World Tree MUSH

    It's kind of an out of the way world. Simple enough, fairly modern, with an early to mid twenty-first century Earth culture and tech level. Cell phones are common, and VR headsets with Augmented reality are all over the place, helping people navigate the city and coordinate with one another. It's also pretty peaceful, deep away from any current conflict, with few Vines... normally.

    Lately, nearby worlds have been talking about the crime spree here. ATMs ending up empty, which is causing some concern because now people are talking about moving away from cash altogether here. Maybe that isn't a bad thing, but it still leaves the criminals about! Robotic enforcement usually takes care of it, but they hadn't caught the culprit yet... and one robot had been found in pieces, sheared apart by some cutting device. CCTV always goes out just before the crime.

    Whether investigating the rumors, or due to a new Vine appearing and hijacking a newcomer, all this is readily available via the news feeds on various screens, and... probably explains why people are looking suspiciously at anyone who looks out of place. Fortunately, it's cosmopolitan enough that only something with wildly different tech(swords or phasers) or distinctly and wildly nonhuman will get those looks. So far.

    Well, that was unexpected. At least it's warmer around here. She looks human enough, and her outfit, while a bit futuristic-looking, could just be considered as some obscure fashion. She's currently leaning against a wall near an ATM, and checking the news feed on her phone, frowning pensively as she does so. Something that can cut apart a law enforcement drone, and disable security cameras without being tracked in a society like this?

    Troubling.

    Well... if anything, despite being from an ambiguous future point to the standard 'modern Earth' timeline, Blues might look a bit 'retro' thanks to his hair! Fortunately, unless he's inspected closely, anyone just passing him on the street wouldn't be able to tell the difference. A close look would, but he doesn't plan on staying long.

    Blues didn't come here by accident. He didn't come here on purpose either. He just took a Vine out of where he was, and ended up here. He's a wanderer like that. But now he's stopped to watch one of the videos about the crimes, frowning at the bit about the robotic enforcer getting torn apart. "... huh." He doubts these robots are as advanced as he is, but it's still... interesting. So the 'young man' can be found musing there nearby.

    Funny enough, it's Athena, who looks pretty human, that gets the attention isn't it? This is because she was heading out expecting trouble, so she showed up with an energy rifle across her back, and some low-grade power armor. She's just spent the last hour and a half clarifying that she just arrived to the local authorities, promising she won't be trouble, and reassuring that not only does she not have anything to do with it, but why would she want to? She doesn't need the local cash!

    Trudging along she glances up and sees the screens showing another hit happened. "Whomever is doing this is... really cleaning them out. I wonder..." Obviously an offworlder, still, so probably getting a few glares.

    Yep, a few stares, but as yet no glares. Near the police station, people figure that Athena's been checked out at least! There are people nearby talking, the discussion seeming to be they should just get rid of cash, and who steals cash anyways now? Why bother? Is there even enough in the machines to make it worth the risk?

    But the newscast changes to talk about how at least some banks are starting to go all-digital. Half the ATMs in the city are closing down now, and they're consolodating the cash to return it to the treasury, marking an important milestone in the evolution of the economy. In fact it looks like that will be done this evening!

    A young woman in her late teens or early twenties is nearby as well, glancing about at some of the weird strangers, especially Athena. Wearing a red duster and hat, she adjusts said hat with a thoughtful look. "The ATMs may not have a lot individually, but there's going to be an awful lot of cash heading from the bank tomorrow." Said as an offhand comment, before turning and wandering down the street.

    Stelle lifts her gleaming yellow eyes to look at the strange woman in red as she walks off. She then takes in the rest of her surroundings, and furrows her brow. (That was... strange. Maybe I should check out the convoy, see if the locals need some extra hands.) she muses to herself. She quick-fires off a message to her companions back on Jarilo-VI, and heads over to the police station, offering her ID as a Nameless, and offering her services as security.

    Athena pauses, hearing that, and narrows her eyes. That was /very clearly/ to her an attempt to let someone overhear. Her, perhaps? The others hanging around here? It does make her stop and think. As Stelle wanders off toward that, Athena turns around and heads right back to the station, speaking nearby, "I had a thought, after hearing the news broadcast. The CCTVs were hacked, right? So someone there is very familiar with your systems. I know you think it's an offworlder, and maybe one is involved, but there might be someone local helping them out." She taps her lip, glances at Stelle. "Maybe I can take a look at one of these machines that got cleaned out."

    Blues isn't so slow on the uptake that he doesn't see the other two and figure out quickly what's going on. "Huh." He almost just turns around and leaves... this isn't his problem, right? Then it hits him that he might be able to do something about it in a unique way.

    The young-looking man sticks hands in his pockets and follows Stelle and Athena into the station, but when they go up to talk, his response to the officers is, "Oh, I don't need any help, just checking out something. I saw her going in here and was curious is all. Keep up the good work!"

