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

[Azlan]

"Take him.  The rest of you move quickly, secure the area around the shack and clear the inside quickly."  Morgan stated as he prepared to move once the shot was successful.

[Ryudo Lee]

The rifle made a whining noise as it charged and then 'choom' as the shot rang out.  The zealot barely had time to say "Wha" as the blast hit the side of his head, melting off a good portion of it as he hit the ground.  He died instantly.  The other soldiers moved in and quickly checked around the building.  No other shots were heard.  Someone shouted 'clear!' and one of the soldiers at the door kicked it in, and immediately rifles were in the door and firing.  After a few moments another 'clear!' came from the building, and one of the soldiers motioned for the others to follow.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan made his way swiftly into the shed, uttering a muted oath as he saw that the generator box containing the armour had been removed.

"The trapdoor's in the corner," he said, gesturing to the soldier.  "We don't know how extensive it is but I guess we'll have to find out."

Reaching into his backpack he pulled out the portable 'scope and began to prepare it hastily.  If he could tap it into the conduits, it would be very interesting to see what kind of signals were going through them.

[lucas marcone]

Josh stayed near the entrence faceing outside incase any brotherhood decided to investigate the noise that may have been outside when it happened.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx hopped two more roofs, then scaled down to the ground, entering the shed from the backdoor. He met up with the small group inside. "Aw, none for me?" He complained.

[Azlan]

Like Josh, Morgan kept watch.  He took up position on the roof of a nearby building with his rifle out and ready.  He watched the approaches and kept in contact with the team in the shack via his link.

Morgan utilized the secure transmission line, I am keeping an eye on the approach from the tower.  My anti-materiel rifle is silenced, unlike your squad's plasma weapons, I'll snipe from nearby roof.  Let me know if you need any assistance in there.

[Tapewolf]

It seemed that Morgan was stationing himself on the roof, and Dorcan didn't like what that implied.  If he were flesh, his mouth would have been unusually dry.  The doberman checked the scope yet again, trying to ignore the obvious conclusion, pretend it wasn't happening. 
Morgan isn't going to lead us, he's covering us and so is Josh.  Jexx is too used to working alone and the others are under our command, so that must mean... I'm... in charge. Blinking rapidly he composed himself and looked the soldier straight in the eye.

"Well," he said, the radio echoing his words, "I guess it's time we began to explore the tunnel.  It could very easily be boobytrapped, and that means we'll have to have someone in front.  I think the risks are obvious, so we will need... a volunteer."

As he spoke he removed his cap and placed it in the backpack.  Underground, his uncomfortable disguise would not be necessary.

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Boobytraps? Obvious risks? Dangerous? Need a volunteer?" Jexx said, smiling. "You insult me! Instead of just pretending to hand the job out to anyone, why not actually give it to me when you know that I'm the only one who'll do it? Pah!" Jexx said, walking over to the tunnel hatch, trying to look fake-irritated, but failing because he was still grinning to himself.
   He opened the hatch and jumped down into the pitch-black tunnel. "Time to see just how the innards of the Brotherhood of the Machine work..." He said, morphing in his handcannons and powering them up, illuminating the tunnel ahead in an eerie red glow.

[lucas marcone]

Josh laughed. "somehow I'm not surprised,nor dissapointed with that decision Jexx." He drew his trusty and lightly rusty nines. "Don't suppose there's a chair in here?"

[Tapewolf]

"I was hoping for someone with a little more training," Dorcan said, "or less to lose if the worst happens.  But if you insist, at least take this..." glancing around as he spoke, he found a piece of scrap metal in the shape of a longish rod and threw it down after Jexx.

"Wave that in front of you as you walk.  It won't help against infrared or RADAR-triggered autoguns, but it should give you an early warning if they've strung monofilament wire or something through the tunnel."

My first order, and Jexx has already run off.  Some leader I make, he thought darkly.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx morphed his left handannon back into a hand and picked up the metal pole Dorcan threw down. He held it so that one end was under his metal arpit and guided by his hand. He waved it around a little experimentally, seemed satisfied, and began walking. He didn't like the fact that his firepower and light was cut in half but it might be neccessary.
   "Autoguns I can handle. I know the Brotherhood have all kinds. In fact, I've seen all kinds of Brotherhood hardware up close and personal before, I would be safe in saying I know almost all of their offensive and defensive techs inside and out. I've never heard of wire being dangerous though, that must be something from wherever you come from, but I wouldn't put it past the Brotherhood to have made something like that."
   Jexx then tried to turn around, but the pole stopped him. He setteld for turning his right arm and head to face back. The red glow from his handcannon went all the way back to the watch, "Well?" He said. "Are you guys gonna follow or what?? I thought the reason I couldn't explore this place the first time was because I didn't have backup. Come on, slowpokes!"
   It seems that Jexx wasn't going to run off by himself after all.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan picked up a couple of other long pieces of scrap, and turned to the soldiers.  "Okay, then?" he said, "Let's go."
So saying, he enabled his internal light-amps and climbed down the hatchway himself.
Glancing around the tunnel, he examined the conduits, tracing the cables to find a junction box where he could attach the 'scope for a reading.

