Behold A White Horse - Log 1
Jul. 6th, 2023 06:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsPart of X-Force sits down to discuss the situation in Marsabit and decide some further investigation is in order.
"OK, so, what can you all tell me about Marsabit, Kenya? Because up until yesterday, I'd barely heard of it, and now there's rumours of some kind of incident there, the military is out in force and if it wasn't in Africa, social media would be lighting up like wildfire with conspiracy theories. Someone tell me this is just good old fashioned terrorism or something?" Kevin said at the meeting, refilling his coffee cup.
Felicia twirled her pen between her fingers, an idle motion that contrasted against the rest of her still posture. "Not a lot. We have some general eyes but our team at least is just general eyes. No real solid contacts," she said, giving her pen a final tap against the tablet face as it skittered between pages, already marked in green with her notes. "We're currently working on tracking a lab from what's most likely AIM, merging our information."
"Marsabit's too small for my thing. But Angelo has contacts in that area from X-Corps," Amanda said in a musing tone. "Or he did. I can tap him and see if he's able to help?"
The smooshy ball in her hand was the only thing keeping Darcy from visibly twitching. "Not a damn fucking thing," she spat out irritably as she looked at her tablet again, almost willing the thing to give her updated information. "No weird flights over the area, official or off the record, no chatter, just BOOM something happened and now the place is surrounded by military. The various ethnic groups get along okay with their neighbors, there's a pretty even split among religions that keeps things kinda steady on that front. The area's not known for any particular sort of terrorism or guerilla warfare. The only interesting thing I've seen is the national park and Mt. Marsabit noting that both are closed for visitors at the moment. That's it." She set her tablet down and tossed her triple back, wiping a tired hand across her eyes. "I got nothing, Boss. Sorry."
"Yeah, I think it's pretty far from where there's any kind of extremist disruption or gang shit," Gabriel added. He was scrolling through his phone, searching for emails and texts. "I just talked to my best East Africa guy last week, actually, hold on, let me find my notes..." He tapped a few times. "Oh, encrypted, right. Fuck, what's my password?" He furrowed his brow, and then his fingers moved in a kind of blur as he tried twelve lengthy combinations in about three seconds. "Okay, okay, sorry. He said... Kenya was quiet. " He looked up with a shrug. "And we've mostly only ever talked about Nairobi anyway."
Sarah shrugged. "I think I would recognize it if they were involved in any shady stuff related to the Families over here. No weapons, drugs, or trafficking that I recall. And it hasn't been mentioned in any of the mountains of reports currently sitting on my desk."
"So it's not likely the normal flavour of terrorism likely. Got it." Kevin sat down and leaned back in his chair. "So AIM is a potential angle. According to SHIELD intel, there was some kind of energy surge. Do we have anything on that? Is this possibly a mutant incident, which I don't need to mention would be... well, bad for us these days."
"Nada. Or if it is, none of the limited chatter we've gotten suggests it is. Nobody bragging about being responsible, like... when I say not a damn thing is coming out, I mean it. Literally just the tourist attractions saying they're closed for now. Nothing in the news except speculation, nothing in the dark corners of the internet, not even a hint that something was planned. I'd be impressed about the ability to keep closed lips if I wasn't so infuriated by it." The ball in Darcy's hands was practically flat at this point and full of indentions from her fingernails. "The military bit we've been able to encrypt is just move orders. Nobody in without authorization, nobody out. The rest is..." she trailed off, then projected a screengrab from her tablet. "So the solid looking bits are pretty advanced encryption, the sort you expect to see with governments that work with hackers. But the weird looking - those scrambles in the lines, the bits that look like they're being on through late night HBO when you don't have cable? That's some sort of nasty virus or worse, is what that is. And we haven't gotten through it yet - I'm not sure it's worth it to push, either. There's a strong risk of compromising our own systems and getting nothing, and if that malicious program is getting info while it corrupts... that's not worth the risk to Lemon or even SWORD and SHIELD. For now we're just skirting the edges of it."
She turned to Amanda. "If Angelo's got contacts in the area, I think it's worth seeing what he can find out. And Kitty's dealt with AIM before, she'd be a good person to reach out to as well. I can email her and ask."
The witch nodded. "Good idea. And the more the merrier."
"I'm going to ask a favour from Doc Grey. If it's possibly a medical emergency, we need her medical expertise and her pilot's license." Kevin said and finished off his coffee. "So we're going to recon inside Marsabit. If the X-Men are nice enough to loan us the Blackbird, we get in, assess what happened, and get out just as quickly. Give me every last bit of information you can. If the X-Men say yes, I want to be wheels up in two hours."
