You notice that despite his cheery attitude, he keeps nervously glancing at the guards and other scientists, as if to make sure they aren't paying too much attention to what's going on.

For a moment, Zhi gave a confused stare from under his helmet. They certainly didn't know this man, why was he so friendly and acting like they had known each other for years? Then the unease was made clear in his body language and the man-shark softened his expression, playing right along and shaking Katsurou's hand eagerly. "Kyoshi!
Hao! So good to see you again, friend! You sounded so excited when you called about your work, we understand you couldn't say anything over the call, what have you been working on?"

<He's lying through his teeth and I get the feeling he doesn't /like/ working here, and if he has to communicate by paper and put on a facade like this ...He's monitored heavily, we're his old friends, keep our cover flexible and make up some fake names..

He pulls out a portable server from a compartment of desk, pulls out 4 of the access jacks hand, plugs one in his mesh inserts and offers one to each of you.
"I've been working on new ways to reconfigure ego parameters during psychosurgery. Using a software I coded, I can increase retention by around 30%! I have an ego in there, plug in and I'll show you."

[Kinesics @ -10, Hardware: Electronics]

The psychosurgery technobabble he talks about only confirms your feeling: sounds like it was in no way intended for you three, but rather for the other scientists around.

Nodding along, Zhi just smiled and bought into the blatant lie, if not for all their sake's. Taking off his helmet he finally showed the room his face ...and the beaming rows of teeth that were more for aesthetic than anything. Plugging one of the 'jacks into the back of his neck he only gave back more subtle filler conversation to show the Kyoshi he got the hint. "Shit, really? and did you fix the phantom memories issue on recompile?"

<Ruby, back me up on this, Zoey, keep an eye on our feeds and you know what to do if he tries extortion...>

Zoey looks around at the crowd and keeps her chainsaw close, backing up into a pretty obvious 'I'm guarding this guy' position next to Zhi.
<Gotcha. Be careful or I fish your stack out first.>

You both plug in the server while Z0ey stands guard.

A video feed pops up on your AR: You see an androgynous simulmorph standing in a white room.
You hear Kyoshi's voice over a hardlinked audio channel:
"Don't mind the video, it's cover."
He continues: "You probably figured out by now, but I don't give a fuck about your scientific capabilities, if said capabilities even exist. I want out of Legba.
"My name is Rokuzawa Chi, I'm a researcher at Titan Autonomous University... or rather an Alpha fork, but that's arguing semantics.
I came here by choice about a year ago to smuggle out the Houngan's research data. No way I was going to let the test data of thousands of victims go to waste."
He takes a pause.
"I'm no spy, I just want to do some research and not get killed by what they are doing here...
I know you guys aren't suicidal. You must have some way of getting out of where when whatever you're here for is done. I want you guys to get me off and I can make it worth your while. Look me up on the mesh, I'm big on Research Network Associates. Get me out and you'll be floating in r-Rep. Or, if you'd like, I also have a ton of info on the Houngan and their dealings."

He looks at you:
"So? Am I getting off this place?"

Keeping the fake, lying smile, Zhi spoke back through the secure server hub while he kept up the facade with his body. <No shit Niang, this all beyond me. Name's Zhi Pan, this is Zoey and Ruby. We ...represent special interests. Honestly, how the fuck did you find out our interest into Houngan and the rest of the N.L.? We can help you, but you gotta be level with us, shi?>

He looks at you:
"Honestly? Two "Ultimate" mercenaries coming out of nowhere for repairs and then sniffing around? Considering the current situation, it would have been weird for you guys NOT to be looking into N.L. operations. I don't care what you guys are here for, but my guess is AWE."

It took all of his self-awareness to not grimace on the spot, some cover they had! Only making Zhi worried what else they bungled along the way into this hamfisted investigation ...but they could deal with those mistakes as they showed themselves. <Alright, point ...What's AWE, then?>

"You want info, I got it all and I'll tell you, but first I need a guarantee that you aren't actually getting out of here by blowing your stacks out with a farcaster and that you are gonna take me with you. I'll tell you this though: Leave me behind or betray me and I'll make sure you get black listed on every r-Rep network. I don't want to do it, but I need my own protections."

