[Incoming communication: 03/02/10AF]
[From: MQMing@TitanAutUni.ti]
[Subject: Job offer]

Hi,
Your particular set of skills was recommended to me, and so I contact you today to offer a job.

Here are the details:
One of our researchers, Tara Yu, has disappeared from the radar recently. She was expected to report back from her field research last week, but never showed up. Her backup insurance is scheduled to rez her backup in around 3 months (I don't know the specifics).
Of course, we aren't cheapskates. Successful retrieval of Tara Yu will result in a positive hit to your rep or a sum of credits. (Your choice)

As the disappearance of one of our members would prove detrimental to our reputation, I trust you will keep a low profile and minimize the connections between your investigation and T.A.U.

Please meet me in Locus on 05/02/10AF for a face-to-face meeting with the other members of this op. If you cannot attend physically, please send a fork, I will take care of the details.

Magnus Qiao-sen Ming Ph.D
Titan Autonomous University

[Attached documents:]
Standard retrieval contract - Welker & Associates

posting...

The Mattias are in the TAU's Advanced Robotics testing facility when they receive the message. The staff at the facility is testing a new linkage method for Flexbot modules, hoping that it will allow for faster reconfiguring Flexbots. Three forks of Mattia are sleeved in three different Flexbot Modules, currently busy trying to link and detach as fast as they can using the new linkage system. They are not happy with the design.

A fourth fork of Mattia, sleeved in a Swarmanoid and hovering in the observation room together with the other researchers is the one that receives and reads the message (Mattia's Muse knows which fork to send the message to). Mattia knows that he does not need to consult with his other selves, they would all agree that the message is highly intriguing and worth the expense of a farcast.

Mattia then quickly makes a fifth Fork of himself, and sends it off into Titans public mesh. The newly created fork is born conscious of his luck and purpose. He will travel to a novel destination, meet new people see things that the Mattias never knew of. Then he will return, and merge back with the other forks.

The newly created fork travels through the mesh until he reaches the Titanian Farcasting facilities. There he books passage for Locus. Before boarding, he tries to contact someone on Locus that they had been wanting to meet for a long while now. Atsuko Van Gogt, Egocasting Operator of one of Locus' most respected farcasting facilities, and author of the exemplary "The Seven Chakras: Metaphor & Holistic Practice in the Treatment of Integration and Continuity Disorders".

In the message to Van Gogt Mattia presents themselves, and ask to be received by Von Gogt's farcaster. At the end of the message he poses a question about one of the last chapter of Van Gogt's treaty, and concludes by saying that he hopes to discuss her response in person.

Finally, Mattia replies to the Professor, informing him to expect him for the appointment.

<Heeey buddy, you got a new mesh-mail!> Mossburg spoke up as his owner was busy in his apartment chopping up veggie-material blocks. The grey gargoyle-looking glider dicing the green block into workable bits. "Who's it from? It an open line?"

<Nope! One way, from ...Someone on Titan Auto Uni...Huh.> Sliding the almost cheese-like dices into a broth pot, David washed his taloned hands as he read the letter off his entropic. "Huh ...Not sure why they would want me for a 'stack recovery, I think they just want to keep it in-house and are really reaching? ...I can't abide by a lost and trapped soul. Moss, can you get in contact with my insurgence clinic?"

<Sure thing guy, I'll see if they can't contact Locus' facilities and send you a catalog of morphs they got on stock.> Giving a nod in appreciation, David let his muse work as he finished making his dinner...

