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

[Lisky]

darkshine relaxed visibly once the massive weapon was lowered, then said "no memo involved, either they want what i know, or they want me for something that requires a live subject, either way, i guess i owe you something for preventing them from getting what they want"  he looked around at the team, then at the floor
"look we can talk about whatever you want once were on our way to safety, i bluffed about the pins, they carry a light current, but nothing too hazardous.  You should be safe pulling them yourself with a pair of gloves... though if your removing my armor, i've got some civilian clothes in the bag, at least a pair of pants would be great" he finished the sentence with a crooked smile

[Tapewolf]

"Do you want me to do the honours with the armour?" Dorcan asked, glancing between Exo and Morgan.

[Azlan]

Morgan nodded to Dorcan, "I would say that is a good idea, as long as the big guy does not object."

Morgan shifted his gaze to Exo, looking for any sign of an opinion on this course of action.

[Arcalane]

Exo shakes it's head. "Knowing them, more likely the latter than the former. Try not to break anything, Dorcan." The bot raises the plasma repeater a bit, glancing out into the corridor. "The less time we're here the better though."

[Tapewolf]

"Thank you, Sir," Dorcan said, and made his way to the leopard.  "While we're all here," he added glancing at Exo, "Could we have someone check out that generator thing upstairs?  The way I see it, Morgan had to pick a lot of locks to get at it, so it must be pretty important, yeah?  Ideally it would be nice if we could dismantle it and remove it for study.  Steal some of the Brotherhood's lifting gear or something..."

"Now," he said to Darkshine, "Let's get you out of there."  He reached over and began to remove the locking pins.

[Lisky]

darkshine leaned forward, making it a little easier for Dorcan.  As he leaned forward, a small patched of dried blood became visible where it had pooled at darkshine's neck, along with a small bruise where he'd been hit.  He looked up at the doberman and asked , "think you could get the cuffs off now? not gonna lie to ya, my shoulders feel like they're about ready to break"

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan leaned over and took off the cuffs, bending them this way and that until the metal broke.  The others seemed impatient to be getting on, so he didn't bother to ask first.  It was obvious enough that if Darkshine tried anything he'd be dead in short order anyway.

[Lisky]

finally freed from the cuffs, darkshine eased his weight onto his feet, and slid the mesh and plates off the rest of his body while he got up.  After the initial dizziness passed from changing positions, he took a second to stand, then stretch his entire body.  As his joints cracked away their stiffness, he noticed his total nakedness... sightly embarrassed by the other people watching, he paused, covering himself as best he could with one hand, and pointed to the bag with the other
"since you obviously don't trust me, why don't one of you get the clothing from my bag, it's in the main compartment, just under the rifle... and please, please be gentle with her" he asked, putting as much pleading in his voice as he could on the second please.

[Tapewolf]

"May as well," Dorcan said.  He studied the rifle for a few moments until he found the safety and ensured it was on.  Leaning it against a wall, he separated out the clothes and handed them over.

[Lisky]

Darkshine dressed in the khaki cargo pants and black shirt as quickly as he could without startling the team, then looked over at Dorcan, obviously regaining a great deal of confidence once he was clothed again "any chance i could get my comm headset back too, i'm gonna need the recording on it to get my payment" he asked with a wicked smile

[Arcalane]

Exo chuckles and hefts the repeater. "Fine, fine, I'll go and look at the generator. Getting it out will probably be tricky, and I doubt the Brotherhood'll be happy... we should probably have someone check it for failsafes before we start tampering. Don't need it going haywire and frying itself - or worse, us."

The 'bot lowers the repeater, turns and heads out to start taking a look at the generator, leaving Dorcan and the others to handle Darkshine.

[Tapewolf]

With a sigh, Dorcan picked up the bag, and fished out the headset.  He was about to hand it over when he paused.
"I'm not sure we want you transmitting signals.  The Brothers might detect it."

So saying, he picked up the rifle and slung it over his shoulder for safekeeping.  Before the leopard could ask for anything else, he popped the headset back into the bag and handed the thing over to Morgan.

[Lisky]

"if your planning on using my rifle, i'd watch out for a few quirks, first is that rate of fire, in full auto you go through a magazine in a little over a second, and as for the scope, it's a two and and a half times zoom, and centered for 200 yards" darkshine said with a slight grin "oh, and if she jams, just pull the slide back, it does that from time to time, the ejected casing just can't keep up with the action on the weapon"

[Tapewolf]

"I was thinking it would look good on the mantelpiece," the Doberman said, raising an eyebrow.

[Lisky]

"if your not planning on giving it back, i'd recommend just killing me now, because if i'm alive, i'll be coming for my gun, though you probably wouldn't understand why" he grinned evilly, though his face started to change into an expression far more solemn as his thought's shifted at the end of the sentence...

