[street war] Investigation

[Zack]

ON>

James had finished his poking around through the computer systems in the underground basement of Larry's general store. He had managed to match the bullets he had found with the Emrys Industry Sniper Rifle weapons and determined the chemical composition of the explosive that was used as well as estimating an amount of explosive that was present after determining the size of the blast compared with the power of the explosive. The first thing to do was simple and James excused himself from Larry's presence, "I have got to make a few phone calls," He explained as he headed out of the building and the back alley where he pulled out his data pad and input the number that would connect him with Emrys Industries.

"Hello, the is Emrys Industries, how can I help you?" A pleasant female voice answered the phone.

"Hello," James responded as he detached an earpiece from the data pad to make his conversation a bit more private than the speaker phone option. "I'm doing research on weapon distribution throughout the area of Funky City. I was wondering if I could get my hands on your sales records and shipment lists for the planet." He said.

"Would you prefer me to pass you onto someone higher up in the organization? They would be more able to provide you with the information you need." The woman replied.

"That would be wonderful," James replied.

"Hello. This is Seru Emrys, in what way can I aid your research Mr ..." A calm, controlled voice said.

"James," He responded, pausing for a moment after the short introduction. "I'm doing research on weapon distribution in the funky city area and I would like to obtain a copy of your sale and shipping records for your weapons on Nepleslia."

"Well Mr. James, I'd be happy to provide those of course. May I ask what your research is in aid of before I hand over documents which contain such information?" Seru calmly asked.

"Weapon distribution," James said once more, "This is part of an anti-crime investigation by the Nepleslian police department."

"Well why didn't you say so." Seru responded, "Let me just find the relevant documentation for you." Seru was curious that the man hadn't said that he worked for the FCPD, or given his position at the beginning of the conversation, and quickly assigned one of his semi-AI's track down where the phone call was coming from. He did collect the data as well, in the most likely circumstance that it was the police, and Seru always liked to help them.

The location of the phone call wasn't disguised, it came from a portable device a few streets away from Larry's general store. James waited for the information to be sent.

The Semi-AI reported that and Seru thought it interesting, "I'm sorry, some of the information is taking a little longer to assemble, some data corruption. What position do you hold the FCPD by the way?" Seru controlled his voice to make it seem as if he was only wiling away the time.

"I am with a specially formed investigative unit dealing with gang violence." James replied which, technically, was true from a certain point of view. "What is it that they have you doing?" James replied. "I am sure you don't always have people with odd requests like this."

"Me? Well 'they' sort of have me running the company." Seru gave a laugh, "And I do occasionally get some odd requests. Like a surprising amount requesting that Emrys Industries designs the perfect sex doll." Seru did not try and keep the disgust from his voice at that, "Well I fully support your work in keeping that gang violence down, they cause me enough trouble." Seru answered. He could bring these enquiries up with the FCPD, but he found the whole thing charming in its own way, despite the truth of it, and sent the files, "And there you are, I hope their useful. I'll be checking up on your investigation I think."

"Thank you for your cooperation," James said, "And don't let those receptionists at the police station bully you around when you call. They can be a bit of a hassle sometimes." He chose not to comment on the sex doll remark. With that James ended the call and started making others to the postal service and chemical retailers as well as mining organization and chemical plants, gathering all sorts of mostly useless information on chemicals such as N-phenyl-2-naphthylamine. Once he had the information he started cross checking where Emry's rifles had been delivered along with ample quantities of ammunition when compared with where the chemicals needed for plastic explosive were purchased or reported missing. In theory, he planned to be able to find places where those materials were collecting.

The list of rifle buyers was spread out. Compared to other weapons the rifle wasn't a major seller but even so there were still thousands of owners of the weapon within funky city alone. The chemicals on the other hand provided a smaller list of only a few hundred people. James could then cross of more than a few names as they were going to corporations that had been established for quite some time and were all either accounted for or had already been used to make tagged plastic explosive. He sent a message to Diesel that he had a lead to follow.

