Lush Wasteland: A Post-apocalyptic Cyberpunk World - IC

[Inumo]

   Cray sat at his desk, flipping through the pages of a file. Every page had a stamp in the corner, red for high priority. When a knock came at the door, he shut the folder and slid it over to one side. "Coffee for you, sir!" A voice announced from the other side.
  "Come in!" The door opened to allow a girl, looking only thirteen years old, to come in, carrying a tray with a couple of tin cups. Setting one down on Cray's desk next to his computer, she turned and started for the door.
  "Anything else you need, sir?" She asked over her shoulder.
  "Yes, actually. Could you call that new recruit, oh, what was his name... Ridgrey. Could you send him down to the briefing grove? Same with Elberta, she still hasn't gone out on an op. Oh, and get a message to Arial, the smuggler. We could use her skills for this. Use a runner."
  "Gotcha, sir." She shut the door behind her, while Cray opened up the file once more, this time to prepare briefing notes.



  "Hey Naya," the man at the communications requisition desk said. "Y'know, I don't think I'll ever get used to how you look."
  "Just because I look thirteen doesn't mean I'm not the sixty-four I am, Li!" Naya retorted playfully. "Anyways, I need a message sent to Traxen Ridgrey and Elberta Tudor; Cray wants them in the briefing grove."
  "Finally, those rookies go on an op! And here I thought Cray was coddling them."
  "Yeah, yeah, just get a message off to them, and send a runner to Arial. Make sure they're warned that she may not be too happy about us knowing where she bases her work out of, though she did make contact with us."
  "Same place for her too?"
  "Same place."
  "How's your relationship with Bruce going?"
  "Same as anyone else; he keeps treating me like I actually am thirteen, when I'm older than he is."
  "Haha! Well, good luck. I'll get the messages out."
  "Thanks, Li," Naya said as she headed back to her desk outside Cray's office.

[techmaster-glitch]

   A hover-APC sat in the garage of the Factionless base, alongside a row of other vehicles. While most of the other vehicles were civillian ones gutted for parts, with a few military ones kept together (with various additions), the APC was still largely in once pice, though it was obvious it had been patched up at least once. It's black metal matched the black colorings of the rest of the vehicles, thought it was somewhat large to most of the others. It's hoverlift drive was disengaged, and the vehicle rested on struts, but it wasn't empty...

*****

   Within the APC, lights turned on. Computer screens all around the APC lit up, various readings and diagnostics appearing on them. A feminine voice sounded within the APC from unseen speakers.
   "Traxen? I believe it is time for you to wake up..."
   On on side of the APC's interior, a figure wrapped in a blanket shifted on a bed rack attached to the side and ceiling. "Cybee...I spent all night working on that new bot. It's been four hours since I finished. Let me sleep in."
   The voice sounded almost disappointed, even pouty. "Oh, fine."
   "...Turn off the damn lights."
   "Yes, sir."

[Meany]

Maintaining a firearm was at the best of times, a necessity, and at the worst of times, a chore.  Even moreso when said firearm was built equally for function, and appearance.  The Widowmaker revolving six chamber pistol, a both ornamental and functional pistol given to female officers of the Mak military.  The weapon was weak, compared to other, more modern pistols, and dangerously inaccurate.  One of the first things she had done when her landlords had returned it to her, was to basically gun the weapon, and improve it to the point of being in the same league as more modern weapons, while still being identifiable as a Widowmaker.  Even so, it lacked stopping power, a flaw that could only be rectified by outright redesigning the entire gun; which Elberta had plans to do.  The weapon was laid out before her, disassembled, allowing for each part to be individually cleaned, before being reassembled. 

Cleaning her weapons, both the revolver and the sturdy knife in her possession, was the first thing she did in the morning, much to her new husband's annoyance.  After that, she took her eye off its charger, and installed it into the empty socket on the left side of her face, and proceeded with the start up.  Depth perception restored, she proceeded with choosing the outfit of the day; dark gray slacks, a pair of boots, a smoke gray leather halter top, and a coat with a holster for her Widowmaker built in.  Then came the jewelry; a pair of medium range communicators built like ear studs, and her ring.

Dimas, Elberta's husband had gotten her a ring after she told him that neither did she need or want one.  That defiance was one of his better qualities.  The ring's band was silver, reminiscent of twisting cables, with a smokey quartz gem instead of the cliche diamond.  She was fairly certain that he'd done something ultra-geek with it, but she lacked the technical knowledge to understand if he did.


Elberta was on her way to the R&D department.  Part of her arrangement with the Factionless was testing certain advancements in ammunition, and weapons technology.  She, being a warrior by nature, couldn't resist the possibility to get the edge on possible opponents by having one extra trick up her sleeve.  If her knowledge of the rotation was current, there was a live-fire test of a series of new paint-based rounds.  Paints with adhesive properties, knockout properties, acidic properties, the list went on.

She could practically smell it was going to be a good day.

