Briefing: TOPHAT

[Morkskittar]

  

The idyllic coast-side scene, marred only by the flaring tempers of some of the virtual avatars inhabiting it, was interrupted as the sea began to boil. Conversations stalled as everyone turned to look at the water. Mei suppressed a sigh at the dramatics.

The water parted, forming a path from the seafloor to the beach, and a pair of figures walked out of it; one clad in a red trench coat and fedora, hair whipping in a breeze localized to her digital person, and the other wearing a sweat-stained brown wifebeater, aviator sunglasses, and an old-style marine sergeant hat. Someone muttered something about the past coming to life, but no one responded.

The two reached the shore, and the woman clapped her hands. The sea collapsed behind her. "Sorry to keep you waiting," she said. "There have been some developments. My name is Ghost; I will be your primary contact for this job. Spectre here will be making sure you end up with the right equipment for the job.

"I'd like to start with some good news; you're all hired!" Ghost smiled and brushed the hair from her eyes. "The scope of the advertised mission has expanded. We'll be sending two teams to Mephisto undercover; one to retrieve the original target, and the other to pick up some experimental technology we are interested in. Both teams will be in the colony at the same time, but working more-or-less independently... unless something comes up."

Spectre grunted. "We'll debrief you separately; don't want you all yapping over each other while you figure out what to do. You should all have invites to your separate rooms. Get going."

The avatars of the eight gathered there all winked out as they sorted themselves into their rooms, and moments later, the idyllic seaside ceased to exist.

---

After a brief psychedelic loading screen, the sound of the sea turned into the tweeting of birds, and Six, Null, Alexi, and T.Z. found themselves existing by a bridge over a river during autumn. In front of the bridge, both Spectre and Ghost stood, the localized wind still blowing Ghost's hair. "Congratulations, Taskforce TOPHAT."

Spectre glared at the quartet. "You sure these louts are experienced enough for what we're asking them do? Seems a tall order for... 'operatives' with such short resumes."

Ghost shook her head. "Now, now; play nice." Ghost took an unnecessary virtual breath. "Your team will be pursuing our secondary, but no less important, goal; the retrieval of Project Titanbreaker from Mephisto. You should have received a copy of the full mission briefing."

"Make sure to read the whole thing," Spectre said, before being quelled by a look from Ghost.

"To sum up, the organization Firewall has made a very interesting breakthrough in nanotechnology, resulting in the unstable Titanbreaker swarm prototype. Our intelligence suggests that the Titanbreaker swarm is self-replicating and capable of superprocessing, as well as of... shall we say, incorporating unwary egos into itself. It is self-replicating both in terms of matter and mind, making it highly dangerous. We want the prototype, or failing that, copies of its blueprints and source code.

"We expect your team to gave a higher potential of... conflict with the Mephistoan authorities than Taskforce ROVER, and have built your team appropriately. Six is your muscle, while T.Z. will provide technical support, in terms of software, hardware, and wetware. Alexi, your experience in dealing with TITAN artifacts will prove most useful; while not a TITAN artifact, Project Titanbreaker is certainly TITAN-adjacent. Null, your unique experience with isolated research and construction installations, as well as your own combat skills, make you well-suited to blend in. All you have to do is find where they keep the project, get there, get it, and get out.

Briefing

Official Egocrasher Document

Operation Mephisto

Consent to Secrecy
By opening the rest of this document, your ego – and any forks of said ego created after this point – are consenting to never mention the Egocrashers in relation to your activities to any not already aware of our involvement, especially to anyone who would make our involvement public. Should you, or any forks, fail to adhere to this agreement, you will be located and removed from consideration.

