FSE

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Kinou walks around the corner, waiting while they watch a human travel away from one of the main transit shuttles and head off into one of the less populated areas of the station. Now that they had a potential shipment for the threat that was suggested from Ret they had something conclusive to chase after. One of his scouts had found that this particular human was anticipating a shipment from Raeshael space and had recently submitted a private and encrypted call to see why their shipment was being held up. And currently there is only one shipment that is being held up. Everything else on the freighter was verified and found to be completely safe, meaning only those looking into this one crate would be under suspicion. And though he did a passable job of hiding who was making the call itself, it doesn't change the fact that it was his chip that was flagged at the terminal the call was made from. Though not necessarily a guarantee that it's the person they're looking for it is at least someone worth grabbing. And as a matter of privilege, the scout that had found the human is given full permission to be the one making the grab.

The lynx isn't so much here in case that the scout screws up as instead an option in case something else goes wrong. They aren't yet aware of if there are any more people involved, how organized they are or even how big of an operation this is. He'll be able to assess the situation and if things look like they're going south he can either intervene or call it off for the time being. And this allows the scout to fully focus on making the grab discretely and quickly. They do have all of the privileges granted to the Shadows in this case. So there is little risk of real action in case the Guardians show up. In fact, Kinou had sent in a request through the formal channels that none of the Guardians be in this location for a little while, though it doesn't necessarily mean they definitely won't. But they've all been trained to capitulate with the Guardians regardless, but if grabbed they'd be immediately let go with no report being filed. If nothing goes wrong then he can simply use it as a training assessment of his scout's skills and can give pointers to help him later. And to be fair to himself, though he didn't expect there to be any trouble, he was still somewhat on edge after that feral had managed to completely put him to shame. He had checked up on that feral a few times since then but they weren't doing anything out of the ordinary and if they noticed we was even there they weren't showing it. But he hasn't seen any sign of that feral seeking him out since then but felt it was a good effort to try and work on improving his own awareness regardless.

Thankfully the snatch goes without a hitch and Kinou notices that not only did no one else really step in, but no one even seems to have noticed his absence, implying either he worked alone or whoever he did work with wasn't there. After staying behind another minute or two just in case he makes his way through the crowds to the room they have set aside. Unlike the Guardians that have their own Guardian Lifts built in, not to mention areas specifically for them, the Shadows don't get any such accommodations. If nothing else if they did, people would know where to look for them. Instead they simply rent out a meeting room that one of the businesses would rent out, get it ready for themselves and just go about it that way. They go to the room where they strap him into a chair. To obscure their identities they had put a bag over his head. Crude but still effective. He wouldn't be able to see any of them and since none of them will be asking anything it isn't all that difficult for him to not be able to recognize them anyway.

They bring in one of their telepaths after all donning some masks to hide their faces, while also putting in the message to Riu that they have made a grab and are checking them. Though the Shadows do have some telepaths in their employ, it's not common information and it's far better for the perception of them from everyone that they be seen as hiring telepaths. If those who are suspicious of their activities see they make a grab and hire out a telepath to do a scan, then they will come to the conclusion that they are safe from the Shadows so long as they don't do anything to warrant being grabbed. People behave far more rationally when they think they are safe, even if they are not. So they have a few telepaths that they will call upon to do a scan when they need to, from all the various races. For they need to move from anywhere in the station. And each of them knows what group they are and the authority they have and the reason for their existence. But of course to protect their own identities as Shadows, they simply put in a request to a hiring agency and that group will grab a nearby telepath and send them to the location. This time it's a Jereshii that was always very direct but also very discreet when they wanted to be. They just sit and stare at the human, who can hear the others around him and is trying to find some way of protecting himself. And Kinou is happy enough to let him speak. It keeps him unfocused, makes him easier to read. Once done they'll simply knock him out. If innocent they'll simply knock him unconscious and leave him on a stool. If guilty, however, they'll write out what all they found out then they'll still knock him out, but put him instead in a Guardian Lift and inform them to come pick him up. In the meantime, Kinou walks around the chair and stares at the human, tilting his head around this way or another as he tries to figure out what all is going on with this situation. It doesn't exactly smell like there's anything that really screams like a terrorist, so he half wonders if they are dealing with a plant, though their telepath gives a symbol that there he is their culprit. He doesn't look like anyone really capable for doing this kind of action.

