Hunter: Limit of a Sum

10:56 <tom> Bob cracks his knuckles (ow! Fuck! That motherfucker broke my pinky!) and gets to work on Mari's laptop ("This is a work laptop now honey sorry I'll buy you a new one okay it's got classified vampire shit on it" >::::( 10:56 <tom> "I'll get you a new one tomorrow I'm sorry! Gotta do this!" 10:57 <tom> First thing's first, delete all his recent search history- can you have sex on No Nut November? Can spiders get addicted to vampire blood (longshot), And so on. 10:57 <tom> ------------------------------------- 10:57 <tom> AFTER ACTION REPORT 10:58 <tom> Clayton Vale, 11/12/21, 23:30 10:58 <tom> Field Team: A. Aster, B. Goreman, W. Wellesley 10:59 <tom> REPORT AUTHOR: B. Goreman 10:59 <tom> SUMMARY: Got slapped around by C. a bit, held the field, gained valuable intelligence. 10:59 <tom> GOALS AND OBJECTIVES: Interview confidential source A. H-A. on aftermath of Gardener job. 10:59 <tom> REPORT BODY: A. Aster remained in the vehicle to monitor the drone feed and provide mission support; W. and I made up the field team, leaving our vehicle parked near the intersection of Ten Acre and Bank Bridge, proceeding east on foot into Clayton Vale. 11:00 <tom> A. Aster located A. H-A on the remote feed; images follow. Anomalous readings 50m toward the Medlock required additional scrutiny from my ODIN, and revealed itself to be Carl, Baron Eccles ("C."), brought on by A. H-A for security reasons 11:00 <tom> C. provided a contact and offered assurance of assistance if "F" threatens W. again. (Number attached, speculating possible internal split?) 11:00 <tom> Interview proceeded, with W. Wellesley asking after the general situation at VI HQ following the mission. Once questioning turned to the matter of the Gardeners, C. became combative, attempted to threaten the field team, and I made the decision to terminate the interview. 11:01 <tom> C. received three bursts from the MJ at low power to negligible effect and attempted to subdue us with nonlethal force; this was prevented by the timely arrival of A. Aster on the scene from the van, and his expert use of his module to disable C before he could finish turning me to hamburger. 11:01 <tom> A. H-A attempted to assault W, but was discouraged by fire; both left the scene, leaving C's weapon (picture attached below) to be claimed by the field team; the presence of an uncontrolled blaze made displacement an immediate priority. 11:02 <tom> A. Aster received a concussion from a blow from C's weapon (glancing). 11:02 <tom> We left the scene before the arrival of emergency personnel; operational security was maintained, and the reconaissance drone was recovered before exfil. 11:02 <tom> TOPIC OF INTERVIEW: A. H-A maintains that A. Gardener is deceased, that R. Gardener is in convalescence. Question of survivors was not broached before interview termination. Still, useful intelligence was gained on the capabilities and limitations of TFV weaponry against a VI elder, and new strategies can be developed to cope with C's unique physiology. 11:03 <tom> Overall objective of mission was met with failure. 11:03 <tom> RECOMMENDATION: The House requires an immediate and extensive re-armament with a focus on heavy anti-armor weaponry, as well as establishing an agreed-upon doctrine for rapid deployment of assets in the event of an escalation. Attached are a list of NATO anti-tank weaponry that I believe would be suitable for this task. 11:03 <tom> ADDENDUM: I am writing this from my apartment, in Eccles, where I live with my partner, having received verbal assurances against retaliation by C. Wilding out. 11:03 <tom> Pictures attached below. 11:05 <tom> The whole thing comes up as an attached file on Huntr shortly after 3 in the morning. 11:09 <Quaker> AB: how do I attach a file 11:10 <Crion> Shortly after 7:30 in the morning, Aster will submit a revision, which is just the previously-submitted after action report but with actual proper nouns in it. 11:10 <Quaker> AB: oh wait I see 11:10 <Crion> Except that "A. Aster" is reduced to "Aster," not "Aaron Aster." 11:21 <tom> Just after two in the afternoon, Bob gives a single, defeated <👍> to Aster's revised copy of the report. 11:22 <tom> BG: <carl didnt mess up any of your modules when he domed you yeah?> 11:23 <tom> BG: <oh yeah also badawi was right. that was a fucking terrible idea wow> 11:24 <Crion> Aster: 11:31 <Quaker> AB: <hello all, see attached.> 11:32 <Quaker> She sends out a .txt file. 11:32 <Quaker> Hello all, 11:32 <Quaker> I read the text and spoke to some of the cell members involved, I had some thoughts about your report. 11:32 <Quaker> 1. I do not agree with the conclusions or recommendations of the report. 