Week 55: Ace gets another new employee in his Office.

Ace sat behind his desk in his office at Oracle HQ. He was quite busy working on projects back at the Eroz facility on the moon, but was perfectly willing to take some time out to talk to a new Oracle Agent.

Ace's synthwood desk was arranged facing the door, so anyone entering the office would see Ace behind a desk. There were two comfortable looking chairs up against the right wall, with a single chair set up facing the desk for a visitor to sit on. As Ace was still working the Desk had a small pile of neatly stacked Datapads as well as the one he was currently working on.

A large weapon cabinet sat along the left hand wall, displaying a verity of well made weapons, some WF and some not. Most were light weapons, with well made Cougars and machine pistols on display, alongside some laser weapons and a machine laser. A plasma carbine sat among rifles, assault and sniper, with the centre piece being a Heavy white and blue weapon with 'Eroz' branded on the side. The bottom of the case was lined with grenades, both heavy and micro, and ammo of all types. The overall effect was of an artistic arrangement that anyone who appreciated weapons or art could enjoy.

The walls that were previously bare were now painted in polychromic paint that allowed the very walls and ceiling of the room to change colour and display complex patterns, as arranged by the computer sitting to one side of (and partially built into) the desk. Being a superfuture computer the display was holographic and the keyboard was generated directly onto the synthwood surface.

At the moment the various walls were showing newsfeeds from around the world of events unfolding, the live Tex feed being fairly predominant. The far right corner of the room contained the humanoid shape of a Y&S ME6 Centaur droid, painted in adaptive camouflage rather than the default silver and blending in with the walls. Its weapons were lowered to the ground.


It was in this office environment that Ace waited for his appointment to arrive.

It was near the time for Karishma's appointment with her new (senior) colleague, and she had made absolutely sure to be there on time so as to make a good impression. As she neared Ace's office, she nervously patted out a few crinkles in the neat, but rather understated, dark-brown suit she'd picked out for this meeting, and wondered what he would be like to talk to face to face; his message the other day had seemed much more formal than those she'd received off other Agents. Karishma fiddled momentarily with her shoulder-length, black hair, then, taking a deep breath in an attempt to calm her nerves, she reached out and knocked on the door.

"Hello? It's Karishma, may I come in?"

There was hardly any hesitation before the door opened itself before her. Ace looked up from his work with a smile and gestured to the seat in front of the desk, clearly laid out for this reason.

"Of course. Come in. Take a seat. I'm very glad that you could make it."

"Thank you!" she said earnestly.

After a moment's hesitation, during which she glanced around the inside of the office, Karishma walked forward and sat down. She quite liked the use of polychromatic paint on the walls, although the slight inconsistency in the corner caught her attention for a moment, and wondered to herself what else it could be programmed to display through Ace's computer (per + obs pass by 3, per + ass tech pass by 5).

As she sat down, her eyes were drawn to the rather large array of weapons on display, and her eyebrows raised slightly as she wondered if she would ever have to make use of such a large arsenal herself. As she was about to look away, she spotted the heavy Eroz weapon, and Karishma was reminded of Positron's invitation. *Does Ace work at Eroz as well?* she thought to herself.

Quickly turning back to face Ace, she tried to sound as confident as she could. Unfortunately, her nerves induced by meeting someone completely new with so many dangerous weapons right there (especially the grenades) got the better of her (fail pres + attitude by 12). As she spoke, there was a clear tremor in her voice, and she was much quieter than she intended to be.

"Thank you for letting me come and see you so soon; I'm really grateful that you could fit me in. I've been contacted by most of the other Agents now, so I think I should be fitting in quite well soon." She paused for a moment out of slight embarrassment. "If you don't mind my asking, do you work for Eroz? It's just that I noticed the weapon over there," she indicated the blue and white object, "and was curious. I recently received a message off Positron, you see, offering me a position." Suddenly Karishma realised that she was starting to gabble, and quickly stopped talking to avoid accidentally saying something out of place.

As she appraised his room Ace appraised the new Agent. He turned the screens off after she had finished looking towards them. She looked relatively unassuming but Ace's new she was a former Comoros Agent. If Pavarti's talents were anything to go by then this new Agent could be.. dangerous. The way her eyes scanned the room was telling, as was the way they lingered on the technological aspects of the room. Her question caught Ace off guard. He frowned slightly.

"Ah.. Yes. I'm a Director of the company and head of the Logistics and Transport side of the company. I didn't really ask you here to talk about Eroz, although I understand why Positron has approached you. I wanted to talk about Oracle, give you a few things and answer any questions you might have."

His expression opened out as his mild confusion faded. He smiled warmly.

