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 is uncomfortable discussing Vaughn despite the widespread belief that Vaughn is long gone.
• Varner suggested starting by looking into the security flags on Vaughn.
• The Minbari Warrior caste clan the Wind Swords are involved in some capacity, possibly in Vaughn's disappearance. Cyrilla has shared this information (gained via telepathic scan) with the rest of the group.
• Varner contacts Vaughn by inserting information into the header and pop-ups of the popular show The Turning of Restless Lives. He recently sent information that the group is looking for Vaughn, with pictures of Caspian and L'Taur. However he isn't in direct contact.
• The Turning of Restless Lives
  

• The messages are hidden in inactive flags contained only in the live broadcast, and are removed when the episode is made available for viewing afterwards. This means that only people recording the initial broadcast would be able to dig through the file for the flags.
• This show is used for a number of criminal activities, from insider trading to illegal smuggling and more. The crimes and the criminals appear to be unrelated, which means there is someone selling access to sending messages via the live broadcasts.
• The oldest live broadcast is from shortly after Vaughn's disappearance and has a few messages, including the Earth Alliance 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.
• There are clues on how to submit a request to place a message (for a cost). The identity of the person or persons involved could be discovered with additional effort, but if this goes back to before Vaughn left than there are undoubtedly bribes paid and people with a vested interest in keeping the operation going - very influential people. Digging deeper could be dangerous, as anything that ends up revealing it would anger a large number of profitable criminal operations.

• The original security alert came from pretty high up - possibly even the Office of the President. However, military security is tight enough that finding a copy of the original order would require going to Earth and getting access to the isolated network inside the most secure location in the entire Earth Alliance. The order remains active years later, which means it remains approved by consensus at the highest levels without an expiration date.
• L'Taur and Aoife made contact with Lieutenant Nyasha Vonai (previously callsign "Pockets"), known for her smuggling contacts. She provided the following information:

• Vaughn's accounts were audited after his departure, and most of the funds were funneled through a complicated web of financial dealings. Two shell businesses ended up with the majority of his wealth, and were subsequently shuttered with no records of where the funds went.
• Vaughn's last known location was the Vega sector, departing via private shuttle.
• A reliable informant revealed to authorities that Vaughn's shuttle docked with a private Earth vessel large enough to create its own jump point, which subsequently left the system for parts unknown. The ship is believed to be a variant of the Explorer-class vessels created by Mitchell-Hyundyne at the New Kobe Orbital Shipyard, designed for colonization. Only three were made, and none are still in service. The ship is designed to travel through hyperspace to a designated site for colonization, then be broken apart into individual modules that can be taken planetside and turned into habitable buildings. The remaining shell of the ship is left in orbit, and can be turned into a small orbital station once the colony is up and running. The costs of these ships was astronomical, which is why only three were produced (construction of a fourth was cancelled less than halfway through construction due to cost overruns and lack of demand). While they only required a small crew for the journey, the colony construction required considerable manpower.
• A suspected "chop shop" in the Vega system was raided by authorities shortly after Vaughn's disappearance, only to be found abandoned with little of the equipment remaining.
• The current theory is that Vaughn left Earth Alliance space with a group of criminals capable of creating a self-sustaining colony on an uninhabited world. It's definitely not a personal paradise - the colony setup is suitable for survival, but severely lacking in modern conveniences. Most of the equipment is designed for durability and redundancy, not luxury. Unfortunately, the information doesn't give any clues as to where Vaughn went. Explorer ship findings are recorded by the Earth Alliance, and a ship would have had to find the destination before Vaughn could go there. This means the location is either an area the EA chose not to develop, or that it is outside of EA explored territory and Vaughn got the information from another source.