Log:Chandrika Heads to Zu, Scene 4

Chandrika Heads to Zu 2009/12/23 Silver Spider Deus Ex Machina 4

A remote location in northern Zu, where scrubland is the most common terrain feature. There's a large crater where the Starguard shuttle crashed to earth here in the wilderness. The area has been cordoned off with small wooden barricades, and there are several small buildings around the site, all apparently owned by the government.

Silver Spider folds her forearms. "Listen, I'm not going to hurt you, Mr. Van Der Saar. But if you know anything about where Enemy Ace and his two lady cronies went, I would much appreciate it."

Van Der Saar continues drinking the water you gave him...and still looks a little apprehensive. "The only thing I know is that they went to the east. It's pretty wide open country that way. I mostly tried to stay hidden while the two women killed nearly everyone. One basically told people to stand still. Which they did. And then the other came over and touched them...and they fell over dead. The first one is the one who saw me. She actually smiled when she saw me hiding, and let me live on purpose."

He adds, "I didn't really see anyone with them. There was a male voice, but I didn't see him personally."

Silver Spider blinks her eyeslits. "Tell your people not to follow." She says. "I'm serious. It's a trap. Mortua needs food. They'd rather fight normal people than one angry superhero. Did touch lady have a field that surrounds her, or just bare hands?" She tilts her head. "What did the male voice do? Did he seem to be in charge?" o O (East. I need to sneak out of here, pick up the trail, and get going to the east.)

Van Der Saar nods. "He seemed to be in charge, yes. But they all seemed pretty strong willed, honestly. Not just following orders. As for the woman, I'm not sure. Certainly her touch seemed to kill, but I didn't notice a field around her. Though...now that I think about it, I think some of the plants seems to wilt around her."

Silver Spider nods slowly. "She kills everything she touches. That's how I'll find her. Thanks, sir. I promise I'll do everything I can to make sure she doesn't kill any more of your fellow citizens. Must dash..." She tilts her head and piles up the bottles of water. "I don't want to steal anything. Can I have two bottles of water?"

He nods. "Go ahead." The sounds of helicopters are definitely in the air now.

Silver Spider takes the two bottles of water and begins slipping away, away from the sound of helicopters and back towards her clothing. o O (I'm gonna have to stay low for a couple miles until the helicopters land, and then hope for the best and get back to the hotel. I'll shower again and then we'll head out. I have to beat these idiots to it, or they'll all die.)

Sure enough, there's what appears to be a couple of helicopters arriving. One looks like a gunship, the other is a transport chopper. They circle the site, and the gunship stays aloft while the transport lands, kicking up a ton of dirt and debris.

Silver Spider stays hidden as she slips away, keeping an eye out for anyone she recognizes as she departs. o O (I wouldn't be surprised at all if Maximillian Sisulu steps right out of that chopper. And if he does, then they know who I am. Which adds another wrinkle to this mess.)

The people getting off the transport appear to be soldiers. That's all you can tell. They're carrying high-tech rifles of some kind, and their armor looks like a cross between the retro VIPER uniforms and a normal military. Basically, plated agent armor, but in camoflage.

Silver Spider skulks away from the site, back towards her clothing, which she snags out of the tree. She shoves the costume into her purse and rolls it up tight, and begins walking towards the hotel after getting out of sight, keeping low until the helicopters are beyond the horizon. She drinks the water as quickly as possible. It's still hot out here, and getting rid of the bottles by burying them will be easiest.

You start walking, trying to follow what you think are the tire tracks from earlier. Which works out great...for about fifteen minutes. After that, you realize you dont' see tracks anymore. The ground is too hard here. So, you keep walking in the general direction. You know it was a forty-five minute drive out here. So, it's at least five miles. More likely ten or so across country like this.

Silver Spider sighs and keeps walking, trying to keep track of where she went and where she is. She turns on her pda to see if she can get any satellite reception. "Come on..." she mutters. "I've had enough water to make it through the hard part of the day. I should have taken an energy bar. Boy, this was dumb."

There's no satellite reception on the PDA. You do notice that you grabbed the soldier's PDA, instead of your own. And when you went to check for a link, you went to the next picture, which is a picture of Domina and Mortua, by the shuttle.

Chandrika nods slowly. "This guy was taking pictures of Domina and Mortua?" She asks thoughtfully to no one in particular. "How the hell did he get these pictures?"

The walk is a good four hours. It turns out you guessed wrong at some point, because you realize the town appears to be off to your left, and you veer in that direction, getting into town in the early evening.

Chandrika sighs a little bit as she makes it into town, slipping in through the back of the hotel. She makes her way up to the hotel room, keeping an eye out for security personnel and the usual nonsense. Hopefully, the driver hasn't passed out, but he probably is still resting....

The driver is sleeping currently, in the vehicle.

Chandrika slips upstairs, takes a quick shower, recharges as many of the PDA batteries as possible while transferring the contents of the soldier's PDA onto her own. In the hotel, using the "Izer for everything on the internet," she converts the content to chinese, (since she can speak and read it and most afrikaaners probably can't), and gets what information she can off the stuff she can't read) She slips downstairs to the hotel laundry and quickly washes her clothes and her costume (making sure to do so out of sight of a video camera), stuffs everything back into her bag, and heads over to the car. "Hey..." She says. "We need to pick up some tire tracks on the other side of that thing. We'll circle around and hopefully we won't screw this up. The tire tracks should be on the east side." o O (Time to read on the way.)

