2957/Operation Databreak

Operation Databreak
Date of Scene:	03 September 2015
Location:	Urbania
Synopsis:	A crack team of Confederates and Syndicates infiltrate a heavily guarded tech company in order to steal their prized AI program.
Cast of Characters:	Staren, 234, 304, 399, 596, Starbound Flotilla, 754, 823

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Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     Information has a way of getting around. In the aftermath of DigiTech Data Solutions going public with their breakthrough program, they suddenly went suspiciously quiet soon afterward, followed by an alarming security hiring spree. The public is unaware of what happened, but it's not hard to guess what's going on. They're gearing up to protect their work. Especially after a previous hacking attempt.

     Their once humble little research facility has now become a small fortress, with guard patrols along the roof, the outer grounds, and inside as well. They are all equipped with standard body armor and assault rifles. Their faces were obscured by helmets, and they were equipped with radios and other gear. It almost looked like they were ready for war.

     DigiTech was serious about this.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     On Confederate bands and through other illicit channels, Xiao Li Yu had spread the news of her intention to infiltrate DigiTech's HQ and acquire their golden goose. She'd spent days studying their security and guard routines. Unfortunately, she'd managed to get herself hurt the day before. As such, she was providing radio support to all who had agreed to join the operation. Either for pay, curiosity, entertainment, whatever. As long as the job got done, she wouldn't mind much at all.

     "Hello everyone." The researcher greeted over the comm. "I've prepared a detailed floor plan and an estimate of the patrol routes that security will take." A pause followed as she transmitted the data in question. "Unfortunately, it seems that DigiTech has reached deeper into their pockets than I had anticipated. They may have Union Elites on site. Be careful."

     From up on a rooftop nearby the target destination, Xiao looked over the map data for a few moments before speaking again. "Where they are and what they may do, are both unknown. Remember, the objective is not to burn the entire place down. Get in, find ADAM, the AI program, and get out. I've determined that ADAM is being kept in the core mainframe deep in the facility. If you can reach it without being caught, that would be ideal. Once you arrive, insert the thumb drive I've given each of you into one of their ports. Only one of you needs to do it. But all of you have one...just in case."

     "That's all. How you approach, I leave to your skills. I'll continue to monitor things and offer advice when necessary."

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     Meanwhile from inside HQ, in the Core Mainframe room, a reseacher approached the Union Elites hired by the company. He was a middle aged man with graying black hair and a stubble, likely from laziness and business. He wore a white lab coat and had a stack of papers under his arm. "Hey, you must be the ones. Thanks for showing up. We could really use the help." He smiled in a tired manner. "I'm Chris Conners, head developer of the ADAM project." He held out a hand to respectfully shake, if any took it.

     "As you know, we're kn the verge of completing the project, but we've been getting hacking attempts ever since we went public." He frowned in annoyance. "It's obvious what's going on. They're after ADAM." A shrug followed. "But we can't let our magnum opus be stolen right at this pivotal moment." Chris looked around in mild suspicion then. "We've beefed up security, but we're afraid it won't be enough. That's where you come in."

     He looked towards the Elites with a smile. "We have a vague inkling that something's gonna happen real soon. We need you to be our eyes and ears while we work. How you do it, I don't care. Just get it done." Following that, he took out a device and tapped the screen a few times. "I've sent you the floor plans and our security details. Use it to come up with a good plan of action. We're counting on you." And with that, Chris walked off to a nearby station to continue his work...

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
For purposes of shaking hands with the head researcher, at least, Black Arachnia transforms into her robot mode so that Dr. Conners can at least shake hands with a humanoid robot instead of a giant spider. She's got nothing against creeping people out, but when they're the people who asked her (or the Union, anyway) for help, she can afford to put the creepy factor on the back burner.

"Electronic security is more my specialty than stand-up fighting," she remarks as she scrutinizes the plans internally. "If Staren has some sentry turret drones, he could park those in some of the offices off the hall to slow the bad guys down on their way through ... How secure are the windows in the main server room? And can anything bigger than a rat get through the air ducts?"

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    Did someone say infiltration? It's only natural the confederacy's black ops unit, Human Resources would be involved. But for all people to show up... It's the secretary? Then again, Lu-Mey is not just any secretary. She's secretary to the Widow of Starless Night, herself, and as such, Human Resources' very second in command has decided to poke her head out of the offices and get a little more personally involved.
    The oni is dressed in something a little more practical than her usual dancer's silks, but still obviously garish and silly. A skintight red and black body sleeve, and a grinning oni mask that covers the top half of her face makes up her infiltrating outfit, and she's not alone. At her side is Ao-hime, a girl in a matching blue infiltrator body sleeve, and looking very awkward in it while checking her dual handguns and rifle slung on her back. "Ah man, do I have to wear this?"
    For the moment, Lu-Mey ignores the princess' whining, flashing a sharp toothed smile as she holds up her flash drive. "Hellooooo. Right then, get in, stick the flashdrive, back out. Should be easy!"
    Easy enough as she hoops an arm around Ao-hime, allowing a pair of massive dragonfly wings to spread from her back.
    Ao-Hime looks significantly traumatized as the Oni starts ferrying her across the space between roofs. She pointedly waits for the gruard on patrol to get moving before making her approach because giant dragonfly wings are not exactly the most subtle nor fast means of transport.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    After so many missions in situations of gratifying combat, it had been a while since HK-47 had taken part in a true infiltration-based stealth-mission. However, the droid wasn't necessarily complaining - it would be an intriguing change of pace.

    Having arrived on the world when the call for new units and equipment went out - and with a thoroughly-hacked and well-doctored recommendation using voice-mimicry - HK-47 had managed to get himself 'acquired' by the company as a maintenance droid. While he lacked in the advanced computing skills of astromech droids in programming, he was more then capable of disassembling and understanding machine components and slicing security mechanisms.

    And no sooner had their mission started then the droid was already at work. Nearing one of the emergency access ports for the ventilation shafts, the droid inserts an 'updated' time-card meant to re-arrange the system's schedules to believe it was time to maintenance the air-ducts.

    Within moments, one of the duct's external ports opens in the building, leaving a straight path from there into one of the facilities' hallways.

    It's only one access grate, open for less then one minute to filter out debris.

    heoretically, more then enough time for at least one person to get in.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     BLACK ARACHNIA

     Dr. Conners didn't seem to be too perturbed by the appearance of a spider shaped...robot...thing. Either he was too tired to be creeped out, or he's seen some shit. After the handshake, he considers her questions as he moves off to his desk to work.

     "The air ducts are ...kind of secure? We spent the past week reinforcing them. But...the base structure is still big enough for a nimble enough person to get through. They'll have to push through the reinforcement we put on the exits however." He spoke earnestly as his fingers danced across the keyboard of his computer. On screen seemed to be a whole lot of code jargon.

     "As for the turrets, you can use the offices in the main hallway. We've got people working in there, but if it's at the entrance, no one will mind. Better to keep ADAM safe than worry about a few bullets. This is our life's work here." He grinned to himself as he spoke in a rather sardonic tone.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Curiosity, both professional and personal. By trade and calling, he's a computer and robotics engineer, and he is an AI in practice if not exactly by intention. Thus, any new advances in Artifical Intelligence are of interest to him.
    In a slightly battered electrical utility van parked in a lot somewhere in the general vicinity, Taro settles himself into a comfortable position, then connects to the portable cyber-rig he's tweaked for the occasion. He sincerely doubts that their objective is sitting in a place he can reach this way, but that doesn't mean he cannot assist the others in achieving it.
    His head slumps forward as he turns full attention to cyberspace, making his way across the local grid to one of the nodes connecting DigiTech Data to the rest of the world. A quiet poking at the outer secuity layers - he's not trying to call attention to himself just yet. Instead, looking for those small chinks in the wall that may have been overlooked when they patched after Xiau's ealier attempt.

