Log:A Breach in the Case, Scene 4

A Breach in the Case 2015/11/01 Siege Indira Nexus Quiet Rick 4 Nexus appears beside Indira with an ease that suggests he might have memorized her as a teleport location somewhere along the line. He's not exactly sure what's going on, but clearly events are moving too fast to allow for too many questions, so he follows the team's lead.

Quiet cannot teleport directly to Indira's location, but the Ambassador does have her personal message number. A given location accompanied by a tunnel in the earth allow her to track down and catch up with relative ease and certainty. While Rick may seem to be a somewhat chauvanistic, egotistical control-freak, he is still a brother-in-arms and recent teammate. Besides, Quiet was raised with and has worked with armed mercenaries for a decade. The Type A double-Y chromo is rather standard in her environment.

Nexus creates a remote viewing portal and sends it scooting around the breached tunnel complex ahead of them as they move, looking out for more traps.

Indira turns her head towards Nexus in surprise when he arrives. She doesn't know that he can home in on her, but she smiles in relief as seeing him. "Nexus, you found me quickly. This has been more dangerous than I expected," she whispers softly, worried about being overheard by others not in their group. She's dressed much more formally than he's seen her before, wearing her usual sci-fi garb that looks akin to an elegant gown. Only it and she are covered in dirt and mud from a tumble she and Griffin took during a muddy avalanche. Not to mention Griffin tackled her into the dirt face first, so she has some smudges of dirt on her face too.

Nexus nods. "Things never turn out to be _less_ dangerous than we expect, do they? I think there's something wrong with our expectations, y'know?"

Quiet announces her presence as she moves down the tunnel to catch up with the others. She cannot exactly call out, of course, but exagerrates her posture of curiosity as she looks Indira over. Sturdy or not, the Ambassador is the dirty one. Though, for all Quiet knows, that just helps her.

Indira turns towards Quiet and smiles warmly. The team and more are here. Now they'll certainly be able to rescue Rick, if he's still here. She nods to Quiet, then looks about the futuristic hallway. It's sterile. Which smells awful to her in a way. It lacks character. And she can't seem to smell Rick for now, at least. She carefully steps out of the tunnel and into the hallway, lifting the trim of her dress as she crosses the threshold. As she settles her bare feet on the flooring, she tries to feel through the material and vibrations to get a sense of what's around. This strange material is difficult to feel through, though.

Nexus says, "Man, this complex goes on _forever_! The hallways are safe enough, I think, but the rooms have security. There's a room about 50 meters that way," he says, pointing off to the right, "that's kind of interesting: some kind of medical and computer library, surrounded by three chambers with some kind of power generation system, underneath a sewage plant." To Indira he adds "That's probably what you were sensing, yeah?""

Quiet was prepared to perform some reconaissance, but it seems that may have already been gained. She gestures her armored right arm to Nexus and down the hall, offering to have the knowledgable one walk point.

Indira nods softly at Nexus' comment. "It must be. I can't...I can't feel anything clearly," she murmurs as she kneels down and puts her palms on the ground. "All...electricity and technology. I can only see with my eyes." Not many know she can feel through the earth, so her statement may sound rather obvious and silly. But trying to feel through the flooring is like trying to feel through the deck plates of a space station or, *shudder*, the Pyle. Unfortunately, everything has a weird, buzzy sensation to it. She is reminded of a planet she once explored that had a very badly ionized atmosphere. The ground there "buzzed" regularly because of the huge number of lightning strikes on the terrain. She rises up slowly and rubs her hands together, looking to the group of heroes. "Where do you think we should search for Rick first?"

The space around Nexus' body ripples as he prepares to take point at Quiet's suggestion, adopting a more defensive profile. He looks back and forth between Quiet and Griffin, waiting for one of them to answer Indira's question... his own inclination is to check out that weird generator thing, but he has no idea where Rick might or might not be.

