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

[Paladin Sheppard]

Victor holstered his pistol. "As long as Exo says we're all friends" He said as he smiled.

"Whoa Doc." He said looking over Sally for a second time "You ok you look like you've lost some weight...A lot."
'And looking quite fine' He added in his own mind.

[Ryudo Lee]

"Alright then, our resources are at your disposal for the time being." The lead soldier said.
He clicked a quick salute and then moved on to give the soliders further orders.

The doctors were following Sally around, notepads and pencils out.
"Did you already disable the chip from this one?" One asked Sally.
"How do you feel?" Another asked, directly to Chad.
"She's lost weight since I last saw her..." Mused the third one.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Okay Okay, Commander, Dr Stern, and Doctors come this way.  Please, Chad, you come, too, You, all Come this way please" says Sally as she walks back to the van which the security guard is sleeping in, and retrieves Chad's old chip and her laptop/scanner. 

Having one of the lab tech rats, open up a lab main computer station and a image projector, Sally puts up her computer into the I/o port and sends an amplified picture of the Brotherhood control chip, which is about the size of two grains of rice.   

"This is what the Brotherhood marketing as a memory enhancer, but it is really a mood/mind controlling device.  It seem to receive and broadcast into the mind of the subject.  That the brotherhood is good and it is the guardian of all good people everywhere.  That everything is peaches and cream for everyone under the brotherhood's protection" states Doctor Sally

"Wait, How do you know that?" asks Chad.   

Sally changes the chip picture with a scan file of the guard's implant and spinal cord.  "These nerves endings are known to tap into the lower brain cortex which operate moods and emotions."   *Click* "This is a mind scan of a town furson during a news report with the brotherhood member.  This area show an almost euphoric state in this female.  Chad mm ah Dr Westling, I have a question for you, where would a brain enhancer be to improve memory? "  asks Sally,.  She knows that a mind memory enhancer would be more centralized in the upper lobes with maybe IO port on the neck.

"Okay, so the chips location is in the wrong areas of the mind.  But ...mmm" stops Chad to think about this.  Sally just smiles at that.

"Here is what is left of Dr Westling's chip, and a sample scan of the unknown drug used to destroy it." says Sally as she hands over the chip and data to Dr Stern.  "There is also imformation on that some of the increase health risks to the victims in the coming years.

We also have the possibility to retreive one more patient tonight, hopefully without as much fuss as last night.  And she is important, because she is already showing early signs of the chips break down in the body, what many others are going to see years from now.."  reports Doctor Sally  "I'm leaving the report about the Shed and transmitter to the others in the group.  Bill, the guard, is our test subject in a non-control signal field with an active control chip.  Any more question?"   

After a moment of dead silent, Sally comments," And yes I have gone down a a dress size or two.  A size 12 to 8 in fact, Goddess, You guys, are so Goobrrr  rrr Males!"    and walks off after sending her data into the moble lab's mainframe.

PBH

[lucas marcone]

Josh was standing and watching with the group. When Sally waked off he followed her. "So why did they try to destroy the chip if they could have just stopped us from takeing him? And Sally when they talk about dress size theyre really talking about how much smaller they got." Josh put his hands  about solarplexus height and made a bounceing motion.

[Paladin Sheppard]

Smirking at Sally's outburst Victor took his leave from the group of whitecoats.

Nearing the edge of the clearing, he watched the new arrivals for a while, before stretching out and running through a few routines of a simple martial art that he learned as a rookie.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

An angry otter girl turns around to Josh,  only to get more streamed at his hand motions,  "No Josh, Only girls would talk about dress sizes, guys are more blunt, talk about breast size and butts or how fat you are. You of all people should know what happens when you use magic.  Now, IF you want to be nice, you are going to get me some breakfast, before I given into my anger and hunger, and eat you." whispers Sally in a cold voice.


PBH

[lucas marcone]

Josh looked like he was going to say something. "Nevermind." Josh walked away snickering. "I think Babs would have a problem with some crazed Otter trying to give me oral though." He said quietly to himself not realizeing his radio was still on.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

*groaning stomach*

"Oh You really me want to hurt you, don't you?
Well, I better not, we wouldn't want you disappointing Babs. do we?" shouts Sally as she goes on to see if Mister Mister is still around maybe he has breakfast going...


PBH 

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan sighed as Sally strode off in a huff, and released his grip on the gun.  If things had got much uglier he might have had to stun the pair of them.