Staren has posed:
    Staren is... suspicious of anyone who might want this program. It needs to be used /very/ carefully, and in the wrong hands... Staren has always respected the skill of people like Drs. Light and Wily, who can create artificial life the hard way without the problems that tend to riddle many AI creation attempts. He is glad that there aren't many of them in thie Multiverse, or this sector anyway. A program that would let its thief and anyone they share with become /half/ a Dr. Wily, even if only the software half? Yeeeeah that could go bad quick. Not even counting the utterly /massive/ ethics violation against sentient sapient life misuse of the program would constitute.

    if DigiTech were more suspicious, Staren would seriously consider infiltrating them to /sabotage/ the program, but Dr. Conners seems like an upstanding guy. "Obviously." Staren agrees, shaking the doctor's hand. "It's... if it does everything you say it can do, it's pretty darn powerful." He looks over at the GROUND FLOOR WINDOW. "I wish you were able to work from a more secure location, though." He sighs, picturing what a smash-and-grab would look like in this situation. Hell, a freaking /mole machine/ could probably tunnel right in here. Well, hopefully a brain that can't help but reflexively think of ways to -- or a tiny drone flying up to the window and cutting the glass, or maybe a drone that crawls through the grass and up the wall, yeah, that would be stealthy... does anyone make mole drones? -- infiltrate the facility will be useful in defending it. -- Heck who knows, they could probably have a fake employee come up, claim badge troubles, and then when the door's opened to check them a vampire turned into gas sneaks in. Do some vampires turn into bugs? Shoot, Skitter's in the Confederacy, isn't she? Staren holds his fingers to the bridge of his nose. How are they going to protect against every vector of infiltration? At least someone had the foresight to get anti-teleport wards installed, right?

    "...Yeah. You've got eyes and ears all over. We'll be the brain and precision strike force. Show us where we can monitor your security cameras and sensors and networks and stuff from. Do the guards all have helmet cams or other tracking sensors so we can know if one suddenly... drops dead?"

    Staren shakes his head to Black Arachnia. "I don't really have... sentry turret type things. I mean, I could have made them, but I figured they'd already have them... What we need is as much data on what's going on as possible, so we can notice /anything/ off. Any guard actiong strangely or disappearing. Any door that opens with noone there because someone's invisible. Any computer that's contacting unusual outside addresses, or suddenly stops sending normal network traffic. /Anything/."

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"Beast mode," Black Arachnia utters post-handshake, converting back into her spider form. "Best put some extra barriers in their way, then," she advises Conners and Staren. "I'll throw some physical obstacles at them where I can, but I still don't have reliably working drones. Staren, set up what you can physically and in cyberspace in the meantime. Two of us working together will have a better chance at blocking network intruders."

Until that, though, she puts her spider mode to use - starting to weave webs over the insides of the windows and the air duct vent in the server room. She'll need to get the door as well, but that'll mean the scientists in the room can't get out either, so ... the longer they have that option, the better.

As she's weaving her webs, though, Black Arachnia is getting scans as thorough as her internal sensors will permit of the scientists at work - including Dr. Conners himself. If any of them DO have to leave before she webs the door closed, she wants to be ABSOLUTELY SURE the same person returns ...

Overly paranoid? Probably, but paranoia was a required survival trait in her 'old neighborhood' (i.e. 'among the Predacons').

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     HK-47

     No one seemed to mind the 'Maintenance Droid' doing it's work. They just acquired the thing, to allow for more efficient work to be done. A passing researcher passed by, noticing HK-47 opening the port to the vents. "...?" He paused. "Was it time for vent maintenance already?" He asked himself, though loud enough for the droid in question to hear.

     A moment passed. Then two, then three.

     "...Huh. Maybe they changed the schedule." He shrugged and hurried off. "Deadline's coming up. Gotta get back to work!"

Zwei (596) has posed:
    It isn't terribly often that Zwei works with the Confederacy. As much as it works 'with' anyone, anyways. It's always fairly incidental, having a mutual interest rather than being on anyone's payroll. In this instance, it's the noteworthy attraction of this specific place suddenly claiming to have developed AI facilities well outside of what should be their current reach, and the fact that the Confederacy is pretty likely to scrub the databanks once they're done. After all, it's a theft mission, not a piracy mission.

    An infiltration mission pretty clearly doesn't call for a thirteen foot anti-army combat unit like the last operation, and so Weiss is playing Zwei's face today. She's already fully armoured up, though anything that emits light has been shut off or shunted into a spectrum outside of human visual range, lending a kind of austere modern art look to the full body ensemble, as it clearly was never designed to be put on or taken off by hand. She seems to be pretty reserved about today's affair, having had a very mixed bag of experiences with the Confederacy, and having been more than happy with the prospect of simply attempting this alone, but in the interests of things going over smoothly, she seems fine with cooperating.

    Specifically, the first thing up in the air is the matter of a nearby sniper having a clear shot on the big, slow, aerial target Lu-Mey makes of herself. Zwei hadn't really showed up to kill people, but then it's never had too many compunctions about doing so to begin with. From a relatively concealed spot on an obliquely angled building, weiss takes aim with her multi-PDW, having no need of long arms just yet. Sighting a human target up so high in the air is simple enough just with thermal vision, and even more simple is firing a single shot, compressed into a non-interactive spectrum so as to make no flash or sound, straight at the man's brainstem. Busywork.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    Most of the Starbound team are staying in reserve today. This is a time for George to shine. Let's check the gear. Agent Card, forged to perfection? Check. Stun gloves? Check. Telescopic combat baton? Check. Chameleon Jumpsuit? Check. Couple silenced weapons, check check check. Camera sensor. Check. Toolbelt? Check... George intends to take his usual route. This isn't an unfamiliar proposition. He's more used to needing to steal a positronic brain imprint than a purely digital organic AI, so it's a LITTLE different, but not THAT much.

    HK-47 just opened up a chance for Lu-Mey to head to the roof. She's going for the northwest, right? Must be heading right for the prize. George knows how this goes, though; access codes, keycards, and things like that are important. An Agent Card can withstand most cursory scrutiny. He's going to try to work in tandem with Taro here. Some quick observation of the front should let his Chameleon Jumpsuit get a good look at what the average local equivalent of a Staff Assistant is wearing. If his electromagnetic forgery is sufficiently solid, he should have an easy time getting through the front entrance. He's going to try to mingle with low-level staffers heading inside for their shift. If they use automated ID scanning, and don't look too closely at a man trained for years to look as harmless as possible, he should be able to slip through...

    Of course, if they've amped up their security protocols, here's where working in tandem with Taro comes in. He'll need a few access restrictions rebooted on his way in, probably. For now, though, he sticks to his particular specialty of espionage: Looking harmless and blending in. Lu-Mey is going for the AI, so that means George needs to go for keycards, access codes, core infrastructure to sabotage, and similar!

    He is wearing a large fake moustache over his actual facial hair. It's hard to see unless you look really, really close, but then it looks a bit silly. It should make him harder to recognize right away for people who know him, though.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     STAREN, BLACK ARACHNIA, TARO

     Dr. Conners gave Staren a sidelong glance from his desk. He smirked in a manner that seemed to suggest he knew that the Elite was thinking circles around all the ridiculous possibilities. He'd know. He thought of some himself. But in the end, budget and manpower left them with this humble setup. "We'll have to make do with this. Your powers will be key here. I'll trust you guys can handle it."

     He swiveled his chair around and brought up a hologram of the map. "Security room's at 312 on the southwest end. Patrol is equipped with radio, and have status reports every ten minutes. No body cameras. If someone doesn't report their status, their post will be checked on." He glanced at the time and went on. "Vent maintenance should be taking place in Fifteen minutes. We just recently acquired a maintenance droid, but otherwise, all of our employees are accounted for. No one is missing."

     "As for networks, ADAM is on the secure network. Our other operations are being run on a public network. We still need to access the outside while we work." RIGHT as he said that however, there was a warning beep on his machine. "Eh?" He swiveled his chair around to check his computer. "What the..." He picked up a phone and dialed. "This is Connors, what's going on? ...What? Really? Again? For the love of..." He hung up and looked towards the two Elites. "We've got what looks like another hacking attempt. We can't be sure. But an unknown sender is attempting to access inconsequential data. Our team's on it, but if you want to take a look yourselves, sit yourself down at a computer and have a look."

