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Septette Arcubielle      Following the teleporter address Grimes provides will lead the Elites to a dark, small tunnel, carved out of the rock of the asteroid. Only the half-dozen miners' headlamps, the red dots of their cigarettes, and the dull purple glow of a hastily-set-up improvised erchius teleporter illuminate the surroundings, showing a complex drilling machine set up against one wall where the rock abruptly meets sheer dark metal.

     Dave himself steps forward, greeting the group with his earnest handshake again and a nod of recognition. "Most of the folks who made it yesterday. Great." His eyes are reddened and he doesn't look like he got any sleep, but otherwise the man's remarkably put-together considering the circumstances. "We've caused a blackout in the area and made it look normal, so they don't have us on surveillance yet. This facility's running on backup generators. Mining scanners gave us the rough layout-" someone else steps forward and holds up a holographic map, showing an elongated building divided into short 'segments' like a centipede- "but we don't know what we're gonna find when we knock down that wall. Everyone ready?"

     Once everyone's made their necessary preparations, the drilling machine knocks a person-sized hole in the foot-thick wall with a bone-rattling yet inaudible thump of plasma, immediately flooding the tunnel with artificial sunlight from the bright room on the other side...
Septette Arcubielle      The first thing one notices is that it's pleasantly cool. Or, maybe that's pleasantly warm; it depends on one's clime of origin, certainly, but it's all pleasant. The second thing one notices is that the air is not-quite-thick with hypoallergenic scents that are rather relaxing. Like potpourri, it's passive, easy to ignore, but noticeable right on entry. The environment is about as relaxing as the architects could get it, though the definition of relaxation seems to vary a lot. There's zen rock gardens scattered around, immaculately maintained by small, rolling drones. Bits of nature dot the area, in stylish and well-kept pots or glass enclosures built into the wall to display exotic plants.

     Several posters display what looks like a the black silhouette of a fairytale woodsman or some other very large ax-holding friend. "KEEPING YOU SAFE". "HERE TO HELP". "FOR YOUR MOMENT OF NEED". One shows them sitting at a table with several more normal human silhouettes in white. One carefully carrying what looks like a white silhouette of a wounded man in both hands. One simply a closeup of the midsection, axe clearly wielded in both hands, with a stylized heart right in the middle of the chest that says "YOU ARE CARED FOR".

     One shows a white human silhouette talking to the bulky black shape, full of speech bubbles from only the human. "A LOVING GUARDIAN MAY STILL BE SHY", it says.

     The strangest thing about all of it is that much of the deeper engineering is clear. Transparent thick space-age glass panes visually expose power, water, even pneumatic chutes sending food throughout the area, and all sorts of other things. It is like a constant reminder that everything is working fine, and all the essentials are covered. The theme is reinforced; posters all around frequently tell people not just fascinating statistics about how agonizingly safe and well-maintained everything is, but also how much each individual can contribute to that.

     Other, similar compartments are distantly visible through the windows at either end of the area. The Psychoimmunology Therapy and Rehabilitation Complex (as some of the posters call it) is, ironically, less modeled after the brain, and more modeled after the spine. The vertebrae of the structure are connected by central transit rails, which appear to go in one end of a zone and out the other.

     Blues, greens, and grays dominate the environment. The walls seem muffling, in a way, like they absorb the sound and hold it greedily and tight. Further up and down the chain of zones, there's no bleedover of sound, so it must be especially thick between them.
Septette Arcubielle      Grimes and the other miners step through as soon as they've confirmed it's- apparently- safe. The environment subtly shifts to react to them and to anyone else who enters, gardener-drones unobtrusively moving out of the way, lights dimming slightly where they aren't focusing, bubbling streams muffling down a few decibels when nobody's appreciating them. It's a bit eerie at first, but one could get used to it.

     The sharpest example is a tree made of erchius in one corner of the zone: its weeping branches and scraggly roots give it a bonsai-like charm despite its purple coloration, but when someone approaches, its colors will shift and mottle to act like a mood ring. Anxiety gives it a yellow-orange tinge, anger colors it reddish-purple, and so on. It even leans away from agitated emotions and bends towards calmer ones, like a sunflower turning to face the sun.

     Nearer the center of the room is a hologram projector. Anyone who gets within about twenty feet of it conjures up a holographic effigy of Septette, uncharacteristically dressed in a formal skirt-suit and standing with her hands folded in front of her. The hologram's eyes and face track people, but it isn't quite lifelike. Even so, Dave treats it with obvious dismissive disgust.

     He and his crew seem to identify the rails as running from south to north; he examines them for a moment, then stands up and motions for them to bring the drilling machine over to the southern rail-door. "People are shuttled through this way, so they must be held down here," he says. Unfortunately, the machine isn't making much progress on the reinforced slab of a door, even with repeated blasts.
Android 17 Seventeen nods to Dave, though his heart aches for the man.  The fact that he was still here, still pushing on and trying to free his home speaks volumes to the strength of the guy.  Still, he doesn't pry about it right now, he's likely trying to steel himself against whatever they'll find in the next room.  It could be a lot of things, so the cyborg too mentally steels himself for what comes next.

He wasn't ready.

The calm and pleasant air flows out, as they step in the 'calm' room, Seventeen's eyes focus on various things.  The posters, the rock garden, the engineering of the place.  There was a low feeling of dread as he reads posters, up until he sees 'Rehabilitation.' With the missing people, this makes his blood go cold.

Seventeen's hands ball into fists, with a tightening in his chest.  He was getting that feeling...and was doing what he could to control the urge to just blast through the door without thinking.  With a short intake of air, he moves to give the door a once over.  First checking to see if there was a way to open it without breaking it down with force.  Might buy them a few minutes to get people out.

Though Seventeen's mind is starting to put some very unfavorable connections together.  Between the monsters, what they did to people...and this place.  
Septette Arcubielle      The erchius tree practically withers as 17 walks past it, pulling away from him as if burned and lighting up with hues like an alarming sunset. Whatever it's looking for in people, he's about as far from it as you can get right now. Surprisingly, it responds better to the miners who wander close to it while operating the plasma-drill, even though they don't like the situation any more than he does; they set it off with ripples of calmer blues and greens. Dave gets a similar response, but his blues are darker and woven in with strands of a deep purple.

