Friday 16 October 2015

Yet Another Day in the Block - Part 4 (A First Law: Override short story)

Hours stretched on as Tannus bid his time. The first day after arriving he had kept his head down, ensuring to avoid contact with any of his peers or senior operatives. The second day however this would not have been possible.

The call came in from his handler, instructions to meet in order for a full debrief of his investigation on Honos. The debriefing room was on eastern side of his current suit block, and that would not do. Claiming a case of G-Sickness Tannus insisted that the location for debriefing was much closer to his suit. This was a total lie of course, Tannus was at the peak of Hydan health and it was almost unheard of for a Wraith to suffer from an illness. That said, it was acknowledged that the Bastion's Gravity was mildly different to that of Honos, and such a change could bring about a temporary illness that was not too dissimilar to fatigue and was colloquially known as G-Sickness.

For this reason the debriefing room was moved to the next closest suit available, one that as luck would have it was on the western side of the suit-block and located adjacent to the level's server connection. Tannus didn't like to congratulate himself very often, but even he had to admit that these series of events were wonderfully orchestrated by himself.

Tannus had arrived to the debriefing early and had made a bee-line towards the server port. It was no bigger than a digi-pad and was mounted into the wall opposite the debriefing room. With little more than a flick of the wrist he had been able to apply an amplifier onto the device. He knew this would be discovered in time, and when it was it would undoubtedly be traced back to him, but with hope he would have his information and be back on his way to Honos by then.

The debriefing itself was non eventful. His handler, a Hydan no more than a hatchling, was explaining why the data they had recovered from the Red Claw was vital in putting a stop to any further attacks by the terror group against the Accord. Tannus knew this to be nonsense, they hadn't recovered anything and the Shock Drives they had managed to obtain were nothing more than duds. None the less Tannus played along, agreeing and nodding at all the right moments while shaking his head and looking shocked at the updates he was given about further attacks that the Accord had received at Reaver hands since his assignment had commenced. Many of these attacks he had seen himself with his own eyes, he knew all too well that the reports had been exaggerated, that hundreds murdered in reality meant some incapacitated but he smiled and nodded all the same ensuring to keep an eye on the time.

Once his debrief was concluded Tannus left the suit and returned to his own. He was now on his own time. Usually between operations this time could last for anything between a day or two to a couple of months, but it was always unreliable and for this reason Tannus knew he would need to act swiftly. As it currently stood he would raise enough suspicions returning to Honos on his own choosing, but doing so when he is supposed to be on an operation elsewhere would be even worse.

From his small suit Tannus sat with his terminal, a direct connection to the bug-feed was streaming information directly to him from the Bastion's central server. It had been easy for Tannus to access the DNA database, easier than he had thought which in itself was a concern. So he sat at his terminal with lines and lines of data streaming in front of his eyes. This wasn't needed of course, he was running his own algorithm to scan for the correct information and alert him when it was found but all the same, with the ease of how this subterfuge was going he wanted to keep an eye of everything at every stage of the scan.

It was early the next morning when the terminal chirped it's notification sound, the scan had completed with a single match to the noted DNA strand, before Tannus' own eyes a full profile was displayed:

Name: Turen Kopa
Race: Hydan
Gender: Male
Age: 78 (Hydan), 23 (Human)
Last Known Address: Region 682, The Block, Badlands, Honos

The report continued, it talked of known affiliations, height, weight, eye colour and everything in between. Tannus read everything including the description of the Hydan's gang activity. It appeared that this Hydan had left the Bastion when he was just a juvenile. He had travelled across the Outer Fringe with numerous pirates and traders before settling in the Block on Honos. In the space of a few years he had managed to move through membership of three gangs, first the Yellow Doves, then the Bishops before finally settling down for the past three years with the Trydan.

Tannus knew that this information would have serious ramifications. He racked his head as he tried to assess the situation but he came up with nothing shy of more questions; why were the Trydan trying to frame the Red Claw? They were allies after all, but perhaps even more importantly, why were the Wraiths trying to cover this up?

With a reluctant groan Tannus stood from his seated perch and stretched before reaching for his coat. Less than three days after returning to the Bastion he was going to have to leave for Honos and the filth hole known as The Block, but at least he now had not just a name but also an affiliated organisation, the Trydan were a bitter smear on Hydan history and he would take great pleasure in putting an end to whatever they were planning, with or without the support of the Wraiths.

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And so ends Part 4 of Yet Another Day in the Block.

Hope you like where it's going so far. I want to get this story out into the public forum before the next public release of the rulebook, this is largely due to me writing short-ish biographies for all of the named Merc Characters so that they are more than just a series of names and stats on a table.

The aim and reason for this is due to my desire to fill out more of Tannus' character. Yes he is a Hydan Wraith, but he is hireable by any non-Kratel Accord force, why is that? If the Wraiths are so secretive would it not be unheard of one of their number to work with other groups? With the events of these stories you see the story of the character as he explores what it means to be a Wraith and that sometimes being a true operative means breaking the laws you are sworn to protect.

There's still quite a bit left to tell in Tannus' story. We now know that he is searching for a Hydan, however the Hydan in question is a gang runner, including a current affiliation with the Trydan (I contemplated using a different Block Gang, but figured it would also give me an opportunity to explore more about them beyond what we saw in the story Wetware, however as they were quite major players in Wetware, I do think we saw a good amount of them).

Ultimately I did want to write a lot more about the Hydan. I think that through the story of Wetware we covered a lot of what it means to be a UEF citizen, what the deal is with the Raiders and Ghosts, and also gave a very 2D impression of the Trydan. Through Bal'Tek's story and the biographies (yet to be released) for Bal'Tek and Ekta Tramn we are covering some important aspects behind the Red Claw and the Kratel (including a nice sneak peek into the Imperial Regime Propaganda-Machine) but the Hydan and the Wraiths are still quite vague in terms of understanding. I hope that this story added to Tannus' biography will go part of the way to fixing that.

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As an aside, compiling the lore/fluff book is proving awkward - especially when I factor in my hobby pledge (which is looking unlikely to meet in the 2 weeks I have put aside, may need to extend to 3 or even 4 weeks). This is why I am posting the stories here. It's important to me that they are released, and even if it's mind splurges on my blog, that is better than the alternative that was currently presenting itself.

Anywho; until next time - stay safe and be excellent to each other!

- Your friendly neighbourhood Doctor Loxley

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