2696/Operation URANIA

Operation URANIA
Date of Scene:	29 July 2015
Location:	Scorched Earth
Synopsis:	Elites descend into a long-abandoned military bunker, in search of Before Time technology. Things get a little crazy.
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, 151, Eryl Fairfax, Ayako Hasekawa, Starbound Flotilla, 673, 839

---

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    Upon emerging from the directed warp gate, the first thing that would strike the intrepid Elites is the heat. The sun is high in the sky with not a single cloud to offer the respite of shade.

    The dust and sand has soaked it all up, making it blistering hot. Which would be fine, if it remained underfoot, but veterans of these operations would know that is never the case. The slightest, baking hot breeze kicks it up, causing it to burn any exposed skin it can find.

    Thankfully though, they don't have to go far to the rendezvous point. It actually lies nearby, at the base of an enormous sand dune. Had it been early morning, it would provide some welcoming shade. Within eyesight of everyone, an EDF soldier is waiting, waving to them.

    Upon approach, it would be seen that this is Bonnie Moon, the mocha-skinned woman smiling benignly at everyone. "Welcome, good to see you all again. And hello to the newcomers. I am Corporal Bonnie Moon. Come on, let's get out of this heat."

    With that said, she gestures towards the dune. Up closer, a pipe that goes underneath it is visible. It looks to be some kind of ventilation shaft, but the grill and fan have already been removed. Peeking inside, the other EDF soldier assigned to this job can be seen. Although, he might be heard first.

    "YOOOOO! Wassup boys and girls!" Philip Troch says, the albino having been taking cover from the sun within the pipe. Immediately, he begins handing out hi-fives and shoulder pats to veterans and vigorous handshakes to newcomers. "Most of ya know, but I'm Corporal Philip Troch. In case ya forgot what we're doing here, let's go over it quicklike."

    Putting on his serious voice (or as serious as it gets), he begins to brief everyone. "This here shaft leads into Bunker 921, aka 'Fort Verne.' This is where they would test the real freaky stuff, sort of things that don't get patented because that would mean people KNOW about it, knowatimsayin'? Our objective is to secure the place, and retrieve the Mindjacker flight module. No doubt there's gonna be a lot of cool shit down there, so if ya want something, run it past us first if ya could."

    "Indeed," Bonnie chips in. "But there is likely going to be a lot of dangerous stuff. A place like this might not have conventional security systems. Stay on your toes everyone." Assuming there are no questions asked, the two slip on their helmets and turn on the flashlights on them, leading the Elites deeper into the dark shaft.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is one of the first out of the warp gate now. She's happy to have a job like this, given some of the things she's stumbled into as of late. So here she was in her light stealth armour given what they might be dealing with? It was more prudent than heavier protection. She had made i though the sand an is for once thankful her body is robotic the heat would be hellish to her otherwise.

She does catch up wth Boonie grinning at her and Philip.

"Hello to you both."

She bows slightly before settliung into listen. She gets the idea about this place.

"God it I presume you'll also want me on data recovery as well?"

She aks she seems quite confident and prepared today. She shifts her optical setting to see better but does has a flashlight of her own. A small hover drone likely of her own desing hovers by her carrying a light and a recon one hovers over her other shoulder. The latter design proving it's worth on the job from Tyr.

"I'll be happy to know there's no eldrich horrors lurking in here. So Mindjacker flight module right? As for other data I presume there's a bounty for anything we can recover?"

Kotone seems to be pretty into this job, she honestly liked working for this company when all things came down to it.

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley is no stranger or weakling when it comes to the baking heat of sunlight. She steps out into the heat and finds herself adjusting her clothing so she can get more air as she travels to where she's supposed to meet with everyone else. When she arrives, she meets with Phil -- HIGH FIVE, YEAH!!! She's super enthusiastic about that, but looks different since he last saw her so he might get confused -- and stands around looking superfluous and patient while things are explained. She smiles when 'security systems' is mentioned, and thinks to herself on how she could help with that...

    "I might be able to jam the systems up, if they're computerized," she offers, "Anything that uses computer code to communicate is vulnerable, so I can... 'talk' the security system into being too confused to be a problem. We'll have to see, though, since it's likely to just set off some contingency or another, if this place really as big of a deal as it seems to be."

    She shrugs heavily, "Beyond that, I'm willing to poke things with a sword or float out into mysterious rooms to test for traps." Grin~

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    Several of those present, including the core fleet and Miss Yamakawa, may be quite surprised to see Euphonia herself outside of Chrysalis. Based on the general impression she may have left upon them and the attitude with which she has greeted the Multiverse thus far, one could rightly have assumed at her hesitance to allow -anyone- from her world to leave, least of all herself! Yet still, here she is, plain as day.

    It bears some mention, though, that she is not alone. Three spherical creatures - likely robots, but not the sort that would have anything that mirrors sentience - levitate around her, soundlessly, the red dots that serve as their eyes scanning each person as they filter into the area. They, like their master, wear no decipherable expressions; particularly with the way that they ceaselessly study the environment around them, this ambiguity may make them seem quite eerie indeed. It's almost ironic, though, that the ways in which they twitch and flit around Euphonia make them seem quite a lot more animated than she -- she, who looks so much more 'traditionally' human. Even she does not seem to breathe or make any unnecessary movements, and there is likewise no emotional energy beneath her eyes.

    Thankfully, though, her impact on the atmosphere will be lessened quite a lot since, today, she is not the focal point of attention. She is here as an accessory of the Flotilla: she is providing her assistance with this task directly in order to 'pay her dues', as it were, for the help those same people are yet to provide on her own world. In that way, it is also a showing of good faith; that she's come here before their job for her has even been completed is perhaps the greatest demonstration of trust she can manage given the ever monotonous tone of her voice. She wants to prove herself reliable, if not personable, and in this respect she will not falter.

    Not that she's all too eager to /prove/ this when she feels her mere presence should accomplish that on its own, so she remains silent, maintaining as much distance between herself and the rest of the group as is tactically feasible. She follows them into the subterranean path as she is bid, but until that precise moment she remains quiet, austere, her hands folded over the 'pommel' of what could only be described as a metallic umbrella.

    She looks like a statue surrounded by iron balloons.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Owing to her mechanical nature and only cosmetic human-like covering, Rory White is not adversely affected by the searing heat. She doesn't even seem bothered by it. But her Muse is on the job alerting her of how dangerous it is to humans. "I hope everyone has enough water and food! The Odyssey's standing by in orbit if not. We'll be fine." But she does end up shaking her clothes free of dust a few times, unhappy with the environment. "Desert conditions are not appealing outside a Simulspace..."

    But her glum opinion of the environment changes quite a bit when Philip greets her! Rory comes to life, grabbing the hand and returning the shake! her eyes light up with interest.

    It's WORK TIME!

    "All in the name of restoration and science! What shape is the installation in?"

    She doesn't have any trouble with the dark or the deep, but she's probably going to be the last one down that shaft. Going down whatever ladder or other structure's in use to handle it? Requires way more physical coordination than she's used to.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ungh. This heat. The moment Ayako flies through the warp gate while riding on her broomstick she feels it. She slumps down visibly on her broom and said broomstick even starts to putter out and slow down. She and the broomstick slowly fall to the dust and sand and Ayako barely gets off before the broom plops unceremoniously onto the ground-where it evaporates almost instantly. She trudges her way to the rendezvous point. Sustained heat is just one of those things she doesn't like!

    Ayako smiles faintly towards Bonnie Moon. "H-hello Bonnie... Y-yes... please!" And she slowly makes her way into the pipe to escape from the heat. Once given shelter from the heat, the Water Spirit recovers quickly and smiles cheerfully. "Hello Philip!"

    When Philip tries to give her a high-five, Ayako hesitates for a moment. She doesn't want to leave him hanging, though! It becomes clear why she hesitated quite quickly. Her hand splashes apart into water when she high-fives him! Ayako smiles sheepishly and water emerges from her arm to reform her hand in a few seconds. "Eh heh heh..."

    She quietly listens to the briefing and nods her head slowly. "Un. Un." Ayako reaches behind her and reforms her broom out of water from her hands, thrusting the brush downwards. "Water Bubble!" A bubble of water forms around each person in the group-and then fades away. Said barrier won't do much on it's own-it only really slows down incoming attacks slightly, but it's needed as a framework for her other barriers! Besides, every little bit helps, right?