     The door is electronically-operated with bits of weird Starbounder tech woven in, and seems to be wired up to various parts of the room, including the tree and the hologram projector. There aren't any obvious manual controls. The miners still aren't having much luck breaching it, but one of them steps back respectfully, pushing her hard-hat up and gesturing to invite 17 to take a go at it. By the looks of it, he could probably knock it down with a few good hits, but that'd abandon any idea of subtlety or stealth.
Gideon Kaspar     Gideon came along for this one closely in person. He steps through the breach, dusting off his red G&K officer's jacket with both hands and adjusting his tie, takes a look around, and says "What, is this supposed to be a prison? Looks like one of those fancy Swedish ones to me. The kind where the inmates complain if their smartphone is out of date."

    Rose is immediately fascinated with the Erchius tree, poking the branches with her fingers on the hand that is articulated black and red bare metal, making soft exclamation noises when they change colours and turn towards her. Violet pretty much just tromps through the gardens looking uninterested, examining the area suspiciously, as if expecting something to pop out. Hazel is examining the hologram with Clover, hands on her hips, looking up and down with her one unblocked eye with some silent opinion forming, while Clover eventually just asks "Is that the ah . . . imperialist oppressive power?" "Oh definitely. It's just like a statue in a public plaza, isn't it? Now where are all the people."

    Rose watches 17 walk through the tree and frowns at the result. "Hey! You're hurting it! Can't you see your bad attitude is getting in the way?!" Hazel turns away from the hologram. "She might be right. If the whole room is wired up like this, the doors probably only open for people with the right attitude coming in. Y'know. Calm and accepting of the whole thing."

    "Well that works just fine, given that I could hardly care less about Big Woodsman! Besides, I have a business appointment to keep here, so . . ." Gideon just struts up to the door and knocks on it. "I recall giving advance notice that I'd be coming by to discuss an exciting business opportunity."
Android 17 Seventeen stares at the plant that withers away from him, thinking on it for a moment, and observing what it does in the presence of others.  Apparently, it was able to react to the presence of others, which was curious in its own right.  He'd be curious for a cutting of this later, but the idea that the plant was used to measure something specific.  Was it fear or anger?  

His gaze turns towards Rose for a moment, and he shrugs towards her.  "My apologies."

Seventeen is interrupted from his searching and pondering by the other guys.  They had no way through, and he frowned.  "You know if I do it, it's going to be loud.  We're going to lose all stealth options the moment I break through," Seventeen replies with a light sigh.  "Well, if it's all we have left.."

Seventeen walks towards the door, watching Gideon give it a good knock.  He puts a hand on his side, waiting for either it to open, or nothing to happen.  If nothing happens...well, then he's going to punch the door very very hard.  "Let me try," he says to Gideon, before he makes the first blow.

His hands would keep hitting it until he could punch through, before opening a large enough hole to shove both hands into it and slowly try and pry it open.  
Starbound Flotilla     Once noise spikes up, there's a distant noise in response. It's hard to tell from where. A sound of ascending chimes, followed by... it's not an alarm. That is to say, it's capitalized Not An Alarm. It's calming, yet still somehow unnerving to hear, playing tricks on the brain as it sounds a descending tone. The muffled sound is soft, gentle, and relaxing at the same time as it is informative to anyone hearing it. A calm, surely pre-recorded voice can be heard only lightly through muffled walls. Straining or keen hearing can still only make out a little of what's said, warped as it is by sound-muffling walls. "Please ...... to .... .....!" It speaks in cheerful tones. "The Orderly .. ... ...... in ... main hallways .. .... Three."

    Android 17 can hear one single pair of heavy footsteps. Whichever direction it's coming from, it's approaching the source of the sound at a ponderous pace.
Staren     Staren's in his armor this time, when they break through, he sees... what has clearly been set up by Septette. "Wait, /she's/ the empire trying to conquer you?" Staren points at the hologram.

    So the woodsman doesn't represent Septette, she has images of herself... Does that mean... it represents the abyssals? He paces back and forth while the others work on forcing their way in. "Come on, Septette... trust has gotta go both ways..."

    Well, it sounds like SOMETHING's on its way. Staren tries to pinpoint the source of the sound, walking around the room and monitoring his suit's microphones from differen tpositions.
Septette Arcubielle      The hologram of Septette turns its face towards Hazel and Clover, its posture unchanging. Once they get within a preprogrammed radius, it plays back a faithful recording of Arcubielle's staticky synthetic voice.

     "Congratulations on clearing both prior testing areas. Zone 3 is designed to reinforce your trust that the world is a safe place, and that other people are fundamentally decent. This belief is positively correlated with generosity, tolerance, and social cohesion. As always, there are optional materials available for voluntary self-modification, should you wish to undergo it. The average time to complete this zone without self-modification is three weeks. The average time to complete this zone with self-modification is nine hours."

     "Remember: these exercises not only benefit you, but help protect our miners from Negative Extraction Outcomes. Thank you for continuing to be the heart of our operation."

     The door's surface shimmers and ripples like the surface of a pool when Gideon touches it directly, and a seven-part structure like a flower or a star emerges through the metal. Each of its arms or petals is numbered clockwise and painted a different pastel color, and each has a hollow in the center with room for a glowing indicator light. Gideon lights up "1", "2", and... "5". No such luck on "3". One can surmise that's why the door refuses to open for him.

     The hologram isn't well-programmed enough to care about the obvious drilling machine, or the breach in the wall, or the android sizing up the door for use as a Pinata, but it does comment on Gideon's failure to access the door. "Access to prior testing areas is limited until you master the current zone. There is no progress to be made lingering on past successes."

     Dave seems preoccupied by a particularly fascinating tesselating vase he's found in an alcove, but snaps out of his reverie and glances back over his shoulder at Staren's question. "Yeah, wouldn't call it an 'empire', but that's her. Doesn't do this work alone, though. Can't-" He stops talking immediately when 17 starts bashing down the door, and his eyes cast around to try and locate the source of the noise. Not finding it, he slings his rifle over his shoulder and walks towards the door to confer with the other miners.

     The metal yields under the Android's fists easily enough- it was built to contain humans, not superhumans. When he pulls the door apart, he'll see the rail running the fifty feet or so down to a similar door at the next compartment. Stranger still, the interstitial space contains a handful of twenty-by-twenty-foot white cubes designed to be shuffled around on a complex system of side-rails and mechanical arms.

