Naeva
You leave the Folly being careful to remain concealed as you sneak out and into the city. You make your way to the outside of District VII also known as the ‘Shadow Manses’ but are aware as you approach that you have seen the manses dominate the skyline of the other districts. The seaward edge of District VII is protected from the worst of the elements by a sheer cliff that darkens its streets in shade. You make your way in the dark and are able to discern that many of the manses are uninhabited. But despite those that remain bare and empty and the overall impression of decay that hangs about the place, there is still wealth and power evident here. The district is lit only by a handful of drifting glow-globes wending their way at night and you make your way in the dark avoiding guard cyber-mastiffs.
At about half a kilometer away you realize you are closing in on the House of the Judiciary and find a decent vantage point to observe the surroundings. The estate sits on the edge of the cliff above the water of the Saint’s Mout. Within a high stone wall lies a grand, three-story house built of pale stone and roofed in black slate amidst a tangle of undergrowth; its windows sealed by shutters, and its surface crawling with thick vines. From your omni-scope you see two guards inside a guard shack next to a double iron gate. A cyber mastiff patrols along the edge of the walls coming in and out of view.
Theta finds a secure location to secure the drone base and programs the drone to head in to scout and map the house and grounds. She makes sure that the camouflage is working so that she is relatively sure it will not be seen as it flies.
The drone almost silently lifts into the air and practically vanishes from sight as it’s visual camouflage projects is enabled. Theta sits back finding a place she is relatively certain to remain hidden while waiting for the drone to return.
An hour passes before anything interesting happens. A couple of guards exit the front of the mansion and have a conversation with the guards near the gate. Theta watches as they change shifts and the original guards head indoors. Taking close stock of their arms she has counted a number of autoguns and what from this distance appears to be las weaponry.
It is almost three hours before you hear a slight whir and the drone, like a shiny marble, appears before you and lands in the dock. Theta punches in a few commands and the schematic of the house appears before you in a shimmering blue. There are a number of heat signatures in red as you spin the model around counting 15 people in the house. There are also yellow indicators near the front doors that appear humanoid although from the scale perhaps a bit larger than the others.
