Day 4 [LM] Perusing After Perez (Closed)

[Jane Doe]

Fedora_30.jpg (37.59 KiB) Viewed 942 times

Were you even a detective if you didn't wear a fedora? Probably not in any real sense.

Jane settles the hat firmly on her head as she cranes her neck up to follow the route Perez's hopper must have taken before its ill-fated crash. It was time to look into the physical evidence, slim as it was. And maybe if she was lucky, there was someone here who saw it happen.

[Boogiepop]

It seemed that Perez's hopper was cruising down the length of Park Lane before his ill-fated landing over at the interaction of Kaiser Street. Park Lane intersected with the main streets of Rutherford but itself was rather unimpressive, typically hosting a good range of smaller fashion businesses that were looking for cheaper rent at the cost of less exposure. The few blocks of Park Lane were rather unimpressive, clean and safe but lacking much of the flash and glamour that made the district famous. Jane could see that there were a few businesses that seem to specialize in fashion surplus, likely taking whatever last month's fashion hottest items and trying to pawn it off to someone who was less fashion aware. It seemed that Perez didn't really have much of reason to be here, perhaps a detour or a faster route suggested by his navigation systems.

From what Jane could see, there were a good number of street cameras on the light posts that seem to contribute to the district's shining security and low crime rates.

[Jane Doe]

Jane takes a few moments to look over which exterior cameras might have had the best shot of the crash before ducking inside the most promising store.

[Boogiepop]

One of the stores seemed to be set in what looked like a defunct small office building, taking up several floors from the elevated street level. There was a large bold sign that read 'FASHION MAXXX" as an unfortunate name. The sliding doors would open and the interior of the store was accessible effortlessly. The store was filled with all manner of racks, including a conveyor-style rack that would slowly go through a vast number of outfits that took most of the middle floor. From what Jane could see, most of it was wedding dresses and tuxedos. That was a last month's fashion when the ristie crowd, especially the single and unmarried among them, took a liking to wedding fashions. The grander, the better. It almost had enough momentum to drag on to another month but ultimately petered out. A recent track from Miranda Rhapsody's latest album played overhead.



There was a lone woman who was working on the rack, adding some outfits as the rack slowed down on her command with a wave of her hand. She did perk up when someone entered the store, maybe Jane was their first customer of the day. "Oh, welcome to Fashion Maxxx! Is there anything you're looking for, miss? We have wedding dresses at 50% percent off."

[Jane Doe]

Snip

"Oh hey, good morning! 50% off huh?"
Jane considers this for a moment

"Maybe next wedding?"
She takes a few moments to circle the shop, eyeing the various dresses and briefly considering late-stage capitalism before approaching the woman.

"I'm actually here looking into an accident, you remember that hopper crash a couple days ago?"

[Boogiepop]

The store woman would nod eagerly at the rhetorical question regarding the savings, perhaps in hopes that she could earn some sort of commission before the younger staff showed up for their shifts.

"Oh..." she said, a bit deflated at the change of interests. "Yes, I think I heard about that. Just down a few blocks and some levels down, wasn't it? It was something about a big executive that died?"

[Jane Doe]

The store woman would nod eagerly at the rhetorical question regarding the savings, perhaps in hopes that she could earn some sort of commission before the younger staff showed up for their shifts.

"Oh..." she said, a bit deflated at the change of interests. "Yes, I think I heard about that. Just down a few blocks and some levels down, wasn't it? It was something about a big executive that died?"

"Yup, a Weyland executive, someone important."
Jane leans forward and lowers her voice, as if to let the lady in on a secret.

"Of course, there's a little mystery involved, the company has hired me to look into it and I was hoping someone as perceptive as yourself might be able to help."

[Boogiepop]

Gayle

The woman, 'Gayle" was her name according to the name tag, when through a few emotions as she wasn't entirely sure how to go about this revalation. If this woman was from the company, did she want to get involved? Was she going to buy out the building if she didn't cooperate or do so if she did? She looked around as she stalled to answer back.

"...I'm sorry, ma'am. I wasn't there that night as I work the mornings. I don't know if anyone was here when it happened, actually," she said on a defensive note on the matter.

[Jane Doe]

Gayle

The woman, 'Gayle" was her name according to the name tag, when through a few emotions as she wasn't entirely sure how to go about this revalation. If this woman was from the company, did she want to get involved? Was she going to buy out the building if she didn't cooperate or do so if she did? She looked around as she stalled to answer back.

"...I'm sorry, ma'am. I wasn't there that night as I work the mornings. I don't know if anyone was here when it happened, actually," she said on a defensive note on the matter.

"Oh that's quite alright Gale. We-" Using we always seemed to intimidate people when a corp was involved "-saw the store has some external security cameras. A quick check of the footage there could be immensely helpful to us."

[Boogiepop]

Gayle

Gayle put her hands together and fidgeted slightly as she seemed a bit hesitant to go along with this. Was there a part where Jane put a bullet between her eyes afterwards? Or maybe she had read too many things on the Network regarding the Weyland Consortium? Wasn't there a time where they sent their private military into a habitat complex and killed everyone because they were just looking for one person?

