Brotherhood of the Machine (IC Thread) [PG/14] {02}

[Tapewolf]

"You are welcome to examine me if you wish, Doctor," Dorcan replied with a look of surprise, "But there is little point.  I told you everything during the initial examination.  Right now there is nothing wrong with me, and I am not injured.  However, in case I become injured in the upcoming mission, I want to make sure there will be someone on the team who will be reasonably able to fix it.
"Baiye provided that support in our previous mission, but she seems to have quit.  All I want to do is get Izzie up to speed as her replacement."

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx looked over to the unfamilar guy who answered his question about Morgan. Jexx would have asked him who the hell he was, but he identified himself as Izzie and their new enginner, before asking the same thing.
   "I'm Jexx." he said simply, shurgging. What else was there to say? Dorcan then asked how he was doing. Jexx answered, "Okay, I guess. Still can't wait to get back out there."
   Dorcan then got involved in a detailed conversation with the new medic and Sally, apparently over something Dorcan didn't want to say aloud. Jexx didn't pay much attention, he already wasn't feeling very comfortable. He quietly took another sip of his shake. For his preferred diet of plasma-cooked meat and freeze-dried snacks, the shake wasn't too bad.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

A look of defeat was followed by a look of announce on the doctor's face, but she recovers quickly..."Fine, we have a mechanic, now.. Have him give you a full system check.  And no admission of troubles/problems on your part, tell all your problems and quirks to him."demanded the doctor.  She had a little trouble getting up, but she is up and heads out of the mess hall.  She smiles at Jexx and pats his shoulder as she passes him.  Her touch is warm and calming to Jexx.  Sally gives her sixth double cheese burger, which is very over cooked.  "You can have this".

"I'm heading to my bed in sick ward.  After this last meal, I should awake up freshed and fully healed by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, Good Luck, on your mission, guys"says Dr Sally.  "Hope to see you all upon your return.... Jathon, you take care and care for my people or else." 

PBH

[shadowterm]

Izzie heard the comment about him giving Dorcan a systems check. "You sure don't seem to be having a good day with these people, is it always like this?" Izzie sighed. "I can give it a check, but I can't promise I have a PhD in the systems, I can really only help with the basics until I know what I'm looking at, and read up on it. Anyway, you seem trustworthy to me, and I have a feeling you'll have my back out there." Izzie offered Dorcan his hand."

[Azlan]

Morgan stalked off, heading no where in particular.  He wandered the base halls for a few moments until finding his way outside to a back lot with a small park like area.  Morgan gazed up into the sky as the cool breeze rustled his hair. 

Setting a leg up on the bar and resting his forearms on the railing, Morgan leaned, allowing his weight to support him against the metal.  He watched the blades of grass slowly sway in the wind as he thought to himself.

Once again Fox, you are all alone.  Always there are little secrets, hidden agendas and mysteries.  I'm expected to trust these people with my life, the lives of others and the success of an operation?  Trust things to a single minded, homicidal maniac with zero redeemable qualities... a hollow freak of an alien... and the third-string substitutes?  I have laid my capabilities and knowledge on the table many times, but I have to put my life in the hands of amateurs and collateral damage artists?  How can I trust they have my back?  They have their secret agendas, if something comes up, how will I know I won't find myself alone against it all again?  Blimey, who am I kidding... I already said it, I'm all alone anyways.

You aren't alone silly Fox.

Morgan spun around, scanning the park, walk and building exterior with his eyes, "Cat... who?"

There was no one around, no presence in astral space and no mental signatures close by, "cor... now I'm hearing things."

Morgan headed back inside before ghosts started appearing to match the phantom voices.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Sally Joywaves was exhausted, her body had little reserves left from the last mission, and her body was going into overdrive to digest the mega meal of meat and fat to replace it.   This left her little energy to navigate the halls of the rebel base.  Yet, She was worried about Morgan, and her instinct somehow lead her down  the same wandering path that he went. 

"Be careful what you dream for?" said her mother.  Sally had want to be a mother to group misfits, which she saw just need a little TLC.  She did know how that would effect her.  That she would know when they hurting in more ways than one and her own worry about them all.

She stops herself in a hallway before the outside door which Morgan had gone.  She rests against the wall to catch her breath, wondering why she is here.  Morgan is old enough to take care of himself, but still she stays.  She is lucky the medical ward is only three or four passages away, she thinks with heavy breath.

PBH 

[Tapewolf]

"The last mission wasn't like this," Dorcan said.  "My guess is people are just tense because we're going to go into action again.  Anyway.  If we can borrow one of the Doctor's examination areas, I'll show you what you need to know.