Mission Summary

Both assembled taskforces are to arrive on Mu-Xian Investments Mining Colony MXI-12A, colloquially named "Satan's Ass," on the Mephisto asteroid in the Jovian Trojans on a Mu-Xian transport ship from Europa, with false documents presenting them as new employees. The colony is a corporate mining town owned by Mu-Xian Investments, an inner system company registered out of Venus that is actually a shell company for a secretive protectionist inner system inter-governmental organization that calls itself "Firewall." The Egocrashers will supply the team with adequate gear and false identities at no cost to the operatives.

Taskforce ROVER (Retrieval Of Valuable Ego for Research) is to locate Dr. Antonia Severance, a scientist formerly associated with Kronos Keep, who has been relocated to MXI-12A under a new unknown identity, and bring her back to the Egocrasher cache on Europa. Ideally, she is to come willingly, but if that fails, her cortical stack will suffice. The ROVER team members are Mei, Red Queen, Valkyrie, and Linda.

Meanwhile, Taskforce TOPHAT (Theft Of Potentially Hazardous ArtifacT) is to locate the blue prints and source code for the Titanbreaker Project that Dr. Severance and her colleagues are developing or, if possible, any physical artifacts associated with that project. The TOPHAT members are Alexi, Six, Null, and T.Z.

Mission Background

A previous Egocrasher team, at great cost, retrieved a highly valuable datafile (named ENDYMION) from Kronos Keep in the Martian TITAN Quarantine Zone. This file contains highly sensitive information related to the semi-effective measures implemented by a mercenary group, the Razorskin Brigade, to resist and actually contain exsurgent entities in a fortress. This data may shed insights on both the TITAN's self-evolving source code and the exsurgent virus, including a possible method for subverting and controlling the virus using nanotechnology to forever change the development of humanity.

Unfortunately, further details are locked behind a powerful encryption. Our cyberspecialists have determined that the encryption is keyed to the person of the head nanotechnologist of the Keep, Dr. Antonia Severance. She had been working on distributed consciousness to improve adaptions to swarms, and in particular, ways to use swarm morphs to enhance intellectual and computational abilities. During the Fall, she held out with the Razorskin Brigade for several months, and learned more about how TITAN exsurgents function from her first-hand observations and her unprecedented vivisection of a fully-functional captured exsurgent; she may even have been able to successfully create an exsurgent-human hybrid. The resulting data are priceless, and all are contained in the ENDYMION file, along with information on how the brigade was able to capture and manipulate exsurgents to survive TITAN assaults for months on Mars.

Unfortunately, Dr. Severance perished with the Keep. However, a previous fork of her ego was resurrected later by the inner system intelligence organization called "Firewall," which purchased the backup egos of millions of prominent transhumans to exploit them and their knowledge for their own ends. This fork has been placed under a new identity and is being put to work developing nanotechnology for Firewall on a small asteroid named Mephisto. We need her to unlock the ENDYMION file and all of the data it contains.

Dr. Severance and her colleagues have been busy in the meantime, however, and have developed a project codenamed Titanbreaker. Current intelligence indicates that the project is a prototype super-processing self-replicating nanoswarm. Ideally, this team will retrieve and return with the prototype (safely contained, of course), but returning with the blueprints and source code, which should be accessible from a terminal in either the research center or experimental mining operations, will be sufficient.

Taskforce ROVER's mission is to retrieve Dr. Severance, ideally willingly, but by force if necessary. Taskforce TOPHAT's mission is to retrieve data related to the Titanbreaker project.

Theater of Operation

Dr. Severance is living under an unknown assumed identity at Mu-Xian Investments Mining Colony MXI-12A, colloquially named "Satan's Ass," on the Mephisto asteroid in the Jovian Trojans. This colony mines various heavy metals and rare substances from the asteroid, and is notable for its use of nanotechnology to mine, process, and synthesize the raw materials. Dr. Severance is one of the scientists ostensibly working on improving the use of nanotechnology for mining, but this is a front for her real work: developing nanotechnological advances for Firewall, including Project Titanbreaker.