Zhi softened the expression on his body, in an almost "You're fucking kidding me" manner. Hiding the stern words he mentally spoke over the hub. <Listen you finger chopping vulture, I'm not leaving behind these expensive bodies. Any of these trapped egos, or you just to get out of this shithole; much as I'd like to. Whatever psychosurgery tech or equipment Houngan has dug up, it's being scuttled. Whatever research you want to salvage from it is fine by us. Yet we're going to need your help and if you want to string us along to try and use us as your ticket out of here and go show off your 'findings' to T.A.U. Zoey here is under orders to put flechette in everyone and we'll work with the chunky pieces we got left to shut Houngun down.>

Once again, the shark bore his sawed teeth and beamed. <Now no one wants to be chunky pieces, including us, help us out?>

Chi takes a step back, obviously intimidated: "Woaaa calm down there. You gotta understand me... I've been stuck here for an entire year. If you want to survive, you need to be paranoid..."
He pauses a bit:
"I just need to make sure I get home safely and alive. No harm intended. All the research advances they made here... It could save so many lives if we can get it out! All the egos you mentionned, they can be healed! I know how!"

"Just tell me how you can get me off this place and I'll tell you everything I know about AWE, since it seems like it's what after."

Ruby tries his best to seem, at least a little less pathetic than he usually is. < Listen, me and my big and dangerous friends just want information. After you give us that, we might, MIGHT, be able to get your pale, paranoid ass off this creepy station. If you don't like little deal we have to offer you, I'm sure my sharky friend over here would love to tear out that little stack of yours so I can rip the information we need from it myself. Then, I'll fucking space it. Right into the sun. >

He knew half of what he said was just total bullshit, but he hoped he could keep that from the scientist as long as he could. < And I swear to fucking god, if you give us the wrong information, I will personally hunt every last fork and copy you have, and throw them into the sun along with you. You got me? >

<As my new friend here put so ...Uh, calmly- Yes... We have a way off of here, physically ...and we have room. No surprise we mean a docked ship, shi? If you think AWE is what we're looking for then ...Tell us everything you can and we'll see what we can do, in the meantime after you're going to have to wait here like this was just a visit from friends all along, right?> Looking over to Ruby, he gave a "Maybe it'll work" shrug.

Chi looks visibly relieved that you seem to know what you are doing. She takes a deep breath:
"Okay, you two better record this, cause I won't repeat twice."
She ponders for a second:
"Lets start with what you're here for: AWE... Do you know how the transhuman mind works? The "self" is only a narrative the mind crafts with all the memories contained. Let's say you have a strong memory of a certain person, your mind takes that and deduces that you have a strong link to that person and therefore undertands itself, yourself, better."

"AWE is a extremely advanced psychosurgery suite that takes advantage of that process. It was developped by Cognite, but N.L. managed to get their paws on it. It quite litterally cracks open your mind and interrogates it in extremely accelerated simulspace. It asks about EVERYTHING: whether you like chocolate or vanilla, you like or hate someone, how you feel about certain subjects, etc. This takes weeks in simulspace time. While it does this, it flags any memory strongly linked to the sense of self, things you care about..."

"After the interrogation is done, it brute-force memory edits everything it found, dumbing down the emotional and physical response to the maximum and making your most important memories as bland and forgettable as the type of nutrient paste you had for breakfast 7 weeks ago."

"The next step is takes is to flood the ego with fake memories linked to whoever was programmed as master. It takes these memories and cranks up the emotional and physical responses to maximise association. To the ego, the master becomes responsible for not only everything good in life, but everything in life." AWE then programs in digital endorphins to be released any time the master is thought fondly of."

"Finally, AWE deletes any memories of the process ever occuring. The ego is therefore turned into a perfect slave to someone they never even met."

Giving a sideline gaze to Ruby, Zhi nodded along in grim understanding. While on a spiritual level he would be /happy/ to argue the metadata of the ego. Now was clearly not the time. Shifting from one leg to the other, he had a few more questions. <Alright, makes sense with the ego we saw before. What kind of equipment they using? Or is this just a software? How defensive has Houngan been of it considering it's been making the rest of the sects uneasy? We're still looking for an 'in' to get close to this project...>

"Honestly, I'm not entirely certain. From what we can see, AWE is a highly advanced plug-and-play psychosurgery suite, but considering it's efficiency, I'm expecting some black budget level tech, especially since Lam Cong Dong got it from Cognite. AWE is loaded in Nana Buluku, biggest server on Legba. Airgapped, full time security and surveillance, only ones allowed in are Nazon and Elleggua. We give them stacks with egos and the settings for AWE and they bring them back after it's done working. I don't exactly know what security procedures they've got going on, but it's certainly well rigged."

"As for the uneasiness, I'd say that comes from the power plays going on between each Nanchon and Nazon. Most of N.L. members don't really care about the Houngan's research... Just the end results."