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.
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."
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.
"'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 ))
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?"
"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?"
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.
"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?"
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."
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?"
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?"
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. (http://www.whitefoxart.com/artwork/arial_3.png) 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.))
"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?"
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."
"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.
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."
"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. >:3 ))
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.))
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.
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.
"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.
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.
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..."
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.
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."
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.
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.
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?))
((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?"
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.
Out of the corner of his eye, Traxen saw Ariel walk by....and straight on past him, into the door to the shelters. He stood there for a moment, before sighing and shaking his head again. He rolled up the envirosuit a little, then draped it over his mechanical right shoulder, and entered the shelter himself, following behind the others. Not coincidentally, the bulky suit on his shoulder blocked his vision to Ariel.
As he listened to elberta and Ariel talk, he spoke up. "I'm an excptional technician, at least in this base, and I can manufacture near anything in the workshop that my APC doubles as. For expediency, my APC's got a micro recyling/processing/fabrication unit built in, and it can make small-scale components or frames by itself with raw materials. And while I am focused quite a bit on reseraching and inventing new and cutting-edge things independantly, not having to reinvent the wheel is always nice."
****
Duitifully, Cybee drove the APC herself back to the garage after the deployed drone docked with it. As she pulled in, she headed towards a wall with a large multifunctional terminal.. She prepared a drone to carry a cable that would jack her into the interface...but before she could do anything, a number of sensors blipped, and she "saw" some feral beast-thing drop out of a vent...right on the APC's roof (with an amount of gore). Traxen was not around to take care of it. Fortunately, Cybee detected a few random passerby as well. Some external speakers built into the APC switched on.
"Alert! Alert! Feral beast on the loose! Please assist!" The hover-APC then began jerking back and forth, trying to shake the perched thing off.
"Feral beast? Where?!" Grrrl snarled, her hand curling on the haunch of rat as the APC started to sway and buck. Then she blinked. "Oh. Right. Me." Taking the largest piece of waste rat in her mitt and a second chunk in her jaws she leapt off the machine and rushed into the garage. Still, no personnel, no security robots, no people yelling 'Damnit Grrrl!'... okay she was most used to that one. Still, it was kinda eerie. 'Maybe I should look around?' she thought. Then she looked behind her at the flashing machine and yelled "Margle murmul grmmbl mac!" around the rat in her mouth. That'll tell it. Munching on the rat she perused around the garage and then stopped when she spotted a hose. 'Hrm...'
It was a sad truth that most people were prejudiced against the fine patina of carrion, dirt, blood, intestine, and fur that was her current scent. They simply lacked the nose to appreciate such a bouquet. It was tragic really; they'd save so much time and water if they'd just learned to embrace the reek than fight it. "Still, I'm a guest. What would Miss Manners say?" Of course the Podh would vary that from 'what manners are you being paid for' to 'do you want to get paid on your manners' to 'screw the conventions of society, do what you want'. One hand took the spray nozzel and the other held her still warm meal and she gave herself a good hosing. Some vehicle soap helped get the grime out.
Dripping wet and drying her ears with a shammie she walked back up to the APC, the massive blue wolf beast looked at the machine. "Hey? Is there an AI in here?" She asked as she rapped her knuckles on the hood. "If so... could you tell folks I come in peace, don't want to eat people, and am housebroken? Okay? Okay!" She looked at herself, "Ugh, still wet." And the wolf gave herself a brisk shake, showering Cybee with wet wolf. Chewing errantly on the second haunch of rat she strolled further into the base. "Well here's hoping that they yell first and shoot second."
Arial nodded to Traxen. "I've got a catalog you can browse; there's thousands of schematics and bluprints in there." She unclipped a small cylinder that stuck out from the bottom of her earpiece, and offered it to him. It had a standard data port on the end. "I'll need that back once you have the files." She said.
"I should warn you, though, the really good stuff is pre-diaspora, and it's far outside the production capabilities of Ryas industry. Purity of materials, fabrication precision, exotic compounds that have to be synthesized, that sort of thing." She shrugged. "A lot of it is just more compact and efficient designs for current hardware, but some of it so advanced you'd need all the unobtanium in Rya to build it, and some magic pixie dust to make it go." She said.
"By the way... even if I can't build it, I can still repair and refurbish some of that old tech. If I can't fix it, I can at least tell you what it does. I've got a few nice pieces of gear, and it's pretty sweet. Better then anything Rya can build today."
While talking with Traxen, she over herd Elberta's question. Arial sent a request for an audio connection... with those prosthetics, it was probable that Elberta had a communication rig in there somewhere.
While she was waiting for Elberta to pick up, she also composed and sent a text message to Naya:
-To: Naya
-Fr: Arial
-Re: access plz?
can you connect me with a secure pipe to mak intranets? i want to go mining b4 the op.
((OOC: Just so there's no confusion, Arial is doing her conversing, phoning, and writing simultaneously.))
Naya sat down on a bench, watching Elberta as she placed apparently random dots on the map. "One of this guy's subordinates remembered that the surface was still around at one point. We caught him just before he found the Mess Hall on the surface. Since then, he's only been Maki in name. He's a general in the fortress's army, so we don't need to worry about Knight conditioning. We passed him some nanotech, and he planted some bugs on the camera cables so we could get a good picture of the place. Unfortunately, all of the Knights have RFID tags that hide them from the cameras, so we can't figure out the guards' patrol routes." Soon after responding, her wrist-comm buzzed. Glancing over at Ariel, who was only a few feet away, she responded.
Quote
To: Arial
Fr: Naya
Subj: Re: access plz?
Sorry, we don't have a link to the Maki's closed network. Might be able to access it once you're there, though.
Darkshine's entrance into the little meeting room went relatively unannounced. He choose an unobtrusive section of the bench, then sat down. He flipped open a small plate and started playing with the multi-tool that was stashed there. He put it back, and tapped his ear, activating the small head-set clipped there. "Hey, Ranger, what's the status on our munitions in the bike? Should i get some additional rounds fabricated? or are we good?"
He knew ranger had heard him. Ranger literally lived in the suit. The small headset was linked with the various communications gear built into the suit, ergo, Ranger had heard him. However, the AI decided to remain quiet for a few moments before finally replying. "We don't 'need' more bullets, if that's what you're asking. But they wouldn't hurt either. If you've got time, i'd suggest getting more anti-personnel... sounds like we'll need them."
The feline watched as the team slowly filed in, he also took note of those already in the room. Judging from the people he'd seen so far, the reason he'd been hired was clear. A bunch of cyber-geeks and wannabe cowboys. As he continued his observations, he had to ask himself, 'has anyone else here actually been shooting where the targets shot back?!'
'...where the targets shot back?' Her ears flickered as she moved quadrupedal down the hallway, her digitigrade legs stretching out behind her to maintain a low and silent profile. Her neon blue tail swished back and forth behind her to scatter her scent. She'd been wandering this facility for almost half an hour, following a mixture of curiosity, covetousness, and the fact she hadn't found the exit yet. Still, given the distant booms of thunder reaching through solid rock, being inside wasn't so bad. Clearly there was something going on here. It was a damned sight more interesting than hanging out in the Podh tunnels, that was for sure. She waited back by the door, her nose taking in the scents of the occupants. Humanish. Catish. Note to self, no barking.
There were three Podh philosophies for this type of situation. A rat would skulk and hide, listening for as much information as possible before moving away and planing the best approach. A cat would walk in and let sheer confidence be their shield. Obviously, they were there because they meant to be there and were obviously the best person in the room. She, however, followed the dog philosophy. Thus the nearly seven foot tall heap of killing muscle and ripping claws jumped into the meeting room and gushed as fast as she could, "Hey! What's going on? Can I help? I wanna help! Let me help! Please! Please?! PLEEEEEZZZZZEEEE?!" She whined as the massive electric blue wolf wagged her tail as hard as she could and let her tongue flap out the side of her muzzle as she panted.
Then she rememebered the bloody hunk of rat clutched in her mit that could very well be from someone rather than something and gave a sheepish smile, trying to hide it behind her back. "Hee... um... pay no attention to my lunch! Really... no one you know... honest!"
"Did this informant happen to give the name of the base commander?" Elberta finished tracing the paths of the guard patrols she remembered, and sat up to examine the map from above. There were several possible ways to infiltrate the base, but one seemed to tickle Elberta's fancy particularly. But she'd need to know if Gorbachev was still in charge before she shared it with her teammates. The formr Knight idly reached up, and tweeked one of her ear studs, surrepticiously establishing the audio connection Arial had requested. "Yes? What is it?" Years of practice had taught Elberta how to wishper into a reciever to be heard loud and clear.
She didn't move to aknowledge the newcommers, but adjusted her prosthetic eye's camera to snap a solid image of them. They really didn't concern her; there was a mission to plan, and it had priority. "Ms. Heuristal, how long do you imagine it would take you to hack into the base's door control and fire suppression controls once you establish a hard connection?"