    Once that's done, Ayako continues on, choosing to walk. Small, pale blue floating flames wink into existance around her to provide some light to everyone. "Here's hoping the things down here don't bite too hard."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The STARBOUND FLOTILLA are here, in their standard Durasteel exploration equipment! Biteblade, the humanoid plant, is in durasteel plating with elaborately carved wood and bone ornaments over glowing powered components that glow an intense green. Pavo the bird-girl wears a pirate-aesthetic set of mesoamerican-style armor, with yellow bands of energized fabric linking the pieces and powering them. Albert the monkey-man is wearing elaborate dystopian commando armor reconstructed with a 'rebel spy' aesthetic: A sleeker faceplate, a slimmer form, and a more chaotic design that integrates thin, resilient plates of durasteel, and lines of bright white. George (just plain human) wears a set of futuristic EVA-combat and exploration armor in a suit that glows a gentle red at the faceplate. Seft, the robotic Flotilla member, is wearing full-on medieval knight armor with a soft energized blue glow below the plates on her body, and especially around the eyes. Each has a heavy industrial-yellow two-pronged plasma-cutter-like tool strapped to their side, a Matter Manipulator.

    Moonfin, oddly, is absent today. He's got business at another location.

    They've trudged their way on over to the rendezvous, but as hardened explorers, they don't look too grumpy about that. George is the first one to speak up! Giving Phil a high-five of course. "Heya Phil, how's whatshisname, Will? Not seen you usually paired up with Bonnie. Good to see you kids are all still kicking around though, you EDF guys are like the local... Us, I guess."

    "Aye, know what ye mean, lass. Eyes sharp, ears sharper, we'll not stumble into a thing. Slow and steady loots everything 'ventually." Pavo says, starting to lead the rest of the Starbounders into the bunker.
    "Informing. I will utilize what sensor systems I can to provide forewarning of threat vectors. Establishing network." Seft is already pulling out a heavy-duty industrial sensor array and beginning to link its output over a wireless network. She'll be scanning for movement, heat sigatures, power signatures, anything that such tech could detect! But mostly scanning through the structure for an area large enough to qualify as an aerospace testing environment.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft, particularly, notices Euphonia. For a moment, she seems confused about the overseer's presence, her eyes showing a little "processing" spinny until she seems to accept this and move on. Biteblade seems to notice her much more. "Oversssee friend! Hi! Isss good to sssee outssside! Floran not know you take advice like that. You ssstay with Floran, Floran make sssure you have lotsss of fun." Biteblade says, already bounding over and getting uncomfortably close. "You get enough sssun, maybe not look like doll, but Floran ssstill gonna wanna hug. Isss almossst whole team Flotilla, maybe you sssee how can work now!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Keep formation. Seft, I want high-penetration scans at all times. George, leave the employer alone. Focus on keeping alert for sercurity. Pavo, Biteblade, take point with the others. Yamakawa, White, Hasekawa, keep close." Albert says, in his usual heavy military tones. He's drawing a hefty power-hammer out of his Matter Manipulator and gripping it firmly in both hands, making sure to stay close to their noncombatant support. As ever, he's almost vaguely obsessive about making sure he's there to tank when it comes to the combat-support types he knows. "Standard breach and scan. Yamakawa, White, I want you on alert for wireless networks we can monitor. Hasekawa, focus primary combat support on Pavo and Biteblade when supporting my squad."

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    When he greets Ainsley, Philip actually mistakes her for a newcoming, going for the handshake rather than the hi-five. But when he sees she's up for it, he reciprocates! He is not at all deterred by the cute girl's hand exploding into water either! It only just makes him laugh. "Hah, sorry Ayako!" he says, moving on to shake Euphonia's hand. As he does, his smile falters a little, feeling something of an uncanny valley effect as he looks at her face. But, Philip Troch is not a man to half-ass a hand-based greeting, so he follows through on the firm handshake, before moving on.

    "Data recovery would help. We plan on doing that eventually, but anything that would let us refine our approach and prioritize what we get first," Bonnie says to Kotone as the descent begins. "As for bounties... sorry, but it's in the mission contract. You don't get to take something and then try to charge us extra for it. If we don't really want it, you can have it. But if we consider it vital, we're taking it."

     "Well, it's standing! That's uh... all we got." Philip says to Rory. "Whole place is lined with like, superlead or something. Scans don't really work unless you're already on location." And indeed, Seft's sensors certainly get a good read on what lies ahead in the shaft (ie; nothing) but the moment it starts trying to penetrate walls, detection becomes a lot weaker. "Will? Oh nah, he's on leave, visiting his village. Besides, a savage like him ain't suited for a mission like this! We need engineers to make sense of shit," he pats his own chest here. "And computer experts for the... computer stuff!" Here, he points to Bonnie.

     "The jamming of any computer networks that wish us harm would be appreciated," Bonnie says to Ainsley, nodding her head. "We don't know what kind of tech they have, but sometimes it's better to swing first, rather than second-guessing what might happen if you do." But finally, they reach the end of the shaft! Another fan and grill stands before them, but it crumbles quickly before Philip's blowtorch (and perhaps any assistance the Elites offer)!

    This opens up a path into some kind of maintenance area, with pipes filling up a quarter of the space of the narrow corridors. But thankfully, escape lies right ahead in the form of a door. Bonnie deploys her shield as she and Philip get into breeching positions, the latter opening the door as the former rushes in, shield raised to block anything.

    It opens into what could be the floor of any office building in the world. Soft carpets lie underfoot, with cubicles arranged with military precision before them. But, more importantly, a man is standing to the side, clad in a black jumpsuit with green stripes along the arm and down the sides. He has neatly cut brown hair, parted to the right, brown eyes, a strong jaw and a darker skintone, the sort that makes it hard to tell if it's genetic or a tan.

    "Hello," he says.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako puffs out her cheeks slighlty in a pout. "Albert~. Call me Ayako!" She then shakes her head slowly and then smiles softly at Albert. "I got it, I got it." Said in a cheerfully airheaded (waterheaded?) somewhat lazy tone. Just to contrast with Albert's usual heavy military tone.

    She smiles cheerfully at Kotone and then raises her hand cheerfully. "Kotone, Kotone! Do I count as an eldritch horror?" Ayako giggles brightly as she spreads her blue flames out to give better lighting. "Ainsley! You shouldn't test for traps like that! It'll hurt!" She shakes her head quickly and giggles softly.

    Ayako's amber eyes next go towards Euphonia. Her head inclines to the side gently and she opens her mouth to say something-and quickly shuts her mouth! Oops. That... wouldn't have been a nice thing to say. "Umm... Hello!" Yes, that's much better than, 'You sort of remind me of myself when I was younger.'. When considering what Ayako was like when she was younger... yeah.

    "Hello Rory! Yeah. Even though I'm made of water, I still feel like I'm getting dust and sand in places I didn't even know I formed." Ayako winces slightly. "But yes! For restoration!" She then cheerfully raises a fist into the air.

    As the group walks on through, Ayako walks towards the pipes to check if there's any water in them. She collapses her broom and hangs it horizontally on her back so that's it's ready to be whipped out at a moment's notice. When they get to the door, Ayako of course hides behind everyone else, ready to form a shield, just in case.

    And when the door is breached, Ayako just inclines her head to the side slightly. Cubicles and carpet? Oh. And a person! She curties in her usual charming fashion towards the man. "Hello!"

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "If you get um... dehydrated, you can take shelter on my ship, Ayako." Rory offers, but she's very determined to plunge on ahead. Into the belly of the beast! Rory first moves to put a hand on a wall, but the fact that everyone jsut BLOWTORCHED their way in only to find a man there takes a moment to register.

    "Philip, that WAS the only entrance, right...?!" Being not entirely human, the eeriness of the situation hasn't quite crept in, but she finds herself examining the man regardless.

    Without saying anything, she conducts a wireless survey of the location. If there are any netorks using old Earth technology in the same development families as her past, that shouldn't be hard! If not, she'll find out fast and start working on translations.

    Because being able to do several things mentally at once is pretty handy.

    "Greetings!" Her response is enthusiastic and not awkward at all. She cheerfully curtseys for some reason. EXUBERANCE IS SHOWING!

