Topic: Outbreak - Batten Industries initiatives

Edward Batten

Date: 2011-08-11 13:21 EST
Batten Manor - basement level

He hadn't slept yet. After the GAC meeting he'd had Kyle and Leo meet him down here and gave them their assignments. It's the single place in the city he trusted not to be monitored by anyone, by any means. Set deep under the earth, encased in reinforced concrete and a layer of his OmniPower energy absorbing and generating material and kept sealed away from the rest of the Manor.

He might be called paranoid, but there are secrets down here that he has no desire to give up to just anyone.

Leo he'd tasked with getting the facilities secure and safe from outside interference. With the outbreak, Ed had made sure to shut down his own portal to Earth (his Earth, as he thought of it - the way things worked around here, his couldn't be the only one, he'd reasoned), after making sure everyone working in this branch was informed of the situation. Most of them lived on the other side of it, after all, and he'd made sure to note that he had no idea when it would be opened again.

Most of the members of his staff here had no connections to anyone on the Earth through that portal - no wives or kids, nothing to keep them firmly tied. Kyle had seen to that detail himself, almost as if he'd seen such a crisis as this one coming.

In the midst of the myriad holographic interfaces surrounding him, Ed smiled to himself. There had been a reason he'd hired that man, and Pont never failed to remind him of that fact.

Along with making sure the industrial facility and the portal were secure, Leo had been given the assignment of assigning security for deliveries of supplies, including the vaccine and Kazon's nanomachine treatment, as well as the supplies and necessary equipment for a hospice at the Temple of Scathach. The employees he wasn't worried about - the delivery drivers would all be members of Batten Industries Security, and the other employees had been assigned berths on the industrial complex's grounds, where there was little chance of anyone attempting to get information out of one of them to succeed.

And then there was the vaccination clinics and quarantine centers to attend to, another security risk where trouble could occur, and not just from thuggish Japanese enforcers.

Which was one of Kyle's assignments, assigning personnel as necessary for administering the shots, keeping records, and now security as well.

As soon as he'd seen the man taking an interest in the virus discussion, he'd had a feeling. Some might call it a hunch - for him it had all come like pieces falling into place, a perfectly obvious conclusion to a rather simple equation. After all, they were interested in making a profit - what better way than to hold the whole city for ransom by putting a stranglehold on something that was desperately needed"

Well...whatever they do get, they won't be getting from him. Not without paying for it severely themselves, anyway.

He'd been working on things himself, as well. First, the case of the missing dragon, Icer, and the mysterious woman whom Icer had shown so much fear at the sight of, the one she had said was feeding her. And Oziendis, her captor.

That had been the only logical conclusion - the other two prime candidates were either dead or nowhere to be found on this world. The only other person he could have seen doing it would have been Howe, and the Playboy had his own sources on that front - he would have heard something if that fat sack had something to do with it.

But that wasn't the case.

He was turning to another of the holograms when the AI's petite golden figure appeared before him, clearing her throat with prim professionalism. "Yeah, Di, whatcha got fer me?"

"Mr. Heracleides has just arrived, sir, and Mr. Pontius has stated he will be here shortly. Shall I show them down here?"

He nodded, stepping out of the myriad displays floating around him, and headed for the bar on the other side of the working space. He'd just finished pouring two glasses of bourbon when his security chief approached, looking tired but satisfied with himself. Motioning to a stool, he held out a glass for Leo. "Alright, y'all've had two days, ol' hoss. Let's hear what ya've got."

Leonidas Heracleides

Date: 2011-08-12 16:47 EST
He took the glass of bourbon gratefully. It might be a little early for the hard stuff, but at the moment he didn't care. He hadn't slept much more than his boss with everything he'd been working on in the past couple days, just a catnap here and there, really, mostly in his office. For as large and complex an operation as he'd set up, though, he'd been proud to see that his staff here had been quick and efficient in their execution, like a well oiled machine.

He can handle the chaos, but there's nothing like efficiency, in his book.

He took a generous swallow of the bourbon before setting his glass down and beginning. "Saturday we're meeting a vendor in Star's End for a shipment of the vaccine. There's another one going out earlier being handled by someone else, some private company trying to make a covert emergency delivery - the clinics are either close to being out, or else have depleted their supply. We have three of our custom armored delivery vehicles ready for the operation, and they'll be staffed by three of my men apiece. In addition I'm assigning each truck an escort vehicle with three more guards, but just to be safe I think we'll want an...aerial escort to go with them."

Ed chuckled softly, a grin twitching at the corners of his lips. "Ya mean an armored guard."

Leo grinned along with him, nodding. Other than training, he'd seen little enough action, except for the attempted sabotage of the production facility, and that had seen no further attempts on Batten Industries property or personnel. "Right. One for you, one for me, one for Kyle. You'd have to have heavy artillery to bring the trucks to a halt, but I'd rather not underestimate the opposition. From what I saw back in Vegas, the Yakuza can be very resourceful. One of the trucks will be making deliveries to our vaccination clinics, one will carry the bulk of its delivery to the Shambles clinic before going to the Temple of Scathach to drop off the hospice materials, and the other one will be making its rounds to the remaining clinics and wards around Rhy'din after stopping at Kazon's company to pick up a shipment of the nanomachine treatment he's developed."