Quote
To: Naya
Fr: Arial
Subj: Re: access plz?
not have to be secure/mil/priv; publ mak nets r fin. just haz to be sec on yr side so no trace bak 2 u
Quote
To: Arial
Fr: Naya
Subj: Re: access plz?
Sorry, we don't have a link to the Maki's closed network. Might be able to access it once you're there, though.
Arial nodded briefly to Traxen before she turned to speak with Elberta. "Please... Call me Arial." She said. "The time I'll need to gain access depends on a couple of things. Best case scenario, popping the door by circuit-bending the lock would take a few seconds at most, but I doubt their systems will be shoddy enough to make that possible. I'm not brute-forcing anything, either... I'm fast, but not that fast. It'd take me, like, decades instead of millennia.
"Personally, I'd like to use a TEMPEST side channel attack:* we plant a bug in advance to do some key-logging. We wont have to recover it ahead of time: the second I reach the door, I can access the readings, analyze the raw data, and deduce an access code. There's a couple of different ways we could place the bug, and I've got a fair number of skills for that sort of thing, but I'll leave it to the mission planners to figure that out.
"Time will depend on how complicated the access protocols are; if it's a 16-digit keypad code, it'd take me a fraction of a second. If there are keycards or RFID systems, which have a lot more digits, maybe ten to fifteen seconds. If its biometric, like a fingerprint or retinal scan, it could take me anywhere from a few seconds to a minute, depending on the resolution.
"As a contingency, I'll make a few breecher RPGs." She held up her arm, which had a grouping of five circular holes near the wrist, about an inch and a half across each. "They'll have to be a
lot larger then my launcher can handle, though, so somebody with training will have to carry them." She said.
The newcomers entering the room caught her attention breifly... then her eyebrows jumped when the tall armoured gene-splice walked in. After a quick for telecom equipment, she sent text message:
Quote
To: unnamed predator
Fr: Arial (synthetic white female)
Sbj: nize threads!
been while since i last saw complete suit of reactive-pseudoplastic armour. looks made for u; culd be older then me?
need n e patching? or sum 1 to recalibrate the sensitivity? misc. port-and-polish?
call me!
Her conversation with Elberta over the audio line was very different:
"I noticed how closely you were...
scrutinizing the map, Elberta." She said. "I'm not very confident in Cray right now. I can't say I'm willing to fully trust his ability, or his motives. I was half tempted to walk out on the offer. I intend to do some double-checking and confirmation on the mission data. If you have any suggestions for other precautions that might be worth taking, let me know.
"I don't like to see a mission go tits-up, whether it's due to incompetence, bad intel, or a double-cross. The latter seems unlikely at this point, but I'll be making contingencies for all of them. We might want to discuss a few; for the team as a whole, if the operation goes out of the pan and into the fission-bottle; as well as for the individuals on the team, who may be... "high risk," shall we say.
"We might have to dispose of the shaggy blue brat... Who the hell let her in here, anyway? I don't think she was invited."
((OOC: *Sorry for the jargon:
Circuit Bending (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circuit_bending)
Side Channel Attack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_channel_attack)
TEMPEST (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEMPEST)
...Aw, who am I kidding. I'm not sorry at all; It sounds all Mission Impossible-ish.
[EDIT] Originally, Arial referred to AshenStar's Grrrl as a "neko-brat," when she is in fact canine, not feline. Pardonez moi, sil vous plait.))
Emily entered the briefing room, with her large case in tow. As she walked by the giant blue monstrosity she ruffled the fur on the top of its head as she made for a nearby seat. Leaning her case on the edge of the table, she sat back and calmly took in the room.
Edit: bah misread Ashen's last post. Edited.
Darkshine's reaction remained flat as, at first he heard someone talking about various types of hacking. Knowing ranger, he'd be, metaphorically speaking, drooling goodly sized lakes by the time she finished her in-depth prep-talk. Darkshine's specialty was less in hacking, and more in infiltration. However, something caught his attention. The synthetic started talking about explosives, breaching techniques. The feline's ears perked up, and suddenly, she had his undivided attention.
"Breaching grenades are great... but sometimes, simple det-chord and adhesive will work just as well, if not better, and furthermore, can be tailored to your needs. Just one thing to think about. Another, what are the walls of the facility made out of? If say, we start using Fuel-air or thermobaric grenades, would the walls survive the shock-wave?"
Flicking through some additional ideas, Darkshine stopped when he finally felt the text message that'd been sent and received, from the synthetic, while she'd been speaking.
Damn, she's good Were the first thoughts to creep into his head. He stood to his full height for a few moments, studying the blue-prints. "It'd be nice to know how much actual combat expertise we have in this room, and even more importantly, with who we're going to have in the field. Really... it'd be nice to know what skill sets we'll be working with, and planning with. That type of thing seems rather vital before actually making a plan... no doesn't it?... You can call me Darkshine, and if i'm not mistaken... my part of the contract is to make sure this gets done right. I'm an infiltration and weapons expert."
He sat down and sent a reply back, typing out on a small key-pad he'd laid out across a forearm.
QuoteTo: Ariel
Fr: Darkshine (Predator)
No need for help, can do repairs on own.
Age: 180
Armor is a Reaper Mk4 Semi-Powered Infiltration suit, unit #002
If U want 2 see more, just ask.
He tapped the message out, and flashed a big grin, having chosen to ignore the large blue beast for the time being, rather than respond. Dogs didn't bother Darkshine, and if this large hound decided to attack, or slobber on him... the latter seemingly increasingly more likely. He'd deal with that road when he got to it.
Cybee immediately stopped bucking the APC when the wolf-thing...spoke. Cybee went still and silent, and began carefully analyzing the seonsor input as she focused on the thing. Eventually, it hopped off the roof and sauntered down a cooridor. Cybeen waited for a moment, then deployed the drone to carry a cable to the terminal in the wall. As the connection was made, Cybee was linked with the base's intercom, and could now detect when and where Traxen jacks in. However, he wasn't online yet...oh well. Using the intercom's link, Cybee sent a message to the base's security center, requesting access to the surveilance feeds of the shelters.
"Hello security command, I am Cybee, the AI assistant of one Traxen Ridgrey. You should know him and I, we has been here for several months and has been helping with many research projects, but right now, I am separated from him, and cannot remotely keep an eye on him with a drone. Will you link me up to the camera feeds in the shelters so I may see that he is okay? I've hardly been separated from him like this before."
Cybee actually then thought it might not be so good when Traxen does return. There was still guts and gore left on the roof.
Traxen was going to go ballistic.
***
Traxen accepted the data cylnder as Arial passed it to him (though the huge suit on his shoulder still blocked his view to her), listening intently to her explanation. "Thank you very much, miss Heuristal. I quite look forward to browsing and analyzing the contents of this information once I'm back in my APC....oh, right! Cybee! Excuse me for a moment, I must get in touch with her." With that, Traxen moved away from the group, heading for the nearest terminal to plug into.
"While all of this is certainly useful...I was not referring to your ability to open doors, but rather close them." Elberta highlighted a area of the the building, a large entrance hall. "Part of Maki military protocol is that all but essential base personnel are required to be at attention in this, the entry hall, any time a member of the royal family comes to call. The simplest plan is to convince the base staff that one of the Princes is coming to inspect their progress, and then remotely lock the doors to the hall behind them. All but a skeleton crew made of mostly scientists will be locked inside, allowing us to effectively stroll on in, get the seeds, and get out.
"The walls are stronger than the doors, so they will probably attempt to either bypass the door controls, or cut through them, which is why I inquired into Arial's ability to hack the fire suppression systems; it will slow them down significantly. The only issues are that they're ability to break through the doors before the cargo has been obtained cannot be overlooked, so we will need to travel fast, and light; also, if the facility's commander is indeed Gorbachev, he might be insane enough to order a couple of the Knights to stay behind. If so, they will need to be dealt with. And lastly, the data of our attack on the facility will need to be erased; even if the servers need to be pumped full of holes, there can be no digital proof that anything out of the ordinary occurred."
Elberta turned slightly to focus her artificial eye on the feline. "This plan has been formulated with the skill set of the known operatives assigned to the mission in mind. By your tone, I'm guessing there's been some last-minute adjustments?
"In any event, I'm Elberta Tudor. Professional soldier. If it has a trigger, I can shoot it with a fair degree of accuracy. I can, as demonstrated here form some decent assault plans on limited intelligence, and I have the political savvy to negotiate a beneficial deal."
"I've learned," Elberta breathed into the communicator. "That people rarely can be trusted implicitly. For the sake of caution, neither of us should be assuming the other isn't a conspirator with Cray. But if you take a chance and trust me, I would be willing to do the same with you. Look at our personnel files. The files themselves are more than likely restricted with some sort of security programs installed, but there should be a log somewhere of who's been looking at them, and whether they've been altered or copied. Setting a few booby traps while you're in the system couldn't hurt, with preconditions like trying to delete certain personnel files, or by remote activation.