MXI-12A itself is, aside from its small shuttleport, located within the asteroid itself, built into early mining tunnels. It is a complex labyrinth that can roughly be divided into six clusters:

• Primary Mining Operations: This part of the colony is the largest, and consists of the actual metal and resource-mining operations on the asteroid. This is where the tried-and-true tested equipment is stored.
• Experimental Mining Operations: This is the deepest part of the colony, and is where the nanotechnology and equipment being developed is tested. The Titanbreaker prototype is likely located here.
• Residential Cluster: This is where the people on the colony live when they aren't working.
• Research Center: This is where the scientists have labs where they develop the new technologies they use. The Titanbreaker source code and blueprints can likely be accessed from here.
• Hives: A mostly automated area of the colony complex from which nanobots are controlled, as well as where they are built, maintained, and recycled.
• Processing Center: The uppermost part of the colony, this is where the raw mined materials are processed and prepared for shipping; the shuttleport crowns this cluster.

Mission Targets

Dr. Antonia Severance is a scientist specializing in nanotechnology, and particularly in distributed consciousness. Before the Fall, her work focused on the unique neural network structures that nanoswarms could achieve, and in particular ways in which these structured could be used to enhance intellect and computational power. She was assigned to Kronos Keep as a scientist for a branch of the Martian military, and was there during the Fall.

During the Fall, she was dragooned into the private mercenary group stationed there, the Razorskin Brigade, and refocused her attention on the exsurgent virus and its consciousness. Based on the ENDYMION file's contents, it seems that she made some breakthroughs into understanding how it thought, and was able to engineer a nanotech countervirus to somewhat contain and control it, culminating in the creation of a transhuman-exsurgent hybrid: the Shrike.

Her research notes are in the ENDYMION file, but her primary ego was killed when the Keep was ultimately overrun. However, a backup of her ego, stored before the fall, was retrieved and activated by Firewall, who have put her to work developing nanotechnological weapons for them. It is unknown if this fork knows about her other life at Kronos Keep.

Dr. Severance's personality files reveal that she is motivated by a deep, burning curiosity and a peculiar narcissism: she desires to become, or else create, God, and has decided that the best way to achieve that is through nanotechnology. As a result, she has a kind of odd solipsistic spiritualism that drives her behavior and research, and seems to literally view her work as, in her own words, "unlocking the little God found in the details" at the nanoscale.

Despite, or perhaps because of, her arrogance, she also deeply cares about what others think about her, and a desire for fame and recognition drove her career. She was once considered the top nanotechnologist at Titan Autonomous University, but after a scandal in which it was discovered she had faked data to win a prestigious award, she lost nearly everything and was reduced to working on weapons for Mars, and thus she ended up at Kronos Keep. Our analyst suspects that she will be willing to come with us in exchange for access to her notes from Kronos Keep, but it is possible that Firewall has poisoned her mind.

Less is noun about Project Titanbreaker. It is a collaborative project, and Dr. Severance is only one member of the team working on it. Our limited intelligence suggests that this project is a highly unstable self-replicating nanoswarm that has superprocessing capabilities; in essence, a supercomputer, or emergent AGI, in the form of a nanoswarm. Suffice to say, this makes it highly dangerous, and also unlikely that Dr. Severance will be able to easily escape with the source code and blueprints on her own. The prototype is likely in the experimental mining operations area, while the blueprints and source code will likely be accessible via a secured terminal in the same area, or else in the research center. A fail-safe data storage device will be provided for sensitive downloads.

Firewall and Pirates

There are two main obstacles to your mission to retrieve Dr. Severance: the organization controlling her (Firewall, through its shell corporation Mu-Xian Investments) and the pirates of the Jovian Trojans, particularly the Thrice-Dead Pirates led by Captain James "Ironwing" Castor, who have been active nearby.

