Log:A Breach in the Case, Scene 11

A Breach in the Case 2016/03/27 Breach Griffin Indira Quiet

11 PREVIOUSLY ON "A BREACH IN THE CASE":

Quiet left Griffin to speak with Indira via the mysterious facility beneath Colonial Bay's internal computer network. In the mean time, she has determined that "Operation Sundial" is using layers of sophisticed, advanced technology in mostly novel configurations for a new purpose. That purpose, as it happens, appears to be cryogenically preserving an untold number of dead - or dead-like - individuals for as yet undetermined purposes.

Griffin, in the meantime, has nearly annihilated the computer system through sheer unfamiliarity with futuristic computers. Quiet somehow managed to disable the security measure(s) he activated, freezing a timer on both ends of the computer link. Our dear Mr. Freeman is now standing overwatch in "The Mausoleum" in which he and Quiet have found themselves.

Breach maintains overwatch at the only door into and/or out of the Medical & Computer Laboratory in which he and Indira are stationed. He is still bristling with controlled panic at the mere possibilities of an undefined countdown sequence. On the plus side, he's remembered to continue breathing after close to a minute of not doing so before Indira mentioned that the countdown finally stopped.

That all leaves one main question: What is SPACETEAM doing with the corpsecicles in the basement?

Indira looks over to Rick before murmuring over the comms, "If we had enough time, we could get local Guardsmen to help free those below. I could help make an exit path and carry some out, but it would take too long with so many."

The Alaskan Super Soldier continues his quiet grumping, this time deciding to leave Quiet to her computer work.

He decides to give the Members Only Mausoleum a closer look.

He leaps down to the ground, landing in a three-point stance, gun held at his waist.

He stands up and walks towards the closest sarcophagus while looking around for a button that says "Release All" or better yet, "Don't Touch."

He tries not to think about how he never once brought up syncing comms with his teammates before now. But he can't help feel a bit bummed by his lack of tactical thinking.

He doubles down and considers his options as he wanders between corpsicles.

Quiet has similar thoughts. She can take a few, but a few won't hack it. Not with this many grunt-cicles. WE NEED AN EXIT POINT. ALSO A BUNCH OF EXTRA HANDS. HAS ANYONE TRIED 1-800-SIDE-KICK?

This is typed into the comm connection to appear on Indira's screen under Quiet's image, of course.

"Are we seriously discussing trying to jail break The House of a Thousand Corpses?"

Breach is looking at Indira and (monitor) Quiet. They can't see his eyebrow raised under his mirrored orange face lens, but it's there and by god is it ever questioning the sanity of this plan. He shifts his weight - Indira notes Rick's internal struggle over leaving his post versus the catharsis of howling grumpily at everyone else - but does not yet rise. For now, he just glowers obnoxiously at the ladies as he waits for the other boot to drop.

Presumably on Breach's gloomy Gus head, because that's how the Universe and Breach roll.

"I would not leave you here," Indira says softly to Rick. "Can we permit them to do the same to others?" Indira doesn't seem happy about it at all. But she's at least a realist. With a hefty sigh, she finally nods. "We do not have the resources to free them at this instant. But we can gather information and come back with more help."

Griffin considers his options as he looks over the sarcophagi in greater detail.

There are definitely release mechanisms on each, but unfortunately not a big red button in sight- at least not one that looks like it will magically transport these undead soldiers to the surface.

But as he looks them over, some similarities to the freezer he rode from 2015 here come to mind.

The man who released him from the cyrochamber, Milo said that his diagnostics showed that the on-board battery backup stayed at 5% power for 13 years before suddenly being charged back to 100- where it stayed for the remaining decades.

Griffin suspects that was his abilities coming to the surface. He shakes the thought loose and returns to the present.

Griffin taps the side of his headset to radio the more militant members of his team.

He says, "Q- maybe we should check out the elevator leading back up to the power plant. There's gotta be a way to move these things upstairs- and I don't see any other way out. Over."

Quiet double-taps the TX button to signal her acknowledgement. It makes sense. They got them down here, and probably via that elevator tube thing they road in on.

INDIRA, CAN YOU ACCESS THE EVELATOR CONTROLS FROM TOPSIDE?

Meanwhjile, she'll work on the console she's att to see if there's some sort of retrieval program.