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa was not expecting Euphonia off her world and does seem surprised when she does arrive here. She notices the remotes she has as well. She seem to take it well enough she just wasn't expecting her arrival. She can't help but think Euphonia kinda looks like a statue that got three iron balloons hanging about them.

"Got to say I didn't expect you to be off world, let alone on a job like this."

Then Rory arrives and that gets Kotone in even better spirits than she is already. She looks to her AGI friend.

"Be thankful there's a expression regarding Deserts. You'll find sand in places you didn't even know you had. Then again sands are harder on the mechanical really. Its also good to see you Rory, we haven't been able to catch up much. I should tell you about my playing about with the fabber though."

she points to the two drones which while very basic? Kotone seems quite proud of.

Then comes in Ayako who might be the worst off person in this environment and she gives the water spirit a smile.

"IT;'s good to see you Ayako and having you along is welcome. Just if you have trouble let us know? This environment must be murder for you to deal with."

"Pavo, Albert, Seft, George, good to see all of you."

Kotone also gives Ainsly a bit of a grin.

"Glad to have you along with us as well my friend. You seem to be settling into your life changes pretty well."

She thinks about the makeup of the team that's here? They have a very wide set of skills which seems to be pretty good for a job like this.

She'll also open up network connections to Seft and Rory at this point and sends her scout drone bobbing on ahead."

She nos nods to the man.

"Hey I'm just asking, either way I'll see what I can recover. Humm Rory looks like we'll be up on that for info warfare as well if that comes to it."

She can't help but laugh a little bit at Ayako for a moment.

"No your not a horror but I dare not ask a lady such as your self your age. IT would br rude right?"

She moves lapong with Rory and pauses seeming to be quite shocked there's something here alive and not trying to go after them. She's also attemping to find any local networks that might be around here wirelessly much as the same way that Rory is.

"Greetings! You are unexpected sir. We didn't think there'd be anything alive down there."

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    Ainsley only giggles at the awkwardness and seems just as awkward about it when Phil has trouble with the change in her appearance. She doesn't really bother explaining it since it's too complicated, and just smiles bashfully after the highfive is complete.

    Assured that her abilities would be appreciated, Ainsley puts on a confident face, and nods at Bonnie's words. She prepares herself, mentally, for doing some good old sledgehammer magic to jam systems if they come across something that needs jamming. This also involves writing down some spells on a piece of paper with a piece of charcoal.

    Their trip down into the facility is, thankfully, uneventful! She only make a face at the shaft's state as well as the maintenance hall they initially filter into. Once Phil and Bonnie prepare for any potential gunfire, the lizard woman peers around the others, her eyes wide with vibrant surprise, and blinking a couple of times.

    "Hi," she replies, seeming friendly enough. "Like my friend says, we weren't prepared to encounter anyone, what a pleasant surprise! We're looking for, ah... something called the 'Mindjacker' flight module. Would you happen to know where that is?"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Avast! Got a live one!" Pavo pipes up, taking a ready stance, but one that's just cautious, rather than outright aggressive.
    Biteblade, on the other hand, keeps her distance, reigned in a bit by Albert. She doesn't say anything, at least not quite yet.

    "Oh hell." George says, as if recognizing the situation. "We just walk into a vault situation? You been down here a while, guy?" He quickly looks for signs of others living here or similar. What state are the offices in? "Hell. Green band, you maintenance assistance? Hydroponics? Heya guy, name's George, we're looking for something you might have." He's guessing at traditional isolated-survival roles, based on old space station protocol.

    Seft says nothing. Instead, she directs her scanner array at the man himself. Hologram? Mind-link apparition? Android? She's just double-checking.

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    However uncomfortable Biteblade's proximity may be for her, Euphonia gives no outward reaction; none, that is, save for a subtle, gradual lifting of her head. Her eyes shift to Biteblade in appraisal (or re-appraisal, as it were) before she inclines her head once more, albeit briefly, in a nod. "Hello. Your preferred pseudonym was 'biteblade', correct?" She waits only a moment for confirmation before continuing, "We have no particular desire to darken our complexion, nor to, as you may have been implying, become more active outside of Chrysalis. We have only come here today as a favor to the Flotilla - the name, that is, and the group with which we have formally contracted - that we might take care of any debts which we may accrue in the future." She pauses a moment before adding, "However, yes, we will be interested to study your combat tactics, and to evaluate them. We will assess your chances of success in your upcoming mission as far as we are able, and make suggestions as, and if, they become relevant." Afterward, she returns to silence, gaze floating directly back to the ground. It may seem an unnatural way to end a conversation, but she is either unaware of that fact or simply does not care.

    She only looks up again so that she may watch the path as the group begins to advance. She holds her metallic object - a weapon of some kind, perhaps? - off to her left, keeping her other hand stationary at her right side. Contrary to what one might have assumed, she -does- speak once along the journey: to Bonnie. Still, it does not exactly qualify as 'idle chatter'. "If you are interested in data recovery," She offers, "we may be of some assistance to you. Put simply, we are able to briefly transfer our consciousness into some electronic databanks whose encryption has already been dealt with. We are not proficient in the disabling of most forms of virutal security, however, so this would best be left to Miss Yamakawa." She glances to each of them, offering both women nods. "Inform me at some point if you believe I could be of assistance." She seems to outright ignore Kotone's other words, trusting that her earlier explanation for Biteblade will suffice.

    Before Euphonia can look to Ayako, all three of her warbling minions train their eyes on her. Their crimson irises grow brighter for a few moments before they begin to blink, and it's at that moment that Euphonia turns to face her. "Hello," She echoes her earlier greeting to Biteblade. Without a moment's hesitation, she continues, "We saw you establish a barrier for another person earlier. We would request that you refrain from providing similar barriers for the bits that float around my person. Not only would this be superfluous since they possess their own barriers, but any contact with water may impair their functions." She nods to her. "Thank you in advance for your understanding."

    She may or may not actually know how greetings are supposed to work.

    As they collectively move into the room occupied by the somewhat bronzed character, Euphonia's eyes dart directly to him. Meanwhile, the eyes of the bits remain firmly on the rest of the group, and behind them. They form a sort of triangle near the ceiling.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    "Only entrance! Sorry, everything else is swallowed by dust, we checked," Philip says to Rory apologetically. "Machine possession huh? That would come in handy, yes," Bonnie says to Euphonia. There's a sort of catch in her voice as she says it, but she maintains her professional bearing, just before confronting the man.

     Right away, Seft's scans, Kotone and Rory's poking at the system, Ainsley's capabilities to see communication and perhaps Euphonia's robots would have the man pegged. A high-resolution image being created by hidden projectors within the room.

    A hologram. One who smiles benignly at the group as they make their greetings.

    "You are the first people I have seen in a long time. And judging by the looks of some of you," he looks at Biteblade, Pavo and Albert here. "I suspect that nuclear war must have happened. Although, this level of mutation should take far longer. Genetic engineering, perhaps? Hmm..." He shakes his head, thoughts literally scattering from his ears in a string of words and numbers.

    "Anyway. Typically, I was to warn security at the sight of intruders. But, my heuristics calculate a high level of probability that the government and military that instituted that has long-since collapsed. As such, I shall rely on my most basic maxim: 'be of service to all life forms.'" He bows to the party. "I am an Autonomous Digital Advisory Module." He makes the four words appear before him, arranging them so that the first letters are perfectly aligned. The rest of the words fade away and those first letters arrange themselves above his head. "But please, call me ADAM."

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    He continues with, "I am an AI with a structure modelled after the human brain. As part of my rigorous testing procedures, I was given basic knowledge on multiple subjects and installed here. My role was to be a sounding board for all scientists and engineers, giving them someone to discuss and explain their ideas to. In doing so, I would learn in the same manner as humans, and eventually, I would be able to assist them in their endeavours. Thus, the 'Advisory' part of my name."

