Operation 8 | [Video]

[orlokbutterfly]

[Private Action]

[Oh, how he never wanted to open a subarchway of his own... but, well, he had to break down and do it. With Ivina gone, easy access to what could be considered his secondary "blood" was gone, and he needed an alternative. With highly stressful situations meant burning through that source a lot faster, which was going to cripple him extremely quickly. Unfortunately, he had to swallow his pride and get it done. He gave up a memory of great importance for it, but... he was never going to see her here, and he'd rather stay alive. And carry out the other plan he'd been contemplating for a few months now. Orlok wasn't going to be his only alter ego for much longer.

He'd spent several hours in the newly opened Hiltraud subarchway in the middle of the night, decked out in his usual purple pilot gear. Thanks to his time with the Dulvik Organization (at least that group was good for something), he had easy access to a map of the city and its facilities on his visor's HUD. There was no doubt that he would potentially run into a few agents, but this wasn't the real Hiltraud, so it's not like he had anything to fear from the Organization here. He could mentally thank them, since they made not only the maps possible, but he knew of what they were making in that R&D department there. His two primary targets: lucemite crystals, and a holographic device that would allow him to change his appearance. Eichhorn would never release that to the public even if their very existence depended on it, so he had to get them the hard way. He was tempted to steal a Berkut-7 while he was there, but... he'll consider something for a joyride later. He'd always wanted to try one of those new-fangled fifth generation Alterna Frames.

Under the cover of night, with a few well timed 'power outages' here and there (courtesy of a little lightning magic), Gale had easily broken into the R&D facility and gotten to his target. Retinal scans weren't even a problem, all he had to do was whack some unsuspecting scientist and use their eyes to get through. After that it just came down to stealing that device and a bunch of crystal. And by a bunch... he means an entire container of them. He didn't like taking the raw crystals, but he wasn't gonna spend the extra time to see if there were already batches of them melted down. He can do that himself later - Genessia had enough facilities that he was sure he could find someone to melt them down for him.

Getting out was a little harder, but still relatively easy. Escaping came down to jumping out a window and using ice and wind magic to carry him to the ground safely. Escaping swarms of alerted soldiers? Not quite as easy, but still plenty easy thanks to a little extra magic. They could still barely see him though, and that's what he was banking on.

He'd spent five hours in that place, and it'd just get past the sixth by the time he rolled out of the subarchway and back into Nova City. Mission accomplished.]

[Video]

[The feed would come on and show Gale staring at his laptop screen with a poptart hanging out of his mouth while he focused on typing something. His eyes squinted at the screen before he reached up and took the poptart in hand, biting off a piece and glancing at the screen. If something looked closely, there seemed to be a plastic box of glittering rainbow colored crystals sitting beyond his laptop.]

Alright, so, I've got a couple inquiries to make here. For one, any of you technical geniuses got a voice changing device? Somethin' small, discreet, incredibly difficult if not impossible to discover? I need one for an upcoming bounty. If I don't have one, well, eh... it's gonna be a little more complicated than I'd like.

[Okay, so maybe he didn't need it for a bounty, but hey, no one needs to know what it's really for.]

Bonus points if you tech guys know anything about cybernetics 'cuz I think my metal bits are gonna need a tune up pretty soon, and my basic maintenance knowledge can only carry me so far.

Second, anyone know a place where I can get some crystals melted down? Weird request, but it's pretty important.

[He ponders a moment, before he faked an innocent expression as he glanced off towards the side.]

Oh, by the way... there's a new subarchway in Nova City? If any of you got any interest in goin' into it, bear in mind that they might be a little... on edge, shall we say.

After Life crew, I might be in late tonight. But I'm sure I can trust you guys to hold down the fort... right?

[That might be a menacing glare at the screen. You guys better not break things.]

Comments

Video

[lazyjustice]

Hmm... It seems to me you're about to do something sneaky and possibly illegal...

Video

[orlokbutterfly]

Were you listening? I said I'm a bounty hunter.

[He already accomplished the "sneaky and illegal" part.]

