Brotherhood of the Machine (IC) [PG/14]

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan didn't have hackles anymore, but if he had they would have been raised.  His leathery headwings fluffed out briefly before he could get them back under control.  If they... they'll think... oh crap...

"Replace... the entire body?" he said, his voice warbling slightly.  "Even down to the fur?  Or skin?", he added hastily, remembering that much of the population was human.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx cocked his head and looked quizzically at the odd reaction from the mutiwing doberman. This guy was getting weirder by the minute.
   "Uh, yeah, the skin and fur are replaced along with every limb that goes." Jexx answered, in a 'Duh!' and, 'what does that have to do with anything?' tone. "Why? First it's the good docter, now it's just me talking, and you're on edge. Seriously, what is your problem?" Jexx paused for a moment. "Oh, I get it. Being dumped in some other dimention must have really thrown you off kilter, though if it were to happen to me I'm sure I would be handling it better. Just relax, man."

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan gave a weak smile.  "I'll try," he said.  "It's not so much being stranded as being hunted.  It gets to you, you know?  You start to wonder who you can trust and whether people might suddenly turn on you..." he shook himself.

"Synthetic fur is only one approach and it's often difficult to get right.  Another is to preserve the existing skin and fur and install the new systems inside... taxidermy, in effect.  Of course it makes the sensors more awkward since you can't usually use the existing biological system."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx nooded to himself at what Dorcan said. This guy must have been in some seriously deep shit back home to be like this. Jexx though.
   The Dorcan started yammering something about artificial fur/skin.
   "What are you babbling about?" Jexx asked. "They replace a limb with a robotic one after removing the old one. Get it? 'Fleshy thing get chopped off, shiny metal thing go on'. Though a lot, but by no means all, people get fake fur or skin put over a cybernetic implant, there are plenty of people who just don't care about asthetics, or like the metal look better."

[Tapewolf]

"Bare metal?" said Dorcan with a faint smile.  "How crude."

Well, we seem to have beat them in terms of synthetics, he thought to himself.  Perhaps they won't notice just yet.  If I can persuade the doctor to keep quiet about it...

[techmaster-glitch]

   " 'Bare metal? How crude?' Hey, I like this look, thank you very much." Jexx said in an only mildly offended tone, waving one of his handcannons around.

[Ryudo Lee]

Jackson shook his head.
"I believe that this conversation would be better suited to a more appropriate time and place.  Dr. Joywaves, how goes the initial check ups?  I'm about ready to give you guys your first briefing." He said.

[Boog]

"Not my home," Mister corrected, "Even if he is no longer, this manor is my Master's home." On his way to the vehicle, he managed to get the attention of one rebellion member long enough to warn him that the garden needed looking after in a few places, that the antique gas system was prone to odd noises at night and that it needed no looking into save for the smashed lamp, that the various keys were in the lobby, that the wine celler was to be found next to the kitchens and that if they needed any further advice the manor ledgers were in the Master's old office on the second floor. These were soldiers; the second to last bit seemed like something they wanted and deserved to know. He clambered into the rebel's car and looked out the window at the manor until it was out of sight.

[Kryptic]

Baiye perked up, yet again, at the mention of the artificial fur/skin talk. She smirked and added in her two bits.

"I've been involved in that for a little while - or at least I'm in contact with someone who manufactures it. I always liked the more 'humanizing' - or whatever - look of something besides metal. It makes it seem more organic - not that there's anything wrong with being artificial." She smiled hesitantly, and launched into talk again.

"Gid's covered in biotechnically engineered fur from a real dog that's about his same build. Basically, programmed stem cells make a 'suit' of skin and fur - one that doesn't decompose, due to some additives that I have no idea about. Anyhow, he's covered in that, with some seams along his chest so we can pull it on and off." Baiye flipped her hair behind her ears again, chatting along.

"Well, I don't know about the entire concept, but it's all quite interesting... If you're interested in technology in our dimension, Dorcan."

[lucas marcone]

Josh nodded to the leader. "good to meet ya. i didn't quite ctach your name though." josh sat there watching him. intent on what he had to say about this "mission".

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx looked around, startled at Josh's comment. "Wha- You don't know Jackson Phoenix's name? You can't be serious. Have you been living under a rock for the past several decades or something?!?"

[lucas marcone]

"Smatter of fact I pretty much have. Ya see... My village was undiscovered by those monsterous machines for nearly two-hundred years! It was a nice peaceful city deep in those humid jungles, then the brotherhood comes trapesing in and everything goes to shit!" Josh was clearly riled. At the begining of his snappy response he shot up like a bullet and was yelling so hard by the end his throat was sore for a moment. He sat down again and cradeled his head in his hands repeating "f***" quietly to himself. "they're gone all gone..."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx almost took a step back at Josh's screaming fit. Almost, but not quite. "Wow. And I though I yelled pretty good when I got here. But, there are posters all over pretty much every city with Phoenix's mug shot on them. How did you get here without seeing any one of them?"

[lucas marcone]

"distracted". He seemed to be recovering. "haveing your whole world blown to ashed'll do that to ya."

[Tapewolf]

Wow, thought Dorcan.  And I thought I was the emotionally unstable one.

"Yes," he said quietly to Baiye.  "I'd very much like to know about the current state of android technology here, but we should probably discuss this later on."  And perhaps I can trust you with my secret...

[Kryptic]

Baiye took two steps back from Josh, wincing.

"M'kay!" Baiye responded softly - didn't want to set off the Time Bomb aka Josh by talking too loud..

"It's my favorite subject, after all. I love gears and wires and stuff. And this society has plenty of it." She smiled quietly at him, her eyes sparkling.