    But, it seems the group wants to get right down to brass tacks. "Er, yeah. What they said. The PZ-301," Philip says. Bonnie has gone totally silent here, just staring at ADAM. "Ah yes. Flight module designed to sync with neural implants," ADAM says, conjuring up a digital display of said machine. "At present, it is installed on a spacecraft within the Vacuum Room." And now, he creates a virtual map of the whole facility, this 'Vacuum Room' displayed in red and their current location in blue. "The Vacuum Room can recreate the conditions of space with 98.7% accuracy, even down to random debris. Tests were due to begin after Warp Day. That is, the national holiday that commemorated the first successful teleportation of a human being," he explains. "However, no one turned in for work after that day. Or since." He actually sounds a little sad at that.

    "But, you should know if you plan to retrieve it, these halls are not unguarded." Indeed, Rory and Kotone's attempts at communicating with the network is now being noticed. The security network has noted that these attempts are on-site and is sending something their way. From around the cubicles, what appears to be a carpet of gray sand is starting to approach. Ainsley should be able to see a local network around it... it's horrible, spindly like a nightmarish spider. All it wants to do is eat...

    "Oh dear. You should do something about this," ADAM says.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory's sensors do indeed detect the presence of a hologram. The 'action' Fork controlling her body is delighted to speak with another AI! Even as another Fork detects a serious problem and alerts her of it.

    "Rory White of the Argonauts. A pleasure to meet you, ADAM. We have similar natures. Despite the looks I am a wholly synthetic being. An Artificial Intelligence loaded into a cyerbrain... and bodies are very hard to deal with. You wouldn't be aware of it but dimensional anomalies are to blame for what you perceive as mutations. MAny of us come from different dimensions and are assisting Philip here. And what is--"

    She turns to look.

    Then hides behind Albert. Who is big, strong, and probably far better armed. "WHAT IS THAT?"

    Of course now all her forks are focused on the task at hand: SURVIVAL. "A Nanoswarm?!"

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako smiles softly at Kotone. "Well... yeah. It would be rude, but... I wouldn't be able to answer." She winks slowly and sticks her tongue out slightly. "I stopped counting after two-thousand. Not that it really matters anyway." She giggles softly.

    Ayako turns towards Euphonia, nods her head slowly... and then firmly once. "Ah. Umm... alright. No water by the sphere bit thingies." She does give the bits another curious look, though.

    "Nice to meet you, ADAM." Ayako smiles cheerfully and then quietly listens. But... when ADAM goes over what happened after Warp Day. She just blinks her eyes slowly and becomes thoughtful. "Hmm... I wonder what happened on that day...?"

    And her thoughts are then interrupted as ADAM tells them that something is coming! Ayako quickly gets back into formation, that is... behind everyone else! What is that?! A gray sand?

Ainsley (151) has posed:
    A hologram. Ainsley steps into the room beyond, and gets a better look at ADAM, who seems to be quite friendly. A nice change, especially since he seems smart enough to realize that security measures aren't really needed. She smiles at the hologram only for as long as she realizes there's some manner of movement. Her Arcane Sight activates and focuses on... oh. A nanomachine swarm. She follows its flow and retreats so that others might at least delay or destroy it before she attempts anything she hasn't done before. While she stares, she mouths words to herself as the Name of their network starts to filter into her head.

    She's trying to stitch together a spell that'll disrupt whatever function is telling them to attack the group, but her first attempts at a spell are already straining her, so it looks like it's unlikely she'll be able to do much on short notice like this. "You might want to hurry, I think the nanomachines want to break us down into spare parts," she tells the rest of the group, after getting a hint of the 'nature' behind the swarm.

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    For the most part, Euphonia allows the rest of the group to converse with Adam. It doesn't seem like she has much she wishes to ask, and really, that she's very curious about them at all. It's perfectly normal for any intelligent creature to develop a natural curiosity, particularly regarding lost worlds like this one with mystique around the concept of history, but perhaps this is another of those ways in which she isn't exactly 'normal'. At any rate, she spares ADAM only the briefest of glances before... focusing on something else. Several seconds before the old AI alerts the group to its presence, one of the bits had pinged Euphonia portents a large, mobile mass. Several moments later, the rest of the group is aware of it, and the 'petals' of her umbrella's lotus have begun to unfurl.

    The umbrella opens, and the metallic panels attached to its central pole light up. Seconds later, they converge again with a series of soft, shifting noises akin to what one would expect to hear from the opening of a door on a spaceship. Then, calmly, cleanly, she announces, "Execute defensive paradigm." In that instant, clear, cyan-colored barriers appear around each Bit with perfectly synchronized timing. In the next instant, those same barriers surround Euphonia and, assuming there are no obstructions, the entirety of the Flotilla's core fleet. In a series of rigid, floating movements, one bit's monitor turns green, positioning itself behind Euphonia, another bit floats immediately above her head and turns blue, then the final bit positions itself slightly ahead of the group, and four lasers that emerge from sockets on its sides. When the 'something' arrives, each laser begins to fire.

    For her part, Euphonia remains almost entirely stationary. She watches the creature intently, tightening her grip around her bizarre weapon, but for now she only watches. She may be using her bit to test its defenses before laying into it herself.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa smiles a bit at Euphonia's commebnt about her skills, she looks a bit sheepish from the compliment. She does now hoever focus is on the network it seems ADAM is one an AI whose been very alone but he doesn't seem to be mad thankfully.

"Well you still seem to be in good spirits my friend and hummm wait what's that?"

Kotone's head turns to see there's what appears to be nanoswarms. This gets a panic out of her a she starts to back off she knows what these things can do.

"They are just going to eat us."

she needs to carry defence nanites at this rate and she'll have to talk to Rory later about it. For now she's backing off as most of her gear is not made to deal with this.

As she dances back she's going to start poking at the network to see if there's anything she can use against it to slow them down. She does however pull her blaster and open up hoping to even thin out a bit of the horde. She now knows why MEC troopers can use flamethrowers.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft feels pleased with herself, having been properly suspicious of the situation. Albert, unfortunately, has other factors of the situation that require the team to be alert. He wastes no time responding to the AI; they can to that soon. He immediately stands between Rory and Ayako, and probable Kotone too. He barks out orders to the squad as they report info.

"Fluid threat attacksss!"
"Warning. Begin masking of any network intrusions."
"George, corrosive grenades /now/!"
"I've got it, I've got it, calm the hell down!"
"Arrrgh! Ye old machine! Where ought we be goin', to get outta this bildge comin' after us!?"

    George is rapidly retrieving and tossing out several CHEMICAL GRENADES! Some are CORROSIVE GRENADES, ejecting an acidic mess that should hopefully make wide areas of the fluid threat dissolve due to their massive surface area to volume ratio. He's also throwing out a hull repair grenade, which will eject a huge volume of compressed metallic foam that should harden into a quick wall that might block further attacks by this fluid!

    Albert, for his part, stays in front of the others in need of tanking and uses his hammer's AoE shockwaves if the fluid comes close, trying to strike it back, thankfully assisted by Euphonia's barriers. George can't contend, so he's backing off! Pavo and Biteblade have no AoE, but they can use their power cutlass and power daggers, alongside Euphonia's barriers, to disrupt formations and try to make sure that the group can get to... The Vacuum Room!

    Seft speaks up. "Alert. Mapping route." She immediately attempts to link wirelessly with ADAM specifically, and to work together to figure out the way out of this area and to the vacuum room, which the Core Fleet captains will immediately get to work on!

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     ADAM drifts to the side, lifting up from the floor as the gray carpet approaches. "This is a swarm of AZEQ-2.03," he starts to explain. Displaying a projection of the cloud, he magnifies by a large margin to show a single one. It displays a horrid little thing, consisting mainly of six legs, a pair of mandibles and a horrible, whirling grinder of a mouth. "They are designed for only two things: devouring and making more of themselves. At present, multiple safeguards keep the swarms within a certain number, with any excess being stored in containers in a deactivated state. They also only allow them to only eat foreign materials. Including intruders."

     Not ones to stand down, Philip and Bonnie open fire as the others do! The former raises his SMG and fires into the swarm, the later firing bursts from her shieldgun. It is at this juncture, with attacks coming from the party in the digital and physical world that, well... these are some seriously shitty nanomachines.

     First of all, most intelligent nanomachines would open up a gap to allow direct attacks like gunshots from the EDF soldiers, Kotone's blaster shots and Euphonia's fancy lasers to miss. But these ones just keep charging, taking the hits. On the digital front, while the security network for the whole bunker is quite sophisticated, the local network that binds the swarm together cracks like an egg under the assault. Ainsley's cobbled-together spell robs them of purpose by blocking communication between their local network and the security network.

