Brotherhood of the Machine (IC Thread) [PG/14] {03}

[Ryudo Lee]

Dr. Woodworth seemed a bit happier now that someone here was more interested in his findings.
"Well, this one will be the third one that I've found.  As to how many there are, I estimate that there may be six, or eight in total.  The writings found among the crystals seem to disagree on how many were made.  There should be no more than ten, at the very least." He says.
He then waited for Dorcan to finish asking his eager questions before responding to them all.
"Yes, yes, yes, about ten pounds, no, and no.  They don't seem to react to each other at all, which is odd considering their origin.  You would think that in a world that was basically powered by magic, that these would have some kind of magical essence that would react when they are in each others presence, but that does not seem to be the case.  There may be something else that we're missing, but none of the writings that we've found seem to indicate anything of the sort." He says.

Morgan's scans would come up completely clean.  No one was transmitting, other than normal communications with the rebellion's hq from the vehicles.  Just a simple GPS signal, nothing more.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan nodded, and sat a while in thought.  "Looks like you've covered most of the bases, Doctor," he said at last.
"Do you know the locations of any other such crystals?  Come to that, what are your plans once we reach the rebel facility?"

[Lisky]

Once the transfer was complete, Darkshine did another pat-down. then hoisted Sean to his feet. The armored feline spoke, loud enough for the human to hear,  "Ranger, bring 'er in nice and easy for our new guest." 

As if on-que, the armored, air-cushioned vehicle set down, and lowered the ramp in the rear.  "Move" darkshine spoke in a cold, detached voice, urging the prisoner forward, into the bay filled with the various other armed members of the team. 

Following behind, it wasn't like he was giving Sean much of a choice, what with the rifle-butt pressed into his spine, and the iron-hard grip Darkshine had on his shoulder.

[Ryudo Lee]

Once everyone got situated again, the vehicles set off back to rebel HQ.  The drive would be completely uneventful.  Coming back this way, they would not see anything that even hinted at Brotherhood backup.

Dr. Woodworth shruged at Dorcan's questions.
"I do not yet know.  I know the locations of a few other ruins, thanks to the writings we found.  But nothing is absolute.  I would so love to know how these crystals were constructed.  You see, I believe they were not created naturally.  There are no other crystals like these anywhere in the world." He says.  "And to answer your other question, once I reach your facility, I will be having a talk with your benefactor, Mr. Phoenix, so we can negotiate some kind of agreement for further study of these ruins... with more adequate protection."

--------------

Back at the site, long after the group's vehicles had left, a second group of Brotherhood vehicles shows up.  Two more scout cars, and another large transport.  Six grunts and two elites come out of the vehicles and survey the damage left by the rebels.
"Damn.  No wonder they didn't report back." One of the grunts from the destroyed transport called back.  "They were cut off completely.  The radio's completely dead.  Looks like they just tried to take the ruins themselves."
"Did the rebels fight them off?" Another grunt asked.
"Looks like it.  The blast marks on the vehicles are all from different types of weapons, not our standard issues." Another grunt responded.
"What do we do now?" A grunt asked.
"Check the site.  Any special artifacts must be confiscated.  Then we level it." One of the elites said, in his emotionless tone of voice.

[Inumo]

Sean sat in the vehicle he'd been pushed into, fidgeting occasionally to keep from having his limbs fall asleep completely. After a long while, he asked, "So... What side do you play?"

[Lisky]

Once the prisoner was secured, Darkshine moved up to the front of the vehicle.  As if on cue, the rear ramp closed up, and the vehicle lifted off the ground, positioning itself in the convoy of leaving vehicles.  Darkshine sat down up front, storing the carbine in a rack next to the command console.  He punched a few commands into the console, brought up some local information, then he proceeded to head back towards the rear.

He kept the cold, emotionless black mask on, staring intently at the prisoner as he started asking questions.  "It should be rather easy to guess who's side we're playing, given the non-standardized gear... but... perhaps you're that inexperienced.  That naive.  Wouldn't surprise me the way you just walked up to military vehicles with very little in the way of identification."

The armored leopard shrugged, running one last scan for explosives, or electrical signals.  His suit's sensors pinged green, and Darkshine very slowly opened a locker, displaying a grasp of drama by turning his back on the prisoner while removing the mask.  The large fuzzy ears might seem odd to someone not prepared for a hybrid, however, they weren't nearly as off-putting as the feline form that walked and talked like a human.  The feline flashed an intentionally broad grin to display the very long and point feline teeth that lined his mouth, another means of mildly intimidating the boy before continuing with the questioning.  "Perhaps you were expecting something a little... more expected?"

