"OHhh.. American slang... that's difficult to catch. HSA.. ok.. I'll remember that ..er and the ah ~ DHS! Thanks Jacob!"

He ponders.."I could go ~ without battlesuit and just have 'Karl' on 'beckon-call' to come to me if danger occurs.. but I'm only 17.. I think the Agent will more likely think I'm there to bum cigarettes off him!"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:34, Thu 18 Mar 2021.

He looks over at the others and smiles..

"I tend to blend in wherever I go, especially if I desire it..I can do whatever it is you think needs to be done"

Martin smiles, not for the first time glad what makes him special is all on the inside..

Chandani had been continuing to hang out near the window next to the fire escape and kept looking out to make sure that there wasn't anyone casing the joint.  Old habits died hard, she guessed.  Or maybe paranoia was running rampant.  Everyone in the building had gotten the message.  And everyone seemed rightly concerned about it.

And yet, not additional intelligence was to be found immediately.  It was almost like a test - but that begged the questions of who and why, still.

She readily admitted to the others that she didn't have any innate ability to control electronics or satellites in space or pinpoint a radiation signature at any distance.  Dani couldn't help hack into the defense net or the phone company.  Nor did she have an 'in' at Homeland Security or the State Department.  She didn't have the cash resources to buy a Learjet nor the ability to invent her own.  Pretty much she was stuck combing the public sites and wracking her (limited) brains for anything that might be even mildly useful here.

Her phone vibrated and the young woman glanced down for a moment before slipping out the window to stand and stretch her legs.  Dani tapped her phone once and held it to her ear even as she began to slowly climb the fire escape stairs.  By the time that she was connected, Chandani was at the top of the stairs.  The lithe brunette murmured something[Private to SSOGM: "Apricots"] immediately upon the connection opening up and then waited.

Justicar shrugged an interesting gesture in his armor and added, "Well, we are going to have to wait until this evening to get 'Official' intel, but I might have something we could do, its a shot int he dark.. literally a needle in a haysack. I DO own a Portable Scan Dihilator... er basically a Super sensitive Multi-scanner used by the military or rich scientist types with big grants and deep pockets.  I have one too. The Notice mentioned that 'The Legion' is using Nuclear warhead casing as the delivery vehicle.  Well depending upon how old or how long decommissioned that casing is.. it might have a radioactive signature that might be detectable.  Now keep in mind that would be really faint AND if it were indoors somewhere chances of detecting even through something as simple as a corrugated metal roof would be ... well pure luck.  Likely the US Air Force has already scanned for such from orbit with sat overview.. my device would certainly be closer so..'shrug', just saying it would be unreliable at best ~ but it 'might' detect something?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 22:40, Thu 18 Mar 2021.

Nodding as he listens, a bit of a smile comes to Martin's face..

"The shot untaken is the only true bad shot..and a needle may be found if the search is diligent..

After a moment's pause..

"I say we should try your device, what can it hurt..tho mine is but one vote"

Jacob looks thoughtfully.  You're gonna have to fly low and slow to get any readings.  It's going to take a long time to cover the city that way.
Looking at the table, he tries to visualize the view of the city from low-altitude flight.  Is there a way that we ca  get Geiger counters?   If we got a few of those, we could divide up and send more people out.  Maybe we would have a better chance of finding it that way.

Replying to Jacob, "Uhm.. that's not what I was pondering Jacob.  Both the Portable Scan Dihilator, and the Justicar suit have radiation detection sensors.. geiger counters, but their range is relatively short... only 60'ft in my suit, Dihilator perhaps a little more.. that's too short range for my purposes... I'm talking about wide-angle photography lens on the sensitive photo-cameras.  The Justicar has such optical systems but the Dihilator has even bigger ones for wide angle shots."

"... LIGHT which falls on a photographic plate causes the crystals of silver halide, which form the essential constituent of the sensitive layer, to be converted by subsequent development to silver grains, and gives rise to a blackening of the exposed areas. The silver grains can be counted under the microscope, but they provide no direct measure of the incident energy. Although much painstaking work, culminating in the recent theory of Gurney and Mott, has led to a fairly complete understanding of the mechanism of the photographic process, many factors enter in to prevent the establishment of a one-to-one, or other simple, relationship between silver grains and absorbed quanta. Thus the photographic plate cannot be used as a method of absolute measurement of radiation: like the part played by the eye in visual photometry, its role is that of a null instrument for the measurement of an unknown source of radiation by comparison with a known. In addition, and unlike the eye, it provides a permanent record of brightness variations, often over an extended field."

... ... he pauses and seems to be looking off into nowhere for a moment as if wondering where what he just said came from?

Then he turns to Jacob a little embarrassed he translates, "Er.. I can take a wide angle photograph of Center City from high above with the Dihiliator and some appropriate film.. and the dark splotches will indicate sections of radiation quanta."

