[Fin] Fishing for Answers

[Gwennythe]

Jubilee gave a happily little 'bzz' and moved to nudge Aulus' hand when he squeezed Tambrey's shoulder.

Tambrey smiled, and nodded, despite being sat ahead of Aulus; she did turn her head so the nod would be a little more visible to him.

"Yeah. Yeah, we'll, um, be fine. We've got more cunning plans than Baldrick. If we have to go in, we're, um, we're ready!"  

[TawnyAngel]

"Right," Aulus smiled and nodded in return, "more cunning than a fox that's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University.... There's our fog bank, so I guess we bank here?" It looked more ominous in person than from Asgard's footage, though less immediately threatening due to the lack of missiles and all. "Ha. Bank, bank. That's not funny."

<> said Asgard, banking to the right so as to fly alongside the fog rather than entering it.

"Nothing unusual so far," Aulus added, keen to move on from whatever the hell his weird comment had been about. Frowning slightly to himself he raised his metal arm again and zoomed out a bit further on the map. "I wonder if I could get this thing to respond to mind control instead of touch," he mused, for the sake of musing about something that wasn't creepy mysteries or possible sudden missiles. "They can kind of do that stuff now right? Or eye tracking? It would save me not being able to wear gloves... or I could just get some of those touchscreen gloves, that would be simpler I suppose."  

[Gwennythe]

"It's... a little funny. Though, um, maybe I was set up for it with the Blackadder line..." Tambrey muses, though her attention is more on the fog bank itself than on the conversation.

Their 'steed' just 'spoke' so again, she gives another gentle pat to the large bird-fish legendary.

"Um. Set a GPS marker for this edge?" Tambrey suggested, unable to see if he was already doing so, then considered the question. "Either or. Um. We work enough with brain impulses that our science, even there, is a little ahead of 'breakthroughs' in the outside world, you know... Because, uh, y'know. No ethics concerns, we can, um, push on with promising research as long as it's... promising. Not, um, my field, but I know a couple of agents who dabble that way. They work with tech a lot. You know you can, uh, basically 'mind control' drones? Neural impulse and clever circuitry. Takes a very complete, in depth, understanding of, um, several systems, biologically... Very specialized."  

[TawnyAngel]

"Got it," Aulus acknowledged with a nod, not that Tambery could see the nod right now but it was a reflex.

"Not sure I fancy having my skull cracked open to insert chips, or wearing silly headgear to pick up impulses. I suppose I'll stick to the touch screen for now until I lose an eye or something, then maybe I can have a mechanical eye hooked up to control it all or something. Mind controlling drones sounds pretty cool though, I'd like to give that a try." Assuming they didn't get blown up on this little private mission of theirs.

<> Asgard put in, <>  

[Gwennythe]

"Head gear." Tambrey confirmed with a nod of her own. "Um. Silly or not, I don't really know, I think it's... /kind of/ cool. Chips aren't, uh, really a necessity when dealing with impulses. It's just an electrical sort of signal after all and, uh, well, we can pick those up and read them via exterior methods." The scientist explains as best she can, despite it not really being entirely her field. She's familiar enough, however, it seems through study and collaboration.
"Mind controlling drones is, um, the same principle. Headgear, again. Um. Medical-bio and Tech work more on that though."

At Asgard's question, she wasn't sure about 'two big' and left it for the field agent, but did pipe up with;
"I um, would rather go in from the beach side too, if we have to go in..."  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus made a thoughtful noise, pondering the question before deciding aloud; "Call it two and a half hoursish, that's five there and back if we decide to retreat and that's plenty for us to be sitting on you like this. If we don't get around the perimeter in the two and a half then we make another foray another day travelling the other way around the fog. After that we can either try to extrapolate the rest of the area, or we... plan a longer trip I guess. Hire a boat? I'll third going in from the beach side though.

"But, back to the headgear thing. If that's the case, could you put the... detectors - sensors? - under the scalp? A bit less invasive than sawing into skulls but nobody could tell just by looking that you had them." It was a good job he and Tam always found lots to talk about or it could be a long flight otherwise though really long periods of silence was fine too, it was always a comfortable silence around his partner.

<> Asgard added with a mental snort.  

[BlackFireKitsune]

A few long minutes after the Agents had reached and begun circling the fog bank, they would both receive a message on their rocketdexes:

Urgent: Return to base immediately.  

[Gwennythe]

"That does sound like more than enough." Tambrey agreed. "And, um, well, I agree with all of that though I'm not sure if, uh, /hiring/ a boat is the way to go. Maybe though? I'm... not /really/ a field agent, after all. Just pretend to be one sometimes..."