Firewall is an intergovernmental intelligence organization that protects inner system (and hypercorp) interests by doing the dirty work that no respectable entity wants to be associated with. They run a variety of shell corporations, including Mu-Xian Investments, to hide their activity. Most members of the shell company are unaware that it is associated with Firewall, but there will be several individuals with full knowledge, including at least four highly competent guardians meant to keep their pet scientists in line and their secrets safe. Their identities are not known. Firewall is the largest threat you will be facing, as they will not want to let their asset or data go.

The Thrice-Dead Pirates are a large confederation of smugglers and pirates that target shipping lanes between the Jovian Trojans, targeting raw materials, egos, and, occasionally, intellectual property. Their captain, James Castor, has a curious obsession with birds (hence his epithet), and rules with an iron fist. He also has a vendetta against the fascist Jovian government, and requires all recruits into his organization to have been experienced being killed at least three times as a form of initiation. The pirates typically track their targets from transportation hubs, following and then boarding shuttles between Trojans. Occasionally, they will launch larger assaults on isolated mining or industrial operations, like MXI-12A. While there is no indication that such an attack is planned, the possibility is always there.

Mission Logistics

The Mu-Xian Jovian Shuttle Charon (MXI-272) is transporting a load of new employees from a recruitment center on Europa to Mephisto, and you will all be on it. The shuttle will be docked at the colony for three days while a cargo of raw materials is loaded onto it, bound back for Europa; if you complete your mission in time, you can catch a ride back on it. Otherwise, you will need to find your own exit strategy, but shuttles do land and depart from the surface once every three or four weeks.

While at the colony, you are to blend in as employees, carrying out your assigned jobs, while locating Dr. Severance and Project Titanbreaker in your downtime periods. You have wide discretion as to your investigative methods. In the process of locating her, you should acquire copies of any data relating to the research being done by Mu-Xian Investments/Firewall; bonuses will be awarded to the team depending on what else you can acquire.

Your team will be supplied with a document containing proof that you have access to the Kronos Keep research notes and data, as well as a fail-safe data storage device to store sensitive data outside of the mesh.

Dr. Severance should be made to come willingly, if possible, but if she is unwilling, bringing back her cortical stack will suffice. The Titanbreaker research data will be sufficient, but bonuses will be paid out if a prototype is successfully brought back.

The doctor is the primary target, and if a choice must be made, both teams should prioritize her retrieval over that of the research project. Both taskforces will operate simultaneously, but mostly independently, only coordinating when absolutely necessary so that should one team fail, the other can carry on.

"Your identities are as newly hired employees. As new hires, you could not be placed in either high-level physical security or cybersecurity without raising more red flags than we could afford, so Six will be going in as an entry-level security guard, Null as a miner, and T.Z. and Alexi as... technicians. Whatever that job title means; I suppose you'll find out." Ghost smiled. "Of course, should some of you choose more... unconventional morphs, you may be smuggled in under a different identity, such as a pet, or a suitcase, perhaps."

"I think it's all fairly self explanatory... Spectre has some things to say about morph and gear acquisition, and then you can ask us all you want about anything. We don't want to send you in blind."

Ghost stepped back behind Spectre, who scowled. "Now much to say about morphs. You can bring your own, or take one out from loan from us. We have a cache on Europa, from where you'll be heading out. We've also got a lot of gear you can borrow from; maintenance and replacement costs are included in your substantial pay. You are responsible for smuggling in any weapons or anything illegal you take from us.

"We are giving you wide discretion in terms of what to take from us, but you will have to inhabit a physical morph or, if you come over as an infomorph, you'll be forced by MXI into a very low-grade mining synthmorph upon arrival unless you get smuggled over; that, and no new employees can come over in swarmanoid forms. The more legally questionable morphs won't be allowed on the colony either. We recommend either some variation of a normal humanoid morph, or else a big clunky mining morph of some kind.

"In terms of gear, you can take anything we have in inventory... but again, you have to figure out how to get anything questionable into the colony undetected. Some concealed weapons will be handy, of course, and any sort of espionage or other gear. Got it?"

