Fuze 2012/08/17(Fri)15:44 No. 444288 ID: f72f26
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Fuze "if this WAS done by an Astranian weapon it would have to be an ancient variant or a defective model-"

Kashton: "then we know what to look for, an Astranian murderer. Solars don't make anything like this . . . maybe a pirate."

Oken: "YOUR WRONG!"

Kashton: "WHAT?"

Oken: "Solars DO have energy weapons, I've seen them on Jucha!"

The Solar sneers at Oken.
Kashton: "Jucha is a backwater colony there's nothing there."

Oken: "they do have them! . . . the ones I saw were only stun weapons, but still! if they hand out that stuff to police troops they gotta have lethal stuff made too!"

Kashton: "go back to crying over the waste of space, let the men figure this out. Mr Fox you still haven't explained where the Attackers body went."

"why would the attacker leave a body? the shot could of been non-lethal, jones was too injured for a kill shot, or there were two of them and the uninjured one took the other away. and i would like you to not talk down to oken, she is a highly skilled member of my team and if she says she saw something then i believe her."

>>444288
"Oken's right; they did have stunners.
Apparently there was some sort of secret major military installation there; we got out just as the Astranian fleet started hitting the planet.
Last we checked they were still fighting.
I agree it probably wasn't a solar who pulled the trigger, but I'm not ruling anything out.

The murderer could have been winged and escaped alive, or an accomplice could have removed the body, or they could have had enough armor on to slow the bullet down.

Start looking for anybody with new bullet holes. Solars too; he shot whoever he was facing, but it looks like he was probably hit from the side.

"I never said anything about the attacker's body."

Fuze 2012/08/18(Sat)23:18 No. 445154 ID: f72f26
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Fuze: "why would there be a body?"

Kashton: "because he was shot down, you said that wasn't Jones' blood. so where's the body."

Fuze: "regardless of calibre no gun always kills, and even if it did the body could have been moved."

Kashton: "moved! By who?!"

Fuze: "by the shooter. The one who killed Jones wasn't standing in front of him. yet Jones shot at the a person who was"

Kashton: "you think there's two murderers running around now? you're crazy too."

Fuze: "let's try to stay civil, also I'd appreciate it if you didn't talk down to my pilot she's a highly skilled member of my team."

Kashton: "As if there's any other way to talk to you freaks."

Fuze: "hey now-"

Lieutenant: "I've returned!"

I nearly jump as the Commando is suddenly behind me.

Fuze: "oh hello . . ."

Lieutenant: "mission accomplished, I've found our witness!"

"what the- prince?! did you see what happened here? who shot jones?"

>>445154
"Prince? What happened?"

Fuze 2012/08/19(Sun)18:07 No. 445406 ID: f72f26
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Oken: "oh it's Prince!"

Fuze: "Prince, did you see what happened here? who shot jones?"

Prince: "The solar known as Mullet Jones was shot and killed by the solar known as Marshal Albert Droegen."

The Commando is visibly shocked by the revelation.

>>445406
"What weapon did Marshal Albert Droegen use to shoot Jones?
Who did Jones shoot?"

Ask these questions. If prince gives responses that disagree with observable evidence then his memory has been altered. That means Mint was tampering with evidence.

yes trip him up with a contradiction.

>>445406
When was the estimated time of death for Jones? If the Marshall killed him, he have had to sprint out of the meeting and to the mines, and how did he know that Jones was at the mines anyway?
This piece of evidence raises more questions than it answers.

>>445406
Damn that Droegen! Never trust the Solars!

Fuze 2012/08/21(Tue)12:59 No. 445994 ID: f72f26
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Lieutenant: "that doesn't make sense, if Droegen wanted someone dead, he would have gotten me to do it!"

Prince: "I am only reporting what I have witnessd"

>When was the estimated time of death for Jones?
one to two hours ago, and hour and a half ago we were meeting with Droegen.

if I had a medical scanner I could be more precise with time of death, prince has one hard wired if need be.

Fuze: "Prince, What weapon did Marshal Droegen use to shoot Jones?"