[bill]

"Yeah.... right-o, psychos. Ya'll wanna get a bit calmed down before we all go... wherever?"
Griffith turned to Jackson.
"Incidentally, where are we headed, anyway?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

The Doctor looks to Josh, "Okay, I can't do the psych eval here, but I will have to work some out in a week or so.  And I have Baiye and Morgan next.. "  She goes to Morgan first since he is the closest.  Her scan looks like a standard issued, and her touch seem both warm and tingly as she touches Morgan's forehead, chest, and each leg.

"Okay, Baiye... Since  Dorcan ask for a Private scanning, you can have one, too.  We girls must stick together. Once the Chief is done briefing us.  we can use that old office over there." said the doctor...."And Jackson, I need refills on my antibacterial shots and Is there anyway to get some more virgin Med-nites?, I have only got 10,000 of little nano... They should do me for a week barring a major emergency.  I was fairly re-stock by the ER's drug storages, so I am ready to go.  All these guys medical files will be updated before we leave." 

Passing a cookie to Braiye, and waits for the briefing to be complete.
PBH

[Ryudo Lee]

The rebellion vehicle pulled up in front of warehouse 19 and pointed over at the doors on the front of the building.
"Well, here we are." The rebellion man said. "Go right in those doors and ask for Jackson Phoenix.  He'll be expecting you.  I need to go park."

~~

Jackson looked over at Josh.
"It's rather flattering to know that someone out there actually doesn't know my face.  Anyway, we have reason to believe that your people are still alive.  The Brotherhood hasn't actually openly killed any magic users that we've seen.  Since their inception, they've only taken magic users away in their vehicles.  They may have used the destruction of your town as a cover to take away your people.  There is a chance that they are still a a part of this world." He says.
He waits for Sally to finish up and then turns to the rest of the group.
"Alright.  I'm sending you all up to Northon.  There's been some odd activity there.  The people there are pro-Brotherhood... almost to a fault.  The whole town is in love with them.  Reports I've gotten from there make it seem like it's unnatural, like a brainwashing or reprogramming or something along those lines.  I don't believe that a whole town would be dedicated wholly to the Brotherhood by choice.  So I'm sending you there to investigate." He says. "Requisition whatever you feel that you will need to complete this mission.  And as I said earlier, upon successful completion of this mission, you will recieve your payment."
As he talked a woman came up to his side.
"This is Mia, she'll take your requisitions and give you what you need.  She'll also be the one doling out your payments.  Any last minute questions?" He says.
Mia gave the group a polite wave.

[bill]

"So, uh, we won't be shooting anything, then? I mean, should we pack anything in case?"

[Ryudo Lee]

"The Brotherhood pretty much has a stranglehold on that town.  Be prepared for anything." Jackson says.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx examined his handcannons, in a way that suggested something along the lines of a mechanical equivalent of flexing and admiring one's muscles.
   "Well, I'm all set and prepared for anything."

[bill]

"Uh... do you want us to be, you know, stealthy? 'cause Mr. Jexx, no offense, does look a tad conspicuous. Plus, there's no way in hell my gun's passing a pat-down."

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Forget about me, if we were going to be stealthy, we would have to leave the bigass warbot Exo behind."

[Tapewolf]

"I must admit I'm not exactly inconspicuous myself," said Dorcan, looking over his shoulder at his backwings.  "The headwings I might be able to take care of... a canine motorcycle helmet could work, for instance, and we can probably hide my backwings in an empty backpack if need be."

"As for equipment, to be honest I'm not really sure, but I vastly prefer nonlethal.  What do you have in the way of stunguns?"  He paused.  "If we're going to stealth this, we'll probably need some kind of intrusion kit... lockpicks and logic problems, if you have such things here."

[techmaster-glitch]

   "But there is still the problem of this guy," Jexx said, clanging a metal handcannon on Exo's metal frame, producing a highly audible resonating sound. "Which is why I doubt that we are going stealthy. And then, even if we left behind all unconcealable weapons, even if we did somehthig about your...uber wing problem...even if we somehow managed to scrape together some fake fur to put on my arms and lages and me consenting to morph my handcannons into hands so they will fit (which I won't), and even if we leave the warbot behind, we still are the strangest, most random looking group of people I have ever seen. We stand out, and there really isn't anything we can do about it. And I'm sure Phoenix would be aware of this. Which is why I conclude that we don't have to really worry about stealth. Am I right, Phoenix?"

   OOC: And then there is Mister, whom we are still waiting on!

[Ryudo Lee]

Jackson clasps his hands together as he walks over to a nearby wall that had a large map on it.  He pointed up at where they were, which was circled in red.
"Well, we are here, and Northon is a few hours drive up this way." He said, pointing to the town of Northon on the map which was, not surprisingly, to the north.
He then turned back to the group.
"This is where you all decide how you want to approach this mission.  Your objective is to investigate the townsfolk and then report back to me with your findings." He said.  "Keep in mind that we don't want any innocent people killed, if it can be helped."

[lucas marcone]

"Right, so will you be accompanying us or do you have a leader in mind?" Josh asked phoenix.
"Mia do you have any nine mil ammo?"

[Ryudo Lee]

Jackson shook his head.
"No, I'm not going with you.  I think that Exo, being the highest rank rebellion agent with you should be in charge.  But ultimately, that would be up to you.  Discuss it amongst yourselves.  We will have vehicles ready for you momentarily." He says.

[lucas marcone]

'That probably would be a good idea." The one thing Jost was THE most terrified was trying to lead a team of people he barely knows, lead them well, and make sure they all come back alive.