Plus I wouldn't advertise if I were up to something illegal. Unless crystal melting is against the law in some countries.

Video

[lazyjustice]

Ah... no I wasn't paying attention... [it doesn't mean he can't use it for some ill intent in the future] Do you find bounties lucrative?

Video

[orlokbutterfly]

[And he probably would if he had good reason to... but for now, he's got reasonably good enough intentions for everything.]

They're one of my best sources of income. Plus they keep things interesting for me 'round here.

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[lazyjustice]

Is this your normal habit back... wherever it is you come from?

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[orlokbutterfly]

You could say that. I was a mercenary pilot for the majority of my life at home. Seemed appropriate to carry on the 'mercenary' aspect here, especially with the crap that seems to constantly happen in this place.

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[lazyjustice]

Ahh mercenaries. [he's not a fan honestly] And if there was a formal military here...?

[alwaysimpaled]

I might be able to handle the crystal melting for ya, so long as we're not talking about ancient crystals of magical power or something. Ifrit and Agni should be able to generate more than enough heat for that.

[An amused sound comes from somewhere off screen which gets a disdainful look from Dante.]

Remember our agreement, Agni.

[orlokbutterfly]

[He leans back against the couch and laughs a bit.]

Well, that's a minor problem. 'cuz that's what they technically are.

[He reaches over and plucks one from the box, leaning back again and holding it up.]

These things are crystallized magic, one of the only remnants of magic from the ancient world back home. And are what keep me alive and running.

[alwaysimpaled]

Eh, bring 'em by anyway, and I'll see what I can do. Just so long as they don't blow up in my face, or else I'm charging you extra.

[orlokbutterfly]

[A scoff.]

Please. If it blows up in your face, then we break even for all the housing and pizza I supplied for you for so long.

[He grins a little.]

I'll only bring one crystal by for now since I'm a little paranoid about losin' these things. Where should I take 'em? I imagine not the Guardian's office since I can only imagine how he'd feel if his deputy blew the place up on accident.

[alwaysimpaled]

Yeah, bring 'em by my shop. The street is dead enough nobody will complain if there's a few explosions.

[orlokbutterfly]

Fair enough. I'll be sure to bring it around then.

[He stops for a few seconds, before finally quirking an eyebrow with a tilt of his head.]

... so yeah, where is this shop that I keep hearin' so much about?

[alwaysimpaled]

[Dante busies himself by digging through a closet next to his desk, before pulling out a pair of large ebon gauntlets.]

It's a subgate in Attleton, near the entrance. Just stick your head in every one you see until you see a strip club on the corner leading into a dead end street. And before you say it, yes, I have a private strip club in my gate, but no, nobody is working the poles.

Fuckin' rip-off if you ask me.

Video;

[theonewithsixeyes]

I can only wonder what you're hunting if you need something like that. Plan on changing your face too? [He chuckles, but eventually he sighs.] Well, I suppose I could help you out with that. Something like a voice modulator is easy for me, and technology is my specialty, in a way, so I think I could help you out.

Crystal melting is a whole different ballgame though. What're you after, world's biggest diamond on your necklace?

[Though he hadn't been around in a while, or at least, not active, he supposed Gale would at least still know his face. Hopefully.]

Video;

[orlokbutterfly]

Hey, haven't seen you around in a while.

[He'd recognize that white haired pretty boy anywhere.]

You could say that. [Because that's totally the intention.] What you make won't spontanteously turn into knives like you can though, will it? A voice changer wouldn't do me much good if it puts a blade through my throat.

[He chuckles a bit. He reached over and plucked one of the crystals out of the box to show it.]

Tempting though it may be, these things have a bit more importantance to me than simple jewelry. These things keep me alive, y'see.

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[theonewithsixeyes]

Yeah, I've... been keeping to myself for a bit. [He glances away while saying this, and while his smirk doesn't exactly become a frown, he isn't happy.]

At any rate, you won't need to worry about that from me. I'm not that mean, but if nothing else, I CAN put in some nifty functions you might find useful. All depends on what you need in a situation by situation basis.