"Sir, I'm not sure if this was included in your report.  In the vicinity of the tower we discovered a storage shed containing a maintenance tunnel.  Since it was probably booby-trapped we did not explore, but it was filled with wiring conduits branching out from the tower.  It is my theory that these were a distribution feed of the tower transmissions, likely to relay stations or backup transmitters.  If we decide to to cut the transmissions, this might be useful in formulating our plan of attack.

However, we still don't know if it is safe to do this.  If you have anything like a Faraday cage in the supplies you have brought, or the means to construct one, we could place the guard inside it and see if he suffers any negative effects.  Either that, or we could drive him out of range of the transmitter.  Those I think are the closest we can get to turning off the tower without actually doing so."

A strange light came into the Doberman's eyes as he pondered the problem.  "Who should I approach for technical assistance?  If the removed chip is still intact we should reverse-engineer it.  It must contain some sort of LCR circuit, and that should tell us the exact frequency, if we decide to try and jam it."

[lucas marcone]

Josh strode off looking for something for the good doctor to snack on. "Weman, I swear i could turn gay if it wasn't for the sex!" Josh mused. He started digging into a crate and threw out a few boxes of the dehyrated stuff and found a few cans of pears, peaches and cherries. "Hay Doc, I found something for ya if you don't mind canned fruit." Josh set aside a can of peaches for himself.

[Ryudo Lee]

The lead soldier listend as Dorcan gave his part of the report.
"Alright, we'll have to investigate them as well.  In fact, we should probably go ahead and do that today." He says. "Unfortunately, we don't have a Faraday cage, but I'm sure that the white coats here will be able to whip up something to take care of the chips."
He looked over at the soldiers who were finishing up unloading the supplies.
"We also brought some extra foodstuffs, in case you guys were running low." He says.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"ooh Peaches and Cream, the Breakfast for fatty tarts.... Thanks Josh... Just what I need to restore some of my energy levels with some simple sugar and fatty acids.." remarks a cheerfully doctor...  "Guys I missed reporting that the chip goes dormant when it is no longer receiving the brotherhood control channel. OR I should say into standby... I don't know how long the chip will remain in a listening mode, before it trying to do something to the subject, like get him to move to a brotherhood tower, or induce depression in the subject." adds Sally as she works at opening the can of peaches, and gets some dairy real cream, and grape nuts.

"Thanks the Goddess, they did pack some real cream. " as she settles down with a large cereal bowl of peaches, cream and nuts.  "yummy"

[lucas marcone]

Josh was chowing down on some large cut peached from his industrial sized can. "Mmmph yer' lucky *slurp* I felt like *GERAMPH* goin' *slerp* through the *gulp* trouble." He smiled through his sticky mouthfur and gave Sally an elbow jab.

[techmaster-glitch]

(OOC: argh. Very late.)

   Jexx was still standing by his tree, having powered-down his handcannons when Exo finally identified the Rebellion people. But, with the great number of people, all the hustle and bustle and conversation, was actually affecting Jexx. Negatively. The only times he'd ever been this close to this many people, they were all trying to kill him, and he was trying to kill them.
   Jexx couldn't think straight. There were so many people around, yet none were hostile. Jexx's paranoid and psychotic subconcious would not accept this, while his concious was trying to not freak out. He was hyperventillating and sweating. His handcannons were even going all shifty and ameobic as he lost cotrol of the nanomorphing. He put one hand/handcannon, now all blobby, up to the tree to try and steady himself. His head was spinning.
   Finally, Jexx just barely worked up the willpower to stagger off into the woods just a little distance away to get himself settled.

[Azlan]

Morgan swiped a can of peaches and consumed it quickly before approaching the officer in charge.  He stepped up as Dorcan was giving his report.

"The winged one here is pretty spot on, my reconnaissance work discovered the chips, the frequency of the transmissions, and the correlation of the conduit and the signal.  I already ascertained what he has reported upon initial discovery of the conduit, hence why I ordered the capture of the guard.  The other... doctor?  Chad, I believe I've heard mentioned was his name, is apparently connected to Dr. Joywaves.  As soon as you lads can physically isolate those chips from the signal and either remove or neutralize them, then we can formulate a plan of action to eliminate the signal or attempt a mass deactivation of chips.  I'll leave the signal analysis to you fellows, that really isn't my bag.  Let us hope it is not fatal."