"OK, so, what can you all tell me about Marsabit, Kenya? Because up until yesterday, I'd barely heard of it, and now there's rumours of some kind of incident there, the military is out in force and if it wasn't in Africa, social media would be lighting up like wildfire with conspiracy theories. Someone tell me this is just good old fashioned terrorism or something?" Kevin said at the meeting, refilling his coffee cup.
Felicia twirled her pen between her fingers, an idle motion that contrasted against the rest of her still posture. "Not a lot. We have some general eyes but our team at least is just general eyes. No real solid contacts," she said, giving her pen a final tap against the tablet face as it skittered between pages, already marked in green with her notes. "We're currently working on tracking a lab from what's most likely AIM, merging our information."
"Marsabit's too small for my thing. But Angelo has contacts in that area from X-Corps," Amanda said in a musing tone. "Or he did. I can tap him and see if he's able to help?"
The smooshy ball in her hand was the only thing keeping Darcy from visibly twitching. "Not a damn fucking thing," she spat out irritably as she looked at her tablet again, almost willing the thing to give her updated information. "No weird flights over the area, official or off the record, no chatter, just BOOM something happened and now the place is surrounded by military. The various ethnic groups get along okay with their neighbors, there's a pretty even split among religions that keeps things kinda steady on that front. The area's not known for any particular sort of terrorism or guerilla warfare. The only interesting thing I've seen is the national park and Mt. Marsabit noting that both are closed for visitors at the moment. That's it." She set her tablet down and tossed her triple back, wiping a tired hand across her eyes. "I got nothing, Boss. Sorry."
"Yeah, I think it's pretty far from where there's any kind of extremist disruption or gang shit," Gabriel added. He was scrolling through his phone, searching for emails and texts. "I just talked to my best East Africa guy last week, actually, hold on, let me find my notes..." He tapped a few times. "Oh, encrypted, right. Fuck, what's my password?" He furrowed his brow, and then his fingers moved in a kind of blur as he tried twelve lengthy combinations in about three seconds. "Okay, okay, sorry. He said... Kenya was quiet. " He looked up with a shrug. "And we've mostly only ever talked about Nairobi anyway."
Sarah shrugged. "I think I would recognize it if they were involved in any shady stuff related to the Families over here. No weapons, drugs, or trafficking that I recall. And it hasn't been mentioned in any of the mountains of reports currently sitting on my desk."
"So it's not likely the normal flavour of terrorism likely. Got it." Kevin sat down and leaned back in his chair. "So AIM is a potential angle. According to SHIELD intel, there was some kind of energy surge. Do we have anything on that? Is this possibly a mutant incident, which I don't need to mention would be... well, bad for us these days."
"Nada. Or if it is, none of the limited chatter we've gotten suggests it is. Nobody bragging about being responsible, like... when I say not a damn thing is coming out, I mean it. Literally just the tourist attractions saying they're closed for now. Nothing in the news except speculation, nothing in the dark corners of the internet, not even a hint that something was planned. I'd be impressed about the ability to keep closed lips if I wasn't so infuriated by it." The ball in Darcy's hands was practically flat at this point and full of indentions from her fingernails. "The military bit we've been able to encrypt is just move orders. Nobody in without authorization, nobody out. The rest is..." she trailed off, then projected a screengrab from her tablet. "So the solid looking bits are pretty advanced encryption, the sort you expect to see with governments that work with hackers. But the weird looking - those scrambles in the lines, the bits that look like they're being on through late night HBO when you don't have cable? That's some sort of nasty virus or worse, is what that is. And we haven't gotten through it yet - I'm not sure it's worth it to push, either. There's a strong risk of compromising our own systems and getting nothing, and if that malicious program is getting info while it corrupts... that's not worth the risk to Lemon or even SWORD and SHIELD. For now we're just skirting the edges of it."
She turned to Amanda. "If Angelo's got contacts in the area, I think it's worth seeing what he can find out. And Kitty's dealt with AIM before, she'd be a good person to reach out to as well. I can email her and ask."
The witch nodded. "Good idea. And the more the merrier."
"I'm going to ask a favour from Doc Grey. If it's possibly a medical emergency, we need her medical expertise and her pilot's license." Kevin said and finished off his coffee. "So we're going to recon inside Marsabit. If the X-Men are nice enough to loan us the Blackbird, we get in, assess what happened, and get out just as quickly. Give me every last bit of information you can. If the X-Men say yes, I want to be wheels up in two hours."