(Edit) he cocked his head to one said and looked back at the team, "i've got 2 questions before we get going, number 1, have you heard from a few old friends of mine?  Both served in my personal unit for a few years, then joined rebel factions against the brotherhood, not really sure which ones though, one went by the callsign Smoke Jaguar, the other Bloodwolf... Number 2, do you happen to have any medics nearby, i'm feeling tired as hell, my head's been spinning since i woke up here, i know your going to have questions for me, so yea... some painkillers would be nice" he said, while rubbing his hand the back of his neck

[Azlan]

Morgan sent a response over the comm to Exo, it is all acting, thought you might want to look intimidating in front of the prisoner.  I had you on tactical ever since you entered the tower.

Morgan raised an eyebrow at Darkshine's comment about his gun, "sounds like a plan.  Depending on what we do, I will make sure everyone knows that is a viable option.  I have recorded audio of this 'threat' and will present it as part of our evaluation of you.  Thank you, nothing more telling than this could have ever been hoped for."

He ran his hand through his red hair and considered his question about the two 'ex-comrades' of his.  Morgan knew of the names, but kept this to himself, Darkshine was likely name dropping to try and earn credibility.  He would query Exo and see if he could check Rebellion records.

"Can not say that I know those two, we will check out your connection and if possible contact them to back your character.  However, if they are not among those who are on good term with our people, than it is likely their testimony will be of little weight."

Exo, I am relaying some of his audio over to you.  He mentions these two... Smoke Jaguar and Bloodwolf... aliases, could you check and see if these register with your Rebel staffers? 

Edit: added a ? at the end of that last sentence.

[Lisky]

"hmm, as i said, i'm not sure which unit they're with, but i know they joined an anti-brotherhood unit, as for you calling it a threat, how would you feel if that which you hold most dear is torn away from you?  Then the only memory of what you held dear is referred to as 'a mantle piece' i beleive he said.  If your not sure of what i'm talking about, the rifle your friend over there is holding" he paused to glare over at the doberman "belonged to a... friend of mine, perhaps you've heard of her in the past, Laughs Brightly" he paused, trying to keep his temper under control
"if you haven't, she served with me when i worked with the Black Hand unit, and when Winter Tempest broke the unit up, we stayed together, working together... one day while we were relaxing after a job, and just enjoying the massive paycheck we'd earned, a group of brotherhood thugs show up out of nowhere, grab her by the arms, throw her on her knees, shout how she's a magic user, an abomination to humanity... then he pulled the trigger... right there in front of me..."
darkshine took another pause, slowing his breathing and relaxing as much as possible, looking Morgan in the eyes, and showing obvious signs of fury
" i don't know who you are, or who you think i am, but quite honestly, i'm not a nice person where the brotherhood is concerned, if you want proof of that, i can tell you exactly what i did to the man who killed her as soon as i found him again... he didn't die nicely, and quite honestly i hate every one of the bastards... "

[Azlan]

Morgan shrugged, "I am sure you will understand if I do not take you at your word.  Infiltrators tend to be very clever with stories.  It also does not help your case any that you seem to be going out of your way to drop names, full callsigns.  If I worked with someone called 'Winter Tempest', I would eventually slip into calling them 'Winter' or 'Tempest' out of general laziness and need for shorter names for fast talking during missions and over comm systems.  You should know one needs to pack as much information into shortened speech to save time and be less distracting to others.  Habits like shortening names slip into casual speech and eventually ingrain themselves into speech patterns subconsciously.  It tends to occur more when someone is nervous or uncomfortable, even someone who speaks as precisely as I do.  The way you relate it speaks of a lack of natural flow, making it seem learned or practiced than normal and casual."

[Lisky]

"Normally i'd have to agree with you, but i doubt anyone outside of the Unit actually knew Winter Tempest as Sarah, which is what we used when being informal.  I was using full callsigns because i need you people to know exactly who i'm talking about, if i refered to bloodwolf as just wolf, i can think of 4 mercs who work for the brotherhood who have wolf in their callsign, and another 7 who are freelance... When smoke jaguar is concerned, well, he insisted that we use his name rather than shorten it, jaguar doesn't really fit him... and smoke, well, he didn't like the way that sounded.. though we did sometimes call him God, earned that with his skills with a high powered sniper rifle.  One time he literally shot a guy off my back at 1200 meters" Darkshine looked back at the team, visibly calmer than a few moments ago...

then said "look, do we have about 2 minutes?  Go ahead and have someone follow me if you like, i need to go back upstairs and get some blood or tissue samples from that officer i dropped"

[Tapewolf]

"For someone who's essentially a captive, you make a lot of demands," Dorcan muttered.  We should have just stunned him, he thought.

