Yoshiko looked over the data again that Nobutora had provided. "Excuse me for a moment." Yoshiko said before walking off to a private location. About 10 minutes later the Nekovalkyrja came back. "We've had a change in mission parameters." Yoshiko announced before sitting down at a computer. "Nobutora-Hei, get into the NovaCorp system. You're access rights have been expanded temporarily. You need to find ourcontact and then head to his location and extract him immediately.
We've been ordered to nab the entire cell." Yoshiko said with some
degree of finality as her fingers flew across the keyboard.
After placing the call Konpeki made her way to the medicine cabinet in the ER to find a suitable drug to use to immobalize Otome. The trick of course was to find one strong enough to incapacitate quickly but not kill her.
Message to all operatives in field said:
Due to
recent developments all operatives are ordered to capture all members
of the terrorist cell. Be as discrete as possible as we lack military
force and do not wish to alert members of the cell to our actions
before they have all been captured. Additionally, all forms of
telepathic communications are restricted for all personnel as the cell has access to a potentially debilitating virus that is transmitted in that
manner."
Upon receiving the message Angela quickly began to ascertain methods of capturing Himiko an possibly her friend as well. She needed to find a way to contact Jime and fast.
Konpeki looked through the medical cabinet, sadly since
she lacked much medical training she wasn't quite sure what drugs
would do the trick.
“Understood, ma’am,” said Nobutora, already moving to prepare for his attack. The equipment he had collected before was still in place and it took only a few minutes to secure the hardwired router and firewall connections. Double-checking the connections, he nodded once in satisfaction and turned back toward the Shosa “I’m ready to begin, ma’am. I intend to proceed using maximum force to seize control of their systems. The attack will be obvious but it is our best chance to rapidly secure the data we require. With your permission?”
Himiko looked away as Angela's communicator chirped, once it was clear Angela was done reading the message Himiko looked back at Angela. "I-I think I'll be okay, but could you help me get to my next
class?" Himiko asked obviously looking for an armt o lean on.
Angela ask Hitomo, "Do you want to go somewhere to sit down and have a litttle water to wash out that awful taste?". Hopefully she can knock out both in private and stash them somewhere safely until evac or with assistance from Jime. "Are you sure you don't want anything?" Angela asked.
"Maybe a little something would be good." Himiko said, obviously not wanting to taste what was in her mouth too much.
Konpeki look around the medical center,
Okay, the easiest way to solve this dilema is to find an intern and pose the question as a test. She looked around to find a suitable victim.
"Do what you need to." Yoshiko replied to Nobutora. "Worst comes to worst we say it was requisitioned for the sake of national security. Best case we brush it under the rug and they never know who did it."
She helped the girl up and scanned the area to see if her partner was close. She spotted Jime looking from one of the windows in the building. She pretend to message her mother and secretly told Jime to meet them in the other building.
'Victims' weren't too hard to find. Konpeki had seen several people with 'intern' stamped on their badge walking the halls. There was one at a nearby nurse's stand, one had just walked past her in the last hallway, and there was probably one next door.
Konpeki followed the intern who walked past her. In an authoritative voice, "Intern, come here." she called out with a serious expression on her face.
Jime skillfully closed her class with the next day's assignment and pack up her papers, keeping with the role of her disguise. She checked the time and proceeded to go the Literature Building across from the manicured lawn.
Angela recieved an affirmative message as she helped Himiko into the nearest building with the girl's armed wrapped around her shoulder, helping her move. After turning down a long hallway the pair came upon a drinking fountain positioned right next to a women's restroom.
Himiko motioned toward the drinking fountain as the pair approached it.
The intern froze and turned around slowly. "Ma'am?" the intern asked, clearly afraid of being repremanded for something he may or may not have done.
Angela carefully looked around making sure to spot any would be interferers or potential terrorist henchmen. And hoped that the plan will go to plan.
