Dane nodded. "Questions. First, will I be going as as a powered asset, or undercover as a well-trained normal? Second, operating in the US has operational challenges. An op in Pakistan is military, and is governed by military rules. Here, it's a law enforcement operation, which has completely different rules. What are MY rules? Am I allowed to sanction targets, for example?"

"It's an undercover op. First and most important rule is keep yourself alive, the next three are all direct related. . Keep your head, try to avoid suspicion, and learn and record everything you can. Those are the only rules you need.

Your primary objective is to find out how their making these cyborgs and arrest whomever's responsible for making them. Your secondary objective is to hamper their operations and gather as much information on the Legion as you can. There's a number of ways to go about this, the most popular being either pure stealth, performing sabotage without being discovered, and creating a masked persona to confront the targets directly, we have a number of support staff standing by to aid you, including specially trained and outfitted agents who serve as body doubles. Based on your abilities I would suggest the former, this has the added bonus of distracting the Legion from your investigation." Ethan spoke clearly and concisely, obvious a practiced speaker, he also had a charming nature about him though his manner turned serious when he emphasized the importance of keeping himself alive. He smiled as he finished. "Any other questions before I send you on your way? We'll have a full briefing once we have your identity ready."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:15, Thu 24 Aug 2017.

Ethan was in his office, sitting behind his desk. In there with him was an older man with an impressive amount of gold braid and the stars of a general, he had a bushy white mustache above his lip. Also there was another man in dress uniform, who was instantly recognizable as Col. Daniel Thompson, more popularly known as Freedom Fighter, one of a handful of successful super-soldier projects. Freedom Fighter was the leader of Strike Team Alpha, the governments parahuman task force and also was known for some domestic work, mainly thwarting terrorist attacks.

Ethan smiled as Dane entered. "Sergeant Sinclair, good to see you, may I introduce General Robert Hatcher and Col. Daniel Thompson. They'd like to speak to you about your encounter with the alien invaders."

In reply to Ethan Sharpe (msg # 33):

Dane snapped to attention and it looked like he was going to salute until he remembered he was no longer in the service, and he shook hands with both of them. “General. Colonel. Director.”

After the greetings had concluded, he said, “What can I answer for you that wasn’t in my original mission report?”

"While on the ship, were you able to get a look at their sensor suites? What sort of information they were looking for?" The colonel asked.

In reply to Clnl Daniel Thompson (msg # 35):

Dane shook his head. "Not in any useful way. Meaning, the language of the aliens was not any Terran language I have ever seen. Definitely a different alphabet, and most likely different rules as well. I saw examples all over the ship, in various consoles, so while it is likely that I looked at a sensor suite, I had no way of determining its purpose at the time. It could just as easily been a coffee maker or a karaoke machine."

He spread his hands apart, palms up, in a gesture of mild culpability, and he said, "My self-assigned mission was to defend the Earth. Alien spacecraft were sending attackers to our planet, and to be brutally honest I was not confident enough in my ability to stop them before more innocent people got hurt to be able to perform any meaningful recon. In my judgment, destroying the attacking fleet was the top priority. Sir."

The General spoke up next. "You said in your report that the invaders used energy weapons, both melee and ranged. How would you rate it's capabilities and how far would you say it is above our own?"

Director Sharpe suddenly cocked his head, as if listening to something. He stared into space for a few seconds then returned his attention to the meeting at hand.

In reply to Ethan Sharpe (msg # 37):

Dane considered the question carefully. “Their energy weapons were formidable, significantly more advanced than anything we have now, or even anything I’ve heard of in development. In short, we seem to excel at firing small bits of things are our enemies, but we simply have not made any advances in energy projection.”

Then he said, “Their melee weapons were equally as powerful, but as luck would have it, I captured one of them and used it against them. It cut through a steel bulkhead without much resistance.”

A barest hint of a smile crossed his face then, as he added, “I brought it with me. Would you like to see it, General?”

The general nods. "I would like to see it, and hand it over to the lab boys for analysis. If those folks over at the 'Brain-Bank' can reverse engineer it, we might be able to even the odds a little. Your report also mentioned that one of the attackers had rock-like skin, and was rather strong. Would you say he possesed enhanced strength like yourself, or was it due to him being larger and more muscular than his fellows."

In reply to Justice (msg # 39):

Dane nodded. "I assumed you would, which is the reason I brought it. Outfitting our soldiers with these would be vital part of our defensive strategy. However, since I fought an enormous alien, disarmed him, and sliced him in half with his own weapon to get it, I would like to have it back, when you are done with it. Sentimental value, if nothing else, and of course the ability to slice through steel if I need to is pretty damned useful, and fits generally within my motif."