"Fleeing Rya altogether might also be considered, as a last resort. I'm afraid that's all I can think up on the spot. As for the canine...if it comes to that, I will deal with her. Personally."
(OOC: Blargh post is blargh.)
Arial chewed her lip for a moment. "I'd... huh. This could get messy." She said.
"First, if we want to convince the base that there is an a impending inspection, gain control of the doors and fire supression system, and erase any digital evidence that we were ever there at all, the most efficient way to do so would be to hijack the network for the
entire base. I don't mean just the security systems; I mean everything."
"Hacking our way in wont be the hard part; they probably have a pretty solid block of ICE, but you're talking to Satan's own hacker. It's not my strongest suit, but I'm faster then any meta-human, and more adaptive and creative then any AI I know of. If there are half as many assistant-AI's on the team as I think there are, I can co-ordinate an attack that will make their heads spinning. The hard part will be making sure we have access to 100% of the system, no exceptions. The probability we'll be able to do that, even in the best of conditions, is infintessimal."
"Second, this is a loud plan. The definition of a black-op, as opposed to covert, is that at no point is the enemy aware that an operation occurred at all. The Mooks... er, Maki, are definitely going to know that
something happened, no matter how much data we alter, because they'll be missing seeds. The bigger the op was, however, the harder they'll look into it.
"Instead of erasing
all the evidence, I suggest we leave
very little evidence, and manipulate the data to pin the operation on a different faction.
"I'm... hesitant about a few things in this plan. Having a skelleton crew in place and all the base personel in one location makes for a fair bit of risk. It's fine if everything goes according to plan, but things could go very badly if it doesn't. Besides, Cray wanted this to be quiet." Ariel glanced over to Naya. "Is this mission plan within operational parameters, Naya?"
There was a very soft chuckle over the private com-line. "'If' I were making contingencies for the possibility that you are a compromised element, the first precaution I would take would be to not inform you that such contingencies were being made."
"I will warn you, though, that I have yet to formally accept this contract. When Cray walked out, I was tempted to tell Naya right then and there that he could shove it. If I'm not confident in the success of the mission, I am going to cut and run, no discussion. I'm a professional, so I wont be ratting anyone out or taking any payment with me that I haven't earned."
"As for Cray, I'd rather not resort to active sabotage. Again, unprofessional. I'll definitly want to take a look at the personel files, though. Closely."
Quote
To: Naya
Fr: Ariel
Subj: background check
i'd like to look at what info. you hav on the team members, and what resources you have available for us to use. i can has user access for your intranets?
Quote
To: Darkshine
Fr: Arial
Subj: a/s/l
Age: 140+
Specs: MkII A.M.And.A (Infotech variant)
Loadout:
My body-type is designed for precision flight, high-volume data processing, and extreme radiation/impact/thermal/whatev tolerances.
The Mark I frame came in two models: a civillian variant for scientific research involving hazardous conditions, and a military variant for battlefield reconnaisance and telecommunication support.
It turned out that a mix of both scientific and military capabilities was well suited for infromation warfare; gathering and interpreting military intelligence. The Mark II came out in a third model, optimized for covert operations and intelligence analysis.
I'm a MkII Science model, but all three variants have a couple of standard features, like crypto' gear and the basic PDWs, and I have the training to use them. I was also trained to be self-sufficient, so I can build/repair all the equipment I need to do a job, and keep myself supplied and running.
I have extensive training in scientific fields, some of which you can't get anymore. I've gotten a lot practice with my military hardware and intelligence gathering techniques since I started doing contract work, too. These days I sell my services, usually information brokering, trade/repair of black market technology, and covert package transportation.
I look forward to working with you! :)
((Ack! Sorry it took me so long to post. The post fairy has not been kind...))
Naya had wandered over to a tree root growing out of the wall, apparently only half paying attention to what was going on. She'd heard enough questions to set off her internal ticker for when to answer.
"Elberta, the informant apparently picked up some of the paranoia of the guy he's working for... He won't tell us his employer's name. Sorry. At least Darkshine's on your team, eh?"
As she said this, she pulled opened up her messaging program on her keypad again.
Quote
To:Ariel
Fr:Naya
Subj: Your Messages
Wow, two messages without waiting for a response? Pushy... :P I suppose I should clarify by what I mean by "we don't have a link." We actually do, in a sense... One of our hackers got lucky recently with the 250-sec ((See note1)) link, and they used a rather easy decryption. Only problem is, we're afraid that if we try to hack again, we'll take down his link and possibly wipe all of our systems if we don't close off fast enough. The organo-comp's in the comm-req zone. Talk to Li, he'll direct you to the right one. They've got some stuff on that network, but the guy we're heisting has a link with 15k-sec, along with some pretty dang good encryption. Nothing hard, if we could figure out what the encrypted data was, but we can't get a solid message, only kill commands. The guy seems to have a crap-ton of back-ups, though; every time we kill his string and wipe his server, it's replaced with speed I've only seen Aeth tech beat.
We don't know much about the people we're sending on this op's experience, only their field of interest. This is their first op, Cray figured this'd be pretty easy. Traxen's an Aeth fugitive for accidentally making his own AI; he's one of the techies, seems to know what he's talking about. Elberta's an ex-Knight, "failed" experiment from Mak; seems to be doing pretty fine as GMHs go, though. You wouldn't believe some of the stuff you see coming out of Pohd... Arial's one of our smuggler contacts; she's been able to ship some pretty nice tech that we've been able to integrate with the tree-network. Darkshine's a merc, and apparently as good and honorable as a merc can get. Pretty asinine, though. Emily's one of our inventors, working on the paint round project. All I can think of off the top of my head... answer your questions?
P.S. Op sounds fine from what I heard.
Hitting the send button, she turned to face Darkshine. "Glad we could agree on a price for you. The walls are floor-to-ceiling, supposedly two or three feet thick, carved out when the place was first built. I dunno much about explosives; you're the team expert, I believe.
After answering everyone's questions ((I think...)), she finally turned around to see the blue werewolf-esque creature. "So, that's who was doing the begging... For a moment there, I thought it was Sparky, the rascal... How'd you get in here, anyways? Our border security's pretty tight, and it's not like it's easy to stumble into one of our groves.... Either way, have to ask as protocol, are you or were you monitored at all when you got in, however you managed it?"
A security tech, sitting in the darkened room, perked up at Cybee's communications. "Cybee, this is Security. Request received and granted; patching you in now." He tapped a few keys on his keyboard. "You should be getting signal now. Let me know if there's anything else you need." Leaning back, he shut his eyes once more and resumed his nap.
((Note1: The current form of encryption is a system that, if you don't pick up the signal in the right spot, can wipe out the entire signal, as well as the entire server of data if the security programmers so wish. The #-sec is in reference to the number of kill commands. For example, in a 250-sec link, out of every 250 packages sent, only one of them is actually a piece of data, encrypted or otherwise.))
At the mention of the wall's thickness, a very wicked grin grew across the feline's face. "What I have in mind should be fine then. I'll be sending some plans to your people for fabrication. An aerosol disperser, and a spark plug, you combine them with the appropriate mixture, and you've got the finest room and hallway clearing device humanity has made to date. Just gotta be sure the team is clear."
"how quiet or loud do you want this done? I mean, if we have to come out guns blazing, should I make an effort to destroy as much of the facility as possible? Is there any reason, should it prove tactically possible, not to make an attempt to seize the facility for later use? And lastly, how much leeway are we going to be given with salvage. Say, I need to take down someone in a head to toe power armor, is taking that armor back with us and using it for salvage a legitimate possibility. These are a few things I'd like covered now... because, well... salvage is, at the very least lucrative, and often times leads to discoveries of enemy technologies."
He'd stayed standing, moving a bit further back once he'd said his piece, heading for the back of the room. He'd observe for now... see what the others had to say. While waiting he ticked out another reply,
Quote
To:Arial
From: Darkshine
Sub: Re: A/S/L
The feeling is quite mutual. Hopefully we can find some additional competent support. All i say are the local riff-raff, an armchair commander, and a couple of wannabe cowboys.
Unrelated note, getting you some thermobaric in my own order. Sending specs for future reference as well. Enjoy.
Naya gave Darkshine a funny look as he stepped back to listen. "This is a heist, a theft of seeds, not a full-on assault. The goal is to take the seeds and bring them here, maybe taking any research accompanying the seeds at the same time. How quite or loud doesn't matter, just don't get caught leaving and don't completely wreck the place. We're the Factionless, not Cla, for goodness' sake!"
She paused, taking a deep breath. "Salvage... Talk with the comm-req department head. He knows more about what we can take from Mak without being too much of a system shock to them to have them start looking in abnormal locations."
