(Echelon) Needle

Rebecca Simmons

Rebecca makes her way into her office, while she plans her next steps.

*cough* Rebecca Simmons

As Rebecca entered her office she had a goal in mind: find out more information about the UC Davis School Of Medicine and who was buying up the chemicals to make a nerve gas. First Rebecca spent much of her time pouring over her notes and figuring out which chemicals would be the most difficult to get, and thus have the smallest number of potential buyers. Then she used her allies in the medical and pharmaceutical world to cross reference those chemicals against all UC Davis School of Medicine chemical purchases so that she could narrow down the exact purchaser.

Once that was done she grabbed a separate pad of paper and started developing a neutralizing agent or compound in case anyone came in contact with the chemical. Whether it be a shot, a powder, or a liquid, Rebecca needed to find something that could counteract the effects of the nerve gas, as well as figure out what protection they could use against it. They were dealing with a weapon of mass destruction and Rebecca would treat it as such.

  8 successes total over 6 rolls

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-03-26 08:41:22		[06] Rebecca Simmons rolls 6 to Int 3 + Science 3 (10 Again)		3, 1, 6, 9, 5, 9		2 successes
2019-03-26 08:41:22		[05] Rebecca Simmons rolls 6 to Int 3 + Science 3 (10 Again)		6, 9, 10, 10, 9, 4, 4, 1		4 successes
2019-03-26 08:41:22		[04] Rebecca Simmons rolls 6 to Int 3 + Science 3 (10 Again)		4, 6, 3, 4, 4, 7		failure
2019-03-26 08:41:22		[03] Rebecca Simmons rolls 6 to Int 3 + Science 3 (10 Again)		7, 10, 3, 1, 7, 5, 3		1 success
2019-03-26 08:41:22		[02] Rebecca Simmons rolls 6 to Int 3 + Science 3 (10 Again)		2, 8, 5, 3, 6, 2		1 success
2019-03-26 08:41:22		[01] Rebecca Simmons rolls 6 to Int 3 + Science 3 (10 Again)		3, 3, 2, 6, 7, 3		failure

  7 successes total over 3 rolls

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-03-26 08:37:34		[03] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Allies: Medical (Man 3 + Per 2 + Allies 2) (10 Again)		5, 4, 8, 3, 10, 6, 9, 4		3 successes
2019-03-26 08:37:34		[02] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Allies: Medical (Man 3 + Per 2 + Allies 2) (10 Again)		2, 8, 9, 4, 1, 5, 5		2 successes
2019-03-26 08:37:34		[01] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Allies: Medical (Man 3 + Per 2 + Allies 2) (10 Again)		6, 9, 1, 7, 2, 8, 6		2 successes

  13 successes total over 6 rolls

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-03-26 08:47:30		[06] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Int 3 + Sci 3 + Spec (10 Again)		3, 3, 3, 1, 10, 4, 9, 10, 7		3 successes
2019-03-26 08:47:30		[05] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Int 3 + Sci 3 + Spec (10 Again)		5, 6, 4, 9, 9, 2, 3		2 successes
2019-03-26 08:47:30		[04] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Int 3 + Sci 3 + Spec (10 Again)		8, 6, 10, 1, 3, 7, 7, 5		2 successes
2019-03-26 08:47:30		[03] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Int 3 + Sci 3 + Spec (10 Again)		5, 7, 2, 8, 10, 6, 6, 5		2 successes
2019-03-26 08:47:30		[02] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Int 3 + Sci 3 + Spec (10 Again)		10, 7, 10, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 6		2 successes
2019-03-26 08:47:30		[01] Rebecca Simmons rolls 7 to Int 3 + Sci 3 + Spec (10 Again)		9, 9, 2, 4, 1, 6, 6		2 successes

I'm so sorry. I totally lost track of this scene. Let me know if I messed up any of the rolls. I also want to find out more about the structure of the medical program so I know exactly who to approach at the school to find out more information. Would that be academics?

Becky the scientist is able to find out exactly what she suspected. Whatever this was, it wasn't acting like completely normal VX nerve gas. The idiots in Hollywood made it sound like it was some flesh burning acidic craziness. The VX nerve agents block the ability of neurotransmitters to send messages to the brain; they do nothing to the skin. This causes extensive, and painful, nerve spasms, along with suffocation. But it does nothing to the skin like what happened to the target. It makes sense that normal VX nerve agent wouldn't work well against kindred. They can't suffocate... so where did the acidic side of the agent come from...

As she got onto the phone with her contact at one of the local hospitals, they couldn't tell her a ton. There had been no other cases like this, no one had come in under such conditions. Burns happened, drug related spasms and near suffocation, but no signs of any chemical nerve agent. Rebecca was supplied with a counteracting agent used against things like VX. It is called Atropine, used most often for poisonings from pesticides. It's directed right into the muscle. Pesticides... hmm....

Rebecca continued to review the data in front of her when she found something that stood out even further under a microscope, and in some of the journals. A Pesticide, Pyrthrin. Or the offshoot, Pyrothrin. The original component, Pyrthrin, immediately causes paralysis in insects, killing them almost immediately. Additionally, pyrethrin breaks down rapidly, so it does not persist in the environment. This means pyrethrin-based sprays are often considered compliant for organic production, unlike many synthetic pesticides. However, this new offshoot on the market, Pyrothrin, actually breaks down the bodies of the bugs... How this benefits, Rebecca isn't able to find out, but according to the scientific studies, it burns through the buggy corpses.

However... these components. The VX Base and the Pyrothrin shouldn't be able to mix, it is an unstable compound... how did they do it?

To approach the school itself, you would need to utilize academics yes.

The combination...perplexed her. Whoever was working at the school was fascinating. She needed to meet them; to pick their brain and learn their secrets. First she reached out to her contacts in the medical field to find out who at the school was buying Pyrthrin or Pyrothrin. That would point her in the right direction at least.

Then she looked through her books trying to puzzle through what seemed to be impossible in relation to combining The VX Base and the Pyrothrin in a stable way.

Finally, she decided to make some calls to the school to find out the names of the Deans of the different departments at UC Davis School of Medicine so that if nothing else she could find a place to start asking about who was running said research.

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-04-02 22:51:22		Rebecca Simmons rolls 6 to Allies: Medical (Man + Per + Allies) (10 Again)		2, 3, 4, 10, 1, 4, 10, 6		2 successes

  1 success

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-04-02 22:52:25		Rebecca Simmons rolls 6 to Int + Aca (10 Again)		6, 4, 5, 4, 9, 6		1 success

  2 successes

Date		Action		Roll		Result
2019-04-02 22:53:27		Rebecca Simmons rolls 5 to Man + Per (10 Again)		8, 9, 6, 4, 4		2 successes

The normal Manipulation + Persuasion roll was just to call up the main number and try to convince the person on the line to get her the contact numbers so she can find a person who may know who's doing the research.

Rebecca is able to pick up the following Information. A Doctor Yuya Johnson has been working at UC Davis as a professor and a project adviser. The project he is on got a private grant to research countermeasures to chemical weapons.


Her Doctor friend may be able to get her in contact with Doctor Johnson.

Rebecca would want to have her contact try and setup a meeting with Doctor Johnson.

Two Nights later, Rebecca Simmons finds herself at the UC Davis, sitting in the waiting area of the staff offices medical training center. An African American gentleman comes around the corner. He is sharply dressed and dark slacks and a tie. He wears a crisp white lab coat. "Doctor Simmons? Hello I'm Doctor Yuya Johnson. Our friend Dr. Gargano said that you wanted to meet to discuss our work here?"

Matrixchild