The Swarm [Rebel Factions]

[Quilboarian]

[You could begin ICly, or with "command mode" in mind.]





The Swarm


Resting in the heart of the Bulwark is its massive capital, Chamner City. The entirety of this dominion is a sprawling metropolis containing a mixture of both urban decay and impressive marble-stone structures. It's not hard to notice that the city is kept in an iron fist, with regular aerial patrols, street checkpoints, and constant surveillance by both eyes and cameras. However, everything still has a rather elegant look to it. The cops around here have clean uniforms (often laced with silver trim), polished black jackboots, and regalia-adorned peaked caps. Such shiny displays are normally not permitted in other departments. Chamner's police are basically treated as a separate division entirely, referred to as "CapCon," which can be viewed as a double entendre.


In public buildings, you can typically see plenty of guards armed with automatic weapons- but they also carry swords, and wear extravagant ceremonial uniforms. Though menacing, the defensive structures, vehicles and equipment are all clean and tidy. However, the friendliness of the personnel generally decreases as you get into the poorer areas of town. In the city's worst sections, the "fancy brigade" is outright replaced by faceless gendarmes in drab urban fatigues.


The Crown and Key factory is located in one of the cleaner industrial areas of the city. In a hidden basement section of the building, various computers and other bits of technology have been set up. The premises are monitored by company surveillance cameras, and patrolled by security guards.


When it comes to having a form of internet, all that exists in the Bulwark is the Native Network (NatNet), a "walled garden" that is restricted to Bulwark residents only. There, you can view government news sites, take surveys, and make transactions with sanctioned companies. In order to access any real messaging abilities, one must be white-listed by the government after a lengthy background check. Otherwise, all you can do is have a twenty-minute session in a heavily-moderated public chatroom. Entertainment on NatNet mostly consists of government-provided music, games and movies which are loaded with propaganda, and cheap/free to download. Though it can provide some degree of mindless entertainment, NatNet is incredibly restrictive when it comes to actually communicating ideas with others. Even with a communications whitelist, you always have to watch what you say- you're basically surrounded by people who will report you at the drop of a hat, and rewards are offered for exposing "cybertraitors."

 

[Valor Green]

Mila paces the space in her office within the Crown & Key factory, lost deep in thought. She explicitly avoids looking out the window, by the off-chance one of the street-side cameras happens to be in operation and facing the building's southern facade. It has not been publicly confirmed whether or not CapCon's new visual recognition software is capable of detecting thoughts via body language, but it's best to err on the side of caution as well as put on a general appearance of ignorance. After all, A Small Mind is a Healthy Mind.


Below her, the room referred to colloquially as the Hivemind is abuzz with the crackling glow of monitors and hum of electrical components. Susan Marcher and Derrick Morris both oversee the operations in the main lobby, as a dedicated team of hackers communicates with other colonies via coded message. Few, if any of them have ever bothered with the whitelisting process, as it remains possible and preferable to simply hack the system. While they have been able to bypass many of the barriers put forth to prevent subversive messages coming through, no one has yet devised a way to keep them safe from the prying eyes of NatNet moderators, making the IP obfuscator a valuable piece of contraband. This also necessitates the need for careful wording and the use of almost nonsensical codephrases in order to keep the messages' content and purpose under wraps. In a separate part of the basement, Clyde Jaeron briefs a small security team about to escort a cache of weapons through a newly constructed tunnel to a nearby safehouse. This has been a point of conflict between the C&K upper staff and a spot of worry for Mila herself. Safehouses draw a lot of attention, and a tunnel connecting directly to the factory is damning evidence. Luckily, a local gang is sympathetic to the Swarm and patrols the area in return for information on rival and police activities. However, Mila has pushed for extra precaution, including the placement of incendiary charges to destroy the building and its contents in the event of compromise. This plan will have to wait, as explosives production is a slow and difficult process at C&K.

 

[Quilboarian]

There is a light rumble outside on the nearby street, as several bulky NIC trucks roll past. They're carrying massive loads of scrap, probably being sent off to be reconstituted in some factory in another sector. It's tailgated by an armored car, which has various accompanying security guys just hanging off the side, submachine guns gripped rather offhandedly. Not exactly the most disciplined personnel; probably younger men who were simply provided with uniforms and pseudo-military style weapons, in order to give the prospect of guarding dirty factories seem more important. Along with that, you see long lines of identically-jumpsuited factory workers slog on past, on their way to another day of drudgery in the industrial plants.


The other colonies seem to have been doing normally- although you lost contact with one in Cossia. It is speculated that NatNet became disabled due to some form of artillery strike in their area, which might have disabled the lines.


You received word that in one of the coastal colonies, the local Maritime Service command apparently detected several Vatzian submarines operating in the area. A Bulwark patrol vessel was also sunk off the coast, although the incident has been mostly covered up by civil defense authorities. It would have had negative propagandic value if they announced that the navy suffered another sinkage.


In regards to the various safehouses scattered throughout the city, law-enforcement has not yet discovered anything leading to the source of the contraband that your group puts out. Most of the efforts are done by criminal investigators under the auspices of CapCon; they're under the notion that it is originating from gang activity, it seems. So far, this has been a good thing; SecWatch is far more ruthless than police detectives when it comes to "investigating."