END

 

[Zack]

ON

The wealthy business man Dal lived in a large house in the suburbs, three stories high, novo-modern look, a large garden and a larger fence. There was a gate at the front of the fence, with a transmission device built into it.

A black car drove up to the gate, and a trio of men stepped out. One came up to the gate and rang what passed as a doorbell.

There was no response at all, but some of the lights in the house where still on.

The bell was rung again.

Yet again there was no response.

The man who rang the doorbell waved to the men, and pointed right then left to send them around either direction to scout the perimeter.

The fence surrounded the entire area, three and a half meters tall, barbed wire making it up and tipped with coiled barbed-wire. It was also partially electrified in that some of the strands had a considerable electric current running down it. The gate had a portcullis like affair across it.

The group met up again back at the front and two men returned to the car, but before leaving the lead pulled out a data pad and looked up the phone number in the public registry and called if he was able to find it.

The phone rang inside the house, but no-one picked it up.

With that out of the way the group re-entered the car and drove off. Within a few minutes another vehicle would drive up and park a distance down from the house to observe it.

The house stood silent, nothing happening inside. The lights stayed on, but there was no movement on the grounds.

The next day came and the list of suspects had been almost completely ran out. It was a little after noon when the car returned to the building. It pulled up to the front gate and stopped. One man got out and once more rang the doorbell.

There was no response. The house was as dead as the day before, and the same lights where on.

The leader of the group nodded to the men in the back and they disembarked. Each was carrying a backpack and a large blanket of insulation. The doorbell was rang once more and lacking another response they were about to be a bit more forceful.

There was another mocking lack of response. The portcullis simply stood there inside the gate, gleaming a little.

The two men paired up to throw the long rolls of insulation over the wall like little kids wrapping a tree with toilet paper. The barbed wire bit into the first roll, holding it in place as they started to scale the fence. Once they had reached the top they let the second roll fall down from the top over the barbed wire and then jumped from the top, ferrying equipment from one side to the other before forming up again on the other side with the driver of the car watching as they approached the house.

Concealed in the neat grass where inch long metallic spikes, neatly planted over the area. The sprinkler system was also linked so upon motion in the front garden they would spray them.

The first one on the other side of the gate let out a muffled curse as he landed, using his hand to brace himself on landing and getting it impaled by the spikes. Their shoes, however, were heavy military esque boots with metal soles. though the spikes bit into the rubber base they were stopped by the metallic plates. The rest were warned and made their way down slowly using the insulation blankets and landing on their feet when they reached the other side. The injured hand was sprayed with disinfectant and bandaged before covered in a rubber glove. They then continued toward the door with the injured man moving first toward the door.

The sprinkler system activated, covering the area with warm water. The injured man was the worst off because one of the sprinklers had malfunctioned and sprayed at him a highly concentrated beam instead, due to a blockage in the system.

Fortunately it was just water, and they were able to push through it slowly, dragging their feet to reduce the amount of damage that the spikes would deal to the shoes.

Nothing more obscured them in the front garden, or would stop their access to the front door. The front door was a large thing, and looked very sturdy, a wooden creation covered with studs and metalic plates, with multiple locks. Looks could be deceiving, as it was actually much stronger than it looked, being four inches thick, and being mostly made from solid metal. The walls, while looking normal, could be seen from and angle to be at least four feet deep, and inside their construction built like a bunker. The windows where actually a complex array of holoprojectors, projecting the image of windows, coupled with another set on the inside showing what it would look like if one was looking out of said window. This image was supplied by cameras over the walls and on the roof. In short the house was built like a heavy duty bunker.

The lead made a call back on his data pad while the two men continued to the door and began to examine the locks.

The locks where extremely complicated, ornate even. Their purpose seemed to be as much as look nice as to prevent people picking them. However the real lock where the six metal bars connecting the door to the wall, controlled by a computer somewhere in the building.

The first removed an LG-23 from his backpack and set it to a wide angle blast. Each stood back from the door as the pistol was fired, blasting the door with an electromagnetic surge that would, in theory, fry the locks and reset the door to unlocked.

