IC:The 'Fing Inquiry - FAO gurusql

[Tiglath]

No, it couldn't possibly be Voss - in local terms he's known to be 'armless.

Will actually be doing some GMing shortly and move matters along...

[The Bindoner]

Jess reviews the times and dates Kit shows her and checks her records:


Charlie’s a decent corporal, goin’ ter make sergeant soon. Rely on ‘im ter run the squad for me when I’m pullin’ as many duties as this. He’s far too busy ter go ‘round huntin’ gangers. Yeah, see, he would’ve bin in the office when that one happened. Camera’s on the fritz in there. Incident with a surprisingly fizzy beverage.

‘Arry’s clear. He was fixin’ that camera the lads broke playin’ sportsball. The one outside my office in the garage, coverin' the door from the Delta barracks direction. They do keep hittin' that one that, don’t they? Well, no harm really. Whoever breaks it fixes it, an’ they lose five points. It's only ever out for an evening, usual.

Kingy was in an’ out of the latrines that day. Lost a round of streetfood roulette. Kebab this time, I think. 24 hour thing, wasn’t worth botherin’ the medics, so I put him on barracks duties for the day. No camera’s in the sleeping quarters, or lats I’m afraid.

Mike was on stag that night. Watchin’ that passageway from the stores to the garage where the camera is jammed so it only sees half the corridor. Knocked askew by a pallet stacked too high, that one. I tell 'em, load proper, go steady, but they're always cuttin' corners an' rushin'.

[The Bindoner]

Kind of an aside, but not really are there two Johnny's in the SEMC? A Riflemen in Squad 2 and another Rifleman in the TAC Missile Team?

No, that was an error I made in the first draft. Jess has Charlie, Harry, King and Mike.

[Tiglath]

Kind of an aside, but not really are there two Johnny's in the SEMC? A Riflemen in Squad 2 and another Rifleman in the TAC Missile Team?

No, that was an error I made in the first draft. Jess has Charlie, Harry, King and Mike.

Quite right and there can't be as (nearly) all are sequentially named as per US or British WW2 era phonetic alphabets.

[BackworldTraveller]

I imagine "Sugar" is going to attract attention

[gurusql]

Kit

Assuming that Kit has got all the information that he can from the security systems, then he will return back to the Colonel share his results.

When the Colonel has time to see him he enters the Colonel's office and closes the door. After exchanging pleasantries Kit says "Colonel, I thank you for your time. To summarize, I have eliminated only five company members so far, Sgt-Major Henker, Corporal Charlie, Harry, King, and Mike and I guess you can add me to that list since I was not on planet for most of the murders. In addition, I have Prerna on the very unlikely list."

Kit pauses takes a deep breath and continues "I am going to have to say that the security system here might need a little TLC. I am not sure if this is better or worse than the Barons system and that system let an armed ambush in through the water pipes."

"The only option left is getting alibi's from the team members and chasing them down. Given that we are about to go out on a mission, raising doubt that there could be a murderer in the Company will not be good for moral and I would strongly recommend against it, with the exception of roping in your leadership team just so that they can be additional eyes and ears on this."

[The Bindoner]

Running through her records Jess can continue to provide evidence of those SEMC troopers present in the Bartizan when crimes were committed, many of them on camera too ( it seems that the faults are concentrated in her zone. Function of lots of heavy/large objects in motion and space for bored troopers to sports in probably ).

[gurusql]

Just wanting to finalize this (at least pre-trip) - whom else can be preclear?

Kit does find a nice 24 hour period to take off in the final week, letting leadership know that he will be spending a night at a hotel and has a relaxing 24 hours using as many of the amenities that he enjoys.

[Tiglath]

Absolutely right on the R&R!

Everybody gets a very necessary amount of "me time" (at least 24hrs) away from the unit and doing their thang, whatever that may be, during the turnaround.

Jess (and all of the "Cavalry Troop") seem to be willing to extend the immunity/alibis or any number of other SEMC personnel.

If Kit's willing to adopt the "cascade principle" in that one "not guilty" person can vouch for another then his enquiry will surely advance in leaps and bounds...

[joertexas]

Absolutely right on the R&R!

Everybody gets a very necessary amount of "me time" (at least 24hrs) away from the unit and doing their thang, whatever that may be, during the turnaround.

Jess (and all of the "Cavalry Troop") seem to be willing to extend the immunity/alibis or any number of other SEMC personnel.

If Kit's willing to adopt the "cascade principle" in that one "not guilty" person can vouch for another then his enquiry will surely advance in leaps and bounds...

Prerna is busy every waking moment, drilling her recon troopers on their mission, including studying every scrap of information they can find about Avastan.

[gurusql]

Absolutely right on the R&R!

Everybody gets a very necessary amount of "me time" (at least 24hrs) away from the unit and doing their thang, whatever that may be, during the turnaround.

Jess (and all of the "Cavalry Troop") seem to be willing to extend the immunity/alibis or any number of other SEMC personnel.

If Kit's willing to adopt the "cascade principle" in that one "not guilty" person can vouch for another then his enquiry will surely advance in leaps and bounds...

As long as we know how got there I am good with it.

[Tiglath]

Kit is soon in the (inevitable?) position of having the entire unit vouched for by someone else already eliminated from the enquiry.