[WhiteFox]

   "'I'm looking for a red cardigan.'"
   Crays runner stood in front of a bulkhead hatch, took his thumb off the intercom, and tried  not to feel foolish. For all he knew, there wasn't anyone on the other end.
   After a minute, there was a click from the speaker. "'What sort of material?'" The voice was female, and fairly light. Whispery.
   "'35-65 poly-cotton blend. An irish knit, if they still make those.'"
   There was a breif pause, and the sound of a heavy, metal, object being set down. "What are you doing here?" said the intercom.
   The runner glanced up and down the corridor. This was an industrial area, and the only time anyone came through here was for bi-monthly maintenance. Still, it was a publicly accessible place... "Is Arial Heuristal here? May I come in?"
   There was no pause this time. "Yes she is. No you may not. What are you doing here?"
   "Word from Cray: he could use your skills." He said.
   "A job?" She asked.
   "An opportunity." He answered.
   There was a much longer pause. "Yeah... alright." She said at last. "I'll be right out."
   The runner ended up standing by the door for fifteen minutes.



   Arial gave her bulky Haz-Mat suit, which was much too large for her, one last tug in a vain attempt to make it settle comfortably. The shoulder pad had "N/B/C," meaning "Nuclear/Biological/Chemical," stenciled on it, red block print on a fading yellow field, but that's not how it protected her. On the one hand, it did a very good job of keeping her identity concealed, but on the other, it was confining. The bulk restricted or hampered far too many of her abilities... flying in particular.
   She closed the visor on her helmet, and stepped out the door. The four oversized tanks, mounted on her back by mechanical armatures, bobbed slightly as she walked. She shut the corroded bulkhead behind her, and glanced up to the waiting toady. The opening door had startled him, but now he was just staring down at her. She was fairly short: the top of her helmet barely came up to his chin.
   "I'm all set." She said.
   He nodded back. "Uh... right. I can take you straight there." He said, and headed down the corridor. They walked for a few minutes in silence.
   "Not what you were expecting, I take it." She said.
   "No." He replied.
   "Is it the suit?" She asked, plucking at the seal on her glove.
   "I'm surprised you were so willing to come in person, actually." He said. "And... well, I was kinda worried you'd be mad that I showed up at your door."
   "I'm quite displeased, actually." She said, though her tone was still congenial. "...Just not with you."

((OOC: I did a sketch of Arial in her suit; http://www.whitefoxart.com/artwork/arial_nbc.png ))

[Inumo]

Cray paced impatiently in the briefing grove. Putting a hand to the side of his head, he sat down and re-ran over how he wanted to brief the new recruits. Gesturing at Naya, he asked, "Could you go check up on whether or not those messages were sent out yet? I'd like to get this briefing done before the heat of the day comes in. The trees can only block so much heat, y'know?"
"Right away, sir," Naya responded. She tapped a few things on mini-com, bringing up a camera view of the comm-req desk. Placing a hand on the grove's organo-comp, she sent a signal to the one in that portion of the base. Focusing on the monitor, she displayed on the screen, "Li, messages sent?"
Li, at the desk, turned to the camera, signaling back, "Runner sent, others not reached. Trying again." He turned back to the computer, wiping the screen and tapping a few commands, before throwing a thumbs-up back at the camera.
"The runner sent to Arial's been sent off, but we don't know about whether or not he made it. Ridgrey and Elberta haven't been able to be contacted; we've sent them a second message that should appear in their inboxes in a couple of seconds."
"Good, good," Cray replied as he started pacing once more.



Li tapped a few keys on his keyboard, then sent off an e-mail to Traxen's APC, reading, "Traxen, guess the first message was misdirected somewhere; musta been a flaw in the root system. Cray wants you in the briefing grove ASAP. You know how he is."



When Elberta reached the research station, one of her co-workers called out, "Hey Tudor, you got a voice message while you were out. Cray wants you in the briefing grove." The man shrugged apologetically. "Guess you'll miss out on testing out these paint rounds, huh?"

[Meany]

"I guess I will."  Though Elberta did not raise her voice beyond her usual monotone, it was clear by the sudden dullness in her eyes that she was disappointed.  She really wanted to test those rounds...  Still, there was nothing to be done about it, orders were orders.  Elberta gave a wistful look to the rounds, and the color-coding sheet next to them....

And then she was off, moving a bit faster than normal, and rather obviously clenching then releasing her fists to show her growing irritation.  Meanwhile, talking erupted in the station she had just left.

"Heh, looks like we're going to have Jeff test the rounds this time.  Try to shoot in the right direction, this time."
"Screw you, man."
"Hehehehe...heh...heh.  Um, hey, some of the rounds are missing?"
"Oh, which ones?"
"Three purples, two orange, and a green one.  Did anyone drop them?"
"Not me.  Alright, let's look around for them."
"You don't think Elly..."
"Nah, she's not sneaky enough to get six experimental rounds out of here."

As Elberta navigated the hallways, she smoothly withdrew her sidearm, popped open the revolving chamber, and one by one, filled them up with her new bullets.  She placed the three adhesive rounds first, then the knockout, and the one acidic round she'd pilfered last.  While she really did not like betraying the trust of her fellows, part of her agreement was field testing equipment, at her discretion.  Of course, it had been meant to allow her the option of saying 'no', but improvisation was one of her specialties.  

