>>31982382
I'll manage data analysis

>>31982382
> "No, I'll manage the data analysis. It'll save time later on if we do this right."

>>31982382
>>"No, I'll manage the data analysis. It'll save time later on if we do this right."

>>31982382
>>"No, I'll manage the data analysis. It'll save time later on if we do this right."

>>31982382
"No, I'll manage the data analysis. It'll save time later on if we do this right."

"Have you ever actually done data analysis," M asks.

"Unless you're working entirely off hard copies, I'll manage," you say. "The basic principles of data mining should apply, and I've done plenty of that with TSF flight data. I'll just need your people to give me a summary of the variables involved."

"Very well, we'll stop at London then," M says. "We keep most of our records stored on computers to make them easier to access, but other industries monopolize software development, so our equipment is somewhat... inadequate."

In other words, most of the good programmers get funnelled into TSF development and intelligence gets whatever's left. It's a shame, but it's quite understandable. It takes a few million lines of code to prevent a TSF from crashing straight into the crowd. You could probably correlate whatever data MI5 picks up with a pen and a sheet of paper, if you really, really had to.

"I'll do what I can for now," you say. "We can talk about more permanent upgrades once things have settled down."

"I'll keep that in mind."

You have a long ride ahead of you to London. You can try and get some sleep, or you can make small talk with M.

>Get some sleep. You'll probably need it.
>Talk to M. She might have some interesting info.

>>31982851
> Talk to M. She might have some interesting info.

>>31982851
>>Talk to M. She might have some interesting info.

>>31982851
>>Talk to M. She might have some interesting info.

Considering how often she sends us into ludicrously dangerous situations, we know very little about her.

>>31982851
You weren't exactly overexerting yourself when you were spending time in a hot tub with three women and this isn't the first time you've got without sleep for a while. You don't have stimulants to keep you up, but you don't really need them either. Adrenaline works well enough on its own. You might as well try to get to know M better.

"How long have you need in this business anyway?"

"It will be forty years in a few months," she says. You're surprised she bothered to answer. "Long enough that I remember recruiting fascists for the Americans so we could fight communists."

"And now you're hiring Swiss mercenaries to fight American terrorists," you say.

"Switzerland is a well-respected brand," M says. "And this is just what the business is like. We betray each other at the first opportunity for the benefit of our homelands."

"Does that mean you're going to betray the Americans," you ask.

"Unfortunately, the Atlantic ocean makes that difficult," M says. "However, since the Russians have moved to Alaska, they and the Americans have been quite conveniently deadlocked. It makes my job much easier."

You spend the rest of the ride in silence. As you enter London, you're waved through a checkpoint and the car goes right to one of MI5's fronts. At this time of the night, the only traffic you encounter is military vehicles out on patrol, and they don't stop you.

The inside of the front is a disorderly, to put it mildly. You can only hope that the data inside the computers is better sorted out.

"You may consider our resources at your disposal," M says. "My people will assist you."

Time to get to work.

>(roll 1d20)

File: 1293129389073.jpg (139 KB, 600x423)

139 KB JPG

>>31982851

>Talk to M. She might have some interesting info.

Rolled 5

>>31983380

Rolled 2

>>31983380
Here we go.

Rolled 4

>>31983380

Rolled 15, 3 = 18

>>31983380

>>31983394
>>31983397
>>31983413
Well fuck.

>>31982851
>It takes a few million lines of code to prevent a TSF from crashing straight into the crowd.
Damn, and we ostensibly put together an updated OS in around a week?

Even accounting for macros and co-opting core functions from previous OSs, this is probably waaaay more work than one dude's capable of within the timeframe we had. Like, we could probably have used an extra couple months.

I'm glad we had Dodger and his AI Waifu looking it over in a supervisory capacity at the very least. ESPECIALLY the waifu. I could imagine a high-end AI would be very good at the sort of QC that a project with this short a timeframe would require.

>>31983394
>>31983397
>>31983413
This is going to be like trying to cook in someone else's kitchen, isn't it.

>>31983528
We also used pre-existing, easily modifiable OS as a base, and we had an AI helper.
These guys are probably using Windows 95 or something.

>>31983380
You sit down at a computer and get to work with M's staff. The equipment you're working with isn't state of the art, but it's passable. You combine the data you have no travel patterns from the States and live updates from air traffic controllers and port authorities to look for suspicious data.