    Then he just turns around and walks RIGHT back out. He lingers just around the corner though... he is curious about the offworlders, especially Athena. So he'll position himself right where she can see him when she leaves the station and lounges against the wall.

    The police are a bit reluctant to involve outsiders, but Athena brings up a good point, and they take that into consideration. To Stelle, she's just given a little shrug, "You can be there, but I don't think even if they trust you, we can get you an official JOB as security. It wouldn't be paid unless someone was grateful."

    As for a machine, the one Athena is talking to answers, "We don't have any of the machines here, but there's one just down the street by the Virtual Boxing Trainer, across from the Ice Cream Parlor."

    Athena thanks the officer and turns around, giving Stelle a nod. "I don't mind if you want to come with. Might as well make it a two-person job, have someone to watch my back." Whether she trusts Stelle to do that is a little less sure!

    Stepping out, though, Stelle may be surprised that Athena suddenly halts, staring at the street corner. "Blues? Is that you?" A small pause. "You must be a different Blues. The Blues I know died..." The goddess looks pretty serious and actually sad for a moment. "Sorry for bothering you."

    "The Nameless don't need payment for our work." replies Stelle with a shrug of her own. "I just want to help out however I can." She gives a half-salute, and turns to follow Athena out. "I'm pretty handy in a fight." she remarks to the armoured warrior, summoning her Bat with a flare of blue-white light as the black metallic club lands over her shoulder in her grasp.

    She doesn't know the man, so hangs back, and eyes him up as Athena speaks. (Blues huh... doesn't look very blue to me.) she muses to herself.

    The young man grins, "Nope, same Blues. My death was greatly exaggerated! Did you really think just dropping a pyramid on me would kill me?" He pauses for just a second before answering, "Because you're right about that. I actually managed to activate my teleporter at the last second, but had to jump almost blind, so wasn't anywhere nearby. I thought I'd lay low until I knew the situation was handled." He looks over at Stelle, then asks Athena, "Who's the new girl? You going to check out this crime spree?"

    "That's good," replies Athena to Stelle. Then she's focused on Blues while the explanation is given, and gives him a grin. "That's great! You're fantastic in a fight, and I have a feeling we're going to be having one, so more backup is good." She looks back at Stelle. "I'm Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and Warfare. This is Blues, he's an android, I guess. I'm going to see what I can learn about how they did this."

    Without waiting for an answer, the power armor-clad young woman heads down the street toward the abandoned ATM and CCTV camera, to see if she can pick up anything useful with her Tech sense and comms.

    It isn't far, and it is... basically just an ATM! Nothing fancy about it. Fairly secure systems, and since Athena isn't exactly a hacker, probably just fine for most. But what she CAN figure out is that the CCTV isn't exposed to the wireless, nor is the ATM. The CCTV is on the secure network... and so is the ATM. So in the process of hacking one, whomever got in managed to hack the other.

    Also, what Athena or one of the others may notice is that the front of the ATM is new, and there are signs around the edges of it having been cut. That must be how they got physical access... slicing through to steal the cash, after disabling the alarms inside. Easier than trying to get it to dispense, maybe?

    "You can call me the Galactic Baseballer. Travelling righter of wrongs, and basher of badguys." replies Stelle, not offering her real name... that bit her in the backside last time so never again.

    She kneels in front of the ATM... "Cut marks... whoever did it wanted to be in and out quickly."

    Blues just snorts, crossing his arms. "And you didn't try to dive into the Underworld to recover me from Hades? You wound me, Athena!" He's teasing her a little, but just a little. When Stelle points that out he gets serious again, kneeling down to examine the remnants of the cut.

    "These things aren't really meant to stand up to anything military-grade," he notes. "But to do it with precision... why didn't they just have it spit out the cash if they were already hacking the terminal though?"

    Athena taps at the machine and then hmms. "Well, to answer your first one, Hades is absent and Persephone is running the place now, and she isn't really keen on doing any favors with me. She's a nice enough girl, but takes her job seriously with Hades gone."

    She then glances at the other two. "Well, two theories. Maybe both are true. Maybe neither. It may be that they were in that big a hurry... whatever they did to bypass the security may have been very short-lived, and dispensing the cash takes time. Another theory is that they aren't working with a local so they only figured out how to turn off the alarms, and didn't go deep enough in to figure out anything more. I'm still betting their real target is the convoy though. If they have the tech to slice this open so precisely, they may have a way of hijacking the convoy cleanly."

    She eyes Stelle. "Baseballer, huh? Well, as someone who prefers a staff or lance, I can't really fault you. Some things may be bulletproof or laser-proof, but generally if you beat something hard enough it goes down."

    It looks like there are still a couple hours left before the convoy leaves, though there wasn't an exact time given... possibly for security reasons! It shouldn't be too hard to figure out though, given they're almost certain to use an armored car and such. A closer examination does seem to support one or both theories... the 'hack' appears to have been pretty basic, anyway, from what Athena's limited abilities can tell.