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"How recently?" Black Arachnia inquires as she finishes webbing over one of the windows, and making sure it's secure. Now she's wondering if she ought to lay webs across all of the server room's interior walls for good measure ...

Bah, she can do that once the windows and vents (and maybe the door) are secured. "Anything you've acquired or hired since the first attempt should probably be considered 'less than secure' for good measure. Staren, network's yours while I'm working on the webs; if you need my help, give me a holler and I'll back you up on the network."

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     ZWEI, LU-MEY

     The sniper on the northwest edge of the rooftop scanned the area below, as well as the skies above carefully. He wasn't an idiot. He was good at his job. Damn good at his job others would say.

     But he wasn't an elite. He was just a man. Thus, when he caught sight of a form flying through the air, he knelt down and took aim. "Target sig-"

     PSHEW

     He didn't get to finish that sentence. A shot utterly imperceptible to the normal human senses pierced through his brainstem. And with a thump, he went prone. The sniper on the northwest was taken care of. Well enough for Lu-Mey and her charge to land on the roof without trouble.

     Now, they could either go for the stairs, or take the vent on the opposite side. Given HK's risk taken by opening the vent ahead of schedule, perhaps she should do that? It was up to her. She also needed to be wary of the guard patrolling the roof on this side. He was currently walking away from her though.

     Once he reached the end, he would turn around. Time was of the essence.

Staren has posed:
    Staren nods. "Alright. ...Is that maintenance droid wirelessly programmed? It could be a hacker's way in. Where do we check the status of this stuff? How ready is this facility to just cut off all outside access for awhile, if it comes to it?" Staren heads off to the Security room to monitor things. "Can we have all the guards check in again? This hacking attempt might be a distraction. Actually, we should have them report in whenever /anything/ suspicious happens." He rubs his head. "Kind of tedious, I know, but we've got to be careful."

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     GEORGE

     Despite Conner's confirmation that all staff were present, the security guard on duty at the gate station smiled and greeted the agent as if he knew him all his life. "Whoa hey! Antonio! I didn't know you still worked here? Weren't you fired last month for..."

     A pause.

     "Wait a minute, you're-"

     Time slowed down. GEORGE had a few options available to him. Silence the guard? He could reach into the box and knock him out. Patrol wouldn't be here in a few more minutes. Or he could try and talk his way out. That didn't seem likely, but it was an option.

     What would he do?

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    With the sniper down, Lu-Mey and Ao-Hime touch down soundlessly on the roof. With a scrabbling chitter of something quietly dying, the oni's gossamer wings shrivel, wilt, and then detach, falling off her back and to the rooftop. Very quickly, Lu-Mey patches her own radio into the frequency set on the dead sniper's, one hand touching to her throat as she clears is a bit, doing everything while on the move.
    Before speaking in the dead man's voice, "Negative on that, actually, just seeing things up here. Still quiet."
    She keeps that radio connection for later while motioning the blue-clad princess for the vent, the two quickly and quietly keeping low while the patrolling guard is moving away, and making to slide on into the vent shaft, if nothing stops them.

Taro (399) has posed:
     Taro for now remains low-key in his infiltration, rifling through non-critical data. He's being a little sloppy, deliberately so. The markings of a two-bit script-kiddie using second-rate software dowloaded from one of the seedier sides of the multiversal network, rather than professional. Nothing terribly concerned about, aside from horrible timing.
    In truth, he's working on trying to worm his way deeper into the system. If he can find a way into the personnel files while security is paying attention to his less interesting data pursuit, and from there their accounts and keycode data, that could be useful for those already on the inside.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    "Ugh, here to grab my stuff, yeah. Apparently you guys are going on turbo extra bonus ultra lockdown?" George says, mimmicking the sound of a heavy cold to obfuscate voice issues. His face muscles relax, and his vision gets just unfocused enough to give the subtle, subconscious appearance of someone who's kind of an idiot and who is completely harmless. "Turns out they found that tablet I lost in a sec sweep and called me back. I've gotta handle unencryption on it so they stop wigging out about some wireless thing?"

    "Wait, they didn't tell you? Ah, shit, did I just violate another NDA or whatever they're called?" He goes through the motions of exasperated sighing. "Look, I gotta get in to meet the IT dudes or they're gonna start putting out charges on me or something, you know?" He's hoping to make it sound like something that's being kept a secret from people, and like it's a dumb mistake. When security's in a mood like this, they tend to try to estimate what higher level security wants them to do, and so George is rapidly socially injecting as much skewing data into that thought process as possible! Meanwhile, looking as put-upon and miserable as possible, looking vaguely too intimidated by the guard so that he feels respected, replicating the well-known dynamic between staff assistants and security officers in the corporate space stations he hails from.

    He's already trying to wander on through, emphasizing that he definitely, totally knows what he's doing as is supposed to be here, attempting to punctuate the rambly idiocy with a more subtle tendency to socially overwhelm, as people on non-critical guard duty like this tend to not have a lot of authentic social weight.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
BLACK ARACHNIA, STAREN

     Conner's stroked his chin at the question. "The other day? Our old one broke down, so we quickly got a new one." He shrugged. "Got a good deal on it too." It was just a maintencance droid. Those things didn't even have complex AIs, they just did their jobs. No one would suspect a maintenance droid!

     ...Which was probably the problem here.

     Conners nods slowly. "Right. If you want to check out the droid, it should be working on the premesis right now." He looked to Staren and nodded. "Yeah it's wirelessly programmed. Independant work routime programmed into it out of the box. We just let it do it's work." He rubbed his chin and looked away thoughtfully. "It's done the best job we've seen out a maintenance droid to date."

     He shook his head at that and moved on. "We can cut network access not immediately, but given a minute or two to safely disconnect all servers." He answered quickly. "We can change the routine of the guards, sure. Might take a little time to fully sink in to all of them though." He took out his phone, ready to make the call. "All security, change of plans. Keep a sharp eye out for anything strange. You spot anything that doesn't belong? Call it in. Please and thank you."

     Staren's trip the security room would be uneventful. He would find that the room was equipped with multiple screens that played back was what being shown on cameras at key points. ...It looked like everything was in place so far. Other than what looked to be the security guard at the gate having a chat with an employee...

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Thoroughly unremarkable. Ironically, were Asche metaphorically present, Weiss might have processed a little more of a nuanced feeling about killing a man just doing his job. With that side of Zwei's 'brain' occupied though, the feeling is only very dim. Weiss' is clearer: he knew what he was signing up for when he volunteered to be a killer for pay.

    That business taken care of, the Armiger drops from the roof as if walking off the last step on a staircase, freefalling for several seconds before silently firing microthrusters at the last few meters and touching down relatively noiselessly. With George, Ao-Hime and HK-47 inside, there's no pressing need to bust down the front door just yet. As such, she splits her attention, first accessing the public domain network with her own, built-in transciever to monitor and potentially aid Taro's progress, and engaging active camoflague to move closer to the building, starting deep penetration scans of the closest rooms and hallways. The floor plan is nice, but it doesn't tell her where the people inside are. She monitors for heat signatures, heartbeats, brainwave activity; the usual.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"Awfully convenient timing, don't you think?" Black Arachnia asks (rhetorically, and in a tone so dry as to compete with major deserts). "And you may want to take down the network links as an added precaution."
    She finishes webbing the windows and duct vent covers. "Okay, last call if anyone in this room needs to sprint down the hall to the toilet," she advises the scientists at work. "If you're good, I'm gonna web the door closed.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     LU-MEY ZWEI TARO

     There was static on the radio, and then a voice spoke up. "Alright soldier. Keep an eye out. If anything happens let us know. You heard Conners new orders." PSHHT, the radio contact ended. Lu-Mey and Ao-Hime are able to enter the vent without trouble. By the time the guard turned around to look, they were already gone. They should hurry though. A minute and change wasn't much time.

