CAT reassessment

Log Title: CAT reassessment Characters: Elita One, Dust Devil, Scales, Swiftpaw, Tonka, Upshot Location: Decagon Date: April 9, 2019 TP: Covert Action Team TP Summary: After running into the trap previously, the team assembles to figure out what to do next. As logged by  Scales

Log session starting at 19:41:31 on Tuesday, 9 April 2019.

'''The Covert Action Team had spent a lot of time laying the groundwork to find the Decepticon assassin Payday/Double_Tap. Lead by Upshot, and with their Executive Officer Riposte on site to crunch the numbers, the team has determined the timing and the target. As it turned out, however, on their last mission, something unexpected happened. Which led to this meeting...and Autobot Intelligence...and Elita One.'''

The video feed plays...

CAT Riposte says, "Wait"

CAT Riposte says, "Wh...what are y"

CAT Riposte says, "*laserfire is heard*"

CAT Riposte says, "Wh."

CAT Kup says, "Riposte! What's happening? Are you OK?"

'''CAT A video feed plays, first person view of a floor, purple energon spilt. There's a weapon down, and a body on a hab slab.'''

'''CAT The video continues. The feed raises up, showing Delcom with two holes in his chest, the video tilts as if the figure moved onto its side. A hand reaches forward, covered in energon.'''

'''CAT The hand, shakily starts to write. "T......R....."'''

'''CAT The figure looks up, a figure is now at the bottom of the ladder to the safehouse. Reflector. The figure looks back down, and starts smearing the letter 'A' before she gets moved...'''

[CAT] The feed cuts out.

'''Elita One ponders the situation. She rewinds the footage, her optics analyzing the situation. "His hand moved." She motions to the feed, showing Delcom, the comatose hacker for the Autobots, having slightly shifted position.'''

'''Elita One goes over the previous sounds. "Five shots." She adds after a moment, "Two different weapons, an exchange of gunfire...."'''

'''"Just once I wouldn't mind a transmission being good news," Swiftpaw mutters from the top of a external terminal he's made perch on for the sake of not getting underfoot. The wolfbot's forelegs crossed over so he could rest his head on them thoughtfully. "If they're still functional or not relies mainly on the how useful the Decepticons believe they or information they may have are. Simple fact of the profession."'''

'''Scales sighs. "The question is, who all was there, an' who shot whom? T R A is the first part'a 'traitor', after all."'''

Swiftpaw notes "Also trap."

'''Upshot blances up at Swiftpaw then back to Elita. "I'd like to retrieve him and see what, if any information we can get, but I don't know that we can spare the manpower from our team just now. Especially given the Decepticons are most likely watching it now. Which would call for a more frontline team than we have."'''

The mech scratches his cheek, "Either way we need to complete the mission we started, or rather, -I- would like to see it through."

'''"Damn right. We can't leave a job half finished." Tonka says.'''

'''Elita One gives a soft, grim nod to Swiftpaw. "There is bound to be a short window in which we could make a rescue. Most likely we'd be looking at Fort Syck itself." The holograph comes up with Fort Syck in the picture. Most of the team should be familiar with it, they were operating in its shadow the entire time....'''

Elita One muses, "You spent time in the field with her. I can't help but wonder...did Reflector break into the bunker, and attack her, causing her to shoot Delcom instead of return fire? Does that fit what you know of her?"

Dust Devil sends a radio transmission.

'''Dust Devil tries not to grin before looking at Elita. "I know it's a trap and all...but we can't just leave them there." He moves himself out of swatting range from some people. "I'm willin ta give it a try."'''

'''"As much as she was all business, I wouldn't put it past her to make a split decision to keep what Delcom knows falling into 'con hands." Tonka says.'''

Elita One considers Upshot's thoughts, "Retrieve Delcom. Chances are good the wounds were fatal, but as grisly as it sounds, there may be a way to extract information from his processor. Undoubtably, the Decepticons would harvest everything they could. Fortunately, Delcom was originally scripted as what we called a 'minimal power hacker' mid-war, to work so quietly and with such a tiny energy signature, wired into intel pipelines that he'd avoid notice. There weren't many left that made that sacrifice for us. Still, I think perhaps any intel he carried would be more useful to us than them, given his work's nature."

'''Upshot nods at Tonkas words. "That's also a good possibility, and as for rescuing either of them; I'm all for it. However we were given a task to stop Double Tap from taking down a rather important target, and until that's done I am not willing to risk my team in recovering wither one."'''

The mech turns to Elita, "If you want to send some folks after Delcom, that seems a useful first step. Riposte was at least semi-functional last we saw, so she can, hopefully, hold out until we can effect a rescue attempt."

'''Swiftpaw emits a snort at Fort Syck. "Decepticons were always terrible at naming places." Then nods his head as the others converse back and forth. "That, and if he's any sort of proper intelligence operative, he didn't keep all his info stored in one place. There could be something the Decepticons missed that we can still utilize."'''

'''Elita One raises a hand, " Which brings us to the choice. Ultra Magnus is scheduled to be at Retoris during the timeframe listed in the data you found. We /could/ scrap his troop review altogether, but I have spoken with him, and we both feel that there is a distinct reason to let the review go on as planned in hopes to lure and eliminate Double_Tap." She gestures to the team, "However, that time draws very near. This has been your mission since day one, and you know more of him than any other team. You have right of first refusal here."'''

GAME: Scales FAILS a LEADERSHIP roll of Above Average difficulty.

GAME: Dust Devil PASSES a LEADERSHIP roll of Above Average difficulty.

GAME: Swiftpaw FAILS a LEADERSHIP roll of Above Average difficulty.