Morgan tapped his chin with his index finger, "What tactical data can you pass on about zealots and enforcers?  The one enforcer I stared down was a tad strong, on my best estimate, I would be hard pressed to combat more then 10 of them in hand to hand.  I need to know the upward threshold of their strength and agility, I'd hate to try and arm wrestle one if it is pointless because they possess assault mecha level strength."

OOC: the gaming model Morgan is based off of can allow him to defeat Motoko cyborgs and Matrix Agents.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan looked a little forlorn when Morgan pointed out that he'd already established the frequency, but he soon perked up.

"In that case, if you can spare one of your technicians for a few hours, I'd like to get up to speed with your civilisation's technology.  From what I've seen so far, much of it seems to be pretty similar to what I'm used to, so hopefully most of it should be a simple matter of learning the units and names you use."

I'm glad Jakob added a speed-read feature, he thought.  If I can just get hold of a few component catalogues...

His attention snapped back to the present when Morgan mentioned being able to take down 10 enforcers single-handedly.

"Ten?" he asked, looking at him in amazement  "What are you?  Some kind of android?"

[Paladin Sheppard]

Finishing his daily practice Victor walked back into the camp where the others were busily munching breakfast.

"Morning peoples." he said as he picked out a ratpack and started sorting the contents. Grabbing what he was after Vic  sat down and began to eat.

"So our primary mission is finished, are we sticking around to play tag with the Brotherhood?" He asked around a mouthful of tinned sausages.

[Ryudo Lee]

The lead soldier shrugged.
"For all that information, you'll have to consult the archives at HQ.  For now, you'll just have to deal with whatever information you can pick up along the way.  But I can tell you this, the zealots are just grunts.  Little more than cannon fodder.  Enforcers are a different story.  They like to haul around heavier weaponry, and sometimes explosive ordnance, and to top it all off, they're better armored than the zealots.  You don't want to face ten of them by yourself.  I don't care how good you think you are.  They will rip you a new one.  And the gods help you if you ever run into an elite." He said, and shook his head.
He pointed over where Jexx was as he was leaving the area.
"Hey, is he alright?" He asked.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Well, If we wrapping up here, I for one, would like to meet up with Babs again, if just to check up on her.  We will pass our information on onto you guys about her.  She may have the healer's touch, if not another magical ability dormant in her.  the Brotherhood's chip has caused her dormant power to surface in offer to save herself." commends Sally.  "Or Josh can handle capturing her, or better pick her up for his date and we can release her If she wants once the chip is removed."

"And we still have, you a friend, Dr Chad Weslting.  Do you want to be part of an underground moment, defenders of the weak and general good people?" asks Doctor Sally.

PBH 

[lucas marcone]

"Alright Sal let me know how Juliet is doing." Josh scarfed down the last of the peaches in the tin. "It's not tactful to go see your date at her place of work again before a date. though a good 'grand slam' would be nice....nah."

[Arcalane]

Exo nods in agreement to the leader. "Agreement: Morgan, I find your claim of ten in hand to hand combat somewhat unlikely; I believe you would be hard pressed to combat three at short range, even with superhuman reflexes."

"Commentary: As for Elites... the last time this Unit encountered an Elite, we fought to a standstill - by which this Unit means it had lost an arm and several armour plates whilst causing severe physical damage to the Elite's internal organs and several extremities. His implants were the only thing keeping him alive."

It pauses momentarily.

"Continuation: Likewise, my lack of safeguards and continued ignoring of warning messages was the only thing keeping me standing. At this point the Elite decided it best to retreat, and in my state I could no longer complete my remaining objectives, being down one arm and a few myomer clusters, at which point we both went our seperate ways with a respectful nod, as neither of us could really manage to bow at that time."

"It was... an interesting experience, something this Unit learnt from greatly."

It paused again, as if setting up a punchline.

"Summary: In other words - never underestimate meatbags, particularly Brotherhood ones."

[Boog]

