Scene #2968: Intelligence Recovery

Owner	Pose
Defiant	It's a simple plan. There's one likely place where the two Union Elites might be able to turn up information on Cauldron, where they might be able to get access to information that certain people are keeping secret - Alexandria's office. However, according to Defiant and Dragon's analysis, her Los Angeles headquarters would be too well-guarded. Her Brockton Bay location, for when she visited the city, could be easier to infiltrate, given the recent happenings in the city. It'll be up to the two Elites to do what they can do to get in and out without being spotted. The objective will be to reach her office in the secure top levels, where Armsmaster was once held, and to see what they can find. Dragon, in her Melusine armored craft, will monitor the situation from nearby and ensure that the technological defences of the HQ - cameras and such - don't pose any threat. However, that'll still leave the local capes and PRT officers. The lobby of the PRT HQ is guarded by four PRT officers and a few capes in their brightly-colored outfits. "I've brought down the security cameras for 'routine maintenance'," Dragon says through the radio. "Let me know if there's anything more I can do to help."
Ren Tanaka	The traveller who's known to a lot more people as Ren Tanaka these days definitely did not write himself a shopping list on a piece of paper for this excursion to Brockton. However, this is a sneaking mission and the use of stealth is advised, so rather than his usual wear he's got on a black bodysuit today, with pouches for holding memory sticks, a small backpack for paperwork to be stuffed in, and a small apparatus on a headband which includes a monocle and a small personal torch. So if you see him looking like a black shadow or with a little light glimmering on his forehead, that's entirely normal and you know exactly why it's happening. He, admittedly, doesn't quite know how the parahumans of this world will react to his abilities. And he's not willing to use the 'bavarian fire drill' method he employed in Kaibaland. So, for the first part of this operation at least, he's going to be doing this the old-fashioned way. The hardest part, in theory, is getting his foot in the door. Dragon's disabling of the security cameras is going to help, but there's still human observation. He scopes out the lobby from a distance first: normal humans he can handle, but the capes are too unknown for him to take chances with. So instead he's going to use good old-fashioned sneaking to begin with. Rather than going into the lobby in his blatant black outfit, he looks for an alternate entrance such as a goods one. The plan is to cling underneath a vehicle, disembark while the security cameras aren't working, and then use a combination of manual sneakiness and statue-spirit to get past any initial guards.
Ainsley	Similarly to Ren, Ainsley can't take her chances with the capes and PRT guards. Also like Ren, Ainsley has no problems finding an unconventional way to enter the building. Once she has discovered a suitable ventilation duct, she uses a set of tools to unscrew the cover and undo the wiring and outer fan, floating near the ventilation duct as she works. She moves as quickly as she can manage, and then, when she slips in, she uses a bit of string to hold the vent's cover closed so no one would come investigate it at a glance. Then she takes further advantage of her ability to float weightlessly to glide through the vent ducts, looking a bit like a snake while she goes through at a careful pace. Her Arcane Sight is activated at regular intervals, on the off chance that there's some kind of Tinker defense within the ducts that Dragon couldn't have accounted for. She focuses it just to try to pick up on devices that would send informational signals, as advanced traps tend to do. Anything too simple to use electronics or some other form of information relay will be harder to deal with but she's not as worried about those when they wouldn't actually set off an alarm or alert someone. Her path would take her, gradually, to the closest point to Alexandria's office, if nothing interrupts her. She thanks her lucky stars that she became small enough to do this, and that her flight ability remained intact, or she would've had her hands tied for this!
Defiant	The old-fashioned way seems to work - Ren manages to get ahold of one of the PRT armored vans as it passed him and it takes him into one of the basement loading docks. Luckily, with the security down, the many sensors and detectors don't pick up on the new passenger. There's a few PRT officers around the parking garage - but they should be easy enough to sneak past. There's an elevator towards the back which should be able to take Ren up to meet Ainsley. A villain had once used the ventilation ducts to get into the PRT HQ - Mannequin. Ainsley's tactic will work then, particularly with the sensors off. Her Arcane Sight doesn't reveal much more than a lot of deactivated sensors and lasers - evidently, since Mannequin's attempted assassination, the PRT had commisioned something of an upgrade. The ventilation duct leads up towards the top of the HQ building. And it's a good thing, too, because ducts are fairly cold. There does not appear to be anyone around, allowing Ainsley to exit the vent without detection. But there's almost certainly capes on these levels, so, she might have to be careful as she searches for the right office. It'll be clearly labelled, however.