     "....?" He proceeded on with his patrol. At least until he stepped on something with a vague crunch. He flashed the light of his gun down to his feet to see. "...Th'hell is this?" He knelt down to look...

     Weiss' scanns revealed to her, without much resistance, that there were what seemed to be scientists in most of the side rooms and offices. Other, more active signatures could be detected moving about in uniform manners, suggesting they were patrolling. Most of the researchers seemed to have heartbeats that suggested they were nervous. This whole thing was nerve wracking. They just wanted to complete the work on their project in peace!

     Taro's excursion into cyberspace was met with little to no resistance. Noticably, he would be pushed back if he tried to delve any deeper, but upon accessing inconsequential data, he was left alone. It was a game of cat and mouse where his every move was watched. Any time he tried to go deeper, the firewall came up. When he backed off, it went down a few levels. ...But he was doing his job.

     At the same time, surely they must realize this is a distraction.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     GEORGE

     The guard stared at George for a moment longer. "......" And then he grinned. "Hah! Right of course! What was I thinking? I almost pulled a gun on you, you know? Ahahahaha!" And with a laugh, the guard pat the agent on a shoulder. "Sorry man! Everyone's on edge! We've got hackers and people breathing down our neck! It's crazy!"

     He sat back down with a sigh and waved George off. "Alright! Get outta here! Handle that business! And remember, we're meeting friday for Ten Guys with the boys! If you don't show up again, I'm gonna have to come to your place and suplex ya!"

     Looks like he second guessed himself and bought it.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    As the duct is utilized, HK-47 debates addressing the meatbag that noticed him, but decides against it, concluding that if he appeared absorbed in his task that they would dismiss him as a low-intelligence droid that was simply diligently fulfilling his task.

    That was precisely what he wanted them to believe, after all.

    The droid then reaches into his tool-box - mostly emptied - to pull out a pair of worker's jumpsuits and leave them beneath the vent to be used when his allies entered the complex proper.

    That done, the droid turned to move down the hallway. His next step would be to enact 'maintenance' on the security cameras so that they observed images more clearly.

    The same image on an endless loop, that is.

    Of course, that was provided he wasn't caught - and he was slightly concerned about that. If Union Elites were present, it was possible they would recognize him - he had been spotted uncloaked enough times. In fact his participation in the fall of the Triumvirate might have drawn quite a bit of attention on his identity in the Union.

     He'd taken precautions of course - thin fiber-plating over his shell to alter his shape a bit, and a different paint-coat using the company's required maintenance-staff colors. However, he was not certain it would hold under scrutiny.

    But at the very least, he knew he could try to stall, delay or mislead his opposition even if in the event that he were caught.

    That in mind, the droid moves for one of the hallway exits - only to find it covered in some form of thick webbing. A method of blocking the pathway? If it was, it wasn't one the company employed - HK would have been briefed about that... therefore it must have been one of the powers of the Union Elites.

    Still... as a maintenance droid, ought to have plausible deniability in removing it. At least until told not to.

    With that in mind, the droid reached into his provided toolkit and pulled out a container of solvents, used typically for removing tough growths from surfaces, arachnid-produced webbing included.

    Time to clean house - literally.

Staren has posed:
    "/Report anything suspicious/ wasn't /already/ an order they were given?! "Staren says without thinking. "Tell them to all check in /now/." He sighs, and looks over the monitors. He points at the one where the guard is talking to an employee. "Like that, right there. Where's the log of employees arriving and leaving versus when they're /supposed/ to arrive? You do check if the people arriving and leaving at any given time are the people they're supposed to, right? And that any keycard used to open a door belongs to someone who's signed in here?"

Taro (399) has posed:
    He's been noticed. Excellent. It would be a shame if the distraction went unnoticed, after all.
    Taro keeps up that not-exactly-stellar hacker appearance, pushing after boring server traffic data and old press releases that had been pulled from public display...
    He's still pressing the second prong of his attack under cover of the first: an attempt to thread his way in a roundabout way to the much more useful and interesting door security systems. Perhaps by way of the building's climate control systems...of course, that wouldn't do a thing about the physical barriers that have been webbed in place, but unlocked doors would be helful to the infiltration team.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     BLACK ARACHNIA, STAREN

     Conners chuckled and leaned back in his seat. "If only the entire security force was made up of you guys. Anyway, we're all good here. Web up as much as you want." He mumbled and proceeded to radio in again. "Alright, don't play with that unknown signature too long. If it's not going for anything important, then lock it out. Raise security to maximum. We don't have time to play with script kiddies."

     Staren's incredulity was met with an arched brow. "Well, you see, that's because their orders were to /riddle/ anything that looked suspicious first." He glanced at the monitor Staren pointed out and blinked. "...Looks like Antonio." He mumbled, rubbing his chin. "We fired the guy for breaking NDA a while back. He was supposed to come in and pick up his stuff, and detatch his device from..."

     Pause.

     "Wait a damn second! Antonio came in earlier today! Who the hell is that!?" He picked up his radio again and called. "Hey! Server room to gate! Antonio came in earlier today! Who is that? Yes, I know that looks like-just, stop him! That's not Antonio!"

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    Into the vent and Lu-Mey flashes a winner's smile. Though Ao-Hime is looking somewhat irritable at her keeper's lighthearted manner, the two quickly slide the worker jumpsuits over their sneaking suits, with Lu-Mey putting her mask away.
    It won't be the best disguise for Lu-Mey with her horn very visible, but Ao can pass for a completely ordinary person well enough. It'll be a last resort matter to rely on the disguise anyway, if Lu-Mey can help it, she'll prefer to go unseen completely. So the pair creep along the vents, peeking down through grills and slats, and keeping in a northwesterly direction. But they don't go directly for the server room. It would be too easy- and Lu opts to not cut away the webbing, motioning HK to do as he will, while she lets Ao-Hime try to quietly slide down into the nearest unoccupied room she can find.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"Might want to rule the server room out of routine automated maintenance, too," Black Arachnia advises as she webs the door solidly shut. She can pick through it again pretty quickly if needed, so it's not as big a concern as she makes it look. "All the network defenses in the world, even airgapping, don't do much good if somebody can just walk up and plug in a hardwired connection - and if you're smart enough with drone programming, you can get a Roomba to carry a miniature removable drive."

She pauses briefly, moving to park herself (still in spider form) on the ceiling above the door leading out of the server room. "If anyone spills their coffee while we're here, I'll mop it up for you."

Staren has posed:
    "Oh. Okay." And then it turns out they have an intruder! "If these guards were following orders, why is fake Antonio neither riddled /nor/ reported? That guy at the booth didn't say /anything/ to us!" Staren points at the screen, then hesitates. He can watch the cameras to see what !Antonio is doing, while starting to look over the logs to find out about what fake employees might /already be here/... or he can be in position to deal with !Antonio and put that off. What to do...

    Black Arachnia is watching the server room. She can deal with any infiltrators that try anything.

    Staren closes his visor and bolts for the entrance!

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Well, those researchers have good reason to be nervous. At least a little. It's unlikely anyone here has any real interest in causing them personal harm, but Zwei hasn't bothered to look deep enough into this to ascertain whether their jobs might be on the line. Taro seems to be handling things relatively well, but a bit too tamely for Weiss' taste, and so she spoofs his address and begins clocking up the frequency of requests, attempting to download suspicious garbage files into random drive space at each handshake protocol. It's relatively aimless, but just supposed to puff up the intrusion attempt at make it seem a big more credibly threatening.

    On the realm material however, she feels as if she has a good enough idea of the interior to take advantage of the asset she has that nobody else on infiltration duty does. Her TRANSIENCE drive kicks in, charges briefly, and then she breaks colour confinement and displaces herself through the outer wall and into the nearest adjacent space of hallway with few enough people around. Her active camo should be more than enough to deal with visual spectrum cameras and eyeballs, and so she sticks to that for the time being rather than the riskier gambit of trying to pose as staff, since the security regarding actual personnel is much tighter than their technologically oriented side.