--

His senses swimming, Bennett looked over a rough abstraction of a 'view' of his schedule planner while inhabiting an infomorph server at a Noctis body bank clinic, just having put his glider on ice, locked up his flat. Told the building's AI how long he expected to be gone and other travel affairs, just sorting out the last details. <Alright boss, you should be shipped out here in a few minutes, trip's going to be about an hour and the bandwidth is reserved ...you sure on the Neo-av body?> Mossburg spoke up as he kept in touch with the staff minding and preparing the farcast. <It's close to my normal body I should have an easy time adjusting, right?>

<Good point- alright we're about to be packaged and sent in three ...two ...on-

--
Intergration, Normal success
Alienation, Exellent failurex2

"Mister Bennet ...Mister Bennet, we're seeing active brain activity. You should be sleeved properly, can you wake up for me?" Letting out a whimpering, chirped grunt, David rolled over and sat up, looking over his new appendages, while he had resleeved before, this had only been his fourth time; and had been for the past few months. Sitting slump on the cot the man-sized red hawk moved his "Arms" around in a shrug and tried to stand. Sitting back down quickly as if light headed and giving his new legs a flex before looking up at the doctor tending to him. A black haired man of prime age(Who's morph wasn't?) looking over his senses with a medical scanner before beaming. "Welcome awake Doctor Bennett, my name's Doctor Mathus, you know we rarely get human egos sleeveing into uplift bodies, even then most uplifts prefer smaller sizes, how are you feeling?"

Touching his hands together, David gave his body a literal feel for itself as he blinked one eye at a time. "A little ...Out of place, I guess this body wasn't as similar as I thought it'd be..."

"A thing we hear every day, you really don't know how a new somatic map will effect you until you jump right in, so to speak..." Helping his patient up, he put an arm around David's new shoulder to help walk him into the lobby. "Neurologically you check out and sleeved into the body fine so there's no real cause for concern, and your insurance covers the rental cost and down payment for the body. We still ask though that you don't lose it for obvious reasons..." The large bird of prey nodding along as he spoke until they came to the front doors that led into the hab. "If that's everything, you are set to go, enjoy Locus! I'm sure you'll love the main attraction!" Before Bennett was left on his own, looking around the rocky surface of the section he was in silently. Still mentally adjusting to his new environment.

<You know we got at least a day before the meeting, we should go do something!> Mossburg finally spoke up.

Rikov, currently sleeved in a well dressed Critter morph and sitting three hours into a god-knows-how-many-hours meeting, has finally reached his breaking point. He's resorted to trying to kill the current speaker with his mind, unsuccessfully. When a new email pops up in his vision, he's so excited that he springs up and leaves without a word. He decides to forget his obligations for today, he's going to go and have a drink, then head to this meeting place. Being the first one there keeps everyone on their toes. Time for coffee.

WOOOOOOSH A small ball rushes through a maintenance tube at high speed. She always loved the pneumatic tubes. Rushing though the tunnels of her home and only stopping to pop out with a small ding to a place that needed repair. After a long day of fiddling with wires that seemed to never stay put, she popped into her canister for a nice cycle of rest and free time, which for her was usually a nice immersion game, probably something with a little fantasy and magic. < I wonder of Alk'tor finally got our guild out of trouble. I hope he did. I spent a long time trying to get us that charter.> A small ping was thrown up on her game ui. A message? Who the hell wanted to talk to some nerdy maintenance bot. With a sound of annoyance, she popped out of her canister and to the place the message told her to go. This had better be good.

You all arrive in the waiting room of T.A.U.'S Locus facilities. After a small wait, an infomorph attendant signals you to enter Professor Ming's office through the nearby door.
The door opens to reveal a shielded glass dome. Plants thrive in the rocky arrangements around you and a small artificial stream runs in a large arc, separating the dome in half.
A hologram of Professor Ming is sleeved in a Chinese genotype menton morph and sitting at his sculpted oak desk. He invites you to take a seat (if you'd like) and then begins:
"Welcome to Locus, I hope your trip here was a pleasant one. I have called you here as it is the last known location of Tara Yu, our missing researcher."
He leans forward on his desk and continues:
"T.A.U. needs you to find her. To the best of our knowledge, Yu was most recently investigating the current whereabouts of military computer hardware recovered from a station in Earth orbit that was destroyed during the Fall, in the Battle of L4. Yu has been missing for over a month now. Long silences are not unusual during some of her undercover research missions, but she missed her last scheduled check-in. Last we knew, she was on Locus. We need you to track her down, ascertain her status if alive, recover her cortical stack if dead, and if necessary continue or assist her search for the missing hardware."
He takes a small pause.
"The simplest solution would be to interview her backups, but her insurance policies prohibit resleeving before the specified period is over. Assuming you can prove she is dead, they will resleeve her."
"Sadly, I cannot provide you with operational funds until you show reliable evidence. If you do provide such evidence however, T.A.U. administration will most likely agree to liberate funds for egocasting or equipment."