But the telepath says there is information there so Kinou nods to the telepath to proceed as he reaches into his pockets and pulls out some ear plugs. The humans in their group go about putting on some noise-cancelling headphones and they're fine to do so. Kinou has never liked how they felt and made him feel far too vulnerable when he wore them. The telepath leans in far closer and begins to focus his mind. The human tries to resist the intrusion and begins to scream from the effort, trying anything to dislodge the threat. Kinou leans against a wall and lets the telepath get anything he can. He's in charge of the situation and thus any liability is his own. Once the telepath has finished the deep scan he approaches Kinou and after another nod begins to push the information gleaned into Kinou's mind directly. But as he isn't resisting it isn't at all painful, even if it is still more than a little strange, especially coming from the Jhereshii. There is always an issue of them trying to scan his mind at the same time, but they make sure that any telepath they deal with personally knows that as a part of the Shadows, they have full discretion to kill anyone that would compromise their identities, and those that are used to them know better.

The information is almost more than Kinou could have asked for. He nods a thanks to their telepath and lets them leave, their pay having already been transferred when they had agreed to take the job. Once done Kinou signals to one of the other Shadows and they knocked out the human. Now free from anyone not of their group being able to overhear he turns on a device to put them all into the Language of Intent so that he can tell them everything they learned. That not only was the storage container that they found the only one that is supposed to come, but how the attack is supposed to be carried out and everything else we could want out of the situation except for a few key details. But that can be for the Guardians to find out the rest. He congratulates the Shadow that had found him and made the grab and then goes about filing the report to Riu so that they know all the pertinent information. Some of the other Shadows are already working on dumping the human in a Guardian Lift.

Now having some information about the dolls from the Shadows, Anon and Riu reenter the container. Curiously enough, the owner of the ship did not make any complaints to them holding the container and even went so far as to go ahead and ask if they are clear to go once all the other containers were already verified and released. It does potentially add to a narrative that perhaps the owner of the ship wasn't even aware of this container, that it was added in and disguised amongst all the other containers. The container was never on their manifest. The root they had claimed was the reason they went into Raeshael space, however, was. The people in charge of the ship weren't supposed to handle moving the cargo over but rather the dock worker company on the station was supposed to take care of everything. The company in question seemed to check out except for the fact that clearly one of them was in on the job. Riu knows that the Shadows had already done their own investigation and found the culprit and made the report. But that person wasn't told to do anything but unload it, they didn't know anything else about the plot itself. By all accounts the container was to appear invisible to everyone, then the focus would be remotely turned off when they went in and took everything out and then distributed all the dolls around the station, treating it as some form of a promotional event. After that, though, that's what they were back here to verify.

As a form of a test to check the information that they had gotten they take out a couple of the dolls, leaving them in the packages for the time being. For the sake of safety they'd actually chosen a small group of the Guardians' most skilled Sym mages, meaning primarily Anon and a few Raeshael and Jhereshii. They take the first sample of the dolls and Anon suspends it in the air before wrapping a barrier around it. Treating it as the potential threat it might end up being one of the others carefully extract the doll from the package, and find that nothing happens from just that act but when manipulating the doll, pressing around the edges of the outer surface and finding a small button concealed in a location that would not have been touched immediately after opening the entire thing erupts into fire and the entire interior of the barrier is engulfed in flames.

Everyone takes a step back after the explosion, despite Anon not even needing to strain to contain the flames. Even if all of those dolls detonated at once right now it might kill the lot of them and damage the part of the ring they're located in. But it would not pose any significant risk to the actual station. But anyone who would have pushed the button would have most likely been killed instantly. Once the flames have died down a few cylinders fall down to the bottom of the barrier. With it seemingly safe for the time being Anon lets her barrier drop and the group moves in warily at the little objects. A Raeshael mage picks one up and looks it over, even going so far as to smell it.

"Definitely a linked Phasic cell configuration. Would definitely fit into the definition of nothing from Ret's warning. The Habenceun don't have a word for phasic energy, they just call it missing energy or empty energy."