    She has the floor plans courtesy of Xiao, and so the only obvious thing to do is to head for their target room, taking an alternate path to where she detects the others are in order to maximize the chance that one of them is less protected than another, dextrously slipping past anyone moving through the building so as to avoid giving herself away by bumping into some unwitting scientist. She's not hugely concerned about the non-Elite security, clearly designed to keep out other humans, even if very well coordinated at doing so. It's the potential of running into Unionites here that has her more on guard.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George's camera detector goes off. Looks like someone's spotted him on his way in, as he gives a few friendly waves to the guard. Through the front doors, hard left before the news spreads. The workers there hopfully won't be looking to hard at people wandering through, which will let him swiftly slip under a camera's range, swap his Chameleon Jumpsuit to something of a different rank, discard his moustache. It will hopefully buy him just a minute or two of time.

    George's tactics are always focused on one thing and one thing only. Outrun the bad news. First thing's first: He's going to need to get some extra access. South side of the east wing of the facility has a lot of scientists isolated. If he can pull this off, he's going to slip into one of those southeast offices, wandering by the guard there (who should hopefully leave the area headed for where George was last spotted...) and slip into one of those isolated rooms.

    Assuming everything went to plan, he's planning on slamming one of those scientists in the throat, breaking a few of their limbs, and grabbing an ID card. While he works, whether or not this chain effort is successful, he's going to try to analyze the structure of the building. Gotta see how any power lines or security systems function visibly! Hardware sabotage is how he rolls.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     HK-47, LU-MEY, STAREN

     The droid managed to complete his task without drawing suspicion so far. As he moved away from the vent and proceeded to head down the hallway to the west side. While walking through the hallway, he passed by a patrolling guard. "....." The guard paused and turned around to look. Silence reigned for several long moments, and then he spoke. "Hey. You. The maintenance droid." He wasn't sure if the droid had enough of an AI to answer, but he'd try anyway. Something was bothering him. "Are you supposed to be working in this area at this time?" A moment passed and then he took out his radio. "Stay right there." He told the droid while bringing the radio to his ear, beginning to speak. "I'm noticing something off here. The maintenance droid is working in the west wing already. Is that supposed to happen?"

     And just at that moment, STAREN came bursting out of the west wing, and bolting down the hallway.

     Well then.

     By the time LU-MEY and AO-HIME get out of the vents, they will have noticed a few things. A 'maintenance droid' was being questioned down the west hall from there they were at point 315. And Staren was bolting down the eastern hallway torwards the entrance. The guard does not spot them however. And down on the east end of the hall, the other guard on patrol has stopped to assist Staren's pursuit.

     They have several choices of what to do now. Silence the guard? Wait it out? Another choice entirely?

     Back in the Server room, Conners rubbed the back of his head. "...Sheesh. Spirited fellow, that one." He smiled in a tired manner and looked at the screen of his workstation. "Though I admit he's pretty much right. That guard should have called it. Bad judgment call there."

Staren has posed:
    When Staren is told !Antonio is off the cameras (/someone/ in the security room is that competant, right? /Right/?), he returns to Plan A: hurrying back to the security room to watch the access logs. Sooner or later, to /get/ anywhere, the intruder will either have to go overt, use a forged keycard, or steal a keycard, and Staren wants to know when he uses it.

    Except the droid's out of position. He stops and looks at it. "Hit the off switch. We don't have time to check it right now." he orders, then hurries back to the security room.

    Plan A mark... III or so: Copy his support AI into a tablet, connect it to the computers, and have it watch for keycard uses in the access logs and alert him to anything suspicious, while Staren reviews the security camera footage of the drone to see where it's been and what it's done.

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    Ao-Hime's on the ground. but Lu is still in the vent. Regardless, that guard presents a problem. For a moment, the blue princess waits it out, flicking her gaze up at Lu lurking above in a silent 'deal with it!' signal. Staren is... A face Lu-Mey distinctly remembers, but she's not going to do anything totry and unduly attract the cat-boy's attention, she waits for him to pass- and the guard going with him before she strikes.
    Like a noose lowering from the vent grille something long and with too many legs descends... And if he doesn't react, then like lightning it will tighten with windpipe crushing force before pulling him up into the vent.
    The constrictor-sized centipede will then bite out his throat while a sharp spur of black bone from Lu's arm will ram through the back for a quick fatal stab.
    Ao-Hime will just walk right by, as casual as can be, afterwards, as if she really belonged here, totally owning her new role.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Taro grunts quietly in surprise as he notices the sudden uptick in network traffic for which he is not responsible even if it appears to be him. It's a bit at odds with his original intent, as he's been trying to be not so interesting as to be deemed a threat by the opposition. Still, if that gives distraction enough for his other attack to finally slip into the more critical security systems, then he will not complain.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
     The droid, as planned, dumps his solvent across the doorframe. If he is lucky, he can entice whoever left it into being drawn into a conversation with him.

    However, he is intercepted by the guard. But, fortunately - or rather, hopefully - he had an excuse with which to deceive his errant interrogator.

    Activating his vocal mimicry function, the droid takes on a new voice-tone - a rather obnoxious one he'd heard some time before with an accent that was supposedly called 'texan' - and tries to placate the guard.

     "Ah - sorry 'bout that. There's this thick gunk all 'cross them' doors and I reckon' it makes accessin' the halls a might' tough job!"

    ... Maker help him, he needed an oil bath after using such a horrendous voice. Still, you did what you had to in order to get the job done.

    ... then the cursed meatbag from the Union runs down the hallway and orders him /shut off/. Fuming inwardly, the droid gives another quick-thought solution almost faster then his processor can compute it - "If ya need to. Problem is I can't rightly be shut down without th' boss' say-so."

    With any luck, that would get him escorted into the room with the director and whichever elite was responsible for these webs... or at the very least, buy him some more time to stall out for the rest of his allies.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     TARO, ZWEI, GEORGE

     Taro's attempts to mislead the firewall seems to be working for the moment. They're not taking him seriously, judging from the irrelevant data he's after. Seriously, what's this fool doing? It's a waste of time! And especially during such a pivotal period for the company! But this works in his favor. Eventually, they let their guards down just enough to allow Taro access to the climate control system. Another mind bogglingly dumb target. ...But they weren't expecting him to thread an opening from the climate control system into the security doors.

     Suddenly, several things happened. All the doors on HQ unlocked themselves with a faint beep, and then the firewall on DigiTech's public servers flared up to MAXIMUM security, kicking Taro straight the hell out.

     ...But he accomplished a fair goal before then.

     Weiss' attempts at interrupting the public server are met with much the same degree of urgency. They're being treated like common script kiddies. Before too much longer, Taro manages to do something big, and her access to the server is cut just at the same time as his was. But they did enough to piss off the IT guys inside no doubt. Now her real objective would begin.

     The guards here were just human, and the building was as advanced as a modern facility in 2015 would be on planet earth. That being said, they had no defenses for people MOVING THROUGH WALLS. Optical camo also helped her cause. Now that she was inside, she could see several situations piling up. The most prominent being the 'maintenance droid' being held up by a guard. She makes the wise choice to slip off to the target room.

     Human security is mostly a joke to her, and the scientists were mostly all busy working feverishly in their offices. But she'll notice that there's an odd looking webbing on the doors around here...Well, unless the guards around here suddenly started spewinf webbing out of their behinds, there must be /someone/ or /something/ else around here. Perhaps in the target server room.

     Will she attempt to clear it away and enter?

     GEORGE manages to get into the building, bypassing security by way of BEING SOCIAL. At least long enough to slip out of sight. By the time Staren is bolting down the east hallway, George will have already slipped into a side office and-

     "Huh? Wait, who are yo-GHKK!" BAM, right in the throat. CRACK, there goes his legs. The man wasn't a fighter. He was an intellectual. So it was short work to put the scientist down and grab his stuff.

     But for all his effort, a faint beep could be heard by his ears. ...All the doors in the facility seem to have been unlocked. At least for now.

     It likely wouldn't be long before the system came back online.

