S1, 01 Insurgency Intro: Another Clever One (February 19, 2014)

### Intro:

When I heard about the Insurgency I was excited because it meant that first, it gave me a chance to try out a different set of characters than in my LOM story, and second, it would give me a chance to try sci-fi building. That said, please don't laugh at the scene - I have much to learn yet.

Corresponding text underneath each picture.

Clambering down the side of one of a tenement in Yanomuri, Etrion's last "intact" city, I was halfway surprised to see a couple of the organization's enforcers waiting on a landing. On one hand, it was a strange spot for them to meet someone (which, judging by the shorter enforcer's impatient checking of his pod and both enforcers' light armament, was obviously what they were doing), but that was probably why they had chosen it.

"Brown, what are you doing here?" the taller asked. No, her date last night had not gone well... most likely interrupted when one of her children had to go to the hospital with an accident (the smell of multi-special illness cheap disinfectant was still present - she hadn't had time to shower in the morning, either).

**LOST IMAGE**

"I'm checking a ventilation unit. This area isn't off-limits, is it? If so, I suggest holding your arms deals in a more private location - voices travel very well through these thin walls, and there's always someone to hear."

Bismark shook her head as her partner looked up in surprise to see who knew the secret of their operation.

"Go ahead, but there's five credits in it for you if you can tell me where the Aurelians are. We were told to wait on the northeast corner of this building until they arrived at midnight to discuss a shipment, but they haven't showed."

They were around the corner - time differences here were exacerbated by Etrion's lunar orbit and confused by different terms that terrestrials didn't have to deal with. The rebels had arrived early and landed on the corner of the building, choosing the ledge below as the most defensible spot in this dangerous neighborhood. Now both parties were waiting, expecting the other to show up... or the Aurelians could have been intercepted.

**LOST IMAGE**

Due to the uncertainty of my deduction, I told Bismark that I had a suspicion and that I would take her up on her offer if it paid off (speaking of pay-offs, I do have to make a living somehow, even if it means taking five-credit jobs on the fly).

As I turned the corner, I met the two terrified Aurelians as expected. One, the officer, was from a wealthy or upper-middle-class human family which may or may not have disowned him for his participation in the rebellion. His strict, overly-military appearance proved that he took his somewhat-junior position very seriously, marking him as a first-generation idealist rather than a challenger of authority by upbringing. His grip of his gun, his facial tension, the film of sweat on his face and the choked whisper in which he ordered me to halt told me that he was not at all comfortable in this lower-class environment.
The other was a neo-hipster with an LOTR-style beard that reached his waist. He was calmer in the face of danger, but he had also been taking some kind of pills at the rate of two an hour. Clearly, that one was not officer material.

**LOST IMAGE**

I reassured the pair that I was not a mugger (one of those would have struck through the windows at the soldiers' backs) and that their contacts were less than twenty feet away, around the corner and up a fire escape. They ran off and I climbed a service ladder to check my lead.

**LOST IMAGE**

A perfectly-functional ventilation element greeted me. My case was solved - the old assassin's "poisoning" was only a natural health problem, after all.

### FOURTH WALL:

This was a lot of fun with lighting and deduction-making. The tenement itself is less impressive in full light - I need some practice in this genre.