    At that point, they just stop moving, not even being sophisticated enough to save orders. And then the grenades go off. They begin to melt immediately, just standing still as they break apart. "As you can see," ADAM says as he continues his lecture, "They are not exactly the most sophisticated defence system. They were designed as such, so that in the event of a gray goo scenario, they can be easily dispatched. Their main advantages are sheer numbers, absolute brutality, and being a totally unknown factor. They were never intended to be patented, you see. Only used as security in facilities in which you sign away your human rights by breaking into."

    But, it does not seem to be over. Ainsley can see the signals being given, now that the scout swarm has been taken out, while Rory and Kotone's probes into the network pick up the message being sent out.

    Now, all the nanites in the bunker are being activated and sent after them.

    "Oh dear," ADAM says. "I am... not especially learned in warfare. However, another feature of the AZEQ-2.03 is that they will shut down if put in an environment that they are not designed for. And the Vacuum Chamber features a null-gravity generator, which I am actually hooked into." He looks to the group and adds, "Unless you have a better idea, of course." When Seft tries to communicate with him, he happily gives her a copy of the facility map, with a couple of suggested routes all planned out. He also displays a copy of it to everyone. One of the routes involves using the elevator shaft to go down, another gives structural weak points that would allow them to blow holes in the floor. And of course, there is the stair well, if the party is feeling boring today.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "More are on the way. That's an excellent idea, ADAM." Her voice is calm but hurried, that showing her panic more than anything else. "Calculate a route to the chamber, I will play bait. This body can operate in vacuum." She probably can easily download a map from Seft.

    Meanwhile, her second Fork is loading up a dozen little tasks meant to rip apart the networking protocols and establish authorization. At the speed of digital processing only an advanced AI can manage she works at decrypting packets and re-signing new ones until SOMETHING's accepted, then spoofing existing communications and attempting to subvert some kind of authorization token. If she can gain admin access to the system then calling off the defenses should be simple!R
    "Lead onwards, Seft!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Seft is the first one to help out here. "Alert. Projecting route." She speaks up, immediately putting away her fancy sensor array so that she can fucking book it right out of there with hands free. She projects all three routes in brilliant blue lines, for Ayako's benefit. The Starbounders themselves seem quite eager to go along. "Urgent. ADAM, please open elevator shaft doors and clear the area of obstructing elevators." She'll be taking the Core Fleet captains, and anyone else who wants to take that route, down the shaft; it seems like the polite way to go, and stairs are DANGEROUS!

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    In a single barrage, this entire swarm is obliterated, so this confirms two things: corrosive damage is effective, and these things likely are not strong enough to warrant the defensive paradigm she currently has in place. Far better that they all be killed -before- they start dealing damage, so she decides to switch before doing anything else. "Cancel defensive paradigm. Effect full assault paradigm." The dot-eye of the bit unit behind Euphonia dyes itself red, flying beside the second one. The one above her head, for its part, remains there, transmitting target lock data to the two in front. Those bits maintain a position just ahead of the group at all times, waiting for the appearance of any hostile entities to fire.

    Less noticeably, Euphonia also modifies the laser 'bullets' loosed by each of the bits by increasing the amount of energy that should be attributed to their generation, and taking some energy away from the firing process. In short, this will slow the bullets while making them large enough to deal more damage to larger swarms.

    Again, Euphonia advances as she is bid, but she does query ADAM once along the way. "Assuming Miss Yamakawa could disable any security remotely, is there any way in which we could expediently register this group on to whatever server governs these defensive systems? We presume this could be helpful, so long as we could find some terminal which would normally be able to access said systems. Or would this be impractical? We only need to know whether this action is feasible; we can locate the command quickly so long as it exists."

    She's assuming this wouldn't work out as neatly as she hopes, chiefly because whatever computer would have this capability would be heavily guarded and is likely in a locale so distant from them that they would have less trouble dealing with the encroaching enemies 'manually'. Still, she has to ask.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako reaches back, pulls out her broomstick, uncollapses it and sits down on it sidesaddle. A good a time as any to start floating! She then looks at the projection that Seft lights up for her. "A-ahh... I see now! Thank you, Seft!" She nods her head once. "I'll go with you down the elevator shaft. If anyone needs a lift, hop on!" The spot by the floating broomstick's brush is patted. "I can only carry one person, though!"

    She raises her hand. "I can function in a vacuum as well!" Ayako smiles softly. "I won't be able to talk, of course, but... still. It's an option!"

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Aye aye, calc'lator!" Pavo's calling out. She's now brandishing GRAPPLING HOOK GUNS! "Any of ye not be Avians, ye best grab one'a these!" The guns will be tossed to whoever's following them to the elevator shaft that could need one, or that isn't taking a ride with Ayako. She may be a greedy bitch but at least Pavo isn't a cheapskate with the survival tools.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "No time for elevators! Descend manually! Rappel now, Biteblade and Pavo first!" Albert had called to the rest of his squad, and anyone following their route. He's hoping the doors are opened quickly; if they are, he'll stay behind to make sure the group is covered before they go leaping down the elevator shaft, and then, behind them, he'll leap down too, firing the hook farther up to let them descend quickly!

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    Regarding the act of descending the elevator shaft, Euphonia gives no substantive reply to Ayako when she offers a ride or Pavo when he offers the grappling hooks. Rather, she advances without any communication whatsoever, descending on the providence of whatever force that has allowed her to levitate thus far. She does, however, respond with regards to the void idea: "We would not be adversely affected were there to be a lack of atmosphere." All she really has to say on the matter, and all that she supposes will be relevant in their decisionmaking.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Wow, Adam, you got some good help here. You wanna come with us when we're done here? We got a lot of research we're working on, same with the EDF guys, bet they could use the help. You got a flash drive you can zip yourself onto, bro? Pop me a route to something like that, dude, I don't wanna leave you hanging down here alone if I'm trashing the place while I try to help the dudes on the outside." George calls out as he heads for their designated route. If ADAM can't control the doors, George will handle it himself; his semi-powered armor gives some enhanced strength, though not too much, so he'll be pulling doors open before he lets Biteblade and Pavo jump down.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Floran diiiiivesss!" Biteblade calls out. Assuming, hopefully, that the elevator shaft can be breached, Biteblade will leap down headfirst alongside Pavo, diving rapidly and swinging only at the last second with her own grappling hooks to get through the door. "And Floran not mutation! Meat people call usss aliensss! You wanna learn? Can show you alien ssspace sssecretsss! Even if you go with Eden tribe, Flotilla friendsss wanna help!"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa gets the deal from Adam about the AI, she gets the feeling these are automatic defence systems. They have chained grey goo here? Dear lord that's quite nightmare fuels. She notices the things are breaking up, her grenades are not a good idea to use but perhaps she might have something else. She's also thankful for Albert's back up he is still a far better fighter than she is.

"Look your government's gone something happened to ravage the planet we can get you an outside feed to see."

She start wondering if Overclock's awake but is it a good idea to deploy him right now given Euphonia's here? She's honestly not certain here. She is going to be trying more to get into the system while avoiding anything that would harm Adam. She's going to look for a way to call off the defence nanites.

"Just a heads up ADAM I seen a world where things like these were weaponized on a mass scale. It's nightmare fuel worse than what happened to this world."

IF she can find a wireless link, but she suspect Euphonia is right a hard terminal would be best.

"I can last a bit without air, if we need bait I'm up for it as well."

She's likely giving Rory digital white hairs more or less with suggestions. She's also going over the data, she's writing off her drones at this point if they can keep up good, if not? She'll have to build more later. She's making for the shaft and she'll holster her weapon and now make for the shaft. She's a hell of a lot stronger than she looks and this is where she starts putting that combat grade body to use. She start side kicking from walls of the shaft while she carries Philip down the shaft with her. When she reaches the bottom she'll use her Double Jump Tech to prevent damage from impact. She'll land in a very nice crouch hopefully still holding Philip.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    And of course, being really bad at running, walking, and clinbing, Rory hops onto Ayako's weird... 'broom.' "I'd love to study this when we're not in a crisis!"