Prince: "Marshal Albert Droegen was wielding a custom built energy weapon of unique design."

hmm
Fuze: "Who was it that Jones shot?"

Prince: " . . . could you repeat the question?"

Fuze: "some of the blood there doesn't belong to Jones, and number of his rounds have been fired. Jones shot someone, who was it Prince?"

Prince: " . . . Mullet Jones fired upon one of Marshal Albert Droegen's soldiers."

"Why didn't you say anything about the other soldiers. What was the exact positioning of him and his accomplices? You have no legs, who brought you here to witness it? Have you seen Mint recently?"

>>445994
"That's something that can be verified with evidence.
Prince, where were you when this shooting happened?
Also, where was Mint? Do you know where Mint is now?"

"so if i go to the barracks right now i WILL find someone with a bullet wound matching the caliber of jones' weapon?" and give him the stinkeye

he's hestitating, he's a robot, if he saw something he would be able to answer instantly. hesitation is he was calculating something or figuring something out.

Don't forget to ask about time tables

Mint is going to be so disappointed in you Prince. You're a terrible liar.

Fuze 2012/08/21(Tue)21:30 No. 446165 ID: f72f26
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Lieutenant: "I'll contact my troops, see if they've sustained any injuries

Fuze: "thank you that will be most helpful."

The Commando leaves and I return my attention to Prince

Fuze: "Why didn't you say anything about the other soldiers?."

Prince: "It seemed irrelevant, Solars slaying solars is not the primary concern of the Astranian Alliance."

Fuze: "when did this happen?"

Prince: "according to my chronoscope exactly Sixty two minutes and thirty five seconds past."

Fuze: "can you give me the position of everyone involved, including yourself."

Prince: "Indeed"

Prince displays a map on his view screen

Fuze "where was Mint during all this?"

Prince: "Mint was not present."

You don't want people to think you're holding a grudge against mint, so divert it by saying "No I meant do you know where Mint is right now or was recently?"

>>446165
Seems consistent, doesn't explain why he was here or how he even got here. And it's possible his memory's been modified to replace the person at Drogen's postion with Drogan's identity. Damn, if we had Mint here and she was actually trustworthy she could tell us if there was tampering.

We should go into town later, see if we can find another Astranian mechanic here. This place seems to be a big hub for all sorts of activity and there's bound to be at least some rogue Astranians here if not normal ones that are friendly with the solars that run this place. But even then, they could be in Drogen's pocket which would make the evidence useless, and we don't have the funds to hire them. We could ask a favor for a favor.

Finally, ask if anyone's fled inside the mines besides just workers.

can a robot be programmed to lie?

Fuze 2012/08/22(Wed)19:56 No. 446441 ID: f72f26
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Prince: "Officer Fuze I would suggest you hold more trust for your peers."

Fuze: "you misunderstand I am simply concerned about Mint's well being."

Prince: "you need not be concerned, Engineer Mint is currently securing our force passage off world. She will contact you in good time."

Fuze: "so you know were she is?"

Prince: "I have no knowledge of Engineer Mint's current location, She has informed me she does not wish to be found."

>can a robot be programmed to lie?

no but they don't don't need to be.
Robots will lie from time to time, but rarely without good reason,
I'd like to call him on it now, but first I must find a flaw in his story.

perhaps I could also look for more clues, travel to another location or some other action to further my investigation.

>>446441
"You aren't mobile.
Who put you where you witnessed the shooting? And why?"

>>446447
Yeah, ask who put you here
and if anyone's fled into the mines

>>446447
>>446449

It's like you guys have never tried to trip up a liar before.

Ask who Prince was with when he arrived here.

Fuze 2012/08/23(Thu)09:50 No. 446580 ID: f72f26
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Fuze: "did anyone flee into the mine?"

Prince: "I saw no one enter into the mines."

Fuze: "Prince who were you with when you arrived here?"

Prince: " . . . could you clarify?"

Fuze: "How did you end up here? you are immobile."

Prince: "Our Gunner Hoft dropped me here."

Fuze: "why did he drop you here?"

Prince: "Hoft seemed to be in a hurry. I was slowing him down."

