When I woke up, it was almost seven- so it was likely that work hours were over for most people. It was likely this meant that the agent’s tablet I had snuck a RAT onto would not be in use- and since it was not a laptop, just sleeping. Hopefully it wouldn’t raise any eyebrows when a new device logged onto the staff wifi, but I couldn’t reach the device through the one I was on. As expected, the password was still valid, and a few seconds after I had switched networks, a little notification with an icon of a cute cartoon rat popped up. Opening the connection to the tablet, I was both happy and disappointed to find it on the locked screen.
Without me doing anything, the cartoon rat from the notification appeared on the tablet’s screen and typed in a password, helpfully unlocking the device for me. The first order of business was to open the camera app and take a look around. Upon doing so, both cameras showed black, making it likely that it was in a pocket or something else that would let me fool around for a while without being caught.
My only goal was checking if the white text had been deleted from my perk writeup. Despite being well organized, it took me a few minutes of searching through folders to find the one containing my information. When I opened the perk document, I saw a little notice at the top that there were changes unsaved to the cloud. I had totally forgotten that having all the documents on each device backed up to a central server was both a possible and extremely reasonable choice for SEYA to make, however, the deletion of the hidden text still worked here- so I could push the update through.
I might have been a little paranoid when I stopped for a solid few minutes deciding if it was possible for someone to discover that the edits had been made when the device wasn’t in use by the agent, decide to investigate, discover that someone had hacked the device, then either shut me out indirectly or hunt me down. Eventually, I was able to convince myself it was too unlikely, so I went through with it. Mostly because it was more likely that I would be caught from my access to this wifi in the first place.
With that done, I was left without direction- so I resorted to poking around where I shouldn’t be. Since my time messing around in one of the hospital-resort’s employee’s emails was so fun, I started there. Disappointingly, a lot of what I found was boring: summaries of meetings, notifications of deadlines, and a few IT alerts. The only juicy morsel I found was an email from one of the analysts to team leaders on the abnormally high rates of injury in the field. Apparently, in recent years, the MGs working to close Breaches with support from a few of the new handlers were running into avoidable danger. The email went on to suggest that the handlers in question do some more training and pay a little more attention. While not too notable, I did get some names of people to request a transfer away from if I get assigned to them.
Before I closed the app, I looked at the outgoing drafts to see if there was anything on me. The most recently edited one was halfway written and- without naming me- mentioned that it had come to their attention that the backup locks on many doors in the facility might need stronger security. Even better, there was an attachment showing the camera coverage of the door on the manufacturing building as an example, so I downloaded it, told a RAT to hide under it, and re-uploaded it. It might amount to nothing, but if the email ever got sent and opened, I could start working my way up the chain. Though, all this was mostly just for my own entertainment- I didn’t have an end goal in mind.
Not quite feeling hungry enough to leave the warmth of the blanket, I started digging through the files on other MGs. I had no clue who most of them were as I hadn’t really cared before now, but I did eventually come across the group I had been introduced to earlier. Rebecca had been around the longest and had a very good track record with both rescuing civilians and teaching newer MGs how stuff works. Kay had been one of her apprentices and was the newest to the group, joining right after being deemed able to operate without guidance. She had also recently petitioned to take an apprentice herself. Chris had worked with a few other teams over the past year, including one Breach where all six of the ‘Paladins’ were on one team. That entry had a note to dissuade them from ever doing that again due to “excessive and avoidable collateral damage caused by friendly competition.” Carlos was the most unique, spending most of his time on the island ‘on watch.’ From what or where it didn’t say, but it did reference a database in relation to his abilities that wasn’t linked to the document.
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As I looked through more service summaries of MGs and their groups, there were more references to this database- but no indication of how to access it. However, at this point I found digging through the reports incredibly boring and the prospect of food much more enticing. Quickly checking that the cameras still showed black before I restored the device to how it looked when I first unlocked it, I skipped down to the dinning hall.
Like last time, I found that the food was simply acceptable. I had taken one of the grilled cheeses to go along with a bowl of tomato soup. Other options included salad, pizza, and a different soup I didn’t like the smell of. Since it was past eight when I arrived, the hall was almost empty- letting me eat and lurk on forums in peace.
On my way back, I stopped by a map of the facility as a whole and realized I was kinda close to one of the military bases. It was labeled “Weapons Development and Storage.” Purely coincidentally, it also immediately went to the top of my list of places to… visit. In another strange coincidence, my path back to my room took me past the building in question. From my observations, it had a buffer of a dozen feet enforced by a chain link fence along the public path, but from what I could see with the lantern lit, it lacked effective coverage by cameras. At one of the blindspots, I hopped the fence- taking a lot of care with the barbed wire looped around the top. After I was down on the other side, my new athleticism from being an MG shined through as I only needed to catch my breath for a minute before feeling good enough to move around.
The likely sightlines of the cameras meant I had to walk almost directly to the building before pressing myself to the wall as I walked to the closest door. When I reached it, I pushed the bare minimum amount of ULE into the locking device and was disappointed that it was card-only. As quietly as I could, I asked Cleo, “you said this tail could create an interface for any device- did that include mimicking keycards?”
{Depending on the depth you need to insert it, it is possible for it to create a thin bar with an RFID chip that can reach the reader.}
Smiling at that, I came up with a very stupid plan to hopefully copy a card with sufficient clearance. Turning off [Act Like You Belong], I walked out into the middle of the buffer and meandered my way in the direction of the main entrance. To my surprise, I almost was able to just walked out without being stopped, but luckily the guard in the entrance booth noticed before I ducked the vehicle gate and had to try again tomorrow.
“Who are you and why are you here?” a rough but not immediately aggressive voice called out as the door opened. “You forget to schedule a meeting or something?”
Trying to sound disinterested but annoyingly snooty, I responded, “no. I was just taking a look around. But since there was nothing of interest, I was leaving. Didn’t want to hop the fence again.”
That had the intended effect as the guard blinked a few times before firmly ordering, “I’d like to see an ID and to have you follow me in here to wait.”
Instead of saying anything, I started to slowly duck under the bar again. Before I could make it to the other side, they grabbed one of my wrists and pulled just light enough to keep me on their side. Or that's what would have happened if I hadn't also pushed myself along in order to bump into them. With my free hand, I brushed the outside of the pocket with a rectangular bulge and pumped a good amount of ULE into trying to get a [Magical Hacking] packet stuck on the phone I assumed was inside. At the same time, my practically invisible tail gracelessly smacked his ID card as I tried to get it to copy the RFID.
A few seconds of show-struggling passed before his radio cracked to life, with the voice on the other end saying, “Everything all good with you? We detected an unidentified ULE spike in your area. Did one of our friends show up and get feisty?”
Still holding on to my wrist with one hand, the guard pushed the send button and reported, “Don’t think so, but I did catch someone snooping around. I’ll check out the spike after I-”
While they were not focused on me, I grabbed my hand and used the extra strength to twist out of his grip. He had left his thumb on top, so it was easy. As I was running off and reactivating [Act Like You Belong], I heard him call out, “get back here!”
I decided to ignore him.