"If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Otherwise, I would like you to introduce yourselves and I'll be on my way back to Titan."

David didn't give the rest of the people in the lobby any ...social glances or advances, still breaking in the new body he felt slightly awkward in. The morning still an achy blur as he got up early for this meeting with the type of hangover he was unfamiliar with. Having spent that night drinking and enjoying the night life of Locus as much as a tame man like he could. Patiently he waited in the lobby nursing water to try and stave off the dulled pain of his body (literally) nagging him about dehydration. Both clear in the mild headache and his biometric displays.

Once they had been called in, David put his glass onto a seat's end table and joined the others in the office proper, waddling on his two taloned legs and once again sitting awkwardly in a seat more made for upright morphs, waiting for the sale's pitch.

"Doctor David Bennett, bio and genetic researcher. I actually have a few questions... Why us? Normally stack recovery is a job for more combat-ready and armed people, or at least those with medical inclination- Oh..." the stupidity of such a statement dawning on him, slapping his face with a winged hand. "Right, I'm sorry, what I mean is. What do you expect of us? Are any of us known for our investigative careers, or hired gun backgrounds? Or did you just want R-net based help for an R-net based problem? and I guess ...Where on Locus was she last seen? This is a BIG hab..."

Rikov, almost from the moment he's let in, looks about ready to burst from excitement. Something to /actually do/ for once! "Yes, of course I'll help! I couldn't just leave a lady in danger like that, hm?" He turns to Dr. Bennett, and stares hard at him for a few moments. "R. Alfarsi. Charmed. I believe I'll be handling your investigations and combat-readiness."

Ming leans back in his chair and scratches his head a bit.
"r-Rep help for an r-Rep problem would be the correct answer. The thing is, Yu is, or was, on a secret research project. Most of her colleagues here think she's on a sabbatical so I refrained from requesting help from higher profile sources. For all I know, she just missed her check in... She might be completely fine, just delayed."
He pours himself a glass of water "I wish I could tell you more, but I haven't had the time to look more into it. I only know she egocast here and that's the last trace I have of her."

The small ball sitting on one of the chairs let out a sad beep and broadcasted out a message to everyone. < Oh that poor lady. I hope she's okay. >

Sapphire whirred her gyros and seemed to settle into the chair. < My name is Sapphire. I'm one of the more experienced AIs in... Finding things. Finding really important things. Sometime's keeping them, sometimes not... I may need a little help though. I can't exactly float, and well.. Rolling kinda gets me dirty.>

Mattia resleeves at Van Gogt's farcaster. They spend the day before the meeting discussing the philosophical implications of forking and resleeving, after which Mattia heads for the meeting with the professor.

Mattia enters Professor's Ming office sleeved in his swarmanoid. The swarm is hovering at face height, the bots arranged to look like a stylised floating face. When he talks, the swarm's "mouth" opens and closes completely out ff sync with the actual words transmitted.

Mattia will send to all present a basic introduction of himself, assistant researcher at the TAU on robotics and psychosurgery, although a little research will reveal that most of his colleagues regard him as more of a lab rat than an actual researcher.

"That's... intriguing... I'm willing to help as far as I can, I do have some questions though."