But wasn't Hoft only a little ahead of Oken and Fuze? Either Prince is lying like a mofo or there are doppelgangers around.

>>446580
So we have to find Hoft.
All right, when was the last time he saw Mint?
To relay the message that she doesn't want to be found, she must've come into contact after we lost sign of her.

Ask why he needs so much clarification.
If he was here and saw the whole thing, we didn't really need to clarify the question about asking who Jones shot. And he should have said Hoft immediately when asked who he was with when he got here unless the guy is trying to hide something, why does he need our logical conclusion to ask the question in the first place to answer the question?
I mean, does he not know he's immobile until clarified?

"so hoft ran ahead of us, set you done, jones was shot and then someone found the body and reported it in the span of...?" let him answer the time frame. if he says this all happened before hoft got out of sight or such then we got him.

oh oh. ask who ELSE was he with.

Fuze 2012/08/23(Thu)22:03 No. 446817 ID: f72f26
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>But wasn't Hoft only a little ahead of Oken and Fuze? Either Prince is lying like a mofo or there are doppelgangers around.

perhaps I should analyse Prince's proposed timeline.
we arrived in town at about midday
1:(12:15)Oken, Hoft carrying Prince and myself arrive at Droegens
2:(12:45)Hoft rushes out carrying prince, Oken myself not far behind
3:(01:00)Hoft who we've lost by this point abandons prince.
4:(01:25)Jones is shot dead
5:(02:15)we arrive at the murder scene
hmmm at a quick glance it seems to check out.

Fuze: "who ELSE were you with?"

Prince: "I arrived with only the Gunner Hoft"

Fuze: "Why all the need for clarification? it's almost like you need to process when you should have the information ready."

Prince: "Your line of questioning confuses me, perhaps if you could be more exact about what you wish to know."

Fuze: "hmm. Prince when was the last time you saw Mint? To relay the message that she doesn't want to be found, she must've come into contact with you after we lost sight of her. "

Prince: ". . . could you rephrase the question."

>>446817
"Prince, that is as clear and direct as I can make it. When was the last time you communicated with Mint. That's directly what I want to know. It had to have been after Hoft left you here. Otherwise you'd know about as much about Mint's disappearance as we do and not know what she's doing right now or that she doesn't want to be found. And then I want to know how she found you if she didn't run into Hoft at all, or did she. Did she just leave you here too? Irresponsibly, might I add?"

"no, i cannot"

If you were with hoft last, when did mint let you know that she was going to secure transport for us? when did you last speak, see, hear, or otherwise have a confirmed exact understanding of where she is?

Fuze 2012/08/24(Fri)21:21 No. 447240 ID: f72f26
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Fuze:"No more clarification, you heard what I said Prince."

Prince: "your lack of reason is worrying."

Fuze: "Answer the question."

Prince: " . . . "

Fuze: " . . . well?"

Prince: "Your question implies I met Engineer Mint in person, I did not. Engineer Mint contacted me by way of radio."

>>447239
"Prince, the only way you wouldn't be able to answer that question would be if you had never seen Mint before.
Again, when did you last see Mint?
Further, when did you last have contact with Mint?

Also, wasn't your radio broken last time we saw Mint?"

>>447240

Look Prince, the jig is up. If you have a self destruct timer you better activate it because you can't possibly dig your grave any deeper.

How about we sweeten the deal? If we hook you up with a fantastic new working functional and not jury rigged as an explosive device body, surely it might help you remember something you might not have been telling us?

Fuze 2012/08/25(Sat)19:07 No. 447664 ID: f72f26
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>radio broken

Prince's radio was broken . . .
wait no it wasn't.

Fuze: "Prince, you couldn't have been called by Mint!"

Prince: "explain."

Fuze: "YOU DON'T HAVE A RADIO!"

Prince: *crick* " . . . All PR-class robots are equipped with radio transmit-"

Fuze: "Yes all Personal Robots are. but as we BOTH know yours was removed when you were equipped with a high explosive bomb."

Prince: " . . . "

Fortunately a bomb that has since been removed as Prince looks just about ready to explode . . .