In a world where EMI weapons where if not common, available, locks could be made to combat them. Instead of resetting the locks, it simply jammed them in, and fried the systems controlling them, leaving them permanently extended.

The two men in front pulled out a blowtorch and began to go to work on the front door while the leader of the small group wrapped up his call. "Diesel, I'm sure I have a lead now..."

END

 

[Tyler]

Diesel was lounging on a chair near the cooler at Larry's when his phone rang. The ID-SOL took the phone out of his pocket and leaned back in the chair to open the cooler and grab a beer. He brought the bottle to his lips as he flicked the phone open. "Yello..."

"This is James speaking. I believe I have found a lead in the incident from earlier," He thought for a moment, wincing slightly when he realized he probably shouldn't have used his name on an unsecured line as he gave the address of where he was at, "I need some help getting into the place though, it is built like a bunker and I do not know what is inside."

A couple glugs replied to James, followed by a cough. "Whew! Good to hear buddy. So you got a door that needs some smashing? Whatcha think you need?"

"I already have most of the equipment, but I'm going to need people to search the inside as well as some additional computer equipment to manage the information from this place's system." He said. "More blowtorches would not hurt either,"

"What kind of computer stuff? I'll see what we have here in the ways of that, but blowtorches should be no problem. Manpower is a bit tight though, since the guys up top are a bit spooked by the activities. I'll give Dante a call though. I'm sure he'd LOVE to come."

"Sorting and analysis software, external hard drives, and recovery equipment." James stated, "It looks like we will be through the front door soon. Odds are I'll already be inside when you arrive."

"Yeah, ok, that stuff shouldn't be too bad." The loud creak of the chair could be heard through the phone as Diesel gently rocked back and forth. "You expecting any trouble?"

"Well, you don't build a bunker without something to protect." James replied.

"You got that right. I'll bring a little surprise just in case shit happens. You call me if you need me."

"Alright, I will talk with you later then." James said before hanging up.

Without so much as looking at the phone, Diesel hit a button to contact "Stupid asshole better be done." He grinned to himself, knowing he didn't really mean what he said.

The phone rang a couple times before being answered by his comrade. "yo?" he asked, shifting and moving the neko he was with at the moment out of the way so he could be comfortable while he spoke.

"Are you done fucking yet?" Came the irritated reply on the other end of the line.

"Actually I've been finished for the last 15 minutes." he said in a bit of a tired voice. "But that's not important at the moment, something wrong?" A soft giggle could be heard in the background on the phone followed by a female voice asking Dante to just hang up the phone.

"Yeah, some of our men got blown up. James got a lead on something and I hope that we can smash some heads in revenge. You in?"

"Blown up?!" he said jolting some and sighed a bit. "Sounds like a blast.." he said and held the phone away for a moment to snicker at the pun and brought it back in close. "Who did it? Reds?"

"Nope, someone else. Some really stupid third party. If we find out exactly who, they'll realize just how much trouble they've gotten themselves into. Now put the pussy away and get to Larry's in 15. I'll have a car ready when you arrive."

"It's already put away" he said as he used his shoulder to hold his phone to his ear as he removed the neko girl from himself. "Alright I'll be there, anything special I need to pick up? like ammo, weaponry, etc?" he asked, as he redressed.

The lighthearted pouting of a female followed.

"I'll have weapons in the trunk, just bring yourself. Make sure you're ready for some action. James said the place was bunkered down."
hiro_seishin: "Alright, be there in a bit." he said and petted the girl. "See ya." Dante said as he stood up after moving the girl away.

 

[Zakalwe]

The black sedan sped to the location, Diesel behind the wheel and Dante riding shotgun. The car arrived, creating a cloud of dust in its wake after stopping suddenly in front of the building. "Go check on James. I'll unload the trunk."

Dante got out quickly when the sedan stopped, he paused to adjust the pistols in his coat and on his hips as he looked for a fast way inside and noticed the insulation on the fence. He quickly climbed up and over and looked around crouching to make sure he was alone on this side so far.

