B5-BeforeTheDawn Collected Information

The Vaughn Job

The job is to find former EarthForce general Geltan Vaughn, and bring him to Babel. The client wishes to hire Vaughn, so the target needs to be willing to return and in reasonable health. If necessary to convince Vaughn, part of the offer is to clear up any 'misunderstandings' with Earth Alliance.

Geltan Vaughn

Vaughn was the youngest Marine general in EarthForce during the Dilgar war, and considered second only to his mentor in tactical genius. Despite the Marines focus on ground operations, Vaughn was heavily involved in the planning and execution of the Battle of Balos in 2232, and later supervised the forces that dismantled Dilgar military resources and shut down their jumpgate. Much of the credit for the victory went to others, but Mendel and Abigail believe Vaughn played a pivotal role in the battle.

General Vaughn left EarthForce for unknown reasons in 2234, and became a freelance military consultant. Though his work has avoided media scrutiny, he is believed to have advised many governments, including the Centauri, the Narn, the Drazi, and the Sh'lassen. Those in the know suspect him of being an consultant for several actions by military forces, including the miner's strike on Ganymede in 2237.

He was last seen in 2251 shortly after the Mars riots, traveling through Vega sector to an unknown destination. The last person Vaughn dealt with before his disappearance was a human named Del Varner, who has since become a tech-runner.

Vaughn's accounts were closed just before his disappearance, but forensic accounting revealed his assets at the time were substantial - on par with prominent businessmen such as William Edgars. There is a current flag on his Earth Alliance identicard that is rarely used, that can be summed up as follows: Detain. Do Not Question. Transport to Earth Alliance HQ immediately.

Del Varner

Varner's criminal record dates back to 2252, but sources indicate he was fired from a tech company in 2050 and began his criminal activities in 2251 - right around the time he crossed paths with Vaughn.

His current location is the Earth Alliance outpost in Vega Sector.

Collected Information

• Varner really doesn't like talking about Vaughn despite everyone thinking Vaughn's long gone.
• Varner suggested looking at the local security flags on Vaughn, so L'Taur and Aoife made contact with Lieutenant Nyasha Vonai (previously of the cool callsign "Pockets"), who has smuggling contacts. She provided the following:

• Vaughn's accounts were audited after his departure. Big surprise, it was a complicated shell game and most of the funds ended up in a couple of shell companies that went bust and the money disappeared.
• Vaughn's last known location was the Vega sector. He left on a private shuttle, but docked with a private Earth vessel large enough to create its own jump point and left the system for an unknown destination.
• The ship was probably a variant Explorer-class colony vessel (Mitchell-Hyundyne @ New Kobe Orbital Shipyard). They were designed to travel to a colony site, then get broken apart planetside and turned into habitable buildings. The shell gets turned into a small orbital station once the colony is up and running.
• Only three of the ships got made, because primo spendy, and none are still around. The fourth got cancelled less than halfway through construction due to cost overruns and lack of demand:

• It was just a shell, but the rest is modular. They could've finished it from parts leftover from the other three.
• There are records of the being disassembled, but no eye witness accounts.
• Possible spare parts at Proxima III, which is convenient to Vega.

• A Vega system chop shop got raided by authorities not long after after Vaughn disappeared, already abandoned with most of the equipment gone.
• Looks like Vaughn left Earth Alliance space with a group of probably criminals capable of creating a self-sustaining colony on an uninhabited world. Probably not a luxury resort, but hey he's military. I've heard they can sleep anywhere.
• No clues where Vaughn went. Either it's somewhere the EA chose not to develop, or they never explored it and Vaughn found out about it from someone else.
• Aoife thinks the destination is less 'colony' and more 'pirate hideout', and we should look for areas that have gotten an increase in shipments of goods.

• Cyrilla did some poking around in Varner's head and found out the Minbari Warrior caste clan the Wind Swords are involved somehow. Probably a stabby somehow.

• The Wind Sowrds hit up Babel every few weeks, but it doens't look like they're coming back.
• They seem to be well funded.
• They recently bought supplies that didn't looklike they were for Minbari, food and stuff, and they weren't happy about it. Called it a humiliation, or indignity.

• Varner contacts Vaughn by inserting information into the header and pop-ups of The Turning of Restless Lives, the soapiest of "detergent shows". He recently sent information about us looking for Vaughn, with pictures. No direct contact though.
• The Turning of Restless Lives
  

• The messages are hidden in inactive flags in the live broadcast, which get removed when the episode is made available after. You need a recording of the original broadcast to access the flags.
• They get used for a bunch of crime, including insider trading, smuggling, etc. None of it looks related so someone's selling access.
• Looks like there's a way to submit a request to put a message in the broadcast. Probably not worth digging to find out who the access is - with an operation this big and old there are probably a lot of scary people with an interest in keeping it going and under the radar.
• The oldest recorded live broadcast is from shortly after Vaughn disappeared and has a few messages, including the EA security alert.
• Vaughn doesn't appear to be sending messages back via this route.
• In the show, Raul is trying to seduce Alexia, not realising she's a Narn-trained assassin sent to kill his brother. Awkward. Also Kalain was having hallucinations whenever he travelled through jump space, but that was because of a Centauri poison and not critters. Which doesn't make jump space any less creepy.

• The original security alert came from pretty high up, maybe even President high. Finding the original order would mean going to Earth (no thank you) and getting inside the most secure location in the entire Earth Alliance to access their network (I mean, I'm good but I'm not that good). The order's still active which means high level approval and no expiration date.

Weirdness

Caspian

In the casino: Caspian overhears a Centauri say, "Overconfidence is a terrible drug." He's heard that before in the exact same tone, though the speaker was female. He heard it...somewhere. Trying to focus on where doesn't help - it's like he's looking at a command prompt with a blank cursor flashing at him.

At the jumpgate job: Caspian blacks out and experiences a flashback of something that never happened. He's speaking to an unfamiliar Centauri woman. "Of course I'll do it. It's an edge no one else has." Coding languages swirl around in his brain "like he's nothing more than a buggy program that needs to be recoded" and when he comes to the job is already done.

Cyrilla

Cyrilla has experienced odd psychic echoes at the following locations:

• The casino - sometimes it's an echo, as if the thoughts of one person reverberate elsewhere, other times a blank spot.
• The meeting room, followed by a vision.
• When scanning Cestun on the shuttle.

Manipulating the scanner at the jumpgate job: Cyrilla briefly sees Caspian looking at her...or through her. His thoughts seem normal, but she has the uncomfortable sense of being watched without any psychic evidence to back that up.

Meeting room vision: Cyrilla is surrounded by darkness - and intense pain! It is agonizing, but as bad as the pain is, it seems somewhat dulled - which means the full effect would be even worse. It feels like her brain is on fire - a crown of thorns heated white-hot and placed on her head. That's not the terrifying part, though. This brain...for in the vision she is actively scanning someone...this brain is empty. Not damaged - she can dimly sense that the automatic functions such as breathing and heartbeat are active. It's simply that there are no thoughts. The echo she sensed before is magnified a hundredfold, and it is her own panicked thoughts bouncing back at her. It's hard to focus, like looking through a heavy film. You have to escape...or be trapped in this blank mind forever! You have to...to...