Iron Stars - titus-cooke

Titus Cooke awakens in their small family home in The Glittering City. The home is close to the walls in one of the more humble neighborhoods of the city, and from here the guards on the city walls can often be seen patrolling. Many wave to the packs of children that play in the streets or throw sweets down to the kids on holidays. The source of the awakening is a compad message. It pings quietly, letting Titus know of its presence. In a moment it will ping again as a reminder, and will do so every moment until the message is answered. Outside the first rays of post rainstorm sunshine begin breaking through the early morning gray clouds, and the laughter of those kids playing in the street nearby bounces off the surrounding buildings. The automated coffee pot and the repeated broadcast of Galnet All Sector News begins playing in the other room, as it does every morning. The compad pings again quietly, the reminder, as scheduled.

11:36 AM

@Titus Cooke ( just so you know where your thread is. No need to ping on reply, any new text shows up in here) (edited)

Titus sits up in bed slowly, running a hand down his face as his compad pings repeatedly. He glances over it, seeing the small blinking light that indicates to him he has something to attend to. He gets out of bed, getting dressed and glancing out through the window. The fact that he can hear children only tells him that he's woken up later than usual, but he supposed he could give himself some slack. He ran his hand down his face, thinking about how much longer this was going to be. Titus was still living with his mother, father and siblings, the same as most from peasant families, even those in the security forces. Soon, he was hoping that would change. He'd have enough money and resources to live on his own, and take care of his family for the rest of their lives. Still, if he wanted to get there he'd have to get on and work for it, so he picked up his compad and answered the message, ready to listen.

Titus Cooke. You have been called by the Elected Monarchy as part of a special levee to investigate the Redvine Gang. It has come to our attention that you  may have some first hand knowledge of the leadership of the Gang and your insights could be valuable to our investigation .You are required to attend a briefing at the Glittering City House of Justice tonight at 6pm. Your Levee will be of indeterminate length, but is expected to last a minimum of three weeks. 

A special fund has been established and those called in this levee will be paid from it. Families of those deceased in service will be paid from this fund, along with the customary survivors pension from the office of the Monarch.

Titus tried not to grit his teeth as he read that first sentence. Why wasn't he surprised that this was about that? He'd already decided that he was going to take down Leo's little enterprise one way or another, but he hadn't expected to be called for this so soon. Well, at least it was an opportunity. If he had one, he had to take a hold of it. He spent time collating what information he had on Leo, about their time in the military together and other people that he knew and likely would've stayed connected with after their experiences, who may have still been working with him. Soon, he made his way to the House of Justice, following the instructions given in the message to ensure that he arrived at the briefing froom at 6PM sharp, just eager to get things underway.

The House of Justice is an imposing structure in the center of the city that looks somewhat like a large cathedral, but also a fortress with its tall towers and anti air guns dormant, but ready to wake up at any second to defend the city if needed. Several of the Town Watch are out front, departing for a foot patrol as you arrive. Each of the offers wish you good evening as you ascend the wide stone steps and make your way to the front desk. A bored looking officer is typing absent mindedly at the computer, putting reports in from a stack of papers on the desk, separated from the public by thick armorglass and a speaker.

Titus always took a moment to look up at the House of Justice whenever he saw it. Often, he was just passing by; it had been a while since his last call to service, and he had little cause to go inside since then. He knew one day that this would come, though. He gives a polite nod of acknowledgement to some of the officers of the Town Watch, walking inside and at first standing quietly at the front desk. Titus eventually realises the man sitting there is focused on his work and quietly clears his throat, trying to get attention before he speaks. "Titus Cooke, I've been called for a special levee. I was asked to be here for a briefing at exactly 18:00?" His experience in the military, as roughshod as it was compared to some other places, was obvious in how he spoke and stood.

2:23 PM

(Also, I had realised that I don't have XP values set for my goals, is that something I just leave until later? I had meant to ask earlier)

(its something I set, I go through sheets once every couple weeks and assign XP to goals. You also get mission XP for completing missions, so personal goals arent the only way to level)

10:28 AM

(I did yours now though, two of them are just part of regular gameplay and you'd get mission Xp for them, so I set those to 0, not really bonus xp worthy, the others are great though, and you can add more anytime)

10:32 AM

"Yes, you're expected. The Magistrate and a representative from the House of Jewels are expecting you" You're led from this reception area up a broad set of stone and metal stairs to a conference room. There are two security troopers outside serving as body guards. The assistant knocks twice before you are let in. "Titus Cooke, reporting" She says, bowing a half bow before ushering you in and closing the door. Both of the representatives here nod once, politely, inviting you to take a seat and pour yourself a glass of water . "We understand you have some personal experience with the Redvine family" The house of Jewels representative says after a moment of allowing you to get settled. "We've read the reports from your previous levee, but we'd like to hear it in your own words"

The House of Jewels? Titus hadn't expected someone so important to be involved with this. Maybe the 'gang', even if they were probably too prevalent to be called that now had reached even farther than he'd expected. He followed the officer up the stairs, nodding politely to her as he was ushered into the room. He sat down across from the representatives, not taking a drink. A brief nod came from Titus at asking about his personal experience, and he cleared his throat before explaining more. "Alright. Myself and Leo Redvine served together during my previous levee. Same unit, and even same squad. I knew him, and our relationship was cordial enough. He was wounded during the incident I mentioned in my reports. Leo has a talent with people, so he made a lot of friends within the unit as a whole. After coming back from our levee, it's my understanding that he contacted many of his former friends to offer them work, though he never contacted me. Whether or not the work started off as legitimate, I'm not sure, but now, a lot of those people, with military training and experience are working as part of his organisation." Titus cleared his throat again, feeling a little uncomfortable now that he was expressing it all, and the connection between them. The idea that he'd saved Leo's life only for him to do this didn't sit well with him, and he finally took a sip of that glass of water.