 

[Valor Green]

Mila interrupted her pacing to hazard a gaze out the window at the passing trucks. Nationalized Industries was a stain in her eyes upon the city; being not only C&K's most successful competitor but also the sell-outs who stole its government contact. She always wanted to ambush those convoys, slaughter the lot of those pricks, and hijack the shipments. She imagined an IED charge blowing in front of the first truck, damaging the road and forcing the convoy to halt while Molotov cocktails rain fire upon the armored truck and sear the pompous grins from the faces of moronic uniformed goons. With the road in ruins ahead and aflame behind, the trucks would have no where to go as her men would descend upon them and assume control, while the workers flee back to their homes and families. They would need a way out, though, and fast, before authorities arrive. Perhaps, a temporary road of wooden planks could be placed over the shattered street. Then, they would need a place to hide the trucks and unload the shipments before bringing it back to the factory. She let out a sigh as the complications piled up. It was bad enough she already had the security team escorting contraband and digging tunnels. It wouldn't be appropriate to ask them to risk their lives and liberty for a personal vendetta. Maybe one of the gangs could do it.


She was interrupted in her contemplation by Joshua Grens at the office door.


"Intelligence report is in from the other colonies," he said with a small knock. "Care to come have a look?"


She looked for a moment out at the empty street where the convoy no longer was. Maybe another day.


"Sure," she nodded before following him into the Hivemind's briefing room.

 

[Quilboarian]

You both head down the steps and into the more illicit section of the C&K factory. Soon, the sound of many typing fingers reaches both your ears. Once you step into the Hivemind, a piece of paper is quickly passed along and given to you, containing the report. The paper seems to have been recently printed, probably just after they got done deciphering the message on the computer. The content appears to contain the details of an intercepted radio transmission between two low-level naval members, and the colony leader included a few extra side-notes at the bottom. Reading it through, you hear tell that the Vatzians have indeed sunk another Bulwark vessel, and the colony leader mentions that the incident was (mostly) covered up by intellies from the Maritime Service.


One of the techies calls you over and gestures at his computer screen. "Cos-Col Two hasn't really been saying anything, yet. I think their connection must still be down." On the screen, the colonies of interest are marked by some red circles. The geography should be easy enough to recognize. "Do you have any instructions at the moment?"

[10/10 attempt to simulate hacker computer thing]

 

[Valor Green]

"Marcher, I want your techies to get on this cover-up. I want word plastered over every government and major news site you can hit. They'll be forced to take down the sites long enough to repair the damage. The bigger the better. We'll disrupt their propaganda machine for as long as possible."


She pointed toward the more southerly Cossian colony. "What contact do we have here?" She gave a quick glance over her shoulder "And where's Jaeron?"

 

[Quilboarian]

Marcher nods to you. "So...We'll tell everyone that they ain't keeping the coasts safe?" she asked, before turning back to her monitor, making a few clicks and there. She gives out a shrug. "It seems like something...like...eh." She scratched the back of her head, thinking for a moment. "Sometimes they do stuff like this, where they want everyone to feel unsafe. People fearing Vatzia is a good thing for them, isn't it?"


"We still got contact with Cos-Col One," says the techie. "They said Cos-Col Two probably has their NatNet taken down from an airstrike, or artillery, or somethin' like that. The situation got worse in Two's area, recently."





A man takes out his earbuds and calls over to you. "He's just about to depart, Miss," he says, pointing over in the direction of the appropriate corridor to take. As if you didn't know already, though.

 

[Valor Green]

"Political agenda is irrelevant, Marcher. The people deserve the truth, be it Vatzian supremacy or Bulwark incompetence. I'll leave the spin to your discretion, so whatever the truth is to you, put it out there. Now, we'll need couriers running between the Cossian colonies. I don't want them losing contact with each other."


Mila straightens her posture and lets out a sigh. "Anything else?"

 

[Quilboarian]

Marcher purses her lips and seems to consider things for a moment, before nodding. "Mhm. Right on," she says. "If we try and make the Maritime Service look incompetent, it's good for us anyway. If the government took the chance, they could have probably reported it like; 'Vatzian subs have committed a dirty surprise attack against the SS-whatever, and we've lost plenty of brave men today.' Hmm..." She rubbed her chin. "They missed a good opportunity to divert funding to orphanages or something, in order to develop some kind of fancy coastal defense system...Heh."


The random techie nods. "We can contact Cos-Col One and tell them to send a guy over to investigate, maybe try and help reestablish contact?" He takes a sip of Simulant Coffee.


"Jaeron's guys are all checked up and good to go. They'll be departing now, Miss."

 

[Valor Green]

"I'll debrief the security team when they return," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand. "If anything further is needed, send Grens for me. I'll be in my office."


Mila had always been somewhat of a recluse, but the sheer amount of time she's spent in alone in her office made her a sight for sore eyes in most parts of the factory. As she returned to her office, she took a quick glance out into the alley under which the new tunnel ran. It would be for the best, she assured herself, before taking a seat at her desk and once again becoming lost in thought.

 

[Quilboarian]

The alley is a dark and derelict place, but it remains empty. The goings-on underneath it will likely go unseen, regardless. You lounge around in your office for some time, without much to really do. The ceiling fan simply drones overhead in your office as you sit there, growing rather sleepy.


A device on your desk beeps and you hear the voice of one of the factory officers. "Eh...there's been a slight incident. Currently, we have a cop being detained in the factory. They somehow got into the restricted area, but we managed to subdue them before they could leave. Can you come down? We'll explain more once you get here. Don't worry, there is no immediate danger."