Ren Tanaka	Sneaking successful! Ren kind of feels a bit guilty whenever he does this, really. These people, after all, are doing their job, and he hates to imagine that they're going to get in trouble for letting him move past. So that gives him even more incentive to make sure that absolutely nobody knows he's been here, or that anything in particular is gone. That's why he makes very sure to reset the emergency exit hatch on the elevator perfectly before he scales the shaft. When in doubt, always take the route they don't expect. The entirely alternative radio band and IFFs that the Union uses will let him communicate with Ainsley, but it might be a good idea to do so sparingly. For example, when he meets up with her, he will likely be greeting her from the other end of a corridor, possibly standing in a doorway, holding a whiteboard. It reads 'DIVISION OF OBJECTIVES?'
Ainsley	Ainsley slips out of the ventilation duct, and, like someone on a space station, soundlessly replaces the grille. The way her feathers sway in the still air suggests she's underwater and not in a completely plain air-filled room. When she checks her immediate surroundings, she pauses when she spots the whiteboard, consequently, Ren. She had checked for threats, but the other stealthy one would be hard to spot until that moment. Her Arcane Sight continues to scan, but this time she's checking for various concepts in local security bands: Urgency, or alertness. The communication that someone might've broken in, but without her having to decode any encrypted lines. She uses magic to communicate through a whiteboard she modified with a spell to write words as she thinks them: 'Form up. Split when main objective complete to minimize risk.' After that she would begin searching for the room labelled as Alexandria's office, moving slowly and using a tiny metal mirror to help her view around corners, if any are available. A tool of the spy variety that she picked up from Union supply for this very purpose.
Defiant	It's an easy enough matter to look for Alexandria's office - after all, it's labelled with the cape's name. The true difficulty begins when Ainsley spies that the locks on the door are still active, and ready to sound an alarm - presumably if any unauthorised attempt is made to open the door. Footsteps sound from down the corridor, too. Heavy ones. If the two infiltrators can catch a glimpse, they'll spot Weld. He's one of the new Wards, the teenage superheroes who'll one day join the ranks of the PRT. He's made entirely out of metal. They'll need to get him to go elsewhere before he turns the corner and spots them. He's a good guy but a bit of a stickler for regulations.
Ainsley	Ainsley's heart sank into her stomach when she saw Weld's approach. She thought fast, and didn't have a whole lot of time to think of a spell. So she scanned the halls quickly with her Sight, checking for the acoustic qualities, and then she carefully began using her magic to create something of a muffled noise of a cape down a hall that definitely ISN'T where Ainsley and Ren are currently at, along with a little muffled THUMP noise that might come across as suspicious. Without remembering this specific cape's name off the top of her head, she couldn't do anything more specific than that. She just held her breath and maintained the vaguest sense of someone complaining of falling over in that general direction. If Ainsley could sweat, she would be sweating bullets right now. We'll have to settle for her restrained stare of panic.
Ren Tanaka	Ren nods to Ainsley. That's all he actually gets time to do, though, because that's a rather unmistakeable sound- the sound of 'trouble'. Although he wouldn't say it out loud, he quickly realizes that Ainsley is not necessarily cut out for this infiltration sort of thing (implying he is?). 'Think fast' operations here are definitely their only option- fortunately for him, the effect of his black suit and the charm he used to basically become invisible when he's standing still- which he is, having put the whiteboard down as quietly and quickly as possible- should help him out. If anyone asks though, it was all the suit. Following this, assuming Ainsley's plan works, he's going to make a move for the office door. 'If you can get inside the office through the vents, let me in. If not, I'll try and unlock it from this end,' he tells her over their radio.
