[center][h1][color=ec008c]Samantha “Sam” Dalton - Callsign: Chaos[/color][/h1][/center] [center][h2]Camp Hannula, Pöyrisjärvi National Park, Finland[/h2][/center] [center][h2][color=ec008c]Hiding in the nerd cave[/color][/h2][/center] [hr] Samantha had left her debrief with Adam and swung by her room. She pulled out her cell phone and texted Tahlia a list of things she wanted for herself. She needed some clothes that fit. She knew that Tahlia had done her best with what she had access to; however Samantha was only 5’4” and had a curvy figure. Most of the supplies on base were for mercenaries who were taller and bigger than she was, even the women. She sent her sizes, colors, preferred brands, and styles. She then grabbed her laptop and armor. She swung by the armory and stowed her armor where she was told too. She didn’t take the time to look around just yet. She would do that when she had more time. She would need to check over everyone’s armor and make any repairs. She then took her laptop with her and went to find her fellow nerds. [hr] Samantha raised an eyebrow as she looked at what looked like a fancy log cabin home with a path through the snow. That is the location that Adam had pointed out from his office window. Samantha shivered as she quickly made her way into the building. She really needed a jacket. She bustled into the warm interior. She shut the door as fast as she could before turning around to inspect the space. She saw an open space with numerous empty desks and a rack of servers along the back wall. She smiled as she realized the servers had been set up in such a way that they help warm up the room. The backside of the servers had a vented wall that let the cool air outside help ventilate and keep the servers cool. She wondered what they did in the summer. There were a few analysts working in the room on keyboards and laptops. Most of them had looked up at least once with looks from indifference to annoyance and some with outright hostility. She spotted Raphael and smiled as she saw him at a desk hunched over a keyboard. Her smile fell as she spotted the dark circles under his eyes and signs of tension in his face. He had not looked up yet. She sighed wondering if he was upset with her. He had been professional on the plane but had looked confused and resigned more than anything else. She approached his desk slowly unsure of her welcome. [color=ec008c]“Hi Raphael.”[/color] He had an almost empty coffee cup sitting next to him. He looked up as she spoke to him. He gave her a look that she couldn’t quite interpret.[color=ec008c] “I was sent by Adam to help with the latest data and what I managed to get out of New Zealand. I have some data from the attack on my laptop that we can analyze.”[/color] She lowered her voice some. [color=ec008c]“Are you okay?” [/color] Raphael looked at her without saying a word as he polished off his cup of coffee. He didn’t look angry. He looked frustrated and tired. [color=00aeef]“I have been better.”[/color] He paused searching for the right words. [color=00aeef]“Samantha, this is my job and I am damn good at it. When a leader goes off script and outside protocols, their actions paint the whole team in the same light. Those protocols are there for safety. What you said and did carries consequences not just for you and Skye but the rest of the team. Yes you took ownership of your decision but all these other people working to keep the world safe look at your team and wonder if we were in on it. They wonder if we can be trusted to do the job. They wonder if we are blindly loyal like the previous team leader who was demoted.”[/color] He waved a hand to indicate that he meant her. [color=00aeef]“I am not angry with you Samantha. I am disappointed. I am frustrated that someone as intelligent as you didn’t use logic and let emotion make decisions for you. I know you did what you thought was best. But was it best for Raven? Was it best for the team? Or was it best for you?”[/color] Raphael maintained eye contact to show the depth of his seriousness. He was not afraid to tell her hard truths that he thought she needed to hear. He shook his head and got to his feet reaching for his coffee mug. He pointed to a small break room situated near the entryway to the left. [color=00aeef]“Coffee is over there if you need some. Pick any desk. If you need anything, you know where to find me.”[/color] He walked away carrying his cup. Samantha watched him walk away feeling conflicted. She had worked with Raphael almost as much as she worked with Javi and Tahlia. She had never been at odds with him. She wanted to snarl and be angry but the truth was she just felt ashamed and sad. She felt as if the whole world was out to punch or kick her. Her face flamed as she watched him. She still felt like she made the right decision to let Skye go. She was embarrassed about how she acted once they had made it to the base. This was another example of why she had always been a lone wolf working on her own in the past. She didn’t want to be responsible for others. She had never asked for a leadership role. She had never even asked to be put in the field. She did the tests for it because she had to in order to join. Skye was the one who decided she needed to be in the field. She felt as if she had let her team down and embarrassed them. [color=ec008c][i]Were they all angry and upset with her?