Changing topics, he said, "To answer your question, I think the creature I fought was just an unusually large member of their species. His strength was not close to mine, given the speed with which I removed the weapon from his hands. "

The general nodded. "I can arrange that." At his answer to the superstrength question the general looked visibly relieved. "That's good to hear, our scientists weren't able to get much from the alien dna but they were able to determine they were all the same species though he was the only one with the rock like complexion. As you may or may not be aware humans are the only known species capable of producing parahumans. His strange skin had us concerned but if it was some kind of alien skin condition or something similar to earth ethnicities then that makes this paras versus advanced technology which means we might stand a chance."

The director looked at the two visitors."Any further questions gentlemen?" They both shook their heads. "Well if that's all I need to brief Agent Sinclair on his next assignment. Agent Jones will arrange transportation."

As they left Ethan passed a folder to Dane. "This is the identity we've arranged for infiltrating the Lavish Legion. Please take your time to familiarize yourself with it."

In reply to Ethan Sharpe (msg # 41):

Dane stood as the general and the other man left, with a respectful nod. "Sirs."

Once the door was closed, Dane accepted the folder without looking into it. "I'll need an hour or two to commit this to memory. Circle back this afternoon for further instructions and questions?"

Ethan nodded. "Take your time, I have a personal errand to attend to in the meantime. I'll meet you back here once you're done." After Dane stood to leave Ethan summoned a door and stepped through it.

>>TO Aprokyphos Cafe>>

Dane slipped the folder into his backpack, and headed out. He left the building, and then found a local coffee shop, where he could relax and enjoy a delicious mocha, while committing the facts in the dossier to memory.

OOC: No need to create a new location unless something is going to happen there. However, if you have a plan, feel free.

Dane returned to the Safehouse in probably 4-5 hours once the details of his new identity were known cold.

The new identity was a career criminal by the name of Steven "Brick" Brown. Brick was originally from the west coast acting mostly as a low level enforcer. He had superhuman strength and durability, and had been imprisoned in THe Honeycomb twice, once for assault and once for armed robbery.

In reply to Justice (msg # 45):

OOC - is he a real person whose identity Dane is borrowing, or is he entirely fictitious, invented for the purposes of the cover?

Ooc. Entirely ficticious. Feel free to make up any additional details behind what I've stated.

Edit: also the appropriate records have been added into the system
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:45, Sat 18 May 2019.

In reply to Justice (msg # 47):

OOC: What about appearance changing? Sinclair is pretty distinctive; special forces tattooes, etcetera...

They have technology for the tattoos, millitary servic could also be worked into the background, was intending to add that but forgot.

In reply to Justice (msg # 49):

OOC:

Dane is a decorated military hero. His face, background, and fingerprints would be on file. So he'll need a pretty thorough makeover and new fingerprints.

I'll craft his new personality, but assuming the physical makeover and background makeover can happen I'm ready to go.

They employ a technopath, records can be dealt with. They Also have a sub dermal implant that functions like an image inducer.

In reply to Justice (msg # 51):

OOC: Good. So, assuming a complete background, cover, and appearance alteration... I'm ready to go.

Well Ethan's in another scene right now, but you can got talk to Mike and he'll get you set up.

Dane headed over to see Mike. "I'm set to go. What's the plan for insertion?"

Mike was watching a set of monitors when Dane walked up. They displayed what seemed to be a mix of, surveillance cameras, police body cam footage, and news footage. They depicted some sort of robbery commited by a mix of cyborgs and paras, and the timely intervention of some local parahumans, as well as one of those parahumans escape after a misunderstanding with the police.

Mike smiled as Dane approached. "Well first, good news. Looks like a team from the Lavish Legion got nabbed by some local vigilantes. That'll leave them looking for new recruits. Bad news it might set them a little on edge, so be careful. As for the plan." He turned back to the monitors and a slight green glow came from his eyes as the monitors change to show a seedy, run down bar's surveillance cameras and online listing (which simply held the name, address, and phone number for the place.)

"This is a criminal hangout with the very original name of 'Joe's Bar'." One of the monitors brought up the photo of a rough, but handsome looking man with dark short hair and blue eyes. "This is Tommy 'Thunderclap' Bellevue. He possesses the ability to produce a deafening sound that produces a shockwave when he claps his hands. Because his abilities are only really useful for loud, public confrontations, he spends most of his time as a recruiter for the Lavish Legion. You go to the bar, let it be known your new in town and looking for work, with any luck, you'll catch his eye.

We have a holographic device to implant under your skin, you'll have to see the doc for that, the device will also allow us to monitor your vital signs. You can also pick up any gear you might want from the arsenal. We've secured an apartment for your cover, and properly furnished it and anyone looking 'Brick' up will only find what I've planted for background. Any questions?"