station72 | [DAY 45] let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night

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[DAY 45] let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night

CHARACTERS: Mynockman (

batmotif), Mara Jade (

snaphiss), and everyone who offered to help with the plan.
WHERE: Public Security HQ
WHEN: Day 45, nighttime.
SUMMARY: The break-in is happening. Distractions, hacking, potential information theft, and maybe even some quick getaways are all on the table.
WARNINGS: None at the moment, but will be added as necessary.

OOC: Below are the mods' description of the interior, exterior, and Ngozi's office proper! I will be making top-levels for each "team" and we can go from there, but threadhopping is highly encouraged for the sake of characters communicating effectively (or not so effectively, your choice) with one another.

Other than that, dive in and have fun! You've pretty much got free rein to make up your own NPCs in and around the building, run into your own problems (or have things go very smoothly if that's how you roll), and what have you!

EXTERIOR

Public Security Headquarters is twenty-story, older construction building located in Concordia’s DELTA BLOCK. It’s surrounded by a number of taller high rises that primarily house corporate, government and private offices. There’s very little in the way of residential housing in the blocks surrounding HQ. In general, this area of Concordia is a strong blend of old and new next to (and on top of) each other. There’s a motorpool located on the HQ’s roof with a fleet of PS hovercraft. The motorpool is manned by two PS officers at what’s nominally a ‘guard station’ who check vehicles in and out. There’s a fair amount of movement in and out of the motorpool, but it’s clearly based on shift rotation with long periods of low traffic between shift changes.

INTERIOR

From the top down (rooftop entry): There’s a security lift that leads inside, though someone will either have to follow an officer into the lift to operate it from the inside or the lift will have to be hacked to operate without the proper security clearances. Once they access the lift, the hosts can go to any level in the PS HQ. On each floor the lift opens out into a small foyer-esque chamber with glass doors leading to the main part of the floor. The glass doors have a security checkpoint, so to get through them the hosts will have to either hack their way past or have a hostage (...or whatever) willing to help them gain entry.

Floors 20 through 16 seem to be evidence storage and databases; at this hour they’re largely darkened and manned by only a few officers. Floor 15 is personnel offices, including Ngozi’s. Like much of PS HQ, Floor 15 has an air of a place that was remodelled to once be extremely state of the art and has since seen some considerably wear and tear. The tile floors have lost some of their sheen, the cubical subdivisions are peeling in places, and there are faint scuff marks on a variety of surfaces. It’s clear that this late in the day, only a few people are on duty in this particular section of the HQ. With the exception of specifically lit cubicles where PS detectives are working late, the floor is largely darkened - including Ngozi’s office.

Floors 14 through 8 are offices and administration, an armory, a series of labs etc. Use your imagination if you go there, I believe in y’all. They also have the security checkpoint glass doors. Level 7 houses the AI ADMINISTRATOR’s direct access servers. The floor is entirely taken up by servers and seems to function primarily on extremely heavy security checkpoints. There’s no way to remotely access the AI, so someone will have to physically be present if they wish to talk to it. (This doesn’t mean Pidge or Anders have to be here - it just means they have to have a strong mental link with whoever is). Level 6 through 5 are more offices and briefing rooms, though these have suffered considerably more wear. Level 4 has counseling and interrogation rooms etc. Level 3 is a security checkpoint (that you’d have to go through if you were going UP) and levels 2 through 1 are open to the general public. There are three basement levels entirely dedicated to PS’s android workforce.

In general, use common sense about how these places are populated in the middle of the night. A good rule of thumb is that the lower levels (except for the ai admin server room) will have more people while the higher levels will have less.

NGOZI’S OFFICE & FINDINGS

The door itself has heavy security protocols on it that are directly monitored by the AI Admin of the building. The list of authorized personnel is evidently extremely short, so it’s likely sweet talking the admin AI will be required to gaining access. Once inside, they’ll find Ngozi’s office is similarly weathered. There’s a big desk and a series of shelves behind it that have a number of awards and digital photographs detailing Ngozi’s personal service history as well as various accolades for PS itself since her tenure as Commissioner began. There are no notable personal belongings in the office. The desk has a built in computer port, but Ngozi’s personal attachment isn’t there. The hosts will need to find one to access her profile’s stored files. It’s possible to “borrow” one from one of the cubicles, but be aware that accessing Ngozi’s terminal with another detective’s attachment will ping the AI admin. Hopefully you’re friends with it by now or you might be looking at having to make a quick escape very soon.