"so how about you stop lying to the captain, or i may have to think up a punishment for insubordination that works on robots"

Fuze 2012/08/26(Sun)17:04 No. 448066 ID: f72f26
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Fuze: "enough of this lying Prince, besides you're not very good at it."

Prince: "The truth would have been counter productive, even withholding information would have given you grounding to discover the truth, your irrational actions gave me no other choice."

Fuze:"Irrational actions? what are you talking about?

Prince: "I lied once earlier. Hoft did not drop me because I was slowing him down. he dropped me because I tried to deride his objective of terminating Engineer Mint."

Fuze:"huh, Odd that Hoft would hold so much anger for Mint"

Prince: "my radio may be lost. but my medical scanner works perfectly, of the four members of the team only Mint is operating at acceptable mental strain levels."

damn he's working under old protocols many like many low grade robots he has weaker loyalty tests.

Prince: "It has become clear to me only deceit will keep this team from destroying itself."

Well, Hoft is a rather hot headed fellow. It's possible he saw Mint shoot you and assumed the worst. That would explain his rage. What you need to do is get a tattered white bedsheet, cut out eye/ear holes and drape it over your head. Then the next time you see Hoft say "Woooooo it is I Fuse from beyond the grave and you must not kill Mint or I will haunt you forever!"

"then what are the mental strain lvls of these two solars?"
if he comes up with they are both bad then that means his scanner was fucked with.

"You don't make that decision Prince! The person who outranks you does. If we had been following your orders, your suggestions, we would have all committed suicide thanks to some old protocol. Here's the thing about organics, sometimes those under mental stress make the right decisions! Stress is neither a good or bad thing. And you don't have the right to judge what is and what isn't an acceptable mental strain level, that was programmed into youwho knows how long ago. I, however, with a dotorate degree in medicinee and a much more advanced brain than yours, do have that right. You're an old, obsolete model. I don't even know when your last software update was. You DO NOT have any right to withhold information with such inferior judgmental capabilities."

>>448066
"You realize that lying about that would prevent us from rescuing Mint, correct?
Also, as a medical officer I have to inform you that a lack of mental stress in a high-stress situation is strong evidence of serious mental impairment.

Prince, the lives of Hoft and Mint both depend on me having accurate information. If you lie then you may as well be murdering them yourself.
Now, truthfully, what happened?"

Fuze 2012/08/27(Mon)14:27 No. 448448 ID: f72f26
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Fuze: "You can't make that decision Prince! You must follow the chain of command."

Prince: "I am following the chain of command, I am following the orders of the highest ranking officer not poisoned by Solar influence."

something is odd about that statement . . .

Fuze: "Prince, as a doctor I am authorized to inform you that Mental Strain tests are obsolete!"

Prince: "your level of mental strain invalidates your authorization."

hmm pulling rank isn't going to work here, let's consider some more facts.

>It's possible Hoft saw Mint shoot you and assumed the worst.
No Hoft's already seen me healthy since I was shot, something else is driving him, I can't help but wonder what.

Fuze: "Prince what are the mental strain levels of these two solars?"

Prince: Mullet Jones is dead, his mental strain levels read as zero, the guard has low levels of mental strain

>>448448
Well, Prince your deceit has only furthered distrust and mental strain within this unit.

If we can't trust the robot to tell the truth then who can we? And furthermore, we are not poisoned by 'Solar influence,' we are simply trying not to make more enemies now than we already have, and watching people die around us without explanation ISN'T going to keep this unit operating for much longer than it takes them to decide something needs to be subtracted from this deadly equation... namely, US!

Previously he said that Mint was the only group member with acceptable stress levels, and now he says that she is the highest ranking member who is not poisoned by Solar Influence. Which standard is he using, and if it is the latter, on what grounds is he making that assessment?

I am not sure if Fuze would know this, but I remembered something about Prince. He have previously seen him equipped with a notably underpowered head-mounted beam weapon >>/questarch/237588 which, can presumably be focused to increase the power in a smaller area >>/questarch/237555 like all Raytech?

