Investigating the Cult. (IMPORTANT UPDATE, READ)

Hey everyone. A couple of weeks ago, a cybernetics factory was attacked by the Cult in Shanghai. Everyone was killed, and this wasn't just some normal grab and run, this was an annilihation. I was investigating it, but was sidetracked by some....personal issues and had to stop. If anyone is willling to help me investigate it this week, I'll be willing to repay you in some form, probably either with money or training in mechtronics or tactical weapons.

Preferably someone who is well versed in getting information from the underworld? (Underground Operations Training)

Thanks,

Darya.

An update on this. I've found a number of rather disturbing things. Firstly, there are a lot of cult inititates in Shanghai. A lot. Someone seems to be building an army, and they seem to be equipped with lots of Tracer Li cybernetics, too many to be just from raids. I think there may be a leak in Tracer Li, giving these cybernetics to the cult. A similar incident occured 18 years ago.

I've also found a possible cult base in Shanghai, which I'll be offering as a potential mission this week. If anyone wants to come on it, I'd like hard hitters who can deal with fighting chimeras if possible.

Additionally, there is another cult factory here in Seoul I am investigating. I shall keep you all posted on that.

Finally...it is possible that an old foe of mine may be involved in this, from the information we gained last time we tangled with the cult in the Tracer Li facility in Shanghai. If anyone finds any references to `Altruism` linked to the cult, please inform me. They may not be involved, but if they are...

The cult have nanoswarms.

I repeat. The cult are somehow capable of storing nanoswarms within their bodies and releasing them upon death, or as a weapon in combat. Hence, the reason that large amounts of Shanghai have been blasted to the ground.

I don't know how they are able to store them within their bodies, and we barely know anything about these things (the nanoswarms, that is, not the cult), so if anyone can research into ways of dealing with them, please do so.

Additionally, it seems they are able to control the nanoswarms to some degree once they leave the body, since the nanoswarms did not immediately drain the cultist's weapons of energy.

They also had some Tracer Li cybernetics, but we were unable to get a good look at them due to the previously mentioned nanoswarms. From what I've seen, a lot of the cult are using these cybernetics, which indicates there is a link between Tracer Li and Cult.

(I'm personally hoping that no other member of the cult is stupid enough to have nanoswarms inside their bodies. Because that is just...bizarre and stupid, even by cult standards. And those are not high)

A quick update for everybody. There appears to be a Cult turf war going on in Shanghai at the moment, and this "Altruism" character is involved in one side of it. Whether that side has the nanoswarms and corrupted Agents, or whether they're working against Altruism, I can't yet tell. Having said that, Altruism often pops up in connection with Tracer Li, and it seems as though those cultists might have been using Tracer Li stuff, so I would hazard a guess that you were fighting Altruism's group.

Things are currently going to get worse in Shanghai; the UIG is being forced to focus on the other problems, and with lots of nervous, worried people in the city, the cult are pretty much activatly standing around with recruitment posters and nothing is being done to stop them. There are a couple of other cult hunters in the area, who would probably help us out for the right amount of cash, and if anyone wants to help out, I'll be doing some bounty hunting in the area over the next few weeks.

The biggest load is a nest of 15 Chimeras Pinkie and I found in the city. They appeared to be armed with nanite tech and possibly also xenotech as well. It'll be difficult, and we'll need to be on the look out for nanoswarms, but hitting them could be very helpful. I'll stay in the area, keeping an eye on them, and we'll hit them soon. ((OOC: Probably after exams.))

We can't have cult rampaging around. If it's within my power to help then I will, and the rank and money from the bounties doesn't hurt either. Let me know what you need.

i'm not the sort to be much use bounty hunting but I have my own ways of helping...

someone has to offer an alternative.

If you mean an alternative to joining the cult, then yes, I agree. The cult recruit from the hungry, the poor, the desperate, people we can help.

However, my targets are not these people. The cult...weed them out. They are not looking for the scared or the ambitious, but those who believe in the supremacy of the machine over the body. To get to the level of initiate, usually they have to have killed at least one other person for cybernetics, or money for them, and if they've gained a bounty on their head then it means that they've done this several times. It is....unlikely that they will accept an alternative.

I was talking about those the cult would recruit from...

faith, and the dark manipulations of it, find fertile ground in the lost and the hungry. Offer them something better, pride in themselves as well as food in their bellies and you can turn many to a brighter path before they've walked too far into darkness.

A quick update: The cult base Pinkie and I found is having delivaries of equipment made to it. I'm currently thinking it may be a good idea to hit some of these to lure the bigger members out of the nest.

However, we have a bigger issue. Ace and I assisted other cult hunters in bringing down a cultist who was equipped with a compact anti-grav device, which, as far as I can tell, was also stable. This level of technology usually has one source, and it is called the UIG. Add this on to the leak in Tracer Li, and I think we need to find and shut down the source of the cybernetics. As such, I'll be investigating into this further next week, so if anyone can help investigate, please say (Spending Major Action, preferably with underground ops or similar trainings). Additionally, if anyone wants to go bounty hunting, particularly against cult, just ask.

I ought to be free next week, depending on how some of my own investigations go this week.

I'm planning on spending all of next week in Shanghai helping out with the cult hunting. I'm not very good at investigation though, so I'll mainly be part of the bounty hunting squad, destroying any of them that you guys turn up. (Major action Bounty hunting, minor investigating) If anyone wants to join me just say.

That's pretty troubling, so does sound interesting. I'll be there next week to investigate.

Parvati and I have been looking into what's going on in Keelung Old City recently. Two major things of interest. Firstly, the Ai Jinn want to take it over completely. Secondly, large numbers of the cult in Shanghai have moved here. They were rather surprised to see me reappear. The relative lawlessness in the area means that they are operating pretty openly, and are likely to try and strike the city's Little Tokyo for hi-tech parts. I intend to plasma them before this can occur.

The cult are stock piling stolen Ai Jinn military grade weapons. Great. Anyone feel like helping me track down some other caches of them? If we can find out where they are, we can hit the biggest one ourselves then either sell or give the locations of the others to the UIG/Ai Jinn.

I've had a look into Han Yul (the leak in Tracer Li) and come up with some interesting results. He's one of the vice-CEOs of the corp and is in charge of product development. He also owns a big mansion in Nanjing.

Also in Nanjing is a very suspicious-looking factory. A paper trail of unusual supply requests, shipping instructions and orders leads right there, but there's no hard evidence of anything wrong. It's also highly secure. I recommend some infiltration and investigation.