Downtime 2 Part 2

General Summary

They Lancers had a meeting with Patience, Edena, and Hadura. They came in right as a meeting with Contingency White ended. Patience then explained his concern with the CRT being here is the potential abandonment of Evergreen. The CRT's main goal is to verify, copy and secure data and information within Evergreen. Their main goal isn't to save or protect Evergreen, just it's information. Pietro then decided that he was going to try an bog down Patience with reports and debriefs. He has begun catalouging everything and classifying the documents so that Patience would have an issue with verifing them and uploading them. During the meeting Maggie and Pietro left the meeting early and as they did Patience became distracted and looking aimlessly out the window. It took Edena speaking to him to break him out of the stooper and he then said he had something to do and left. Embry then left the meeting as well and caught up with the other two. Maggie then suggested that they go out east in their new mechs to "field test" them.
When they were about an hour outside of town, Maggie sat them down and explained the experiences she had on her drug trip. She explained that there was something else out in the world that she felt connected too and that she needed to locate. She gave Embry and Pietro some of her drugs and used her newly found empathetic powers to help connect them to the feelings she had. The two of them experienced a feeling of home and belonging, a connection to Maggie. It was like a string that connected them to Maggie and then out into the world. Embry had never felt that connection before and began crying, and Pietro became obsessed with that feeling out of Maggie and wanted to know where that connection went too. They were also able to sense and feel what Maggie was thinking and feeling, a sense of desire, earnestnest and desire to connect to that feeling of home.
They were then invited over to the Chau's for dinner to thank them for the help that they provided Albert and his family. The group decided to head down to Liu Maize first and check out the town. It was a one-street town sourrounded by miles of farmland, with a general store, saloon, and basic shops and services. Peitro wanted to go into town incognito and disguised himself and came into town off his mech. Embry and Maggie parked their mechs just outside of town and were met with a large woman. It was Maggie Chau, who turned out to also be the mayor and founder of Liu Maize. Embry, still overwhelmed with his recent experience went to use the bathroom in the saloon, and Maggie and "Big Maggie" went into the Mayor's office to talk. There she learned of the Chau's history, that Big Maggie and her wife Weiyi came to Evergreen after its founding and worked there. Big Maggie was in the data management center. That was until Patience found out that they weren't Landmark official people and he kicked them out of the town. Then they founded Liu Maize, and made it a place where those who were outcast from from Evergreen could make a fresh start. Maggie expressed her desire to help the Grey Towns, and hopefully in return, receive support from the Grey Towns if the time every arose. Big Maggie was more than willing to give Liu Maize's support and offered a way for the Lancers to get Merricktown's support too. She gave Maggie a file. Embry was then found and joined the Maggies in on their disccusion. The folder contained contract information for Merricktown, its NHP Oppertunity, and the legitamicy of the city with Landmark. It seems Merricktown was not a Grey Town like Patience believed. But becuase these were the original documents, no one could prove or deny Merricktown's legitamcy. So it remained a Grey Town. Embry felt validation that things weren't correct with Landmark and they way the operate business. Maggie then left to go to the Chau farm to assist Albert in repairing some sub-alterns that they had dug up in their feilds, while Embry and Big Maggie finished their conversation about Merricktown and the contract that they had found.
Pietro went to the general store and spoke with Bill, who was his contact for his supply run from Liu Maize who are sending supplies up to Evergreen to help with the re-building efforts. He also learned of the Chaus, how they settled Liu Maize, turned a blind eye to the trading between Evergreen and Liu Maize, and got a nice pipe from him. Pietro recorded his interaction with Bill, to gain some potential dirt on Mayor Maggie, just in case the need arised.
At the the Chau's homestead, Maggie had arrived and met Sarah, and her two little kids, a little girl and boy. Maggie printed a fidget spinner for the little boy and then left to the shop to repair one of the subalterns that they had recently dug up. The kids were obsessed with her mech and played around it while she worked. Maggie was able to get a humanoid subaltern up and running before dinner started, it was mostly in working order, she just had to clean out the mud, grime and mouse nests that made up most of the subaltern's insides. Right as she was finishing up Embry arrived at the home. The children were amazed by the large mech he arrived in. He went to assist Maggie and they were able to make sure the subaltern worked correctly. When Maggie was uninstalling the previous firmware to upload the Chau's default farming firmware, she noticed that the previous files took up all the available memory in the system and the farming ones took up significantly less space. Maggie and Embry also discovered that the previous firmware was military related and Maggie saved a copy of it to inspect later. 
Once Pietro arrived and the little boy stopped falling off of Sir Pokes A Lot, the group went inside to have dinner. It was a pleasant meal, with lots of meat, fish, corn and potato dishes. The atmosphere was light and happy. The family were all grateful to the Lancers and the group enjoyed a really good homecooked meal for the first time in a long time. There were shenangins with the children trying to take sips of alcohol, and being rebuffed by Pietro. It was a lovely evening and a much needed break from the heavy atmosphere of Evergreen's re-construction efforts.
The tone turned heavy again on the group's travel to Evergreen. They wre discussing the days events and were worried about Patience's well being. Embry's concern about the console access to Patience's casket and the loop command running in the system was expressed to the others and they shared his concern. They devised a number of plans but didn't settle on a singular one to execute. Corporate espionage, framing a member of Contingency White to get Landmark's trust in them to waiver. A distraction, such as causing a scene to provide an opening to Patience's casket. Using Merricktown's legitamecy to divide Contingency White's resources and make it easier to access the casket.

Character(s) interacted with

Maggie and Weyli Chau Albert and Sarah Chau Bill, Liu Maize General Store Owner Patience Edena

Report Date

14 Aug 2021

Primary Location

Liu Maize