Once you’re plugged in, you’ll need to paw through Ngozi’s files. There are two partitions to Ngozi’s terminal. One is the GENERAL PUBLIC SECURITY DATABASE which has average security protection - any detective will know the password, or the AI can get you access if it’s feeling friendly. There’s a wealth of information on the general database regarding the bombings and a slew of suspects. Most of them seem to be small time arrests made in Subspace. Most of the suspects have priors, though none of them seem terribly sophisticated. In general there’s a lot of raw data and very little being done with it. The earlier warehouse bombing has a considerable amount of information stored, whereas the royal parlor bombing seems to have been less adamantly investigated. That said, there’s been a general increase in the number of filed reports since the parlor bombing - most of them simply have nothing to do with the bombing investigation. They’re all criminal cases, ranging from minor to major (though most are digital-crime related) and a large proportion of them are associated with notable corporations or have some ties to the Concordian elite. Notable corporations and individuals include:

I&D INC.

Fabribank

Manufacturing Progressive Insurance

Moreno Technics

Roberson Industrial Products

Aug Tech

Richards Soft

Kusuma Ming

Swarna Haydn

Loren Tristin

Aytac Devin

Kulap Aquila

Aviv Alaban

The second partition of Ngozi’s terminal can ONLY be accessed with the AI admin’s help. This partition is CURRENTLY A MYSTERY and will be revealed if characters get chummy enough with the AI admin.

(For reference: some OOC info and an IC post.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Decked out in your cleaning crew disguises? Confident in your stealth capabilities, your innate and/or symbiote prowess? Good, because you’re about to go traipsing through Public Security like you belong there — that, or clinging to the shadows like you don’t.

You’ll have to keep open communication with the rest of your fellow hosts; they’re your only eyes and ears directed towards what’s happening outside of the building. That, and you may be relying heavily on your hacking team, so make sure you can give them enough time to work their magic while avoiding any guard patrols along the way.

First thing’s first, though: start at the roof.]

[ Rey carries very little on her in the way of equipment; she needs only the most rudimentary tools to potentially help her navigate her way out of enclosed spaces that might need hot-wiring. The rest will either be covered by the hackers/covert ops of the team, or she'll make do with the help of her symbiote.

Dressed in her appropriated cleaning uniform, she's ready for Sam Wilson to launch them on to the roof. There's something thrilling about being suddenly lifted twenty stories up — it will remind her of scaling the interiors of the Ravager and the Inflictor, like repelling in reverse. She looks up at him expectantly, something like eagerness in her gaze. ]

( I'm ready. )

[Bruce is only as equipped as he needs to be. His own cleaning uniform would be distracting (so very unlike anything he's ever worn in Gotham) if not for how overwhelming his focus is manifesting itself to be. His grappling gun hangs at his hip, and when he cranes his neck up at the building looming above him, he doesn't feel particularly apprehensive. How many times has he careened upwards towards the roof of a building, of a skyscraper? This was old hat.

He's busy going over the plan in his head for the nth time tonight, though Rey's voice in his head makes him glance over at her, then to Sam as well.]

(Ready.)

[Old hat or not, Sam's way of getting to the top was going to be stealthier and faster. He'd be the first to admit that much.]

[ For tonight, Sam'd forgone the red and grey of his armored uniform - it's not necessarily bright, but it's still unneeded color. If everything goes according to plan, it's not like he'll need the armor, and if it doesn't, well. He's pretty damn good at dodging gunfire. It's not like he hasn't flown without the armor before, so tonight it's plain, dark clothes accompanying his pack and goggles.

He's not on edge, but he is ready, and when Rey and Bruce give him the go ahead, he moves in. His wings spread out behind him as he wraps an arm around each of their waists, pulling them in close and shifting to assure his grip on them is balanced. ]

( Hold on. )

[ With that he launches upwards, propulsion system on low and wings beating to make up for it. It's more effort, yeah, especially when his arms are otherwise occupied, but it's quiet and just as fast. Something he's done thousands of times before, and it's no time at all before they're landing on the rooftop, tucked out of sight. He lets them go as soon as they're on stable footing, pausing just a moment to make sure they're both good.

