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

[Ryudo Lee]

With all the activity going on at the hospital, their escape would go unnoticed, especially once the media arrived.
"This is channel 3 news, and we are here at the Northon Hospital where a fire has broken out... oh the Brotherhood is already here, let's see if I can get an interview.  Sir, sir!" The reporter shouted over the other people in the area as he headed towards a zealot. "Can you tell us what happened?"
"Just an electrical fire.  We're still investigating the cause." The zealot said and then walked away.
"Stay tuned to channel 3 for further updates." The reporter said.

(OOC: Don't forget that Rebel Control is still waiting for Exo to report)

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan looked at Morgan with concern.  He turned to glance at the others.
"Who else can drive one of these things?  I think Morgan needs a rest."

[Azlan]

"Dun worry mate, I'll be fine."

Morgan wandered about the roads casually for a bit before pulling back out to the main road they originally entered the town from and approached base camp.  Morgan almost sideswiped a tree on the way in, but he managed to make that mistake look classy somehow.

He slipped the van into a safe spot and staggered out of the seat, stretching.  Unceremoniously he walked off and raided the provisions van, consuming 50% of the jerked meat supply before wandering back.

"If someone would be so kind as to deliver the status report to Exo, I need a nap.  Use the comm if you need me."  

Morgan disappears up a tree somewhere.

[lucas marcone]

"1.....2.....3.....Not it!" Josh said unloading the still relitively heavy Sally out of the van.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Grr... aoh moan I have been drop and bounce around enough... Ow ow, Can I get to rest a minute I maybe able to run under my ow power... Wheree are we? anyway?" says a sleepy and grumbling doctor. She pushes Josh but not with a lot of force, and trys to sit down in the van's seat with her legs out. and is a sleep again.

PBH

[techmaster-glitch]

   Several minutes after the van pulled back into the camp, there was a scuffling noise at the edge. But, it was only Jexx, stumbling in, out of breath, and wearing quite a foul look on his face.
   "Who was driving the damn van?" He mumbled in a dark voice. "I gots a few choice words for the asshat, he forgot to stop for me once he left the town on that several-mile wandering drive in the woods. You guys were all sitting in nice cushy comfort in the van, enjoying the view, but me? Noooo, I had to high-tail it and run my skinny ass off to keep up with you, and for what? So you could drive right back into town, through it, and straight to camp. Turns out you guys didn't even have anything following you, so I was going on the marathon of the century for nothing. Bastards."
   Jexx skipped over all the cooked food, instead hunting through the supply crates for a small chunk of raw meat and several packets of freeze-dried edibles.

(OOC: Jexx doesn't expect anyone to actually respond to his small rant)

[lucas marcone]

"Cool it dude. I've been letting the small crap slide but It's getting Way too colse to the fan for my comfort. You could have stayed in town till we looped around. Even I'm smart enought to do that." Josh was in no mood for jokes or fun. He was actually visably tired from the fiasco, but he went on to do some much needed tidying up around the camp.

[Tapewolf]

"Spare a thought for the less fortunate, Jexx," said Dorcan.  Now that the mission was over - that part of it, at least - the excitement was wearing off and he was starting to become broody.

"We have just set fire to a hospital," he continued.  "We may very well have killed dozens of people...  if not directly from the smoke and flames, then because they had to be moved out of intensive care.  Was what we have achieved worth the bloody price we may have paid for it?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx heard what Dorcan said as Jexx was rummaging around for his food. Eventually, Jexx did find what he was looking for: several packets of freeze-dried stuff and a small hunk of raw meat. He tore open the packets and devoured the stuff quickly. Then, he took the meat, set it on the ground, stood back, and gave it one good blast with a handcannon. The plasma-cooked meat that resulted looked completely inedible, being completely pitch-black and looking cruncy-solid, but Jexx picked it up and voraciously devoured it. The tase of plasma on the meat probably would have had someone else spewing their guts, but it was an acquired taste for Jexx.
   When he was done, he looked back and regarded Dorcan. To be honest, Jexx never thought too much of others before. When you live every moment of your life in constant fear that the Brotherhood will somehow impossibly find you, despite everything you do to remain undetected, you quickly learn the law of survival: Look out for number one. Jexx even had killed innocents in the past, but only because he had no other choice. He didn't feel that was neccessary to actually bring up, though.
   So all Jexx said was, "I didn't start that fire. Hell, I didn't even get a chance to kill anyone tonight, except for that one enforcer at the shed. That's extreamly disappointing, to me. And I don't think we even accomplished anything tonight. What did we? We rescued one ally who nearly got herself dragged off to the Tower, we killed three goons guarding a shed, and we captured someone. That's nothing. This whole night wasn't worth it, if you ask me."