"I'm not too sure about that...I think Christian actually has access to the security office. Maybe we should wait until he comes in to get more information."

[OOC: Jane may roll a Social skill of her choice with Average Difficulty with two Setback.]

[Jane Doe]

Gayle

Gayle put her hands together and fidgeted slightly as she seemed a bit hesitant to go along with this. Was there a part where Jane put a bullet between her eyes afterwards? Or maybe she had read too many things on the Network regarding the Weyland Consortium? Wasn't there a time where they sent their private military into a habitat complex and killed everyone because they were just looking for one person?

"I'm not too sure about that...I think Christian actually has access to the security office. Maybe we should wait until he comes in to get more information."

[OOC: Jane may roll a Social skill of her choice with Average Difficulty with two Setback.]

Day 4 LM, Perusing After Perez, Charm test at average, removing two setback with knack for it, 1 auto success from geno-sculpted: 2eP+1eA+2eD 1 failure, 2 advantage


"Where's the sense in that? The more people who know, the more people who become involved...."

[Boogiepop]

Gayle

"...s-sorry, I wouldn't know how to get what you're asking for anyway." She apologized, barely stopping herself from stammering in response.

It had been early enough at this hour that there weren't that many employees nor customers. This was far from the corporate office that Jane roamed around earlier in the weekend. They were perhaps more concerned about people making off with the merchandise than snooping around and potentially making their way into the employee's lounge. However, the employees would be very annoyed if their bathroom was used without permission. It might be a matter of making her way around the back entrance or merely keeping herself scarce around the store.

[OOC: Jane may roll either Stealth (Agility) at Average Difficulty with one Setback or Skulduggery (Cunning) at Hard Difficulty if she's looking to sneak in to get to where she wants to go.]

[Jane Doe]

Gayle

"...s-sorry, I wouldn't know how to get what you're asking for anyway." She apologized, barely stopping herself from stammering in response.

It had been early enough at this hour that there weren't that many employees nor customers. This was far from the corporate office that Jane roamed around earlier in the weekend. They were perhaps more concerned about people making off with the merchandise than snooping around and potentially making their way into the employee's lounge. However, the employees would be very annoyed if their bathroom was used without permission. It might be a matter of making her way around the back entrance or merely keeping herself scarce around the store.

[OOC: Jane may roll either Stealth (Agility) at Average Difficulty with one Setback or Skulduggery (Cunning) at Hard Difficulty if she's looking to sneak in to get to where she wants to go.]

"I see. Well, please don't let me keep you."
Jane plays the annoyed investigator off to go complain to a supervisor as she turns and exists the store, quickly moving to the side of the entrance out of the view of anyone inside or any cameras overhead.

A quick removal of her long coat and hat prefaces a quiet hum as her optical camouflage suit kicks in and a nearly transparent outline quietly follows the next customer into the store, breaking off to use the various dressed bound mannequins as cover.

Opical Camouflage.jpg (13.01 KiB) Viewed 912 times

It was a simple matter to start heading for the security station undetected.

Day 4 LM, Perusing the Perez, stealth at hard with a setback negated by knack for it, chameleon skin for one automatic success, optical camouflage suit: 3eP+2eA+3eD 1 success, 3 advantage

[Boogiepop]

Fashion Maxxx was made up of several floors of stock and savings to be found. Unfortunately, the nature of the business also meant that they had the tendency to amass a large amount of stock that they had trouble getting rid of. On some floors, it almost seemed like a museum of past gaudy ristie trends. However, the store at least had a customer base with those of lesser income who were either behind the trends or people more interested in creating their own fashion.

The security room was about two floors up, mainly sticking to the backrooms where the stock was kept. The staff-only interior was less flashy, mostly made up of plascrete walls. Jane would get there without incident. It seemed that Gayle was at least true to her word that whoever was doing security around here wasn't around. The door was an old-fashioned door of backroom utility stock.

[OOC: To open would take a Skullduggery (Cunning) at Hard Difficulty or Brawl (Brawn) at Hard Difficulty with two upgrades.]

[Jane Doe]

Fashion Maxxx was made up of several floors of stock and savings to be found. Unfortunately, the nature of the business also meant that they had the tendency to amass a large amount of stock that they had trouble getting rid of. On some floors, it almost seemed like a museum of past gaudy ristie trends. However, the store at least had a customer base with those of lesser income who were either behind the trends or people more interested in creating their own fashion.

The security room was about two floors up, mainly sticking to the backrooms where the stock was kept. The staff-only interior was less flashy, mostly made up of plascrete walls. Jane would get there without incident. It seemed that Gayle was at least true to her word that whoever was doing security around here wasn't around. The door was an old-fashioned door of backroom utility stock.

[OOC: To open would take a Skullduggery (Cunning) at Hard Difficulty or Brawl (Brawn) at Hard Difficulty with two upgrades.]

It was actually a pretty good lock and Jane grunts something that sounded like surprise as she carefully worked the tumblers before popping the door open.

Day 4 LM, Perusing the Perez, Skullduggery at hard, storypoint spend: 3eP+3eD 1 success, 1 threat


"Okay, now let's see if all this was worth my time."