>>448448
"Prince, you're driven to keep yourself alive not at the cost of an Astranian life, correct? How do you think such individuals of high mental strain would react to your lack of loyalty? Would you die to hide the truth, Prince? Because all I'm seeing is a piece of obsolete junk that thinks it's better than I am, that knows something I want. All I see is an object that should follow my beck and call but is so broken it cannot fulfill its duties. I should completely decommission you for what you are doing. And I trust the higher Astranian government would agree with me here. I mean, after all, they had to update your kind to be more loyal, must have been acting against the Astranian governments wishes enough to completely change how AI are made. Now tell me Prince, do you want to be like one of those models our government decommissioned, or do you want to be one of the ones that stay useful? Don't pretend that if you were built recently you could resist my commands through your own logic just as well. You would not. If you could, you would have been tampered with, considered compromised by the government. Unless of course our Alliance was wrong to make that change in the first place, but disagreeing with them is considered blasphemy, so I'm sure you don't actually think that."

I get that that was a mouthful, but there's got to be a good point in there that might affect Prince in someway, a hit at his pride or something. Just say what would hurt his pride the most. Point is, bring the fucker down from his high horse.

Wait, you're standing next to some Solars without shooting them dead. Isn't that abnormal behavior for an Astranian? You even developed a strong social bond with one? Maybe they did do something to your head!

>>448448
Taking a shot in the dark, but: Is Mint even an officer?

>>448590
engineering.

>>448448
"Who gave you those orders? Mint? Since you have been caught lying, your testimony is invalid.
At the very least? Last I checked you had an old raytech weapon capable of making these kinds of wounds, and where you were found was consistent with the firing angle on Jones.
Occam's razor; you killing Jones requires far fewer assumptions than a solar creating an energy weapon and killing Jones.

That just leaves the motive, and in this situation there are only two reasons you would kill Jones. Orders, or to protect an Astranian.

For this, your story had a telling hole. You may not have been able to tell us the name of the Solar who was shot, but you would have had to have seen them in order to know they were a Solar. You showed us a picture of who you say shot Jones, but not who HE shot!
I'm betting there was no Solar there, and since Hoft is under far more strain than anybody else Mint had to be the one to give you your orders.

Prince, one of the reasons mental strain is no longer used as a metric is because low mental stress in a high stress situation generally indicates highly undesirable traits. Most commonly the usage of illicit drugs or forbidden acts, but occasionally mental illness. While mental stress used to make a soldier unfit for command, any one of those makes a soldier unfit for duty.
Your own observations will confirm that Mint is an abnormally private person with anti-social behavior patterns.
By your own observations of Mint's stress levels, behavior, and actions, can you tell me with absolute certainty that Mint does not show signs of any of those three?"

Bloody hell Prince! Mint shot me, turned the team against itself by making me out to be looney, and then after we got all that sorted out she went AWOL outside Droegen's base, apparantly killed our only guide here, with you as a witness. And you think we're the ones destroying the team?

I don't even care at this point who killed Mullet Jones. He shouldn't have even walked in the door here. But if you are going to ignore your direct chain of command, threaten us and even deceive, then that puts us all in danger!

Fuze 2012/08/29(Wed)13:51 No. 449264 ID: f72f26
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Fuze: "Prince, you're driven to keep yourself alive as long as it doesn't endanger Astranian life, correct?"

Prince: " . . . if necessary I will sacrafice myself for the betterment of the Alliance. unnessesary sacrifice is simple a waste of valuable

Astranian resources.""

Fuze: "How do you think individuals of high mental strain such as us would react to your lack of loyalty?

Prince: "It is not wise to assume-"

Fuze: "You've already said we'de kill Mint if we found her, it's not a leap to think we'd destroy a defective robot like you."

Prince: "You would destroy me?"

Fuze: "why not? in my eyes with all these lies and general insubordination justifies your destruction. but that's not all you see theres a third explaniation for the burn marks on Jones' body, a powerful raytech device operating under minimal power, your eye

laser fits the bill prince, especially since you no longer have your battery core!"

Prince: "you are proposing that I killed the Solar Mullet Jones."

Fuze: "Did you?"