"We are keister deep in enemy territory. We have the data we came for and we are more than half-an-hour into the op without encountering enemy opposition. Am I the only one that thinks this is a trap?"

Breach throws his hands up in the air and only barely restrains himself from slamming his helmet into the wall alongside of the door. Instead he slowly returns to VERY grumpfully - yes, grumpfully, that's how grumpy he is, he's made up a new word to describe it - guarding the door. He may or may not be muttering unflattering things about the general heritage of the potential zombie stockpile in the basement.

"I can attempt," Indira replies, beginning to navigate through the holo-interface generated by her Omni-Systems. She taps through menus in Asrani, the writing a script language that is as flowery looking as its people. It reads left to right, but in some instances, based on how her hands navigate and trace along to read, bottom to top. She browses for a way to access the elevator controls and perhaps view the elevator stops.

Noting Rick's furstration, she asks softly as her eyes remained focused on her holo-screen, "Would you like to verbalize what trap you would set in this situation, Mr. Mason? Your insights could prove valuable."

She blinks a few times and more through her interface than at it as she tries to mentally scan for any thoughts of traps from enemies in the base. Much like straining to hear a conversation.

"I have located the elevator controls for your location," Indira murmurs quietly over the computer's comms.

"For starters, I'd have blast doors around the power plants over there," Breach gestures toward where Quiet and Griffin went earlier, "And some kind of internal, indepedent security trigger. A countdown clock for instance. You trip the trigger, the clock counts down, the power plants overload, and you wipe out the intruders and all traces of your freaky farm for dead people."

Breach turns his head to look at Indira and Quiet again. He rolls his shoulders and continues on, apparently getting up to full steam now.

"Or just a blast door separating the completely isolated body farm from the rest of the facility entirely. Anyone goes down there, the doors close and create a hermetic seal. If you spend too long down there, you use up the limited supply of breathable atmosphere, bite it, and they send in a clean up crew to stuff your corpses into some new, empty pods.

"Someone tries to remove a pod without authorization, it turns into a time bomb and blows up in the face or faces of everyone involved. Or - and this is the one I like - these guys are the ones that ran the lab I woke up in under Nebraska and those pods are all full of... Of..."

Breach pauses and looks directly at the monitor.

"How did Griff put it? Warm-corpse powered zombies? I don't look forward to finding out I'm functionally impossible to kill except by other hot zombies. Do you guys feel like biting it to The Walking Dead?"

"For starters, I'd have blast doors around the power plants over there," Breach gestures toward where Quiet and Griffin went earlier, "And some kind of internal, indepedent security trigger. A countdown clock for instance. You trip the trigger, the clock counts down, the power plants overload, and you wipe out the intruders and all traces of your freaky farm for dead people."

Breach turns his head to look at Indira and Quiet again. He rolls his shoulders and continues on, apparently getting up to full steam now.

"Or just a blast door separating the completely isolated body farm from the rest of the facility entirely. Anyone goes down there, the doors close and create a hermetic seal. If you spend too long down there, you use up the limited supply of breathable atmosphere, bite it, and they send in a clean up crew to stuff your corpses into some new, empty pods.

"Someone tries to remove a pod without authorization, it turns into a time bomb and blows up in the face or faces of everyone involved. Or - and this is the one I like - these guys are the ones that ran the lab I woke up in under Nebraska and those pods are all full of... Of..."

Breach pauses and looks directly at the monitor.

"How did Griff put it? Warm-corpse powered zombies? I don't look forward to finding out I'm functionally impossible to kill except by other hot zombies. Do you guys feel like biting it to The Walking Dead?"

It takes Indira some time to get more than static from the minds within her ability to touch. There are quite a lot of people actively thinking about traps... Unfortunately, they're all thinking very intensely about the traps in the warehouse that are apparently triggering against the forces on site.

Indira's eyes go from distant to more focused on the interface. "I think I can control the elevators for you. It sounds like the members of this operation are busy dealing with the traps they made in the warehouse above, that are now detecting them as hostiles. It has bought us some time, but I do not think it will keep them busy forever."

Her eyes drift over to Breach's imaginative tirade. "Biting it to? I do not understand this reference." Zombies apparently aren't part of the Asrani culture? That's a shame.