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     As Rory begins trying to get at the main security network... it's actually quite difficult, even for her advanced capabilities. The encrypting has multiple layers, each one with a pass key consisting of multiple letters, numbers... they even throw in symbols and foreign characters! And even worse, the communication between the system and the nanoswarms are also encrypted, and since this is between computers, the passkeys can afford to be even longer and more complex! It's certainly not beyond her capabilities, but it will absolutely take a while.

    When asked to open the elevator doors, ADAM frowns for a moment. "Manual override of the elevators is not within my assigned capabilities..." But then, a resolute look crosses his face. "However, I did default to my base maxim, now that the authorities that instituted all others are gone. Hacking now. I cannot project into the shaft, but I will meet you on the target floor. Good luck." And with that, a soft tone comes from the nearby elevators, opening into a dark shaft with the elevator above it.

    As for Euphonia's question, ADAM doesn't answer, he only updates the map Seft is projecting as to the location of the network server room. It is... much deeper down, at the very bottom of the bunker. Descending through all those floors with nanomachines coming for you would be hell. However, for someone capable of 'possessing' machines, it might be possible to hitch a ride across connections. This whole place is wired, after all.

    Philip is suddenly snatched up though, as Kotone takes him along for a wild wall-jumping ride! He's startled at first, but he begins whooping it up once that passes. As for Bonnie, she deploys her own grappling hook from the front of her armour. It adheres to the opposite wall of the shaft, and she begins to rappel with the Flotilla.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     As she does, she says, "Forget it Flotilla. As an agent of ReGenesis, I am officially declaring ADAM vital technology. We're taking him back to Eden. Sorry, but we need him more." She does actually sound apologetic, but also terribly firm.

    ADAM has nothing to say towards the people fussing and fighting over him, but he does close the elevator doors once everyone is gone to slow security. Just in time too, as the nanites begin to swarm into the office, through the cracks of the doors, emerging from vents... anywhere there is a gap, they emerge from. Once everyone is inside, ADAM closes the doors to try and slow them, but a few slip through the cracks, and start working on the grappling hooks, while others simply throw themselves down, trying to land on those who are floating.

     But thankfully, the descent is a short one, and ADAM has left the elevator doors open on the intended floor. Once they through them, the party finds themselves in a massive laboratory with all sorts of parts left on tables and a whole bunch of complicated-looking machines. At the opposite end is a massive bunker door, that is ever so slightly ajar.

    ADAM reprojects himself before the party, looking sheepish. "I tried to get the doors to the Vacuum Room open, but the system detected my hacking and stopped it. I could only get it open a little..." Indeed, the crack is far too small for anyone with... well, bones to slip into. And the nanomachines are swarming their new location now...

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako giggles once Rory hops onto her floating broom. "Oh sure! Just... later!" She directs the broomstick down the elevator shaft, following behind the Flotilla. "It's true! We should get ADAM out of here! Somehow, anyway. I'm not really good with machines so... I'll leave how up to everyone else!"

    She eeps and floats side-to-side once in a while to evade any falling nanobots that try to land on her or Rory. "Hey! Stop that!" And then whews softly when the they make it down without too much trouble. Ayako quickly glances about the laboratory... and then back at ADAM's projection. Her amber gaze goes straight to the doors.

    "Aahh... that opening's way too small for anyone to-" Ayako interupts herself and then knocks on her own head once softly. "I mean... well, I could get in." She floats over to the bunker door that's open a crack and looks through it.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "You're going to have to ask him what he wants!" Rory snaps. "I will not allow an AGI to be treated as property!" And on this she is very heated. "... But I can't imagine he'd want to stay here either when there's much more good to be done..."

    She's still furiously hacking... while examining the crack. "Ayako can, but why would the nanoswarm focus entirely on her? Furthermore, can we now SHUT the door if ADAM could barely open it and was then stopped? Can we engage the vacuum simulation?!"

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    This is a dangerous idea, and an exceedingly dangerous one: the moment her consciousness slips on to one of those 'things', she will be figuratively swarmed by their directives to consume, overwhelm, and destroy. As such, she does not have the time to remain on any one component of the storm for long, and precautions must be taken. With an utterance of the phrase 'effect heel protocol', all the bits form a tight triangle over the head of the overseer, and the 'eye' of the final bit goes red. They will fire rapidly upon any hostile entity within their range of detection, which is at least enough to encapsulate the room which they currently occupy. Euphonia, in the meanwhile, mutters another, inaudible phrase before her head slumps, and her arms and legs fall slack.

    If the puppet comparison was not apt enough before, now she could be called nothing else; with how she is now hanging in the air, she looks like she is hanging upon some invisible strings.

    That macabre visual aside, however, Euphonia gets to work immediately. A bright spark rides the stagnant air of the chamber to the nearest swarm it can find, and quickly seizes control. Euphonia captures the mind of a single one of the swarm before jumping to another, and another, and another, flying briefly if need be to come within a reasonable distance of the next swarm. She does her utmost to use the programming of the swarm for her own ends, using the 'instincts' of the form she occupies to locate other swarms, and to beam herself toward one. She follows a pattern of looking for swarms on lower floors from her current all the way until she reaches the bottom, at which point she makes way for the room containing the terminal.

    In all likelihood, though, it's sealed off. She never once considers use of the front door, and instead looks for some peripheral -- an air vent, an air conditioning channel, anything that her considerably reduced size may allow her to squeeze through. If that fails, she tries a more brute-force method, bringing her form as close to the wall as possible before attempting to jump into the computer through it.

    If all that is successful, and if her personality is not utterly subsumed in the process, she begins to look before any identifying sequence, name, or phrase which identifies this computer on a campus-wide server... assuming that it isn't disassociated from a larger virtual group completely. If it is, then she may well be out of luck unless she can find some other method of distinguishing this console for Kotone.

    Meanwhile, several floors above, her body follows the group, and her bits continue to fire a steady barrage of laser bullet at the approaching horde.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is happy to see ADAM can wrap his mind about the fact his bosses are no longer living. That his nation has fallen and he gets the idea the security systems are now a problem in light of the new data. She looks to Philip and grins.

"You seemed to have fun with that, but looks like we're still on the menu."

She'll let him go so he can get moving on his own. She doesn't seem to take offence about ADAM's fate.

"I understand."

the Flotilla was packed with self awre AIs and things much like them. She now wonders what they are going to do now at this point. She's going to do what she cna with the weapons.

"I could breach the door but that would defeat things wouldn't it?"

She's now going to focus on moblity and getting the the console that hopefully Euphonia is going to find. She's already hooked into the system and her avatar well? It's a white haired clearly android girl of some sort. She's going to be quick about things though as she knows they have no time to waste. It's kinda strange juggling two worlds at once, for her but she's coping all right for the moment.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Aye aye, ye be the ones that be payin' us, more than he's worth." Pavo calls back to Bonnie as she descends.
    Albert is the one who immediately springs into action. "Secure entrances NOW!" He barks out a command at the rest of the Flotilla. That means rushing the staircase they could have taken, as well as assorted vents.
    "Ssswarm can only eat /foreign/ materialsss! Floran have idea! Ssstrip wallsss, block ssswarm entry!" And that, it seems, is what they intend to do.

    The Flotilla gets to work. They can't substantially help their hacking team and they sure as hell can't help Ayako getting through that door. For now, they focus on stripping panels off of walls with their Matter Manipulator deconstruction mode, and then slapping them over doorways and vents with the construction mode! If they're tagged as local materials somehow, that means the automated defenses wouldn't be able to eat them, right?

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "This is awful. I'm the only one here with a backup.." Rory's heard muttering while trying to find some kind of console or place to jack in directly. Her wireless hacking is still on full tilt and two very frustrated thought-forks are hard at work while debating with each other at hyper speed, but listening to her own other-thoughts is kind of distracting.

    "WE SHOULD HAVE SENT A DRONE FIRST." -She- should have thought of that. Why did they breach a super-secure old facility and run in personally anyways?!

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako thinks for a while. "I can't really see what's on the other side, so..." She nods her head once. "I'm going to go in! If it's dangerous I'll come right back out!" She lets Rory off of her broom and then instantly melts into a puddle of water. The puddle swiftly flows through the crack and onto the other side.

    Once there, she slowly reforms from the puddle head first and looks around quickly. "Hmm... I wonder what's in here?" Ayako's puddle is still on the other side of the door as well. Just in case she needs to retreat!