11:34 <Quaker> 2. You all getting away seems to be a result of Eccles not using lethal force. Do you think that you would have walked away if he had not pulled his punches? It is not something you can count on in the future. The Mjolnir Cannon seems very useful, but our rule in actually fighting any of these creatures should be to COMPLETELY AVOID a fair or stand-up fight with them. Surprise, disruption, and terror are our allies and weapons. Heavier weapons wil 11:34 <Quaker> not help us if cell members keep announcing their presence BEFORE hunting. You have to get the drop on them. If you do not have it, leave and come back another day. Anything else is not a plan. 11:34 <Quaker> 3. Meeting Agatha in the woods was a bad idea because we could have gotten that information elsewhere more quietly and I think that in the future we should cut out ALL CONTACT, BUSINESS OR OTHERWISE, WHATSOEVER with VI4 vampires until some point in the future (exceptions observed for personal relations, obviously). It does not matter our current or future intentions with VI4, our strength with them will be through understanding them without them 11:34 <Quaker> knowing they are being observed. 11:34 <Quaker> I think we should be thoroughly surveiling the ghouls and ordinary human contacts of VI4, we can do that through bugging houses and apartments or phone lines and using (crooked?) police connections to get a better understanding of their organization's infrastructure. These vampires are at the top of a pyramid of blood and money flowing upward, our best weapon is rigging the bottom levels to explode whenever we want them to. Information about 11:34 <Quaker> survivors of the Gardener job is a side benefit. Either way, it is crucial that we STOP LETTING THEM KNOW WE ARE INTERESTED IN THEM. If we investigate them further it has to be done SILENTLY. 11:35 <Quaker> 4. We should change our policy with elder or ancillae vampires from "buddies" to "all members of the cell must be present, minus anyone who cannot make it due to real House work." At the very least, this should be the rule with VI4 going forward! 11:35 <Crion> Aster appends: 11:35 <Quaker> 5. We should make it clear to the WASC that we can take on or kill an elder vampire, and that this is the proof. They are lacking in muscle and want to kill VI4 eventually, so it will make us more valuable and worthy of protection from things like this and the Fortunato death threats if we start to be central to their plans for an eventual offensive against VI4. This does not mean we should take a job from them in the immediate future, we just wan 11:35 <Quaker> to make sure they know 11:35 <Quaker> Congratulations on surviving! Get well soon. 11:35 <Quaker> A.B. 11:36 <Quaker> AB: <Mages did not try to kill you> 11:36 <Crion> Aster: <Yes they have.> 11:36 <Quaker> AB: <These ones did??> 11:36 <Crion> Aster: 11:36 <tom> BG: <👍> Followed shortly afterwards by BG: <all good ideas. that means you gotta bring me the next time you go see the draculas. i'll be good> 11:37 <Quaker> AB: <you are forgiven> 11:46 <tom> Much later: BG: 11:48 <Crion> Further addendum: <Other merits of this missive aside -- and there are many -- this House does not get to opt out of vampire politics in the city of Manchester. It does not get to ignore the fruits and perversities of its various trees. It does not get to stipulate we all hold hands when dealing with said threat. Do we actually want Rolf present at every meeting with a vampire? Does 11:48 <Crion> Rolf want Rolf present at every meeting with a vampire? This is ludicrous. In the future we should not do stupid things, as this meeting arguably was, but let us not also 'I-told-you-so' into absolutely silly quorum requirements. Unless you, Badawi, want to be the one to chaperone all of Willie's dates.> 11:53 <Quaker> AB: <it should be the rule with VI4 and I said personal relations excepted> 11:55 <Crion> Aster: <That was what point number two indicated. Point number four indicated that you wished to accept point number two as a compromise position at best. I reject point number four outright, because it would be an outright disaster.> 11:57 <Crion> 12:00 <Quaker> AB: <ok so you agree that that should be the rule with VI4> 12:01 <Crion> Aster: <Yes, I agree that a moderated version of your proposal should be enacted.> 12:02 <Quaker> AB: <ok> 12:03 <tom> BG: <thank you badawi i can get started on setting up some drones we can use to start a tail on some ghouls, you got any idea how we can get bugs without them noticing> 12:04 <Quaker> AB: 12:05 <Quaker> AB: <Yes just case their houses and put it in the smoke alarms or tap their line from outside> 12:07 <tom> BG: <anyway the swords at the greybox. come check it out before we gotta give it back lmao>