"Despite our different backgrounds and outlooks we do all seem to get along well. I suspect there is something about Oracle that brings out that side of people, or perhaps one people who are that way inclined join. I'm sure you'll fit right in.

Karishma realised her fau paix almost as soon as Ace responded. In spite of his following smile and kind words, her cheeks still turned a light shade of scarlet in embarrassment as she replied.

"Ah, yes, of course! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cause offense! I just get a little nervous meeting new people sometimes. I hadn't seen anything from Eroz before I came in here, and my curiosity got the better of me. Sorry!" She shifted in her seat slightly, then grasped at the new topic gratefully. "Thank you; I hope I will too. I don't have many questions, to be honest. I think mainly I'd like to know more about standard procedure here, and what will be expected of me as an Agent of Oracle. Coming here from Comoros, I expect it's going to be quite a big change." Karishma returned Ace's warm smile, but it was still vaguely tinged with nerves.

"You've not offecned me, and there is no need to be embarrased. Realy."

Ace was still trying his best to be welcoming although as be began to talk about Oracle his face and tone became more serious.

"Oracle is currently organised a rather haphazard way. At present he company has twelve active Agents, who are all expected to act independently. You will have near total freedom of action with regards to what you do in your downtime, although it is expected that you will spend some, if not most, of your time looking for potential missions. We have no mission officer, instead missions are proposed to the company on a highly secure network. You are free to ask for specific Agents to accompany you on a mission or to leave it open and see who can attend. On occasion you will be called upon by a fellow Agent to go on a mission. If you cannot or decide not to there will be no penalties issued by CEO Lee or your higher ranking officers. In effect the company runs itself, with occasional input from CEO Lee. I think it works only because of how small the company is and how each Agent can be aware of and have contact with every other Agent."

“On a mission command usually defers to the proposer of the mission to be the equivalent of a Division Leader, but this is by convention rather than formal rule. I recommend you go on a few missions to get a feel for the way it works before you try to lead any missions yourself. ”

Ace paused for a moment to assess if Karishma appeared to be taking this all in.
“Any questions so far?”

While Ace was speaking, Karishma listened intently and used the time to gather herself. She had been rather unprofessional up till this point, so she followed Ace's example, sitting up slightly straighter in her chair and also taking up a more serious, less timid expression.

"Thank you for the explanation," she said in response to Ace's query. After a moments pause for thought, she continued, "No, I can't think of any serious questions right now; your explanation covered pretty much everything I wanted to ask you about." She sat back in the chair, then suddenly another thought occurred to her. "Actually, there is one thing. What is the company policy with regards to combat situations? Is it up to our own discretion as to when we should apply lethal force, or do we have a standard operating procedure?"

Ace was slightly taken aback by the question. He wasn't sure what she meant, but he tried not to show his surprise on his face.

"Good question. Don't kill people if you can avoid it. Defiantly don't kill civilians. Agents know what they are getting into when they sign up so it's less absolute with them, but try not to kill them if you can avoid it. Of course it is sometimes.. unavoidable. And, of course, criminals are fair game. Have you ever worked in the eastern bank before?"

Ace's tone was hard, and bore no trace of regret for past actions.

"Not really, no. All I know is that it is a CCZ, and that if I get caught even so much as sneezing at a UIG officer I'll be in a lot of trouble." She wondered at the hard tone that Ace's voice had suddenly taken on at her question. "It sounds pretty much standard then, apart from avoiding killing rival Agents." Perhaps she had hit a nerve? Karishma decided that it might be best to avoid that particular topic in future. "That pretty much covers everything I wanted to know sir, thank you."

"Thanks alright. I'm glad to help." There was another pause. "Be careful. Whever you do, whatever leads you follow make sure you have your back covered. Trust your teammates on missions and trust that they will trust you. I'd hate to see anything happen to you."

Ace reached under his deck and pulled out a Muletech full of things, putting it on the table infront of him and pushing it towards Karishma.

"Here are some things for you. A few essensial things I think will be of use to you, to get you started until your first mission payout. Feel free to take anything you want from the gun case."

((The Mule-Tech bag is Anti-Gravity enabled, Heavily armoured, Waterproof, X-Ray Proof, Fireproof, Acid resistant and contains both an ID chip lock and a standard lock. Inside it contains.

1 x tactical assault shield
1 x covert shield
3 x reflexive shields
10 vials of Devilfish
10 med-packs
5 nano-res packs
A bunch of AV bugs
10 Invisibility fields
Five cans of ITE paint
Two cans of scout powder
Armoured Balaclava
Several rolls of Tex Tape
Level 5 stealth Process chip
A cridit chip containing 100,000 credits registed to Karishma.
A datapad detailing the local area, including the exchange. In which is information on good places to live, eat and breathe. It has the details of a tailor in the exchange who will make armour and clothing with all the trimmings. It also contains contact details for the members of Oracle, with Ace’s fairly predominant.))