[Tapewolf]

"We established the means by which the Brotherhood are controlling people," Dorcan said.
"Now we have a captive we can see if it's possible to reverse that.  We almost captured an entire suit of Brotherhood armour.  We might still be able to retrieve that.

"But if people have died as a result of the hospital fire - and if people die in the near future because there is nowhere for them to get medical treatment - the Brotherhood is going to blame it on us.  And rightly so."   He sighed.

"And now I think I need some rest," he added, taking off the cap and backpack.  It was a blessed relief.

[Azlan]

The fox tree'd himself.  Morgan found himself a large, wide branch to settle on, he normally did this on field missions in his day, a habit that Kat had taught him.  He also wanted to be away from everyone, with his mental endurance taxed due to the over extension of his usage of powers, the unrestrained waves of thoughts and emotions of the others' undisciplined minds was overwhelming.

Morgan nearly pitched head first off the branch as the emotional torrent hit and a severe bout of vertigo caused his world to spin.  He collapsed against the tree and slid to a sitting position.  Using the techniques of meditation, he focused what little amount of mental energy he had left into screening out the noise.

"Damn them, projecting emotions and thoughts like tidal waves on calm seas... only Sally is restrained..."

He could only screen out so much, the rest applied hammers to his skull.  Curling into a whimpering ball, grasping his head in a vain attempt to keep the emotions and thoughts of others in check and to cope with his splitting headache, Morgan drifted off to a troubled sleep.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Hey hey Guys, Jexx, First Off,  I would have been fine, if Chad wasn't there.  I should have listen to my gut, I would have been caught, but we needed a test subject.  Now, I will check on Chad and our "guest" from the brotherhood.

Sally scans and touchs Chad,  checking to see anything wrong beyond the chip.  She finds a blow to the head which knock him out, but also some drugs of unknown type.  Recently added to his system.  She isolates the most of drugs out of his blood stream and into his kidneys.  Stops the bleeding from the head trama.

Next to the Zealot, she checks to see if he is a llive, and what could be done to restore sanity or at least freewill.  Alert monitors are place on each patient. 

"What have we found out about the transmitter?" Asks Sally  "We may have to wait for the patients to wake before we try anything on them."

PBH

[lucas marcone]

Josh diggs out one of the untraceable dispseable cell phones. "If you all don't mind I have a date to set up." Josh gave everyone a cheeky grin and started dialing Babs' number.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan strode over to Sally.  He had been intending to rest, but her comments intrigued him.  He didn't need to sleep anyway, but it was fun to be able to dream again, and he wanted to try and maintain the illusion that he was flesh.

"We didn't find out much about the transmitter, I'm afraid," he said.  "The shed was concealing an access tunnel for cabling of some kind, though.  My guess is that there are a number of transmitters for redundancy, and that the cables are part of the feed."

He glanced down at the captives.

"Do we really want to have them conscious for our... experiments?" he asked Sally.
"If it goes wrong it might be kinder for them to die in their sleep.  Besides which the guard might struggle, especially if we start pointing an EMP projector at his neck.

Dorcan looked around.  "You know, I have a strange feeling there's something we've forgotten," he said slowly.  "Are we all here?"

[Ryudo Lee]

At the shed...
The zealot squad approaches the building with weapons drawn.  One opens the door and another goes in, gun taking point.  Seeing that there was no one around, he signaled to his comrades.
"All clear.  Man, looks like someone went a little nuts in here." One zealot said.
They started a sweep of the room.
"Hey, look at this!" One shouted from near the container that held a zealot body.
The others went to see.
"Damn.  Looks like they wanted us to find him.  Bastards, whoever they were." One of the others said.
"Who do you think did it?  Rebellion?" The first asked.
"Who knows.  This ain't their MO, but I wouldn't put it past them." The other replied. "Alright, lets get this place cleaned up.  Search the tunnel too.  I don't want any surprises left here."
The others saluted him and went to work.
______________________________________

Babs picked up the phone once it rang.
"Hello?" She asked and not remembering Josh's voice she asks "I'm sorry, who are you again?"

[lucas marcone]

"It's Josh you know....the guy from Lenny's...I was babbeling like an idiot...the wolf." Josh sat down on a large rock and traces runic images on it with a smaller rock.

[Arcalane]

"We have a... situation on our hands. It appears the away team have returned with subjects to experiment on, regarding the nature of the control. Preliminary examination indicates the method of control is propoganda or other subliminal messaging, pumped directly into the brain through means of a small chip attached to the back of the neck. Needless to say there is no doubt as to the legality of the Brotherhood's project, given the Etherume Act, but evidence is required to fully prove the source of control is the messaging. Thus, the control appears to be indirect - the civilians do not follow strict commands from the Brotherhood, unless the transmissions were altered. However, given sufficiently accurate imagery and strong impulsion, they could be commanded to attack - even kill - on sight." it raises it's voice for those outside to hear. "Suggestion is to avoid all facial recognition equipment within the town and CCTV systems." it then lowers it's voice again. "Will resume communication once confirmation is achieved. Echo Four Nineteen out."