The chamber was closed, and the weapon returned to its holster.  And in short order, Elberta was making her way into the grove,  where she crisply saluted Mr. Cray.  "You summoned, sir?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   A few moments after Cybee turned off the lights to let Traxen sleep in, she detected an inbound message, After checking the message personally, she turned the lights back on.
   "...Cybee...I told you-"
   "I'm sorry Traxen, but you've gotten an important message. Cray wants to meet with you."
   There was a noisy groan from the bunk. "In an hour..."
   "I think he means now. You know he is your superior, and with all the hospitality they've given you--"
   Another groan, insistent this time, signified the end of the conversation. If the AI was capable of sighing, she probably would have. Instead, she took over the APC's drive systems, and started moving it around the garage. The APC picked up a little speed.
   Traxen stirred. "Cybee?"
   The APC suddenly took a hard right. Traxen went rolling right out of the bunk, right into a tangled heap over the central command chair of the APC below with a very indignant (and pained) yelp. Not messing around anymore, he quickly got his bearings, folded up the bunk, and sat down properly. Cybee already had the message on one of the screens for him to read.
   "Alright, to the grove..."

*****

   The APC pulled up into a parking space outside of the meeting grove. A rear door opened, and Traxen hopped out. A small hovering drone followed him, courtesy of Cybee. After the near failure of his original escape from Aeth, Traxen removed all wireless components from his own cybernetics, so Cybee was controlling the drone to give herself eyes and ears around Traxen.
   Traxen walked through the gove, not entirely comfortable with all the foliage, and walked towards the man he identified as Mr. Cray. Someone else was already there, too.
   "Hey there, Mr. Cray. You called?" Traxen walked up, the drone floating alongside him.

[WhiteFox]

   "Cray!" Arial snapped as she entered the meeting grove. The tanks on her back were flared up, like the wings of an irate hawk. "I need a word with you!" She said, and continued without waiting for a response. "As much as I can appreciate a show of power as anyone else, there's a proper time and place for it!"
   "If you want to get ahold of me, Cray, you go through proper channels. I have protocols for a reason: both for my protection, and the protection of my clients. If you pull childish stunts of bravado, like sending a runner up to my door, without warning, mistakes are made! I don't like mistakes. What if I had been in the middle of a transaction? What if my position had been compromised, I'd already left, and your boy walked in on a squad of Aeth inquisitors? What if I had decided to shoot him without hesitation? That's my usual policy when inept hoodlums with no respect for protocol come barging up to my front door."
   "I was about to do just that, by the way, and bill you for the ammunition, except that he looked like such a bumbling dunce, I decided I might as well ignore him until he wandered off... That is, until he stammered some watchwords he wasn't supposed to know. Which, by the way, did not alleviate my sense of caution. Quite the opposite, in fact."
   She crossed her arms. "When your man showed up, I did not know how or why he had come looking for me. If I had decided to terminate him, I'd be relocating to another site right now instead of standing here, talking to you. Which, I can only assume, was your original intent." She counted off on her fingers; "Clarity. Reliability. Security. That's how things are in my business. Your little message had none of these things. If you were trying to get my attention, then you have. By sheer fluke. If you were trying to impress or intimidate me, you have not."
   Tirade complete, her arms and canisters relaxed. Her tone lowered from forceful to firm. "Now that we've established how badly you are lacking in what I do best, what did you call me out here for?"
   The runner, still standing just inside the entryway, lifted a finger. "Um... can I go now?"

[Inumo]

Cray looked up at Arial's tirade, with a calm, almost relieved expression on his face through it all. "Yes, Kiro, you're dismissed." The runner hastily saluted before sprinting out of the grove as fast as his legs could carry him.
"Now that you're all here, I'll explain my summons: we have a job for you. Mak has managed to reverse-bioengineer the carrot, an orange root vegetable that died off in late 2210. They're holding a packet of the seeds in a containment bubble inside their fortress." He tapped the organo-comp, and a map of the Mak sector showed up on a blank slate of wood behind him. "Nice job," he murmured at the comp under his breath. "As you can see, the fortress is well defended. However, if you notice, here," he said, pointing at a small gap near the edge of the image, "there's a surface access that's behind half of their defenses."
"Assuming that this map is accurate, all you'll need to deal with are the guards. They're a mixture of genetically modified humans and camera-lines, nothing your pulse-readers won't be able to pick up. There will probably be a few Knights guarding the chamber, here." He points at a separate, almost shed-like building off to the side of the main fortress. "It's your choice on how to proceed, just don't get caught, and don't get seen entering or leaving through the surface access. The secrecy of our method of transport is vital to our safety. Payment will be dealt with by my assistant, Naya. She'll also be able to answer any further questions of yours." He nodded, and turned to leave through a spot behind the wood slate. "Oh, one last thing, don't use pushpins on the wood. You may get a face-full of irritating thorns."

[Meany]

Elberta did not immediately react.  Which was a bad, bad sign.  Going back to Mak...on her first assignment no less.  Suddenly the concept of karma didn't seem too idiotic, if only for a moment.  All in all, the mission was straightforward, and relatively simple.  The only major foreseeable problem in the plan was how to get out without being sighted.  And the simplest way to accomplish that was to give security something else to worry about, either by disrupting main power/communications, or killing off the bulk of their commanders, namely the Knights.  Elberta examined the map, committing it to her memory, then stopped to face the other two.

She looked over her comrades in this endeavor.  A cyborg, and an enigma.  Both of them seemed professional enough, and she could infer their usefulness from their arrivals and appearance.  "Good morning, both of you."  The Maki pulled on the ends of her coat, and lightly bobbed in the air; a curtsy of sorts.  "Would you two like time to gather resources, or are you ready to roll out and begin the process of establishing pecking order and strategizing immediately?"

