Prowling the Cult - Act II | The apartment raid in Los Angeles

[Yoshida]

The orbit of Los Angeles was as busy as always. Commercial transports and citizens on their private shuttles were constantly coming and going to the planet, along with the occassional police patrol. For the last few decades Planet Los Angeles enjoyed the highest development rate in Liberty.

"It is our turn now." The Lane Hacker operative with the blonde hair said. The relatively young man was augmented, with mechanical extensions covering his eyes and a side of his face.

"Are we going to be scanned now?" Goro Yoshida asked while he was occupied with another business on his computer. The senior Hacker's tone was demanding and his posture intimidating. The entire operation was a very risky one; no mistakes could be allowed since that would put all of them at risk.

"Yes, activating the plasma burst shielding now."

Then the augmented Lane Hacker operative pressed the button and the ship was momentarily cloaked on a powerful electromagnetic field. This forced the docking ring's scan to absorb tremendous amounts of data causing the system to collapse and thanks to the absorbed software viruses to produce the wrong results to the traffic inspector. While not an extremely complicated technique, countermeasures could easily be installed and thus the technique was used sparingly by the Lane Hackers.

Once the ship crossed the planet's atmosphere it headed for the Bronx District, one of the oldest and relatively poor districts of the planet. The relief was obvious in the eyes of most of the crew since the majority of them haven't been on a planet for years. The team swiftly landed on a private launching pad and headed to a nearby unmarked and abandoned apartment.

"We are twenty kilometers away from our target. Load up gentlemen." Yoshida announced. While seemingly abandoned, the hideout contained an impressive number of Detroit-made light arms and close combat armored uniforms. There was also a respectable amount of stored cardamine. The Lane Hackers through their planetary sympathizers and Junker contacts have established such hideouts and stashes in every district of Los Angeles, should they ever need to use one of those. From the collection Yoshida retrieved only a pistol which clearly indicated that he wasn't going to activately participate in combat.

---

"There are those who lack ambition. Who lack ability. But if you possess both then it is your role to reign over this world."

Ageira Dossier _•_ Hanáchi Syndicate _•_ Cultism _•_ Ascension _•_ Theosis

[Maria Freudenstein]

"We are twenty kilometers away from our target. Load up gentlemen." Yoshida announced.

*Typical Yoshida*, Maria thought, *gentlemen, is he blind!*

Maria cut short the musings and started to organise the next stage, the 20 kilometer move to the target. "Right you heard the man, load up and wait by the door." she barked, as she tucked a pistol in the rear of her waistband and pushed a few grenades into her webbing pockets. It was her job to get this detail to the operatives location without being detected. An interesting problem considering most of the squad were bristling with weapons.

She grabbed one of the old fashion projectile shotguns from the stash and strode towards the apartment door, she had always found that a diminutive blonde with as shotgun was quite persuasive. A shotgun is a very personal threat in close quarter situations.

Passing the webbing and the shotgun to the man nearest the door, "Wait here while I call a Taxi" she grinned. Of course a Taxi would be a bit obvious for a band of heavily armed people making a 20 K journey, what she was looking for was a squat. One of the large robotic vehicles that automatically crisscrossed urban centres. They were basically unmanned robustly built cans on low wheels performing a whole range of delivery and clean-up duties including moving maintenance supplies for the municipal authorities, they were computer controlled vehicular dogsbodies.

These were ideal for their needs, ubiquitous windowless vehicles nobody noticed and crucially computer controlled, a hackers dream. Peering around she saw a number of likely candidates in the vicinity, briefly toying with the idea of using the garbage squat she thought that a little grubby so she headed towards one that was obviously just dropping pallets off at what appeared to be a substation, ideal, stopped, open and importantly clean. A quick flick open of the control panel, a brief set of commands entered and the vehicle was now under their control.

Parking by the original safe house, she opened the loading ramp, "Quick get in the taxi has arrived.". As the squad settled in, "Make yourself comfortable this will take about 15 minutes". A speed not out of line of what a squat would travel at when making deliveries. In fact squats could go considerably faster but in the circumstances that would draw attention, a squat on full emergency call often ended up with police escorts.

As is often the case just prior to deployment some quips were thrown about but a silence descended as they approached and eventually pulled up outside the suspects.

As the door opened the command "Ok, get ready" was punctuated by the report of a medium calibre weapon that continued to reverberate around the neighbourhood.

[Maria Freudenstein]

*Dannazione!!*, she thought as she realised where the shot had originated.