GAME: Upshot FAILS a LEADERSHIP roll of Above Average difficulty.

"Not surprised Ultra Magnus would allow himself to be bait for the sake of the greater good," Swiftpaw muses with a flick of an ear.

'''Elita One folds her hands together, "Upshot, you're team leader here. Are you going for Riposte and possibly Delcom, or are you going to stop Double Tap?" She raises a hand, "Naturally, I intend on having security for Ultra Magnus alerted, but you have priority."'''

'''Upshot turns to look over the members of his team. "I know what my choice is, and it seems that Tonka does as well. Since backblast is out keeping an optic on things I checked in to see what his priority would be."'''

'''He pauses to regard each member individual. "As for the rest of you; what do you think? Should we continue our mission and stop Double Tap, or hand it off to the Wreckers and go rescue Riposte or Delcom instead?"'''

'''Tonka thinks long and hard, then sighs a bit and shakes his head. "As much as I want to stop that son of a bitch, we can't leave Riposte hanging. We've gotta try to get her back."'''

'''Scales fidgets with her claws, wringing them together. "If there's a question, I'd be happier rescuin' people."'''

'''Dust Devil frowns listening to the talk go back and forth. "Hey look...Magnus is the easiest part of this deal. Dude has serious control issues. Exactly why we don't mix too well. And why he's so damn easy to prank...or in this case...to assassinate. He's got a schedule. He HAS to be wherever it is at whatever time EXACTLY on the dot. Someone get Jazz and Prowl tagether ta mix up his schedule completely. He's got a meeting? Well it's not longer at THAT time or at THAT place. He usually works a certain shift? Well now he does it remotely at a different time. Chaos. NOTHING should be as it normally is. You guys get him ta do that and it'll be easy ta keep his aft safe. Send snipers, security along his NORMAL route and try and catch this guy tryin ta find magnus. Hell paint up a mock up and give it a forcefield generator so we can nab the slagger. And now we have him protected AND we have an openin ta try and save the hostages."'''

'''Swiftpaw shrugs his shoulder joints. "I've not really been involved in this particular mission long enough to make a fair vote. I'm just here to help now that my previous long-term operation is completed." Convenient explaination of absence made! Then the wolf tilts his head at Dust Devil, and has to very hard keep his serious expression and not outright laugh at his break down of Magnus. He does smirk enough to show some silver fangs though at the mech. "Now go breakdown an enemy for analysis like that, and you'll really be on a roll."'''

'''Upshot leans back a bit, folding his arms across his chest. "Dust Devil, that's where you're wrong. Mangus' adherence to a schedule is exactly what we need right now. It allows us to control the opportune time for Double Tap to strike at him, and the area he can do it in. That means we can prepare ahead of time."'''

'''The mech holds up a hand to pre-emptively silence objections. "Now, I know Double Tap knows that we know of his target, and that makes him dangerous. I wouldn't be suggesting that we try to stop him if I didn't think we had the ability to do so. Also, as he is probably the mech who ordered the assault on our field hache queue he would also be the one to have information on where Delcom and Riposte were taken." A faint creak can be heard as the archer stands. "I don't like the idea of leaving ither of them in Decepticon hands a nancycle more than we have to, and I'm not going to sit idly by if there's anything I can do. I just know going in blind to recover them is a bad idea when he have a tactically superior opportunity."'''

Dust Devil frowns, "Dude, we couldn't even touch him. I'm not sure if he's some sort of outlier or what but we thought we had him and we didn't and everyone agreed it wasn't a normal hologram. Do you want to take the chance that this guy may or may not be able ta reach magnus when we have shoddy intel? I know it ain't up ta me. I'll mostly do what everyone says is right. But I would like yas ta consider that."

'''Elita One 's optics scan over the crew as they make their votes, she considers Dust Devil's comments, actually taken a little aback by them...as if she or Optimus don't see character flaws that well. Upshot answers before she does, " This leverages entirely on taking Double_Tap alive, but if we do manage to capture him, the advantage we'd get would be tremendous. We'd need to brace for the possibility of a triggered self explosion, but if you think it is feasible...." She stands up, "Then that's the angle we're going with."'''

'''"That... is actually a fairly logical deduction, Upshot," Swiftpaw muses. "He may very well be the one orchestrating the events in hope of drawing forces away from his intended target."'''

'''Scales ahems. "We know that his cloak an' hologram setup doesn't hide his heat signature. It's not impossible t'find 'im."'''

Elita One says, "Something he's probably taken steps to obscure, but hard to fully remove. We'll have to not fall for any holographic lures that'd bait positions away.""

'''Upshot shrugs at Dust Devil. "Look, I'm not saying it's a perfect plan, but the other option is to wait longer while we gather the intel needed to free Riposte and recover Delcom. This circumvents the waiting part of that, if it goes right. Also, who said I wanted us to do this alone? Knowing what we know now it would be stupid not to get help from the resources we have at hand. Namely the Wreckers, or any of the Autobots that would care to help in subduing our target."'''

'''He nods to Swiftpaw. "I didn't spend all that time working on sabotage and rescue operations for Elita for nothing."'''

'''There's a faint smile given to Scales. "And that's something we can use to our advantage when considering how we set up the engagement zone, and who we place where."'''

'''Swiftpaw sits up and nods to Scales. "He uses cloaking and holograms, good to know. I may be able to work around that... As well as utilize my own stealth capabilities."'''

Elita One nods softly, as she addresses Scales and Swiftpaw, "I'm sure your abilities will be absolute necessities in helping find this killer."

Log session ending at 21:17:22 on Tuesday, 9 April 2019.