[Inumo]

Sean seemed to take the idea of an anthro in stride. "Not all that odd, to be honest. You'd be surprised how common they are in high school." He fell silent for a moment. "So, I take it you mean that you're Rebellion?" Thank god, Sean thought with relief. "Glad to be in your hands instead of theirs." He leaned back and shut his eyes, hoping to get some rest.

[Azlan]

"Magic, I am not sure how the world would react to such at this juncture in its current state of technological dependence.  It is not hard to see why the Brotherhood would want to control this type of thing."  Morgan stared at his hand for a moment before continuing, "this is also the kind of thing Phoenix would likely fund and support."

[Ryudo Lee]

Dr. Woodworth nodded to Morgan's comments.
"Yes, that's what I'm hoping for.  The more investment and protection we can get, the better." He says.

-----------

The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.  Dr. Woodworth and his associates chatted idly with each other, discussing what they had seen, comparing notes, and whatnot.  Eventually the vehicles would make it back to rebel hq, where Lt. Armstrong could be seen waiting for them at the motor pool.  The vehicles pulled in and came to a stop.  With that, everyone began to disembark.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan held the door for the members of the dig team and separated out his armaments so they could be handed in more quickly.  He was about to head into the building, but stopped and approached the Lieutenant. 

"Sir, what happens to the dig team?  Are they to be debriefed with us, or sent somewhere else?"

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Catastrophe failed to occur at any point along the ride, and while Fetrethar did not exactly relax at the thought of reaching back to their home base, arriving back to a place of relative sanctuary loosened some of the tension between his shoulder blades. Checking one last time to make sure his equipment was in good order and his trophies were secure, he opened up the vehicle and vaulted out almost before it had come to a stop, mind already spinning as to how he'd spend his down time.

For one, the trophies would need some sort of preservative, formaldehyde preferably. And that quartermaster would probably want the plasma rifle and the armor vest back. Still, when he got out of the vehicle, he saw someone, with the sort of authority and dress that signified an important personage in this clan. While Fetrethar didn't think he would personally be debriefed, it would doubtless be considered an insult to just wander off and attend to business, so Fetrethar dropped into a comfortable crouch and awaited further developments.

[Inumo]

Sean slowly woke as the transport came to a halt. Blinking the sleep out of his eyes, he flexed his fingers, restoring a small amount of circulation. Stomping his feet a bit, he looked over at the feline, the only person he'd talked to. "So, uh... What now?" He asked.

[Lisky]

Darkshine's trip was mostly spent in the forward cabin, having a prolonged discussion with his AI about the current situation.  What could be heard was mostly nonsensical to anyone trying to listen in, as the pair seemed to almost be speaking their own language.

As the convoy pulled into the base, the speckled feline first made sure he had a fresh magazine in the concealed pistols, hidden in the boot-plates.  Afterward he proceeded to collect the loaned equipment from one of the lockers, stored it in a rifle bag, and headed out.  He left the headgear off, as he didn't want to put the people on edge, however, he did want to make sure he was prepared for a double-cross.  He'd seen other employers try it, and while the face protection was gone, his head was a small and fast-moving target.  Difficult to hit at the best of times, nigh-impossible once he got moving at full speed.

He followed the prisoner out, waiting to see what was to happen next.

[techmaster-glitch]

   As everyone made irregular noise disembarking the vehicles, Jexx yawned, coming around to wakefulness. He stretched out in his seat, warming up his cybernetic limbs. Jexx actually wasn't very thrilled at being back again, as it meant he'd just be bored until the next mission. Not saying anything, he followed the others out of the back of the van. As everyone congregated, he noticed someone get out of Darkshine's vehicle he didn't recognize. Jexx bounded up to the person.
  Sean was met to the sudden sight of a slightly short and shirtless black-furred individual, with pointed hair, a red X on his forehead, and red markings on his sides, all in addition to two cybernetic arms that did not end in hands but cannon barrels, and metal lower legs and feet.
  "Hey. I don't know you. You're a new guy. What's up, new guy? You with us? You a prisoner? Am I gonna fry ya? What what what?" Jexx fired off so on and so forth in rapid speech, not even pausing to actually allow Sean to answer any questions. Several of the things Jexx said seemed to be getting more and more macabre as he kept chattering.

