2024-06-07: Flickering Ray of Hope

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<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

It has been an eventful few months since coming to Huffman. Sousuke had set up an appointment with an old friend named Rick, to get them the lay of the land and maybe some key introductions. They got introductions alright: On arriving, Rick was dead, having been murdered by an arena rival only minutes prior. Sousuke, as these things happen, decided to help Rick's now-former team, and...well, did quite well for himself, so now that's the way of it. That team consists of three mechanics, a photojournalist named Michel Lemon who is just sort of hanging around because they borrowed money from him and they seem interesting, and Nami, a genius programmer from Thailand who had come to Huffman herself only recently.

Sousuke may or may not be sleeping under the collective Girls' Bed at this point but that's not relevant to today.

*Today*, another leak has come out of the Battle Operations forums, and this time it's even weirder. Lemon comes into the garage carrying a data key, holding the USB stick-like device up to Sousuke, who was silently wrenching the Crossbow's engine. Crossbow is the team's machine - an RK-91 that Sousuke, with the biggest smile Kaname's seen on his face in months, decided to paint white and navy. In other words, the colors of the Arbalest. Grief takes all forms.

"I don't really see the need for treating this like it's gonna explode, Sagara," Lemon quips, but nonetheless tips it his way.

"Explosion is not the concern," Sousuke says earnestly, and takes up the drive. "...remote deletion, however, is."

He wipes his hands off, tosses bangs the hand cart to notify the mechanics he's heading over to where Kaname's computer is set up, and holds up the data key up to her.

"It's here," he says, with a mixed expression. "If this is real, then..."

...then Tessa might be alive. 

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

Kaname, meanwhile, has been as much of an asset to the team as Sousuke; the mechanical side of the Crossbow's performance is largely thanks to her tuning and modifications, to say nothing of her and Nami's combined efforts on the software side of things.

She's looking over some performance tables when Lemon arrives, a small grin on her lips at Sousuke's insistence on care with the 'package'. She knows she shouldn't get her hopes up, but regardless, her heart's racing a little. Anticipating the other half of Sousuke's sentence, Kaname nods, taking the key from him with all the care he expects.

It does feel a little silly, she thinks, as she pulls out the hardline cable and disables local wireless before plugging it in, but... well, it doesn't hurt to be cautious. She takes a deep breath... then plugs it in and opens the drive's contents.

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

What comes up sounds like the silliest kind of science fiction - secret government-abused supergeniuses. Mecha technologies that allow telekinetic force projection from even non-Newtype pilots. Holographic invisibility screens. Laughable.

To anyone but them. Sousuke's face would be inscrutable to anyone else, but Kaname knows that look by now, surprise, even stricken by indecision. But his hand falls on her shoulder, a deep breath into his lungs.

"Amalgam gains nothing from releasing this," he says, certain though too surprised to quite sound assured. "But...I'm not sure I see the strategic purpose for anyone else to do it, either..."

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

Kaname nods, reading through it all. "This file..." she murmurs.

"... It's not about gain," she replies. "You're right. It's a bad move from a military perspective--but what if someone wanted to remove the advantage entirely?"

She scrolls through a bit further, skimming over various diagrams, equations, and blueprints. "These are specs for... basically everything we knew about before the Alliance collapsed. It's no longer a secret... anyone can develop it now. The playing field's level."

She gets a hunch, and starts looking for any indication of a source. It's entirely unredacted, so if it's from Mithril's files... 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

"Removing the advantage...democratization of the technology. I see," Souuske murmurs, fingers cupped around his chin in thought, a familiar gesture of his. "Releasing the Whispered information...perhaps the principle is the same. By ensuring the information is public, they can be protected by more traditional agencies."

He grimaces a little at that thought, because they've seen how THAT can turn out, but still.

As for the files, they are notably not actually Mithril's files. Personally assembled...which means they would have to be assembled *by* someone very high up, and without any access to Mithril's old central database. Some of the text does strongly echo the verbiage in Mithril documents...and some, specifically from Tessa. The conclusion seems like, if it's not literally prepared by Tessa, it'd have to be someone else of her level at Mithril with an EXTREMELY good memory for technical details she never talked about. As far as Sousuke's been able to find, all of those people are supposed to be dead.
Kaname Chidori says, "Sousuke... I think she's alive," she concludes, sitting back in her chair. She mops a little sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. Was she really that tense...?" 