[techmaster-glitch]

   Traxen raised one eyebrow very high at the newcomer in an enviro-suit and her energetic rant, but said nothing.
  Mr. Cray explained the mission they were to go on, noting their objective and how to get to it, and telling them what to expect. However, there was one very large detail he left out...
  The other person then asked about whether they should organize resources now. Traxen spoke up. "Well, I've never done any ops outside of territory you guys control, and on the few times I have gon out, I was in a support, logistics, and coordination capacity. I imagine I'll fill the same roll here. Name's Traxen Ridgrey, technological engineer with specialty in robotics. I got an APC I run things out of, I can control robots remotely as well as coordinate information between anyone with a comm device of mine, or one I've set to work on my channels. This here--" Traxen pointed to the orb-like robot hovering next to him, "--is one of my drones, but is currently being remotely controlled by an AI assistant of mine."
  "Indeed! I'm Cybee!" An 'excited' voice sounded from the drone. "I like meeting new people and going new places! I've never been to Mak before, but I've seen a little of it from the time I had when I was connecte to the 'Net. I help Traxen here with anything he needs, really."
  "By the way, Mr. Cray!" Traxen called to their acting boss again, as the man was walking away. "There is one thing about this mission you haven't exactly explicitly laid out, and experience has taught me to always double-check. So, you've said Mak's been able to recreate an edible plant. You've told us where said plants are being kept, and how to get there. But, what exactly are we supposed to do when we get to them? Steal them? Destroy them? Water them?"

[WhiteFox]

   Ariel took a moment to contemplate the map. "Deuterium, Naya." she said. Her voice had returned to its previous, gentler, tone. "If you can offer it. If you don't have enough in supply to pay me, we can discuss other goods and materials." "I might ask for some material supplies for the operation anyway."
   She turned to the other two people in the room."You'll have to pardon me: I don't usually work on a team." She said
   Ariel unfastened and removed her suits helmet, revealing an unmistakably artificial countenance. Her face looked like white porcelain,  complete with a glazed surface that almost seemed wet, but it flexed like synthetic skin. Her neck was also covered in synthetic material, but it was a  midnight-black matte surface, and seemed more like stiff rubber then skin. She also had a much more compact helmet on underneath the one she had just removed, arrayed with sensors and communication gear, which seemed be an integral part of her head. Her eyes were covered by a pair of small, dark, oval lenses with no straps, arms, or clips holding them in place. All that could be seen of her eyes were a pair of softly glowing irises.
   "My name is Ariel Heuristal." She said. "I do data analysis and acquisition, small package transport, and microtehnology repair. I'm combat ready, too, but I usually work covertly."

((OOC: Did a sketch of Ariels Face/Head. A quick sketch, mind you. Aside from the lines being rough, I don't think I'm done with the design of the top of her head; she needs some more detail there. Still; for the most part, that's Ariel.

Also, I think I'll be making "Ariel" the official spelling of her name, from now on.))

[Meany]

"And I am Elberta Tudor; professional soldier, combat strategist, and negotiator.  I am a accustomed to working on a team, so if you need assistance do not hesitate to ask."  The woman placed her hand on her chin in an 'I'm thinking manner.'  "I'm also a former member of the Maki military, so I have an understanding of their tactics, which will aide with general infiltration.  But strategy can be discussed on the move.
"Naya, can the budget for this mission afford some flash, and smoke grenades?  I dare not hope for any jamming devices."  There was much planning that would have to be done.  Variables to account for, travel time, mission time, contingencies, with so little time, manpower and resources.  The arrogant former Athena reveled in the challenge of it all.
"Mr. Ridgrey, will you be risking your APC for the mission, or will we need to make arrangements for a rental?"

[Inumo]

By the time Traxen had asked his question, Cray had already left. Naya sighed, muttering under her breath. "Typical him... What we want is a partial heist. We don't want complete sabotage; that would be both cruel to Mak, too hard to accomplish, and unnecessary. Instead, steal half the seeds they have produced and bring them here for us to recreate."
Turning to Ariel, she said, "I think we could probably filter some out from the sea to the west of here; if not, we can probably pull some from the energy stores. Don't worry, we'll find a way to pay you."
Finally, looking at Elberta, she said, "We should have enough to fit those in, and we certainly have a few jamming devices, though they won't do feed loops without further interfacing. Let me know what you need; it's hard to find flash-bangs and the like nowadays. Still, one of our agents was caught by Cla during a false delivery because she didn't spot the tripwire she triggered. She made it out, but it was annoying that it even happened." Naya sighed. "Ah, to have the technology of Goliath, but be felled by David's stone."

[WhiteFox]

   "Naya, can I get an upload of those?" Arial said, gesturing to the maps. "I'll need to know every square inch of that facility."
   "Also... I'm a jamming device, Elberta, and I can do feed loops for security cameras." Arial said. "I have a decent suite of ECM and ECCM, and the training to use it. Network and computer intrusion is a specialty of mine. I have a dozen or so flashbangs in supply, as well as some other exotic munitions. With some time and base materials, I could produce more." She said.
   "I can see two ways of doing this op'. Make a distraction, and have a team slip in to snatch the goods; or go in hard, get out fast, and pin the job on some other faction. For the former, I can handle infiltration, for the latter, I can take care of the information warfare. Plant evidence, change records, that sort of thing."
   She grinned at Traxen. "I'd really love to get a look at that APC, though." She said.