"You did the right thing at the time- saving him" the Justice says, reviewing the reports. "But the future is a spiderweb, and this is the possibility that has played out. We need to put this genie back in the bottle, and we're assembling a task force to identify and disrupt Redvine operations. Ideally we'd like to do this with as minimal bloodshed as possible but I understand that they might not give you the ability to decide that. If you need to shoot in self defense, or to save your life, or the lives of those working with you, it is justified. We're viewing the investigation in a few different phases, recon to identify gang operations, and then a tactical phase where we sweep them. Preferably, we'd like to hit many sites simultaneously, calling up the levee to do so at the last possible moment, we can't be entirely certain that the security forces haven't been compromised, and we don't want them to have advanced warning that a raid is coming"

"Yeah." Titus responded only briefly to the Justice's reassurance; he knew that it was right, but it didn't mean he could ignore the regrets that it gave him. He listened quietly as the plan was laid out before him, describing it as having two phases. He wasn't sure that the Redvines would let this thing end in anything except bloodshed, but he held out hope. There was a nod shortly after as Titus mulled over the plan, about how they could approach this. "Alright. Whatever you need me to do, I'll gladly carry that out. I'll try to pick up a sidearm in the meantime. I still have my rifle from my service, but it's not exactly subtle, and even if just doing recon, I feel it's better that I'm armed. Leo's probably cagey, and if he still has those trained men under his command, they'll shoot first as an instinct just on suspicion."

11:04 AM

(I assume I can probably pick one of those/ammo up just by spending the starting money I have, too)

(Any Enc 1 weapon would be a sidearm. TL5 weapons don't exist in our setting aside from the shear rifle, but that is 2 handed anyway. Our rulebook also has a couple enc 1 weapons, such as the Tempest if you're looking at a laser smg , just let me know what you're picking up)

(I was just thinking of picking up a Semi-Auto Pistol and spare ammo since that's all I could afford at the moment)

(sounds good to me, you can set your combat rifle to O for other,since you own it, but you're not taking it with you. that way you're not burdened with the encumberance )

"You would know them better. We're not asking you to put your life on the line more than this is already going to present a danger to you, For now, recon, identify the sites they're using and what they're doing, and we'll work out a plan to sweep them up from there. If successful, there is a place of honor waiting for you in the polity, and in the office of the Monarchy"

Titus listened, his ears slightly perking at the idea of a place of honour. In the polity, and office of the Monarchy? What did that mean for him? He knew it wasn't something they'd give away just by him asking, so he didn't bother. Instead, he gave a solemn nod, dutiful as ever. "Understood. If there's nothing else you need of me, I'll get on this ASAP."

"You're dismissed. Your compad will have both of our communication frequencies on it. We'll check up on you in a few days if we have not heard anything. For now, observe and document. We will plan our next moves when the full picture of the Redvine operation becomes known. "

"Understood." Titus stood, instinctively gave a salute and walked out of the meeting room. He picked up a low-key sidearm from the House of Justice and walked out, planning what was next. He knew Leo's old neighbourhood, and the areas that some of the previous members of his unit used to live in. These were areas they knew like the back of their hands, and would be the first targets for any protection rackets, smuggling or other forms of organised crime. Some locals would be bribed or kept happy to keep them in line, others would be intimidated. Titus' initial plan was simple; he'd get himself a room in the area of one of the Lieutenants and from there, he'd watch, take note of movements, try to spot irregularities or who seemed most likely to be involved. With luck, he'd get a lead, or one of the locals would try and rat him out. He could handle himself if it came to that, but hopefully not.

(would you be aslking the neighbors for leads, or just walking through the neighborhood and observing? )

1:22 PM

(trying to figure out how tro move this forward)

(He'd be observing, then once he gets an idea of a place maybe being associated he'll try to get a room and spy on them from there)

(notice/wis , let me know if you need a hand with rolling the skill checks and I can explain further)

Titus Cooke

used /roll

Titus Cooke Request: [2d6+0] Roll: [2, 1] Result: 3 Reason: Notice/WIS

(oof)

Walking through the neighborhood, if the Redvine gang are active here they have hidden their operations well. You don't see any obvious signs of lookouts, of any sort of patterned traffic, and if there are guards anywhere they are well trained and don't look different than normal patrons just enjoying whichever businesses are on this stretch of city road. You begin moving toward the nearby Monarch's Magestic Motel, a clean but outdated building in the middle of this stretch of busy street.

Inside, there is a woman behind the front desk polishing a few of the heavy brass keys that belong to each room. She looks up from her work as you enter the building and smiles.