2221/Droning the Docks

Droning the Docks
Date of Scene:	29 August 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Kaelyn follows her magical scrying as far as the strange interference allows, to the Port of Newark. Using her clockwork insect creations, she searches the port and locates the area of interference, though it proves harmful to her minions as well. Taking an 'injured' insect with her, she plans to return with other heroes to search the area for lost Damian.
Cast of Characters:	Deathstroke, Kaelyn Silverleaf

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Deathstroke has posed:
Its late in the evening at Port Newark, one of the largest industrial shipping ports in the Tri-State area. Evening because during the day, there's a fairly high degree of mortal security to be worried about as well. The joys of government enforcement of anti-terrorism laws and strict scrutiny over drug and arms trafficking. And even when you have magic to make people annoy you, justifying all the little mechanical bugs might be tricky.

In the evening, there's still security, not of the evil minion sort, but more of the legitimately trying to keep the port safe kind. But there's less of them, less scrutiny on the whole, more holes to slip through. The port itself is... well, massive. Acres of corrugated steel shipping containers stacked high and arranged in rows, forming vast artificial canyons. Multiple warehouses. Drydock facilities. Massive cranes. Docked container ships the size of small aircraft carriers.

Kaelyn Silverleaf has posed:
Kae pulls up to a parking place in the port. The woman well, she's in her pickup... Kae climbs out of the monster Henessee Ford Raptor and glances at the black truck then the neighborhood... She then goes to the back of the truck and drops the tail gate. The woman tugging two wooden boxes free before she opens them up... A number of moths, wasps, locusts and flies all flit out of the box, these 'creatures' only a little bigger than say the creatures they're modeled after, ut well moths and locusts and wasps can all get pretty big, even mayflies... Kae blinks and looks at one of the blackened brass creatures on her finger and sighs... "NO clue if this is gonna work or not..." She mutters and sends it aloft as she turns her phone on and peers as the little dots on said phone seem to be flying out and around the port, starting to spread out from the pickup truck..

Kae sighs and closes up the boxes, and then the back of the truck before locking the thing.. She's glad for the camper shell. She then closes and locks the pickup truck activating its alarm system.. Really just a regular alarm system, the truck will return to its home after 24 hours if stolen. NOthing more than that, still, she looks at the vehicle longingly, and begins to wander into the port now, phone in hand as she glances around curiously... "This could take a while." She mutters and takes a deep breath... "Drive in or walk in..." She mutters.

Deathstroke has posed:
The dots spread out slowly in their buzzing insectoid fashion. At the pace of insects their size, it may take hours to cover the full of the port, even in general: there are near infinite nooks and crannies, far too many to even begin to search them all, countless buildings and containers. But assuming they can detect something like the material taken from the Ravager's lost blade? Then maybe, perhaps, they might luck out getting a little closer. For the moment, they're searching. And searching.

For the woman, traveling on foot is obviously a fairly arduous task. The port is several miles long, one end to the other, and perhaps half as wide.

Kaelyn Silverleaf has posed:
Kae hmmms.. She's not really left her truck per say. She glances back at the truck, then shrugs. She turns back to the vehicle and climbs in after unlocking it of course. The Engine roars to life with that throaty rumble of a 7 litre supercharged v8... She then starts well trying to drive down into the harbor, the girl muttering "Sooo gonna draw a lil attention with this vehicle." she mutters... Not that a pickup would be that -huge of a deal, but a suped up offroading monster pickup on the other hand might... Yah blame the girl's Texas raised sentiments for her getting this particular vehicle.. She then pauses a moment, then grins and snaps her fingers... She pats the trucks dash and mutters "I'll change ya back sweety." Then whispers a spell. There's a ripple over the truck and it seems to collapse in on its self, well it actually does and is now rolling as a rather nice blue and white mustang gt-350 Hennessee...

Deathstroke has posed:
It isn't the make or model that ultimately draws attention. In some ways, maybe the pickup would have even made sense, amidst the port setting, although it is obviously a louder and more visible vehicle. In any event, the issue is that simply driving around the port, well, there are gates. And little night watchmen sitting in guard boxes, and that sort of thing. The first one she meets, of course, approaches with a flashlight. "Evening there miss. What's your business in the port at this hour?"

Whether ensorcelled or sweet-talked, she can drive on. But there are other points like this, checkpoints for individual piers owned by various shipping companies. Customs checkpoints. And even the occasional night watchman simply patrolling the grounds. And while they may seem like an assortment of government employees and rent-a-cops, who knows who all of them truly work for? Who's paying them on the side. It's hard not to feel like there are eyes everywhere.

Just like her own flying servants. One of them, while she's having her various difficulties, has flown a bit further ahead, and started toward what it thinks is a promising 'ping,' in a more distant corner of the port.

Kaelyn Silverleaf has posed:
Kae has borrowed from a show called Dr Who! She's got a leather flipper with smart paper that shows the person the id they are expecting her to have as they pass through, and one that actually works for allowing her to move around. Now whatever that might be is anyone's guess, including hers! Kae pulls off to the side now, the girl looking at her phone and watching the little insect blips curiously... She notes the one further out and mutters "Shoulda made more insects..." She says and sighs. And of course after the 4th maybe 5th checkpoint and random pull over she frowns, and steps out of the car... She waves a hand, sending the vehicle 'home' as it were, muttering "Soo gonna have to figure out a better way... Lets hope I don't have to bring it back..." she mutters, now that will be pretty heavy on her magic reserves, even with her artificed items...