[Ryudo Lee]

Dr. Woodworth approached Lt. Armstrong and they spoke in hushed tones for a few moments.  Armstrong motioned for a few other rebels to come over, and they led Dr. Woodworth and his companions inside.
"To answer your question, Dr. Woodworth and his team will be having a meeting with Jackson.  Who is this new face?  Picked up a straggler?" He asks, motioning towards Sean.

[Inumo]

When the black anthro didn't shut up after a minute or two, Sean finally said, "Are you quite done yet? I'm pretty sure you've covered all the bases for ways you can kill me with... whatever those things are in place of your hands. Take some Ritalin or something, seriously." Sighing, he thought, Why does he even think I know the answers to his questions?

[Tapewolf]

"This guy hailed us down while we were heading back," Dorcan explained.  "He might just be a hitch-hiker, but he seemed to know too much, and besides one doesn't usually try to beg a lift from armoured vehicles so we brought him with us just in case.  If he's clean I guess we'll have to release him back into the wild at some point."

"Sir," he added as an afterthought.

[Azlan]

Morgan nodded towards Dorcan, "He is right, strange type to be hitchhiking from a caravan especially one with an APC-like vehicle.  Could be get to the whole debrief thing, I would like to get on with the next mission, or take a nap."

With a pause he added, "at your discretion of course Lieutenant <lef-tenant> Armstrong."

[Ryudo Lee]

Armstrong motions over another couple of soldiers who lead Sean away to be questioned.
"It does seem odd that he would flag down our vehicles.  We'll have him questioned.  In the meantime, let's get to the debriefing room." He says, and then motions to the building to let them lead the way.

Sean would be led through the building to a room with a chair in the center, and a big mirror on one wall.
"Have a seat.  You'll be asked some questions.  Answer honestly.  We'll know if you're lying." One soldier says as he closes the door behind Sean.

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan nodded respectfully and made his way to the briefing room, surrendering his weapons as before.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Fretrethar followed Dorcan, mimicking his actions in surrendering his gear, but dropped down into a crouch, instead of taking a seat.

[Lisky]

Darkshine returned the sniper rifle, and ammunition to the requisitions officer, then proceeded to follow the others into the debriefing.  He kept his face neutral, noting that the others were in here to, which, may or may not be a good thing.  The feline leaned back into his his chair and casually crossed his left leg over his right knee.  A nice, relaxed pose.  He had strategically selected a position with his back to a wall, and very little, if any room for someone to sneak in behind him.  With a sense of moderate security, the armored feline sat back and relaxed.  If someone wished to address him they could, but otherwise, he'd sit and learn, seeing as this was his first major wrap up with this organization.

[techmaster-glitch]

   When Sean finally managed to get a word in edgewise, Jexx seemed to lose interest. He then started wandering around, until a familiar man told them all to gather for a debriefing. Not having anything else to do, Jexx follows the others into the room. He doesn't sit, but instead stands around, looking over his metal arms.

[Inumo]

Sean followed the men into the room. Taking a seat, he asked, "Just to make sure, you guys are the Rebellion, yes?"

[Ryudo Lee]

"Yes, we are the rebellion.  But we need to be careful that we're not inviting a spy into our ranks.  Now, tell me, what were you doing out there?  Why did you flag down our convoy?" A voice boomed through a few hidden speakers in the room.

----------

In the briefing room, Lt. Armstrong waited for everyone to take their places in the room before he spoke up.
"Dr. Woodworth's research is apparently of interest to the Brotherhood, which makes him interesting to us.  Thankfully, you got to him before they did.  There's no telling what they would have done with him, or his findings.  He'll be discussing our future relationship with Jackson." He says.  "For this, you'll all notice a healthy bonus in your pay.  Now, let's start from the beginning.  Tell me what happened out there."

[Inumo]

Sean visibly relaxed as he was ensured that the men were Rebellion people. "I was trying to get to Dr. Woodworth's dig site. I'm a freelance archaeologist of sorts."

[Tapewolf]

Dorcan opened his mouth, closed it again and looked to see if anyone else was going to summarise the mission first.