"...but they will be inaccurate and cover whole neighborhoods, but.. 'may' narrow down the search?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:57, Fri 19 Mar 2021.

He nods.  Thanks for the lessonninnphotography.  Then we could use the Geiger counters....

Nimbus, after waiting uncertainly, slowly floats to the ground.  With a shrug, the glow fades, and a somewhat sheepish Derek Haas is left standing by the entrance to the LESP offices.  He waits, listening to the back and forth between TaoZen, Jacob, and Justicar.

With a shrug, Derek heads back inside to find more coffee.  This hero business seems a lot more complicated than he had realized.

He rubs his brow seeming a little fatigued suddenly... but replies, "Er, sorry... and Y-yes... theoretically we could...", as he walks over the the table a closes the lid of his laptop his back turned to the party.

"...I-I will need a little time to prepare.. but the Dihilator is at home.. I don't keep such expensive equipment here. But I could have it ready in ..maybe 20 minutes?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:52, Fri 19 Mar 2021.

There are terminals with internet access, actual telephones with dials, other phones with pushbuttons, and an IBM Selectric in various places in LESP. Apparently, the rest of the police department is using LESP as the place to send their obsolete equipment. It is notable that the personnel at LESP are more likely to get something out of this equipment, and are encouraged to try.
[Private to Tyger: A familiar voice on the other end of the phone breaks protocal by using both his name and the reduced form of her own that she had been forced to accept, "Baxter? This is Colonel Flagg. I'll be outside the building in the staff car. You need to talk to me before you or yours get involved with S-97.][Private to Lite Star: You do find a map online that, ironically, gives a one hundred mile radius circle next to the East Coast for scale purposes (see game map for group 0)]

Lu'kas was exiting the coffee shop when the message rang through on his phone.  Taking the time to sip at his coconut, macadamia nut, chocolate, caramel latte, he pondered on the fact that this backwards planet had such amazing things like LATTES.

Reviewing the message, he realized that he needed to get back to HQ in a hurry.  Concentrating to activate his flight ring, he rose 10 feet into the air, garnering many Ohs and Ahs from the people in immediate vicinity.  Just as he was preparing to take flight, he realized a very embarrassing bit of information.  He wasn't sure where the HQ was from his current location.

Landing, he decided to try what he had seen on many shows on TV. Raising his hand in the air, he shouted, Taxi!

Looking around perplexed, he wondered why no helpful yellow vehicle had not yet appeared.  Maybe he wasn't saying it loud enough? Or maybe it was because there were no taxis in the immediate area, as the coffee shop was in a walking section of town.

Either way, he had to figure out where to go.  So taking another sip of latte (Gods above, where did these humans learn to combine such flavors..., he headed off in what he had hopes was the right direction.

As they discuss the situation, Jacob looks around at everyone present.  Suddenly, he asks, Has anyone seen Volt?
He looks around, expecting to see negative responses.  How is it that that feline alien can find his way to the same coffee shop every morning for a latte, but he can not find his way here?  Maybe he should just live here full-time.  I'm thinking about it.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:48, Fri 19 Mar 2021.

Martin laughs in spite of the seriousness of the situation..

"I have not seen him, and I think that is one of those questions that has no answer..even if we were to ask him, I'd wager even he doesn't know"

Dani recognized the voice on the other end of the connection.  A simple, "Sir.  Of course, sir." escaped from her burgundy lips with a practiced curtness.  She scanned the road from her vantage point near the roof of the old firehouse that was ther LESP offices.  And then Tyger scanned the sidewalk directly below her for any errant foot traffic.  Then with a simple flourish, the lithe brunette went into a one-handed handstand before immediately tumbling over the metal railing and down to the cement at street level.  She was surprisingly light on her feet, and seemed to land without much trouble despite the distance covered,

Tucking her smartphone away, Chandani stood at the ready waiting curbside.  Her demeanor was only an affected casual, not quite as nonchalant as she might hope. But then the manner in which she'd arrived at the sidewalk had hardly been inconspicuous,  Still, battlesuits and flying armoured knights had just been hovering outside the building only a few minutes ago,.  So, who would have been concerned with a professional-level parkour artist practicing some of their moves near the LESP offices?

Tapping a finger lightly on the table surface for a few moments Lite Star was in deep thought.

"I've got an image of the sort of scale we are looking at that's under threat, but I think we can all visualize that.  We go on the idea that the bomb is within the city, so where would be likely.  They'd need a place that has visual cover to work and assemble the device, where comes and goings wouldn't seem out of the ordinary.  Also somewhere defendable, it is reasonable that they would be expecting an attack.  My mind leans towards a warehouse or storage area of the city, frequent traffic and large vehicles always coming and going.  What are other people's thoughts?"

She downloaded the scale map that had come up in the search onto one of the work stations so people could see it if they wanted.