[Lisky]

Darkshine looked at Dorcan, cocked his head slightly, and said "I've got a hefty paycheck pending this mission.  I need a tissue or blood sample, along with that video in the headset to collect it, and i plan on getting my money." while still staring at Dorcan he stretched his entire body again.  He then leaned against the wall behind him, getting relaxed as possible and said "i'm sure we all have a lot to talk about.  Now me, personally, i'd prefer we do it once we don't have a brotherhood strike team crawling up our backside, and if in the process of leaving we can make another twenty thousand, i think that's a worthwhile venture... but as you said, i'm your captive" he finished the sentence with a crooked smile, stretched aging, flicked his ears back, and yawned.  He slunk down to a sitting position against the wall as another wave of dizziness and pain washed over him

[Arcalane]

[Suuuure y'did.] The bot chuckles over the comms. [I don't maintain a huge internal personnel database with me for obvious security reasons, even if I have no transmitter/reciever setup, but I'll run checks once I get back to HQ. This guy sure is making demands, huh? If he gets too uppity, you have clearance to temporarily take him out of commission. Feel free to tell him I said that, and that I'll deal with him personally if he wants to make a fuss.]

The bot wanders into the generator room and starts inspecting it, looking for any obvious failsafes or traps, and looking for whatever's holding it down. [We can pick up the officer he's so interested in as well if need be -- he might have some info on him or in his hardware.]

[Ryudo Lee]

The generator is bolted down with heavy duty bolts, and has several pipes and wires coming out of one side of it.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan glanced back at Darkshine.
"If I read Exo right - the metal guy - he just said that we can bring the officer to you.  We get dibs on any documents and hardware about his person, though."

Privately, he shuddered with distaste.  Killing someone as an act of self-defence, war, or even vengeance was bad enough, but something he could understand.  But the idea of killing someone for money or the sheer pleasure of random murder... that was a concept he had difficulty with, both morally and intellectually.  He glanced around, hoping he wouldn't get picked on to remove the corpse.

"I suppose I should also mention he authorised me to stun you if you get too uppity," he added.  "Oh, and if you have any complaints, you'll have to take them up with him."

[Lisky]

Looking up at Dorcan, darkshine sighed, then replied "You obviously don't like me, and if we keep it that way, fine.  Personally i prefer to keep things impersonal, but this mission wasn't, maybe we wouldn't be here at all if it wasn't personal, but i know this officer, he's the one who signed the orders." he stopped sighed again, looking Dorcan in the eye "i need the blood sample to prove the video isn't a fake, lets just keep it at that"

[Tapewolf]

"It's not really my decision whether you get your blood sample or not," Dorcan said, with a shrug.  "As for dislike..." he paused, collecting his thoughts, and yet again cursed at losing his empathic abilities.

"'Dislike' may be too strong a word," he said finally.  "I don't trust you.  Maybe I'm self-projecting, but if I was in your place, I'd be... well, quieter.  More subdued.  Your attitude makes me think you're up to something, going to cause us trouble.  Maybe I'm just being over-sensitive here.
"But the other thing is your choice of profession.  I've had scrapes with bounty-hunters and adventurers and not in a good way.  Where I come from it's all too easy to get a hit called on you just because of your race.  And even if we set that aside, I was always taught that lives and souls were to be treasured.  Granted, this ain't the best time for such sentiments, but stilll... someone who thinks so little of taking other people's lives unsettles me.

"Apart from that?  No problems."

[Lisky]

"understandable, and to be honest, if i had any less trust in you, or at least that your going to do the right thing, i'd probably have tried to  use someone as a hostage by now. but, if were talking about our past, i was brought up in a world where life was cheap, and i also learned that 'if your good at something, never do it for free'.  Take those lessons, add in the facts that i was orphaned, then trained to kill at a very young age, and you'll see my profession as a rather natural choice... though while we're just talking though, how old do you think i am?" darkshine asked with a raised eyebrow and cocked head
"oh, but before you answer that" he said quickly and giving a very wicked smile "when i'm quiet, that's when you should be most concerned"

[Tapewolf]

"That's it!" the Doberman said.  "That smile.  Captives shouldn't sneer like that.  Pretty much sums it up, hmm?"

"As for your age, I've met people who've spent millennia looking about twenty-something.  So I wouldn't even like to hazard a guess."

[Lisky]

"see, here's the thing, it's my coping mechanism, i'll admit it, i know that if you want it, i'm screwed, and theres not much i can do about it, if i sense something about to go wrong, i'll try and take someone down with me, but really, if you wanted me dead, i think you would have done it by now... am i scared, yea, a little bit actually, how do i deal with it, i make a few jokes, and try to push it away, deal with it later."
Darkshine gave another crooked smile, "now if we're talking about the whole defiance thing, that's my father's fault" he shrugged and continued" he wasn't human, i can tell you that much, can't tell you what he was, but i can tell you that he instilled a few values in me, even if you don't believe me when i say it, i don't harm the innocent, i avoid confrontation outside of the job if i can, and i am an immensely proud person, probably to a fault... but either way, i am who i am, and i don't blame anyone but myself for being this way." pressing up off the ground, he stood up slowly and moved a little towards the team "soo, you know a little about me, but what about you?"

[Tapewolf]

"How far back do you want me to go?" Dorcan said, and glanced around.  No-one else seemed about to speak, or indeed do much at all.  It looked like they were waiting on Exo to check out the generator, after which it was just a matter of removing as much as they could for study, before blowing the tower.  If so, they probably had time left for chatter.