TYPE: Transcription
DESCRIPTION: Conversation between persons of interest, concerning high-value targets
PARTIES: Six [6]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Titan, designate Donovan Morgan [DM]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate Rega-7 [R7]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter, designate Ana Bray [AB]; One [1] Exo-type, designate Elsie Bray [EB]; One [1] Guardian-type, Class Hunter [u.1]
ASSOCIATIONS: Bog, Dredgen [AKA Kashaf, Afa]; Bray, Ana [AKA Bray, Anastasia]; Bray, Clovis I; Bray, Elisabeth [AKA Bray, Elsie; Stranger, Exo]; Calus, Emperor; Clovis Bray (corporation); Crown of Sorrow; Europa; Eventide Ruins; Exo; Glykon Volatus; Malphur, Shin; Morgan, Donovan (POI #0268); Ohr, Wahei (POI #0247); Pyramids; Rasputin; Rathmore Chaos; Riis-Reborn; Ruin, Dredgen [AKA Ainu, Hadil; Ruiner, The]; Shadows of Salvation; Splicer; Traveler, The; Vergift, Dredgen [AKA Versenne, Magdalene; Magda-9]; Warmind; Ziggurat
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[WO] Is this everyone?
[DM] Should be.
[WO] Right. Thanks for coming.
[murmured chorus of agreement]
[WO] So.
[pause]
[R7] Really? You're suddenly at a loss for words, Wahei?
[WO] Just marshaling my thoughts here, Rega.
[DM] Give her a minute. She'll talk your ear off.
[WO] Okay. Bog's crew, the Shadows of Salvation. Everyone here's familiar with them, yes?
[AB] I know of them, don't think I ever met any of them-- wait, no. Bog's Afa Kashaf, right? Yeah, saw him at the Gap. Sniping vandals from a perch.
[EB] I knew Vergift in her first life. Magda Versenne helped design weapons for my grandfather's company.
[u.1] And now she's been making Thorns and other Weapons of Sorrow.
[DM] And then there's the Ruiner. Goddamn psychopath.
[u.1] I wasn't careful enough. I should've got them all.
[EB] No one's blaming you.
[u.1] No one has to. They shouldn't have slipped past me.
[WO] At any rate! I've been tracking them for a while now, always a step behind, but I think I've pieced together enough information to give me more than enough reason for concern. I'll be letting the Vanguard know, so they can modify their APB.
[R7] Let's just hope some kinderguardian doesn't try to take them down solo in the meantime.
[WO] So. My path first crossed with them when I went aboard the Glykon. I was on board because I'd gotten intel to suggest that the Crown of Sorrow was still on the ship. Since it was my studies of the Crown that probably let Calus conduct his experiments with it, I felt responsible, and had to ascertain for myself. Not to mention remove a slate of runes inside the Crown before it could do any more damage.
[AB] There's a "but" coming.
[WO] Yes. Bog was already on board, and had already removed the very slate I was looking for. Aunor Mahal and I had a brief confrontation with him before he escaped, and that's when I tracked down our friend with the Golden Gun here.
[u.1] Brought me out of retirement for this.
[DM] Look at it this way: you'll be able to go back to it, your last unfinished job finally done.
[u.1] [beat] You lookin' to get shot, Morgan?
[DM] I'm right, though.
[R7] Morgan, stop poking the bear. Continue, Wahei.
[WO] At some point around this same time, the Shadows infiltrated the Braytech facilities on Europa in Rathmore. Elsie?
[EB] From what we learned from Clovis, Magda integrated her original life's memories into herself, and they stole some specialized Exo components and a lot of the alkahest needed to make Exos work.
[WO] From there, they made use of a Braytech facility buried beneath Calcutta. Based on data that I found in the Seraph Bunker on Luna, I believe they made a customized Exo frame based on design specs from Rasputin's files.
[AB] What?
[EB] Now you know why we brought you in, Ana.
[AB] Son of a-- that's why they stole my components from my workshop! What kind of Exo frame are they making?
[WO] The files I found described a series of Exo frames known as 'Golems.' But I wasn't able to tell which they took. Could be any one of a number of them-- Bhishma, Jarakaru, Kalki, Siddhartha...
[DM] Hold on. That one sounded familiar...
[WO] Which one?
[DM] Kalki. [pause] Yeah, that was on a recording I heard when I met with Mahal and Mithrax a few weeks back. Kashaf said something about Kalki finding what they needed in the old Black Armory vault beneath Botza District.
[AB] Red was always cagey about that stuff. I barely managed to get any data on them out of his systems before the Black Fleet crashed it all. I had to patchwork the schematics together. That's one reason I still haven't been able to get his construction finished.
[u.1] Couldn't you use a regular--
[AB] Rasputin's too complex an AI for his intellect to be housed in a standard Exo frame. Even as damaged as he is, his mind is structured too differently.
[WO] Kalki Golem... That's a bad sign. In the Hindu texts, Kalki ushers in the end of a cycle of existence. I'm simplifying, mind you. But if this Exo frame has any Warmind tech built into it as well...
[AB] I'm with you, Ohr, that's a very bad sign.
[WO] I tried to cut them off at Calcutta, but I missed them by hours.
[u.1] So, to recap. Bog's crew got themselves a big damn Warmind-derived Exo, armed with something they stole out of a Black Armory vault. Anything else we need to know.
[EB] There is something. And this is more dangerous than a rogue ex-Warmind Exo. [beat] Magda-9 knows how to build paracausal weapons. According to Clovis, its potential destructive power could destroy a star.
[pause]
[DM] [EXPLETIVE DELETED] me. They're going to try to take out the Traveler, aren't they?
[WO] It's very possible. The problem is, where are the Shadows now? They've always been a step ahead. They're not likely to be in any of their previous bolt-holes.
[u.1] They've been discarding ships as they go. Started out using Teufel's ship, abandoned that a while back, and they've just been going through ships from the rest of Cull's old cadre.
[R7] I think I have an idea. Morgan, you said when you called me, that the Shadows had stolen a Splicer Gauntlet?
[DM] Pretty sure, yeah.
[R7] As good as Magda-9 might be at weapon crafting, she still has to have access to equipment for it, and hauling all of that gear from ship to ship would slow them down. So she's probably got a forge set up somewhere.
[DM] [grunt] Not likely to be in the City or anywhere nearby. As careful as they've been, they wouldn't take that kind of risk, especially knowing the Vanguard's got a bounty out on them.
[AB] Anyone checked to see if the Black Armory forges are still safe?
[R7] Can confirm they're all accounted for. Ada says they're still inactive.
[EB] Splicer tech, Exo construction, weapons manufacturing... there's only one place they could be. Europa.
[DM] Someone's bound to have spotted them if they're hanging out there.
[EB] Not if they're avoiding the patrol areas. Eventide is a lot bigger than it looks, and there are other Braytech facilities there. Including the forges where Magda Versenne built weapons to begin with.
[WO] That sounds the most likely. Elsie, coordinate with Rega and Malphur, scout it out to make sure?
[DM] I'll carry the message along to the Vanguard, and inform Mahal as well. The Praxics will want to be kept in the loop, if not be in at the kill.
[WO] We almost have them. Gear up, and be ready. Trouble follows where these three go.
[u.1] [chuckles] Well, that's certainly true.
[EB] Pardon?
[u.1] They're running. We're following. We ARE the trouble.
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