Permavid

[governorkang]

Most of you have probably heard from news reports and the kidnapped imPorts that they are being held on a space shuttle.

[He snorts in a very inelegant manner.]

Bullshit.

It's a diversion; a common and long-used war tactic that I am very familiar with.

I believe it to be a trap to draw imPorts away from the US so that the Russians stand a better chance of attack. At the very least, it is an attempt to pull resources from where they are most needed.

[He shifts a few pieces of paper off-screen and continues.]

From my understanding of the current level of technology on this world, such a thing would take an enormous amount of resources. At least fifty people have been taken; they will, of course, need several guards as well. That requires a hell of a lot of food, water, and oxygen over several days. The Russians can't have their confiscated weapons dying on them, after all. [So, so dry.] I find it difficult to believe that a shuttle of the required size would escape attention for too long, or that the Russians would be willing to spend that much money when they can hold hostages elsewhere.

Where everyone is actually being held, or how they were taken in the first place, we unfortunately don't have enough information for yet.

[He's purposely leaving it open for others to add anything else they know.]

text;

[mathemagier]

There are things we need before we can even consider rescuing any of them.

Information, primarily speaking.

Now I don't care where it comes from or how it was obtained, I just need every scrap of information anyone has on this situation. Perhaps it's not much on an individual scale, but compiling everything into one source may grant us more insight.

I've gone ahead and created such a document, though it is locked down for security reasons- as all informative responses to this should be. I've granted some individuals access, and will continue to do so as I sort through responses. Everyone with access will have the ability to add their knowledge to it, as well as share the document with others. Moderately complex perhaps, but it's an attempt to keep the information leaks to a minimum.

There's not much there at the moment, as it only reflects my observations so far, but collaborative discussion of course is highly encouraged. I will store frequent back-up copies in case of error.


Hyperlink: Information.doc


((ooc: As the Gdoc is open to everyone, feel free to assume access- or don't, if you want your character to badger him about it instead.
Update: This post and the attached document are now under Qubit's qgeocrypt so that only devices inside the US will be able to access them. This means all captives have been locked out!))

mirrornet; text

[superposition]

IMPORTANT! Before you post, remember: The imPorts taken hostage have had their comm handsets confiscated, which puts our overall information security at risk. The Soviets may be able to view our communications, even on Mirrornet.

With that in mind, I've developed a geocryption algorithm that anyone can install and use on their handsets. Anything encrypted with this shouldn't be visible on devices outside the United States. You're welcome.

[Attached is the "qgeocrypt" executable. The remainder of the post is geocrypted using it.]

I think we can all agree, priority one is that we rescue the hostages. Breaking that task down gives us the following objectives -

A. Secure our lines of communication.
B. Locate and disable the Soviet Porter / "Lackey". If we don't do that, there's nothing to stop them continuing their "confiscations."
C. Locate the hostages. A number of people are fielding discussion on that already, but ultimately we need exact coordinates.
D. Disable or circumvent power nullification at hostage location.
E. Extract the hostages.
F. Don't start a global thermonuclear war in the process. The "war" part it's a bit late for, so we'll need to focus on the "global thermonuclear" part.

I propose we form a few small teams to handle each of these objectives. If you think your talents are well-suited to one or more of them, reply with your name, powers, and experience, and we'll go from there. And yes, experience is important here. I don't need to tell you a lot of lives are at stake. Failure's not an option we can afford.

I'll start.

Name: Qubit.
Powers: technokinesis, teleportals.
Experience: 4 years coordinating a large superhero team. Many more spent resolving high-stakes crises on various worlds, inc. supernova, hostage situations, and yes, wars.

((ooc: Full details on qgeocrypt are here! All it means is handsets outside the US (as defined in that comment) can't access geocrypted posts/comments. Nanites aren't included, so hostages can still see them unless other measures have been taken to keep them out. Sorry about any confusion!))

Voice

[bindsthedead]

I've been in contact with one of the hostages. As I'm sure you're aware by now, the Russians intend to 'confiscate' the rest of us- whether by the same method they captured the first group or some other method is unknown. [And there's something tense and angry in Sabriel's voice, but she forces it back.]

However! The hostages are in communication with the Russian AI LACKEY- and only that, since their guards aren't talkative. I'm making this post. There's no guarantee that LACKEY will answer all questions, or answer honestly, but if they keep it talking, they might learn something.

So I'm making this post to compile information about what we've learned about it so far, and questions that the hostages can ask it.