The sharp metal spikes hiding on the ground of the other side of the fence bit deeply into the boots of Dante, a couple of them sharp enough to poke into his big toe. "Hey Dante, you ready for some stuff? I'm going to toss it over the fence."

Dante jumped and got away from the spikes, ignoring the pain from the spike, he'd get over it. "Alright I'm ready" he said and prepared himself to catch flying arms.

Over the fence came a Type 28 submachine gun, then, a few moments later, a Xaser Rifle. "Take what you want. I'm taking the computer and my own goods over."

He caught each one and set them down before catching the next one and looked at the Xaser rifle and whistled lowly. "I'd like to take both but I can't carry both of them." he said and chose the rifle after a moment of thought. "you want this submachine back?"

"No. Give it to James. We don't know what we're going to see in there. Don't break these weapons either. They're not too cheap." The trunk slammed shut. "You clear? I'm going to jump the fence."

He took a moment to slide the rifle onto his back, making use of the strap provided with it and stepped out of the landing zone and grinned imaging Diesel landing on those spikes but spoke up anyway. "Watch it, there's spikes int he ground over here."

"Thanks for the heads up." Using his gargantuan arms to pull himself up and over the fence, the ID-SOL landed across from James. "Woah, I can see those spikes from here. Someone doesn't want us inside, that's for sure." Diesel was holding an Emrys Sniper Rifle, the trigger modified to fit his large hands. In the other, he held a duffle bag. "Now where's James?"

James and his two goons were busy cutting through the door that James had picked out earlier because of the light from it. Though they were on the second floor the sound of the torch was echoing all the way to the entrance.

"I guess that would be him." he said, hearing the sound of the cutting torch on the door and looked in that direction. "You want to take point or should I?" he asked.

"Oh, looking to be the hero? Go right ahead, cowboy." Diesel laughed.

Dante just laughed a bit bitterly and began to move toward the entrance approaching it as stealthily as possible the submachine gun in his hand as he did. He'd changed into a black coat so the lights wouldn't glare and give him away; his shades still on though as he looked around for guards.

There were obvious signs of activity into the entrance of the building, as well as a large pool of water formed in the area. "I don't think we have to worry about things since our friends are inside."

"Yeah well sometimes James forgets to knock out the guards," he said. "Tends to just slip past them" he continued and headed into the entrance and proceed cautiously, keeping alert for signs of trouble.

The only trouble in the entrance was the very loud alarm screaming, "Perimeter insecure, possible atmosphere contamination."

The torches had finished their cutting and were shut off, as James pushed on the section of door which had been neatly separated from the rest of the door by heat and flame. "Go and start searching the rest of the building." James told the other two.

Dante nodded to James and glared up at the ceiling at the alarm and handed him the submachine gun. "Take this just in case alright?" he said.

The two men nodded and went in opposite directions, scouting the house. Meanwhile, Diesel, at the doorway, growled. "No need to worry about stealth now. What'd you find, James?" Diesel said as the two approached their comrade.

James nodded, but didn't say anything as he picked up the gun and held it in his off hand as the other continued to push on the door to make it fall inwards. "I just got inside, this place is locked up tight though I think someone is in here. I just need to find the computer system in this place to get what I need. This is the only person on the planet that had the chemicals needed to make the bomb in sufficient quantities but didn't account for where they were."

Dante nodded and stepped back away from James and pulled the rifle off his back and held it like a normal soldier or anyone else would. He kept a sharp eye out for any trouble at James' back.

Diesel helped push the door down, which came crashing to the ground with a large thud, splintering the wooden floor underneath it. Beyond the opening was a plain hall. The white walls and stream of single light bulbs created a disorienting bright room, making it difficult to see what was at the end of the hall.

James simply waited a few moments for his eyes to adjust so he could see to the end of the hallway.

Dante lowered the end of the rifle and turned around to face in that same direction looking into the hall, his shades protecting his eyes from the sting of the bright lights. He kept the rifle trained in that direction as he looked into the hall, ready for almost anything to spring out.

