[IC] Eclipse Phase: The Devotees

[Zoey]

Perception:82 trying for 25.
Z0ey lets her eyes wander around the room with a sigh.
"Long as it doesn't take too long, whatever man. Tellin you though, they're not gonna be fixable."

[AerisFang]

You hear three small metallic knocks coming from the hatch. As if someone wanted to get your attention outside.

A small screen shows the outside, but by the time you look, the corridor is empty. Whoever was there left quickly.

[TechPreist]

"Wait, who was that?" He looked at the two with a worried expression.

[Zoey]

Z0ey hugs her shredder and puts her back up against a wall.
"No idea... the fuck is going on?"

[Zhi Pan]

Hearing the knocking, Zhi turned his head to the door and checked the feed outside of it. He gave Zoey an uneasy look before he went to be the one to answer the airlock; walking backwards as he gave Ruby a stare. "I thought this room was reserved for us, I'll handle it..."

<Jin, can you send him a...->

<Ahead of you, Fengmi...>

His muse giving Ruby an invite ping on his PAN as the shark turned around.

<Tacnetrequest@Fishsquad. From user:Sharkalopes. Version 2.8 encrpytion255Q-byte ...Waiting for response>

With Jin handling his mesh affairs, the 'Naut opened the airlock briskly to check who or what was trying to get their attention.

[AerisFang]

You activate the hatch's controls while looking out with the camera: Still nothing outside.
The hatch's doors open sideways and reveal the empty corridor. A thing catches your eye on the adjacent panel.

Is that... Paper?
You take it off the wall and take a closer look at the hand-sized sheet. A single line is printed on it:
"カツロウに行く@ホウンガン"
Your muse quickly runs the writing through a translation software and reads out the translation:
"Go to Katsurou @ Houngan"

A quick check on the mesh reveals that this is most likely referring to Kyoshi Katsurou, the head researcher of the Houngan.

[TechPreist]

Rubys muse slowly comes into view and holds the request, and he accepts it with a gentle nod. He feels a slight click in his head as he is flooded with new information. "Okay, cool my tacnets up and running."

"Test test. Good, it's not screwy."

He popped his fingers and smiled "Shall we?"

[Zhi Pan]

Looking around the hall confused, the sharknaut gave a shrug, then plucked the sheet of paper from the control panel, squinting at it confused. It took him a moment as if in deep thought with an awkward silence before he turned around, shutting the airlock behind him. "Someone left a note in Japanese... Says to meet a Katsurou at the Houngan district... How the fuck do the N.L. know we're here? How can they know what we're looking into? Did Tim fuck up!?"

Gathering his gear bag in a hurry and hefting up his mining pick again, Zhi re-fixed his rig's helmet on before pointing to the pair with two fingers and giving some orders through the tac-net.

<I don't know what this nerd wants, but it may be an opening... Zoey, follow from a distance, you're the hammer incase this goes to Gou shi...Ruby, follow me, we'll be the face for this. Come on...> The large Aquanaut shrugging his duffel bag over a shoulder and jogging down the hall in a hurry.

[AerisFang]

A quick search on Kyoshi Katsurou reveals that he arrived on Legba around a year ago and rapidly climbed the ranks of Nazon's psychosurgery team. He is described as a brilliant psychosurgeon pushing the limits of what can be done. He spends most of his time working in Houngan and rarely goes outside of the facility.

Not much can be found on him before his arrival. The only bribes of information you can find seem to indicate he was related with the Titan Autonomous University, but these claims are thin.

[Skills that could give out something:
-Profession: Egohunting
-Investigation @ -20
-Networking: Scientists @ -30]

[TechPreist]

Ruby gave a curt nod and tried his best to follow Zhi. < You guys don't think we're gonna get stuck in a trap do you?>

[Zoey]

Zoey lets the others leave, and follows behind at a respectable distance, poking around via mesh to figure something out about this guy. <Probably, but that's why I'm here. I mean hell, we killed like 10 guys on the way here.>
Investigation: 23 rolling for 25.

[AerisFang]

[Zoey]
You continue searching for any info you might find on the mesh. While looking up his history pre-Legba, the lack of abundant data tips you off as quite unusual in this informational age... It's as if this guy didn't exist before.

[Zhi Pan]

Excellent Failurex3 for R-networking

Grasping and pushing off from wall-handles at a brisk pace, Zhi watched the other tunnels as they trafficked along in a paranoid manner, unsure what to even expect from the meeting. Or how this man knew of their interest in the N-Live's recent psychosurgery "Breakthroughs". The whole way he grasped the handle of his pick tightly, certainly not designed to be a weapon but his experience with it and body's brawn could easily turn it into one.