Quiet takes up a position adjacent to Indira and begins to move after Nexus. As for the question, she can only offer a shrug in reply, currently, before looking to Nexus. He provided detailed knowlegde of the facility and its layout.

Nexus says, "Beats me. I didn't see any people, but I was mostly just paying attention to traps and stuff. Hold on..." He stops moving and opens a perceptual portal again, looking in the various node-rooms for any signs of human habitation, or former habitation, or shielded areas that seem like they might be prison cells. While he looks, he adds "If he's imprisoned, though, it might make sense to shut down the power generator first anyway... that might make busting him out easier."

Indira nods once as she listens to Nexus. "If Rick is here, I do not think it is willing. It's not like him not to respond at all. Cutting power may shut down security. But anyone here will know we have come."

Nexus looks at the hole in the wall. "Um... were we being stealthy?"

Indira puts a finger to her chin with an innocent expression. "No, but they have not greeted us. Maybe they did not notice...?"

That is very wishful thinking, Ms. Paxis. Very wishful thinking indeed. Her not-so-innocent expression probably reveals she doubts that failed to notice.

Wondering if directing Nexus to point was a poor choice, knowledge or no knowledge, Quiet steps up. A few taps of her left hand on right forearm bring up a small holographic display with text. DIRECTION AND DISTANCE TO POWER GENERATOR.

Nexus shrugs. "Well, he's your employee, I'm just backup here. There's a couple of dozen people around, none of them seem to be imprisoned. Most of them are civilians, security scattered around, none of them seem to be on alert, so you might be right. There's 5 guards by that medical/computer lab I mentioned, they're looking up for some reason, at where the sewage plant is. Like I said, I'd take out the power node first, but your call."

Griffin considers the teams options after listening quietly to the growing strike force. With Nexus' intell- however it's gained, Indira's Plantgirl Space Barbrella thing and his and Quiet's generally lethality- Rick's as good as saved. But it's just a question of what the right way to start the mission is to get the most efficent & effective results for the least amount of time and manpower.

He checks his gun out of habit while he thinks and looks to the generator room Nexus described.

"I think Fuzzy Face is right." He finally says.

"Looking...up?" That makes Indira look up as well, not that she can see through anything. "And he is not just an employee. I would consider him more than that." Friend may be pushing it, based on how Rick treats her. She is not sure she knows the english word for it. Indira just nods to the wisdom of others. "I trust all of you. Let us 'do this'."

Nexus quietly hopes that nickname doesn't stick, nods to Indira, and resumes taking point.

Quiet nods to Indira, offers her a thumbs up, then also nods to Griffin.

Yameen decides to take point and readies her rifle-like weapon before moving forward. After her second stride, her cloaking system activates and she vanishes from view.

Quiet decides to take point and readies her rifle-like weapon before moving forward. After her second stride, her cloaking system activates and she vanishes from view.

Indira falls instep behind the others as they lead the way down the hallway and towards the generators. She tries to extend her mind to see if she can pick up any familiar thoughts as they travel, or any alerted minds as they go.

Nexus is a little surprised when Quiet moves ahead of him, but doesn't say anything, just continues to move down the corridor in the direction of the Medical/Computer lab. He does start paying a little less attention to his immediate surroundings, though, trusting her to provide warning, and more attention to the areas ahead of them viewable through his portal, especially the area above the guards where they're looking.

Nexus says, "This is weird. The guards look like they're expecting us to drop in through the sewage plant... that's what they're surveilling. Looks like the sump's main drain collapsed... any of you gusys responsible for that? Anyway, it looks like we've got the element of surprise on our side if we go in hard and fast... they aren't expecting us to be down here. Well, either that," he muses, "or they're pretending in order to lure us into overconfidence... but I'm probably overthinking that."

Nexus continues to move towards the relevant node.

Griffin fights the urge to groan about both Quiet and this new Nexus character taking point ahead of him.

He shrugs and steps behind Indira as he raises his gun and covers their six.