Ghost sighed. "What questions do you have that we can clear up for you?"

Morph and Gear Acquisition

Now that you have been accepted and have some vague mission parameters, you get to make the second part of your character: your morph, or the body you will temporarily inhabit during this mission.

Morph Selection
Each agent can either provide their own Morph or rent one from the Egocrashers. In either case, you have 6 MP to spend on your morph, as normal. If you have the Resources Trait, you may spend additional MP on your Morph (as normal).

You may also take up to 6 MP worth of Negative Morph Traits (the same as with your Ego). For every negative MP acquired this way, you may spend an additional MP on your Morph.

You may select any non-excluded Morph type from the Core Rulebook or any Morph detailed in the Recognition Guide here. Ignore Availability Rules. If a Morph has a range of costs listed, average them and round down.

The following Morphs are excluded and cannot be used for this mission: Cloud Skate, Cloud Skimmer, Courier, Fenrir, Fighting Kite, Griefer, Kite, Nautiloid, Neo-Beluga, Neo-Whale, Opteryx, Reaper, Ring Flyer, Ripwing, Rover, Selkie, Sphere, Sundiver, Surya, Swarmanoid, Venusian Glider, Whiplash, Xu Fu.

Each morph base (you have to choose one) costs a certain amount of MP, and you can spend the rest of your MP on positive Morph traits or on any Armour, Weapons, or Augmentations listed as "Ware" (i.e., it has a letter on the corresponding column for Armour and Weapons, or is in the Augment tab on the above spreadsheet), which are pieces of equipment directly incorporated into your morph.

When purchasing 'ware/augmentations with either MP or GP, make sure that the ware can be applied to the type of Morph yopu have: Bioware (B) and Cyberware (C) are only usable by Biomorphs. Hardware (H) is only usable by Synthmorphs, Bots, and Vehicles. Meshware (M) is only usable by Infomorphs (including Muses) and Cyberbrains (Pods). Nanoware (N) is usable by all morphs. If an augmentation is of multiple types, it can be of any of those types.

Gear
Each operative will have access to the Egocrasher Europan Armory, and may spend a total of 20 GP (including the gear listed as being from your profession) on any equipment listed in the Core Rulebook that is of Minor, Moderate, or Major Complexity (a Gear List can also be found here). This equipment will not be kept for future missions. You may not purchase any vehicles for this mission. Any Restricted items you purchase may be at risk of being discovered and confiscated if not properly concealed.

If your character has the Resources Trait, they may spend those additional GP on items as above. When purchasing 'ware/augmentations with either MP or GP, make sure that the ware can be applied to the type of Morph you have (see above).

You may have noticed that your Profession has some started gear listed. The total of these items is 10 GP, and I recommend keeping that gear, then adding 10 GP extra as you choose (the rulebook has a recommend "gear package" for a criminal campaign if you want to just go that route) if you are unsure about what to take. The sum total of all gear you are taking cannot exceed 20 GP (unless you have Resources).

---

To acquire your Morph and Gear, post the following form as a reply in your initial application post. Please list the MP/GP cost (or bonus) of each item and trait listed.

Morph:
Morph Type:
Morph Traits:
Morph Ware: (list only those purchased with MP)

Gear:
(list Gear and Morph Ware purchased with GP, or name the Gear Packages you are taking).

There is no firm deadline for gear selection; just make sure to pick something before the briefing is over. :)

OOC

@JagrHunter @Dr Jackal @PheonixFable @Serge Skunk Welcome to the game! Your team is set, you have morph selection instructions and a briefing, and now the chance to ask questions (both IC and OOC) about what exactly you'll be doing. You will receive any OOC clarifications you need, but your employers may withhold information or lie to any IC questions... or they may tell you the truth. You'll have at least a week for briefing, or more if you need it!