The driver nods, and the two of you start to head out. Then you start to read the files. You notice two things that I didn't before. First...the information in Afrikaans is mostly personal notes for the soldier's wife. Second, there's a text file on the PDA that you dont' recognize, like it was pushed onto the machine when you were doing the translations.

Chandrika raises an eyebrow as she reviews that text file. "What the hell is this?" She murmurs quietly. She shuffles the personal notes on the Soldier's PDA and mails them to his wife, since they belong to her, and shuts that PDA down. Then she reviews the message on her own PDA.

The text file is a simple one. "Ms. Spider. You're too late. We're already enroute to intercept Enemy Ace. He and his accomplices will be in our custody within the hour. -Deus Ex Machina"

Chandrika shakes her head. "Drive..." She says calmly. "As fast as you can." o O (This Deus Ex Machina guy had better be super tough, or he's super dead. Mortua will grab him and that will be it for him...) She shakes her head. o O (This was such a bad idea.)

The driver nods, and picks up the pace a bit, driving northward toward your indicated destination. At some point, he picks a spot to start to head across country, and the vehicle starts to bounce violently as he hits a couple of small depressions in the landscape.

Chandrika winces roughly as she studies the terrain, trying to see in the dark. "Look for dead plants..." She says as the two of them bounce along. "Eventually, Mortua will have to stop..."

The vehicle nearly rolls at that point, but he manages to get it under control...and slows down a bit. "Sorry about that. It's getting a little hard to see out here." The light is fading in the evening sky. What you can see of the terrain here is that the plants all look slightly wilted. But it's summer here. In a dry section of the world. So, that's not at all surprising.

Chandrika turns to look out the window. "Hmmm...we need to start moving in circles to find tire tracks before dark..." She says. "Do you mind?"

The driver nods, and starts to drive in circles as the light starts to fade more.

Chandrika thinks. "We could probably circle back. There won't be soldiers there now." o O (I can't believe I'm so dumb.)

You don't notice any tracks other than your own vehicle's. In fact, a couple times, you think you spot something, and realize that it's your own tire tracks. After another twenty minutes, the light is basically gone.

Chandrika sighs. "I guess we camp here." She says quietly. o O (This Deus Ex Machina guy didn't make it in an hour, that's for sure...)

Chandrika looks over to the Driver. "I guess we'll leave at first light."

About this time, your PDA makes a beeping sound, as you get an incoming call. Meanwhile, the driver starts to set up a makeshift camp.

Chandrika blinks as she opens up the PDA. "Hellooooo..." She pauses.

There's no caller ID on the call. As you answer it, you hear a mechanical-modulated voice over the speaker. "I was true to my word, Ms. Spider. Enemy Ace will no longer trouble the people of Africa."

Chandrika blinks her eyeslits for a moment. "Why do I not believe you? He could do the same thing you did?"

Chandrika says, "And what about the other two?"

Over the speaker, "The other two are with him. All three are enroute back to North America. And I assure you, he cannot do what I can do."

Chandrika adds on the phone "Exactly how did you send them back to North America?" o O (Oh, my god, I totally wasted this trip.)

You don't THINK he's bluffing. But he also sounds like a machine, honestly. Like it's modulated. Almost like your PDA is the one doing the talking. Or some kind of program on the other end.

Over the speaker, "I will not say how they are being transported. But it is not via Transmat. We have our own methods of transport."

Chandrika raises an eyebrow. "Right...So here's my question. Why would you transport them back to North America? And where did you transport them?"

Chandrika adds, almost as an afterthought "And what did you get in exchange?"

Over the speaker, "If you doubt our veracity or my abilities, you should speak with either Dr. Simmons or Miss Markham. And we transported them back to North America because he asked. We believe he wishes to have a word with a few heroes in Colonial Bay. As for what we received from the interaction, and where exactly we transported them...we shall not say."

Over the speaker, "We were impressed with how you handled Prometheus and Epimetheus, though. You have our respect. Perhaps we will see how you handle another pair next time."

Chandrika raises an eyebrow. o O (VIPER became ACRO. You have GOT to be kidding me. Live and learn, Chandi. Live and learn. This whole ballgame just changed. Spend three days sunning it up and get out.) "I wouldn't either if I were you. Tell me something, Deus..." She murmurs cooly. "When will I see you again?" She turns to the Driver. "Turn around. We're not gonna find anything out here. We might as well go home." o O (Starting a revolution here is gonna take years.)

Chandrika thinks. o O (The !@#!ing Wolfguard technology. Pairs! Dammit! This is all starting to make sense now.)

Deus Ex responds, "You have yet to see me, despite my appearing in Virginia twice now. We're not sure it will ever happen. But we look forward to it, if it does. Our influence is everywhere in the world. Where you stand, and where you live are no exceptions. We run governments, and pull strings. We assure, you, you will run into our agents again."

Deus Ex seems to slip from singular to plural and back in his speech patterns. The driver, who had been eavesdropping a bit, nods, and starts to pack things up again.

Chandrika laughs. "Thanks for the tip." She says cooly. "But you know me. I have a reputation. Pull one string, and everything falls apart. That's what people like me do. Have a good day." o O (MPD. I/we. That sounds awfully familiar. Yahoooooo? I wonder...)

Over the speaker, "Have a safe trip home, hero."

Chandrika shrugs. "That sounded suspiciously like a taunt." She says cooly. "You have a safe trip home too." She puts her feet up on the seat. o O (Score one for the bad guys. This sucks.)