Meanwhile Griffin was casually walking through the lines of sarcophagi, his sidearm hanging at his waist. That was until Rick's tirade is overheard.

He crouches down, and immediately begins creeping, making his way towards the elevator.

He trusts the team scout to meet him there.

He taps his comms again, "I reserve the right to change my mind at anytime." He whispers into the comms.

"Mason has a point. Let's see what we can do with the elevator- and if I'm wrong about being able to recall them, fine I'm wrong. We pull up stakes. Find another day to hit them. But if I'm right, we owe it to the Frozen Masonettes to try to extract them- even if it's just one."

In the course of seconds, Griffin goes from grunt to ninja. He drops down low and creeps along through row after row of sarcophogi. The Energized Super Soldier emerges from The Shadows of The Sarcophogi - which is probably going to be the actual name of this arc of SPACETEAM's serialized adventures - near the freight elevator.

It takes Griffin less than a minute of searching, now that he knows what he's looking for, to find two stashes of hover dollies. One stash is on the elevator itself, recessed into the platform near its control console. Griffin still can't make heads or tails of that console, aside from the up and down buttons. The other stash is inside of the "crash panel" at the end of the elevator's track.

No doubt it bears noting that the ten dollies in the "crash panel" are actually capable of hauling up to five sarcophogi at a time. Like that, Griffin and Quiet could probably max out the capacity on the elevator. Of course, this still leaves the question of getting the sarcophogi out of the base itself.

Exit strategies are just as important as entry and security strategies, kids!

Indira continues to monitor the security systems, elevator, and the minds of the agents in the general facility as Griffin does his searching for options.

So they've go the elevator. Anti-grav dollies. And a bunch of sarcophagi to move. So far, not too shabby. Getting them back to the main lab level now seems much more feaible. Not instant, but quicker than walking them out one at a time.

OK, WE'VE GOT A WAY UP FOR THEM, TEN AT A TIME. HOW DO WE GET THEM FROM THE LAB BACK TO THE SURFACE?

Quiet punches that into the comm panel for the up team, and projects it for her partner in the basement.

Indira listens in on the communications from Quiet. "Yes. You can get them to where we are. But how do we get them all out of the base entirely?"

Indira looks over to the tunnel entry she created. "Will we be able to move them on uneven ground?"

Griff taps his comms so Rick can hear their progress as he continues making his way towards the 'crash panel' to pull one of the hoverdollies out and take towards Quiet's location.

"Well I was thinking about that too..." He says over the open line.

He wraps his hand around the handle and heaves to detach it from the panel.

After that the hover bit starts up on its own, and it floats easily out of place.

"This place is drawing a lot of power- way more than a the 'Mausoleum' required... and on top of that, they had all that support personnel here almost instantly right? Well, every single scifi-loving bone in my body tells me there's a teleporter here. So we get our lucky chosen few on-board the elevator, come up to you two and make our way towards... well I dunno. Maybe Indira can find that out while we perform the opening act. The tunnel works too, but I'd love to way clear of this place with the cargo in hand before we have to worry about reinforcements..."

PROBABLY. THE ANTI-GRAV DOLLIES SHOULD WORK ON ANYTHING MORE EVEN THAN STAIRS.

That's Quiet's assessment, at the least. Now that they have at least 3/4 of a plan, she motions to Griffin, then creates a new text projection.

wE'VE GOT TO GET THEM TOPSIDE TO START, SO LET'S GET THEM MOVING.

"Teleporter? I will look for one," Indira responds as she begins brushing her fingers over her holo-display again, searching for other transport options. "They could have also used your transmat station and rallied here. But it is worth searching," Indira murmurs. "Be careful about triggering alarms when you move them." 

"A teleporter," replies an incredulous Breach, "What is this? An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation?"

Breach turns around again, looks back at Indira, and then he looks back at the doorway. With a loud physical and mental grumble, Breach heaves himself to full height and starts jogging over to Indira. On the way, Breach's boots hit the strange dais in the middle of the room. He immediately looks down and then up at the strange, matching panels overhead.

Looking directly at Indira, Breach gestures at the platform on which he stands as he inquires, "This count as a teleporter or transmat platform or... Whatever?"

"I don't understand the reference," Indira responds with forced patience. Rick should know she understands his references even less than others in this era. She's just about to navigate through another system for the base when Rick makes a comment. She looks to him. Then up. Then down at his feet. Her lips curl slightly.