Prince: "Lies no longer serve a purpose, I confess to slaying the enemy combatant: Mullet Jones."

Hah! walked right into my trap, it's time to end this facade!

"so mint ordered you to kill him."

"you know prince, leadership positions cause high lvls of mental strain, it's something that happens, every leader eventually gets it, it's from taking their job seriously, a leader that never stresses out about it is someone that doesn't take their position seriously. well i do take my position seriously and i am stressing about it."

You were only disguised as Fuze! Time to reveal yourself as... Mullet Jones himself!

>>449264
"That just leaves two unanswered questions: Why, and who did he shoot?
I have a good idea what the truth is, but I would like to hear it from you."

>>449264
...
Bullshit again.
Where is the other person's body? Did he lug it away? Impossible.
Who put him there to kill Mullet Jones? And what was the purpose? We owed him for saving our lives, and we were evened for saving his, and he's a freelancer, nothing more, but we owe him respect for the things we've done for each other.
Look where his laser should be, see if it's been fired recently. Then ask the commando where she found him. If its consistent, than he may be telling the truth, but I still think bullshit, he's too damn proud about it. Thinking he's taking one for the team.

>>449297
point yes, what happened to the person jones shot.

I also do not think Mint conspired to kill him. He's just a freelancer, hardly anyone of note. And didn't have much negative interaction with Mint. Of course, Mint knocking out Fuze for seemingly no reason was weird as heck, she could have wandered off by herself and did anything she wanted without casting suspicion. Did she need Fuze's body for something, or need to steal something from Fuze? She just plain headed right back and casually denied everything she did that we know she did to Fuze. Like it wasn't even going to be a problem for her.

What in the fuck did she even do? Maybe ask Prince, he should know. It seems wildly irrational on Mint's part and he's probably wise enough and equipped to know that what Fuze really went through.
Ask Prince for a full medical diagnostic on Fuze using his equipment. Then we'll get another from another person. Check for every kind of assault, stun, lethal, sexual, everything from the last few days.

Do you expect us to believe that you somehow got your self over here distracted Jones and gunned him down? Then escaped by yourself?

Fuze 2012/08/31(Fri)11:49 No. 450071 ID: f72f26
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Oken: "Prince how could you?! Jones was helping us!"

Fuze: "Good question. I really would like to here his explanation for how he moved the other body, but time is short and this game really must end"

Oken: "wha?"

Fuze: "Prince didn't kill jones."

Oken: "but-"

Fuze: "do you really think prince would just give up so easily after circumventing general programming and lying half a dozen times?
think about it:
why would he lie about receiving instruction via radio?
why would he lie about Hoft's reason for dropping him?
and most importantly
why would he confess to a murder he didn't commit knowing it would mean his own destruction!
motive of the lies is the key to the truth"

Oken's response is more of a whisper to herself
Oken: " you don't mean . . . "

Fuze: "now do you see?"

Is Prince still capable of using his laser? If so you should some how incapacitate him. If you don't know how to deactivate his parts, just place him face down so he can move. Tell Prince "I now have conclusive evidence that engineer Mint has been compromised and has in turn reprogrammed you to server her betrayal. We will bring her before the Astranian court to shed light on the situation and determine who is just. I will ask you one last time Prince: In the name of the Astranian Empire, where is the accused traitor Mint?"

If you don't get any cooperation, just deactivate Prince or throw him off a cliff or something.

Then talk to the solar guard and tell him "We have determined with much certainty that our comrade Mint was in some way conspiring in the murder of Mullet Jones. Yet the reason is unknown. Even if we believe she intends to 'remain loyal' to the Astranian empire, which we personally know is doubtful itself, why plot against Jones our mere guide? Was there more importance to Jones than we know?"

"yes, mint killed him and prince is doing everything in his power to throw us off of her."

>>450071
I think Hoft shot Jones and Jones shot Mint. That implies Mint had been chasing Jones down, and Hoft shot Jones to protect Mint.
Mint shooting Jones makes more sense, but Mint couldn't move Hoft and I seriously doubt she would try to save Hoft.

