Crusades of Ashes

Stockholm, Sweden

Nicole Taylor

After the events earlier that day, the team was scrambling to identify assets that survived the attacks.

Three assets were identified. As time was short, the team decided to call in some favors and split up, hoping they could arrive in time to survive as many as they could.

#### Bordeaux

Bordeaux held a large Orpheus facility. While not particularly rich in advanced technology, the site did hold a lot of manpower that could aid in later missions. The facility was sealed off when reports of the attacks hit, and it seemed the interior remained intact.

The brunt of the team headed to the facility, along with the Resilience. Using Time procedures, pilot Quicksilver managed to get the team in position in record time.

After arrival, they went to work securing the area just outside the blast doors. Quickly, two satchels of powerful explosives were found, rigged to detonate. The satchels were removed and transported to a safe distance in the upper atmosphere by Miranda Mollari from aboard the Resilience. Proceeding inwards, they encountered the same mysterious man as before. After agent Jane used a Mind procedure to determine that no explosives remained, the man was dealt with, and the doors were opened for evacuation.

During the evacuation, it became clear why the site survived - a Void Engineer, stationed at the location, noticed the man while he was preparing the explosives. Quickly raising the alarm, the site was spared destruction - but at the cost of the Void Engineer, who was killed in the fight.

#### Cornwall

Meanwhile, agent Salisbury overcharged his suit's flight capabilities to reach Cornwall in time. Initially planning to go solo, two friendly NWO agents in London were contacted to meet Salisbury en-route to provide backup.

Cornwall held a secure remote vault, storing dangerous technologies. While not directly targeted, recent events left it vulnerable. Salisbury and his backup had the task of keeping the vault out of enemy hands - by securing it, if possible, but destroying it if necessary.

Once at the site, the team quickly gained entrance. The site was, indeed, filled with all manner of devices. The site appeared secure, for now. Salisbury quickly found a way to secure it indefinitely, however - the facility included an emergency protocol to transport its contents to similar, more secure locations - including Antwerp and, more problematically following recent events, Autochtonia.

Unable to quickly remove Autochtonia from the network altogether, he did manage to set which items would be teleported where. Thus, he made it so certain items - like a sword that Levi was interested in - would be send to Antwerp, while certain other items (that may have been set to detonate on arrival) were send to Autochtonia.

The site so secured, Salisbury dropped off the NWO agents, met up with the rest of the team, and dodged calls about some kind of huge explosion detected on the other side of the sun, as Autochtonia dropped off the network of vaults.

#### Stockholm

The last location was Stockholm, where the CEO of Orpheus, Tom Hayes, was staying in a hotel awaiting a conference. The team assembled as a whole.

Gaining entrance to the hotel was easy enough with agent Jane in tow. However, surveying the room quickly showed that there was something amiss in the room - there was a man talking to himself, . Quickly entering, the same mysterious man from before was found in the room, smiling. After dealing with him, the team discovered the corpse of Tom Hayes in the bathtub, shot dead earlier that day.

To complicate matters, agent Taylor quickly found Tom Hayes as a post-life entity in the room. Obviously quite upset with the matter, it quickly became clear that the mysterious man wanted to use the post-life entity in some further plan. Now, however, the entity wanted vengeance against the group that killed him. The team decided to accept the entities assistance for the time being.

#### Meanwhile on the Resilience

While on route, there was a strange occurrence on the Resilience. Agent Taylor received a call from Tychoides, former leader of the Void Engineers, now missing since the Dimensional Anomaly hit.

Quickly informing her superiors in the ETD, it was decided to take the call, the risk deemed acceptable.

On the other end was not Tychoidius himself, however, but an AI program, designed by Tychoidius to assist in case of emergencies. After the Anomaly hit three years ago, he was activated - but with the sheer destruction in the ranks, he was unable to contact anyone until now.

After discussing current affairs with the AI - taking a cautious stance due to the looming threat of [---------] - the AI agreed to a detailed examination by experts. The conclusion was that the AI was as it said it was, and thus accepted to assist the TU once more.