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
    ADAM addresses Rory's concerns. "These swarms cannot emerge from within the Vacuum Room, they can only come through the front door. Should you defend it, Miss Ayako would be able to hit the emergency open button. Once everyone is inside, get on board the spacecraft and close the door. That should buy you time for me to engage the null gravity generator."

     Upon hearing ADAM, Philip gives an order (after patting Kotone on the shoulder for her help). "In that case, backs to the door people!" He takes the hand of Euphonia's body and guides her over to it, he and Bonnie keeping her covered... as the swarm starts trying to enter the room.

    But, the Flotilla's idea actually stumps them for a moment! Even though it's been ripped off the walls, their directives won't let them eat through the materials... but there are intruders and they must be taken care of... all of this is relayed to the security system, who begins to engage a directive that was never used until now, installed without ADAM's knowledge.

     Suddenly, just as Ayako slips inside, ADAM starts screaming. "T-The security system is hijacking my heuristics!..." he groans. If the materials have already been damaged, then there is little point in preserving them. Ergo, they need not be preserved. The party gets to bear witness as the nanites eat through the makeshift barricades, making more of themselves from it! In addition, Kotone and Rory can tell that, as ADAM's human brain-based software is being drawn on, the swarm is rapidly getting smarter, drawing on past experiences. They're already making plans to dodge shots and flank using the walls!

    Meanwhile, within the Vacuum Chamber, Ayako can see that it is a massive complex, not lit at the moment. But by the light of her blue flames, she can see that the majority of it filled with a giant spacecraft! But, more suited to her intentions is a big red button near the door, labelled 'EMERGENCY OPEN.'

    Meanwhile, Euphonia begins travelling along the swarms, heading down towards the servers! It is a terribly disconcerting feeling, the endless drive to devour and reproduce filling her mind, echoing throughout again and again. It bounces around in that part of you, where those primal thoughts swim up from when you're stressed, the ones that make your muscles tense, your teeth grit... but in a moment, it's over. She's arrived at the server. And, because it is a server room, there's plenty of ventilation she can use to slip inside.

     It's quite a vast area, filled with interconnected servers that are humming along. The air is pretty stifling right now, running all these swarms consuming a lot of processes. But there, on a table is a computer... and stuck to the fame of the monitor, still clinging there centuries later, is a Post-it note, with the admin login details scribbled on it.

    Once again, all the technology in the world can't save us from human laziness.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    "Hmm... dark..." Ayako glances around quickly and then spots a big red button near the door! She quickly reforms the rest of her body so that she can actually reach and press the button. Luckily, she does happen to read the label first. Whoa, she almost pressed it without knowing what it did! Once she's tall enough for her arm and hand to reach, she presses the big red button with an, "Open Seasame!" And then giggles brightly. What? Have to go with the classics sometimes!

    Ayako then focuses on reforming herself completely from the puddle. Her vanity won't settle for anything less!

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    Euphonia arrives in the computer, but there's an abnormally long pause in communication. While normally she would move along quickly, smoothly, swiftly, something holds her spellbound behind the frame of that monitor for some time. There's a pause long enough to allow many more of the swarm to flood the room where the Ayako, the Flotilla, and others are concentrated, and it's certainly long enough to make that group very glad that Biteblade blocked off the vents, and that Ayako found a way into the void room. Why is she taking so long? Well, there's no real indication of that, but communication does come. Eventually.

    When she arrives on the computer, she realizes fairly quickly that there are 'levels' to the encryption. The security cameras are directly accessible, for example, which allows her to spy the code on the monitor. This... this is far more fortunate than she ever could've hoped for. She uses this code to break into the computer herself, sifting through it until, finally, she finds... the swarms. Their protocols. She doesn't stress the nuances of it in this case -- she just tears apart their priorities until there is nothing left. She lobotomizes the hive mind by indiscriminately taking away everything starting specifically with 'consume' and 'reproduce'. In the end, her aim is to put them all on the floor, and to give herself control of any other facets of the system - turrets, motion detectors, anything - that she can think of.

    Hopefully, the only indication the team will need of her success is to see the things falling. Then...

    ... then hopefully they'll return to fetch her before they leave. She isn't going to be able to surf them now. Maybe she should've thought of that before she tore them up? Oh well.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "The spaceship. Right, very good ide-- ADAM?!" The scream and shift in communications and STYLE of the assault is terrifying. Rory freezes! Well, one of her forks freeze. The other two are still furiously hammering away at the wireless network.

    "It's... it's torturing ADAM. That's foul play! I will REWRITE THE WHOLE SYSTEM IF I MUST!" She is ANGRY. Actually angry.

    She has rarely been this furious where anyone else can see her, that's a fact!

    "If I can just get authenticated!"

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is very glad ADAM seems to want to help them. She knows he's an AI of some sort perhaps he just wants company now and it's better than sitting waiting for orders than will never come. She's budy soing her thing in cyberspace at ths point. The security protocalls are using ADAM against his will. She attemsp to do what she can do launching several programs trying to boost ADAM maintiang control over his own systems. She's fighting here and doing the best she can on two fronts at this point.

"I"m doing what I can Rory! Your still clocked faster than me I'm held back by what's left of my body."

She's pushing trying to support Rory and even Euphonia's efforts here.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    The Starbounders know how to handle this. More grenades. George had already prepared another pair of corrosive grenades, tossing them at the incoming swarms. "Haha, yeah, I don't have a lot of these! Hey! Let's figure a way out of this!"

    "Avast, if it be havin' anti-hackin', don't ye think for a moment we're gonna be able to just leave!"
    "Concerned. Our hackers are handling those efforts."
    "Floran think, lassst a little while, but not forever. Get Plan B!!"
    "We are here to acquire the module. We will acquire it. The craft is an effective escape tool. Artificial intelligence! You are based on human neural architecture. Synch with the Mindreader and transfer through it if you can. I want that craft prepared for launch immediately, we will cut our way out of the vacuum chamber." He also calls out over radio to their resident hackers. "If the AI is capable of this plan, I want you to get whatever transmitters and receivers that are necessary working /now/."

    Albert is having the Starbounders retreat to the blast door... Which is now hopefully opening. They'll search, of course, for emergency releases, anything that could give them a quick path to the surface, but if worst comes to worst, they'll get to work on their plan; Pavo will be the first to run for the top of the spacecraft and ready herself to dig a way out of here with her Matter Manipulator.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     Euphonia's efforts bear fruit as she begins to rend the nanoswarm's functioning... but, as she looks over it, she may realize that they're making up for it by drawing on ADAM! From her position, she might be able to shut down ADAM too, and then they would have nothing left... but would that affect him at all?

    Down at the Vacuum Room, Ayako's actions bear fruit! The door slides open quickly, permitting everyone to get inside! It's a straight shot to the aircraft now, and thankfully a boarding ramp is set up, and the doors open.

    And finally, Rory's and Kotone's constant hacking has permitted them access! They has the whole system before them... but with the enhanced thinking, the security system is turning its attention on the two! It begins trying to reverse the hack, boring into them! Trying to override their bodies to further enhance its capabilities and turn them against the others!

    ADAM manages to call out to the party. "Get on board! I'll get you out!" The security system certainly can't have the party escaping. Drunk on its new processing capabilities, it starts to look into planned versions of future nanomachines. Drawing on a version capable of flight, the march of the swarm begins to slow as they begin to convert each other. They clamber up on the walls to avoid the puddles of acid left by the grenades and slowly begin to advance on the spacecraft.

     Philip and Bonnie are the last to get on, but they shove Euphonia's body onboard first. Once everyone is inside, they seal the craft. "Okay... for the next five minutes or so, we're probably safe. ADAM, let's go!" Bonnie says. "I... cannot, Miss. There is nothing on board large enough to contain me." ADAM's voice crackles over the radio. "Please, if at all possible, destroy this place. Do not let me be consumed..."

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    The moment after she has made her attempt, Euphonia switches back to control of the videocameras. She looks down the halls, all of them, and sees them... swarming. She sees those -things- converting more and more of this station into themselves. Then she sees the rest of the group boarding the ships, and she's certain. She's on the security terminal, isn't she? So this computer should have another administrative option. Any building of the clearance she suspects that this place had, and any area that might have been developing volatile military technology that was allowed to function autonomously, must have it.