Taro (399) has posed:
    Back in hiding place, Taro's head snaps up, then drops again as his connections to the DigiTech Data servers are suddenly severed. Though he winces, there's still some satisfaction in his eyes when he opens them again.
    It's been perhaps a small piece in the overall effort, but it was an accomplishment all the same.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     BLACK ARACHNIA, HK-47, LU-MEY

     "Oh what the hell!" Conners groused, furiously typing into his keyboard. "I told you guys to shut those script kiddies out! Now look at this!" He glanced back at Black Arachnia and nodded. "Noted! Stay on standby, I'm gonna make some changes and get those doors back online." And he went back to furiously typing. "Come on! We're sitting ducks now!" And to the guard that asked about the droid "Turn that thing off! It's not supposed to be in the west wing at this time anyhow!"

     Well that was the order. The guard nodded and spoke an 'affirmative'.

     ...And then suddenly, he was grabbed. "What the hel-GRHK!" Before he could finish his indignant yell and take aim with his firearm, his throat was crushed and he was pulled up into the vent. Some shuffling followed before the deed was finally done. Blood may be dripping down the vent now though. Going to have to clean that up before it gets obvious.

     Ao-Hime is given leave to move right on with the guard now out of the way...

     ..But if Staren chose to remain behind...

Staren has posed:
    The 'maintenance droid' isn't a roomba, it's a robot /person/ from the Multiverse. Staren stares for a moment as he updates and realizes what he just missed. Now, what's the probability that it could be a spy versus actually being a dumb robot?

    The doors unlock. "Did all the doors just unlock?!" He's told this is what happens when the computers reboot. "OH MY GOD you HAVE to be kidding me." He turns to the two guards with him. "Come to the server room." He looks to HK. "And YOU, stay out of the way or we /will/ have to shoot you." And then he dashes off to the server room. <<Arachnia! Where are you? I'm coming to the server room, we beed to evacuate ADAM! The situation here just became untenable!>>

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Weiss watches the security doors swoosh open with some measure of satisfaction, synthesizing communications through her radio. "Ooh, nice work Taro!" she says quite sincerely. "Thanks to that, I'm right at the server room. I passed HK on the way, and he was being bossed around by Staren, so mark one Unionite. I'm sure you know that one." That one is significantly more dry. Staren is in the Union and these guys are from the Confederacy. They have a reason to fight each other, which may or may not become a problem later. Zwei specifically doesn't however, and so Weiss leaves the catboy alone, and HK-47 on his own. After all, as long as one of them gets the data, it's all good. No sense making a scene.

    She does (figuratively) frown slightly at the webbing over all the entrances though. Something about it is interfering with her zero-interface. "There's some kind of energy webbing in the doors though. I'm going to cut it open, but I don't know if it has any sensor capacity to alert whoever placed it, or whether anyone is paying attention to it on camera. It'll be visible regardless." Her PDW pops open at the ready again. "You have two minutes to get somewhere out of the way in case someone does~" With that said, after the time has elapsed, she begins cutting away the webbing, using a low duty, short wavelength laser to try and carve through the strings, or should that prove unfeasible, vapourize a thin layer of metal off the doorframe where the anchor points are so it simply falls away. The fact she's invisible is a big bonus, but she can't hide the web itself falling away.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"For the love of Primus," the Maximal spider mutters as the situation just keeps evolving in worse and worse ways. Is her webbing the only thing holding the server room door closed now?

Either way, the next words out of her mouth are, "Black Arachnia, maximize!" as she detaches from the ceiling; she flips around, transforming back into robot mode in time for her feet to clack against the floor. Weiss is already trying to laser through her webbing ...

So Black Arachnia starts lasering back - through the *door and the wall*, her leg lasers all deployed and going for a set of pinpoint shots rather than cutting pieces out that would make entry any easier. "Doctor, how do we get your prize project out in one piece?" she inquires, checking to see if that was enough to stop the entry attempt. <<Staren, one of the intruders is right outside, can you disable him or her on your way?>> she transmits.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George snags access, and swaps his jumpsuit's chameleon projection to a more sciency jumpsuit as he snags his card. Alright, security's in charge of most of the security measures, but science will be in charge of specific access to the AI itself.

    After he makes sure science man is gonna stay down long enough to not report things too quick, it's time to escape! Out the south window, which ought to be unlocked now that the doors are, and to the west, as soon as he makes sure that he'll be behind an eastbound patrol! That place ought to be a sniper blindspot too. He should have enough time to sort of bypass the entire clusterfuck going on with the folks at the northwest. Southwest end ought to have more AI-related things. George is gonna charge through the exterior of the building as quick as he can and dive back inside at that southern entrance to the room just east of the roof access? Near the roof access.

    George is a social man, and he makes social plans. The AI is new, and surely has only been interacted with by scientists, indirectly. He's going to try to breach somewhere at the southwest, and find somewhere where the scientists typically access information about ADAM! Using his access ID and his basic familiarity with these sorts of things, he should be able to get a terminal spun up, even while things are chaotic elsewhere. Just making sure that nobody ever gets to see him too long...

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    And then. Then everything went terribly wrong.
    Lu-Mey was just finishing with the guard in the vent, her own teeth clamped around the man's throat and drinking deeply of his arterial spray, when the sound of laser fire can be heard from the server room.
    A sigh and the oni wipes the warm crimson life from her mouth with a murrer of "Ara ara..."
    In an instant the very centipede that hat killed a man slinks down out of the vent again, tugging Ao-Hime back up, before the terrible arthropod slithers back into the hole in the Oni's gut, the two making a hasty crawl for the server room for the vents, Lu-Mey calmly beginning to cut away at the ebbing over the vent mouth with a jagged blade of bone protruding from her wrist.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     BLACK ARACHNIA

     Dr. Conners sighed heavily and answered Black Arachnia. "It's gonna take some time to compress ADAM. The thing's huge. A few minutes at best." He spoke quickly, getting right on that task. "Once it compresses, we just load it onto a thumb drive and get the hell out of dodge." He looked back at the door, frowning as the laser session started. "Whatever you do, don't let the mainframe get hit! If it gets damaged during compression, ADAM might become corrupted!"

     And then he did the smart thing. He picked up his radio. "All hands! Raise alert level to Code Red! We have intruders attempting to force their way into the server room! Flank them from the east!" And with that, THE ALARMS sounded. All hands on duty immediately stopped what they wee doing proceeded to muster up in the eastern lobby to converge on the western hallway. It would take them a minute or two to arrive. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place now.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     GEORGE

     ALSO doing the smart thing, George decided /not/ to go back to the lobby and engage in a massive firefight. Instead, he exited the building, and welt all the way around to the southwest end. With the guards rushing off to gather at the lobby before making the charge west, his attempt to enter from there was ironically successful. He managed to get in through a side entrance, and wind up in a small office near the security room.

     It was currently occupied by a researcher working on one of the computers. He turned around at the sound of someone entering, already jumpy from the action outside and the alarms. "Wh-Who the hell are you!?" He demanded, standing up quickly and grabbing his radio to alert the others.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     LU-MEY, BLACK ARACHNIA

     Ergh, was that a centipede? Well no matter how off putting that was, it was an effective route to take, going through the vents. But there was one problem; Black Arachnia's reinforcements of the exit to the server room. But of course, a little applied force took care of that problem.

     Conners looked up at the sound of cutting and squinted. "...Did I just...?" He glanced back at Black Arachnia, and then to the vent again. "Hey, I think we've got someone in the vent here. I'm not a fighter so...I'm gonna just focus on compression."

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George grins wide, and does his 'stupid' act again, looking as dumb as possible for a moment to catch the researcher off-guard. "There's a really interesting answer to that question!" He says, in a faked nervous, panic tone, trying to make sure the researcher doesn't do anything to alert the others. Look just as panicked as them, and they won't think you're part of the threat, right?

    Remember, though, he came here with stun gloves.

    He should only need to buy one or two seconds with his dumb act to get into range of the man and lash out one hand, hopefully discharging the tazer-like electrical from his gloves into the hapless researcher. And if he can manage to do that...

