Hundred dollar bills under our sleeve

[demjiin]

WHO: Kaz Brekker and you (yes you)
WHERE: Lots of places around Temba
WHAT: Kaz is learning about literally everything (catch-all for April)
WHEN: April
WARNINGS: Blanket warning that Kaz is a dick


Inn (Public Kitchen)

Kaz was already curious about this place, though he hadn't been here before. For lunch he did stop in to see who ran it, and more importantly, what was served as meals. Less important but still interesting, was how it was laid out and how it worked.

Hangar

With the ships already being docked here, it wasn't long before Kaz found his way out of the Bloodsport and into the hangar bay. It was very interesting to see many more machines but he had no idea what they were used for or what they did on their own. More interesting to see the other ships, and as expected, none would even unlock the door for him. Still interested, Kaz made a slow perusal around the hull of each ship.

Library

As expected for a library it was quiet here. Kaz simply adjusted his grip on his cane and with sound-absorbing felt on the tip, his steps were now soundless. Being here reminded him of the bookshop on Kaufmannstraße. It had the same sense of quiet with random dust motes flickering in and out of sunbeams. The only real difference was the lack of books on the shelves. While that was something of a disappointment, it wasn't a big surprise to Kaz. Kaz wasn't often surprised by the worst since that was usually what he expected. It was only the nicer parts of life that would surprise him at unexpected times.

The Deep End (Cayde's tavern)

Kaz had been exploring the tower when he came across the bar by accident. There appeared to be no bartender, though. That seemed to be true of many places in Temba; they were mostly what you would expect with one or two major differences to set expectations on their ear.

The greenish-blue light shining in drew Kaz's attention enough that he did look out the windows. He could see some sort of odd combination between a frog and a crab swim by. So this was part of the flooded area? Interesting.


Factory

As this area was largely derelict there was little of interest here for Kaz. He passed rusted pipes without seeming to notice much of his surroundings. He had come here with a singular purpose, though. Or perhaps it would be better to say he was looking for a singular person.

Gateway

Because Kaz used a cane to walk, it was surprising that he would even be able to navigate the overgrowth to begin with. But he picked up the cane and though he had a lopsided gait, he was agile enough that he could use the cane's handle as a hook and use the assisted jump to go over some clumped branches, or just side-step other obstacles. It was a maze to get through and more than once Kaz debated going back. But he persevered and eventually came to be standing before where the path sloped to continue underground.

Comments

[deal_me_in]

"It's not random. It's atmospheric!" Cayde scowled. "What point would a hideout be if people could just walk on up for a drink? Like they're supposed to?"

He swept up his own drink in hand, leaning against the counter. "Eh, if you'd been hanging around bars as much as I had back on Coruscant then you might've come across this one. It's an ale from Corellia. Still haven't found anything particularly Exo-grade so no worries there, otherwise."

Still, he wasn't going to force a drink on the kid if he wasn't interested, already turning to peruse the ever-growing collection of bottles. "Ah, here we go!" he said as he pulled out another glass to fill.

[demjiin]

Kaz could point out that using a bar as a hideout was fairly common but Cayde behaved as though it wasn't a subject, or an intimation, that he enjoyed talking about.

"Technically I wasn't looking to find anywhere at all when I stumbled across this place."

Whiskey glass in hand, Kaz drank half of it the first time.

"Since you're already here, I do have a question; have you heard of the Atroma?"

[deal_me_in]

The Hunter wasn't unfamiliar with such places being used as hideouts, but he was being rather truthful in his claims that this was not the intent here. He wasn't going to push too hard if Kaz wanted to believe otherwise. The Exo had plenty of actual hiding places.

"Yeah, the lack of signs does make it a trick to find," he admitted. "I needa figure out how to wire up some things, then it'll be a lot easier." He glanced over at the bundle he'd left by the door, one of the definite must-haves that he'd splurged on back on Coruscant.

Knocking back his own drink, Cayde swiveled his gaze back towards the young man, optics narrowing. "Uh-oh, what're they up to now?"

[demjiin]

That was not a negative. Kaz raised one eyebrow at Cayde, interest piqued.

"You first. What have you heard about them?"

[deal_me_in]

Cayde left the whiskey out for Kaz to refill as he pleased, pouring himself a little more ale before setting the bottle back into its place on the shelf.

"They were some half-human, half-machine folks of some kind that went around kidnapping people for their game-slash-reality show. A few of those people ended up in Temba. Anyway, the ships we use, even the Agrii's homeship? All provided by the Atroma, or were Atroma-originated. There's some bits of tech back in the city that's theirs too."

He paused for a drink, gesturing with his glass at Kaz. "You weren't with us until well after the whole Agrii rescue so where'd you hear about 'em?" he asked, brow arching back at the boy.