[techmaster-glitch]

   After Traxen called his question to Mr. Cray (though the guy had already walked away), the ranter in the envior-suit took off her helmet. Traxen was a little startled at what was underneath.
  "Hello there, Miss Heuristal, ah...if you don't mind me asking...is that a synth-skin graft, or are you some kind of android?" His voice didn't sound judgemental, but genuinely curious.
  To the Makian's question, Traxen said "Oh, I wouldn't say I'm 'risking' my APC. I'll be riding in it, sure, but I'll be outside any combat areas. I'll be supporting you lot with drones and robots I control remotely, in additoon to keeping information coordinated between you all, which does remind me, I will need to see everyone's main comm device to link it with my systems. If you don't have one, or if it's unsatisfactory, I'll give you a spare of mine. And speaking of, if anything of yours breaks, you need a new gadget, or you want something upgraded, especially anything that manipulates energy or is a mechanical device, I'm your man. Just don't bring me nanotech or anything biological."
  Naya then came over and explained the actuall 'seeds' objective of the mission. In doing so, she also directly address something Traxen had been thinking of.
  "Ah, we're only taking half the seeds? Good, I was just about to suggest that myself. I may not like some of the factions, but that doesn't mean the people under them should starve, people who might not want to be there." He shuffled his feet. "I would know."
  The cyborg-or-android then addressed Traxen after explaining her own suit. Traxen winked at her. "If you let me take a look at that suit of yours, you got a deal. I could use the blueprints for some ECM tech."

[WhiteFox]

   "Done." Arial said. She disengaged a number of latches between the environmental suit and her backpack. The bulky material fell away, though she caught it before it hit the floor, while her pack and the tanks remained affixed on her back. The rest of her body was covered blue-black, semi-rigid, material, similar to what was on her neck, and porceain white plating. She was quite sleek, and the blue-black material was sculped to imply human anatomy.
   She stepped out of the HazMat suit, and tossed it to Traxen. "There's my end of the bargain. You won't find much ECM on it, though. Let's go see your APC now." She said. She was smirking ever so slightly.

((OOC: Not the best phrasing, tech. ))

[Inumo]

Cray had left the grove by the time the messenger had caught up with him. "Sir, we've agreed upon a price with Darkshine."
"Good, good," Cray said, nodding. "How much will it put us in the hole?"
"Three bars of silver, plus four weeks of haven and priority on any future ops we have."
"Dang... Three bars? Well, better than four... Good thing we don't need it as much as the factions do. Hope he'll do the job right... Well, too late now. Get Emily to the briefing grove."
"Yes, sir." The messenger ran off.



Naya was leaning against the organo-comp when the alarm went off.
With contact made at the base of her skull, she caught the signal instantly. Storm incoming. Get to shelter. A few moments later, the trees were rustling and dropping twigs as a secondary signal.
"Ah, crud, why now, of all times?" Naya complained. "Quick, into the shelter. Storm incoming." She lifted up a trapdoor hidden behind the desk. "Come on!" she shouted, before dropping through.

((All shelters are interconnected via tunnels. Inside the shelters are various essentials to survive, but few luxuries, as storms rarely last long. Now would be a good time for everyone to meet up, since the briefing grove's shelter is also the largest one. Anyone that was already in the Factionless base will be in the shelters.))

[Tezkat]

Mary put the finishing touches on the new analysis package. She yawned and stretched out, catlike tail swishing, and wandered over to see how her son was doing.

"Mommmmm!"

"Oh hush, sweetie. There's nothing I haven't seen before."

He scowled at her and ducked behind a workbench to finish changing. She rolled her eyes when he emerged wearing his utility shorts.

"You know it doesn't work with clothing on top."

"So? Just test the top part and generalize. Isn't that more time efficient anyway?"

Mary chuckled. He sounded disturbingly like her old department manager back in Pohd. A lifetime ago...

"Fine. Have it your way." She prodded and pinched at his new bodysuit. It fit almost like an extra layer of skin, his musculature clearly defined under the matte black material. "How does it feel?"

"It's tingly." Marcus scratched his chest. "Brighter than the last one."

"Hmm. Yes." Mary nodded. "I added an underlayer of the ultrareflective fibres they're using for the armor project. The second pass should have increased photon capture efficiency by almost 40%."

"You mean it'll stop a laser rifle?" His eyes lit up.

"It mi--" Mary did a double take. "Marcus Watson, I forbid you to test that."

"What?" He looked up at her with pouty puppy-eyed expression, ears folded and tail curled up just so.

"I mean it. Don't go and try shooting yourself with laser rifles. Promise."

He sighed. "I promise I won't go and try shooting myself with laser rifles."

She shook her head. "Alright, up on the scanner."

He shrugged and climbed onto the testing platform. She grabbed a hanging cable and plugged it into his collar. Connection status flashed on her cybereye's HUD.

"Initiate Test Suite Alpha Six."

The lights went out, shrouding the lab in pitch blackness. A faint whirring sound accompanied the mechanical arm as it carried the variable frequency laser on its preprogrammed path across Marcus's torso. Initial results streamed across her HUD. She nodded in the darkness.

The first phase was over quickly, and the room lights flicked back on. Her son had many talents. Sitting still was not among them.

He leaned forward. "So? How'd it go?"

She smiled. "Very promising. Indeed, the test data exceed initial projections. Cray will be happy about this, what with the new missions--"

"Missions?" Marcus cocked his head.

