she could go any further she stopped to read the text. "Well, I think we kept our cover well enough. We can continue this after the mission." She said, leaning in to give Squeakies another kiss before moving back to her own seat.

"You hear what they were saying? We're after a medical experiment. That explains why they brought me." The case they gave her didn't make much more sense, though. She hoped it wasn't necessary to open the case. Things were going well so far. She knew from experience just how quickly this could go south. If the homeless guy came back she would dispose of him quietly. The vehicle had plenty of room to hide a corpse.
 
:: On The Road ::

Squeakies nodded as she relaxed. She responded back via text to whomever sent the text.

::Camera is off, sorry. ::

Squeakies nodded and spoke, "Definitely, unless you're a tease." There was no malice intended as it didn't matter to her one way or the other. But it was definitely nice to have something to look forward to. "Yeah..." She didn't sound to pleased. But a job was a job and she needed the money.

She moved the truck forward to an alley that a garbage truck had just vacated after emptying the big alley way garbage bins. yet within the same block. She was lucky as this alley dead-ended so she could back the truck in place with the front slightly sticking out onto the sidewalk. She used the wipers and washer fluid to finish up what the street bum started.
 
Funky City, Nepleslia

"Winter has arrived at rendevous. Over."

A voice - (relatively) familiar to the middlemen and equally unknown to the operators - could be heard over the team's conference call. It was soft yet firm, quiet yet definitive - and, despite the telltale static of a heavily-encrypted communicator, unmistakably female.


That wasn't all, however - for those trained specifically in noticing such things would've recognized one last detail:


Winter, whomever (or whatever) "she" was, had the slight, nearly-imperceptible accent of someone not born on Nepleslia itself.

*********

At the second train station, "Winter" - perfectly concealed amongst the ever-increasing crowd of commuters, given her outfit (a partially-drenched coat plus boots and a dark-grey, practically-bursting-at-the-seams backpack) - strode into the aforementioned transportation hub's lobby, taking a casual glance around as "she" did so.


Mission status: Active. Commencing infiltration procedures......
 
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The Drunk Man Rambles:

As the conference call received a new addition, Winter's response was somewhat overshadowed by the sound of Newhouse yelling at someone in the room. Apparently the news of the camera staying off upset someone who either didn't have their whole wits about them, or was otherwise generally not used to rejection. All that could be made out was something about pictures. Pictures of butts.

It took a few seconds, but the Middleman on scene came back to the call with a general air of frustration to her voice.

"Well, your backup has arrived by the sound of things. Short notice but it's what you're getting." Newhouse sort of half explained, and half didn't explain Winter. "You only have a handful of stops, so you're going to need to coordinate the pickup after the train car gets disconnected, if that's what you're settled on doing. Get access to the train's couplings, or emergency brakes, work out how you're going to distract these guys, then get it done."

The train lurched slightly, losing speed as it pulled in to the next station. The rain outside had upped to torrential levels making it hard to see, but outside the windows there was yet more guards standing at attention on the second stop of the journey. Men in Styrling Muur armor and carrying shotguns peered hawkishly over the next flock of workers to press in to the train. Luckily they didn't board.

Already mostly full, it was apparent that with each stop, more and more bodies would be crammed in this thing. Making it harder to operate inside the train the longer things went on. Even Alistair's little bubble of distrust started to encroach on his personal space, as space started to become scarcer on the train.

"Find a safe place to rendezvous with Winter." Was Newhouse's order. Or recommendation. She had a way to make words sound at once like demands and suggestions.

Who wants muffins?

In the back, with the slight revelation of medical experiments and indeed prisoners made it a bit easier to locate which package was which. Most of the stuff back here wasn't suitable for a person. Smaller cases for the most part. But the Operators' inside man would be able to note three stacked crates. Each one long, almost coffin like with covered panels on the front. Probably controls. If there was prisoners, there was three of them. It was the only place they could be.

The doctor and his orderlies made the rounds, inspecting this or that, and preparing a series of small vials containing a pus-yellow liquid. The kind of thing you'd load into a syringe. Over the uncomfortable silence of the watch, and the hammering of heavier and heavier rains on the roof of the secured car, the Captain shouted:

"Coldman. Go get us some coffee." The huge ID-SOL commanded, sounding like a decaffeinated volcano. A keycard on a lanyard was tossed down the carriage, to be caught by one of the other guards. A slim handsome man with salt and pepper hair that used to be entirely brown. He tapped it to the card reader on the rear door and slunk through the cargo compartments ahead.

The Cargo carriage next to Dining was making loud clunks as another gunlocker was loaded, filling the uninhabited portion of the train with a second arsenal. But for those lurking in the bathrooms by the neon counter that sold something that passed as food and coffee, they could audibly hear the door between cars lurch open as a man in armor came through. Shouting was heard, as the workers waiting in line were pushed back.