Defiant	Unfortunately for Weld, he's not the brightest tool in the shed. He's good, yes, moral, yes, ethical, yes. But bright? Well, that's more questionable. He's a bit naive. So, when he hears a muffled thump down another corridor, Weld pauses. The metal cape turns and wanders off in that direction - not immediately reporting in either. "Hey," Weld asks, "Sounds like someone fell. Are you okay?" Phew. Meanwhile, Ren busies himself with the door. It seems to have a fairly standard electronic lock, although it also looks like there's a biometrics scanner on it, too. It might've been coded to Alexandria's DNA - however, there's always a way around any electronic system. Maybe it's possible to get through the vents, maybe it's possible to hack. But time is of the essence because Weld will be back.
Ainsley	There's really no other choice. When Ren mentions that the door cannot be opened without breaking the lock, and it's clear they don't have much time, Ainsley moves up into the air like an astronaut in a space station, kicking up from the floor and nearly soundlessly stopping near the vent, removing the cover and slipping into the ducts once more. Once inside -- and grimacing at the cool air brushing against her again -- she tries to find a quick route into the office from there. If she can get inside, she can also get to the door... with any luck, it won't have the same security problems on the other side, or she could find some DNA in the office itself to scan with her Sight and trick the lock. Unless the room has been completely sanitized since Alexandria's death, there's bound to be some genetic information around in skin or hair or... something, and that would be the key electronic information to use to trick the door into unlocking. After all, genes are just code, right? Another longshot, another improvised tactic.
Ren Tanaka	Ah, excellent. That plan worked. It might be a little more difficult getting out again, but on the other hand by that point it might not really matter for Ren. He shouldn't honestly think like that, but oh well, such is life. As soon as Weld is out of the picture, he quickly moves to check the lock, but he's stymied. On the other hand, the easiest way of dealing with an electronic lock is to undo it from the opposite end, so he'll just flatten himself against the wall and keep an eye out for Weld- or anyone else- while Ainsley handles getting him in. 'Uh... oh, I've got an idea. See if there's a roll of tape in there, then wrap it around your finger and try and lift some hair off a chair, or... fingerprints off of a flat surface,' he suggests.
Defiant	To Ainsley, Alexandria's office might seem ridiculously spartan. There's no sign of anything that says that someone worked here - but, knowing Alexandria - that might not be surprising. There's a terminal, a desk with ALEXANDRIA on a nameplate, a few medals and awards, a photo of the Triumvirate... At least, it is the Triumvirate with a fourth member. Strange. The room hasn't been sanitised, though. Evidently, the PRT has better things to do since Chevalier's announcement. A strange of long, dark hair can be found on the desk. Bingo, it's going to be the key in. Outside, Ren gets acquainted with the wall. It's cold and hard and not very comfortable. Time passes. Weld is still some distance off, investigating the noise. "I'll need to bring the security systems back online shortly," Dragon says, over the Union radios, "Approximately two minutes. What's your status?"
Ainsley	Ainsley glances at the photo, and commits the appearance of the fourth person in the picture to memory. She also takes out a small camera and snaps a photo of the photo. The sight is very strange and worth bringing up later. Once she has a hair, she scans it and finds viable DNA within it. And when she does, she tries to place her hand on the biometric lock and pulses the genetic code into the device via magic by memory, attempting to unlock it. She doesn't answer Dragon immediately while she's doing this. She's never actually attempted something this delicate, and she's hoping that the lock isn't a stickler once it detects the correct user. Once the finer points of the spell are woven, she subvocalizes back to Dragon, "We're at the office. Is there any way to stretch the timeline? We won't be able to grab much."
Ren Tanaka	Two minutes. No pressure! 'We're in,' Ren says, once he gets into the room. "OK, division of labour time. I'll handle the computer, you deal with the solid copy. Also, uh, please don't watch me while I'm working? Stage fright.' It's for a different reason, of course. This is where the real magic happens. Ren doesn't have an exceedingly large amount of experience with hacking computers. In time, this will change, in fact due to the necessity of this incident and development of his unique abilities, but for now, it's time for just one thing- brute force. To put it simply, he applies himself to Alexandria's computer and lights his mind and fingers on sunfire. Fingers go from 0 to 100 over the keyboard, letters and numbers punched into the system faster than the screen can keep up, making a sound akin to the buzzing of a fan as he cycles first through the passwords necessary to get in- followed by sliding open- what appear to be /memory sticks in a speedloader/, ones taken from Union Q Branch so as to provide them with the hardware boost for practically instantaneous data transfer, just in case this particular computer doesn't have some escoteric tinker upgrades. He's not going to necessarily go through the entire mainframe, here. Just 'limited' to the shopping list, and what Alexandria would know best. Every so often, a jolt of his personal essence reserves to make sure everything is flawless, just as it should be. It's best to boil it down into names. Legend, Alexandria, Eidolon. Endbringers. Jack Slash. Scion.