" First, this missing hardware, do we know who and when recovered it form the station in earth orbit? Was it TAU staff or someone else, and how did the hardware make its way to Locus, if it did? Who did the station belong to and who manufactured this hardware? Any specs on the hardware at all?
Second, was Yu working alone, or do we have some colleagues of her we can talk to? and what was Yu sleeved in when she disappeared?"

"I'm sure Mister Alfasri..."

Crossing his winged arms, David started to piece together the logic of this favor he was called for, pleasantly surprised it was so forward, tame and best of all, unassuming. "Hardware aside... Do you know what clinic she farcasted to? That might help."

"The military hardware she was looking for was last seen on Vishnukam, a station belonging to the Yokyai Kong, one of the south-east asian escape fleets during the fall. We believe they recovered it to gain some edge in the war against the TITANs. Sadly, and this is where Yu's research comes in, they were lost in the Oxygen Deck riots. All kinds of people were on board, triads, regular fellows, the thai governement, so who knows where it ended up. From what we know, we are talking about databanks and a few servers."

"Yu was working alone on the strictly field part, but I don't believe she wouldn't have gotten some help before her departure, look into her recent dealings on social media... You'll probably find something worthwhile."

"As for the clinic: She usually farcasts to UniLink ... Likes the convenience of a smaller clinic, or so she told me. Probably resleeved in a bouncer too, it's what she uses here."

Sapphire whirred uncomfortably < Can we assume her morph looks the same? Or is she one of those people who likes to switch around > She rolled to the left slightly and whirred again.

< And.. Isn't most of the prefall information.. Corrupted?>

"Well, I'm rather certain she would have gotten a bouncer, but for her looks... something asian looking is definitively likely. However, I doubt she would spend a chunk of her budget on getting a custom morph. Especially for a terrain op like this."
He nodded silently for a bit and continued:
"Most of the pre-fall data we recover is corrupted indeed, that's what makes our job as acheologists hard. Tara must have thought whatever's on these databanks is worth the expense and risk, in the chance they aren't corrupted."

"I think I'll head over to UniLink and see if they can't point me into a direction, or at the very least get me a body description..." The oversized bird of a man hopping slightly out of his chair and re-adjusting to standing on his own taloned feet. "Wait though... We should have a way to keep in contact, can someone host some sort of chat lobby on their meshes so we can at least easily ping one another?"

Ming chips in:
''I've already taken the liberty of sending you each other's basic contact information, you should be able to set up a network, or a tacnet, with minimal effort."

Mattia quickly sets up an encrypted VPN channel using code developed by the TAU and invites all members of the party to join it (not including professor Ming).

Having done that he creates an Alpha fork of himself, that starts running on the second cyberbrain that the swarmanoid supports. The two copies of Mattia do not need to talk to each others to know what they each need to do. Mattia2 immediately immerses himself in the mesh and starts to research anything he can find on Vishnukam, the Yokyai Kong, history and current situation, relevant figures, and Oxygen Deck riots.

Research Roll (45) Research (45): 1d100 84

Mattia1 then thanks the professor and tells him they will be in touch as soon as they find something out. Done that he sends a message over the VPN (so open to all party members): "Well we should get to work I suppose, I'm going to do some research on what the Professor mentioned, and I am also going to ask an acquaintance of mine if she can put us in touch with anyone at UniLink."

He then sends a private message to Atsuko Van Gogt owner of one of the Egocasting facilities of Locus asking for an introduction to someone in charge at UniLink.

<Tacnetrequest@VPN. To user:Shaou_Tucker. Version 2.8 encrpytion255Q-byte ...Waiting for response: Accepted>

Beaming(Or at least much as one could with a beak) David turned around, hopping backwards to still face his new friends as he went for the door, giving a wave. "Sounds wonderful Mattia, I'll head to their clinic now and see what I can find ...If you get anyone who works there, point them my way if you can? Bless you." Before finally out the door and lightly jogging to get a hurry on his lead.