Their industrial grade stimulant passing as coffee had to wait, as the caffeinatrix behind the counter received a very loud order for coffee and muffins for the security team.
 
Totally Coincidental

Ayla, deciding that the current conversation on the phone was taking up enough time, hung up and exited the bathroom she was hiding in. If someone needed something, they'll text her. Or call at a really inconvenient time at get her shot but hopefully the former will happen first. Seeing as she had a few moments of free time, she decided to try and get another cup of coffee for the person who wanted a sample and hoped they would find that it was all really just dark coffee with some hardcore snuff in it.

As walked she walked back into dining car, she could see a security guard had already hustled and shoved his way to front of the line; and a keycard dangling from a lanyard he had. The thief stared for a moment, trying to see the how it easy it would be to maybe unclasp the lanyard from around his neck but the crowd and his armor made it impossible to tell. She decided to move her way through the crowd to get a closer look and maybe make an attempt on it.
 
Nicky thought a moment and spoke up softly. "I will check on the the coupling. We need to get the tall dark and uglies apart though, I don't think I can blow them all up at once without taking out the cargo." She stood up and left the restroom and walked straight for the general cargo car. She wasn't going to head straight for the guarded car, but she examined the area for cameras and where guards were statoined as she got closer and closer. She was trying to get a look at the coupling for the car and figure out how fast they could likely undo it.
 
Baddie car

The silent member of the crew, the inside man, the man with many faces, having listened to the shenanigans on the conference call, took the opportunity to mumble into his communicator. He had waited so long to ensure he wasn't under any observation.

"Three med caskets, doctor, some orderlies. Ms. Sozon, please acquire the keycard you undoubtedly see dangling before you," he said in his stolen guards voice. "Hook up with Ms. Hate. Mr. Thorn, if your able to do something concerning the lights in the car I would suggest it as a distraction before uncoupling the cars. Just a quick flicker would do. I will be as you last saw me or alternatively an orderly. Please don't shoot me."

With that he prety much turned and watched for the next opportunity an ordlery was alone, possibly going to the bathroom or nipping off alone for a smoke. If the opportunity arose he would subdue and change identities to get him closer to the caskets. Of course he has his firearm handy for when the shooting may start.
 
On the road

Brigid yawned and then stretched, trying desperately to stay awake. The coffee was starting to wear off leaving her listless. She was waiting for the gunshots to start. The excitement of making out with Squeakies didn't last nearly as long as she would like. Her mind was starting to wander. This waiting around was far from her specialties. She would rather be doing something. "I may regret saying this, but I really expected someone to start shooting by now. It's pretty quiet out here. Don't you think that's unusual? It's so quiet I would think we were on Yamatai if I didn't know better." She said in mild concern mingled with boredom.
 
On The Road

Squeakies just snorted her reply to show she was awake. Already one train had rumbled overhead through the city on it elevated tracks. But it was going the wrong way. She dozed, more worried about traffic as the time slowly crept forward into morning. Already the traffic was picking up, even on this side street they was located at. "Wait till the Wanna-be's start prowling." She murmured in a sleepy tone. She was catching up on much needed rest that she had missed out on.

She was slouched in the seat, kneels up behind the steering wheel with her feet dangling. Back of her head was on the backrest and the seatbelt was unfastened. Being in the military, she had learned to get comfortable and drop into a light doze to get rest, yet still be responsive.
 
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Funky City, Nepleslia - Train Station

As Winter (still in the station's lobby, but purposefully half-striding, half-running in the general direction of said station's track-side Cargo Loading Area with a look of panic on her face) lowered her hood and unzipped her coat, several further details became noticeable, with the most obvious being that this particular operative had distinctively feline-style ears, either the result of having been born as one of Nepleslia's innumerable genetic mutants - or the vastly more probable (given that it explained the nearly-unnoticeable accent) result of being a feline-aspected L'manel.


Second-up was her clothing, specifically what she wearing underneath that dark-grey coat of hers; on this bright and absolutely cheerful morning, it appeared to be that of a transit worker's uniform - the same kind, coincidentally enough, as an employee of the third train station would be wearing, down to the ID lanyard (which read "Cassandra Marbley") worn around the neck.


Lastly was the fact that the aforementioned uniform was unbuttoned slightly, providing a tantalizing view of Winter's (admittedly modest) cleavage - but, then again, the operative knew from the cruel, cruel teacher of first-hand experience that every little detail counted.


Especially when one considered that Winter had not only struggled with "socialization" during missions - she'd struggled with it in general.