Then he gives them a salute and snaps his wings back in, turning to dive off the ledge and freefall back down. He flares his wings out again just in time to catch him before he hits the ground, and he touches down quietly. ]

( Next? )

[ She glances at Bruce at his other side, and then again at Sam, her eyes going momentarily wide at the spread of his metallic wings from his back. Black and grey with a touch of silver and red, they reach out at least as twice as long as his armspan, if not more, and Rey is rendered speechless at the sight.

There's only a register of his hold on, before she grips him in return around his rib cage, and suddenly they're being lifted up into the sky. Not as fast as she would have thought given his jet propulsion, but it's quieter and makes more sense in the scheme of the plan.

Still, it's flying, and without the aid of a ship. She looks down at the retreating ground and has to fight back a delighted, girlish giggle.

He touches down lightly with them in a dark, unoccupied corner of the roof, letting his passengers get their footing before turning and diving down once again to make another pickup — but Rey is already anticipating the fact that flying with him might be their exit strategy in a pinch, and hoping despite that that she might get another glimpse of his wings in action. ]

( Thanks, Sam. We're good to go. )

[ Once they've made it up and are safely tucked out of sight for the moment, there are the two Public Security officers guarding the motorpool near the lift to contend with.

To the group, her thought comes in over the symbiote: ] ( If I can get near enough to touch one of them, I can mindtrick them to let us into the lift. )

[ So far, the mission is going off without a hitch. That said, they've been on the roof for about five seconds, and OPs turn. But Rey reaches out, and Clint responds, nodding, a soft impression of acknowledgement. ]

( I can draw one off for you. )

(Do it.)

[The words ring clear in the heads of his teammates. Bruce is already going through the various options in his mind, but a smaller distraction seems the most straightforward, the most viable at the moment.]

[ Clint offers a quick distraction for one of the two guards, and then there's a quick affirmation and encouragement from Bruce, and Rey nods succinctly. ]

( Once I give him the suggestion, we only may have a few moments to get inside the lift. So follow me quickly. )

[ She waits until the designated officer walking his paces turns his back on their hiding spot, and then she materializes in his footsteps behind him, her shorter strides quick to catch up with his. Before the officer can turn she lays a soft, suggestive hand on his shoulder. ]

( Maintenance and cleaning crew; came up to the roof for supplies, and now need entry back into the lift. )

[ The officer's face grows distant as he looks at her, and his posture goes slack — and then he's nodding wordlessly, approaching the keypad next to the lift and pressing a code into it. Rey glances behind her at both Clint and Bruce. ]

( Go, go, go. )

[ It goes quickly, cleanly. Rey speaks out, and Clint answers with an impression of acknowledgement, working back to join the others. Watching carefully to make sure Rey can handle this, to make sure they don't need to step in.

The thread of her mental voice shudders through him, too blue, too close, but Clint shuts that down before it can go too far. He doesn't need to think about Loki right now. Instead, Clint slips out from his hiding spot, moving on quick feet as they pack into the lift. ]

( How long will the compulsion last? )

[ He says, the tense edge of his voice smoothing away. ]

[ They enter the lift quickly, the officer having granted them entry staying behind on the roof, and on her way in Rey places her hand again on the guard's shoulder and sends him another momentary compulsion before her fingers slip away. No one was here; nothing worth reporting. Resume your station.

She joins her team and the doors slide closed behind them, the officer already striding away purposefully. Rey lets out a sigh of both relief and surprise, before her eyes turn to Clint. ]

( To be honest, I didn't really know. I hadn't had the opportunity to test how long it could last, but my gut instinct tells me it's very short — perhaps only a moment. )

[ She glances between her teammates: ] ( Now that we're in, where to, next? )

[Bruce sets his jaw as the doors slide close behind them; he tries not to let the tension in his shoulders show too much.]

(Only one way to go. Down.)

[He reaches out to press the button on the touchpad mounted next to the lift doors. It reads FLOOR 15.]

(Ngozi's office is on 15. Admittedly the most reasonable place to start. Stay focused, there will probably be more patrols waiting for us if we're not careful.)

[The lift lurches as it begins to move downwards.]