Edited October 22, 2023 by Morkskittar (see edit history)

[JagrHunter]

The Gladiator stood to rear and listened intently to the brief. Once the once called Ghost finished, he spoke up. "So, what are our rules of engagement? Once we get the target what's the plan to exfil?"

He hated any mission that wasn't a straight-forward snatch and grab, but that wasn't an option...at least to start with.

[Dr Jackal]

[B][SIZE="7"][font="arial black"]T.Z.[/font][/SIZE][/B][floatright][IMG2=200]https://i.ibb.co/VBQjL8r/daitya.png[/IMG2][/Floatright] [floatright][IMG2=100]https://i.ibb.co/QHnyBRp/ktii-r.png[/IMG2][/Floatright]

T.Z.

---

T.Z. makes a disgusted noise. "What, as the only infolife in the room, I'm suddenly the designated expert on all things hacking? You meatlife. Really."

It crosses its arms. "I mean, of course I can DO it. The presumption just galling. I'm more than just an ICE program, you know. I'm a goddamned wizard with a flechette rifle, for example."

It pulls up a morph catalog and starts swiping through it. "Whatever. No ... no ... where is it? Ah, yes. I will need a Callisto Cybernetics 8-80 Savant. What a glorious mess this model is! Clearly designed by biolife -- a simian uplift, I would wager." With a few deft motions, the daitya-avatar expands the schematic.

"Enhanced musculature ... we can strip that out in favor of frame hardening and general durability improvements. This model was also engineered around a nano-hive for some clearly nonsensical reason. Given the nature of the work on Mephisto, that would have to be stripped out of a new MXI employee, so on a scan, something that looks like a voidspace wouldn't be particularly suspicious. Add a little EM masking, and it's perfect for a heavy pistol and some enhanced ammunition. And the piece de resistance is that the 8-80 is well known for neuro-atypical behaviors, so any glitches caused by an enhanced software package could be easily overlooked. It's genius, if I do say so myself. Sheer GENIUS. Hah. Hah-hah-hah. AH HAHAH HAHAH HAHAH!!!"

 

 

Edited October 22, 2023 by Dr Jackal (see edit history)

[Serge Skunk]

Null

---

Still trying to get used to the sensations of consciousness and mental awareness, Null briefly lost connection when their environment was reloaded completely. With the psychedelic loading screen finished and the new location loaded, the digital intangible presence that was Null managed to reconnect back in. There was still almost no detail to them other than a blank humanoid silhouette with the 'NULL' symbol on their chest as though whatever had attempted to load and fill in the space still was able to fully form, but now they had a more...tangible representation of themselves with which to act upon. As the briefing went and they received the files, they silently read over them as they did their best to listen to what was being explained to them. When it came to the mention of gear and such, they turned their head as if in thought.

"I will need to be loaned a Morph and Gear..." They replied plainly. "From what I can recall about myself, I didn't have anything to lay claim to. If I understand everything correctly so far, I will need something to best suit the role I'm being hired for, for the role I'm being hired to do. If I'm supposed to blend in, then I figure I would need something plain and simple."
 

Warden

"Don't worry Null, I've got that taken care of for you. I'm taking everything into account and sending them what I think will be best suited for your needs to assist them."

Null's Muse then proceeded to do exactly as they said they would do, forwarding the information as best it could over to Ghost and Specter. Specifically, it was a simple and unobtrusive basic Synth Morph that had been altered with specialty design that would grant it extra special Limberness, of course, the specific model that Null's Muse had chosen had been selected for its Innocuous Looks as well. Something that would allow Null to blend in far easier and move about. From where they were, they looked to the others still trying to commit names to figures.

[Morkskittar]

Spectre barked out a short laugh. "Rules? You get in, stay undetected, and get out with the goods. It's not rocket science. Surely you can handle that much critical thinking? You're on your own for getting out; MXI watches local airspace, so the only reliable way in our out of that rock is through scheduled shuttles." Spectre shrugged. "Or you could always steal one of the emergency evac shuttles they keep locked up; no guarantee they'd work, or get back to Europa, but in a pinch that'd work."