"That might. Let me investigate."

Griffin slides the first dolly to Quiet.

It moves smoothly over the ground towards her as he gives it a gentle shove toward her.

"Stow that Mason. Everyday here is like StarCross Extrema or some other weird future horror show and you doubt teleporters?" Griffin says over the line, "We'll check in again once we pull our first hot corpse. Over."

He turns back and goes to dislodge the second hoverdolly.

It slides out as easily as the first one.

This time Griffin gives it a good shove and attempts to ride it down the ramp to catch up to Quiet.

Indira is unfamiliar with this particular configuration of "teleporter", but you are certain it is, in fact, a teleporter. A cursory inspection suggests it may have an independent control panel. Maybe one of the other remaining consoles or panels in the lab is the correct instrument to access this strange hyoomon device?

Indira purses her lips in curiosity as she goes about her attempts at discovery. "I believe it could be, Breach. But the controls are not linked to this computer. Do you see anything else that may control it?" She looks up from her holo-display and looks around the room for other control panels.

"It's not like... God damn it, he hung up on me," grumps Breach. He looks over at Indira and makes a face she can only telepathically feel, not see. With a sigh and a gesture, Breach offers, "We'll watch a marathon next time your calendar isn't packed. You might like Star Trek."

Breach looks around the room again, one hand coming up to rub the back of his helmet as he regards the largely emptied Medical & Computer Lab. After a few moments, Breach gestures toward the heavy weight electronics console off to one side of the dais.

"First guess would be that. It could be a server, but... It's both a weird place for the servers and weird that they'd leave the servers behind, y'know?"

If it's original Star Trek, Indira may very well be offended by Captain Kirk's antics with female aliens. Who knows what else she may think. But TNG, she may actually like. Indira finally steps away from the console she's at, her holo-display shutting down momentarily as she moves. "It seems very big for a server. But all Earth technology is bigger than I expect," she comments as she approaches the console to review it.

Griffin rides down the access ramp with a grin spread over his face, deftly leaning and keeping off the walls.

He gains speed as he charges toward Quiet.

Its unlikely that most could pull this feat off, but a bit of super-strength and above average dexterity goes a long way.

He coasts along and fights the urge to shout "Cowabunga" as he blows past Quiet.

Twisting as he comes and turning hard around her. He keeps moving toward the end of the ramp and as he's within 20feet of the 'Mausoleum' entrance he hops off and plants his feet dragging the dolly to a stop.

While Griffin gets his sick sk8r moves on in the Mausoleum, Indira advances upon the huge computer unit built into the floor just beside the raised dais at the center of the Medical & Computer Lab. Largely composed of a light metal (aluminum perhaps?) it vents only small amounts of waste heat, although it is apparently idle at the moment.

Breach circles around the shiny metal and crystalline dais several times while Indira scans the enormous computer console(?) next to it with her Omni-Access Systems. There is a delay of nearly thirty seconds before, abruptly, her suit pops up another holographic system interface in Asrani. Once again she is confronted with an angry taupe screen and an assortment of cracking and hacking software options light up on her floating display.

Hopefully this will not take nearly as long as the other system.

Breach looks at Indira and then at the doorway again.

"Should I go back to overwatch?"

Indira nods gently. "Yes, please, Breach. This may take a little time to access. I will need you to make sure we are safe," she smiles softly at him, trusting him to the task. Her eyes drift back to her Omni-Access screen and begins selecting a control systems hack.

Griffin guides the hoverdolly towards the first sarcophagus and looks into the glass first, followed by the name of the poor soldier within.

He attempts to read over the medical log to see if this might be a good candidate to pull- or if they're all in pretty much the same condition.

He'd ask Quiet, but she'll be a while at the pace she was going.

Griffin calls it 'passive scouting' and it's been working so far.

"Alright bub, what's your story?" He asks the deadsicle.

Breach jogs back over to the doorway. He drops into a crouch and pulls a tactical black cylinder from his combat harness. Immediately Breach begins wiring it up to the doorway, making a trap of his own. The first person through the door will, no doubt, have a blast!

Indira's Omni-Access Systems proceed apace with cracking the security on the console. She will be heartened to see that it is already speeding from taupe toward cerulean. Just a few colors to go before it achieves the desired vermillion level of access.