[Ryudo Lee]

The other soldiers quietly followed suit, weapons at the ready.  This was unfamiliar territory.  There was no telling what would...
*Click*
Someone had stepped on a plate, tripping a switch.  There was a mechanical droning sound and then another several clacks and then some more droning noises.
"Antipersonnel turrets." The techie soldier said. "A bunch of 'em.  Probably got lead bullets in 'em.  They haven't seen us yet, they have a limited range of vision.  They're not invulnerable though, shoot 'em enough and they'll blow up.  Be careful."
The soldier then fell silent.

[Tapewolf]

"Are they autonomous?"  Dorcan asked, looking up from a wiring loom he'd exposed.  "...or are they relaying everything they see back to the Brotherhood?  For that matter, what about the trigger?  If we destroy it, won't that be reported back too?"

So saying, he attached the probes to two of the cables.  Come to that, what about what I'm doing?  The scope should be safe enough, it has to be non-invasive for diagnostic purposes, and the junction box doesn't seem to have tamper-detection, but all the same...

A waveform appeared on the scope, and he hit 'Record'.

"Morgan," he asked over the comms, "What was the frequency of the chip transmissions?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   The moment Jexx heard the sound of the turrets, he sprang into action reflexively. He dropped the pole he was holding with his left hand, morphing it into his handcannon as he went. He ignored the talking behind him; it was just a distraction from the danger. The entire tunnel ahead of him was bathed in the red glow from his twin handcannons at the ready, and saw turrets with a practiced eye. With absolutely no delay, the barrels flared to life, a constant stream of red plasma balls spewing forth. Being completely unarmored or protected in any way, Jexx had near-perfected his way of dealing with threats: fry them to crisps before they could shoot back, arcade-style. Normally, Jexx would also be able to dodge, but that wasn't an option in the cramped tunnel. However, he was only firing in the one direction of the tunnel. Everyone else was behind him, and he had no choice but to trust them to take care of anything that could be in that direction.

[Azlan]

Morgan replied over the comm channel, "The signal varies between 500 to 510 Hz and it is buried in a 2.42GHz carrier.  I am sending all relatively important signal information in an attachment to this message."

Morgan continued to scan the area, providing cover with his small cannon-rifle.  He ran a hand through his red hair and sighed, "I should have worn some sunscreen, I really don't like sunburn, nor do I want to get more freckly."

Morgan thought he might have heard something below the roof top off to his left...

[Tapewolf]

This is going to be baseband of course, Dorcan thought, so... aha.

"Thanks Morgan, this is probably it..." he replied, "a 500hz signal feed.  Now, I'd like to compare the waveforms so we can be absolutely sure... how do you suggest I open the attachment?  I need to get it into the storage 'scope, but I think I've only got an audio picku-"

"JEXX!" he roared as there was an explosion from the front.  "What the hell are you doing?"
Still clutching the 'scope, he moved quickly to where the the turret was to inspect the damage, his lip curling as he did so.

"We don't know what these cables do, but they're carrying the signal that's being transmitted," he said, and it took a great effort of self-control to keep his voice level and not snarl at him.  "Until we know what happens to someone with the chip when the signal goes down, we cannot risk damaging them or we could quite possibly kill most of the town."

[Ryudo Lee]

The tech soldier went with Dorcan and inspected the wreckage.
"The good news is that there's no transmitter.  These are just autonomous drones." He said. "The bad news..."
There was the humming of the other turrets moving.
"They're actively watching the tunnel now." He said.  "At first, they were just set on passive mode.  They stayed in one position and if anything came into view, it got shot.  But now they're scanning."

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Mean while back at camp.

Sally has been scanning and examining Bill with Chad, the security guard, as the technicians examine the remove control chip.  They have recorded all the data they could from the damage chip.   Keeping Bill in an  isolate EMF, he seems to be doing Okay, his control chip is still dormant with no activity.  Not even a clock pulse....On the other hand, Chad's old chip continues to show major activity as much as a fully functioning chip with the clock pulses speeding up.  Both chips are still in the Electromagnetic Isolation field.  But Chad's chip was exposed to a unknown chemical, which the lab boys are still working on.

Bill is fine, awake and has expressed a desire to disassemble one warbot....

Sally says "We are not 100% sure, but the carrier RF signal seems to what activates for the control chips.  Still the chips do go into a standby mode until they receive new instruction or a RF carrier wave."