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

Kaname doesn't find quite what she was looking for... what she does find is enough to pull a weight off her shoulders that's been sitting there for a long time. Tessa had the knowledge, the will to do something like this, and most importantly, an understanding of what releasing something like this would *do*.

"Sousuke... I think she's alive," she concludes, sitting back in her chair. She mops a little sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. Was she really that tense...?

Armed with this knowledge, though, the question remains. "How the hell are we going to find her?" 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Sousuke releases a slow, rough breath. "Alive..." he says. The smile that comes is small but tremendously relieved; he steps over to the other seat at the table, letting his weight fall into it, surprised by the weight leaving his spine.

He reaches into a pocket and produces a kerchief for Kaname, offering it silently. "...she may come to us, eventually," he speculates. "The alien machine on the island is accelerating things, but the tension in Huffman has been here for years." His grimace turns across the garage, to wear Crossbow sits in its idle, leaning posture.

"This won't be a quiet place for long. But that might just attract her eye, too." Hm. Hmmm.

He cups his chin. "It does seem like a rather passive approach, though. I suppose we could stage an attack on the Gaia Sabers, that would get us attention quickly."

It would also get everyone shot, but, like, details, ya know?
Kaname Chidori says, "Well, we may just have to wait and see... maybe send up some signal flares, too, so to speak," Kaname murmurs." 

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

"Well, we may just have to wait and see... maybe send up some signal flares, too, so to speak," Kaname murmurs.

She raises an eyebrow as Sousuke suggests attacking the Gaia Sabers, lifting her arms above her head in a streeetch. "I think we'll keep that one in our back pocket. Suicide's not a great first option."

Something to let her know they're out there, at least... something simple, maybe. "Hey, remember that phrase I put up on all the screens after we kicked Gauron off the Toy Box? It was in really bad English..." 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

Sousuke half expects her to whack him for that one but he gets away with a stretch. His eyes linger on her. They've been doing that more; he's letting himself feel things like his appreciation for her more, even if it gets the mechanics snickering. "I suppose it would attract rather urgent attention..." he admits.

Something to let her know...His eyes shift to hers when she speaks, and he nods. "I remember. I believe I was chasing him down at the time. Yes...a phrase that would catch her attention. A good idea."

He leans back in his seat, cupping his chin again, and thinking.

"...in Azadistan," he says, slowly, "Gauron and those twins of his left messages for me. A code only I would know. 'To the cub of the Tiger of Badakshon,' a reference to my relationship to the warlord Majid. They were everywhere. On newspapers, bulleting boards. On bodies." He leaves the past, turning to face Kaname again with a faint smile. "What if we used that, as well, somehow? She'd recognize it."

<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.

Kaname perks up a little, blinking slowly and nodding. "... Yeah. That's a good idea. I mean, it's... not gonna be quite as easy, since they knew you were in Azadistan, but we don't know where Tessa is." She taps her chin. "I mean... I guess we do know some of her favorite magazines, and a couple places she used to go online a lot..."

She exhales out of her nose. "I wonder if it's too risky to add a hint to where we are... I don't wanna risk it." Spinning around to look at the Crossbow, she taps her chin. "The color scheme's pretty distinctive, but... hm." She shrugs a little. "We might just need to trust her to figure it out." 

<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.

"Yes. The phrase will help, but placing it's the thing," Sousuke agrees. "Our biggest billboard is Crossbow, but...I think it would be the wrong kind of conspicuous." ... "Also Nami would kill me."

He crosses his arms, thinking. "We don't know what she has to hand. Strictly speaking, she could have compiled this with nothing but a few hours at a net cafe. If anything, being that drained of resources seems like it would make her more likely to try such a previously-unthinkable action." He says it calmly, though there's now a lump in his throat to contemplate the woman he admired so in such a state. He takes a long time to let it melt.

"...which means," he says, a little hoarsely, a moment later, "That we can't presume she still has access to Dana's data control or system-cracking tools. It will need to be in the clear. So, yes. We might just have to count on Huffman's pull, and her own intuition, for now."

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