Cybee thanked the security guard as he funneled the shelter camera feeds to Cybee. In a moment, she could see within most of the shelters. Using a scan that took a mere fraction of a secon, she picked out Traxen from a group in one of the shelters as he made his way towards a wall intercomm. While "waiting" for him to plug in, she quickly profiled the others in the group he was just with...
*****
Traxen reached the wall terminal, pulling a small device out of it. He plugged the device into the intercomm, and then pulled a headset out of another pocket, and fiddled with the settings on it. As it settled over his ears--
"There you are, Traxen. Took you long enough."
"Yeah, sorry about that, got hung up for a moment. Besides, I'm only human. I'm not as fast as you."
"Well, everything's good now. Looking at you and the group you're with. These Factionless have always been diverse, but this is quite the collection you've got here."
"Yeah. And our job is to make sure they all stay alive...well, it is time to see how those armed bots I've been making stack up."
"They should perform to expectations. They have all been created for and have met high standards..."
"We'll see."
Traxen then wandered back to the group, which seemed to have gotten bigger since he walked away. The large envriosuit, of course, was still over his shoulder...
The group seemed to be discussing tactics and equipment. Traxen chimed in. "In terms of small equipment and munitions, I can produce just about anything you guys could care to name in an hour or two, and I've got some stuff already stored up a few of you might want to look at. I can also handle salvage processing in the field, reverse-engineering and schematics-constructing on the spot, as well as getting any tech operational for immediate use. My APC is a mobile workshop, after all. Just don't bring me nanotech or bio-engineered things. In the meantime, I'll also be handling fire-support, recon, and information coordination between everyone. I've got a bunch of drones and bots, and in addtion to being a workshop, the APC is also a mobile command center."
At Naya's clarification of what the operation was abotu to everyone else, Traxen nodded. "Yeah, I'd rather not trash their base either if we can help it. We're not there to actually sabotage, just to get a sample of what they won't share, it seems. Other than that, I'm good with however this op is run. I'm just support and coordination."
The speckled feline replied in a flat, near emotionless, tone, "I ask the question because in many cases, it does pay to cripple your enemy, even if you don't really want to stomach the repercussions. Chances are, this isn't one of those cases... however, if it is... with the entire force cooped up in a small, and under our control, area... we could effective neutralize the base in a single precision assault. A few thermobaric explosives dropped through the doorways, then seal the doors, and anything you haven't toasted in the room via fireball, has been effectively crushed with the over-pressure blast-waves. Crude, brutal, effective. You can always contact me over the soon to be specified coded radio frequencies to alter mission perameters, should you choose to do so"
He shrugged "i shall prepare my gear for a stealth op, if you'd grant me access to your fabrication facilities, i'll get prepped immediately with what i'll need for my end of the mission."
He pulled a thumbnail sized data-drive from under one of the small plates covering the abdomen of the suit, "I've got the schematics for what i'll need to fabricate, the materials i can provide for myself should they prove unavailable."
He sent another text to Arial
Quote
To: Arial
From: DS
Sub: Things That Go Boom, and other toys.
I've got a wide range of technological schematics for Shadowhand operatives. You seem competent enough to handle yourself, and given what you've said, probably have the ability to obtain the rarer materials involved in their fabrication. Should you request copies, just seem me in private for a data exchange.
Emily listened to the various plans flying about. After she had heard enough to get a general idea of what lay ahead of them, she cleared her throat loudly.
"How old is our intel? Fine, we have the base schematics so we'll know where we are. But that doesn't tell us anything about their guards, security systems, or schedules."
Emily turned to Ariel, "Spoofing an inspection might get us past their outer defenses, but at the same time, it could tick them off to an impending raid. In most military outfits I've seen, they typically redouble their security measures if they know an inspection is coming, which will make it harder to get in and out."
She then cast a wary glance over at Darkshine, "Which brings us to our second option of using force to break in. Since we do not know the composition of the forces there, it may not be feasible for a frontal assault. Worse, it could result in the destruction or damaging of the cargo. Even if we can take the base by force, we still have to take into consideration the reinforcement factor. Do we know how long it would take the nearest base to send reinforcements? That time represents the window from when we start firing till we run the risk of being overwhelmed."
Emily returned to addressing the group as a whole, "My suggestion is to look at their schedules and find a weak point and exploit it. It is a research base, anywhere there is a group of people together, you have to move resources in, and take trash out. Once we find our entry point, we should move in as quietly as possible, secure the cargo and try and extract it. If shots have to be fired, we should try to do it on the way out to maximize our window of opportunity."
Marcus floated into the shelter on his hoverboard. He hopped down to the ground. As he landed, his tail wrapped around the board, whipped it around, and tucked it under his arm.
His new suit continued to translate his surroundings into a constellation of tiny currents across his body. Even in the relatively weak artificial light of the shelter, he could close his eyes and simply feel all of the people moving around him as if it were daylight. That was soooo cool. He'd have to show Dad.
It turned out that his father wasn't in the infirmary. Marcus tried the comm room next. No luck. Hmm. Maybe one of the private rooms in back. Or perhaps he'd already returned to the lab. A quick message would--
His catlike ears suddenly perked up and flicked towards the group around the projection table. Naya had mentioned his name. He mentally cued the last minute of his audio feed and played it back at double speed, adding a quick filtering heuristic to isolate the conversation. His eyebrows raised. Something about an assault on Mak? Oh, right... the mission Mom had mentioned. And they hadn't asked for his help. How rude...
Marcus wandered over to the projection table, surprised to see a number of new faces. Having lived here for a decade, he figured he knew everyone in the Factionless, but these guys definitely weren't from around here. A pair of large theriomorphs--one heavily armed and armoured, the other nearly naked--stood next to Naya. The other was just as unusual. She (it?) looked like a cyborg--or maybe even an AI like Cybee; the strange energy signature made it difficult to tell.
"Hi, Naya. Are these our new recruits?" He liked Naya. Having been on the receiving end of so much of it herself, she never told him not to poke his nose into "adult" business.
He waved to the newcomers. "Hi there. My name's Marcus, but everyone around here calls me Sparky. Pleased to meetcha."
Traxen nodded to Darkshine. "As soon as we're done here, I can show you the workshop built into my APC." He then looked to Emily as she explained her plan. "I Like that idea. Gather more information before going in, make it as quiet as possible. Minimize risk. I can even help with the info-gathering, I've got plenty of spydrones."
A "new" person then showed up, a person that looked like a kid with feline features. "Oh, hey there Marcus! Nice to see you on this--" Traxen suddenly winced. "Sorry, Cybee wants to say hi, one moment." He adjusted something on his headset, then tapped a few minute buttons on his own cybernetic arm. An electronic feminine voice suddenly emitted from Traxen.
"Hiya, Sparky! Haven't seen you since last week, how have you been? Ooooh, that looks like a new suit! What does it do?"
Naya nodded at Sparky. "Yep, these are the new guys. Cray's got their first op lined up. How's your mum, anyways? Been a while since I've had the chance to talk with her." She paused for a moment. "Say, how old are you now anyways? I can't remember when your last birthday was. Might be able to talk Cray into letting you in on this one; you handle your hoverboard well enough. Has your dad taken you to the range recently?"
"Yep, definitely Gorbachev."
Elberta listened to the group dissect her half formed plan. "I suppose I should be arguing that this isn't a plan, just the beginnings of one. However, I agree with all your points. A successful, quiet burglary requires days of planning, observing the target, mapping out patterns and defenses. Our intel is far too old, we must procure a new supply. I turn the board over to the more subtle minds."
"I could argue that he deserves it for playing mind games with the paranoid; I could, but I won't. Very well, but it is also unprofessional to let a colleague fail without telling him why he failed. I don't know about you, but I tend to tell such things to people in a manner most unpleasant. Ah, but I'm acting familiar with you, when I really shouldn't. I'm afraid I'll have to cut our conversation off now, to avoid potential listening-in."
"Mr. Ridgray, I believe you asked before for a sample of our communications devices. I'd like to offer one of mine." Elberta moved over to the cybrog, unattaching one her ear studs, the inactive one, and flipping it to a channel different from the one her other was using. "If you could somehow get it to relay video data as well as audio, that would be magnificent." For an explanation, if it was needed she'd tap her false eye.
Elberta barely turned when Marcus introduced himself. She was...not good with children. She was too much of a realist to let them cling to their false perceptions of the world, and was prone to treating them too much like rational adults, because that was with whom she socialized most often. She did however, whip her head around when the woman proposed the boy joining the mission. That woman can't be serious... But for now she held her tongue. Verbal bitchslapping in public was a sure-fire way to make enemies, which she couldn't afford at the moment.
Darkshine let the others talk about. He didn't really need to defend himself over a simple misunderstanding. They clearly hadn't a clue who he was, despite him introducing himself as an infiltration and weapons expert. The first piece was a surefire sign of stealthiness, speed, and enough brains to be observant at all times. Save for, so far, 1 exception, it looked like another mission full of amateurs.