A strange strangled noise emitted from Karishma as she looked at the contents of the bag, especially the credit chip. Feeling slightly light headed, she looked up at Ace once more and managed to get out, "I, I, well, I... thank you" before lapsing into stunned silence. Coming from Comoros as she had, it was a huge shock for her to be given so much expensive equipment all at once, and as a starting set at that! The thought weakly crossed her mind that mission payouts may well be rather larger than she was used to.

After a moment of composing herself, Ace's comment about the gun case sank in, and her cheap shotgun sprang to mind, as well as her hope of replacing it with something a little less, well, awful. She breathed deeply. "Thank you very much for the equipment and credits! Now I can really make sure that I'm ready for missions. At the moment, all I have is a shotgun and my Cougar, and since you've mentioned the gun case, I was wondering if you might have a really good laser rifle I could use?" She looked at Ace hopefully. "I mean, I'd really like to either get my hands on an artifact condition rifle or improve one to that myself. That would take a very long time, though." She smiled ruefully and shrugged.

Ace considered the request for a moment, looking over at the gun case as he did. "Hmm. Not with me, I'm afraid. I've got some high powered Kinetic ones and a couple of good laser machine pistols, but not the sort of thing you are looking for, I'm afraid. The Western Fed doesn’t really make tactile laser weaponry. I can make some enquiries; see what I can get hold of. I won't be able to get hold of an L80 if that's what you are after, but I might be able to help."

Ace turned back to Kari. "If you wanted something Kinetic or Plasma then I could defiantly help you there, my contacts in AMS are good enough I think. Do you prefer laser weaponry?"

Karishma tried her best not to look disappointed when Ace informed her that he didn't have a laser rifle. "Well, I've never really liked the idea of using plasma weaponry. It's nice that they cut through armour like a hot knife through synth-butter, but their propensity to blow off your own hands is a little off-putting." She grimaced noticeably, then continued. "The main reason I like laser weaponry is that it gives me the ability to bypass shielding, so I can hit the target directly. And with the money you've just given me, I could get an inner vision G.U.I. and an integrated shield assessor installed." Karishma talked about this subject as though she'd thought about it many times in the past. "That would mean I could get past almost any shield with very little effort." Karishma paused for a moment. "I suppose in the end it's just personal preference, really."

After a moment's thought, she said, "Actually, do you have any knock-out or riot grenades? I don't really have a capacity for immobilising people without harming them at the moment, you see."

"That I can help you with." Ace declared. He stood and walked over to the case, prodding the part beneath the glass case with his foot. The previously concealed draw slid open revealing a large assortment of small cases, each ladled with an explosive type and clearly designed to hold multiple micronades. He pulled out four packs and returned to the desk as the draw slid shut. He placed the first two on the table. "Riot grenades." and then the second, stacked on top of each other and next to the first. "KO grenades. Micronades, of course, because there isn't much point having regular grenades when these ones are so elegantly designed. Now, about the laser weaponry. If you wanted a laser cannon I think I could help, but I'm not very well connected with Takata or any of the other laser weaponry manufacturers. Certainly the shield assessor is very useful," He said as he touched the side of his head, "I use mine a fair bit, and I don't use laser weaponry very often."

Karishma smiled happily as Ace placed the micronades before her. "Thanks!" she said. "And thank you for the offer of help on finding a good laser weapon. Really." she said sincerely, then continued, "But I haven't been trained in the use of heavy weaponry, so I wouldn't be able to use a laser cannon effectively at all." She looked across at Ace apologetically, knowing that he was doing his best to help her. "Would it be alright if I took one of those laser machine pistols for the time being?" she asked, ever so slightly tentatively.

"Sure." Ace returned the smile and returned once again to the gun case. He opened the front and picked up a weapon, paused for a second, and then picked up its mirror on the other side. The case slid shut again as he put the two nigh identical pistols down on the table before Karishma. The artistry of the case looked somewhat diminished by the lack of these twin weapons. "In case you want to duel wield, until you get a rifle. I find the rate of fire make up for the loss of accuracy.”

"Wow! That's really kind of you, thank you so much! But I couldn't possibly take so much from you for nothing!" She grinned happily at Ace's generosity. "Here's a thought, actually. How about, if there's ever a piece of equipment or weaponry you want improved or fixed or something, I could have a go at it? You know, as a thank you. I'm pretty good with mechtronics," Karishma suggested gleefully, thinking that she really should try to repay the generosity of her fellow Agent. ((Mechtronics skill of 8.))