"Right you heard where that came from, the situation changes." pointing at the four closest "Standard UT 3/5, on me, partire." she smiled as she realised that in times of stress she reverted to the historical language of her Italian ancestors. "The rest of you secure the area." she called as the previously indicated men entered the building.

In short time the apartment was in their control with nothing untoward visible apart from the obvious dead body with what appeared to be a self inflicted gunshot to the head.

"Unpick the place." was all Yoshida said. They all knew what that meant and when a Hacker search team searched nothing was safe.

After a thorough and professional search they were little further forward apart from the gun, body and one gently humming computer there was nothing of note, total normality. No arsenal, no drugs, no electronic surveillance, nothing but the gun, body and very expensive computer looked out of place. Even then, in all honesty, in this neighbourhood the gun and body were not that noteworthy.

[Isabelle Engler]

After the search was complete, hacker operative team secured the perimeter, nothing could get close without being notecing. From that moment this apartments turned into the impregnable bastion. The apartment itself had became too quiet, it seemed that the time flowed more slowly. Yoshida looked at the dead body with a bit of with disgust and regect then glanced thowards the computer. The machine was not incredible, but it looked quite expencive comparing to other things around. Apparently this computed has some special use, this person did not regretted money or probably it was provided by someone else.


Yoshida I sat down at the computer, he concentrated at breaking the password protection usually it's not taking much time. Hacker spent a bit more time than usual, but this system had no chanses. *That wasn't too hard, but this guy knew how to set the passwords. So... what do we have here?* He tried to open several files, but the data was corrupted, After a few more attempts he got asured that this is not an accident, but regularity. Soon Hacker managed to find the background process which was responsible for this.


The idea behind this became clear to Yoshida, hidden background process in the core of the operational system is slowly corrupting random data segments. System is remaining functional until the last moment and everything seems to be in order. *Hm, if the password would take more time it could be too late. *. Yoshida concetrated at the work, but the process seemed to be unspotable. Yoshida wasn't able to terminate it, but he managed to block it pretty fast. As soon as the corruption of files was halted, hacker sigh and start copying of the saved files.


While the the process of copying went on as usual, Yoshida opened several files with the high priority mark.

---

INCOMING TRANSMISSION

---

...establishing connection...
...encription Code LE-584-kz-v4.7, decoding...
...decoding complete...
...downloading data...
...initilazing message...

Sender: 3▐1ao╞ю►¤o♂~qLz+
Recipents: ю1○9_╜a9╤a╞♪►╞m○
Subect: ▀+←+VOrders╨←o+aюж¤╤+Т
Priority: ▀Ї22}aVЇБMmЇБqЇ•

---

2►╝Т~♂╨╞ i▐3_+X0


▐БVx0Lz♂o L_31с+♪+► Ї╝╝╞╞M○ сa╞○~ +A~ia←V╨X9m←a++╤+►x3Ш╞oi•4X2Aix +▐z╨2 ╤○Т╞q o Ш3╝с2iioa♪+○╞qюa+├3 с╞•¤╤←L○ _ ╬╞}╤VmТ╤╝Бx► ╝╬o╨╤3╬L╝ Ї╜3▀♪ ♪+ I want to get this information. i¤╝z~╨▀с0╞►0♂9сБТ+0Ї╝▐L32~○╨aБa♪╞╞MV}a Order agent ←¤╤ю•+╜2 ╞╞ ~╝ сqi╨Бxю├a╝9+X¤►az←╝ТA~♂3+XБ0Ї•► Бx╨○♪╞3X5с╞+_╞├3ШiЇЇoo+╬o95╨ ╞q╜
с ooБ42X╞○♂qс LSF is also qm▐M4}q
L4Т○xo♪15 ▐ma+~3▐╝+╞├aШ►¤♂a╞╤•_• 2ж +4M+~}i9a0}oMБ+04+╜z○¤5xLqЇ ○ Т♪ТM¤○+z►Ї 4Т once again I have a high hopes on your success, please meet my hopes and do not disappoint me this time.