It takes you several hours, but you find something off around Cornwall county. Several cargo ships that were supposed to make port didn't arrive and called in delays due to mechanical failure. Nothing urgent enough to request a tugboat, but enough to justify why they didn't arrive at the proper time.

"In all likelihood, those ships were fake," M says. "The terrorists must have submitted arrival data to multiple ports and then picked one at the last minute. That way, if any of their agents at one of the ports is caught, they can divert the device somewhere else."

"If they were that cautious, they might have other decoys," you say. "Some of the 'damaged ships' were supposed to arrive at the same port, so we can't use a process of elimination to find their destination either. Or this whole thing could be a deception and they actually flew the bomb in."

"No, they must be in Cornwall," M says. "They're most likely targeting our supply lines. Most of the food and weapons we receive from the Americans go through Cornwall, so if the ports are irradiated..."

"The European Union will starve," you finish for her.

"Nothing quite so drastic, but it will put immense pressure on us," M says. "The European parliament will most likely vote to forcibly deport refugees to America. The Americans don't want more refugees to take care of, but the refugee camps do provide a great deal of labour and soldiers."

And as a bonus, the European Union might be more inclined to support Alternative V if it doesn't think it can sustain itself any longer.

"To Cornwall, then," you say.

>"We should keep this quiet."
>"We should go in with full military force."

>>31983808
>>"We should keep this quiet."

>>31983808
> "We should keep this quiet."

>>31983808
>>"We should go in with full military force."

>>31983808
Let's keep this quiet

Y'all know that the best way to disable a nuke is to shoot it, right?

>>31983604
Even assuming we worked 18 hours a day and macros made the process 10x more efficient, that's still equivalent to around 4 months of concerted effort. And assuming around 3m lines of code for the OS, it'd have us parsing something like 40 lines of code per minute.

It's not entirely outside the realm of possibility, but still, pretty noteworthy.

Win95 had something like 15m lines of code.

>>31983808
>"We should keep this quiet."
If they see evidence of a full-scale operation, they may very well get spooked and try to set the whole damn thing off on the spot.

We don't really know where on the sabotage-to-suicide-bombing scale of terrorism these guys lie yet, so better not to take any risks.

File: 1358832758877.png (156 KB, 302x332)

156 KB PNG

>>31983808

>"We should keep this quiet."

>>31983808
"I suppose you'll want to keep this quiet," you say.

"Yes," M says. "The local authorities aren't equipped to handle this and military action would make it obvious that there was an information leak. The CIA must suspect that we have assets in their organization, but uncertainty remains our best ally. I don't want to confirm anything."

You follow M through the building and to the rooftop helipad where a helicopter is waiting for you.

"So... do you have any idea how we're going to find the bomb? Cornwall isn't exactly small."

"We know of several terrorist cells located in Cornwall that are assets of the CIA," M says. "We can also make an educated guess as to the bomb's location. Neither option is certain, but we have little else to work with."

>"Let's raid one of the terrorist cells. They might know something."
>"Let's go with our best guess. We don't have time for an interrogation."

>>31984332
>>"Let's raid one of the terrorist cells. They might know something."

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632 KB JPG

>>31984332

>"Let's go with our best guess. We don't have time for an interrogation."

>>31984332
>>"Let's raid one of the terrorist cells. They might know something."

>>31984332
> "Let's go with our best guess. We don't have time for an interrogation."

>>31984373
>Valkylies

Never change, Japan.

>>31984332
>>"Let's raid one of the terrorist cells. They might know something."
Is there any reason we wouldn't be able to post someone to covertly stake out our best guess? If something goes wrong while raiding a smaller cell and they decide that their location is compromised, if we guessed right we'll have someone on-site to confirm that they're moving the bomb elsewhere.

>>31984332
Hitting one of the terrorist cells will take time, but recovering from your guess if you're wrong is also going to take time. In this situation, you might as well go for the actionable intel instead of just crossing your fingers.

"Let's raid one of the terrorist cells," you say. "They might know something."

"It won't be easy," M warns as you both board the helicopter. "However, the terrorists must have some local support to bring the bomb into the country. The terrorist cells must know something."

The helicopter lifts up and carries you over London and then over the countryside towards Cornwall. After a while, you strike up a conversation with M.

"What are the targets?"