"Hmm? Oh, something about underground operations he's bringing in a lot of new recruits for." She waved her hand. "Anyway, the--"

"Call me when you're done." He unplugged his collar and hopped off the scanning platform. "Gottago. Loveyoubye."

"Marcus..." But he was already gone. Mary sighed and turned back to her displays.



The sky was dark and overcast as Marcus rode into the main base on his hoverboard. Heavy winds whipped droplets of cold drizzle against his skin. He did kinda like storms, but it'd be best to get inside. Mom would yell at him for sure if he got hit by another lightning bolt.

As he neared the entrance, his collar picked up the broadcast alert on the localnet. Storm incoming. Get to shelter. He sighed, tucking his hoverboard under his arm before ducking inside. The trapdoor to the shelter was already open, and people were gradually making their way underground. He sat on his board, waiting for his turn, and then joined the others in the shelter.

[techmaster-glitch]

   Without hesitation after Traxen made his "offer", Ariel shed her suit on the spot, revealing a curvy and very uncovered form underneath, save for the synthskin itself that enveloped her entire body. The suit was tossed to Traxen as Ariel walked by, informing him of the suit's lack of ECM tech and wantingto see the APC now.
  Traxen caught the suit in one arm mechanically, and stared down at it, openmouthed. His eye twitched, his head tilted. "Ah....um...uh."
  Traxen took a breath and shook his head. He turned around, as was just about to say something when the alert sounded through the grove. Traxen sighed.
  "It seems I'll have to show you the APC later, Ariel, Cybee's gotta go park it in the garage-"" Traxen looked around. "Cybee!"
  The little floating drone suddenly whizzed out from around a corner. "Sorry sir, was looking at something." The little orb-drone looked at Ariel. "Hey, Traxen! That's some interesting modifications that girl over there has. You are going to ask her to look at them, right?"
  The still-flesh side of Traxen's face went ever so slightly red. "Nevermind that. Take the APC to the garage, there's a storm coming."
  "Already know about that, just waiting for you."
  Traxen looked around. "Sorry, I gotta go with them to the shelter. There's some more briefing to hear, I think."
  The drone wobbled. "But the storm will jam the signal to this drone! I won't be with you!"
  "Jack into the intercom, I'll keep in touch with you through the lines."
  "But I won't be able to see!"
  "See if anyone will let you get the feed from a surveilance camera. Now go, I don't want the APC caught out here."
  "Oh fine....again." Cybee's voice sound hurt, but the drone duitfully floated away towards the grove's parking lot. Traxen turned back to the group and walked towards the shelter door.
  "As I was saying, I was just going to show the APC to everyone anyway. Heck, I figured we might all be riding it to our destination. But indeed, let's hope this storm passes quickly. And, um...here's your suit back." Traxen held the suit back out to Ariel, averting his eyes from her, while edging towards the door.

[SquirrelWizard]

"Miss Vallenwhite?" the messenger paused at the entrance to the small workroom. The room was illuminated by a small lantern on a workbench. Stepping inside he looked around trying to find the room's occupant. His search brought him to the barely opened case on the bench. Casually the messanger reached out to open the case, if anything to see what was being worked on, when the air next to him distorted and as a hand grabbed him by the wrist.

The air shimmered as the camouflage module deactivated as Emily stopped the man from opening the case, "Don't bother, I'm just running diagnostics. What did you want?" her voice was synthetic which gave it a unearthly tone. This, and the look of her suits helmet and air filter gave her a rather ghastly look. (which coincidentally led to stalker type suit mask being nicknamed "death mask")

The messanger swallowed hard and snatched his hand back, "Miss, they need you at the briefing grove... they have a mission for you." any further conversation was cut off by klaxons going off, followed by an automated message informing them of the oncoming storm.

Emily reached over and slammed the lid down on the case and hauled it off the bench, "I guess that the venue for the briefing has changed." she turned the lantern off and handed it to the messanger, and headed for the nearest shelter hatch.

[Lisky]

The faceless figure came out from behind a doorway.  His form-fitting armor seemed to flow through the shadows, rather than move.  An eerie grace could be spotted in his movements as Darkshine checked the security system on his jetbike one more time.  The machine was inside as well, but a group of nosy, careless or simply greedy individuals could do a hell of lot more damage to that little piece of machinery than a storm could ever hope to.  "I'm surprised they were willing to pay that much.  Normally for a support job like this, i'd expect 2 copper 1 silver."

"maybe they're desperate... maybe they know the main team is going to fail... or maybe they just love being graced by your melodious voice."

"Ya ya... you know, there's a delete key-code built into your programing."
"You think i'd let you get that far?  Or, better yet, you think i haven't altered that program sufficiently to be able to ignore it, should you try?"
"Ya know, Ranger... i though you were supposed to be all greatful to be alive.  You're really pushing it buddy."
"Oh, Pshaw... you'd be buried in that bunker in Berlin if i wasn't around and you know it."
"Of go fu" *Click* Darkshine's voice was lost as he slid the helmet off.  He was inside the base.  A month of safe haven.  A month's access to their equipment, and enough silver to buy the additional elements for the next round of repairs he'd be needing.

He entered the Garage, moved to the long slender form of his jetbike.  He approached the rear, a smooth compartment with several obvious security measures in place to keep others out.  Tapping in the 12 digit code into the  locker's number-pad, a small whir of motors, the top opened, and a partition appeared. One side divided to be several sizes larger than the other.  On the smaller side, a sphere, about the size of a coconut, mounted on a metal rod appeared, Darkshine set his helmet on the stand, and sealed it up.  His feline features exposed.