"Off the top of my head, I can tell you that your technology and mine are similar, but the units are different.  The main electronics bus is rated at +5v on our scale... using your multimeters it came out as -6.83, so multiply all the written voltages on my circuitry by -1.366 to get the equivalent in your units.
I think I have a copy of the schematics on a thumb drive in my key ring.  After the mission we'll have to see if we can figure out a way to read it on your computer systems."

[Ryudo Lee]

Meanwhile, back at the construction site...

A truckload of sheetmetal, nuts, and bolts, as well as a few more workers arrives on the site.  The other workers at the site immedietly descend upon the truck, and quickly unload it's contents.  The zealots providing security look on.

[shadowterm]

Izzie prepared to get up "Sounds like it shouldn't be too ridiculously hard to figure out. You wanna go now?"

[Azlan]

Morgan wandered back into the base.  He did not have any where in particular to go, so he headed to the one of the lounges near their staging area.  He took a seat and waited, keeping his thoughts to himself.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Dr Sally
Watching Morgan going down the hall to the lounge, Dr Sally thinks it would better to leave Morgan to his own device for now.  She lets go of the wall and heads to medical ward.  She just makes back to the her sick bed, before she collapses in a heavy healing sleep.

Medical Tech/Corpman Jathon
Watching the new Mechanic and Dorcan leave.  And turns to Jexx, "Well it seems, we will get have to wait for the others at the departure Lounge or somewhere.  Do you know how to play cards?"

PBH

[techmaster-glitch]

   Jexx looked up at the new medic quizically.
   "Uh...cards?"

[Tapewolf]

"I guess we'd better," Dorcan said to Izzie.  "Let's get this over and done with."


When they were somewhere private, he turned and faced the mechanic.  "I'm afraid I've been a bit economical with the truth," he began.

"It's true that I was practically killed some years ago.  It's true that I required a lot of rebuilding, and it's true that my limbs are prosthetic."  He took off his shirt, and held out his arm.  He flexed it, twisted it and rippled his fingers.  Beneath his fur the muscles and tendons flowed perfectly.

"...the implication is that it is just my limbs.  The truth is... " he paused, wondering how to put it.  "My brain is prosthetic as well.  There is nothing left of my original body at all, save for my memories and personality."

As he spoke, he touched his ribcage in a certain way.  It swung open to reveal a clean layout of circuitry and actuators.

"My muscles are a mixture of polymer and nanoelectronics which contract when a current is passed across them.  The power source is a hydrogen-boron reactor.

"The doctor knows.  Baiye knows.  The others might start to suspect soon.  I never eat, I don't tire, and I don't breathe.  I don't know what will happen when they find out.  I mean, we're fighting against the Brotherhood of the Machine, right?  For all they know I'm... one of their pawns, or something."  He looked scared.

"I wouldn't tell anyone at all, but... I.. I guess it's in case something happens to me.  I want there to be someone who stands a chance of powering me up again if I'm... damaged."

He took a small, plastic object from his pocket and placed it on the table.

"This has the complete schematics for building an android frame like mine, even down to the brain.  It's all there in raw bitmap image form.  One bit per pixel.  If you can figure out how to read the data off the memory chips sector-by-sector, you can reassemble it like some massive jigsaw puzzle."

[shadowterm]

Izzie grimaced "When you put it like that I'd rather try to figure it out the hard way. Guess in this case that's not an option." Izzie sighed "Well, I can understand the hesitance on telling everyone, you have a point. I'm not making any judgment, I mean if you're as complex as you look I doubt the brotherhood would be able to screw with you so completely that no one would notice. That said, I'll be able to patch you up, but looking at it, you'll want to go to whoever specializes in it as soon as you can. I'll be able fix some of it if it breaks, but it will not be permanent by any definition of the word for now." He sat down and rubbed his eyes "You guys really like to give the new guy a challenge huh?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"O-kay Jexx Cards is a game or games base on small thick pieces of paper with pictures or numbers on them.  52 of them.  See." Said Jathon pulling a small box and opens it to a deck of playing cards. 

"See, these have the same picture/pattern on one side and the value/picture on the other side or the face.  Some games you hold your cards so only you know their values  like this. or face up in front of you, so everyone knows.  Each game starts with a shiffle*clicklclickbrr* and you get to cut or divide the deck in half and put the bottom half on top the upper half."

Jathon starts to teach Jexx about the game 21... If he can stand this instruction....

PBH

[Tapewolf]

"Thanks," Dorcan said, and there was a tone of relief in his voice.

"I'd rather you didn't prod around with my insides unless it's entirely necessary," he agreed.  "Extracting the data from the memory module shouldn't be too great a task if you can figure out how to drive the memory chip.  The basic pinout is on the PCB, and we've deliberately used a simple protocol.
"My race - what I was before I was killed - has a nominal lifespan of 3000 years.  We see a lot of tech suppliers and standards come and go, so we stick with standards that are simple to reverse-engineer in case it becomes necessary."

