Goodknight - A Text Adventure Thread

[Necrontyr1998]

I agree with lizzie but with different reasons.

The man is old and won't live long to suffer his daughters death to the full extent, whereas the child will be traumatised for life (especially if we somehow let her see him die). Sure that could breed anger in her and people around her but if we're going for psychological damage this would be the way to do it.
Or maybe we could disable her.

Edit: Reading this over - Holy Crap I Sound Like A Bloody Serial Killer 0.0

[Anna]

"For the record, killing the daughter isn't only intended for traumatising the target, but also to make an example of what happens to people who betray the Raztoran Syndicate." Hannah says, and you nod in response, looking thoughtful.

You're still uncertain how you feel about killing. Some, perhaps vestigial part of your human sense of ethics finds it distasteful, but another part of you accepts and even embraces it as a natural part of who you are. You're left with more questions than answers about your own desires, and suppose you'll learn as you go.

"I do have questions, Hannah." You say, "Several, really."

She smiles, "That's expected. Go ahead."

"What equipment do I have access to?" You ask.

"Well, aside from your inbuilt functionality, you have a credit line which you can use to make everyday purchases, and you have another line of Syndicate Credit which you can use to purchase various upgrades to yourself if you desire them. Excluding that, you have everything in your apartment."

You nod, looking through you apartment casually, with Hannah appearing in the right field of your vision no matter how you move about. There are some small arms and weapons, but you doubt you'll be very reliant upon them. Not really your style. There's also a top-of-the-line computer with access to the Net, a very large wardrobe filled with modulated clothing, allowing for a single outfit to be alter its shape, colour and style to a fairly significant degree. There's also a device which allows for limited recon through walls, allowing you to see and hear things occuring on the other side, though it's not a subtle piece of equipment and wearing it would draw attention if you were saw.

"Alright, does Graff have any vices or hobbies?" You ask.

Hannah looked faintly amused, "Well, how much time do you have? It could take a while to list them all. He's got a fair amount of money invested in various gambling, drug-dealing and prostitution groups, but he usually settles only for the gambling and drugs. His wife died six years ago, and he's remained surprisingly faithful even since her death. Every thursday and saturday he attends events at Praxa, a fighting event that pits humans, cyborgs and aliens against each other in fights to body-death. All participants have mind-state recording devices attached, but it's still pretty nasty stuff." She said, "He has his own private box that he uses while attending that event."

"Alright, that's good. Defences?"

"Well, he's a veteran, as I said. He's old now, but has some military-grade combat mods. Nothing heavy, but he'd probably give an APCU run for its money if he wasn't taken by surprise. His home has a small private security team, but they're barely more than standard humans. His bodyguard is a real threat, but is often busy tending to other matters, as Graff generally sends him off for any sensitive matters." Hannah said, another image appearing:



"Graff's bodyguard, Teoldin Szaric. Age 33, served in the Special Forces on the planet Palsinian before immigrating here. Received a Dishonorable Discharge after recording and disseminating footage of himself torturing and killing multiple civilians during a small uprising." Hannah said, cringing a little, "He looks fairly human-standard aside from his arm, but he has almost as much firepower as an EOU packed in his body. Pretty heavy stuff. He's fairly loyal to Graff, but we haven't been able to learn why."

You nod slightly, eying the picture, "Alright. Got a psych profile on Graff? And his daughter? Speaking of which, I'll probably need a picture of her as well."

"Right, of course." Hannah replied.



"Okay, first thing's first. Graff's psych profile is fairly normal, considering. He received an honourable discharge after the war, and settled down with his wife. He apparently dotes on his daughter, and generally comes across as quite friendly and well-adjusted. Women who attempt to seduce him are usually rebuffed, but data suggests that anyone who was able to befriend or care for his daughter would have much more luck. He typically avoided criminal activity, but recently began allowing multiple breaches to our security so information and tech could be stolen."

"What kind of information and tech?" You interrupt to ask.

"According to this, mostly stock and trading information, but also various weapon, shielding and communications technologies." She said.

You nod, "And his daughter?"

"Liliane Armaund is a fairly quiet girl. The incident that killed her mother severely injured her, and more than 60% of her body is synthetic, including around 37% of her brain. She excels in her studies and is doted upon by her father, but has very few friends and spends much of her free time reading, practising the violin and piano with her tutors, and studying. You'd think she'd be a spoiled brat, eh? But all our intel suggests she's a quiet, thoughtful girl who has difficulty socialising but is generally quite friendly. It's almost a shame." Hannah said.

"And is killing her absolutely required?" You ask.

"If you're unwilling to do it, we can have a secondary unit perform that assassination. Alternatively, you could severely maim, cripple or injure her. Or get her to kill her own father."