    So she looks for a self-destruct switch.

    She isn't certain that she can find it, but regardless, she makes all the necessary preparations. As if on cue, she says, "We have control of all major systems in this vicinity with the sole exception of these creatures. We are presently searching for a self-destruct sequence. We will effect this protocol as soon as you have all boarded the escape vessel unless we are given some sort of definitive communication via another of the facets of the system that the threat has passed. Please keep my body on board and return it to Chrysalis. We will do the rest from there."

    She hesitates only a moment in her search to look out a final time through the computer facing the group, and... ADAM. She begins to look for any peripheral systems she may have access to -- an external computer, perhaps, one in another building that wouldn't be in the radius of the ensuing explosion -- which she could back up ADAM's consciousness on. If that fails, then she will just write his AI to this computer so... so that he need not be alone when the area comes down upon itself. Quite a thing for her to do, isn't it? But even she has some humanity.

    That said, she does not seem to fear for her own life at all, and she hasn't said anything about returning to her own body. And if she stays on this computer after they leave, won't she...?

    ... she's a bit more 'reliable' than some of them might have predicted.

Ayako Hasekawa has posed:
    Ayako fully reforms herself and then makes her way over to the ship. She doesn't really have any sort of thing she can do to mess with the machines. Other than to perhaps delay them. She puts the brush of her broom on the floor of the chamber and runs around the ship, tracing a large circle in water.

    Once she's done with that, and everyone else has boarded, she boards the ship as well. Ayako points her broom upwards and smiles softly. "Let's try something a bit different to buy some time! Sea's Depth Maelstrom!"

    And then a whirlpool of salt water whips about the circle surrounding the ship to buy everyone some time to do what needs to be done!

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Time to get to work.

    George, Albert, and Seft all jump into action inside the craft. Pavo and Biteblade jump atop the craft, which helps because they're gonna be in null gravity soon. Matter Manipulators pointed skywards, they're ready to lance a hole in the ceiling. The others -- Kotone! Rory! -- are called on too! With Seft's history with Psionic tech, Albert's general computer science awareness, George's electrical wiring abilities, Rory's history with facility-based AIs, and Kotone's hacking skills, they should be able to link Euphonia's body to the output of the Mindreader module inside the craft, as well as activate it. They can also, ideally, ensure that it is compatible with the mind of ADAM... And, if luck goes their way, it might allow him to enter Euphonia's body itself, since the body is designed to be inhabited or uninhabited naturally, likely having fewer hardwired elements to its internal systems.

    "ADAM, bro! We got a hard drive big enough to hold you, or, I guess, most of you? Jump on dude! I don't want them eating more of your brains!" George calls out, over the radio.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
There's a lot going on here and the Starbounders being here is quite the boon to their effors here. Adam is based on the human mind and ponders. Could Rory get him into something she has with her worl'ds technology. Maybe Kotone should look into getting a Ghost Rider modual after all. For now she keeps working in cyberspace with Rory to get into the system. She sees the system is trying to get into them, thankfully Kotone's defences are very good, very good thanks to help from Zwei they are able to fend things off for the moment. She's now making for the ship, physically while she keeps fighting digitally. Thankfully there are means for them to get ADAM out.

"We ain't leaving you to rot here ADAM, we got something that can get you out of here."

She's working to get the link now set up all the while her barriers keep getting hit, this attack ai is very sturbbon if she wasn't in danger she's be impressed.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Taking shelter in the ship with the others, Rory's focusing all of her attention on the network now. Breaking in was one thing, but she wasn't expecting a hack-off! The facility has a lot of weird systems that she's had no experience with and this is Infosec by the seat of her pants!

    Her Kaos AI goes ballistic at the 'front lines,' setting up honypots and false leads to trap and divert attention into virtual machines - honey pots, and the sort. All incoming connections are in for a few surprises.

    The big advantage is that now that she's getting access, Rory works on escalating to full admin mode and shutting down whatever RED ALERT the system's going through - and its connections to ADAM's awareness!

    Also on the list is trying to determine how ADAM's hardware and software works and whether his 'consciousness' can simply be wholesale evacuated digitally or if there's some essential hardware involved.

Eryl Fairfax has posed:
     In her search, Euphonia would absolutely find a self-destruct mechanism. The whole bunker is built atop... some kind of bomb. Not nuclear, but easily enough to wipe out everything inside. Should she activate it, she will be prompted for a timer, as well as warned that there is no deactivating them past this confirmation.

     ADAM is monitoring the situation, and once Euphonia has made a decision, he acts. "Launch sequence initiated! J-JUMPING!" he yells across all channels. A brief moments, and Euphonia's abandoned body suddenly jerks as he takes possession of it! The rocket begins to shake as the engines ignite, boiling the water shield Ayako put up! It had been doing quite a good job keeping the nanites out, but they were in the process of making tunnels when ADAM's heuristics jumped out of reach!

    For a moment, they drift, perhaps long enough for Euphonia to jump up into the craft, to borrow some of Rory or Kotone's storage... but that moment soon passes, the copied heuristics kicking in. Finally, the rocket begins to ascend, towards a sheer wall unless the Flotilla has something to say about it!

    It's a nerve-wracking ride no doubt, constantly an inch away from splattering against the roof. But finally, the tunnelling opens into clear, hot skies! The nanites are far below, flying up to pursue, to unleash their newly-aware wrath, to bring about another end to the tale of this world...

    But then, a dome of all-encompassing light erupts up from the depths, utterly annihilating all that stand before it. The nanites are swallowed, along with the bunker and the security system. The dome very nearly catches the tail of the spacecraft, but stops just short! Philip is jumping about, on his feet and cheering! "OH MAN THAT WAS THE CLOSEST SHIT EVER!" Bonnie is more content to just slump and let her heart rate return to normal.

    ADAM meanwhile, is making Euphonia's face show more expression than it has in a long time, no doubt. "Having a physical form is strange. I am not sure I care for it," he says in her voice. "Anyway... I was able to tap into some still-functioning satellites, and plot a course for an area that should be safe to land in. Everyone... thank you."

Euphonia (839) has posed:
    Euphonia initiates the self-destruct sequence when prompted, then she jumps.

    She jumps through the corridors, glancing at each of them a last time through the bizarre, misshapen apertures provided by the swarm she moves through. Then when she's finally reached the exterior, where the lot of them beat ceaselessly against the departing ship before likely losing control of themselves, she makes a quick, final hop, skip, leap...

    ... then, a landing. Assuming it's capable, the Cyberbrain emits a soft, crimson-colored glow, or failing that, a dull tone or even warmth of recognition.

    She made it.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa looks to ADAM and smiles a bit "No problem we'll get you on a system your more comfortable with. I can kinda unerstand your feelings. I get a bit unerved when I dive too long, start getting a b it wigged out when I don't seem ot have physical form. That was pretty crazy Bonnie, I was not expecting nanotech weaponry at all we got very lucky or it would have been bad."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    It'll be a bit before Pavo and Biteblade manage to get back inside the craft. It involves a lot of climbing, which is more Biteblade's specialty than Pavo's. But, eventually they'll get in.

    Albert takes a posture of silent caution. He's already started on calming himself down by getting to work on securing the craft and making sure absolutely everything is in working order. Seft, on the other hand, will be keeping the EDF folks company, never seeming to be affected by the exhaustion. George is much the same, but retreats to an oddly distant, uncharacteristically silent sort of behavior. He seems to have expended his talking for today.

    Eventually, of course, they'll make the logical offer: Helping to fit the craft with a few additions from their universe and repair anything out of maintenance since the disaster, for some pay or favors. And, logically, inclusion in the Flotilla itself!

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Throughout the entire seat-of-their-pants escape, Rory's clinging to a seat to hold on and panicking. WHAT IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG?! Everyone else could die!

    ... But she's very relieved to find this being not what happens. She'd exhale in relief, but well... she doesn't breathe.

    Instead, silence - a long moent of silence - is taken before she joins the conversation. "Having bodies being troublesome? ... I can relate, ADAM." With Euphonia in her Ghostrider module, Rory's rather pleased with the situation. "I don't even know how much data we made it off with, but the ship and its module are intact, we rescued you... I would call this a success!"