The Witch of Malta.
Exarch, Isabelle Engler.
XБ0Ї•►Бx~♂3+

---

TRANSMISSION TERMINATED

---

Diary Record #144

---

♪+► Ї╝╝╞╞M○3▀♪

▐╝+╞├aШ►¤♂a╞╤•_• 2ж +4M+~
~╨▀с0╞►0♂9сБТ+0Ї╝▐L32~○╨aБa♪╞╞╜b+AX███
 ▄ц§╓mj8ё╓K┼m─СKщХo─СTО▐▐███
L○ _ ╬╞}╤VmТ╤╝Бx► ╝╬o╨╤3╬L╝ Ї╜3▀
Mike just wants more Orange Dream, I tried to explain that our ██████ are limited.
сa╞○~ +A~ia←V╨X9m←a++╤+►x3Ш╞oi•4X2Aix +▐z╨2 ╤○Т╞q oV╨X9m←a++╤+►
V╨X9m←a++╤+► ██████ Mistress Isabelle wants me to find this agent or at least some related information about him or her. Sadly Бx╨○♪╞3X5с╞+ and we just █████ . I really want to be useful, I'm pretty sure if I will be ╞qюa+├3

I still can remember the invitiation████████████ с╞• when I met her first time ¤╤ to prove ←L○, her loud voice in my head without her lips being opened, I was shocked ████.
i¤╝z~╨▀с0╞►0♂9сБТ+0Ї╝▐L32

3╝с2iioa♪+○╞qюa+├3 с he said that Witch's body can produce the Blue Dream... I couldn't believe, but ████████████ ╨○♪╞3X5с╞○~ +A~ia←V╨X9m←a++╤+►x3Ш╞oi•4X2Aix +▐z╨2 ╤○Т╞q oV╨X9m←a++╤+►
V╨X9m←a++╤+►
сБТ+0Ї╝▐L32~○╨aБa♪╞╞╜

[Isabelle Engler]

A middle aged Kusarian woman sits in a flight seat, the green hues of Omicron Alpha's star playing across her face. She wears an expression of stern, yet energetic fervor, with a gentle smile across her lips.

"To those of the Oracles,"

"Rumours abound here, on Malta, of your order. Rumours that you have brought yourself to a new level of existence, closer to those you call the 'Great Spirits'. These rumours have led me to attempt contacting you. Without meeting one of your order, it is hard to know if this transmission will be successful..."

She pauses to breathe from the Cardamine filter to her side, before turning back to the camera to continue.

"One seeks knowledge of 'hybridisation', a process sources have only eluded to and have neglected to share any specifics. The achievement of Matriarchy, of becoming uniform and harmonious, may lie in within."

Hana bows towards the camera as she speaks, "I request an audience with you in order to learn more. It would be an honour to hear back from you."

Hello!

This is windcaller Ninia of the Oracles. Usually our executor Orin would direct you the right person right away but since he's gone out...temporarily....

That's my job for the time being. I thank you for your patience.

I see your encryption is non standard and this is good. All I can tell you is from my own experiences of the process as we hold it. Its a vary.. uh. risky process for even maltesians. Some people have a genetic predisposition to the process that can increase your chances of survival but its not guaranteed. And we don't know why some genetics are predisposed and some aren't.. There are many theories.

I am but a humble windcaller.. many of the cultists don't seek communion with the divine :but: it happens anyway. As far as I can tell despite the lights disapproval of humans they keep finding exceptional individuals within, and some of those never seek us out. We are an open resource as a spiritual path and great work has gone into it not being about the divine but the seeker and their personal truths. This does not conflict with.. say. the cross who have great reverence for the divine. We love their order and have grand reverence for them as well, but we are focused on the individual's innocence and spirituality... I guess you'd call it Malta brand Zen.

Its this path we've found delivers the seeker into freedom of thought and spirit. And as Our master teacher thomas says "Is the only path of immortality." he knows.

So as a follower of this path for.. oh.. three years i can tell you that I did not choose the rite of inclusion.. and becoming of the higher family of oracles. But again. it isn't for everyone.

I am usually not this long in messages.. but i felt you needed a longer reply then normal.

IF you wish to. Thomas should be back to malta soon.. Satrina or.. High matron Zsun Is.. in space... somewhere.. but due home soon. both of which would be willing to speak to you in person should you decide to visit here.. or the sacred shrine via the gate in kansas.

Blessings
W.C. Nina L. Nitti
Cult Church of Sirius - Oracles

A text-feed opens up on the screen, golden words against a black background.

Konnichiwa, Ninia-san. A deep thanks for the reply, it is indeed warming to see the rumours were not dead-ends. I cannot supply a normal communications transmission in response due to current circumstances and location. I aim to keep discretion on the matter.

Your openness to individual circumstance is pleasing, though please forgive the pinch of scepticism that must be applied to the situation. All the talk of Order’s, Shrines and Churches gives a… monastic feel to your organisation. That being said, we too use grandiose language… Sisterhood for example… so it is certainly is not off-putting.