<It's likely, but like Zoey said; that's why she's our plan B. Start thinking of a plan now incase this is a sting, shi?>

[TechPreist]

Even though he had a feeling they were running into a trap, he had to admit, he enjoyed the micro-g. Jumping from handle to handle, letting his muscles propel him gracefully through the hall ways. It was almost like flying. He made a small request in the mesh to search out and access the local feeds in Houngan < I'm gonna see what I can see on the local camera feed. I'll upload it to our tacnet when I get access>

Interfacing check: 1d100 10

"Kù." He smiled happily. He had his muse upload the feed, which to him looked like a carrier pigeon flying off to his team. < It's up. Hopefully now we can see what the hell is going on>

[AerisFang]

Considering the state of Legba's mismatched mesh, It was quite impressive how Ruby managed to find an access to a few of the Houngan's cameras.:10

This wasn't the best of video feeds by far, but it showed enough of the interior to see and hear what was happening:
Inside the Micro-G tin can habitat, around 15 scientists, mostly in mentons, debating something with vigor. You also recognise Katsurou's Japanese splicer in the center of the small crowd.
The room is littered with computers, psychosurgery equipment, both living and cyberbrains, etc. You wonder how they manage to even work in this disorganized mess.

You hear snipplets of conversation over the static of the poor quality microphone:
''...work better than last time, AWE must have improved..."
"... Way too early to even consider! No tests..."
"...progress has been inconstant, we cannot count on the..."
"... Solve the D.I.D. problem perhaps? It cannot be..."

The debate suddenly ends with one of the researchers mentioning that:
"... no point in arguing until theories can be tested on AWE later..."
Another questions him:
"...It's due in 30 hours right?..."
The scientist nods and the crowd breaks apart to continue working on their various projects.

As you continue to listen to the various conversations, you can gather that around half the Houngan scientists are Nazon's personal psychosurgeons and that they are assigned to managing the various mental illnesses and neurological disorders resulting from his ascension forking (the radical practice of integrating minds other than one’s own into a single ego).
You know enough about ascension forking to realize something: How can Nazon possibly be sane enough to run Nine Lives after all these years?

[Zhi Pan]

Zhi halted his grasp on the wall handles stopping to watch the poorly fed camera feed, both slightly annoyed at it's quality ...Yet unsurprised. He held up a hand to give the others a waiting signal as he listened.

<AWE sounds like a name, either an abbreviation or part of a proper word...>
<Not sure what they mean by a D.I.D. Either ...-Aiya, he's actually Japanese...>
<Pan, dear, we've talked about those tolerance issues...> Jin spoke up briefly.

"Alright! Alright, fine.." the 'naut said as he turned around to face his friends. [i]"I don't like the look of this ...Zoey, change of plans, I want you closer and poised at that fucking airlock ready to blow all of them into mist. Ruby, you got a weapon? Last thing I'm going to deal with today is any fork-nappings."

[Zoey]

Zoey drifts up next to Zhi, and readies her weapons, ready, willing and able to ventilate some nerds provide security for her team.
She gives her chainsaw a few swings to get the gore from the last batch of gangers out before hanging it from her belt.
<I gotcha, don't worry about it. I ain't gonna let some pasty fuckers loot my buddies. Turn ya into paste first.>

[AerisFang]

You arrive to the entrance of Houngan. Not many people around these parts, probably out of fear of being closer to Nazon's quarters.

You activate the hatch's control and hear the sound of pneumatics hissing as it slides open.

The view inside is as you had previously seen: messy, unorganized, but also bustling with researchers moving around.
At the other end of the large room, you can see two guards armed with kinetic rifles on both sides of a shielded airlock. Judging from the layout of the station, this must be the door to Nazon's personal quarters.
The guards take notice of you but seem to be indifferent to your presence.

As you enter the room on your guard, scientists look at you with a intrigued look on their faces, but shortly return to their work.
As Kyoshi Katsurou sees you, he exclaims: "Ah! Finally you are here old friends!"
He motions you to come over to his workstation: "Please, do come here, I must show you the results of my most recent work! It's fascinating!"

[Give me a Kinesics check (base)]

[TechPreist]

Kinesics (Default to savx1): 1d100 40

[TechPreist]

Kinesics (Default to savx1): 1d100 40