Clipping a tiny device to the base of an ear, the spotted feline moved deeper into the base.  He followed along with the directions ranger was feeding him, heading for the main shelter.

[Ashen Star]

You can nuke the earth to a cinder and piss on the ashes and there would still be rats and cockroaches.  Sure!  They might be over a meter long and covered with acidic sores but meat is meat and food is food and sometimes a Grrrl just has to earn her kibble!  That's what she kept telling herself as she stalked the waste rat through the scrabbly trees and rocks.  Normally she'd never be this far out here... well... actually that was as far as she guessed.  After all, normal and her were far from great friends.  But the fast was she was getting to be persona non grata back with the Podh folk.  Time to lay low for a bit.

And that meant stalking the two hundred kilo vermin and play lunch or lunched.  The blue wolf hybrid had shed the rags miles back, rolled around in a carcass, rolled in some mud after that, and now smelled like the rest of the terrain.  She moved silently, curling around or hopping along the rocks that lined the edge of the wash as the waste rat scurried below on its way back to its den or something.  From the looks of it, some old military venting.  It probably didn't go anywhere... she'd snuck into plenty of old holes as a cub and they never went far.  This one was almost out of sight under the cover of some trees and old ratty netting; but no amount of camouflage could hide the smell of rusting metal.

This was it.  It was passing under the cover by the vents.  She's grab it and slam it against the steel and go for decapitation!  It played through in her mind over and over again.  Her body began dumping adrenaline into her system.  Muscles began to burn oxygen and her breathing began quick and deep.  The noise made the waste rat pause, looking around for the source of the noise... just as she anticipated.  Everything seemed to slow as she leaned forward and let gravity take over and once she was at the correct angle her powerful digitigrade legs pistoned and launched her into the air.  The rat may have had her beat by twenty or so kilos, but she had Newton on her side.  Claws latched into the rat's hide right beside its spine as she passed over it and rolled, transferring her momentum to the rat as she flung it over her head and against the vent covers. The impact should stun it long enough to...

There was a heavy metallic ping and screech of metal as one corner of the vent bent inwards and her meal disappeared inside.  "Are you kidding me?!"  She snarled and pursued the rat into the hole.  However, as soon as her muzzle pushed past the opening and she took a whiff she realized that while the vent cover was in sore repair a few feet in the vents were clean and clear.  And their was air circulating that was fresh rather than musty and stale.  And people.  And... holy crap, I found a RAT!

She might have forgotten about the rat in that moment but it sank its fang into her shoulder and immediately began to twist to tear out a dinner plate sized chunk of flesh.  That's if she hadn't been made of sterner stuff.  Up came her hands to hook her claws into its face and began to shred.  Really, most of the damage was superficial, until her claws found the eye sockets of the rat and with a jelly like squish blinded the creature.  That was enough to make it release her shoulder and try for her throat!  The blue wolf found herself on her back as the rat snapped blindly while all four claws scratched and scrabbled.  The slant of the vent was sending them sliding slowly downward.  She might have been engineered to be stronger than a human but the rat was the product of happenstance and survival of the ugliest.  She kept raking with her feet, her toe claws catching it's soft underbelly before ripping through and dumping its guts all over her legs.  That would kill it eventually... but it was trying to return the favor as it forced it maw wide and tried to drive it down on to her face.

The she heard the soft beep and click in the wall to her left; the hiss of compressed air.  With a surge of strength she lifted the rat ahead of her as there was a metallic thunk accompanied by a meaty squishing noise.  Brains, bone, and blood fountained all over her as the rat's head was squished by a sharpened beam on a pneumatic piston... A mouse trap.  All the vents with power had them to squish intruders... and as they slid past she heard a second hiss from above.  Down came a second one from the roof f the vent.  It cut halfway through the spine of the rat as Grrrl struggled to push her self out from under it.  The mangled body of the rat lubed her in its gore as she continued to slide downward, narrowly missing a third trap as she and the rat carcass moved down the metal chute.  Suddenly everything went vertical and with a howl she fell.

Her butt and four hundred kilograms of flesh bashed the vent fan side and knocked out the housing as they plunged into an immense underground chamber.  For a moment she was certain she was going to fall ten meters to her significant owwie.  Now so.  Instead she fell five meters onto the roof of an APC.  A cascade of rat bits joined her as Grrrl slowly sat up, a length of intestine wagging in front of her as she blinked in shock.  "Okay... not the best of first impressions..."

[Meany]

Whatever Elberta was going to say was cut off by the storm warnings.  Oh what luck.  The Knight sarcastically thought.  While the storm would give them extra time to plan out the operation, it would also give the enemy the chance to implement a new defensive measure for which they were unprepared.  All in all, waiting was a very bad thing right now.

Elberta would let Traxen and Arial go down into the shelter first, a remnant of the "First on the field, last off of it." sentiment the Makian military had been sure to instil in her.  Once they were all down, Elberta would start talking again.  "Miss Heuristal, are you commiting your resources to the operation, or merely informing myself and Mr. Ridgrey of your capabilities?"  Elberta would make gestures toward moving to a mildly populated portion of the shelter, which hopefully the other two would agree with.