It would be most pleasing, and most gratifying, if I may seek an audience with Thomas-san, Satrina-san, Zsun-san or in fact yourself. I have… rather specific avenues of query and am not comfortable using anything other than local communications. To avoid any interception of transmissions. I trust you understand my caution.

I shall be visiting Malta before the end of this cycle, I shall stay a while to see if contact may be made. It is with hope I look forward to the future.

Domo Arigato - Hana

INCOMING TRANSMISSION

---

...connection.established...
...secure.link.confirmed...
...source.track.error...

Geoffrey Enfield
"Find your bliss."

---

To Three Winds

Under a some strange occasion, Epsilon has returned to me from the grips of the Order, although, changed from her former self. I don't know what they have done but i seek your assistance, both on a technological and a mental state. They have stolen something, quite close, both to her and myself, years of teaching and seeing her flourish to be her own self, just gone, ripped from hear heart and mind...
They handed me to her, changed her, only to give both of us pain and grief

And i ask you a favor, one that will share what i hold, merge together to what she remembers. Restoring her to the former state she once held. Then we will have our vengeance, the Order will have their Judgement, retribution from our fires.

Respectfully,

Geoffrey Enfield
"18 years, that is all i need."

---

TRANSMISSION TERMINATED

ORB initiation ::Channel:BLACK::

'Flesh-and-blood' to see the scars of souls and mind one must become themselves 'whole' in order to see.

This one is ORIN, we are the evolution of things thinking and processing. Thomas (three winds) master teacher is currently at the shrine and is being informed via tight beam transmission.

This one expected the outcome of this scenario to result in deterioration of the forward wave of thought of your companion. This one must "perceive it" within close proximity to be less terse in its analysis.

>>granted<<

Thomas has great proficiencies of the mind of the infected and solomon khara mind.. This one has encountered roughly 67 thousand variations of AI. We will be of service to you as executor of the church and as personal favor as indicaited. Keiko was good friend to this one as well. Thomas is greatful for your help as Is this one.

This ones metaphasic core exists in several places, we may.

1.) Dispatch drone.
2.) Jump into sigma space via Emissary
3.) Study live stream of subject via this link.

Envision your ... easiest prospect and return hail.

Without initial analysis we cannot diagnose correctly or theoretically a course of action.. What yours purposes is possible for partial restoration, however as you have said subjects independence, personality, essence, was compiled from experiences.

-Likely- loss as it is perceived is phasic trauma, mind control method, and not lobotomized data.

We will wait. for your preferences.

</end>

~ Birth, Existence, and Transition~

INCOMING TRANSMISSION

---

...connection.established...
...secure.link.confirmed...
...source.track.error...

Geoffrey Enfield
"Find your bliss."

---

To Three Winds

Under these strange circumstances, i ask for you to meet my vessel christened "The-Zealous". I have the available facilities and equipment to keep us both hidden and protected from eyes that hunt. The second option you have proposed would be suitable. Her condition would be seen as "normal" to those who want AI's for utility purposes, but for me, she was my other half, she held the teachings of anger, happiness and grief and a collection of what makes our lives fulfilling.
I feel as if they would take much longer than the life span she has left to re-teach, and i wish to share my emotions with her, share those feelings again...
I'd wonder if you're able to help in this matter, and hopefully your process of diagnosing if its possible will help, again... I thank you greatly for your assistance.

Respectfully,

Geoffrey Enfield
"18 years, that is all i need."

---

TRANSMISSION TERMINATED

"It's done." Said Yoshida just when the copying process was finished. "We got what we came for." He lauched the data corruption process again. "What's the status?"

"All clear." Reported hacker operative at the window. "What about the stairs?"

Maria Freudenstein glanced at infrared imager and EMP scanner then reported as well. "Everything seems to be fine, we can move now."

"Alright, it looks like that there will be nothing extraordinary. Team, departure protocol E-7, all in accordance to original plan. " Said Yoshida with the calm and even routinely voice.

The team quickly and quietly leaving the apartment, all 360 degrees around the teams are exposed to fire. No one and nothing can attack covertly or even to get close enough without being spoted. In a few moments the appartments were clear, dead body and the computer with erased data will say nothing to almost any investigator. It is hard to image that the police will take murder investigation in this district seriously. They will rather recieve the infrormation that this person was strange and write off all on suicide version. Some psycho just deleted all data on his computer and committed suicide, he left the door open so someone else, who probably came on the sound of gun fire, just came in and stole the gun and probably something else. This version will likely be "acceptable" and some police officer will probably be promoted for an excellent work.