Ed nodded, his features thoughtful. "Why not have jus' one veh'cle makin' all de deliveries" Dis town ain' dat big."

Leo had already thought about that, and shook his head. "No good. Even in a town this small - hell, especially in a town this small - you don't want to put all the eggs in one basket. Even with the three of us providing an escort, there's a chance the delivery could be made off with."

Ed grinned and nodded, as if he knew that all along. Which he probably did, Leo thought - he just wanted to hear his security chief say it. "Right. An' how 'bout de industrial complex" Ever'tin' all set on dat front?"

Leo nodded again, taking another swallow from his glass of bourbon. "Yeah. The portal is shut down, except for essential deliveries from the other side. No traffic other than that, and I have five guards on the shipping and receiving building at all times, as well as doubling the number and frequency of the guard patrols."

Ed nodded again, smiling approvingly. "Good. Now, what 'bout dis enforcer we saw de ot'er night?"

Leo grinned again at that. "Tailed him to WestEnd. I lost him near the southern road, so it's a fair bet their headquarters is somewhere in that area."

Ed nodded again, grinning. "Excellent. Ah have some info for ya on de Shimmerscale case dat Ah'll be sendin' to ya, so..."

He stopped as the golden holographic figure of the AI popped up and cleared her throat softly. "Yeah, what is it, Di?"

Her sultry voice spoke in clipped, professional tones. "Sir, Mr. Pontius has been unexpectedly delayed due to an issue with the WestEnd clinic that he stated must be seen to immediately. However, he wishes to convey that it is not an emergency and that all other arrangements have been taken care of, and he will brief you at his earliest convenience."

The boss nodded. "T'anks, Di."

The AI disappeared again, and Leo looked at his boss as the other looked to him with a chuckle. "So. Got anyt'in' else fer me, Leo?"

Leo thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. "Nothing at the moment. How about you, boss?"

Ed shook his head. "Nah. Ya been doin' a damn fine job, Leo. Keep wit' it."

With a grin, Leo downed the rest of his bourbon and stood, giving his boss a nod. "Thanks, Ed. I know I do my best, but it never hurts to hear it."

He turned and headed out of the basement. He didn't know it yet, but life was going to get very interesting, very fast.

Kyle Pontius

Date: 2011-08-13 14:18 EST
"Son of a b*tch."

He was sitting in his office, reading the report sent to him by Leo, frowning. This was not good.

The riots had taken a toll, both on the personnel at the clinics and on the rioters themselves. Thanks to the OmniPulse weapons the security teams had been outfitted with, there had been no casualties, but even so there had been several injuries, from falls, stampeding people, and those inflicted on the medical clinics themselves. Nearly a third of the security department had been dispatched to the Shambles to give the beleaguered Watch personnel some reinforcement, and they had stood up well to the task - only two injuries were reported among them - and a few on each team had training in field first aid to assist with any injuries sustained by the members of the Shambles clinics, the Watch personnel, and the rioters themselves.

Fully half of the security department after that third were dispatched to stand guard over the other clinics in less hostile sections of the city, leaving the remainder to guard the industrial complex and the portal it housed in the shipping and receiving department. Things were starting to be stretched a little thin.

Frowning, he looked over at the wall, towards the hidden panel that housed one of his personal suits of armor. He should have been in it already, would have been had it not been for those damnable Yakuza snatching the emergency shipment intended to resupply the Shambles clinic and the other vaccine centers throughout the city. But with that crisis on their hands, Governor Helston had ordered that all shipments be halted until some plan of action could be determined.

He still felt confident that Leo's plan for keeping the new shipments under guard was the best one, but with the riots it was going to be a juggling act. The security department also supplied the drivers for the shipping operations, while the shipping department itself simply kept things in order and ensured things got to where they needed to go.

This was not good.

With the security department stretched so thin there would only be enough to supply the drivers and maybe one guard per truck, and no escort vehicles...and that would leave the industrial complex without much in the way of guards. People could be pulled from the Shambles operations, but then there was the problem of them being short-staffed if rioters decided to take another crack at the clinics.

On the other hand, they could get personnel from other departments to man the deliveries, and he, Leo and Ed could handle the security for the trucks by themselves. With their powered armor each was capable of facing down a small army, and they'd certainly back a surprise for anyone trying to hijack another shipment...but then it would be obvious that - at the least - they were affiliated with Batten Industries. A few people had figured out that Ed was also the Ranger, although that knowledge was not widespread by some miracle.

And then there was the matter of the vaccine and treatments supplied by Kazon. A violent enough confrontation could potentially destroy the precious substances, if the Yakuza decided to bring some heavy weaponry into the mix, and he could see them doing it just to keep their position of power. After all, they already had a supply of the stuff to leverage their position - there was no need for them to have any more.

As he was thinking he was keeping notes of the solutions and the pros and cons of each.

Any which way you sliced things, there was a risk, and it seemed to be a toss-up as to which to choose. He might as well put each on a piece of paper, tape it to the wall, and toss a dart to choose.

With a sigh he wrapped up his notes and sent them to Ed to consider for the emergency meeting later. No matter what, this whole thing was a mess, as bad as any he'd seen. The only question now was if things would get better...

...or worse.