((By the way, what are the stats for those pistols?))

((Pistols are listed here: https://oracle.forumotion.co.uk/t327-takata-displays#1958))

"Weapons won't be a problem. Before I left the WF I was trained as a Gun Technician. Don't worry about paying me back though, I'm not expecting anything else in return."

He sat back down, turning to face her again with questioning body language. "There is one thing I'd like to ask, before you go. You are from Comoros. What are your telepathic abilities and how proficient in them are you?"

"Ok, where to start..." she said musingly. "My best telepathic skills are prescience and telekinesis; I can lift roughly 250kg at once, and predict quite well what an opponent is going to do next in a fight." ((Prescience 5, telekinesis 5.)) "Next down are my biokinesis and telepathic jump abilities; I can traverse about 16 metres in one go, and heal myself multiple times over from quite serious injuries." ((Jump 4, biokinesis 4.)) "I'm capable of a level 3 standard assault in addition to these. Those are the skills that are really worth noting. I'm also able to manifest a level 1 psi blade, but that's purely so that I can defend myself at close quarters. Finally, I can manifest a level 1 set of psi armour, a 1 point shield, and I have the ability to use a level one cloak. The cloak can make me invisible, inaudible, or thermally invisible; I intend to improve on that one quite a bit. I've also developed a very good pool of telepathic energy, so I can keep using my telepathics for a decent length of time." ((Current TE pool of 64.)) "I can also metabolise my own body into TE, just like all Comoros telepaths, but I have to be careful with that; too much and I'll pass out shortly after." She grinned slightly evilly. "What I really want to learn, though, is a telepathic skill known as 'nullify'. I never got the chance to be taught it while I was in Comoros. It lets you, in essence, dissipate any telepathic skills used by someone else, so long as you are also capable of that skill. So if someone tried to telepathically assault one of our Agents, I could theoretically stop it before it even touched them. Or I could remove their psi armour. Or make their psi blade vanish, etc. In addition, it apparently doesn't matter how good I am at the skill I'm nullifying; I should be able to dissipate it anyway!" A look of longing and hope passed across Karishma's face, as she asked, "Do you know if there's anyone in Oracle that knows how to use that skill, and could teach me? I'm sure it would make me vastly more useful on any mission involving my former employers."

"Both of Oracle's telepaths, not including yourself, have some proficiency with Nullify. Pavarti and I spent some time developing the theory from scratch. If you like I'd be perfectly happy to teach you, in exchange for some training in the breadth of disciplines you have at your disposal. I had the same idea as you; nullification on missions would be of great use, however I personally am only proficient with Prescience and the basics of Telekinesis. I must say a 1 point shield seams pointless for anything other than Nullification, but I'm sure you can develop it."

Ace smiled happily at his fellow agent, content in the knowledge that he could be of use.

"Thinking about it, both Pavarti and I have installed a device called a PsiComm. It's a relatively new piece of technology that allows instantaneous communication between any Telepaths that have it installed and are attuned to each other’s telepathic frequency. As you are going to be part of Oracle, and Eroz, you should look into having one installed yourself."

"Really? That would be wonderful, thank you!" Karishma exclaimed gleefully, totally oblivious to the fact that she'd gone off on a ridiculously long explanation of something that Ace had just admitted to already knowing pretty much everything about. "I must admit, I'm not really used to teaching, but I can definitely give it a go. When would you like to start? If at all possible, I'd like to spend next week getting a few important upgrades installed." ((56 downtime major action, so 'few' is a slight understatement.)) "I'm also hoping to use some of my time outside of that to get licensed for nanotech research and development, so that I'm a bit more useful for Eroz." She grinned again and happily bobbed a little in her seat.

"Whenever you are comfortable. If next week is too buisy then perhaps [Week 57] or [Week 58] to start." Ace picked up a couple of Datapads on the desk in front of him and slid them towards Kari. "If you don't have any other questions then I think we are done. Here are some mission reports. You can't copy them and if you try to take them out of the building they will explode, but it should give you an idea of what we do." Ace smiled warmly to his new junior partner. "Which brings me to non-Oracle business. Have you had time to consider Positron's proposition?"

Karishma picked up the datapads and glanced at them out of curiosity before looking up at Ace once again. "I'll make sure to read through these thoroughly. I think I'd like to start with the training in [week 57], if that's alright. As for Positron's proposition, I am very much inclined to take him up on the offer. I just really like a chance to exercise my technical skills." She smiled happily. "In fact, he's invited me to visit the compound on the Moon so that we can meet and he can explain in more detail what he would like me to work on."