He pondered his options for a few seconds, when someone mentioned the use -their- production facilities. The technophile, someone who'd probably be scrambling over the others to get his hands on the numerous bytes of data in the minuscule drive, spoke up. Cocking his head to the side, Darkshine replied with a flat "No, no you will not. Unless the situation changes, i use my employer's equipment, and only my employer's equipment. You should know how contracting works by this point in your life. We -might- be working together today... even the rest of this week, perhaps a month or more. However, at some point, should i have used -your- facilities, and we find ourselves contracted by opposing factions, then... you see, there's this little problem of you knowing how to build -my- gear. At the very least, you'd have the opportunity to use my own weapons against me. So, you can show me your workshop at some other time. A time when i'm not building proprietary technologies."
The feline's earpiece chimed, "you know, you could have handled that better. If you're worried about him keeping the data, you could always wipe his drives afterward. I mean... it's not like i couldn't do that."
rather than speaking back to Ranger, Darkshine typed out a quick message on his datapad
QuoteWill talk later, have things to do...
Darkshine turned to the group, "You do realize that a snatch and grab mission like this doesn't require nearly the kid-gloves you seem to be treating it with. It's not like we're taking down a high-ranking general, or snagging a government leader. I mean, if we've got recon drones, a simple infiltration with suppressed, silenced or silent weapons should suffice. Take the security office first, use their own security systems to do our recon for us. The team in the office leads the infiltration team in, grab the seeds, get out, burn the computers we hacked. In, out, and all evidence of the mission is either burned on the computer, or whatever type of ammunition was put through the personell who were unlucky enough to get in our way."
Arial pondered the situation for a moment. "There's three ways I might take this. First, smash and grab, as Darkshine suggests. Come in hard and fast, go directly for the package, and get out before the Mooks know what hit them. I'm capable of this sort of work, but it's not my style. I prefer to go in quiet. If people want to do things loud, tho, I can keep up."
"Second option: Covert.Pack a pistol with a silencer, sneak in, crawl through ducts, hack a few doors, and don't trip any alarms. That's what I"m best at, and I imagine Darkshine could keep up with me no problem. It requires top notch coordination and teamwork, though, so not everyone on the team may be suited for it."
"Third... The definition of a black-op is one that the target remains completely unaware of." Arial said. "It's one thing to not get caught stealing, or for the enemy to not know who did the stealing. It's another thing entirely for the enemy to not realize anything was stolen at all... until they check their inventory. I don't think that's going to be an option, unless people here are trained for such things."
"As for putting the base on alert... I'm for it, actually. If they're on alert, they're all at their stations. This makes their locations predictable, which makes them easier to plan for. That's where being sneaky comes in; however tight their security is, there's nothing that can't be foiled somehow. If the base is relaxed, there are unpredictable factors. Maybe someone is having an affair in a supply closet, or some one is having a smoke break in an inconvenient spot. That sort of thing leads to mistakes... I don't like mistakes."
Arial was caught by surprise when Sparky came in the room. "Why, hello, there!" She said, smiling broadly. "I'm Arial. Nice board; I've got some hardware like that too. What's your Turing, kid?"
This was a polite, informal way of asking how "smart" an AI was, and if they were sentient (which mean that they could learn), sapient (which meant they couldn't learn, but they could reason using what they had been programmed to understand), or if they were just very well spoken interactive computer programs.
Quote
To: Darshine
Fr: Arial
Subj: noobs
i'll b happy as long as the cmndr. stays in his armchair the support crew stays out of my line of fire and i get paid on completion.
tyvm for the thermobarics! ^_^
She'd have to come up with something to give him in return. It was only polite, after all.
"My Turing?" Marcus cocked his head towards Arial. One of his ears flopped down. "System error. Input invalid. Does not compute."
He froze up, staring at her motionless with a flat, confused expression on his face. After a few seconds, his tail began to twitch. Then he burst out laughing.
"Sorry. I'm a biological. My 'ware ain't self-aware." He scratched his head. "Not yet, at least. Mom does love upgrading me..."
He turned back to Traxen. "Can you really tell, Cybee?" He looked down at his chest and ran a hand over the smooth black material. "I suppose it is a little thicker. And the absorption efficiency is way higher! It should even soak small arms laser fire now. Just in time, I suppose." He chuckled and glanced up at Naya.
"Been practicing at the range with Krost. Last month we rigged a rifle smartgun to interface with my bolt targeting. Still a bit harder to shoot the drones than zap them, though, especially when they're moving fast..."
Traxen accepted the earpiece comm that Elberta offered him in his fleshy left arm. "Thank you, Miss Tudor." At her asking about video and tapping her own cybernetic eye, he replied with "Indeed, I can modify your eyepiece to recieve data as well, but that will take some more delicate tools out of my APC..."
Traxen set the bulky envirosuit he was shouldering down (and making sure to face away from Arial), then held his right cybernetic arm up to the earpiece, and bits of the arm seemed to "unfold" and tiny, spindly little tools on multi-jointed "arms" began picking at the small device as Traxen focused his cybernetic eye intently on it. After maybe seven seconds, he was done, but sometime between that, the device looked like it was totally disassembled before being put back together. Elberta might wonder if that was completely necessary...
"Not quite as good as what I can make, but serviceable. "Traxen said as he handed it back. "As soon as the storm lets up, you are encrypted into my APC's data-coordination flow. I also increased the earpiece's effective pickup range by approximately twelve percent, and you should experience slightly clearer audio quality..." he added with a hint of pride, also returning the envirosuit to his shoulder.
To Marcus, Cybee's voice continued to emit from the arm. "Really? Wow, I guess we don't have to worry too much if you're in the line of fire of our bots, ha ha! Too bad your suits only work because they use your own body's conductive ability, the energy absorption would be so useful to us..."
In the meantime, Traxen turned his head slowly towards Darkshine's rather definitive statements. "I think you are mistaken about something, 'Darkshine'. I'm not contracted, I kind of live here now. And I honestly don't know what you're doing here if you are so paranoid. I didn't even ask for anything from you, I was in fact offering to show you something of mine, though we probably will all be stopping by it anyway...but whatever. At the very least, I do need to see whatever youre using as a comm device so I can insert the encryptions for my data channels, unless you are to borrow one of mine which I'm not even sure I want to do now. And if you're out of the loop, well...Naya, how are we supposed to work with someone out of the loop?" Traxen asked rhetorically.
Traxen let the comment hang, then continued. "Anyway. I think we can all agree that we simply have insufficient information to make a definative plan at this time. Why don't we just head out now, observe the base for as long as we need, and finalize our plan on-site? Which reminds me, how -are- we all getting to this base? I know some of us have our own vehicles, but what about the others? I don't think anyone's got anything as big as mine, are they going to have to hitch a ride with me, or is there something else for them to use?"
Emily watched Marcus. She had seen her fair share of children fighting in conflict. Nearly all of them were forced into the position; either at gunpoint, or under gunpoint. She was leery of the proposition of lugging him along, "Am I right to assume we are taking him with us on this venture? If so, why? He looks no older than 14. The last thing we need to worry about is babysitting a fidgety tyke. Even if he has his particular realm of expertise, wouldn't shoving him into a fire fight be the worst thing considering his age? It cant be good for his mental state."
Marcus's ears folded back against his head.
"Babysitting?!? I'm not some helpless child. I'm almost sixteen! When Alexander the Great was my age, he was already leading entire armies to victory. Hell, I bet I'm stronger and faster than most of the people here. So what if I have a bit less experience? It's not like I'll ever get any of that sitting on my ass up here."
He crossed his arms and leaned back against the comp display next to Naya. Emily was slightly taller than he was, and standing next to her--much less the towering feline--only emphasized his smaller build. Naya at least made him look older and bigger by comparison.
Letting out a sigh, Marcus turned back to Traxan--or more specifically, his arm.
"I dunno, Cybee. I mean, sure the nanogel connectors were customized for me, but the photonics should work for anyone. Maybe ask Mom for the specs?"
Traxen never displayed much interest in his parents' nanotech or genetic engineering projects, but perhaps Cybee had branched out. At any rate, the AI might be able to keep his mom busy while he left on this mission...
"Emily, whether or not Sparky comes with is up to Cray," Naya said in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "Sixteen is about the age most people go on their first op at anyways. Let me call Cray, see what he decides." She tapped out a number on her wrist-comm.
"Cray? Naya here. I was wondering if Sparky was-- How did you know I wasn't going to ask if Sparky was with you? Oh come on, am I really that predictable? ...Well that's not exactly a nice way to put it. Look, can he come or not? Why not? Cray, we've got more untested people going on this op than ever before. Is one more really going to make that much of a difference? It's a seed theft, Cray, not an assault on Cla! ...Cray, the kid's probably played more stealth games than you and I combined. It can't be-- Have you seen how immersive some of these games are nowadays? One of Jali's kids was playing out in a field one day, near scared the pants off of me when he came up and tagged me. Why-- Cray, the game was on his visor, it was one of his objectives to tag me. Are you really that out of the--? Fine, fine. So can Sparky come with or not? St-- Fine. Just, fine. Bye."