[SquirrelWizard]

The messanger had taken leave of Emily at the earliest moment possible. Emily was left at the trapdoor entrance to the shelter system, watching several members of the factionless descend into safety, "When you get to the bottom of the ladder clear the area for other people behind you. Keep moving people," her synthesised voice cutting out over the general bustle of people heading into the shelters.

Some one, at some time, must have devised some unholy union involving a leopard and a human being smashed into each other at extreme speeds; what was standing in the doorway was likely the result. Emily glanced over to the leopard and jerked her thumb back to the hatch, "Kitty, you better get your tail over here real quick-like. Hatch isn't going to stay open forever."

[Lisky]

The feline seemed to glide across the floor, his attention now locked on the female as her words echoed through his ears.  kitty?  Kitty?!  Just who the hell did she think she was?  Taunting an assassin is a very short path to a very permanent dirt-nap.  Perhaps she doesn't know... if that's the case, however, she still needs to be put in her place. 

The darker side of the feline was starting to show already, his fist slightly balled as he approached.  On the one hand, she was simply trying to make a joke.  On the other, it was pretty clear that she had -no- idea who she was dealing with.  His walk almost turned into a stalk, loose fists form as Darkshine attempted to sate his current mood.  It wasn't quite enough.  He stood over the female.  "Kitty is a pet, a toy, something you take care of because it makes you feel good." 

A forearm pressed against her collar, pinning her against the open door. He said in an chilly, flat and low tone, "I however, am a predator... if you don't want to end up a rotting carcass, like all prey eventually do, then you'll be careful not to throw such insults so freely -ever- again."

A quick roll, and he was off, disappearing amongst the stragglers and shadows.  The toothy grin of a job well done crossed his face.  First issue resolved... hopefully this isn't a sign of how the meeting's going to run.  Another meeting full of amateurs and armchair commanders is just about the very last thing i need right about now.

[SquirrelWizard]

Emily grabbed her case and entered the shelter just before the door shut and sealed itself against the oncoming storm. She had put the incident behind her, as the leopard was being a jerk and could stay out in the giant cat box next time, as far as she was concerned.

She disengaged the face plate to her mask, and slid it off. She shook out her hair as she stored the mask in the case. She had been wearing it for diagnostic purposes, and since everything checked out back topside she was glad to be rid of it. The mask made talking to people a tad awkward. With the case still open, she pulled out a monster of a pistol and gave it a quick glance over. Satisfied that nothing was wrong with it, Emily attached it to the mag holster on her outer thigh and shut the case up. She wasn't too concerned with the leopard attacking her, but should he be inclined to, the Penetrator would be guaranteed to shoot some holes in any of his arguments. Picking the case up again, she hustled off towards the briefing point in the shelter network.

[WhiteFox]

   Arial walked smoothly out the door, past Traxen, leaving her HazMat suit for him to carry.

   Having arrived at the shelter, she shook her head at Elbertas question. "Other then the munitions I have in stock, the majority of what I have to offer is are my skills and abilities." She said. "I have a decent supply of microtech, but it's all components and parts... nothing that would be useful for the operation. I possess an extensive library of schematics and blueprints, but I very much doubt we have time to manufacture anything. I'd be willing to offer either of these for trade."
   She shrugged. "Besides; most of the material in my library is far beyond Ryas current production capability. Interesting stuff to read, though."
   Arial took a moment to look over the shelter area she was now in.

((OOC: Can I have a description of the area?))

[Inumo]

((Sorry, forgot!))

The shelter was dug out of the earth, a rugged tan dome with the ladder up and out against the wall. A few metal benches had been placed in a hemisphere centered on one wall, where a bed of roots grew, allowing a speaker to stand elevated and attention-getting, while still appearing as an equal. Two tunnels at the back of the shelter led off into the darkness, labeled "Garage" and "Quarters." Two more, placed next to the stage, were marked with "Infirmary" and "Communications." A few men and women were already standing around, chatting amicably off to the sides. An organo-comp placed between the two center-front benches was already active and displaying the map of the Mak fortress.



Over in the communications sector, Rina, an intern for the comm-req department, thought she heard a noise coming out of one of the old broken-rooms, where any old piece of radio equipment was kept plugged in and unused, either from lack of signal or lack of necessary parts. As soon as she poked her head in, though, all was silent. When she reported it to Li, she described the sound as best she could, saying, "Igun lut muhgo?"

[Meany]

Elberta sat down on one of the benches and scoured over the blueprint.  This didn't add up.  Granted, all Maki bases were similarly designed, the only real difference being scale.  However, this blueprint was too complete.  Too good to be true.  "Naya, how exactly did our dear Mr. Cray come to possess this blueprint?"  She was starting to smell a set-up.  And if that was what she was smelling Mr. Cray was going to be having a good many years shaved off his life expectancy.

While she waited for Naya to answer, Elberta rattled her brain for knowledge of who was in charge of this particular base.  There weren't many with the facilities to reverse engineer an extinct species, and this one was almost small by Maki standards.  That left only one possible person.  Gorbachev.  An Old Guard army man, paranoid to the utmost degree, who had managed to finagle his way out of many an assassination attempt.  Almost absentmindedly Elberta started to mark off guard positions and their patrol routes from her memory.  Gorbachev was not above changing things up, especially when a colleague defected, but he was also prone to keep things consistent, because 'they' might expect him to change.

God bless the stupid people.