The idea of sensors under the scalp gave her a brief pause followed by firm nodding.
"Oh! Yes! For sure, um. You'd have to talk with medical about hygiene and any issues that might occur from that, and with tech about maintenance, but, uh, for /sure/ that could be done. It's... a little permanent compared to, um, headgear, but I guess that would be the, uh, useful point of it?"

The 'dex message alert got a frown, and the message, once read, got a deeper one.
"Uh... Thoughts?"  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus read the message. His brows knit into a deep frown and his lips pressed together in a thin line. "I think it's quite a coincidence that we just happen to get recalled to base urgently just as we set out. My guess would be either that we're going to get some answers, or we're going to get a firm cease and desist and have to sit with our thumbs up our arses wondering what the hell this is all about forever, or at least for the foreseeable future."

<> Asgard agreed, banking around to head back towards the shore.

"They must have noticed our signals heading this way and.... Mmh, yes," Aulus frowned a bit deeper. "So they know... something about this fog, but what? Is it ours after all? Or do they know it isn't and they don't want whoever's in there to know they're being watched? Well, whatever the case we don't have a lot of choice."

Aulus raised his arm again, tapped the message and replied with; //Copy that base.//

"The quickest way back will be to land, recall our teams and get on our Pidgeot, you alright with that plan?" Aulus asked once the message showed 'sent'.  

[Gwennythe]

"Coincidence. Could be but I just." Tambrey shook her head.
"I don't think it is. This is too much now. It's an /urgent/ recall, so, um, we'll at least learn /something/. Unless they're, uh, just antsy about us being so far out after Faleen and all. I don't know. That's now what I'm, uh, feeling though."

Tambrey sighed as Asgard banked and headed back shoreward.

"Yep. That's the quickest. Well. Actually, it'd probably be faster for me to get Lasi to take me, but less comfortable and I don't, uh, really want to get back before you do to be honest... We'll, uh, stick with Pidgeots. Come in together."

//Affirmative.// She sent her own message of compliance.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Together is good," Aulus agreed, his brows still knitted tightly. "And yes, I agree it's no coincidence, I was being dry... I guess it could just be about Faleen, if so we can explain and that might get us something? I hope we get something after all this," he gestured vaguely, "all this bollocks. Is a bit of trust in us so much to ask, to tell us what the hell is going on? Ha, I suppose it is now." It was funny - in a very unfunny way - that Faleen had been so deeply trusted and yet she was the one who'd gone rogue. It really wasn't funny at all when you thought about it.  

[Gwennythe]

"Mmhm." Tambrey was trying /not/ to sound too worried, despite the apprehension she was feeling, though the minimalist response, perhaps, didn't quite have that effect. Indeed, it might have a little bit of the opposite.
She tended to be more chatty, especially around a friend, than such a small response. Unless she was thinking very hard.  

[TawnyAngel]

"Mmmh," Aulus agreed, reaching up to give Tam's shoulder another squeeze. After a moment of thought he reached forward to give her a brief hug too. "We'll be fine," he said firmly. Tam was worried. He was a bit worried too, and more worried now that he knew she was worried. They wouldn't... do anything to them would they? "We're valuable. You've got specialist knowledge and I... am good at hitting things," that suddenly seemed even less important than it usually did, "and you just brought in a new legendary's sequence. Whatever it is we can deal with it together, alright partner?"  

[Gwennythe]

"Hm?" Tambrey tried to look back and smiled at the hug.
Jubilee chrr'd happily again.

"Y're the, uh, only one currently calibrated to a highly sophisticated and specially compatible piece of robot and neural interfacing technology. 'S well as the 'hitting stuff'. You're also one of the most successful, consistently, field agents. But, uh, thanks. I... guess, yes, I was thinking a little 'bout that but that's, um, not my main worry. They're /calling us back/ from something. Urgently. Either we're not supposed to be there because they're running an operation we might have compromised. Which would be infuriating to learn. Or, uh, they need us back there. Or even our value might be /why/ were' being called back. And that means we, uh, well... It means our leashes just became a lot more noticeable..." And apparently she wasn't sure she liked that even if she'd always been very aware of said 'leashes'.  

[TawnyAngel]

Aulus drew a breath in through his nose and let it back out through his mouth. "Well I don't know about that but, uh, thanks." He did generally do a good job, right? Right. "And... yeah. There's got to be some important reason they don't want us here but if they didn't why didn't they say so rather than giving us vague 'yeah we're looking into it's? That's definitely infuriating if it's the case...." And if not? If it was about them being out somewhere together more than it was about where they were? "....I guess we'll find out one way or the other soon enough."

<> Asgard agreed as he touched down on the sand of the beach, he'd hastened back now that he knew he didn't need to last a long flight. <>

"Right," Aulus nodded, unfastening himself from the harness and jumping to the ground before turning to offer a hand - his flesh hand - up to Tambery.