1. Shooting, Beating, Stabbing

[BackworldTraveller]

Angus was in the police station this morning...

...Did the place look like it was preparing to break heads? Or was it just a normal day? i.e. Is this whole situation a set-up or some independent action by a loose-cannon?

Perception [1d8]=6

[tibbius]

Angus doesn't recall any sort of unusual activity at the precinct. Everybody - at least the four or five people he directly interacted - had been pleasant and professional, and no-one hanging around had seemed conspiratorial. It had really been a relaxed atmosphere.

[shaidar]

Shift


I believe there is one more murder location left, if so he will head over there. He is plan is that he is hoping to find some lead at one of the sites or there will be something in common in the immediate area, which is why he's making visual sweeps of each area for processing later.

[BackworldTraveller]

Angus doesn't recall any sort of unusual activity at the precinct. Everybody - at least the four or five people he directly interacted - had been pleasant and professional, and no-one hanging around had seemed conspiratorial. It had really been a relaxed atmosphere.

OK - So this is an independent operation not a Police Conspiracy. Angus shares this insight with Lewis and they mull this over while eating and supping their brews.

[thenewflesh]

Louis nods. "Independents, huh. At least you know the guys doing the official beatdowns have to fill out a bunch of paperwork afterwards."

He finishes his soup, considers. "The soup was disappointing." he says at last. "But, ok, this means that there may be an opportunity to publicly shame the cops into reprimanding the rogues, if I can just figure out who did it. Cross your fingers the res-heightener works."

Getting up, Louis adds, as an afterthought, "I, uh, tracked down 247, somehow. I'm meeting them tonight. Maybe we'll learn a little about our employer along the way."

[BackworldTraveller]

I'd be interested to see if the cameras caught the cops that did the beating coming or going. Were they real cops? Generally, they're too Wiley to beat someone up without backup. And these guys didn't look like they had backup. Can you get into the camera system - or do we need to tweak them to allow that do you think?

[Lance]

Are the police radio/bodycam/gps logs part of the public record?

[tibbius]

Yes, although there's a whole process to get them actually published on the part of the Govcorp network that doesn't need passwords

[Lance]

What's the soonest we can check who was there and what their radios/cams recorded?

[tibbius]

The scene happened this morning, must have since you saw Stevie Luiz at her rally last night. Body cameras (if they were on) probably sync'd to servers by now. It could take days or weeks to process the request for release of records. What could be more interesting: penetrating the police information systems, or collecting non-police surveillance footage from the scene.

[tibbius]

Shift

The 'bot compiles a subroutine to run in the background of his meshware interface, slowly crawling the net and searching for other references on public news sites to tag XK7-8JR and the tag that talked about killing the living:

search subroutine: [1d6]=5

Once the subroutine is active, Shift refocuses his attention back to the street, looking for signs of a fresh blood trail, or the original one:

Perception: [1d6]=5


I hope I haven't taken too much of a liberty with the background sub-routine idea, just seemed like something a robot might be able to do, not hugely significant, but useful. If you'd rather I can have Shift send the info to Louis to look for

Shift's subroutine pops up. It's found a trove of stuff written by XK7-8JR. A grinding flow of anti-living sentiment, vitriolic screeds denouncing humans and trolls alike. All over the place on news reports from every Ward on many different topics, mostly people behaving badly. One sequence arguing with someone who posted that a rail crossing signal had been programmed wrong when it permitted a carload of teens to attempt crossing the tracks in front of an oncoming commuter train. XK7's take was that the crossing signal functioned perfectly and more should be programmed like it. Is the droid? trolling or sincere?

[shaidar]

Shift packages up the information he's found on XK7-8JR and sends it to the others:

"I have found this person on a variety of news sites venting anti-living rhetoric. This could be a lead, or a red-herring (have I got that right?). Perhaps Louis can find out more. My plan to visit the murder sites has provided no useful information and is likely to no longer be an efficient use of my resources. "

[BackworldTraveller]

Is the persona of XJ7-8JR a complete fabrication, or are they an agent provocateur or just a useful idiot for someone?

[shaidar]

That is the big question, one I hope Louis can use his net-magic to answer.

[Lance]

Clark finally gets out of the meeting at lunchtime. He sends a quick message to the gang. "Luiz attacked: any way to get security cam footage from the area to identify attackers? Lunch break. 60 minutes. Meet up?"

[tibbius]

Louis, Angus, and Shift all get Clark's message now.

[BackworldTraveller]

Angus
I post the name of the cafe and ask what we should order for him

[shaidar]

Shift

"It would make sense to share information and plan our next steps. I shall join you virtually"

I've realised that by making Shift a lesser 'bot it does make it difficult to visit places like cafes and bars

[BackworldTraveller]

Shift

"It would make sense to share information and plan our next steps. I shall join you virtually"

I've realised that by making Shift a lesser 'bot it does make it difficult to visit places like cafes and bars

Shift - I'd recommend you keep at least 200m from the restaurant as there is a threat of a riot and you might get decommissioned as part of a barricade!

[shaidar]

Shift

"Thank you Angus. I shall find somewhere not too far away to conceal myself"

Shift will try and find an alleyway, maybe 300-400m away, with good WiFi to hide in.