Naya sighed as she turned to Marcus. "Sorry, boyo, Cray gave the no-go. Seems like stealing reverse-bio-engineered seeds from Mak is 'too dangerous' for you." She sighed again."I'm going to strangle that man some day..."
((Tezkat, hopefully this is makes the op sound cool enough that Sparky will want to sneak in. If not, let me know, I'll try to edit it up and make it sound cooler (probably with your help).))
"Oh there is no need for that, Traxen. The GSG service pack three has that ability built in. Thank you for the offer, though." Elberta smiled, right up until the boy starting crowing about how he was ready for soldiering. Oooh, that simply wouldn't do.
Elberta was a nice lady, mostly. But she also had to live here, and letting a child wander around with delusions of soldierdom would only end in tragedy that Elberta would end up hating herself for. The Knight thanked Traxen politely, then took the earpiece and replaced it on her ear, then excused herself from the conversation. Then she calmly and quietly went over to the boy, and would tap his shoulder to get his attention.
"Excuse me, but I overheard you boasting that the only thing you needed to be a soldier? Your analogy with Alexander the Great has a few flaws, namely that with all due respect Alexander was very likely brain damaged due to inbreeding, and had killed his own father to obtain those troops in the first place.
Now I don't mean to be rude, but as a soldier and a trainer of soldiers, I must ask you this: How many people have you killed? If the answer is none, then you aren't ready."
"What! That is so unfair! Did Mom put him up to this? I've only been working for you guys since like there was a Factionless, but now it's okay to bring in total strangers and not me?" He gestured sharply at the new people in the room. "Fine. Whatever. Who cares about your stupid carrots anyway."
He turned and looked up when Elberta tapped him on the shoulder, continuing to seethe throughout her condescending speech. At her question however, he frowned and glanced away.
"Only two. It was back when we were trying to escape from Pohd. The company sent hunters after us. They managed to drop Dad, and I just... I just kept at them till they stopped moving." He brushed Elberta's hand aside. "I was five years old. I've had a decade to practice. It won't be quite so messy next time."
He swiped his hoverboard off its perch and stormed out of the room, leaving a faint smell of ozone in his wake.
Arial shook her head. "Naya, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to tell Cray that I can't take this job. There's no problem with the mission itself, but the organization he has here is a mess: lax security, sloppy procedures, and poor communication. If he needs any contract work done, I'm still up for hire, and he's still one of my best customers... but I can't join his group in the state it's in now."
She turned to the room as a whole. "Best of luck on the mission," she said. Then she nodded goodbye, and left.
"Sparky--" Naya sighed as she saw Sparky's retreating figure. "Don't you realize this is exactly why he thinks you're not ready?" She breathed, too soft for most to hear. She waved goodbye to Ariel. "Sorry to hear it, Ariel. Good luck with your smuggling ventures. Be careful in the storm."
Finally, she stepped up onto the platform. "Alright, I've heard a lot of discussion about this, but it seems like there are three options you guys are suggesting." She placed a hand onto a nearby root sticking out of the wall. A bulleted list appeared on the projection wall, sharing the space with the annotated map. "One, you could do a full frontal assault, going in, grabbing, and getting out. No subtlety, no tech hacking, simple. Two, you can try to sneak in, steal the stuff, falsify the records, and get out without getting caught. No disguises, but it'd require a lot of stealth skills that the group might not have. Three, you create the illusion of a royal party coming to the fortress and infiltrate the base, stealing the seeds and again falsifying the records before getting out... whenever." She let her hand drop. "It's your call. I'll be hear if you have any more questions. Our resources are yours; just requisition them from the guys in the Garage."
Ah, so the little boy's already a murderer. Maybe he did have the stuff to become a soldier after all. In five or six years from now, when his was old enough to be held accountable for the monster he might become. And it seemed Ariel had been true to her word, leaving.
Elberta felt oddly happy for her, and angry at the same time. Angry for the android's abandoning the mission, and happy that she had the freedom to do so. "Without Ariel on board, I don't know if we have the capability to falsify a royal visitation, unless Traxen can manage it without leaving the escape vehicle?"
Elberta sighed and sat down at one of the benches. "What options do the infiltration experts recommend?" She regarded the two. The feline...thing. It was confident, to the point of hubris, but that confidence was obviously backed up with experience and equipment. The other one was more approachable, and Elberta found herself almost taking a liking to her; almost being the key word. One did not befriend spies if they valued their backs being un-stabbed.
"All I need to requisition is some lightweight armor, maybe a decent all-purpose rifle. Have to save money in the mission budget for the more technological people, after all."
[[OOC: Edited due to new muse fairy. :P]]
Darkshine gave a loud, audible sigh and walked out towards the garage. He was tired of elaborate plans that involved far too much risk for far too little reward. He had more important things to attend to... such as the fabrication of his explosives.
Amateurs the lot of them. The one person who'd shown promise had left, and, since he needed the materials he had no real option be babysit the party. He needed some proper support, someone who could actually pull a trigger, and keep moving.
Opening some panels on the jet-bike, Darkshine's first priority was to retrieve his carbine, a high-powered energy weapon that could put a pin-point beam of energy through a man's skull at over 500 yards. "Hey, Ranger, ping the technophile, and inform him you'll need to sync with his systems to get properly established comms... While i'd much prefer to do this on my own, i was paid to work with the team... If this goes tits up... which it probably will... well... i'll have to try and keep 'em alive."
A few moments later, Ranger pinged a text message to Cybee:
To: Technophile
From: Ranger (Darkshine's assistant)
Msg: In need of comms syncing for future mission, in garage acquiring mission-necessary equipment. Note that more data is needed for any further planning. Suggest ending briefing for now, and focus on more important tasks.
Darkshine himself wandered off with a few rods of metal, a small bag of sand, and the data-chit with the information on how to build the weapons and ammunition he needed. He went to go hunt down the nano-forge and actually get things ready for when the storm passed... the others might not appreciate it, but he knew all to well that all intelligence is time sensitive.
Traxen watched the scene between Naya and Marcus with a little sadness. But as Sparky walked away, it was Cybee who voiced out.
"Aww, he would have been okay to have along, I'm sure. It wasn't like he was unprepared..."
"But Mr. Cray does run this base." Traxen finishes.
There was then the surprising development of Arial excusing herself on her own. Traxen actually did look to her as she left...but after she was well out of sight, he realized he was still holding her suit. Oops.
With a sigh, Traxen set the suit down on a nearby table and continued to watch the proceedings. Even Darkshine left, and by now Traxen was starting to get uneasy. Naya clarified the plans she'd been hearing so far, and Traxen nodded to them.
"As said, I don't think we have the intelligence needed to commit to any plan just yet. We should probably just head out to the base, observe it for some time, and then decide on our course of action on-site."
Traxen looks to Elberta. "Actually, I can set you up with both while in-transit to our objective. As I said, I have a miniature workshop and fabrication setup in my APC. I can get almost anything you want to your custom specifications." Traxen said, grinning slightly.
****
Back in the garage, Cybee was crunching data and simulating things, as the AI does as a pastime, when she got the ping from Ranger.
With some small surprise (as far as an AI goes), she contacted her creator.
****
"Traxen, Darkshine's assistant Ranger is asking about synching the comms. Shouldn't he have stayed with you for that? He's also mentioning the lack of information, and that the briefing should be finished up." Cybee's voice emitted from the device on Traxen's arm.
Traxen frowned. "Yes, he...should have." Traxen rubbed his forehead. "Go ahead and explain to him how you want. And yes, we should already be about done here."
"Roger!"
Traxen looked around to the others. "Well, if indeed everyone is fine with finishing here, shall everyone who's on this mission head to the garage? I can show you all my APC, and get everyone's comms worked out." Traxen asked.
****
In the garage where Darkshine was passing through, a femenine voice suddenly emitted from one of the largest vehicles in it, the APC.
"Hello there, Darkshine and Ranger. It's me, Cybee, over here in the APC. About the comm syching, you actually should have stayed with Traxen. You see, we don't comminicate via simple encryption schemes. Unless you've got some pilfered Aeth technology on you--possible, but unlikely--your equipment is not even capable of picking up our communications. Traxen must actually modifiy whatever you are using as your comm device to connect it to our network."
Conference Room
"If we're all done here..." Naya wiped the panel clean, map and all. "I'll send the directions to the base to Cybee, 'kay, Traxen?" Turning to Emily, she added on to Traxen's statement, "You can also find the plans with the guy manning requisitions. Just follow the signs, it should be easy to find. I'll see you all when you return."
Workshop
After asking for directions and following the signs, Darkshine eventually found his way to the workshop. "Whatcha need, sirrah?" One of the techs manning the 'shop asked. "You got the plans you need to make it? Requisitions should have it if you forgot 'em."