(OOC: Map of eastern coast and 100 mile radius spot in the 'Game map' tab)

Justicar chimes in, "When I go out to take that cityscape wide angle picture with the Dihilator.. for radiation traces, I'll also take some wide angle visual shots as well to correlate with the radoliogical shots... that may help give us search areas to examine Lite Star and correlate with your maps.   Should only take me about an hour in total.  I think perhaps 6,000ft altitude should do the trick... I can also take multiple shots to cover the whole city and some suburban areas."
This message was last edited by the player at 11:54, Fri 19 Mar 2021.

Knowing we're not all as familiar with the geography as we should be, I checked. The bomb could be anywhere from Massachusetts to North Carolina and the involved area would still cover Center City.

Wandering back into the room with a coffee, Derek looks around, and then rather hesitantly, offers a thought.  "Um, gang?  Maybe we're going at this the wrong way.  Instead of trying to find the bomb, maybe we try and find the people?"  He looks around hopefully.  "I mean, I'm pretty new at all of this, but it's got to be easier to find one of a bunch of people, who have to get around and interact, than it is to find a hidden bomb?  Does anyone have any sources, or informants that might help?  People who deal in stolen weapons, or transport, anything like that?"

"Your right there.  And thats why we need as many brains on this as possible.  For one I don't have any contacts in that sort of field.  I can only hope that the information drop we get might have leads and indicators to what lead us to be activated here.  Or maybe if they have activated teams in all possible locations under threat.  It's still early on so scrabbling a little to get leads and any ideas to work on.  I'll admit that this has got me somewhat afraid right now.

Justicar picks up his laptop and turns to leave commenting, "...I believe someone already did a internet search on this terrorist group 'The Force', nothing came up.  Since the 'HSA' seems to want to play cat and mouse with critical data we need to even get started on the investigation.. we've really got no leads on the people behind this."

"My wide-angle radio-logical pictures will not tell us where the bomb is but may tell us if it might.. or might Not be in Center City.. possibly narrow down our search area.  But those pictures will certainly not cover the entire Massachusetts sea-board area ~ but its all I've got to go on.  I'm not Ex-Anything so I have no contacts in military.  Though Tyger may have some contacts she's been in and out trying to make calls not on the LESP trash lines setup in the base...go find her an ask how her investigation or contacts are panning out."

"I'm going to go take some pictures of Center City... be back in an hour... see what it shows.  My radio will stay open."

Closing his helmet, he walks out heading for the roof access his, now synthesized, voice remarking, +"Hold down the fort."+

At the roof he will set course for his mother's luxurious house in Center City and rocket jets sent him on his way across the skies..
This message was last edited by the player at 14:05, Fri 19 Mar 2021.

Jacob looks up suddenly, a stricken expression upon his face.  A hospital.  A hospital is an ideal choice.  Lots of activity, people constantly coming and going.  Trucks making deliveries of food, supplies, machinery and equipment.  And the radiology department would mask any other radiological signatures.  How many hospitals and clinics with radiology are there in Center City and the metropolitan area?  This can include dentist offices.

It took some for Danzo to see the message he received from the LESP channel. Forwarding the message all over the globe in separate parts asynchronously was a little bit paranoid maybe, but given the -very reasonable- attitude CCPD showed towards his civilian identity he didn't see any other option. He still needed a faster method of communication though.

He frowned as he read the message before deleting it. This was big. But it was not time for second thoughts. He was going to try his best, and he was going to die if it wasn't enough. It was the time for doing some good for people.

Danzo had recently moved to 2 buildings away to LESP building, so his commute could be short and hidden enough. It didn't matter how many security cams you disable, somebody is bound to see the weird guy wearing an Oni mask around. So best solution was to reduce his commute.

As he flashed his ID Card - not a badge, since he decided keep ties with the actual police force minimal - to the scanner on the door as he entered the building. People were already started to work on issue. He considered asking if any progress happened but he can get a briefing from the security records, no need to badger people.

"I apologise for being late. I am working on a better communication method. Unless you need a specific help from me, I am going to check security records to brief myself. There is no time to waste" said The Oni with an electronic voice.

In reply to Chimp Man Z (msg # 68):

"You're right, Jacob.  Hospital would be a logical target."

OOC:  So, dunno if these are the right skills, but Derek is going to use streetwise (rolls 79) to see if he knows anyone sketchy, and 71 Paramedic.  IIRC how this game works (it's been a looooooooong time), both fail (Streetwise 24 and Paramedic 65).

[Private to GM: The way this game works is the GM awards extra experience for rolling your skills and RPing the result of the rolls. You get 25 experience points.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:29, Fri 19 Mar 2021.

Due to the nature of the suits control, Lite Star actually shivered with the revaluation that Jacob had.  She shook her head.

"That is a frightening idea there Jacob.  Unfortunately it does indeed make sense."