“I’ve never seen this place up close,” Mimi noted, looking up at the jutting towers above her. A mixture of gold and white, the tower’s walls were intricately designed with symmetrical patterns and curved segments of roofing and tiles. Johrei shimmered at its surface, gleaming under the orange skylight, and two golden creatures of unknown description rested in front of the main entrance. With elongated bodies, scaled like a serpent, sporting a lion’s mane, Mimi found the spiritual context given by these creatures ironic, given that the Clan of Tributes were one of the most prominent factors in dampening religion across Lucens Mundi, especially when it came to the Clan of Voices and their worship of the Enthipids.
The vast expanse surrounding the towers were mostly barren, save for barriers circumscribing each of the three tower foundations. In the distance she could see several minor bridges, connected to the Clan of Tributes’ bases, and further down, Mimi could make out the outlines of skyscrapers encompassing the outer section of Lucens Mundi, each building shimmering under the heat waves. Further down, she spotted Magrest’s large defense platform, the Era of Peace. It was noticeable even at this distance, set past a series of major bridges overlooking an enormous canal. Looking away from the urban scenery, Mimi turned her attention to the smaller body of clear water surrounding them. With symmetrical designs, access to natural resources, and a design structure that could weather any war – Mimi thought that whoever designed this place was was a forward-thinker.
“Reminds me of a moat,” she muttered. “Isolated as the Clan is, they seem unusually prepared for combat eventualities. Look at this. Even the architecture and terrain offer few alternative routes of approach and retreat, and there’s practically no cover past this perimeter, except on the Clan’s side. Lucens Mundi…what an unusual district. It’s a night and day difference between these over-embellished towers and the rest of the district, and between the rest of the city and the Night Market below.” Her eyes trailed as her thoughts lingered on the matter. “Three separate cultures existing together in one place. I’m surprised you guys don’t butt heads more often, given how antagonistic the Clan and Night Market are to each other.”
Caz grumbled. He was all too familiar with the Lucens Mundi internal politics and would rather steer clear of it if possible. He looked up at the drones floating overhead, a dozen meters above the pair. Though the Clan had surveillance drones sweeping the area, Reina outfitted the pair with jammers that hid their visages from the line of sight of any machine. It wasn’t a permanent solution though, as the Johrei reserves for this would run out in about an hour or so.
Their goal here is a simple one. Reina needed the pair to infiltrate the towers and plant a beacon chip into one of the Clan’s server farms. She had made surface level sweeps through the databases of the Clan’s files and found an interesting reference to the Imperial Court. She wasn’t able to access the file directly and the file itself was renamed and transferred elsewhere recently, much to her dismay. In order to bypass the Clan’s security walls, she needed a more direct approach, and asked Mimi and Caz if they could help her.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a task that two Shoguns would undertake, but Reina suspected something bigger was going on, and that it may have involved the Trepidor brothers. Ties connecting the Clan to Tor’s Twindust rebellion have been found. Taysa and her Paladins were the closest to capturing Tor at the time, representative of Lucens Mundi, where the Clan was located. The Revenant’s Balance was a major player at that time as well. And reviewing the footage, it was clear the Night Market was most likely where Tor ran off to, yet he suddenly popped back up on the radar just to die by the Trepidor brothers’ hands. The same brothers, who were Onyx Technicians of the Lucens Mundi underground, just like Alyx. Though the connections were tenuous, if not speculative, enough “coincidences” start to shape into patterns, and Reina had a knack at picking out patterns.
Stolen story; please report.
Caz started, “Reina says the Clan had recently halted their public broadcasts for current hunts, and there was evidence that correspondence had been exchanged between the Clans and local Auditors recently, though Reina couldn’t access the logs for that. The timing for these events were too close in proximity to be a coincidence.”
“To think she stumbled onto all this trying to access access their private communication lines for her own personal use,” Mimi responded. “Reina sure does love party-crashing.”
Mimi closed her eyes, leaning on one leg and crossing her arms. She ran through the strategy they’ve agreed on in her head one last time before speaking, “Caz, the Clan had more than one server farm and normally, to find the one that Reina wanted, we would’ve had to look through the specific floors where the servers were located within each of the three towers. Finding out which server farm held the information relevant to the exchange between the Clan and the local auditors would typically entail a significant amount of risk and probing on Reina’s end. She’s been caught hacking their network before, with more than significant consequences, and I don’t want her to go down that road again.”
“And yet, she was able to find out where the server was,” Caz replied.
“Luckily, this time, she already had access to one of the Clan’s smaller private channels. With a little encryption to hide her eavesdropping among the Clan’s communications, and a little reverse tracking, she managed to narrow down the relevant server to the center tower, 30th floor.”
Mimi’s communicator buzzed, and she picked up.
Reina spoke, “Hey boss. Be careful in there. There’s been some chatter about reorganizing security in preparation for an upcoming major conflict that is expected to happen. Security seems to be tightening up in there for reasons I’m not quite sure of, so I doubt you’d be able to sneak in without someone noticing.”
“Don’t worry. Caz and I talked this out already. We won’t be sneaking, well…at least he won’t. Just phone in if you need to update us about anything.”
“Roger,” Reina replied.
Caz tapped Mimi’s shoulder and she turned her head to look at him. Caz gestured with his hand, indicating there was something else.
“Oh yeah,” Mimi said, speaking to Reina again. “Caz said he transferred authorization to you to pick up any incoming communications on his behalf. Apparently, the Clan has a method for preventing any signals transmitted from inside the towers, so once we’re in there, we’re on our own. He’s going to be a little busy in the next hour so could you to pick up any incoming calls for him, especially any that come from Calli, Aio, or Cyr?”
“Got it,” Reina replied. “Anything else?”
Mimi thought about it for a second, “Try to get in touch with Alyx when you get the chance. Tell her what we know and keep her updated if you find out anything new. We might get a lead on the current hunt soon. Mimi out.”
Mimi released her comms and looked up once more at the tower’s expanse. From this angle, the towers looked extremely bright. Sunlight pierced through the city’s sky barrier above them. Though the sun loomed grandly, Mimi felt only a mild warmth, due to the barrier’s mitigating effects. It would’ve otherwise been a nice day to take a stroll around the district.
She primed herself, equipped with a speed-based armor set this time around. As usual, she preferred light armor, almost indistinguishable from clothing, save for the Johrei which occasionally shimmered on the surface of her torso. Fortunately, with the way this tower was designed, carvings and all, she had more than a few handholds needed to propel herself upwards.
Taking one look at Caz, who nodded at her, she smiled wickedly, and then bolted up the side of the tower, hopping from one foothold to another. She was a natural at this and before the minute passed, she climbed three stories.
Caz stared forward at the tower’s entrance and readied himself for his part.