As T.Z. had their outburst, Spectre frowned. "Are you sure you're stable enough for this mission?"

Ghost chuckled. "You approved them just like I did. No need to play bad cop with these ones. And that morph requisition request is perfectly reasonable. Though maybe dispense with the maniacal laughter while undercover. I do understand who have some experience as an actor, T.Z., in addition to all things technical."

Spectre nodded as Null spoke. "Plain and simple, with hidden power. Yes, that is a good strategy. Balance out the megalomaniac here."

Ghost looked at Spectre with exasperation. "Don't you want them to do the job, Spectre?"

 

[Dr Jackal]

[B][SIZE="7"][font="arial black"]T.Z.[/font][/SIZE][/B][floatright][IMG2=200]https://i.ibb.co/VBQjL8r/daitya.png[/IMG2][/Floatright] [floatright][IMG2=100]https://i.ibb.co/QHnyBRp/ktii-r.png[/IMG2][/Floatright]

T.Z.

---

Th daitya avatar cocks its head slightly. "What maniacal laughter?"

 

 

 

[JagrHunter]

"I don't get paid to guess my rules. If you want seat of my pants and extreme flexability you tell me that is what you want." added Six as he listened to his emplyers and the other team members. "I will send you the stats for my morph and equipment. I may also be able to use my connections to smuggle in some of our more "sensitive" equipment. It would be a limited drop, but a good option."

[Morkskittar]

Ghost chuckled at T.Z.'s joke, then stopped. "Oh. You weren't kidding. Maybe try not to laugh at all. It might unsettle those with weaker constitutions."

Spectre raised his eyebrows at Six's offer to smuggle equipment in. "Friends in high places, eh? I'll be impressed if you can pull that off; we can't even get our fingers in there. Of course, we're a newer outfit than some of the... ah, triads, is it? And you don't have to guess our rules; we don't really have any, save that you come back with the blueprints or the project itself. The best way to do that it stealth, but if that doesn't work out, do what you have to. We won't complain."

Ghost turned to the silent Alexi. "You've been awfully quiet. As the tech expert, I thought you might have some questions."

[Morkskittar]

The room shuddered. Ghost frowned. "Oh. I thought he'd turned us down... one moment." Ghost vanished with a brief blip, and then reappeared... and behind the rest of the group currently gathered, another figure flickered into existence.

"The fifth member of your taskforce has decided to show up. Meet Aeos."

[TheFred]

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/LeGdk5

 

A shadowy figure appears, the avatar having a vaguely feminine body but no well-defined face. This being simulspace, of course, that doesn't stop it from speaking.

"Pleased to meet you." Aeos look around - the motion being less than obvious, given the avatar's lack of features, but noticeable - trying to weigh up their companions from the little information available in VR. "We've already had the mission briefing; our employees have assured us that, between you, you form quite the formidable infiltration and extraction force."

They pause, turning for a moment to their hosts.

"Ah... our morph requests," they say, sending the details over. "We require something with above-average mental specifications but, for this subterfuge, a suitable-modified sylph may be preferable to a menton. We're not fussy, but we've put together some suggestions."

Edited November 5, 2023 by TheFred (see edit history)

[Morkskittar]

Ghost and Spectre nodded. "Noted." A moment later, Alexi blinked out of existence. Ghost sighed. "Looks like Alexi's dropped the mission. That may make working with the TITAN tech more difficult... but you can do it."

Spectre muttered something about useless flighty young ones, but Ghost continued on. "Well, it seems that we're done here. Once you get on the shuttle, there's no contact with us. Good luck; we'll pass you the details on your rendezvous on Europa. You'll have full fake Ego IDs, with the same first name as your own to make acting easier. See you when you're back."

The world dissolved, and everyone woke up back wherever they had been.

Game threads going up soon.