[demjiin]

That bit of information raised more questions than it answered. If the Atroma were able to make starships were they the ones that originally brought them here? Were the Agrii and Atroma in conflict? Did this talk of a rescue mean the Agrii were indebted to the people that were brought here?

Kaz finished his whiskey and set the glass back on the bar. He went ahead and refilled the glass.

"While on the new planet, Coruscant, I acquired a small glowing box. It was called a Holocron and Jedi used them to keep records. I found someone that could open it, he said he was Force-sensitive rather than a Jedi, and a tiny lady had a message recorded on it. According to her the Atroma tortured and killed the Agrii en mass, and she said that eventually she and the others that had been kidnapped to Agra-10 were evacuated and she did not know what happened to Agra-10 after that."

This time Kaz finished the glass of whiskey in one slug. He grimaced a bit as he swallowed,

"Since that Coruscant was 900 years in the past, the Atroma have been around for at least that long."

[deal_me_in]

Cayde had quite a bit of info on the Atroma amassed, if mostly from what he's heard from veterans of the Fleet, but he wasn't going to put all his cards on the table in one go. He waited to see what Kaz had to say.

What the young man had to divulge was not what he expected.

"Tiny ladies and mysterious messages, huh?" He drummed his fingers thoughtfully on the counter. "That's interesting. Also horrible, but I don't think I'd put it past the Atroma to be doing such things, considering they were using people for entertainment. Where's the holocron now?" Was that the clue that the Agrii were telling them to look for?

"You gotta remember that the Atroma tech can span not only between worlds but times. So while I wouldn't say it's not impossible that they've been around for that long, I think it'll be harder to really pinpoint just going from hidden messages."

[demjiin]

"I think she was some sort of 3-dimensional recording, but I have the Holocron somewhere safe. I've kept any mention of it off the network since that is doubtless being watched. I haven't been here long enough to tell how it would work but I suspect we are also being watched outside the network too."

Kaz set the glass down but did not refill it. He wanted to be clear-headed right now

"Which means there is likely little time to act while we keep the element of surprise. I don't suppose there is a way to get a message to the Agrii?"

[deal_me_in]

"Oh yeah. I doubt that we are and have been watched. I'm not sure about the extent of it either, but if the Agrii can keep tabs on us and they're using Atroma equipment, it's not a far stretch to figure the Atroma can do the same."

By the Exo's expression, which despite being a metal one managed to convey a sour look well enough, Cayde was not at all happy about the thought. But his impressions after the ordeal aboard the Agrii ship had not much improved when it came to hearing about the Atroma's involvement. And now this.

"We can supposedly contact them through the tablets. I've tried anyway but I've never got a response. I haven't tried again lately, but outside of that, there's the Ask box in the welcome center. Not a very reliable method either way, but that's what we have to work with."

[demjiin]

"No, it's not."

Kaz absently agreed. His eyes had gone unfocused and he seemed to be staring off into the middle distance. When he was back in Ketterdam among his gang, the Dregs, they would call it 'scheming face'. After a prolonged moment, he seemed to focus on Cayde again.

"Did you ever find out anything on the blinking light?"

[deal_me_in]

"There'd be no telling that they'd understand or be able to do anything even if you did get word to them. I think they're already caught up in whatever the Atroma have been spinning." Likely they were too, which wasn't exactly a pleasant thought.

Cayde's dealt with dregs. Except they're on the low rung of Fallen hierarchy. Nothing particularly scheming about them. They did like to throw nasty grenades at you though.

"Which one, the new one? That's a negative. Pretty sure it is a direct taunt because we messed with the last one."

[demjiin]

"That then begs the question of what you did to the last one, but first tell me if the light runs on electricity?"

Cayde was more familiar with what a radio tower was in the first place. Kaz would need to find a certain Datapoint in order to be able to work Agrii technology, but the shape of a plan was scratching at the back of his mind. He couldn't see all of it yet, just broad strokes, but it was more than he'd been able to see in months.

[deal_me_in]

"Oh, it's powered on something for sure. Might be hooked up to the grid but that last button we hit must have been a kill switch for everything because nothing will come back on."

Cayde took up the pencil he'd pulled out earlier, sketching out some lines on the sheet of paper, a rough image of the tower as he remembered it. "The controls for the tower are actually separate from the tower itself, although below the ground at the tower's base, there were some kind of systems stored, probably in relation to the tower's functions itself.

"We may have hit some buttons on the controls, found something that looks like a countdown but couldn't make much sense of it otherwise. The light changed colors, but we didn't know what it might bring until creatures around and within the city started going crazy. Which is how we found out about a giant spider population living downstairs in the sewers."