"Yes...it collapsed when we trigged the bomb trap," Indira answers all too calmly. Mainly because her mind is focused on trying to pick up Rick's thoughts.

Nexus nods. "Right, makes sense."

"Alright- well you heard the man. We hit them hard and we hit them fast." Griffin gins, looking to Nexus he adds, "Any chance you can tell me what color socks their wearing?" His face is completely serious.

"Alright- well you heard the man. We hit them hard and we hit them fast." Griffin grins*, looking to Nexus he adds, "Any chance you can tell me what color socks their wearing?" His face is completely serious.

Despite knowing better, Nexus allows himself to be distracted by the frivolous request, carefully examining the guards' feet. As though to make up for his foolishness, he also checks out their gear.

The trek through the hallway should be arduous and fascinating. It is a boring and protracted travel sequence that leads our intrepid team of heroes past several intersections that vary between one and five branches radiating outward at various angles. Once or twice, the group passes by almost vault-like doors on one side of the hall or the other - protecting other nods, no doubt.

Perhaps the most unsettling part of travelling through this vast monotony is the fact that no one's footfalls make any sort of sound. Despite the super extra high-tech surroundings with their smooth, unadorned surfaces, there is no real sound save the team's voices and the occasional sounds of their equipment jostling about. It's just not right to the human ear - probably not even right to the alien ear either.

As our heroes approach the end of the hall, they can hear a number of voices chattering back in forth in hushed tones. Tones may actually be an overstatement of the facts, the most active voices have some kind of electronic distortion to them that makes everyone's voice sound the same. It's also important to note the enormous increase in the number of access points to other nodes; one gets the impression that this is an important section of the facility.

With her cloak active, Quiet's footfalls would not make noise, regardless. Her voice is another non-issue. She maintains visual and audio range with the others, and simply makes use of her inconspicuous state to provide some short-range recon and stand-off distance for the others, not to mention expected advantage of surprise.

"Two white, two blackish, one dayglo orange. I'd keep my eye on that last guy if I were you," Nexus reports, almost straightfaced, but unable to keep an amused tone out of his voice. "Also: two high-tech shotguns, five handguns and some kind of high-tech batons. Armored."

Nexus looks around at the members of the team he can see, ready to enter and attack when they do.

Griffin steps forward. "Alright- lets do this." Griffin says. "I'll try to divert their attention to give you guys time to flank 'em. Hopefully it'll be enough."

He holds his weapon with the barrels pointed straight into the sky- well the earth overhead.

He looks to Indira and asks, "Any sign of Rick?" He asks- figuring she's been able to track him this far, maybe she's attuned to something he's not.

Now that the node density is increasing, Indira is starting to sense human minds. There are between 10 and 15 humans in the vicinity; most of them have very uninteresting thoughts, focused largely on paperwork or scientific curiosities in their new test subject. There is one thing that stands out: At present, there are six minds that are sort of "flickering" in and out of her ability to sense them. Based on positioning, she thinks five of them are the guards up ahead. Number six is somewhere past them in one of the power generator rooms.

Indira's head is panning about as if she's listening to many conversations. "Not yet," she whispers oh so softly. "No Rick. I don't smell or sense his presence. But as Nexus said, there are others around here. I feel ten, maybe fifteen humans nearby. But the ones in there," she points to the room Nexus is guiding them to. "Their minds. They...flicker. I do not understand. There is another mind like theirs. Somewhere beyond," she motions further past that, towards one of the power generator rooms Nexus spied on.

"I did hear some thoughts about a new test subject," Indira says with a note of worry as she glances to Rick, and then Nexus. She can sense Quiet's mind, but she doesn't know where to look for her.