     They have thick windows similar to the compartments themselves; each shows a snapshot of a comfortable and tidy living space, like an extended bedroom at kitchen with houseplants and bookshelves. Someone's visible inside one of them, watering his plants and listening to something on headphones with his back turned to the window. Must be some good soundproofing.
Starbound Flotilla     Whatever it is, it's in Zone 3. Whatever it is, it's approaching from the midsection of Zone 3. Whatever it is, it's getting closer and closer now. Something is coming. It's to the point where one can hear it without superhuman hearing after a while. And Staren will recognize the high-pitched whine of a heavy scanner.

    From one of the hallways further in, visible light sweeps around. A narrow cone full of dancing laser scanning. Whatever is coming has narrow sight lines, but high-grade scanners on them, with scanning so intense the field of view is clearly visible. It's also far enough away and muffled enough that it has to be heavy, rather weighty. There's a noise of metal dragging on something.

    The Not An Alarm noise it makes is coming closer.
Starbound Flotilla     Some of the trees closer to the midsection of Zone Three have begun visibly withering and turning black. They make a soft, pained noise, like the crackling noise of leaves dying mixed with the glass-like noise of crystal straining. They move in time with the infinitely-falling descent of the Not An Alarm tone.
Android 17 The sound is enough to give Seventeen a headache, but it's not enough to actually put him down.  Annoying, but not debilitating.  Splitting the door, he walks through, looking around as his ears try and track down the sound.  However, his eyes see the person in the tank, as well as hear the hologram.  He takes a steadying breath, he's getting ready for something.  

The plants wither, but he's got more pressing things to worry about.  Seventeen looks to press his body against a wall to try and avoid the direct line of sight, with the idea of getting the jump on whatever was coming.  Of course, he expected security measures, but right now they need time to see what happened to the people.

"Someone needs to continue on into the people and help get them out."
Starbound Flotilla     The Orderly passes near Android 17.

    Massive. Bulky. Vantablack. Humanoid, to a certain degree. It has a plated, misshapen form. Small off-blue circles mark it, with soft pastel-red crosses within, ostensibly designating it medical equipment. Ostensibly designating its massive axe-like weapon -- almost the size of a person -- medical equipment. It is dragging it as it walks towards the source of the noise.

    The door was built to contain humans. The Orderly was built to withstand an atomic bomb.

    It stops, trying to puzzle something out near him. With a single, high-speed, jerking motion, it plants a massive hand just above his head on the corner of the hallway to steady itself, and starts to arc its vision around the section of the area it just entered, sweeping from away from Android 17, slowly towards him. He'll get seen if he can't find a superhuman way of evading around the sight-line as it arcs closer to him.
Gideon Kaspar     "Hmm? One three and five? Some kind of seven point quiz? It'd be helpful if they listed them somewhere. On a big poster. They have plenty of posters here; they couldn't spare one for instructions?" says Gideon, examining the door and listening the recording. "Girls. Over here a moment. Let's see if someone can get a higher sc-" Then 17 just starts pounding it down. Gideon covers his ears and steps back with an intense frown.

    "There goes opsec." "Jeez. Noisy much?" "Typical meatheaded thugs. Once they can throw a punch, everything is a punching bag." Gideon straightens his collar. "Now what does that sound like?" "A-an alarm." "The 'stay calm' citizens kind, right?" "More like a siren. It's moving. I'm confirming a moving contact on radard, and a high powered sensor sweep." "An enemy?!" "What kind of robots do you think they'd even need to take care of disturbances here? It's supposed to be some kind of conditioning center to make people take orders, right?" "Well, try not to get caught in it either way. Even if they know something's wrong, we shouldn't give away our numbers and position too." "Commander; down."

    When the Orderly comes slamming its way in, Violet unrolls a patterned digital camo cloak from her bag, pushing Gideon down behind the nearest obligate chest high wall and throwing it over the both of them, while the other three do similar with their own. It's not the greatest in terms of camo in the room itself, but the material is specifically designed to kill thermal emissions, absorb radar scans, and that kind of thing, to evade aerial detection by scout drones. Staying still, they'd probably just seem like some junk someone left in the room.

    They're waiting until the Orderly passes by, or at least gets very close. If they can scoot out behind it, they will. If it looks less eminently stealth game avoidable, they'll drop smoke canisters that'll quickly fill up the room with clouds of thick gas and scattering air-light chaff and make a break for it. Not before Rose glues a brick of plastic explosive to her spot on the floor though.
Staren     Staren reaches a decision. Septette is exceedingly hard to manipulate, but Staren can't allow her to continue manipulating him. Trust has to go both ways. There is, perhaps, one tactic he can try.

    He delivers his ultimatum over the radio.

    Septette gives her answer.

    Voice synthesizer masking the growing frog in his throat and visor hiding the tears in his eyes, he walks through the now-opened door. "We're all one one side now. Let's do this." He walks on ahead.
Android 17 Huh, if only he had some way to move around at blinding speeds around something...

Oh wait, he can.  With a burst of speed, he maneuvers himself around the creature, far faster than the normal eye could see.  He could hear people getting set up to trap the robotic orderly, so he would simply help try and guide it right into position.  He does not immediately attack, but rather keeps just out of sight to try and confuse it.  

He avoids trying to have the thing lock onto him directly, staying on the move to avoid those scanners.
Septette Arcubielle      The miners don't even talk to each other when they see that sweeping sensor-beam field- they silently confer through a series of glances, expressions bouncing off of each other, reflected in the shimmering colors of the erchius tree nearby (though filtered through the muted blue-greens they always seem to project). Confusion first, then worry, then resolution. They leap through the gaping hole in the door to hide in the infrastructure around the compartment, wrap heavy cords around the plasma-drilling machine, and pull it down after them.

     Those who keep a particularly close ear on things might hear them tinkering with the plasma drill, whispering to each other, and snipping wires. They keep it hushed enough that, hopefully, the Orderly can't hear them through its armor.
Starbound Flotilla     The Orderly seems to have been properly evaded by 17, who seems to have managed to get under its arm and maneuver around its back. This means it can't lock on, and it's stuck looking around the chamber to figure things out. It sweeps a broader sweep all around Zone 2 passageway chamber, looking, searching for something. Its -- eye? Visor? It's unclear what the sensor is, it's so agonizingly bright -- sensors fall on the holo-statue of Septette. It lingers there for a moment, and the tone gently warbles, almost rumbles in a way. The whole body shudders briefly. Then it moves like lightning.