((EDIT: Corrected an error in who Naya was addressing. Edit reverted. Seems I was a bit too late...))
Emily shook her head at "Sparky's" outburst. "And that is the reason you aren't old enough. You know how, but not why, or when."
She cast a slightly annoyed glance at Naya when she mentioned the requisitions officer, but refrained from speaking. She gathered her equipment and left the briefing room alone with her thoughts. "This is bad, real bad. I'm amazed these people haven't been crushed by now. Factionless... who the hell calls themselves 'Factionless.' Thats a state of being, not the name of a group or organization. Even worse is their administrative skills. We needed the intel at the meeting, not after we split up to prepare. That is assuming there is intel on this base to begin with. Gods, Emily, what did you get yourself into this time. A techi and two lead heads, and the only thing that will be standing between them and them doing something stupid is going to be me working my ass off and probably a miracle or two. Considering how shaky things are, I should probably hit the garage and see what kind of transportation we have available. If anything we can look for a quick getaway vehicle."
Her wanderings had finally brought her to the garage, she stepped in and took an appraising look around.
Hearing the sounds behind him, Darkshine ducked behind a vehicle. He slide his fingers into the hidden latch, and flipped the plate open. Most people announced their presence, especially when they were alone. Either they hadn't spotted him, or they had other plans... sinister plan. He took the pieces out, and carefully assembled them. At first, it looked like a couple of oddly shaped metal plates with rods and coils. By the time it was finished, the compact hand-gun looked every bit the part that it was. A small, hand-sized, hyper-velocity weapon, capable of putting the glass beads it used as ammunition through a man at well over 100 yards.
He listened, carefully, there was an announcement that he was going to have to seek out the technophile again. This information was absorbed, and pushed to the back of the feline's mind. He was far far more concerned with the here and the now. Peaking out from behind the transport he'd taken refuge behind, the feline spied who'd entered the garage behind him. A familiar looking female. She was armed, but didn't appear hostile. No signs of a killer on the prowl, the posture was wrong. She was just uninformed.
He peaked out, setting his own weapon into his thigh-riding holster, making it's grip visible. He called out "What brings you down here... is the planning session over? Or did you realize that there's nothing we can do until we get some hard intelligence, as well?"
Carefully moving towards his own jet-bike, Darkshine's movements were slow, steady and purposeful. He kept his eyes on Emily the entire time. He didn't trust her, and the fact that she'd shown up behind him, with minimal announcement still made him uneasy. At least he was armed this time. As much as a shootout would put a damper on his day, it seemed about par for the course, based on the incompetents he'd been forced to deal with already.
"Well, he sure is wound up. Ugh... last thing I need is him trying to find a reason to shoot at me."
Emily gave Darkshine a crooked smile in response to his question, "I must say, I'm impressed. I thought I was the only one in that room who noted the distinct lack of any real Intel. I came down here to get a look at what our options are for transportation. That will factor heavily into what our options will be." She cast a glance back behind her and slowly approached Darkshine, "I'll be honest here. You, me, we're the only people on the team that has shown any degree of competence, and our employers aren't shaping up much better. We need to be working together, not against each other. I've been in recon for quite a while and I trust you can handle your weapons very well; but are you a man who knows when to use your weapon, and when to let a woman take charge?"
The feline's toothy grin at her seemingly straight-forwardness showed the long, razor sharp fangs he kept oh so pure white. He patted his pistol and snickers, "I'm not just a gunslinger, first of all. Those cowboys are a dime a dozen. I'm more along the lines of a fast reaction force. A saboteur, an infiltrator, call it what you will, my skills revolve around getting into difficult place, completing a mission, and getting out. My plans i offer are merely the best options i could see with the available intel. Which, is to say, not very much intel, which means any plan is bound to have it's run of SNAFUs."
He shrugged, rolled his shoulders back, walked towards Emily. His movements oozed with the grace of his feline half, a slight swagger to his step, as he flowed across garage. "I know how to operate under a handler, if that's what you're asking. The real question, do you think you have what it takes to take on the role? I've been known to be more than a handful, after all. It's not that i don't play nice, it's just that most of the time, my supposed other half just can't keep up. While i'm working the field, My handler is supposed to be handling the intel, feeding me directions, and telling me what to plant where, what to take out, and which doors to use. The problem is mental dexterity, compared to my natural agility. Most just don't have the endurance to keep up with my kind of pressure, they crack, or they need a break. Either way, it generally leaves me with a dissatisfied feeling."
He snickered at the woman, "So, are you making an offer? Think you're up to the task of taming the beast?" he asked in a playfully voice.
Emily playfully smiled, "I don't know... we'll have to see if this beast is worth taming.. or if he is all strut." she turned and slinked back to the entrance of the garage, pausing at its entrance to glance back at Darkshine, "I've seen all I need of their vehicles, I'm going to look at what Intel they have about the place. Perhaps you might want to weigh in on it later?" Emily flashed him a final devious grin before leaving the garage.
As the woman left back for the briefing room, Darkshine himself headed off to find the fabrication facilities. A short, uneventful adventure later, and the feline found himself at the right place. He passed the small drive off to the man, "I need 5 of the thermobarics, 4 stun-grenades, 2 flash-bangs, 300 5mm glass beads built to the specifications on this drive, and 2 spare power-cells, specs also on the drive. think you can do all that?" He asked, he smiled pleasantly at the man and awaited his gear.
Ranger chimed in, From what i've seen... this is going to go tits up at the drop of a hat, and you're busy making a pass at the first piece of competent ass that walks your way. Seriously... you should either drop the job, or at the minimum, drop the barracks while you're out. Go at night, while the security forces are changing, take out the barracks, take out the security room, sweeper-team in and out... 15 minutes, tops.
"while i share your enthusiasm for simplicity... the others are going to be tricky to convince. Let's just get the gear... okay?"
Fine, we'll talk, later. Don't forget to see the technophile
(OOC: Presuming Elberta follows Traxen)
After Darkshine and Emily had finished their little conversation, one particular APC with external cameras and microphones controlled by an AI put them in sleep mode. As a digital construct, AIs aren't much for what a biological person would call "thought", as AIs just process and do, no real random thoughts...yet this one was able to distictly think the word "fascinating".
***
Traxen nodded to Naya. "Alright." Emily had also already left, so Traxen looked to who else was left--just Elberta? Well, it seemed the manpower for this mission was being sapped fast.
Looking at Elberta, he said "Well, I guess I should show you my APC, then try and find the two other stragglers...can't contact them because they didn't give me a chance to fix their comms..." Traxen sighed. "Ah well."
After wandering through a few passageways, Traxen emerged into the garage, and walked towards his APC.
"Welcome back, Traxen!" Cybee's voice said, emitting from a hidden external speaker on the APC.
"I wasn't really gone anywhere, but okay." Traxen replied. He turned to Elberta. "Well, here it is..."
The APC in question was sleek, yet very angular, and all black. Despite being one of the larger vehicles in the garage heightwise, it was still a little lower than it was wide. It floated a foot in the air, held aloft by a hoverlift generator. Some small doodads stuck out of the APC, but it seemed most external things, if any, were either armored or hidden. On the other hand, the inside would probably be a lot more interesting...
Hole-in-the-Wall Workshop
The tech at the workshop hid a smile behind his hand at the sight of Darkshine wandering about in the garage for so long. "Nice little dance with Emily ye did there. Was that you flir'in' or business?" He spoke at a rather rapid pace, and shook his head. "Anywho, 'less you got the mats for those stuns and flashes, you're gonna need ta do withou'. All the plans we go' take bio-components, something we ain't got much of thanks to a lack o' facilities. Thermobarics, on the other hand, well, we managed to scrounge up an older plan that used some more non-living parts." He tapped a few things out on a touchscreen on the wall, before turning back to the leopard. Taking the materials and chit that the leopard was carrying, the tech continued, "I'm assumin' these're for those specialty items you wanted... I'll make sure they ain't used for more than ye want." Plugging the chit into the data port, he loaded up the plans and dumped the materials down a chute. "It'll be oh, thirty minutes 'til yer order's done. Go ahead 'n' do as ye please until then."
Requisitions
Li looked up as Emily asked about the intel they had on the fortress. "Did Cray not...? For the love of...! How did he get appointed in the first place? Wait, right, nobody ran against him. The guy's a paranoid buffoon. Took the original intel with him, and said it was officially 'classified.' I can't believe he didn't even share it with Naya..." Sighing, he let out a breathy, I-can't-believe-it laugh. "Fortunately for you, I made a copy which he didn't explicitly state was classified." Handing Emily a folder, Li said, "Here's what we have. External patrol schedules, equipment, our contact, whatever we could get without having to go in ourselves. Hope it helps."
Your place, my place, or the car?