Mister had been, for the most part, lounging about with little to do. However, the arrival of more soldiers made even this duty redundant for him. The most use I have been thus far has been as a chef. Perhaps I truly am outdated. Troubling. He remained, as usual, silent and unobtrusive as he listened in to the new information that had been gathered. And then Jexx wandered off.
"I'll go check on our young associate, shall I?" the golem offered with a nod in the lead soldier's direction, "After all, we wouldn't want anybody stumbling upon him in the middle of the forest so close to our position." Mister stood up with a slight creak (I'm not outdated. Of course not. Merely in need of maintinence. I'm not outdated.), bowed politely to those present, and followed after Jexx.
--
It was fairly easy to follow Jexx quietly. Mister was, after all, built to be silent and unnoticed. The first sign that he was there at all was a slight sound of steam whistling through pipes behind the young man.
"Forgive my rudeness in interrupting you, Young Sir. I merely wondered if you were doing well. You seemed rather perturbed."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx was most certainly not doing well at all. He had staggered drunken-like until he was out of sight of the camp, then fell to his knees, then to all fours, convulsing violently. In his head, a fierce battle was raging. It was as if a deep, primal force was trying to posess him into a mindless shooting fury. It seemed almost like instinct, but it was far more crude, unwholesome, and incomplete. More artificial. More...programmed.
   He barely detected Mister coming in out of his peripheral senses. He tried to form the words 'stay back', but all that came out was a short burst of incoherant blather.
   After a few moments of continually shaking on his knees and blobby hands, he managed to just barely straighten back up to his knees. He used his left hand, slightly more coherant, to grab his right, to steady it. His right formed into his handcannon. Shakily, he managed to point it at the ground about five feet in front of him, and started blasting his angry-red plasma balls. He blasted for at least a full fifteen seconds before stopping. When he was done, the force in his mind was gone. He was back in control. Well, sort of.
   Still shaking and panting heavily, he dropped back down to his hands, vomited, then collapsed on his side, trying to stablize himself. After a moment, he looked up to Mister, but couldn't think of anything to say.

[Azlan]

Morgan regarded Exo, "Yes, don't underestimate 'meatbags'."  He left it at that, best to leave old soldiers and limited warmachines alone in what hey believe to be the reality of the world.

"So, enough about me, what is our next move in this?  I imagine it's the big waiting game until the science types are done with their whole analysis bit.  What are your thoughts on proceeding from this point?"

[Ryudo Lee]

"I think that a more detailed investigation into that smaller structure that you guys mentioned would be in order.  That might be connected with this whole thing.  While we do that, the white coats can get to work in the lab." The lead soldier said.

[Boog]

A few things were obvious about this situation to Mister. He could tell that this wasn't normal organic behavior, that this was most certainly a sign of a serious problem, probably a problem specific to the young man before him, and that it was a problem that would have to be discussed at some time soon.
However, he was also able to tell that the ragged young man before him, still trying to find the words to explain what had just happened, would not be benefited by discussing it right now. He'd ask at a later time, when Jexx was in a better state of mind.
Mister offered one arm for Jexx to steady himself upon as he got up. "Allow me to aid you in getting back. I'm certain the others are getting worried. Besides, if you don't return soon someone may purloin your share of the rations, which you'd need after that."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx took Mister's offered big iron hand, and allowed himelf to be pulled up. He took a few moments to steadY himself, still breathing quite deeply. After a few moments leaning up against a tree, and opening and closing his mount a few time as if to speak, but the words just wouldn't come. Finally, he managed to formulate understandable speech.
   "You...you came to see if I was...all right. You showed...concern for me. That's...that's not something that...that many robots do around here. Sure...they develop their own emotions...but they don't often ever truely...care about someone. Heh...well, in all fairness, there aren't any...fleshies who care about me regardless...only you and the others even know I exist."
   Jexx stopped for a moment, fully catching his breath. "I'm rambling. I guess what I'm trying to say is, um, well...thanks, Steambot."

[lucas marcone]

"This meat bag....no matter how  sickened i am right now, cares about ya. I just though you needed some down time."

[Tapewolf]

Blissfully unaware of Jexx predicament, Dorcan sat beneath a tree, with a pile of textbooks on electronics by his side.  At the top of the pile was 'advanced'... he had already finished 'beginners' and was nearly done with 'intermediate' as well.  The speed-reading feature was a bit like a Scrying spell, but without most of the side-effects.  It was the little things like this which almost made up for losing his powers.

Reading the books, he noted that this world seemed to have sidestepped the bug in the Earth systems - which Jakob had copied - where the current flowed in the 'wrong' direction because they had got the charge on the electron the wrong polarity.  There were a couple of differences in the quantities too, but for the main part it looked like he could use it.

Finishing the book, he strolled over to the lab where the analysis was taking place and hung around to watch and learn.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Okay, okay who's Not alright?  Jexx Is there anything I can do for you?" asks the Doctor.... "I was over bugging Dr Stern's group, but really if you need care, I'm here.  Oh Mister Hi   How are you?  are you going on this raid to the Brotherhood's shed...."

PBH