    Gideon's going to have to make sure he doesn't make a peep of surprise. The massive, bulky form has moved with frankly uncanny speed to stand atop one of the planters that dot the garden-like areas -- what he ducked behind, of course -- using it as a vantage point to look down on the damaged door and try to scan it. Its scanning moves like a searchlight, sweeping over the door. Getting past that detection will need cleverness, luck, or superhuman maneuvering. It rumbles heavily, almost breathing, heavy "feet" mere inches from his head.

    Staren's moved past, but this freshly means he'll be spotted unless he gets his footing on the railspace somewhere out of sight. What's it looking for? ...Possibly the drill; if this thing gets sensors on that part of the intrusion, it's likely to try to tear the unauthorized machinery to shreds and sabotage much of the entire business.
Staren     Dude the posters just SAID the big scary thing is a guardian here to protect the miners from NEOs. Staren doesn't think it's going to come after them.

    It's possible that Staren's going to be wrong a lot today.

    He's just walking towards the next section.
Starbound Flotilla     Darting around the back gives Android 17 a good chance to look at the form. The floodlight-like sensor that obfuscates the Orderly's face is narrow enough that he can get a sense for the movement, if he's so inclined, and try to dance around it. It's singular, heavy, intense, shielded. Everything on this thing is shielded. The shielding is shielded. Christ, what a mess. It's fast enough that it really does need that blinding speed to make it, though.
Android 17 Seventeen releases a long sigh of relief.  Good, it wasn-Oh, now it's right there next to Gideon and the girls, the ones who just called him a meathead.  He CONSIDERS letting them to their fate, but the angel on his shoulder who looks a lot like Sixteen gives him a deep frown.  

His close up of the robot makes him a bit more worried.  It's shielded beyond belief.  He relays this back to Gideon the best that he can, speaking softly as he does his best to keep out of its range of sight.  

He'll wait for a signal this time, though Staren just...walks out without a care in the world.  He tries not to slap his forehead.
Starbound Flotilla     The Orderly locks on to Staren. The scanners narrow in. They start to change from purple to a bright blue as they narrow on his form. It approaches swiftly. It seems... intent on some kind of scan of him. Its motions are gentle, but tough for even superhuman robotics to wrench free of as it tries to do something.

    Three blue lights in the face, to match Zone Three. Four thin beams locking on to each limb, scanning their motion intently. Staren is subjected to what he will surely recognize from his experiences throughout the multiverse as a precisely-tuned memetic hazard exposure, designed to induce discomfort and unwilling motion, an urge to move away for those who aren't innoculated.

    The Orderly is trying to see if he's supposed to be in this zone. It's trying to feel how resistant he is to a medical-grade memetic hazard. And to do that, it's blasting Zone Three's hazard level right at him.
Gideon Kaspar     "Screw this." "We're done here. Changing position. Two at a time." "Well, if you insist."

    All four T-Dolls send their smoke grenades spinning out over the floor, ejecting gigantic amounts of combat smoke into the enclosed cabin, making the air thick and heavy and specifically impeding scanners, optics, and sights, designed to make shooting through it extremely difficult for enemy military androids. The group scoots out of the section fast, clearing the space to the door in a moment while the Orderly is focused on Staren. Gideon seems pretty blase about being borderline carried by one of them, like some kind of rescue bot, weapon still readied in her other arm. Clover stops outside the door and boosts each of the T-Dolls coming through to clear the fifty foot leap with the whine of ankle exos, then jump it herself and being caught at the end by Hazel. Violet puts Gideon down. Rose thumbs the detonator cap, and then the button, grinning wide with a "Make a nice sound for me!"

    Obviously, it sets off the charge left behind. It's not positioned to actually blow up the Orderly --it'd have to be stuck to the thing to do damage, being a shaped charge-- but to put a great big hole through all of the structure on one side and collapse the whole compartment on top of itself.

    "The goal is straight ahead. It's more efficient to keep moving than spending time and ammunition on every enemy that comes along, especially if we attract more of them. Hurry it up now."
Android 17 Gideon makes a very good point.  So he'll leave it to Staren and the explosive to deal with.  Hopefully, collapsing a piece of the facility on it would be enough.

There was the door, and access into the next zone.  Maybe he was just afraid of what would come next.  He put it off, trying to consider the Orderly.  But now...

He punches the door, once more repeating the step from earlier and attempting to tear the thing open.  Sure, meathead he was, but it worked.  
Staren     See? It wasn't going to attack or anything. Then it shines lights on him. He's actually not that experienced with memetic attacks, so it's not immediately clear. However... He had no reason to fear this thing, so why does he suddenly feel uneasy now? He's kind of choked up over this rift between him and Septette, but that's... different. However, there's a door in the way of proceeding. So he's just left to fidget while he waits for Seventeen to bust the door. "What kind of guardian is designed to make people feel uncomfortable...?"
Starbound Flotilla     Staren being the sacrificial lamb of the party is effective. The thing is quite busy with him. As long as they're distracted with this, a quick sneaking about can be done. Unfortunately, that's because it's far more occupied with Staren than expected. He fidgeted. He showed clear and obvious discomfort. And that provokes something not quite dangerous, but definitely quite bad.

    The distant sound can be heard a little more clearly through muffled walls. An alert of sorts.

    "Non-innoculated patient in Zone Three. Non-innoculated patient in Zone Three. Cognitohazard resistance below threshold of safety. Now protecting patient."

    The Orderly hefts the axe-like thing it was dragging. It is not an axe. All sensors go a sharp cyan. The end of the "axe" splits wide as it swings faster than thought. It swings to try and latch it around Staren's body, to pin one or both arms. The noise it makes while moving is like all the infinite drop of its "siren" suddenly reversing everything at once.