[Mara has her hair pinned back, mostly hidden under a cap, and she's wearing the maintenance uniforms provided to them. Head down, she's holding a broom and pail as she walks the hallways. If you didn't know her, your eye would slide right over her.]

[But you do know her.]

( Follow me in five minutes, no less. )

[And she rounds a corner, down a hallway, through a door.]

[There's a mental whisper of an "affirmative", or at least the notion of such. Bruce doesn't even look in her direction as Mara disappears around a corner; he patiently waits for the five minutes to pass, doing his best to fit it as one of the maintenance crew.

And then, nearly exactly to the second, Bruce moves to follow her. Down the hall, through a door. He reaches out mentally, mid-stride.]

(Did you find something?)

[Bruce will find someone's office, and Mara standing deftly on a desk in the center of the room, holding a small, thin rod of softly blinking technology.]

( This room is bugged. We need to know why. )

[She closes her eyes and reaches her hand out, and something rattles in what looks like a filing cabinet.]

[His gaze on her is steady, even when faced with the sight of her standing on desk, claiming that the room is bugged. He doesn't question her concentration, making something move in the filing cabinet nearby; it isn't exactly the time to have that conversation right now.]

(You think someone's beat us to the punch?)

( Maybe, ) [She steps down from the desk, her footfalls quiet.] ( Either way, there's a reason someone wants to watch who comes in here. There could be something in here we want. )

[She walks over to the cabinet and fishes out a tiny black bauble, the size and shape of a human eyeball. In the center there's a glass 'iris', where the camera presumably resides. The entire thing was stowed behind a hole in the cabinet, giving it a view of the desk.]

( I don't have equiptment that locates tracking devices. )

[So, destroy it, or...?]

(Get rid of it.) [He's quick to answer Mara's implied question.] (If it's recording, it's just another complication we don't need to deal with right now. If you destroy it now, we might be able to pocket it and figure out where it's broadcasting to; see if there's another player in this game that we need to be aware of.)

[Mara nods, curt. It's what she'd do as well. She throws the orb into the air, and in a moment, produces something from her pocket, a silver tube. In the blind of an eye, a blue blade emerges, and she cuts the spy equipment in half. Both pieces fall into her palm, and the blue blade is gone, retracted into a small metal tube that she quickly stows in her pocket.]

[She reaches forward and puts it in his shirt (jacket? What's he wearing, uh) pocket.]

( We should still sweep the room for information. There might be something worth finding. )

[And... that is surprising, that blue blade emerging and slicing through the air with a streak of light. It's far from enough to startle Bruce, but he does follow its arc with his gaze, even as it disappears a moment later and the metal tube is tucked away.]

(Where'd you get something like that?) [-he asks, even as he's moving to sweep the room, just as Mara suggested. He figures a good enough place to start is a powered down personal desktop. Unlikely that he'll be given access to it so easily, but that's why they have a hacking team, after all.]

[Mara cocks her head to the side.] ( A friend. )

[Clearly it's not a story she feels like telling. Mara readjusts her gloves before beginning to rifle through the desk cabinets.]

( Are you going to help or watch? )

[Obviously her conciseness means she won't be sharing more than that, if Bruce's experience with Mara thus far holds true. (Hey, he just wanted to know that you're not getting swanky gadgets somewhere without telling him, ok.)]

(What do you think I'm doing?)

[Because he's booting up that computer to begin rifling through any potential documents that might illuminate why this office is bugged, thank you very much!]

[Mara smiles with false sweetness.] ( Something, finally? Are you some kind of slicer, or just relying on luck? )

[Bruce would reflect the same expression... if he were an individual inclined to do so. Instead, she just gets his usual serious (and unamused) expression.]

(I'm keeping a mental line open to our hacking team. Or have you already forgotten about Pidge's help?)

( No, I'm imply shocked my advice is being taken. ) [Her, bitter? Never.]

[Apparently satisfied with the filing cabinet, she moves along the wall of the office, tracing what the camera would have seen. They were definitely spying on the desk. She begins checking the cabinets while Bruce slices.]

( How are the others doing? )

[DAY 45] let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night

INFILTRATION

about to fly! | for Sam Wilson, and ota!

take bruce and rey with you, birb sam

scoops them into his arms

!!!!

on the roof | ota

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