"Well, that and having to find an invisible shipping crate. If these had been released to the general public we'd probably be seeing about a few hundred cases of people getting exploded by these things, causing a massive panic on the station."

Mia, being the ever curious little creature that she is moves forward and snags one of the cells and slithers off with it to study it further. Riu shakes his head in response though Anon isn't really all that concerned as Mia knows better than to try and eat evidence and would be easily enough dissuaded to give it up if she got stubborn by offering a treat. But at the very least it proves that once the cell is discharged there is nothing at all different about it. Mia even goes so far as to check the material and not finding anything of interest. Just the standard components with nothing else out of the ordinary. Seeing this one of the other mages grabs one of the others and looks it over in depth. Seeing nothing standing out she goes and reaches into a pocket and pulls out a phasic cell of her own and goes about comparing the two against each other. Though some of the etchings are slightly different they are fundamentally identical.

"No identifying marks whatsoever on it, not even any manufacturing etchings. Though without seeing one before the fire can't be certain if they are custom made, if they're all filed off or if it even matters. But they seem to be made of standard components. Fairly cheap materials as well from the looks of it, designed to be mass produced and likely wouldn't last all that long."

One of the Jhereshii mages picks up another doll and removes it from the case, knowing now what the trigger is. Even still they encase themselves in a strong barrier and after seeing him do this Anon wraps another barrier around that. He touches one of the limbs and with the other hand aims at outside the barriers where a will-o-wisp forms and glows increasingly brightly for a few minutes before it sputters out and dies. The Jhereshii then grabs another limb and does the same thing. Once he's done it as many times as they saw the phasic cells drop from the other he turns the doll over and pushes at the button. When it now does nothing he drops his own barrier, Anon following suit and letting him out of her barrier and walks over to the group with the now drained doll. One of the Raeshael takes it and the two converse for a while before the Raeshael very carefully opens the doll up, mindful to disturb as little as possible. From this he also finds that not only are the phasic cells on a standard array but that there was a small clock that had been added in that would activate them all anyway in about a day.

"So what are your opinions?" Riu asks the assembled Guardians.

"Definitely an act of terrorism. They were clearly trying to kill civilians and cause panic," the Jhereshii mage says.

"Well the doll is just a piece of junk. I could probably get something of this quality for twenty rala. The cells are always useful to some people. With how many of those dolls there are, we could probably get enough money from the cells once they're extracted to pay for an entire maintenance sweep of the entire station. My suggestion would be hire out a few Sym mages, tell them all what to do and then let them go to town warding and blowing up the little dolls and collect all the cells. Then after making sure they're still in good shape and a little spit shining, put some of them on the market and export the rest."

"And your thoughts on that?" Riu asks Anon.

"I don't think selling the cells should be too much of an issue legally speaking. Considering how dangerous these all are we have grounds to confiscate all of the materials in this crate, including the crate itself. We'll need to keep some as evidence for trials. Probably want to take a few apart and see if we can if there's anything in particular about a manufacturer. But beyond that, there is nothing stopping us from selling off some of the excess. However, I will assert that we need to be very mindful of the timer on those dolls. We don't know if they're all set to go off at the same time. I think we need to have this container moved to somewhere we can have the station's shields handle covering it and use a HAPI to transfer the dolls out one at a time. We might not get as many drained, but we are not going to just blindly risk everything for a quick buck."

"Now that we know what we need to do to render them safe, I think it will be best to send out a request to all of the mages on staff to come and work on disabling the dolls in time. Work them in shifts. In the meantime, on the off chance that someone is able to get past us I think it is best to post guards in the area and have Carol send a message for everyone to avoid any brand-new dolls in the immediate future."

Riu felt satisfied that the main threat has been resolved, though what it all means in the grand scheme of things he doesn't yet know. Particularly that they don't really have any reason for Ret to use the route he was considering how few people seemed to have been involved thus far on the station. Meaning either a larger plot at work or something else at play. He'll definitely have to send Kinou out to go find out what is really going on with these attacks and find the source of the plot if it exists. But for the time being there is no more need of him here. He has no means to help with disarming and likely once she's made sure that the mages coming in know the risks and has everything set up for the proper draining, he imagines Anon would also leave. Already while waiting some of the other mages have already started draining out the dolls.