<<You ladies have noticed, as you've been walking down this interminable hallway, that the place feels oddly familiar. Not in a deja-vu, 'OMG, I have already been here' sort of way. Rather, the experience is suspiciously reminiscent of something or, more aptly, someWHERE else you've been. As you enter the region of increased node density, the thought occurs to both of you that it's eerily similar to walking through a(n underground) space station; a primitive, module-hallway-module space station that doesn't have any sort of artificial gravity and relies on airlocks and modularity to quarantine problems in one area from other modules throughout the station.>>

Nexus peers off in the direction Indira indicated.

Nexus replies to Indira with a puzzled tone of voice. "I dunno what's going on with those generators... they're hooked up erally weirdly, and the one over there" (he points) "has the other two hooked up to it, and is feeding power to a shielded area underneath... some kind of quantum computer system, maybe? I dunno. I've never really seen anything hooked up quite like this."

Quiet can't call out, and isn't about to sacrifice her stealth simply to make a comment. Yet... she did learn a thing or two about one petalicious floral Ambassador. A way she might be able to share her thoughts on the situation, so to speak.

"Maybe they have Rick down there?" Nexus guesses uncertainly. "Anyway... I say we take these guards down before they stop conveniently watchig the sky, and worry about the rest of it later."

Indira hears Quiet's voice inside her head: << :turns to regard Indira and 'think loudly' in her direction, though she has no real knowledge nor much experience with it. < >>

Nexus has exactly the level of patience one would expect from a superhero with no particular special training or discipline. Adrenaline is coursing through his system and he really REALLY wants to hit something now.

Indira nods soundly at Nexus' comments. She's starting to feel something familiar about this place. "If they are holding him there, we shall rescue him. We must move quickly." She nods to Nexus and Griffin. "I have readied myself. At your order." She leaves it to them to get ready to BREACH the door. She suddenly blinks and looks about, then nods to thin air as she senses Quiet's message.

Nexus nods to Griffin and gets ready.

Griffin nods to Nexus and charges the door weapon drawn. He shouts out nonsensical phrases to the guards looking up.

He hopes his 2 offensively minded teammates can get into position before they overrun him.

"Go a head- Make my Day! Pilgrim!"

"I ain't heard no Fat Lady!"

"Yipee-yi-ka-yay Mother Fu*kers." And many more tired and long dead phrases disgrace everyone present.

Nexus follows, thinking a little too late that maybe he ought to have checked the doorway more carefully for traps, and hoping it doesn't blow up as they enter.

Telepathic message to Quiet from Indira from Indira: << For the first time, Lien feels Indira's mind touch back. With it comes her concern and care for Rick and the other's safety. Protectiveness and responsibility. "It reminds me of a space station. A very old model. I think you're right. This place smells sterile and clean, like a lab environment. Perhaps it's meant to seal itself if something goes wrong." Her mental voice doesn't have an accent, and the speech is clear and understandable, without the hesitation she has when she tries to translate her language to English. >>

Griffin charges past Quiet and into the Medical & Computer Lab. He is not instantly vaporized by some kind of laser trap, nor is the base eradicated by the secret bombs in the doorframe. Instead he attracts the attention of the room's seven (7) occupants, five (5) of whom are clearly armed and armored guards standing near the left hand locus of the strangely elliptical room.

Approximately 3m tall, the room has an 8m diameter running from the entry point to the door on the opposite wall. It's a bit over 10m in diameter cutting across the room in the opposite direction. For reasons not immediately made clear, there is an actual floor in this node that is not made of the facility's shell material. It is shiny and given to a mixture of metallic and crystalline finishes that visually POP under the harsh, clinical white lighting emanating from the wall-mounted lighting units.

Overhead, the ceiling is made of what appears to be glass. It looks up into the floor of the automated sewage filtration plant under the sump. Everyone may get a migraine from looking in that direction because spacetime is noticeably distorted to allow for the weird window ceiling. The sump is still settling into the plant, mud and dirt and filth sloughing off of the enormous mound coming down from the exploded main pipe descending from above into the filtration plant, chunks of dirt occasionally creating pixellated ripples and distortions across the folded spacetime surface suspended over the glass ceiling.