"So ultimately, recovering the schematics is basically just a data recovery exercise.  I'm sure the Alliance labs will have someone who specialises in that, and I don't care who else is involved as long as they don't realise that the plans are for building me.  The assembly schematics depict a generic humanoid... the thing that is most liable to make people suspect are the optional modules for the head-wings."

"As for the Brotherhood, what worries me is not that they might gain control of me somehow, it's more that the Alliance only really has my word that I'm an alien.  It might be easier to believe that the Brotherhood built me themselves as a spy or something.  That's what I'm afraid of."

[shadowterm]

Izzie got up "Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Anyway, we should probably meet back with the others, I can drop this off on the way there" Said Izzie as he picked up the thumb drive
"I wonder where they went?"

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan shrugged.  "Check the mess first, I suppose.  If that doesn't work, we ask where Exo is."

[shadowterm]

"Sounds like a plan to me." Izzie said walking out the of room. "All else fails, we go door to door."

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan surveyed the mess, spotting Jexx and the medic guy.  What was his name again?  They seemed to be playing some local card game.

"All done," he told them.  "You know, our instructions were a bit vague on what we should be doing right now, and where we should be meeting for departure.  Unless anyone knows different, I guess we should ask Exo what's next.  Anyone know where he is?"

[Prof B Hunnydew]

"Oh Hey, Dorcan and Izzie, Well, If we are looking for Exo and He went to gather the vans, teams and supplies.  I think, if we go to the staging area.  The storage and armory are nearby the motor pool, so back this way.  We should able to find Exo there, if he working on the logistics."  Said Jathon as he puts up he cards.

PBH

[Azlan]

Morgan had long since decided to abandon the lounge he was in and head to their staging area.  He reclined against a crate and waited for a call to assemble from Exo or for everyone to show up.

[Arcalane]

Exo was just doing a final check on the loadout and personnel before departure as the others arrived, making sure everything was in order for the attack.

"Ah, good. Everything is almost ready here. I suggest you make any last minute preparations you need to make."

[Azlan]

"I have all that I need, it would be best to... 'get this party started' as soon as possible."  Morgan stated as he leaped up and sauntered over to the warbot.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Jathon voice can be heard down the hall "And here is the motorpool and the emergency room is right through there.  This is the staging area number #2, where there is this big giant global thing is directing our next big movie....  Exo, you have gain some weight since you got here, I have seen you this big in a while."

Jathon leads Jexx and Dorcan into the stage area.  He marches up to Exo, salutes him, and said "Corpsman (FMST) Jathon Mason reporting ready and standing by, sir". 

PBH

[Tapewolf]

"I'm ready," Dorcan said.  "How about you?" he asked Izzie.  Now would be a good time to hand that memory card over to the techs, he thought.

[shadowterm]

"I'll join you as soon as I get this thumb drive to the techs." Izzie said "I'll try not to hold you up to long." Izzie then started off toward the labs.

[Arcalane]

Exo nods, and directs the assembled Rebel operatives to get ready to roll, with the group split between three vans*. The main attack/scout feint group take one, whilst the infiltration group take the other two, passing out maps. "We stay together for most of the trip, and split up around... here." It points to a small clearing marked on all of the maps. "The infiltration group will hide their vans near the dried out river," it gestures to a couple of suggested vehicle hiding places, "...and proceed down it amongst the construction materials. The scout/assault group will get much closer and attempt to lure the defenders out. Infiltration team objectives are simple; download the tower's database and, if possible, set demolition charges to destroy the tower. A night assault will give us a better chance of getting close to the site without being detected."

It folds the map it was using away and throws it onto the main van's side seat. "One more thing. If you come across any Brotherhood tech that can be salvaged, grab ahold of it. They may have a technological advantage for now, but it's a stranglehold that we can break fairly easily if we can get ahold of equipment to reverse engineer." With that, it climbs into the driver's seat of the main van, slams the door and revs the engine.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Jathon points to a female ferret said, "Hey Izzie, You can give the Data drive to Micheals over there.  She is with cybernetic/robotic.  Exo is not a bot to wait, it seems."

The corpsman runs to Exo's van is driving, and gets in.

PBH

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan was still a little unsure that he had done the right thing.  Confiding in Izzie had opened him up, perhaps more than had been wise.
Nuts, he thought, Think of something happy.  What's done can't be undone.  Brooding over it for the whole damn trip is not going to get you anywhere.

He climbed into the first available vehicle automatically, not really caring who he was with.