    That's about when the smoke goes off. The Orderly can't focus entirely, and scans around. The squad have evaded it, but only barely. Then the shaped charge goes off. The body of the Orderly stumbles, and it's likely to pin Staren against the wall with the body of the capture device. Then the collapse-inducing shaped charge goes off, dropping rubble straight onto the bulky thing. If it's managed to latch onto him, he'll have to find a way to escape the grip while it's shut down. It won't be shut down for long. Already, subtle lights are starting to come back on, starting at the chest and extending out. The sensor is building charge again. It'll be active -- and pursuing, no doubt -- in twenty seconds or less.
Septette Arcubielle      The door to Zone 2 explodes inwards, revealing a mostly burgundy-and-brass zone with hexagonal arrangements of metal and dark-stained wood for the floor. Books like the walls in some places; in others, wooden swords and other faux-martial equipment. Paintings of landscapes and the night sky break up the color scheme with splashes of brightness, and the lighting- instead of gently suffusing daylight- is an energetic, directional chiaroscuro. There are study tables and desks, workbenches and craft areas.

     Posters here emphasize motivation, achievement, and self-esteem. "YOU ARE A WORK IN PROGRESS", says one industrial-themed banner. "PRIDE IS YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM", says another, followed by: "INSECURITY IS THE ROOT OF PAIN".

     The emotion-gauging erchius trees here are smaller, potted like bonsais and scattered around. Two of the desks appear recently abandoned, with supplies scattered about- perhaps subjects who were here and recently progressed; perhaps evacuated in anticipation of the rebels' progress here. One more is occupied- a man in casual clothes peers out from around the corner of an industrial metalworking bench, clutching a wooden weapon in his white-knuckled hand. He doesn't relax when he sees 17- he doesn't drop the bokken until the miners come into view, lugging disassembled pieces of the plasma drill.

     One of them drops her piece of machinery, runs forward, and hugs him. They share a few words- hard to hear, in the aftermath of the collapse- and then he shakes his head, shoves her away. The confusion and hurt in their voices, and the screaming that follows a moment later, are much more audible. One of the other miners approaches the man, and the subject picks the bamboo training sword up again and menaces the rebels with it.

     "I can't go back yet!" His whole body's coiled like a spring, tinging the nearby erchius trees with yellow. "I still see them when I'm sleeping! What they're doing to me here- it can't be worse." His voice cracks near the end.
Android 17 Seventeen just continues to tear forward, focused on trying to get to the survivors, any survivors.  Of course, upon that, they find one, who appears to be nervous of him and holding a wooden sword.  It wouldn't go well for the guy, but Seventeen was one to pull his punches where he could against opponents who had no chance.  

However, a nearly heartwarming scene breaks out, as the two embraces.  However, something turns it sour, even he could not hear it.  He walks closer, only for the yelling to start.  Seventeen with a burst of speed just appears next to the man, aiming to grab the wooden sword in his hand and hold it with an iron grip.

"What did she do to you?" He asks, firmly.  
Staren     Oh. It's not going to harm him, but it is going to DETAIN him. That's problematic.

    Then there's smoke, and explosions, and he's stuck on the floor. Well, great. Noone comes to help, but then, why would the others here trust him?

    Well, he has SOME tricks. The helmet pops off, and a black cat crawls out of the neck hole, then turns into Staren, wearing a skintight bodysuit that quickly reforms into his usual outfit. He grabs his things and moves on to the next section. "What do you see. Where are the others." He can't... properly sympathize. Because it now doesn't matter. He doesn't have to do what's best for the shinai-wielding man, after all. He has to find the trapped people and help get them out of here.
Septette Arcubielle      Of course, the poor man immediately tries to yank the wooden sword away- but then he realizes it's very stuck, and lets go to stagger back a few steps and lean against the wall. Fortunately, he seems to regain his wits with a little bit of distance. "It's-" He stumbles over himself verbally, seemingly unsure of how to articulate it. "Exercises. Tests. Getting a certain frame of mind. I don't like it, but it gets rid of the... the things I see. After I saw one of the NEOs. I mean- have you really seen them?" He seems a little paler just talking about it. Dave steps forward about to say something comforting, but the man glares daggers at him.

     He shakes his head at Staren's first question, but then gestures down the hall towards Zone 1. "In there. They... keep us frozen until it's our turn." The answer to 'what he sees' is obvious even if one doesn't say it out loud. It's all over the amateur drawings on his desk- predominantly the older ones, closer to the bottom of the pile and drawn in a slightly cruder style. Indistinct faces with three eyes, blurred sickly green and pink shades, lamprey-like halos of teeth, eyes upon tendrils upon eyes.
Starbound Flotilla     The Orderly is back online.

    The collapsed section of the rail chamber is now vacant. There's a distant noise of scraping off to one side of the Zone 2 area. It is heading towards the main entryway. There is a small amount of time until it arrives. Like before, there's an opportunity to hide, to evade, to move on, or to otherwise obviate the issue of battling the Orderly directly. There's probably no hazard to the prisoner -- he is where he ought to be, after all -- but it's a time limit on further matters trying to convince him. They might need to choose between the popsicles and the rehab clinic.
Android 17 "Yes," Seventeen says, looking the man in the eye.  "I've seen them, I've fought them.  I know what it is they feed on.  It's fear.  Your fear, my fear, everyone's fear.  They torture you specifically to eat it.  The wannabe tyrant is trying to force you to get to a point where you're not susceptible to it.  Regardless of what it does to you."

He says, tossing the weapon behind him, though his eyes look back as the Orderly starts moving again.  "We don't have time," he speaks, and then once more bursts in front of the man.  His hand comes down, aiming to try and knock him out with a blow to the solar plexus, trying to knock the wind out of him and cause him to pass out.  

If he falls, he catches him, putting him over his shoulder.  "Let's go get the rest of them."
Gideon Kaspar     "Clear! It probably won't stay like that for long. Aaaa . . . I really wanted to tear it limb from limb too. That big eye would make a great trophy." "You can refrain from dismembering things for five minutes. We're at the next compartment." "It looks like they've evacuated ahead of us. All the weaponry here is . . . obsolete? No. Training weapons. They're being trained for . . . what?" "Self-defense in the mines, maybe. Judging by those drones, they don't have T-Dolls for that here."