"That's fairly specific." You say, sounding surprised. "Those are what our orders allow for. If you can force or convince the child to be the one who kills her father, she'll be spared. But otherwise, this is about sending a message to anyone else who would consider such treasonous acts as her father, and if you don't kill or cripple her, they'll send someone else to do it."

"Understood." You reply, sitting down in a chair and gazing up at the ceiling, idly tapping your fingers on the armrest, "Does she have a caretaker?"

"She does have a nanny, Ramoda Rasillus, a cyborg who was a friend of her mother's. She and the girl are rather close. I'm glad you're taking this so seriously. There's nothing worse than being the handler for someone who doesn't plan things thoroughly." Hannah murmurs.

You smile a bit, nodding your head slightly, "Alright. I'll need data on Graff's schedule and daily timetable. If you could keep it updated as best as possible, that'd be great too. The identities of any trusted secretaries and assistants would also be helpful."

"I'll compile all that data for you and have it sent to you. Anything else?"

"Just one question. What kind of deadline am I looking at here?"

"You've got a month. There's no immediate concern, unless something happens and he's alerted to the fact that we're after him. Quicker would be better, but we want the job done right, so take time if you need to."

"Affirmative. Signing off now." You say, and after confirmation, you cut communications, mulling over all the information provided and starting to formulate a plan.

What should be your first course of action?

[Latooni]

Examining ourselves! What is the limit of Madison's shape-shifting ability? What size range, what weight range, what body type range? Can skin tone be altered? Can the hands be made more rough of softer? Can we look like a man while dressed? Can we look like either sex, undressed?

What variety of toxins can we generate? Where are the reservoirs located? What's the delivery mechanism? The fingernails? Some sort of hidden needle launcher? Do we have multiple mechanisms?

Aside from that, do we have any other very basic augments? We obviously have some sort of communication device implanted in us, anything else?

There's a lot of things we can reconnoiter later, but it's absolutely vital to know our capabilities before-hand.

[Necrontyr1998]

All that would be important but there are a variety of things we could do without being so exotic (Our first target is a 12 year old, how hard could it be?).
Heres my idea:

We spy on the school gates and see who collects the daughter. We do this over the course of a week to make sure it is the same person. We go pick the daughter up from school By impersonating them and on the slow journey home we tell her of all the treasonous and illegal activities Graff has been involved in. If we can convince her to kill him, that's a plus. If not; we drug her, break her legs and kick her into a dark ally way. This course of action will probably make killing Graff significantly more difficult.

If she walks home, we impersonate a fellow student and get to know her a little (see if there's any info we could use).

The plan will probably need to be changed according to info we acquire along the way.

[Anna]

Gonna respond to Lat's post now, since it doesn't require any commitment on a plan as yet and so there's no point waiting to post it:

Your shape-shifting capabilities allow for you to alter your height from anywhere between 140 cm to 185 cm in height, and you're capable of a range of body types, as your muscle fibres are quite capable of contracting and expanding. The tone and abrasiveness of your skin can be altered to a significant degree. You are capable of replicating a male appearance that would be convincing, albeit somewhat feminine, even when nude.

Toxin production is limited to any toxin you have the necessary chemical formula for, and the time to manufacture it. More complex chemicals require more time to process. You presently possess the formulae for a variety of poisons ranging from fast to slow-acting, and with various results. Some make the victim peacefully drift to sleep before they suffer complete organ failure, some induce paralysis to an extent based upon the dose, and some cause severe necrosis to make the victim's body rot away. Small reservoirs for toxins are in each hand, larger reservoirs are where the kidneys would be on an ordinary human. You are capable of delivering your toxins in multiple ways, including secreting them from sweat-glands, or indeed from any bodily fluid you're capable of producing. You also possess a very small subdermal dart launcher in your right shoulder that can fire small toxin-injections, and your fingernails are likewise capable of injecting said toxins, as are your teeth.

Basic augments include; a Mk. V neural lattice, which allow for communications, remote network access and enhanced reaction time; The aforementioned dart launcher; Six micrometer M/AM bombs, which will detonate in the event of your death and probably wipe out a city block; muscle enhancements which grant increased balance, speed and manoeuvrability, a fairly common enhancement that which would not draw suspicious. Finally, you have your pheromones, which are produced similarly to your toxins, and are capable of producing an array of differing reactions in those exposed to them, with their potency depending on the dose received.

