Lancers IC Thread

Episode 1: Worth a DeUCE.

The planet Xandria has recently recovered from a civil war between followers of the Wave and the more ascetic monks of the Order of Saint Sagan, who have regained control.

A rare and venerated datacache dating from the time of Old Earth has been recovered from the ruins of the Central Library in the capitol city of Codex, and is due to be transferred to a secure facility in the city of Vellum while the main building is restored.

The Nomads have arrived on scene to be greeted by Dayle Burroughs (Actress: Danielle Panabaker), on behalf of the Head Librarian. Burroughs is tasked with escorting the tomes to the storage site safely. The Lance's job is pure escort security, since travel is currently restricted and the DMZ of Codex is still a dangerous place with sporadic fighting and violent crime more the rule than the official fiction of restored order.

"Hi! You must be the Lance we hired. I'm Archivist Burroughs. Since air travel outside the port still isn't safe, we'll be going by foot past the contested zones until we get to the central housing for Library ground vehicles."

She signs the Lance in, inviting them to get a beverage or snacks from the aid station the facility personnel are using while she retrieves the package.

(I'll let you roleplay a bit, get used to your characters and each other. :) )

Not too long goes by waiting before the Archivist returns. She is obviously upset. "Nomads, could you, um, please join me in the Head Librarian's office? There's been a... um... small..." she pauses, her face screwing up into a pained expression. "Complication." She quickly turns and leads the way.

---

Head Librarian Rafael Ordenã (Actor: Demián Bichir) is seated at his desk in a small room made up as a private office. You can still see the signs that this was once a janitor's storage room. He looks gravely concerned. "Lancers. We have a small... complication."

Burroughs nervously adds, "I said that." then wilts under his steady gaze.

"The Terra Cache and several other items are missing. The storage vault was forced. They have been stolen. I can offer you an authorized Silver Contract upgrade with a bonus for recovering a particular book..." He pauses, steepling his fingers in front of him. "Yes, actual printed book from the early 22nd century, meticulously preserved, and of utmost rarity and importance."

He holds out a tablet. "Please indicate acceptance if you will take this Contract. There will likely be conflict and possibly heavy combat. But from what I have heard, none of you are strangers to this."

He awaits your response.

The Head Librarian hesitates, then shrugs. "Most of it is the contents of a lost mail carrier pouch that was meant for a colony in the middle expansive period. Dating from the time First Contact was made with the R'thnx. Quite a lot of updates on their culture, biology, history, and religion. That last is important. After the war, information on the faction that caused the conflict was suppressed... including their cult of the Wave."

The Archivist sighs. "It is our great shame. Humanity's first contact with another species was sparked by their assimilationist beliefs.. which we have unsealed to lead to the current troubles here."

The Head Librarian continues, "I was Assistant Head before the conflict here. My superior ordered the materials sealed, then disappeared. The Wave grew here shortly thereafter. I fear that with the material in their hands, they could gain popular support and reignite the coup attempt in earnest."

The Head Librarian listens to the concerns, each in turn. "Fair questions. Firstly, Yes, there were cameras, and the footage reveals nothing." He taps his desk, transferring the footage for the Lance to study as they will. "The list of people who knew about the cache was restricted to Head Librarian Sorens and myself, Senior Archivist Mandel who is actually on the other side of the planet this week, and Archivist Burroughs."

He brings up some notes on the holodisplay. "The Cult of the Wave was revived one standard year ago tomorrow. It's origins remain a mystery. This is not the first time such a revival has occurred, two other worlds have suffered from it in the past three centuries. It is an insidious and difficult thing, some kind of embedded textual engramattic programming in the language that seems to translate easily into several race's languages." He gestures at Jikick. "All of us here except your Ick Lancer would be affected. Their language protects them."

