Knight Six> With the tragic loss of Franc Beulix the bishops are still trying to find additional leads on the Black Knight. In the meantime we've got our first official request for assistance from a member state - Foreign Minister Nakamori of Touyou has a son in the NMPD currently working a hostage situation in Kintama. Last night a group rented a specific VIP room in the basement of a hostess club, a room that just happened to be adjacent to a neighboring bank's vault. The perps hacked the club's cameras and took the girls hostage while they drilled through the vault wall, but the sound dampening equipment they brought failed. The club staff noticed the noise and called the metro police, who have cordoned both the club and bank. Police Captain Nakamori noticed just before they cut off network access that one of the robbers was in the middle of posting to one of the many USC social media sites, and the traffic included a partial membership ID. USC membership isn't a crime in neutral Touyou, so Nakamori may be using the tenuous link to off-load responsibility if the assault is botched. Still, playing ball here may buy us some good will.

• INOC quick-reaction transport will carry fireteams to Kintama dome-top airpad.
• Neo-Meikyou Police will provide ground transport.

1. Secure the Kintsuki Club and First Imperial Bank.
2. Ensure safety of all civilians.
3. Secondary: Obtain evidence of USC involvement.

• Neo-Meikyou Police will provide transport to airpad.

• NMPD Briefing File
  • Hostiles are aware of police presence. There's a police line with SWAT surrounding the buildings and they've called inside to begin negotiations, but those have been inconsistent.
  • The group finished their drilling while the police were en-route, so they control both the vault and the club basement. SWAT landed on the roofs of both buildings and cleared down to the second floors, but avoided the first floors and basements of both buildings to avoid endangering hostages.
  • Bank management is on-site and can provide access code and keys to the vault and bank at large.
  • Size of hostile group is estimated at 10, based on NMPD analysis of club camera footage earlier in the evening. No weapons were visible during the footage but in initial negotiator communications the group made unspecific claims that they were armed.
  • Number of hostages is uncertain as there are club staff missing that aren't seen on camera entering the room, but the range is between 4-20.
  • The drill used is unknown, but cameras in the vault before they were damaged show a violent shower of white sparks and club staff report a high pitched whine.
• Quake Team - Research on remote scanning technology (Scholarship) - A number of technologies exist for remote scanning of interior spaces, but none are beyond prototype status, and most are still in research phases. A non-exhaustive list, but the most likely candidates are:
  • PSK-HI technology the farthest along, with limited prototype devices rumored to be in use by USC and Federation special forces. It's a passive sensor so can't be easily detected, but requires calibration of/consistent solid surfaces and only detects K-H equipped individuals.
  • AK-HI technology was in the prototype phase last year but trials did not go well and so most consider it still in the research phase. It uses active K-H detection to theoretically produce true 3D remote viewing across distances, but prototypes experienced a myriad of problems to include spontaneous K-H pollution, 'phantom' objects appearing in the image that didn't exist in reality, and some cybernized individuals could detect the energy from the scan.
  • BSSI technology is still in research and uses sound waves instead of K-H technology. It is the least funded and uses an active sonar-like 'ping' that most individuals can feel to some degree as a 'buzzing', and the scan gets less precise the farther an object is from a solid surface, but it can detect all types of objects. It also works best if you have multiple detectors on different directions of the rooms to scan.
• Cyclone Team - Obtaining PSK-HI prototype from UFPF (Bureaucracy) - Speaking with HICOM you are told that while they would like to help, all devices are actively deployed in combat theaters. You are contacted an hour later by a RANGECOM quartermaster who says a unit just out of maintenance could be 'delayed' on it's way to the front as a favor. You'll have to return the device within 24 hours, however.
• Eclipse Team - +1 [deception defense]

• Site secured.
• Civilians safely rescued.
• Covert: Claims of treason by King Five made by hostile leader, evidence of meeting with Touyouan Prime Minister and USC entertainer Gabriella Marcellis procured.