Those who are Collace born seem entirely familiar with the legal position of "alibi" and instinctively (and sometimes inventively) swear blind that those needing to have been somewhere else at the relevant time, in fact, were.

[gurusql]

In other w

Kit is soon in the (inevitable?) position of having the entire unit vouched for by someone else already eliminated from the enquiry.

Those who are Collace born seem entirely familiar with the legal position of "alibi" and instinctively (and sometimes inventively) swear blind that those needing to have been somewhere else at the relevant time, in fact, were.

In other words, done but not much value added.

[Tiglath]

Well, at least Kit has got his face known to the mercs and has learned that his troops are both loyal to the unit and "selectively dishonest"!

[shaidar]

Well, at least Kit has got his face known to the mercs and has learned that his troops are both loyal to the unit and "selectively dishonest"!

I was about to say the same. Plus, if the police come sniffing around then we can cover ourselves with little disruption. Thinking about it I don't think we need to worry about investigating non-SEMC people (i. e. We don't want to potentially put our allies in the frame for this) .

[Tiglath]

The Fing Enquiry - End of a Chapter?

Kit

Now that we are getting ready to head back to Collace, Kit has been thinking about his assignment before leaving for Inchin. He continues to put Clues (Cluedo?) together and will pull the Colonel Mustard aside making sure that there are not others in earshot and give the following summary

"You asked me to look into some killings on Collace and I have a new primary suspect"

Once the door is shut Frank gestures to the chair by his desk. "Please sit, there is something I need your help with, a rather delicate matter. It seems that the city has attracted two killers. The first is some kind of vigilante attacking hoodlums up in midspire, I'm not particularly concerned about that. The second one does concern me...someone is killing gang members in the downspire and Bartizan area, the same MO each time, slash attacks. Information is sparse and not particularly reliable but they started around the time our original team attacked the Bartizan, stopped during the period the company was on Inchin, and there has been another murder since we returned. I need you to look into this situation, discretely, and keep me informed. Currently the police aren't particularly interested, but somebody might notice the gap in deaths matches the Inchin trip, and this may be even more obvious when they stop while we are on Avastan. I'm not currently looking to have whoever is responsible handed over to the police, but if the situation should escalate then we need to be ready to act. "

(bold added by me)

"My investigation focused on the active members of the unit. When I was doing it in a discreet manner, a few alibi's were determined. After the first few alibi's were determined and we started asking them to vouch for others turning the times of the murders which lead to all members of the company being 'cleared'."

Kit is soon in the (inevitable?) position of having the entire unit vouched for by someone else already eliminated from the enquiry.

Those who are Collace born seem entirely familiar with the legal position of "alibi" and instinctively (and sometimes inventively) swear blind that those needing to have been somewhere else at the relevant time, in fact, were.

"The entire time of the investigation, I was focusing on members of the unit without looking at people that are not officially part of the unit, but have been travelling the same time we are. There are multiple instances that Polly has shown skill in HTH and knowing her way around a melee."

The pirate (who Kit notices bears “wings” over his name tag and an image of a “pile of snakes”) lets off a shot which goes wild and makes a horrified “Ack!” as Kit propels his deceased mate on top of him. Draped with his dead mate he then screams as Polly repeatedly strikes at him from behind with her black translucent blade. He collapses (quite possibly as lack of effective muscle functionality only just pips blood loss) torn up by the deep raking wounds inflicted by her archaic weapon.

The tug of war over her handbag takes a turn as her assailant now gets a handhold on the body of the bag leaving Polly grasping the baton like clasp along the top edge. She smiles as the clasp detaches itself from the bag and one end of its chain strap drops loose. Polly whirls the loose chain expertly and flicks its weighted end at the pirate's face as she hefts the “baton” still attached to it in her other hand. Her footwork is now sure and poised and the nature of the fight between her and the pirate shifts. He grabs up a bottle and smashes it into an improvised dagger as Kit arrives. The pirate then swings a wild blow at Kit with the broken bottle. However, Kit sees it coming and converts the pirate's lunge into an arm entanglement successfully grappling him. That's when Polly hits him in the side of head with her “baton”. The point of the scythe blade penetrates deep into his skull and the pirate immediately goes limp in Kit's grasp.

Polly has her hair pinned into a casual "up do" and wears a pale blue silk belted dress bearing the Iyhlua Clan mon and wafts her fan which when opened reveals the same device. She has accessorized her outfit with a pair of kama (sickles) thrust through her belt.

I suspect that if were to dig deeper into the slashing deaths, it is very likely that kama's could be the weapon of choice. Of course, all of this is circumstantial but if my understanding of the internal politics of the SEMC, the unit may not want to know the answer to these questions. I would ask the Colonel would you like me to question Polly or let it be?

Frank

"Thank you for your thorough investigation Lieutenant. As I said at the start I'm more interested in protecting the company from surprises than about justice, and the local police do not seem particularly interested. With the lack of hard evidence, and the complication of the potential involvement of clan Iyhlua, I think it best we leave things for now. I hope you understand? Although we should monitor the situation to ensure things do not escalate.

Frank

"Thank you for your thorough investigation Lieutenant. As I said at the start I'm more interested in protecting the company from surprises than about justice, and the local police do not seem particularly interested. With the lack of hard evidence, and the complication of the potential involvement of clan Iyhlua, I think it best we leave things for now. I hope you understand? Although we should monitor the situation to ensure things do not escalate.