He brings up a vid from a year ago. On the screen, popular game show "Tetrahedron Of Fortune" is interrupted by a burst of actual static, and replaced with a scrolling message that reads "THE WAVE SPREADS." after several scrolls, a hooded figure in white with a gold sine wave pattern across its full face mask appears. "I am the Reverend Sine. Your suffering has ended. Universal peace will be brought with the cresting of The Wave. Rejoice. We are coming."

The broadcast is briefly resored to the game before the taking news heads break in, at which point Ordenã stops it. "Within a week it was a full on civil war." He sighs. "I myself had suspected that Sorens was involved, but the iconography of the cult is no longer associated with them in the modern mind." He opens the desk drawer. "We found this in a hidden compartment." He puts a small replica ground vehicle on the desk. Carefully putting the unbelievably rare and ancient artifact away, he realized the appraising looks around him. "It's a replica, but someone put a lot of love into it." He frowns. "Maybe my old boss himself."

His desk chimes. "Archivist, can you show the Lance to the Vault please? I have to meet with the board of governors shortly."

---

The Vault is intact.. a hardened room that could withstand anything up (but not including) antimatter weapons. Like many things on the planet, it is tetrahedral, a dodecahedron of semi-inert superdense material 12 meters across each face. It is the only thing standing in the rubble of this wing.

Within, now completely empty, rows and rows of sterile stasis cubes sit idle and depowered.

The Librarian demurs on letting anyone handle the replica, but transfers the video to your archives as he hurries to his meeting.

On the way to the vault, the Archivist answers the question at hand. "Back on Old Earth, in the era just before humanity left the planet for the first time, there was a culture of those who used an early, unpowered variant of the jetboard called a "surf board" to go "surfing"... on waves. When the book first arrived in the Sol System, the original human version of the cult revived their iconography, idiom, and method of dress to represent themselves." She quickly transfers some reference material to the Lance.

At the vault, there is a clear mark of some device that was adhered to the entry panel sensor, but no obvious trace of what it was other than vague outline similar to a pair of VR/AR goggles with an odd protrusion.She leads you through to an entirely nondescript storage unit roughly in the middle of the area. "Here we are. The Cache was stored in unit 1963."

"Well now I understand the name of the group." He says aloud. "I can't add much to that, Earth history is only marginal in my line of work, but that device used on the vault is interesting," he says while others examine the item. He pauses and thinks.

While Aflino fascinatedly endeavors to read every label on every cube, the Archivist answers Jilicjk's inquiry. "The cube contained the courtier pouch, its contents including the book and the dedication plaque of the courrier ship Sandpiper. The title of the book was "Catch A Wave: Synergistic Intersections of Philosophy between Brian Wilson and the R'thnx".

Gideon thinks deeply as he concentrates on the facts.

After thinking about it, Gideon realizes he has seen something with a similar configuration. They go pearl diving on Noosa, and use underwater gear that is similar, worn on the face with a breathing tube.

Mick manages to find a residue in and around the crates, at first one would think it was normal dust, but a closer look reveals it is a pristine beach sand, of the kind found on Noosa's tourist beaches. And he remembers seeing Noosan cuisine and themed decor in a restaurant on the way to the Central Library.

The Archivist nods. "My wife is actually a detective. I'll make sure you get some trustworthy help."

While she sends the message, Jilick comes up with only two Noosan restaurants on Xandria. One in town, the other on the opposite side of the planet in the city of Atheneum.

The Archivist concludes her messaging. "Renata will meet with you when you can arrange a time with her." She transmits a com code to your devices.

Two hours later, E ʻai Kākou restaurant. Pleasantly busy but not overcrowded, a wide variety of dishes for all palates and dietary needs that evoke the tropical flavors of Noosan cuisine are highlighted among the trappings of that planet's native architecture. There are wait staff in traditional garb and an entertaining show in progress on the center stage.

Gallery: Scenes from a restaurant.

Waiting for you punctually is Detective Renata Burroughs (Actor: Génesis Rodríguez).