[Lisky]

Darkshine idly tapped his fingertips against the table.  He wasn't in command, it wasn't his place to speak up first.  He retained his relaxed posturing, though his reactions were on a hair-trigger.  It would have been nice to hide a couple of grenades before hand, however, that wasn't an option at this point.  His posture left him the minimum distance to the concealed weapon, and yet hid everything under his posture.  He considered his borderline-paranoid nature, and yet, it's only a disease if your wrong, if it saves your life, it's called being cautious.

[Tapewolf]

No-one else seemed about to start, so Dorcan piped up, glancing at some notes he had made on the journey back.  "I didn't see much of the action, personally.  Others will have to fill that in, but from what I recall it basically went something like this.

"The journey itself was uneventful.  We arrived ahead of the Brotherhood, took stock of the land and set up what fortifications we could.  The dig team had scared away a scout, but it was just a matter of time before the Brothers returned with reinforcements.

"I went into the dig site itself to act as a relay - since there was just the one entrance, we couldn't risk them being trapped inside, so if things were about to go tits-up and we needed to evacuate, I'd be on hand to relay the order from the others and shoo the archaeologists out before the site was overwhelmed.
The dig team was still hastily trying to excavate and did not want to leave.  Recognising that the crystal might prove crucial to the Brotherhood - or to us - we decided it was probably best to try and buy them enough time to finish the dig and then run like heck.

"Morgan broke into the Brotherhood's comms systems and intercepted their transmissions.  From this we learned that the Brotherhood soldiers had orders to eliminate everyone at the site except one special member they wanted captured, probably the good doctor.  Their primary target was the ancient crystal found in the site - Oh yeah.  If I remember right, Morgan was worried that they knew too much about us and might have had some kind of telltale or spy amongst the dig team.  I don't know what became of that."

"I missed most of the action, being holed up in the cave.  I don't really know what happened.  Eventually the dig team managed to locate their artifact and we had to move out.  At this point the battle was still raging and things were looking serious, so we decided to try and evacuate the dig site.
"I decided to try and ferry the dig team to the site one by one, using myself for cover since I am... unusually tough.  Fortunately the enemy was routed during this and so after... Miss Clay? was taken to the vehicles we were able to perform a more usual evacuation, with the full complement of the dig team, and no losses I'm aware of.  Though I'm not sure what happened with Exo," he added.

"On the return journey we were flagged down by that human guy who asked if we had been to the dig site.  This kind of spooked us so we took him in."

"I think that's the guts of it," he concluded.  "But there's probably a lot I've missed."

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Fetrethar rocked his head as Dorcan spoke, humming to himself quietly. None of the others seemed to eager to speak, so he added his own voice to the dog-man's.

"Their attack was odd, overeager, but the force composition was odd. They knew that the diggers had been reinforced, and they seemed to fear the warbot, although something odd happened to him. However, they did not bring enough force to whelm the defenses, bringing a strike force  that I would guess was more measured to only defeat the ones we came to help. I did not see the entirety of their force, but I estimate a score, perhaps a score and five, lightly armed for the most part; and they were backed up by some kind of leader, with a pavise and a portable cannon.

They had placed a listening device on the mountain at some unknown date. It was right out there in the open, although none of the labmen had found it. Shortly after Morgan had discovered the thing, I ascended the slope, and fired eleven rounds with the loaned plasma rifle. It was unarmored, it took perhaps three to destroy. I have a trophy, if any care to inspect it.

I then descended the slope of the mountain, and took up a position off to my left from the main battle. Both us and they were mostly firing from behind cover,  with few clean shots. However, someone, I did not see who, took down the larger enemy, and upon his falling, the grunts abandoned all tactical sense, rushing up the slopes to engage us. They lasted but a few seconds before being cut down. Upon falling, the enemy's gear detonated, preventing salvage.

Strategically, the enemy's choices were strange to me. At best I can surmise that they somehow found out about our reinforcement after sending their own strike force, but chose not to wait or reinforce their numbers. Once there, they initiated an attack against a force in a superior defensive position, attacking over-aggressively. They did not plan for contingency, and seemed more intent in felling us than in trying to deny us. I still count us fortunate that they did not fall back from our ambush, holding to the road and either forcing us to try to escape through rough terrain, or simply waiting for an overwhelming force to arrive. I can make no account for such actions."

Somewhat nervous at putting up his own opinions before the others of the clan, Fetrethar rocked on his heels, waiting for a response of some kind.