Mmh... ok... so... what?
It's a little bit complicated... I think I got that Jones is dead. And the rest... well...

>>450071
When you reach the conclusion, Fuze, remember to take off your glasses, say something pithy that's related to the situation and put them on again.

Jones was wounded and crawled into the mine, as evidenced by that huge ass trail he dragged, where he found Hoft and Mint. He subsequently pulled a gun on them, a huge gun still in his hand I might add and attempted to shoot Mint. Hoft killed him but not before he got off a shot. I suggest that because Hoft is the only one hot blooded enough to kill so inconveniently, so he couldn't have been the one disabled (or... killed!) by Jones's huge-ass gun. Mint wouldn't have left a body at all.

Whew I thought this was going to be a problem. Droegen will probably thank you for killing that deadbeat! In self defense, no less! It's almost too convenient.

The only question at this point is what was Mint doing in the mine, was Hoft with her or following her, and how can you find them right away because Mint is probably hurt so bad ohnoohnoohno.

It ain't Mint.
I know it ain't Mint.
Mint killing Jones is fucking stupid. Buuuuuut, Hoft gaining enough anger to hunt down Mint and drop Prince where he was dropped might be enough evidence alone that she IS involved somehow, she probably has an ally somewhere on this planet she wants no one seeing. Jones could also be involved with this ally, which is why his death is necessary. The third party could be the individual trying to kill him.
Which might be why she shot Fuze, she needed him either out of the cave or unconscious where they were so she could conduct a meeting with this ally secretly.
I know she isn't working alone. Two people other than Jones were out here, in fact she could actually have been the gunshot victim here.
We don't know enough beyond the fact she's working with SOMEONE, not that she's the murderer. The murderer could be that SOMEONE.

If you want to incapacitate Prince you could probably just tip him over.

the short story is mint is an evil bitch and we need to shoot her.

Fuze 2012/09/01(Sat)19:16 No. 450531 ID: f72f26
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Oken: "You think Mint did this?!"

Fuze: "It couldn't have been anyone else"

Prince: "on what grounds"

Fuze: "on the grounds THAT YOU TOLD ME PRINCE!"

Prince:"grzzt!"

Fuze: "if you were guilty of this crime you would never confess in the presence of Solars!"

Prince: "error"

Fuze: " UNLESS it was to save an Astranian life! You thought we would kill Mint."

Prince: "error.error"

Fuze: "which makes sense, since you saw Hoft have that reaction when he witnessed Jones' murder."

Prince: "error.error.error."

Fuze: "he then dropped you to chase after Mint, after killing Hoft Mint returned to give you your orders."

Prince: "you story is invalid HOFT IS NOT DEAD."

>>450531
Yeah Fuze I dunno where you even got where you came to that conclusion that he was dead.
Lets just look around. We have to look around the city. Ask the commando for any sightings of Hoft recently.
If he is alive, no doubt he's on Mint's trail pretty good if he was here.

"oh, then i guess she just lost him"

Fuze? No. No Fuze. No. Just, no. You've got an obvious firefight, and an obvious fighter, that fighter being Hoft. Firstly someone was wounded here. Mint isn't going to escape a vengeful Hoft with a Solar slug through her gut, and why would Jones shoot Hoft?

There's no reason Mint would have killed Jones at all. The obvious answer is that Hoft killed him when he fired upon Mint. The less obvious answer is that there is a third party that he fired on, leaving Hoft free to chase after Mint in a completely conicidental encounter. But that Mint just shot him without some sort of explanation leaving him and Prince behind for Solars to subsequently assume her guilt? If she did it, it wouldn't be nearly this sloppy.

Anyway he has multiple burns from energy weapons. Whatever killed him was chasing him for a while along with access to this unknown non-Raytech beam weapon. Jones had a lot of enemies here who would do that, but Mint wasn't one of them.

Mint is clearly an innocent and beautiful kitty.

>>450537
i think you missed the part where mint is NUTS.

>>450538

OH YEAH WELL YOUR FACE IS NUTS.

Anyway can we stop playing detective here and go find Hoft and Mint? Jones isn't getting any deader.

