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

[batmotif]

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.)

Comments

[batmotif]

[There's a mental shake of his head.]

(I'll do it; it might be necessary to find out exactly what Ngozi is hiding. Though I need to know if it's worth the risk on your end. An AI isn't as straightforward as hacking into a security system. Do you think you'd be able to convince it to help us?)

[greentech]

( Maybe? It depends on how smart it is and what kind of personality it has. If it has one. I might be able to distract it, anyway. Could be worse, right? )

[batmotif]

[Though Pidge can't see it, he's already leaving Ngozi's office. He sends a mental note to his teammates -- two to stay on this floor, one to come along with him. Soon after, he responds directly to Pidge. Despite himself, there's something wry about his words.]

(Never say that. It might just happen.)

[greentech]

( Good point. )

[ Pidge's response is just a touch wry. She's keeping an eye on the flags and alerts that may or may not have popped up because of their activities. If they need to, they need to be able to get out of here fast. ]

( Let me know when you're ready. )

[batmotif]

[She just gets an affirmative note crossing their mental link in return; outside of that, Bruce goes silent as he makes his way to the lower levels with the help of one from his team.

And then, after some time passes:]

(I'm in. Tell me what to look for; we're going to have to effectively use our link to communicate back and forth.)

[Basically, Bruce is going to have to play middleman, isn't he.]

[greentech]

[ Pidge waits for a few minutes, feeling more than a little nervous. This is taking things a few steps further and she'll feel at least partially responsible if Bruce ends up hurt or gets caught because of her.

More than ever, she wishes she were actually there.

So there's a distinct trace of relief when he pops up again. ]

( You need an access port. Some sort of network connector. Any one that actually hooks into the main server should work fine. )

[batmotif]

[Bruce is so focused on Pidge's instructions that he immediately begins to gaze around the server room to find anything that might look like an access port. He's no stranger to what such a room looks like, but like everything on this planet, the tech is a bit more advanced than what he's used to. The port in question looks a bit foreign, almost alien, but he deduces that this may be it, considering it's the only thing that vaguely looks like it could be a port.

He transfers the image of what he's seeing to Pidge.]

(This?)

[greentech]

[ She's a bit jumpy. She doesn't like having to go through someone else to do what she knows she can do. But here she is, mentally transmitting to a guy about a mile away. She blinks as the image sinks into her brain. ]

( Yeah, that looks like it. If you can plug in, you should be able to start communicating directly with whatever is running security down here. )

imma ping the mods after this tag to see if they want to chime in here!

[batmotif]

[Another mental affirmative, and Bruce begins his work. There's a small personal console nearby, its use for what Bruce can only assume is running diagnostics and the like on the AI servers themselves. Maybe it would work as a way to communicate more effectively, given Bruce's role as middleman.

With his teammate nearby to keep watch, Bruce tries to initiate contact with the AI.]

too late i see all

[onemind]

[From outside the building, from outside this room, what he's trying to do now would be impossible. But here, wired directly into the hulking server database in the belly of Public Security HQ, having a private conversation is as simple as a few precise keystrokes.

The response is immediate, each letter clicking rapidly into place like there's someone on the other side of the connection typing back.]

Identity unverifiable. You have ten seconds to explain who you are or I will report you to the officers on site.

LE GASP

[batmotif]

[As the letters come up, blinking before him on the screen, Bruce has to restrain himself from typing right back. Tempting as it is, he's left an impressively open "connection" to Pidge for a reason -- it would be foolish not to utilize it as much as possible.

And so what he sees, Pidge will see; he makes a constant effort to relay it back to her as painstakingly accurate as possible, each keystroke seen in clarity.]

(Pidge. I'm going to let you take care of this unless you tell me otherwise. Tell me what to type and I'll do it.)

(ooc; bruce is gonna play middleman so you can assume he's just relaying/typing info back and forth with whatever pidge tells him, until you guys need him to tag in properly again!)

Oooo.

[greentech]

[ This is way too weird. Pidge has to hold herself back from typing on her own console. With how open this connection is, it feels incredibly close to actually being in the room with Bruce - as Bruce. Her fingers move against the air as she "talks". That was unexpectedly fast. Better think of something to say. ]

( Katie. My name's Katie. )

[ Semi-honesty seems like the best policy here. ]

( I think that someone is storing information on a group in here. I'm trying to stop them from hurting people. )

[onemind]

[There's no hesitation:]

'Katie' isn't an authorized user for my system and your reasoning is insufficient. You have one more attempt before I report suspicious activity.

[greentech]

[ Crap. Pidge shoots a quick thought at Bruce. ]

( Any ideas? )

[batmotif]

[The thought echoes in his head, and it's almost, almost disorienting. He had left his mind so open that to hear Pidge talk to him (and not through him) requires Bruce to switch gears almost immediately.

It's hardly a smooth transition, but it's a quick one. His focus returns to the problem at hand, precision sharp.]

(I assume this AI is more concerned with the security inside this building than anything happening outside of it. Would you be able to convince it that whatever information we're looking for might pose a potential stability risk if not uncovered as soon as possible?

I'm not opposed to making something up. But if the system doesn't buy it, I can't stay in here and let the guards come to me.)

[No pressure Pidge, but he's basically saying make it quick.]

[greentech]

[ Pidge sends a twinge of apology echoing through their link. She can feel his disorientation, but the way he snaps back into focus is stabilizing. It helps calm her own jitters just a touch. She frowns, considering their options. ]

( If this next one doesn't work, you're going to have to get out fast. Alright- )

[ Alright. Here they go again. ]

( You work with Director Ngozi, right? I'm trying to help her deal with a potential threat to public security and possibly to her and her family. There's a possibility that a group responsible for external attacks might be turning their attention on Public Security Possibly starting with her. )

[ Sort of bullshit, but it seems like the best angle. ]

[onemind]

[Again, no pause:]

Identify this potential threat please.

[greentech]

[ Well, no alarm yet. ]

( The group behind the nightclub bombing a month or two ago. I think they're going to cause more trouble. )

[onemind]

If you believe you have information regarding a crime, this is not the correct venue to report that information.

[greentech]

( That's part of the problem: I'm trying to find them. Time might be an issue and I don't want them to hurt anyone else. )

[ She's not sure if this AI has emotions or if it "feels", but she's going to try anyway. ]

( Ngozi needs my help. You do a lot of work with her, right? )

[onemind]

Noted.
Correct.
You mentioned Commissioner Ngozi's family. According to my public data filea, she does not have one. Please validate your information immediately.

[greentech]

[ This is a little harder to explain. ]

( It's not public knowledge. She doesn't want people to try to get to her through them. There are markers, though, if you know where to look. )

[onemind]

Please list those markers and any identifying traits on Commissioner Ngozi's unverified familial relations.

[greentech]

[ This is probably going to get her in trouble, BUT. ]

( There's a pattern. They keep the public records totally clean, but if you follow their location pings, they're in the same places way too often for it to be a reasonable coincidence. )

[onemind]

Please provide the make up of Commissioner Ngozi's alleged family.