Defiant	"There's nothing more I can do," Dragon says, "If I take any more time, they'll start asking questions - and there's already too many of those after I was killed. I'll fake a system outage when you need to get out. It'll be a hit to my reputation as the world's best but somehow, I think I'll-" Dragon's voice glitches. Like a skipping record: "I'll- I'll- I'll-" Ren gets to work on the computer. The mainframe is /huge/ and heavily-encrypted - however, as with all systems, accessing it from a specific point allows one to bypass much of the security. The files will still take time to decrypt, however, that's a small price to pay for such dense information. Transcripts, lab reports, journal entries... There's a wealth of information there. Ainsley, too, manages to turn up some figurative gold. These files, in hard copy, might be even more valuable, possibly the only copy of them in existence. Some of them handwritten, too. Whatever these were, Alexandria - or whoever wrote them - didn't trust an electronic system with it. It's the only information that could be kept out of Dragon's hands, too. Maybe that was the reason. Suddenly, Dragon's voice recovers. Through the radio, she says one thing before clicking off. "She's coming."
Ren Tanaka	It's strangely like one of those gameshows you used to watch during the nineties. Place someone in an enclosed area with a way of creating a huge updraft underneath them, then surround them with lots and lots of very small pieces of paper. Possibly banknotes. Then challenge them to grab everything they can within a given short space of time. Possibly, make them try to grab CERTAIN small pieces while mixing in a lot of dud pieces which are irrelevant to them. Try to imagine this with computers and you might not get very close to what Ren has had to do, but it's a lie you can understand at least! And then something very bad and extremely inexplicable happens. Ren yanks a memory stick out of the computer's USB drive and puts it in a pouch, then looks at Ainsley. "OK I have absolutely no idea what's about to happen but I wasn't expecting that." Looks at the window. Oh gosh, can we really do it? Can we lampoon one of the best movies of all time? "Well Ainsley, it looks like we're gonna have to juuuuump!"
Ainsley	Ainsley's spell work has an easier time with written documentation. She uses a notebook or two that she brought along with her, and she quickly writes down everything using a spell to copy the files as she touches them until her notebooks are crammed full of information. When she hears Dragon drop like that, though, her heart tightens again, but she doesn't stop working. It's only when she hears the ominous phrase -- "She's coming." -- that she moves at a quicker pace. She crams everything back where it's supposed to go, and then she follows Ren right out of the nearest window. She would leap out alongside Ren, determined to get out of there with the information they gathered as soon as they can. Whatever is coming for them, she doesn't want to be there when it shows up. She just shoots Ren a confused look while they do this. She doesn't get it, apparently!
Ren Tanaka	Ren Tanaka says, "No, really, let's just jump out of that window over there. I mean you did the flying to get in here, right?"
Ainsley	"I could just fly us away, yes," Ainsley admits. Then she adds, "What are you talking about?"
Ren Tanaka	Ren Tanaka appears a bit crestfallen. "I was making a movie reference. I hate it when people don't get movie references." Siiigh. "I'll show it to you when we get back. But I totally want to actually jump if we're doing this!"
Defiant	In the end, what they have will need to be enough. The glass shatters around the pair as they leap through the thick plate glass. Sirens immediately begin to ring and the Protectorate HQ buzzes into activity, capes readying, PRT officers getting suited up. It's a long drop. Mannequin had survived it, of course - but it's probably a good thing that Ainsley has flight magic. Through the broken window, inside the office, a dark shape moves. A young woman in a dark suit.