    "That just means there are people in need! Leaving their safety and security to those unsophisticated drones and hulking robotic monstrosities is clearly inadequate. There'd be no stress about it if reliable T-Dolls were members of their community." "You say it like that, but . . ." "No, that *is* the role of a T-Doll. To protect humans that are too precious to throw into the battlefield. They can't be designed for war, like us." "It's hard to believe people used to fight each other with robots like that." "Or swords! They're kind of cool though. Maybe one day our weapons will just be old training equipment like that too?" "Are you talking about world peace?" "More likely we'll have just found a more efficient method of killing each other! Besides, even if we revert back to swords, I'll be there to sell them. If that won't work, I'll sell clubs!" "That's a twisted kind of entrepeneurial spirit you've got there. Still, it's what saved Sector S09, so I have to respect it."

    Gideon steps out of the protective square to look at the drawings, hmmming quietly to himself as he swivels them around to take in the images, showing as little sign of apprehension as a professional psychologist --no, more like a crisis negotiator. "So you're here for psychological treatment, hm? PTSD, or something like that. Well, that's nothing to be ashamed of. It's not uncommon for men to suffer, even just from bombs falling around them, or the death of a squad member. Those NEOs are the stuff of nightmares compared to a few bullets."

    "I can't say I approve of the methods, but dedicated counselling is what soldiers need, and pardon my saying, but you don't look like much of a soldier to me. Still, it seems a little odd that this area is so empty. Separating all of you like quarantine patients isn't any good. You need a social atmosphere! Trust! Bonds! Being left to stew like this in tiny little groups isn't any good."

    "If you're scared of leaving, that's fine. There are people who miss you thought. There are other ways to get help --the kind of help that comes with a human face and doesn't lock you in an isolation cube. Thinking your current conditions aren't so bad isn't always an excuse not to look at the alternatives! There are always worlds of possibility out there, and us human beings are always remarkably stubborn about sticking to what we know. The inertia of getting to grips with something new is tough." Gideon concludes. "You're not cut out for this kind of thing. The smart thing for a civil manager to do is to move civilians far away from the frontline, not make them live with it right next door and tell them to make the best of it."
Gideon Kaspar     "Commander. The enemy tactical unit is already coming back. Permission to clear a path?" "Granted. Leave a present for it --a different one this time-- and let's keep moving. We'll need to conserve our equipment for what is undoutedly up ahead." "Of course. Rose! The stun unit this time! Hazel, vanguard position! Violet, with me on the door!" The T-Dolls scramble to breaching the next layer in tactical style, this time leaving out a high powered electromagnetic charge in the Orderly's path, designed to just put a massive magnetic flux through it and fridge magnet all of its sensors. Hazel sets it up behind a cheap folding barricade, as an obvious obstacle in the way to remove with brute force. They work with perfect, synchronized precision, not showing a hint of anxiety or discontent about their work.

    "Aren't they lovely? Gaze upon the future of your civil protection my good man. With any luck, soon you'll be able to rely on them, and not this unnerving mishmash of pastel robots and runaround quarantine procedures. Real soldiers keeping your people safe, not treating it like a disease. And beautiful ones too!" He's basically just killing time until the way is clear now.

    Android 17 trying to punch the guy in the stomach to KO him apparently alerts 'harm to human civilian asset' somewhere in the situational awareness programming, and like a shot, Hazel is in the way, even taking the punch herself if necessary, to a really unnecessarily hard frame under the squishy skin bits. "Hey now, we're here on a recovery operation, not a kidnapping, right? What's the point of taking him somewhere he's not going to be safe; I mean with himself. Despite that tone, I'd trust what the Commander is saying. He's not going to thank you for dragging him somewhere he can't cope."
Staren     Freeing these people means risking their causing more NEOs to take abyssal form. But his path is set: However many people might be harmed here... how many untold more will be harmed in the future if Septette continues to do things on her own, be intentionally inscrutable, and draw heroes to fight her? How many more will be harmed, if they can't work together? How many, over a century? How many, over a millenium? How many, over eternity?

    Once Seventeen's choice is clear, Staren readies his phaser in case the guy dodges... and of all things, the T-Dolls interfere? "I thought you were committed to stopping this." He doesn't have time left to argue, though -- If the T-Dolls successfully broke the next door he rushes on through, otherwise he goes catform and hides on a chair under a desk waiting for the Orderly to pass.
Gideon Kaspar     Gideon puts up an 'I'm on the phone' hand to the guy and then walks a distance to use the radio.

    ""Now, I don't know about you, but forced abduction of mental patients wasn't in my contract. The ones who are frozen won't notice a difference, but if he doesn't want to go, where are you going to take him? Back to the place that was just swarming with the things that trigger his trauma? You don't move the goods until you have a destination for them. That's common sense." goes on his end of the conversation.

    "He'll seek alternative help or he won't. Otherwise he's a nutcase you're trying to kidnap, and a poster boy for one of those godawful sappy pathetic self pitying veteran's groups. Look at him. He's clearly disturbed. Can you guarantee he isn't a danger to himself or his family?"

    "Now, as a private military contractor, there are certain things you don't do if you want to remain in business. Abducting civilian targets because the rebel faction says 'no really it's for a good cause' is one of them. That man has explicitly non-constented. If he changes his mind after what I have to say, that's all well and good, but before then it's a war crime, mister hero. I feel strange about raiding a mental hospital already."
Septette Arcubielle      "Yeah," he says simply to 17, his voice shaking like a leaf by now. "All NEOs do. Erchius is... like that. Expect monsters, it gives you monsters. But this is... it's not like that. It's not like that. It gets inside you."

     To Gideon's inspection, the pieces of paper look mostly like normal- if mildly unsettling- drawings. The one with the halo of teeth is slightly more detailed than the others; it seems to swirl with smudges of color and stay still at the same time, like an old-school optical illusion. "I'm not... I think that's what I'm here for. The drones got me. I woke up here, and... I'm not a soldier. Just a miner. Like them." His eyes glaze over a little at the monologue, but at least the pseudo-psychiatric patter takes his mind off the immediate stress of the situation. Sweat's beading on his brow, slicking down his hair.

     Trust? Bonds? "I... I want to go back. But I don't-" "We miss you, Martin. You won't get another chance," one of the other miners interrupts. The idea of not getting to see them again brings him back to the edge of indecision. His hand shakes by his side. Then one of the T-Dolls intercepts 17's attempt to punch him, and he looks positively petrified, shrinking into the corner to get as far away from the conflict as possible and locking his eyes on Staren's phaser. His nails dig into his palm. He clearly wants to be literally anywhere but here. The trees around him are turning a vibrant yellow.