Now noticing the insect venturing off way on its own, Kae taps it on her screen to show her exactly what the insect is seeing, kind of like viewing what a drone's camera might see through a phone app... Kae also moves to a nice nook to maybe try and be a little less suspicious... "Soo coulda planned this out better I think..." She says and studies what her phone is shoing her then chuckles at her self... Next she begins heading down the warf, letting her insects do their work as she looks around, then she pauses, contemplating getting her broom out and riding it for now... "Might be a bit suspicious..." She mutters and glances upward at the sky before walking further down the peer.

Deathstroke has posed:
The insect-drone's camera shows a very different perspective of the port, a bird's-eye view of the same features, the rows of containers, the large warehouse buildings, the ships. While one might be attempted to assume the villain's hideout would be in some run-down area, this seems nothing of the sort. The machinery, the cranes and other loading infrastructure is up to modern standards and advancements, computerization and automation. All those machines are silent now, but during the day, they transfer thousands of tons of cargo by the hour. Several piers are visible from the air, ships berthed between them, and containers neatly arranged beyond them. The height of its view benefits in terms of angle and scope, though not in detail.

It begins to swoop lower... and then there's a slight flicker in the camera view, distortion and static flickering across the screen. It remains flying, the view shows, everything stable, just fuzzing in and out like a bad TV channel... from back when TV actually worked that way, anyhow. She can see, too, that even its position on her phone starts to blink in and out as well. It seems likely that it's flown into some kind of disturbance, very likely the same thing that blocked her own long-range scrying. For now, it continues to send data, though it seems to degrade the further it goes.

Kaelyn Silverleaf has posed:
Kae frowns a bit, then signals to the other bugs to fly in that directionl and form a chain for her to follow as it were. Kae rubs the back of her neck, and begins making her way in the direction of the lone insect as the others fly toward it... NOt that she can out-run the mechanical insects... She glances skyward now as well and tilts her head... "Fly or no... umm nah not right now." She mutters, figuring she can be sneekier if she is on foot.. But now she moves with a purpose toward the area her dissapearing insect is in... Along the way she frowns.. "Am soo gonna get leg tired at this point..." She mutters, yah the girl's in good shape but it could take her a bit to walk that far, and she's allready sent her car home as it were... Kae then pauses and unhooks her backpack from her shoulder. She ends up tugging a skateboard from it and smiles "This'll work!" She mutters, then puts her backpack back on and now begins skating in the direction of the disturbance...

Deathstroke has posed:
Sending more bugs more or less duplicates the result, so at least she has scientific proof! At a distance, they remain unaffected, but eventually getting closer causes them to start to fritz out. She might even, with some time, be able to sketch out a general area of the field. This narrows things down to one of perhaps two or three immediately adjacent piers, although not to the point of any single building. Or ship. Because there are ships too. Nevermind the pile of containers. It's a finite area, however. By skateboard or other means, Kae can trek her way over eventually.

And there comes the dilemma:

She perches with her board near some cover at a safe distance from the identified area, north of the first of those several piers and behind some equipment or more of the ubiquitous containers. Ahead, there's a fence. The normal wire variety, barbed atop, typical for protecting private property. There are no guards here in sight, however, no watchman at an entrance to bamboozle. There's a gate, unmanned. Beyond that, what she saw from the air, the rows of containers, the frames of huge cranes above them.

Kaelyn Silverleaf has posed:
Kae frowns a bit... "Don't get ahead of yer self girl." she mutters and issues a recall to the bugs, after figuring out the area, she tries to get them to place them selves strategicly around the outside of the dead-zone to watch the place... She waits a bit to see if she can recover the bugs not transmitting and when they all come out, she breaths a sigh of relief.. "Don't like wasting that kind of work..." She mutters and then starts having them position them selves in the eves of warehouses, on top of lightposts, cranes, you name it, any place they can watch the suspected warf area and give Kae an idea as to what kind of traffic can come in and out. She'll also have them move around time to time and such.. no use having 'bugs' stay in the exact same place all the time, right?

Kae smiles and begins skateboarding away now, looking to head out of the warf area as she starts her phone with calling her car, a parking lot she's designated would be a good location, and the woman skates toward it...

Deathstroke has posed:
And that's that.

The little clockwork insects make their way home to their mistress. Most are still in good order, although the very first, that got the closest to whatever disturbance in the first place, seems a little affected by the journey. It flies in erratic loops, wobbles and stubmles on its little mechanical legs. It's an interesting immitation of life for the automatron, mimicking what might look like illness or even drunkenness in a living creature. The others, though, remain functional and can be dispersed, though caution out be taken: in the daylight, customs agents might find that kind of thing quite frightening to find, surely the proof of some looming terrorist plot!

Beyond that, her escape is untroubled. The guards she passed remember her, which simply means they wish her a friendly 'You have a good night, Miss' as she continues past them on her way. Easy peasy.

Right?

Kaelyn Silverleaf has posed:
Kae takes the 'inured' little insect with her, taking Harold and sticking it in a pocket after shutting the automaton down... She mutters and looks at it "Gonna have to check ou out when I get ya home." She says as she skates away...