After a few sarcophagus checks, Griffin figures out that he knows next to nothing about cryogenics. More importantly he finds that the whole batch of Rick-Flavored SuperSoldiers are all in the same state of nigh-deadness.

So he moves on the step two while he waits for Quiet to get down the ramp.

"Ok pal, time to spring you first, get you loaded up- and a few of yer comrades too." He says, talking to himself quietly as he works. "Where did I see that release hatch again?"

Indira continues to wait as her system translates. "I really must install human languages into this," she quips quietly. The translation is taking less time than before, but there's still a lot that needs translating.

Griffin finds the latch, and with a soft hiss the systems roll over to on-board backups. Then a few seconds later the latches are thrown loose as well.

Griffin lifts and heaves the first one over his shoulder, its balance as precarious as the montage that begins is hilarious- set to the beat of Sammy Hagar's "Winner Takes It All" Over The Top style.

(For those of you who forgot- https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=875CoJO-nDU)

As the song comes to a climatic crescendo Griffin has loaded up the first Hover Dolly to its fullest.

o/~ IT'S A MONTAGE! o/~ A TRAINING MONTAGE! o/~ EVEN ROCKY GOT A MONTAGE! o/~

Griffin loads the elevator with the first of many hover dollies to come. While he is retreating to fill a second hover dolly, Quiet loads up a second hover dolly on the elevator plane. They will likely have this job done in no time if they keep up their Efficiency Meter!

o/~ MONTAGE! YEEEEEEAAAAAH! o/~ WORKING MONTAGE! o/~ IT'S A MONTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE! o/~

Indira is not having much luck. Her hacking montage looks more like a logging onto the Internet montage from 1980's film classic - and one of the earliest appearances of Angelina Jolie - Hackers. On the plus side, her holo-display has turned Andromedan orange. That's progress!

Breach finishes wiring the door to the hallway to explode. Who knows what kind of explosion it will be though?! He has so very many different ways to make it explode!

Indira finds her software to be working painfully slow. She blames primative earth technology being incompatible with everything!

Quiet has disconnected.

Really, Indira should be grateful that Operation Sundial isn't running Windows 2066 or iOS 15 (Double Panda). She should count herself lucky that these computer systems are using some kind of variation on UNIX and Android (GOBSTOPPER).

Indira's holo-display finally flashes bright red for access granted. Though this may look more like danger to any humans looking at her holo-display. "Avrada'keel, vreel khat na," escapes her, a quiet string of words that sound an awful lot like cursing by the way she says it. "I have access."

"I thought advanced alien tech was supposed to just run roughshod over our primitive Earthican technology?"

Breach looks inquiringly over at Indira as he straightens up from his crouch. He produces another grenade from his combat harness with one hand, his other hand pulls a mysterious black plastic stick with a broad plastic base affixed to it. After Indira responds - assuming she favors Breach with a response - Breach backs up several steps from the door and then kneels down to start setting up a second trap.

Indira favors Breach with a quick, slightly annoyed response, though her irritation is directed at the technology. "It is, but your technology is so primative, it would be faster to speak with a wheel and expect results." She starts pulling up menus to see what this device can do.

Breach labors extensively with his stick and hand grenade. Indira gets a gruff little grunt in response to her sass and technological smack talk. She may or may not be accustomed to getting this response from her Caveman.

In the mean time, Indira starts accessing menus. The system is set up quite strangely, requiring several pieces of targetting information to accurately direct "the matter stream" to its desired destination. On the plus side, Indira finds a simple global positioning system that provides approximately 90% of the targetting information that she needs.

All she really needs is to select a target location and load the "stream platform" with intended teleporter subjects. From there, the computer will calculate the remaining 10% of the targetting data, input it, and plot a "streaming solution". Indira gets the impression this is not 100% compatible with current or even probable Earthly technological development streams. That, of course, raises the question of who and what Operation Sundial really is and/or where they got their technology.

Indira scans the readouts from her omni-access screens, troubled by the data she's reading. If it isn't from earth...it could be an another alien civilization's tech. And if aliens are assocated with Operation Sundial. Well...they have enough bad press as it is. But she's not about to keep it secret from her compatriots, the people she trusts most.

"It would seem this -is- a teleporter. But not entirely Human-made."