    He'll have to quickly jump onto the computer. Using his stolen ID, and the stolen ID from the researcher, he'll try to immediately open communications with the AI. "Adam!" He'll make sure to contact it via text. "They got the director, watch out!" He swaps to the other card. "We've managed to secure a way out, I've got no idea what they want with you but it can't be good!" His hope, of course, is that his data feed from Zwei is accurate. A machine mind works on basic logical principles. AI mentality functions in mathematical terms. 2 people giving an order are worth more than one.

    "Quick, we need you to figure a way to compress yourself and send to this terminal!" And back to another identity. "Full authorization to bypass whatever limits you need to, just hurry, before they get you!!" He starts sending it data about the current major alert state, and the presence of unknown Elites in its mainframe!

Zwei (596) has posed:
    Ah goddammit. "They opened fire." Weiss intones into the radio. "They have some trigger happy maniac sitting inside the server room who just lost it." Typical that somebody would be camping the server itself. Annoying, but not impossible to deal with. After all, without the need to swap equipment, Weiss can go loud at a moment's notice, and as the alarm is sounded, that's exactly what she does.

    Rather than leap out of the way of the door, she stands right in the way for the fraction of a second she needs to deploy zero-collateral weaponry, the active camo fizzling away as a handful of the blind-fired lasers impact the exterior of her armour, blossoming in plumes of white smoke as ablative pockets of crystal carbon dioxide are flash vapourized on impact. Her arming time is significantly sped up by simply retrieving the weapon from her new matter manipulator core, leaving her suddenly equipped with a single-edged straight saber in featureless carbon black save for the strange full-albedo of the green cutting surface.

    The flooring crumples under her backfoot as she blasts forward, slicing through the security door from the bottom up and smashing them forward with the weight of her body, aiming the junk metal at Black Arachnia behind them. Now without the energon webbing, the infiltration Armiger is free to initiate a zero-interface electron transfer with the main server, immediately crashing into what security measures it has with the tidal wave of her incredible processing power, sparing nothing in the name of subtelty.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    As beams of energy lanced through the doors, HK-47 realized the time for subtly had passed... as it tended to in the multiverse against their skilled opposition in the Union.

    At the same tine though, the droid was more then happy for this - it meant that he could finally get back to his primary function; exterminating hostile sacks of liquidious flesh.

    Raising his arm, HK's wrist opened to reveal a toxin emitter - one filled with cyanogen gas, a toxin lethal to human-organics that killed both through inhalation and skin-contact. Just a breath was deadly to most humans. Getting immersed in it was fatal.

    At the very least, if anything, the gas would determine if his opponent was organic... or a fellow machine.

    Pressing it up to one of the small, pencil-sized holes in the door, the droid activates the toxin emitter and shoots the stream of potent gas inside the room, eagerly waiting to see if his opponent would be stricken by the lethal cyanide-based poison.

Staren has posed:
    Staren prepares to fire when Weiss decloaks. "...ZWEI?!" Staren stares. "What are YOU doing here?" Oh, and the droid is gassing the room. Great. ...He knows about Zero-Interface Hacking. But why was she cutting the--oh. <<ARACHNIA, WEB HER!>> Staren radios, and then just fires the beam cannons on his arm at the hunter-killer droid. Maybe he'll interrupt the gas deployment before too much gets out? He... really doesn't see what he can do about that. Right now he's just desperately trying to buy enough time for... /Something/. /Some/ idea to get ADAM out of there...

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     GEORGE, ZWEI, HK-47

     "Huh? What are you talking about! This is a secure office for working on AD-" BZZZZT. Plop. There goes that guy, in a spasming heap on the floor.

     George's text communication is met with silence for a second or two, then there's a linebreak and text begins to type itself.

     "The director is compromised?"

     Another line break and a pause.

     "I am currently being compressed as of this typing. Weighing the options, transfer to another private terminal seems to be the safest course of action."

     Another line break.

     "I will expedite the compression process and transfer myself as soon as possible."

     He stopped talking there.

     Meanwhile with Dr. Conners... "Whoa...hey, hey, what the hell! ADAM is compressing itself at a faster speed than the program used for compression..." He stared for a moment, and then proceeded to type into the computer. "ADAM, stop! We need to take you somewhere secure!"

     A line break followed.

     "Negative. The director has been compromised. I will expedite my compression and find secure egress elsewhere."

     The text cleared, leaving Conners staring in bewilderment. "...Hey..HEY! ADAM!" Conners shouted, attempting to cancel the compression. But his input continually was rejected, and the timer grew smaller and smaller as compression progressed. "Hey! Stop! You need to stay here! Listen to me!"

     And then gas began to filter into the room, followed by the door being blown off it's hinges. "Oh hell...!" Conners backed up faaaaar away from the gas filtering in. He wasn't going to take chances. But that also left him unable to work on the computer to stop ADAM as well...

HK-47 (754) has posed:
    The droid's plan had been going well - until something impacts his back, burning off large portions of his thin fiber-plate disguise to reveal the rust-red armor of his actual body beneath it. He staggers to the side, knocked off-balance by the surprise attack.

    He had deployed only half, or maybe even just a third of the gas' spray into the room due to the interruption - not enough for it to spread to the whole chamber immediately. Anyone inside had a good chance to /escape/ now instead of dying like he planned.

    Now he had /two/ problems to deal with.

    "Irritated Statement - You were better suited to having left me be, meatbag" the droid utters, back in his regular voice. "Now I will offer you the same choice you offered me, albeit in a different capacity - move or be terminated!"

    Punctuating this, the droid turns and focuses on Staren, body becoming enveloped in a blue aura as his energy shield powered up. His wrist-unit cycled to his ion-electrical charge-thrower, projecting a concentrated bolt of electrical energy straight at his armored opponent.

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
"We may not *have* a few minutes," Black Arachnia observes as she spots the bone knife starting to cut through the webbing. <<Staren, you know what 'hurrying' means, right? Do more of it.>>

The spidery Maximal eyes the gas starting to seep through those laser-made holes, and - well. She could laser-weld them closed again, but there's not much time - and then Zwei cuts the time down even faster by plowing into the door.

"No you don't," Black Arachnia hisses as she scrambles back to her feet - and executing a textbook roundhouse kick to try and knock Weiss off-kilter with an armored boot to the head. Even if she detects the zero-interface transfer (which is unfamiliar tech to the Maximal), there isn't a whole lot she can do to prevent it (see: 'unfamiliar tech'). "Doctor, where's ADAM going?" she calls out.

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George loves his job. Nothing so satisfying.

    He jams his thumb drive into the machine and patiently waits. He's done his work now; hopefully the others can beat a hasty escape. He'll have to wait for that download first, though! He'll give it as much time as he can, but while he does, he makes sure to get a window open and a path in sight for the south. The time for stealth is over. The time for running is now! George is the mere-human type of Starbounder, and while he can equip his armor -- a brilliant burst of red light causes the formation of EVA-suit-like advanced Durasteel combat armor over his body! -- and draw a machine pistol and stun baton from his Matter Manipulator, he still can't arm up enough to contend with the guards and Elites here. Hopefully enough to escape!

    As soon as it's done, he's going to yank the drive and start booking it. Jeeze, this heat's getting a little intense!! If he stays a second longer than necessary, he won't be walking out of here alive.

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    Everything was going so well. Then it went terrible.
    Lu-Mey was about to cut her way into the server room before George announced that ADAM will be coming her way. There's one last sight of that razor edged bone blade before it slides back into her arm.
    In an instant, Lu-Mey and Ao-Hime wheel around, heading back they way they came. The issue is that HK-47 is being waylaid!
    Well it's as the droid fires that ion-charge thrower, a vent grille busts open.
    And then Lu-Mey descends upside down, having ditched her disguise.
    "Hi Staren!"
    Ao-Hime is also upside down, holding Lu by the legs and lowering her to try and grab HK so they can yank him up.

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Hi Staren!" is Weiss first actually audible speech of the day. "Come on, they're barely into the twenty first century and they somehow developed procedural organic AI? There's no way I wouldn't need to see that! The practical reasons should be obvious even to you right?" It's pretty casual banter for being temporarily on opposite sides of a battlefield, but then the situation really isn't that complicated now is it?