"We have three," M says "One of them is just a group of hooligans; children with rich parents and too much boredom who fell in with Allegiance after the attack at Cranwell."

"So they're a bunch of imbeciles who have no idea what they're doing," you say. "How does that help us?"

"As I said, they have money and money can be very useful," M says. "If anyone was bribed, it was most likely by them. We believe they also act as couriers."

"Who else is there?"

>(cont.)

>>31984938
"The second potential target is a smuggling ring," M says. "They ship in cocaine from Columbia. The CIA wants to use them to control Britain's drug market. In reality, the drugs are funnelled directly to our assets and disposed of. We fabricate some news stories of drug-addled debauchery every now and then to maintain appearances."

So if anyone knows who's smuggling a nuclear bomb into England, it would be them.

"And the last target?"

"A CIA case officer," M says. "He's the handler of the other two groups I mentioned. He works for an American shipping company, but it's non-official cover. The Americans won't be pleased if we intercept him, but they won't protect him."

That's when you realize this isn't just about interrogating someone; there's a definite hierarchy at work here. The hooligans probably don't know much, but it won't raise any eyebrows if they're taken out. On the other hand, if you go for the CIA case officer, it'll be an act of covert war. The CIA won't do anything official about it, but they won't let it slide either. The smugglers are probably somewhere in the middle.

>"Let's hit the hooligans."
>"We'll talk to the smugglers."
>"We need to make a point. Let's go for the CIA handler."

>>31984972
>>"We need to make a point. Let's go for the CIA handler."

File: 1359668389341.jpg (2.61 MB, 5000x2603)

2.61 MB JPG

>>31984972

>"We'll talk to the smugglers."

>>31984972
> "We'll talk to the smugglers."

>>31984972
>>"We need to make a point. Let's go for the CIA handler."

Fuck these guys. They kill our waifus in another timeline.

>>31984972
>>"We'll talk to the smugglers."
Escalating things is going to risk exposing the asset MI5 has imbedded (one they're willing to try and keep undercover even in the face of a possible nuclear weapons attack), and an op where we're only somewhat sure that we'll be able to get actionable intel related to the bomb is risky and a possible waste of valuable time.

>>31985162
And we're already running around in a stolen American prototype TSF. Better not risk it.

>>31985174
They're trying to nuke us. I'm not sure relations can really get much worse.

>>31985308
They're trying to nuke Cornwall.

If things get worse, they'll try to nuke us personally.

>>31985384
They still have to pretend remember. If they get overt at any point in time the entire world turns on them.

>>31984972
You doubt the hooligans know anything useful and going straight for a case officer would escalate things more than you'd like. That makes the smugglers your best option. Besides, they're smugglers. They'll probably help you out for a few quids and they most definitely won't be willing to die in a nuclear holocaust for their cause.

"Let's see the smugglers," you say. "It's a low risk and high reward scenario."

"I'll make the arrangements," M says. "A team will be waiting for us once we get there."

By the time the helicopter lands in Cornwall, the sun is already rising. You're finally starting to feel the fatigue, but anticipation keeps you awake. There's a fight coming and now isn't the time to relax.

You disembark from the helicopter and hop into a rusted old car.

"I'm not going to lie, I was expecting an Aston Martin," you say.

"Then you can ask your parents to share their Nazi gold," M says as she takes the driver's seat.

Does everybody know about that gold?

M drives into a city and parks outside a pub. You have no idea why a pub would be open at this hour, but then you walk in and see the place is filled with men and women armed with assault rifles.

"This is the assault team," M says. "The smugglers are right across the street from this building. We're attacking their hideout from here."

The team gets into position. You grab a sidearm and a few smoke grenades for support. You're not trained or equipped to dive right into this situation.

>(roll 2d20)

Rolled 14, 2 = 16

>>31985599

Rolled 11, 2 = 13

>>31985599
Rolling.

Rolled 16, 4 = 20

>>31985599

>>31985612
>>31985621
>>31985657
Whatever that second die was for was not meant to be.

>>31985612
>>31985621
>>31985657

Not a disaster, but damn.

>>31985599
Rolling...

Rolled 5

>>31985684
Rolling for real...