     But then he swallows it down, over the course of a few seconds. The yellow's muted with miner-green-and-blue. "Get me the fuck out of here," he finally says. "I want to go back, Dave." His posture droops like a weight's been lifted off of him. Grimes walks over and puts a hand on his shoulder while he takes deep breaths, rubs his face.
Starbound Flotilla     The Orderly has arrived. The first place it scans is the door -- the one breached on the Zone 3 side. It sweeps over that, and then around the area, sensors wide. Eyes focus on the ceiling, each corner, every pillar, all sorts of places where a shaped charge might hide. It's not stupid. It's also highly focused, now that it knows the nature of the intruders. Whether the people here manage to hide before it arrives or not, one particularly troubling thing happens.

    The eye falls on the dropped sword. A patient has been taken.

    The axe-like weapon comes around into both hands. The outer edge of it begins to hum with an agonizing sound, a churning mechanical noise, like a lethal shredder. The infinitely-lowering siren becomes a noise sort of like a beluga whale, a chainsaw, and a dial-up modem all at once, and the sound echoes despite the muffling walls. The light of the sensors at its head turn bright crimson. The movements it takes are suddenly faster, more purposeful, more determined. The scream of rage does not stop.

    Until the stolen patient is recovered, The Orderly's general hazard is doubled. It's moving for the Zone 1 doors, and it's not clomping around slowly anymore. First stop coming up is Gideon's trap.
Android 17 There is a thud as his fist is intercepted, his eyes bore into Hazel as she attempts to convince him to leave him.  He's not seeing the situation completely straight right now, it's true, he's seeing Gero.  His hand snaps back, aiming to pull himself away and send her away.  If she's willing to make this a fight, he's willing to oblige.

"We don't have the luxury of time, he is obviously not in his right state of mind because of whatever the monster in charge of this place did to him, and you're wasting precious time /we don't have/."  He comments right back to her.  He's not happy...

Then the man, for some reason, manages to regain something he lost.  He swallows and says he wants to leave.  Seventeen isn't sure what, or why, this happened.  He doesn't have the time to think about it.  Instead, thinking about it is derailed by the strong urge to punch the smug out of Gideon's face.

Taking a breath, he pushes the thought away, "Let's go." he says.
Septette Arcubielle      The gap between the second and third areas is much like the gap between the second and third, save that the emotional-access requirements are significantly less stringent- the door could be opened the "intended way" by anybody with a reasonably clear and strong mental state without needing to breach it. On the other side of the rail-gap is a sterile white-and-blue compartment full of advanced-looking medical equipment, some passive forms of entertainment like music and light reading, a few extremely-well-kept meditative gardens, and three dozen eight-foot-long blue tubes set into the walls.

     Two dozen of the tubes clearly have people inside. The rescued patient- "Martin", by the sound of it- still looks awful, but with the support of another miner he's trying to figure out the controls to 'defrost' the patients in stasis. Someone smarter than him could probably figure out how to release them faster- or someone braver could just smash the capsules open.
Starbound Flotilla     The lights flicker a little. That EMP blast just went off. Burst in, the crashing rush of the Orderly is interrupted. There's the sound of a slamming impact. If Staren stayed behind, he might get to see the thing stagger and fall to one knee as systems are forced to reboot. But despite the lack of power, it struggles through anyway. How alive is it? Its body moves as if the servos are a secondary concern. Staggering painfully to its feet, another twenty seconds have been bought. It's on the way to the gap between the second and first zones. Slower, but full of more determination. It won't be able to make it across until the systems all boot back up. That's your chance. The only one you're gonna get, so now's a good chance to show off how fast you can leap really tough jumps.
Staren     Gideon says his piece. Staren sticks to the terms of his promise. In the end, the 'patient' decides to be freed, so they can move on.

    Man, the robot sounds mad now. Is the entire point of making it sound mad to make people attribute that emotion to it?

    Emotions. Is that what it comes down to? Is he doing this just because he doesn't like Septette manipulating him, even if it's supposedly for the best?

    But, that one-way trust of Septette. Giving people the perception that she can control him. It risks their trust in him. And what about the expectations of a Hand of the Concord? If he'll go along with anything just because Septette asks, how will that look?

    And appearances DO matter, when you have to work with lots of people. As much as Staren wishes it didn't. Displaying one-sided trust in Septette might break the trust of others, and thus limit his influence on the Multiverse. And his influence isn't even godlike yet! He's gonna need, like, way more power to make the Multiverse better.

    But is that really why he's doing this? No, that wasn't his first thought.

    But just being frustrated at Septette wasn't enough for him to agree to go against her. As far-reaching and ridiculous as the scenarios he posited on the radio might sound to others, Staren really does think like that. The mental wear and stress from this uneven trust is going to build up. And what happens if it goes on for a hundred years? Could he finally snap? Septette's a couple hundred years old and already reshaping societies. What he'll be doing by then... he's not sure exactly what form it will take, but he expects to be influencing more lives than live in this mining colony.

    That's why he's moving on to Zone 1. Tough jumps? Staren has shoes with hoverjets built in and a grapple tag gun -- out of his armor, he can move like some sort of videogame character. And once across, he sets to work starting the defreezing process. Hopefully it's fast or this is all gonna get even more awkward really soon.
Gideon Kaspar     A while lot of deliberately time-wasting back and forth soapboxing goes on, the frightened man takes it all in, and after carefully considering Gideon's (allegedly) carefully chosen words, he agrees to go along without being shot or punched and violently abducted. Gideon turns back around from the radio to fix Staren with an extremely smug tapping motion to his temple. The hands-clean business keikakudoori.

    "Way is open, Commander. Clover says from the door. Hazel slowly releases a held breath, then lowers a hand to her stomach gingerly. "You should watch where you're flinging those fists around there guy. Knocking people out is messier than it looks in the movies." "Save it for later. That thing's still moving. We're just buying time. Unless the cyborg would like to tackle it out the breach and keep it busy for us, we have a limited window." "Oh come on! Let's just blow it up! Pull it to pieces! Pump it full of lead! Snap its fingers one by one!"