A stairway rested at the end of the hall, its winding upward steps sharply disappearing from view. Diesel rubbed his eyes a bit, adjusting to the brightness. "Weird place, this guy's got here."

Diesel walked to the end of the hall and peered up the stairs. "Very tight spiral here."

James moved forward, holding the weapon down by his side as he kept his eyes on the walls and ceilings, looking for anything that might give away the presence of hidden objects in the walls.

The highest story was much like the second one, and as such had five doors, four of them plain. One of them however had gold overlay, around a styilised S, and light streamed from the bottom.

"So, smash all the doors or just the pretty one?" Diesel asked to nobody in particular.

Dante groaned looked up the stairs and nodded. "whoever it is probably prefers to keep things orderly apparently." he quipped as he searched around with his eyes for traps or the like and sighed at the decor. "gaudy decor though" he said and tapped the stairs with the rifle to see if they would suddenly got flat or something. (or did we already go up?)

"James, do you have any information on this guy at all? What are we going against here?"

"Well," James said, "it is likely that the door is a deception of some sort, though along the same lines it would probably be just as likely that he would think that no one would get this far so deception isn't necessary." James thought silently for a few moments before he realised that he was being talked to, "Oh...The name of the owner of this place is a man named Dal. There isn't much information about him other than he runs a small trading operation."

".... just smash the pretty door," James said finally after thinking about it.

"And you're pretty sure this guy has something to do with the incident?" Diesel said as he rummaged into his duffle bag for his door charges and blowtorch.

"He is the only guy left who could have supplied the bombs," James said.
Tyler: "It's likely if we're here to off him" he said with a shrug.

"Well, regardless, get back so I can blow this door sky high." Diesel finished placing the charges around the door. "This is enough power to blow through about anything, so I recommend more than a couple steps back." He grinned. "Twenty seconds guys!"

James stood back, getting behind the large IDSOL.

Dante perked a brow and paled a bit and retreated away from Diesel, back into the hall they had originally come in through and got back a safe distance. "This is gonna be damn loud." he said. "screw stealth at this point" he laughed

With an explosion that shook the foundation of the house, the door blew straight out and onto the floor, the large cloud of smoke made it impossible to see. "Hold up, guys." Diesel said.

James stayed put, brushing off the bits of dust and debrie that were landing in his hair now.

As the smoke cleared, slowly, the one ornate room yet discovered was shown, a lovely room with fine oak panelling, crystal lighting, floor to ceiling book cases and a mahogany desk with a computer on it. In the book cases where such fine novels as "How to survive a conspiracy." and "Protect your loved ones II" written by Dal Van Heimer, as well as many others. The room was empty of all occupants, apart from a potted plant.

Dante walked up once the smoke began to clear and looked into the room and perked a brow at it all...again, leading the way with his rifle again. "Well he's either rich or full of himself...or both," he commented idly. "Seems gaudy to me"

Diesel scouted the room carefully, holding the sniper rifle with ease. "Or he's just a bit nuts. By the looks of these books here, he doesn't like foreign company."

James let those two go in first and then started checking the room for things like hidden doors, computers, and etc.

With sufficient searching a hidden compartment in the desk would slide out, revealing a NH 27 pistol, and a panel with several buttons.

Having satisfied his search, Diesel stood post near the door, occasionally peering out to make sure nobody was approaching.

James then examined the buttons to see if he could determine what they did, though he didn't press them yet.

The buttons where all pale and lifeless, apart from a Dark Green one which was lit up.

"Protect your loved ones II?" He asked looking at the books on the shelf. "well just provides more targets."

"If you need anything, it's in here." Diesel dropped the dufflebag onto the floor.

James decided to examine the computer before returning to the buttons. He searched for a place where he could open it up to look inside or at least an information port of some sort.

Dante just went to the entrance with Diesel. "Well hopefully we can dig something up on this guy."

The computer wouldn't start, the reason being the hard-drive was a variety that could be removed easily, and it had been ... removed. The Device with the buttons on it was sealed, and had no wires leading from it.