>>31985599
With no traffic or witnesses to get in the way, the team rushes out of the fake pub and breaches the building's main entrance and the pair of front windows. It didn't even take them thirty seconds. You rush in after them, but the most you do is stay out of their way. M follows leisurely behind you. By the time she enters the building, the smugglers have been neutralized, handcuffed and dragged into the living room. They clearly aren't interested in resisting.

Ignoring the mess made by the infiltration team, M sits on the couch while you stand next to her.

"Gentlemen, we believe you have been hired by a terrorist organization called Allegiance to smuggle something into the country," M says. "We want to know where that something is."

"Listen, ma'am," one of the smugglers - presumably the leader - says. "We know how this business works. We know the risks. We know you won't shoot us over this, we have absolutely no problem going to prison. It's better than having a reputation for failing. If we turn on one of our clients, we turn on all of them. Can't have that, can we?"

>Intimidate them. One way or the other, prison isn't what you have in mind for them.
>Bribe them. MI5 is their biggest client anyway, they just don't know it.
>You don't need to talk to them. You can see their computer in the next room.

>>31985867
>>You don't need to talk to them. You can see their computer in the next room.

File: 1294945641606.jpg (1.58 MB, 1953x2930)

1.58 MB JPG

>>31985867

>You don't need to talk to them. You can see their computer in the next room.

>>31985867
> You don't need to talk to them. You can see their computer in the next room.

>>31985867
... we could always just make it look like a robbery gone bad and kill them all.

>>31985867
>>You don't need to talk to them. You can see their computer in the next room.

Let M do her intimidation thing, she seems to be pretty good at it.

>>31986005
This though a passing mention that terrorists smuggling nuclear armaments don't always reach prison, sometimes they fall down some stairs first.

>>31985867
"Ma'am, I'll let you sort your business with these gentlemen out," you say. "I'll look through their computers in the meantime."

The smugglers protest a bit until they get kicked in the kidney or ribs.

You walk into the next room and boot up their computer. You didn't bring any of your high-end equipment, but the smugglers don't exactly look like geniuses. You doubt their computer security is all that impressive.

You crack your knuckles and get to work.

>(roll 1d20)

Rolled 16

>>31986210

Rolled 14

>>31986210

Rolled 9

>>31986210

>>31986242
>>31986248
>>31986258
Best rolls so far.

>>31986414
don't worry, we'll critically fail when disarming the bomb

>>31986210
You open up a spreadsheet and obtain a full list of all the smugglers' jobs throughout all of 1999. This is by far the easiest hack you've ever had to do.

You find one shipment which is disproportionately heavy compared to the others - it seems the smugglers charge by the pound - and which just made port a few hours ago. Except the smugglers are currently in their hideout, so they're obviously not escorting the shipment anymore. The bomb has been delivered and is in the terrorist's hands.

The smugglers delivered the package to a truck labelled Yellow Path Shipping Inc., but they don't have any information on the truck's destination. It must not have been part of their job.

You go return to the living room and get close to M to have a private conversation with her.

"The bomb is in a truck owned by the Yellow Path Shipping company," you whisper. "The destination is unknown, but I know the port where it was delivered."

"Excellent work," M says. "Let's go back to the pub. We have some computer equipment you can use."

M leads you back across the street and into the pub's basement, which is filled with computers from wall to wall. M points you to one of them.

"You can use that one. Tell me once you've found something. I'll get a helicopter ready."

>Access the port's security cameras to find out where the truck was headed. It'll be easier, but you'll take more time since you'll need to track the truck.
>Access the traffic cameras to find out if the truck went by any nearby towns. It'll be harder, but you'll immediately know where the truck went.

>>31986484
>>Access the traffic cameras to find out if the truck went by any nearby towns. It'll be harder, but you'll immediately know where the truck went.

>>31986484
>>Access the traffic cameras to find out if the truck went by any nearby towns. It'll be harder, but you'll immediately know where the truck went.

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>>31986484

>Access the port's security cameras to find out where the truck was headed. It'll be easier, but you'll take more time since you'll need to track the truck.

>>31986484
Time is of the essence. You can start with the port and hopefully track the truck's movements, or you can rotate through traffic cameras and hope you get lucky. Right now, you're feeling lucky.

You pull up the camera feeds for just about every city in the port's general area and look for the delivery truck.

>(roll 1d20)

Rolled 17

>>31986831

Rolled 17

>>31986831

Rolled 20

>>31986831
Here we go,

>>31986884
>>31986877
>>31986850

The dice gods have spoken. The bomb WILL be found.