“Aye, ma’am.” Nobutora glanced briefly at the terminal screen he had pulled up and then resolutely hit ‘execute.’ The effects were innocuous enough on his side of the connection; data began trickling in and the attack program’s status updates began shifting. NovaCorps’s network reacted slightly differently. All logged on users were booted off, with monitors blanking or shutting down while full control of the network was given to Nobutora’s program. Sophisticated decryption and offensive
packages, backed by the weighty computational power of PANTHEON, began to burn through security and firewall layers. For the moment, the attack appeared to be successful and Nobutora sat back as analysis algorithms began to sift through the data now arriving in torrential streams.
Konpeki closed the gap, "I have an oral evaluation for you," She glanced at a clip board that she had picked up earlier. "A patient is brought into the facility. Patient is an NH-29 series and is emotionally distraught, which medications would be most effective to sedate the patient, what would the proper dosage be, and what risks are associated with each.."
Sastified that no one was within ear or eye shot. She carefully withdraw a tranquilizer needle from her backpack. As soon as Himiko took a sip of water, she presses it against the Nekos neck.
The intern pauses and draws in a breath before slowly listing several kinds of medications with effects from general sedation to rendering the subject unconcious. For the most part the side effects range from a light headache to a migraine upon waking up.
Konpeki nodded and appeared to make an annotation on the clipboard. "Very good, proceed to where you were going. " Konpeki then went to the medicine cabinet and quickly found the appropriate medicine, and loaded a hypospray. She then slipped it into her pocket and casually walked through the emergency room to the exit to wait for Otome.
Nobutora's search had mixed results. He easily located most members of the cell in real time, however there seemed to be no abnormal correspondance between any of them. Although, he did discover that while Daichi Koshiru piloted or was aboard ships belonging to Takahashi Shipping they repeatedly experienced breakdowns in deep space. Further search revealed that either Akio Todame or Seymoure Stonnigan were on duty whenever said broken down ship came into port.
The needle slid easily into Himiko's back. The young neko visibly jumped in pain as she felt it slide in, wrenching herself around to look at Angela. A look of pain and betrayal showed on her face as she pulled the needle out from her back, tears forming at her eyes. "Why?" suddenly the Nekovalkyrja collapsed, obviously unconcious.
Konpeki didn't have to wait very long. A car screeched up to the entrance of the hospital and a very visibly distraught Otome came running in with tears flowing from her eyes and headed straight for the reception desk. Sadly, this caused quite a bit of commotion and was turning more than a few heads.
As Himiko quickly subsided to the tranq, Angela said, "Just business". She smoothly caught the girl from falling to the floor and started to carry her to a carry her over to an empty classroom. She quickly scanned the area inside and placed the sleeping Neko in a chair with her head on the desk. Just in case someone happen to walk by, they would think she was just sleeping. Angela sent Yuki a message. "I need exfil, I have the package and is secure and uncompromised for the moment."
Konpeki made her way to intercept Otome, "Sukimade Otome." she called out in a loud voice. "A moment of your time."
Angela made a more detail recon of her surroundings, going back on the school grounds map she memorized. She looked out the windows looking for an avenue to stealthly carried the unconscious Neko out without drawing attention. She ever so often checked back on Himiko and the closed door.
With all of the immediately pertinent information already filtered out, Nobutora let the analysis systems continue on while he pulled up a separate search on the cell members and the contact. Using their last reported network access locations and across reference with law enforcement and intelligence databases, he tapped into local surveillance systems.
Waiting for the results to pop up, he turned back to the Shosa. “I have the information on the cell members, ma’am. I am running a search for visual confirmation of their locations as we speak. The rest of the attack can continue autonomously. With your permission, I will proceed to extract our contact once the secondary search is complete.”
Yuki's response came back quickly. Obviously the ship's AI had a bit of an advantage in terms of typing speed. "No units are available. You'll have to withdraw the package on your own. Recommend withdraw to primary or secondary base of operations."
Otome spun around, still emotional. "My h-h-husband? Is he okay!?" Otome asked still quite emotional,
"Hai. You have permission." Yoshiko responded, her fingers still flying as she activated 'sleeper' operatives and tasked them out. Nobutora had no problem getting visual on most of the cell members, and Yoshiko was assigning folks as fast as visuals were confirmed. Sadly, Koshiru was registered as being on a Takahashi ship at the moment, and Kunoichi Tanaka was nowhere to be found either. The system quickly
began tasking a search for his last known location but it could take a
significant amount of time. In the meantime, it had located both
Samuel Smith and Jonathan Henderson were identified as currently being at the Quick-E Eats where they were both employed.