"Indeed I would, Traxen." The Knight got to her feet and strode off after the inventor. Her heels sending clicks into the air, perhaps a bit stronger than they had when she'd first arrived. She was testing the interface of her new comm. with her eye, as much as she could without involving another party. While they traveled, however briefly, Elberta considered the advisability of sending her, a Maki escapee, back into the miniature monarchy. She certainly had the self control to go on a rampage, but knowing bureaucrats as she did, having been one, they should have conveniently forgotten that fact. Something was up.
Then she saw the vehicle. To be fair, she'd seen it in passing a few times when going out for leisure drives, but seeing it as an escape vehicle made it seem like the first time again. "She's lovely, Traxen. I won't be so bold as to ask to see its specifications. Just answer me these: What is its maximum acceleration, fuel capacity, load capacity, and predominant hull material?"
Setting the timer, Darkshine left the little hole in the wall office, and headed back into the Garage proper. He heard people talking again. Clearly there was no protocol about announcing your presence around here. He was a little unnerved by the entire thing. People coming up behind you unannounced was a surefire way to get yourself shot... so, practicing protocol on base -should- be a higher priority, or so Darkshine thought.
He continued his graceful prowl, taking no effort to hide himself at this point, while strolling back to the jetbike. "Hey, ranger, unlock rack 3, i'm gonna grab the carbine and mask now. I think some of these happy-go-lucky folks need a bit of a wake-up call."
He slowed his pace slightly as the click of mechanical locks ticked in the feline's ear. He slid the latch opened, flipped the lid opened, and got his gear. First donning the dark mask and checking the seals to ensure it had both power and provided an appropriate filter against possible contagions and chemicals. He then retrieved the compact assault weapon, clipped it to one of the simple brackets built into his suit, the carried on. He had the weapon's stock folded to the side, making it's profile even smaller. While the weapon was absolutely recoil-less the stock did improve accuracy for longer range shots.
He clamped the full headset down down, and began a system check. His face was concealed behind the thick material that made up his armor, and the breather mask. He checked the readout on the carbine, all system green. With equipment ready, Darkshine headed towards the newcomers, a shadowy figure, decked out for combat and a posture that oozed with a little bit more predatory grace than usual. He walked up to the pair at the entrance in silence, cocked his head to the side and asked in a flat tone, "Finally realize that nothing was going to get done in that room? or did you just get tired of hearing yourself talk?"
The voice emitted from the APC again.
"Hee hee, she called me lovely, Traxen!" Cybee said, in a playful tone unusual for an AI.
Traxen rubbed his forehead. "She's talking about the APC, Cybee. You're an AI, and the APC wasn't even meant to house you."
"Well, I like it, so I consider it my chassis."
Traxen sighed. "Anyway. Actually, I'll show you around the inside, and besides, even if the whole schematics for the thing were handed out, it wouldn't exactly be able to be reverse-engineered by anyone but another Aethean, our systems are a little subtler than most everyone else's. As for your questions... thanks to the hoverlift, it can get up to some pretty impressive speeds, but because of it's mass, it doesn't get to those speeds very quickly, and once it does, it can be hard to handle as it tends to slide. It is rather 'agile' at low speeds, though. It's powered by a microfusion generator, so I usualy only need to worry about feeding it every month or so. As an APC, it can of course carry or even drag a whole lot of weight, but, uh...I've kinda taken up most of the interior space with it being converted in a mini-workshop, and it still needs to house all my inactive robots. As for the hull...one of the better products of Aeth metallurgy, it's a tough alloy intended for armored vehicals. It can take a couple rockets or landmines with little trouble, but not so much with sustained punishment."
At that point, Darkshine arrived. At least, it could only have been Darkshine, unless someone else was wearing the exact same kind of armor and just happened to put on a helmet. Traxen tilted a head at the man.
"Not sure what you mean by that, but good, you're here now. Let me see what you've got for comm gear and I'll jack you into my network."
"I'm afraid I don't have the technical knowledge needed for such a tour to be quite as impressive as I believe it would be, but I'll see it anyway. Thank you for offering." And the feline was back. Being snide again. If Elberta was a less mature person, or less polite, she'd find him annoying. Since she was neither of those, she elected to consider him an 'eccentric professional.' Much more politically correct. "Ah, Mr. Darkshine good to see you again. What is your opinion of Traxen's vehicle?"
Was that a new gun the infiltrator was sporting? Hmm, nice. Very efficient. Once the cat had finished saying whatever he had to say, Elberta would speak up again. "Traxen, does your offer to improvise a rifle still stand? If so," the Knight drew out her Widowmaker, and spun the grip to offer it to Traxen, "I'd like it to be of as similar a design to this as possible."
Sliding a small chit out of the left side of the mask. Darkshine handed it over to the technophile. "Here's my comm-suite. Do what you must, give it back as quickly as possible." His was more than a little annoyed that he couldn't just send a data-package with encryption coding and the signal jumping times.
"An armored vehicle has it's uses in combat. However, i would point out that this is a stealth operation. For a support vehicle, it's lovely, for a transport, i'm sure she'll do fine. For a vehicle to stealthily transport us to and from the site... i'm a bit concerned. A tank isn't exactly hard to find. Even if they don't have sensors scanning every square inch of the surface, we're going to need to dismount well away from the tunnel entrance, and move in on foot. A small vehicle could get considerably closer. Though we'd need more of them. Until further data can be acquired, i shall hold my judgment on just how effective a vehicle she really is."
His tone was cold, matter-of-fact. there was no mirth, nor annoyance, he was stating his rough evaluation from what he could observe.
"I think a better question would be, just what talents do we have to work with for this operation? And who has actually been tested in combat?"
Emily thumbed through the documents she had been given. A brief investigation didn't paint a pretty picture. Reaching over to her wrist comp, she slid the lid back. Touching the screen she typed out a brief message.
To: Darkshine, Traxen, Elberta
Fr: Glimmer
Subj: Meeting in Garage
I've retrieved Intel on our objective. Rendezvous in garage for further briefing.
Confirming submission, Emily slid the lid back into place and left Requisitions, heading back to the Garage.
Ranger relayed the message. Darkshine silently thanked the girl for her initiative, before replying via his own message
Quote
To: Scout
From: Ranger
Subj: RE: Meeting in Garage
Already here with a pair of rather upbeat individuals... they seem to be on the mission... though only god and the commander could ever know why... current assessment puts them as idealistic young fools who are more bravado than experience... The knight might have some ability... but i have yet to see anything but her ability to speak for quite some time without saying anything at all... Please hurry... otherwise this quartet might be advertising itself as a trio. ;D mission essential equipment ready in 30 min... hopefully we can leave once supplies are ready.
He typed the message out, then casually leaned against a pillar... he was half-tempted to draw the repulsor... just to see if either of them had the any type of combat reflexes... however... people getting hurt because of him wouldn't look good for future contracts... so instead he just waited idly for one of them to respond to his earlier question... he particularly focused on the knight... his entire body language practically screaming 'well?'
Traxen accepted Darkshine's comm gear when he handed it over. His thoughts of wondering why he couldn't just get codes were partially answered when Traxen's cybernetic hand slip open again into a multitude of tiny, spindly arms and tools, which quickly and efficiently disassembled the entire piece into its constituent components. Traxen's cybernetic eye repeatedly refocused as he turned each component over, fiddling with them. Moments later, the components were reassembled, and the module was in one piece again.
Traxen held it out to Darkshine. "There you go, you are now in my network."
As Darkshine gave his evaluation of Traxen's APC, Traxen just listened. What he said was reasonable and made sense, Traxen was already thinking along the same lines. To Darkshine's question, Traxen replied; "Well, as said, I have many drones and robots with which I can perform reconnaissance and fire support with, but I can also do any field fabrication you need with my workshop setup in the APC." Traxen thumbed to it.
Traxen then turned and took notice of Elberta. "Oh, sure thing--" Then he saw the gun itself. He carefully took it. "So, just to be clear...you want a rifle, in a similar aesthetic style as this weapon?"
"Yes, thank you." Was that a tone of disbelief in the technophile's voice? Oh well, some people couldn't roll with the punches as well as she. Nothing to be ashamed of. There was, however a question to answer from the feline...person.
"Mr. Darkshine, I have a fair bit of combat experience. My most recent sortie was shortly before coming here a half dozen months ago. I have limited sniper capability, and may make use of genetic manipulations to excel in hand to hand combat, and sprinting. Does this answer your question? If not, I'm afraid I cannot help further. Traxen, if you could tell me when to expect the new weapon, that would be delightful."
Base-Wide
A call went over the intercom across the base. "Storm's over! Surface is available again!" People start to wander past as they head for the nearest surface access, while some of the more permanent installations flip a switch and ride a lift back up to their surface groves. Garages, meeting areas, most crossroads, all were temporarily packed as the Factionless members emptied themselves of the sunless dirt tunnels.
((Garage people, the driveway back up to the storm is opened up. Emily/SW, there's a hatch in the comm-req sector for you to use. When you reach the surface, the ground will be dry. Some dirt might be caught in some of the trees' bark.))