[Boogiepop]

It was admittedly a far more sturdy mechanical lock than the store had intended themselves and it was perhaps a bit unintentional. This was the first time sometime though about breaking into a surplus clothing store security room, even shoplifters would rather hack the system from afar than needing to go directly...if they really didn't want to pay 50 percent off for items like wedding dresses.

The room was bathed in darkness, lit only by the lights coming from the hardware in the room. They had a modest terminal that handled important tasks like employee payroll, sales, and song playlist management. There was also a long desk dedicated to security tasks with a variety of screens that showed different parts of the interior store, as well as the employee lounge. There are also a few views of the exterior of the store, including the front, the back alley, and a few streetside. The previous residents of the building must have had some major security concerns to be watching the streets constantly.

[Jane Doe]

It was admittedly a far more sturdy mechanical lock than the store had intended themselves and it was perhaps a bit unintentional. This was the first time sometime though about breaking into a surplus clothing store security room, even shoplifters would rather hack the system from afar than needing to go directly...if they really didn't want to pay 50 percent off for items like wedding dresses.

The room was bathed in darkness, lit only by the lights coming from the hardware in the room. They had a modest terminal that handled important tasks like employee payroll, sales, and song playlist management. There was also a long desk dedicated to security tasks with a variety of screens that showed different parts of the interior store, as well as the employee lounge. There are also a few views of the exterior of the store, including the front, the back alley, and a few streetside. The previous residents of the building must have had some major security concerns to be watching the streets constantly.

"Huh, creepy. Wonder who was in here before."
Jane pads over to the desk and examines it before carefully attempting to rewind the footage to the time of the crash.

[Boogiepop]

While the savings were massive at Fashion Maxxx, it seemed that they didn't skimp on the security here or at least the previous owner did not. The servers weren't impressive but they at least house a few days' worth of footage and Jane was easily able to manipulate the controls to bring her to the fateful night of the crash...

She could see Perez's sports hopper making its way down the street, driving easily over the speed limit as someone who had enough credits to feel like they were exempt from the rules. Just as Perez cruised down the street, could see the streetlights give a brief flicker before they were turned off. It didn't seem like a power grid shut off, considering the buildings themselves were still lit. However, the front of his hopper was immediately peppered with a shower of bullets that immediately pierced through the windshield. As if they thought that didn't do the job, suddenly something rocket-propelled flew right into the opening and the interior of the hopper erupted in an explosion before zipping out of view. The assailant seemed to have been on the other side of the store camera, perhaps high above it.

However, there must be some clue found in the footage, right?

[OOC: Jane may roll either Perception (Cunning) or Computer (Sysop) (Intelligence) at Average with one Setback.]

[Jane Doe]

While the savings were massive at Fashion Maxxx, it seemed that they didn't skimp on the security here or at least the previous owner did not. The servers weren't impressive but they at least house a few days' worth of footage and Jane was easily able to manipulate the controls to bring her to the fateful night of the crash...

She could see Perez's sports hopper making its way down the street, driving easily over the speed limit as someone who had enough credits to feel like they were exempt from the rules. Just as Perez cruised down the street, could see the streetlights give a brief flicker before they were turned off. It didn't seem like a power grid shut off, considering the buildings themselves were still lit. However, the front of his hopper was immediately peppered with a shower of bullets that immediately pierced through the windshield. As if they thought that didn't do the job, suddenly something rocket-propelled flew right into the opening and the interior of the hopper erupted in an explosion before zipping out of view. The assailant seemed to have been on the other side of the store camera, perhaps high above it.

However, there must be some clue found in the footage, right?

[OOC: Jane may roll either Perception (Cunning) or Computer (Sysop) (Intelligence) at Average with one Setback.]

"Ooof, they sure did a number on him. Very professional."
Jane cocks here head at something on the footage and starts carefully scanning backwards and forwards to work out what she is seeing.

Day 4 LM, Perusing Perez, Perception at average with a setback, spending 1 strain for an auto success from cat's eyes: 1eP+2eA+2eD+1eS 5 successes, 2 threat

[Boogiepop]

Hm, maybe there was something else she could find here? Move in. Stop. No, pull out and track right. Stop. Centre and pull back. Stop. While the security cameras here weren't exactly of NAPD lab capabilities, they could at least pull rudimentary zoom and enhance. Thankfully, the perpetrator wasn't in some obscure angle that would require some sort of software to reconstruct the likeness based on light, shadows, and unlikely probability.

No, this was very simple. It was the front glass of the hopper. It took a matter of just slowing down the driving speed. As a horrific side-effect, Jane got to see the horrified face of the executive before he was mulched down by automatic gunfire, it looked like one of machine gun calibre. Focusing on the glass and enhancing the reflection enough with just the sharpness tool, she could see something that almost looked like a plane? No, it was very close and small enough in the frame to keep a controlled flight with a low profile. This was a combat drone.

[OOC: Jane may roll Knowledge (Society) (Intelligence) with 1 Boost from background or Piloting (Agility) at Average Difficulty.]