"Lance Charter 86. I'm Burroughs, Codex Enforcement Division. How can I help?"

The detective nods as she eats a bowl of pleasantly fragrant fish and vegetable thick stew. Wiping her lips, she apologies. "Not much time for food on this job. OK."

The waitstaff arrives to clear dishes and bring deserts, smiling as terror worries happily at the bone from his meal. Once settled and alone again, she continues.

"Biometrics and working with the Wave... Sounds like Glynnis Ayamir's outfit. They don't care about working with brainwashed slacker happiness zombies and they have used biohacks before. You can usually find some of her crew skulking about Buckram's alley in the Market district. It was left untouched in the conflict because, well, everyone needs milk. They traffic grey market goods like Quagmeeran hentai."

Her comm beeps in a series of tones. "If you will excuse me. That's my alert, I am needed. Feel free to message me if anything else coms up." She takes her sweet bun with fruit and hurries out, already talking to dispatch.

Jillick notices that two burly human males wearing loud, loose fitting floral print tops follow the detective out.

Spanner catches sight of another man in a similar shirt with a stylized bird he recognizes from the briefing materials. A Sandpiper, which was the Old Earth Surf Culture mascot. Said man is very poorly pretending not to watch the Lance.

Del and Terror observe the two suspects amateurishly following Detective Burroughs along toward the market. It is easy to see she realizes she has a tail. She pauses to seemingly check her comm, but catches Del's eye briefly as she does so. Its clear she intends to confront, and he is invited.

The Sandpiper tattoo looks up. "I .. um.. Don't think so, no. Maybe.. Maybe we... we've seen each other in the.. um.. place.. I... " He "clumsily" spills his drink, and tries to use the distraction to run for the door.

Jilick and Spanner both receive chimes on their comms. The port is sending a receipt for release of docking and acknowledgement of new destination for the Fugue.

I'm going to slowly follow him, and try and stay out of sight.

Detective Burroughs seemingly idly wanders through a common side street shortcut on her way uptown. The thugs follow. Sandpiper has already become erroneously convinced he lost Gideon and is hurrying to get to the other end to cut her off.

Jilick meanwhile works on contacting Aflino about the reason the Fugue has gone to Atheneum without warning.

The 'bots trip Sandpiper as he follows his compatriots into the alley. Strangely Burroughs is nowhere to be seen. With Terror instantly going to stand watch at over the fallen one, the other two find themselves boxed in. Panicky, they are obviously not ready to take on a coordinated Lance. The one in blue looks at the one in red, and both nod. In unison they say, "The wave crests." Moments later, foam emerges from their mouths as they fall lifeless to the ground.

From a ledge above, the Detective says, "Not bad. We never got one alive before."

Two hours later. CED temporary Chapterhouse, formerly the Anaphora Hotel.

---

Burroughs is frustrated. The suspect is docile. Compliant, and remaining utterly silent. Absolutely no trace of toxins found despite a thorough medical exam. As she paces outside the Conference Room 1, which has had a handwritten sign saying "Interrogation 1" taped to it, a uniformed officer brings her a folder. "What the hell."

She gets a bottle from a cleaning supplies cupboard, storms into the room, and squirts it on Sandpiper's arm. The tattoo ink runs and fades to nothing. "OK. Want to tell me what is really going on here?"

He sighs, then shrugs. "Recognition code: Paraprosdok. Chiasmus. Hypophor. DDS 001 point nine."

Burroughs slumps. "You're Accordance Patrol. Of course you are."

He nods. "Major Carl Verran. I was undercover with the Wave, trying to get to Syne. We couldn't risk letting Enforcement know, because very few people are immune. I have a particular genetic mutation that makes it impossible for me to be indoctrinated by exposure."

Her comm beeps. "I'll be back." Verran nods, and says "I was expecting that. Tell your commanding officer I am comfortable and being well treated." He sits at relative ease as she storms past the Lance.

Your comms beep. Incoming message from the Fugue.