Following a second of shocked silence as Griffin starts spouting cliches and charging into the room proper, the guards all turn toward the door. The word 'chokepoint' pops into Quiet's head as she watches a tall woman in black, paramility-style medium armor lift a weapon that appears to be a shotgun from a kid's sci-fi show. A second guard, male, has a similar weapon in hand and is sweeping his armored helmet from side to side as he visually searches the room - you all may hope he is visually searching the room - from under his mirrored green helmet visor. Yet another guard pulls a handgun from a holster on his left hip and a high-tech baton from a sheath across the small of his back.

By random happenstance, however, Griffin is charging toward a female guard in lighter black paramilitary armor. Knee-high dayglo orange socks pop out of the tops of her combat boots and cover her from mid-shin to knee, making it impossible to tell if she's wearing shorts or slacks. She pulls her high-tech baton from its place on her left hip and spins it around in her right hand as the silver bulb at its head starts to whistle, purple(?!) lightning crackling across its surface as she stares down the incoming Griffin.

Our other two occupants are a pair of scientists who, upon seeing an armed Griffin charging into the room, sprint across the room behind him to run past the shimmering window-like partition that makes up the left-hand wall of the room. The blond scientist slaps a red button labelled, helpfully, PANIC that seems to cause the partition to solidify with a momentary polarizing effect. Everyone may feel better knowing that the scientists are in the medical portion of the lab, which looks almost too high-tech to be as barbaric as it probably is.

Indira hears Quiet's voice inside her head: << Quiet's thoughts are suddenly very pleased to get a response. This pleasantness ends when Griffin rushes in. One might be able to hear the mental facepalm. At least the thought behind the gesture, so no translation needed. "These are mercs. An agency like Rick's. The batons use ultrasonics and and electrical discharge. Stay safe, while I try and save Griffin's ass." >>

Telepathic message to Quiet from Indira from Indira: << Indira's thoughts become alert to the danger. "Like Rick's? Or actually Rick's? I don't know where you are. Do they look like they're wearing insignias from a company called Bad Company?" She mentally shares the image of the crossed six shooters that she remembers from her first meeting at their offices, where she first met Rick. "You be safe, too." >>

Indira hears Quiet's voice inside her head: << "No, not Rick's. La Brea, out of California, United States. Which is a long way from here..." This last point sits oddly and bugs her. >>

Indira sees Griffin charge ahead, and gets a mental warning from Quiet. Since Griffin is off yelling, she looks to Nexus and passes along the message. "Quiet says these humans are mercenaries. Their bat ons are...hrmm!" She struggles with the english and slaps the translation collar on her throat. "Electrical and ultrasonic in nature," she says much more certainly and clearly.

Nexus nods.

Quiet would take the time to slap her faceplate into her palm at Griffin's heroicly stupid charge (and not just for the cliches), if she didn't now feel obligated to save his hide and cover him. Shotguns and chokepoints do chunky salsa make. She is not without her own area suppression, though collateral damage to Griffin is a possibility. Her weapon alters and her cloaking field drops as she launches a flash-bang into the room from the doorway without being so heroic and/or stupid to charge into the room, itself.

All three of the guards with handguns and batons stagger out of formation, apparently blinded. The lithe young lady with the dayglo orange socks flails her crackling, electrified baton at the air in Griffin's approximate direction as though trying to ward him off with Wingardium Leviosa.

Our friends with the shotguns, however, seem unimpressed by the flashbang. The lady who was aiming seems undeterred as she continues to try drawing a bead on Griffin. Her friend finally lifts his shotgun and starts tracking toward Quiet's revealed position.

Nexus moves into the room behind Griffin, his body seeming to grow slightly more tangible as he flanks the guards to the right. Meanwhile his right hand disappears altogether and reappears several meters away, attempting to teleport the shotgun out of the nearest shotgun-wielder's hands.

The shotgun appears in Nexus' hands and he cheers.