[/i][/color] She still hadn’t seen Freya. Freya had been there though when she had yelled at her sister. She let her head fall as she studied her feet. She felt as if her heart was going to be pulled from her chest. She couldn’t deal with this right now. She didn’t have time. She would apologize to Raphael later. She took an empty desk close to Raphael’s and plugged in her laptop. She took a deep breath and narrowed her focus to the computer. She would take solace in the task Adam had given her. She deliberately used some techniques that a former therapist had recommended to drop into a hyperfocus state. It was like the rest of the world faded away. It became about her and the computer. Her world was reduced to ones and zeros as she began to parse through coding. She sent Raphael a data dump of what diagnostics and sensor readings Bob had pulled during the base attack including any camera footage. She sent him the whole shebang. She then did a quick dive on that same data and decided while there was some stuff for leadership to look at in regards to Artemis assets and how they were being used and moved about. There was nothing there to help her find Rose. Samantha stopped and thought about the real issue at hand. They needed to figure out what Rose’s end game was. [i][color=ec008c]What did she need Spectre for? What did she need that drug for? What was she planning to do with it? Where was Rose and Henry Simmonds? If she couldn’t find what she wanted with available data, then she needed more data. How was going to do that?[/color][/i] Samantha began madly typing as an idea came to her. She began putting together a search program based on facial recognition software. The program would not be perfect and it could be beaten. But maybe just maybe with a little luck they might get closer to the answers they needed and a direction to turn in. Samantha built a program that would take databases that Raven had access to such as airport security footage, border crossing footage, government buildings, banks. Any type of military or government database or surveillance footage that they were granted could be searched by the program to find and mark footage of a searched image. Of course the person had to be caught by the camera, at an angle good enough for the facial recognition software to work. But maybe just maybe they could trace where Rose had been and where Henry had been or was. Samantha had been typing away at her computer for hours barely moving at all. She blinked as she noticed the time. Her stomach rumbled telling her that breakfast was a long time ago and she had missed it. She noticed most of the people in the room had left. She rose to her feet leaning on the desk as she stretched out her back. She twisted from side to side stretching to get the feeling back in her legs. She left her laptop up running the search for Rose and Henry. She had it working on cross comparison with all of Raven’s known databases. She knew the search would take time. The search was taking take up a lot of computational power and memory as it searched through literally a world's worth of imagery from assets all over the world. She left it working and went to find food. [hr] Samantha ran back to the main building to get out of the cold faster. She turned into the rec room and entered, pressing her back to the wall. Her conversation with Raphael returned. [i][color=ec008c]Were they all upset with her? Would she even be welcome in the room?[/color][/i] She looked around feeling very unsure. She did her best to keep a neutral expression on her face. Samantha looked around to see who was where. She saw Purna speaking with Ebrima. She saw Adam speaking with Athena. She saw who could only be Jamie, Freya’s brother sitting in his heavy assault armor drinking a child size juice box. [i][color=ec008c]Was this something he did to practice control? He could probably fit the whole juice box in his mouth, chew it up and spit out.[/color][/i] Samantha was fascinated and watched him for a minute. Her attention was drawn to Athena as she rushed Purna for the chocolate he had offered to share. Samantha watched the shenanigans for a few minutes before she cleared her throat. [color=ec008c]“I would like to say something to you all.” [/color] Samantha didn’t raise her voice but it carried to every corner of the room. She turned to face Purna and Adam. [color=ec008c]“I want to apologize for my behavior when I arrived. There was no excuse for some of it. I am sorry. I will work on doing better.” [/color] She tried to meet all their eyes. [color=ec008c]“I know most of you have not worked directly with me and I certainly didn’t give the best first impression. I can’t take it back. All I can do is move forward and promise to do better.” [/color] She turned to meet Ebrima’s eyes with that comment. She literally didn’t even know he existed until the base was under attack. She certainly had not given him much reason to trust her. She realized that now. She then turned to Jamie and Athena. She owed Athena an apology. She needed to work with Freya's siblings and she knew Freya adored her siblings. She didn't want to put her friend in an even more awkward situation with her family. [color=ec008c]“I know you are Freya’s siblings. She is a very dear friend to me but you are her family. Athena I am sorry for yelling at you.”[/color] She held a hand out towards Athena. [color=ec008c]“I hope you can forgive me and that we can work together.”[/color] That was probably the longest speech she had ever given. It certainly ranked up there with one of her more embarrassing and humble moments. She hoped it didn't make the others feel as awkward and uncomfortable as she did. [i][color=ec008c]Where was Glitch when you need a refrigerator randomly lobbing beers at people to divert the attention away from your personal social hell?[/color] [/i]