Angela, swore silently to herself. Already knowing that it takes 10 minutes to get from the campus to the apartments, from her earlier jogs, she mentally prepared herself for the physical and mental challenge. Angela scooped up the neko and went out the side door of the Literature Building, beelining it to the next avenue. She smoothly played it off, so as not draw too much attention to them.
Konpeki gave a quick nod to Otome, "His condition is improved, but he is still in guarded condition. I will take you to see him in a minute." Konpeki placed a hand on Otome's shoulder in a reassuring manner. "Has your husband been exhibiting any unusual behavior over the past few days?" Konpeki removed her hand briefly and slipped it into her pocket. Using her sleight of hand she palmed the hypospray and waited for Otome to reply.
As soon as she reached the avenue, she flagged down a taxi and carry the girl into the waiting car and get in. "My friend had a rough day" Angela said, as the driver looked them over questioningly and dismissively turned back around. She gave him the address to the apartments.
Otome sniffled and shook her head no, using her hand to wipe a tear off of her face. "I don't think so." the neko said as she rubbed her eyes, slightly inflaming them. "What's wrong with him?" she asked looking into Konpeki's eyes.
As Angela dragged Himiko across the campus she got a few strange looks, but nobody approached her. Once she was in the safety
of the cab it didn't take long for the cab to arrive at the apartments. "That'll be 12.50KS ma'am." the drive said as he pulled up.
Nobutora grimaced at the failure to locate one of the cell members, but there was little he could do about it. Instead, he gathered up the field gear he had deposited near the door after returning from the interrogation and, checking his NSP once again, secured it all about his person. “Very well, ma’am. I will proceed to the Quick-E Eats.” Offering a brief bow, he turned and exited the room. Flagging down a cab posed little problem, though the concept of employing such mundane transportation on a clandestine mission amused him. Arriving momentarily outside the store, he quickly forked over the KS payment and proceeded inside, looking about firstly for the informant.
Spotting the man, Nobutora walked directly over. “Hello,” he began, looking for any signs of recognition in the man’s eyes. “I’m here about a computer network error. Could you direct me toward your manager?” Out of sight, his hand tightened around the grip of his NSP. There was too little time for subtlety.
Konpeki looked at Otome, "He collapsed at work, after saying something about 'their in my head'." While the young woman was distracted by her conversation, Konpeki pressed the hypospray against her arm and triggered the injector.
While driving back to the apartments, ever so often she checked to make sure they weren't being followed or boxed in. Shortly after they made it to their destination. She promptly paid and tip the driver and thank him for his services. "Come on, why made it home." Angela said keeping up the rouse. She pick the girl up and got out of the car, still keeping her senses sharp to her surroundings.
After a short trip up the elevator, she arrived to her apartment on the 12th floor and hurriedly put the neko on her bed. "So far so good" Angela said. She messaged Jime, how is it going with Kassandra? I'm already at the base of operations.
The man looked at Nobutora and only showed a very faint hint of recognition. "One second, let me call him." He picked up a phone near his register and talked for a few minutes before his manager showed up. "What can I help you with sir?" the manager asked leading Nobutora to his office.
Otome was so overwhelmed she didn't even feel the prick. Seconds later the girl fell forward into Angela's arms.
Konpeki held Otome so that it appeared she was consoling the woman while in fact she was holding her with one arm. She then used the other arm to activate her communicator and contacted her pickup, she then lifted the woman and made her way towards the curb.
There was no response from Jime. About five minutes later however Jime walked in with Kassandra close behind her. "Welcome to our place." Jime said as she shut the door.
As soon as the manager’s back was turned toward him, without saying a word Nobutora drew his NSP and triggered a stun round into the terrorist. He whirled about, NSP still at the ready as he checked the rest of his surroundings for immediate threats. Satisfied, he turned back toward the informant, lowering his weapon only slightly. “I know who you are and who this man is. I recommend you assist me with getting him into a vehicle right away. Do you own one?”