Griffin didn't just charge in blindly expecting to wear all these gun weilding jack-asses attentions without a little assistance. No of course not, but when his allies successfully charge the room behind him he is more than grateful.

He reaches into his MEDkit and pulls out one of his dropshields. He drops it and steps on it with his foot the way he's done a dozen times before.

He looks back to Indira to make sure she's safe. If anything she can use the dropshield for cover.

He rolls his back against the shield and looks around the edge with his gun leveled.

He drops the his sight slightly as he surveys the room around him.

He takes aim at the nearest mercenary and takes aim. He fires.

The male heavy is wrenched awkwardly to one side, his jaw setting and teeth showing as he struggles to retain his grip on the shotgun. Alas, you can't really fight the grip of dimensional physics and he stumbles a step or so off-kilter as he tries to recover from the sudden lack of gun in hand and tension on it.

"Priority Target: Type VII Ranged Manipulator," intones the male heavy as he reaches for his sidearm. He also moves so that he's back-to-back with the female heavy as she lines up her shot on Quiet. She cracks a crooked smile at Quiet and looks to be about to fire when Griffin just lasers her dead in the chest. There is a shocked noise that escapes her as she's driven backward into the male heavy once.

Twice.

Three times.

Both heavies crash heavily against one another before slamming into the rear wall of the room. The female heavy slumps to the ground, her grasp on her shotgun lost as thick curls of toxic black smoke rise from her armored vest. Apparently lasers are not considered normal wear and tear for that model of vest. Fortunately, the male heavy is completely absorbed in trying to right himself by prying himself free of the dent he's embedded in in the wall.

Oh hey, the other three guards are all flailing blindly about.

Indira steps in behind the rest, looking to the flailing guards near each other. She understands Griffin's look and moves quickly to take cover behind the barrier. She leans out from behind it and blows towards the heavy that can still see and is trying to pry himself out of the wall. A dusty, lightly glowing trail of blue spores sail towards him.

The male heavy turns around to face the room again just in time for Indira's spores to break upon his face like a wave upon a levee. His eyes widen for a moment, choking on the blooming cloud of faintly luminescent blue dust before he drops to one knee. Doubled over, the heavy hacks and wheezes with gradually diminishing vigor.

Telepathic message to Quiet from Indira: << "I need to focus and help. Be careful." Just before Indira blows her spores at the Heavy, Quiet feels Indira's mind pull away, her presence vanishing. >>

Quiet watches as one heavy is disarmed, another appears dropped by laser fire, and a third is choking. Her aim pans to the one with the sparking stick and the dayglo fashion. The bore of her weapon alters as she does, widening to over 60mm. A dull, deep sound is loosed to propel a ball of monowire that quickly unfurls and expands. Would it be simpler to put a trio of holes in her chest? Probably... but perhaps some of the vegetative thoughts in Quiet's head are still lingering.

Dayglo claws at her helmet's visor with one hand, her other hand swinging that crackling baton wildly at the air around her. How she's managed to not brain either of her cohorts is difficult to say - chaos sometimes works against obvious outcomes, one may suppose - with her ferocious, furious swings of the stun baton.

At which point Quiet fires a monowire net at her. The edge of the unfurling net catches on Dayglo's arm and the net whips around behind and then across Dayglo's whole body before it finishes anchoring itself around her. Unfortunately for Dayglo, this brings the bulbous head of her stun baton swinging inward and upward to crack her dead in the throat. On impact, the baton discharges the full fury of its PURPLE LIGHTNING, casting an eerie and brilliant lavendar pallor across everyone in the room as Dayglo silently shrieks in pain.

When the stun baton finishes discharging its payload, Dayglo collapses forward and slams, chin-first, into the crystal-/metal-finished floor with a strangled, painful squeak of agony. Indira and Griffin can both hear the stun baton emit an exceptionally high-pitched keening as it charges its alternative "stun" system. They're uncomfortably close to hear that awful ultrasound charging noise.