    Gideon meanders over to the capsules while the T-Dolls take up defensive positions, preparing what countermeasures they actually can with such limited time and space left to work in. He takes one look at the thawing procedure, stuffs his hands in his pocket, whistles, and says "That looks complicated. Any chance you could speed that up?" he asks, with the same tone as some teen boy's dad wandering in, taking a glance at the video game console, and going 'are ya winnin' son?'. "They don't look all that unwieldy. Can't they just be disconnected? How are they supposed to be moved if NEOs show up or whatever?" he thinks out loud, looking around each tube as if expecting to see a clearly labeled battery port. "We have that digger and all. Even if we cave in this connecting section, I bet that thing outside will just dig right through it in a minute. Can't we just drill a hole around to here? I'm a tactician, not a miner."
Septette Arcubielle      The defrosting interface would probably look like gibberish to anyone but an engineer familiar with Starbounder tech- there are a bunch of temperature and coolant gauges that oscillate around a red 'target zone' and have to be stopped with a button-smash within the tolerances. With each successful hit, one of the tubes hisses, 'boils', and opens up along an invisible seam to release a staggering, disoriented occupant. They're dressed just as they were when they were captured, most still wearing unmistakeable mining gear.

     The miners are already setting up a plasma drill on the floor while a rebel with some kind of seismic sonar instrument is directing them, glancing over his shoulder towards the entrance nervously at the Ominous Orderly Sounds. Dave shouts over them: "This is a jailbreak! Anybody who wants to stay, get back in your pods!" Only a couple of them do, seemingly civilians unconnected with the rebels. The majority of the defrosted popsicles look dazed and confused; a handful are already lucid enough to cheer and give relieved hugs, still dripping with evaporating cryo-juice.

     "The plan's to breach the floor into pre-dug tunnels below. Our B-team's repositioned the teleporter for us," Dave answers Gideon, wearing a lopsided grin from the moment of good cheer- though it evaporates back to a serious expression when ominous noises come from the Orderly's direction again. "Thanks for your help. With Martin, and... everything. We can talk about logistics and supplies later. That seems like your thing, too."

     The plasma-drill fires with another dull thump, blowing a neat circle in the metal floor and breaching into a crude asteroid-rock warren underneath. The industrial teleporter's down the tunnel, set up on a palanquin for miner pallbearers. One of the miners slaps a brick of plastic explosives on the side of the teleporter, sets the detonator for a couple of minutes, and starts ushering the escapees through.

     Martin lingers, but if nobody else claims him, he'll be one of the last through before Grimes' crew evacuates too. He still looks sick.
Android 17 Seventeen continues into the next room...he looks up at the Chambers, and then looks at the other members of the group.  "So we're all in agreement that smashing them is in fact, the worst idea?" he says, and when he gets affirmations, he starts, instead, looking for a way out.  

Though he was informed they already had one...so really it was up to Staren.  However, he hears something about distracting it and 'the cyborg'.  He looks towards her, "Oh you could tell?  That's a first.  Hm...I may have an idea...but it won't last for long." He says, before looking out of the zone.  He had to fire this in just the right arch...it waited for the eye to be looking a different direction...

And then he arched a blast in a wide arch.  Aiming to try and strike the thing right across the side of the face...and aimed in such a way that it would appear that something hit it directly to the right of it.  

"Dunno how much time that'll buy, but it's a start.  Beyond that...it'll be like hitting a rock that can shove fear into your brain."
Staren     Get back in their pods? Oh no you don't. As soon as Staren sees anyone actually move back towards the pods, he starts lasering them (the pods, that is.) It would be trivial for the pods' maker to armor them enough to prevent this from seriously damaging them, but... did they? "Not an option anymore. Although I can't physically drag you out."

    Staren will happily take the teleporter out of here and then... he doesn't know. This seems like one of those times other people go for a stiff drink, but Staren doesn't do that sort of thing.

    But he's not sure what he DOES do. He just feels burned-out. Melancholy. Even if it was all for the future of the Multiverse in his eyes, having to make that sort of decision takes a toll on him. Actually, thinking of it that way helps, a little.

    Or maybe the T-Dolls or Seventeen will tackle him when he tries to sabotage the empty pods and then either drag him to the teleporter or leave him for the Orderly or who knows what.
Septette Arcubielle      The pods aren't remotely armored- whatever defenses a place like this has are primarily external. Staren slags them pretty easily, predictably getting a few horrified screams from the crowd that only die down when people realize he isn't going to shoot them. Dave Grimes visibly startles and looks at the catboy askance for a few seconds, but doesn't say anything. They're apparently taking on a few extra rescuees.
Gideon Kaspar     Gideon snaps his fingers. "That works then." The sound of several muffled explosions and some gunshots go off behind, but then the T-Dolls are running up already rather than staying around to fight, blowing the rail partway, and each hopping down the hole where Gideon gestures, Rose throwing Grimes a shitty salute on the way down. "This bunch looks a lot less difficult. That's enough excitement for me for today." Then he goes down too. The Orderly can deal with it. Everyone knows better than to stop at the dead end and stare all dumbstruck at something like that advancing on them.
Android 17 Seventeen doesn't stop Staren. Infact, he approves of destroying Dr. Ge- I MEAN SEPTETTE'S stuff. When people are extracted, he jumps down with them. Glad to be done with this little house of horrors. Next time, time for even more horrors.
Starbound Flotilla     The Orderly has to wait a short while to get the juice back up. It paces aggressively, like a predatory animal. The scanners shine on the rails, showing that it intended to use them to cross, but no dice. Once it's done... it leaps the gap like a pro. No jets. No flight. No hovering. No assist. Not even a running start. Just pure force.

    The sensors are bright red, sweeping all around. A shot to its right side, and it just swings the axe with such force that a chunk of a room of Zone 1 to the right -- it knows it ought to be unoccupied right now -- is entirely demolished in one go. It sweeps the rubble of a side-room first, before sweeping back into the main chamber.

    The last of those going through might get to see the Orderly rushing -- not with an axe, but with an outstretched hand, almost begging for Martin to reach back -- before it all disappears, and leaves them dealing with the soft, distant "boomf" of a muffled explosion as the teleporter detonates with the Orderly just next to it.

    A few long seconds later, that same scream.