[Ryudo Lee]

The radio comes back to life.
"Roger that four nineteen.  Stand by for further orders." The voice said.
There was a long moment of silence.
"Detain captured subjects and await arrival of support team which has just been dispatched to your location.  Repeat, detain captured subjects and await arrival of support team which has just been dispatched to your location.  Copy." The voice said.

"Oh it's you!" She replied. "I remember you now.  So, when are you going to come and get me?  I have a 10 o'clock curfew."

[lucas marcone]

"I guess it is a little late...maybe tomarrow then? hows seven sound." Josh said "Dinner and a move sound good?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Base Camp

Dr Sally Joywave checks up on her patients:

Chad Westling, he is the most important to her.  Once the unknown drug is flushed from his system, she will see how the chip will re-act in the absence of the control signal.  His scans show that removal of the chip is nearly impossible with normal surgery without damaging the spinal cord. So, the townspeople maybe stuck with the chips staying inside them, which will be bad because of the increase cancer risk.  The chip may go dormant if it is without the control signal present, only to reactive once it returns, or the chip may self-destruct and take the victim with it. 

"oh Chad why you did have to be here?  I don't want to be instrumental  for your death,."  thinks Sally

She turns the check the guard, and ask "Can we isolated this guy from the control frequency, while I monitor him.?  Even here in the woods the signal strength is high enough for the chips to be activated."

PBH

Edit: (OOC) Sorry I miss that we pick up a guard than a Brotherhood minion.)

[Tapewolf]

"Victor!" said Dorcan suddenly.  "Did we leave him behind?   If he's still back in the town, it will be crawling with zealots!"

[lucas marcone]

Josh covers the mouth piece on the phone. "Well i guess we should send a group out to get him then oughtn't we?" he said slyly touching a finger to his nose, wich was the universal symbol for "not it".

[Ryudo Lee]

Babs voice came back over the phone.
"Yeah that sounds good.  Hey, what's going on over there?" She asks, hearing the muffled voices from around Josh.

[lucas marcone]

"Birthdayparty. My cousin had her sixth today. Well I'll see you then, later."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Doctor Sally has the guard in one of the command vans, and isolates the brotherhood's control freguencies as monitors what the implant does or not...

The chip's activity drops in the computer scan and stops after ten minutes.  The doctor's own bio-scan tells her , that the chip is even more enbedded then before.  As if the chip is holding tight to it's victim and weathering a storm.  If it was hard to remove before, it was nearly impossible now.  The doctor opens the door to the van and the chip activity returns to normal levels. 

"Back to square one."

PBH

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx looked up when Dorcan asked about Victor. "Ain't he the short guy? Then, would that be him over there?" Jexx said, pointing. Victor-In-Question was leaning up against the van they used to go in and out of town, not making much noise, just hanging out.

[Tapewolf]

"Thank goodness for that," said Dorcan in a tone of vast relief.  "I guess he crept back on his own.  I don't want to think about two rescue missions in one night."

So saying, he headed to the van which Exo was using as the comms link to base.
"Anything interesting from headquarters?" he asked.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Having listened to all the fun the others had had in his absence, Vic though himself to be lucky he'd been able to shake the patrol that looked like it had really wanted to talk to him.

Seeing that everyone was calm and the doc was working on the prisoner, Victor found an flat rock near the vans. Pulling a cleaning kit form his bag Vic striped the shotgun down and cleaned it before reassembling it.

"Weapon first everything else second." He mumbled to himself repeating what his old drill sergeant had drummed into him so long ago.

[Arcalane]

Exo nods. "Copy that. Echo Four Nineteen out." It then closes the commlink in no great haste and turns to Dorcan. "Orders are to hold position and detain the subjects until further notice. Reinforcements are supposedly inbound. Whilst reinforcements may be necessary, something does not seem right about this situation. Everyone should stay alert and armed, at least for now." It clambers out of the van, one hand moving to the grip of the heavy pistol almost instinctively, then nods to Dorcan and strides off to ensure the captives are kept under control.

"Doctor," it intones, glancing between the unconcious guard and Sally, keeping it's voice down so as not to interrupt the phone conversation "Ensure that the captive does not wake up for the next few hours. Understood?"

[Tapewolf]

"Very good, sir," Dorcan replied to Exo.  He had been intending to sleep, but if they were going to have to stay alert until the reinforcements arrived, it kind of put paid to that idea.  He could always play the "'Cubi don't sleep" card if need be.  He settled himself into a decent vantage point and waited for the dawn.