Thus, "Cassandra" wasn't entirely acting when she approached the individual(s) loading cargo into the assorted cars, and (with her usually-quiet voice now the rapidly-speaking jumble of someone bordering upon the brink of hysteria) asked "Um, hey? Mind if I board here? I work at the next station, and I know it's against the rules, but it's my co-worker's birthday, and the rest of my shift and I are throwing him a surprise party, and I had to buy drinks, but I overslept and my car wouldn't start, and I had to pay my apartment's rent last night, so I can't afford a ticket after buying those drinks, and it's only my third day on the job, so I'm fucked if I'm late, and if I get fired I won't be able to pay utility bills and I won't be able to see him or my friends and again and I'll have let them down and I really, really, really want to ask him out but if I'm fired I can't do that and then I just don't know what I...I......I........."
 
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Stop 2, Cargo Bay:

When Winter found herself in the cargo bay of the Second Stop, she found herself watching the crew disembark from the last car of the train. The same crew seemed to board the train each morning, and would handle the loading for each stop. Various men in their increasingly soggy work gear were hustling about loading crates, and heavy metal plates using a variety of forklifts and at least one hulking loader droid that was docked in the back of the train somehow.

Ernie was off to the side, not sparing glances at this new addition. He'd found the woman he would marry this day! It was unacceptable to lay eyes on another. As such Winter was confronted by the team's leader. A puggish looking man, wearing something closer to a business shirt and tie. A sweater vest over that, with his high-vis jacket capping it off. He pushed his glasses up his nose, and checked a datajockey.

"As long as you have your Company ID you can ride the trains for free." He looked down at Winter's ID card. Then slightly higher for a few moments. "They usually explain that in orientation. You'll have to sign in at the shift terminal in back, but go on in."

The supervisor indicated the rearmost car, where the railway loading crew were traveling. It was the car immediately behind the secured cargo carriage. There was also the problem of the shift terminal: This job had been announced merely hours before it was needed. There was no time to create fully forged credentials to pose as a railway employee within their own systems.

If she didn't successfully sign in, or convince this guy to not check if she had, it would likely blow her cover. Someone would need to deal with the system.

Careful what you wish for on the Road:

After the homeless man went to check on them and left, the two found that indeed they were indeed in the most dull part of the mission. They had nothing to do but follow the train and make sure nothing went wrong... But having sat still and fondled one another, logic followed that the train was now a significant distance ahead of them. They would need to move, and quick if they were going to be able to do a pickup.

Should they be left behind, the rest of the team would be in trouble.

This would be complicated further by the sound of something clanging on to the back of the truck. Something was on top... Did the hobo call in backup? Or was he never their lookout to begin with?

An Orderly change in Costume:

As the train came to a stop, the opportunity for a costume change came along with it. When one of the guards left to get refreshments, one of the two orderlies peeled off towards the forward cargo compartment to have a smoke. The evidently deaf man was incredibly easy to sneak up on, and before long the Inside Man found himself standing over the body of an unconscious member of this team's medical staff.

The cargo compartment he had moved to in order to smoke was full of metallic crates, but most of those were sealed and locked. Packed in close to maximise usage of space. It would be hard to conceal the Orderly in the train without being able to shift incredibly heavy crates... Which left two options: Dump it off the train. Or open one of these crates somehow to put it inside.

Nicky's Coupling Conundrum:

As Nicky moved through the train, she found a problem in moving backwards: The doors to connect the dining car, to cargo behind it were sealed tight. Needing either a keycard, or a physical key to move through. The existence of the key-or-card lock meant that somewhere out there was probably a master key for the entire train. But moving backwards was impossible without bypassing the sealed door, and the crowded dining car was likely to have someone working the lock spotted: A distraction would be needed, if a keycard wouldn't be produced.

At the same time, moving through the cars she found that every coupling on the train was standardised. Each car was connected by a flexible polymer tube which kept the walking path between cars protected from the elements, but thanks to one of these tubes being unsuccessfully sealed she had a chance to look at the couplings. If someone cut through the sealing tube, the cars were mainly connected by heavy durandium-alloy coupling hooks. These were in turn held fastened by metal pegs which were locked in place with smaller but still very heavy locks.

To decouple a car: One would have to crawl underneath the train, and pick the lock. Then remove the peg to unfasten the hooks. This was a system clearly meant allow the cars to safely hook or unhook when the train wasn't moving...

Coldman's Keycard:

The guard getting his order for coffee filled seemed to not be paying that much attention to his card. The thing was on a small carabiner which could be unfastened by hand easily enough. And the sturdy Styrling Muur armor he wore meant it was unlikely he would feel someone reaching around to take the thing. A sad fact that body armor made it harder to enjoy hugs.

It just dangled there. Invitingly... Easily taken if Ayla wanted it.
 
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