Alive, huh? So you're on a battery, like I am. Your powers run on a liquid form of these crystals, then?

Video;

[orlokbutterfly]

Can't blame ya. Sometimes it's best to just sit out for a while. [This place was such a clusterfuck sometimes, they need the downtime.]

Glad to know I'm in the clear there. What kinda functions we talkin' though? Having more than one setting could prove useful in some way.

[He mainly just needed one, but it was certainly tempting to have other functions that could let him screw with people. If only a little.]

Exactly. I got this stuff, lucemite, in my veins alongside my regular ol' blood. But, sadly it doesn't renew itself like blood does so I need injections of new stuff sometimes. My levels get low, then it starts effectin' my ability to move. It sucks.

Video;

[theonewithsixeyes]

Well, it'd need to be something we tested in person but the whole idea of a voice modulator is to disguise your voice through pitch shifting or other means. For one you wear on your person, you'd provide subtle vibrations to the larynx in order to make it produce different sounds- different pitches, thus, different voices. It'll be awkward to get used to, but once it's in there you should at least be able to change the pitch so you can make multiple different voices if you need to, maybe setup a few presents. That's on you, though.

Hm. Do you know anything about the process they made to liquefy the Lucemite where you're from? I imagine it's a delicate process, I wouldn't want to go in screwing around just to figure out how it works and end up burning your whole supply.

[In reality, screwing around with Lucemite to learn it's properties was exactly what he wanted to do, but it wasn't his Lucemite nor did he have an unlimited supply, so he had to restrain himself. Maybe later down the line...]

Video;

[orlokbutterfly]

Ohhh, sounds handy. I can easily change my schedules so we can get some tests in. What would I owe ya for doin' it, anyway? Money? Free drinks at the club? I imagine you wouldn't do somethin' like that for free.

[He purses his lips, setting the crystal back with the rest before folding his arms.]

I've got a vague idea on how to do it, and it's not quite as delicate as you might think. If a reckless country like Eichhorn can do it, it's definitely not that hard. [He shrugs.] And worse case scenario, if I need to go back to Hiltraud to get extra crystals, then I'll do it. I'll have to do it again eventually anyway.

Video;

[theonewithsixeyes]

Don't worry about it. I just need something to do, I'm not expecting anything in return. At any rate, just tell me when you're free and I'll whip something else. It's easier for me to get free time toward the afternoon, since I work mornings and graveyard. I can take time off whenever though, if absolutely necessary.

Hmm...
Well, in that case, give me the run down when we meet up, and bring some of those crystals, and I'll see what I can do.

[video]

[mechanica]

Local tech genius at your service. Don't have anything like that currently but could make one pretty fast. What kind of bounty we talking? I could probably help with the cybernetic thing too.

[video]

[orlokbutterfly]

Can't go into too much detail, but it involves a bit of infiltration. Given my record of bounties in ths place, especially here in Nova City, I'm pretty sure I'd be found out pretty quick if I just strolled right in.

[He's lying through his teeth though. ... to an extent. Infiltration and info gathering is what he's really aiming for. For the greater good, of course.]

I'd definitely appreciate checkin' the cybernetics too, if you can. Can't say I'm a fan of lettin' people learn how I work, but I can't exactly get back to the guy who usually did my maintenance. Not that I'd want to.

[video]

[mechanica]

Understandable. I usually charge for this sort of thing but considering I offered instead of you approaching me I'll count it as practice for the future. When do you need it by?

[ Whatever. Tony lied all the time. ]

I can. Knowing how you work won't be a problem. I'll just conveniently forget about it unless you need help again.

[video]

[orlokbutterfly]

Soon as you're able. I'm not on a deadline. These chumps for the bounty don't move very fast.

[He's a little surprised that both Tony and Allen weren't going to charge him. But hey, that makes his life a little easier, and he's not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth. He'll offer free drinks though.]

Suits me fine. Don't suppose I could potentially set up an appointment soon? I'm kind of overdue for makin' sure everything major's in working order.

Name's Gale, by the way.