We are going to test Chad's old chip with a carrier wave only"

PBH

{ooc  If I'm dead wrong about anything in this post please Ignore}

[techmaster-glitch]

   "Taking down all the turrets in front of us, what's it look like I'm doing?" Jexx said, his arms and handcannons still outstreatched. "I don't know about you, but I'm the kind of guy who doesn't like taking risks, as in, risking an opponent even the slightest chance of being able to shoot me. So I make sure I'm always the first--and last--one to shoot. And what if 'someone come looking'? You see reinforcements, I see more cannon fodder."
   Jexx nodded toward the remaining turrets, far down the tunnel. "In this case, I made sure there isn't any possible way we can now be shot by those turrets if we stay right here. They may be looking for us now, but I've seen these all the time. We are now out of range of the ones left. If we stay here for a little while, the turret-computers will probably chalk it up to a freak accident.
   "So, basically, there was a possible threat. There is no longer a possible threat. Happy now?"
   Jexx then moved to the side of the tunnel and sat down, crossing his arms and muttering "Berserkers are so underapreciated..." to himself under his breath.

[Tapewolf]

"As long as you haven't damaged any of the cabling I'll be happy, yeah..." Dorcan replied, his headwings slowly folding back into place as he calmed down.

"Remember, we have a mission, and that mission is to study this facility, and find out whether it is safe to shut it down.  If - and only if - we can be sure that doing so won't kill half the town, then we destroy it.  Until that time we should try to do as little damage as possible."

[lucas marcone]

"Seriously, Jexx in operations like this you have to stop and think about the consiquences. What if destroing those triggered an alarm and that 'cannon fodder' came in droves and killed the whole lot of you?! I lost one family and if you keep acting like a child i will come down there and make sure you don't force me to lose another!" Josh sounded like he was spitting poision through the comms. "Got that?!"

[Azlan]

Morgan continued to speak on the comms as he moved over to the left side of the roof, "If you need to open the attachment, I suggest you use a computer with wireless capability.  Just connect it to our comm network.  The tech guy the soldiers have with him should have one."

Morgan reached the roof edge and peered over.  Below, a local police officer was having a pleasant conversation with a postal carrier. 

"Bloody hell, the local constabulary is in the area.  Not a problem as long as we remain low profile."

Morgan caught the cannon fire and conversation as it streamed across the channel, "Gods, can you all try and not alert the entire Brotherhood, I only brought a few hundred rounds for this sniper."

[Rammenstein]

A small chuckle sounded over the intercom after Morgan's statement, quickly followed by a voice new to the group. It was quiet, with a somewhat breathy quality picked up from years of speaking in a soft voice.

"Only a few hundred? Peh, that's pathetic. I brought a few thousand..."

The source was a rust-red furred fox stationed on a high rooftop, giving him a point from where he could see the entire city. He was on one knee, expertly holding a long-barreled sniper rifle which he swept back and forth along the approach to the tower.

"You really should bring more. After all, as a sniper there's no telling when your next opportunity to re-arm will be."

[Tapewolf]

"Who are you and how did you get into our comms loop?"  Dorcan barked.  His headwings had flapped out again as they often did when he was alarmed, but he kept the panic from his voice.  HQ never told us about this... he must be with the Brotherhood!

[Rammenstein]

The fox on the other end of the comm chuckled a second time at Dorcan's surprise. "Hey, hey, calm down there. I'm on your side. The name's Ram Ei'Sona, codename 'Eraser'. Freelance Sniper for the Rebellion and, today, your Guardian Angel." As he spoke, Ram gave his rifle an affectionate pat.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan was taken aback, and wasn't quite sure how to respond.
"Very well," he said eventually, "I can't see what's going on up there so without being able to make an informed decision, I'll leave it to Morgan and Josh's judgement."
But I don't trust you.

Returning to the job at hand, he turned to the technician, and said "Morgan told me that you should have a handheld computer of some description.  I need to download the signal in an attachment from by comms unit into this storage 'scope.  Do you think you could help me sort that out? "

[Ryudo Lee]

The tech whipped out his laptop, opened it, and fired it up.
"Alright, all we need to do is figure out how to set up the interface.  Tell me exactly what you need." He said.
He started up a programming IDE and started making a framework for the interface.

[Tapewolf]

"Well, I was hoping we could simply use it to do some kind of data transfer between the comms unit and this 'scope," Dorcan said, the technical problem providing a welcome distraction from the burden of leadership.  "I mean, it's a digital storage oscilloscope, so it's got to have some form of I/O for archiving the recorded signal.  Failing that, if you can just output the waveform from the attachment as audio, we could attach the 'scope probes to the headphone jack or whatever and record it into the 'scope like that.  At a pinch, if you've got a software 'scope, we could just do a side-by-side comparison of the screens.  We only really need establish if the waveforms look the same."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx was lost in his own depraved, murderous thoughts (about the Brotherhood, of course), when the new voice came over the microcomm channels. Initially, he didn't attribute much to it, but after Dorcan became very agitated, Jexx slowly pulled out of his own mind. He heard the stranger continue over the microcomms, and when the guy was done, Jexx just sat there, with a slightly contorted, anngry stare on his face. Then Dorcan and one of the soldiers started speaking some technobabble. One of Jexx's eyelids just twitched.
   "Oh, I give up..." He thought to himself. He settled for propping his head up in the wall with his left arm, and helf his right handcannon out off in the empty direction of the trouble. A simple watch-guard...