>>450531
"Prove it; take us to him."

Fuze 2012/09/02(Sun)10:05 No. 450726 ID: f72f26
File 134660552334.png - (97.00KB , 912x547 , CQ2page156.png )

Fuze: "Of course! she still has my stun pistol. Mint needs us alive for some reason, that's why she didn't kill me when she had the chance."

Prince: "YOUR STORY IS INVALID."

Fuze: "You've lost prince! give up the act."

Prince: "THERE IS NO SURRENDER"

Fuze: *sigh* "ponder this Prince, either you're so incompotent you've been outsmarted by Astranians delusional from strain, or you've been lying to the proper chain of command which I believe is treachery, what say you robot?"

Prince:" error . . . ERROR"

*POW!*

Fuze 2012/09/02(Sun)10:06 No. 450728 ID: f72f26
File 134660557902.png - (73.27KB , 912x547 , CQ2page157.png )

*clunk*
. . . *sizzle*

Oken: "What happened?!"

Fuze: "don't worry he'll be fine, Prince just blew a motivator chip. . . probably to stop us from getting any further information."

Oken: " . . . can we go find Mint and Hoft now?"

>>450728
Fuze: "I think we better. One of them is seriously injured, and we need Mint to fix Prince.
Wait, no. Oken, this is moving from my specialty to yours. It's your command."

Oken: "The Lieutenant would know more about finding murderers here. Lets meet up with her and tell her what we've found."

Yes go find Mint and Hoft. Ask the guard for some help/information.

Fuze 2012/09/02(Sun)21:31 No. 451029 ID: f72f26
File 134664671252.png - (164.86KB , 912x547 , CQ2page158.png )

Fuze: "excellent idea, judging from the area the space port is most likely location they'll be"

Kashton: "to bad you won't live to see it."

Fuze: !!

FUZE DUCK AND LEG SWEEP OR RUN UNDER HIS LEGS OR TACKLE HIS KNEE OR SOMETHING YOU SHORT BASTARD

>>451029

DUCK!

spin right and back as hard as you can, you want to get inside of his circle

OH MY GOD YOUR SHOELACE IS UNTIED

commando lady get your commando on!

Oken act fast and either push the gun away from your friends head or punch/kick Kashton in the dick while screaming bloody murder.

Fuze 2012/09/03(Mon)18:48 No. 451483 ID: f72f26
File 134672333702.png - (206.67KB , 912x547 , CQ2page159.png )

Fuze ducks

Okens leaps into action

>>451483
KILL HIM!

He has half a torso missing, I think this guy is done for.
Just get his gun away so he isn't an immediate danger to anyone and ask him who ordered him to kill you guys. It's not Drogen, we just proved him innocent.
Where in the hell was the commando in all of this. She seemed pretty chill. If she's going to kill us, we'd already be dead.

>>451485
the dude's... front, was just annihilated.

>>451487
the commando would be behind prince and is equipped with a melee weapon. if she is reacting she is off screen.

OK WAIT

Wait.

He has a beam weapon!

I thought only RayTech had those?

NO PRINCE WHY DID WE EVER DOUBT YOU

We never doubted that humans had beam weapons.

Fuze 2012/09/04(Tue)18:55 No. 451764 ID: f72f26
File 134681013697.png - (176.56KB , 912x547 , CQ2page160.png )

>Where in the hell was the commando

I believe she left to find out if any of her soldiers had been injured.

I get up and dust myself off.
I Look to the Solar, with my keen medical knowledge I can safely say he is quite dead.

Oken: "Fuze are you alright?"

do NOT touch his gun, get some forceps or something to carry it. or wait until the commando comes back. and calmly explain it was this dude or an associate that did it, if she would try his gun she will see it is an energy weapon, he became hostile when we figured it out.

Fuze 2012/09/08(Sat)21:32 No. 452864 ID: f72f26
File 134716517470.png - (162.17KB , 912x547 , CQ2page161.png )

Oken: "so . . ."

Fuze: " the investigation has taken an unexpected turn of events, we should wait for Lieutenant Ceckail to compare notes."


CHAPTER 5: END