>>31986850
>>31986877
>>31986884
Well, we found the shit out of that truck.

>>31986831
You quickly find a camera with a perfect angle on the delivery truck. It's parked right outside a crowded coffee shop and you can even see the street signs of the nearby intersection. It looks like the terrorists are all on break, as the truck seems empty. You call M over to report your findings. She excuses herself for a moment to make a call.

Approximately one minute after M leaves, you see the crowd of police officers in the coffee shop pull their guns on the terrorists.

They won't be going anywhere any time soon, but you still need to deal with the bomb.

"The helicopter is waiting for us on the roof," she says. "Let's hurry."

You follow M back to the helicopter and get in. On your way there, you have a look at your inventory.

You have a Swiss army knife.

And your clothes.

"Will you require anything else," M asks.

"I doubt it," you say. "It's not like a bomb squad vest will do me any good. I'll just have to improvise."

The helicopter ride is thankfully short this time. The terrorists didn't have time to get far before they decided to stop for breakfast.

The helicopter lands away from the police cordon. There's a small crowd of hangers-on, but they're quickly dispersed and M escorts you to the delivery truck. You open the back and look inside.

Yeah. That's a nuclear bomb.

>Disarm the bomb. It might be useful later.
>Disable the bomb completely. You don't want to take any chances.

Rolled 15

>>31987158
>>Disarm the bomb. It might be useful later.

>>31987158
> Disarm the bomb. It might be useful later.

File: 1299986019823.jpg (303 KB, 950x629)

303 KB JPG

>>31987158

>Disable the bomb completely. You don't want to take any chances.

>>31987158
>Disarm the bomb. It might be useful later.

>>31987158
>>Disarm the bomb. It might be useful later.

Like sending to langley

>>31987158
With prudent use of your trusty Swiss army knife and some brute strength, you open up the bomb's outer casing to access the primary device at the front and the arming controls at the back. You don't know much about the actual physics of nuclear explosions, but the engineering of the bomb itself is quite simple.

Nuclear weapons aren't exactly easy to come by, so you decide to disarm the bomb without doing any permanent damage to it. You might find it useful later on.

>(roll 1d20)

Rolled 14

>>31987506

Rolled 13

>>31987506

>>31987506

Rolled 8

>>31987506

>>31987541
I'm sorry.

>>31987517
>>31987532
>>31987576
On the bright side, we're probably not dying in a nuclear fireball.

>>31987506
The altimeter fuse control is disabled, which is to be expected. If it was still active, the bomb would have exploded back in the States. The terrorists were probably planning on triggering it manually.

You switch all the arming controls off and disconnect the electrical detonators in the primary device. There's no way the device will go off now, but it'll be easy to plug everything back in and arm the bomb again.

You step out of the truck.

"The bomb is disarmed for now, but still viable in case you need it for something," you say. "Is there anything else?"

"No, that will be all for now," M says. "Congratulations on a job well done, Flight lieutenant Reber."

>>31987761
MISSION REPORT:
- Richard Hall survived. (1XP)
- Julian Reber Survived. (1XP)
- Located terrorist target. (1XP)
- Raided smuggling operation. (1XP)
- Located the bomb. (1XP)
- Disarmed the nuclear bomb. (1XP)
- Salvaged the nuclear bomb. (1XP)
- Total: 7XP

NOTES:
- The nuclear device was located and disabled, saving thousands of lives as well as the future of the European Union.
- The nuclear device was left mostly intact. It may prove useful in future operations.
- The CIA will know that its assets in the United Kingdom were compromised, but will not be inclined to escalate the situation in the immediate future.
- MI5's asset in the CIA was not compromised.

CHARACTER STATUS:
Julian Reber (Main Character)
Level 8 (21/80XP)
Skills: TSF Piloting, Gunnery, Melee, Engineering, Computers
Resources: Budget 2, Connections 7 (Cerberus Battalion, Swiss Government, RAF, Crusaders, MI5, British nobility, Cherno battalion), Gear 5, Personnel 1, Rank 2

>>31987761
Promotions!

>>31987782
And that's it for today. Next thread will be Sunday at 7PM EST.

'Night folks.

>>31987834
Thanks for running man. Great thread as always.

See you next time.

>>31987834
Thanks for running.