[Ambitious Builder]

I would like more information on the wife/mother's death, and does the daughter care very much for her father? Perhaps frame the father for the mothers death among other things to make the daughter kill him while we keep the bodyguard distracted in some way. Although this would be a time consuming method, and the daughter may not be easily manipulated. And we definatly need a fail safe for unknown variables as well as failed deceptions. (I haven't spent a lot of time thinking this through so there may be a few problems i haven't thought out)

[Anna]

The mother was killed by a virus that had been unleashed in an attack by nationalists. The virus was a weaponized variety of a virus commonly called NIDS, it's a synthetic virus that replaces the immune-system of those who are infected with it with nanobots, and then eventually starts breaking their entire body down into its basic components. The virus was originally developed half a century ago in an attempt to create an artificial immune system for humans. An error in code duplication resulted in rampant infectious and then self-destructive behaviour, and it is now only ever used as a weapon by terrorists, having been deemed unfeasible.

Graff's wife was infected as a result of one such terrorist attack, and passed the infection to her daughter. Liliane was able to be saved, but only after a significant amount of her body was broken down by the virus. The incident was so traumatic that Liliane remembers nothing from before then, though it's unknown if that amnesia was artificially inflicted upon her. That's all you're able to find out from the other files Hannah sent you.

[Lizzie]

Well I originally didn't want to kill the poor girl, but after getting all if this information I'm starting to think we should just kill her. I don't see a point to needlessly and sadistically traumatizing the poor girl, she already seems very broken to begin with. If we break her even more, she may as well be dead.

I think we should begin our live as cultivating a image as a efficient and non-sadistic assassin I think.

Also we need to account for getting rid of the bodyguard. If he is as loyal as they claim, he'll come after us even after we've killed the dad.

[Latooni]

I have a rough plan that basically includes replacing a teacher (with forged credentials), making Liliane like us a lot, have her stay a bit late one day, call Daddy over for a parent-teacher conference, and strike then. It's a little more complicated than that, but let's leave it at that for now.

Things I think we should absolutely find out: What the school building's like, who the best teacher to arrange an accident for is, and, above all, we need to look into the history of the bodyguard, and try to determine the ties between him and his employer.

We might need to either attempt to subvert the bodyguard, or, at the very least, arrange a distraction for him. I think we can make the hit and get out before the bodyguard responds, but it'd be nice if we weren't pressured like that.

[Doogie12]

Could we synthesize toxic gases as well as liquids? A carbon monoxide flood could be all we need.

[Latooni]

Could we synthesize toxic gases as well as liquids? A carbon monoxide flood could be all we need.

Yes, because it's such a rare substance, and no one has sensors to detect it.

Unless they have standard fire alarms that are required by housing law, I mean.

I think it would also be best if we could kill as few people as possible; I think I can probably get away with a minimum of 3 (including the 2 targets) for the safest method in my plan; a riskier version uses only 2.

That said, knowing what kinds of gases and pheromones we can generate would be useful.

[Doogie12]

I was thinking more like inside a vehicle or an extremely high concentrated dose directly into the face (odorless and colorless, so it'd be hard to notice). Besides, it doesn't have to be monoxide. Using gases in general could help in the long run.

[Netharis]

@Latooni, I like the idea of impersonating a teacher, but I think a school is much too public.
Why not kill and replace one of her music tutors or her nanny?

I don't supposed father's day of the target's birthday is conveniently around the corner? In which case, we could as some secret (poisonous/explosive) ingredients to/on her present.
If we DO want to/need to kill her, I propose we use a slow acting poison on her then camp near the father to take him down when he goes berserk/emo.

@Doogie, I don't think such a toned down method of killing is a good idea considering we're trying to send a message and all.

Anyway, I vote that we go survey the layout of the city.
Position of house relative to school and the primary's frequented haunts and all that.

[Latooni]

@Latooni, I like the idea of impersonating a teacher, but I think a school is much too public.
Why not kill and replace one of her music tutors or her nanny?

They've known the nanny for decades; there's no way we could put up a good front for more than a few hours as the nanny.
The school thing should be private enough, assuming we meet with them after hours in a classroom or private office. Later the better, but it doesn't even have to be that late.

EDIT: Music tutor's a possibility, but I'd really rather it be on neutral ground, even if it's more public, than in their own home.

[Netharis]

@Latooni,
Good point about the nanny, but I think we should also familiarize ourselves with the operational paradigm of this universe's schools.
An after hour meeting be extremely suspicious if it's not the norm, it might even be some sort of taboo. But this is just me nitpicking.

I also think getting her to like us a lot in the span of one month or less might be a bit of the long shot and that's assuming there's a staff vacancy, the school is willing to hire us (thought this shouldn't be that bad if there's a face-to-face interview involved) and we get assigned to her class.

Meeting in their house also has the added advantage of us being able to snoop around for info to see if we can find the motif for the primary's betrayal and to possibly obtain info on other traitors, perhaps on someone higher in the chain of command. And we can maybe possible steal expensive things afterwards.