James moved back to the buttons and began to examine what they did... by pressing them, starting with the lit button.

Explosives build into structural weak-points in the house exploded upon the signal from the button, which was one of the owners last resort mechanisms. The house began to tremble, and plaster fell from the ceiling.

"Aw Fuck!" Dante said hearing the explosions and began to look for a quick escape if it was possible. "If we can't find a fast way out of here we're like rats in a trap" he grumbled.

James had just the word for this situation, "Shit."

More explosives began to go off, around the house.

"Make it to the 2nd floor and you can probably jump out the building. Time to go. Now." Diesel said as he ran.


"Leaving does sound like a good plan right now," James said, already out the door of that room and heading downstairs.


Tyler: Dante nodded and took off running behind the other two

"DDDIIIEEE" The Alarm screamed, and half of the top floor exploded, conveniently not the side that they where on.

Tyler: "ok alarm's got attitude." Dante laughed a bit as they hustled to the second floor

It took only moments for them to get back to the front door, the other two goons had already left the building.

Diesel couldn't help but laugh to himself as he continued running like mad. "I was partially right! This guy IS fucking nuts!"

Dante shook his head and kept running after Diesel and James. "I agree"

Effectively as soon as they left the building it exploded in a great fireball, and a cacophonous scream from speaker systems around the garden, "DDDDDIIIEEE"

Diesel jumped the fence and returned to his vehicle, turning to enjoy the spectacle of the explosion. "Yeah.. that didn't go as well as planned."

The fireball was more than enough to knock the wind out of James and throw him to the ground, though he was wise enough to turn and land on his side.

Dante vaulted up and over after him and got back into the car and watched it go up. "Yeeeah next time, we need to disable that first...or NOT PUSH RANDOM BUTTONS" he glared at James

James was laying on the ground, blood pooling below him from his left shoulder, hips, and legs. The rather large bomb had shut down his hearing for the time being as he slowly and painfully pulled himself to his feet.

Diesel helped James to his feet. "Naw, don't worry about it. We'll come back after the fire's down and see if we can find anything at all. The way I see it, we're alive, and whoever was in this house sure as hell didn't want us finding anything important. But you can also think that having to blow up the house did slow things down for whoever did this."

"WHAT?" James practically yelled, seeing Diesel's lips move.

"Forget it," Diesel said as he opened the door for James, the own ringing in his ears hurting. "We gotta get him patched up." he said to Dante.

Dante nodded as he sat in the seat of the car, the door open and sighed combing a hand in his hair a bit as he watched them. "That would make sense, for someone who's nuts, that's a good way to clean up evidence, but that alarm...I need that for my car.." he said with a laugh, trying to ignore his own pain.

James got into the car, still unable to hear and bleeding all over the seat as he tried his best to fasten something around his arm to stop the blood flow from the various spike holes. The body he had wasn't quite as resilient as the others.

"What a goddamn mess..." the ID-SOL said with a bitter laugh as their vehicle sped towards Black territory. "What a goddamn mess..."

 

[Tom]

"Hospital... hospital... shit... where's the nearest hospital..." Diesel muttered to himself as he drove erratically through the streets of Funky City. Although the ID-SOL didn't show it outwardly, the tiny beads of sweat forming on his forehead hinted at a deep anxiety for his friend.

His friend who happened to be bleeding all over the sedan's black leather seats.

"James, stay the fuck awake. I'll slap the shit out of you if you doze off. Dante, make sure he's ok."

It suddenly dawned on Diesel, something about a new hospital being opened up nearby, one with state-of-the-art technology.

"Paser... Laser... Lasek.... Lasep! That's it!"

Smudging dirt on the LCD navigation screen as he punched in a query for the hospital's location, Diesel sighed.

What a fucking mess...

 

[Zack]

It felt nice to have his eyes closed and relax a bit, but he struggled to open them again and keep them that way. He knew enough about biology to understand that much. For him, the rest of the trip was a blur.

 

[Zack]

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