    Black Arachnia takes first priority however, being the one directly threatening her. Oddly, she takes the roundhouse kick directly to the side of the head, sparks flying as carbon shaves off the exterior of her full-face helmet with a glassy crack. She veers sharply off course, tumbling in the direction of the kick, however the maneuver quickly proves to be intentional as she flips her body over completely rather than crashing to the floor, producing her offhand PDW in the blink of an eye and firing a single high power diffuse penetrator straight at Black Arachnia's chest while still upside down in the air. The sideways flip completes with her feet on an adjacent control panel; subsequently shattered as she launches off of it and straight past the maximal.

    HK-47 is her next concern, as the psychotic droid seems to be intent on gassing everyone in the room for little to no reason. "Oh for-" The heavy cyanide-based vapour is quickly and silently blasted backwards as if by the downwash of a helicopter or jet, the radius of which is centered on Weiss. The effect is pretty obviously accomplished by the expansion of her interdiction field for anyone who's seen it work before. "Really? And what happens when you can't get the AI to work and all the people who made it are dead?" she asks incredulously.

    Hearing the alert from George, she briefly scans the room to see where the compressed AI has retreated to in the face of her attack and encouraged by his bluffing. He clearly has the AI in hand, so why is she copying the data?

Staren has posed:
    Staren gasps at that familiar voice. "HK-47?! ...Oh shoot, you're a new one working for someone else, aren't you?" Staren's forcefield becomes visible as the electric bolt seems to stress it where it is hit. And then there's a Lu-Mey. Good grief, new enemies are COMING OUT OF THE WALLS! But, she seems to be trying to get the droid out of there. That's... maybe okay?

    Staren's also wondering where ADAM is going, but Black Arachnia already asked.

    Zwei... is one person he thinks won't misuse ADAM. "But why are you here NOW? You could have just snuck in here days ago and hacked it, or waited until it was done and watched the results, because it's not like you're getting any older!" He doesn't aim his beam cannon at her. He can't take her down in any useful amount of time.

    Meanwhile, he transmits again to Black Arachnia: <<SHE CAN HACK IT WEB HER! SHE CAN'T THROUGH WEBS! ...SHIT ZWEI DID YOU INTERCEPT AND BLOCK THIS? %^&* YOU!>>

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     BLACK ARACHNIA, HK-47, LU-MEY, GEORGE

     Dr. Conners eyed the gas, and then looked towards the fight taking place. "ADAM is transferring to a terminal in 309. Directly south of here! I'm afraid I can't do much else here. I don't trust that gas, so I'm going to escape!"

     That said, he moved over to the nearest window and undid the security lock, opening it and clambering out awkwardly. "The whole thing was a failure." He sighed angrily. "Should have accounted for non humans." He grumbled to himself and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it as he stepped away from the window of the server room to avoid the gas if it potentially came closer.

     Meanwhile in the eastern hallway, and rapidly approaching the west, legions of guards were coming. "We have visual on the targets!" They aimed their rifles, prepared to fire a deadly flurry of bullets HK-47's way. "Get clear!" They shouted to Staren as he engaged the droid, waiting for a proper opening before pulling the trigger.

     Of course, right at that moment Lu-Mey appeared, along with Ao-Hime, attempting to collect the beseiged droid before anything further happened to him. A few of the guards aimed their weapons at them, but didn't fire for the same reason they didn't fire at HK-47. Staren in the vicinity meant there would be potential friendly fire. "Damn it, our hands are tied! Get clear! I repeat, get clear!"

     MEANWHILE, George's download of ADAM went swimmingly, the AI finished compressing and transferred itself onto the drive he'd prepared. The AI was collected. The mission was complete...with a load of complications currently staring them in the face.

     It was time to move.

Lu-Mey (234) has posed:
    "Bye Staren!"
    That's right, Lu-Mey is there to yank HK free from his predicament, Ao-Hime pulling the two up with all her strength back into the vent with a firm yank as though the oni and droid together didn't weigh more than a scant handful of pounds.
    For good measure Lu DOES grab the corpse of the guard she killed in the vents to take along with her.
    She'll need a snack for the way home.

HK-47 (754) has posed:
"Defensive Explanation - I would assume our client would not ask for something they could not figure out themselves. Addendum - Operating data would also be among what is recovered, I would assume, so we do not in fact necessarily /need/ these flesh bags."

    Deciding he cannot combat Staren in his state upon seeing the force-field the other deployed, the droid begrudgingly admits that retreat is the best option. He raises an arm and allows himself to be pulled into the vents, shedding his disguise as he does even as some of Staren's parting shots leave scorch-markss across much of his back-torso armor.

     It had ultimately been rather dismal for the droid personally - stymied at the end by a single organic and forced into a disadvantageous situation.

    If he ever saw that meatbag again... he would disassemble it piece by piece /personally/ using pieces of the fleshling's own internal skeletal framework as the cutting tools.

    Thus, even as the droid half-moves down the vent - being half-dragged the rest of the way - HK-47 silently adds yet another name to his kill list.

    If there is bright spot to having been cornered and then requiring aid from meatbags to escape the disadvantageous situation, it was that his infiltration had helped open the door for his rescues to even effect their evacuation in the first place. That self-indulgence that he had in fact created their escape route himself, coupled with the mission's overall success, at least made the aftermath of the mission's results feel somewhat more positive.

Staren has posed:
    Staren made a new enemy for life! Yay!

    In response to HK's words he looks to the droid then back to Zwei. "'/Our/ client'?! Who are you working for?!"

Black Arachnia (304) has posed:
Well, didn't THIS mission just melt into so much raw slag in a hurry. Black Arachnia scowls, then heads out the window after Dr. Conners, retracting her leg lasers so they don't catch on the frame. "Beast mode!" She converts back into a spider -

Not that it does a lot of good; the Confederates and their allies seem to have a pretty major head start towards the gate - and whatever escape craft is at their disposal. That doesn't stop her from trying to give chase, though ...

Starbound Flotilla has posed:
    George yanks his drive. And then he books it. "Hahahahaha, everyone outta the pool!" He calls out, crashing on through the southern window and tearing ass out the back. A familiar craft is coming in low; the SFS VEHEMENCE is here, a tremendous white ultramodern craft larger than an average suburban home and bristling with numerous weapons. George books it for the heavy craft, working on setting up his teleportation. Hopefully nobody interrupts! He'll need some cover to get a teleporter lock as the vehicle blasts down from the heavens. Really time to get OUT of here, and he's already making sure to spray suppressing fire from that machine pistol wildly at the building, trying to buy just a few more seconds of clear escape...

Zwei (596) has posed:
    "Doesn't this kind of answer your question?" Weiss asks rhetorically, gesturing towards the swiftly dissipating toxins and legions of approaching armed guards. "These guys would have wrecked the place and or killed a bunch of people one way or another, so being there to ensure there would be less need for that was the ideal outcome." She simply shrugs at the followup question however. "/I'm/ not working for anyone. I don't take pay, remember? They have what they came here for, I have what I came here for. Simple as that. I'm sorry it ran counter to your job, but honestly your interfactional fued isn't any of my business. I'll discuss the particulars later."

    Once she sees Arachnia retreating, she has no reason to stay, vanishing unceremoniously as she returns to her teleport beacon outside where she awaits the others, and more importantly, covers George. After all, the Confederates aren't the ones with the data.

Xiao Li Yu (823) has posed:
     "And that's that~" Xiao smiled to herself and closed her laptop. She tucked it away and stood from where she was on the rooftop. She pressed a hand to her ear and spoke into the radio. "Everyone, we've got the package. Get out of there as soon as you can!" And with that, she took off. Taking flight into the air, the researcher sailed through the air and over towards the escape craft. Sure, she could have left on her own, but that wasn't exactly the point. She may as well be present after sitting back and doing nothing but talk.

     Soon enough, she landed by the craft, standing by to wait for the others before they all took off.

     Tonight was a good night. Barring the end. Could have done without that. But alas, they didn't live in a perfect world.