One small step for man, one giant leap for the soldiers

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Characters: Bao Ying and other NPC soldiers, OPEN to those with good hacking skills at Cole's morning thread only, as well as for Allelujah Haptism (afternoon thread), Lockon Stratus (afternoon thread), Cole McGrath (morning), Unohana Retsu (evening thread), Lelouch Lamperouge (evening thread), and Chaera (evening thread).
When: Friday, all day

Comments

Friday Afternoon (for Alle, Lockon, and allies they choose to bring)

[adstring_npc]

This was the tricky meeting, the one where everything could go wrong fast. But the two had been reasonable at the end of the last encounter, and Bao knew that she was offering help they couldn't otherwise get. They didn't strike her as stupid and right now she would be useful to them. Her and her men started getting to work on the area while they waited. It was certainly damaged.

Friday Afternoon (for Alle, Lockon, and allies they choose to bring)

[alle_halle]

Allelujah was cautious. Although their earlier encounter with Bao Yin proved that she's a honorable person, both him and Lockon were rather careful. At the set time, they arrived at the location. Of course, both were armed just in case. The note they got before proved it won't be just a renovation help meeting.

Lockon wondered why that woman decided to contact them of all people, joining forces with Mello before shouldn't make them look trustworthy. Though it might be the reason as well. Quick glance around; if it was a trap...

"Good afternoon." he greeted them. "Are we late?"

[[ooc: joined tag, written via mobile-gmail since Lockon-mun won't have comp access till tomorrow :/]]

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Bao nodded her head to him as they approached, keeping an eye out in case they'd brought others. But no one seemed lurking or waiting to attack.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Haptism. You are not late. I'm glad you chose to come." She gestured behind herself. "You've seen them before, aside from Zack Lyle," she pointed, "and Patrick Cosgrave." She watched them both. They had been friends of Mello, but chances were they had not seen Patrick.

"You may speak freely in front of all of these gathered." And now for the difficult plunge, the one that could set her on a very dangerous path. "I'm increasingly convinced that the Chairman and the rest of the Project are lying to me on many topics. It's for this reason that I want to strengthen the ties between my men and the people outside. I need to assure myself and them that if something was to backfire further on the scientists, we would not pay again. We're already trapped, as you are."

"I don't know where to start, though."

[meteo_sniper]

Following her words, Lockon looked at all her men, acting as if he was seeing Patrick for the first time. Indeed, it was a dangerous path to choose, both for her, and for them.

"While I wish we could originally meet in better circumstances,your motives are understandable. Just like questions you may have for us." a small smile appeared on his lips. He might have been a tad bit too careful with his words, but before they agree that Allelujah will speak in details. He had no idea why, as he was the one more intensely cooperating with Mello, but he agreed on it.

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It was a tentative opening. Bao hoped she was not reading too much into his words, but it was possible he was offering her answers to what questions she had. Those outside the Inner City couldn't answer the huge ones relating to the scientists, but she could map out what was actually happening outside.

"Easy circumstances rarely bring people together. There isn't a reason to seek out others if life is going well." She considered her first question before asking it. "If it is not too extensive a list, I would like to know how much the scientists have worked with you, how much they have actually done. They have claimed much, however..."

[alle_halle]

Allelujah raised an eyebrow. "How much?" he repeated. "Not much actually. The contact, although sparse, was cut right after their offer to build some apartments for us. It was in..." checking the date on PCD, he looked at few other entries "April last year. Then there was no contact with anyone from the Inner City, aside from accidental post in October same year. Then, the next one was an invite to the New Year party, in December."

He turned a bit, gesturing at the surroundings. "Everything that is here, most of the people here built by themselves, without any help from the inside of your city." then, he looked straight at Bao. "Your offer is the first offer that came from Inner City."

[meteo_sniper]

"I think there was one of the scientists leaving the Inner City around a year ago." Lockon added, knowing that Allelujah couldn't remember that much, and not whole history was available via the network system. Not that he himself remembered much about it. "But he vanished without a trace really quickly."

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"April..." That was something to think on. Did that... No matter. No questions asked here would give her answers to that. "I was near the party. I heard of some attempting to slip out and aided in keeping the building secure." Bao shook her head. "But we believed that so much more was being worked on with the people outside."

She looked over at Lockon, her eyes widening for a moment. "Was there? What was his name?" Rumors of a scientist disappearing hadn't reached her. The others, yes. But one of their own outside? The only scientists that had vanished before this were the ones that tried to mess with the Animus.

[meteo_sniper]

"Can't tell. It was just too long ago, and this PCD don't have even that long history in it." Lockon shook his head. That was true, his own communicator had a nasty accident, and he was using Nenas since then. And checking the conversation history of red-haired Trinity, wasn't what tempted him. "All I remember is that...he was rather young. I think lady Unohana could know more."

[alle_halle]

"I think his name started with Fu-something. That's all I can recall." The truth was that Allelujah had records of every information he gathered from that scientist. Like before, every single information was valuable, especially ones about that world.

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Rather young, Unohana might know more. Bao would have to hope she did, because only having that information and 'fu' was worse than nothing. If she started asking questions that were too general, this could backfire all the sooner. "There are more than a few who were interns brought along, younger. But I know few names. No scientists that were not studying the Animus had vanished, to my knowledge. And such an example hasn't been mentioned before..."

What other questions did she have for them? "Is there anything in particular you think I should know?"

[alle_halle]

"Those that studied the Animus, what happened to them?" Allelujah asked shortly, hoping that perhaps scientists would have some kind of information regarding them. Anything was better than nothing, though considering the fact that Animus didn't like people trying to find out more... oh, well.

"As for what you should know, the only contacts between the Inner City and us were accidental, or those few who really wanted to help us, like you right now."

"Aside from that, the scientists stated they want to know what makes us tick."

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Bao shook her head. "I know that at least one went insane, completely driven mad. Others died permanently, or vanished. I don't know the exact numbers, and the lower-ranked scientists don't either, so far as I know. The Chairman doesn't like to appear weak."

It seemed so little. Here she was, putting her life on the line as well as the lives of her men, and for only the knowledge that she'd been lied to. Was this risk worth it?

"I don't understand. Make you tick?"

[meteo_sniper]

Lockon narrowed his eyes a bit. "What makes us react. What makes us snap. In a sense, we're their guinea pigs." a small shrug followed. "Not that I'm surprised, many of the inhabitants are quite unique."

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"So the city is another expiriment?" Bao half-turned, looking out at the outer city. She could see why they wouldn't stop their work studying things, but it appeared they were trying to use the residents of the outer city as what, a control?

"How much of this is a true accident..." The comment was quiet, mostly to herself. She shook her head.

"There is one other thing you can help me on. You are, I am sure, quite aware of people around here. Who should we avoid?"

[alle_halle]

"None of us still knows what really happened. Aside of that it's an accident that brought worlds together." Allelujah smiled bitterly. He didn't have a reason to trust any of the scientists here, though some of them were looking rather friendly.

The next question made him ponder on it a bit. "The ones calling themselves Akatsuki. The greenhaired kid, I'm not sure about his name. The one using ice. The thief Carmen, but you know it. Zexion and his allies. Joshua, too." he gave a shrug. "Those are all I remember by now."